For God so loved the world....what does that mean?

     Scripture tells us God sends rain for three reasons. The first, His priority, is for the land. Second is discipline, too much rain to drown us off His land. The third is blessing...we have sought Him and His righteousness and He wants us to live in it.
      God gave the Earth to man and told him what was required to care for it. I remember when my 4th daughter's grandmother gave her Easter eggs to die and play with. Grandmother then got angry because my daughter began to peel them, explore what was in them, "destroy them". Grandmother became covetous and wanted the eggs back, had an agenda for them, didn't want them "wasted". They weren't being wasted, they were being apprecated and played with. She gave them to my daughter, which gave my daughter the right to decide what to do with them. It is unrighteous to give something with conditions. Grandmother hopefully learned she should only give a limited number of eggs to children if she wants some left for the holiday and eating.
      So, God gives in. He does not want to see sinful man dying, but what can He do about it? We keep seeking that which leads to our destruction. Today I told my 5th daughter to eat. She said no, she did not prefer that which I was serving at that moment . I told her to be grateful she had food to eat because not every child does. She said "Uh uh", denying the fact I just told her. I reminded her it was disrespectful to contradict her mother, call me a liar and then understanding began to dawn on me for today's discussion/writing. We do not have food because we are preferred over other people, are more righteous or deserving. If it were up to us our land would be stripped and demolished with no food growing, nothing for animals to eat just like all the other war-torn countries that were stripped and blown up so that they became deserts. We just happen to live in a land God is preserving. It is the only reason we are eating. He is saving seeds for repopulating, an animal diversity for repopulating, little "arks" of land for the future, investment, investing.
      God did not give His only son to buy back sinful people who do not want to be a part of a new world, He sacrificed His son for the land, the Earth, "the world" and it's natural inhabitants. He bought back the original gift which He gave to Adam. He will give it to another people in whom He has written His Kingdom, who are guarenteed to appreciate it and do what needs doing to take care of it correctly. God did not buy back man, he made a new man in His image. He bought back a land that is experiencing destruction and people to inhabit it.
      We think it is all about us, but it isn't. We are just beasts like any other animal. Even apes have opposible thumbs and can reason. No, the war is between God and His Spirit children who occupy, control and posses us if we allow them. His war is over His creation, His land which His enemies are destroying. The ones He gave it to are already deceased, the land is dispossessed, over run by rebellious children. He is buying it back and will fill it.
      To believe otherwise is "the pride of living". As if you had anything to do with it. As if you deserve it. As if you did anything to continue it. We can only be grateful He allows us to exist, for the sake of His land and His name upon it. We set none of this in motion.

*Literally translated this is “the pride of living” (ἡ ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου). This is not the typical Greek word for “life” (ζωή, pronounced zoe). The term here is βίος (pronounced bios) and it refers to “the manner in which one’s life finds expression” (BDAG, βίος.) It “denotes life with respect to actions and possessions” (William Hendriksen, Commentary on James the Epistles of John, Baker, I Jn 2:16.) It is taking pride in what I am, what I do, and what I possess.
from: http://mbcpastoringlobe.wordpress.com/category/sin/

"Preaching the Kingdom"

     We are told the Kingdom would be written on the hearts and minds of those God chooses. Thus, when we speak what is on our hearts and minds we are preaching the Kingdom. We are preaching the effect the world has upon the Kingdom, what the Kingdom's reaction to this world. Seeing as very little of the world is not in opposition to the Kingdom, our hearts and minds are constantly assaulted by the world, violated by it. So, yeah, we might do alot of complaining about people while expressing the joy of what is within ourselves.
    Oh, and I received clarification of a few things: it is within the year to come that His purpose for me becomes complete within me. So at the end of this 'year', I will be what he meant for me to be.

Liberating!

    I don't know if it was because it came while I was feeling liberated or if the understanding it's self, it's impact was liberating:
    Prophesies are given men to deliver to angels/spirits/"peoples" that have been shut out of heaven. We are just the messengers.
     We get to keep on doing what we're doing, have a good life without trials. just now and then we are asked to deliver a messege to fallen angels. Simple. It's nothing personal. "Go outside and play, now!" says grandmother...you are free. free to be me. simply me. a human being, the animal.

The two witnesses of Revelation

     I have occassionally wondered about the two witnesses of Revelation...to get an idea of timing, the time we are in. I have previously been given to remember Yahushua speaking of two witnesses being the Father and Holy Spirit. But I was half-listening to something the other evening and heard candlesticks in reference to them. It was given me to remember in the beggining of Revelation we are explained to understand the candle stands of congregations to represent the spirits over them. So, the two witnesses could very well be two spirits that seem to perish and are then ressurrected. As my understanding is given to deepen, become more clear about these things, it must mean the time is coming to recognize them....their time, time of fulfillment is coming.

An offering of pain

   I was reflecting on someone else's use of a stick to punish their children. I would not want to do that, ever. These people believe one should not use their hands for such things. I felt that if they perceived physical discipline to be neccessary, the hand would be more appropriate. With the hand you get as much sting as would the child, I would imagine. It is more intimate and personal, taken more seriously by parent. You share in the pain you are inflicting. A stick would be impersonal, detached, uninvolved and less intimate.
   Then I was given the thought to occur to me: does our heavenly Father and His Yahushua share in our pain when it is we they are disciplining? When we are disobedient we are distanced from Him, so how could He? and so I offered them my pain from discipline. It then was given to occur to me that how could they know it if we hold it in and do not offer it? And yet our emotions are the only thing we have to give to Him that we can call our own. everything is material and already belongs to Him. emotion is the only thing we generate and keep for ourselves, I was given to come to know some time ago. We tend to share joy freely, but not our pain. it is the only pearl we see no value in sharing. Our pain is an appreciation in some way.....an acknowledgement that it means something to be disciplined in righteousness. A repentence and a plea for understanding come with it. Interesting.

They say we come from nothing

This Sabbath's gift, before the arrival of another which was good company, was a perspective:
    It is not nothing from which we come. It is from something which has the qualities of everything. We perceive it as nothing simply because there is nothing about it which differentiates it from everything else. We do not sense it because it looks, feels, smells, etc like us and/or everything else in our environment. We can only see/perceive it's activity within/around us when it does something differently/unfamiliar/unexpected. We perceive differences/differentiation/symptoms of it's presence rather than it's presence it's self.

My Memere

     This time of year, I always seem to think of my Memere. It is not a saintly veneration nor a beliitling of the memory of anyone else. Our experiences of eachother, of other people are often exclusive. What one does behind closed doors isn't always what happens in public. One family member might be treated exclusively different, for good or evil, from another. I learned long ago not to idealize people, places or things. I take an ideal I may have witnessed, had proposed to me, seen something based upon, and then make it my own. I was amongst the youngest of the grandchildren and too soon distanced from that side of my family. No doubt many more know more than I, more intimately and perhaps it isn't even my place to try. But this is my memory and I cherish it. I honor and respect anyone else's. It is allowed to be different ;)
    This is what I knew of my Memere. She was vibrant and compassionate. She was funny. I saw and see these qualities reflected in her daughters and the granddaughters she nourished. She maintained these qualities despite a life visited with hardships. She was the, or amongst, the oldest of 13 so she never got to finish school. She had to help younger siblings, haul wood and water. She came to America not knowing how to speak english. She worked in a factory; a thumbnail permantly damaged where a sewing machine needle had punched through it. She stayed married to a die-hard alcoholic whose brain gave out long before his body. With all the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren we each always got hand-knitted hats and mittens every Christmas. She was quite impressed with the fact that I knew and when sending her mail used her given name Anais instead of the Americanized one she adopted:Alice. She let me wash her dishes, taught me to sew and make zuchini parmasean. She taught me you could eat dandelions. She did not like snakes, for very good reason.
    Memere was a devout 'Catholic. She did not go to church once a week, she went every morning. When she had concerns about a great-granddaughter's lack of baptism, she didn't settle for just anyone's answers; she wrote the Pope! That is why I was so angry when the priest over her funeral services did not know anything about her. That is why I believe she would have been happy to have died on Easter; being released of the tomb of a dying body on the day she would have celebrated Jesus's release from death himself. The idea brought peace to me, anyhoo. But what really stuck with me about her dying was that her daughters lay right in the hospital bed with her as she faded away day after day. Never had I been exposed to such compassion and comfort with the human condition. I envied those who witnessed it. I envied those who participated. I prayed I could learn it. I pray that some day, that is the way someone  would love me. She gave it to her daughters and in returning it to her while she lay dying, just by my hearing of it, they passed it on to me.
   God gave the world many gifts through my Memere when He gave her many daughters, granddaughters and great granddaughters to be expressions/extensions of the reflection of Himself that He made her.