clean your room

don't just run away from it and
leave all your mess for someone
else to clean up;

see, that's why you shouldn't jump
off a bridge, not for any other reason except
that some municipal employeee will have
to spray your insides off the concrete.

and they have to face the mess you
left behind and it's disheartening
to -them-

and then you end up your 'life'
the same way you tried to live it,

with you running away from your troubles
and someone else always there to clean
up your mess.

no, you're gunna have to get down
on the floor and pick thru all
the debris even if none of it
matters to you, some of it may
matter to someone else.

you can probably safely toss most
of the junk this world tried to feed you.

not much purpose in keeping
old issues of 'house beautiful'

cuz apparently, that didn't help too much.

oh, and take that science project over
in the corner and flush it down the
toilet and put the dishes
in the dishwasher.

nobody's ever gunna eat that
crud and it's attracting maggots.

you already lost your birth certificate
in all that debris, how it got on the
floor no one knows, and your beer can
'collection' is harboring drosophila,
the common everyday fruit fly, and'll
never likely pass for art -or- a science
project, so now no one knows who you
are -or- what you're doing here.

and even no one doesn't much care.

well, no one may care a little,
but seeing as how you don't come
equipped with your own personal rosetta stone,
not many people are gunna be able
to decipher that garbled string
that litters your doorway.

and nobody will look at that wilted
flower crushed in the pages of your
copy of the catcher in the rye and
consider that 'rosebud' meant anything
to anyone but another cabbie
who couldn't hack it.

maybe it -is- funny how everyone else
who walks into your life sees only
pristine security,

all i can do is offer you

a mop and a bucket.

like you needed -me- to tell you that.

you missed a spot.

Matthew 11:16-19

"But to what shall I liken this generation?
It is like children sitting in the marketplaces
and calling to their companions, and saying:

"We played the flute for you,
And you did not dance;
We mourned to you,
And you did not lament.'

For John came neither eating nor drinking,
and they say, "He has a demon.' The Son of Man
came eating and drinking, and they say,
"Look, a glutton and a wino, a friend
of tax collectors and sinners!'

But wisdom is justified by her children."

so, why don't you just let
Jesus clean your room up for you?

well, you never heard -me-
say that Jesus does parlor tricks.

you probably heard people suggest
that Jesus will -accept- you even
in the depths of your disgrace
and degradation.

but the first thing Jesus would
probably do is set out to convince
you that you weren't created
to wallow in your own blood.

probably wash out your personal image

and this would be your first little flash,

you looking around at your own dreary
little circumstance, and coming to the
sincere conclusion that you're gunna
wash out on your own, and i mean,
'wash out' on the program of life,
and -asking- Jesus for a hand.

in that little moment,

you realize, you ask,

you die, in Christ,

and -Jesus-

-in-

-you-

so, i bet i mentioned a few times how Israel
would fall away and run off in league with
'the nations' and find itself in trouble with
those same 'nations' that it went to for help
and alliance after YHWH had already expressed
a peculiar status for 'Her,' Israel.

and a few times, Israel did the old
sackcloth and ashes bit and turned
back to YHWH with all this weeping
and blah blah blah.

and then they'd get renewed, and then,
of course, they'd feel all happy and run
off and lay down with 'the nations'
again and basically say;

"we did it, we're so great,
there really is no YHWH anyway"

and this is exactly what there
is safeguard against in Christ.

Jesus will -not- be your fall back crutch
everytime you feel like you need a pep talk
and then when you're feeling all healthy
again, you look around and say;

"who's Jesus?"

like you pretend to be all broken hearted
and contrite when you get the short end of it,

and then Jesus is just gunna pump you up and
right away, you're off pickin' crack out of
the floor boards when you should be ridding
your house of the moldy bread crumbs lodged there.

this sort of behavior will erode
and choke off your Faith
in short order.

no, Jesus will never
leave you nor forsake you,

but -you- will end up presenting God
with a useless Faith that is grounded
in dead works and bears no fruit.

but not a soul has ever
'gotten away' with making
a fool of God.

don't ever suppose that you can curse the Ghost.

it's not a rigged game where God
gets kicks by watching you
mired in failure.

this is an aberration of thought.

but God will never be cheated.

the safeguard is, in part,
that there is no -peculiar-
"birthright" to indwelling
with the Holy Spirit.

the -peculiar- status of the Christian
comes from the wind that you don't know
where comes from but you understand its Presence.

you don't squirt out of your mother with this status.

and so, God owes -no- "peculiar" people
any sort of Holy Spirit guided attention
by virtue of their birth.

no.

whether God views Israel, whoever they may be,
with any sort of 'peculiar' gladness is not
relevant to the begettal from the Holy Spirit
though Faith and the shed blood of Christ
accepted in one's favor.

this we see in practice.

and nobody's insistance that salvation
is "for us alone" will change this and
force God's hand to show a benevolence
to a people who insist on slapping God's face.

and this sort of;

"God, i love you when i need you
but when i'm well you can take a hike"

attitude and behavior is just
as if you spit in Jesus' face.

and, while Jesus is kind,

the Ghost may leave a pile of ashes behind.

the Ghost is not one of your
'friends' whom you can view with
your usual utilitarian eye.

this is not fun and games and never will be.

Jesus The Christ *IS* The Overcomer with God.

when you enter into Christ you become
an overcomer -because- of Christ.

you become Israelite by virtue of
your faith and are grafted
into God's Temple.

you are -not- grafted into
a birthright under Sinai.

just be somewhat clear on that.

you are grafted into the Promise.

yes, we see this in practice.

we don't -see- this because Timothy Sutter says so.

we -see- the Ghost falling upon all manner of people,
and falling not in regard to their birth status but
in regard to their faith.

and you enter in to the household of God.

but that entrance is a purely personal matter.

you certainly don't need -my- permission.

and as far as i see,

Jesus is still standing at the door.

and no other.

and Jesus is that reliable and worthy craftsman.

they can't walk you in thru
a wall of fire if nothing
will be left but a pile of ashes.

and what crosses thru is not your shiny diamonds.

specificity.

see, dear olde God looks
specifically for faith.

and dear olde God knows exactly
what it is that God is looking for.

it's impossible for anyone
to invent a pretend faith because
God plants Faith within you,
and -you're- the one who begins
to recognize a thing which had
been heretofore unknown to you.

and now God is looking for a multiplication
of that thing in you which you didn't even
know what it was two moments before.

God is looking for this very substantial,
very intimate, knowledge of God, thru faith.

and God knows that you know God
because God 'smells' your prayers
and thanksgiving.

God doesn't 'read' all that
fear and loathing that goes
on in your mind.

that's just jamming the signal.

God reads for that thing
in you which God put there.

if -you- quench it or dampen it
or extinguish it -by- your fear
and faithlessness exhibitted -by-
and -through- your loveless actions,
to yourself, God has nothing in
you with which to multiply.

that is, if your own view of your
circumstance chokes off the breath
to the fire, you are inhibitting
your own personal growth,

for someone who has -not- breathed in
God's Presence, the part of the persona
who -can- experience God thru Faith sees
loveless actions whether your conscious
understanding fails to recognize
them as such or not.

so, even if you purposefully pursue
the course of lovelessness you won't be
able to escape the effect those actions
have on your ability to realize faith.

and, in like manner, for a person who -has-
taken in the first flash of faith, a continued
pursuit of the unsubstantial air of lovelessness
will choke off the growth.

self condemnation we don't want.

self justification we don't want.

personal emulation of God's own Faith

we want.

so, back to Israel

what's the difference between the 'christian'
church, after the crucifixion resurrection
and the day of pentacost, and the Israelite
wanderers in the Sinai desert?

we claim both heard the words of Faith
and both received spiritual food from
'heaven' and both drank from the
Rock which is Christ.

so, why were the Israelite wanderers
seen as unfaithful and dropped in the desert?

one easy observation is that Moses alone
was filled with the Holy Spirit. and after
that, the 70, when Moses began to feel,
somewhat, overwhelmed.

but what about the
'early church'
-before- pentacost?

they were sitting around in the upper room
even after seeing Christ resurrected and
wondering aloud what they should do with
themselves in an apparent futility of purpose.

so, the two are somewhat alike,

the early 'church' -before- pentacost
was -like- the wanderers in the Sinai desert

and the church after pentacost
was -like- Moses and the 70.

but, why didn't YHWH just fill all
the wanderers in the desert with
the Holy Spirit and -give- -them-
the Faith that was necessary
to please God and not
drop like flies?

and, why doesn't God just fill all
who call upon Christ with super-abundant
Faith so as to remove all spiritual weakness?

why is it 'according to measure'?

in the former case, we may
conclude that God is, in part,

beginning to prove a point to the
"Heavenly Host" that is, those Spirit beings
which though Mighty, are not the Creator.

a point which reaches it's
conclusion in Christ and
the 'church'

the theme is that this thing is an entirely
supernatural event, from God and that the
hand of man is only instrumental in -receiving-
Divine Mercy and Benevolence.

part of what we may conclude is that
any 'wrath' and 'anger' poured out
upon Israel is simply a matter of form,

and no real hatred or detestation for
this segment of the human population
sometimes referred to as
'the apple of his eyes'

but, they are an 'apple' -because- of
the manifesting of a Presence using
God's own clay jars,

and not and never that these clay jars
are particularly more beautiful or Godly
or Godlike than any other segment
of the human population.

of course, it is God who makes
Israel and -NOT- Israel who makes God.

so, why the pro forma anger?

well, faithlessness is still displeasing
to God whether or not God is the
source of the Faith.

so Israel, in the desert and beyond,
is a direct witness to the supernatural
Hand of God,

and STILL, -they- pull back a withered hand.

Egypt and the surrounding nations were
dumbfounded by the Mighty work and feared Israel
-until- God stirred them up to smite Israel.

smiting Israel -because- they -saw- all
this in their midst, and STILL would
-not- see God in their midst.

so, does God say thank you?

thanks for being a stiffnecked people
and failing to see God in your midst
and being instrumental in this Divine Proof
of supernatural necessity?

no. the material is God's property

period

any -worse- than any other people?

no, certainly not.

just, in part, trapped in a drama
that is -not- their own Creation.

abandoned by God?

look dude, we're talking about God here.

The Faithful and True
The God of the All

disloyalty is _not_ -God's- failing.

but as it ever was intended,
entry into God's Household comes
by the Divine Hand and -not- by
human ingenuity.

and so, -others- are entering -before- you.

forgotten and forsaken?

obviously not.

why doesn't God just fill all
who call upon Christ with super-abundant
Faith so as to remove all spiritual weakness?

why is it 'according to measure'?

remember, we've all fallen into the
hands of the Almighty, which is
a terrifying thing.

there will never be any boasting against the Vine.

remembering that if God can pluck
out and sever off limbs of his
own cultivated olive and graft
in wild branches, God can, just
the same, pluck out those same
wild olve branches if they throw
up a stiff neck and become unfruitful.

and even pick up dead branches by
the side of the road and graft
-them- -back- into God's
own cultivated olive.

so, can man throw up a stiff
neck even against the Divine
Hand of Mercy?

fall away and lose faith even after
joining in Christ's crucifixion
and resurrection?

well remember,

God wants you to show your -own-
Love grown from the Divine Hand.

and God may pull back at times to -test-
the genuineness of -your- faith hope and love.

and we do believe that a person
can breath in God's Presence
for a moment and then heat from
the world can wither it
to the ground.

or be choked off by
the cares of this world.

or just be stolen
before it ever takes root.

God prizes that thing in you
which is The Image of God.

God cannot 'lose'

and God does not 'lose' to Time.

God puts it there by a Divine Hand,
but you still have to pick up
your mat and walk.

make 'it' your own.

make 'it' your own.

....etc

it's a Divine hand but
-you- are still important.

when you 'pray'

acknowledge the Divine Hand first,

-before- you start requesting
provision and protection.

God already knows you need all that stuff.

--

we all know the routine,

before the Passover,

-you- gotta get up and sweep
all the crap outa your house.

and if you like to see recursions

you get to play God in your
own little tent which is you.

just like when -you- enter
into a tent for Sukkot

God enters in to -you-

and God cleans -you- out
and -you- clean the tent out.

etc...