A Sound Word About Friendship

In Genesis we have the story of God speaking all things into being. This passage is receiving a lot of attention lately because of a new understanding God is releasing to some of his friends. The new understanding is about sound. If you search youtube.com for sound you'll find some pretty cool videos about the patterns certain things make when sound is introduced. For example sand thrown on a plate forms patterns when tones are introduced.

There is another aspect to the Genesis story that was recently brought up by Kim Clement.

"Genesis 3:1, "NOW THE SERPENT WAS MORE CUNNING THAN ANY BEAST OF THE FIELD. AND HE SAID TO THE WOMAN, 'HAS GOD INDEED SAID, YOU SHALL NOT EAT OF EVERY TREE OF THE GARDEN?'"

She answered the serpent correctly, which meant that she knew exactly what God meant. At that point, the serpent used words that created all kinds of doubts. The word for devil is diablo, which literally means, to speak (breathe out) to divide, or to whisper in order to cause division."

In other words, God speaks and Satan whispers. God creates with sound and words, but Satan destroys by a related force. He introduces lies, obviously, but what do those lies do? They rot the bonds that hold things together. Satan drove a wedge between Adam and Eve so that he could ultimately drive a wedge between God and man.

Everything exists in relation ship because in part God chose it to be so, but that's too simple. Think about it. Atoms are held, bonded in relationship. The tiny pieces of matter that comprise us are not touching, they exist in relationship. In fact the type of matter and the nature of the bond very greatly.

So to come out of alignment with the vibration of God is to fly apart like a solar system with eroded gravity.

I just wanted to point that out.

What's Missing

Today’s Thoughts

When I read or think about the opening chapters of Genesis, the line that sticks out to me is, “it is not good for man to be alone.” (Gen. 2:18-20)

In this perfect new world, created by God, where Adam walks intimately with God and has a duty to do there is still something missing. So God puts him asleep and takes something from him to form Eve. The term for Eve in Hebrew is “ezer kenegdo,” often poorly translated into “help mate.” Everywhere else the term appears it’s in reference to God, and is better translated as inspirational companion.

So, Eve was technically there from the start, at least to my way of thinking. In all that God was directly supplying, and in all that Adam was in and of himself, it just wasn’t quite right. God took something from Adam in order to supply it through another human being.

Here we have the very first relationship and we see what is inherent to relationship whether in a perfect world or a fallen one: Interdependence, bonding, attraction. In one sense God split the Adam—pun intended—and created the first human to human bond. I know I’m laboring a point but think about it. God chose to supply something indirectly. He felt it was better, needed, to work through another human to bless a man. The pinnacle of Creation is relationship.

It is Not Good for Man to be Alone:
The questions that leap to my mind are these:
A) What is God removing from us that he is going to supply even better through relationship?
B) What has God made me with so that I will supply it to others?
C) What would this world look like if we were all supplying each other with the things God made us to be?

Fun Extras We Don’t Often Think About:
So in addition to every living thing, during creation God makes:
Light (energy)
Sun, moon, and stars (time, motion, place and direction)
The earth (matter)
Rest
Relationship

God used a specific order to do everything. By creating Adam, naming him, placing him in the garden, telling him to name the animals, telling him not to eat of the one tree, then creating Eve, God is establishing a certain way or order that is best. Man is born, has an identity bestowed upon him, adventures while being mentored by God, becomes responsible for certain things, then discovers woman and learns what’s been missing.

It fascinates me that God designed us in this way. That even in a perfect world we would notice a lack before receiving. What I’m trying to say is that it we aren’t born in love with someone. We develop as individuals first and along the way a desire is initiated, deepened and then supplied. It’s all right there in the beginning.

Today's Thoughts

Today’s Thoughts:
It occurred to me, while I was getting ready this morning that I needed to reread what Paul said in his address at Mars Hill.

Acts 17
22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

This is very nearly the mission statement of my life. I ask the reader, “What is the difference between a graven image and an intellectual idea?”

A Moment on Idolatry:
Idolatry is to hope, worship, trust or fear of anything other than God. An easy example would be money. Not just the love of money but the feeling of dependence on it. I hear Christians all the time say that they can’t start this or that ministry, even though they feel called to it, because they don’t have the money. As though the fact that God called them to do it doesn’t also intone his anointing and provision.

Even our earthly parents wouldn’t ask us to mow the lawn and then not provide a lawn mower. Why would we expect that behavior of God? Then again God often asks us to do things we dream of doing so a better example might be—even earthly parents wouldn’t offer to take their kids Disneyland and make them pay their own airfare.

So if we think that God expects us to make our ministries happen then we are thinking of something that we can do in our own strength, just as we might carve a graven image. The goal of the 2nd commandment is to stop worshipping man-made things.

Now the Revolutionary Stuff:
I believe, beyond any doubt, that all religions are man-made; even Christianity. Religions are intellectual structures created by men. They are a way of going about spiritual things without engaging the spirit. They encourage living from the head not the heart.

What was once accomplished through relationship is now accomplished through program. Instead of mentorship we have public education. Instead of apprenticeship we have colleges and trade schools. Instead of coming together for supper we have crackers and grape juice four times a year. Instead of worship we have three songs before a sermon. We publish a freaking program for church. Instead of giving a home to a homeless person, we have a program for the homeless. Instead of talking with a friend about God we have an evangelistic series. I could go on forever.

Those who love the Lord worship him in spirit and in truth—not on special days, on sacred ground, in approved ceremonies, lead by elite people.

My Mission Statement:
"Men of America! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I grew up among your objects of worship; I even found a ‘house of God.’ Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all men; and he determined where and when they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and find him, though he is closer to us than our clothes are to our skin. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his children.'

"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think the divine being is like non-profit institutions, programs, rituals, or tips and techniques—the ideas of man's mind or imagination. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For a day comes when he will judge all humans by their friendship with Christ Jesus through whom he made and redeemed all things."