In this sermon, Greg challenges us to open our minds up to the idea that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, speaks to his sheep. This means that God speaks in a way that we can hear and follow him to the cross. Greg then explains the way that the voice of God works and how we can learn to listen. 
John always emphasizes the Lamb at the center of the throne where the transcendent God sits. The slain Lamb defines God to the core of God’s being. However, the image here is surprising because the Lamb becomes the shepherd who cares for his people. This passage echoes Psalm 23. This sermon focuses on the role of the shepherd in our lives, specifically on hearing the shepherd’s voice and what that means.
The first thing to recognize is that the voice of Shepherd will lead us to the cross. It was common to depict leaders as shepherds in the Ancient Near East, but never as simultaneously shepherd and slain little lamb. Jesus said in John 12:31-33: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. There is a double meaning here to “lifted up.” It simultaneously conveys death and exaltation. To follow the Shepherd’s voice will mean going in the direction of other-oriented love. This is a general principle that we must remember about hearing God’s voice.
The second thing is to acknowledge that we have a relationship with the Shepherd who wants to lead us in specific ways, and thus speaks to us. We need to look at a couple of passages from John 10 to hear Jesus’ words on this matter:
The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. (John 10:2-4)
I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me,just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10: 14-15)
The Shepherd is always speaking to the sheep, and he calls them by name. He knows us personally, and the sheep know the voice of the Shepherd. There is an intimate familiarity that the sheep have for the Shepherd. When the Shepherd speaks, the sheep listen and respond.
The entire New Testament teaches that God not only hears us when we talk to God, but also God speaks to his people through his indwelling Spirit. We see the same thing in the relationship between Jesus and the Father in John 5:19 and John 12:49. Jesus sensed the voice of the Father, not necessarily an audible voice as if he was listening to another person. Jesus usually heard and saw God in the same way we hear and see God: in our imagination. Jesus had an intimate relationship with the Father in his imagination. In the church tradition, this is called the inner sanctuary, the place where our spirit encounters the divine.
This is challenging for us today because we are conditioned to distrust our imagination and to assume every voice in our head is our own voice. We think in terms of a secular mindset. Thinking about God or talking to God involves taking a break from our otherwise atheistic lives. We step out of our secularized default to go to church, and then we return to our secularized default.
We need a total reframe. We need to imagine that our Shepherd is always speaking to us, trying to lead us to nice waters, encouraging us, correcting us, pointing out opportunities to serve.
There are three things that we can do to hear the Shepherd’s voice. First, validate your imagination. We must accept, by faith, that our imagination is not just “make believe” but a God-given portal by which we can access the spiritual dimension. We need to acknowledge that if your heart is seeking God, some of what transpires in your imagination may originate not in your own creativity, but in God. Not everything that we imagine is from God, but we need to open ourselves up to the possibility of God speaking to us in our own inner voice.
Another thing is to ask this question: If perfect love were to have anything to say to me, what would perfect love say? Or think about this: What would perfect love have me to do? This can help us get in the right frame of mind, a mind that looks to the cross as the guidepost of what God’s prompting looks like.
Finally, invite the Good Shepherd into your thought processes. Start talking to Jesus in conversational ways and make space to reflect and listen. This can open up your inner sanctuary to the voice of the Shepherd.
The Shepherd is always guiding us, his sheep. When we attune our ears to hear, we might be surprised by the way that he leads us to be a blessing in this world.
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A great sermon, Greg, on the imagination and how God can speak to us through it. Some time back I stumbled upon a podcast entitled “Finding God with the Poetic Imagination”, an interview with Malcolm Guite (an English poet, Anglican priest, acedemic and theologian) on the Nomad podcast. This podcast is along the same theme of the Sunday sermon where Malcolm makes the point that with the coming of the Enlightenment the rational took precedence over the imagination and, as a consequence, we are all the poorer for it in the search for truth. Well worth a listening to: https://www.nomadpodcast.co.uk/malcolm-guite-finding-god-poetic-imagination-n154/
Graeme thank you I knew nothing of Malcolm Guite.
If you go to YouTube and in the search enter Malcolm Guite you will bring up numerous videos.
This one caught my attention:
Imagination and Truth – Iain McGilchrist in conversation with Roger Wagner and Malcolm Guite
Malcolm opens with: Lewis, in the 1920s at Cambridge before this conversion, living this poem:
“The two hemispheres of my mind were in the sharpest contrast
On the one side a many islanded sea of myth and poetry
On the other a gleam and shallow rationalism
Nearly everything a loved I believed to be imaginary
Nearly everything I believed to be real I thought grim and meaningless”
On Dan’s sermon “Antifragile Faith” I made a comment ending with:
“Our opportunity to live like Jesus, [to give our life away], the Way of the Cross, while we’re still on the road is slipping away, and anything other than following on this narrow path of wisdom, in the fruit of the spirit, must one day be left at the gate and as Dan said not a lobotomy someday, by God, but our own willingness to suffer the loss.”
In another lengthy comment:
At the beginning of time, quark confinement, just after .00001 of a second, for every 10 billion pairs of quark and anti-quark collisions there was 1 extra quark, equaling the tiny fraction, making up the majority of the ordinary matter masses of the universe (protons, neutrons) with electrons a remaining fraction 1/1,835.
In an earlier, PLANCK ERA, time before .00001 GOD set the FINE TUNING elements in place, so the only thing left after the beginning of time was THE WAY BACK illuminated by RUACH animating energy.
Consider ALL the QUARKS, replaced by the 10 billion to 1 PHOTON ratio, still reside in HEAVEN where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
From the sermon “We Are Family”:
“We are not just all members of the same fan club; we’re actually members of one another. We belong to one another. We have more than just shared interests. We actually have a shared life and a shared love and a shared calling and a shared purpose.” ~Bronwyn Lea
Our next now moment starts in our imagination and TRUTH can only be found, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, with a vision of true reality found in Heaven NOT via photons of light emulating a Matrix illusion.
Greg wrote a book about that “Escaping the Matrix”
Albert Einstein famously stated that “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one,” suggesting that our perception of reality is NOT an absolute TRUTH but rather a CONSTRUCTED EXPERIENCE based on our five senses and interpretations thereof based on, as Greg would say, the limited 5 to 9 chunks of Soul driven meaning our avatar flesh body can focus on at any given: [a perception illusion].
When Jesus returns Heaven will NOT need photons of light just the Power of the Holy Spirit.
We will get new bodies NOT made from a stardust illusion but the real stored QUARK stuff in Heaven.
As far as wealth and status goes it will be the results of the plus TRUTH versus the minus LIES that we have lived. [ALL we ever took with us] Revelation 22:14-17
From the above: It appears from the Lewis poem your Imagination can take you to truth and lies depending on which hemisphere of the mind is in control.
From my prior comment: Clarity from the Biblical story perspective.
Quark anti-quark collisions caused annihilations resulting in photons. Interesting every PARTICLE has an ANTIPARTICLE. – [TRUTH LIES WARFARE?]
Revelation 12: 4 7-9
From verse 4: The dragon’s tail swept a THIRD of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. [Consider a THIRD, including EVENTUAL HUMANS, plants and animals, were also CAST OUT]
And there was WAR in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was CAST OUT, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceived the whole world: he was CAST OUT into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. [The fall of the Prince of MATTER leaving it behind]
Isaiah 14:12-15
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart, “I WILL ASCEND TO THE HEAVENS; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are BROUGHT DOWN to THE REALM OF THE DEAD, to the DEPTHS OF THE PIT.
From Romans 9 — Note: presented as two questions to be considered
What if God, ALTHOUGH CHOOSING to show his WRATH and MAKE his POWER KNOWN, BORE WITH GREAT PATIENCE the OBJECTS of his WRATH—PREPARED FOR DESTRUCTION?
[Consider God’s GREAT PATIENCE being setting FINE TUNING the WAY BACK in place PREPARED before the WARFARE starts].
What if he did this to make the {RICHES} OF HIS GLORY known to the OBJECTS of his MERCY, whom he PREPARED IN ADVANCE FOR GLORY [the two thirds left in Heaven with ALL the quark MATTER] — EVEN US, whom he ALSO CALLED, NOT ONLY from the JEWS BUT also from the GENTILES?
[The ALSO CALLED implies not from the two thirds left in Heaven but from the third fallen – OBJECTS of his WRATH]
From Romans 11 For GOD has BOUND everyone OVER to disobedience [the third fallen that is] so that he may have MERCY on them ALL.
EVENTUAL HUMANS:
Unless you REPENT [that is, change your inner self—your old way of thinking, live changed lives] and BECOME LIKE CHILDREN [trusting, humble, and forgiving], you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Children explore the world around them innocently, full of curiosity, trust and wonder, until they come to a boundary bordering on territory potentially dangerous. That’s when parents should step in to help them discern what is GOOD for them or NOT “Eat your vegetables” or “Don’t eat your crayons”.
Judging the difference between what is good for children and what is harmful is an essential skill to learn to grow up healthy. Judging shortcomings of another is NOT. If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Greg – REPENTING of Religion: When we judge others negatively, we stand in the place of God. We leave the proper domain given us, with its vocational description to be God-like in love, and we move to the center to carry out a job that belongs only to ONE who rightly occupies the CENTER.
[It appears it’s only a short matter of time until this CAST OUT/BROUGHT DOWN BOUND OVER world will take children’s IMAGINATION to LIES – ORIGINAL SIN].
Greg’s TRITARIAN WARFARE THEODICY: (1) Our love must be freely chosen, (2) love therefore entails risk, (3) this risk constitutes our moral responsibility, (4) and therefore our potential for morally responsible goodness must be proportionate to our potential for morally responsible evil.
From the end of my prior comment “It appears from the Lewis poem your IMAGINATION can take you to TRUTH and LIES depending on which hemisphere of the mind is in control”.
It also appears as we pursue spirit wisdom good there is a shadow archetype (4), our flesh, with a proportionate potential for morally responsible evil that we need to CRUCIFY/NUDGE forward PRAYING for God’s help moment by moment. Kind of like the Lord’s PRAYER: “Give us this day our daily bread” least we club each other over the head, in a race, competing for it.
A COSMIC DANCE WARFARE FACT: The 1 actual partial of mass (matter) for every 10 billion photons of energy, quarks, DANCE inside protons and neutrons in the nucleon both ATTRACTING and REPELLING within a range of a quadrillionth to one ten trillionth of a centimeter by exchanging color within themselves via gluons (the strong FORCE) or between each other via pions (the nuclear FORCE) and this happens every .0000000000000000000000023 (10-23) of a second.
So what music are we dancing to? Should it slow down to a Waltz?
Greg has a (5) the power of influence is irrevocable. [The potential for morally responsible evil can NOT be taken away]. However we can Follow JESUS, [as the CENTER], CRUCIFYING our FLESH by ATTENDING to our CROSS.
ATTENTION is the beginning of a devotion to what shapes who you become and the amount of love, joy, and peace cultivated in your life. Self-righteousness is a lack of attention [self-awareness]. The more aware I am of the things God has yet to change in me [my planks], the less offended by and uncomfortable I will be with what God has yet to change in someone else. We get uncomfortable when others’ beliefs, dysfunctions, insecurities, or sin differ from ours – however people who were nothing like Jesus liked him because Jesus was comfortable among us and he invites us to follow.
A DIVINE CONSPIRACY – The KINGDOM of HEAVEN is like a FATHER who SENDS His SON DISGUISED as MUSTARD SEED which over time by the POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT PERVADES the COSMOS.
Greg made a comment that our UMWELT MATRIX, the visible Light that we see 760 – 380 nm, is only .0035% of the ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM.
Consider when we get our new bodies with ALL the quark MATTER stored back in Heaven, a 10 billion to 1 enhancement upgrade, just maybe a full spectrum upgrade will also come.
Interesting even though we have a limited UMWELT MATRIX spectrum, by following JESUS by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT on the path of WISDOM, over the course of time, we have discovered radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma rays.
GOOGLE: Can we create new senses for humans? | David Eagleman – UMWELT MATRIX upgrades
When Jesus returns (6) the power of influence is finite. [THE REALM OF THE DEAD, DEPTHS OF THE PIT and LIES will ALL be tossed in the lake of fire].
Is there something still beneath the COSMIC DANCE WARFARE from my last comment?
Recap: Einstein’s equation E = mc2, relating energy to mass states all elementary particles interact with each other by exchanging energy through other quantum particles, which are believed to appear out of nowhere, COMBINING and ANNIHILATING each other in less than an instant, 10(23) of a second, causing random fluctuations of energy without any apparent cause.
The fleeting particles generated during this brief moment are known as VIRTUAL PARTICLES. They differ from real particles because they only exist during that exchange – the time of ‘uncertainty’ allowed by the UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE.
Using virtual particles as the underlying explanation for dark matter/energy, in cosmology, ZERO POINT ENERGY is a concept from quantum mechanics that describes the minimum energy a quantum field can have, even at absolute zero. The steady and dynamic states are studied for a spherical cloud of ZERO POINT ENERGY PHOTONS. The ANTI-GRAVITATIONAL FORCE due to its pressure gradient then represents dark energy, and its GRAVITATIONAL FORCE due to the energy density represents dark matter.
ZERO POINT ENERGY, referring to the inherent, minimal amount of vibrational energy that the molecules in liquid oxygen possess even at absolute zero, is a type of energy that exits in molecules and atoms even at near absolute zero temperatures (-273 C or o K) in a vacuum. The useable energy comes from the conversion of electromagnetic radiation energy into electrical energy, or more specifically, the conversion of an extremely high frequency bandwidth BEYOND the complete UMWELT ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM.
Candace Pert was a Jewish origin American neuroscientist and pharmacologist who, in 1972, discovered the OPIOID RECEPTOR, the cellular binding site for endorphins in the brain. In her book Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine she advocated a more holistic approach to understanding health. “I’ve come to believe that virtually all illness, if not PSYCHOSOMATIC in foundation, has a definite PSYCHOSOMATIC, a mental factor such as internal conflict or stress, component.”
I first heard about this in a Woodland Hills conference.
The molecules associated with emotions, called neuropeptides, are produced throughout the body, not just in the brain, and are released by cells in various systems the immune system, digestive system and the heart, essentially acting as chemical messengers that carry information related to our emotions throughout the body.
OPIOIDS are a broad group of pain-relieving medicines that work with your brain cells.
Is PSYCHOSOMATIC, the interaction between the mind (psyche) and the body (soma), THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?
From another comment:
Our next now moment starts in our imagination and TRUTH can only be found, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, with a vision of true reality found in Heaven NOT via photons of light emulating a Matrix illusion.
DARK MATTER PULLING galaxies TOGETHER and DARK ENERGY PUSHING them APART cannot be seen via photons of light, only ZERO POINT ENERGY PHOTONS, which makes them speculative and hypothetical from a purely flesh material hemisphere of the mind perspective.
Might DARK MATTER ENERGY be an expanding information storage facility of LIES with TRUTH only residing in Heaven ALL being dealt with only by Practicing the Way, following Jesus illuminated by RUACH animating energy the Power of the Holy Spirit?
Comer’s Book Practicing the Way ends with:
So, rather than question, How much am I willing to surrender to Jesus? ask yourself honestly, How joyful, peaceful, and free do I want to be?
The only true tragedy is to live and not die to self – to forever remain a SEED, to never go into the dark humus of the earth and reemerge into the full flowering of your destiny.
as the poet Goethe put in “The Holy Longing,”
so long as you haven’t experienced this: to die
and so to grow,
you are only a troubled quest on the DARK EARTH”
It’s not a question of if, but when we stumble, what then?
BEGIN AGAIN
Again from my prior comment:
As far as wealth and status goes it will be the results of the plus TRUTH versus the minus LIES that we have lived.
NEURONS, where TRUTH and LIES reside, NEVER DIE however: Neurogenesis – every day you wake up Lam 3:22-23 there are new brain cells generated in your head: moldable, changeable, and fresh ready to be shaped, NOT by food or nutrients, but by your thoughts. [ALL we ever took with us] Revelation 22:14-17
When Jesus returns [THE REALM OF THE DEAD, DEPTHS OF THE PIT and LIES will ALL be tossed in the lake of fire].
In my last comment I forgot to include some important information about VIRTUAL PARTICLES and their relationship with POSIBILITIES.
The Templeton Foundation supported the “Penrose-Hameroff” theory proposing that consciousness might arise from quantum processes, POSIBILITIES, occurring in the brain’s microtubules, suggesting that these structures act as a form of a quantum computer, with VIRTUAL PARTICLES playing a role in this process.
Greg wrote a book ‘God of the Possible’ A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God an ALTERNATIVE TO THE CLASSICAL DOCTRINE on God’s foreknowledge of the future.
The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger for their experiments with entangled particles, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities demonstrating that the UNIVERSE IS NOT LOCALLY REAL.
Quantum objects don’t have definite properties until measured, and their properties aren’t solely determined by their immediate surroundings, DEFYING THE CLASSICAL VIEW OF A LOCAL, REAL WORLD.
ENTANGLEMENT: When two particles become entangled, measuring the property of one instantly determines the correlated property of the other, even if they are far apart, seemingly violating the principle of locality.
UNMEASURED PROPERTIES: Before measurement, a quantum object exists in a SUPERPOSITION OF POSSIBILITIES, and its properties become definite only upon observation, suggesting that properties aren’t predetermined in a local, real way.
Adding to my last comment with ideas from Greg’s sermon “Meditating on the Word”
“Violation of BELL inequalities” TRUTH/LIES Everything in the DEPTHS OF THE PIT is a LIE
“UNMEASURED PROPERTIES…. SUPERPOSITION OF POSSIBILITIES” HEAVEN/HELL COSMIC DANCE to the tune TRUTH Greg’s (4) proportionate with LIES
THE PIT LIES a heavy burden yoke tugging versus dancing HEAVEN TRUTH yoke easy burden light Matt 11:30
This thought came to mind: Is the superposition of unmeasured properties
ALWAYS particle proportionate to an antiparticle? So I asked GOOGLE!
PARTICLES don’t have to be a PARTICLE and its ANTIPARTICLE to be ENTANGLED. Two PHOTONS can be ENTANGLED, and NEITHER is an ANTIPARTICLE of the OTHER.
It appears HEAVEN is NOT always (4) our potential for morally responsible goodness must be proportionate to our potential for morally responsible evil and at times dances back QUARKS.
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” a metaphor from Proverbs 25:21-22 and Romans 12:20, meaning to make someone feel guilty or ashamed for their actions by being kind to them speaking TRUTH in LOVE even if they have wronged you.
Interesting Proverbs says the same thing so is there an OT example of this?
Consider Elisha Traps BLINDED Arameans:
2 Kings 6:8-22 8 Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.” 9 The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” 10 So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”
12 “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”
13 “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an ARMY with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.
16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. The Arameans are definitely enemies and they are surrounded by GOD’S SPIRIT.
NOT a FLESH AND BLOOD, ARMY. Should they be smoked?
18 As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
19 Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.
20 After they entered the city, Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men so they can see.” Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.
It’s 7 miles from Dothan to Samaria and the Aram army is all blind so picture Elisha leading with each man, [In your imagination picture a COSMIC from above FLESH from below hand on shoulder single file WEDDING DANCE Conga line], following only to find on getting their sight back they are now surrounded by ALSO the king of Israel’s’ FLESH AND BLOOD ARMY.
21 When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?”
The King is pretty jazzed about killing them but Elisha has another idea. If your enemy is hungry and thirsty give him something to eat and drink.
22 “Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.” 23 So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands, [NOT AN ENTIRE ARMY], from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.
If they had just killed the band the WHOLE ARAMEAN ARMY would return again; so the burning coals of fire on their heads were hey you came to get us and we clearly had you surrounded by both a SPIRITUAL and FLESH AND BLOOD ARMY yet we gave you a break so consider doing likewise.
Our next now moment starts in our imagination and TRUTH can only be found, through the POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT, with a vision of true reality found in HEAVEN NOT via PHOTONS of light emulating a Matrix illusion.
When we dance back PHOTONS to QUARKS in HEAVEN the light emulating the MATRIX ILLUSION, settled quickly out of court, DIMS and THE WAY BACK illuminated by RUACH animating energy is brightened.
Might speaking the TRUTH in LOVE our part, [ALL we ever take with us], PRACTICNG THE WAY, the NARROW PATH OF WISDOM, also expand our UNWELT non-matrix ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM over time?
It appears from the, 2nd comment, Lewis poem your IMAGINATION can take you to TRUTH and LIES depending on which HEMISPHERE of the mind is in control.
ENLIGHTENMENT rational takes precedence or SPIRIT lead IMAGINATION?
…… Satan>World>Body>Soul [HEMISPHERES] Spirit<Heaven<God
Soul>Joints>Thoughts [Hebrews 4:12] Intentions of Heart<Marrow<Spirit
…… Bottom up<Outside in [training ground] Inside out<Top Down…..
1. Think about what you’re thinking about. [NOT subconscious autopilot]
2. Meditate on the TRUTH of who God is. [Mind Body Medicine releases Dopamine]
3. Meditate on the TRUTH of who you are in Christ. [Romans 12:2]
4. Let the Spirit speak to you through Scripture. [Living/Active]
We are ALL byte players in an EPIC COSMIC CONFLICT; both HEMISPHERES of value but a SPIRIT led DANCE!
C. S. Lewis: “One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe—a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. . . . Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. . . . This universe is at war . . . [and] it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the RIGHTFUL KING has landed, you might say LANDED in DISGUISE, and is CALLING US all to TAKE PART in a great CAMPAIGN OF SABOTAGE”.
Seeing the cup half empty and only getting worse or half full DANCING BACK and FORTH FORWARD.
In Him we RUACH LIVE and BREATH and therefore have our being so make a JOYFUL NOTE or NOT?
From the Lewis poem to Paul: A HEMISPHERE MANAGEMENT PROBLEM?
Romans 7:15-25 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
25 THANKS BE TO GOD, WHO DELIVERS ME THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!
So then, I myself in my MIND am a SLAVE to GOD’S LAW, but in my SINFUL NATURE a SLAVE to the LAW OF SIN.
With The 2013 Nobel Prize discovery of the Higgs Boson, all of the energy and matter we have in the universe right now is the same amount of energy and matter that has been here since the Big Bang just going through cycles of PHOTON death and QUARK renewal with UMWELT SPECTRUM enhancements.
With The 2022 Nobel Prize the UNIVERSE IS NOT LOCALLY REAL outside HEAVEN just merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent, matrix inside a BUBBLE which when Jesus returns will Revelation 6:14 “The heavens RECEDED like a scroll being rolled up”.
With CHAOS THEORY we can now TOGGLE CLASSICAL with OPEN THEISM as what God might choose to know differently INSIDE versus OUTSIDE the BUBBLE. To get to CONSCIOUSNESS you need an OUTSIDE SYSTEM that can descend INSIDE into CHAOS.
PLATO AND FORMS: arose out of the teachings of Socrates asking questions about how it is possible to know when a definition is correct from a logical standpoint. His ideas kept collapsing into circularity and infinite regress CHAOS, which is where Plato’s theory came in: the realm of forms was OUTSIDE the BUBBLE of human fallibility LIES and could therefore be relied upon for accurate definitions TRUTH.
The brain is bombarded by 100 million bits of information per second. If you did not have a way to eliminate this enormous amount of info you would live in total, mental CHAOS. The RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM deletes 98% of this information down into 5-9 chunks of meaning controlled by what is most important, the state of your SOUL.
Our internal representation, intrapersonal reality, is a [sensory VAKOG loaded map] determined by the beliefs so far installed. It is NOT absolute reality, the territory, but a soul-driven map perception thereof.
Meaning is determined by the beliefs that are installed. The SUBCONSCIOUS mind, what the Bible calls the HEART, acts on data up to 1/3000th of a second. The CONSCIOUS mind operates, acts on data, at 1/30th of a second. The SUBCONSCIOUS mind is 100 times faster than the CONSCIOUS mind.
The SUBCONSCIOUS mind acts on this vast amount of info automatically, robopathically like a machine Proverbs 23:7. “For he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost ’EAT AND DRINK,’ he says to you, but his HEART is NOT with you.” This is the reason the bible says watch your, Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your HEART, for everything you do flows from it”, innermost thoughts, pictures and words.
Of the 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts you think in a day 90% are the same ones you had the day before making you a creature of HABIT.
The brain is made up of some 100 billion nerve cells, called NEURONS. EACH NERVE CELL RESEMBLES a LEAFLESS BUT ELASTIC OAK TREE, WITH WIGGLY BRANCHES AND ROOT SYSTEMS that connect and disconnect to other nerve cells. The number of connections a particular nerve cell might make can range from 1,000 to more than 100,000, depending on where in the brain the nerve cell resides.
NEURONS NEVER DIE however: NEUROGENESIS – every day you wake up, Lam 3:22-23 “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”, there are new brain cells generated in your head: moldable, changeable, and fresh ready to be shaped, NOT by food or nutrients, but by your THOUGHTS.
You can TRAIN NEW GOOD HABITS as you SHRIVEL UP OLD BAD HABITS however OLD NEURONS HABITS NEVER DIE and can SHRIVEL and UN-SHRIVEL, returning more quickly then they took to TRAIN in the first place, so they need to be payed ATTENTION to.
John 15:5 I AM THE VINE; YOU ARE THE BRANCHES. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
The hippocampus is a brain region that plays a crucial role in forming new memories and in consolidating them into long-term storage. It acts as a temporary storage site for memories, and then transfers them to other brain areas.
1. Thalamus: routes sensory information to the cerebral cortex
2. Amygdala: rapid response system sends body into high alert if triggered
3. Association cortex: separates threats from false alarms
4. Hippocampus: elevates threats by placing in context of prior experiences
5. Prefrontal cortex: from (2,3,4) triggers how cerebral cortex information is acted upon [sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system]
The process of converting short-term memory to long-term memory is called memory consolidation, which involves strengthening neural connections through rehearsal and recall. This strengthening TRAINING happens when neurons fire together repeatedly, making it more likely they will fire together in the future. That image, or thought, now becomes a part of your biologically, not just a mirror image stored somewhere.
Thoughts and images, whether TRUTH or LIES, become permanent parts of your mind, personality and the way you think and act making LONG-TERM MEMORY of great value for both GOD and SATAN.
SATAN will TRAIN you through LONG-TERM MEMORY with TEMPTATIONS to bring on disorders and disease LIES. [FALSE triggers to the sympathetic nervous system “fight or flight”]
GOD will TRAIN you through LONG-TERM MEMORY as you MEDITATE, or dwell, on His Word so that you can live in health and freedom TRUTH. [The parasympathetic nervous system “calm and composed state”]
DUPICITY is a divided SOUL on who or what is worthy of trusting, [is telling the TRUTH], for guiding your life.
Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: BUT A BROKEN SPIRIT DRIETH THE BONES.
ANXIETY: Last year over 300 million people were written prescriptions for Benzodiazepines, 27% of all doctor visits. DEPRESSION: …. over 250 million people were written prescriptions for Antidepressants, 22.5% of all doctor visits. This is helpful for getting a now damaged FALSE triggered sympathetic nervous system back on track; however it’s a 1st step treating only the symptoms.
“All my worst moments … are when I’m in a hurry. Love, joy, and peace … are incompatible with hurry. The average iPhone user touches his or her phone 2,617 times a day. What would my life be like if God touched my mind, Filled with the Spirit, as frequently as I touch my phone?” Comers’ “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”
A few thoughts on PRACTICING THE WAY – SOUL KEEPING – APPRENTICE TRAINING
Life is hard on our SOULS [the part that fears, worries, hopes, dreams, wishes, and experiences] and even healthy SOULS, with a lack of ATTENTION, become unhealthy.
Whether it’s our appearance, performance, or reputation we ATTEND to the exterior things [once it’s proven then I’ll do it] because people are watching and we are competing for approval and acceptance however there is only one person hopefully ATTENTIVE to what’s going on in your SOUL and that’s you with God’s help.
The health of your SOUL determines your capacity for DUPLICITY, being one person on the outside but a completely different person on the inside, to live with a version of yourself, you may not even like, that has gaps between whom you are, what people see, and who you pretend to be. A healthy SOUL has an active consciousness, and is ATTENTIVE, with NO DUPLICITY, choosing to close the gaps [YOUR PLANKS] NOT just be in damage control managing them.
DISTRACTIONS that give our ATTENTION away quickly and cheaply with little thought are an enemy of the SOUL, pulling our ATTENTION away from what matters most. The ‘wide road’ is death by distraction by being pulled in many possible directions leading to an inability to keep them all in a cohesive order.
A distracted life leads to disordered priorities, keeps us from the beauty of the present moment [NEW POSSIBILITIES], and limits our capacity for love, joy, and peace. Studies conclude people spend over half their time, distracted, thinking about something other than the moment they are now in robbing them of the fruits of the spirit.
Luke 10 38-42 Mary sat listening but Martha was DISTRACTED by all the preparations – Martha was worried and upset about many things [A WIDE ROAD] – Mary was focused on one thing – even good things can distract you from a better thing. If you want to be a person of joy and peace and love you have to AUDIT, with Jesus’ help, that which gets your ATTENTION because that tells you what you are devoted to.
“If the devil can’t make you sin he will make you busy because either way your SOUL will SHRIVEL” – Cory ten Boon.
“The ability to think about what is NOT happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional, relational and spiritual cost” – Daniel Gilbert
Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down, SETTLE QUICKLY OUT OF COURT, while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” or you will take it into your future, as ongoing baggage, into the cellars of our SOUL where it will do pump iron gym TRAINING.
The problem is you are on the WRONG PATH, so close the gym, TRAINING. Ephesians 4:31-32 “get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you”.
Surviving but not thriving by being overwhelmed overcommitted overexposed and over-processing appears to be the pattern of this world. Ego depletion disrupts the peace, joy, and rhythm in the inner depths of one’s SOUL.
From science, the cingulate cortex, residing within the medial surface of the cerebral hemisphere, experiences a slowdown where folks are more likely to do things that they would not normally do.
People all over the world – outside the church and in – are looking for an escape, a way out from under the crushing weight of [BUBBLE] life THIS SIDE OF EDEN. But there is no escaping it. The best the world can offer is a temporary distraction to delay the inevitable or deny the inescapable. That’s why Jesus doesn’t offer us an escape. He offers us something far better: ‘EQUIPMENT’. He offers his apprentices a whole new way to bare the weight of our humanity with ease at his side. Like two oxen in a field, tied shoulder to shoulder with Jesus doing all the lifting at his pace, slow, unhurried, present in the moment, full of love, joy, and peace”.
YOKE – A rabbi’s reading, understanding, and application of the Torah to one’s life. For folk listening to Jesus, at that time, the YOKE of the law was heavy,
burdensome, 600+ commands, and impossible to live up to. Jesus came into this world to establish a brand new way for people to be connected to God not by law-keeping but by a relationship established by grace. In a relationship, you walk with another person.
When farmers had YOKES they would put a smaller, less experienced, ox with a larger stronger one who would set the pace for the more miniature ox and, in so doing, increase the capacity, set the right course, and shoulder more of the weight so they together could finish the task.
Your SOUL is best when you come to rest in Jesus. When your surrender your life you also surrender your load and just walk with Jesus. No longer striving alone, working alone, navigating the complexity of life alone, or betting on any way of living to lead you to the fulfillment you desire other than what Jesus can offer by following.
Jesus is not inviting us into the water cooler of heaven for a little pep talk and then sending us back out saying call me if you need anything. Jesus is inviting us to discipleship: to follow, walk and learn from him. Spending time with him learning his ways, his rhythms, and his priorities so that we can rest in his grace and he promises to shoulder and bare the weight as we learn a brand new way to shoulder the weight of life.
John Ortberg tells a story about an old man who is the keeper of the streams that run through a town. The town decides to get rid of the old man, so the springs go UNATTENDED. The streams gathered twigs and branches. Soon there is lots of mud and silt. Fish died, swans flew elsewhere and people got sick. The life of the village depended on the stream. The life of the stream depended on the keeper. So the village hired back the keeper and over time things returned back to normal. The life of the village depended on the health of the stream. The stream in your SOUL and you are the KEEPER.
You can’t be the KEEPER of your SOUL on your own.
Using Greg’s sermon “Meditating on the Word” (3rd) WAY meditate on the truth of who we are in Christ, Romans 12:2, as the pattern for this ongoing process. This SOUL work can only happen as you YOKE with JESUS.
You will be YOKED to something so if you DON’T YOKE with JESUS, WHILE YOU ARE STILL ON THE WAY, what might be the future condition of your NEURON APPRENTICE TRAINED SOUL?