Visit to Cairo

 

No, it cannot be done, so I will not try.  

The Bibles Studies at the Home of Yuri Slapanovich

On Thursday, that is the Thursday before the Friday that the Pontius Pilate had him put to death, there was a dinner, actually it fwas the last dinner (some call it supper) he would really ever have.  Since he knew he wouldn’t have much time with his followers he went on a long discourse, trying to sum everything up for the followers.  One of those followers by the name of John wrote it all down after it happened. You can read this today in the Gospel of John, chapters 14 through 17.

This is commonly referred to as the Final Discourse, for reasons explained above. In our time together last night we just talked about the first portion, or that in Chapter 14. The key points that Jesus made were this.

He is going back where he came from to prepare a place for us on the other side. This place is described as a mansion, however some believe it to just be our spiritual housing, since it will be different than our earthly housing (our body), since we won’t have a need for this body any more, and we wont have a need for sleep, bathroom breaks, eating, etc so obviously we wont need the same parts. This is just conjecture on our part, but it’s reasonable. We suspect we will recognize each other, but we don’t really know that. All we know is what Jesus told us, since Jesus was the only the man who prior to being here knows for sure what is on the other side, the spiritual side, since that is where he came from. In other words whenever people talk about what they think the other dimension looks like its really just conjecture because they’ve never been there, and many times they’re just making things up that sound pleasant, but have no basis in reality. We hear a lot about this in funerals, when the priest or pastor describes how old Cooter is smiling down upon us now, but the officiant really has no clue since he hardly knew old Cooter, and is being paid to do a funeral that is comforting to Cooter’s family. This is certainly understandable since what else can the pastor say, can he really says stuff like “There’s a small chance Cooter’s in heaven but more than likely he’s writhing in pain in hell for all eternity and there’s absolutely no hope for him.”  Of course not, that would just be cruel and mean even if it WAS true, but it also may not even BE true since the pastor doesn’t know for sure what happened  to him. He just knows it’s supposed to sound comforting and truth, for just this day, must take a back seat.

We also discussed the verse where Jesus says “If you’ve seen me then you’ve seen the Father” when Thomas asks him to show them God. He basically says that look, I’ve been hanging out with you now for three years, doing miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead, whatever, don’t you realize that when you see me then you see the Father. If you want to know God, Jesus is the manifestation of God here on earth, and came to tell us the truth about spiritual things, the afterlife, this life and God.  The way he described was narrow, and therefore unpopular, since the only road to God was to be through Jesus. It was unpopular then and is unpopular today. Jesus said that it would be unpopular and that few would follow him, not because it’s hard to do because its not really hard mechanically. You just have to obey him, and his commands are not that tough. The tough part is the rejection of our friends, wanting to fit in with a culture that is contra-Jesus, and wanting to do things our way, instead of submitting to His way, which is a pride issue. These are the tough things, not the actual following itself. He even said that of the few that WOULD follow him, that many of THOSE would fall away because they have shallow roots, and when peer pressure or the cares of this life strike, that they will wither due to that type of weakness.

I then mentioned that my favorite quote was in John chapter 14, verse 21 as follows: “He who has my commands and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who love me shall be loved by my Father, and I will and I will disclose (show) myself to him. “

This is probably my favorite verse in the entire Bible since it gives me a clear and simple path to knowing God. The message is IF I obey, God will show himself to me.  Therefore, I should look to obey at every opportunity. So then, what are the commandments: Love God and Love Your Neighbor is a good summary but both are necessary. You can’t just say I’ll love my brother and that’s enough because that leaves out the first commandment. In addition you can’t just say I’ll love God by praying and reading the scriptures since that leaves out the second commandment. 

Jesus also mentioned in his parting words that he HAD to leave so that he could give us the Holy Spirit which would remind us of everything that Jesus said, partly so that the disciples could write this stuff down so that we would know what to obey. This is what we study today. Without it we wouldn’t know WHAT to obey, and therefore we would not know how to love God as we should, and God would not reveal himself to us. Think of the Bible as a map, that when followed leads us to where we need to be. In addition Jesus sent the Holy Spirit since he wouldn’t be around any more on earth to tell is physically so he left us is Spirit, which could be everywhere at once unlike the physical Jesus who had some of the limitations of man, being relegated to one place at a time. 

Therefore, our motivation for doing good, well at least MY motivation, is to see God. This is why I don’t need others to see my good works, but it’s better if only God does so that I’m not doing good things just to be seen by men, and get a pat on the back. That is meaningless. Yes, sometimes people WILL see the good works but that should not be our motivation, we should try as much as possible to keep it between us, God, and the fewest individuals possible.

We didn’t discuss this but I believe that God wants us Christians to seek out ‘the least of these’, the uncool, the people that have nobody to talk to, the socially awkward. This could possibly be because they are the ones that may be most open to receive His love. Other’s many not realize their need for his love and forgiveness, but we can’t automatically just assume that. Sometimes the most together looking person in the world might be the most hurting.  It’s best to just be led by the Spirit and let God use us, flow through us, and in so doing reveal himself to us.

In any case, we will have these spiritual get-togethers from time to time, and I will announce them a few days before we meet. I had hoped to just meet at a regular time each week, but I may have to care for my elderly Dad in Virginia so we’ll just have to continue for awhile in this ad-hoc fashion for a few months. After that we hope to just stick to Saturday night.

8/19/2017

So last week we talked about what Jesus meant when he spoke about bearing fruit. In other words does fruit mean the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, kindness, etc) or does fruit mean leading others into the everlasting life zone, or does it mean both?  Of course I believe it means both, but not individually but in the fact that they could be very much related. For example if the Holy Spirit is working within you you will grow in the fruits of the spirit in such a way that people will be attracted to the love and light that is evident, and possibly ask you about it, at which point you could share the message of Jesus. Or it could be that if they know you are a Christian that you don’t have to say anything, because your actions have already spoken AND they may already know that you are a Christian. On the other hand you may have the Holy Spirit and the individual fruit of the spirit, but are shy about saying anything because the world more or less hates Christians that speak out about their faith, because it makes them feel uncomfortable for a host of reasons. Jesus said in the Final Discourse that we should not be surprised if the world hates us, because it will, for the SAME reasons it hated him, and therefore killed him. Even though he was loving, kind, did miracles, and healed the sick, ALL of which they were fine with, what they didn’t like is that he called them out on their sin, and nobody likes that, right? Therefore, if the Holy Spirit leads us to both act and SPEAK like followers of Jesus and we only do the acting then we probably lack courage. If we only do the speaking, then we probably lack integrity. I suppose if I had to pick a category I would pick the former, however I don’t have to pick either category. I can do both.

In reality this should happen naturally, where we obey Christ, and then as we obey he shows Himself to us as described in John 15. The obvious implication is that if we don’t obey Him then he won’t show Himself to us but nobody ever seems to talk about that condition, yet it happens all the time. We have Christians who start their relationship with Christ but don’t turn from their sins, and then they wonder why God seems distant, and eventually these folks fall away because Christianity didn’t ‘work’ for them.  I don’t know if it is something that’s supposed to work for us anyway, since it’s a relationship with God, not a product that we buy.

We also discussed churches that send people out on mission trips to do street evangelism, and yet some of the people are in no way ready to speak to others about Christ because they don’t even know Him themselves, and there is no fire in their heart, and it ends up making them bitter about the whole thing.  I sometimes wonder if we should just shut our mouths for awhile, seek God, get to know Him, and then if hearts are full of Him then our mouths will speak of him in a more natural sense. Yes, we may still be hated by many, but at least we’ll be hated for the right reasons. In addition, some of those that may hate us initially will thank us and love us later for sharing with them this new world, and for risking their displeasure for the sake of the Kingdom.  It reminds me of when Jesus said, if you seek your life you will lose it but if you lose it FOR MY SAKE, you will find it. I highlighted the FOR MY SAKE since some people forget that it’s not enough to just lose your life, but it must be done for His sake, IF we want to truly find life.

Personally, God is leading me to focus on a few people, and lay down my life for them, writing to them, speaking with them, whatever he leads me to do. Sometimes it will cause me discomfort, but other times it could just be pleasant. Whatever the case, I should be led by the Sprit which God has given me, and dedicate my life (lose my life) so that I can find it. It kind of reminds me of the ocean when I was a kid or even now.  I knew the ocean could be great fun , but getting into gradually was so painful since the water felt so cold, and waves would just make it worse, especially if I tried to tiptoe in, jumping up when they waves would approach so they wouldn’t hit my upper body. This is a really bad way to get into the Ocean. Of course the best way is to run full speed at the first wave you see and then dive head first through the first wave and all subsequent waves. Within seconds you get used to the temp, and are getting into the part of the ocean where you can actually enjoy the ocean by riding the waves back in. It’s all in the approach.  The first way is timid and painful and not recommended. The funny thing is that we already know this, yet we continue to be timid, and incremental in our approach which does nothing for us.

So, in summary  if we really want God to reveal himself to us Jesus really makes it very clear. He says that if we seek him that we will find him. That’s one thing. Plus it’s not hard to do.  The other thing is that if we obey him then he will show himself to us. Not that complicated in theory, but the practice can be frightening. Or painful at first. 

The older I get, the more true all of this seems, and I’m actually getting excited about my next major transition. My family thinks I’m morbid in thinking about this, but I just think it’s natural.  Maybe it’s because I don’t think of death as a finality, but as a beginning of a new stage in a life that just keeps going on. I don’t have an 80 year horizon, but an eternal horizon, which I guess means no horizon at all.

 

Hi, we will indeed be gathering again tomorrow night at my house, Saturday August 26, at 8:00.

This past Saturday we discussed the Gospel of John chapter 16 as follows:

Chapter 16 is just part of a longer discourse that begins in chapter and goes through 17, and is actually called the Farewell Discourse since Jesus is saying goodbye (kindof) to his followers. He speaks with authority saying yes, I’m going away to be with the Father, but when I do a couple of things are going to take place so be mentally prepared for them.  The first thing is that you will be rejected by people because of me and basically tossed out of your social places, the chief one at that time being the synagogue. This type of rejection was also stated earlier in the discourse by Jesus, and he wanted to know that while the disciples would experience a new life filled with the Holy Spirit, that not only should they reject the Old Life but that in fact the Old Life would reject them which makes total sense. In order to understand this I put myself in the mental framework of a my non-Christian self, pretending that my good buddy Billy Clark had become a Christian, but not just a Christian but a rabid, filled with the Holy Spirit Christian, excited about God, and living for Him in every way. To me, Billy would no longer be very relatable, he would no longer get high with me and the group, and very soon he would no longer want to go to the parties with us, and we would soon no longer enjoy his company as much because he now has a different idea regarding the concept of ‘Enjoyment’. He would definitely lose his girlfriend Wendy since she would want to keep having sex with him, but now he has decided to wait until marriage, but she no longer wants to be with him in any capacity since she doesn’t even want to talk about Jesus for a host of reasons, but you all can probably guess most of the reasons. We would still like Billy a little bit though because he would have retained his base personality, and most of his essence, but his personality and essence are now powered and directed by something very foreign and frankly something unattractive to us, a spirit that we know is correct at its core, but offensive in its truth, shining a beam into the innermost parts of our soul, that makes us more than uncomfortable, so why even deal with it at all when we can just put Billy out of the circle in which we are both uncomfortable, as is Wendy.  Kind of an Atlas Shrugged type of thing in a way, with Billy just leaving ‘our’ world into one that we can’t even relate to but worse than that, one in which we don’t want to relate. Sometimes I would wonder what Billy’s world is like, and at certain moments be attracted to it, but due to fear of losing my own personality and essence I would shy away from this Holy Spirit which has gripped his soul, and now pushes me toward church, which is another thing I really don’t want to commit to, and not because it occurs on Sunday morning which is my ‘sleep in’ time that is needed due to Saturday nights, but more than that. More than that. Therefore we separate socially, with me and my friends rejecting him, and some of us hating him for what he stands for or maybe just hating him because his life now stands in defiance against our life, and it feels more than uncomfortable, to the point of making us angry.

My point here is that I get it, and still remember my 18 year old mind as if it were yesterday.  Jesus was able to speak with confidence on this because he understands the inner workings of the hearts of men, and can see time as one object, not just in the three sections of Present, Future, and Past, but simply as the object of Existence, all at once. It must be a fascinating view, that I believe we will have one day, not looking at events in a linear fashion, but as one complete painting.

This fear of rejection causes some who want to be Christians to try and tow a line down the middle, pleasing both the filled and unfilled at the same time, but it’s futile.  We want the peace of Christ and the acceptance of the world, and that might work sometimes, but mostly not. This is repeated often in the scriptures, but the one that comes to mind is when Jesus said “you cannot serve God and Mammon”.  Unfortunately you really do have to make a choice. The middle is painful, since you can’t enjoy God and you can’t enjoy Sin. If you dive into God you can enjoy Him, and if you dive into Sin you can enjoy Satan, but not both at the same time. You have to pick. Also, while both picks might seem like good picks at first, one of those picks will turn from immense enjoyment at first, and then turn to rot as your soul physically sickens, followed shortly by your mental and physical health. It’s funny how your spiritual health affects your mental health and then finally your physical health. But not always, just lots of times.

Ok, then the other think Jesus pointed out is that once they kill him and he returns to where he came from that he will send the Holy Spirit, but just to those who follow Him. He says this with confidence as if he knows the end of the story because again he does in that he doesn’t subdivide Time like we do into three parts. This Holy Spirit will now be necessary because Jesus will no longer be present to instruct them personally, but also because there will now be followers throughout of time and all of place, so a pervasive Spirit will now be a much better way to speak to the souls of his followers. The Bible is our basic map of what Jesus wants us to know but there are situations that arise that may not be dealt with directly by the Word of God, and for this the Holy Spirit will be necessary to guide us in how to apply the Word to various situations, some of which may be gray, such as being forced with two seemingly poor choices or two seemingly good choices, or a good choice that helps one person but hurts another, this type of stuff.

Also the world is filled with Spirits, but we can discern the Holy Spirit since it will point to Jesus whereas the other Spirits will either point away from Jesus or simply leave Him out. Most Spirits will try to look Godly, because if they didn’t most wouldn’t follow them. Some Spirits wont even attempt to look Godly but are blatantly evil, and admittedly so. So we have three types.

1.      The Holy Spirit

2.      Spirits that pretend to be Holy, Enlightening, and so forth

3.      Spirits that don’t pretend at all (This is the kind we used to have in the covens in Fairbanks AK, good old honest evil spirits, nothing tricky about them)

Then, as we went through the chapter we noticed that Jesus also said something interesting about what the Holy Spirit would show us. He said that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin, because they would reject Jesus. In other words the greatest sin of all is not among the sins or evil deeds that people commonly think of as evil, such as murder, rape, incest, stealing, whatever, but the greatest sin is the seemingly innocuous sin of omission, or the sin of simply NOT believing in Jesus. This seems odd to us at first glance, but upon further inspection it makes sense since if we don’t follow Jesus we will not have the Holy Spirit and without the Holy Spirit there is NO evil that we are not capable of, the sky is the limit, in fact there is no limit on the evil that would reside within us in addition to the UnHoly Spirits to which we would open ourselves. It’s kind of like Mr. Evil slides the toes of his foot into the slightly open door, wedging it open more and more, little by little, until all the other Mr Evils rush in. This is how I perceive it anyway, and I don’t think I’m that far off.

 

More later on the rest of what we discussed…..

 

Ok, sorry this is a little late, but here is the rest of what we discussed on the 19^th.

 

Somehow we got onto the topic of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, which is in the heart of downtown Brooklyn, NY. Note that downtown Brooklyn looks nothing like downtown Manhattan in that downtown Brooklyn looks a bit run down, more like downtown Gary Indiana, than an urban area of NYC. This actually reflects the demographics of the area, whereas the residents of Manhattan are at least millionaires, the residents of Brooklyn just don’t make as much money. I suppose there are exceptions but by and large it’s a poorer borough and therefore the downtown area reflects that.

The Brooklyn Tabernacle is mostly non-white, yet it was started by two white people from Iowa who heard the Holy Spirit tell them that they should start a Tuesday night prayer meeting there, which actually made no sense since they lived in Iowa. The fact that it made no sense was not important, but what WAS important was that they obeyed the Spirit. In other words there is nothing in the Bible that told them that they should move to Brooklyn and start a Tuesday night prayer meeting, but the Bible DID say that when Jesus was risen that he would send his Holy Spirit which would lead us into ALL truth and understanding, and specifically for our particular situation. At the time Jesus said this there was no Brooklyn and there was no Iowa, so if it WAS specifically in the scriptures it would have made no sense until the 18^th Century.

In any case Jim and Cindy started their seemingly pathetic little prayer meeting on Tuesday nights, and of course at first hardly anybody showed up. Sometimes just one, or two, or none. But they persisted in obedience. Eventually more came, and then the next week a few more, and pretty soon the word was out in Brooklyn that God was showing up at these white people’s apartment, and the places was busting at the seams with desperate people wanting a touch from God. Anyway, you can read the whole story in Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, but after you do you should go. You can fly to LaGuardia for about 250 dollars, stay Saturday night, and go to the Brooklyn Tabernacle. When you walk in the air is thick with the Spirit of God, and when the congregation starts worshiping God, from the bottom of their soul, with ALL their might, you might start crying from an emotion you’re not quite familiar with. I ALWAYS do and I can’t help it. I really can’t, and since there is nothing I can do I don’t even hide it, I just let the tears flow and the nose run because containing them is futile. The reason may be that the sound is beautiful, but beautiful in an other-worldly way, the sound of sincere, previously desperate people singing to the God who saved them, not just in eternal life fashion, but saved them from the ravages of sin, poverty, despair, depression, anxiety, drugs, gang life, whatever, and to see so many of them in one physical location which is 17 Smith Street in Brooklyn, NY. Also, don’t think I’m overstating this until you’ve actually been there because once you have you will not have the inclination to accuse me of such.

The reason I bring this up is that it totally relates to the Holy Spirit, in fact it is ALL Holy Spirit, from its history, inception, and the current miracles that happen there, and we can view it today. I guess that is why I love the place so much, because it is such a testament, witness, proof, whatever you want to call it, that the Holy Spirit is present and is evident where people are obedient to Christ.  Road trip anyone?  Seriously, let me know, I’m not just saying that. And no, we won’t see the Statue of Liberty while we’re there since that is a four hour commitment on the ferry and associated tour, and I just don’t think its worth it.

Ok, this discussion on the Tabernacle reminded us of people who have grown up in the church and therefore never had to be ‘saved’ from drugs, gangs, bestiality,  whatever, and therefore don’t have ‘as much’ to be thankful for. How do THESE people develop this type of love for God when they don’t have the same amount of gratitude since gratitude may assume some type of mercy and mercy assumes some amount of debt, for which these ‘church raised ‘ people have less. In actuality they really don’t but it just seems that way, and some of the most fervent Christian I know were actually raised in the church. Look at Jen Hatmaker. Or Timothy of the first Century, or Eric Clapton of the 20^th Century, or Augustine of the fourth century, or Beau Lee. Nevertheless, I think it’s tougher for Christian who have been raised in the church to be as fervent. Just my opinion, because Jesus says that he who has been forgiven much, loves much. Now some Christians take this the wrong way, and think that they really want to be forgiven for a lot of things, so they go out and do things purposely for which they need to be forgiven. What they don’t understand is that this dangerous experiment could actually separate them from God, then the deception sets in, then they are trapped in their intentional sin or attitude, and while some escape others never do. I think the general rule here is that disobedience to Christ is never a good idea, regardless of the motive.  We all want to be little gangsta badasses don’t we, but the joke is on us. Not that funny though.

 

August 26^th, 2017

Largely we spoke about the final recorded prayer of Jesus as outlined by his close friend John. IT was noted that mostly what Jesus prayed for was that the disciples would remain as followers, which as far as we know that actually did. This should not be too surprising since they were able to experience God in the flesh for a number of years, something that the Christians of today simply can’t do. In other words the original disciples couldn’t just say that their minds played tricks on them for three years, that the raising of the dead, the feeding of the 5000, the healings, the resurrection, all of this was just a long series in a dream. IT would be extremely tough for someone to deny all of that, but apparently not impossible, otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble to make this is final prayer. As I think about it this is largely what I pray for as well, that my children would remain in Christ and that one of them would return to Christ.  All of my children except one seem to say that growing up in the church was an impediment to their Christianity in that they were able to witness a significant gap between what the words of Jesus and the behavior of some in the church, and even, to my horror, myself. I would never want to be held responsible for leading people away from eternal life, whether intentionally or unintentionally, yet I fear I may have been guilty of the latter.

On the other hand we have to also understand that there is a pretty low bar to being a church member, they let pretty much anybody in as long as they’re not brandishing some type of assault weapon. So yes, the ‘church’ can appear like a motley collection of misfit toys. But this is by design, remember Jesus saying go out to the highways and byways.