Dog and Pony Shows, and the Wise Handling of Truth

Posted on April 21, 2014 by LovingLikeGod.com

Newly found writing By Jay Ferris!
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In the following passage notice the question, and the differentiation between “you” and “them”…

And the disciples came and said unto him, ‘Why do you speak unto them in parables?’

He answered, ‘Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, ‘By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Matthew 13:10-17

For present purposes I’d like to touch on the “eyes that see not” part of the problem. Jesus spoke to them in parables because He had spiritual truth He wanted to communicate, truth not easily seen with earthly eyes and not to be understood as earthly truth. Rather it was spiritual truth concerning the invisible God, truth that can be seen and understood in the things that are created, but apparently not so easy for most to grasp.

By putting the Truth in the form of parables, those who had earthly eyes and intent only on seeing earthly things, couldn’t get it.

Jesus answered and said to those who the Father had given Him, “… To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not granted,” Matthew 13:11.

Furthermore the way that God had chosen to impart the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven was to have Jesus explain them in private.

And with many such parables spoke He the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spoke He not to them: and when they were alone, He expounded all things to his disciples. Mark 4:33, 34

This tells me that Jesus was not authorized to explain these mysteries in the seeing of those who only had earthly eyes to see earthly things.

Here’s the deal as it struck me just now. If the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are explained to earth-bound people, they receive the explanation into their flesh, and put it into practice. They even put it on others in the flesh.

It looks to me like Jesus didn’t want to outfit “dog and pony shows” by explaining things for the understanding or misunderstanding of the flesh, as the case may be.

Of course, the life of Christ and His approach to the government of His Kingdom is in the Spirit. That’s bad for a couple of things that have been very popular for many years in what’s calling itself “church,” namely pre-eminence and income.

Prostitution is a problem as it is, but wanting to be a center stage prostitute compounds the problem. This is the one who is in it for both money and reputation.

For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is sufficient for such a thing? For we are not like the great number who make use of the word of God for profit: but our words are true, as from God, being said as before God in Christ
~2 Cor. 2:15-17

Love!

Posted in J.Ferris: New Releases | 5 Comments

Out of One, Into Another

Posted on April 18, 2014 by LovingLikeGod.com

A New Post By Jay Ferris!

out jump2What I am seeing of late is a choice between two kinds of “time-shares,” two places to rest, two places to live, even a choice between two kingdoms.  How can we leave the one without entering the other?  Getting out of “Babylon”, it seems, is a call to every one of us, but where are we to go if we are given no alternative?  Does “the gospel” consign us to some kind of mental holding pattern until Jesus comes back? Why should people living in darkness want a piece of that action?

We need to live in the Spirit’s alternative to Babylon and we need to live there now.  My experience tells me that this is well within reach of the faith once delivered to the saints, and still available even in our own day.  What we are presently calling “church” isn’t fooling anyone, except perhaps ourselves.

The way things are now, people haven’t the faintest idea of what the Bible is really offering us in Christ.  People living in darkness need very badly to know that there is another place to live, another place to rest.  If I understand it right, believers were to be a demonstration in that darkness.  Instead we say, “Oh well, maybe next time?” – NOT!

What Jesus offers us is bad for business, any business:

…To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?  They are like children who sit in the market place. . . Luke 7:30-32

We sit in a market place with an eye to doing business. We have business on our mind.  It is this “what’s in it for me that I can buy” mentality that stands in opposition to our ability to enter the Kingdom of God.  It is a change of mental location that we need in order to come out of Babylon and enter another place.

The book of Revelation is a strange kind of letter. It tends to scramble our sense of “past” “present” and “future.”  A “beast” is revealed there who will burn Babylon in the future, Revelation 17:16.

The book of Revelation also reveals another place to live.  This other place is called “The New Jerusalem,” Revelation 21:2.  The problem is that what’s calling itself “church” has been so locked into futureness that we have missed the burning that is going on in the present.  This burning is the result of a fire Jesus kindled at the cross. This is to say, we don’t have to wait until the eleventh hour to get out of the burning tower.  The fact is, the fire Jesus set at the cross has already gutted the building.

One way of indicating where the gospel takes us, as contrasted with where we have been, is to summarize the contrast between two economic “systems.”  One system finds its expression in a market place, a place where people go to buy and sell.  The rock bottom object of the market place is a redistribution of the necessities of life.  The economy of God does this by the blood of Christ.  This is the transaction of the cross, where we exchange our garbage for His love.

Love!

Posted in J.Ferris: Reposts with Notes | 5 Comments

Untangled and Poured Out

Posted on March 16, 2014 by LovingLikeGod.com

cork
NEW – drawn from a response by Jay Ferris to a question from a reader.

I was thinking about that portion of the desire in the heart of all of us for intimacy. It is kept inside like the pressure in a bottle of Champagne. Suddenly we find ourselves in circumstances where we feel safe to share with others at a deep level. That’s like releasing the wire that holds the cork in the bottle. With the release of the cork comes the celebration of intimacy.

A reader asked: “What is the key point that makes the cork pop?”

I would have to say, “the key point” is that these things are spiritually discerned. Only the Grace of God has the ability to disentangle the wire on the cork. This wire is the bondage of how we used to be, even the bondage of systematic religion.

Take Paul, for instance. The “popping of His cork” began with his being knocked down on the way to Damascus. The intimacy that day was with The Lord Himself. Then he had a few conversations with others, probably not so intimate, and then into the Arabian wilderness for “Surpassing” intimacy with The Lord Himself once again. It is clear from Paul’s testimony that the fruit of that intimacy was the untangling of Paul from all that he used to be – all that religious wiring. There was a major change from the religious bondage that used to be Paul. Paul was changed from Christ killer to lover.

There was much that Paul got in Arabia that he could get only from the Lord, and not from men, even the best of them in their then understanding of the “oneness” that Jesus prayed and died for.

As for us, we now have the help of Paul’s maturing in the lord, according to his own words, and those of Luke. So that we already have an intelligible clue that there is more to intimacy than how things are in the old creation. There is a Unity of The Spirit that, beyond His gift of Himself to us, is perhaps the greatest gift we have, as well as our most convincing testimony, not only to our own hearts, but to the hearts of one another, and by the looks of it, to the world.

This is not about being in the same place and time in the flesh, but being in the same place and eternity in the Spirit. :-) This is about a people who are beginning to get to know each other “even as also they are known,” and in this present age.

Love!

For more reading, see “The Champagne of Intimacy.“

Posted in J.Ferris: Intimacy, J.Ferris: New Releases, J.Ferris: Reposts with Notes | 7 Comments