Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The same old fertility worshippers

I was surfing channels in my car and stopped to listen to some of the most popular "christian" stations. It's really amazing how so much of their foundation is NO different from the ancient fertility religions. One could say, in fact, that the old fertility religions never went away - they just changed the mask they wear. Yesterday a mask of Baal and Aphrodite. Today, a mask of Jesus. Even their obsession on "children" and "the family" is just more fertility obsession. Because while God loves children and family, He didn't send Jesus - who never married or had physical children, and who told us we were required to leave even family if it ever got between us and God - to make what we can reproduce with our sexual organs the most important things in our lives. But you certainly wouldn't know that from listening to "christian" radio.

So why, then, do we let things like "christian" radio and the fertility worshippers with Jesus-masks on tell us whether we are "right" with God? Why listen to someone who's doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus said when they tell us what (they have decided) Jesus said?

What do you think?

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Back again

Hello all! Whew! I'm finally getting back to this blog. I've been doing a lot of things (too many things) in local life, and things got away from me. I'm still catching up on email, and doing this all mobile now, so give me a bit to catch my breath and say hello to everyone, and I will be back to posting shortly!

In God's love,

Lynne

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Really! No junk - just Jesus!

Did you know that Jesus in the Bible actually taught that he would never be represented by most of the people who would claim to do so?

In fact, his Bible warns us explicitly to recognize and avoid these glitzy-holy "Christians". It tells us over and over that he condemns people who claim to be about him but really aren't, and he rejects their hurtful, violent, judging, hypocritical, and oppressive actions (they don't teach you that part of the Bible in Sunday School or on television, do they?)

The Old and New Testaments of the Bible describe again and again the garbage religious human beings have piled on top of what God really wanted of them, only to then pretend NOT doing what God wants is what God really wants after all. Crazy!

There's a better way. A way that Jesus invited us to live. It's not hard to learn. In fact, the more "educated" you get trying to figure out it, the further you'll actually end up from the real Jesus and the message he and his first followers wanted you to understand.

Jesus' way truly is about love - but it's also about justice, peace, and turning even (especially) the Christian religious world out in the cold.

Jesus' way isn't about rejecting Gays, or downgrading women, or oppressing the poor - and it isn't about re-translating and reinterpreting the Bible to make it seem he is (though 2,000 years of "scholars" have done just that).

If you've rejected Jesus because you think he's as jerky as the evil-minded, shallow-hearted people who've hurt and disgusted you and others you care about, give him another (real) try.

Check out (the real) Jesus. He's not where they say he is. He's not part of their plans. He's right here, wanting to be THE source of love, strength, mercy, and justice that lives in your heart.

Go for it. No junk - just Jesus.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Witnessing 101

I've done a lot of witnessing this last week - and I've watched a lot of pretend "witnessing".

I've talked a lot about Jesus this week - and I've listened to a lot of people pretend to talk about "Jesus".

What's pretty amazing is that literally any believer who knows the basics of who Jesus is, what He did, and what He will yet do could (and should) have done what I did.

But it takes a seminary-level education to pretend.

We as human beings get SO proud of what WE can do, and it shouldn't surprise us that our pride would also tempt us to idolize what WE can do for God or God's Kingdom.

Just like the Pharisees of old, we build "God's house" and put on our church clothes and give each other assigned positions ("pastor", "priest", "lay leader", yes, but also "congregant" and "worshipper" and so on). We use special language to signal to ourselves and each other that we're part of this Jesus in-group, and to define what we "can" and "cant" do.

And then we write and read books that justify spending all our time, energy, and money resources on all this for "God's" glory - when the bible itself says God actually gave us totally different orders.

So we maybe do 20 seconds a year at what Jesus REALLY said to do.

This week I met a guy who was struggling to understand if Jesus would forgive him for the really horrible things he'd done (and the horrible things he's done would make your skin crawl - really). 

The EVIL thing to have done would be to tell him he needed to go to or join a church, or direct him to say the so-called "Sinner's Prayer", or to have invited him to talk to Pastor or go to Confession - because every one of those things is only a fake of who Jesus really is to any of us, and a fake of the Truth and strength God's Spirit offers us. To have done any of these things would have been like sending someone with cancer to a really nice doctor with a fake medical degree who works in a filthy hospital.

What this guy really needed was to hear what Jesus require for forgiveness: repentance. Gods real work here was for me to get myself out of the way and simply share with this guy - in normal everyday language, as one sinner to another - that God loves him beyond his ability to comprehend it and that Jesus stands ready to forgive, but that forgiveness comes AFTER repentance. "So, trust Jesus, guy, and turn your heart away from wanting to do these horrible things anymore, and you ARE forgiven."

What I did in a grocery store parking lot that day ANY believer could have done, and every believer SHOULD have done, right then and there.

It didn't take a several week course on the requirements of church membership, or a seminary degree, or an approval from some church to do ministry, to help this guy find his path to Jesus again.

All it required was five minutes, knowing the basics that Jesus taught us in the bible about who He is and what He wants, and caring even a little about God's intention to call to Himself every single person who will come to Him.

And, of course, it required being willing to be a real Christian, one who does God's real work when and as HE presents it.

When and where are you willing to do God's real work in your daily life? Who are the people God puts in your life to tend to for Him, even if just for five minutes?

What are the basics of Jesus you still need to learn - not only so you can share them, but also so you can live in the peace, strength, and Truth Jesus offers through them?

God's got work for you to do. Are you ready to stop wasting time in church so you can do it?

In His love,

Lynne

Monday, April 2, 2012

Good Religious People are Pagan-Makers

I ran into an old friend yesterday, and discovered she's gotten into one of the many forms of paganism.

Now, was she raised to be that way? No, she was raised in a "good Christian home".

Is there some flaw or evil in her heart that sent her away from Jesus? No again. She's actually a very good person.  What turned her away from Jesus is the "good Christians" around her.

If we read the bible and understand what Jesus and others there had to say about false worshippers and legalists, and how such false Christians WILL always be the majority, and how we must NOT allow them to fool us about who Jesus really is, we're protected.

But if we don't yet have that knowledge, we are truly like sheep wandering forests of wolves.

Who are the people in your life who need to learn the "secret" of not being fooled by false Christians and their antichrist spirit? What will you do for them today?

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Time for a change

I'm getting ready to change the blog format so I can post smaller thoughts and ideas that come up during the week (instead of 1 big post a week). Things like what God's doing in my life, what He's saying through the people I meet, and so on.

I've turned on comments, and allowed for click-response boxes. In the past I didn't bother, because most folks here preferred to email me directly to chat. In case this new format changes that, it's open for that now. (You can also continue to email me of course if you prefer that, at nojunkjustjesus@gmail.com).

Let me know what you think of the new format!

In His love,

Lynne

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Going with it when God closes one door - and opens another

Two things today.

First, I'm sure you've had times in your life when things shifted in focus, in time requirements for various tasks, work load, and so on. In the last several months I've had such a shift, and it's only gotten bigger. I've been fighting to keep doing all the old things, in addition to the new, but - of course - it's just not working. In fact, it's been one of those times I've been praying for extra strength - only to finally realize God's not giving it to me because I'm trying to spend what strength I have on things He doesn't have me assigned to :-)

That's a common problem among those who are, or who actually aren't but still do consider themselves, "ministers". Because we buy into the human version of Jesus - instead of Jesus - and the human version of what makes "church" and what we and "church" are supposed to do - instead of Jesus' - we wear ourselves into the ground trying to get God's blessing on our own mountains of garbage and ridiculous self-portraits, instead of actually getting down to what God's assigned us to do. We're like school teachers who spend 90% of our time raising funds to open a bar across the street that we're going to call "We love teaching children!", and then we fall into burnout or cynicism - even while we continue trying to build the bar anyway - when it's hard to make it happen. 

What I'm going through lately isn't that bad - though it was bad years ago when I still hadn't realized what a crock of stuff what our "Christian" culture calls "ministry" is, with all its church- and career- building and maintenance being put forth as foundational to "the work of God".

After I did realize what a crock that was, suddenly things got easier. Suddenly things were truly blessed, as evidenced not by the numbers of people I could get to sit in the pews I'd bought for fake Christians to sit their comfortable butts in each Sunday, but by the seeds of Jesus Christ I was dropping in people's lives, and by the Holy Spirit healing that was returning wounded people back to Jesus (instead of the fake "Church" that hurt them).

What God can do is really amazing, when we stop sucking on our own ego-juices, and start drinking from His (real) water of life. That's the blessing we get to really see, when we realize that this life truly is about GOD's plan - and not ours. 

That being said, this "phase" of my life involves working 40+ hours a week helping emotionally and physically disadvantaged people in food, shelter, and - when possible - love and reality. People tell me I'm "really good" at it, and can do "unbelievable" things with these people, but what they don't know is that it's only "easy" because God's doing the work, and I'm just following along, being His hands, being His feet. Also what people don't know is that every pain I've suffered and survived in my earlier life, God helped me survive then, and God uses today to make me "safe" and "someone who understands" with these disadvantaged folks who need safety and someone to understand them.

God truly is amazing, in using all things to the good of those who love Him :-)

God also has put me in a position now to share His Good News - His REAL Good News - with even more local people who've been turned away or walked away from Jesus because of the evil choices and lives of "Good Religious People". God started me doing that years ago with wounded Gay people online, and then grew what He had me doing to include wounded straight people online. Then He began putting a few more people locally who needed that kind of help. All training me for more and more, apparently, because now it's wounded people all over the place. And now, what would have been too hard for me before is "easy", because God has trained me to get out of His way and let Him do it. Please, Lord, don't ever let me forget that lesson!

I'm wondering about YOUR life today, and how it fits in God's plan. Are you wasting the talents God's given you maintaining fake Christian church temples He has no plan for? Are you throwing away the strength He's providing you on creating or maintaining denominational garbage, even though that fits your plan, but not His? Are you hanging back, thinking your "Christian" duty is to throw some bucks in a collection plate each Sunday and sing some songs so you can go home feeling all "in touch with Jesus", even though you're actually just jiving on your own brain chemicals and ignoring the real work of helping your coworkers, neighbors, and friends see the real Jesus? Whether you consider yourself a "minister" or not, where is your ministry in God's plan?

Where, starting today, can you get out of God's way and start going with His plan, instead of ignoring His plan and going with one of your own that feeds your ego and feel-goods? I promise you that going God's (real) way isn't always pleasant or easy (in fact, sometimes it's ugly and takes everything you've got) - but it is always do-able and ultimately refreshing, when we let God provide the strength and wisdom we need. 

For myself, what this means for this blog is that I'm going to continue to be here. But I'm going to be doing less organized study and more just sharing what's going on in my life, your life, and the world (when that can be done with complete privacy for those who aren't me, that is). And I'm going to do that when I have something along those lines to share, and not on any forced schedule (and again, I'll only share when doing so maintains people's complete privacy). I've worked with a lot of people online in the last several years - thousands, actually, who were searching for healing or seeking the real Jesus (even if they didn't realize yet that's what they were after). That will continue, but I can't do online ministry full time anymore with the more-than-full-time demands God's face-to-face work now makes of me.

I will still be here online. I will still answer every email I get. Each of you continues to be just as important to me as you were before. But when I'm posting here on this blog it will be to share what's going on in our lives, rather than creating something "official". That's it :-)

Continue to take care, letting God do the miracle of growing and making you part of His (real) plan as we get closer and closer to the really hard times Jesus said would come before He comes back. There are literally millions of good people out there who need to come to or back to the real Jesus Christ - a few of them are in your own life, right now, and God's got work for you to do! Are you loving them? Are you laughing with them? Are you crying with them? Are you helping to heal them?

In His love,

Lynne
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

It's a crazy life right now!

It's been a long time since this happened, but I did not get a blog post done this week, and I won't have time now to get one done until next Friday or Saturday. Forgive me for that, please! Work is crazy and I have way too much on my plate. Doing my best still to cut back and keep the important things going. But I'm still having to work at it.

I've also gotten behind on my emails - something that hasn't happened in years I think. I apologize for that as well, and I'm working to get and keep caught up again.

So, I plan to be back here next Friday or Saturday with another continuation of our Gospel study. Your prayers continue to be appreciated - I'm really worn out these days!

In His love,

Lynne

Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; 
I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell. 
-- C.T. Studd

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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Best of: "What's wrong with so many straight churches..?"

By reader request, here's the "Best of" blog post for this week: "Q: What's wrong with so many straight churches, and why do the people in them act so badly?"

There's also the sister-post to it, which you might want to read after that: "Q: What's wrong with so many Gay churches, and why do the people in them act so badly?"

Next week, we're back to our Gospel study of the real Jesus!

In His love,

Lynne
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Friday, February 10, 2012

How to get blessings and still reject Jesus

Ok my friends, we're back to our Gospel study of (the real) Jesus, outside of how He's been re-defined by those who most loudly call themselves "Christian".

As always, you can find all our previous posts in this series, going through the Gospels chronologically to find the real Jesus, here.

And as always you'll find the scriptures for today are here. (Note that you can change the human-translation version on this scripture page, as suits you. I have NO theological or other tie to the online-bible site I use for this blog – it just lists many human translations to choose from, including the NASB, KJV, The Message, and the NRSV, which are the ones mentioned by those I chat and email with.)


So today's scripture tells the story of the lame man at the healing pool. The ancient world thought there were a lot of these healing pools, and this particular one had been used by pagans before some Jews decided they could use it, as well – though that would irk other Jews who understood that trying to get a good thing from an ungodly thing is never a good thing after all.

Scripture tells us this guy had been unable to use his legs for thirty eight years, which, due to economic and political oppression of that time and culture, was longer than many poor and disadvantaged people even lived.

Jesus picks him out of the crowd of disabled people there, and asks him a very interesting question: "Do you want to get well?"

It's an interesting question because it seems to have an obvious answer. We can imagine that if our legs didn't work for thirty eight years we'd be answering, "Yes! Of course!" Right now, please!" But this guy doesn't say that. Instead, his answer gives his "justification" or excuse for why he's been "broken" for so long, and why he can't be well now.

We do that all the time, to greater or lesser extents, in our lives. God comes to us and says, "Do you want to get rid of that evil heart? That smoking habit? That false 'Christianity'? That love of money?" And so on. And we answer, "Well, Lord, I just can't, see, because I had a crappy childhood and it's made it impossible for me to be whole." Or, "Well, Lord, I've tried to quit, see, but I have a chemical imbalance in my brain that's made it impossible for me to quit smoking." Or, "Well, Lord, I've tried to live Your way instead of the False Church way, but I have family and friends there, see, and it would just be too hard on them if I stopped clinging to them instead of You." And so on.
  • Years ago, I was a big smoker, and I was finding it impossible to quit. Then one day I realized that all that time I thought I'd wanted to quit, I hadn't REALLY wanted to quit. I just wanted the bad things of smoking to go away, while I kept the "good" things. That's not really wanting to quit :) But it is exactly what we do far too often. We believe we want to get rid of an addiction, or our false "Christianity", or our ungodly lives – but what we really want is for the bad parts to go away (the damage to our bodies, for example, or the damage to our relationship with God), while we keep the "good" parts (the friends who share our addiction, for example, or our ability to continue believing God's cool with us as we are). What ways are you, like this guy in scripture, like me, like billions of others on this planet, only thinking you want to get rid of something anti-Jesus in your life, but you really only want the bad parts of being anti-Jesus to go away, while you keep the "good" parts? 
  • What will it take for you to be willing to let those "good" parts go, as well, so you truly can be as free as Jesus wants you to be?

Jesus' answer to this guy was to ignore all his excuses (which were far more broken than his body was), and tell him to pick up his stuff and move. And instantly, despite the guy's previous failure to take responsibility for God's ability to heal him, his body is healed. And when our body is hurt or broken, that's what we focus on almost exclusively. But was that really the guy's root problem, though? We find out in a moment.

First, not surprisingly, we see that the Good Religious People had a cow, seeing the now-healed guy doing what Jesus told him to do: take his stuff and go home. It was the Sabbath, and here's this guy carrying stuff on the day that's supposed to be do-nothing day. So what's the guy's response? He's just been healed by Jesus. Does he stand up for what Jesus just did for him?

Absolutely not. Jesus healed his body, but his character remained unhealed. Just like the guy previously made up excuses for why he was still broken after all those years, now he made up excuses for why he was doing what the Good Religious People didn't like. "Not MY fault," he said. "It was that guy that healed my legs. HE made me do this!" Apparently the guy even tried to point Jesus out to the Good Religious People, knowing that would get Jesus in trouble, because the scripture tells us he couldn't because Jesus had already slipped away in the crowd.
  • Jesus healed the guy's body, which is what he and most of us would assume was the real problem he had. But it really wasn't, was it? God's given us a great illustration here that it's entirely possible to ask God for what we think is our biggest problem, and yet completely refuse the real, deep healing we actually need. What healing are you praying for, right now? Is that truly the core healing you really need? Is there something deeper you need healed, not just so your body can be better but also so your soul and character can be healed?

Later, scripture tells us, Jesus found the guy at the temple, and tried to teach him. "Look at God's power in your life!" Jesus told him. "Stop living outside God's expectations for you or something worse than a broken body will happen to you."

And what was the guy's response? Did he realize his ingratitude? Did he start taking responsibility for himself and the consequences of his bad decisions? Did he abandon his ties to the hell-bound Good Religious People and risk all for God and heaven? Nope. He went off and turned Jesus in to the Good Religious People.

What a sad story! Imagine meeting the Creator of the Universe and He heals you, despite your ridiculousness and refusal to take responsibility for yourself. Then later He even comes back and tries to get you to see how much spiritual peril you're in – and all you can do is continue being a jerk and run off to try to get Him in big trouble with those who claim to be His people but really hate who and what He really is. I can't imagine a worse scenario!
  • Jesus warns us again and again when we're caught in being in or siding with "Christianity" rather than Him. He gives us healing and counsel, offers us freedom from our emotional, physical, and spiritual pains – and still too often we prefer the human version of "Christianity" that Good Religious People have created, maintain, and promote. Are there ways you are still turning Jesus in to the Good Religious People, preferring their ways to His ways, their healing to His healing? In what ways are you still living outside Jesus' expectations for you? What can you do today to start fixing that? 
  • Since we see today that the Bible tells us it's entirely possible to receive healing and other blessings from Jesus, yet still be completely rejecting of who He is and what He wants, how should we understand those in "churches" today who show off their healings and such as if they are "proof" of how right they are with God, and yet don't show the real Jesus in their hearts and lives?

Next study, we'll see Jesus getting more blunt with the Good Religious People, and their reaction to that. Does it help, when God pushes more trying to get people to understand how dangerous their wrong religious-thinking is? Or do Good Religious People continue to reject Him anyway?

Until next time!

Lynne
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

When being "nice" is the devil's work

No Gospel study today, as I have a couple of other things that have come up for this week, instead.

First is to let those who are interested know that I'm going to drop off of Twitter and (in a week or so) close the account. Especially locally these days, God's putting more and more into my path people who have rejected Jesus because they (quite rightly) reject the smiling, "loving", evil-living people who most loudly call themselves "Christian" – and yet these folks I'm meeting now are still blessed with craving the real Jesus (though they aren't quite there realizing it yet, their questions and constant coming back to me with them show their real hearts). They ask me hard questions, and need real, non-BS answers, and I'm needing more time to devote to what helps them. So, Twitter is among the things that have to go, to free up my time.

I will continue this blog, however. So if you're happy here, I'll still be here :) But I'm also going to really start pushing myself to write and complete the little resource book for people who can't stomach what calls itself "Christianity" but still want and need (the real) Jesus. I think I've mentioned writing this before, so I'll just say again that I'm looking to write something that's sturdy, pocket-sized, and cheap – something that can be handed out and passed around as suits folks (If you already know of such a resource, please let me know). I already have almost a dozen people locally I'd love to give one to today, if I only had it written already.

Second thing is I've received a public prayer request from a brother who's been around "No Just. Just Jesus" (and its predecessor) for some time. Chris is also concerned with people who reject Jesus because "Christians" are being jerks. Most specially at this time he's concerned with a young woman who's become an atheist in response to bad "Christians", and who will most likely remain an atheist not only due to the storm of devil-heart "Christian" responses she's gotten for expressing that, but also from the lack of response she's likely to get from those who DO truly have Jesus (and not the devil) in their hearts.

Brother Chris writes:
"I'm absolutely horrified that this can somehow pass as Christian behavior today.  The most ironic thing about this whole situation is this:  One big reason this poor girl is an atheist in the first place is the piss-poor job we as Christ's representatives have been doing to show His light in the world.  (In fact, that's a big motivation behind my signature change.) [LYNNE NOTE: Chris' new email sig says: 'Christians are the best people to know when it comes to religious conversion... as long as you want to become an atheist.']  I've been requesting prayer for Jessica, that God will guide her away from those false Christians who would wish harm upon her and show her the true heart of Jesus Christ, and I hope you'll do the same.  Also pray that those Christians who are condemning her, that they will realize the harm they are doing by pushing one of God's children away from Him and to repent of their arrogance.  Pray for those of us who can't pray for them out of our own desire for blood, and help us to truly be the heart of Jesus to these "Christians" who think they already know Him, just as they (and we) should have been for Jessica.  And pray for all sincere followers of Christ to avoid this ironic trap that the devil has laid for us -- leading us to the lake of fire that we proclaim others deserve more than we do."

I am in agreement with Chris in this prayer, and I pray that you are, as well! Here are the thoughts I'd like to add:

There are those who've figured out that Jesus isn't represented by most of those who call themselves "Christians", and we understand that those who threaten and bad-mouth people who are different than them actually serve the devil – and not Jesus.

But too often we don't ALSO figure out that those "Christians" who don't respond to these "Christian" attacks on people are ALSO serving the devil
– and not Jesus. The person who commits the spiritual assault, and the person who recognizes the spiritual assault but does nothing, are each guilty of the assault. To recognize that something sinful and wrong is being done but do nothing to stop or speak up against it, makes one even more sin-guilty than the person whose heart is so full of religious-devil they don't even truly know godly right from wrong anymore.

We might see it like this:
A rabid dog is running around the neighborhood, biting people and infecting them with rabies too. A veterinarian in the neighborhood sees the dog and recognizes its sickness and the sickness it's now infecting people with; but the vet shrugs her shoulders and thinks, "Oh well. God will take care of that dog and those people. I'm just going to demonstrate real health for these people by not acting like that dog, and not having rabies myself."

Who's at fault in this scenario?
  • The dog so out of its mind with disease it's like someone demon possessed? 
  • The people being hurt by the dog, because they don't have the knowledge to recognize its disease symptoms and stay the heck away from it? 
  • Or the person who does have the knowledge to recognize how diseased and dangerous the dog is, but who comes up with some B.S. reason not to act to stop the dog and protect and heal those it threatens?

Today, "Christians" who congratulate themselves on demonstrating "Jesus" and "godly behavior" by not acting in the world against evil doctrine and evil actions that harm others spiritually, emotionally, and physically, aren't real Christians, as Jesus defined His followers. At worst, they're selfish jerks who have their own happy, calm lifestyle at heart, and not Jesus. At best, they're people who've been convinced that Jesus, Paul, Peter, John – and Elijah, Isaiah, Moses, and more – were the only people ever supposed to stand up for God's way of doing things, and against the evil that only pretends to be God's way of doing things.

But where would we be..
  • If Jesus hadn't actively confronted the Pharisees and Sadducees, and actively helped others to heal from their false messages about who God is and what God demands from His (real) people? 
  • If Paul hadn't actively pointed out how ungodly and just plain evil the Corinthians were – and in ways that spoke not only to them, but also to the rest of us since? 
  • If Peter and John hadn't stood up publicly against powerful religious groups who were misrepresenting God and His ways to the world, being willing even to be tortured and die if need be, rather than go along with or ignore evil-pretending-to-be-godly?

Too many will argue that God endowed those people with supernatural power to do those things – and still only gives that power to a few, today. Which is total, selfish, hogwash. It's the spiritual equivalent of the hogwash-reasoning that allowed the Communists to take over Asia and Eastern Europe, the Nazis to take over Germany, and the religious bigots to take over the USA today. It's the hogwash-thinking that lets millions upon millions around the world never see or retain the real Gospel of Jesus Christ, because "I'm too scared to speak up", or "God's ordained others to speak up", or "All things happen according to God's plan". Bullshiat.

There are Gay people, people of conscience, politically leftwing people, women, poor people, atheists, pagans, science-oriented people, and more all around you RIGHT NOW who don't know Jesus because they've never heard or seen anything but the devil-worshippers who wear Jesus masks.

They think they can't have Jesus, or that good people have to reject Jesus, because no Christians stand up in their community, in their workplace, in their neighborhoods, to say to those falsely representing Jesus, "You need to knock it off. Your lives aren't godly. Your message isn't godly. What comes out of your life shows your heart is full of evil, and you need to repent – not these other people you're bearing false witness against", and to those who've only heard people falsely representing Jesus, "The Bible warns everyone that false-Christians will be the majority. Jesus said not to be fooled by them. Let me show you what else the real Jesus has to say, to and about you, and then you can decide based on what and who Jesus REALLY is."

It's really not complicated. The devil runs this world, until Jesus comes back. And being a light to others does NOT mean being nice and polite and loving to our neighbors while false-Christians shred their understanding of who Jesus really is. Even pagans and atheists are nice and polite and loving. It's only our own selfish wish for a happy life without demands put upon us that makes us believe being nice, polite, and loving is all it takes to really be about Jesus.

The time is growing short, my friends. Jesus never told us when He would return, but He warned us that really harsh times like no one's seen before would come before He did. And if we believe the world we live in now – with its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons poised for worldwide action, genetic and chemical pollution destroying our health and twisting life on this planet, politics and religions that lust like mad rapists after the horrors of war, and conscienceless economies that take food from the babies of billions so that a few thousand rich can have more and more – isn't a set up for really harsh times like no one's see before, we delude ourselves.

Not only are we ALL Jesus-charged to make sure our own faith remains intact during the harsh times ahead, but we are also all Jesus-charged to spread and protect God's real Gospel message to all those around us, even if it literally costs us everything to do so (even if it costs us our lives).

To imagine being a true follower of Jesus Christ requires anything less is to imagine that modern faith is opposite the faith Jesus taught and the first disciples lived.
To believe that God's ok with that is to make the exact same mistake/sin as all those in the Bible who claimed to be "God's People" without actually doing what He said to do. The Bible tells us their fates – and leaves no question about our own, if our faith, like theirs, requires nothing more than our own ways of happy, quiet, religious pleasure.

Who are the people in your life right now who need to hear God's real Gospel message? Who've only ever heard the devil-worshippers in Jesus masks? Who've been taught they can't have Jesus? Who've been made to believe the only way to be a good person is to reject Christianity - and therefore Jesus Christ, as well? 

What are the ways you can stand up to those who are feeding them full of this false, ungodly garbage? To lovingly, but without reservation, call them on their crap and tell them to stop blaspheming God with their false hearts and false words, so that others aren't fooled by their "witness"?

What are the ways you can show the real Jesus to the people who are being hurt by false witness? What healing do they need? A nonjudgmental and sincere friendship? A shoulder to cry on? A Bible translation that hasn't been reinterpreted to make it seem God condemns them? A simple tract that communicates God's real love for them that they can keep in a pocket or purse for private reading and comfort? Maybe just someone to share with them what Jesus really taught and wants from His people? 

How can you make yourself available to do God's work for these people? Do you need to pray for strength or wisdom? Do you need healing yourself first, so that you don't accidentally pass on the spiritual rabies you still carry, instead? Are there others you can work with, to give each other strength and counsel, to learn from each other and help carry each others' burdens? Doing God's real work requires God's hand - we can do none of it on our own! How will you let God lead, and let God help?

Email me if you'd like to discuss more options or informational tools, or if you have ways you already actively show the real Gospel to those who've been lied to about it. I'd love to hear it! When I can do so without violating someone else's privacy, I will start sharing my own adventures in doing God's salvation work with others, as well.

Until next week –

In His love,

Lynne
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Yes, your 'church' is about you - not Jesus

Ok – back to our chronological walk through the Gospels. We're seeking and finding the real Jesus as He presented Himself to us – and not in the sinful human ways those who've so long called themselves His "Church" have reinvented Him (as He warned us they would). 

As always, you can find all our previous posts in this series, going through the Gospels chronologically to find the real Jesus, here.

And as always you'll find the scriptures for today are here. (Note that you can change the human-translation version on this scripture page, as suits you. I have NO theological or other tie to the online-bible site I use for this blog – it just lists many human translations to choose from, including the NASB, KJV, The Message, and the NRSV, which are the ones mentioned by those I chat and email with.)


This week, we see Jesus back among those He grew up with – and we find them so ignorant of God's truth they not only refused to recognize God standing right in front of them, but also refused His blessing and healing. If we look, we can easily see the same thing in ourselves, and in what's most loudly called itself "The Church" through the centuries.

Now, at least partly we can understand their failure to really see who Jesus is. They had known Him when He was just a boy, watched Him grow up, known Him as part of His biological family and the social culture of this town. In some ways, it may have been harder for them to recognize who He really was and could do because they'd grown accustomed to understanding Him within a certain mold: son of Mary and Joseph, brother to His brothers and sisters, a craftsman low in social and financial status who made and sold simple, practical things of metal and wood with His family.

Indeed, when Jesus came back He was anything but the guy who used to sit in the dirt and repair plows for the local farmers. Now Jesus was a miracle worker and a wise man, far different from how they wanted to keep understanding Him. And they didn't just ignore or write Him off – they actually got offended. And as we learned last Gospel study, Jesus' healings and blessings matched what people were willing to believe about Him. Therefore, those who should have been closest to Him got almost nothing from Him at all.

Today we make huge mistakes like this all the time, with all sorts of people.
We often continue to understand people in the awful ways they were before, ignoring or getting crappy if they seem to be above and beyond that now. In some ways, it's offensive to us when someone stops boozing it up, or backbiting, or stepping on others to get ahead, or rejects living the materialistic lifestyle we're taught to see as "success" (and even as "God's blessing"), if that's the thing we still want to keep doing. Like, how dare someone prove what a life of falsehood and crud I'm choosing, by choosing what's better than that!

But there's another way we do this, a way easily far more dangerous to our souls, if we've been raised in what calls itself "The Church".


For those of us who've grown up in "The Church", or who came to it later and have embraced it long enough to absorb its way of interpreting Jesus, the message of the real Jesus can seem incredibly foreign – and even threatening.
We've grown up in the "hometown" of what most loudly calls itself "His Church", and we rest our whole identity on our "hometown" understanding of Jesus, certain beyond certainty that OF COURSE we understand Him better than anyone else – WE GREW UP WITH HIM!

But that understanding is just as flawed as was the understanding the people of Jesus' physical hometown had 2,000 years ago. And when we're confronted with the huge difference between the Jesus we think we know better than anyone and the real Jesus of power and wisdom, oh boy can we get offended! People of "The Church" have turned their backs on, kicked out, born false witness against, attacked, tortured, and even slaughtered people for centuries, all because these other people challenged their "hometown" understanding of Jesus Christ. Sometimes that's just been "hometown" people fighting other "hometown" people over some stupid theological doctrine that means nothing to God. But sometimes it's been "hometown" people just simply refusing to allow Jesus to be who He really is.

Why? Why would "hometown" people refuse to accept Jesus for who He really is?  
  • Sometimes we refuse because we like the gilded dirt hole we've committed years of our lives and our egos to. We like the human hierarchy, the remakes of the old covenant temple, the live-in-a-box spirituality that tells us we're doing God's work even though we're not doing it, or we're passionately doing it for all the wrong reasons (which Jesus says doesn't count). Those things make us "feel spiritual" and "connected to God" – even though they are exactly opposite anything Jesus and the rest of the New Testament said to do or live. We forget or ignore that all religions make their members "feel spiritual" and "connected" – so it isn't the feeling that saves us, but following the real Jesus and doing what He says, that actually makes us real Christians.
  • Sometimes we refuse because our "hometown" "church" has taught us to fear any thinking that would challenge its authority over our minds and hearts. We shake our heads when we hear of cults that have lead their members even to death – but then we follow, just like the people of 2,000 years ago, our "church" when it leads us even to spiritual death. 
  • Sometimes we refuse because if we accepted the real Jesus, and did what He really said, then we'd have to give up pretending to live godly lives, while our hearts were just full of ourselves. So-called "ministers" are most guilty of this. "If I actually accept the real Jesus, then I'll have to give up the position, authority, money, retirement fund, extra-respect, and extra-honor I went to minister-school to get!" But others do this as well, "If I actually accept the real Jesus, then I'd have to give up my pride of position in church, and I'd have to stop chasing money, and I'd have to do more than just kick in a few bucks in the collection plate to be right with God." In this case, we don't "get" the real Jesus, and we even get hugely offended by Him, because our worldly goodies depend on our not "getting" Him.
This is all just another reason it is SO dangerous to just join or stay in a "church", if what we want is the real Jesus. The "Church" we see most easily around us, with its "sanctuaries" and seminary-educated "ministers" and centuries of accumulated and trumpeted doo-dads, is simply a pagan remake of the old – and by Jesus' death on the Cross cancelled – Jewish temple. So it doesn't even have the real authority and God-connection the Jewish temple had!

Instead, the "Church" we see most easily around us, and which we may have spent many years growing up in, is a purely human reinvention of God's real plan. It uses Jesus' face, and pretends to do His work with His heart, but points those who live in its "hometown" to the Jesus IT knows, and the Jesus IT isn't offended by. If you want to understand why "The Church" so easily supports and participates in war, economic oppression, sexism, racism, homophobia, materialism, and more, the answer is here: that "Church" is not and never has been about the real Jesus. Instead, it's primary function has been to enjoy, pass on, and protect its own limited and sinful understanding of Jesus.

So it's no wonder this "Church" only gets and falls for "miracles" from the devil, if it gets "miracles" at all. It's no wonder its members feel so comfortable in a "faith" no different in real substance than any other pagan faith, full of good religious feelings but completely devoid of the real Jesus Christ. "The Church" today, whether it calls itself "Roman Catholic", or "Methodist", or "Baptist", or "Nondenominational", or whatever, is no less God-rejecting and pagan than is polytheistic "Mormonism", Jesus-denying "Jehovah's Witness", Bible-twisting "Christian Science", or New Age "Ascended Masters".

The real Jesus Christ offends these "Churches" – and so the real Jesus has nothing to give them.

What about you? Where are you in moving out of the limited and sinful "hometown" mentality that finds the real Jesus something to ignore at best, and offensive at worst?

In my own life, I spent a lot of years in that "hometown". I soaked in all the teachings of the False Church, in its various manifestations in Roman Catholicism and its Protestant daughters.

First, I didn't even know enough to realize I'd been duped. I was quite comfortable in what my human elders preserved for and taught me. Sure I was living the godly life, I was most in danger of hellfire at this time – not because God wanted me there, but because, despite my insistence to the contrary, I wasn't really choosing God. I was like someone who claims to be going to Boston, but keeps insisting on traveling a road that only goes to Sacramento.

Later, God blessed me with a growing dissatisfaction with "The Church". Something was wrong, though I couldn't figure out why. Something was "missing". I wasn't as "fulfilled" any more. At first, as you might guess, I thought the answer was to become MORE in and about "The Church". I didn't just do the learning, I learned it all. I didn't just do the Roman or Protestant rituals, I did them ten times over. I didn't just pray, I prayed all day. And at first, it seemed to work – but it would always fail again and that nagging dissatisfaction came back into my heart. I prayed for God to make it go away, even to restore my "faith" - but He proved His love for me by making it grow worse and even more nagging, with each passing day and year.

It was that blessed irritation, that sanctified dissatisfaction, that slowly began to make me realize my spiritual life and heart was full of human junk – not Jesus
. It was God's gift of stamina, and my willingness to go it alone at times, that helped me wander out of the gilded dirt hole of what most loudly calls itself "Christianity" so that I could seek and find the real Jesus Christ.

What about you? Are you still in the gilded dirt hole, or wishing you could be? I'd guess that if you're here, reading this blog, then you at least have a tiny bit of that blessed irritation, that sanctified dissatisfaction, that God's using to get you up out of the dirt and into Jesus' (real) arms. Otherwise, you'd be too offended by my "disrespect" for what claims most loudly to be "The Church" and its "ministers" to stay.

Are you afraid of going it alone? Of being without "a church"? Jesus said He would be with you always. He also said His real followers would have to give up even their closest relationships if those relationships block His followers from Him. Trust Jesus! And look for those others who are also wanting to be just about Jesus. They are His real church – they are your real family.

Are you still craving the religious doo-dads and goodies you get from only-faking-Jesus "Christianity"? Are you TRULY willing to trade eternal heaven with God because you like the pride, the trancing out, the rituals and do-goods you could get from participation in ANY religion (which means all your "godly" feeling is actually nothing special at all)? Jesus isn't kidding around – and neither is the devil. Drop those religious things and titles and so on like the hot hell-rocks they are, and fill yourself with the real Jesus!
If you'd like to talk more or pray about this, and you don't have a local no-junk-just-Jesus sister or brother to fellowship with, email me and let's talk. Going after the real Jesus can be a shorter walk when you don't have to find the whole way yourself without others who've already made more of the trip and can help you with the signposts along the way.

Jesus didn't come to earth and die so that we'd be stuck in fake temples and wearing Jesus-masks. He came to earth to completely shake things up – to heal people others don't believe worth healing, to put first people others think should be last, and to cancel religion and its inevitable path to forever-death.

Find and keep the real Jesus Christ.

He's waiting for you! 

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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Best of / Q: "How can good people remain Christian?"

We seem to be starting a new tradition here at the blog. Folks have emailed to let me know that they are enjoying our Gospel study, but they are also enjoying the "Best of" posts I started several weeks back when I was still too under the weather to make a study post.

Many of you have been around for some time - in fact, I've known some of you for well over a dozen years. Some of you have been enjoying reading the older stuff again, like "reminders". But others haven't been around or visiting as long, and didn't realize the older stuff (some of which is more than ten years old, and was simply transferred over here when I moved to Blogger in 2009) was also here. But yes, it's true - I've been doing online ministry for many years. I started back when AOL was still THE place to be online, and my AOL profile indicated who I was (that was back when I was still spiritually immature enough to let myself be called "Reverend" and such) and that I was available to chat with anyone who was interested in prayer or healing. So I'd get between several and several dozen instant messages a week, and chat with each.

Thing is, I discovered very quickly that most folks had the same questions or issues they were struggling with, in trying to heal from bad "Christianity". And they often needed more stuff to read or think about than I could give them through an instant message. So I started writing longer things down and then started a web site posting them, so I could give folks links to those longer things, in addition to our prayer and chat. Then people started contacting me just to give me more questions to answer, so I'd write answers and post those, as well.

That's how all this got started more than ten years ago, and I'm currently working on a (non-profit) book to put this all together - something quality enough to last, but also cheap so it can be shared and handed around to people offline, as well (something else I've been requested to do). Please pray that God will give me strength and energy enough to finish it, with everything else I'm also doing right now!

So anyway - that's the medium-long version of why the older "Question" posts exist, and I'm happy to share them again, as long as folks are interested in reading them. I'm think maybe I'll do two Gospel study posts, and then a "Best of"/Question post? Let me know what you think.  

Today, because I've been getting asked this question a lot this week, I'm sharing "How can good people remain Christian?" And, as always, I welcome your comments, criticism, and questions. Prayer requests and just plain old friendly chit-chat continue to be welcome, as well :-)

Take care until next week!

Lynne

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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Are you so smart you're stupid?

We're continuing on with our chronological walk through the Gospels, seeking – and finding – the (real) Jesus Christ, as He presented Himself to us (and not in the ways He's misrepresented even today by those who most loudly call themselves "Christian").

As always, you can find all our previous posts in this series, going through the Gospels chronologically to find the real Jesus, here.

And as always you'll find the scriptures for today are here.
(Note that you can change the human-translation version on this scripture page, as suits you. I have NO theological or other tie to the online-bible site I use for this blog – it just lists many human translations to choose from, including the NASB, KJV, The Message, and the NRSV, which are the ones mentioned by those I chat and email with.)


This week's scripture should be a warning to those who discount Jesus' ability to do miracles beyond what we normally expect from the standard "physics" of this world – and that's almost all of what calls itself "Liberal" or "Progressive" Christianity today. It also gives warning to those "Good Religious People" we've come to see so often in the Bible now, as well. 

In this week's scripture, two guys who are blind are following Jesus (and we assume the crowd of disciples, God-seekers, gawkers, etc also following Him), hollering out for help. Note that they call Jesus "Son of David", which meant they understood Him to be the Messiah promised to Israel (and the world).

They followed Him all the way into somebody's home (or other indoor place), still clamoring for Him heal their blindness supernaturally. They aren't asking Him for a pill, or a better doctor, or a good hospital, after all. They've heard from others that He can raise the recently-dead, throw demons out of people, heal disabilities, and more – and they want the same kind of miracle for themselves.

Jesus gives them what they want – but He first asks them if they truly believe He can do it.

If these men had been like many "Liberal" or "Progressive" Christians, though, they would have had to tell Him something like, "Well, Lord, since I'm a modern-believer, with science and reason at my disposal, I've risen above superstition and mythology. No, I don't believe you've actually done anything supernatural. But I do give you greatest honor as an awesome teacher whose teachings inspire me to live a loving, moral life. I also appreciate the lessons to be learned from the metaphorical or figurative 'miracle' stories told about you by well-meaning but backward human beings who lived in a pre-science culture. I suppose if my blindness is actually being caused by some psychosomatic distress, then you might be able to 'cure' it with what's really a spiritual 'sugar pill'. But if my blindness isn't purely psychosomatic, like I'm sure the so-called 'demon possession' of the guy behind me is, then, no, Lord. I know better than to believe you can cure me."

And, since Jesus healed the blind men in our scripture to the extent they believed He could, the literal-miracle-rejecting "Liberal"/"Progressive" Christian would get – what? Nothing.

Now, does this mean that every time someone prays for a blind person (or anyone with any kind of illness, disability, trouble, etc) Jesus will automatically heal them? No. The Bible itself shows us that Jesus walked all over Israel, and only a tiny number of the many, many who suffered there received healing. We might be tempted to say that people get healing depending on how close they are to Jesus Himself or to His praying-people, but the Bible never shows us 100% healing even of every believing-person. Timothy, for example, had gut and other problems that apparently were accepted as just a part of life to deal with. Paul, for another example, had some kind of ailment God simply wouldn't heal because otherwise Paul risked becoming as worthless to God as most "ministers" are today.

The Bible does show us that God acts supernaturally in this world when it works for His plan. Jesus acted supernaturally (in healing and more) 2,000 years ago – just as He does today – when that supernatural action illustrates God's power, His nature, or His intentions for our future, or when that supernatural action freed a "trapped" worker who was unable to continue working towards God's plan as s/he was. So, even if we do have big ailments or disabilities and don't get healing in this life, we know God has the power to heal, and that our healing will come – when Jesus returns for us, if not before.

If, that is, we are willing to believe He can and will.

  • Nothing in the Bible says science or reason should be thrown out - but everything in the Bible says that God isn't limited by anything we can understand. Are you able to appreciate and use science and reason in ways that benefit yourself and others, without denying that God can act outside the rules He created for this world when He created it? 
  • Have you had times of refusing miracles in your life because it didn't seem "reasonable" to expect them? What would it take for you to open up to God's ability to show His power, nature, and future intentions through your life, as fits His plan for the world? 
  • Since even Timothy and Paul (who were great workers of wonders in Jesus' Name) had ailments and other physical problems that were apparently never healed while they lived on this earth - and yet never believed that meant Jesus couldn't do supernatural things or that God didn't love them beyond measure anyway, why do we?

The scripture story today ends as they often do – with the Good Religious People accusing Jesus of using demonic power to accomplish what doesn't elevate and sanctify their way of being "godly". If you've been following along in our study, you can easily shake your head and say, "Same stuff, different day!" And truly, Good Religious People never change. Through the Old Testament, the New Testament, the centuries since, and even today, they proclaim themselves as God's People even as they reject living the way God has said His people must live. They also claim to be the one's He's using in His plan, even as they act against Him at work in the world when it doesn't please their own religiosity. An easy example today is the Holy Spirit action in the lives of Gay people today, as God heals more and more of them of the spiritually alienating and deeply wounding false-witness and intentional Bible-mistranslation Good Religious People have bludgeoned them with. Just as God called the Gentiles, even when it torqued off the Jews, God calls Gay people, even when it torques off straight people. And witnessing God at work, all Good Religious People today can do is screech "Satan's power at work! Satan's power at work!"

They truly never change.
  • What lessons has the Bible taught you so far about Good Religious People and the mistakes they make (intentional and otherwise)?
  • What dangers do we face when we do follow along with or let ourselves be guided by Good Religious People? 
  • Have Good Religious People spiritually injured you or someone you love? Are you more able now to understand their attack as part of Satan's work, and not God's? What help can you find today to get you the additional spiritual healing you still need, so you're no longer a trapped and inured worker who can't help in God's plan?

Until next week, and in His love!

Lynne
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Friday, January 6, 2012

To hell with anyone who blocks your way to Jesus

A few posts away (I'm feeling much better with my allergies, btw – thanks for your prayers!) but now we're back to exploring who Jesus really is, outside how He's been so long defined by what most loudly calls itself "The Church".

As always, you can find all our previous posts in this series, going through the Gospels chronologically to find the real Jesus, here.

And as always you'll find the scriptures for today are here. (Note that you can change the human-translation version on this scripture page, as suits you. I have NO theological or other tie to the online-bible site I use for this blog – it just lists many human translations to choose from, including the NASB, KJV, The Message, and the NRSV, which are the ones mentioned by those I chat and email with.)


So far, we've seen from the Bible itself, without having to do any kind of monkey-plays or pompous theological arguments, that, despite how Jesus is interpreted even today by "Good Religious People" and Big-Words Theologians:
  • Jesus was always on the side of those who were abused, mistreated, and oppressed – never on the side of those who do the abusing, mistreating, and oppressing. 
  • Jesus was always on the side of the spiritual rejects and the sinners – and never on the side of those who make sure others know they are spiritual rejects, or the side of the Good Religious People. 
  • Jesus requires His followers to be so strong they refuse to do violence or hurt back, even if attacked to death – not so weak they worship violence, war, and domination. 
  • Jesus warned us repeatedly that most of those who claim to be His people will be spiritual liars and cheats, fooling even themselves all the way to hell – and He commands us to realize their error and not get caught up in it ourselves. 
  • Jesus never presented anything of God as requiring a seminary education or a "pastor" to understand (study, yes, using our brains, yes – but "church" related stuff? No). In fact, the Bible shows us that to truly understand what Jesus means has always required NOT having human theological ideas in the way of God's simple message. Jesus (and others in the Old and New Testament) show us again and again that – despite our belief that more theological ideas and degrees and titles means more understanding of Jesus – more theological ideas and degrees and titles means LESS understanding of the real Jesus. 
  • And more!

This week, our chronological Bible tells us about Jesus illustrating that death isn't how we usually imagine death at all, and, healing a woman who was sick in more ways that we can even imagine today. What do you learn about Jesus from these stories? Here's what I see:

When people – even people who normally refuse to believe in God – are desperate and hurting, there is always that tendency to turn to God and plead for help. The Bible doesn't tell us if Jairus and his family already believed in Jesus. Yet we can see that, even if he wasn't yet a believer, Jairus was desperate enough to reach out to Jesus – and isn't that how many of us come or come back to Jesus in the first place? 
  • Have you reached out to God in desperation even in times you didn't believe in Him? What happened? How (or did) it change your relationship with Him? 
  • The Bible doesn't tell us if Jairus came to Jesus for help because he believed He was a miracle worker, or if he actually understood He was God. If Jairus got through this whole event and only ever understood Jesus as a worker of supernatural things, he would have missed completely that God is on his side even through death. Have you or others you care about understood that Jesus could do supernatural things, but missed that Jesus is also God on your side?

Jairus thought he was going to lose his little girl – and, in fact, before he got Jesus back to her, she did, in fact, die. The people telling Jairus that his daughter was now actually dead told him not to bother Jesus any longer. "Death", they would have told us, "is the end. Miracle healings might happen here and there. But death is never undone."
  • What are the things you believe are just the end – never to be undone? Does God have power even other those things? In what circumstances might He change them?

On the news that his daughter was dead, Jesus told Jairus not to be afraid, but to believe, instead. After we've lost someone to death, we might understand the fear of having to live the rest of one's life without this loved one. We might also understand the fear that comes from being reminded of our own mortality. Jesus, though, offered comfort in belief. Like He could have also said, "No need to fear death – the answer to death is standing right here. So just trust that answer to apply, even now!"
  • Many of us have heard that the antidote to fear is to believe – but what does that look like in your own life? Does it mean letting go your natural fear of death? Does it mean giving over your worries over money or job? What are all the ways Jesus' comforting command to believe instead of fear might or does impact your own life?

When Jesus told the gathered crowd of mourning that the little girl wasn't dead but asleep, they laughed at Him. And I'd have to say that if some guy I'd never seen before walked into a funeral and told everyone there that the only person in the room not breathing any longer was just asleep and not dead at all, laughter would be the nicest reaction I might have. Yet I can't imagine how my reaction would change if the dead person suddenly woke up and got something to eat!
  • The Bible tells us that even Satan and those who work for him can do miracles at times, so it's not always safe to assume that because something miraculous is happening that means it's from God. What specific things can or do you do in your own life to keep from being fooled into following after lying signs and false wonders?

This scripture passage also talks about a woman Jesus healed while on his way to Jairus' daughter. If we don't know enough about the ancient Mosaic Law the Jews lived under, we won't realize that this woman's problems were threefold. Not only was this woman's health terrible (she's been having menstrual bleeding for twelve solid years), and not only had she wiped out her financial resources trying unsuccessfully to get healing from medical doctors, but also according to the religious law she lived under she was "unclean" because of her bleeding. All men and women were made religiously unclean at certain times and under certain circumstances (check out Leviticus 15, for example). If this woman had been having normal periods, she could have gotten "clean" again after a certain passage of time without bleeding. Since she never stopped bleeding, though, she never had that opportunity. That meant she wasn't allowed to touch anyone or anything, or they too would become "unclean" and also have to undergo purification time and rituals to keep from spreading "uncleanness" even further. Imagine living your life sick as a dog, being wiped out financially by doctors, and not being allowed to touch anything (not a person, not even the railings on the city bus) without possibly enraging people so much they might kill you for it. Now imagine living that way for twelve, long years, with no end in sight.

Until this miracle-guy shows up.
  • Since the Bible shows us that Good Religious People of all kinds have always followed or ignored parts of the law God gave them however they wished, should we be at all surprised that Good Religious People today also pompously bellow one part of God's law but explain away and hide others? For example, Good Religious People like to quote the Mosaic Law as if it condemns Gay people – but they explain away the parts that condemn their failure to follow the rest of the Mosaic Law (like men and women both needing to do ritual purification after having any kind of voluntary or involuntary "discharges"). What does that tell you about whether you should be getting your information about what God wants from you from Good Religious People? 
  • For centuries, "Christians" have been telling women they were "unclean" because they have periods, even telling them at some times in history that they wouldn't go to heaven if they died while on their periods! Yet all these centuries, no one ever told a man he couldn't get into heaven if he died while having a "nocturnal emission", or that men weren't fit for ministry because they become unclean by nocturnal emissions. Since so much human B.S. has always coated what most loudly calls itself "The Church", should we be surprised when that same "Church" continues today to trumpet its own highly intellectual and theologically "proven" versions of B.S. regarding God's supposed condemnation of Gay people, God's supposed support of war, God's supposed shoving women into the back of the church, and so on? 
  • Most Gay Christians can empathize with the woman in this scripture, having been exiled as "unclean" in a different way from their communities and being unable to perform any "purification" that would make them OK in the bigoted eyes of their straight spiritual "fellows". But others can also relate – even if their only "uncleanness" is a refusal to play the shallow Sunday-Dress-Up required to attend most "churches" even today. In what ways can you empathize with the woman in this scripture? But in what ways are you more like those who condemned or looked down on her, refusing to give her the basics of human touch and love because you didn't want to be "unclean" yourself?

One thing that can be said of this woman: she had guts. Unlike many who might undergo even less than she had, and who might have just given up and died, she clung to life. She clung to hope. She kept trying, and trying, and trying, even when trying just seemed to bury her deeper into trouble. This is yet another time when the New Testament Bible broke tradition by showing us strong women in a culture that ignored and even attacked strong woman.
  • Whether you are male or female, do you have this woman's guts in the face of trial and pain? Is she a great example to you, when you need to see that it is possible to keep going and keep trying even when all seems to have failed?

This woman not only had guts – she had gall. Maybe that gall, that bold, shameless behavior, was also born of desperation. Doesn't matter. This woman pressed her unclean self not only through a crowd, immediately "polluting" everyone she touched (who then immediately polluted everyone they touched, who then immediately polluted everyone they touched, and so on) – which could have started a riot and gotten her stoned – but she also crept up on Jesus, intending to touch Him in a way He wouldn't notice, even though it would also make HIM ritually unclean. All that in hope of being rid of her sickness and isolating shame.
  • Have you had this kind of gall with God? Have you ever pushed your way to Him, and to hell with anyone who gets in your way? If not – why not?

The woman felt herself instantly healed upon touching the edge of Jesus' cloak. Imagine her elation – and then imagine it turning instantly to horror when Jesus turned around and demanded to know who had touched Him. She knew she'd just made Him ritually unclean – even healed, the religious law she lived under still required time to pass and a ritual to be performed before she would no longer be "polluting" others. She must have believed her life at great risk when He and the crowd figured out what she'd done. All she could do was what all people in those days did when confronted by the power of one or more people who could hurt or kill if they only just chose to do so: terrified, she fell on her face and confessed, hoping for mercy in even the tiniest form.

But the violence – rage, fists, rocks – she could expect in her religious culture didn't come. Instead, Jesus congratulated her on her faith in His ability to heal her, and sent her off in peace, free from more suffering.
  • The Good Religious People of that day often stoned "unclean" women who touched others. In the centuries of what most loudly calls itself "Christianity", Good Religious People have burned people at the stake and otherwise tortured and murdered them, taught them to feel shame over who they are, and made war in "God's" name against people who weren't like them in one way or another. Not one bit of that is like Jesus anywhere in the Bible. Yet we too often continue being fooled by this false "Christianity". Why? 
  • Imagine being Gay and with shameless gall pressing through a crowd of "Christian" bigots to get to Jesus, sure that He can heal the hurt false Christians have done to your heart. Imagine fearing Jesus will turn on you like false "Christians" have – only to find He instead congratulates you for your faith and sends you off in His peace. Now read Revelation 3:7-13 and know that that's exactly what you're going to hear from Jesus, in the End.

Today we got to see Jesus' power at work – not just in healing death and sickness, but also in reorienting our religious thinking so that we can see past the religious nonsense we live under and even pass on to our children, thinking we're doing them a good thing.
  • What ways do you need to reorient your thinking about Jesus? Is Jesus like the supporter of war, supporter of sexism, supporter of homophobia, supporter of economic oppression, and so on that "The Church" has reinterpreted Him as all these centuries? 
  • Was Jesus at all prevented from being who He really is by all the Good Religious People and their dumb ideas while He moved around, doing His work? Why should we assume, then, that we can't find the real-Jesus today because "The Church" has done so much Bible-twisting over the centuries? 
  • What needs to change in your life this week? What can Jesus heal for you today, that you never imagined could be gotten rid of before?

Take care until next week!

In His love,

Lynne

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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.