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.

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.

5,000 demons: 0. Jesus: 1

I'm posting a little early this week, as I'll be in an all-day training tomorrow. But we're still going through the chronological Gospels, taking a look at who the Bible says Jesus is, outside the ways we're traditionally taught to understand Him by "Good Religious People".

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.)

We're looking at another famous story from the Gospels this week: Jesus healing the man possessed by a "Legion" of demons.

As usual, there's a lot going on in this story! And to get the full understanding, we have to see the story the way the original ancient-hearers would have, or we can miss important points (and that's true of the whole Bible, of course). Why is that so important? Well, imagine someone 2,000 years from now reading an ancient text from the year 2011 that talked about the "Golden Arches". How far off in understanding would they end up if they didn't know what (most of us today) know: the "Golden Arches" mean a popular fast food restaurant chain?

• Have you understood yet how absolutely necessary it is to understand the Bible as the original writers and hearers would have, or risk getting a wrong meaning from it? How has not understanding the Bible as the original writers and hearers would have steered you wrong in your past?

So, Jesus and His disciples have entered a region where there are a lot of Gentiles (non-Jews). We can tell that because these people were raising pigs – an animal abhorrent to Jewish religious law. They met a man (or two men, if you go by what Matthew remembered) who showed all the classic ancient signs of being controlled by a demon:

• He lived in a tomb – which the Jews would have thought made him beyond religiously unclean 
• He couldn't be bound, but seemed to have an unnatural strength, able to break even chains and leg irons used to subdue him 
• He ran night and day through the cemetery, howling and cutting himself 
• He accosted anyone and everyone who tried to pass that way 
• He refused to wear clothes

Scary dude! Today, a guy acting like that would be hauled off to a psych ward and heavily medicated (probably never to emerge), or simply shot if he ran up to the police like that. But Jesus had a different way to handle him. Jesus went right to the source of the problem: He confronted the demons inside him.

• Do you believe that some or all of people who act like this today are demon-possessed? How does that affect what you might do for them? 
• Have you been so much in torment and pain that you acted "crazy" in one way or another? If Jesus could heal this guy of this kind of hell-on-earth, do you imagine He could heal yours?

Note that the demons inside this guy knew exactly who Jesus was, but they couldn't figure out why He was there. They apparently expected not to see Jesus until The End, when all demons will be cast into the torment they've chosen to deserve – but not now, in the middle of Gerasenes. Next time someone tries to convince you demons see-all and know-all, remember that!

• Has your religious background, programs you watch, etc., convinced you that demons are all-knowing and able to do anything they want? How has that wrong-teaching affected your life and sense of God's power in your life?

Jesus asked the guy what his name was. Ancient people in those days believed that knowing a demon's name gave you power over it. Apparently the demons thought so too, because they tried to outsmart Jesus by just giving Him like the clever nickname they've come up with for themselves: "Legion". The listeners back then would have known "legion" meant a division of between 3,000 and 6,000 oppressor-soldiers. Something deadly, overpowering, and terrifying, in other words. Jesus isn't impressed, though.Despite their attempt to outmaneuver or intimidate Jesus, He simply tells them to get out. They beg to go into a nearby herd of pigs, and Jesus lets them. We read then that the pigs drowned in the lake. It's quite possible the demons were being like people are sometimes, destroying something to "get back at" an authority figure that's made them do something they don't want to do.

• Since Jesus didn't need to know the demons' names to have power over them (obviously), do you think it's possible He asked just so people would understand how bad this problem really was (meaning, several thousand demons infesting this guy, and not just one)? How might this have all looked different if those watching the scene didn't know? 
• People often feel sorry for the pigs, and indeed, they got a raw deal! But knowing Jesus' character, and how He said that God keeps track of even every little bird in the world, was it likely Jesus or the demons who were responsible for the pigs' death?

Now, the Jews following along would have been incredibly impressed at what Jesus had just done, tossing out several thousand demons with a single command and with total control. But the non-Jews of that place and time, who wouldn't have understand what Jesus had done as a "miracle" but as the act of a "sorcerer", told Him to shove off. They were amazed that He'd healed this maniac that had been such a pain to them for so long – but the loss of the pigs and the healing of the demon-possessed guy was just too much for their brains to take in.

• We see people even today who can look a miracle right in the eye – and still absolutely reject any hand of God in it. I've certainly done that at times in my life. Have you, as well? Why do you think we do that? What's stopping us from dropping that and just taking in God's good work in the world, as we run into it?

The guy who'd been healed "got it", though. He begged to go with Jesus. Jesus instead made him another evangelist to the Gentiles. He told him to go be a witness to his people of God's power and kindness. And the man went far and wide in his area to do just that. Another "reject" made into one of God's greatest ambassadors to the world!

• If this guy could be so spiritually filthy thousands of demons could live inside him, yet still be cleansed and healed by God, what does that say about what God can do to cleanse and heal us? 
• What should be our response to God's healing and freeing action in our lives?

See you next week!
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Just how DOES God act in the world?

We're still in our (chronological) study of the real Jesus of the Gospels, which we're finding is far outside how He's always portrayed by the Good Religious People of the world and their "Church".

Today, Jesus talks about how God works in the world, but also how we hit or miss the mark in our search for a relationship with God, and – just like we saw last week – He delivers His message in parables.

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.)

First, Jesus tells the parable of the mustard seed. I'll only quickly note that the scholars and other "Big Thinkers" of the world have long debated over this tiny mustard seed Jesus referred to, pointing out that mustard seed was not the smallest seed known to Jesus' listeners, and the mustard plant – even when it reached its biggest height of about ten feet – was never big enough to be called a tree or for (most) birds to perch in it.

Such big-thinker-ism is a good example of why relying only on one's intellectual resources to understand God – and therefore falling into literalism and what we can measure and deduce – means a big, fat failure. It's an example of why we shouldn't be pegging our salvation on what the smart people of the world can figure out, because they too often get so tangled up in "explaining" things that they miss the whole point of the message. They're like people who hear, "It's as hot as the sun in here!", but because they're too busy arguing and preaching and lording over what their thermometers find and under what circumstances anything on earth could truly be as hot as the sun and so on and so forth – they burn up in the fire everyone else fled.

This does NOT mean: "God doesn't mean for you to use your brains." Obviously, He does. But part of using our brains is figuring out when a message or point is being made with what's called hyperbole, or exaggerating for effect. That's certainly a story technique that Jesus uses sometimes, and it's one He uses here.

The second thing to realize as we go through this and other parables, is that we have the benefit of "seeing the answers", because we can read even what the disciples had to have explained to them later. But when Jesus was speaking these parables, no one had a "cheat sheet" called the Bible, and so people then had to rely on how much of God's Spirit they had in their hearts to help them understand what Jesus was showing them. That means many people – Good Religious People who did every Religious thing they knew to go – never understood a word Jesus had said. To them, even though they counted themselves as God's People, Jesus might as well of been speaking on gibberish: they never "got it", because they never "got" Jesus.

However, the fact that we can claim to "get" what Jesus' point was in these parables because we know what these parables mean doesn't mean we actually "get it" any more than most people 2,000 years ago did. As we've said, WE have the "cheat sheet". So we are actually in more danger of never "getting it" than the Good Religious People Jesus was originally speaking to, because we can know the words intellectually, but not spiritually, as measured in our lives. In that case, we're like people in an algebra class, who, when test day come assume we've learned all there is to know from it – but who have only memorized the answer sheet for the final, and therefore can't actually do algebra at all.

Once again, what matters to Jesus isn't what we can show with our mouths and what we can memorize and even teach others, but what we can live with our hearts and minds and spirits.

• The people listening to Jesus heard His words – but only a tiny, tiny few ever understood His point. yet these were highly religious people, well-schooled in God's rules and ways. How dangerous is it to just assume that, because we go to church to hear the Bible preached, we are getting Jesus' point? 
• It doesn't take a Bible scholar to realize that the vast majority of those who call themselves "Christian" don't even come close to living like Jesus (though they're really good at living like what they call "Christian"). Even God-rejecters can see that. In what ways do you call yourself "Christian", but have actually only memorized the Bible answer-sheet and not really learned Jesus' lessons? Are you ready to turn away from your "answer sheet Christianity"?

Ok – so what is Jesus talking about with the parable of the mustard seed? He tells us that the kingdom of heaven – God's way, in other words – is like a tiny, tiny thing that grows unexpectedly, astoundingly, even "abnormally", huge. So huge, in fact, that even those not expected to find shelter in it can and do.

Another parable. Jesus says God's way is like yeast – another tiny, tiny thing – that gets mixed all through everything, so that in time it's everywhere.

• God starts with a lot of tiny things, and then grows or mixes them everywhere. He started with one little human being, and grew us into billions. He started with one Man from a tiny, backwater part of the world, and mixed that Man's message all through the world. Is God planting something tiny in your life, working to grow that something all through who you are so that you also become a resource for others to shelter in?

Then we come to Jesus' parable of the weeds – a parable that we should find great comfort in, when we wonder why God allows evil and evil people in the world. Through this parable, Jesus tells us that God "planted" good, but that the devil came along later and planted bad among God's good. But if God were to rip out the bad people from among us now, others who are good might be destroyed also – something He won't allow. Instead, He tells us, both good and bad people will inhabit the world – until, that is, Jesus comes again to sort us out for good.

• There are many people – either because they've been turned off of Jesus because of the crappy example of "Christian" Good Religious People, or simply because their hearts haven't opened to God yet – who would count even right now as "bad" people. Yet because God hasn't chosen to "harvest" yet, they aren't sent off to hell with the people who simply will always reject God because they love evil. Have you in your own life been a "bad" person that God has allowed to stay mixed in with the good people until you could heal into the good person God created you to be? 
• Does this give you comfort, understanding that God is still in control, His plan hasn't "failed", and He still cares deeply for us, even when our lives are impacted by the "bad" people of the world? Are there others you could share this comfort-message with in your life, today?
• Jesus speaks more than anyone else in the Bible about the reality of hell as a place where good-rejecters end up. But He also speaks (as do many others in the Old and New Testaments) about God's continued attempts to save people from hell by inviting them to the real good they can only achieve through God. How should knowing this affect our lives? How does it currently affect your own life?

Jesus said God's way is like a buyer of fine goods who's seeking for something really special. When he finds it, he gives up everything he has to buy it.

• The buyer could be us. Have you discovered in the Gospel THE treasure you've been searching for? Have you given up everything to be part of it? 
• The buyer could be God. Have you considered that Jesus searches everywhere for you, and that He gave up everything to make you part of His People?

Jesus said God's way catches up everyone – every kind of person there is – and in the end the angels separate the good from the bad, gathering up the good to keep, and tossing the bad into hell.

• Jesus said God chooses good people over bad – not straight over Gay, or white over Black, or male over female, or rich over poor. What do you imagine a heaven full of God's people will look like? Does it look partly like you?

See you next week, when we'll take a look at how God's supernatural power can act in the world, and what that means for our lives today.

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

Q: How should we react to Gay-hating "Christians" & the trouble they cause?

Occasionally when answering an email I find it's of value to more than just the person I'm emailing with (others have asked or talked about similar things, in other words). When that happens, I like to share my part in that (leaving it to others to share their own parts, of course). That's what this extra post this week is (edited a bit for posting). I hope you also find something of value in it!

About how we should react and respond as Gay folks to religionists and their attacks on Gay people locally and in the news, etc. It's obviously of vital importance that we understand this, not only for our own faith, but also for the lives and faith of others (both Gay and straight, for many straight people are also turned off from Christ because they think they must to reject Him to reject what the religionists say and do against Gays and others).

I consider several things in that answer for myself.

First, I consider who their (the Gay-hating "Christians") counterparts were in the Bible, and what response Jesus and others had to them. I think of, for example, Matthew 23; Titus 1:16, 1:10-11, 3:9-11; Luke 6:39, 11:52, 17:1-2; Mark 7:6-8; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 Timothy 1:6-7, 4:7; 2 Timothy 4:2-5; James 2:8-9; 1 John 2:9-11; Jeremiah 23:1-2; Romans 2:24, 16:17-18  (I just grabbed these few on the fly - obviously there are many more). It's clear that despite their belief that they represent God and know His ways better than any, they have failed completely and are rejected by Jesus until/if they reject their religion. So, it also comes to me that these people who cause such damage and hurt to Gay people require our prayer - not just as our enemies, but also as people who are in desperate need of REAL salvation. These are people who believe themselves safe from hell, but who are hell-bound if they do not allow the Lord to soften their hearts and recognize Him. Hell-bound because they think the Bible condemns Gays? Not necessarily. But certainly they are hell-bound because their attacks on Gays, bearing false witness, cutting them off from families and friends, pushing them toward suicide and drug abuse and Jesus-rejecting living, misrepresenting the Gospel, and more, ALL mark them as people on the wide path of false-Gospel destruction. They demonstrate NO real Holy-Spirit in their hearts.

Second, I consider how I can help in healing the spiritual, emotional, and even physical damage religionists cause - not only to Gay people, but also to straight people (including straight people who reject Jesus because they think that's the only way to reject religionists). Just as Jesus' disciples (and all God's people, even in the Old Testament) spent and even risked their lives to proclaim God's real message through the surrounding hurricane of false-Gospel all around them, so we are charged to proclaim (however fits our circumstances) God's real message, especially to those who will (might) listen and be healed. I know that many have been so damaged that it can literally take years for them to heal enough to finally even consider Jesus. But again we can see from the Bible that many times we only plant, while others in the future take in the harvest. We can still plant the tiny seeds, and leave it to God's tender love to water and care for them while we move on to other fields.

Third, I consider those whose hearts are not Jesus-rejecting, but who have been so long taught the man-made doctrine that says God rejects Gay people they have a difficult time letting it go. In this case, I study Peter before, during, and after Cornelius' house (Acts 10 & 11). The Jews then (even the Christian Jews) believed the Gentiles were rejected (and had scripture to "prove" it), and yet those who would hear it got to see God's acceptance of the Gentiles, and His warning not to reject what He'd pronounced clean. Those who will hear it can learn to let go of their human doctrine when they become willing to see God openly at work in the lives of people who become Holy-Spirit-filled Christians but remain just as Gay as they were before - just as Peter and the others became willing to see God openly at work in the lives of people who became Holy-Spirit-filled Christians but remained just as Gentile as they were before. It can be hard - and therefore take some time and effort - for folks to un-learn the rejection they've learned so long as "God's" truth. But it does happen - I've seen it :)

Finally, I consider the times we live in, and how much worse things will become (for Gays but also for anyone else caught in the glare of religionists' rebellion against Jesus) under the coming wrath of Satan. This is and will be more and more horrible, it's true. But think also of how much easier it will be (with those who have any inclination to Jesus in their hearts, even if it's just tiny and can't be seen except by God) to contrast the real Jesus against the fakery that claims to most represent Him and God's way! Most, it's true, will simply follow the False Prophet to come - and God will take care of them. For the rest, who are more and more disgusted with "church" and religions and "clergy" and the other human-created sin that puts itself so high on God's pedestal, how can we show them the real Jesus who ALSO rejects the same things they do? That's certainly what drove so much of the increase the early church - people sick and tired of the hateful and perverse religion around them (including the Judaism of that day) who saw a different way in Jesus: a way of justice, love, courage, and so on. So how can our own lives and our own words show the real Jesus?

 Comments? Or want to discuss this more? See my email a few lines below. God's peace!
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Jesus IS exciting - when you aren't seeing Him thru religious eyes

Ok – Thursday is here. Time for more discovery of the real Jesus, as revealed in the Bible – and more discovery of how different He is from how mainstream "Christianity" is ALL its cultural remakes has taught us to understand Him.

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

And you'll find the scriptures for today are here. (Note that you can change the translation version on this scripture page as suits you. I default to the NASB to get the more literal translation, but do use the one that works for you).

Last week, our Bible read took us through more examples of what Jesus really thinks of Good Religious People and their rules and rule-following. And we also learned who Jesus really gets mad at – and how it's always the Good Religious People, and never "regular" sinners (even though that's exactly opposite what Good Religious People have always taught the rest of us).

Today we're at the start of Jesus' greater teaching time – the times when huge numbers of people were following Him and eager to hear what He had to say about the real way to please God and how to be part of His team. Go read today's Scriptures, then come back here to continue!

Jesus was exciting - before the Good Religious People got hold of His image

By now Jesus has gotten pretty popular. Huge numbers of people from all over really wide geographical area are seeking Him out, because they'd heard about the healing and other miracles He'd performed. Can you imagine the excitement they must have felt? Today, of course, we've suffered under 1,900 years of fake-Jesus miracles and false-teachings shoved in our faces and down our throats, so we're justifiably cynical (and safer being cynical, emotionally and spiritually). But these were Jewish folks who's ancestors had seen God in action in their lives, but who hadn't seen God do anything in their world for about 400 years. No prophets. No miracles. No sign of the promised Messiah. Nothing.

And then there's this guy who's doing all they've been waiting for – and more!

Some today feel that because there are no miracles today as were seen 2,000 years ago, that either means those miracles didn't exist at all (even back then), or, God is no longer active in our lives today. However, to believe either is to miss the reason for God acting in the world through so many miracles back then: they were signs the Jews would demand (as God had told them to demand, in the Old Testament) to PROVE that something more than a human huckster or a lying Good Religious Person was at work here. That was a place and time for miracles back then because it was THE place and time for them.

Today, though, while we do see miracles (when we're willing to), they have a different "function" or "meaning" in our lives and in God's scheme of things than they would have then. God no longer proves Himself at work in the world through miracles like people saw 2,000 years ago. Today, He proves Himself at work through His Holy Spirit, at work in people's hearts and lives. He does still bless us with healing and other miracles sometimes today (I've certainly received them!). But the time to "Wow!" us with them, as if we were children at a circus and not now grown-ups, is long past.

How has God blessed your life with miracles? How has He acted in your heart to prove Himself at work in the world and interested in your life as part of His plan?

Jesus is the biggest miracle we'll ever receive

Matthew reminds us that what Jesus was doing was all part of what God had promised the Jews hundreds of years before (though God had also promised Jesus to the whole human race, through Eve, at the beginning of the human race, as well). God intended to comfort them in their hard times back then as they dealt with the consequences of their evil actions and rejection of God's good, so He gave them a description of what they would see when their Messiah showed up:

• Though many Good Religious People 2,000 years ago would eventually accuse Him of being "ungodly", Jesus was God's servant, loved by God, giving God great delight.
• Jesus, full of God's Spirit, would proclaim justice to everyone – but God's kind of justice, and not the easily corruptible and always faulty human kind of "justice". This would be a justice those who want real justice could actually count on, no matter what!
• Despite the militant warrior so many Jews dreamed their Messiah would be 2,000 years ago (just like so many "Christians" do today), they'd recognize Jesus because He'd be soft spoken, refusing to fight or argue or scrap to accomplish His way.
• They'd also see that Jesus was gentle – until it was time to do the final making-things-right in the End Times – which would be when He established God's justice for all.

Have Good Religious People ever accused you or someone you loved of being "ungodly"? Since they were so wrong about God they even accused God Himself in Jesus of being "ungodly" (and since Good Religious People haven't changed how they fail, even in 2,000 years), do you still bother with their ideas about who is good enough for God and who isn't? Why?

We're often promised "justice" by politicians (on the "Left" and "Right"), by the legal system, by the police, and so on. And that "justice" always – always! – fails. "Justice" never materializes when the voting is done. The poor, racial and sexual minorities, and other oppressed people are punished for stealing $100 while the well-off steal millions and aren't even prosecuted. Racial minorities and nonconformists are attacked and threatened by those who are supposed to protect them. But God's justice is different. God's justice isn't bribable, doesn't turn on ego, isn't run by sociopathy. God's justice judges by the heart – and not by what someone looks like, or how much money they have, or what neighborhood they live in. What are some ways you need God's justice in your life? What ways can you imagine the world when Jesus returns to make God's justice "The Law of the Land"?

Jesus arranges for 1st-hand witnesses to what He wants us to know

Jesus had a lot of followers, beside the huge crowds following Him. But out of those He chose twelve to be His special representatives – to learn first hand from Him and be the major actors in spreading His message to the world. They were to be the people others went to to make sure what someone was saying Jesus said was indeed something Jesus had actually said. As we'll see later in the Gospels, at no time did that mean these were the only people appointed to take Jesus' message to the world, or even that these people were leaders of any kind. It just meant we were given a reference to come back to. A way to double-check - and boy-howdy, have we needed a way to double-check the last 2,000 years!

Jesus was doing something else here, as well. Remember in our reading how Jesus has been building over and remaking the past human religion into something new and like God wants (the "new wineskin" we're to use instead of the old)? Well, the old religion was founded upon twelve physical brothers, and people belonged to God or didn't belong to God based on whether they were physically descended from one of those brothers. Jesus, however, created a new start - twelve new people who weren't related physically (except for the two brothers James and John, but their siblingship was completely immaterial), but spiritually.

So, in Jesus' new way, people belong to God or not based on what's in their hearts, and no longer on what's in their DNA. So whether we were born into one of the tribes of the man named Israel, or born into one of the thousands upon thousands of other peoples throughout history and over the planet, we all have equal standing before and equal belonging to God, through Jesus.

Once they were fully trained in Jesus' way and full of the Holy Spirit (which didn't happen until after Pentecost, after Jesus was resurrected)), none of the apostles ever allowed anyone to hold them in any high regard, or to treat them special, or do anything else but consider them as first hand witnesses to Jesus who had wisdom to share. What, then, can we understand about "apostles" (and "pastors", and "prophets", etc) today (and in the last 1,900 years) who allow or even seek out special honors, titles, chairs, podiums, speaking privileges, control over others' lives, etc? Why should we listen to or trust/follow those who claim the role (or who have "earned" it through seminary or "laying on of hands") but who by their day-to-day lives prove they haven't actually absorbed Jesus' REAL way and are blocking the Holy Spirit from their own lives?

Next week, we'll start what's been called "The Sermon on the Mount" – the longest, continuous teaching of Jesus about God's REAL way. If you haven't read it, or haven't read it outside of how nearly all "churches" teach us to understand it, I think you'll be (mostly pleasantly :) surprised.

See you then!
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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can always contact me (Lynne) at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

No, what are these earthquakes REALLY all about?

[These are the scriptures I'm referencing this week]

I had planned to just continue through the Gospels this week, right where we left off. But then big news about the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear disasters unfolding in Japan this week.

Add to that the proclamations from some "good religious people" and their leaders that all these kinds of things are warnings from God, meant – of course! – to make us understand that God is as asinine as these "good religious people" make Him out to be.

What a mess. 

And it can really make us wonder which is scarier:

• the huge natural disasters, 
• the human-science-made nuclear/biological/chemical/etc disasters-in-the-making, or 
• the religious human beings of both "Right" and "Left" who are determined to "help" us get our minds through all this.

Amazingly scary. But not amazingly scary, at the same time, when we have a grip on what the bigger picture is.

Which – it turns out – actually leads me right back to where I was going to be in the Bible anyway. Amazing thing, that Big Picture, when we understand the Bible as:

• guidance, and not slavery
• comfort, and not coercion, and
• companionship, and not domination.

In the last few posts, we've already gone through the very first parts of the Gospel chronology. We've seen how God planned for and got Jesus into the world of human beings -- in a way human beings couldn't screw it up, but also in ways that gave us big clues about what His real values are (and how far those invariably are even from the "good" people values of the "good religious people" around us).

This time, the Bible's talking about John the Baptist – the prophet-guy predicted about 700 years in advance by Isaiah (another prophet-guy) who said God was going to send someone ahead of Himself, someone to spout off and tell everyone it was time to clean up their act because God was about to step foot into the human arena. 

(If we really read this part of the Bible right, it OUGHT to give us shivers down our backs).

And that's exactly what John the Baptist did. In fact, he spent his whole time working for God doing two things:

• Telling the good religious people of his day to stop choosing evil and faking godliness, and

• Telling people that -- as impressed as they wanted to be with him -- that they should save all that for the One coming up next – the One who wouldn't baptize with measly water, like John did, but with the Spirit of God Himself.

Thing is, there's a kind of natural "John the Baptist" going around the world these days. This modern-day "John the Baptist" is today's earthquakes and tsunamis and wars and so on and so forth (all of which are predicted by Jesus and others in the Bible), and it's trying to do the same work that John the Baptist was, 2,000 years ago:

• Warn everyone that it's way past time to stop choosing evil and faking Jesus, and
• Tell everyone to hold on because the real Jesus is just around the corner.

That's one Bible-tie-in between what happened 2,000 years ago and what's happening now. We need to make sure we don't miss the other, as well:

To get there, think: Was John the Baptist always successful at getting people to see how anti-God they were? Absolutely not. He failed more often that not (if he hadn't, then the whole country of Israel would have been on their knees waiting for Jesus, instead of ignoring and later torturing and murdering Him), and he was pretty much guaranteed to completely fail among – whom? Which group of people? Why, the "good religious people", of course!

So, what did John have to share with us about them (and about us, too, if we aren't careful!)? Well, through what he said we can know:

• Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to publicly partake of God's forgiveness because they thought themselves more than worthy of getting that godly-goodness and avoiding the pains of hell – but all their "good religious people" airs were just garbage, producing nothing that God gives two cents about. And that meant their "repentance" was as much garbage as all their religious ways and acts, too.

• The Pharisees and Sadducees both assumed that their religious cultural background alone was enough to make them good enough for God – but they didn't realize God was already ready to cut all-show-no-production religious people off, and intended to do so shortly (and He did, when Jesus died on the Cross and canceled anyone ever finding God's forgiveness through what religious things they could do, instead of relying on God alone, ever again).

• John was giving people the chance to do a human ritual that would match (hopefully) the repentance in their hearts – but even that was going to mean absolutely nothing when the Real Deal showed up and cleaned house, sweeping away even those who seem to be good but actually store evil in their hearts.

And, if you think about it, this is all pretty much what we also see today. 

For one thing, today's Pharisees we call "Right Wing Christians" and today's Sadducees we call "Left Wing Christians", and both are first in line at the religious trough, going on and on about their traditions and church-genealogies, letting everyone else know how "godly" and "spiritual" and "Jesus-like" they are. 

Yet nearly all "Christians" are there because they want to avoid hell for themselves, or because they like the social club that cultural Christianity is, or because they like the politics of their "church" and the idea that God votes like they do.

But they're not there because they actually have it in their hearts to repent of being spiritual anti-Christs and carriers of the disease of "Religion" into the Christian fellowship.

In fact, they speak a lot about personal repentance, and like you I've witnessed the tears and wailing that goes with it (and which probably convinces them too, unfortunately). But what results is almost always either nothing, or a changed life (no more sleeping around, no more doing drugs, no more skipping church, becoming a church leader, etc) – but never a changed heart (turning away from pursuing wealth, treating everyone exactly the same, putting everyone ahead of oneself, loving even those who hurt them, making people see more of Jesus than oneself, doing things Jesus' way even when it totally costs, etc).

And the "John the Baptist" earthquakes/etc today are telling Christians (who supposedly know the scriptures and who are therefore supposed to be first to figure it out) that it's way past time to stop faking it.

Time to stop putting up religious human acts (that God never asked for) upon religious human altars (that God did away with thousands of years ago) and expecting God to be as giggly-proud of our ridiculous crap as we are.

Time to stop, because the next thing to happen – whether next month, next decade, or next century – is Jesus Christ coming back to earth to give us the consequences of our heart's reality, and not to pamper and reward our self-centered, spiritual self-delusions.

So, are all these earthquakes and things stuff to be afraid of?

Well, afraid of getting physically caught in them, yes. Afraid for those others who get caught in them, yes. But afraid of their message? No. Not if we're draining the religion-goo out of our hearts, letting the Holy Spirit rinse us clean, and then refilling our insides with just Jesus!

Remember the second part of John's message! Yes, we need to get our hearts true. But also – know that the One who loves you more than anything else in the universe is the next thing to come. 

And when He comes? 

• Had some pains? Not any more!  
• Had some tears? Never again! 
• Been overwhelmed? All done with that.

Jesus is coming, my sisters, my brothers, my friends.

Come, Lord Jesus! Come!

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Are you needing some new beginnings?

(For this week's post, I've checked out these scriptures)

Thinking this last week about beginnings. New beginnings, to be exact - how they not only refresh and encourage us, but also teach and guide us, when we'll let them. 

Human beings had a beginning, of course, when God created that one person. Then human beings had another new beginning, when He split that one person into two different persons. Human beings, in fact, have had a huge number of new beginnings, and a good number of those are listed in the Bible, from Adam and Eve to the End Times.

But I'm thinking there was one new beginning that not only topped all those, but remains and will always be THE new beginning. And I'm talking, of course, about the birth of Jesus of Nazareth – the entry of God Himself into the world of human beings.

We don't know every detail about Jesus' beginning in the world. The ancient people just didn't count all the details we'd like to pour over as all that important, so they didn't record them. They gave us what was important to them – and, it turns out, even if they don't give us all the drama we might like, the details they did share about Jesus' new beginning turn out to be important to us, as well. 

Consider, for example, the new beginning of Jesus' conception. There's lots of stuff for us there, but one huge detail is that God made sure Jesus wasn't conceived from any sexual act. The Bible gives us a number of reasons and outright hints as to why (and it wasn't because sex is automatically bad).

Like, thousands of years earlier, God promised Eve that He would fix what she was first to break by bringing about The Fixer of the World through her. Eve, human being that she was, had to be feeling like crap right about then, having just been confronted with the consequences of letting herself be convinced it was actually ok to do the exact opposite of the simple thing God have told them to do (a sin human beings – especially religious human beings, and both female and male – have been continuing to commit with great joy and self-congratulation ever since). What would your reaction be, knowing you just shattered all the goodness of creation - but at least God would let you help make up for and fix it later? That had to be a comfort – especially for all women later, when men started the lie that only evil could come from women. Women who knew the truth of Scripture could answer back, "Huh! You trying to say Jesus Christ is evil?"

Which brings up another related detail regarding why God didn't use sex to bring Jesus into the world.  Can you imagine the ego rush that would have resulted if even one male – already convinced by his culture that he's better than females and children and animals and the natural world because he can dominate them – could tell everyone else that HE brought the Savior of the world into the world? God loves men as much as women, of course, and as part of Eve's punishment He did let men dominate women (until, that is, Jesus came and undid the curse-punishment of the Fall – something else oppressive male-worshiping theologies gloss right over). But God also obviously knew what kind of ego goes with the ability to dominate others, and He made sure that NO man could EVER boast that he had ANYthing to do with creating the Savior of the world. It was the only way to make sure God got the credit for saving us, but it also meant God gave #1 priority to being first-hand involved in a new beginning with all of us, and in a way that no human being (not even the ones dominating the others) could ever mess up.

And don't know about you, but the fact that God can punish us for totally screwing things up - and still trust and love us enough to invite us to be an active part of our solution - means there is no end of new beginnings for me, and you, and everyone else who'll just agree to let Him.

So, what about the new beginning of Jesus' birth? That's a new beginning story we get from the institutional-church every winter, so we might be tempted to run right over it when we get to that part of the Bible in our own study. But there are more new beginning details to be enjoyed here, as well – more joy even than we're usually offered by the "official" version.

For example, reading these stories did you catch that it was people (like the shepherds) looked down on by good-religious-people and people (like the magicians) banned from good-religious-people-spheres  who not only got the message that the Son of God was here, but who also showed up to recognize and celebrate Him as God and spread the word to all their reject and outsider friends? And what were the "good religious people" doing right then? Well, they were either ignoring the whole event (even through they had all the scholarship and education that should have made them first in line to welcome Him), or they were plotting to kill Him and everyone who might be Him off so they could keep their worldly place (something good-religious-people still do today, but usually with more subtlety and fewer swords). Jesus Himself would later describe a grand party God has planned – that all those He'd originally invited snubbed Him over. Jesus, it seemed, had seen and heard all that before - and those of us who've become so grossed out by the human "church" can take great comfort in that.

It also, to me, says everything about whose plans are really important in this world: 

• the human ones, where certain people are drawn "in" and certain people are kept "out" based on what doctrine (or anti-doctrine) they obsess on, and what social clique their outward person (looks, wealth, race, sexual orientation, etc) shows; or 
• the Jesus ones, where hearts matter more than mouths, and where getting a new beginning depends not one bit of a whit on anything human or "religious".

What about some new beginning in Jesus' blood line? Well, how much have we pondered that Matthew, one of Jesus' first disciples, proudly counted among Jesus' ancestors:

• Tamar, a Hebrew woman who pretended to be a prostitute to trick her father-in-law into sleeping with her so she could gain a child, 
• Rahab, a pagan prostitute who went over to God's side, and 
• Ruth, a pagan woman so destitute she had to pick up leavings from other people's harvest fields. 

All three of these women got a new beginning when they reached out and did what they needed to do to get it. And it pleased God to make them part of Jesus Christ, even though by good-religious-people standards all three would be soundly rejected by "Christianity" (though some would allow them "in" once they'd remade themselves into good-religious-people look-alikes, so "the church" could feel righteous about the power of "its" "mission"). All of which should encourage those who still fear not being accepted or a part of a human "church". God chooses, and God elects - despite what good-religious-people decide.

There are many other new beginnings to see and understand, in these first stories and scriptures about Jesus coming into the world. When we'll let ourselves stop and sit with the scriptures for a time, they tell us buckets about who God is, what He wants us to understand about His values, and whose side He's on in this world.

They also offer us example upon example of how God truly is a God of endless new beginnings - certainly willing and able to make something good from whatever's bad in our lives, to open a new start where we find only dead end. 

Does that mean we'll have no pain, no loss, no sorrow here, when we follow Him? Nope. But we see that even in the first stories of Jesus, as well. The gift we're given is not forever life in Brainless La-La Land, but a life lived as all God's people have lived: with goods and bads, ups and downs, all with the Holy Spirit forever at and on our side, until Jesus comes again with His angels to take us Home.

And that will be the final new beginning we've all been waiting for.

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Friday links 12/10/2010

Hawaiian bobtail squid

It's often said that Gays and Lesbians need to be "out" so our friends and family and coworkers can see how normal we are, so fewer people will hate or despise us. Here's a great article from a former Gay-hater talking about just that. 

Who isn't needing to save some money -- and some heat -- this winter? We used to do this all the time when I lived in the frigid midwestern USA. Now it seems everyone can benefit to one degree or another, outside the warmest band at the equator!

At last, some science behind what people are mostly getting when they so much enjoy "going to church" -- and it isn't God. Turns out belonging to a human community -- having a social circle, in other words -- is what makes people in churches happier than those outside, and not so much the God stuff. In short, when people "in church" have the social ties and friendships that most people in our alienated society do not have these days, they are happier. We need to keep that in mind when it comes to our longings: are we truly longing for God, or for the human fellowship we might find in a religious organization? (This study also shows why people "in church" are so hot to get more people in, even to claiming that "church" = "God", and leading people to just most religious stuff without figuring out the God stuff themselves: it expands and justifies their social circles).

Do you enjoy writing, but have gotten "off track" lately? Here are a couple of writing bloggers who will be helping get folks back on track for 2011, during the month of January -- and all for free. 

It's true that people have anticipated the end of the world a million times in the past, and many use that as reason to discount any End Times ideas today. But there's a big difference between then and now, and it shows up in articles like this (and this, and this, and even this and this). Yes, there has always been pollution and war and so on in times past, but never before have chemical, nuclear, biological, and other technological "advances" been set waiting in the wings while their potential for nation and world-side destruction and suffering and oppression grows beyond comprehension. Is this reason for us to fear or obsesses on the End Times? Absolutely not. But it is reason to understand the truth of the Bible and why we need to keep ourselves devoted always and only to our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Well, it's official: our brains decide what we will see before we see it, and then we see what we expected to see instead of what's there (wha..?) Of course, stage magicians have known all this for some time!

More of God's creation showing off -- this time, the sun. This week people have also been talking about God's solar powered hornets, His squid with cloaking devices, and one of the moons He placed around Saturn. God is so awesome!

There aren't that many squirrels where I live now, but if you've lived where there are lots you know squirrels aren't always the brightest lights in the bucket at getting themselves across traffic safely. Here are some folks who built and have been maintaining a squirrel bridge for their little fur-friends. Awwww!

Just US $25 will get a Christmas Care Package to some of our persecuted brothers and sisters in India.

Until then, People get ready - Jesus is coming! Soon we'll be going Home!

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

3 great things about the End Times

It's amazing how much "stuff" is out there these days proclaiming the End Times right around the corner, isn't it? And everywhere it's all about how terrifying they will be. I mean, just cast an eye over these Google images for "End Times"! Not a smiling face in the bunch... (until you get to the parodies, that is). And we just hear more and more specific dates for when Jesus is coming back -- as if millions of Christians all around the world just stopped taking their Savior seriously (oh, wait... most Christians stopped doing that about 1,900 years ago).

Of course, all those terrifying images are supposed to scare the non-Christians. They're supposed to make them understand just how desperately they need to be just like the people who put out all those scary images of shrieking babies and so on. Unfortunately, it's not really working because most non-Christians associate shrieking babies with Christian war-lovers and right-wing Christian family abuse.

In fact, all these freaky End Times warnings really do is:

• scare the Christian people who put them out, 
• embarrass the Christian people who want to pretend there won't be an End Times,
• make non-Christians believe they have to be against Jesus to be good people, and 
• just generally put a real bummer on everyone's spirit. 

Blah.

Now, there really will be an End Times. And beyond saying they really will be the most horrendous time ever seen on planet Earth, pretty much everything else about them (like, when did/will they start, how will they play out, and so on) is entirely, lovingly debatable even by good Christian people who really know their Bibles and history (despite what we're constantly told by those of Christian Corporate Media).

Still, despite differences of opinion about how the End Times are or will play out, I find three great things we Christians should always remember (and be telling our non-Christian friends and neighbors) about the End Times:

Great Thing # 1 - Jesus and the Bible are far more interested in making sure we know how to make it to and through the End Times, than with specifics on what's going to happen and when.

God wants as many people as possible to make it to heaven. But He knows too that no way could we human beings ever really understand the full depth of what's going to happen, even if He told us every last detail in vivid color. We'd still argue about it, and confuse it, and re-imagine it, and re-translate it, and so on (especially if we have theology degrees or church positions). I mean, He can't even tell us something simple like "turn the other cheek" without us turning it into something else entirely! 

So, just like we don't explain to our kids the how's and why's and histories of, for example, making ourselves presentable to the world each morning, but instead just give them directions like "Brush your teeth", "Wash your face", "Comb your hair", and "Put your school clothes on" -- in the same way God gives us the directions we need to make ourselves presentable for His heaven.

Jesus tells us about the End Times, for example:

• Don't get tricked or discouraged by what only looks like and pretends to be Christianity (most people will become false Christians, or they will either never choose or will choose to leave the real Jesus because they confuse Him with False Christianity).
• Don't be afraid when big bad things start to happen (that's just part of the whole plan, and Jesus will make sure you're off-planet before He starts its big "remodel").
• Don't worry about being persecuted -- expect it even, if you're still among those hanging on to the real Jesus (No matter how it happens, if it happens, just go with what the Holy Spirit puts in your heart, and keep hanging on to Jesus).
• Keep sharing the Gospel and caring for other people until Jesus comes (stay focused on what's really important, and don't start getting lost in worry, boredom, time-wasting, or sense indulgence and be caught spiritually napping when He arrives).
• Don't try to figure out when Jesus is coming back (God's doing this by how He counts time, not by how you do).
• Everyone will know it when Jesus comes back (so don't chase after reports of where He supposedly is, or fear you've missed it somehow).
• When you see Jesus coming in the clouds, stand up tall and lift up your head! -- this is the best day of your life on this planet!

And that's a lot more human-friendly than if God had said: "Work out exactly what every single cryptic End Times prophecy means before I get back!"

Great Thing # 2 -- just like there are overwhelming and scary labor pains in birth, but then the miracle of new life for a baby, there will be overwhelming and scary labor pains for the End Times, but then New Life for us and the earth.

The Bible says after Jesus comes and rights everything, because the earth itself will finally be completely filled with knowledge of the Lord, even the animals that previously ate other animals will now only eat plants, and peacefully right alongside those animals they used to prey upon. Imagine! Lions eating straw alongside cows. Little children playing quite safety right next to cobra nests. Packs of wolves napping next to little lambs. The earth itself will finally be set right, once again.

The Bible also says that after Jesus makes everything right again, God will wipe every tear from our eye. It says there will never again be death, mourning, crying, or pain. Even more, every brokenness in our bodies will be erased, our bodies made new just like Jesus' resurrected and glorified body was.

When it's time for God to rip the devil-bandaid off the world, just hang in there, knowing that soon and very soon, you are going to see the King -- and then expect only the joy you've earned by toughing it out!

Now, I fully understand the need to let people know there are scary things in store for those who continue to enjoy evil and insist on doing things their own way (instead of God's way). But that's only the subplot to a much larger story.

Jesus didn't come to die an agonized death on the Cross so that human beings could be scared of going to hell, did He? Of course not. He died on the Cross because God loves every person on this planet, no matter what they've already done, no matter what they will do in the future, no matter what they think or ever will think of Him.

Jesus came and died an agonized death on the Cross so that every person who chooses to can be freed from the Roach Motel of sin the devil has placed around this world.

And that's what needs to be shared with ourselves, our friends, our families, our neighbors, and even strangers on the street:

"Friend, there's something really bad coming not too far in the future. And Someone Really Big would like nothing better than for you to know how to avoid it..."

 So, here's Great Thing # 3 about the End Times -- you.

Remember that part of what Jesus said about not being tricked into believing in False Christianity (and make no mistake -- even people who hate False Christianity believe in it, or they wouldn't confuse it with the real thing)? Remember that most people are going to be tricked? The # 3 great thing about the End Times is that you have a chance not only to not be tricked yourself, but to also help others either not be tricked, or get un-tricked, before it's too late.

So, while you are modeling the real Jesus for people who don't know the real Jesus, leaving soul-safe tracts laying around on park benches or bus seats so people can read and think about the Lord privately, helping Gays and straights understand what God really thinks about them, and so on, you can be doing the work God has assigned each of us to do, in preparation for His coming again. 

What are some ways you are already doing God's work to plant seeds of understanding for others regarding the real Jesus, and the real Scripture as God gave it to us? What are some new ways you might be able to help out? Is there someone who needs prayer? A hug? A friendly ear? A fresh look at Scripture?

What can you do to make things great for others, regarding the End Times?

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Friday links 12/03/2010

Looking for a great place for Christmas gifts this year -- something that will also help those in need? Check out the Marketplace for the highly respected hunger organization Feed My Starving Children. Note that you can also make direct donations to feed children around the world -- your Christmas present to them! Just US $35 feeds six kids for a month, US $70 feeds one kid for a year. And, of course, your local food bank needs your help, as well!

This kind of hunger help will become more and more needed, as the ability of local people (including local farmers around the world) to feed themselves continues to fail. Many, of course, blame growing hunger on global warming. However, the root cause for hunger today is the still growing economic globalization and corporate domination that's made it more and more impossible (through "patenting" local plants and then charging huge amounts for them, rigging devastating loans that steal land, and depriving them of any water unless they can pay high prices for it, for example) for local people to do what they had done successfully without corporate or United Nations "help" for thousands of years.

Here, just in time for talk-time around the Christmas dinner table, is a list of 10 anti-Gay myths and the information that debunks them. It doesn't cover, though, whether the new TSA pat-downs are part of the 'homosexual agenda' (puhleeze...)

I've never had a problem being both a Christian and someone who loves science -- the two only conflict when people make a religion out of science. But discovering there are perhaps three times as many stars than we knew of before? And seeing just how big God can imagine even on a tiny little earth, and what creatures He can imagine (and imagine more and more)? What an awesome God who planned and loves each of us with even more power than He uses to create and maintain the universe!

The political game in the USA is to keep people on both the "right" and the "left" convinced that there is a substantial difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. And in small things, and in how they talk, there does seem to be some. However, when it comes to who they are and what they actually do and protect and push for, there seems to be very little difference any longer. See, for example, this story, now all over the news: "The Obama administration went to the mat to defend its predecessors from a torture prosecution in Spain last year, a leaked State Department cable shows." I truly believe the USA will play a serious role in the End Times, but not in a good way!

I myself have a wide variety of interests, but wanting to own even a famous person's old coffin? Eeeww! Not so much.But I would go see this new full scale replica of Noah's ark (anyone near Cincinnati?). And if I could knit, I'd make sweaters for bald chickens (they are just so cute!).

Please keep our brother Blake in your prayers this week -- that his parents and family will come to know the truth about what God thinks of Gay people, that Blake will continue to be strong, happy, and healthy as he deals with their unbiblical understandings, and that the Lord will use this to bring all the members of this family to a greater and more glorifying knowledge of Him!

This guy turned his camera so that on this steep hill in San Francisco it looked like the street was level -- but the building was not. Wow! I'd be afraid to park my car sideways on a slope like that!

Thirty two years ago this week, Harvey Milk was assassinated by someone who believed God and the Bible made him a better person than Harvey. By someone who decided that the best way he could prove that was to murder Harvey and another (straight) man. But in 1978, Harvey Milk was about hope -- hope in a time that had almost nothing good to say to or about Gay people. Harvey Milk is one of our great heroes, because he took a stand, even when it was scary, to stand up for people who were hurting. Listen to a piece of one of Harvey's speeches, and see if you agree with him, that "You've got to give them hope."

Finally, Lord, you never let go, so lead us to the Cross!

See you next week!