Table of Contents
Grace
Grace. Beautiful, wonderful, full of love–grace. For some reason grace, within the church (many times), is put on a leash or in a box. I think I prefer the box analogy…because we don’t want to put God in a box, do we? But the church (the people) has and does. Grace can only go so far then…whoah…put it back in the box. Such a little word that can bring out so much fear in the church (the people) that it can cause people to do irreparable harm to others all in the name of “keeping people safe”.
This fearful word “grace” is what started everything eight years ago. It effected so many families. Not because they stood with me and what I was writing or believing but because they simply choose not to give up a friendship, were lied about themselves, and/or tried to bring reconciliation (Matthew 18). Many things were said about these people, myself and my family. It all depended on what would spin the best for those in fear. Then there were those after who choose to leave as God spoke to them and the lies and abuse were revealed to them personally.
How Powerful Fear Is
Now, I don’t want to cover this all again I just want to show how powerful fear can be when we choose to look at it rather than God (faith). It always amazes me what humanity will do when faced with fear. What amazes me more is what happens in some churches when faced with fear. Do they face it head on with eyes wide open and a willingness to look at themselves, bring people together and try to find reconciliation? Or do they buckle under the fear trying to cover up for themselves painting a fabrication of what happened to spin a story about the “other people” so they can appear good, holy and beyond reproach? The second shows human nature while the first shows God empowerment. Two things I talk about in both my books, Time To Really Live Free and The Door Is Open.
Fear Tactics-Scripture
One of the fear tactics used when we left was an email sent out to both the church leadership and the women’s leadership. At the time, I saw what the “teaching” was about, realized I had seen this “teaching” before, and simply put it aside, because honestly there was so much coming at me at the time that I really didn’t care about this one because I knew it wasn’t true. So, why now bring up this “teaching” (see photo of email)? Because for some reason I am supposed to. When I started the “Grace Is” series this email popped back up for me and I thought it is time to look at this and break it down for what it is. Maybe this is for one person to hear or maybe it is for more…I don’t know. But I am supposed to dig in, so here we go.
Reading All The Way Around Scripture
I am going to start with the first question and the book of Jude. Now instead of going right to Jude 11, I read the book in entirety. I looked at the Greek throughout but did not break all of it down into Greek like I have in the past. Jude is warning believers to contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3) and watch out for certain men, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 4). Many may stop at lewdness and not proceed to the word deny. So let me take Jude 4 and add some Greek meaning to it:
Indeed certain men came in close beside under pretense, those long ago written before (from the OT and prophecies of Enoch) unto this the result of judgement (eternal results), deserting (transpose, transfer, to change—putting one in place of the other) the grace of the God of us into licentiousness (properly, violent spite which rejects restraint and indulges in lawless insolence (rude, disrespectful act that is deliberate), and deny (contradict, refuse to affirm or to confess) Lord (person exercising absolute ownership rights) of us and the solitary master (lord, prince) Jesus Christ.
These people are specific people who choose to deny God and his son Jesus Christ. These are all people God knows already will do such a thing. They have been written about long ago. They can be termed false teachers or antichrists. I have a whole chapter in The Door Is Open dedicated to this topic of antichrists. These people also transferred the gift of God (grace) into lawless insolence which means a rude, disrespectful act that is deliberate. This comes from the place of pure self empowerment which I talk about in the chapter, Could I Really Lose My Salvation? in Time To Really Live Free.
More Jude and “These People”
Jude goes on to talk about the old testament and the stories there about how God destroyed those who did not believe (God’s persuasion and here) (Jude 5). Jude is explaining what will happen at the great (magas=wide) day (period from sunrise to sunset) of judgement, what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah giving oneself over to fornication and followed behind another but distinct in kind self empowerment (Jude 6-7 paraphrasing from Greek and italics are added). In the same manner however also these self empowered dreamers indeed stain the soul (tainted at the source (self empowerment)), reject what is already laid down by the lordship (dominion, a power exerting itself in a particular jurisdiction (lordship)), unspoken manifestaion of God and speak evil of God or men (Jude 8 paraphrasing from Greek and italics are added). In Jude 9 and 10 (paraphrasing from Greek and italics are added) he goes on to say even the archangel did not try to judge in place of God but reminded the devil the Lord will do so and these people speak slander (malicious, abusive language without reason (absurd) living creatures standing upon, in this they waste away (moving down from a higher level to a lower form).
Who Are “These People”
The people Jude is talking about describe the antichrists, false teachers which have been written about by Paul, John, and Peter. People who commit the unforgivable sin (pg.132- Time To Really Live Free re: Mark 3:28-30). These are specific people and Jude gets to the specifics using Old Covenant experiences (most likely Jude was speaking to Hebrews since he was using an old testament example) in Jude 11:
“Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.” (NKJV)
It is actually pretty straight forward. So let’s look at Cain, Balaam and the rebellion of Korah. I am going to cover Cain and Balaam here first then follow up in another post with Korah.
Cain
Cain is really easy. It is something the Lord showed me within scripture early on. It was there the whole time I just never saw it as I was starting at the wrong starting point and living with one foot in the Old Covenant and one foot in the New Covenant. I like to call this “luke warm”. Here is where I found the scripture, which helped me tremendously:
“By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” (Hebrews 11:4 NKJV, italics mine)
Simply put, faith is what set Abel apart from Cain. The faith Abel had, obtained witness for him that he was righteous. Cain did not have faith when he brought his sacrifice. This is the only difference from one sacrifice to the other in God’s view. So what Jude is describing through the use of Cain, is that “these people” he has been speaking about have
No faith (pistis-noun)
The topic of faith I go over in great detail in both my books (best place to start is Chapter 8 pg 59-60 in Time To Really Live Free) and is important to note faith here is a noun not a verb.
Balaam
Next, they give themselves up to the same error (deception) of Balaam… pay (wages, reward that compensates a particular decision). A great description of this comes from an old blog I wrote, You Do Not Know What Spirit You Are From, all based on Charles Dickens book Christmas Carol. I cover this in greater detail in The Door Is Open starting on page 76. Greed is something I see in humanity when it goes amok. Greed in the church is really ugly and something Jesus talked about extensively, because he saw it among the Jewish people too who were following the old covenant. Greed can be about keeping certain people coming to their church based on how much they give monetarily. Setting a special place for them at the table (making sure they have appointments, time spent with the pastors/leadership, even to the point of making sure their specific requests are taken care of while others aren’t) to keep them happy all dependent upon how much they give (Luke 14:7-11). In the book of Acts, Peter runs into Simon the Sorcerer who had a greed for power and wanted to purchase the Holy Spirit power from Peter (Acts 8:21). Simon’s heart was not right before God and if you look above at what Jude wrote, so far, you will see the words “self empowerment” over and over again. Self empowerment needs to be understood by the church body, the Body of Christ. Because once we understand self empowerment we understand the right starting point. I describe within scripture what self empowerment means starting in Time To Really Live Free Chapter 13 and 14 and continue on with it in The Door Is Open. It is a large subject, only because it unwinds old beliefs that have been passed down incorrectly.
Whats Jude Got To Do, Got to Do With Us???
Needless to say, the teaching used in Jude to describe myself, my family and friends is incorrect, has nothing to do with us. Never at any time did we deny Jesus Christ or God, we remained in the faith and we were not looking to our own self empowerment or greedily trying to control people and their money. As a matter of fact, this was a time of great persecution for myself and others and amazingly one of the closest times I had encountered God in a long time. Now, I know his presence lives in me no matter what-my faith (that he freely gives to me) and I hold on to that fact. He is always close to me-because he lives inside me-
God lives intertwined with his beloved…. Pg 102-Time To Really Live Free
But during these persecutions the Holy Spirit gave me directly what to say and what not to say just like Jesus promised in Luke 12:12-13.
Great Hope
I, my family, my friends are all new creations in faith (The Door Is Open, Chapter 5). We live from this place of great grace, freedom–not to do whatever we wish to do but to know God loves us no matter what. The great hope is knowing that God will, like the Good Shepherd, go after us. He is the Great Pursuer, the Lover of our soul, he desires each of us more than we can imagine with our human minds. Grace is the New Covenant. It is what Jesus died to bring; then rose again on the third day to bring us hope in our own future as we walk with him. Not beside him, not behind him, but with him. We have something new in this time and it’s name is grace. Don’t let the word trip you up. Don’t allow old teachings, old beliefs that have one foot planted in the old covenant and one foot in the new covenant put a stumbling block in your way. Look things up in the Greek and Hebrew, listen to the still small voice within you (the voice of faith-God) and let the Holy Spirit teach you. This isn’t a brand new idea or teaching it is old, two thousand years old.
Again we are fortunate to live in this time. This time of Grace. The New Covenant.
…the Good Shepherd (Jesus) , is trying to lead us out of the cave (law) and into the wide open spaces (grace) and we are no longer cofined to the cave (law). pg 67- Time To Really Live Free
May God fill you with understanding as he unwinds old belief systems and you see the way he sees. Much Grace, Darlene
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