Personal Holiness: Connectivity

 

‘Jacob’s Ladder’ is a weekly Sunday Blog post; blog history is at dreliatjacobsladder.blogpost.com

This is a Fellowship of the Spirit. It is not a church construct; it involves neither mission, fund raising, nor religious participation. God desires our participation in all of life, and not via misleading  ‘gospel’ notions proposed by corporate and cultural sources. Jacob’s Ladder pursues Christian growth as human growth. It works to complete social holiness and fulfill personal holiness in our lives. As God wills community for all, Jacob’s Ladder will keep on!

This week: The Connectivity of Personal Holiness

Recap and review: Read Mar 10th 2025 post on John 15.

Deary Beloved,

The scriptures I’ve focused on this first year of JL work represent the formative elements of what it means to be Christian, and my view is somewhat different from the trad view but true to what the text of scripture says, essentially the work of biblical theology; as the textual work of Jacob’s Ladder progresses we read, learn and apply what works for each of us.  Reading through the Blog posts will help you see the differences between JL and the traditional way these ideas have been presented and taught! Next week I will do a summary of what is essential reading in the Bible and what is pertinent and can be useful. After that, a few months going through all that Jesus said and what it means for now, beginning with Mark.

What it means to be Christian is built around 2 distinct elements of holiness – the social and the personal, both pointing to a particular way of life. Both flesh out what Jesus called the 2 greatest Commandments.  The social aspect of holiness brings us to Jesus throwing moneychangers out of the temple; or a Samaritan helping an injured Jew. The personal aspect of holiness is in Jesus’ words in John 15. I am the vine; you are the branches. Abide in me, and I will abide in you. Without me you can do nothing. 

This means Jesus and me going forward together as companions on a journey here on this earth, a journey that takes us into varying aspects of the Kingdom of God.  Those who stay connected are branches that bear fruit, and the fruit of the Spirit includes love, joy, peace; and extends into everything we encounter! Hence the ‘ask, and you will receive.’ Just stay close. A loving Father never denies children in need. So it is with the Lord. Except that in God’s created world, cause and effect created by our choices have consequences that we must deal with. And not blame anyone.

This ‘staying close’ is what we turn towards in personal holiness. It is connectivity! And it is a linear path. As Jesus said to the woman taken in adultery – where are those who condemn you? Those who are sinless, let them cast the 1^st stone! No one did. They left, quietly. Jesus said to her, go, sin no more. We must learn from our errors and move on ahead. We do not want to get caught up in a repetitive cycle of sin and forgiveness. Think of a loving father or mother. Do we berate our children all the time for every little thing? No, we tell them once or twice and encourage them to move onwards, not wanting their errors to slow them down. We are all forgiven sinners. That is enough. We make mistakes, we fix the mistakes, we move on. And the Lord accepts us as we are, warts and all, and if we walk with Him, we find the strength to fix what we can and should fix!

Acceptance of the Christian faith, if not done right, very easily makes forgiven sinners who often faithfully stay that way,  limited by our sinfulness; but happy in being forgiven sinners. That is not the way of the Lord. Jesus calls us into abundant life and joyful living, into the growth possibility of Psalm 8 now! And only the Christ who walks with us can take us into the real personal holiness that creates social holiness, without which it becomes no more than social action. The greatest obstacle to Christian growth may well be the notion that we are sinners who will never get too far on the road into the Kingdom i.e. the one that manifests power now! But this is wrong. This is precisely where real faith and belief kick in!! Every day and all of the time.

To walk with Jesus is primarily a matter of trusting in the Lord. It is this trust that enables us to go forward. This is where faith comes in. 2 sides of the same coin. In doing so we put our relationship with the Lord to the strength test of the reality that is ours.

It begins and goes forward for each of us in different ways. So we must work out what is best. Some things to bear in mind –

1.      How do we differentiate between mind and spirit? Our minds are our own. We can and must take responsibility for what the mind can do. And we haven’ t really begun on this! We will work through this in the days to come.

2.      And our spirits? This is where feeling comes in. Yet it is not enough to rigidly conclude that feeling is spiritual while logic is more a mental effort. While the spirit touches both, spirit is much more and is best seen in our ability to supersede logic and feeling. It is in the interface of mind and spirit that we must find our true selves. The experience is just hard to describe.  We are struggling with terminology, and the terms of discourse of much Christian teaching are inadequate. Too often what is called Christian has been borrowed from here, from there and from somewhere else. The terms run from being oversimplified and literal to being obtuse and specialized! You push them a little, you end up in academic theological distinctions and differences; push that further and you end up in the underlying academic philosophies that theology is based on. Doesn’t help. Might sound impressive, but the key is – WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE FOR ME?

3.      We must learn to think with the spirit, in the spirit, through the spirit, and connect to the Spirit of God with our spirits. This is the work of the body temple, which enables you to transcend the body! As we do this habitually, it will seem like a part of your mind is what and where the spirit works from, and you will learn to distinguish between the two as you need to. And it gets stronger with time. Many of you know this.

4.      You go through the day thinking through stuff with the Lord, sharing issues, feelings, struggles, concerns, aspirations and apprehensions.

5.      Then you listen carefully for what the answers might be. And they will come. Sometimes like a logical conclusion. Sometimes like a light bulb that is suddenly switched on in a dark room! It depends. A bit like thinking with the spirit that IS YOU and realizing what it is when God gives the answer.

6.      And you will feel the affirmation of it. This is why I speak of mind and feeling and more.

7.      Some of you may think but that’s our prayer time, no? No. If you will, this is engaging in a constantly ongoing prayer time! A daily ongoing dialogue with the Lord Jesus. This is the closeness that the Lord asks of us.     

But this is why I am always unimpressed with worship and prayer that depend on loudness or strong emotion or good music and so on and so forth. For me, it is godly action and ability that speaks for itself. All else is vanity.

 This all begins with faith and trust. And then it all morphs into a strong desire of wanting to be close to the Lord. You practice seeking the kingdom first, and it grows into a seek ye first the Lord of the Kingdom. Could just as well work the other way around. But therein is peace and comfort. The hand of God that holds your hand. Always there. A presence within you that brings strength and courage together with the kindness of love. It is never a matter of saying I believe in the presence of Jesus. It is real presence. Not believing that it is real or trying to convince ourselves. But knowing the reality of it. Be careful of the traps that religious trends can set before us. Perhaps we could say that faith = sincerity, and belief = trust. Not abstracts but working motivation towards concrete results in the here and now.

Or you could also say, well it’s not that difficult to figure out. It’s how we walk each day of our lives with the people closest to us that we care most for! Is that not so? Well then, it is not that hard, surely. The Lord welcomes us into his presence daily. The difference is that this is a Spiritual presence, and so you must approach Him in spirit, with mind and body in tow. And the walk is your walk in this life! Your thoughts, your intentions, your actions. Not accurate for some to say ‘when I speak, it is the Lord speaking through me’. That does not happen. Rather, God leads us into conclusions of what should be said and done, and we move accordingly in His will and His blessing.

Then you take control of what you can and do it well. Start with personal and simple issues that can be a struggle, like going back to sleep after getting up, for whatever reason, at night. Or bucking the age-old adage that as you get older, you go to sleep earlier (maybe) and wake up earlier (maybe!). Work on what is best for you and learn control of mind and  body through spirit. Then you are ready to pray for others and see results! What you cannot control the Lord will control so that you are able to address it in your life. This I have experienced.

Hence, towards the end of it all, I am led into the writing of Jacob’s Ladder to show comparisons for spiritual reality.  I expect I will live for some time yet because of the Lord’s strange and sometimes weird (to me) presence in my life. Where I was born, it was a small country where the leadership was slowly taking tight control of the people’s lives and gaining from it to their own advantage.  I saw what needed to be said and done. But then I was invited here. Then prevented from returning. Most fascinating. And now I am in the midst of a people where half cannot clearly tell right from wrong, misinterpretation is rampant and folk are easily misled, times are harder, families struggle more, and so there is much work to do. I was quite happy to leave all of this aside and mind my own business. But I leave it in the Lord’s hands. The 23^rd Psalm and the presence of the Lord have never failed. I have always been willing to die whenever. But since it is the will of the Lord to keep me working, I welcome it. I remain, for my age, fast, clear, and capable. But the line between witness and boasting is a thin one and  I just try to stay whom I am and let that speak. Follow the Lord closely and the Lord will always be there for you, your children, and your grandchildren. This I know and have experienced.

All of this comes down to our stewardship of God’s gift of life-changing love to us in Christ Jesus. Those who take it lightly, remain blithe spirits, I guess. Those who take it with utter seriousness, are amazed, time and time again. Like the amazement that the Gospel of Mark is always talking about! Why? Because God’s difference in your life need not be talked about. It will emerge in concrete action and result, seen for itself and the difference it makes. May such amazement be yours always in Christ our Lord. Grace and peace, G.

 

After Easter – The Dynamics of Personal Holiness

'Jacob’s Ladder’ is a weekly Sunday post; its blog history is at dreliatjacobsladder.blogpost.com This is a Fellowship of the Spirit. It is not a church construct; it involves neither mission, fund raising, nor religious participation. God desires our participation in all of life, and not via the existential misleading ‘gospel’ of corporate and culture influenced selection. Jacob’s Ladder pursues Christian growth as human growth. It works to complete social holiness and fulfill personal holiness in our lives. God wills community for all of us, and Jacob’s Ladder will keep on growing!

God is Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth..

Dearly beloved,

We have spent just over a year journeying through essential scripture on Christian growth; all Posts are up on the Blog for quick and easy reference; it is time to ensure that our spiritual lives are moving effectively so that we can deal with the struggles that face us in this world! They are around the corner and are both personal and social. Social holiness is the easier of the two. Half of it is current sociology and political ethics, and everyone has an opinion. It is not too difficult to single out The Good Samaritan and then use current examples of what it involves for our times. But personal holiness is a different story and much more significant, for it involves that personal commitment to the Lord God in Jesus that brings life changing ability in the here and now. And it does not come easy. The road into the Kingdom of God is narrow and you can easily slide off the path while convincing yourself you’re still on it!

 Personal holiness has never been effectively dealt with by any branch of the Church, Catholic, Protestant or ‘other’. I grew up in a Protestant Christian family with the old traditional ways of devotion – they were never as effective as they were made out to be; too much going around in circles of repentance and forgiveness, not enough really going forward in spiritual ability; and in the end, although unsaid, we were always left with the struggle of

‘I don’t have enough faith?’ or

‘I don’t really believe enough? or

‘I’m just a forgiven sinner and though I’m happy about it I guess I won’t really get far in spiritual ability.’

That was never good (ie godly) enough. I have always pushed for church to be what it could and should be, beyond culture. The old ways were never sufficient. They carried the weight of dead tradition as versus a joyful and powerful experience in the here and now. What I’m after is the end result that Jesus speaks of! And it is very different from the general notions of holiness -

Cut off from everyone and living in isolation.

No vices (not observable anyways!)

Lots of religious practices, like praying often

Faithful membership in a religious body

And so on…

Instead it has only one condition as found in the 1^st  Commandment, and it must be practiced.

 On the Blog, for this week, first go to the post for Feb 1^st 2026 entitled ‘Be Still and Know ‘ and read it slowly and thoroughly. That is step one on the right path. And it is a big and through step. And we take off this week from that point and begin to move further.

The scripture basis for Christian meditation is very short and simple. Like Jesus shows us, with the Lord’s Prayer. No need for falling on our knees, or confessing our sinfulness, or self-denial, etc. Times have moved on, our world keeps changing, and traditional models don’t quite fit anymore. We need spiritual ways that build strong and true Christian lives. The ‘I am’ and the “I cause to be” that describe God are more in the present and the future than they are in the past.

God is Spirit. They that worship God must worship God in spirit and truth. Something about God being Spirit that we must come to terms with, that is a very specific key to personal holiness. We all have a reasonably good sense of what it means to do the kind thing, the loving thing. But to relate to God in the sense of Spirit has never been clear, and this is where the hardest work lies. We have to start thinking about what we have talked a little about and begin to practice it before we ever are able to have access to and move within the mind of Christ.

God is not about rituals, rites and repetition. If you are exactly there, then that may be your comfort zone. But that’s the stuff the Levites started. To love God is to be open to a differentness that can be disturbing, because God is not always affirming of what we think is best for us. But to share a closeness with God, in thought, action and intention is to develop a sensitivity to God’s leading in your life. And to follow that leading in thought, word and deed. It is deeply intuitive and totally results oriented. Like Jesus. And to observe, almost from the outside in, as you shift gears, switch persona, seize on the new and the different, and find within yourself the ability to be much more than you thought you could ever be. As one of my favorite parishioners used to say and still says, God has a plan for each of us; and it involves some very real and powerful growth! Easy to conceive of. Much harder to get on and stay on track.

The parallels with physical exercise are quite amazing. Does not happen overnight. Requires the discipline of consistent practice. You are a forgiven sinner. Sure. Jesus offers salvation. Great. And what does all of that mean? As I said earlier, salvation is much more than a declared state of being. Somewhere along the way we got very tied up by continental and western philosophical theology. (will take us a while to unravel all of that!) Salvation =  a state of dynamic action in this world. You would have noted my clear twofold emphasis – personal holiness, social holiness. Love God, love your neighbor. That’s all it comes down to. And it means that you are always moving forward.

We will talk more about how the Bible should be read as we go along. But Bible study and reading scripture does not amount to a hill of beans in Christian growth. Makes us feel good because we’ve always been told that reading the Good Book is good for us. It’ll make us better. Why? How does that work? Well, you practice what you read. Yeah, like practicing what you preach, and we all have seen how that can go. The why and how of goodness becoming reality has never been dealt with effectively. Be aware that while most Bibles have 66 Books, the full Bible has 88. We lost about 20 because a Church Council decided to keep them out of the Canon. Not wise. The version I use is the Oxford Annotated Bible with 19 of the missing 20 in its Apocrypha section. It is the best translation of the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament.

Much of Christian practice has suffered from a woeful lack of integration; practice has almost always been based on emotion and feeling in worship, i.e. the more you feel, the better it is (which is where my typical comments about I'd rather be at a rock concert come in (!) and on the other hand, an almost totally academic approach to scripture reading and referring to what ‘experts’ in Commentaries have said. We need some of both and more which takes us beyond these, but always kept in balance. There are very few who know what they are talking about. Far too many reflect an academic discipline or a cultural perspective or a combo of both! And God is not Jewish. And the entire ‘intellectual’ approach to the Bible is off grounded. Not where it should be. Scripture is not a place for academic, intellectual, or pseudo-cultural notions; people need insight balanced with ability for daily living.

Feelings are fleeting. Intellect too often knows what is good but is unable to do it, lacking the will for good action. It’s what folk refer to when they talk about the difference between talking the talk and walking the walk. What was it Paul said in Galatians about ‘if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.’ An exceptionally large cross someone wore once made me say, so, I guess if you get mad enough you’re gonna hit someone with that cross, huh? It didn’t go down too well, but I made my point. You do not look the walk (ie look = talk); you walk it.

For this week, the focus is entirely personal and individual. You cannot do this effectively unless you are ready for it and wish to. It is the beginning of true spiritual adventure, from mind into spirit. If you get on the road, you begin to move forward into that true ability that being in the Kingdom of God brings. It is not leading into any kind of ‘holier than thou’ stuff. Part of it is that the more you grow the humbler you stay! But you won’t need someone to pray for you. If you don’t get on the road into the Kingdom, you will stay a talker, quote scripture, dress sharply perhaps, but be unable to act on a relationship with God because it has not taken off, and you are not able to see how God works amongst us. No branch to vine connect. Take care. Until next week, every blessing in Jesus, G.

 

 

 

Easter 2026!

 Easter Sunday 2026

Dearly beloved,

Every blessing in the risen Christ! This is a sign given to the world that physical death is not the end. Most people live that way though. This life is all there is, this world is all there is, and when death comes, it’s all gone and nothing is left. Makes you wonder what salvation might mean to them.

Some people who read the Bible are stuck in Revelation and can only see a 2^nd coming, an Armageddon; pain and suffering; and finally The Lord comes in the clouds with trumpets and the dead rising. Where are they rising from? From the ground, where they have been ‘resting’, as we refer to with our ongoing use of the Latin RIP abbreviation. Though how that actually happens is difficult. The body decays, so what exactly rises? The old forms are no longer needed. In heaven, form changes, hence Jesus says they neither marry nor give in marriage. No need for procreation. But the body has decayed, the spirit is asleep/resting in peace, and then the same likeness awakens and meets the Lord up in the clouds!? Cool!  But other scriptures say that upon death the spirit returns to God who gave it.

What if the church fathers had decided not to include Revelation in the Canon?  How are we to reconcile the many passages in biblical text that contradict each other? We cannot.

I’ve never thought too much about Revelation and the 2^nd Coming. The presence and power of Jesus in the Comforter is more than enough 2^nd coming for me in this life. I have too many questions about what’s in the Canon and what’s been left out and why. Some 30 years of Jesus’ life unaccounted for. Seems like no one knew him, no one knew where he was, no one knew what he was doing. But John was his cousin. But my research along these lines continues. Selective canonicity, unavoidable witness. We’ll come to that soon enough.

The risen Christ is a challenge to all of us. The Holy Saturday post remembered the strange experiences the disciples had with the risen Christ Jesus. Great that all of that was retained in the Canon. But the tradition continued with those uncomfortable truths to be celebrated once a year. So once a year we celebrate the rising of the historical Jesus, the Christ. Beyond the historical remembrance, where do we go? A lot of notions about church and fellowship and growing in the spirit etc. So let us ask a basic question that we all need to work with.

How does God speak to us?

Scripture? Possible. Just be careful about privatized and intellectualized notions. On a personal side this can mean spiritual insight, and very specifically. If that happens, go with it and look for what lies ahead. The results will show you the difference between true insight, self-deception, wishful thinking.

Dreams. God speaks through dreams, from Jacob’s Ladder in the OT to Mary’s Joseph in the NT, but we have to distinguish what dreams may come and what dreams are of creative fantasy. If we dream at all. Some of us have bungee jumping dreams and say ah, its another life, you see. And in it, I’m someone else! Cool; good for you. I’m more interested in how that other life intersects with this one. Work on it. If you really seek something, seek earnestly and see what happens. Never mind about asking someone else about the interpretation of a dream. Work it out.

Insight. A sense of seeing, a hunch, a feeling, something within you that sees what others do not and cannot and may not be something you can always talk about with others. Understand how others understand themselves. Then perhaps suggestions may not fall on deaf ears. Our country now is a huge contradiction as the world watches. And most of it points to a very negative direction. The spirit of God was never needed here as much as He is needed now. And I don’t wish to talk about ‘spiritual advisors’. Ha. That’s like D. H. Lawrence’s poem about Celia. If you know that one, you know what I mean about that reality.  

Signs. These are mostly cultural, ethnic, communal and so forth. Again, a ‘sign’ might give rise to a hunch, a feeling, something within you that speaks to you of a thing about to happen or a thing to which you must respond. Only you can decide. And if the hunch works, then God is to be praised. Just be careful.

Conscience. All human beings know what hurts us and causes pain. A powerful tool God uses with all of us, if we allow for it. It’s like that line from the song ‘Wooden Ships’ that says ‘if you smile at me I will understand; because that is something everybody does in the same…… language’. John Wesley was very good about how God works through conscience and interpreted it well, crossing into non-Christian distinctions in his time. Watching JC Superstar this weekend, I could only smile at the white Jesus (he sang well) and the black Judas ( he too sang very well! ) But JW’s claim was that God speaks to all of us thorough conscience, and if we listen, we will learn. 

Voice seems common, especially in the OT, but is difficult. Easily perceived as such, but God is spirit and does not, unless God chooses to, communicate in our modulation. Story of the guy in the cave at Machpelah who encountered the Spirit of God who sang to him and the beauty of the singing drove him quite mad. Or the interesting pastor who claimed that God had apologized to him. 

Examples and tests. When I first felt ‘called’ to the ministry, I didn’t like the idea. But what was I to do with this new thing that would not go away? So I tested it out. Do I really care enough for folk to be able to work with them and be of some help? From that point already my ‘calling’ had this dimension of being of help to others, not of ‘spreading the gospel’. Somehow, in being of help, the gospel would spread by itself.

I taught for several years and saw how care made a huge difference, and especially what confidence could do. Thus the beginning for me of Stephen King’s ‘ It don’t matter if you don’t believe in God, he believes in you!’ a quote from his ‘The Stand’; i.e. believe in yourself!  And it worked. Still does. So I said ‘ok we can go from here’. And I grew, and kept growing.

Intuition. Far from all of academic thinking; equally distant from all of emotion. A state of being that comes when you are in the Kingdom and in the world but not of it. Something we will work on as we go, for it has depth.

Cause and effect. Remember that verse when Moses wants to see the face of God and God says no, you can’t but I’ll pass by and proclaim who I am and says ‘The Lord, the Lord God…’ending the statement after lots of good things with a shot of justice – punishing the guilty, right down to the childrens children, even to the 3^rd snd 4^th generations, for the sins of the parents. The New Testament, apart from the gospels, is a lot of contextual and discussive history. The Old Testament gives a great deal of event detail that shows how God works in our lives. More on all this as we go. But this is why forgiveness isn’t a Get Out Of Jail card. You fix what you did wrong as best as you can or it will come back to you and your children and your chidrens children. Some simply say karma, but it is what it is. And the forgiven sinner approach? Good line to make converts, no? Forgiveness is real, but repentance is not a statement you make as much as to resolve whatever wrong you have done or are doing.  Sorry. It is what it is.

This is why Jesus says repent ye, and believe the gospel – the good news that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Be careful how the gospel message has shifted in its emphasis and presentation so that it becomes privatized and all you need is to say I believe in Jesus. The gospel of Jesus cannot be separated from the good news of the Kingdom of God. 2 sides of the same coin. Can’t have one without the other. The 2 greatest Commandments refer to Personal Holiness and Social Holiness. Privatize the Gospel and the Kingdom becomes a figure of speech and faith in Jesus a private affair.

Jesus was not saying anything new. His message about the Kingdom fulfils all that is said in the Old Testament.

New Christians, however, often begin biblical familiarity by starting with the Gospels and the New Testament and that does not fully portray all that Jesus is about. Hence, Jacob’s Ladder begins at the beginiing.

Not, ‘Well, its my faith and what I believe is what it is. Doesn’t mean that I have to get involved in calling out differences between right and wrong when things go bad or people get hurt. Not my thing.’ Ah, but the Kingdom says different, and calls us all to be Good Samaritans or Elijahs in times of an Ahab, whenever! Not a call to arms, but a call to truth! How all this has come about will constitute our work for much of this year; when, where, and how.  

Our next step is with the reality of the false white gospel - just say ‘I believe’; or ‘just feel that you believe.’  Nope. That’s just how new Christians are easily started off. Or at least, they think so, and then go on to manifest nothing new in their lives except a ‘stated identity’ and predictable patterns of behaviour. Insufficient to just say ‘I believe in Jesus and have said so’ etc. Much more than that is asked. And it is asked now. Have this receptive state of mind which precedes the experience of the Kingdom in your life and allows you to enter. Have as much faith as a mustard seed and if it is genuine, you will get in. Staying in means adopting a new way of life. If you don’t, you can wear fancy clothes and have money, but anything that money cannot buy is outside of your purview. A believer is a Kingdom experiencer. Not a statement sayer. But one who has the experience of the Kingdom and is enabled to change accordingly.

Easter is an open invitation to all. You all know the story. I don’t need to repeat the history of it. Believe, and run with it. Know the gospels, for they carry the seeds of truth about Jesus. Sort them out slowly, and may we each find the blessing that we seek. Until next week,

The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

G.

 

Holy Saturday 2026

 

Meditation for the Saturday….

Easter is neither a matter of faith or of belief. Much more than that. It is an offer of experience that you can accept. The preaching and teaching of the gospel has been so outdated and so irrelevant for so long! Just look to Jesus in the real presence and power of the Comforter!

The post Easter appearances of Jesus say a little about the life beyond; please read, as an adventure, the sections in Luke 24:13ff; 36ff and John 20:19ff; 26ff and 21:1ff; and 23:43 and finally John 14:2ff.

These are very different from traditional talking and thinking about what they were and are; i.e. the continued use of heaven as up and hell as down and RIP whenever someone leaves. There are clear contradictions. The version that says when Jesus died spirits were seen rising as the curtain in the temple was torn. Rising up from? Down, I guess.  Just as Saul called the spirit of Samuel and he came up? From? But Ecclesiastes 12 says clearly the spirit returns to God who gave it. The flesh returns to dust and ashes.  And Jesus says to the criminal on his side, this day you will be with me in paradise. How to know such an invite? You must adventure in the spirit, in the here and now.

And perhaps the biggest clue to such need is in the fear that most of us have when it comes to death and dying.

And what happens in the Luke and John stories about Jesus? They pose challenging questions that are not really taken up, since they delve into what seems to be science fiction! The categories are

1.Jesus appears suddenly and without warning, to the disciples; one time, even behind closed doors in a walled building.

2.Jesus disappears just as suddenly, except for the final mention in John where, outside of Jerusalem, he blesses the disciples and seems to move away, recede, and then disappear; this being seen in an upward direction; as recorded, it would appear that he moved upwards and was soon gone from sight.

3.he eats fish with them.

4. He is a physical being; Thomas, who doubted his appearance, reaches out and touches and feels the scars on him.

5. Lastly, when he appears, recognition is not a given; on 2 occasions, he walks and talks and is not recognized until he sits to eat with them and breaks bread with them – and then vanishes from their sight as on the road to Emmaus; and at the Sea of Tiberius where he bids them cast down and they draw up a huge amount of fish and then suddenly become aware/realize it is Jesus.

What conclusions can we draw about what has happened to the Jesus they knew? They have seen that he forgives and heals; now he appears and disappears, moves through thin air, passes through solid walls, and is neither ghost nor spirit.

There is no precedent in the Bible for this. The Old Testament speaks of Hell as Sheol, as in the ‘underworld’; so the Psalmist says ‘in Sheol who can praise thee?’ A little reminiscent of the Greek notion of Hades as the underworld, where one has to cross the river Styx to get into the underworld.

In 1 Samuel Ch 28:3ff  there is this neat story about Saul and the medium of Endor; wanting to know the outcome of impending battle, Saul finds a medium, though by law their existence and practice is forbidden; he asks to speak to Samuel and so the medium ‘brings up’ Samuel, who does not give him any good news. But Samuel does not speak through the Medium. Samuel appears, and the Hebrew word here for Samuel is used only this once in the Bible’s Hebrew; It means ‘ghost.’ I read the Hebrew on that, not according to some source!

Next, the notion of death is that the body is made from dust and at death returns to the dust it was made from; but the soul, the spirit life that God has breathed into the clay, returns to God; read the Genesis creation account; read Ecclesiastes 12.

But in the tradition, there is a one stop option about heaven i.e. you go to heaven. Wherever it is, whatever it is. Next to nothing is known. You hope. Or you’re going to hell. That was pretty much how the gospel was traditionally preached and still is. Be saved, or risk going to hell. Not much of an invitation. The other side of it was the ‘Be saved, and your sins are forgiven’ so you get to go to heaven. I am not sure whether that escapes coercion at all. Kind of a weird self-serving invite. Does not mesh with the ‘ he who loses his life will find it’

Check out the wording – most recently repeated by a so called evangelical to a genuine criminal with loads of material power…

“The only way to heaven is by the shed blood of Jesus Christ; if you accept that by faith, and invite him to come into your heart, you are heaven bound. I promise you; if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.”

These are not words to be taken literally or lightly. They require a soul commitment; not a verbal intellectual phrasing; the heart is not capable of believing anything; the mind will believe as we choose to believe for the time that we decide such belief should last! It is too easy, and in today’s world, makes a mockery of the Almighty. Not for nothing did Jesus say many are called but few are chosen. Again, the gate is narrow.

No doubt someone back in the day said something similar to Caiaphas and Pilate. Don’t feel badly, just do this and you’ll be all set. Ha! I do not want to spoil this weekend’s celebration for my readers et al, but you must come to terms with the evil of this world and how it dresses itself up for the Ball. So I set you this question – who said this, and to whom was it said? Go find out.

Jesus says to the one on his right, since he has been asked to remember him in the kingdom, in Luke 23:43 -  and ‘this day you will be with me in paradise.’ Sounds a little like the garden of Eden. Could be. We don’t know.

Again in John 14:2ff, Jesus tells us that in my Father’s house there are many rooms, and I go to prepare a place for you….read the section, it is very thought provoking; he also says I will come and take you there…what does that mean? Ask the Spirit!

Useful also to read Ecclesiastes 12:6ff and ask what is the silver cord, the golden bowl, the pitcher broken at the fountain, the wheel broken at the cistern; and then the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Not to be taken lightly.

If you get the Kingdom right, you will not fear death, as I do not. Both your own intuition and the Holy Spirit will tell you what you need to know. Read MD Sherwin Nuland’s ‘How We Die’ to get a sense of what physical death means. It may help.  Let it come when it will. I have made a weird discovery for myself as I have grown old. The Lord might allow us to die when we will, and even how we will, not counting the accidental causality of life ie we get hit crossing the street!  The 'how' has a lot to do with taking good care of your body. If you do that well, and you get your spirit connection right, then you get to decide the when of it. You will know for yourself. The body is a limited time frame, and it will run out. It will be time for the ‘you’ that is ‘you’ to leave. Some might believe otherwise and that is fine with me. I decided a long time ago that ‘faith’ and ‘belief are limited concepts, and opted for achievable experience instead. And I have lived such a way since then. So as I was called unwillingly to ‘ministry’ I am called to write JL. And I will do so. We leave for a better place, only because we have done such a bad job of stewardship on all the Lord has given us. So we must traverse inter-dimensionality at death. Either into the Father’s house or some other place of our own making. 

Remember, for all of our philosophy, technology, and so-called wealth achievements – we have no idea what the soul really is and where the soul resides in our being; and the same applies to that which we call our ‘consciousness’. Both psychology and psychiatry like to think of this as relating to the human brain, but the limits are obvious and the Qs have not been answered.

Jesus' post Resurrection appearances, like so much of the Bible, start with the invitation to have faith and believe; or believe and have faith. But history is history. Believe in what you can touch with your hands! No teachers, no miracle workers, no faith healers, none of the usual mumbo jumbo. Find out for yourself. The ‘how’ of it is simple. Do good and grow. Not appearance but action. Each good action = one step forward into the being and power of the Kingdom. And the hidden + factor that will always remain secret is the ability to control a thing, to make a thing change as you will (remember Jesus on moving the mountain to the sea?) That option is open to all. Follow Jesus. Move mountains, whatever that might constitute in your life. Every blessing in Jesus’ precious name and person, dearly beloved! Until tomorrow. G.

 

Good Friday 2026

 

‘Jacob’s Ladder’ is a weekly Sunday post; its blog history is at dreliatjacobsladder.blogpost.com

This is a Fellowship of the Spirit. It is not a church construct; it involves neither mission, fund raising, nor religious participation. God desires our participation in all of life, and not via the existential false ‘gospel’ of corporate and culture formatted selection. Jacob’s Ladder pursues Christian growth as human growth. It works to complete social holiness and move into personal holiness for all. As God wills community for all of us, Jacob’s Ladder will keep growing!

Friday April 3^rd 2025 – God’s Love For Us

Good Friday has traditionally been a sad day. But it is really a day for deep reverence and wonder at God’s love for us. As Jesus said to Philip, ‘If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father…’This is what it is. The Father, in the person of the Son, comes to live amongst us, that we might learn to live like Him. Good lives, Godly lives. Clear strong full and abundant lives. With just about unlimited potential. Not in order to gain the materialism of this world fueled by its greed, but for the Kingdom of God, which Jesus says …is within you! And His answer to Pilate – my Kingdom is not of this world. Dimensionality! Forget about the ups of heaven and the downs of hell. Amazing how old and dilapidated these ideas are. We have not really grown much. Priestly tradition, like the Levites, keeps the old alive and asks loyalty to it, for much of its identity is based on such. But God does not exist in a fixed state. So we continue to cling to outdated notions that are so out of touch with modern technological society. Hence Jesus’ Father, forgive them. For they know not….’ Understandable then. Now, too plainly a matter of choice.

Good Friday is not about suffering on the cross. The Romans crucified a lot of people, some crooks, some innocent. All suffered and died a slow death. But this is intentional. The offer of salvation, the work of the Christ, the love of God that bleeds for us. Sacrificial love at its highest. Power is a very attractive word to all. But the power of God is the power of love, and the only power than can bring life to death. 

Do the following if you will; perhaps a fast for a day (sunrise-sunset, water/coconut water) , either on Friday or on Saturday, in response to God’s self-giving love for us. Not with existing clinical conditions - no AMAs. Take 10 minutes of each hour between 12noon to 6pm to pray a little. Remember, be still and know. Not the  intellectual knowing of the mind, but the spiritual knowing of the soul. Quiet solitude. Meditate on the love of God. Hard to fathom. But God requires justice. And sin is more the harm we do to ourselves than any offense that we cause to God. Creation gone bad. So those who do not heed the call to ‘Repent, for the Kingdom is at hand….’ are happily going to hell, wherever and whatever waits for them of their own creation, because they have refused the invitation to come home to who and what they were created to be. Instead, they have turned on their own kind and inflict pain and suffering and misery in their greed, because of what they have allowed themselves to become. Sad future for our children.

Do not claim empowerment; Saying a thing loudly will not make it happen. Claim nothing. Some are given to making claims that amount to no more than self-deception. Some are given to praying loudly and aggressively as though God is a little deaf. But align yourself with God’s will, always wanting only the good for others, and watch how God uses you in the lives around you. Quite amazing. And watch how you grow – in mind and body, but mostly in spirit. This is the greatest gift to us – a way out beyond the limits of this life, a way in that allows us control over the limits of this life! How far those limits run is the adventure of what it means to be Christian. This life is all we know; yes, but there is far more to it than most of us realize. Learn of the Kingdom of God in the here and now. And all it takes is the will to choose, the will to seek above all else, and we all have this. Change old habits for new ones; it’s not in the look, the style, the outward show – it’s in the vibe, in your very being. Why Jesus said The Kingdom of God is within you. Make the connect between your spirit and the Comforter. Be resolved to do this. Start with what faith you have, it is enough. He will lead and empower you as needed. And you will never be the same again. A blessed Good Friday to you all, G.

The Last Supper and Beyond

 

This is a Fellowship of the Spirit. It is not a church construct; it involves neither mission, fund raising, nor religious participation. God desires our participation in all of life, and not via the existential false ‘gospel’ of corporate and culture formatted selection. Jacob’s Ladder pursues Christian growth as human growth. It works to complete social holiness and move into personal holiness. As God wills community for all of us, Jacob’s Ladder will keep on growing!

Maundy Thursday 2026

That which we traditionally call Maundy Thursday through Good Friday is the Festival of Atonement; the moment in human history when God retires the Old Covenant’s ‘save the peoples of the world’ project from the people of Israel and institutes himself to come fix the problem of separation and sin, once and for always.

Remember, it’s not as oversimplified as the common sin = bad, as much as sin = separated! And that which is separated is unable to grow! This is key to understanding what we describe as  ‘well, God loved us so much that He did this.’ Yes, but why? In order that we might grow into His likeness, in which he created us – in His image! This is key! Move away from all of the old fashioned sin-sinner- repentance-saved-salvation and happy ever after INTO saved to grow into His likeness! The deed is awesome in its implications! The traditional picture is that of Jesus suffering for our sins on the cross, but that is severely understated other than here is an innocent being killed, like so many other innocents who were crucified in those times.

There is no getting away from the goodness of God because we are all called to Him; He is beyond our concept of good; God is an experience, a feeling, a power of being and a power to be. This event happens because the great Creator decides there is no other way. God allowed for years in the wilderness with his choice of a people - the chosen – to be a blessing to the peoples of the earth; they even won battles by blowing horns and other symbolic acts, because God gave victory and ‘fought’ for them. Maintain the people, maintain the mission. Very little they could not do. But they were constantly slip-sliding away, again and again, as seen in the Book of Judges etc. Saving grace is given to them time and time again. But they were not ready. Despite our technological progress, we are still not ready for true spiritual growth, lost in materialism as we are. We just like to say that we are. It requires much more than the current style of living.

But God comes in the person of the suffering servant, because there is no easy way out. The goodness of God will not tolerate evil, nor the sin that causes our relationship with God to be separate from the good; we deteriorate into evil persona of varying degrees, slowly and steadily, slip sliding away. But read the songs of the suffering Servant esp.  the 4^th one, in Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

The historical practice carried out for all of the years from the inception of the people called Israel, was because they were far from the perfection of God, and prone to sinfulness, causing harm to self and others. Moses goes up on the mountain to get the 10 commandments, the people ask Aaron and he makes them a golden calf. And so, taking into account such realities, the High Priest every year at the appointed time would bring a sacrifice into the inner sanctuary and offer it – the lamb of God, given for the sins of the people. That redeemed them for a year. Then it had to be repeated. In the Letter to the Hebrews the new Covenant is described as Emmanuel, the Messiah, now becoming our sin sacrifice; he is the offering, and as his life drains, the blood shed is his own blood, and so God takes from himself and gives to himself, to balance the wrong of a disobedient and separated humanity. This action is not just for the Jews, nor just for the Christians, but for all people, for all time. Hence Jesus says, It is done…….. I return to myself.

If some of us have thought from time to time, why is a blood sacrifice needed? It is as simple as what it stands for – life. True sacrifice is life for life. Israel was called to be something special, but Israel gave nothing to God. In time, Israel died a natural death as the chosen people of God and was retired. The Jews are no more special than any other people in this world. Sorry. It is what it is.

But now that atonement has happened, all folk have the option to rise above their inherited tendency to choose poorly, hurt themselves, and hurt others. If it was a matter of choice before, it is now a matter of choosing the ability to exercise choice and rise above temptation. Again, it’s the old ‘it don’t matter if’n you don’t believe in God, y’see, He believes in you!’ We are called to more than be singing in church or giving money, but to grow in spiritual stature, help those who need help, in any way, shape, or form. The more help we give, the more the power of God flows into us. We have been going about it the wrong way for so long. No wonder we are still recounting Gods great deeds way back when but have precious little to show for our own generations. And God still waits…

But that is the miracle of the atonement – what it does for us. The beginning of real accord, the ability to rise above harm and hurt and experience the power of the God given human spirit that grows beyond its seemingly limited humanity into something close to the angels. A power God wishes for us to have. We choose otherwise, and that will never become real. Choose well, and we grow. And it is not a matter of faith nor belief but beyond them into one of experience. It is the mind of Christ - permeating body and soul. Over and above what you can do, you can do more. From the simplest need to the most complex. And God guides every step of the way.

Be at peace and be determined to discover newness in your life. Every day is new, every opportunity an occasion for growth, every growing event an increase in spiritual power i.e. the power of the spirit within. We decide. Always. This is the huge current contradiction that seems to happen as we age. Look again at the scriptures – it is not so much the young who lead as the older ones who as they age are filled with insight and God given ability, if they have done it right.  We age poorly when our main concerns are the accumulation of material wealth and not the Kingdom, and we too easily forget the distinction between the careful use of money and the love of money. Jesus word on that is his reference to the eye of a needle and a camel trying to go through it. I pray for the country, because we had poor leadership for quite some years and didn’t catch it; it has now come to a head with the election and sometimes even celebration of a convicted felon, and what little we had left that makes us a somewhat Christian nation starts slip sliding away.

Do what you can as you can. Give hope, comfort, and strength. Maybe more. You will know for yourself. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be always upon you and yours and protect and lead you in every way. Love, G.

  

 

Palm Sunday : The Kingdom Of God

 

‘Jacob’s Ladder’ is a weekly Sunday post; its blog history is at dreliatjacobsladder.blogpost.com

This is a Fellowship of the Spirit. It is not a church construct; it involves neither mission, fund raising, nor religious participation. God desires our participation in all of life, and not via the existential false ‘gospel’ of corporate and culture formatted selection. Jacob’s Ladder pursues Christian growth as human growth. It works to complete social holiness and move into personal holiness. As God wills community for all of us, Jacob’s Ladder will keep on growing!

Sun Mar 29^th : Palm Sunday: The Kingdom of God

Dearly Beloved,

As we begin what the Church’s liturgical calendar calls Holy Week, do go back to the posts of Apr 13th and 18^th 2025 on the Blog; remember, these posts started because of my work on Jacob’s Ladder, and it seemed useful to share the adventure with whomever was interested. The Blog is a reference source. And also for this week only, if you have anything to share with me about all of this and where it is going, do so. Same goes for questions of clarity. You all will have noted that I do not use a proof text verse approach but will always refer by incident to biblical narrative.    

The Kingdom Of God notion starts with the Old Testament teaching about God calling Abram into becoming a people, who would have only the Lord God as their King. Didn’t happen. Opportunity lost. Never mind about possible ‘reconciliation’ someday for ‘Israel’.  History has moved on. The once chosen people gave up on God, so they could be like the nations. Their choice. And they have done so. What the Bible teaches is only for those who walk in the Spirit. The rest say what they want it to say. Even so, much of what could be in the content of the Bible has been left out. And so we have this blank of some 30 years in the life of Jesus. This is why issues of what constitute the Canon and why, cannot be easily ignored. We will get to Canon vs Witness soon.

But, per the NT, the opportunity to be the people of God then fell to the early Christian Church. A chance to fix the shortcomings of the first offer and get it right. Only because Jesus had now covered all the requirements. Our remembrance of Good Friday and the blood of Christ shed for us. No more rules, regulations or rituals. Just the relationship with God matters. But the beginnings of that movement were still very much within an ethnic and cultural picture. Many did not see the huge broadness of what Jesus was proclaiming i.e. the Kingdom of God – for all people everywhere.

The church had its own notions of how the Kingdom would be worked out on earth, and that question came down to the political power of the State and the political power of the Church. Both made claims, and neither manifested the true power of God. But whenever the 2 came together, they proved to be doubly effective and twice as deadly in consequence. Crusades against the wicked. Indeed. Deus vult, vulting, until quite vulted, even. Another side of veni, vidi, vici, I guess. And that is where we still are. Sorry. It is what it is.

The world’s countries kinda got to a nationalist platform of thinking about how we could get it together for the benefit of each other, but the idea could never get beyond the dominant corporate interest that bought up too much too quickly and swallowed it whole, even with people in it. Conflicting ideologies put an end to the rest. And so here we are.

Enter Jesus on Palm Sunday on a donkey. He is saying much the same thing now as in the Gospels. Remember Jesus came preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, not the gospel of Jesus. Note how these things get changed! His message on Palm Sunday - your expectations are wrong and come from your own desire for power over others. You live in a world you have made, of winners and losers. That is not of God’s making, but of evil.  What needs to be is not of winners and losers, but of justice over injustice. And then you all can go forward together as God intends and wishes. But are you listening? No one was, then. And who is, now? Some, here and there. The scattered church is real. Find it.

But that is the challenge of Palm Sunday and it is the most powerful challenge in the Bible to the continuing reality of human nature.   

What do we do with it today? Fight injustice when, where, and how we can? Spoken word, written word, speaking on street corners and maybe getting arrested for being a ‘one man assembly’, as in Singapore, which defines assembly quite differently from the English dictionary! Politicians redefine terms as a matter of convenience whenever it suits them. Course, back in them days, I had a Methodist pulpit. But if they didn’t like what you said they had a Government Act that would prohibit you from preaching from said pulpit until the Government Minister concerned was convinced that you had indeed repented. Neat! Shades of Ash Wednesday, I guess, government style! But I was never able to get back home to test that one out! 

And now we have more than enough here. Roman times, sure enough. ICE = Roman soldiers, once again! No need to ask about the Emperor and his minions.  Nor are we a people who are able to think as clearly as we like to think we can. Many looked at all that was offered (or did not!) and said OK, we’ll take a chance. Not once, but twice. The line between political persuasion and crooked salesmanship is often a thin one. So here we are. Living day after day of illogical madness that has become horribly dehumanizing for many. It is what it is.

But the Kingdom says it does not have to be that way! And it starts with you and me, wherever we might be.  In our own locality. In our acts of kindness, of honesty, of fairness, and in our struggles for justice, whatever that might amount to. And how are we enabled to do this? This is where the intersection of social holiness and personal holiness happens. It is not the movement that makes and empowers you. It is that which you bring to it. And it is frighteningly simple, because God has made it so. The doing of it, ah, that’s a different matter. That’s where you can tell the Kingdom folk from the pseudo-Kingdom folk.

Remember, scripture teaches that Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Do not get carried away with the traditional orientation of ‘I accepted Christ! I’m saved.’ Not quite.  But I confessed with my mouth. Oh sure. What else did you do with your mouth? And I attend church. Uh huh. Outward show, mostly. You’ve taken the first step. Great start. But much work begins from there. Unfortunately, it often gets quickly forgotten, and folk end up doing churchy things. Lovely social fellowship, I’m sure. Not necessarily Kingdom work at all. The real Kingdom work is on your own, in the world. It is where the interface is, that the real work begins. And it is neither ‘mission’ nor ‘outreach’. It’s in the acts of kindness. And they can be risky. Like the Good Samaritan. Crossing ethnic boundaries at his own risk. Not the church stuff, no risk in that, unless you wanna count committee meetings where folk fight over stuff and you might lose social standing or some such! Not of the Kingdom.

But go with the ‘seek ye first…’  in Matt 6:24ff which means in all of your life you place the Kingdom first and give second place to the rest. Remember Jesus and Nicodemus and the conversation about being born again. We got the water part right, easy enough.  Never could quite get the Spirit part right, though. What was the new tool or skill or ability conferred that we could go out and use in the world? Ask yourself, baptized Christians! What was it? Doesn’t seem to come quite that easily just because someone said so. Happens between you and the Comforter. Results are very clear. In that Matt 6:24ff section,  ‘do not be anxious….’ is mentioned how many times? The first marker is peace. Not so much a gift as the effect of the Holy Spirit on you. Inner peace. Anxiety free peace. The 2^nd is energy, God given. Not from energy bars. Connects with the notion of man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, except that the Word is not reading something in print or saying it repetitively. It is divine creative energy, this Word of God. Again, the presence of the Comforter in your life. Find Him and don’t let go. You will know the difference. 

Being in the world but not of it is difficult. It may mean not working overtime = less $ for income, just so you can make time for your children; and you will work through that if you need to because our children are important. They are a commitment. Half the world is filled with desperate unhappy children whose parents never had time for them, who grew up unwanted and unloved. And in some sad places, starving. Ultimately, they learn evil in the schools of the world. And whose world is it? Remember what Jesus said about the Prince of this world….

In order to make things better we must have much more than a toe hold, a once in a while election type participation with our leaders and politicians. We must hold them responsible and accountable consistently, clearly and loudly.  Elections every year! Why not? This is possibly the greatest challenge the people of the world face today. The politicians for the most part ie most of them, are doing bs and making free money out of the taxpayers. Ugh. We must call a spade a spade and a bad spade a very bad one if need be. And require remedial action. Immediately. But we cannot do this without insight and energy. And this is where the strength of the Kingdom within you is seen.

Peaceful, calm, yet resistant to injustice. Like Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. This is done by the will to achieve good. And this is truly where in many of the same heart and mind and spirit - there is strength. Because the good will overcome. The no Kings gatherings this weekend are a throwback to that dialogue between God and Samuel in the Old Testament so long ago when the people wanted a King and God said to Samuel do not be angry, they have not rejected you, they have rejected me. Read Samuel’s lecture on the evils of Kingship! (see 1 Sam 8:10ff) Big mistake on Israel’s part. Human society has never recovered from that one, never mind Israel. Threw the mission out, replaced it with politics. Palm Sunday calls to all of us to engage the process of getting it right this time. Grace, peace and every blessing unto you, The Rev. R. George Eli, Ph.D. (Duke Univ.)