Grace Upon Grace

 

Sunday Mar 16^th 2025 

Dear friends,

We started our work a few weeks ago using a Branch Theology approach based on the text ‘I am the vine, you are the branches’ from John Ch15. In setting out foundations, I am drawing together a scriptural  framework that supports, motivates and empowers this approach. I got started on this because, after a lifetime based on traditional church norms, I found that they were insufficient, there were too many questions, too few answers. I had to begin my own journey to discover what salvation really is, in this lifetime and beyond it.  Much of what scripture says continues to be unrealized in what we have traditionally called the Christian faith, and somehow I have been led onto this path. In Jacob’s Ladder, I share the experience to the extent I am able. There is much that serious Christians must work out on their own.

We began with verses from John Chapters 1 and 15, Psalm 46, and Matt 5. These few weeks are just an overview. The detail and the heaviness of it will come soon enough. Beyond that, it will be both light and enlightening. Right now, we just want a sense of what these scriptures are leading us into.  By Easter, as we get to the end of this base structure, I will have a diagram of how Branch Theology maps out in a believer's life.

Today we continue by looking at verses in John Chapters 1, 8, and 10; and in Psalm 8;

In John 1: 16 the Baptist says ” And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace.” John 8:31 says If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. John 10:10 I came so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.The Christian life is a process of receiving grace upon grace from the Lord Jesus.

Think back to the beginning of your Christan journey; for some of us it has been a family orientation, from birth; it came as part of a family identity; for others, a conversion orientation, perhaps as a response to the verse in John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Either way of entry, that ‘believeth on him’ encompasses a whole lot, and we must unravel it step by step, layer by layer, to get to the center of it, just as we would peel an onion. 'Belief' is not about making a declaration that says ‘I believe’ but of making a spirit to Spirit connection. A link that can and should grow stronger with every day. And it begins with the exercise of human will to do a thing, and to make it happen. We have yet to come to terms with our God given brain and all that we are able to enable. 2 sides of a coin – Jesus and you. And in our growth, the strength of this will to make a thing happen, as God wills it, becomes stronger and more possible with every passing day. Like growing a plant, or as in a relationship, we must nourish it, and it will grow. Tradition has called such statements a confession of faith, as in ‘to confess Christ’. But to push beyond church declarations of public witness, it really comes down to the individual life with belief in will resulting in action, and the actions happen because we are finding the true source of power that promotes and enables such action. 

What is clear from the beginning is the transfer of value and worth from God to us, into our consciousness. Each one of us is worth the precious blood of Jesus, given for us – the life of God, in life giving spiritual energy! That energy produces in us the mind of Christ! Not just so that we may go to a ‘heaven’ one day when our spirit leaves this body and this earth, but to overcome the challenging issues and struggles of this life in the here and now! Jesus is the great enabler who makes enablers of all of us.

And God desires to motivate amd enable each one of us towards spiritual maturity. Psalm 8 is a culmination of all that David achieved in his life.  Remember, David repeatedly reinterpreted tradition, understanding that it was not so much trusting in God as it was that God was trusting in Him! Use your will for Godly purposes, and you will not fail, even though things work out differently! David’s men picked grain and ate on the Sabbath, because it was the needful thing to do. They were in need, and it was not wanton. And God does not make rules or laws or traditions that prevent need from being met. Men do. Mostly to control others and lord it over them, anyways. But God does have an order and sets this in motion within us. God seeks to build passion, and community. Where people care for each other and support each other, and no harm is done to anyone.

Psalm 8, when it speaks of us being like the angels, or a little less than God, speaks clearly to the heights of human achievement. Not by might or earthly 'God of this world' power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. Hence, Elijah was enabled to run faster than Ahab's horse chariot and got to the city first! God will do strange things in your life, and God will tell you what to share when, or if not at all.

We have had few leaders who have taught us or shown us the way on these things. Their focus has been on building corporate life, not on building the strong individual Christian life, and many of them have even failed in this. But such ability is absolutely essential in a world where wickedness continues to prevail. True spiritual strength is where Jesus’ teaching that faith can move mountains becomes real. And we don’t have to go look for mountains.  When you move a subjective ‘mountain’ in your life, it is what constitutes a ‘mountain’ for you, something to climb, to take on, to overcome. Whatever it is, you will know it by the nature of the experience. But there is an objective dimension to what Jesus was saying, seen clearly in his cursing of the fig tree. It is the ability to control the situation and the things around you. Beyond visual form, in creative and created entity, everything has atomic structure. When you have control of this you assemble and dis-assemble at will, hence Jesus appearing and disappearing post Resurrection! Its the notion of the science of transportation, learning how to dis-assemble here, transfer, then reassemble form over there; the idea became a little more apparent with the transporters seen in Star Trek programs, so we had “Beam me up, Scotty!’ happening! Life energy traveling over a beam of light. Same principle. Jesus was showing us Star Trek stuff a long time ago!

We believe, and we develop our faith. And as we age we grow in spiritual strength, wisdom, insight, and unbelievably, even energy, as it is needed! Wisdom and insight teach us to eat well, so we take good care of the physical body that houses our spirit in this life. We will come to the teaching about the body as a temple soon enough. But it is not just food, fresh air and sunshine that give energy. As we noted last week in Matt 5, God gives sustaining rain and sunshine in creative energy equally to all. Ask, and you will receive. Those who use this well, gain more. Those who use this poorly lose it, then they lose the power of will for good, and ultimately end up being powered by an evil principle. It’s like Skywalker and the dark side! They descend, devolve, hurt, harm, and face judgement when they leave this earth. Know good from evil in all that is around you by the outcome it creates in the lives of others. Not the genuine mistake made, but rather, the intent to do harm.

As Jesus says, continue in my word. This is the word of scripture that we read.  And it is also the interpretation that we hear, as Jesus speaks to us, and the Spiri's energy moves from God’s spirit to our spirit. It is the dynamic spirit of the Lord moving with us in the understanding and in the acting out of what the word entails in our lives. How to know it’s the truth? Evaluate your results, as you go, by measuring your ability to overcome all of the challenges of life. And to make a differnce in the everyday things, even. This is why talk of faith and of belief must culminate in the love, joy, and peace of the Holy Spirit in our lives that brings us through all things safely. Faith and belief acted out in the reality of life. Actually, it is amazingly exciting – this reality of grace, upon grace. God’s goodness and generosity is not limited. We must learn and know the discernment of cause and effect, when the things of the world get in the way of our living and very likely cannot be reversed. And we must be able to identify that which is not cause and effect, but is malleable, not always clearly understandable, but in which we a difference can be made. God cares for all of the children of the earth, but only those who seriously seek the Father find him. And those who seriously seek him are always mindul in cultivating God's presence.

Those who get their relationship right with Jesus will all hear the same truth. When you hear different, somebody’s not in synch. So they hear something different. Who knows where that comes from? All you will see is that it is ineffective, or is born of a different will, and will not achieve a godly result. Look around at what is happening in the country now. It speaks for itself. It comes from their own minds, from within themselves, from the other spirit of this world. You decide. You will know. This is the freedom of the spirit. And you don’t have to fight about it with anyone. Let them pursue what they claim. They will need to learn for themselves, if they are open to learning from the Spirit of God.

We must know ourselves. We must learn and develop our self -awareness, each of us, for the ‘Be still and know’ of scripture works both ways, towards God, and also towards us. Never mind others, and what’s happening in their lives. Look inside yourself. Where are you, and where are you going? Doing kind deeds is a great thing. Getting closer to God is an even greater experience! It will bring a spiritual dimension into every social act and deed that you do! Something about the spirit in which you do it will uplift someone else! And it’s not about convincing yourself but it’s about experiencing the reality of God given spiritual power.

A neat psychologist once said that we can’t speak honestly to each other. We can only tell each other what we think/believe/know the other wants to hear. Or we’ll all not be able to get along. Really? Thus sayeth the world. And hence goeth the sad way of human non-growth. But the child of God speaks little, if at all. Wisdom is not cruel, but kind and uplifting. Insight is penetrating and reveals the truth of where we are and where we could be. Human culture today is not growing upwards, but devolving downwards. Here, there, and in many places worldwide.

Be resolved to be different. Be resolved to be truly Christian. Find out what it means and find that God continues to have a place and a role for each one of us where we are. More to come. Peace and love, G.