Why Salvation IS deliverance!

 

Sun Jun 29^th 2025

Why salvation is the experience of deliverance!

In our traditions, salvation has become a concept, a status of being, a frame of mind, and many other notions. In the Bible it is very simple and down to earth. It is God intervening in your life in the here and now and making the essential needed difference. This is what Jesus is about.

True, there is forgiveness of sin, and a new beginning. But this is not a cyclical up and down thing. In Jesus, it is linear and incremental according to how much you put into it, and will take you from strength to strength as your relationship with Jesus grows!.

1.First, a community perspective: Israel is in Egypt, in the time of Rameses II; look at The Book of Exodus: What happened?

a.2.23ff. Israel is in distress; Cause of distress – they are oppressed by the Egyptians, forced into slavery, and living in depression, sorrow and fear. Israel cries out to God for help.

b.3:7-8ff. God promises deliverance i.e. salvation! Remember, the word salvation means deliverance from…salvation is not an ongoing state of being…it is to be set free from that which threatens harm to us.

c.14:13ff the promised deliverance occurs!  Moses leads the people out!

d. 15:1ff the result: the people are in great joy because they have been saved!

The former situation is no more; they are free from it.

 

2. A 2^nd scene - the combination of both group and individual perspectives on deliverance as salvation/salvation as deliverance: synonymous, really.  The Book of Judges: many years later after Exodus – the story of Gideon, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, versus the Midianites.

We fast forward in Old Testament history; Israel has crossed the Jordan, and leadership has passed from Moses to Joshua, ( see Joshua Ch 1 );  but while the people have voiced their commitment to God’s invitation to be a blessing to all human beings, they have consistently done the reverse! (remember Exodus 32:7ff on Aaron & the golden calf, even while Moses was being given the 10 commandments.) Instead of seeking to be a blessing to others, much of Israel goes around sharing in the ‘blessing’ of others, worshiping their Gods, and participating in various temple activities. Temples in those days fostered a great deal of hedonistic activity. Even today, worship is not so much about God as it is about affirming human living and expressing the hope of God’s intervention in our lives. This is not spiritual growth by any means. Worship does not get us beyond the creative artistry of human social activity to the real ‘dabar’ or Word of God – the experiencing of the living Word. Worship just tries to encourage us (if done right) through academic knowledge (sounds good) and emotional affirmation (feels good). Not what Jesus intended. Jesus is about much more.

So, the Israelites have yet to be a blessing to anyone. And God’s protection ceases because it cannot exist in a one-sided Covenant. The Israelites soon fall prey to the Midianites and oppression falls upon Israel. And the Israelites cry to God for help, once again. While Egyptian oppression was intentional, Midianite oppression now results from Israel’s failure to keep Covenant with God, resulting in the loss of spiritual protection. Israel is now vulnerable.

6:11 And then…an Angel appears to Gideon, (not in a dream) and addresses him as a mighty warrior, commissioned to deliver Israel.  Gideon is a small man, in stature and his ‘who, me?’ is a classic demo of how God works. This is love and mercy on God’s part, in order that God’s will may be fulfilled for our sakes. And God is using the weakest of the weak to make a point about God’s spiritual power.  Remember the ‘not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit’ verse? An important distinction in the reality of walking with God. Much of the world has not gotten this point. Nor has the Christian church been able to point to it effectively. You are as strong as your weakest link; and here, the weakest link proves the strongest of them all. Not by military power, not by the stuff $ can buy, nor by anything of our own, but only by the will of the Lord God.

6:17ff Gideon asks for a sign; it is given. Realizing the nearness of God’s presence, Gideon is afraid and fears death, but is assured he will live, and will fulfill his mission. He is to build an altar at Oprah and cut down the Altar to Ba’al which the Israelites, following local custom, have built.  He does so under concealment of night. But he is seen, and the people come after him the next day! He took down our altar! How shall we appease these powers that are greater than us? But the One God seeks neither an altar nor placative offerings through prayer and worship. God seeks only the spiritual growth of every individual and its outcome.

6:36 Gideon asks for a 2^nd sign – the fleece of wool. It is done; then he asks for a third sign – and it is also given.

7:2 Many support Gideon. Gideon ‘feels’ that there might be no glory to God in this, because of the obvious superior numbers of the Midianites. He has already forgotten about God’s power, so the lesson is retaught -  22 thousand are sent home, and 10 thousand remain. These ten thousand are drastically reduced, as in 7:4ff. Total number remaining: 300! And God says, it is enough. And it is. Israel finds deliverance-salvation in the spiritual power of God, once again. Midian is defeated. Not in the strength of military might, but in the spiritual strength of God Almighty. Another lesson of the power of the Spirit still yet to be learned. There is much joy, but little reflection on how this strange resolution has come about.

3. 1 Samuel 17: David vs Goliath of the Philistines

Context: In a time when David is armor bearer for Israel’s 1^st king, Saul (see 1 Sam 8:4ff…. where the people of Israel have decided that they want to be like the nations and have a physical human King, not some invisible Being, although this meant that they were rejecting God as their King, as the Lord said to Samuel. But now the Philistines have come against Israel. The Philistines choose single representative combat to decide the issue of military superiority, and send out their champion, Goliath. This is happening because Israel has ignored the opportunity to be a blessing. Israel wants to be like the nations, with worldly goods and riches, which is not what its purpose is all about. But Israel was not listening then, and is not listening now.

1 Sam 17:10ff Goliath challenges Israel

1 Sam 17: 20ff David is sent with food for his brothers, who were with the Israelite forces at the time, and he learns of the Goliath challenge situation.

1 Sam 17:31f David volunteers to fight Goliath. King Saul, in good humor, puts armor on David, but it is too heavy. David can hardly move in it! David ends up taking his shepherd’s sling and a couple of stones from the wadi. The champions meet, words are exchanged, Goliath charges and David brings him down with a stone to the forehead. Goliath falls, dead. Israel is delivered. Once again, you note how salvation = deliverance.

 

What we have looked at are incidents in which Israel repeatedly forgets God and goes after the temptations of earthly pleasure. When this happens, God’s protective care no longer applies. That protective care exists to protect God given mission to be a blessing. But when Israel cries out to God, God supports Israel so that God’s will that people be a blessing to each other might yet be fulfilled. This is what Isreal is supposed to kick-start! More than covenant or mission, this is simply the Creator’s love for all of creation. Israel is a random sample, reflective of all mankind, chosen to demonstrate this love. This is why God gives Israel much more than a second chance. Their struggle and failure is representative of all of us. Nothing special about them.

Now we come to the work of protective covenant in the life of the individual.

4. Psalm Six

Context: Like the previous three, this is a cry of distress to God. But this is about an individual, suffering a personal incident, hence an individual psalm of lament. What is the Psalmist saying? Something is wrong…. I don’t know what to do …please help…I am suffering in so many ways…and I am waiting for your help; how long am I to wait…? This is the cry, as seen in verses 1 – 6. A personal cry for deliverance.  And then? Deliverance happens! This is the deliverance of salvation. This is the meaning of it. But a relationship that happens to you that makes a change in your life situation! And goes on from there!

Covenant began with an individual dimension in the life of Abraham. If a people are to be a blessing, how exactly will they be this blessing? Well, each one, in their own way, in their own lives, must seek to serve – to be a blessing in relation to the well-being of those around them, as opportunity provides! It’s not rocket science, as the saying goes. We’ve just changed it into a ‘going to church will do it!’ No, it won’t. It’s how we behave in our lives towards everyone around us. At home, at work, and elsewhere. That’s what it is. God shows us how. This is why deliverance-salvation is meant to be a reality for all.

6:1-7 I am languishing; my bones are shaking with terror;  I am weary with moaning; I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping; my eyes waste away…the psalmist is in very bad shape – physically, emotionally, mentally, and it all comes down to the state of his spiritual being….

6:8ff and then – deliverance-salvation occurs! No description is shared. We are not told how or what happens. Except that it does. And the Psalmist rejoices! He is delivered! This is salvation. He is saved. Beyond, faith, beyond belief, and into experience. Now.

6:8 The lord has heard my weeping…..my supplication…..accepts my prayer….my enemies shall be struck…they shall turn back….struck with terror, ashamed.

 Review the pattern of deliverance-salvation: oppressed, Israel cries out to God; God hears and responds. This is demonstrated mercy – Heb. khesedh - the loving kindness of God. God is never obliged to do anything. And no one understands the will of God. Here, we have a Covenant that is unlimited as long as God wishes it. From national chaos to individual suffering – nothing is impossible to God. It all lies in God’s will, And God’s will is not only dependent on faith or belief, but much more on one other thing – relationship!

Build your relationship with Jesus, through everything you say and do to those around you, so that Jesus is always with you and in you. Stay close to him. Abide. And then watch for yourself how your ability to move, to influence, to make things change for the better, improves accordingly. This is the adventure of Christians walking into the Kingdom of God in the here and now. And it is doable. Go thou, and do this, rejoicing in the blessing of the God who loves you, and seeks only to bless you with his energy and his love. Grace and peace in Jesus, G.

The Blog history of posts is at dreliatjacobsladder.blogspot.com, and there is no agenda with me. No fund raising, no mission etc except for each one to grow in Christ. Your call.

Preliminaries.....

 

Sun Jun 22^nd 2025

Dear friends,

We journey on through what may be a new idea for some of us  – that the word ‘salvation’ means ‘deliverance!’ both in the Bible, and for us now, a very different take from the traditional ‘I believe in Jesus = I’m saved = I’m going to heaven when I die/all my sins have been forgiven etc.

In Gen 12, God begins to reconnect God’s wayward created species and calls out to Abram the Chaldean – then called Av-ram, his Chaldean name. That name will change. (see Genesis 17:5ff) Abram is invited into an unknown future with an unknown being, and he accepts. When Abram accepts, a strange experience happens, leaving Abram with no doubt about what is going on. It is a ‘beyond this world’ touch – an experience that happens in this world but does not come from/is not of this world. It has nothing to do with trust, faith, hope, or prayer, for it is the objective experience of a different reality. (see Genesis 15:12ff).

Abram learns from this experience that God will make him into a great people who are to become a living blessing to others. God intends to make this happen in Abram’s time. He accepts this weird and amazing thing and goes forth, headed for literally God only knows where, another wandering Aramean.  God renames him ‘Av-ra-ha-am’ for he is now to be the Father of a Great multitude. See Gen 15:12 and Gen 17:9; This may become the new path as Abraham’s people get a chance to accept the offer of new relational accord with God and lead the rest of us.⁴  

Therefore God now looks to see if this ‘chosen’ people will exercise their will, individual and collective, in God’s favor, and thereby re-enable the original accord.  A new Eden, perhaps? This is their role in the partnership. Choice was given, choice was misused, but choice may now be used correctly. A matter of will. Abraham is the test case for a 2^nd chance. But he must deal with the persuasive, hedonistic, insidious influence of the negative power that seduces human will - that which we call Satan.

Abraham’s learning about his individual will and God’s will gets off to a confused start, and ends up with 2 sons, where God intended one. What happened? Abraham and Sarai tried to create an event that God had set into motion. They created their own path (Gen 16:11) and then Isaac – Yitzhak (Heb. he who laughs – because Abraham and Sarai  - see Gen 17:17 and Gen 18:12  - laughed at the idea that they might have a child!) comes.  The first child is unintended, and of human choice. The 2^nd child is the God intended gifted purpose one. The time in between is thirteen years! Is this a common human trait – our desire for results from God according to our timing? And if we don’t get it in our timing, do we try to make it happen? What does it mean to ‘wait upon the Lord’ when that is required of us? But the result of human intervention here is a divided people, originally marked for greatness in God’s will as a single people, but now growing into 2 different socio-political cultures with different religious traditions, and who continue today to be at war because of matters of faith and culture. So tragic. Think of what scripture teaches of Cyrus the Persian and of the idea of 1 people under God, despite differences! Cyrus was no Jew, but God worked through him and he understood it! And the meaning now for Israel and Iran? And the meaning for Israel’s continuing self-understanding of itself?

But this is how Scripture records this period of history. How it is - not how it is meant to be. Human innovation is irrelevant to God’s plan for human society. For example, it is not what we can do with technology, but what good we can use it for! We continue to fight over our ‘cultural values’ because we would have it so. And we will continue to exercise our will to make it so. We’ll use emotional words that stir us - like culture, identity, tradition and a named land and country, in nationalism. But we are not following God’s will. The claims of human will have never had anything to do with God’s will for us. As an example, look at the promise of God’s healing in Exodus 15:26, which does not ask for belief, faith, hope or prayer. Leaders often try to use religion or distance themselves from it. And both ways are wrong. Only the application of knowledge, human will and accord in an intentional closeness to God’s presence can work to resolve the human condition. Not a sinfulness of things, but a sinfulness of missing relationship. Look at the opening chapters in Genesis. Our primary food source is to be plant based. Plant based diets are not new then, are they? Instead, we have created multiple options for ourselves and have employed all manner of excuses that seem pertinent. We claim to know a lot about what it means to live well. But we know precious little about what it means to die well. But we can always learn. And the Spirit will teach. 

Christians can set down claims about that which is moral. Interesting how this has changed with every age, no? But religious traditions can only make moral claims. They can neither authenticate nor validate them. And they contradict them all the time, anyhow. Only God has final say. And God is not about social ethics, or cultural morality, or our other ‘creative’ hang-ups. With God, it is always about love. It’s like the first encounter of white missionaries with Polynesian and/or African girls of some societies who went about bare breasted. The missionaries called such behavior immoral.⁵ But on what basis? And on whose definition of morality? Their own culture and their own customs. Neat projection, huh? Encountering new local custom and sociology, such were their conclusions.  But God’s will is that all of creation should live in peace and harmony and grow spiritually. Not divisively. Not nationally. But to embrace a possibility, a potential, a prototokos…of being.

Whether we like it or not, human politics, with its methods and consequences, continues to stagnate the human condition. Doesn’t necessarily make me a dystopian. Just reminds me of the reality of where we are, and of our inability to deal with our ongoing weaknesses. We could create new systems and structures, but they would only be as good as those who run them. 

God has given us freedom of choice and the ability to determine present and future.  Hell might be that which we have created by ourselves, for ourselves, determined by the path we have taken and the actions we have condoned.  Apart from some strategic language about fear and hell, the Bible is always about love. Always. Perhaps God allows us to create our own hell and allows it to become a learning place for us, beyond death. Maybe the Catholic notion of purgatory is closer here - a place after death where we learn to escape the hell of our own creation! Has the tradition used the concept of hell to scare folk into being ‘religious?’ according to its controlled terms? What Jesus said and what Jesus did not say, is an existential truth that we can only discover for ourselves through the leading and the teaching of the Holy Spirit. And where doctrine and tradition fashion the path we walk, the fear of death and hell often continues to lead. But the fear of God cannot coerce us into the Kingdom. Only the love of God can lead us in. And that love begins in our relationship with Jesus and works through everyone in our lives, to challenge us with the potential and possibility of growth.

By the end of Genesis we have moved from Abraham through Isaac to Jacob, and to the 12 sons of Jacob, who have become the 12 tribes of Israel. Joseph thrives in Egypt, and his God given dreams play a role in setting him free from prison.  Note the importance of dreams in the Bible and learn the difference between God given dreams and wishful desire. There is sharp, vivid detail in the dream that God gives that is missing in the other. And the dream that comes from God will phase into reality in a time God sets for us, because God sees what we cannot.  We just need to know how to interpret signs and times. The difference is life changing. Food for thought.

But as Israel thrives and grows, the Egyptians worry about their position of strength. Such is the nature of greed and power in human politics. Political power will always fear being replaced. It will force its will on any potential threat.  

So, the ‘blessed to be a blessing’ challenge goes on hold. The people of Israel seem short on blessing and cry out to God for help. And God answers them. Why? Remember Abraham’s strange ‘terrifying’ spiritual experience of Genesis 15? It signified a commitment between 2 parties, like a contract. Expectations will be fulfilled by both. Commitment will be demonstrated.  Moses is chosen, trained with the quality and character of a leader - a Prince even, and the circumstances of the injustice he sees and responds to, forces him to flee Egypt. But God sends him back. Save the people. And here’s the point: salvation = deliverance-salvation, which works to set us free from that which threatens our well-being. Now. I didn’t say it. The Bible does.

The Bible is all about salvation as deliverance, and Genesis provides the first explicit account. Hence, I call it deliverance-salvation. We need to qualify our historical notion of salvation. Salvation is never an ongoing state of being, as interpreted and professed by many, but is always that adventure of being delivered, by God’s power, from that which threatens harm to us. God means to keep on bringing deliverance-salvation into our lives, and we are challenged to keep on growing, from strength to strength, through every challenging situation. And God’s answer is never ours, because God is always in the process of showing us new parameters and dimensions of spiritual growth.

If you don’t know the rest of the biblical history of Israel, read Genesis through Exodus and keep reading until you get to the end of 2^nd Kings. Then take a break before you continue. Note the repetition in Chronicles, that also differs. Learn as you go.

Look at the pattern of deliverance-salvation that is demonstrated throughout. It is a movement that has been exceptionally described By Walter Brueggemann as a movement from sorrow to joy, from darkness to light.⁶ God still works in the same way – God has never changed. Except that the teachers and leaders of church tradition have continued to exercise a subjective and somewhat manipulative interpretation of it. God is not a vending machine into which we may drop or pour our tithing in, so that blessing results! Or rather, we get the results we want or hope for. The earthly desire for material success is totally unlike the experience of God’s spiritual power and the reality of the Holy Spirit. But the patterns of deliverance that show how God works - we need to look at a representative selection of them at the least, in order to understand the way the power of God works in our lives and the call that Jesus continues to make to us. And that is what we will get into next week. Stay well, and have a blessed week. Love and peace in Jesu, G.

A beginning...

 

Sun Jun 15^th 2025

And salvation is…..?

Dear friends,

As we continue to ponder on all the trappings that religion, tradition and the corporate church have left us, we begin the first chapter of the Jacob’s Ladder text; I have used bold print on sentences you might chew over and think on. Do not ever feel a need to agree with what you read; you must work out your own salvation. And I am but a pointer. What is important for each one of us is that we discover the real tangible, available, life situation changing, power of God in our lives now.

Ch. 1 Salvation as deliverance

 The Christian tradition has consistently relied on both intellect and emotion to explain its understanding of salvation. We have often called this approach ‘spiritual’.  But a sharp description of such a practice once described it as a marvelous combo salad – with appetizing virtues, tasteful dogmas, a seasoning of good works, a dressing of prayer and a garnish of attractive ritual, all served up by a waiter whom we call a priest.¹

But conceptual understanding and emotional affirmation cannot equal spiritual growth; they are not of the spirit. Christian religious experience has limited its horizons, as it continues to be based on academic knowledge and feeling. Its leaders have aspired to degrees in theology and philosophy, sharp thinking, persuasive skills, and emotional affirmation in preaching and worship.  All well and good; but more worldly than the call of Jesus to us. For while it is easy enough to have opinionated discussions about ethics, such discussions cannot identify right responses and are unable to show us how to live Godly, energized, Christian lives. And I am not talking about social empowerment and social action. We continue to face limits in making a critical difference in our lives and in the lives of others. Not what Jesus said about it.

We may talk about differing beliefs and share feelings about faith, but it is a different experience to grow beyond these actions into a spiritual life that transcends the limits of this physical life. Christians have the opportunity of an indelible bond with Jesus, one that leads us into a vast Christ centered spiritual experience. This may be in or out of church, but it will take us beyond the boundaries of structured and organized religion. God chose Israel to demonstrate to all people that all of creation is of God and is filled with God’s love. To begin to appreciate the broad meaning of this, we must do some work with the accounts of salvation-deliverance, beginning with Gen 12:1-3. 

The events that created the need for salvation-deliverance are found in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. God created humankind, and gave us freedom of choice, wanting us to grow into God’s likeness. The stories tell that we chose otherwise.  We lost our relationship with God, and with that loss went the relational accord that gave us discernment, understanding, and the capacity to work alongside God’s presence and power, as God’s stewards on earth, our training ground. Training ground?

For we are spiritual beings. The physical part of us is both temporary and temporal. But we are oh so tied into the stuff of the physical body. Yet we are challenged to see beyond it into the realm of the spirit. God given accord is a relationship with Jesus that empowers and guides us into being spiritual children of God in this life. But to interact with the spiritual world, we must seek the Kingdom of God. And it is more than church, which is more socio-political than anything else. Does material comfort encourage the pursuit of spiritual aspirations? Or is it the other way around – when we seek the Kingdom before everything else, do events happen in God intended order and form? When we intentionally separate ourselves from God, well then - we’ve made our choice. But if we become aware of such a tendency, we may review and adjust both our intent and our lifestyle and enable spiritual growth.

Reconsider the ‘sledgehammer’ of ‘sin’ for a moment.² Sin is the exercise of both intent and will - to separate ourselves from God’s presence and God’s will. How do we know this? Ask the Holy Spirit and look deep within ourselves.  We only want God when we need God, and not otherwise. And religion has grown up around this.  But we need to be in relationship with God in Jesus all of the time. Sin is more than an error or a mistake, or a series of preferential decisions that you and I make by choice. It is what lies behind our choices - that which defines and constitutes. We recognize mistakes by their consequences. Couldn’t we see such consequences before taking the action? Or did we choose not to see? Perhaps it’s part of what it means to be human that we can only learn by error? If so, the faster we come to terms with our spiritual abilities the better for our control of and our controlled responses to all events, expected and unexpected, in our lives! Sin is intentional self-distancing from God, created by our own preferences, and carried out by human will. As simple as when we choose to stand up or sit down. We just complicate and rationalize. It makes things much more acceptable, doesn’t it?  

But spiritual relationship with God is delicate and not easily achieved. It is a spiritual thread that begins with a fine texture, and it takes time and consistency to become strong and wield the needed tensile strength to withstand the temptations that befall us. If you live on a sliding scale of good days and bad days, you’re not utilizing your spiritual ability by a long shot. While we might feel like lost souls wandering through this world, God is consistently moving us forward into new experiences of discovering divine presence. God’s 2^nd chance to us always comes through new beginnings. We might not get a second take at the same thing, but may well end up in a new scene, where we must put to work what we have learned. God is concerned with our present existence and with our future. God is not interested in the repetition of historical dogma. In all of our tomorrows, God is always nearby.  And this future view is where tradition is limited, giving us helpings of audacious hope, soaked in claims to faith, and coated with aspirations of belief.

Tradition offers the comfort of events that are often a mix of myth and legend, and amount to a temptation to live in the past. Future direction is radically different! It is not comfortable. Nor does history need to repeat itself. History repeats itself because human beings continue to be dull sans spirituality……failing to recognize the spirits that we are! Traditional preaching style seeks to make historical leaps from past to present, from one context to another, and that doesn’t always work. The past must be equally present to you, and the present must interpret the future. We must keep looking forward.  We need new paths and must identify and then work our way onto them. Only the Holy Spirit can help us do this, not the history of biblical interpretation. The times have changed, and what applied long ago is now archaic. With each passing year, arguments over biblical truth become more historical, leaving us only with the reality of inconsistent human nature, which seems unable to change its ways and move human community forward.

Yet the Bible is about the exact opposite!³ Re-contextualization of Bible stories limits and contains the storyteller within their traditions and its specific history of interpretation. The challenge is to discover the true spiritual experience that incorporates and transcends intellectual knowledge, emotional experience, and historical tradition, so that we lose nothing, and gain everything. This is what the Holy Spirit is about. Not about claims to tongues, prophecies, and the truth of historical documents. God is of the now.

Jesus taught the path into the kingdom of God. That is what Jesus called the Good News! Many claim to have found Jesus but seem to be confused about the way into the Kingdom. They can’t see the forest for the trees? The church has done a good job of pointing to itself, but it is not the Kingdom of God. Politicians love to play God, but without money and taxes they are powerless. Today’s church is much the same, and without personnel and tithing cannot do much. It continues to employ a social approach and not a spiritual approach to the human condition. Every situation can be resolved by divine spiritual power, which is the only true power.  See Acts 3:6 for Peter’s ‘gold and silver have I none, but of what I have in the name of Jesus…..’ We call these ‘miracles’, and accept that they are rare, and so excuse ourselves from their reality in our lives. We cannot make such a claim as Peter did? But it is there for us to make.  The spiritual power is there to experience, and every other claim is just an illusion. And we cannot use the name of Jesus arbitrarily. Some do, and when they fail, often indulge in victim blaming and speak of believers as of not having enough faith. Indeed. Mustard seed sized faith will suffice. Just need to know where to find the seed, not the mustard. And it’s neither in one’s feelings nor in one’s intellect. It lies in the space between your spirit and the Holy Spirit. More as we go on next week. And…

 Your spiritual work possibilities, if not thought of yet…

If you have not done so, consider a moment every morning that includes thanksgiving for the night’s rest and for the day’s opportunities – bring up what concerns you the most that day and leave it in God’s will. God is listening.

Have a scripture that is meaningful to you, be it a sentence from Psalm 5 or the entire 23^rd; say it, sing it, praise God in your spirit with it.

Remember ‘ask and ye shall receive’ – the children of the Kingdom are always encouraged to do this – ask for an energy blessing on you, and on every part of you. It is the Spirit that maintains us; somewhere in here bring up your request for the mind of Christ in all things!

In the evening, for a while, practice focus; sit quietly, away from all distractions; and sing the Amen to yourself silently, in synch with your breathing if that works for you. Do this for a little while, let your entire body relax. Keep doing it. Keep your mind’s eye focused on God in Jesus. Watch what happens as you develop focus on God and are able to cut yourself off from distractions of the physical, mental, and emotional. This is not simply done and may take some practice over time. Then, because of that little verse in the Psalm that says ‘Be still and know…..’, when stillness is achieved, to the extent that it is, a parallel knowing follows, a difference comes. Blessings, G.

 

 

The New Covenant, and what lies ahead...

 

Sun Jun 8^th 2025

Intimations 

Last week we checked out the Old Covenant’s history of salvation; how it began, why it began, and how it all ended. So what was to be done? Somewhere in those days, between the writings that became the Book of Leviticus, and Isaiah’s words on the suffering servant, the promise of God’s fulfilment of the ‘blessed to be a blessing’ from Gen 12  becomes complete.

Per Leviticus 16’s retelling of the tradition, every once a year there would be a day of atonement; the High Priest would take the blood of an animal and go into the inner sanctuary and offer it for the sins of all. It would have to be done every year, in order to keep relationship with God afloat, intact, effective. Until the Messiah, Emmanuel, would come and sacrifice himself for us. With his own blood, shed for all of us in a unique once and for always action. Why the blood sacrifice? It has to do with what God is and what God requires in achieving the self-balance of a loving Being. It requires Self-Giving. And life is in blood. God, giver of life, asks the same of God’s own Self to heal the spiritual rift caused by separation. A life gioving spirit bond broken cannot be remade without cost. And it can only be done this way.

So, in the fullness of time, God would come in Jesus, and the atonement would be completed, for all time, for all persons. Hence the death of Jesu. Not this stuff about dying on the cross. In those days, too many were sentenced to death on the cross. The cross for Jesus symbolized an unknown type of much deeper pain and suffering – a Godly sacrifice. God killing God’s self or part of God’s self, for us. Hence the old hymn of What Wondrous Love is This is entirely relevant. Each one of us is worth the blood of that killing i.e. the life of God given for us = the full dimension of God’s love for us. The pain of true love in the self-sacrificial love of God. That is the model of and for Christian love. And it is the beginning of an awesomely significant shift. As I once said, now the goal changes, the parameters extend, the paradigm shifts. The meaning of salvation itself changes, from delivery from the separation of sin to delivery into a new mode of existence. Kingdom bound. This is the prototokos being that Jesus calls us into.

No need for a lot of words in historic ritual that we cannot convert into concrete meaning and action. No need for a lot of academic debate over what is correct interpretation. Focus instead on what works for the good of all, and how we are all called to be a part of that.  The Jesus ‘form of being’ that we are all called to is dynamic and powerful and very now. But you cannot be of the world and hope to find this. You must master being in the world and not being of the world at the same time. Crucial difference in life goals. When that contradiction is mastered, being in the world all of the time, and yet being radically different in real time, you are able to get started on a new journey - into the far country.  

It starts with turning the values of the world upside down and experiencing and showing that the values you hold to can work. It continues with showing that even the very seeming material and technological truths of the world can and will give way to a greater truth – that which comes from God Almighty. And it gives you control and power. First, over your own sphere. Then over the borders around you that are part of you, And finally, beyond those borders. Start small and keep growing. With the exception of a known few and possibly an unknown many, Christians have never really gotten into this, and so, standing on the sidelines as it were, have been unable to make the world a better place. Much easier to just talk about Jesus. Jesus’ calling to us got downgraded by us into socio-political work. Talking about Jesus and celebrating Jesus will not get us into the Kingdom. Nor will fighting in the name of Jesus. Jesus is a change agent, but of a very different kind. As Jesus said, you will be able to do all that I do, and more. Not said lightly, not to be taken lightly. What the Christian tradition has done since the time of Jesu has been to create a religious community of faith, belief and worship. Nothing wrong with that. Life changing on a global scale? Nope. Not even on a communal scale, falling upon division after division.

You could say that this kind of movement begins with Philippians and the mind of Christ and ends with a new beginning with Colossians and the prototokos objective. Not a concept. Just an ubermensch type of direction. Beyond the norm.  Dangerous term, that one. Started with the political philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and got misinterpreted into something else. The supremacy of one type of ethnicity over all others. And some maniacs used it big time. And some still do. 

But in God’s eyes, push beyond Psalm 8, beyond David’s self- inflicted limits, and into Jesus. There is compassion, humility, a strange and bewildering honesty and integrity totally unlike the norm. And then, the exercise of power over. How so? Because you have become part of the Kingdom. Never power over, never for your own purposes. But always a power available in seeking the good of others, and sometimes for yourself so that you may continue seeking the good of others. Very fascinating.  Then the notions of how you will die and when you will die no longer bother you. You have travelled beyond them. And you might even get a sense of them.

That’s the gist of it. The specifics are all in the Bible, but they must be identified and worked through against the temptations that threaten to keep us where we are, limited, tight, painful, unfree. That is the journey before us. That is what Jacob’s Ladder asks us to start climbing towards, now.

So we have started the journey with what we have overviewed briefly, and beginning next week, step by step, we go through the detail.  Through the history of the Old Covenant and the key lessons that it offers on what can be gleaned of salvation; and through its primary characters. David, who soared in faith but fell because of lust. Solomon, who grew greatly in wisdom but fell because of wealth. And so forth. Into Elijah, who made an axe float, among other things. And Elisha, both forerunners of what Jesus would demonstrate as the power of the Kingdom within, amongst and around us.

This stuff is only for the serious seekers amongst us and not for social light-hearted gatherings. Just for those who truly seek the Kingdom now. More than anything else. And there are forces aligned against us. Must be aware of that. Not for nothing did Jesus say if the world hates me it will hate you.

For years, we have been led through little else than going from colonial to corporate exploitation of all of God’s ordinary people on God’s good earth everywhere. As one astronaut very insightfully said, we prioritize economic growth at the expense of the natural systems that sustain us. 

Not for nothing did Jim Wallis publish The False White Gospel last year. That’s the ‘Gospel’ that just talks and has nothing to offer except a nebulous salvation of accepting Jesus as Savior, having your sins forgiven, and going to heaven when you die; and of a certain type of emotional feelgood experience; with, on the other side, the familiar comfort of a tradition that has always been in various stages of confusion and division. And still is.

Ritual, when you think of it carefully, is precious little beyond magical aspiration and incantation. It makes no real-life difference. Same with custom and tradition. We must exceed their limits. They are not bad aspects of life, just badly limited. We read from print and declare the mighty word of God. But the Word of God is weird, and will lend itself only according to how close we are to Jesus and what we intend to accomplish; the printed word is a printed word, only representative; the real WORD is a living sound energy, filled with God’s creative power, that accomplishes Gods will.

Not for nothing has Walter Brueggemann written about white hegemonic biblical interpretation. Both Jim and Walter are speaking of a leadership grouping that has decided what a thing should be. Not God’s way. And commonsense will tell us that the academic study of the Bible is never needed in the Kingdom of God. Just the grace, mercy and power of the one God demonstrated in our lives. Stay well and be at peace. God walks with you. Always, G.

The blog add is dreliatjacobsladder.blogspot.com

As I've said, this is just sharing; no intention to seek donations, form a church, adopt some political mission etc. This is just a fellowship of seekers on a journey....

The Old Covenant Story....

 

Sunday 1^st Jun 2025

The biblical history of salvation, thorns and all…begins with the Old Covenant.(thorns = God gave us the ability to sort thorny stuff out carefully, and not accept what is said, even traditionally, in blind fashion…hence David’s reinterpretive skills….)

Also, remember the disclaimer of last week – this is a ‘no agenda’ Blog, a sharing as I journey and while I write the text on Jacob’s Ladder; Blog history of posts thus far is at dreliatjacobsladder.blogspot.com

Dear ones in Jesus,

The biblical history of salvation begins with God’s call to Abram in Gen 12:1-3. God says Come, and I will make of you a great people, and by you, all the peoples of the earth will be blessed. Cool. And why is God doing this?

Look at Genesis chapters 1-11. Mix of myth, legend, symbol and confession of faith; and it signifies?

1.      The story of (not the history of) God’s relationship with humankind.

2.      Out of chaos, God creates! And God’s creation = order!

3.      Humankind is created in the image of the Spirit of God, for God is spirit. No notion of a physical godly reference/image whatsoever here i.e. looks, features.

4.      Humankind is given every blessing from God, and is able to exercise intention and choice, and the stewardship of all that has been given. This is a big deal.

5.      There is a condition for such order to be maintained – the condition is one of relation i.e. it is able to continue as long as relationship with God is kept in engagement i.e. kept active, kept alive, kept in synch.

6.      So, direction, framework, parameters are all set. What happens?

7.      Humankind chooses. Poorly. No one person/entity is to blame. Not ‘satan’, not eve. It is the exercise of choice. Collectively. Influence? Well, that’s still there….

8.      Some questions & issues to begin to work on, that we will need to ultimately decide:

a.      The Adam, Eve, apple, Satan narrative places the blame squarely on Satan and then Eve. And so Eve, and all women thereafter, are punished by God to forever suffer painful and risky childbirth….

b.      We are all descendants of the three sons of Noah, so we’re all descended from wandering Arameans or some such…

These questions cannot be answered quickly nor easily but only when all of scripture is seen and understood as a whole from the perspective and experience of what salvation is; then their significance will either grow or diminish accordingly. We shall see.

9.      Order and accord have been rejected; action has been taken; cause and effect come into being; and the result? Dis-order, and the beginning of the real sin of separation from God.

10. Humankind cannot go backwards; as in the Garden of Eden narrative, access is now denied; they can only go forward; it is the accountability and responsibility that God teaches and requires.

11. How is this resolved? God calls Abram; listening and following, Abram (great father) has his name changed to Abraham or in Hebrew,  ‘Av-ra-ha’am’ (father of a great multitude). Why? He is to become the people through which accord will be restored. This is Israel, the chosen.

12. And does this happen? Not quite. Abraham and Sarah are to wait for the child of the promise. But they’re old. God surely can’t expect to see such an event happen for them; Sara’s childbearing days are over. So why not use her maid instead? Good intentions and a desire to be of some help. Sure backfires, though. They end up with 2 sons!

13. Thus begins the Ishmael vs Isaac debacle. For now, they shall both become great nations. But the promise will continue through Isaac, then Jacob, then Joseph, who becomes Israel, with 12 sons, ending up as the 12 tribes of Israel.

14. In Egypt in a time of famine, Joseph prospers; but when rulers change, and perspectives change, Israel is oppressed. But God saves and the reality of salvation is seen for the first time.

15. Years of wandering in the wilderness, growing towards maturity. Not quite. Even as the Commandments are given, the people ask, and a golden calf is made. There is both judgement and cleansing, but it is a forerunner of things to come, despite the leadership passing from Moses to Joshua, and the people then saying that they choose to follow God.

16. They keep forgetting to follow God, and are easily turned aside; and so in the Book of Judges it is an up and down adventure, while God leads them through their own self-caused adversity, again and again.

Question here for reflection is the issue of the land which God has promised to them, hence the promised land; but it ain’t uninhabited; there’s people there; and so this is Israel’s first major challenge of conversion; they do not make it; they are converted themselves, far too often.

17. The people say to Samuel, we want a King, that we may be like the nations. Samuel is angry but God points out that the people have not rejected Samuel; they have rejected God. Israel does not wish to be the chosen. Saul is anointed King but comes to a sad end; and then David is King, and for a while it seems different; Until the King falls into the common lust of Kings of those times, and then into premeditated murder, even. David comes close to God, and there are lessons there. But also great sadness over sinful consequences. When Solomon is King, there seems to be God given wisdom, for he asks well. But he fails to build on this; he builds great wealth instead; and in the final analysis, much wealth and many wives with different values has their effect on him, after Solomon, the Kingdom is soon divided into North & South, Israel and Judah. What has happened to the promised land and the promised people through whom great blessing to all will come? They have failed. But humankind must go forward.

18. And so prophets prophesy; The servant Israel is now to be a suffering servant and through a suffering redemption, the blessing of all people, will finally become reality. The suffering servant is a new concept, a new reality God makes possible, and it is now the work of one man, and no longer that of one people. Thus Isaiah declares.

19. The servant is to be a light to the nations – the new innovation of the blessing of Gen 12:1-3. God is light/spirit/love; and the servant will bring the light of salvation to and for all; And he will suffer, both for Israel and for the nations, once and for always. He will be wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. For Israel has turned to its own way, and it is not the way of God. It is no longer the chosen.

20. The days when God fought for Israel, when Israel needed to do no fighting, are over; Israel is now like all the other nations, and behaves accordingly, as it does, today. With weapons and armament to war and still at war, for it has not followed the call to win, ‘not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.’

It is now neither a bringer nor a giver of peace to the world. It is no different from any other nation.

21. And so, in the fullness of time, God sends his Son, which is God himself come amongst us, to fulfill the words of the prophets of the Old Covenant, and to render unto the people, unto Israel and the world, a New Covenant, to be continued next week as we consider the outlay of the New Covenant. Take care of yourselves and have a good week. Grace and peace, G.