God’s Other Name~

God gave me a personal name to use for Him when I was meditating by the wood stove:

“Alyha”

Alyha. I love you so much. ❤

God is in our Every Cell

He knows what we are thinking because He is in every cell of our body, including our brain.  As I shared in a previous post, The Image of God, God has made life with a cellular basis because that is how His perfect form is.  In the sacred process of life-giving whereby He creates all beings, He attaches Himself to that being in that process, on a level so infinitely small as yet to be undetectable to human understanding, yet so invasive that we cannot ever escape from Him, our Creator.

This is why dreams and daydreams and aha! moments and intentions and intuition tell us God’s Will.  It is the immanence of God in us at work, in these moments that move us.  He is transcendent at all times too, yes, out there.  But He is always in here as well.  As Rick Warren says so eloquently in The Purpose Driven Life, God is constantly watching us-our every nuance-in every moment to see how we think, how we feel, and how we respond to events in our lives!  He is also feeling us, knowing us, and guiding us from within.  I find that so profound.  I don’t know about you, but knowing this makes a huge difference in how I actually behave!

But it is God in Us that is our ever surveillant Master, but also our dependable safety net.  He tailors our lives to His everlasting assessment of us, if we but learn to hear Him and listen to Him.  This is living in His will for us, and living coram Deo, with God, in everything we do.

Years ago, I read a heart-wrenching account of a young woman lost at sea on a sailboat that had gotten caught in a hurricane somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.  Based on a true story, this woman’s fiancee had apparently been lost overboard when the tumultuous storm tore him off the chains he had tied around himself and the helm, to anchor him.  Realizing that they would not be able to run away from the storm or go around it, he had sent her below where it was safer, while he stayed up top to do any navigation he could.  Down below, her body got thrown around, and she became unconscious for 24 hours.  When she returned to the deck afterward, her fiancee was gone, and she was alone and adrift on the open sea.

She describes how she heard a voice in her head giving her commands which ended up helping her navigate to the coast of Hawaii, and saving her life.  Commands like, “Open that can and eat it.”  The commands were from somewhere inside her head, she knew, but were not from her.  I do not recall her being a Christian or being a believer, or saying the voice was God, as I was reading her book.  But now I know it was God speaking to her.  Because that is how He sounds to me too.  It was nothing short of a miracle how, with nothing but star reckoning, she was able to sail herself to the island of Hawaii in the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean, over a month or more period of time.  And that she did not starve of hunger or thirst on the way.

God is like that in our head.  He feels our aches and pains in our bodies.  We don’t really have to tell Him or whine to Him about what ails us, though He is gracious when we do.  He understands that life is pain.  He sent Jesus to us knowing that life is pain.  He doesn’t want us to always feel pain, yet He knows that we will suffer whilst here on earth, because of man’s inherent sinful nature, from the very Beginning.

But we can also feel joy and happiness and hope.  That is the message of the Gospel.  That is what I want to share with others.  Life is pain, but life everlasting can be bliss with God.  We can have bliss here if we allow God to blossom within us and take over our every cell!  Open your understanding and know He is there, inside you, waiting for you to open your heart and mind and body fully to Him.

God Bless~

Mary

Part II: IPOD is an IDOL

An idol is anything that comes between you and God.  In the bible-days idols were represented by golden calves and naked deities, so I think it is easy for us as modern-day Children of God to think the second commandment (the second most important commandment of the 10), ‘Thous Shalt have no other gods before Me,’ does not really apply to us anymore.  However, if you stop to think about how the Gentiles (pagans) of the time used the ancient idols, you can see similar behavior in our current culture.

It doesn’t really matter what you do with it, an IPOD  is made to be a personal device for entertainment; to be clutched, protected, and clung to like a constant companion.  It is a muse and a cherished device.  It is a modern-day deity.  In older generations, the TV was our IPOD.

An idol can also be a bottle of booze.  A pack of cigarettes.  A phone.  A credit card.  In all these cases, we worship something that we perceive is going to deliver us unto happiness.  We might not even consciously believe that, it might be completely subconscious, but the point is, our action reaches for and intoxicates upon, the Thing, whatever it is.

Technology is our golden calf.  We might not literally bow down to it, but I bet if your IPOD or phone or computer breaks, you are going to lament, contort yourself somewhat, and take steps to replace it immediately.

Do we do this with God?  Do we take the same loving care with our relationship with God as we do with our personal devices?  Do we protect from taking His name in vain with the same diligence with which we protect our phone from moisture?  Do we keep our communication with Him as quick and responsive as our texting?  Are we as enraptured by His wonders as we are by viral youtube videos?  If not, we are probably serving idols in place of God.

Technology which is a vehicle for communication and connects people together, such as certain aspects of the internet and phone, are not all bad, but we must use them with caution, knowing they could lead us into temptation and subsequent idolatry.  Usually God does not want us to be tempted at all, and commands that we avoid temptation by eliminating all of it from our lives.  As He illustrated when the ancient Hebrews settled in the Promised Land of Canaan, He demanded that all the pagan tribes be destroyed, lest they lead His chosen people into sin and idolatry.

Even though we might think we are far removed from worshiping golden calves and sacrificing our children to gods, we are actually the very same now.  We let our children go away from our protective arms from the time they are born, so that we can make double the money, one of our favorite gods.  We elevate our false egos that make us worship ourselves and each other, because since we do not believe in God, we make ourselves or someone else god.  We pay homage and adoration to stars, and look up to them.  We clutch cold shiny metal that portrays any image we crave to see, and in the imagination of our own hearts, we think that it is good.

 

Part I: Science and Technology is antithesis to God, and is Idolatry

Television was when it really started taking hold, the drugging of modern society with technology.  I realize it began well before with the radio, and before that with the telegraph, and before that with the discovery of electricity.  But with the invention of the television, the perfect mechanism was created to inject, via electricity, mass amounts of eager people with passive entertainment, in as large a dose as desired with no consideration as to its consequences.  Never before had the masses been able to obtain sedation in this way; sit down, press a button, and walah! instant visual stimulation for as long as one wanted.  No age limits were imposed, no warnings given, no thought to how this seemingly innocuous box could and would negatively impact our future society at every level.

We still do not see it.  Because we have been lulled to sleep as is so typical of the devil.  Technology fueled by its sister Science, has leaped forth exponentially with gadget after gadget vying for our attention and money.  Kind of like how those graven images of old were so hated by God and is what the 2nd of the 10 Commandments is all about.  Anything that wedges itself between us and God is an IDOL.  We work to pay our cable and cell phone bills, considered necessary expenditures in our modern economy.  Even the parents of 10 year olds feel like their children are ill-equipped for life if they are not toting a phone.  Add in ipods and ipads (and their equivalents), and it is obvious we are more obsessed with technology than ever before.

It used to be considered a marker of prestige if one had indoor plumbing.  Then that mindset gave way to every family above the poverty level needing to have access to electricity.  Once electricity was in the house, there was no stopping ‘progress’ then.  What an inventor’s dream!  Soon every family owned a radio and a television.  Even if one could make a weak argument for technology in that it fostered a healthy family pasttime, that argument implodes on itself now with the advent of the smart phone and the ipod.  What kid is content with only watching television with his family?  If they are not constantly toggling back and forth, trolling facebook and reddit, they might miss some important tidbit of Information, the holy grail of modern life.  And parents are no exception.  Texting and news must pour forth uninterrupted, even while doing any other activity, including driving, and eating, and even during holidays with friends and family!  Each person has abandoned his nuclear family and become a world unto himself with the aid of electronic embellishments.

But I even need to go further back.  Back to Science.  Essentially explored as its own concept beginning in the 4th century BC by Aristotle, the father of scientific thought.  For him and his students, God was Science.  This carved out a diametrically opposed way of believing only in God to believing in the world.  It also gave a valid outlet to those Gentiles who might practice paganism by having something worthy to put their belief and faith in!  Instead of praying to the fertility icons of Ashoreth and Baal, which were so plentiful in those days almost every family had many of them (sound familiar?), they could now scientifically study the seasons and understand agrarian methods, informed by science.  It is easy to see here how Science literally replaced idols, and is an IDOL itself.

The Old Testament had been written down 200 years by that time, and Moses had led the Chosen People of God out of Egypt in or around 1300 BC.  So it took about 1000 years for the negative and evil forces against good and God to amass themselves and gain a foothold with what would prove to be the best vehicle for the Enemy’s advancement, even over lustly tempations and money:  the pursuit of Knowledge.  As time goes by, it is apparent that Science is growing not only stronger, but not unlike a bad virus, is able to mutate and adapt to its surroundings, evidenced by it gaining more and more of a foothold in our youth!  By the time our children are adults, they have been so thoroughly bathed in technology and its dopaminergic effects, they are not only sold on it, but they are its most loyal advocates.

Breaking the 2nd commandment is so so terrible to God, but where this technology is leading us is so so terrible to us… Remember Adam and Eve?  They were kicked out of the Garden of Eden for eating of the Tree of Knowledge, lest they would obtain God’s power over Life.  In the book of Jeremiah, there resides a seemingly hidden prophecy of what will happen if we continue on this quest to obtain God’s Knowledge.  We will be annihilated from the face of the earth.

He has the power to stop the universe from expanding into nothingness.  He has to power to delay the Endtimes as He wishes, based on His grace and our behavior.  However, if we continue on our current course, God will allow our own evil pursuit of Scienctific Idolatry to wipe us out with its own bastard creation, Technology.

We just cannot see that this is where we are heading.  And make no mistake:  God is very displeased about our itinerary.

God said, “Ask!…

God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?” And Solomon said: “Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted.

Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”

And the speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing. Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.

And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” ~I Kings 3:5-14

God lavishes us with more abundance than we can imagine if we but draw close to him with a humble heart~

I, Mary, by Mercy…

I, Mary, by mercy of God a recluse, in the name of God, His Law, and His Son Jesus Christ, offer my humble servitude forever.

A reaffirmation of my commitment and vows to God.

The Narrow Way

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.  ~Matthew 7:13-14

Jewish-Christian versus Pagan-Christian

I recently bought a copy of Cradle of Christianity, published by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.  It is an exhibition of artifacts from the time of Christ, in and around the time when the new religion of Christianity was dawning.  In it, they discuss how early Christians who believed in Jewish rites and Law were called Judeo-Christians, members of the “church from the circumcision”, and those who had no connection with Judaism were called members of the “church from the Gentiles”.

Initially, the majority of the members of the new faith in Palestine were Judeo-Christians, who believed (in opposition to Paul) that affiliation with the Jewish religion and observance of the commandments were prerequisites for Christian faith….In hellenized cities, of course, uncircumcised Christians formed the majority.  ~Cradle of Christianity p. 32

It occurred to me that if I am a Jewish-Christian, then my contemporary Christian brethren who do not believe in the Law, but only the concept of Jesus, should then be called Pagan-Christians, as their doctrine originally extends from the foundation of the Gentiles, who largely practiced pagan worship and were considered pagans.  The term for bypassing the foundation of our religion is “antinomian”, meaning in the Greek, anti law [nomos].  The earliest leaders put forth antinomian law at the Jerusalem Council when they voted that gentile Christians did not need to adhere to the Mosaic Law, only the Noahide Law, which basically means instead of following all God’s commandments, they were allowed to bypass them and follow a watered-down version for the new religion of Christianity [see more about this in my pending post on antinomianism and legalism].  If you think about it, the Roman influence is strong in modern Christianity, and Roman ways were gentile, or pagan, ways.  Much of how Christians express their Christianity is tied to pagan practices, even if the worshiper is unaware of this, down to the times of year and religious celebrations.

I think we should all just be called Christians, but for me being a Christian means adhering to God in all the ways he commands us in the Torah.  This means loving Him and listening to His Living Word and Holy Spirit every day.  It requires obeying His Law given to us by His Prophets.  And it means having faith in Him and loving our neighbor as ourselves, as Jesus taught, and honoring Jesus’ role as the everlasting sacrificial lamb of God.

Being a Christian is not just about holding dear the concept of Jesus, no matter how much I aspire to be like Jesus on a daily basis.  Being Christian is holding dear our Hebrew roots, no matter what our ethnicity is, because all who are born again unto God are His Children and His Chosen Ones.  We cannot ignore our foundation and the patriarchs of our religion.  We must pay them homage by daily meditation and recitation and prayer and obedience, to all God’s Laws, statutes, and commandments as He demanded from the very beginning.

The Holy Trinity~

to Love God

to Obey His Law

to have Faith in Him through Jesus Christ

“For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do–to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—  then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.”  ~Deuteronomy 11:22-23