"For God so esteemed the earth as a condemned, devil-ruled, temporal hell hole that he kept His only begotten Son from inhabiting an icky, human body." THAT IS NOT THE GOSPEL!

Any message that causes you to despise the planet and loathe your own body (with its God-given desires and drives) is NOT the Gospel. Be very careful not to mistake the term "world" (Cosmos: man-made political and religious systems, etc.) for planet Earth or to confuse "the flesh" (A mindset which i...s contrary to the Mind and Nature of Christ) with the human body (Temple of God).

Religion has people hating the planet and despising their own bodies.
So many people loathe the visible while longing for nothing but the invisible. The Incarnation, Jesus' passion for His Kingdom to Come and His Will to be done on EARTH as it is in heaven, the Bible's bold prophetic declaration that the meek shall inherit the EARTH, and the blessed Hope of New Earth's potential and possibilities are most definitely enough evidence to refute such diabolical deceptions. It is also most helpful for us to understand that the "Last Days" (of the Old Covenant Order...with its many types, and shadows) are behind us, while recognizing Dispensationalism's mistake of relegating the Apocalyptic events which occurred in and around 70 AD to the future.

In the Beginning, God said that the Earth and everything on it was "GOOD" and that "MAN" (male & female) was "VERY GOOD". Stop believing that Adam's ability to mess things up was greater than Jesus' ability to RESTORE them!

The more that the BODY of Christ realizes that we are the body of CHRIST, the more we will understand the sanctity of our entire being...and celebrate the Incarnate Christ...in us and as us...Who is the Hope of Glory!

​Shalom!
~Joe

My Word to you for 2017: You are just as much in Christ as you have ever been or ever will be! He can't possibly Love you any more or less today than He did yesterday or than He will tomorrow! God IS Love! The same benefits that were yours in 2016 (and in all prior years) are still yours! Christ in you is still the Hope of Glory! Amongst many other wonderful things, He calls you His Wife, His Brother or Sister, His Body, His Friend, His Living Epistle, and the Apple of ...His Eye! You are loved, valued, accepted and blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ! Through Him you have access to all things that pertain to life and godliness! You no longer have to rely on your own performance by trying to produce the Fruit or Gifts of the Spirit; and there is no shortage or rationing of the New Wine! You are free to rest in HIS PERFORMANCE...as you function through HIS Faith, which works by HIS Love! Freely you have received, NOW...Freely give!

No rhymes, No limericks, No numerology, Nothing spooky, No fortune cookie messages, No Christianese horoscopes, No 'carrot & stick' words promising to give you what you already have or make you who you already are, and No words coming from a compulsion to perform prophetically, because a New Year is just around the corner. Just Truth!

Regarding New Year's "Words": Trust the Peace of Christ to be the referee in your heart. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
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Shalom!
~Joe

God created us with brains, not hard drives. He has also given us "The MIND of Christ", not a jump drive. True revelation, free thinking, intuition and perception are clouded whenever we choose to take man's word for something without proper analysis, sincere questioning, personal study, and the true witness of the Holy Spirit and the Word. I will also contend that many in the Western Church have been brainwashed into believing that institutional regurgitation is more trustworthy and readily accessible than Divine Revelation...which is discovered through personal relationship, personal study, and free thinking.

Just because you have heard something incessantly repeated throughout your lifetime doesn't make it true, nor does it prove that there isn't a more excellent way and a deeper understanding to be obtained.

Are you able to intelligently discuss the "What We Believe" page on your church's website; while providing strong, true, Biblical substantiation? Did you have to believe "What We Believe" in order to join the "church family"? Is "What we Believe" perfection? What if you "stumble upon" something Biblically more than "What We Believe"? What then? What does it mean when the church up the road's "What We Believe" page is longer than yours? If "What they Believe" is from God and can be substantiated through the Scriptures, why wouldn't you and your church want to believe that too?

How can we be calling out "secular" colleges and universities for indoctrinating and brainwashing young minds while many in "Christendom" place greater value on the incomplete revelation of dead Theologians and Denominational "Founders" than the Bible, The Holy Spirit, His ability to reveal Himself to modern-day people, and the God-given wisdom of our contemporaries? His Word is PERFECT, while our understanding of His Word isn't quite there yet...and can't be found by digging up the corpses of our favorite, historical Theologians (Many of whom were deemed "heretics" according to the "What We Believe" pages of their contemporaries). It is wise to ponder and build upon their writings which are in alignment with God's Word, but foolish to place their words on the same plane as the Bible and the Holy Spirit's ability to reveal Christ in and through us!  That's ancestor worship!

Now, take a deep breath and ask yourself, "Is 'What We Believe' all that I truly believe and am allowed to believe?".
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Shalom!
~Joe

Religion charges regular installments (with loan shark interest rates and Mafia-like collections agents) for what is already ours and was paid-in-full, through the finished work of Christ. Religion bankrupts through insecurity and endless payments. Jesus isn't like that. He lovingly and joyously encourages us to withdraw from His eternal, infinite deposit of Himself within us! Only He gives true Joy, Rest, Satisfaction and the ability to function through an easy yoke, a light burden, an ongoing Revelation of our truest Identity, and a Living Way that accomplishes more through us than religion's endless payments and high interest rates ever could!
Shalom!
~Joe

According to the truest sense of the word, believers in Christ don't need "Revival". The true need is for a REVELATION of and an AWAKENING to the Relationship, Identity and Life which are already ours through Christ! Don't confuse dormant with dead or your fixed position with a "journey". Thank the Lord that such revelations and awakenings can happen at any time and at any place...without absolute dependence on a series of meetings or the next Christian celebrity promising to "take us to another level".
Shalom!
~Joe

Trans-Gen-Er: Identifying with Adam instead of Christ.

While some folks are confused about which bathroom they should use, a much greater number are confused about their identity, origin, and to which covenant they belong.

1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
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Shalom!
~Joe

A revelation of the New Testament MYSTERY doesn't leave people wandering, waiting and begging for times, seasons, dispensations, visitations, "revivals", "moves" of God, "outpourings", or the next great Christian celebrity. The MYSTERY revealed through New Covenant ministry is CHRIST HIMSELF...Who, in us, is the Hope of Glory.
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Avoid all spookiness which exalts a "prophet's" predictions of what's going to happen "_____________" (fill in a random date or future season) above THE EVER-PRESENT, WILLING, & ABLE MYSTERY HIMSELF!

Just because someone caught a revelation of a particular facet of Him Who is THE MYSTERY, and magnified it for a particular season, doesn't mean that Christ hasn't been available to minister to and through us in that capacity since Pentecost. People seem to confuse the perpetuity of God's Will and Nature with the times and seasons of man's cooperation and understanding. Some "prophetic" folks love saying "yet four months" when Jesus explicitly told us not to (Note that four months marks new, natural seasons and weather patterns).

We are not living in a season where we are waiting to push people into the waters of Siloam when an angel stirs them up. We are already in Christ and Christ is IN US! If you are "waiting" (FYI- That word happens to mean INTERTWINED in the Hebrew) for a "______ (fill in the blank) revival" in the next "move", then you must believe that God's perfect will for mankind is the absence of that particular expression of His Love...until He changes His Mind and decides to "move in mysterious ways". That sort of thinking exalts "spookiness"...not Christ. It will also sell more books than Bibles.
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The idea that God is somehow out of New Wine for a season, while your local liquor store is fully stocked, is ludicrous!

Shalom!
~Joe

When was the last time you heard a message or song about the New Earth? Yes, it is in your Bible! It is also one of the most eternally blessed, yet theologically ignored topics ever. The idea of "heaven" being good and earth being bad is as preposterous as believing that your spirit is good, but your mind, will, emotions, and body are evil. Dualism curses that which is visible and tangible. God doesn't! He cherishes the terrestrial and uses it to give expression to the celestial! That's exactly why the Word became flesh and "moved into the neighborhood"!

The Incarnation is far more than a "Christmas Story". There is a visible, tangible, flesh and bone, incarnate representative of all mankind seated at the right hand of the Father! In Him, we are wonderfully intertwined with the Trinity and each other! Heaven is the realm of the Spirit...available to earth and presently dwelling within us. We've been taught to believe for better bodies, but not a better planet. That is erroneous.

Rev. 21:1-3 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (See also Is. 65:17, Is. 66:22 & 2 Pet. 3:13)

I believe that the experience of the above verses can be greatly enjoyed today, with greater expressions to come...
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Shalom!
~Joe

• Refuse to adhere to any Theology teaching an upgraded devil and a downgraded Holy Spirit!
• Just as Adam and Eve weren't provided a sex education manual, there are plenty of "How To's" not found in the New Testament. Some things are best explored, enjoyed, and reproduced through relationship!
• When people take you for granted, just remember that you're in good company with God, sunshine, oxygen, water, food, clothing, shelter, and lots of other things. Remember how much God Loves you and continue letting Him Love them through you.
• God couldn't be any more pleased or delighted with His Son in you, nor could He be any more willing to reveal Him in you!
• God's REST is a celebration of His own perfection in creation and redemption! He invites us into a daily enjoyment of the same!
• No dimension of the Fruit of His Spirit has ever been humanly manufactured or earned, just freely received and freely given! The Lord is delighted when we discuss and practice the Fruit of His Spirit as a present, inward reality...instead of some distant, external phenomenon.
• Why do folks get angry with ISIS for shouting "Death to America!", while supporting preachers who are "prophesying" the same outcome?
• We need to ditch any theology which has more faith in our local liquor store being stocked than it has in Jesus' ability to perpetually supply us with the New Wine.
• God chose you in Christ long before He created a single thing or breathed Life into Adam. Neither Jesus nor you are a footnote in Adam's story.
• At the root of disrespect, you will always find two cases of mistaken identity. That of the perpetrator and that of the one being disrespected. Respect (Which literally means- "To take another look.") for others thrives in environments of self-worth, while being void in atmospheres of fear, insecurity, and incessant self-abasement.
• Jesus- "You have been made righteous through My finished work."                                                  Religion- "You are only as good as your last performance."
• Words often empower stupidity which silence would otherwise kill.
  Wisdom knows when to speak up and when to shut up.
• Religion holds a big stick...with the promise of a future carrot.  Jesus took the full brunt of the stick and made us one with heaven's eternal, full course meal...to be enjoyed NOW and forever!
• New Age? Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus ushered in the New Age... replete with an experiential union with the Trinity, supernatural phenomena, miracles, spiritual gifts, angelic activity, meditation and more!  Yes, I'm a "New Ager"!
• His Faith, working by His Love, allows us to rise above fear, insecurity, criticism, accusation and hatred...while ruling with dignity...in the midst of our enemies. The greatest weapon in the "Good Fight of Faith" is LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
• Oftentimes, the only difference between a "heretic" and a hero is a few decades.
• The question isn't whether or not to color outside of the lines.
  The question is... "Who drew them?"
• A God of mystery and union cannot be rightfully appreciated and enjoyed by those who are bent on full, intellectual comprehension, segregation, and fear of the unknown.
• I continuously find that which is precious...not outside of Christ or in that which is in contradiction to His Word, but outside of my most familiar "camps", comfort zones, and theological prejudices.
• In all things leadership and ministry, people are looking for a strong, "dirty" foundation in the midst of sinking sand and unreachable, impenetrable, ornate, hierarchal ceilings.
• I'm not waiting for the universe to cooperate with me. Because of the finished work of Christ, I have the privilege of functioning out of the rich, sweet center of Him Whom the universe cannot contain! Not only that, but He Whom the universe cannot contain dwells in me! I'm more than just a 5'11", 200+ lb., 50 year old container! I'm one with the only wise Father of all creation and Master of the universe! 

          Shalom!
​          ~Joe
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