Obedience and the Tree of Life

This is from the blog A Word in Season:

“Blessed are they that do his commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life,
and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
Revelation 22:14

Obedience to the will of God is the revelation of His Lordship. Calling upon His Name and then walking in the stubbornness of our own ways is labelled iniquity in the New Testament. Iniquity simply means “self-will”. It is the unbroken, undisciplined and unconquered will of one who claims to be a follower of Christ and yet exhibits all of the traits of the first Adam. We live in a day of a false gospel, a declaration that by simply naming the name of Jesus we have full access to all the promises of God, such is not the truth.

The message of Jesus to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation is consistent… “I know thy works…” It is in what we do wherein we reveal the nature and the spirit in which we walk.

“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say?”
Luke 6:46

Jesus follows this powerful question with the “Parable of the Houses” being built upon rock and upon the sand.

“Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.

But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”
Luke 6:47-49

How few realize that it is in doing His will wherein the deep foundation of the house is laid! It is in the doing where we discover the true nature of all that we are and run to Him for grace. His will is in itself the very foundation of our salvation. In His will we are confronted with our own stubbornness and we are met with the full knowing of our own weakness and folly. His Will is the cross upon which the horror of self is crucified. They who hear only never come to terms with their true self, they live in a world of teachings, confessions and religious talk without ever venturing into the land of truth. It is WHEN the flood comes that the foundation is discovered and the verity of an individual’s true nature is revealed.

Obedience brings us to the need of the true grace of God, it is no longer a sentient, a catch phrase or a religious cliché; it is the means by which our hearts find the power to submit to His ways and walk in them.

Through disobedience man lost the right and the access to the Tree of Life and it is through the wonder and life of the Son (as expressed in a life of obedience) we gain the right to the Tree of Life and are able to partake of its life giving fruit.

“Blessed are they that do his commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life,
and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
Revelation 22:14

Brian Troxel

Kierkegaard: "how highly do you value God's Word?"

Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855

This is from the blog Dover Beach:

“…how highly do you value God’s Word? Imagine a lover who has received a letter from his beloved. I assume that God’s Word is just as precious to you as this letter is to the lover. I assume that you read and think you ought to read God’s Word in the same way the lover reads this letter. Yet you perhaps say, ‘Yes, but Scripture is written in a foreign language.’ Let us assume, then, that this letter from the beloved is written in a language that the lover does not understand. But let us assume that there is no one around who can translate it for him. Perhaps he would not even want any such help lest a stranger be initiated into his secrets. What does he do? He takes a dictionary, begins to spell his way through the letter, looks up every word in order to obtain a translation. Now let us imagine that, as he sits there busy with his task, an acquaintance comes in. He knows that the letter has come, because he sees it lying there, and says, ‘So, you are reading a letter from your beloved.’ What do you think the other will say? He answers, ‘Have you gone mad? Do you think this is reading a letter from my beloved! No, my friend, I am sitting here toiling… with a dictionary to get it translated. At times I am ready to explode with impatience; the blood rushes to my head, and I would just as soon hurl the dictionary on the floor – and you call that reading! You must be joking! No, thank God, as soon as I am finished with the translation I shall read my beloved’s letter; that is something altogether different.’… All the scholarly preliminaries were regarded as nothing but a necessary evil so that he could come to the point – of reading the letter from his beloved… Let us assume that this letter contained not only an expression of affection, but also a wish, something the beloved wanted her lover to do… the lover… he is off at once to fulfill his beloved’s wish… think of God’s Word. When you read it in a scholarly way, with a dictionary or a commentary, then you are not reading God’s Word… If you happen to be a scholar, then please see to it that even with all your learned reading you do not forget to read God’s Word. If you are not a scholar, rejoice! Be glad that you can listen to God’s address right away! And if in the listening you hear a wish, a command, an order, then – remember the lover! – off with you at once to do what it asks.”

--Soren Kierkegaard

_____


This is my comment:

We read the Scriptures in faith: faith in God, not faith in our intellects. Or we could say that the Lord uses our intellects to read the Bible and uses the Holy Ghost to give us spiritual understanding. The Bible is spiritual–it is inspired by the Holy Ghost. We must read the Bible, so that the Holy Ghost can engraft the Scriptures into our spirit. 

I John 2: 27: “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”

The Scriptures engrafted into our spirit is fertile ground; the Scriptures engrafted into our brain is death.  Head knowledge kills; Holy Ghost knowledge (revelation knowledge) gives live.

II Corinthians 3: 6: “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”

The Spiritual Man
Man Reasons, but God Reveals
Physical Sight and Spiritual Sight

Book Review: The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

This is an email I received today from someone who gave me a ride a couple of times in Montana:

Hi Tim,

I picked up a copy of The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & Other Hitchhiking Stories at the Bitterroot Library [Hamilton, Montana] and just finished reading it. I feel like I know you quite well now, just from this account of what a few years on the road looked like for you.

One of my favorite chapters was "A Christmas Story or Junked Cars Can Be Beautiful". I actually read that just a few days before Christmas and it gave me a feeling that the Christmas story lives on in forms less obvious. In general, I really liked the meaning that you gave to roads, cars, and the people that drive them. As a car enthusiast myself, I have always loved wrenching and driving. I think I mentioned to you one of the times I picked you up that a few friends and I race an old BMW that we work on together. Likewise, searching for secluded, twisting backroads to really let our cars stretch their legs on and hug some corners has always been a special pastime with that same group of friends. Roads, cars, and the people that drive them have been important in my life, too; it was striking to see the completely different meaning that these things have in your life.

Also, in reading your book, I’ve given a lot of thought as to where God is trying to lead me. I believe that one can be led by the Spirit, even if not physically moving in a nomadic sense. I’ve had a lot of questions in my mind regarding the next step in my life - medical school. I applied to both M.D. and D.O. programs, but am struggling with a myriad of issues concerning which degree I should pursue. It wasn’t until I was nearly done with your book that I started to ask where God wants me to be. I am seeking His counsel.

--Alek Wood

Book Review:  High Plains Drifter
Stobe the Hobo

The First Time I Rode a Freight Train & other hitchhiking stories

People Who Died for Mocking God

The Death of Voltaire
Bereshith

Genesis 12 Blessing and Curse in the News

Venezuela Cursed Israel and became CURSED

Cicero: "The traitor is the plague"

This is from the blog Dover Beach:

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through…all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

"For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” 

--Marcus Tullius Cicero 

TREACHERY:  John McCain & Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Conspiring Against President Trump
Fifty Cubits High 

Marine Calls for John McCain's Arrest and Trial for Treason
George H.W. Bush

2 Judges

A Thousand Points of Light - Mothers of Darkness Castle in Belgium
Largest Mass Treason Event in History

Mark Taylor says John McCain was Executed

This is why the Texas Lawsuit was thrown out by the Supreme Court

John Roberts and Mike Pence:  Treasonous Trump Deep State Enemies Inside the Gate

Former Prime Minister of France, Pierre Laval, executed for treason