Tag Archive - freedom

The Tree of Life

September 19, 2009 • 0 Comments

Form BobHamp.com

When Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, I am certain that the Garden was also kicked out of them. Life in the Garden was filled with unique attributes. Life outside… well, let’s look.

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:24

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Matthew 4:17

We first must understand that all of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. It has been translated through the generations to give us the English Bibles we have today. Translation is a tricky process, as you cannot take the translator out of the process. Translators have their own perceptions that affect the process. Kind of like human communication in every arena. Teaching in other nations, when my own interpreter does not understand the concept I am conveying, they cannot accurately convey the meanings embedded in a teaching.

Let’s look at the verse above through different eyes. Anytime our eyes view God as mean, or rigid, we must assume we are viewing Him incorrectly. I fear verses like those above could lend us to viewing God incorrectly.

First, the story. Adam and Eve have just sinned, and God has come to describe what comes next after their mess-up. They took into themselves the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This changed everything, and God began to adjust some things to go with this new circumstance. His last adjustment is described in the verse above.

He set a cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. Darn that cherubim. Stupid sword… we should be able to get to the tree of life. Shouldn’t we?

What if the english here is not an accurate picture of what God set in motion. We picture a vigilant guard, standing in protection mode to prevent access.

The “Flaming” sword does not imply flames for intimidation or destruction, rather the Hebrew word here, lahat means “enwrappping” or magic, covertness, and is sometimes translated as enchantment. The word implies then, that whatever is happening with this sword has an effect on perception. Add to this the word haphak which we translate “flashing back and forth” and is more accurately understood as changing or distorting, and we see that this cherubim is using his sword to disguise or hide the WAY through distorting or disrupting our perception.

Now, what is he guarding through this method of disguise, the tree? No, even the English says he is guarding, or distorting the way to the tree. So our mind pictures him blocking a path. But the Hebrew word is derek, which can mean a literal path, but more strongly indicates a mode of living , or a course of life. I might say a way of thinking.

Put it all together and we see that God has placed this angelic creature here with a mechanism which will confuse our perceptions, so that the way we might try to locate the Tree of life will not actually locate it. In other words, we cannot access the Tree of Life through our way of perceiving, through the knowledge of good and evil. Trying to access the Tree of Life through our knowledge of good and evil is a bit like trying to know love through quantum physics.

There is a way to get to the tree. Humans knowing good stuff and bad stuff is not that way.

Not only did we leave the Garden, but the way we perceived reality in the Garden left us. It had to.

So how do we access the Tree?

The second verse listed above is the answer to this question.

Jesus tells us, “repent, for the Kingdomof Heaven is near”.

Because we have tried to access the Tree of Life through the Knowledge of Good and Evil we read that verse like this, “Straighten up, God is coming soon.”

But the word “REPENT” is not at all what we think. This word is all about perceptions. Specifically it is about changing our mode of perceptions. Sound familiar? The word repent means “think differently”. Not just different. Differently. Change the way you take in the world around you. Becuase the Kingdom of God, the reality of His Spirit, the Source of Life… is NEAR.

You cannot access it by doing good, and avoiding bad, you must change the frequency on which you are receiving. Apparently I will have to write more about this in the days ahead…for now, begin to think differently. Could the Tree be near right now, but hidden from your eyes?

Faith comes by hearing

September 2, 2009 • 0 Comments

From BobHamp.com

Several Years ago, I was in a car wreck. It was my fault. I turned too quickly, the car behind me had little warning, and almost no opportunity to stop. Behind me I heard screeching tires and felt a powerful impact. No one was hurt seriously. Bruises and scrapes, and a few days of sore muscles.

For months afterward, every time I heard screeching tires I startled, and braced for an impact. My nervous system seemed to have a mind of it’s own. I reacted without consciously choosing to do so.

This response was the substance of something unseen.

Here is what I have come to know. Faith comes by hearing.

If you are someone who knows the Bible, you may recognize that this phrase comes from the New Testament. The book of Romans in particular. You might even know that the next verse says, “…and hearing comes by the Word of Christ.”

But I think the first part can stand alone. Faith comes by hearing.

I heard screeching tires and my heart deeply received…for months, my faith, my deep, deep belief, was in the sound I heard, and in an event that was no longer happening. Everything about me responded as if the event was still real, present and active.

I have a friend, who for years heard these words. “You are stupid”

She heard.

The words had power over her, her heart had received, and she believed. She did not have to see herself acting stupid. Her faith was the substance of something she initially did not see. The more she believed, the more she DID see. Her grades in school, her life choices… became the experience of what she believed, and she believed because she had heard.

Faith comes by hearing. Coose carefully who and what you listen to. Listen to those things that you want to experience as real, present and active in your life.

What’s your source?

August 27, 2009 • 2 Comments

From Alan Smith’s Blog

Adam and Eve just had one rule to follow. It was a simple rule. Easy to understand. I think it’s good things were so simple because they weren’t designed to live by rules anyway. The only rule was – don’t live by rules.

Humans were designed to live by God’s life and presence, directed moment by moment out of a place of relationship and surrender. We were designed to have God as our source. We were designed to love God and to be loved by God.

Love, in order to be love, must be freely chosen. Love that is not freely chosen is not love. Love that is compelled is not love. Love that is forced is not love. Love that is taken is not love. Love, in its very essence, requires freedom: the freedom to choose love.

If there is a genuine freedom to choose love, there must be a genuine freedom to NOT choose love. There must be an option. There must be an alternative. There must be a way to freely exercise the will to choose that which love is not. If humans are to genuinely have the freedom to choose to live by God’s life and presence in moment by moment surrender with God as their source, there must be the possibility of choosing a different source.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was necessary in the Garden of Eden for this reason.  This tree is a different source: the knowledge of good and evil. At its worst this kind of living gravitates towards the experience of all things evil. At its best this kind of living strives to avoid evil and do good in an effort to perform correctly and merit God’s favor. The trap of religion is that often it simply entices us to move from an evil branch to a good branch within the same tree. We give up sinful behaviors and adopt new “good” behaviors. Those that do this poorly feel a great deal of condemnation and a deep compulsion to try harder. Those that do this well feel a great sense of superiority and smugness. They are self-righteous.

In either case, this is no way to live. What’s your source?

Genuine repentance doesn’t just change from evil branches to good within the Tree of Knowledge. Genuine repentance switches trees entirely. Genuine repentance gives up all reliance upon self: my knowledge, my understanding, my effort, my performance. Genuine repentance chooses to live by a new source: God’s life and presence.

Those aren’t fighting words, Dear

August 23, 2009 • 0 Comments

I read this article the other day called “Those aren’t fighting words, dear” and it so moved me.

I found it to be very profound because it touches on a serious issue with our culture today–the inability to address root problems in our soul, those deep, faulty issues that drive us to make serious mistakes.

You’ve heard it said…

June 13, 2009 • 3 Comments

From BobHamp.com

I read one more article last night about a pastor who had a “moral failure”. Let’s just say it, a pastor who had sex with someone besides his wife. Sad as this is, it was the advice of the author that made me much more sad. He gave advice to others to help prevent such failures in the future. He suggested four steps, implying that they would help men and women “win the spiritual battle.” Amazingly, it is the same four steps that have been offered for decades. This fallen pastor, and several who have gone on before, probably taught these steps to the men in his congregation. I fear that our propensity to offer these steps to men and women is one of the most significant things we must address in this cultural shift which is the modern church culture.

Jesus had a phrase He used to uproot faulty religious thinking. “You have heard it said do not commit adultery, but I say to you don’t even look on a woman with lust. When you look at another with lust in your heart, you have committed adultery already.” This pattern was used throughout His sermon on the mount to help the people of His day think differently. Many heard this and only thought different, not differently. Jesus was not making a new and harder set of laws, He was trying to shift the understanding of His audience as to where the actual problems resided. The problems were not simply outward behaviors which must be managed, by changing behavior, they were conditions of the heart which desperately needed transformation.

I would like to address these four fallacies; “solutions” we hand each other regularly as if they will really work.

1. You have heard it said memorize more scripture but I say to you learn to let the living and active word of God renew your mind. The first implies that if you somehow exert more memory power, and retain more scriptural data you will be able to act differently. This actually seemed to backfire for the Pharisees, who had the entire Bible memorized but were the number one enemy of the Abundant Life that Jesus offered.

Renewing our mind does not mean replacing wrong data with right data. Paul tells us that the problem with law is that it does not have the power to transform us. Memorizing scripture alone can simply become law, and still leaves the power of transformation in human hands.

When God speaks He is creating. Engage the Voice not just the letter. Don’t just learn the data of scripture, learn to think and see like the Author. Let the words on the pages connect you to the Person of the Kingdom. Allow Him to point out core lies, deception in the deep places of your heart. Deception about Him and deception about you, and about the nature of reality. More important allow Him to tell you truth. Even identifying lies is not sufficient to change our behavior without the corresponding truth coming in to replace the lies.

2. You have heard it said have more consistent time alone with God but I say to you when you are alone with Him practice internal surrender. What happens during your time with God matters more than how much time you spend. Jesus compared two guys, both of whom were praying. One was telling God how glad he was that he was not a bad guy, and sharing his moral resume. Certain that God was impressed, he prayed and spent time with God. The other stood before God, and languished in his need. He unashamedly told God he deserved nothing, and knew that his spritual resume was a declaration of his need for help. Both were spending time with God.

Jesus came to set the captives free, not to advise us about His moral preferences. The restoration of our hearts, not the disciplnes of our flesh, will transform our outward experience. Let Him heal the wounds of our lives, let Him exchange our heart of stone for His heart of flesh. Let Him do His work, instead of telling Him how well you have done yours.

3. You have heard it said practice accountability but I say to you the Holy Spirit comes to convict us of sin and righteousness and judgment, let Him do His job in you. While it is true that Jesus tells us that in God’s economy the opposite of evil is truth not good, (John 3: 20-21) truth sometimes eludes us in our limited sight. Even when we are trying to be ruthlessly accountable we cannot confess to another the things hidden deeply in our hearts that we ourselves have yet to see.

Simply being able to tell another when we mess up is not sufficient to stop us from messing up. And even if it prevents us from behaving badly, it is unlikely to transform the processes of our heart. Fear or respect of another’s probing eyes may hold the beast at bay, but it does not have the power to crucify it. When the Holy Spirit brings to light darkness in us, and shows us that this darkness is no longer compatible with our new nature the darkness is put to death, and the Holy Spirit ignites the righteousness of Christ in me.

4. You have heard it said maintain your integrity but I say to you learn how to take dominion, and practice your authority as a son or daughter of the Living God. Somehow in our recomendations to one another we leave out one of the most siginificant aspects of Jesus framework of thought. He clearly recognized and engaged a whole realm of reality that I will call “the invisible world”. This is part of the creation that Adam was tasked with taking dominion over. This is still our assignement to this day.

I remind us again Jesus came to set captives free. If a man or woman is under the influence of another kingdom and has no idea what Jesus has done to grant us authority in this life, and how to practice this authority we remain under the influence.

In Jesus teachings on the sermon on the mount He was not discarding the first part of the “you have heard it said” statements, He was trying to reveal the hidden traps behind the statements. I am in no way suggesting that we throw out Bible study, time with God, accountability and integrity. I am, however strongly urging us that salvation and freedom are the acts of God in our lives, not the result of us arm-wrestling our behavior, thoughts and emotions into submission. Behavior management has never been the objective, transformation of the inner man, and the restoration of God’s created design in our souls is the objective. To offer the four solutions mentioned above as if they are sufficient for living the life we are called to, is like urging a man to swing on a trapeze, telling him the nets below will catch him if he falls, but neglecting to tell him that the nets are not anchored to their support and therefore will not hold his weight.

God did not send His Son to command us to behave like someone we are not, He sent Him to restore our factory settings so we might behave and think and feel like who He is in us.

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