BoldGrace

All of us come here at BG to share in the hopes of moving closer to understanding who we are and what this life is all about. I for one am very grateful for each and every person who comments and shares a part of who they are and their personal journey toward wisdom. Wisdom is different from knowledge. I have known many very bright and intelligent people who lacked in wisdom and I have also known some very humble people with little education that seem to be overflowing with wisdom. I am a person who has spent a great deal of my adult life studying the bible and a host of other books with the goal of finding true wisdom and yet what little wisdom that I believe I have came not from those studies but rather from a much higher source. As I look at the life of Jesus I am struck by the fact that He also received His wisdom from a source that was beyond his actual ability to learn anything from an educational standpoint. Read the verses below and ask yourself "Where did He get His wisdom?"

Matt 13:53-54 When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked.

I think we too must be very careful not to get caught up in what we THINK is wisdom. Jesus knew that all that he was and all that he did came from a source that had nothing to do with his earthly abilities. He looked within to a power that He was certain of, a power that came from God. Paul, in the following verses reminds us of what true wisdom is and where it comes from:

1 Cor 1:19-31 19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

I will be 57 years old on January 13th and I have followed many pathways on my journey, but I still think that Jesus Christ is the key and what I love about Him is that He leaves no one out. It may take us many lifetimes to realize true wisdom but when we do He (Jesus) will be right there with us cheering us on.

Where do I begin? Secret Day…I mean, I CANNOT tell you all of the details or it wouldn’t be a secret, but let me tell you this: EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A SECRET DAY! 

It was me, my two sisters, my sweet SISTER-in-law, my cousins Sarah, Angie, Mandy and UNCLE DOUG and AUNT CINDY!! The night was perfect. We talked about everything under the sun, we danced, laughed a lot, sang every song the best we could, Cried and ate junk food until the next morning! I don’t know about everyone else, but I felt like a kid again! When we were young Uncle Doug and Aunt Cindy would have a secret day. Some of us didn’t get to go so as we have gotten older we’ve given those who got to go a hard time and FINALLY (a million years later) we got the chance to have our own. It was one of the greatest nights of my life.

I can’t speak for everyone, but for me it was a cleansing experience. I got the chance to see my family, get some encouragement, listen to everyone’s perspectives and show our love for each other. We sat by the fire most of the night and the sky was clear and filled with soo many stars. We even saw a couple of shooting stars! We shared gifts and we shared stories. We put Dad’s picture up on the rock wall beside Grandpa’s and then we celebrated their life by singing a song…eventually Tammy ( my oldest sister) and Sarah(dougs daughter) tried to climb the rock wall like we did when we were kids…LOL that was intersting! Me and my sisters had to show Angie and Mandy( my Dad’s oldest brother’s girls)  how to DANCE!  LOL, I am not quite sure we showed them, but it was fun! AND THE REST…is a secret

What I recognized this past weekend is that we are all made up of the same feelings. Different circumstances may trigger the feelings, but we all share anger, fear, sadness, happiness, etc… and these feelings cannot be physically touched which tells me that we are spiritually connected to each other by an energy of incredible emotions. I can’t physically touch your anger like I can physically touch your hand. I can wrap my arms around you in hopes to make you FEEL comfort and I wrap my arms around you because WE know that it feels good. These are universal feelings that we all share. We all have them! Is that not incredible?

I wish every family could be like this. It was beautiful and it was a perfect process as Dad would say. I was so connected to my girls that night!! We should always be alert to our connections to each other…those connections are always there…even after we are physically gone!

Most of the time we take a quick glance at each other and simply only choose to see a worldly appearance rather than take the time to understand what it is that person is expressing and why.   For example some may want to express themselves with a tattoo that they consider art or poetry. Some express themselves through music and write, sing or play an instrument. Some express themselves through dance, but for some they only need to express themselves through the love of mankind. 

I watched a video that my cousin sent me. You can watch it at the following link if you’d like.  Dad had sent it to me before and I was blown away by it. I think I wrote a post about it titled, "how do I have to be in order for you to be free?" This video still penetrates the core of my soul.

 Everything we do and say affects someone else here on earth!! I want to always remember that as I go along through my day. When I am expressing myself I need to remember that so many people on the face of the earth may only be able to express themselves through love. For example this makes me think of Shawn (my other husband). He was born with cerebral palsy and he is mentally mildly handicapp. He expressess himself through love. He doesn’t care what he wears or what music he listens to. He is so simple. He affects my life soo much. He makes me want to be a better person. He inspires me to do more. He brings my spirit to new heights. He makes me want to love more.

I don’t want to complicate or create too much chaos in my life. I want simplicity and innocence. I want to recognize the love that each of us are connected to and express that with each other. I do not want to fear difference. I want to embrace it and try to understand it so I can respect it rather than try to change it.

 I believe that this oneness is happening. I can see it in my daughter (the next generation). I hope that our children will stop building walls that seperate. I hope we can start teaching our children to BE rather than to just DO. This world would be just as exciting if we changed our thought process a little. We could start cleaning up after ourselves (I know that could last a life time considering what we have done to mother earth).  We are amazing when we think for ourselves!

I used to read this and I was convinced that these were the knees of those who lived their lives choosing not to believe that God could really love us as much as he does. I prided myself on not being one of those who would need to bow down before God at some later date because I was convinced that I already believed in his awesome grace and understood how deep his love was. And then a funny thing happened, I was reading a book called “Furious Pursuit” by Tim King & Frank Martin. In the last part of the book they list some sacred vows that God (the bridegroom) wants us to hear from his heart to ours. They are very simple and at first I didn’t put much into their profound meaning to my heart.

Here they are:

I have always been there for you, and I always will be.

I will walk with you forever—-just the two of us.

I will always understand you.

I will always be kind to you.

You will always be my own personal concern.

I love you. I always have, and I always will.

Now here is the strange thing. After mulling these over in my mind I found myself asking “Is God that loving?” “Can he really accept me with all my flaws?” “Don’t I have to do something to at least show him I love him?” And then I found myself going back to read these vows over and over again, and I began to weep, not because of how great his love is, but because I realized that his love is so great that as long as I am a human in the flesh I will never really be able to comprehend his love for me. Then it struck me that until we lose this body of clay that is so subject to weakness of all kinds we will never truly be able to appreciate everything God really is to us.

Yes, I do believe in God’s Love for all mankind, and I want others to believe it too, but I also know a time is coming for all of us when we will shed this body made from dust and we will see God with clarity for the first time, and when that happens we will all bow our knees and give the truest form of praise that we have ever given. We will be witnessing the brightness of his glory and we will be doing it without all our questions, and doubts, and divisions, and weaknesses of our flesh.

And at least for me I think I really know now what Paul meant when he said: “Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.”

I have worked so hard NOT to judge my brother, and I will continue to do that, but now I also realize NO human being can really fathom how unbelievable God’s love is for us. Yes, that means me too. And guess what? It feels great to know that as much peace as I feel right now, it’s even going to be greater, grander, and beyond my wildest imaginations.

The challenge we each have while we are still in the flesh is to trust his love. His love is trustworthy, and even when we struggle with that trust He is greater then our heart and the day will come when He will take away all our doubts. I am going to read those simple vows more often, and when my time comes to lay down this tired old body of flesh, closing my eyes for the last time, I will be bowing my knees for the first time in perfect praise of my loving God.

As I live says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. Rom 14:11

This is a post that I found on my Father’s computer this morning. I don’t remember ever reading it before so I am really unsure if he ever posted it or not, but I found it and just had to share it with all of you.

Submitted by Cliff on Mon, 2006-05-22 15:48. Everyday Life

I drive a school bus as well as pastor a small church. Two weeks ago four of my sweet children got on the bus. Two of them, Jordan 7, and Brandon 9, are foster kids. The other two, Mary 7, and Emily 9, are adopted children of the same woman who fosters the first two. On this particular Monday morning they were the first four to get on the bus. As they got on they were all excited and couldn’t wait to tell me how they had been baptized the previous day. They talked and talked about this event in their lives. Emily and Mary told me how they would have to wear dresses from now on. Jordan announced that he couldn’t lie anymore. At least for that brief Monday morning all seemed well with the world in their little eyes. The problem started on the afternoon ride home. Emily accused Jordan of lying. Brandon screamed at Emily for being a tatletail, and poor little Mary just seemed depressed from being teased about wearing a dress. The innocense they had in the morning seemed all but gone. I asked them what would happen if they sinned after being baptized, and Emily told me they would have to go back to the church and repent. I then said, What would happen if they continued to sin. Emily said: "Well, you have to go down there", poiniting her finger toward the floor. Of course I have to be very careful what I say on the bus, but I couldn’t help feeling a great sadness for what was ahead in their lives. They were already judging each other and condemning each other—-sounds like the church doesn’t it. Toward the end of the week I had got to the school early and went inside to talk to some of the staff. Mary had been telling her teacher how she had been baptized and then in a kind of defeated voice she said: "I guess I’m gonna have to go to church the rest of my life". Aren’t those the saddest words you ever heard. How many people are going to church out of a sense of fear that if they don’t they are dammed to a place of eternal torment. When I encounter adult christians who strongly condemn me for my stand on grace I just try to remember they were little children at one time who may have been taught the gospel of fear and legalizm since they were very young. I will continue to try and reach out to everyone telling them that God loves them period……….And I will pray for these little ones.

Peace,

Cliff

On they way to work the other day I came to a four way stop on a country road I travel every day. In the center of that four way stop was a dead or dieing blue bird. Its partner was right there with it, hopping around it like a fearless protector of what it loved. I’m sitting in a 4000 pound car, motor running, within feet of this precious little blue bird. It refused to abandon its partner. As easily as I could gave as wide a birth as possible to them as I traveled by. I looked in my rearview mirror and the little protector was still standing solid beside its mate.

I realize that psychologist, psychiatrist and sociologist will tell you, that until you love yourself you can’t love anyone else, but what if that is a bit askew and the truth is you can’t love anyone else, until you know you’re loved. We as intellectual human beings want to believe that we are capable of understanding and comprehending the wisdom of a GOD that created earth, but I truly believe we are barely a moment ahead of the bluebird. I know that the bluebird is ruled by instinct(created by God) and I also know that we were given that instinct plus the ability to understand it. It is a perfect process, trust in your instinct to know that you are loved.

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Jesus walked the earth giving everyone everything they asked for and yet it was still not enough for man NOT to fear God. 
Even in the beginning it was not enough for man.

In Genesis 1:26-28
26And God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and LET THEM HAVE DOMINION over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."   
 27So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.

IF GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE THEN WHAT IS HIS IMAGE???
1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

BACK TO GENESIS CHAPTER 1 VS 28  
 28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

GOD SAID IT IS FINISHED…IT IS GOOD…BUT, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT???
GOD REALIZED THAT HE HAD MADE MAN SPIRITUAL, BUT HE NEEDED TO MAKE MAN PHYSICAL (A LIVING SOUL) SO THAT THE EARTH COULD BE TILLED. HE TOLD MAN THAT IT WAS ALL HIS. HE DID NOT WANT MAN TO LOSE PARADISE WHICH TO ME MEANT THAT OUR SOULS WOULD BE LOST TO THE WORLD AND WE WOULD PHYSICALLY DIE SO HE WARNED MAN TO STAY AWAY FROM THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL BECAUSE WE WOULD SURELY DIE! BUT MAN WENT TO IT ANYWAY. WHAT IS THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL? FOR ME THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL IS WHERE MAN HIMSELF WOULD CREATE HIS OWN KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT IS GOOD AND WHAT IS BAD. HE DID IT RIGHT AWAY WHEN HE HID. HE FELT ASHAMED, BUT GOD WAS NEVER ASHAMED NOR WAS MAN UNTIL…

  Genesis 3:4,5 

FOR ME THIS IS WHERE RELIGION COMES INTO MAN AND MAN BECOMES ASHAMED.

 4And the serpent said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die;

 5for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and ate, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he ate.

7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves things to gird about.

BEFORE THEY HAD EATEN FROM THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL…THEY  DID  NOT  KNOW  THAT  THEY   WERE  NAKED!!!! SO, FROM THIS POINT FORWARD WHAT ELSE WAS GOD TO DO?? HE HAD ALREADY TOLD THEM THEY WERE GOOD, BUT NOW THEY SAW THEMSELVES AS NOT GOOD. GOD COULD NOT CHANGE WHAT THEY SAW. MAN HAS THE ALBILITY TO SEE THEMSELVES AS GOOD, BUT THEY HAVE TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT FIRST.
SO LETS MOVE FORWARD TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. GOD SENT US HIS SON. HIS SON TRIED TO TELL US THAT WE ARE GOOD. JESUS WALKED THE EARTH GIVING US EVERYTHING WE WANTED. HE HEALED THE SICK, HE WALKED ON WATER, HE TURNED WATER INTO WINE AND FOR CHRIST SAKE EVEN DIED ON THE CROSS!!

OK, THIS FOR ME IS THE BEST PART OF IT ALL!!

COLOSSIANS 2: 9- 23

⁹For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature,^[a] not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, ¹²having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.¹³When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,^[b] God made you^[c] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.^[d]  16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. ¹⁸Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. ¹⁹He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. ²⁰Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: ²¹"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? ²²These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. ²³Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

 ONCE AGAIN ALLOW ME TO QUOTE THE BIBLE

Genesis 2: 25
 25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

HOW ABOUT WE ALL TRY TO GET BACK TO THE GARDEN AND EAT FROM THE TREE OF LIFE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THE GOOD WITHIN.  WE DON’T NEED SAVED ANYMORE. GOD SAVED US ALL AT THE CROSS.

I was born to parents dedicated to each other, a love stronger then the tides of the ocean and the winds of the earth. There love was shown to me in ways that can’t be expressed but only felt. I was nurtured, protected, and I felt safe and secure. My dad was the strongest most intelligent man I think ill ever know, and my mom is the kindest most compassionate woman who ever walked this earth (her mother is an exception). I spent every Wednesday night, every Sunday morning and every Sunday night in church. From that you would think I learned the gospel, the teachings of God, the blessings of being saved from hell and damnation. What I learned was to watch my Dad suffer from migraine headaches preparing for church and my mom suffer to support him. When I was 14 they moved and became free to be just good god loving people.

I will be 60 in a couple months, I don’t feel like I’ve missed much since I was 14, as far as religion. I believe I was given all I needed from the day I was born, and every day after. I was taught that I am perfect in god’s eyes. My brother saw what my Dad knew, and was able to put it into words. He heard my Dad say to him, “Your right Cliff”. I’ve never read the bible , I cant quote king James version or the New testament, but I know there were two next to Jesus on that cross, one mocked him the other repented to him. I believe both are in heaven, as I will be.