Tag Archives: christianity

December 11, 2008 · 5:24 pm

Conversations With the Seer–“I Am the Vine; Ye Are the Branches”

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the Seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer. I Samuel 9: 9)

“How can we tell a false prophet?”  I asked the Seer.  We were all sitting around the wood stove, enjoying a cup of hot tea.

He opened the door to the cast iron box heater and threw  in another log.  “This I can tell you; the Master said that they will end up like this log, ‘hewn down and cast into the fire.’   This is how you can tell them from the true man of God:  Christ said, You shall know them by their fruits.  A false prophet or a false teacher will not bear good fruit; they will bring forth evil fruit.  A good tree will bring forth good fruit.  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit (1).

“What is the fruit that He is talking about?”

“The words that Christ spoke were spirit, so it is spiritual fruit that a person brings forth, be it good or bad.  The good fruit is ‘the fruit of the Spirit,’ which is ‘love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance’ (2). ”

“How do we bear this good fruit of the Spirit?”

“It’s a walk with Him.  It takes time to learn to walk with Him.  After our death, burial, and resurrection experience with Him, He gives us a small portion of His Spirit as a down payment towards the purchased possession–us.  He urges us to grow, or rather, allow His Spirit to grow in our mortal bodies by means of prayer and study and putting into practice His way of life.  He frees us from sin and sinning; this is what allows us to grow.  This is when He tells us to abide in Him.”

“How do we abide in Him?”

“Christ likens Himself as being the true grape vine.  The Father is the Spirit, the invisible Sap that flows up through the vine Christ, and on into us the branches.  Christ commands us, Abide in me, and I in you.   He says that those of us who do this will bring forth much fruit–much love from above, much joy, and much peace, and much of all the rest.  We do this by being channels of His love, joy and peace.  We are not the objects.  That is the key (3).

“What’s the first step?”

“We must first reach out to Him and abide and remain in Him.  How?  In our thoughts.  We match our thoughts to His.  Remember: In the beginning was the Word, the Logos.  And the Logos is the Thought or the Concept that the Father had in the beginning.  And that Word/Logos/Concept/ Thought  is Spirit.  And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amoung us.  Christ is the living Thought and Plan of God.  We must make His Eternal Thoughts ours.  That’s the secret.  That’s the Truth.  He is the Truth, and we can handle the Truth because He has ordained us that we should bear this fruit of His Spirit.  And His Thought made flesh is the the Light of the world.  When we have His mind, then we are the light of the world, too, because His Spirit will be abiding and remaining in us for all to see (4).”

“Christ really wants this for us, doesn’t He?’

“He’s all about multiplying Himself throughout a body of people whom He has chosen and elected for this honor.  That’s grace.  But we’ve got to get a hold of what He’s offered to His followers.  We need to abide in Him by thinking on the Word/Logos/Thought of God, which is contemplating His love for us and the whole world.  We can start here: He forgave all of us our sins, so now we need to forgive those who have sinned against us.  This is how we continue in His love.   Christ gave His life, so now we give up our selfish old life and take on His life within our hearts.  He gave us another commandment: Love each other as I have love you (John 15: 12).  You cannot love someone with His agape love without forgiving them first.  Forgive everyone everything.  It is possible with His Spirit helping us.”

“And the bad trees won’t be able to do this?”

“A bad tree won’t be able in the end to forgive, for they will not truly have Christ’s Spirit.  They will come on in sheep’s clothing, looking very righteous, but they are still being motivated from their sinful, selfish hearts–hearts that do not have His Spirit.  Your powers of discernment will grow as you abide more in Him and He in you.  Just remember that we are the branches; He is the vine through which we receive His Spirit, and it’s His Spirit that makes it all possible to grow up into Him.”     Kenneth Wayne Hancock       {For more on this, check out my books here:  https://immortalityroad.com/donate/ }

(1) Matthew 76: 15-20   (2) Galatians 5: 22  (3) John 15: 1-14   (4) John 1: 1, 14

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December 6, 2008 · 4:15 pm

“I Will Remember Him That Way”–An Elegy for My Mentor

I thought of my spiritual mentor who passed away some nine years ago now.  Without him and his love and patience, I would not have come out of the depraved selfish existence I led in my old life.  I wrote this elegy upon hearing of his death.  I want to share it with you.

I Will Remember Him That Way

I will remember him, but not for his last days on earth.

I will recall three decades ago, when the world was mad

          and senseless and cruel,

When a young man and woman so in need of love

          and patience

And so full of fear and loss and alienation, with cynicism

          in full rotten bloom—

I’ll remember him that day, that warm April East Texas

          spring day

When the joy emanating from his countenance hit me right

          in the chest

As I strutted in with a smirk that said,

Okay, show me what you got,

Because I’ve just about given up the search for truth,

          although I talk about it all the time,

And I know that my old self is my nemesis, my master, my   

          ruin,

And I can’t get rid of it by myself, because my self is my

          very problem,

And I know that it has to die, and I’ve looked three years in

          books from India,

And books from China, and books from Persia,

And none of the sages of the East could tell me how to put

          my self to death,                                                           

 

And live to tell about it,

And I knew that I would waste my time

In looking to the christian buildings which cannot hold

          moms and dads together in love—

So as a last futile foray for the truth before I give up

And sink into the numbness of nothingness,

I was thinking, Okay, show me what you got.

 

And he did, as I remember the joy and the love that swept

          down on me,

As he spoke of a certain writer named Paul who spoke of

          an old man Adam

Who was now put to death with the Lamb in a Roman 6

          finality

And who could be raised to walk in a newness of life.

 

“You mean that my old self, my old ego, can die?” 

I asked out loud that April morning in the cedar cabin in the

          East Texas woods.

“That’s exactly what Paul is saying.”

 

 

And so I had finally found my sign that I had searched for.

I’ll remember him that way,

As the joyous messenger of my joy in God.

 

I’ll remember how he let me keep sleeping till noon the first  

          time we spent the night,

Under his breakfast table in the tarpaper shack,

For I was bidden to come and rest, and he let me rest.

I’ll recall the joy and deliverance from tobacco, drugs, alcohol,  

          and cursing.

I’ll remember him that way.

 

I’ll remember the countless times I robbed him of his rest,

And he would smile,

Knowing I was special in the hands of God.

I’ll remember him that way.

 

I’ll remember a man who believed in me like no one had done

          before.

I’ll remember the days of Pepsi and popcorn,

And winter mornings, wood burning stove, kettle on top,

Cool mornings full of hot tea and scriptures,

When riches meant nothing and material possessions held no

          power over us,

As we sat laughing into the gentle breezy piney woods evenings,

Secure at last that, yes, there is a God with a plan and purpose,

And all was as it should be here on earth at this moment.

I’ll remember him that way.

I’ll remember Tom as the mentor of my youth,

Who awakened me to greater things than my old self,

Who showed me how to speak to tens of thousands

         about the Kingdom.

I’ll remember him as the one who helped me

         along the road to God,

Who patiently in those early days,

         taught me all the Truth he knew.

And so I ask, What more can any one man do?

I’ll remember him that way.

 

I’ll not let those early days be blotted out of my memory

By judging him on his last days on earth—

No matter how much it hurt—

I’ll leave all judgements of him to God and to bitter little hearts

Who can’t remember him in the early days.

 

But I’ll remember him that way.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

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December 3, 2008 · 7:20 pm

Conversations With the Seer–What Is Sin in God’s Eyes?

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the Seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer. I Samuel 9: 9)

“Just what is sin then?” I asked the Seer.  We had been talking about the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the “sin” question had come up.

“Sin is the breaking of the law,” he said (1).

“Which law?”

“The Ten Commandments.  If you are breaking one of them, then you are in a sinful state.  The apostle Paul of Tarsus proves this when he wrote, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet (2).  Here he equates sin with breaking one of the Ten Commandments.  Coveting or desiring your neighbor’s possessions or wife is a sin, prohibited by the Ten Commandments.  There are nine others.  Breaking any of them is sinning.”

“But I’ve been taught that sin can be anything from dancing to drinking wine, from getting angry to not doing something that I am supposed to do.”

“Shuffling one’s feet on a hardwood floor does not necessarily mean one is sinning.  Remember King David, flooded with complete joy, danced in the streets; he did not sin.  The Savior Himself drank wine in the homes of sinners and publicans (3), yet He committed no sin.  He also got angry at the moneychangers at the temple, yet without sin.”

“Why don’t the preachers teach this?”

“They either do not know the truth, or they have turned from the truth and continued on in man’s traditions.  I do not judge them.  We all have a Judge who will examine us in light of the knowledge given us by Him.”

“You mentioned dancing and drinking wine.  Why would that not be sinning?”

“God looks on the intents of the heart (4).  If dancing is used for sinful and lustful purposes, then it is suspect.  Same goes for drinking a glass of fermented grape juice.  Righteous indignation is not the same as selfish anger.”

“Sin then is a spiritual condition.”

“Yes.  It is a spiritual condition of the heart, of the core of a person.  But sin does not have to be permanent in the human being.  A ‘new heart’ composed of His Spirit can be transplanted into the human being through repentance and faith toward God (5).”  He saw that I had enough to chew on, so he stopped speaking.

I thanked him for the visit and walked away with some answers, but they seemed to germinate and sprout into more questions–questions for another day.        Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. I John 3:4

2. Romans 7: 7

3. Luke 19: 2

4. Hebrew 4:12

5. Ezekiel 36: 26-27

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November 27, 2008 · 4:17 am

Asking in His Name–His Hebrew Name Yahshua (Conversations with the Seer)

      “Nothing happened when I prayed in Jesus’ name,” I said to the wise man, who was sitting under a white oak tree.  He motioned for me to sit down, and I did.

     The sage looked at me, peering into my eyes as if searching for the bottom of a water well.  “Yes, Christ has promised that if we ask anything in His name, He would grant it.  It is obvious that since you did not receive, you did not ask in His name.”

      “But I did ask in His name.  At the end of my prayer I said, In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

      “You are trying, my son, but you are asking without knowledge of what His name is and what His name means.  That is the key to answered prayers.”

      “His name is Jesus, isn’t it?”  Confusion was starting to set in.

      “We in the English speaking world know Him as Jesus.  But He was not known in the days of His earthly sojourn by the sound of that name spoken.”

     “What do you mean?”

      “The arch-angel Gabriel appeared to the virgin, known to most people as Mary.  He told her that she would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit and that the child would be called by the Hebrew name Yahshua.”

      “You mean His name is not Jesus?”

      He smiled at me knowing that I was having trouble believing Him.  “Millions know Him by Jesus, but that is the name given to Him in the English versions of the scriptures.  ‘Jesus’ is not, however, a Hebrew name.  Gabriel did not speak English because English did not exist 2,000 years ago.  He spoke in the timeless language of heaven, telling her  that the Messiah’s name would be Yahshua. Christ did say that He came in His Father’s name.  Biblical scholars confirm that the Father’s name is YHWH, pronounced Yahweh, or Yah.”

     The sage saw that my mouth was agape with no sound issuing forth, so he continued.   “The English name Joshua is taken almost verbatim from the Hebrew name Yahshua.      Joshua the patriarch who took Moses’ place, whose book of Joshua we have today—that patriarch had the very same name as the Savior who came 2,000 years ago. You may read and confirm all this by the study of books.  The point is that if we ask in His Hebrew name Yahshua, He will answer our prayers.”

     “But they taught us to say at the end of our prayers,  ‘In Jesus’ name.'”

     “Yes, we were young children of God.  And as all children believe in magic, we took the words ‘in Jesus’ name’ to possess a magical promise of getting what we want.  Then we thought as children, but now He commands us to be young men and women in Him, where we put away those concepts of the past and strive for more of His understanding on ‘asking in His name.

      “So how do we ask in His name?”    

        “If we ask anything that agrees with what His name means, then He will grant it.  If we ask anything that comes under what His name means, then He will grant it.  If we ask anything that glorifies His name…If we ask anything that trusts in the promises contained in the meaning of His name…If we ask anything that can be seen as having to do with what’s in His name…If we ask anything that honors the meaning of His name—then, He will grant it.”

     “So, what does His name mean?”

     “His Hebrew name Yahshua means  ‘Yah is Savior.’  Yah means ‘the Self-Existent One’ and shua means ‘Savior.’  This means that the Father Yahweh is the Savior and the Father dwelt bodily in the Son and was and is the Savior.  Christ confirmed this when He said, Believe me that the Father is in me, and when He said, I and my Father are one. Christ was called Immanuel, meaning ‘God with us.’  If you ask Him with all this in mind, giving honor to His name, which glorifies the Father, then you will get God’s attention.  He will answer your prayers if you ask in His name this way.”

     I thanked the wise man for his help and went my way.  I did not understand it then, for it was a lot to take in.  But I studied it out, and now I see confirmation all the time of what he told me.  One example:  In Mt. 1: 21 there is a footnote on the word “JESUS” in my King James Version published by World Bible Publishers.  The footnote in the column says, “SAVIOR.”  There it is.  The translators and publishers knew that His original name meant SAVIOR.  “You shall call His name YAHSHUA (which means ‘Yah is Savior’), for He shall save His people from their sins.”     Kenneth Wayne Hancock  [See my book at the top of the website Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality]

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November 22, 2008 · 4:09 pm

You Just Can’t Fight the Love*–My Testimony in Song

I once was a lost and bitter young man

Till Christ showed me He’s the way.

The way for a man to be like God is

Doing what He did.

And what did He do but give up His life

That other people might live.

And compassion like that is from above,

And I couldn’t fight the love.

So I gave up my life, and He gave me His.

Now I don’t sin anymore,

For “he that is dead is freed from sin.”

There’s only love now within.

And God and His love obeys all His laws

Inside me, loving neighbor as self.

And action like this is from above,

And you just can’t fight the love.

Until that day you hear the Master say,

“I want to make you my son.”

And, oh, that light from up above,

And you just can’t fight the–

You’d better not fight the–

You just can’t fight the love.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

* {I wrote this song back in 1973.  Someday I’ll record it on You Tube and share it.}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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November 16, 2008 · 1:09 pm

Conversations With the Seer–What is the Light of God?

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the Seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer. I Samuel 9: 9)

I came to the Seer with a question about the Light.  I was reading the words, but I just could not wrap my mind around it.  So I asked, “What is the Light?”

“The Light is the life of God,” he said with a smile.  “Whenever a person receives His life, then they are receiving the Light.”

“How does this tie in with Christ being the Light of the world?”

“Eternal Life was and is in Christ.  The fulness of the very life of God dwelt bodily in Christ, and it is this Eternal Life that is the Light.  His Life enlightens natural man.  Man sits in darkness, drifting aimlessly, a victim of kneejerk responses that oftentimes land him into trouble.  When unregenerate man runs into this Eternal Life, a light shines brightly into his dark soul.  His “heart of darkness” is exposed.  He sees that someone is leading a righteous life, revealing his life to be unrighteous and sinful.  He doesn’t understand at this point how all this happens.  This is how the Light shines into darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not (1).

“How does this work?”

“God’s Life in Christ is Light.  The very nature of Light is to shine into darkness.  But to understand this spiritual Light, we must examine natural light that enters our earthly eyes every morning.  Just like the light from the sun searches out and dispels corners and pockets of the darkness of night, even so the Life of God in Christ searches out and reveals the darkness in the hearts of sinful human beings.  The positive creative goodness of His Eternal Life can’t help but go where sin, evil, and darkness resides.”

“I understand this, but why does it do this?”  I ask.

“It hinges on why God created human beings in the first place.  Mankind was created to house the Eternal Life of God.  Nothing less.  And since what God does, He does forever, He still is seeking out a place to reside.  He’s looking for a home.  Our bodies are designed to be His temple.  And He has not stopped searching for a people to live in.”

“Yes.  ‘He seeketh such to worship Him–in spirit and in truth.’  Christ and the woman at the well” (2).

“Exactly.  This incident actually shows us what true worship is.  He told her that God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him will have His Spirit, His very Life, living in them.  God is searching the hearts of men and women everywhere as sunlight searches out darkness.”

“But why doesn’t everyone surrender to the Light when it enters into their thinking?”

“When the human heart is doing evil, it shies away from the Light, which is His Life.  The sinful heart is selfish and does not want to surrender to God’s Life, which demands a change.  Most prefer to continue to live their old lives.  But He wants His temple clean of all the evil because He can’t dwell where evil is.  But some persist in their evil ways.  The scriptures say, For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be discovered.  But he that does truth comes to the light so that his deeds may become known” (3).

“So everyone makes his or her choice.”

“Yes.  This one thing all must realize.  This Eternal Life which trumps death, which is the key to immortality, the thing that everyone wishes for–this Eternal Life is in Christ.  When someone rejects Him and His words, they are not rejecting some nice man who taught good principles in Galilee 2,000 years ago.  No.  They are rejecting Life and their chance at immortality.  He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.  When we believe that God (Yahweh), the supreme Creator, dwelt bodily in Christ, we have LIFE.  And His LIFE is man’s Light that shines into the selfish heart and drives the darkness out (4).     Those that receive the Light, those who receive this Eternal Life into their hearts, these are the ones that He will give power to, to become the sons and daughters of God, which is believing what His name means.  But that’s another day” (5).

And with that, I thanked the Seer for sharing his thoughts on the Light.  I went out, wondering if I would ever be able to contain the Light.  And then the thought came, I will not put on you more than you are able to bear.  And that made me smile.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

(1) John 1: 4-5          (2) John 4: 23-24             (3) John 3: 19-21         (4)  I John 5: 10-12     (5) John 1: 12

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November 9, 2008 · 12:43 pm

Lost Tribes of Israel in Earth Today–Three Scriptural Proofs

     Proof #1: An end-time prophecy in the book of Revelation puts the lost sheep of the whole House of Israel—12 tribes—in the earth in the last days. 

     In chapter 7 we read of 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes being sealed as the servants of God.  “And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (7:4).  And then he begins to list them by the specific names of the tribes of Israel.  Some say that these are all Jews.  This is impossible, for the Jews of the lineage of Abraham were comprised of only two the the twelve tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

     Question: If the 12 tribes of Israel are no longer in the earth or are no longer recognizable as such, then how are they to be found and sealed in the latter days?

 Proof #2: Yahweh will cause the house of Israel to wander among all nations.

      “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth” (Amos 9:9).  The word “sift” is from #5128 in Strong’s Hebrew, meaning “to wander, move.”  In fact, it is translated “wander” and “move” in several passages such as Numbers 32:13: “He made them wander in the wilderness.”

     All authorities agree that the passage in Amos speaks of the last days—a time of destruction for the wicked and a time of restoration for the people of God.  “Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD” (Amos 9:8).  Here the evil empires of the earth will come down, but God will spare certain of the tribes of Israel.  They will be recognizable; they will be in tact.  They will be known by God and by the world at that time.

 

Proof # 3: The Savior Yahshua, when sending his twelve disciples out in Matthew 10, was sending them out as a type and shadow of what will take place in the future.  The lost sheep of the House of Israel are to be the target audience of the end time preaching of the kingdom of heaven.  In fact, the Master tells them to not go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but to go to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 

     He then commissions, empowers, and instructs them.  But it is not only for them; it is actually written for those of us who will come in to work in his vineyard in these latter days.  How do we know that all of this in Matthew 10 is for us?  The answer is found in verse 23.  “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.”

     Two points emerge here.  First, by this time, the cities of the northern Kingdom of Israel are not inhabited by Israelites.  By 721 B. C. the Assyrians had emptied the cities of Israel and had deported them to upper Mesopotamia.  The Assyrians had then brought in people from their cities to repopulate the Israelite cities.  Seven centuries later, the disciples could not physically have gone to the new cities that the dispersed Israelites had migrated to—not in that short time frame.  Besides, they did not know where they were; they were lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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October 28, 2008 · 2:43 pm

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden–The True Story

     Their cries cut through the trees of the garden.  “Help us, please!  Don’t cast us away.  Please forgive us, for we’ve sinned against you.  We are sorry.  We want it to be like it was before.  Don’t forsake us!”  Thus Adam and Eve did moan their fate after their sin and banishment by God from Eden.  Where once they walked in splendid innocence with their Creator in paradise, they had found themselves in solitary anguish, awash in tears of guilt and shame. 

     And what really had they done to bring such swift retribution by the hand that yesterday had been so kind?  Yes, they yielded to temptation and disobeyed the only commandment that God had given them, albeit through the auspices of one smooth character.  For the serpent had convinced them that they needed the knowledge of good and evil, that experiencing this knowledge was the road to real wisdom.  And so they partook and sinned.  Why was the anguish and alienation of this sin the direct fruit of their gaining knowledge?  The transformation from happy innocents to sin-guilty initiates took place because it was supposed to take place; it was in the master plan of the Creator.

Their Fall Was Not an Accident

     However, conventional wisdom teaches that the Fall in Eden was an accident, that somehow the experimenting Creator had the wrong mix of variables present and things went bad. A deadly accident occurred unforeseen by the Architect, and his prototype house fell down.  Now He would have to change His original plan in order to fix what He did not get right at the first.  That does not sound like the omnipotent and omniscient Being the ancient Hebrew writers portrayed their God to be.  In fact, the Genesis account shows a Creator with an acute and meticulous hand, setting everything in perfect order.  “And he saw that it was good…it was good…it was good.”  

     It was good at every phase of creation.  Are we to believe that a smooth talking serpent figure, made also by God (3:1), could accidentally appear in Eden to thwart the plan of the Almighty?   This is not the case of the farmer fretting about the fox in the henhouse.  This is the Creator of the fox, the hens, and the henhouse.  He knew the vulnerability of Adam and Eve because He made them that way, and He created the serpent to be a lying seductive trickster.  In effect, God had put the fox in the henhouse, for he certainly would not have been there without God’s tacit approval.  

     Furthermore, the serpent lied to Eve and enticed her to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Some writers such as Garrison Russell in SonPlacing propose that the serpent was a man and was the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  “Trees” are types of men throughout the Hebrew literary tradition (Daniel 4 with Nebuchadnezzar as the “tree whose branches reached the heavens”).  Since when does a white oak or an ancient apple tree “know” anything?  The Hebrew prophets continually rant against idol makers who carve their gods from the dumb stump of a tree, “that can neither hear nor see.”   Also, the Savior, “who was the expressed image of the invisible God” of creation, called the Pharisees of His day, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers.”  
     And so they both partook and were initiated into a carefully prepared hothouse of emotions, “and the eyes of them both were opened.”  And the first thing that they “knew”—the first jewel of knowledge taken from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was that “they knew they were naked.”  To be frank, they became aware that their genitals were exposed and opened to the world.  And the first action that they took after gaining this knowledge was that “they sewed fig leaves together” to cover the shame of their nakedness. 

       And like the picador enters right on cue for the second act of the bullfight ballet, they heard Yahweh’s voice as He called out to them in the garden (“YHWH,” the tetragrammaton, the Hebrew name of the Creator, translated “LORD” in most translations).  “Where are you?” was the rhetorical question spoken by the All-Knowing.  Adam responded,  “I was afraid, because I was naked; and hid myself.”

      Wait a minute, Adam.  “Naked” was not even in your vocabulary before all this knowledge you just gained.  “Who told thee that thou wast naked?”  God asked.  Somebody has been talking about sex to you, haven’t they?   Did he tell you about getting naked? 

       And then Adam blames the woman, and the woman blames the serpent.  Yet all this does not surprise Yahweh in the least.  For it was all in His plan and purpose for mankind to sin and to suffer that vacuum of fear, alienation, sin, and shame.  For then mankind would need someone to save them from this abyss of depravity.  They would need a Savior.

       He set them up to fall in order to save them?  The irony is rich in this mother lode of wisdom.   God’s nature is love, for “God is love.”  But He could not express the perfection of His essence unless He had something to forgive.  He would incarnate Himself later in history and provide Himself as the Lamb sacrifice for Adam’s sin.  This is alluded to in Genesis 3:15.  Speaking to the serpent, He said that He would put hatred between the serpent and his offspring and Eve and her offspring.  As almost universally accepted, Eve’s offspring is Christ, who would “bruise the head” of the serpent, thus “destroying the works of the devil.”  And yet, the serpent’s offspring would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, indicating the death of the Lamb at the hands of the Romans and Pharisees and his subsequent resurrection. 

        Yahweh’s plan was all along to reproduce Himself.  The law of “each seed bears its own kind” attests to this.  He likens Himself to the Seed, the Word.  But in order to reproduce Himself, He would have to create a need in mankind for Him.  Innocent fleshy robots have no need of a Savior, and Yahweh is the Savior (“I, even I, am YHWH, and beside me there is no Savior,” Isaiah 43:11).

 Adam and Eve’s shameful fall into sin and despair was carefully choreographed by a loving Creator.  He set them up to Fall so that they would have a need for His forgiving love.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  He would become Immanuel, “God with us,” coming “to take away the sins of the world.”  This would fulfill the Edenic promise of Genesis 3:15.  As in the parable of the creditor and the two debtors in Luke 7:41-48, the one who owed the most when the debt was forgiven, was the one who loved the most.  Hence, sin and guilt entered the equation so that forgiveness could come, yielding gratefulness and love in the heart of the forgiven.  Each seed (love and forgiveness) bears its own kind (gratefulness and love).      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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October 24, 2008 · 10:13 pm

The Kingdom of God–Not a Worn Out Phrase

    The phrase “kingdom of God” has been used so much by so many people from so many different religious backgrounds that its real meaning may have been lost.  Heretofore, most  have understood the phrase to mean “God’s kingdom,” or the kingdom that belongs to Him.  And this is true, it does belong to Him and His children.  However, there is another way to look at that phrase, and that is “the kingdom of the Spirit.”

    It says in John 4 that “God is Spirit.”  Therefore, “kingdom of God” can be construed as “kingdom of Spirit.”  Or, in other words, it means a form of order and government headed by a Sovereign entity that is comprised of Spirit.  The Master did say that “the flesh profits nothing; it is the spirit that makes alive.”  “All is vanity,” in other words, except the invisible spiritual things.

     We are admonished that we should seek first this invisible spirit kingdom.  Also, the only true worship of the Father is in spirit and in truth.  It is not any old spirit worship, but it must be spiritual and truthful. It won’t be anything remotely having to do with earthly natural things.

     True worship is an invisible connection between our spirit in the human heart and the Eternal Creator Spirit.  It is the connection you cannot see.  You cannot legislate it, tax it, build fine buildings in order to coax true worship into your midst.  It is an invisible agreement between the Creator and His special spiritual creation, Adam.  “The true worshippers must worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”  They must find out the truth about His invisible Spirit reign within, for “the kingdom of God (Spirit) is within you.”

      It is a realm of the heart, an inner sanctum full of true thoughts about the true nature of things.  “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.”  You can’t see it with your fleshly eyes.  It is not of this earth.  Consequently, when we look out over this earth, anything we see, be it ever so religious, cannot be or have anything to do with the kingdom of Spirit (God).

      “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.”  The kingdom of God is a dimension and realm that our five senses don’t pick up on.  It is not of this earth.  It must first be believed on, and then it will begin to manifest itself to the understanding of our hearts.  We will never see it first with our earthly eyes and then believe.  Faith must be exercised—believing having not yet seen with the fleshly eyes.  The kingdom of God is a government of God, who is Spirit, and who rules in our hearts by His very essence, which is spirit.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock        {For more on this topic see this earlier article  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/not-of-this-earth/ and the one dated 3/17/08 }             

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

    

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

    

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

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October 21, 2008 · 11:14 am

Wisdom Is the Fear of the LORD

     Wisdom is the main thing, but what exactly is it?  It seems so mystical, so ethereal, so other-worldly. It is just a little bit intimidating and mysterious when you try to figure out what wisdom is according to man’s conception of it. 

     Job 28:28 states, “…Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”  It couldn’t mean to be afraid of God, so I consult a dictionary and find that “fear” means reverential awe and respect.  “Awe” is defined as an emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder inspired as by authority, genius, great beauty, or might.  So then, the scriptures say that the main thing, the principal thing is to be in awe of our Maker.

     When we realize just who He is and how powerful and wonderful He is, then more awe will come over us. Solomon, who had it all as far as worldly riches was concerned, summed it all up in Ecclesiastes 12:13:  “Let  us  hear  the  conclusion  of  the  whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.” Be in awe and respect Him and keep his ten commandment law, and you will be doing your duty.

 

     Awe and respect of God—that is wisdom, and that is the key to open the door to God’s heart.  But what are we humans in awe of?  Movie stars, sports stars, beautiful women, handsome men.   Hollywood is awesome? Sports stars and music stars of pop and rock are awesome?  We humans have sold out to very poor gods who cannot deliver.  These movie and music idols offer nothing to their worshippers.  But they are modern mankind’s idols.  Isn’t it amazing that modern man idolizes personalities who make millions by being something other than what they really are?  Our movie idols are phony; they are not real.

 

Our god is

 who we are in awe of

 

      Our god is who we are in awe of. Man has it built into his makeup to be in awe of something.  It is man’s nature to think that something or someone is awesome.  Sometimes it is a star; sometimes it is himself.  But man is in awe of something or someone.

 

     To be in awe, then, is the first step in worship. So, it turns out that man is in awe of almost everything except God.  Humans will go onto a mountaintop and exclaim how awe-inspiring the view  is  and  how  the  waterfall  in  the  distance  is awesome.  Man is in awe of things of the earth and this world.  Therefore, man just doesn’t have any true wisdom from above because to be awestruck of the LORD (Yahweh) is wisdom.

 

     So how do we get wisdom?  “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering…” James l: 5-7.  Faith is assurance that He will do what he said He will do without you having to see or feel it beforehand.  Faith believes and is assured before you receive whatever you ask for.  When you waver, you are not totally sure that He will do what He said He would do.

 

     So, we then ask Him for that emotion of being in awe of Him, instead of some worldly figure or thing–and we ask with assurance.

     This may sound like a dumb question, but one may wonder just who is He and what has He done to warrant such awe. Go outside on a clear night and count the billions of stars.  With the new Hubbel space telescope, the astronomers have reported recently that there are 12 billion galaxies like ours!  That’s galaxies like our Milky Way which have hundreds of millions of stars—one of which, of course, is our sun.  Now I know why the Great Creator was perplexed by the ancients’ worship of the sun. The sun is small fry—very small potatoes.

 

      We’ve got to get back to the Supreme Power that created all of this flabbergasting universe.  And when we begin to get a tiny glimpse of the majesty of this kind of power that created all things, then that’s the beginning of wisdom.                           Kenneth Wayne Hancock

(from Chapter 2 of my book  Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality  found here: http://www.yahwehisthesavior.com/yah.htm )

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