Tuesday, May 26, 2009

MkITN III

1. Once again Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man was there who had a disabled hand.

2. And the Pharisees, who by this point were closely watching His every move, were just waiting to see whether or not He would heal the man on the Sabbath. The possibility of this happening was of great interest to them, particularly because of Jesus' claim that He was the Lord of the Sabbath. Their plan was to catch Him in an infraction of the law concerning the Sabbath, so that they might discredit Him, and have a charge to bring against Him, formally.

3. And, sure enough, Jesus didn't waste any time walking right into a confrontational situation. He boldly said to the man with the deformed hand, "Stand up and walk out here where everyone can clearly and plainly see you."

4. Then, with the same air of confidence He said to the Pharisees, "Let Me ask you...is it lawful and right on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil...to save life or to take it?" But they were deathly silent.

5. And He stared for a few moments at each of them, waiting for at least one of the religious leaders to make some kind of intelligent or insightful statement. And when they didn't, He began to experience an intense emotional mix of anger and sorrow...anger at their lack of openness to the truth, and sorrow at how insensitive religion had made them to the suffering of humanity. Then, getting past His feelings, He said to the man, "All right...hold out your hand!" And he held it out, and when he did the use and appearance of his hand was completely restored.

6. Then the Pharisees rushed out and went immediately to hold a consultation with the Herodians...those who supported Herod, the King...discussing how they might come up with a legal means to exterminate Him.
7. After this occurrence, Jesus took His disciples to the lake to just get away with them and relax, but a great throng of people from Galilee who were constantly aware of His whereabouts followed Him there. But there were also people following Him from Judea...

8. And from Jerusalem, and Idumea, and from beyond the Jordan River, and from the area around Tyre and Sidon...in a word, His fame had now taken on a life of its own, and vast numbers...hordes of people who were hearing all the time about all that He was doing...came to Him, wanting to see for themselves if what they had heard was true.

9. So He told His disciples to have a little boat ready for Him so that He could escape, in the event that mass hysteria set in and the crowd literally crush Him.

10. The throngs now were regularly so massive that they were basically becoming unmanageable...the people were being more and more physically aggressive with Him, especially those who were very sick and in need...and on occasion some were so intent on personally touching Him that they were out of control.

11. And more and more rebel spirits were recognizing and acknowledging Him, and when they did, they fell down before Him and kept screaming out, "You are the Son of God!"

12. But Jesus was persistent in His refusal to allow these spirits to fully reveal Him, so again and again He made them shut up in public.

13. When things calmed down a bit, He climbed a mountain and invited those He wanted to officially work with Him, and they accepted the invitation and climbed up, too.

14. Out of all those who were following Him, He settled on twelve, and, designating them Apostles, or special messengers, He sent them out to preach the Good News of the Gospel,

15. And to have authority and power to heal the sick, and to expel rebel spirits.

16. And these are the twelve: Simon, who He later called Peter;

17. James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James. He gave these two a very special name..."Boanerges", which literally means "Sons of Thunder";

18. And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, also known as Nathaniel, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, Judas, (not Iscariot), and Simon the Canaanaean, also called "Zelotes", or "The Zealot", because of his radical political persuasions and underground connections,

19. And Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed Him. These men, including Simon, who came from a group of anarchists and assassins, and the infamous Judas Iscariot, were all called and authorized to be Apostles...preachers...healers...deliverers...by Jesus, Himself.
20. After this He went to someone's house for dinner, but a throng heard about His visit and converged on the house, literally shutting down any possibility of a social occasion. The people were so demanding that night that Jesus and His disciples couldn't even eat.

21. And when His family (who was already concerned about how His popularity was getting out of hand and was becoming completely uncontrollable) heard about this, they felt that they were forced into taking some kind of action. So they got together and planned an emergency intervention, with the expressed intention of having Him committed. They rationalized that He was their responsibility, saying, "He's clearly lost His mind by buying into and encouraging this mania, and it's up to us to do something about it...we have to put Him away!"

22. And to make things worse, the Scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub, 'the Lord of the Flies', and with the help of demons He is casting out demons and practicing black magic!"

23. But Jesus this time called a meeting with them to do a little damage control, and to confront their superstitious slander with an illustration, saying, "Tell Me..how can demons drive out other demons?

24. Furthermore, if a kingdom rebels against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

25. In the same way, if a house is divided, or split into factions, that house will not be able to last.

26. And if the Adversary is adversarial to the Adversary, he will ultimately self-destruct!
27. Look...no one can go into a strong man's house, if he's home, and walk off with his possessions, unless he first ties up that strong man...but if he does tie the man up, then indeed he may thoroughly plunder his house.

28. These are all authority issues, and, speaking of authority, here's another thing you should know. Every sin and blasphemy can be automatically forgiven people because of the mercy extended to the limited flesh;

29. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, your words become so authoritative and effective that they literally create your reality. So when you speak things out of your mouth which are contrary to the purpose and nature of the Holy Spirit, you actually speak blasphemy against Him; and He can’t forgive you in order to prevent those words from coming to pass, because He has empowered you to have what you say. You’ll just have to deal with the consequences of whatever you’ve said, whether for good or for evil. The words that you speak against His nature in you will have to stand just as you said them. They will not be erased through forgiveness in this dimension, or in the one to come, and in that sense they bear eternal consequences.

30. Jesus went out of His way to explain all of these things because they persisted in saying, "He has an evil spirit."

31. Then, while He was still talking about this, His mother and His brothers came for the intervention that they had discussed. They stood outside and sent word to Him, calling for Him.

32. And some of the people who were there heard them and said to Him, "Your mother and Your brothers and Your sisters are outside asking for You."

33. And, intuitively sensing the alienation from His natural family, even without actually hearing them say that they thought He had lost His mind, He replied, "Who, really, are My mother and My brothers?"

34. And looking around at those who were there in support of Him, He said, "See! Right here are My mother and My brothers and My sisters...";

35. And, completely ignoring His family's demand for a meeting with Him, He went on to say, "For whoever does the things that God wills is My real brother and real sister and real mother!"

28 comments:

karl cobos said...

Thank you for all your writing Bishop...relax now and enjoy your movie.

I also wanted to mention and thank you and your dad and pastor Hutchinson for all the great words that have come from there in the last week or so. We have truly been blessed! God's continual blessings on you today.

oh, the other day I was munching on a snack and I said to my son,"I'll be through here in a jiffy, ok?"
Well, Zachary comes back in a few minutes and says, "dad, this is NOT a jiffy!"

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Thanks, Karl...and thanks for the bread...the movie was very good...

Yeah, I've heard a lot of good reports about dad's message...thanks again...and I tweeted about this and told him, personally, but I'll say again that I thought P. Joshua's sermon Sunday was really extraordinary...

It was, no doubt, a word in season, and I've thought about it a lot over the last couple of days...

Unknown said...

The sense of the pressure of the crowds...MkITN is making it so palpable...but I enjoyed the v.3 "sure enough"...if our hero is one thing, he's "sure".

And if He's another, He's human, v.5 experiencing "an intense emotional mix..."

I continually get the feeling [as I compare translations] that I have never actually read these Scriptures before! There it is...angry and sad in every one I have...but its not occurred to me to think of this as the very human "mixed emotions".

v.30 "went out of His way..." Another sure thing about the Father that our hero so well represents...but is often forgotten. Its good to be reminded.

Thank you, Bishop, for this once in a lifetime opportunity to discover the Scriptures anew...a chapter by chapter journey to places I've not been without fear being a companion, or lurking at the next turn of the page...

Anonymous said...

I have come to adore verse twenty nine that once evoked fear in my soul and that is probably the single most important thing that has lifted me by your teachings. I will have to say that is like amazing grace to me and a type of salvation to say the least.

The only fear that remains in me is somewhat undefinable and it may not even be fear in the sense of that word's recognized definition. It is there though and it seems to serve a good purpose in me so for now I will let it be.

Those words that I am aware of that have been spoken by me that could possibly be in conflict with Holy Spirit's best interest for me have fallen to the ground in non effect as my greater enlightenment has caused my words to be more productive in the Kingdom. I have set many words in action and seen them keep going and going and going. All of them are a blessing to me and to you for this True Rhema Word.

It seems possible to me that Jesus address concerning His true brothers and sisters while rejecting the advances made on Him by His family could have been an intervention to prevent them from causing a blasphemy to occur. This is in context and makes the point clear to me that, "For whoever does the things that God wills is My real brother and real sister and real mother!", is the same as following the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

There are areas in our lives where others may judge that we have blasphemed but the only thing that matters is what we know in our own spirit by the Spirit. That is our Truth that keeps our soul free from the bondage that would be emposed on us by others and it is the Son that gave us that freedom.

Another wonderful rendering of MkITN Bish, Rock on.

Anonymous said...

Hey CITN, I'm a new blogger from Texas. Part of the CITN Cybercongregation. Pator Avery said "to get involved", so she showed me how to blog. Bishop, quit rolling your eyes, I know it's the 21st century. :) I just have better things to do than sit at this computer! :)

I'm going to spend some time this evening (after service of course) checking out all the different ways to connect with you guys through the blogs.

We're starting our own little CITN-Part Deux, here in Houston. I may have to get a bigger lap top if our Texas Cyber congregation keeps growing.

Lord bless you all!! It has been life changing becoming part of CITN. I look forward to blogging with you in the future!

Jere

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Hi Jere and welcome!

Glad to have Houston in the house!

karl cobos said...

I agree Bishop about P.Hutchinson's word, it was like one of those cool moments when the light goes off in your head- "bing!".

I need to go back and listen to the CD so it will sink in further.
oh, 'bout the bread, you are very welcome.

Donald said...

At least verse 29 doesn't rule out all hope, as I have always been taught.

Izumi/JOY said...

I like how verses 1-3 remind me of Psalm 111:7 - The works of His hands [are] verity and justice; All His precepts [are] sure.

Brenda said...

I've been reading the blog just haven't posted as of late because of doing the rewrites on my book among crashing my computer. Keep writing because your writings has truly blessed me and changed me for the better. Verse 29 has really changed my way of thinking but I must ponder on it some more.

Northern Light said...

So is vs 29 reassuring or scaring people more than before ?

I've read it more than a few times and in this paraphrasing, I can get either. Maybe it's just where the head is at at the time.....this week isn't a good one to judge by ~

Peace,
Northern Light

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Hey NL...

Wow, I'm really so disappointed to hear that the paraphrase doesn't reassure you...my whole intention in writing it is to show that there is no fear in love...

If you consider the context and purpose of the teaching here, especially if you think of what Jesus was saying to the people then...not what men in later centuries in Europe imposed on His original intention...it becomes clear that all He was saying is you have what you say...that words produce after their own kind...

I guess I need to work on making it a little mire plain...

Anyway, I trust your kids are all well now...

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 5/27 10:23 Am to Northern Light,

The key here is, "But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, your words become so authoritative and effective that they literally create your reality."

When reading the verse in context it is implied that the act is willfull against an understood directive. That is a very rare event but when you are enlightened to know the power of your words then they are directed toward imroving our own lives and the lives of others. At least that is my take on it.

When all is said as much as it will be in our lives there is yet a final authority that brings peace and the end of that is not known by anyone in this dimension so it is better to excercise our words toward the idea, that is strongly supported by authoritative manuscripts, of universal salvation accomplished by the only One who could have done it, The Lamb that was slain at the foundation of the world or universe.

If my opinion is off then Bishop will clear it up but he also has writings and CDs on this subject that you may want to view.

blessings of peace to you and yours

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

And to everyone else here and those who have e-mailed me...again I say...THIS IS A PARAPHRASE...NOT A TRANSLATION...if any of you want or need to hold on to the idea that God will burn people for eternity for making a stupid remark about the Holy Spirit, please feel free to do so...

I was raised on the conventional concept of "the unpardonable sin", and I am yet to have anyone tell me what you could possibly say about the Holy Spirit that could cause eternal damnation...

I used to believe that all of the denominations who say that speaking with tongues is of the devil were all going to burn for eternity...the Southern Baptists, the Church of Christ, etc.

Now I just don't see that as being at all plausible...

The bottom line is we have what we say because of the creative power of the Holy Spirit, and our words are what they are...they do, indeed have eternal conspequences, but nothing...and I mean nothing...not even anything we might say is more powerful or effective than the atoning blodd of Jesus and the triumph of the Last Adam over the first one.

For me, that's forever settled in heaven...

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

And before any Southen Baptists write me, I'm not saying that you all believe that speaking with tongues is of the devil (I personally know a lot of tongue-talking Baptists)...I'm saying that was my perception of the whole denomination from many who do hold to that opinion...

God bless the Baptists...and the Church of Christ...and everyone else...

Unknown said...

The importance of words is so...well...important, that if there is any place we need to have our attention focused it is here on this scripture. The fear implied by the letter of previous translations/paraphrases makes people shut down and just give up. But this paraphrase does EXACTLY what I believe God the Father wants us to do...have enough of an emotional reaction to wake up, take notice and finally have ears to hear what our own mouths are saying.

And, as JB said a few days ago...(in the spirit of...you always ask for three more when you get down to the last of your three wishes!) there's this wonderful little phrase that comes to you when your soil has been tilled by Love..."I command ALL of the words that I have said that do not line up with the word of God or His desires for me to fall to the ground and be of no effect!" And there are more...but I will leave that to each person's relationship with Holy Spirit and their search for the pearls that He has waiting for them--Our Father is an awesome God!!

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

@ 1:19 should read "a little mOre plain..."

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

And @ 1:29 it's CONSEQUENCES and the BLOOD of Jesus!

Lord have mercy, I need to get away from this screen for a few minutes!!!

karl cobos said...

here! here!(smiling)
The letter kills...but the SPIRIT gives life.

BTW Bishop, when you get a chance, where have you been finding some of the pictures for your blogs. I'm trying to figure out how to do that on mine...thanks!

Karl said...

cool word ver here: provall

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Karl, I find them everywhere...mostly from Google images...

Northern Light said...

Holy smokes, it's a little warm in my skin.

Bishop,
I did not NOT find reassurance. Quite the opposite. My post was me merely trying to ascertain what some of the others were commenting on and what I was thinking they meant.

I can't stand thinking you'd be "really so disappointed" that I didn't get what you were saying. Heck, I feel like I need to go back to the confessional of days gone by, the guilt is killin' the little girl in me just reading that! HA......help. OK deep breath, I'm fine !

Actually I did get reassurance, and see the Love....but I will say for explanation sake,I also did read it from a perspective of: what we speak/put out there as what we want, right or wrong and then receive them does have those "eternal consequences"...and like you say, depending on where you were raised up it takes a new realization of the truth.

I got it.........THANK YOU AGAIN ~!

Peace,
Northern Light

Northern Light said...

P.S........Yes, kids all well on the homefront as of 7:47pm Thursday!

Thanks for your thoughts & caring....
Peace,
NL

Northern Light said...

Yes, Avatar. Right on here. I agree.

"I command ALL of the words that I have said that do not line up with the word of God OR His desires for me to fall to the ground and be of no effect!"

That is what I was wanting to communicate.......too weary for the words this week. YOU said exactly what I was tipping on the tongue,( really in the brain) but couldn't get on the page.

Hey Mikie, she likes it ! Ahhh

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Hey NL...it's cool...we're good...God's good...we're all just working out our own salvation...

Don't let your inner Catholic child feel guilty, because if you do, my inner Pentecostal child will feel guilty for making your inner child feel guilty, and then you'll have to find a priest to confess to and I'll have to go the altar and scream and cry for hours, and promise God that I won't dance or go to the movies, and the whole thing will just be a mess...

Seriously, I hear you...I've just had one of those days that makes you totally understand why Jesus told His disciples to shake the dust off their feet...

Doesn't matter...let not your heart be troubled...

Peace.

Northern Light said...

I am so really LAUGHING OUT LOUD that I might wake up one of the several hundred people who live here. (slight exaggeration, butit was a full day!)

Reading your words here, while looking and listening to you on the DVD telling the Jesus and Motherrrrrrrrr story (and this "Catholic gal" doesn't take issue) LOVE IT

Ah......have a great night~
Peace,
NL

Unknown said...

Interesting quote I just heard on Grey's..."reality is much stormier, much murkier, much scarier but so much more interesting than living happily ever after..."

Unknown said...

...and thank you, Bishop, for this real place for real people to experience the real God...and the real "each other"...in the real world!