No, I’m not talking about sweet words of a European language, and a
theoretic link between physics and quantum mechanics.  Or maybe I am,
and in even less of a metaphorical way than one might initially think…

In an earlier string we happened to sideswipe an issue that concerns
me greatly that I have been spending some time on.  That is the state
of Christian lexicon, our “faith words”, if you will. I’m talking
about the current mutations of Old English, Germanic, etc., words that
are either solely the providence of the religious, or possess
traditionally unique meanings when used in the spiritual context.
These are the very tools we use, not only to communicate the Good News
with, but by which we organize thoughts and reflections in our minds.

Granted, for those who are well-schooled in religious media (the Bible
is media), ritual and practices, the tool belt full spiritual
nomenclature we carry with us can be an invaluable and useful set of
tools.

However, for the yet to be initiated, they come, as I said before,
either covered with barnacles, loaded with inaccurate meaning, and/or
beaten and knocked around until all of their meaning has been wore
off. I’m sure that most of us have been involved in conversations with
someone outside of the Jesus Way which, from watching the expression
on their face, the best result we might expect to elicit is
indifference or confusion.  Not productive. Or, you can see the “buzz
words” hit them, and they respond as if an unexpected firecracker had
went off in their face.  We want to make fireworks, for sure.  But, we
should attempt to illuminate the beauty and majesty of the
relationship with the Author of Life we have discovered.  We want an,
“Oooooooooooooo!” not an “OW!”

One might think that this is the biggest possible pitfall of using
these terms, but it’s not.  Something more insidious is at work here.
Words have definitions that are particular and limited.  Finite.  They
are also the handles we use to manipulate concepts in our mind. When
we exclusively use those that might be considered “canon” we run the
risk of not using other words that may more fully illuminate the real
truth of meaning.  We unintentionally limit, not only the way we
express faith to others, but the ways that we have of understanding
the presence of our Father’s will in our own lives.

Contemporary language use in our spiritual media, from Bibles to
sermons is nothing new.  In fact, the earliest we might see obvious
examples is in the New Testament.  It’s right there, from Jesus
through Paul, and especially John in Revelations.  All three used
their  own contemporary popular culture references, not only in choice
of words, but in format and style as well.

Even from the Romans and the Greeks.  "Good New", "Son of God",
Caesar's favorite propaganda words. "Hypocrite" is a term that Jesus
himself introduces to the lexicon of the ongoing religious debate. A
Greek term meaning "actor", that spiked in literature of it's times
because of popularity of revivalist Greek tragedies, and flourish in
theater building throughout the Roman world.  One was planned and
built within walking distance of Nazareth, in the bustling port of
Caesarea, although it wasn’t completed until after the Crucifixion.
Consider a carpenter or a day labor might find more work there than in
Nazareth, estimated population 200 to 400.

Paul and his almost Yogi Berra style mixed metaphors, and logic
loops.  I think it's in Galatians he goes from talking about his
mistakes to saying "do as I do" in less than a chapter.  This guy uses
the self effacing format to dispense his wisdom was that of the
regular Joe, like Will Rogers of the 1930s.  "He knew what he knew,
except for what he forgot".

And of course, the Book of Revelations, in a popular literary format
called Apocopliptus, I believe.  Anyway, generally they followed the
"War of the Worlds" format, asigning monstrous avatars for the bad
guys of their day, etc.

My point being, THIS IS WHAT IS MEANT BY "THE LIVING WORD".  Let me
repeat that in case you spaced off.  IS WHAT IS MEANT BY "THE LIVING
WORD".

We need to retell Jesus' and all of the prophet's stories, as well as
our own, in our OWN WORDS.  So that he is truly in us, and we are
truly in him. Otherwise, we become parrots with chimpanzee brains,
repeating gibberish that means less and less everytime its repeated.
Or even worse yet, by writing them down we have killed and taxidized
the "Word of God" thinking we  have the meaning love.

Here is a list of words I want to share in a discussion to find new
alternative ways to illuminate:

1.      God
2.      Praise
3.      Sin
4.      Salvation
5.      Repent
6.      Holy
7.      Angel
8.      Kingdom
9.      Throne
10.     Heaven

Now, I'm not saying these words are obsolete!  And I'm the first one
to admit that most cannot be done  justice by just switching word for
a single other word  that works in all circumstances.  Let's give this
a round, eh?

Peace, and All Good things,

I certainly understand your point for the most part Larry, but I want
to mention that in my anthropological linguistics class at Southern
Illinois University I received a grade of 104 percent because the
class had extra credit.  Although I do not have through knowledge of
linguistics because I only completed one Junior level class, I do
however have some knowledge of the subject and I will attempt to
explain what I find to be true regarding the scripture and how we are
to approach it.  Overall, hopefully my advice will be helpful, but
then again because of my own endeavors into linguistic thought and the
philosophy of language you will find my perspective to be unique in
many ways.

According to the Sefer Yetzirah the three mother letters that gave
birth to all the other Hebrew letters are Mem, Shin, and Aleph.  The
sound of one causes a vibration in the upper extremity, the sound of
the other in the middle extremity, and the sound of the last causes
vibration in the lower extremity in a since.  In addition to the three
mother letters their are seven doubles Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaf, Pey,
Resh, and Tav.  The twelve simple letters are Hey, Vav, Zayin, Chet,
Tet, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samek, Ayin, Tzade, and Kof.  (I just mention
this in passing as I do not know how to stand upon it as I am not
properly educated in the ancient sages to properly know how to
interact with this truth).

The point that some would make is that when God speaks things into
creation some would say that he is saying his name, and an example of
this kind of thinking is to note that when people do works for a trade
or profession and those works are good people say, "looks like you are
really making a name for yourself."  Yet we know from the acts of
Jesus Christ that often when he healed people he did not just simply
always only speak without his hands also doing things to perform the
supernatural acts; moreover, the hands and the words of Christ
testified together.  Having said this the testimony of Jesus Christ,
both his words and also his acts, had been in place to bring glory to
the Father, and you might ask, "what does this mean?"

The most important book of the bible is perhaps Genesis, and by far it
appears to be the first bible ever made.  Genesis does very little
explaining, and instead it says, "this is what happened, this is how
it happened, and this is by whom and at what location that it
happened."  The reason why this is the most important book is because
all the books after begin to give more and more explanation, and that
explanation if cut off from the root of Genesis can rest on the
shoulders of words that rest on shifting sand (as people associate
different pictures with words over time like, ‘cool’).

In other words we say that God is love, but to a fallen world of
generations of people born out of wedlock whom associate love with
valentines day we get a message that is very wrong to say the least.
Words should be used as icons that connect to and point back to the
garden of Eden (back to the throne of God).  If this happens in our
lives, then when we speak with all the others whom also speak the name
of God we join in God’s voice communicating the truth into creation
that he is ‘I AM’ (as god projects or imprints himself into creation).

Think of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as being the four head waters
that come forth from the throne of God, and for the Hebrew scripture
it is Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteromy (from their Acts and
Joshua pick up as a testimony to the response of having heard the
message of salvation).  The point is that the waters flow forth from
the throne of God, but in doing so they flow forth from the root and
this root is Genesis.

In the Hebrew scripture the entire root of mankind was Adam and all of
Adam’s children testified to the struggles in heaven in their bodes.
In fact the profits often used the names of the children of Adam as
pictures to communicate their message, and their message was often the
one whom was coming whom would reverse the affects of the fall (he
reversed the affects of the fall by becoming sin for us whom did not
know sin).  When Christ came as the second Adam then he reversed the
affects of the fall by making a new generation or new creation in his
blood, this new creation was a new species whom had within them his
seed and it was that seed that produced many like him.

Now instead of looking forward in most cases we look backward to see
and understand our father from the many shadows cast of him.  Having
said that we can often express whom God is in ways that God intended
through explaining the law in ‘new ways’ that intercede for present
times.  Notice that whenever Saint Paul writes he often makes
commentary of the law of Moses in scripture, the profits, and the
gospels, and often when he doesn’t do so he says that he is making a
‘human argument’ or talks about it as being human in nature so to
speak as a way of separating his message from that of what it angelic
or from the new nature.

Having said all of this when the gospel (birth, death, and reservation
of Jesus Christ) is made real in our bodies, and when we are vessels
of the light and the living water, then we can use the human reason of
our day and language while leavening the bread so to speak with the
gospel.  The problem however is that when we depart from the scripture
in doing so we cause much confusion to perhaps occur because people
soon enough may not realize how what we have to say is any different
from what the lost have to say (it is of course different because of
what we also do), and in fact if we depart from the scripture we may
even be joining the ranks of the lost.  Every human institution ‘so to
speak’ that has heard the gospel and has not made themselves part of
the gospel would have you separate yourself from the scripture as they
see it as an unclean thing (it is often the entire purpose of
educational institutions in the United States to simply separate
people from the scripture in every conceivable way in order to cause
everyone to join hands in unison to accomplish a common goal in order
that our nation is not divided).

Yet I see no reason to disagree with Larry for he speaks the truth.
When the master says to us, "let down your nets over their" we need to
lower the scripture into the waters of life and become fishers of men
bringing the fish into our dominion (the dominion of God) so that we
may feed the sheep so to speak.  The scripture thus is like a finely
woven net that the waters of life can pass through, and when fish are
passing through those waters at the same time we can catch them in the
kingdom.

When the fish are brought in, they parish but we know that they do not
really parish because they become a new creation for Jesus ate the
fish and said, "feed my sheep." John 21.  Yes, when the fish stop
swimming in schools, and when they become sheep that like any animal
gravitates around its master whom feeds them, then they are a new
creation.  We should thus be aware of those fish that during their
entire lifetime they pass through the waters, but because they are
fish the water is imperious to them (they can memorize and spout the
entire scripture but they are far from the bread of life from heaven.)

When we get the sheep together, God does not intend them to be that
way all of their lives.  Instead we are to be a kingdom of priests
making intercession for one anther.  This means that we develop and
grow into something much greater than a sheep that always is dependent
on a church leader to tell him what to believe and to lead him around
all the time.  Instead eventually people whom worship God become the
shepherds themselves as they shepherd creation.

Yes, the scripture is not Christ, so it cannot be the word of God, but
instead it is the record of the word of God.  Yet in a since the
scripture is the word of God and it is Christ, but it is no more
Christ then my icon from Greece is Christ.  If you are in confusion
about my point or if you do not believe me, then meditate upon this,
"Every painting is a collection of paints put together in an
intelligent way, and when we look at that painting we hopefully see
the pattern and the truth about what is communicated in the paining
transcends upon us, but in the case of scripture it has the same
qualities, but the difference is that it is not meant to remind us of
natural things but instead it allows us to interact with God to see a
vastly beautiful picture of supernatural origin (this is a picture
that we can interact with in our minds and even become part of the
picture).

Thank you,

Mathew Enoch Mount
mmo...@essex1.com

On Nov 5, 7:54 pm, Brother Larry

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FOUR PAGES OF SINGLE SPACED TEXT!

Sweet, kind, sincere verbose Brother Mathew!  Before we start
discussing the first word on the list when I get back on track, let me
say:

1.      It’s always a pleasure to give you a chance to mention your
credentials, and nice to know you were able to achieve a seemingly
impossibly high-ranking grade through the miracle of extra credit.
2.      Of course your advice is helpful!  You are probably the most
interesting and unique person I have met in some time, and look
forward to your next visit.
3.      I remember you mentioning the Hebrew alphabet during one of our one
on ones.  Your paragraph reminds me of a Jorge Luis Borges short story
called “The Lottery of Babylon” from the collection LABYRINTHS.  I
strongly recommend it.  You two have some similarities in writing
style.
4.      I believe that Jesus did miracles to illuminate his point, which he
made with contemporary concepts and terms or by example with his
actions, as you said.  Don’t get spots in your eyes from starring at
the flare burst and miss what it was meant to illuminate. I think
Jesus made that clear. Are we saying the same thing?
5.      The most important book of the Bible?  This is an entirely
different string we will have to take up elsewhere.  As far as the
published Bible, I say the Gospels come in as a tie.  “The first will
be the last…”  Otherwise, I would say the most important “Good News”
is that we which we are sharing right now that we should make worthy
of being documented!
6.      Your love for the Old Testament may only be surpassed by your love
for our Father, so I am not surprise that we are starting this
conversation with mention of Adam (not Adam Colbert), and saying we
should do a U-turn to get back to the Garden with him (not Adam
Colbert) .
7.      I am not suggesting that we cut your root by writing a “Groovy
Bible”.  I promise.
8.      My folks were married.  Really, most people’s folks are.  And many
a Christian has proposed on Valentines Day.  Saint Valentine would be
another good post string for the spring, but I imagine to be caught up
getting ready for the Lenten fast…
9.      “Throne of God”, good example of what we’re talking about, thanks.
I know you are quite fond of all of this ancient “God language” and
formulaic “theo-speak”.  I too find it ripe with meaning, and
appreciate it like a fine aged wine.  But lets not get drunk and out
cold, becoming unable to answer Jesus when he asks if there is anyone
who will stay awake with him.  Let’s be awake in the here and now.
10.     Having said ALL of this, (chuckle) I see no real reason to
disagree with you, Brother Mathew. And lets hear some more about the
first on the list “God”.  I like what both you and Adam (Not the first
one), mentioned in passing.  I am going to try to use “Father”
generally, but when I am privately praying it comes out something like
“Sweet Papa Yahweh” or “Abba Yahweh”.  But I generally save these
words of endearment for intimate moments.

Peace, and all Good Things,

Brother Larry Roy Woodsmall
ON EARTH MINISTRIES