When my theophany first happened, I was at a complete loss as to what it meant. I did not know the word “theophany” at the time, and I did not know how to explain to others what happened to me while I was out cutting down a tree. It wasn’t until much later that I learned that my experience on that day cannot be transferred to another person. Moses, for example, could not transfer his experience with the burning bush to another person. That experience with God would always be his alone. For another person to understand the change that came over Moses after his experience, that person would have needed to be standing in front of the bush, too.

My fears that people would think I lost my mind on that day were completely unfounded. The truth is, my theophany is something they would never understand unless they were there, as I just stated. So all anyone could do was hear me out and, through this hearing, maybe gain strength in their personal faith in God. Those who thought I was a little loco and suddenly lost my mental faculties have never said to me personally that I was a nut. Well, in truth, we all know someone a little weird, and we know they wouldn’t take me seriously no matter what I said. Perhaps I am speaking of the lost? Meaning the lost to God!

The more I sat around thinking about what happened to me the more I began to understand that Almighty and blessed God (Also called Adonai by the Hebrews) is the whole universe that man is aware of. When the church says God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent they are saying the same thing as me. Using bigger words of course, which require you the listener of these words to sit down and think through what their big words really mean. The word Omni attached to the front of the words Potent, Scient and Present is actually saying God is everything and everywhere and all knowing at one time and at the same time. Which is just like me saying God is the whole universe.

God hears everything you say and think. God watches everything you do, even what you do in private, which is not private to God at all. Which means if you harbor ill will in your heart towards another person, God sees what you are doing in the privacy of your own heart.

It is with this hidden knowledge kept from you that God knows we are all sinners. We are sinners because we lie. We lie to God, we lie to our family, our friends and we lie to ourselves continuously. Suppose we can acknowledge that what I just wrote is true. If we can accept this, we can begin to uncover our lies and even begin to repair the damage caused by all our lying.

The church teaches that we are all sinners because Adam and Eve first sinned against God. Adam and Eve sinned is true. But we must get rid of all our confusion about what their sin really was and how it applies to us today. Their sin is that they lied to themselves and to God and even exited the Garden of Eden never admitting to God that they lied to Him. (Check your scriptures in Geneses).

Our sin is found in looking at the scriptures and acknowledging that, as Adam and Eve were a couple of sinners because of their lying, therefore we are also sinners because we also lie. So yes indeed, Adam and Eve led the way with lying to God, just as we lie to God to this very day and every day. When looked at in this proper light, we can now see that the evil sin that Adam and Eve portrayed in the scriptures truly is handed down to every person born after them. All people are called sinners because all people lie.

I am sure the idea that you and I are liars does not sit right with most of you reading this blog. But some of you will nod in agreement, because we often know when we lie and sometimes even the reason for it. We think that Almighty God does not hear these lies (sometimes for the best of intentions). But I tell you they are heard, and He does judge us daily. We do receive blessings and curses from God based on how we live our lives under our own direction.

We live roughly 78 years on this planet. God says we are allowed to live 120 years. (Check the scriptures) We must come to terms with our lying to be blessed to live 120 years. We must shine the light of Jesus on everything we say and do and see ourselves as we really are, not who we pretend to be. Lies build upon lies. Proper understanding of when we lie and why we lie begins with acknowledging this sin. You may not believe this, but we accept our lies because the adults in our lives lied to us. Lying seems to be a natural condition of life. But God tells us otherwise. To correct this sin takes a lot of introspection. Not many of us want to walk this path.

So there, this is one of the things I have learned about Almighty God since my theophany. I work daily to uncover and correct my lying. Nobody is perfect, ever! But if you love God and His Son Jesus, we must begin our walk with them by stopping our lying. Even the lies we tell ourselves.

Amen,

L.

In 2012, I met Jesus while out cutting down Ash trees for firewood. The meeting of Jesus and how it happened is what my previous blog post has been about. That event turned my whole world upside down, and I have been struggling and dealing with the new reality ever since.

Meeting Jesus and the way that I did it is not the problem. Strangely, the problems that have developed in my life since that wonderful and blessed event are all tied to man’s attempts at Theology. Theo = God and logy meaning logic. God’s logic. Theology. What people teach each other in church and in their own homes about what God wants from each and every one of us.

I thought back in 2012 that I was ignorant about church, the Bible, and what God / Jesus wanted to see changed in me. Well, that is true, and I have had and continue to have breakthroughs in understanding. But since I am just a man and a sinner, like everyone everywhere is, my first supposition was wrong from the start. It is not that I am the ignorant one in the world, but rather, we are all ignorant because we are all sinners. Yes, sinners, but more than that, we all look for importance in our lives from everywhere except from our Creator.

Typically self-centered, I took on the world’s problems in 2012. I was the problem; I was the ignorant one. If I could correct the sin in me, I would better understand and do better by the world. Which, of course, would mean the world must first be perfect for that to be true. When worded that way, everyone can see that I was totally wrong. But it sure was hard to recognize the error in my logic when I was emotionally stressed out dealing with the shock of meeting our Creator in person.

The truth is that the world, in my opinion, is just as bad as me. Correcting myself was and is good. But no matter what I did to change me, the world at large continues to be just as it was. So, for example, when I went into churches with my new appreciation for our Creator and His Son Jesus, I expected that everyone in church was way ahead of me and understood so much more than I did about God and Jesus. Boy was I ever surprised, and continue to be surprised everyday just how far the church in general, has fallen away from God.

I will tell you, if you will hear me, that the main problem with the world’s understanding of theology is that the world does not believe what God says is true. I don’t mean that the world does not believe in the Bible or that it is true; I mean that the world does not believe God when He speaks to us through His Word in His Book. Take those Ten Commandments; we give lip service to how important they are, but we do not think them through or apply the words to ourselves as we live day to day. We seem to think it is enough to quote the words, or the book and verse, where to find the Commandments. We don’t actually apply those words to ourselves or our lives every minute of the day for the rest of our days… It appears to me that knowing the words is enough for the everyday man, but living our lives based on what the words say is simply asking too much.

Adam and Eve lost everything because they did not believe God. This is the root cause of all sin. Adam and Eve are sinners and all of their offspring are sinners because they did not, and their offspring does not to this very day, believe God when He speaks. It is really that simple and yet, profound. It is the same way with God’s Son Jesus. People read his words, quote his words, cherish his words, speak his words, but to not believe his words because if they did, they would have to change everything about their lives. This self introspection is too hard on people, they prefer living as they do in this modern world. The result, as far as God goes, is that God sees the lives people live as proof that they continue not to believe Him when He tells them what to do. They continue to sin against Him and His Son through their lack of belief.

I am just as bad. I am not writing these things to elevate myself above my readers. I live in this modern world too, and I like living as we all do. My frustration with myself can only be relieved by rereading God’s Word and really thinking about what He has said. I have even taken an interest in learning the definition of words as they were used during Moses’ day and during the first century of Jesus’ day. Dictionaries tell us how words are used today; you need to dig for what words meant to Jesus back 2,026 years ago. How can you be true to God and His Son if you don’t understand their words as they were used at the time? Take one word as an example. The word is Messiah. What does the word mean from 536 BC to 110 AD? How did the meaning of that word change by 325AD? After you have done a word search, ask yourself this simple question: When did Jesus become the Messiah, according to Jewish definition in the first century when Jesus lived? I will give you a hint. The definition of the word Messiah in Jesus’ day required that Jesus be anointed. Which means that, for you to understand the word ‘Messiah’ in Jesus’ day, you must also come to terms with the word’ anoint ‘ as used in Jesus ‘ day.

I am trying to come to grips with God’s truth versus my lifestyle everyday. I have been dealing with this stress for going on 14 years. I cannot just roll over and go back to sleep. I met God back in 2012, and I am not willing or able to forget that event. I wrestle with myself every day. There will come a day when I will die. I believe in Jesus, I have been cleansed in baptism, and I preach about him all the time, but when I die, it is God Himself who will judge me. I know this because Jesus has said so. Jesus said that he did not come to judge anyone but to save their souls. But there will come a day when we will be judged, and that Judge will be God, the Creator and Sustainer of all there is or ever will be.

I wonder every day, will my lifestyle today reflect the truth of God’s Word?

L.

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How I came to know God exist.

I want you to know about how I came to know Jesus Christ is alive. This is a republishing of my early blog post. If you read this it will start you on a series of blogs leading up to where I am at today. Just follow the links. 10/22/19.

In the fall of 2012 I had an encounter with God. It happened when I was out cutting down dead Ash trees. The tree I had cut with my chain saw would not fall down no matter what I did and in frustration, I put my left hand on the trunk of the tree and said these words: 

“Jesus, I do not know if if your Bible is true or not, but it says somewhere in it that whatever I ask for in your name you will do. Well Jesus, I need your help getting this tree dow . . . ”

That is as far as I got with my words. The tree, that I spent over an hour trying to fell down, suddenly began to fall over. I jumped back about 3 paces and at an angle away from the rear of the tree. Spun around to watch the tree fall and as I looked it occurred to me that the tree was about to fall on my Massey Ferguson 135 tractor. Without even thinking, I ran back to the tree with my arms out in front of me and said “Wait, wait, wait.”.  That was all I said.

The tree was about 80 feet long and I guess it would weigh in about 8,000 pounds. Maybe more. I never stopped to figure it out. But, that tree was nearly to the ground when it stopped moving in mid air, and began to lift itself back up as it returned to the upright position on its own cut trunk.

I was standing right behind the tree. Looking straight at it as it returned to an upright position. I did not think to move out of the way or nothing. I just stood there. Frozen in the moment. Not able to think of anything except how that tree just did what it did.

As I stood there thinking it suddenly dawn on me that I had asked Jesus for His help. The tree was lifted up by Jesus. And more importantly, Jesus was still there with me as I knew I didn’t lift that tree up and I had yelled wait, wait, wait so he must be waiting on me. So I got down on one knee, looked to where the tree was headed when it was falling, I realized it was the angle that I backed away to that caused me to think the tree was going to hit my tractor. From a position directly behind the tree where I was now, I knew it was going to fall right where I wanted it to fall.

I stood back up and put my hands in my back pockets, and speaking directly to the tree said the most stupidest thing I could say to the Lord. I said, “It’s okay Jesus, you weren’t going to hit my tractor.” And without a further word or action from me that big old tree just fell to the ground with a thump.