August 1st.

It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son."

Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

What's the point then—if Paul knew, from his own personal experience of being specifically chosen and from the OT words that had been preserved for his sake that God decides who He will have mercy and compassion on, then why even write the letter? Why not just let God do what He's gonna do, if He's already decided who will be called and who won't be? Isn't it just rubbing the latter's nose in the fact that they aren't chosen—sort of like a rich kid mocking a poor kid because of his condition and lot in life?

It might be, except that the sons of God, those who are called and chosen to be given a choice to accept the Father's way or not are like the privileged kid because they are the extreme minority and the extreme majority is set against them, according to the Father's wishes so that they will have to become separated from the majority and dependent in a real (not theoretical) way on Him and each other. That is the picture of brotherhood that is the Father's delight, one which is the motivation of the creation of the nation of brothers called Israel, meant to serve as a natural copy of the better thing, which is the secret and hidden family of God who calls His own sons by name because He knows each one.

That is the burden on Paul's heart, the driving force of his natural life, to find the sons of God who have been called and need to hear the message that he has with him—what he ended up spending the balance of his natural life doing for the sake of the hope of what Israel represents in the natural. He wants to find his true brothers, those who have been given ears to be able to hear the message, rather ironically not those who are hoping in the natural hope of Israel, who are hanging on to the Law of Moses and their need to serve it, live by it and be faithful to it in order to be right with God (attain righteousness).

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written:

"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

The reason is because natural Israel and the Law of Moses was only a copy of the better thing, that which like God cannot be seen or fathomed by the natural creatures because it exists in a different plane of existence that the humans don't know about, nor are they privy to. They may say things like "spirit," "holy spirit," "spiritual," etc., but they don't know what they're saying because that realm has to be revealed before it can be known, comprehended or understood in any real (non-human) way. The human application of human ideas about how the humans might conceive of its existence and characteristics remain that—human, insignificant and without actual power. All they can do, what they have been doing for centuries, is try to make what they comprehend that world to be subservient to their world. They have to, because of the natural limitations of what's inside them, make God's world (because they read about it in a book and studied it and are therefore presumably experts on it) conform to their reality and limitations, for the purpose of control—buying, owning and possessing so that they can do whatever they want with it, the same they do with private property and such.

If it hasn't be specifically revealed then it's just words that the humans have read in a book that they're trying to make theirs so that they can control what the words say for their own sake. It's a lucrative business for many who learn how to exploit the fear in humans, not just financially but also emotionally, giving the recipient of that emotional currency which is something he constantly craves and needs more of—acceptance, recognition, respect and admiration for the great and wonderful things he's learned to do that they haven't learned. They happily pay him in whatever currency he suggests because he's an expert and he's promised them that they're gonna go to heaven and not to hell.

When the truth about God has been revealed to one who has been called to hear it, who has been given the ears he needs to be able to hear it, only then can faith start to be exercised in that one. Faith is another way of saying the choice that one makes to either accept the way of the Father or not. It's an ongoing choice that the son learns to make based on what he learned to accept before the truth was revealed to him, and after, as it continues to be revealed. That is the process of transformation that's required to turn a wild animal into an obedient son who can actually (not theoretically) be pleasing and enjoyable to the Father who has initiated the revelation in the son—not generally or generically across a group of humans (christian propaganda), but surgically and precisely because the Father is particular. It isn't a matter of fair and not fair, because generally the humans don't matter that much. When they do matter, according to the words, is how they treat the sons of God who are called.

He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.

There is a world of difference between theoretical conceptualizing and faith. The former comes from below, originating from the mind of man about what the truth of God might possibly be. It's all the humans can do, because of the many complexities of our nature that are against the latter. It's not just that we're programmed by the culture and the humans around us to only trust what we can see; it is our basic and fundamental nature as humans to not be able to believe in anything we can't explain or control because of the irrational fear that lives in us which drives us on a level that's below comprehension (therefore able to be controlled) to observe, cognize, explain, then find an agreement (get it under control). That limitation is reinforced by society, and the culture of the humans directly and indirectly surrounding us, but the way we are has to have already been put into us in order for it to be exploited and reinforced. It will be conceived of as a thorn in the sons' side because of their condition of having to come from tainted stock, until they understand that it's not something that's wrong, but something that the Father put there, for His own good reason and purpose. It is for the sons an opportunity to overcome what seems impossible by believing the impossible. It more than anything becomes just this: the opportunity to declare our true choice for the Father and away from our selves, which is His enemy since we are naturally what He can't have near Him.

The last thing the humans are capable of doing is actually (not theoretically) believing in the God who is unseen, who lives in the world which is invisible to them because they are natural creatures. This is the nature that the humans are born into, which was designed by God for His purpose of keeping them there. It isn't that He put something else in place and it went awry; what is in them was designed and intended by Him to be the way it is, according to how He wants things to be. It's a difficult concept because of our conceptions of good guy vs. bad guy, how the bad guy always comes in and wrecks what the good guy set up, but in the end the good guy has victory over the bad guy and restores what has been wrecked. It is, not accidentally, what christianity officially became and now is—a made up story based upon the tradition of the mythological stories of good and bad gods fighting in the netherworld for control of the humans, going back forever.

In reality God is the good and bad guy, because He made everything that exists, even the evil nature that He put into the humans—making it integral to their nature that defines them as what they are to Him—to keep them away from Him. The metaphor of the events around the first humans contains the information about what happened after their conspiracy with the animal against Him, and why they are the way they are. They were banished from His presence, moved out from where He was and not allowed to come back, guaranteed by the angel with the flaming sword who is guarding the way back to where God was. The skins of the animals "put on" them is a metaphor for their new condition—not as sons who can come close to the Father but as animals who are kept away from Him because of that unclean nature that can't come near God, just because He wants it that way (so that only the sons can come near Him). The flaming sword and the animal nature are synonymous because they accomplish the same thing—they keep all of the animals perfectly away from God's inheritance intended for only His sons and the humans who treated them in a way that the Father approves of and appreciates and is therefore willing to reward them for being good to His sons in a world of hostile animals who would rather die than accept what the sons have to say.

Theoretical faith in God is much more appealing to what lives in the human animal because it can be manipulated and changed, controlled by whomever is able to for their own gain. It can be taken or left, according to the severity of the benefit gained by doing one or the other. Actually believing is the hardest thing—as animals with that nature—to do. A significant component of that nature is fear, out of which many tendencies and behaviors are born. One of the most significant is the difficulty, or impossibility, of actually being able to believe in what we cannot see, which doesn't jive with what we're able to comprehend and recognize as to what is versus what can't be real. That's an active and purposeful component of the animal nature that has been put in the humans by God, for His purpose. They are driven to be in control and to have that agreement close at hand and they aren't going to let it go.

This condition is fine for the animals who are living and dying as part of the natural creation which follows cycles of death because it is the reason they survive. It becomes the enemy of the son of God who is able to actually see what is true, then desires to believe in the unseen God because the voice of the teacher is revealing Him to his inner, secret places. Then is when the animal nature becomes the son's enemy, because it is what stands in the way of him actually believing. Theoretical faith is saying we want to believe, but because of the way we are we aren't able to actually believe, so we convince ourselves that we do believe because we are doing certain such and such things in the name of the Lord.

Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?" Then I will tell them plainly, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

Actually believing is actually living, choosing what we don't want to choose, being able to become what we fear most, what the animal nature in us makes us loathe and spend so much of our time trying not to become. The attitude of avoiding what we fear, hate and therefore avoid carries over into our new existence and relationship with the unseen God. So we find ourselves battling and fighting in the internal struggle to do what we want to do (serve our new Father as per Romans 7) versus what we want to do (continue to serve ourselves by avoiding what we fear and hate, as per our condition as animals), which just a little while ago was all we knew.

"Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He (Josiah) defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD.

What is defending the cause of the needy and poor for us? What does that have to do with us, and who are the poor and needy? We've already been shown by the leaders of the religious movement we were once a part of who the poor are, versus the rich and powerful. They have the power to disfellowship and the power to fellowship—meaning judge, condemn and kick us out of their club, or welcome us, love us even though they might think we've done them wrong. Is that not the explicit word of the one they claim to follow, which is easy to dismiss because of nature of the liar that lives in them?

You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

The snake's nature is always for itself, so it's easy to rationalize that they are loving us by their condemnation, as per how they did it way back when, according to the words they claim to live by. What it comes down to is that they're more comfortable with their animal existences without us in it, which is why they have totally ignored us since it happened, the truest declaration of all about how they feel about us. We have virtually no power in that regard, except maybe to say what they demanded—that the truth of God wasn't actually being revealed to us, as per the revelation of His existence by the voice of the the living word, our teacher. That is what they demanded we do, turn our back on the process that was happening in us, what we knew was real and good and right, and stop that process from continuing to happen because it didn't look right to them and they didn't like it.

Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.

James saw that there were many poor and needy brothers in Jerusalem who needed to be taken care of. Yet he observed many busy-bodies who talked too much and were causing all kind of trouble there. They could have spent their time helping, loving these orphans and widows, but instead because of their nature they were despising and avoiding them because they feared that condition and didn't want to get close to it, so they hated them instead of loving them.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

It's a pretty straightforward message from James about what it's like to follow the Lord, but there isn't much explanation, although he knew it was true when he wrote it for a few reasons. One was because he knew the scriptures, and the many instances of God's declaration of concern for the widows, orphans, poor and foreigners, and how that actually reflected the heart that the Father wants to see in His sons. Another was because he knew that these believers were poor and needy because their husbands and fathers were driven to stick to their belief in the risen Christ even when they faced extermination because of their choice. So the church was left with this burden of what to do with all these people who couldn't take care of themselves. James saw many claiming they believed, but realized that their faith existed in the theoretical realm and not the actual, because all they did was talk about their faith while in reality they continued to despise, hate and neglect the poor and lowly widows and orphans who were made that way because of another man's actual faith, even to death.

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

We can take heart in the fact that we have been made outsiders—aliens and strangers to the community we were once part of—by our belief in the process that was happening then, and is still happening in us. Actually God has shown His faithfulness to us by continuing to nurture what He planted in us so it's becoming a bigger and more real part of our actual lives, while the animal slowly wanes. The promise and hope of actual love, pure and genuinely from its only source, is still in front of us, as is our redemption into the actual family of God. That is the only validation that is important for us because of where it comes from.

The only way the Jerusalem inhabitants who called themselves believers could have genuinely given their lives for the body of Christ is if the love of God lived in them to transform them into different beings who didn't despise, hate, avoid and neglect the lowly and untouchable; but loved them because they understood where they came from—that their own true brother gave his life in order to maintain his belief in Jesus. That understanding could have only come from God, from a deliberate act on His part to remove the animal nature from that one and replace it with His nature, of love. But again, nothing about God is generic, so the love that is put into the sons isn't for any or all of the humans, but specifically targeted toward the objects of His affection—His own true, chosen and called sons. Until we actually begin to learn that and be able to not be prejudiced by the animal's choice (those naturally closest to us, whom we would choose, most likely the ones who we share natural DNA with) we won't know love, because we can't be trusted with it.

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth (not hoarding it), who will trust you with true riches (the love that can only come from the Father to His son)? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

As humans we learn that all sorts of things are valuable, which actually amount to nothing because they're temporary. To be able to genuinely love from a pure heart is the highest thing a human can attain to in this life. The spirit teaches us that we're not able to love because we're animals and it shows us why animals can't love—because God wants it that way. When the truth is revealed to us, meaning when the Son reveals the Father to us—all truth originates from the Father—we begin to see just how much the animal nature living in us is opposed to what the Lord commands us to do as his disciples. That knowledge is a foundation for what is built upon it.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.