"Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Writing Well"
by John Schoenheit / Ryan Maher
This second tape/CD in the two-part set includes two powerful teachings from the 2005 Live Out Loud Teens & Twenties Conference that are sure to speak to your heart: John Schoenheit (Resolutions) and Ryan Maher (What Can You Give?).
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by Billy Darr / Kathy Lunardini / Nate Graeser / Josh Anderson
This month’s tape/CD features exciting excerpts from teachings at our 2005 Live Out Loud Teens & Twenties Conference in Augusta, MI. Here’s the lineup: Billy Darr (What God Has Given Us), Kathy Lunardini (How to Stay Fired Up), Nate Graeser (Will You Answer the Call?), and Josh Anderson (Release from Bondage).
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Check out Truth or Tradition teachings on:
Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
[The following article is an edited transcription of the July 2005 Tape / CD of the Month, “An Overview of the Sacred Secret” by John W. Schoenheit.]
For a PDF chart on the Administrations in Scripture, click here!
This month we are teaching on the Sacred Secret. I have got tell you that I am so excited to talk about this topic. The Sacred Secret is one of the most incredible things that God has ever done for mankind. Amazingly enough, even though God revealed the Sacred Secret over 2000 years ago, for the most part in Christianity, it is still the Sacred Secret.
Let us talk about how wonderful and powerful this secret really is.
We always believe at Spirit & Truth that these teachings are more powerful if you are reading along with us in your Bible. I invite you to read along with me in your Bible. I think that you will get a lot more out of this teaching and from this information. Jesus Christ said that the words that I speak unto you, “they are spirit, and they are life.” A life and spiritual power is there that flows out of the Word of God that is just very hard to put your finger on and to describe, but it is definitely there.
1 Corinthians 2:6 and 7
(6) We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
(7) No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom…That is exactly right, it is a Sacred Secret.
1 Corinthians 2:7 and 8
(7) a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
(8) None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.Do you get the impact of that? Wow! What this verse is saying is that the rulers of this age, of course, are satanic rulers, Satan and his demons and his hordes. They would not have set up the crucifixion of Jesus Christ if they had understood the subject that I am teaching you today. They did not understand it, and they did not understand it because it was a Sacred Secret. God hid it. He absolutely hid it.
I want to talk about what God Himself says about this. What does God say about how glorious this Secret is?
2 Corinthians 3:7
Now, if the ministry that brought death…Now, remember that this is God’s Word that we are reading. This is God’s Words about His Word. What does He call the Law, the Law of Moses—the Law that dominated the Old Testament? He calls it the ministry that brought death.
We are going to be talking about administrations in a little bit. That God changed the rules for different time periods. We actually know this; we know that God changed the rules. For example, we do not have a Temple today. We do not do animal sacrifices today. Why, because God changed the rules. It is not that God changed; He just simply changed the rules by which He wanted mankind to live.
What does God say about His own rules in the Old Testament? He says that they are “the ministry that brought death,” and they did. No one, we learned, is righteous because of their ability to keep the Law. Nobody could keep it.
2 Corinthians 3:7 and 8
(7) Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,
(8) will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?Praise the Lord! The ministry of which you and I are a part, the ministry of the Spirit, the Administration of the Age of Grace is more glorious than the Law.
2 Corinthians 3:9
If the ministry that condemns men is glorious….This is a pretty interesting admission on God’s part. He calls the Law “the ministry that condemns men” but acknowledges at the same time that it has glory. The Law of Moses did have glory. The Law of Moses even according to Romans chapter 7 is “holy and just and good.” It was not that the Law of Moses did not come with glory and benefit to mankind. Look at what God says about it.
2 Corinthians 3:9
If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!Why is it important for you and me to know the Sacred Secret? Why is it important for you and me to live according to the revelations of the Church Epistles (Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Thessalonians)? Because in those Church Epistles is revealed God’s Sacred Secret, which by God’s own testimony is more glorious than the Law.
2 Corinthians 3:10
For what was glorious [which was the Law] has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.What we have today is so incredibly glorious that it is as if the Law had no glory at all. We learn from 1 Corinthians chapter 2 that had Satan known what we have today, he would not have even crucified the Lord of glory. He would not have even gone there.
Is it not exciting to learn about this? It is such a privilege to teach this; I trust that it is a privilege to you to study it. We can go over this together because we are learning what God has done for us that He says is so glorious that the Old Testament did not even have any glory compared to what we have today. Oh, that is so important. Christians today want to take on the rituals of the Law. They want to keep the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles… They want to keep the various rituals, but God says, “Wait a minute. Those things were a shadow of what we have today and had no glory compared to what we have today.” [For further study read: “Are Christians Required to Keep the Sabbath?” and “Are Christians required to observe the feasts of the Old Testament?”]
Ladies and Gentlemen, let us learn about what we have today. Satan knew about the Temple; he knew about the Sacrifices; he knew about the Feasts. That is not why it says that he would not have crucified Jesus. He would not have crucified Jesus if he had known what we have today, the Sacred Secret. That is what we are going to talk about.
We are going to talk about the fact that we cannot lose our salvation; however, in the Old Testament you could. We are going to talk about how we are born children of God while in the Old Testament, people had Spirit upon them, and they were servants of God. We are going to talk about the fact that we cannot be separated from God’s love.
Let us just go into one point here on the Sacred Secret which we will make again later in this teaching, just to give you a feel of the greatness of this and how important this is. I am going to make the assumption that maybe I should not make that you are familiar with Romans chapter 8 where it says that “nothing shall separate us from the love of God.” Do you remember Romans chapter 8, the closing of the chapter, starting in verse 35 going through verse 39 that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God. When you are in Hosea chapter 1, back in the Old Testament, that was not true because in the Old Testament the relationship between God and people was not the relationship of a father and a child, it was the relationship of a Lord and a servant. When the servant displeased the Lord, he would cut off the servant. For example, the problem with Israel in Hosea’s time is illustrated in chapter 1 verse 2.
Hosea 1:2
When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, [Why?] because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.”The Israelites had departed from the LORD. What was His response to this?
Hosea 1:6
Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.Gomer was the woman who Hosea took as a wife.
Hosea 1:6
Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-RuhamahThe word “Lo” in Hebrew means low and “Ruhamah” means love or mercy or compassion.
Hosea 1:6
for I will no longer show love to the house of IsraelWow! What a heart breaking verse. The verse in Romans that you and I get to claim says, “Nothing shall by any means separate us from the love of God.”
The fact is, what we have in Christ, in the Sacred Secret, is so big that I do not have time to cover it in a 70 minute tape [We have provided further study links at the end of this transcription.]; thus, I am going to give you some verse references occasionally instead of reading the whole verse.
What we are going to cover first in this teaching is to see that the word mystery is the Greek word musterion, which is most often translated mystery in the New Testament, and it is not a mystery at all; it is a Sacred Secret. We are going to see why we call musterion a Sacred Secret. We are going to look at verses about the musterion, the Sacred Secret, and see that it was once hidden but now has been made known. We are going to discuss where we would look to find information about the Sacred Secret; including why did God hide it, and why is He now revealing it? That will bring up the fact that God is revealing it because it reveals His wisdom, and He is revealing it in part for our glory. We are going to talk about different aspects of the Sacred Secret.
First of all, we need to talk about the fact that the word musterion does not mean mystery but it means secret.
Ephesians 3:3
That is, the mystery [musterion] made know to me by revelation…That word mystery is the Greek word musterion. By the way, you can find a number of books for this—Greek interlinear, lexicons, and especially Bible study programs for the computer that will allow you to see this for yourself. I am letting you know that this subject of the musterion, the Sacred Secret, is so important that it is worth checking out and worth looking in to. When I say that the Greek word for mystery here is musterion, go and get a Bible study software program or a Greek lexicon and check it out. It will fortify your faith to see exactly what I am teaching.
What has happened in English is that the Greek word musterion has been transliterated into the English word mystery. Now, to transliterate comes from the Latin root trans, which is across, and litera, which is the Latin word for letter. To transliterate is to simply bring across a word in the letters from one language to another, so musterion in Greek got transliterated into mystery in English. Transliteration is nice, but transliteration is not translation. Translation is when you bring across the meaning. What we want to find out is not what the letters in the Greek are, but what the meaning of the Greek word musterion is, then we can translate it. What we will find is that the Greek word musterion refers to a Sacred Secret. That is where we are going in the near future here.
We need to become clear on some definitions. Why do I not like the English word mystery? The English word mystery means something that is incomprehensible; it is unknowable; it is beyond understanding. For example, it is common in religious circles to speak of the Trinity as a mystery, and then say that no one can comprehend it. In science, the fact that light has the properties of a particle and the properties of a wave is a mystery to us. It is incomprehensible to us. We do not understand it; it is outside of our nine dots. That is a mystery. A mystery is when something is beyond our understanding, unknowable, incomprehensible.
In contrast a secret is something that is known by someone but unknown by others. For example, a surprise birthday party is a secret—well supposedly it is a secret to the one who is having the birthday, but everybody else knows it. A mystery is incomprehensible; it cannot be known. A secret is something that can be known, but it is not known by every person.
I want to point out that this is so incredibly important to know that I want to document this first from the scholars and then from the Word of God itself. In the New Bible Dictionary when you look up the word mystery, for example, it says, “but where as mystery may mean and in contemporary usage often does mean a secret for which no answer can be found, this is not the connotation of the word musterion in classical and Biblical Greek. In the New Testament, musterion signifies a secret which is being or even has been revealed.”
You might be familiar with Smith’s Bible Dictionary, a very famous Bible Dictionary. Here is what Smith’s has to say, “Musterion by no means necessarily denotes anything strictly mysterious and incomprehensible. The fact or truth though requiring to be revealed, it may when revealed be of a very elementary character.”
One of the conservative Bible Dictionaries that I like is Zondervan Tutorial Encyclopedia of the Bible has this to say, “Mystery in the New Testament does not deal with the unknowable but with what is imparted by revelation.”
Lastly, you are probably familiar with Strongs as in the Strong’s Concordance, in the Strong’s Expanded Dictionary under musterion we read, “In the New Testament, it denotes not the mysterious as with the English word, but that which being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension can be made known only by Divine revelation.”
That is exactly right. The scholars recognize it. This is important, and the reason that this is important is because the vast majority of the Bible versions translate the Greek word musterion as mystery, so I want to make it clear that the scholars know that mystery is not a good translation of musterion. It communicates the wrong idea. Translating musterion as mystery communicates the idea that the things of God cannot be understood.
I cannot tell you the harm that this has done to the Church over the centuries. The number of good, God-loving people that are kept in the dark about the things of God because when they ask tough questions, they are taken to some verse in the Bible that mentions the word mystery and told that “Well, the things of God are mysterious.” No, the things of God are secret to those that have not bothered to take the time to look. The things of God are not mysterious in the sense that we cannot understand them. It is so important to get that.
So much harm has been done to the Church by false doctrines that are promulgated and then when somebody questions them and says, “It just does not make sense this doctrine of…whatever.” They are told, “Well, that doctrine, that one is a mystery.” Oh really. Well, that is not in Scripture. That is in man’s theology.
You can read the rest of the article here.
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.
Thanks for reading.
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More from Write From Karen
by Gary Theisen
In one of the clearest, most concise teachings on discipleship you’ll ever hear, Gary Theisen addresses the head, heart, and hands of the discipleship process. Because the Greek word “disciple” essentially means “learner,” discipling is a process of educating and training believers to help them be more like Christ. Jesus is the Master, but we all need to be mentored by others who demonstrate mature faith and practice in the Lord, and we also need to be mentoring others in what we have learned. This teaching identifies a six-step biblical pattern for the delegation of authority that gives structure to the process of moving from new follower to mature and empowered disciple who acts in Christ’s stead. Discussed in detail are the two aspects of discipleship–personal disciplines, and faithful doing for others.
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Check out Truth or Tradition teachings on:
Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
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FAQ: What is “The Secret” that I hear about on TV, and which is now the title of both a book and a movie? Its proponents are calling it a global phenomenon. The Secret web site says that it reveals the most powerful law in the universe, one that everyone uses, either knowingly or unknowingly. Is it the same as “The Sacred Secret” that Spirit & Truth Fellowship teaches about?
This is a great question, and deserves a good answer. Ever since the Devil gave misinformation to Adam and Eve in the Garden, there has been both correct and incorrect information available to mankind. We believe the information in The Secret is actually misinformation. Have you ever seen a counterfeit $12 bill. No? Me neither. Why not? Simple: there is no genuine $12 bill to counterfeit. Without a genuine, there can be no counterfeit. Likewise, without truth, there can be no lie.
This brief piece is not the place to go into how any human being can come to the Word of God and find out for himself that it is exactly what it claims to be: the only God-breathed revelation of the Creator to mankind, the only way to everlasting life, and the only absolute standard by which to evaluate anything anyone says about God, Jesus, faith, heaven, good, evil, or any spiritual matter. It comes down to a simple question: “Who says?” In the battle of words we will briefly examine in this article, it is God and Jesus versus Rhonda Byrne. [For further study, please read our book The Bible – You Can Believe It, posted in its entirety.]
According to those promoting it on the official “Secret” web site, “Rhonda Byrne’s [recent] discovery of The Secret began with a glimpse of the truth through a 100-year-old book.” Whatever that book was, it cannot compare to the 2000-year-old Book that gives us far more than only a “glimpse” of the truth. This Book, the Bible, is the truth, and so is its main character, Jesus Christ.
The Secret web site says: “The knowledge of this law has run like a golden thread through the lives and the teachings of all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviors in the world’s history, and through the lives of all truly great men and women…The Secret explains with simplicity the law that is governing all lives, and offers the knowledge of how to create—intentionally and effortlessly—a joyful life. This is the secret to everything—the secret to unlimited happiness, love, health, and prosperity.” We disagree vehemently with this statement, especially when it refers to “the prophets,” which would include the prophets of God mentioned in the Bible.
Furthermore, the web site says The Secret gives you everything you want. You can have, do, or be anything you want to. They say that The Secret is “the law of attraction,” which is that everything that has happened to you, good or bad, is due to what you have attracted to yourself, either intentionally or unintentionally, by your thoughts and attitude of mind.
Let’s analyze that. The bully who for no reason beat you up in kindergarten—actually, that was your fault, bad attitude. On the other hand, you must have done something right to have gotten that free gift for being the one-millionth shopper at Spatulas ‘R Us—good attitude, way to go. Your home was torched by a misguided arsonist who meant to get your neighbor—what were you thinking? These examples are somewhat humorous, but what about life’s unexpected and gut-wrenching tragedies? Thinking that you brought them upon yourself or those you love can make you mentally ill. Furthermore, what about all the things you either greatly feared or absolutely expected—that never happened?
We assert that the current teaching about The Secret has a grievous error. Very simply put, it is that your thoughts can and do affect things outside of your body. You can create whatever you want in your life by visualizing them coming into being. What you think is what you get, at least if you really focus on it. So, if you want a mink coat, you begin to visualize yourself wearing one, and somehow, via this amazing law of attraction, the requisite number of mink for a coat your size give up their lives, are assembled into the garment, and make their way to your closet.
In contrast to the error of the “law of attraction” espoused in “The Secret,” what is the truth? God Almighty has given us many promises, chief among which is that of everlasting life through Jesus Christ. He also promises us good things in this life. Yes, our thoughts about what He says are critical to our receiving what He wants to give us. “Faith” is not superstition, that is, blindly believing a nonsensical proposition. Biblically defined, faith is trust in an understandable promise. God’s Word says that when we trust in Him, His power brings to pass His promises. Our thoughts most certainly do affect our bodies, our emotions, our choices, and how we relate to others, but they directly affect nothing outside ourselves.
If you are the one who determines everything that happens in your life, that almost makes it sound as if you are God. Bingo! Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun, and he was right. The so-called “Secret” is nothing more than the same old lie that Satan has told over and over, and which shows up in various forms in mind science, some kinds of witchcraft, etc.
To us it is ironic that this new book is called, The Secret, given our enthusiastic, and relatively unique, exposition and promotion of what God’s Word says about the true secret, the “Sacred Secret,” which has been for the most part hidden even though the Apostle Paul revealed it nearly 2000 years ago in his epistles to the Christian Church. As God inspires people to make known The True Secret, the Devil comes alongside with The Counterfeit Secret.
“The Sacred Secret” is that today (since Pentecost in Acts 2 and until the Rapture in 1 Thess. 4) there is a group of people never before dreamed of by anyone who lived prior to this time, even the most godly of believers. Biblically speaking, these people known as “Christians” are members in particular of the Body of Christ, the Church (Eph. 1:22 and 23). Each is a son of God (1 John 3:2), born again of incorruptible seed (1 Pet. 1:23), baptized with holy spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), anointed with holy spirit (2 Cor. 2:21), filled with the gift of holy spirit (Acts 2:4), fully equipped to utilize nine manifestations of that spirit (1 Cor. 12:7), a fulltime minister of the Gospel (2 Cor. 3:6), permanently sealed in Christ (Eph. 1:13), and guaranteed everlasting life (2 Cor. 1:22).
How can you receive the new birth and join this unique and privileged group?
Romans 10:9
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.In closing, let us say that there is one very poignant statement in the trailer on The Secret web site: “The Secret has been suppressed, banned, and buried.” That is not true about The Counterfeit Secret, but that is exactly what Satan has done to the Sacred Secret, via people he has used since it was revealed in Paul’s epistles. Very few Christians today understand what it is or how its truth is fundamental to maximizing their spiritual potential.
Given its monumental truth as per the above, it is no wonder that Satan has tried to bury the Sacred Secret. If Christians find out who they are in Christ, and the power God will supply as they act with faith upon His promises, they can do the works that Jesus did. And, in contrast to one Jesus who walked the earth and delivered people, there are now MILLIONS of Christians who can do the same! That is why 1 Corinthians 2:7, an obscure verse for most Christians, proclaims the astounding truth that had Satan known the Sacred Secret, he would not have crucified the Lord of glory!!!
The Secret web site advertises “A New Era for Mankind,” but that will never happen through mind science. We should know that by experience, because as we have seen, “think and receive” has been around for millennia in various forms, and it never has resulted in any new eras. On the other hand, there will be a genuine “New Age” that the Lord Jesus Christ will usher in when he returns to the earth to set up his Millennial Kingdom. Only then will there finally be unlimited happiness, love, health, and prosperity. Only through Jesus Christ can any human being realize his full potential, both here and now, and in the age to come when the Lord comes again and gives us new bodies for a new, and endless, age. And that’s no secret!
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.
Thanks for reading.
(Comments have been turned off. The information is here to inform and bless you. God granted you the gift of free will – take it or leave it).
More from Write From Karen
by John Schoenheit
Love. We think about it, talk about it, and sing about it, but do we really understand it? Biblical love, that is, genuine godly love, is not the love portrayed in many movies and songs. This teaching shows what true love is and how it is expressed. It looks at some Greek words showing the various aspects of love: agape, phileo, eros, and storge, and examines the difference between “love” and “like.” Once we understand the biblical meaning of love, we can understand and apply such biblical directives as “love your enemies.”
Click the arrow to listen.
Check out Truth or Tradition teachings on:
Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.
Thanks for reading.
(Comments have been turned off. The information is here to inform and bless you. God granted you the gift of free will – take it or leave it).
More from Write From Karen
Write From Karen 