Category: General

Yes. That says SEVEN. As in I’VE BEEN BLOGGING FOR SEVEN YEARS.

I know. I can’t believe it either.

Seven years of nonsense.

You’re welcome.

Just saw this on Facebook and thought I would pass it on along here, too.

Just because the disaster is over in Joplin, doesn’t mean they are back to normal. The cleanup is just beginning and will continue for months. In the meantime, they still need our help.

Please consider Adopting an Eagle (Joplin’s mascot is the Eagle), or a Joplin classroom and help these poor children prepare to go back to school this Fall.

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From the Joplin Schools’ website:

At 5:41 p.m. on Sunday, May 22, Joplin, Missouri was struck by a horrific EF-5 tornado. The Joplin area schools suffered casualities and major facility damage.

Joplin Schools began responding immediately. Our first priority was to account for all of our staff and students, then assess the damage. All students and staff were accounted for within one week of the tornado, but the numbers were grim.

Seven of our students and one Joplin Schools’ staff member were killed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to these families.

Joplin Schools pledges to do everything within our power to help our community rise up from this catastrophe. The damage to our schools was significant.

Just look how many schools were either completely destroyed or suffered structural damage:

Total Losses:
Franklin Technology Center, Irving Elementary School and Joplin High School

Still Pending Further Investigation by Insurance Company:
Old South Middle School, Emerson Elementary School and Joplin East Middle School

Suffered Significant Damage:
Cecil Floyd Elementary School and Roi S. Wood Administration Building

Suffered Minor Damage:
Kelsey Norman Elementary School and Duquesne Elementary School

Thank God this tornado didn’t happen during school hours. Can you imagine how many children would have been injured and/or killed? It’s a truly horrifying thought.

Joplin Schools is rebuilding and reassuring our families that school will begin on August 17. Actual reconstruction began May 26. Students and parents will continue to receive the high quality education they deserve and expect.

There are challenges ahead, but a new day has begun at Joplin Schools. People make the difference and we invite you to join us.

The schools weren’t the only thing destroyed in Joplin – approximately 30% of the city was destroyed, too. If you would like to help with the cleanup efforts and/or help Joplin rebuild, the Rebuild Joplin website is a good place to start.

We are personally going to try and help at least two students with back-to-school supplies and possibly some supplies for a few teachers, as well. Won’t you join me in helping our children go back to school this Fall?

Follow @writefromkaren

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:

For ages God kept a Sacred Secret. [1] He did not tell anyone (or even give any hints) about His secret until after the death of His Son, Jesus (1 Cor. 2:9). Now, however, He has revealed it to mankind (1 Cor. 2:10; Eph. 3:5; etc.). Why did God keep His secret until after Jesus died? Because what God has given us today was so crucial to His overall plan for mankind that if Satan and his demons had known about it, they would not have crucified Jesus.

1 Corinthians 2:7 and 8 (KJV)
(7) But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery [musterion, Sacred Secret], even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
(8) Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. [2]

Where would we look in the Bible to learn about the details and specifics of that which God kept secret for so long? Not in the Old Testament, because it was written before Jesus was crucified. Not in the Gospels, because almost all the events of the Gospels occurred before Jesus was crucified. We find these wonderful vital truths in Acts through Jude, which are the writings to the Christian Church. [3]

It would be convenient if all the unique and wonderful things that God has done for us as Christians were written in a list so they could be easily seen, but that is not generally how God reveals information. He wants us to take the time to read, study, and pray in order to learn about the blessings He has given us. God desires us to spend time with Him via His Book. Then, as we read and compare Scripture with Scripture, the spiritual blessings He has given us become clearer and clearer. God loved us enough to do these things for us, and now it is our turn to love Him enough to read the Bible carefully and discover what He has done. “Okay,” you ask, “what are we looking for?” We are looking for “secret” things, things that are unique to the Christian Church, things that were not revealed in the Old Testament or in the Gospels before Jesus died.

The Christian Church started on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), and will end with the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:17). The time of the Christian Church, the Church Age, is known as the “…administration of God’s grace…” (Eph. 3:2). It is also known as “…the administration of the sacred secret…” (Eph. 3:9-Rotherham. We capitalize it, and call it the Administration of the Sacred Secret). God’s Sacred Secret so completely influences and defines the time period of the Christian Church that the entire Church Age is named after it.

During the ages (also known as “administrations” or “dispensations”) that came before the Church Age, God gave many blessings to mankind. However, we must accept and believe what God says about what we have today versus what He gave to people who lived in the administrations before us. [4] What does God say about the Administration of the Law, which came immediately before the Administration of the Sacred Secret? He says it was “glorious” (2 Cor. 3:7-KJV), but then He calls it “…the ministration [ministry] of death…” in the same verse. Furthermore, He calls it “…the ministration [ministry] of condemnation…” just two verses later. Then, in 2 Cor. 3:10 (KJV), Scripture tells us that the Law had “no glory” in comparison to the glory that we have today. Take a minute and read 2 Corinthians 3:6-10. Surely you can see that God has elevated the Administration of the Sacred Secret far above the Law Administration that was before us. He did that for His own purposes: both to show forth His wisdom (Eph. 3:10) and for our glory (1 Cor. 2:7).

There is hardly an area of a Christian’s life that is not influenced by the Sacred Secret. The various parts of the Sacred Secret fall into general categories that deal with salvation, the gift of holy spirit in us, our relation to others who are saved, and our hope. It is not the purpose of this article to expound on all these things. It would take a small book to set forth completely even the one truth that salvation in the Administration of the Sacred Secret is permanent. The purpose of this article is to give “the big picture” of the Sacred Secret so we can clearly see what God has done for our glory.

Arguably, the most important aspect of the Administration of the Sacred Secret is that salvation is permanent. Once a person becomes a Christian, he cannot lose his salvation no matter what he does. In contrast, before the Age of Grace started, and after the Rapture, a person’s salvation is not secure, he can lose it if he turns against God. But that is not the case in the Administration of the Sacred Secret, and there are many ways God shows us this truth. For one thing, God uses three different Greek words for “born” to show that a Christian is born into God’s family, and that his birth is permanent. [5] Once something is born, it cannot be unborn.

Besides using the word “born,” God uses the word “adoption” (Rom. 8:15, 23 and 9:4-KJV; Gal. 4:5-KJV; Eph. 1:5-KJV). Birth seems so much more desirable than adoption that it is fair to ask why God would even use “adoption.” The answer is that in the Roman world a naturally born baby could be disowned from the family, but an adopted child could not. Many early believers were Roman citizens, and using the word “adoption” was one of God’s ways to let the Church know that children brought into His family could not be taken from it. [6] There is no verse in the Old Testament that even hints that one day God would make salvation permanent. [7]

Another very important aspect of the Sacred Secret is how God’s love is shown to Christians. God is love, and always has loved. Nevertheless, part of true love is dealing with people according to the standards that have been set between the two parties. Before the Administration of the Sacred Secret, God dealt with mankind in the relationship of a Lord to those he rules. God gave the people commands to follow and made covenants with them. In a covenant, both parties agree to do something. Thus, the pattern we see in the Old Testament is that when people, even His people, turned from Him, He turned from them. When Israel, God’s chosen people, turned away from Him, He turned from them, finally so completely that in Hosea, He told them they were no longer His people (Hosea 1:9). Isaiah 50:1 and Jeremiah 3:8 speak the same truth, but in the analogy of a marriage—God gave Israel a bill of divorce and sent her away.

In contrast to the Lord-vassal relationship that God had with people in the Old Testament, in the Administration of the Sacred Secret the relationship God has with Christians is a family relationship. God never made a covenant with the Christian Church. [8] Instead, He gives birth to Christians, who then are His family, and family terminology is used liberally in the Epistles to the Christian Church. God calls Himself “Father” more than 70 times in Acts—Jude; He calls individual Christians “children;” “sons;” “brothers” of Jesus; “heirs of God;” recipients of His “seed;” partakers of His divine nature; “born” and “adopted” into His family; able to call Him “Abba;” and the list goes on. [9]

The family relationship is totally different from the covenant relationship. In a covenant relationship, if a person breaks the covenant, the blessings of the covenant are forfeited. But in a family, no matter how horrible a child behaves, he or she is still a member of the family. No wonder Romans 8:35 (KJV) asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?…”, and then answers by saying that nothing will ever be able to separate Christians from the love of God (Hallelujah!). Was that the case in the Old Testament or the Gospels? No, it was not, and that point is made right in Romans 8 when verse 36 asks if it is today like it was in the Old Testament, and verse 37 says, “No.” In the Old Testament Lord-vassal relationships, God’s righteousness required Him to turn from His people when they turned from Him. That will never happen to Christians. We are God’s family in a literal and unique way, and we can never be separated from God’s love.

The “birth” in the Christian’s New Birth is not just a metaphor. It is a spiritual reality that involves spiritual “seed,” which is imperishable (1 Pet. 1:23). It makes God our Father and Jesus our brother (Heb. 2:10-12). As with any birth, the baby has the nature of the parent. Because our Father is God, who is spirit (John 4:24), our new nature is spiritual. We are “…partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Pet. 1:4-KJV).

Because every Christian is born again of spiritual seed and has a new and divine nature, each is a new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17, cp. also Gal. 6:15). There are some versions that say we become a “new creature” instead of a new creation, but the point is that we are new. Parents understand this. Each new baby is a new creation, and when an unsaved person becomes saved, that person is a new creation, freshly “born” into God’s family.

At this point, we should stop and reflect about what we know about believers in the Old Testament and in the Gospels. They are never called new creations, they are never said to be born again (in fact, no Old Testament individual is ever called “born” of God at all), and they are never said to have incorruptible seed from God. Nor are there prophecies that indicated that God would do these wonderful things. In fact, that is why some Bible students have a hard time believing them. Many people think that God always deals with people the same way, and therefore the way He treated Moses, Miriam, Ruth, or David will be the way that He will treat us, but this is not the case. God makes the rules, and what He decided to do for the Christian Church was not “business as usual.” God has done something for us Christians that was never done before the Church Age, and it was something He kept secret until after Jesus was crucified.

The spiritual “seed” that we Christians receive when we are born again is another aspect of the Administration of the Sacred Secret. Each and every Christian is filled with God’s gift of holy spirit. [10] Bible students know that God’s gift of holy spirit is not new, God gave it in the Old Testament. But (and this is a huge “but”) in the Old Testament God gave it differently than He does now. Back then a person could sin and lose his holy spirit. Saul lost it (1 Sam. 16:14), and Samson did too (but got it back just before he died). When David sinned, he prayed for God not to take it away (Ps. 51:11). This is not the case today, because today we are “sealed” with the holy spirit (Eph. 1:13-KJV), which is born inside us and thus part of our new and divine nature. [11]

You can look all you want to in the Old Testament and Gospels to find someone “sealed” with holy spirit, and you will not find anyone. Before the Administration of the Sacred Secret, God’s gift of holy spirit was only “upon” people (Judg. 6:34 and 11:29- KJV, are typical examples). No one before Acts 2 was sealed with holy spirit. Furthermore, God never told anyone there would be a time when that would happen. He kept that as part of His Sacred Secret until after Jesus was crucified.

To further make the point that Christians cannot lose the holy spirit, God calls it a guarantee of our future hope (2 Cor. 1:22, 5:5; Eph. 1:14-RSV). [12] If a person could lose holy spirit, it would not actually “guarantee” anything. It is important to notice that nowhere in the Old Testament or the Gospels is holy spirit called a “guarantee,” because those who had it back then could lose it, so it did not guarantee anyone’s future everlasting life. That is not the case today, however. The Christian cannot lose his salvation, his everlasting life is totally secure, and so the presence of the holy spirit can honestly be called a “guarantee” of his future hope.

There are a few other points of difference between the gift of holy spirit we have today and the way God gave it in the Old Testament. One of them is that in the Old Testament some people got more holy spirit than others. Elisha, for example, asked for a double portion of the spirit that was on Elijah (2 Kings 2:9). That is never the case in the Administration of the Sacred Secret, because God gives every Christian “all spiritual blessings” that He has in the heavenlies (Eph. 1:3). He is not holding anything back. Besides, the holy spirit is the spiritual seed inside us and is the divine nature that we already read about. Surely one Christian would not have more divine nature than another. No, we all have been filled with holy spirit and are all new, divine creations.

Another difference between the Old Testament and the Administration of the Sacred Secret, when it comes to holy spirit, is that today each Christian gets holy spirit when he believes and is saved (Eph. 1:13). [13] In the Old Testament, God gave His gift of holy spirit to only a relatively few people. For example, out of all the millions of Israelites who came out of Egypt, only 70 leaders were given holy spirit when Moses asked that God give him helpers (Num. 11:11-17). Today, each person who becomes a Christian gets holy spirit (Acts 2:38). In fact, it is the presence of the holy spirit inside a person, which is spiritual seed and the divine nature, that makes him a Christian. A person is not a Christian because he goes to a certain church or reads his Bible. A Christian is someone who is an actual child of God by divine birth, having the seed of God (holy spirit) sealed within him, thus giving him a divine nature and making him a new creation.

Another difference between the holy spirit that God has given us as part of the Sacred Secret and the holy spirit that God placed upon people in the Old Testament is that Christians have two new ways to outwardly manifest it, ways that did not exist in the Old Testament or Gospels. We have the manifestations of speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues (1 Cor. 12:10, 14:2-5). These manifestations were not practiced or foretold in the Bible until after the resurrection of Christ. Satan did not know about them.

We have already made the point that every Christian is filled with holy spirit, and that God has not withheld any blessing from us. In order to communicate the fullness of the presence of the holy spirit within us, and the immense power that it has, God calls it “Christ” in us (Col. 1:27). Although we do not literally have Christ inside us (Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of God), what we have is so powerful that it is called “Christ” in us, because it enables us to be like Jesus. Of the few Old Testament believers who had the spirit of God upon them, none were told they had “the Messiah” upon them. But God held nothing back when He gave holy spirit to each Christian, and it is so complete and powerful that each and every Christian is said to have “Christ” in him.

Another aspect of the Administration of the Sacred Secret deals with the reality that God has made all Christians together to be one body, the Body of Christ. There are many facets to this, and if we are going to appreciate all that God has given to us, we need to examine them. First, there is the fact that God did away with the Jew-Gentile distinction. He made every Christian equal in Christ. In a sense, every unbeliever is also equal in that each has the same Savior and the same way to get saved: Romans 10:9. [14]

Throughout the Old Testament God made the point that He considered the Jews “His people” and separate from the nations. It would take a lot of clear revelation to get people to believe that God had changed the way He was dealing with Jews and Gentiles and reverse all those years of separatist thinking, and Ephesians 2:11-22 and 3:6 are part of the revelation that does exactly that. There is no prophecy in the Old Testament or the Gospels that foretold that God would ever make Jews and Gentiles equal in Christ—their unity is part of the Sacred Secret. Jews and Gentiles were separate in the Old Testament and in the Gospels, and they will be once again after the Rapture, in the time period covered in the book of Revelation. But in this one administration, the Administration of the Sacred Secret, they are no longer two peoples, but “one new man” in Christ (Eph. 2:15-KJV).

Another aspect of the Sacred Secret is that all Christians are part of one body, the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:4 and 5; 1 Cor. 10:17, 12:12-27; Eph. 2:16, 4:4; Col. 3:15). The phrase “one body” does not occur in the Old Testament, Gospels, or the book of Revelation. The “one body” is a spiritual body, and a spiritual truth that does not exist except in the Church Age. The idea of “one body” communicates some wonderful truths. First, there is a connectedness in the body that did not exist in the Old Testament. Just as the parts of a physical body are directly connected and communicate fluidly with the head, the gift of holy spirit sealed inside each believer allows him to have intimate communication with God and Christ.

Also, just as the parts of our fleshly bodies are inseparably connected, our spiritual body is too. We are inseparably connected both to one another and to the Head, Christ. We are not in danger of being amputated from the Body and losing our salvation or the love of God.

The fact that each Christian is a part of the Body of Christ elevates each one to a position of importance. Scripture testifies that today, in the Administration of the Sacred Secret, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28-NASB). The same point is made in different language in 1 Corinthians 12:11-27.

Another part of the Sacred Secret is our identification with Christ. Because each Christian is part of the Body of Christ, when Christ went through something, we Christians went through it also. For example, we all know that Jesus Christ died on the cross. But in the eyes of God, when a person becomes a Christian and part of the Body of Christ, he identifies with what Christ went through as if he went through it himself. Thus we were crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6), we died with Christ (Rom. 6:8); we were buried with Christ (Rom. 6:4); we were raised from the dead with Christ (Eph. 2:6), we even ascended with him and are seated with him in heaven (Eph. 2:6), which is exactly where we will be after the Rapture.

Only by studying the language of the Old Testament, Gospels, and Epistles can one see how new and different the language of identification is from what had been before it. Jesus never told the apostles, “After I am crucified, because you believe in me you will be crucified with me.” But from God’s perspective, when a Christian gets born again, he or she was crucified, died, was buried, was resurrected, and was given a place in heaven with Christ. No wonder we cannot lose our salvation. How could someone be uncrucified, undead, unburied, unraised, and unseated? It just could not happen.

Another aspect of the Sacred Secret is the Rapture of the Church (1 Thess. 4:13-18). [15] At the Rapture, Christians will be taken up to heaven to be with Christ, and we will stay with him there until we come back down to earth with him to fight and win the Battle of Armageddon (Rev. 19:11-21). Neither the Old Testament nor Gospels tell believers that they will one day be in heaven. It says that they get up from the grave and live on the earth (Ezek. 37:12-14). Even after Christ died and was raised, the disciples, who did not yet know the Sacred Secret, asked if he were going to restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6). They did not ask about going to heaven, because such an idea was not part of their theology or thinking. [16]

Because the Rapture of the Church is part of the Sacred Secret, no Old Testament prophet spoke of it, nor did Jesus mention it in his teachings. This has caused some theologians to doubt that it will occur, but that is exactly the point. No one knew about the Sacred Secret and all that it involves, including the Rapture, until after the crucifixion, so it makes perfect sense that the only place in the Bible where it appears is in the writings to the Christian Church, such as 1 Thessalonians 4.

The last aspect of the Sacred Secret that we will cover in this article is the new body that each Christian will receive at the Rapture. It was not a secret that in the First Resurrection, the Old Testament believers would be given healthy bodies (Isa. 29:18, 33:24, 35:5 and 6, etc.). Part of the revelation of the Administration of the Sacred Secret, however, is that at the Rapture, Christians will get bodies that will be like Christ’s glorious body (Phil. 3:21). Now that is something to look forward to! It would be one thing for me to be raised in my “John Schoenheit body,” healthy, but still having my fleshly limitations. But I can get seriously excited when I think that, though I will still be “John Schoenheit,” having my memory and realizing that it is still “me,” I will have a body like Christ’s glorious body.

Christians live in bodies that are perishable, but we will receive bodies that are imperishable (1 Cor. 15:42). Our fleshly body may die in dishonor, but we will be raised in glory; it may die in weakness, but it will be raised in power (1 Cor. 15:43). We have a natural body, but we will have a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44). What a revelation! No wonder God commands us to be thankful (Col. 3:15). We should be very thankful for all He has done for us. No wonder He says that the Sacred Secret is for our glory (1 Cor. 2:7). No wonder God says that the Old Testament revelation, which was certainly glorious, has “no glory” in comparison with what we have today. Fellow Christians, I appeal to you, read and study the writings to the Christian Church (Acts—Jude) to see all the wonderful things God has done for us. You will not find the great truths of the Sacred Secret anywhere else but there, and as you find them, you will indeed be blessed.

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

• January 2025 Reflections
• Healthcare … On Your Terms
• Christmas Postponed … For the Second Time
• The One Where the Landing Gear Got Stuck
• Things that Annoy Me #3

This was published on my blog last year. I thought it might be worth another read. 🙂

So, how was your Valentine’s Day? We? Did absolutely nothing.

And I’m absolutely okay with that. Not to sound cliché or sickeningly sweet, but every day is Valentine’s Day in my marriage. And that’s mainly because we MAKE it that way. It’s a conscious decision and most times, it’s hard work, but it has paid off in spades over the years.

We’re still together (nearly 20 years) and going strong, so we must be doing something right. Which is sort of funny considering neither one of us has a clue what we’re doing. 😀

Kevin and I woke up yesterday, kissed, said “I love you,” and went about our day. That was the extent of our Valentine’s Day to each other. Actually, we do that every day and that’s my point – we show each other we love each other every day. We not only say it, we SHOW it.

Did you know that love is not just a feeling? It’s “an unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another.” And when you love someone, it’s important to SHOW them how much you love them.

Personally, I think the whole concept of love has been diluted over the years. The concept of love has been thrown around so much that people have become immune to what it really means.

“I LOVE her hair.”

Well actually, you don’t. You LIKE her hair, a lot.

“I LOVE chocolate.”

Really? Don’t you mean you LIKE chocolate more than many other kinds of sweets?

“I LOVE winter.”

How can you love a season? Don’t you mean you LIKE winter perhaps more than the other seasons?

“I LOVE my car.”

Does your car LOVE you back? (If you answered yes, then you might seek professional help). Don’t you really mean, you LIKE the car you’re driving more than the other cars you’ve driven in the past?

Love is in relationships, not things. When people say they love someTHING, it actually demeans the meaning of pure LOVE. I know it’s just a saying, but the more we hear how people LOVE things, the more we become desensitized to what love really IS.

I was lurking on Twitter yesterday, just idly watching people update their statuses, and it truly bothered me the number of women who were all, “What did you GET for Valentine’s Day?” And then they went about comparing the material value of such-and-such gift.

Or worse, the women who bemoaned the fact that they didn’t GET anything, or what they GOT was ONLY such-and-such.

Have we really reduced love to material things? Do we really equate the dollar value of a gift to how much someone loves us?

I find that incredibly sad.

Now granted, some complained because their husbands (wives?) didn’t even acknowledge Valentine’s Day and yes, that’s sad and aggravating. But I’d like to pose a question to those that complained – did THEY themselves acknowledge the day with their spouse? You have to give love to receive love.

What’s that famous quote by Tolstoy?

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

If you want to be treated a certain way, then you must treat the people around you the same way. And that goes doubly for your spouse.

This lesson has taken me YEARS to learn. I used to get so irritated with Kevin when he didn’t make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day. Like I expected him to stuff that one day with every possible feeling of love he’s ever had for me in the past year to the point where his feelings would nearly explode from the pressure. Somehow THAT would prove to me that he loved me.

When in fact, he had been showing me the other 364 days of the year that he loved me, I was just too stupid and clueless to see it. He showed me by mowing the grass, by cooking dinner, by loading the dishwasher, by taking me to lunch, by listening to me, by giving me the last bite of cake, by …

You get the picture. Love is about SO MUCH MORE than feelings, it’s about DOING.

I think my marital expectations changed whenever I learned that valuable little nugget.

Oh sure, it’s great to have that ONE day to show your loved one how much you love them, but I think we all need to adjust our expectations and only view it as a reminder, a gentle nudge not to take each other for granted, an excuse to go out to dinner and enjoy each others company as opposed to the be-all-end-all definition of how one feels for each other.

And it’s certainly about so much more than flowers and/or fancy gifts and then bragging about the monetary value.

I think, and this is just my opinion of course, that some people are so bitter about Valentine’s Day because they truly don’t understand what love really is.

Love is a VERB.

Think about it.

Make it a goal to turn every day into Valentine’s Day in your relationship. You’ll LOVE the results, trust me.

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 April 2008 Teaching of the Month, The Transformed Life by John W. Schoenheit.]

This month, I want to talk about the Transformed Life. I want to talk about you and me transforming our life so that we can live like Christ. I will tell you that a couple of dozen years ago, I would have titled this teaching The Renewed Mind. I now think differently about the renewed mind. I no longer think of the renewed mind as a goal to reach; but rather, renewing the mind is a process to reach the goal of the transformed life.

You and I have a constant battle going on in our lives between our mind and our heart. What is in the heart will win the battle. That is why when it comes to obeying God we need to remember Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5:1 and 2
(1) Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children
(2) and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

If we are going to obey God and live a life of love, then knowing the Bible is never enough. Actually, we should understand this from the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses taught us that knowing the Bible, or knowing what to do, was never enough.

Romans 8:3
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,

What does it mean here when it says, “What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature”? The Law had all the right commandments: do not lie, do not cheat, do not steal, love your neighbor etc. But you and I both know that knowing the commandments is not enough to obey them. If we are going to obey the commandments it is not enough to have knowledge. We have to transform are hearts. A constant battle is occurring between what we hold in the depths of our hearts and the information that we are holding in our minds.

This really came up for me a number of years ago. I had been raised atheist, and through my college life, I did not have the cleanest mouth. I used some profanity but I never really worked diligently to get it out of my life. I had a number of people tell me that it was wrong for me to use profanity. I would always say to them to take me to the Word and show me. To their shame, they never could. A few of them would take me to the commandment: “Thou shalt never take the name of the LORD your God in vain,” but that is not about profanity. Then I read:

Ephesians 5:3 and 4
(3) But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
(4) Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

I read those words, “obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking” and it hit me so hard that I can tell you exactly where I was. It was 11:30 at night, and I was sitting on my bed. I read that and I thought, “this has got to be wrong.” I could not have been wrong in reading the Bible all these years. I jumped off my bed and being who I am and owning the research library that I do, I started pulling lexicons off the shelf: Bullinger, Bower, Thayer, Liddell and Scott, and Theological dictionaries. Sure enough, in the context of the Roman empire the Greek word which was translated “filthiness” in the King James Version was talking about obscenity. That is the major definition. That night I made my mind up not to use profanity. I said, “That is it, John, now that you found out that this is wrong in the eyes of God, you are done. No more profanity will be used in your life.” I can tell you that lasted until probably the middle of the next day. What was the problem? The problem was that my head knew that using profanity was wrong, but I had self-righteousness in my heart, I had anger in my heart, and I had bitterness in my heart. In the battle between your heart and your mind, what is in your heart will win. This is so important for us to understand. If you and I are going to live like Christians we need to understand what Romans 8:3 is saying to us. The Law could not make anyone righteous in the eyes of God because unless you clean up your heart, you do not have the power to do the Law.

I am sitting here looking at this verse that says that we should not use obscenity, and I did not have the power to live that law because what was in my heart was overriding what was in my head. When we talk about the renewed mind, it is a key to transforming our hearts. If you and I are going to live godly lives before God and before Christ, it is not going to be because we know the Bible. It is going to be because we clean out our hearts. In Matthew 12:34, Christ is speaking to the religious leaders.

Matthew 12:34
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

We run some youth events at our camp, Camp Vision (in Bloomington, IN). It is a camp. We have cots. We do not have a shower in every room. It is not a hotel. It’s a camp. Sometimes we have campers who do not get enough sleep or it is not their mother’s kitchen and they have to eat camp food. They may have to wait in line at the bathhouse for a shower and occasionally they start griping. An incident occurred where a person was being pretty foul mouthed and just nasty in general. I confronted him about it, and he said, “Well, I am only like this when I am hungry and tired.” I thought to myself, “Well that is it.” What is going on in the heart? What is going on in the heart is privilege, me first, and self-centeredness. What happens when this person is hungry and tired? What happens is Matthew 12:34, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” All of a sudden the nastiness in the heart that is so concealed when everything is going your way comes out. It is like two people driving down the road in separate cars. One has love and joy and peace in his heart where he has worked on that and built that. The other person has selfishness and anger and bitterness in his heart. Both people are driving and have flat tires. The first man who has love and peace in his heart and has cultivated a clean heart, says, “Oh, a flat tire. Okay.” He gets out and takes care of his tire and drives on his way. The second man fixes his tire in the exact same amount of time and gets on his way but with an explosion of anger and profanity, kicking the tire, and throwing lug nuts. What is the difference between the two men? One person cleansed his heart, and the other person did not. Out of the overflow of the heart is what is going to come up and out in your life.

Matthew 12:35
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him,

That is right, you and I need to learn the keys to store up good in our hearts. Christ went on to say:

Matthew 12:35
and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

Christ also speaks about the same basic concept:

Mark 7:21-23
(21) For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
(22) greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
(23) All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.'”

Absolutely! If you have theft, murder, adultery, greed, and deceit in your heart, you can read a commandment that says, “Thou shalt not lie,” and know the Bible says such a thing; however, when you are pressed, you are going to lie. Why? You will lie because what is in the heart is what will come out of you. That is why you and I need to think in terms of the transformed heart, not the renewed mind.

I want to talk to you a little bit about the heart and about the organs of the body. I was pretty deceived about this—I kind of thought that everything happened in the mind, the brain. I really got a wake up call one day when I was doing some translating work in the book of Revelation and I saw a very interesting occurrence.

In this teaching we are using the New International Version [NIV]—a Bible with which I have a love/hate relationship. This is one of the times that I hate it.

Revelation 2:23
I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

That is great. It says that I search your hearts and your minds. Wonderful, except the Greek text reads, “I search your kidney and your heart.”

Revelation 2:23 (KJV)
And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

At that time, I was pretty arrogant and self-assured. I had read Bible dictionaries and Bible encyclopedias and studied the culture for years. I was well aware of the arguments of the scholars. They said, “Oh, those poor Greeks and Romans. They were so ignorant. They thought that some how the kidneys were involved in the thinking process.” I would read those articles and echo that also, “Those poor Greeks. They did not really know, so they say that God searches your kidney because they think your kidney is what actually thinks.” That is where I was living until a couple of years ago when I was trying to loose weight. A friend of mine sent me a book called The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin. I read something in his book that has sent me on a two year quest that has been truly mind blowing. I feel that this information is important enough to take some time out of this teaching and explore what science is now calling the Enteric Nervous System.

Rubin writes:

“People are taught from childhood to believe that the brain is essentially the boss of the body. While it is true that the brain is the centerpiece of our mental capacity of our nervous system, it is also a fact that there are nearly one hundred million nerve cells in the gut alone [Your gut is your esophagus, your stomach, and your intestines] about the same number that are found in the spinal chord. Fully one half of your nerve cells are located in the gut, so your capacity for feeling and emotional expression depends primarily on the gut and only to a lesser extent on your brain.”

I cannot tell you what that did to me when I read it. “Wow, the gut has as many nerves as the brain.” A lot of your feelings are located in your gut. This was amazing to me.

Rubin continues:

“Most people would say that the brain determines whether you are happy or sad, but they have their facts skewed. It seems that the gut is more responsible than we ever imagined for mental well-being and how we ‘feel’. Award winning science writer Sandra Blakesley specializes in cognitive neuroscience. This is what Sandra wrote: ‘Have you ever wondered why people get butterflies in the stomach before going on stage? Or why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps? And why do antidepressants targeted for the brain cause nausea or abdominal upset in millions of people who take such drugs? The reason for these common experiences is because each of us literally has two brains, the familiar one encased in our skulls and a lesser known but vitally important one found in the human gut. Like Siamese twins, the two brains are interconnected. When one gets upset the other does too. The second brain in the gut is called the enteric nervous system. The enteric nervous system processes a complex neural circuitry, and this second brain in your gut can act independently from the first brain in your body. Literally, it learns from experiences, remembers past actions and events and produces an entire range of ‘gut feelings’ that can influence your actions. Early in our embryo geneses [meaning when we were early on in the womb] a collection of tissue called the neural crest appears and divides during fetal development. One part turns into the central nervous system; the other migrates to become the enteric nervous system. Both thinking machines form simultaneously and independently of one another until a later stage of development. Dr. Michael Gresham, professor of anatomy and cell biology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York described the body’s second nervous system in his book The Second Brain. ‘The brain is not the only place in the body full of neurotransmitters. A hundred million neurotransmitters line the length of the gut, approximately the same number that is found in the brain. The brain and the bowel has got to work correctly or no one will have the luxury to think at all.’

Rubin continues:

‘We are still discovering ways that the enteric nervous system mirrors the central nervous system. Nearly every substance that helps run and control the brain has turned up in the gut. Major neurotransmitters associated with the brain including serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, noraepinephrine, and nitric oxide are found in plentiful amounts in the gut as well.”

Interestingly enough, we are going to find that if properly translated, the Bible is going to say that the modern research that is just being done in the last 20 years about the enteric nervous system is correct. By the way, why does this information about the enteric nervous system show up in a book about food and diet? The answer is, how many people do you know that are overweight or pudgy and they do not really feel good about themselves? The research is showing that the reason that people do not feel good about themselves if they are overweight is that you cannot fool the brain in your gut. It is trying to tell us to lose weight and get in shape. It produces feelings that, “I do not feel good about myself.” That was in The Maker’s Diet.

Once I realized that the Word of God had been telling me all along that my feelings and my thoughts were generated from more than just my brain, all of a sudden, what the Bible called the heart made sense. I had always known that the Greek word nous was the place in your mind where you think, as we read when Jesus Christ said, “Out of the heart comes all these thoughts.” The heart is not just a muscle. It is part of the enteric nervous system. Good independent research has been done that shows that the heart muscle even contains an independent memory. If we were to look in the Bible, we would see that it has been telling us this all along.

Psalm 26:2 (KJV)
Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

The word “reins” is the Hebrew word for kidneys. In the Old Testament, it is saying just like Revelation 2:23, “Test my kidneys and my heart.”

Psalm 16:7
I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart [kidneys] instructs me.

The word “heart” in the Hebrew is kidneys. Your enteric nervous system, your second brain, is producing thoughts and emotions. How many of us at night have woken up with a good idea or had a dream that helped us, provided guidance, or insight into our lives? Look at this verse. This is the Word of God teaching us about ourselves. It says, “Even at night my kidneys instruct me.” Wow, a pretty powerful truth.

I am going to shift to the bowels. If you remember, the second brain also involves the neurons around the bowels.

Philemon 1:7
Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts [bowels] of the saints.

The Greek text reads “bowels” for the word “hearts”; you have refreshed my bowels. I do not understand how these neurons and everything work together, but I can tell you this. I have spent times with good friends where I will be down or stressed or up-tight or having a bad day, and a good friend will come and spend time with me and have a cup of coffee and talk, and then I feel so much better afterwards. It is not that you have a cognitive reason. You just feel better. That is what this verse is telling us. It is telling us that the whole second brain in the gut is producing thoughts and emotions and feelings. The Word tells us here that the “bowels are refreshed.”

I do not have time to go into the liver and belly verses. They are in the Word of God. That is why the Word of God has to be properly translated if we are going to derive truth from it. People sometimes say to me, “John, why are you [Spirit & Truth Fellowship International] working on a translation of the New Testament?” We are because these verses need to be translated properly if we are going to learn what God is telling us about Him and about us.

Why do I bring all this up in a teaching on the transformed life? I think that it is important when you and I go to become more like Christ, that we learn what is involved. We are not just a brain that is stacked on a bunch of muscles. God has just interwoven the emotion and the thinking and the life of God through our whole body. The brain does the thinking, yes, as when I memorize a scripture like, “thou shalt not steal,” and this is resident in my brain. If selfishness is in my heart, and by heart it can mean the inner core of the brain, but it means more than that—If selfishness is imbedded in the cellular memories of my body that exist in my heart muscle, my gut, and wherever else that they exist that we have not even found out about yet, I do not care if I memorize “thou shalt not steal” ten billion times and have it posted on every wall in my house, for I will end up stealing. Why? It is because what is in my heart will come out.

Read the rest of the article here.

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