High Definition Faith

"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death..." Phil.3:10

The key to understanding the writings of the apostle Paul is to understand his perception of the person of Christ.  Paul's relationship with Christ began with his explosive encounter on the road to Damascus.  It was there, on the road to Damascus where the Iesous rent the space-time fabric, and forever transformed the mad heart of Saul the hunter.

The Iesous chose to rescue Saul the hunter of the believing ones and give him a new heart.  Saul was the ideal hit man for the religious group that licensed him to kill long before there was any 007. The Pharisees saw in Saul the desperate and "True Believer" who would go out and kill those who resisted the one true faith.

Saul harassed and killed the believing ones with extreme prejudice.  The perceived opposition of the believing ones was personal with Saul.  Who were they to resist conformity to the one true faith with its ancient traditions?  They were mocking the true faith by believing in the crucified Iesous.

The Iesous was an upstart that deserved crucifixion because of his actions of healing the sick, raising the dead, and teaching the poor.  The Iesous deserved crucifixion because he healed the blind, showed mercy to tax collectors and prostitutes.  Who could put up with such a strange person?  One of his greatest outrages was to consistently heal weak ones on Sabbath days.

The Iesous had a rogue ministry.  He did not get permission from the Pharisees to have such a ministry. He never collected fees for his work, and so the religious officials could not get their cut. The Iesous had overthrown their thing-their syndicate.  Religion was big business and was a way to go about things and Iesous did not show respect to the power structure.

A plan was put in place to remove the Iesous and return to the way things were done before he came on the scene.  A meeting was held and the secret council decided to have the young Iesous killed.  It was nothing personal, just business.

The Pharisees hired one of his disciples.  They wanted this disciple to keep a close eye on the Iesous from the inside, and watch for an opportunity to set him up.  The inside guy was paid thirty pieces of silver from the temple coffers of course.  After all, this was ministry too.  This ministry expense would remain off the books!

The real "Passover Plot" was the betrayal of the Iesous at the hands of a friend.  The Iesous was led to several trials and bogus witnesses could not agree on their testimonies.  It didn't matter because the fix was in.  The outcome of the trails were predetermined.  Iesous was led away to die. Little did the religious and political gangsters of that time know that God was using them to do his will.  God can make the wrath of man praise His Name.

Judas, the fall guy for the Pharisees hanged himself because of remorse. He went to his place. Later, a new guy was found to continue the work of getting rid of the sect of Those of the Way. Saul was the chosen one.  He was to continue what Judas could not finish.

Saul was given the full support of the Pharisees to exterminate Those of the Way.  Corrupt power used the religious zeal of the young Saul.  He was the perfect choice.  He was ambitious, angry, highly intelligent, and intensely religious.  His profile was perfect.  He could abuse and kill without pain of conscience.  It was just business.

God had other plans for Saul.  God had seen his profile too.  God saw potential in the young manic genius.  God saw that Saul could be the perfect representative of the message of Salvation. The Iesous met Saul as he was on his way to destroy another cell of Those of the Way.  The Iesous saved Saul with irresistible power.

God changed the hit man's life.  The Hammer of the Pharisees became the Hammer of God.  God took the Pharisees most dangerous hit man and turned his life around in a powerful manner.  Saul was knocked to the ground by the Light of the World.  Imagine Light knocked him off his horse. The Light of the World overthrew the instrument of the prince of darkness.

We cannot fully appreciate the salvation event of Paul, but it forever changed his perception of himself and Those of the Way. Paul's greatest desire was to know the Iesous in an even deeper manner.  Paul wanted to know deeper and deeper the living Iesous, and the power of his resurrection.

Paul wanted to go ever deeper in his relationship with the Iesous.   He wanted to enter into the unfathomable depths of the sufferings of his Savior.  Here is faith in high definition.  Conformity to the image of Christ meant for Paul co-suffering with him.  Paul was intense and determined.  Paul wanted to be like the Iesous.  This was complete ontological transformation. Paul's Christology was a living Christology.  He would not settle for anything less.

Faith in high definition was Paul's goal. Is God calling you to this type of faith walk?

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, follow this blog and visit his website.

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Heart Recognition "Software"

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will rest you.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls." Matt. 11:28-29

We live in days that are filled with frustration.  Indeed, we live in days of uncertainty.  Everywhere we turn there is the shrill and metallic voice of programmed discontent.  The mathematical modeling of human behavioral responses to given situations has been at the disposal of corporations and governments for quite a while.

It is fairly well known that if human beings are bombarded with a significant amount of stress events certain behavioral patterns will emerge.  Deliberate and provocative stress will after a time wear down protective behavioral patterns.  At that point the individual is so overwhelmed by the unrelenting level of stress that he surrenders any attempt at resistance.

Then the individual can be trained to respond to the administration of stress with positive reinforcements.  That is, the person is rewarded for desirable behavior.  Desirable behavior is behavior that the manipulator subjectively finds positive and desirable.  People are merchandise today.

Soon there will be no such thing as privacy.  Everything to be known about anyone of us will be encoded on microchips and massive servers around the earth.  The human genome project was designed to map out the secrets of our molecular selves.  It seems that in this world all knowledge is dangerous knowledge.

The world is no longer 'nation' states as such, but 'world game' controlled by multinational economic entities.  The programmed complexity of post-modern society can be exhausting and bewildering. The social DNA of post-modern society is carefully cultivated through the manipulation of currencies and violence.

Nothing is left to chance with the social engineers.  The social engineers will only clone the amoral fiction that meet the needs of the Controllers whose greatest thinking culminates in reviving the tired old mistress of socialism. (More on this later).

God does not leave anything to chance either.  God has heart recognition software that predates the controlling efforts of post-modern society many centuries.  God knows that the human heart can become weighed down by burdens that wound and paralyze.  For those who are exhausted and grieved by life God has seen your situation.  God has come in the person of the Iesous with 'rest' for the spiritually harassed.

The rest that God gives is out from both self-induced and other-induced misery.  It is a supernatural rest that cannot be googled.  It cannot be accessed from some remote server or uploaded or downloaded.  It is rest out from God as a source.  He is higher than the man made surveillance satellites that litter the immediate heavens.

God's rest is in the Iesous. God's rest is primary and without co-pay or fee schedule.  God's rest is literally the cessation of riot within the heart.  God's rest is a state of being.  It is not snatched away by the those who would sell the dust on the heads of the miserable ones.  God's rest is not subject to punitive levy.

God is not offering an invitation in verse twenty-eight.  The first word 'Come' is not an invitation but a command stated in the imperative.  Read the verse carefully to absorb its powerful and prescriptive language.  God's rest is for the one who is loaded down over above the cubic capacity of the heart to bear.

The Greek word for rest is anapauso.  The prefix on the word means 'up' and 'pauso' means to cease, or to stop.  Is this cool or what?  No medical plan today covers cardiac care in this comprehensive manner! The word anapauso also means to restrain something that is going on in the heart.

You must appropriate God's rest through faith.  You must come to God and believe that he is, and that he rewards those who diligently search him out. The command to 'come' demands a positive response to God.  God's heart recognition software is designed to accurately know and minister compassionate love.

God already knows that the human heart is filled with selfish patterns of behavior. God knows that people know their own self betrayal, and their betrayal of others. God knows that we have violated trust and practiced unforgiveness.  God knows that we practice spiritual autism.  That is, the cultic worship of the self. God knows that eventually we grow weary of the massive weight of the self-lie.

The command of God is to surrender the cult of the self and find rest in Iesous. Those who are weighted down may be lifted up by God.  Those who come to the Iesous will find rest for their souls. Peace is a rare and precious gem in this world.  Rest is given to those who trust God.  Rest is given to those who heed the command of the Iesous to "Come unto Me."  

The moral anchor of Faith is under heavy attack in the west.  The culture is under assault.  There is the opaque promise of another Utopia, but Utopian societies are often managed by tyrants. Utopian cultures have promised much over the centuries, but, alas have accomplished little. Utopian societies have always imploded due to the weighty ego of its founder.

There is not egotistical claim from the Iesous.  He can say that he is "meek and humble" and not earn a skeptical retort.  There is no arrogance in God.  God can say that he is meek and humble. He will not judge the soul that begs his rest.  He will not reproach the one who lays bare his deepest need.

Those who are worn thin by life's adversities can find a home in the Iesous that will not be threatened by anyone.  The Ieosus has rest for those trapped in the dismal fiction of the post-modern digital wilderness.

People have lost the sense of being human.  Their self-consciousness is being reduced to binary calculations.  They are becoming digi-trons.  They are at the edge of the old world of 'human being' and are precariously in danger of falling off.  The heart is in need of rest from the thought forms that are being fed to it at the subliminal level.  

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.  You can now listen to his blog at http://www.blogtalkradio/drjosiahrich

Preventing Spiritual Necrosis (Deadness)

"Mortify, therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection (pathos), evil concupiscence (results of pathology), and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them."  Col. 3:5-7

Paul's great letter to the community Colosse presents the incomparable Iesous as the head of the ekklesia (church).  The ekklesia (called out ones) of the New Testament are those who are joined to the Iesous in an organic relationship.  The relationship that the ekklesia enjoys with the Iesous is substantive and vital.  The Iesous is the Creator of the assembly of Called Out Ones.  The Called Out Ones are those who were purchased or redeemed with God's own blood (Sacrifice).

How different this message is from the 'health and wealth' salesmen and women.  There are no amusing theatrics or muttering of supposedly speaking in tongues (other languages).  There is the reality of the living Iesous and his church.  In not one of Paul's thirteen letters of the New Testament did he advocate either 'health and wealth' nor 'muttering speech' which are done today to bring attention to a particular individual, and not to the Iesous.

We are to cultivate a relationship with the Iesous because he purchased us at the cost of his own life.  He alone is to be the focus of our protracted gaze.  No one could do for us what he has done through his suffering on the tree.

According to Paul's letter to the church at Colosse the Iesous is Lord of All.  His kingdom and dominion extends to both the visible and invisible realms.  Isaiah wrote that his kingdom is greater than the largest number imaginable and then multiple times beyond that number and so on...you get the idea.

Our lives are to be the living narrative of the new thing that God has done through the Iesous. God designed the plan of the new life in the Iesous in eternity past.  The only way to live the new life is by submission of our human will to God's will.  This is the decisive step that must be taken if one is is truly serious about the upward call of God in the Iesous.

This is not an emotional act.  It is a volitional act.  It is an act of the faculty of the will.  The will is the starting point of the new reality.  The will involves the capacity to decide one's course of action(s).  The writers of the New Testament understood that in order to serve God in an appropriate manner the human will must surrender to God's will.

The New Testament writers knew that the will can be very subtle and cunning. They knew that the will could fabricate evil and selfish ends.  They understood that if the individual did not place his will upon the altar to God, there would be no capacity to serve God.

God is not naive and neither were the New Testament writers.  The idolatry of self-worship is within our spiritual DNA.  It is counter intuitive to submit one's will to another without some type of gain or advantage.

Paul wrote that the Called Out Ones are to mortify their bodily members.  Mortify is an old word that means to 'submit to death' or to make dead.  This is a striking picture of spiritual self discipline. Note, that this is written to the Called Out Ones who have come to know the Iesous as Savior. However, to have the Iesous as Lord of one's life requires this vital step in the direction of a willful death of one's bodily members.

Some of the sweetest sounding, and the most godly sounding Called Out Ones have not taken this step of mortifying the flesh massive corruption of the inner person will definitely happen.  The human will alone cannot control or stop the corruption of the inner person.  The human will  cannot stop the corruption of the inner person because it too is corrupt according to deceiving lust patterns.

This awareness is revelation psychology.  The therapeutic intervention enjoined by God for all the Called Out Ones is the complete suspension of their bodily members for selfish ends.  The prescriptive treatment is to 'mortify' one's members.  There is no other way.  Looking for another way means that one is not satisfied with God's way.  It is the folly of the self seeking to keep its lie alive.

The self lie does not want to die.  It loves the secret corrupt 'life.'  It loves to rejoice in its covert activities.  The flesh-self must be put to death by an act of the will that has submitted itself to God. We cannot do it on our own.  Without Iesous we can do nothing.

We are our own worst enemies when we stand off from the revealed will of God for our lives. Necrosis is the killing of health tissue.  Necrosis does not stop in its determined process.  Necrosis does not stop until it has consumed all healthy tissue.  Necrosis of the spirit acts in the same way.

Paul's diagnosis and prescription for spiritual necrosis is to render it dead in one's life by the surrendering of one's will to God.  Healthy spirituality is the result of coming to terms with one's great need to follow God's will.

It is very rare to find the word 'driven' used in the New Testament. Even in the above passage there is no use of the word 'driven'.  We are not 'driven' we are Spirit led.  We follow the Good Shepherd.  There is no doctrinal basis for the word 'driven' in the Spirit led life. Mark used the verb 'thrown' when speaking of the Spirit snatching up the Iesous to be tossed into the wilderness to be tested by the Adversary.

The Called Out One will know her/his purpose when it is understood that the word 'mortify' is an imperative and calls for a once for all decision.  Mortify is demarcation of will.  Mortify is to crucify the flesh with its affections and lust patterns.

Crucifixion is an intrinsic biblical term.  Even scholarship that is not sanctified under the blood of the cross may lead astray.  There is no autonomy in the life of the Called Out One.  S/he is completely dependent upon the Iesous for all things.  There is nothing cute about this word.  It is forensic.  It calls for a precise and decisive act.  How the flesh rebels against the thought of its demise.

The Pneumatikos One (spiritual one) has competed the process of the unspeakable act of mortification of the flesh.  S/he is on the other side of the process.  S/he knows the life of superabundance because the flesh is mortified.

Today, if God has been speaking to you about mortifying your members answer Him with a decisive and precise, Yes, Lord.

Do not be deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man sows that he shall also reap.  He that sows to the flesh will reap corruption, and he that sows to the Spirit will reap life and peace. Amen.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry please follow this blog.  You may also listen to this blog at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drjosiahrich

Release From A Spirit Of Infirmity

"And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when the Iesous saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity."  Luke 13:11-17

This powerful narrative within the Gospel document called Luke reveals a meta-medical condition in the life of an individual.  I call the condition of this person meta-medical because it would be considered outside of the worldview of post-modern medical science.

The "spirit of infirmity" created a condition of weakness within the individual that manifested itself in physical distortion.  The afflicted person suffered from acute and morbid curvature of the spine. She found herself unable to lift up, and stand erect.

The weakness in her life resulting from the "spirit of infirmity" was comprehensive in nature.  That is, the whole person was affected by the dis-ease.  Her condition was global and chronic.  She had been bound by this condition for eighteen years.  Her entire life, therefore, was given over to this appalling condition.

She did not possess the means nor ability to change her condition.  She suffered passively from her dis-ease.  There was no release for her,and she had come to terms with the reality of her estate. Knowing the "reality" of her estate create an attitude of acceptance.  She had accepted that this was her lot.

She built her mind around the chronic reality of her situation.  This was reinforced by her culture. She had succumbed to a negative belief narrative that controlled her thoughts.  Her thoughts controlled her reality.

Think of the multiplied millions whose lives have become bound by a spirit of infirmity through drug abuse, alcohol abuse, sex addiction, addiction to pornography, and many other types of bondage.

The intervention strategies used to "help" such persons have seen limited positive results. The universally accepted intervention strategy are powerful psychoactive pharmacological  agents that only manage symptoms.

The Word of God delivers persons from bondage.  The Word of God is the supernatural healing agent that knows exactly how to break the spirit of infirmity that condemns persons to lives of ugly and dismal servitude.  Addiction is another way to speak of enslavement and degradation.  God does not degrade and enslave.  God lifts up the head shamed by brutality.  God lifts up the head of the one who has known only horror and abuse.

There are unfortunate events and circumstance that come into our lives.  They can either control our perception of ourselves or we can control our self-perception.  This woman had lost that ability. Was she a victim?  Did she consider herself a victim?  We are not told how she felt about her situation.

She, however, is deeply bound and tragically besieged by this dis-ease.  Some would call her condition 'impossible.'  Obviously, there was no help for her.  Or so it would seem, but there was someone who observed her one sabbath day.  He carefully observed her within the religious environment and decided that he would radically intervene and speak the Word of God into her bondage.

Elohim, who spoke life into the void of Genesis chapter one would speak into the chaos, and void of the woman's condition.  Where there was no life he created life.  Where there was no release he granted release.  Elohim, broke the power that dominated and controlled her life for some eighteen years.

It is time that we got back to practicing the prayer of deliverance for those who are bound by a spirit of infirmity.  The powerful, effectual prayer of the spiritual one avails much.  It is time to jettison the cutesy nonsense of spiritual tomfoolery and get serious with God.  Countless lives are being ruined daily as we play at faith.  Let me be very clear this is no game.

The idea that "spiritual powers" can bring ruin and chaos into the lives of persons is outside of the worldview of post-modern medicine. Nevertheless, such powers are real.  They are malevolent forces that harass and havoc lives.  They constrain and constrict the lives of people.

The Iesous saw that the woman's condition was the result of a spirit of infirmity.  We don't know what a spirit of infirmity is.  We cannot give a classification and identity to it, but we do know something about it through its behavior.  The behavior of the spirit of infirmity (weakness) reveals its nature.  It seeks to overthrow an individual's life in order to control it for terrible and ghastly ends.

The behavior of an entity or being indicates character.  All behavior is the result of character whether good or bad.  The behavior of the spirit of infirmity is perverse (willfully determined or disposed to go counter to what is expected or desired, contrary).  It is also malignant (virulent, deadly, or incurable).

The obstinate spirit of infirmity controlled the neuro-muscular system of the woman so that she could not stand upright.  The perverse spirit perversely controlled her life.  It could not be otherwise. It never is.  Her condition of exogenous (derived from outside of the body, an external source) perverse control was irresistible.  She needed help from a source stronger than her controlling agent.  The Iesous was/is the Strong One of Authority, and the Great Physician for her spiritual- medical psycho-physical condition.

The word of the Iesous released the woman whose life had been frozen around a chronic estate. The Iesous spoke a new reality into her life.  There was no ritual or ceremony.  There was effective and complete release from the restrictive lie of her life.

In verse eighteen there are three different words used to describe the woman's spiritual harassment. There is the word "bound", "loosed", and "bond" and in the Greek text each word adds a descriptive nuance to her condition.  Collectively, the words tell the story of a morbidly oppressed and distressed  life.

The Iesous has come in order to deliver those who have been similarly wounded by life.  The Ieosus has come to lift up those who did not have the ability to lift themselves up because bound by a chronic spiritual condition.

Today, if you need release from a spirit of infirmity the Iesosu can and will deliver you too. Blessings to You.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.  You may also listen at http://blogtalkradio.com/drjosiahrich

Elohim: The Strong One of Authority

"In the beginning Elohim created (Heb. bara) the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep (Heb. roaring) deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."  Gen. 1:1-2

The foundation of the Genesis document is given in this verse.  Moses is not a proponent of Chance and Necessity, nor does he concoct highly imaginative theories of cosmogony and assign remote mathematical symbols to them in order to earn a hearing.

The writer gives a theological confession without apology and states that prior to mass/energy Elohim was/is.  Certainly, human language systems are strained when attempting to speak of the unspeakable.  Not in the sense of the classic language philosophers who used language to argue themselves into a metaphysical corner.  "Whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent."

Thankfully Moses never studied with the language philosophers.  Moses was given his profound insight into the origins of all things through Elohim.  Philosophy can only go so far and then its structure turns upon itself because it is the product of the thoughts of men.

Moses writes that Elohim was before and at the beginning.  Moses uses the word El which was a common name for deities in the ancient Near East.  El was symbolically represented by a picture of an ox or bull, and so it meant "the Strong One of Authority." The Strong One of Authority created or fashioned mass/energy and its behavioral manifestations.

Elohim's thought/action is the grounds of the energetic patterns that we experience.  We are interactive beings.  We do not merely observe the behavior of mass/energy we are ourselves mass/energy beings with souls.  The instruments that are designed to observe the behavior of mass/energy are composed of the same as are the observers.  We are cosmic dance too.

Elohim created the behavioral phenomena called 'heavens' and 'earth' through speech/action.  Again we are confronted with energy behaving as designed by Elohim.  Beneath the visible or measurable phenomena is the abiding speech command of The Strong One of Authority.  The Periodic Table of The Elements are inherent in the cosmos because of Elohim.

Honestly, we are not arguing First Causes.  We are stating that classical evolution or theistic evolution (compromise) are impossible given the nature of what is.  If Elohim is removed from the structure of the cosmos there is no cosmos.  We will not consider matter as such, because matter is an illusion.  Matter creates the belief in hard solid stuff, and there is not hard solid stuff.  There are only dancing patterns of energy.

Understand the context of the last statement.  I am not arguing from the viewpoint of reductionism I want to point out an observable fact.  We are indeed patterns of energy in motion, and we are more.  We are body/soul.  We are mysteries as much and much more than energetic patterns at dance.  Infused and intrinsic to the energy dance is moral behavior.  A signature of the existence of the Creator.

Rocks are said to be mere things in the non-theistic belief systems.  However, in the biblical system rocks 'know' the Creator.  Rocks are not extensions of the Divine Essence, but rocks recognize the Creator as the Creator.  He is LORD of all.  All things belong to Him as the Creator.  The frightening behavior dynamics of the Sea of Galilee that tossed and threatened the boat of the disciples ceased their raging at the command of the Iesous.

There is no such thing as nature.  That is a philosophical idea.  The New Testament uses the term 'physis' to denote something that is intrinsic to the cosmic order.  In that since there is nature, but not in an absolute since of an order devoid of the CREATOR.  There is no Nature in that sense.

The documents of the bible are without equal.  They are authoritative in an absolute manner.  Yes, they are ancient, yes they present a worldview that many would call primal perhaps, but primitive no.  The thought forms are powerful, and complex, but the alphabet of the Hebrews is based on 22 consonants.  The Job document is more ancient than Genesis.  Genesis is framed around a series of beginnings.  In fact, Genesis is about a new beginning.

The earth was the work of divine creative fiat.  Elohim sculpted the topography of the earth for human habitation.  (Statistical reasoning can be highly manipulative). There is more water on the surface on the face of the earth than land mass for many reasons. Land, however, is still dynamic, but not as much as water.

The ontological wasteland that The Strong One of Authority fashioned into a habitable environment for human, plant, and animal life was called the Chaos Monster in ancient creation stories.  Some theologians have tried to press the tri-leveled universe into the Genesis creation account with little success.

The cosmology of Genesis is theological.  All of life is theological.  Science is theological, but scientism is religious.  The word science means 'knowledge.'  Technology is applied science to some degree.  Technology is used today to sell novelty products to the masses, manipulate their minds, and create dependency on 'necessary' but 'irrelevant' nonsense.

The first verse of Genesis point to a greater reality.  That is, Elohim is prior to the created order. His creative work is a mystery.  I was taught that Elohim created the world from nothing or no-thing.  Even today, mass/energy is no-thing.  However, that is not what the theologians meant by no-thing.

I know that the mind prejudiced by the belief of things in space finds it very difficult to retrain itself to believe that 'hardness' is a sensory illusion.  Long ago, when I met with Fritjof Capra who wrote "The Tao Of Physics" we had a long discussion on this topic.  Dr. Capra holds a Ph.D in Particle Physics.

Lastly, note the Power of the Spoken Word in ancient Near Eastern thought.  This is lost to our culture.  Elohim speaks terse, simple, and effective words.  Speech is prior to, and tied to mass/energy.  Einstein let us know that the smallest 'piece' of mass contains an enormous amount of energy.  In other words, Elohim's speech is filled with power (the ability to do work).  We are told by some great physicists that the universe is the product of Mind.

The universe is not a clock or a machine.  It is energetic mystery.  Finally, Elohim is using his great power today to recreate souls that have been ruined by sin.  Through the power of Re-generation he is giving life to those who have been undone through the Chaos Monster of sin.  Elohim or The Strong One of Authority has come into the created order as the new proto-man Iesous.

The old order of sin means absolute ruin, and so Elohim has created a new order of Man headed by the Iesous. You can have eternal life today through the Iesous and know life in superabundance. Come to the Iesous today and confess your belief in his redemptive death on the cross for you.
Amen.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry please follow this blog and visit his website.

"To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice"

"Does the LORD delight in brunt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil (wrong) of idolatry.  Because you have rejected the Word of the LORD, he has ejected you as king."  I Sam. 15:22-23

King Saul was commanded by the LORD to destroy the Amalekites, and to totally destroy everything that belonged to their nation.  This act was to be judgement upon the Amalekites for their terrible actions toward the people of Yahweh as they came up from Egypt (double distress). Yahweh's covenant relationship with his people ensured protection from their enemies.

The first king of Israel was given the task to execute the judgement of Yahweh upon his enemies. The enemies of Yahweh's people were also his enemies too.  The LORD has an irrevocable relationship with his people.

Cults teach the opposite of biblical revelation.  Cults teach that Yahweh's people lost their covenant relationship, and that the covenant promises made exclusively to Israel (Ysrael) belongs to their community.  This is false theology, and arrogant violence to the received documents.

Our point, however, has to do with Saul's attitude toward the command of Yahweh given through the prophet Samuel.  Samuel delivered Yahweh message to Saul through the classical messenger formula, "Thus Saith the LORD."  The messenger formula was used by the Old Testament nabi (prophets) to indicate that their oracles did not originate of themselves.

The 'messenger formula' was authoritative revelation given to a specific person during a specific time in Salvation History.  Saul went to the city-state of Agag, and he set an ambush against the city and routed their defenses.  Victory over the Amalekites was within his grasp.  He had the means to complete the task given to him by Yahweh, but he decided to disobey the divine directive and handle the Amalekites on his own terms.

Saul disobeyed Yahweh's command to devote all to destruction, and instead decided to deal with the Amalekites the way he saw fit.  Saul destroyed all of the Amalekite city-state except the king of the Amalekites, Agag, and the best of their goods.

This act of Saul revealed his character and heart toward Yahweh.  "But Saul and the army spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and cattle, the fat calves and lambs-everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed (v.9)."

The LORD repented that he had made Saul king.  This troubled Saul. In fact, the revelation that Yahweh repented at making him king troubled him all night.  But the next day, Saul arose from his discomfort and went out and erected a monument in his own honor!

Saul was only superficially bothered by disobeying the LORD.  Saul loved himself more than Yahweh.  And so it goes.  Do not be fooled by those who have a form of religion, but deny the power thereof.  When pressure is added to arrogance, the arrogant ones will abandon Yahweh's will and go off to establish a monument in their own name.  This was a religious act. It was self-worship on Saul's part.

Saul's self-lie was ingrained within his personality.  In fact, the lie of ego-centrism had ruined his ability to establish a deep relationship with Yahweh and others.  Saul's self-worship was demonstrated in his actions.  He failed to carry out the Will of Yahweh, he lied to himself about himself, and he lied to Samuel.

Those who play the game of self destruction must first set about their own ruin, and then they move out from their dark center to inform and infect others with their vile pathogen.  Such persons are indeed pathogenic.  They infect the lives of others.  Saul's dis-ease was idolatrous self- worship.

Saul lied to Samuel who had the gift of discernment.  Samuel had deep perception into people, things, and circumstances.  He knew that Saul was a liar.  Notice the manner in which Saul greeted Samuel.  Saul said, "The LORD bless you!  I have carried out the LORD'S instructions."

Saul's greeting was to disarm Samuel, much as patients/clients do today with therapists.  The insincere greeting told of what Saul thought of Samuel too.  Saul lied to his face, sincerely, and honestly.  Saul had stepped back from reality.  His mentality was full of lies, phoniness, and subterfuge.  But he did not realize that Samuel was an expert in voice stress analysis.  Samuel knew body language, and how the eyes behave or not behave when one is lying.

The naive king Saul was out of his league with Samuel.  Samuel 'passed over' Saul's greeting and religious behavior.  Samuel asked Saul,  "What is this bleating of the sheep in my ears?  What is this lowing of the cattle that I hear?"

The evidence of Saul's disobedience was seen and heard by Samuel, and yet he presumed to lie to Samuel.  The evidence of disobedience is always obvious to all except those who are willfully blind. Those who are willfully blind believe that no one is privy to the scam and sham of their hypocrisy.

The end of Saul's regime of lies and self-worship is not going to end well for him.  He is corrupt. His challenge will be to realize that he has not lied to man, but to God.  There is no continuum of gray for his appeal.  There is only obedience and dis-obedience.  He will face the Either/Or of his own creation.  He abandoned the completed safety of the Will of God for the feeble shelter of self-worship.  Intoxicated with the wine of self-deceit Saul's conscience cannot know guilt. Moral guilt is forbidden by his cult of the self.

Saul believes that he can 'play' Samuel, but that belief is not based in reality. Lies remove the individual out of the realm of reality.  Lies are a false world view where the narcissistic liar is the sole star.  Everything and everyone are skewed and made to fit into the tawdry world of the liar including God.

Lies never work over the long term, but their short-term damage can be catastrophic.  Saul will come to know that his false worldview will not last.  Yahweh will step in and teach him that in the ancient Hebrew worldview every action carries its own consequences-either good or bad.

Beloved, we too are Saul.  We can be guilty of incomplete obedience to God. This does not have to be the case.  The Saul within each of us desires to glorify the self, and to build monuments to the self.  If the Saul within is not crucified then there can be no true spiritual life.  Are you ready to give up the Saul within and live the life that God has planned for you?

Please remember that we are dealing with an event from an ancient text.  Note the remarkable manner in which the writer has captured the intrinsic nature of human behavior.  The motivation for most, if not all action, are inherently selfish.  The monument to the self that Saul erected to himself bespeaks the nature of human action to juxtapose formal service to Yahweh along side service to self.

Therapists can miss this very provocative element of human nature. I may wish to have unconditional positive regard for all persons in a theoretical model, but that approach may open the door to being crushed by someone bent upon ruining my life.

The Saul-nature is radically opposed to the things of God.  The Saul nature has no desire for God because it cannot.  It is completely immersed in the elemental principles of this age (aeon).  The lie of Saul is based upon the fleeting vapor that we call life.

We are but breath.  We are temporal beings seeking to thrust an eternal principle upon the cosmos. We can use word, and deeds of the folly of power to evoke an image of ourselves that we are everlasting, but that is the greatest lie.  Saul lied to Yahweh and Samuel because he first lied to himself.

He really believed that he could lie to God without consequences.  Every acts carries its own consequences.  This is primary doctrine in ancient Hebrew Theology.  Even some of the suffixes in Hebrew words bespeak this reality.  Hebrew words are not merely words in the western since of mere linguistic units.  Hebrew words unleash events and new realities.

Saul will come to realize his grave sin in the crushing events in what remains of his life.  He will be aggrieved by morbid psychopathology of his own creation.  He tossed down the gauntlet to God and he found out the monument to himself could not help.  He became the prototype of Nietzsche before there was a Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900).  The idolatry of the self always culminates in madness.  The idol of the self is always built upon sand.

The word of man cannot satisfy.  The Word of God is food for the hungry soul, and refreshing drink for the parched soul.  Come to God today.  Leave behind the Saul life for a life that is real.
God his sent his Son that we may have eternal life.  Obey God and except the finished work of the Ieosus on the cross today.  Now is the day of salvation.  Share this message with someone today.
Amen.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry please follow this blog and visit his website.

Judgement (Krima) Starts at the House of Theos

"For the time has come for judgement to began at the house of Theos; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the Gospel of Theos?  Now, "if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?"  Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator."  
I Peter 4:17-19

This letter of the Apostle Peter is to "the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bythynia."  They were the Elect ones who were being persecuted for their faith in the Iesous.  Peter's words were given to encourage them in their collective suffering.

It is no small thing to become a disciple of the Iesous.  One must count the cost.  One must sit down and consider the extraordinary demands of discipleship.  The disciples of the Ieosus represent an elite core of individuals who have come to realize that the new life of faith entails putting away the practice of sin resulting in sinful behavior.

The life of discipleship also involves stepping out of the consequences of darkness.  Darkness is an active principle of behavior in the New Testament.  Darkness is characterized by living for evil, and getting others involved in evil too.  The Iesous has called us out of darkness into his marvelous Light.  We are now children of the Light-Iesous.

Persecution has always been one of the hallmarks of Faith.  The emperor Nero persecuted the followers of Iesous by accusing them of a fire that burned a great portion of Rome.  He used believers to light his parties by setting them on fire. He was a devious lunatic.  The Catacombs of Rome were built by believers to escape their persecutors.  The persecution of believers were quit severe in the ancient world.  They were state sponsored and designed to rid the empire of  so-called atheists and "haters of mankind."

Peter wrote to those whose faith was being interrogated by martyrdom, and murder.  Peter's therapeutic mandate was to have the believers hearts immersed in the Word of Theos.  They were to find comfort in knowing that the Iesous was with them in the midst of their suffering.

When the three men were tossed into the fiery furnace by the king of Babylon an amazing event took place before the eyes of the king. When the king looked into the furnace he saw not three but four men in the furnace.  The men who had been thrown into the furnace were bound, but when the king looked into the furnace the men were not bound.  The other man in the furnace was not merely man.  The other Man was the Iesous. The Iesous identified himself with his own then, the first century believers in Peter's day, and with believers today.

The Ieosus knows that in this world we will have tribulation.  The Greek text reads that we will be "in tight places."  We will not escape persecution.  Yes, it is the wrath of man, but it is used by Theos to expose us to ourselves that the spiritual dross (impurities) of our lives may be put away.  It is also used to direct our vision away from our self-sufficiency and toward the all-sufficiency of Iesous.

Yes, persecution is grevious.  Yes, persecution hurts.  Yes, it creates pain and bewilderment.  Yes, we are caused to question the meaning of negative events when we have lived a righteous life before Theos.  It is at this point when one reads the Book of Job with new eyes.  Persecution sharpens the spiritual intellect and one's prayer life.  The real blessings of the spiritual occur when we have reached the end of ourselves, and see Theos as our only source.

Persecution crushes our love affair with this life, and makes us long for our real homeland. This world is not our home.  Do you understand this statement?  This world is the enemy of Theos and therefore seeks to crush those who are not true citizens.

Some persons in the church seek to compromise with the world.  They undermine the faith of others by their conduct.  Their faith is mere form without content.  They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof.  Judgement begins at the house of Theos.  I know that popular books teach that judgement starts upon the realm of the ungodly ones.  But according to the New Testament the world stands under judgement already.

The visible church is where judgement starts.  The church is filled with those whose behavior is about form over substance.  They are deceiving themselves, but not the Lord of Life.  Read the Book of Revelation and it teaches that the enemy of our faith has moved into the activity of the visible church.  However, the Lord knows those who are his own.  The Lord's own are not spiritually dead.  They are alive with the power of Theos.

In the light of Peter's astonishing words what should be our resolve?  I urge you to carefully read the entire letter.  You will find God's viewpoint for persecution, and the way we are told to behave in this world.  We are to be witnesses to those who persecute us.  We are to maintain Grace attitudes in spite of treacherous and cruel misconduct toward us.

Theos not only sees what our enemies do to us, he also sees our behavior under stress or duress. We are not to be simple ones.  We are to use discernment toward people, things, and circumstances. We are to take precautions about the environments in which we live.  We are to watch the unfolding of events in our culture.  We are to watch and pray.  We are to do our due diligence about our faith walk. We are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the FAITH.

We are to judge ourselves, and our sin so that we are not judged by Theos.  We are to judge ourselves so that we are not condemned with the world.  The Bible is different from our favorite areas of theology. The Bible is decisive and impartial in its witness toward us. Let's get our lives cleaned up through confession and commitment to live as we should before Theos.   Amen.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, follow this blog and visit his website.

Faith Is What One Does

"Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.  By Faith we understand that the ages were framed by the Word of Theos, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible."  Heb. 11:1-3

Hebrews chapter eleven present a summary on Faith-action.  Please note that in the New Testament documents the term faith (Gk. Pistis) is never a passive verb.  It is what is what has been called a noun of action. Much like the word for love (Gk. Agape) in the New Testament. It too is a noun of action.

The use of passive verbs in the New Testament have a very precise use.  For instance, to be filled with the Spirit is in the passive voice.  That is, one is acted upon or influenced in a particular way by an outside force or power.  Being filled with the Spirit of Theos prepares one for the active voice of the Spirit Filled life.

Divine success for the believer in this life is to be led by the Spirit.  This is the life of Faith without the smattering of pop-psychology added for flavor.  What the Spirit does is seasoned just right.  The Spirit filled life is approved by Theos for all believers.  The Spirit filled life is the ordinary life of Faith.

When believers 'live' outside of the sphere of faith they may appear not to be saved ones.  There is no vacuum in life.  This is a simple either/or proposition.  One cannot be a little bit filled with the Spirit, just as one cannot be a little bit pregnant.

Faith is a state of being that produces the action of  faith activity. Sin hinders the life of faith.  Sin muddies the pure and sacred water of Faith.  Faith is a conversation with Theos.  Faith has a presence.  Faith has a glory that does not fade away.  Right now you are working on your FAITH paragraph that is being recorded on high.  What is being written in your Faith paragraph by the Spirit of Theos?

Faith is instrumental or it is that by which something is done or accomplished.  What are you doing by the instrumentality of Faith?  

The writer of the Book of Hebrews also knew the word faith was not an Old Testament word either.  His view of the Old Testament was different.  He had no knowledge of how we have imposed the word faith upon the Old Testament.  The Old Testament did not use our English word faith. The world view of the Old Testament writers was characterized by dynamic encounter with Yahweh.  Even the famous passage of Exodus 3:14 wherein Yahweh reveals himself to Moses as the All Sufficient One is about dynamic being not a static entity.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews knew that Yahweh had revealed himself to the world in human form through the Iesous.  The Iesous is the Faithful One.  Faith is not a "leap of faith."  The A-Theistic ones must make a leap of faith.  Their major premise is inherently flawed because it is a metaphysical leap which is their starting point for a meaningless conclusion.  However, their burden of proof is untenable. They cannot disprove the existence of God.  They do not know all of existence for all of time in all the ages that have been before their birth.  They know too little to play at their own game.

Faith is a way of knowing.  Seeing with the eyes is the ordinary and customary way of seeing in our culture such as it is.  Seeing is believing in our culture. For the constantly believing ones, on the other hand, faith-ing is our vehicle of perception.  Or should be our vehicle of perception.  God wants to heal us of our useless dependence upon empirical perception.  Faith perception is divine viewpoint in action.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for is the premise of the writer.  He has come to know the vast superiority of faith understanding through walking with Theos.  The writer's statement is not mere intellectual knowing.  He has graduated from that level of understanding. He is now at the graduate level and he knows that a richer and deeper walk with Theos is built upon FAITH.

The substance of FAITH is God himself.  The substance of FAITH is the character of God.  There is no leap.  There is sufficient provision in the Graphe or writings of the Word of God to truth his character.  This is not the word of man.  The word of man is inherently selfish.  The word of man is contradictory and transitory at best.  We can go to the library or surf the internet and read the word of man and its results.

The word of man has no substance because his breath is in his nostrils and he is a temporal being who depends upon Theos for his breath.  The atheist must rely upon the breath of Theos to hurl forth his tiny and musty beliefs.  He must fill his lungs with the breath of Yahweh in order to preach his angst to the cosmos. He, too, needs God. God is not his enemy.

The evidence of Faith is what it produces in the lives of the believing ones.  Faith changes lives.  The object of Faith is the Iesous.  Faith must have a proper object.  Those who have placed their faith in the word of man do so at great peril.  Those who deposit their FAITH in Yahweh will yield a great return on their investment.  No prospectus is needed here.  Past results of FAITH ARE indicative of future returns.  The Fund Manager is God himself.  This is a front loaded fund. You must deposit trust in his Word to see your return.

The evidence of your return will be evident in a new walk by faith and not by sight.  You are to lay up treasures in heaven.  By Faith you can say to 'this mountain' be you removed into the sea and it will be done for you.  The faith walk is a walk of power.  There is nothing like it.  It is a radically different life.   Are you ready for a new life of faith?  Or do you really want the mere window dressing of this world of 'sound and  fury signifying nothing?'

The party is fast closing on the western world.  The Vanity Fair of indulgence is wearing thin in the west.  The pioneers of western sex play are aging. The door of meaninglessness is wide open.  Where do people who have thrown their lives away go from here?  Their youth has been sacrificed upon the altar of indulgence and nothing is left.

People of Faith have a different life.  They have not sacrificed their lives they have invested their live in the Ieosus.  Their lives have hope because they know God.  This makes all the difference. Or should I say He makes all the difference?  He does.

You can have FAITH today.  You can have a new life today.  You must confess your need of salvation to God and believe in your heart that the Iesous died for your sin and that believing on him you may have eternal life through his Name.  Blessings to You.    

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog ad visit his website.

Plastic Words "Don't Drink The Kool-Aid"

"And through covetousness shall they with feigned (Gk. plastois, Eng. plastic) words make merchandise (buy and sell) you:  Whose judgement now for a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not."  2 Peter 2:3

The prophetic writings were given by the Spirit of God for specific times in history.We are living in the Eschaton i.e., the last days of this age (aeon) with its dangerous events.  Overhead chem-trails sew their unknown seeds.  Drones have been dispatched to law enforcement agencies in order to watch citizens, and tactical military armaments are given to the local police.

We are watched by our government.  We have supported the government with prayer mindful of the difficult decisions that must be made, and I may not understand.  We are never, however, to be simpleminded about anything.  We are to test everything according to the Word of God.

The Holy Spirit gives discernment to us that we may have deep perception about people, things, and circumstances.  Always test everything.  Always!  It seems that ancient socialist ideas are the best that our government can manage.

We have a citizenship in heaven.  This is not our home.  We are indeed sojourners in this topos (place).

I am told that nutrition has been made illegal in foods, but I can buy an abundance of sugar and salt in processed food substitutes.  I must buy "organic" products to have the semblance of health food.  I must buy free range chickens in order to enjoy a hormone free chicken meal.  The new nano-technology is found in everything from food to clothing and there are few laws that control their use or even understand it.

Did Peter see such things long ago?  Or is it merely coincidental that he could "see" our time with remarkable accuracy?  It is easy to be dismissive and doubtful, but such attitudes are not marks of intellectual depth or insight.  They merely speak of an inability to engage a subject with the necessary acumen.  Peter knew of our times because they were his times too.  Little has changed, and yet, much has changed.

The word covetousness is a frightening word.  It speaks of a raging and gnawing desire for more and more with no view of of satiety (satisfaction).  The behavior of manipulators are designed to seduce and or entice with words.  They lure victims through bait or cunning trickery into becoming partners to their own destruction.  They prey upon the artless and the simple either young or old.  Their subversive language tosses their victims into a world of fawning and flattery that cuts off critical perception.

Peter said that the manipulators would abusively extort others for the purpose of advantage over their lives. They would use and discard people for savage gain.  Human trafficking in our time is a terrible result of Peter's prophecy.  

Notice the emphasis upon the use of manipulative words by the practitioners of deception.

Life and death are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat the fruit thereof.  However, in their peculiar blindness they will not see their own end.  Their immortality is assured by a bogus but convincing self-deception.

I remember when a number of gullible Afro-Americans trusted a "religious" personage who persuaded them to leave this country and start a colony in another land.  They followed because they trusted his words and actions.  He led them to their doom.  They were murdered and executed by their leader.  He forced them to drink not hemlock, but a common household drink made from a powder and mixed with sugar.

There in the jungle a massacre of "love" took place, and the fallen were simple common people who believed a lie. Among the fallen ones was my stepfather's grandmother. Members of my family had to go to the airport and meet the airliner that carried her body among many others.  It was a grim day filled with unanswered bewilderment and frustration.  Out of this whole experience emerged a new mantra for the gullible and artless "don't drink the..." but little concern for the dark people who died there in the jungle.

"Heart of Darkness" was "acted out" there in the jungle upon those with dark genetic ink upon their skin.  Did the villains of such outrage suffer from Conduct Disorder or some other conjured malaise of the spirit? They made merchandise of those people without apology.

Peter saw this happen and wrote a warning to us that  we be not found sleeping under the veil of tentative documents purposed by men.  Blood has always been the price of freedom.  Our freedom cost God everything.  The price was blood.  The blood of his only Son.

There in the "jungle" of phony legal procedure and false witnesses who could not give credible testimonies the Son of God was sent to his death.

After three days the Son of God got up from the judgement and death.  Death could not hold him down. How can death do otherwise but bow to the authority of his Master and let him go?

Those who make merchandise of others will face the fierceness of the Wrath of Almighty God one day.  God knows all secrets, and he will one day shout all the secrets of men from the rooftops.

Paul wrote of Man's Day and the behavior thereof.  Paul wrote of the moral and spiritual contortions that would characterize the Day of Man.  The Day of Man is hubris out of control, but the Day of Iesous is coming too.  When he comes he will rule the world of men with a rod of iron according to Psalm 2, and men will still seek to overthrow his kingdom, and He i.e., God Almighty who sits in the heavens will laugh at their absurd reckonings.  Men are enjoined to kiss the Son lest he become angry.

Beloved, now is the Day of Salvation. You can know that you have eternal life if you come to the one who does not seek to enslave through plastic words, but the One who offers the gift of God- life eternal.  If you confess with your mouth the Lord Ieosus and believe that Theos raised him out from the grave you will be saved (rescued).

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.

The Idolatrous Eye

"Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for him."  Pro. 26:12

The Proverbs are practical theology.  They are designed to provide answers for everyday living.  How very unlike the post-modern age wherein image reigns over character.

Persons today are profiles to be uploaded and perused by the anonymous others, or those who are part of the ancient past.  Persons today do not have a past they have adventures on a continuum or line that goes on forever.

So they live within the "moment" that moves effortlessly into the next moment.  No one is waiting for Godot today.  Today philosophical hedonism has morphed into an arcane nihilism.  It is not so much "what is, is right" today as is moral awfulness on display.

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?  The ancient prophet/poet mused on a topic that defines the essence of non-thinking today.  People are bewildered by the brazen ability of the political 'elite' to speak unconscionable lies with unflappable bravado.

People today are wise in their own eyes.  The idolatrous 'eye' is built on lies.  How else to explain the ever weakening public capacity for new violations.  It is all well planned. It is all designed to wear down resistance to the moral and spiritual pollution that insists on destroying collective public health.  Secret groups and unnamed researchers are paid huge sums to create fear in all of us.

The idolatrous eye insists on believing only what it sees.  There is never a critical look into its incredible presuppositions.  The idolatrous eye is its own unquestioned premise.  The idolatrous eye is god-like in its hubris.  It is grandiose.  It is intoxicated with the metaphysical necessity of its inherent necessity.  The idolatrous eye is the Overman.  Or so he thinks he is.

When the eye doctor wants to examine a patient he uses an ophthalmic-scope.  It is a very important health screening tool.  When used by the eye doctor she/he can get a great deal of information that is relevant to many medical fields such as cardiology and neurology to name a few.

The Word of Yahweh is like the ophthalmic-scope.  It reveals a great amount of information about the state of an individual's spiritual (breath) eyes.  The ophthalmic-scope of the Word of Yahweh looks deep into the spiritual eyes of individuals and reveals the state of the inner or person.  Spiritual Cardiology as revealed by the Word of Yahweh unlocks the secrets of the idolatrous eye.

Nothing is hidden from the ophthalmic-scope of the Word of Yahweh.  The Word reveals that the one who is wise in his own eyes is in need of  the eye save of the Word, but the cardiac condition of the idolatrous eye will not come to the Fountain of Life.  He will not let Yahweh wash his eyes with the Holy Spirit.

The idolatrous eye will always see men as trees walking.  People will always be indistinct and mere outlines of the real thing.  The idolatrous eye will always attempt to fill in humanity with tortured vision.  The insensitive eye can only know its inherent insensitivity.  The one who is wise in his own eyes is in desperate need of the redemptive eye-salve that only the Iesous can provide.

I once suffered from idolatrous eye disease.  The Iesous gave me new eyes. He can do the same for you.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.

The Therapy of Paraclesis (Comfort)

"Blessed be the Theos and Pater of our Lord Iesou Christos, the Pater of mercies and Theos of All comfort. Who comforts us in all of our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with we ourselves are comforted by Theos.  For as the suffering of Christos abound in us, so our consolations also abounds through Christos."  II Cor. 1:3-5

One of the extraordinary benefits of Grace is the Paraklesis of the Iesous.  Paraklesis is his ministry of comfort to his own mediated through the Holy Spirit.  We read in the Graphe (Scriptures) that the Iesous learned...through the things he suffered.  The greatest and most gifted counselors have "suffered" through the problems of life too.  The Iesous entered into the human condition in a manner consistent with the Divine Imperative.

The Divine Imperative is the Christ Event.  The Christ Event is divine viewpoint of the human predicament. Man cannot be his own Savior.  It is only his hubris that leads him to believe that it is possible to save himself from this menacing darkness.  Man's reasoning is circular and at times hopelessly convoluted.  He believes that novelty or the reshuffling of old and trite ideas can change his condition.

Man wrestles with an intrinsic and chronic state that only gives the illusion of purposefulness.  Without Divine Revelation there is no answer.  Look at the world that man has created.  There is incredible pain and misery, and yet it is still believed that money, and "equal" rights can or will solve all problems.  It is the great lie of, what Buckminster Fuller calls "Lawyer Capitalism."

We live under tyranny and repression, mind you at the time it is soft tyranny, but what will the future hold? You do realize that the banking catastrophe of '08 was merely a step in planned confiscation of the wealth of the middle class.  History has many examples of what happens to countries who destroy the middle class.

Many believers lost property in '08 and had a hard time recovering from the loss of homes and jobs. However, God saw the evil manipulation of economy and He knows exactly who was behind it all. Persecution can take on many forms, and we must remember that the Iesous was persecuted too.

The reason why we must establish community with one another as believers is because we will need one another in the coming days.  Race or color of skin will not matter in the coming days.  It was once observed that Sunday was the most segregated day in the week because believers gather together with their "own kind" which is false doctrine.

We are collectively the Body of Christ.  We are not separated by the old things of the cosmic system  The cosmos is moving toward a radical monolithic government.  We will know the pressure of this movement. The Iesous will give us comfort as we face dark and disconcerting times.  Consider carefully that it is desired that people are fearful and constantly bewildered by the powers of the cosmos.

Believers are having a hard time in Egypt, Syria, and on the African Continent today.  The comfort that we receive from Iesous is to be shared with others who are of our Confession.  The love of God is not in one who hates his brother.  Such a person does not have eternal life abiding in his soul.  If one does not love his brother who he has seen, how can he love God who he has not seen?

Seriously, the church has had an internal war in America over race and skin color that has compromised its testimony.  In the New Testament documents the word witness as used in the book of Acts was a legal term. It meant a formal declaration of eye-witness first person experience. But when privilege is exalted over Truth there is suffering.

Who believes the church's witness today?  Who really believes's that we are co-sufferers with the Ieosus and that we co-share with the suffering of other members of the Body of Christ?  Will suffering cleanse the witness of the Church?  It seems historically that suffering has cleansed the witness of the Church.

What would happen in the world if believers came together over the person of the Ieosus?  What would happen in the world if the church demonstrated the love of the Ieosus without apology for race or face?  The Iesous walks within  His church as the One who sees all things.  Are you ready to join in the Divine Imperative and help the Body of Christ?

Suffering has the ability to focus our attention. Suffering has the ability to cleanse our lives of the dross of this world.  Your witness is needed today.  Let other believers really know who you are in Iesous and that you have walked the path of suffering and victory.  Encourage someone today.  We are members one of another. The faith in Iesous that we share with others can lift up a fallen face, and give hope.

The comfort of the Iesous is designed to come along side us in times of stress and hurt and give his own paraklesis (comfort) to us. We are precious to him.  We must be available for the Lord and his people.  Our hearts must be filled with the knowledge of his Word that heals the sin-sick soul.    

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow his blog and visit his website.

"Super-Over Come Evil With Good"

"Behold the wicked brings forth iniquity; yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood.  He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the pit which he made.  His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealings shall come down on his own crown (head)."  Ps. 7:14-16

There is a law given here that is intrinsic to the world that Yahweh has made.  It is the Law of Reciprocity. The Law of Reciprocity states that one reaps what S/he has sown.  Yes, one can be dismissive of this law because it is found within the pages of an ancient song book.  However, this is not merely an ancient song book, it is the breath of Yahweh inscribed for all generations.  The message is therefore timeless.

The wicked are the theme in this passage.  Notice that as a class of individuals are referred to by an adjective i.e., the wicked.  The one word descriptor is enough.  It truncates the folly of such persons. Everything about their lives bespeaks a terrible future. Their metaphysics is weighted down with the odious and putrid smell of sulfur.  The behavior is described by the birth process.  There is the conception, growth, and then the birth of evil.  Interestingly, the wicked undergo the burdensome impregnation of iniquity and then nurture it until it is ready to be born.

Then the text turns to the "pit" word picture as following upon the heels of the birth of evil.  We are given here foreboding insight into the dark schemes of evil.  Evil is born with its termination as intrinsic to its existence.  This is a stillbirth but the unwary wicked do not know it.  They can only 'see,' if you will, their frightening motives moving out to produce preconceived havoc.

The attitudinal blindness of the wicked keep them from considering the self-injured destiny they have contrived to their own undoing.

The Old Testament documents are frank in teaching the "sphere of action that creates destiny."  But this is such a trite and meaningless teaching to the heirs of nano-technology, iphones, and the muddy mazes of violent, and sexually provocative "video" games.

Our culture has come to worship the reptilian cortex!  The social hypocrisy is not amusing.  Judges no longer want to sentence 'good' citizens for sexual crimes because now a new demographic is tagged.  A new social (class) pariah is needed to cover up the crimes of the controllers.  The human-robot hybrids are probably already among us.  (Surely such evil could never be among us).  

The clever ones are protected from the consequences of their actions by those who can make problems go away.  God is not mocked by the works of men.  The proposition is still true:  "All men are mortal."  It remains true until Yahweh ends the human experiment.  There are the trans-human-ers who believe that the human experiment will end when the ultimate software is created that will allow human consciousness to be uploaded into a supercomputer and then all will be well.

Human software is created by smart humans who are not perfect.  Mathematical philosophy is only as good as those who write it or model it on computers.  We will not have a Software Utopia.  It will still have the controllers and the controlled.  It is a self-mocking equation.

Yahweh sees all that we do as humans, and how humans have tried to kick him out of his own created order. "He who conceives trouble...brings forth falsehood."  The premise is deeply flawed.  Evil cannot win because it is existentially wanting.  Evil is naked malevolence.  Evil is a hollow soliloquy spoken on behalf of bewildered self-delusion.  Evil is the philosophical waif of the "Will To Power."

The trouble that the wicked unleashes is the dagger that will also puncture his own dark heart.  I know that the language is bold, but the topic demands appropriate discussion.  I once visited a winery where boomerangs were on display.  One was small and the one that caught my eyes was very large.  So I asked the sales clerk if he knew the story of the boomerangs.  He told me that the large one was for hunting.  It was an amazing weapon to behold.

The wicked are experts is conceiving and designing boomerangs.  The wicked are hunters.  They design precision weapons engineered to destroy their own lives.  They also pre-dig the pits to which their finely-honed boomerangs end their harassing journey.

Beloved do not spend your time meditating upon the ways of the wicked.  Do not be overcome by evil, but super-overcome evil with good.  Where sin did abound Grace super-abounded.  We are super-conquerors through the Iesous who loved us and died for us.  Allow the Holy Spirit to take control of your life and give you the peace of Iesous. God can super-handle the works of the wicked. Be blessed and live as unto the Lord always. Amen.

"Leaving The Weight of Empty Things"

"I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You.  I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name. For Your loving-kindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name."  Ps. 138:1-2

The Poet has come to know the Face (presence) of Yahweh within his leb.  The Leb is the Hebrew word for heart or what was called at one time in the west the "Ghost in the Machine."  We are well pass such nonsense these days.  The Poet knew no such nonsense. He knew that he was more than the mere firing of neuro-circuits.  He knew that Yahweh had given him the breath of lives, and that he was a living soul.

It is very interesting that in the primal documents of Genesis breathe is prominent.  Breath is life, and without breath life vanishes.  So, we will not speak of the spiritual here we shall leave that term alone, and concentrate upon breath.  It takes breath to praise Yahweh.  The Poet has determined to praise Yahweh in a manner that befits his august personage.

Praise is a sacrifice. Praise is a sacrifice with the lips of breath.  There is a unity of being given by the sacred writer.  The entire soul (personality) of the poet must express praise to Yahweh because it is most appropriate as a continual act.  Praise is the answer of the soul to its primal calling.  This is the highest form of worship.

The poet is not in perplexity nor is he lost in a sea of bewilderment.  He understands the power of transcendent experience and has been surrendered to the power of praise.  He is beyond words and their symbolic power.  He has come into the presence of God through the vehicle of praise.  His whole heart is lifted up.

He knows the freedom that praise gives.  He has surrendered to praise and he shoots or throws praise toward God.  The poet moves toward the magnification of Yahweh within his soul.  He sings praises to God. He is compelled by the presence of God to shoot praise to him.  Praise, sing, and worship have taken over his personality because God is worthy.

He is cleansed of pornographic lust, he is cleansed of power lust, he is cleansed of money lust, he is free of insatiable greed, mere acquisition for the sake of acquisition.  He is free from the sin of pride and its deceptive ways. He has checked his ego at the door, so that he could praise God unencumbered by the weight of empty things.

How cumbersome the weight of empty things can be?  They intoxicate us with a vile elixir called the self. Listen to the divided praise that some singers give to God.  They cannot worship Him out of a pure heart because they are in love with self.  Their songs do not edify because they have bowed to the secret praise of the self that becomes most evident when they offer tainted praise.

Believing one, real worship is filled with the witness of the Un-created One who is the I AM THAT I AM. We are free when we possess this fertile knowledge.  Praise is prescriptive.  A fellow believer who was dying from cancer and who was placed on hospice told me that when her pain would become to much bear even through her medication she would turn her pain into prayer.

She taught me so much.  Beloved let go of affairs, let go of meaningless recognition, let go of anger, and revenge right now.  Get close to God and learn the power of praise.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.

For The Soul In Search of Rest

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And there was no more sea."  Rev. 21:1

The Revelation is the unveiling of things to come.  It was written during a time of severe persecution in language that would confound the uninitiated.  The Revelation was written for the community of the constantly believing ones.  (There were those who had believed and somehow fallen away from the faith, and therefore not true believers).  God had caused the old regime to pass away.

But this document was written to comfort those who had remained steadfast in the faith, and who would not abandon their first love.  The Iesous must be your first love.  We love him because he first loved us.  "You in me, and I in you" are his words.  We rest in his words only do we not?  T. S. Eliot once wrote"...so many, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many."

Listen to the words of the politicians.  Are they not of an uncertain sound?  Can one truly hang one's hopes and dreams upon their disturbing ideological gas?   Listen to the "leaders" of the world.  Are they not filled with fear and dread?  Look at the the school system.  What have we gotten for our tax currency (there are no more dollars)?

Our government prints fiat currency not money.  Real money is created by real production or making something of value.  We no longer make anything of value to share with the markets of the world.  All of that wealth was transferred to countries with reasonable tax codes long ago.  Please notice that we borrow money from countries that have producing industries!  They can afford to make loans to us with our poor credit score because we have assets.  Assets that God gave to us, but are now fast eroding due to leaders who do not understand economics, or "The Wealth of Nations."  Such leaders think that Adam Smith was a rock star.

We, therefore, are left with placing immoral value upon homes, and agricultural goods that are vital to life. Laws are created to expunge true effort and reward on bogus social projects.  The new therapy is to create dependence upon the State.  Remember President Gerald Ford's words:  "A government that gives, is a government that can also take away."

We are long pass his words.  We are in the post-modern world where the arrogant deconstruction of traditional values is being carried on before our eyes without apology.  The old moral monism is being heralded as something radical.  In some way it is.  But, it is not new.

The new/old moral monism seeks to collapse the division that God made in the beginning.  The new moral monism will deify the power of the omni-competent State, and its unaccountable abuse of power. The State is accountable only to itself.

If only I could get people to read the political milieu that starts with compassionate humanism and ends in the slaughter of the innocents.

"...and there was no more sea," said the prophet.  Please remember that in the Word of God the sea is a picture of restless humanity.  It is a picture of humanity in search of existential satisfaction without God.

Bertrand Russell's eyes could not believe in eternal life because he was outraged over the inhumanity of man. He did not want to believe that such a creature would continue ad infinitum.

In the pages of the Gospel Document the Ieosus walks upon the sea.  He is never overwhelmed by the discontent of the angry waves.  He walks upon the sea as the Lord of All creation.  He walks upon the sea as a picture of the One who knows our collective discontent.

If your soul or psyche is in need of rest come to the Iesous.  He will rest you from being tossed and driven by the sea.  He alone can speak to the angry waves and say Peace, be still!  That is, be muzzled or hush and lie prostrate as commanded.

No politician can do what He does.  If you want to be done with the old sea, and its manufactured discontent, come to Iesous.  There is much more to say. We will do so at another time.  Blessings to you.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow his blog and visit his website.

"I Remember Your Name In The Night"

"I remember your Name in the night, O LORD, and I keep Your Law."  Psalm 119:55

There are times when the faithful ones are burdened with anxiety.  Such times are common to those who desire to walk with God as revealed in his Word.  One writer said:  "... there are times when we are on the battlefield and there are time when we are the battlefield."  When those things that we have depended upon for constancy and reassurance have seemed to vanish we may ask ourselves what these things mean?

There may not be a fast answer to such a question and we are then compelled to enter into a season of waiting.  The season of waiting invites us to examine where we are in our spiritual pilgrimage.  The season of waiting may seem like a long restless night.  James tells us to count it all joy when we are surrounded by trials.  I struggle with his words.

One compelling problem of significant content is quite enough is it not?  But when other problems are added to the original problematic issue like train cars and I have not yet found an answer to the original problem I am liable to become overwhelmed.  In the midst of allocating a bit of my finite attention here and there I can lose sight of God.

However, as I grow up spiritually I come to learn that problems are teaching events.  I resisted this idea as a spiritually immature person.  As a spiritually immature person problems were a nuisance to my idolatrous narcissism.  I missed the depth and purpose of problems by seeking out how to be rid of them as soon a possible.  But then problems came along that forced me to reconsider my ways, and then I began to appreciate problems.

It was when I performed a spiritual autopsy on a particular problem that disturbed me for a very long time , and one that kept me in the "night" that I learned to remember the Name of the LORD.  I saw that arrogance and self-help mantras were of  no value.  Through this particular problem God had began to break down my self-sufficiency.

I thought that my self-sufficiency was so carefully concealed and hidden everyone.  The night had come into my life by my own doing.  I had created the conditions that  led to the night season.  God, in his wisdom, had used the decisions that I had made to lead me back to Him.  God stepped into my circumstances and showed me a new way to live.

My night taught me that God's way for me can be hidden under the debris of decisions that I have made.  I learned that He gives me beauty for ashes.  If you are dealing with a chronic situation that feels like a long restless and sleepless night then you must remember the Name of God.

In Old Testament theology a name represents intrinsic character, and access to the power inherent in the Name. We have access to the power of God through his Name.  This is prescriptive knowing.  It is a knowing that unlocks the door to eternal power.  "I remember Your Name in the Night"  frees us to find our way through a night season that refuses to release us.

Joseph had a night season when he was abandoned in the well by his brothers.  David had a night season when he dwelt in the cave.  Job had a night season when his friends sought to impose upon him human viewpoint with critical theological dust!

You and I have the Lord of Light who gives songs in the night when we remember his Name.  Blessings to you.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.  

"We Were Like Grasshoppers" Beyond the Controlling Fiction of Poor Self-Image

"There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."  Numbers 13:33

The people of Yahweh had a long history of victories.  They had witnessed the deliverance from Egypt in the first person.  They experienced Salvation History.  It had not been passed down to them as oral tradition. No one redacted or editorialized the events of powerful deliverance by Yahweh.  Yahweh's people knew his mighty hand at work on their behalf.

Crushing servitude had been their lot for over four hundred years.  They smarted under the lash of Pharoah and built mighty cities for the king-god of Egypt.  Blood and mud were the existential constant of their lives. Born as slaves to die as slaves occupied the deep structures of their collective cultural psyche.  There was no prophetic word of hope for them until the coming of  Moses the prophet-poet.

Through Moses those whose lives were mired in the swill and will of hardened taskmasters received salvation.  Their lives had been a living death.  They had no hope.  And into their dark abyss Yahweh sent his servant Moses to destroy the Egyptian Ma'at.  Ma'at was the symbol of balance and control for the Egyptians.  Ma'at represented their controlling ethos.

Yahweh executed his judgement upon the deities of the Egyptians with the current Pharaoh deity too. Yahweh took on all of them and wrenched their political-dictatorial power from their lifeless hands.  The might of the Pharaoh god was found to be finite and temporal.  At the sea the people of Yahweh saw the Pharaoh and his hand picked troops drowned by the everlasting flood.  Yahweh, however, sits enthroned upon the flood.

With this history etched upon their minds one would think that any future events and difficulties would pale in comparison.  Surely every future trial and circumstance would be seen through the veil of deliverance by Yahweh's power.

The spies who had been sent from the various tribes had come back from the promised land with a report that tore down the will of the people.  The report of the spies was a collective summons to fear and suspicion.  The report of the spies sent a shattering dread among the people.  A spiritual "Auto De Fe" was set ablaze among the people.  The statement "...we were like grasshoppers in our own sight..."  broke the faith of the body politic.

The people believed the 'lie' of their representatives.  After all, their chosen leaders had gone into the promised land and found an impossible foe.  The situation was hopeless.  The defeated spies added the words "...and so we were in their sight."

How do we overcome the power of the collective lie?  Well, as always Yahweh has those close to him who see the victory over the impossible situation by faith.  Joshua and Caleb stepped forth and strongly refuted the 'lie' of the grasshopper mentality.

Joshua and Caleb refuted the slanderous and outrageous lie of the mutilated ones.  The mutilated ones are those who have no word from God, but they love to shower their twisted and stunted human viewpoint upon the people of faith.  Has someone told you that you are a grasshopper?  If so deeply consider the source and get away from their self destructive and other destructive viewpoint.

But they say "We saw the giants..."  but they have failed to remember the God who delivers his people from every Ma'at. There is no control outside of Yahweh's hand.  I am asking all of God's people to once and for all get rid of the 'grasshopper' mindset.  Its time to serve the Lord of Grace and Love through the Iesous. Their is no greater power than God's.  He is Almighty.

Notice the broken give and take of transference and counter-transference in the verse.  Why are we always so willing to take on a view of ourselves that is not within the pages of the Word of God? Today you must begin the counter intuitive work of learning to see yourself in the image of the Iesous.  The grasshopper mind is the mind of the past mired down by weight of an enslaved self-image.  God had set his people free, and yet there were those who had to manufacture a poor self-image because they could not believe in Yahweh's salvation.

It is better to see ourselves as lacking rather than as having the power to live free.  It's better to create the fiction of bondage than to walk in the life that God has provided in Iesous.  A poor self -image is ok if it is reinforced by others equally so disposed.  We are inviting persons to come to the Iesous and give up the fiction of the Ma'at for the new life of God though the cross of his Son.

The Iesous has come to open the doors of eternal life to those who want a new life.  God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in Him would have eternal life.  Today, say yes to Iesous. God will give you a new self-image unencumbered by the Ma'at of the world.

God has come in the Iesous to overthrow the order of the world and its inherent system of order.  Indeed, the Ma'at of the world is dependent upon the ultimate order of Yahweh.  Therefore dependent order is arrogant order inasmuch as it is blind to its dependency upon the final order.

Ma'at is cosmic fiction in love with its reflection.  The spies who went into the promised land could not give up the Egyptian view of themselves.  They carried the Egyptian slave view of who they were into their new situation.  The old conquered the new within their new situation.  They could not see what God had done for them due to spiritual blindness.

Their blindness was contagious and filled with the pestilence of "grasshopper" beliefs.  The community suffered under their false testimony.  But God had two witnesses who stood up with him amidst the growing character assassination of God among the people.    

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.

"Tactics of Manipulation and Control" For Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment permeates our culture.  Even the Centers For Disease Control has conducted extensive studies on the topic because it is pandemic, and does not seem to show any signs of slacking off. On the contrary, we are witnessing the meltdown of an ethos that has guided the American governmental, and business enterprises for generations.  Not that scandal of a sexual nature was not present in the business world, it was however, carefully hidden from public view.  The old system of hiding sexual harassment from the public has vanished.

The revelations of public and religious figures who have trampled upon the trust and integrity vouchsafed to them by the people through  irresponsible sexual behavior are almost daily events.  No one knows just how deep or far-reaching these sinister breaches of social mores may go. What is evident, however, is the fact that these events are reshaping the business landscape of the country.  It seems that the business community may require not only training in sexual harassment, but training in how to recognize the personality types that create the havoc of sexual harassment within a business community.

While there may not be a psychological milieu that can identify potential perpetrators of sexual harassment there are principles available to help recognize the "Tactics of Manipulation and Control" that create the environment of sexual harassment.  This information is also  for the timid or self-effacing types who submit to the tactic of the manipulator out of fear or intimidation.  (We also recognize that there are companies that pay victims of sexual harassment to keep quiet and not reveal the callow invasion of their persons by abusers).

In a marvelous book entitled "In Sheep's Clothing:  Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People" George K.Simon, Jr., Ph. D. offers very practical and sobering insight into the world of manipulators.  In particular chapter nine addresses the issue of how to recognize the tactics of manipulation and control.  This chapter was of great importance to me because after years of counseling persons who were sexually abused as children this chapter gives information that helps to create healthy boundaries when one has to deal with an individual who preys upon with weak personal boundaries.

Simon's observes:  "Traditional models of human behavior and personality are not helpful when it comes to understanding the character disturbed individual...  All character-disordered individuals, especially aggressive personalities, use a variety of mental behaviors and interpersonal maneuvers to help ensure they get what they want.  The behaviors... enumerated in this chapter simultaneously accomplish several things that can lead to victimization...  It's not possible to list all the tactics a good manipulator is capable of using to hoodwink or gain advantage over others... However, a good manipulator will often throw so many of these at you at once that you might not realize how badly you've been manipulated until it's too late."

Let's face it the business arena has become the playground of the manipulator intending to practice sexual harassment.  He is fiendishly clever and opportunistic.  He truly walks about in sheep's clothing waiting and lurking about for a personality type upon which to ply his craft.  The following are some of the tactics that Simon's cites as used by the manipulator.

• Minimization:  When using this maneuver, the aggressor is attempting to assert that his behavior isn't really as harmful or irresponsible as someone else may be claiming.   
• Denial:  This "Who...Me?" tactic invites the victim to feel unjustified in confronting the aggressor about the inappropriateness of a behavior.  It's also the way the aggressor gives himself/herself permission to keep right on doing what they want to do.  
• Diversion:  Manipulators use distraction and diversion techniques to keep the focus off their behavior, move us off-track, and keep themselves free to promote their self-serving hidden agendas.  Sometimes this can be very subtle.  

It is very important to become as astute a possible with the tactics of manipulators so as to avoid victimization in the business environment.  However, it is often difficult because a highly skilled tactician knows when he is up against an amateur who has some formal academic training in manipulative behavior but who is yet  not experientially qualified to competently negotiate his or her skill set in this dark area of human behavior.

Remember sexual harassment is the abuse of power, and it is therefore important to have one's head in "the game."  Corporate training in the behavior of manipulative tactics and control may not yet be mandated for businesses, but it should be.  As we have become more aware of the intrinsic presence of sexual harassment in the corporate world so must it become equally important to educate the workforce in psychological self-defense.

In my next submission I will explore more of the diabolic methods used by manipulators to disarm and defeat the unwary and unsuspecting individual who may or may not know that he or she has been targeted for manipulative advantage. "Sex In The Forbidden Zone" is no longer merely problematic it is a corporate pandemic disease that poses a grave and substantive threat to American business culture.

MVP Seminars provides sexual harassment training, coaching, and consultation for corporate and local government institutions who want their employees and management personnel to receive mandated sexual harassment training with uncompromising excellence.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.