Jul 14
13
The Big Question
Are my problems either caused or allowed by God, or am I just having problems – or am I, somehow, responsible for all the problems and pain in my life?
Don't like what you have, blame the maker.
The foregoing question is funneled into four apparent possible answers:
ONE: Everything is caused by God.
TWO: Everything is allowed by God.
THREE: Each of my challenges is just “one of those things.”
FOUR: I, somehow, bring all the crap in my life onto myself.
We’ll look at a fifth possibility after we get started down the road a bit, but let’s look more closely at the four we’ve enumerated so far and ask, why it might be important to know which one is correct?
One reason it could be important to know is that if we are beginning to have a desire to overcome whatever challenges we are having in our lives, knowing the cause may open the door to the cure.
Perhaps God should be reprimanded?
Just looking at our problems from the vantage point of possible causes can often provide cures. If you believe that God either caused or allowed your specific problem, that is, numbers one or two, above, you will tend to believe that it’s up to God to fix it. Well, if God caused or allowed it for some undetermined (to you) purpose, then how on earth can you fix it or get it fixed via some expert human help?
Are you not, one, under the scenario of God causing or allowing whatever, either a victim of God’s deliberate action against you or, two, a victim due to the fact that He didn’t protect you from it?
I get blown away by people who tell me that some disease or another in their lives is God’s will. Then they go on to tell me that their doctor said such and such related to it. Of course, the glaring question, the BIG QUESTION: If it is “God’s will,” why on earth go to a doctor to get whatever fixed?
If you are willing to just consider the possibility that number four on the referenced list is true, that is, you somehow brought about the challenge all by your lonesome; you may begin to see the way out or around it.
Are you ready for a fight?
What if the cause is some unknown enemy? That’s the numero FIVE I said we’d get to …we have arrived! Wouldn’t it make sense to find out who or what it is? If you take anything out of the Bible to mean something, what about one writer’s insistence that what we “struggle” with or, as another translation has it, “We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but principalities of darkness” – of course, some put an “evil” connotation on the word darkness – in the original language it is simply saying that we are in the “dark” meaning that we cannot see these “principalities” meaning “rulers” over certain arenas in this 3rd dimension we call the physical plane.
Here is where, if we let it, the Bible, in the original language, can really teach us something; and I insert “original language” simply because of all the claptrap religious teachers put on the various English words that don’t let us see what the intended meaning is/was in the first place.
The book or the source of the book?
Then we further obfuscate the truth with a bunch of silly arguments over whether the Bible contains truth or myths, half-truths or stuff better left in the past to whom it was written in the first place – or that we need a metaphysical dictionary to interpret these odd English words – my apologies to anyone who insists upon this latter – in many cases, Charles Fillmore’s Metaphysical Bible Dictionary is a spot-on equivalent to the literal meaning of the original text, well now, that is from my point of view.
Therefore, at least and yet again, in my view, it is a long stride better as an indicator of what a particular word meant in the original language than some crazy interpretation one or another religious writer or teacher may put on some English word that doesn’t mean what that word meant when it was translated in the first place.
To all the above there is a marvelous answer …get our head out of books, no matter how “Holy” and listen to what the “SPIRIT of Truth,” the “Word of God” is saying today!
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The three sects of Abrahamic monotheism. You don't have to pick one.
To this end, we are going to embark on a brand new series, the title of which will be somewhat misleading only because of the interpretation of what some people think I am saying with the name “Jesus” in it. “My” publisher has already indicated a commitment to publish the series as a book – although the CEO, Ryan Bruce, has already suggested a different title. We’ll settle that out later.
Meanwhile, referencing the Bible, again (please get out your favorite version), please go, right now, to Hebrews 13:8 …universally all translators agree that the reference, in the original language, is being made to Jesus as the fulfillment or “coming” of the long awaited promise of “The Messiah” in Jewish lore. It just came to me to say that Christianity is nothing more than one of the many modern forms of Judaism. Ooh, that’ll raise some hackles.
My retort is, so what? Nothing ties Christianity to Judaism as much as this single key issue of whether Jesus is the “Messiah.”
Pick one, they lead to the same destination.
Now hear this: I AM NEITHER CHRISTIAN NOR JEW; nor Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or an adherent to any other religion (period)!
If you are a Jew and refuse Jesus as “your” Messiah, welcome aboard! If you are a Muslim or Hindu and, as many of those who belong to one of the many sects of Islam or Hinduism, who think of Jesus as a great Prophet, welcome aboard! If you are partial to one of the many religious groups which think of Jesus as an “Ascended Master” …welcome aboard! If you are of one of those whose beliefs make it necessary for you to refer to Jesus as Y’shua, then welcome aboard.
Purely for the fun of it, I lifted this old, old quote off the Jews for Jesus website:
“Most portrayers of the life of Jesus neglect to point out that Jesus is in every characteristic a genuinely Jewish character, that a man like him could have grown only in the soil of Judaism, only there and nowhere else. Jesus is a genuine Jewish personality, all his struggles and works, his bearing and feeling, his speech and silence, bear the stamp of a Jewish style, the mark of Jewish idealism, of the best that was and is in Judaism, but which then existed only in Judaism. He was a Jew among Jews; from no other people could a man like him have come forth, and in no other people could a man like him work; in no other people could he have found the apostles who believed in him” . . .
To which I say: Yada, yada, yada, etc. Who cares!??! This is not the Jesus to which I am referring.
Can you separate the man from the spirit? Can you separate the Jesus from the Christ?
The Jesus I’m referring to is the one who is the “same yesterday today and forever” – if you need to add “The Christ” either as a title, which it is literally, or make it part of his name, that is, “Jesus Christ,” welcome aboard. If you are of any label which you feel is “dumped on” by the rest of society, welcome aboard.
I, Brad Cullen, being in and of the Jesus I am writing about, exclude no one. If, for you to be comfortable, Jesus has to be referred to as a prophet …go ahead and add that, Jesus, The Prophet, because he is that to me as well. If you have to add “Ascended Master” every time you see the name Jesus – he is all that and more to me. If you think of him as some poor Mexican kid whose parents put the label, “Jesus,” on him – you know, they pronounce it “hay-soose” …he’s that too!
Read the reference again, aloud, so that you hear it! Again, he is “THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER” …and what you believe about him isn’t going to change that. Now for the title of this new series, soon to be a book: What Jesus Is Teaching …Today.
Jesus is all things to me – an “Ascended Master” who lives in me and speaks to me in the same presence and power of our (your and my) SPIRIT-PARENT Who is willing to speak to and through anyone. He is our (your and my) elder brother, the “First Born among many” brothers and sisters of which I AM one.
From the same Bible, which you have to admit created all this unnecessary confusion in the first place (that’ll tick off a few of my brothers and sisters), but if you’ll get your heads out of your butts and the “Book” and realize that it is the Book in which one of Jesus’ disciples, John, purportedly wrote this – and this is accurately translated from the original language: “In the beginning, the complete expression (sorry folks, “Word” is poppycock; you simply cannot take the word in the original language which means the complete, creative, outward expression “of God” and attempt to make the English word, “Word,” convey anything like what is meant.
Can Spirit become man? How about you?
For now, we shall just leave it that this creative SPIRIT part of the “Godhead” which created the universe (and Brad Cullen sez, STILL IS) became that Jewish guy we know as Jesus. In that very same chapter that our dear friend Johnny wrote, says quite clearly (again, sorry, but it has to be said), in the original language, that as many as receive this truth, again, that the SPIRIT which created everything became a man, we too have the power and authority to also claim to be joint heirs with Jesus. Get it? I sure hope so …it has taken a lot of hard work to get this far.
First segment (then chapter) coming right up. I hope you’re along for the ride… what Jesus is teaching (me) TODAY!
“But, Jay,” I argued, “why on earth would you be directing me to write another book? I just finished one and haven’t even completed formatting it for commercial publishing yet.”
As if he didn’t know everything about this, I kept on telling him what was bothering me and the reason I was resisting. I have several other projects that are looming …one is extremely close to my heart and gets launched in Toronto, Ontario next month.
This is a rather daring group that somewhat apologetically refers to itself as a “house church” …and also as a “fellowship,” numbering around thirty, including those who are of an age to be “legally” designated as children, have invited me to be with them and share.
It's OK Brad not everyone is Christian.
The host family and I are being led down some rather quirky paths together – exciting paths because we have only clues, some are relatively clear, some are opaque as to what we are about to do, again, together. These paths include business as well as my jumping back into the fray of meeting with people who refer to themselves as “Christians,” something I have avoided for years somewhat akin to a plague.
These folks have been reading Brad Cullen stuff for over two years and know quite well that I refuse any religious label, but particularly “Christian.” As with all labels that one simply means too many things to too many people to communicate anything meaningful to anyone. Jay has me on the path of being all things to everyone so that those who are ready for what I have been given to share are not put off by any label, (PERIOD).
I love this family and they love me and have officially adopted me into their family; this is not a big thing, they love EVERYBODY!
I’m told that the book is necessary for what is coming next and since Jay and our SPIRIT-PARENT will be guiding each sentence, there is no reason for my resisting. I mean, how does it get any better than this?
New Podcast: 105 – The Big Question