Mar 11
29
What’s The Point in Calling Me Lord?
Is just listening enough?
What’s The Point?
Let’s start there and then grow into something far bigger. Jesus said, “What is the point of calling me ‘Lord’ unless you do what I tell you to do?” Then he went on to graphically illustrate that there is no point whatsoever. What he went on to say is ignored by many who have no idea that they are following a tradition started by a Jewish guy they refer to as, “The Apostle Paul.”
Now then, let’s be blunt. A great deal of people …when we say a great deal, we’re talking in the millions, call themselves Christians and believe that, by doing so, they are honoring the one we in the “west” think of as Jesus the Christ (by whatever other title or name) …and to emphasize the point of “whatever other name,” some of these attempt to get me to refer to him as Yeshua, as if by putting a Hebrew tag on him that I will be referring to the “real” Jesus.
What’s the point?
Because, according to how Luke quoted Jesus, there isn’t any point whatever. Luke put several things on the table that he stated Jesus said immediately prior to, “What’s the point of calling me Lord if you don’t do what I say?” Here’s Luke’s list from chapter 6 of his Gospel
(Luke): 27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good things to those who hate you,
28 bless them who abuse you.
29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn your head so they can hit the other side as well. If someone takes your coat, give him your shirt as well. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.
31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even infidels love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Infidels do that.
34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even infidels lend to infidels, expecting to be repaid in full.
35 But you …love your enemies, treat them well, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 “Do not judge and you will not be judged; Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
38 Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
39 He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit?
40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.
41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye?
42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from blackberry bushes or grapes from anything with thorns on it.
45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
Okay, the above list is the stuff that immediately precedes – “What’s the point of calling me ‘Lord’ if you don’t do what I tell you to do.
Who can say what is good and what is evil? What is the test?
I humbly and respectfully submit that Christian moralism ignores much of the above without realizing that the invention of Christian morals does not come from Jesus but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and is born and bred in a lie. Am I advocating being immoral? No, but what I am advocating is that if we want to have Jesus the Christ as Lord of our lives, it is imperative that we do not judge the morality or lack thereof in other people and think we are being “Christian.” No, wait a minute; Christian morality is Christianity, but following a moral code, any moral code, is not following Jesus. Much of what is called Christianity is a lie hatched by demonic forces …so what’s the point?
According to Jesus there is no point and those who hear what he says and fail to do it are building their lives with no foundation and in the end it will come to nothing. Remember, Jesus said that, not I. If you don’t like what I’m saying, may I suggest that you go to Jesus’ Daddy and ask what you should do about it? Avoid going to those who have titles of spiritual authority and superiority for your answers. Why?
Because the SOURCE through Jesus said we’re not supposed to refer to anyone by any such title; and, further, we are not supposed to allow ourselves to be referred to by any such title either. Remember, Jesus said that his words were not his words but Whom I refer to the SOURCE was speaking through him. Back to the issue at hand, Christians love to refer to their spiritual leaders as, “our pastor,” in direct disobedience to what Jesus said.
The list in which their esteemed “Apostle Paul” includes that particular title – and, if you don’t already realize it, the title is blasphemous! “Pastor” means shepherd and Jesus said there is only one shepherd and it ain’t some guy/gal that attended divinity school and allows him/her to be tagged with “Reverend.”
Is this man a religious leader, should we call him "Pastor"?
Look, I realize that I am saying tough things, things which require a change, that is, if you believe that they are from the SOURCE of everything. I will also say that it is difficult to walk away from doing them. Being formerly an ordained pastor who, when I discovered Jesus’ words about not allowing anyone to call me by any such title, even some of the more innocuous ones like “minister” – because, as Jesus said, we are ALL to minister to one another in the same kind of equality as brothers and sisters are equal – different yes, but equal in stature; I didn’t find it just difficult, but impossible to get people to stop calling me “pastor.”
Daddy also brought it to my attention that I had a tremendous amount of ego involved in the position and the respect it garners. This was important to see, and it caused me to try even harder to get people to stop seeing me as something different than they. They resisted it even more than my own ego.
But, do you know what? Once I was finally obedient to Jesus and came out of the “whore of Babylon” (the title given to organized Christianity by the writer of the last book in the Bible …Revelation), I began discovering all kinds of things that I had not even considered previously.
There is an old Native Hawaiian maxim that fits beautifully: “You will find it impossible to discover new lands until you lose sight of the shore.” Coming out of Christianity to follow Jesus and his Daddy fits the metaphor beautifully. As long as the outrigger is tethered to the dock we discover nothing. My challenge has come from trying to maintain ties to the system and not call bovine waste bovine waste.
Is your canoe free from the dock?
By refusing to even allow myself to be called a Christian because the genesis of Christianity was not Jesus, but the one who some Jewish theologians refer to as Jesus’ older brother; and whom Jesus referred to as the “god of this world” and “the father of lies” has helped considerably …as Christians, by and large, don’t want to hear these things.
My canoe is free from the dock and I am able to let Daddy lead me to discover new lands. If the father of lies was the perpetrator of the system and is the perpetuator of it, is it not safe to say it is the great lie and deception? Well, we can at least see that Christianity isn’t the “church” Jesus said he’d build. In fact, John, his self-proclaimed favorite disciple, wrote that in a vision Jesus told him that he (Jesus) hated the practices of the Nicolaitans – the word itself tells it all; “nico” meaning control by an elitist group of spiritual leaders over the “laity” meaning the common man.
The next time you hear a couple of “pastors” refer to the “sheep” your reaction could be something akin to what John said that Jesus told him in the above referenced vision: The practice made him vomit them out of his mouth! What then, should we do? That is a question for Jesus, start seeking and knocking for the answer that is unique for you ….UNTIL you get it. He may tell you to stay in the system and that’s fine with me. He’s told me, “What’s that to you? You come and follow me.” Okay Ryan, what do you think of this one? What’s the point?Podcast 62 What’s the Point in Calling Me Lord
In
Freedom,
Brad