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The Answer To The Universe

The Answer To The Universe is “beheld” with heart eyes in Revelation 5:6.

And I saw, and behold, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, was a Lamb standing, as having been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, having been sent out into all the earth. (LITV)

“Beheld” is set in quotes to tell the reader that I mean a different aspect of the word than what is typically understood.

To “behold” is a type of seeing that you do with your heart to understand nature of being. What flows out of your heart identifies the nature of your being. By heart flow I mean your inner thought life spurned on by motivations and premises subconsciously hidden beneath like a well’s source. Every human operates by a heart trajectory that is completely inverse to and opposite of what we see in Revelation 5:6. So much so, that it is in our blind spot of awareness and life.

Hearts can detect life flow, which is why heart eyes can become illuminated (Eph 1:17-18). In the quote of Rev 5:6, focus in on the phrase: “a Lamb standing, as having been slain.” Notice that standing is a living and risen reality, while slain is a being killed and made dead reality. Said differently, standing represents a resurrection standing; slain represents the end of a dying process that makes dead. Understand this apparent contradiction with heart eyes and you can become illuminated to a type of being unimaginable without direct spiritual intervention. I’ve chosen these words carefully for your personal discourse with the Holy Spirit, Who is The Intervening Teacher and Illuminator.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24 (ESV)

A seed falls to the ground and dies… this is a trajectory. If it dies, then it bears much fruit… that is also a trajectory. So, where do we see this dying and rising process combined? We see it in a seed’s cycle. Jesus is personally claiming to be The Dying Seed and Rising True Vine. A mistake would be to assume that the first dying trajectory ended at the cross, rather than it being indicative and typical of Who Jesus always is. For what does Heb 13:8 tell us? Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Who Jesus is-being is constant. God spoke the universe into existence the same way He saves us. There is no turning of shadows in Him (James 1:17).

…giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10b-11 (ESV)

In the quote above, Isaiah was pondering and contemplating this very reality of God speaking and creating in 6 days in Genesis 1. God’s Word goes out of His mouth, expressing His being and existing. Of course, Jesus is This Word and this Seed in John 1, Luke 8:10-12, and James 1:21. By seeing and “beholding” Jesus, we see Who The Father is-being, specifically What Kind He is within (John 14:9).

By “beholding” Rev 5:6’s “slain Lamb standing” by the Holy Spirit’s confirming brightness dawning in your heart, you begin to understand the nature by which our King governs and reigns. The world calls this foolishness. Paul said it was the power of God (1 Cor 1:18-25). Know your King; rather than just doing things for a correct religion (Matthew 7:21-23).

Transposition: Look To The Lamb

C. S. Lewis preached a sermon at Oxford University by this title – Transposition – to illustrate how Higher Order Reality (The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus in 2Co 3:18) transforms low-order reality (finite human beings) into conformity with itself. C.S. Lewis gives a number of examples to show how this transposition-reality already operates in the natural world of common human experience. The idea is that there is a Higher and more complex order seeking to communicate in a lower order with a limited vocabulary of expression. Lewis used the example of the body’s feelings to describe the lower, limited vocabulary. My example would be that we cry when we are sad and we cry when we are joyful. Physiologically we cry for both at the lower level of our body, yet there is a higher level of experiences operating in us that are far more complex and even opposite in meaning.

C. S. Lewis says the most obvious example of higher to lower transposition is how we draw the 3-D world onto paper with pencils. It is an “adaptation from a richer to a poorer medium.” Light and snow are both communicated as white paper. He notes that the natural materialist is stuck in the lower realm of limited white paper vocabulary. Just as I would point to food for a dog to eat, the natural materialist is like the dog and does not perceive the meaning, but just comes up to my finger to sniff it. Furthermore, he suggests that everyone living in a modernized society is a natural materialist by default. This is an added barrier we need to recognize, in order to accept the higher way and thought that exists beyond what physical senses can detect.

C.S. Lewis describes these levels of higher reality and order of complexity like that of higher dimensions of reality. We understand the 2-dimensional realty of a flat screen and how that differs from 3-dimensional reality. C.S. Lewis suggest that this is the same for our universal experience as humans living physical bodies in time and space. There is a higher dimensional alphabet, so to speak, but we are only capable of a flatter expression in a more limited alphabet. So, multiple letters from the higher dimensional alphabet must use the same lower-dimensional letter of the limited selection to express their various higher meanings, which from our lower dimensional reality virtually look the same.

Yet, at the same time, this line of communication from higher to lower is also the lifeline by which we are transformed through transposition from the higher to the lower. The more the lower releases their grip on the lower reality, the more the higher can infill, so to speak. “Losing your psyche-life” as Luke 9:24 describes creates the “for My Sake” space of Jesus’ Life to be there and save it. James 1:21 tells us to hold tightly to this implanted Logos-Word, Who is able to save our psyche-lives.

Also, as with 2 Corinthians 3:18’s transformation from the glory seen in stories like Moses’ glowing face into the Big “G” Glory shining from Jesus’s Face, we see transposition. Even 1 Corinthians 15 brings it to the fore in verse 40 and surrounding, “the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another” (ESV). Most importantly, when Jesus tells Nicodemus about “Our Testimony” in John 3:11, He is referring to the “Our” of John 8:18, “I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” The “Our” is of Jesus and His Father through their shared Spirit. Thus, truly beholding the Father’s witness in the face of Jesus is Spiritual Reality that transforms us like how Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3 – 4.

Jesus goes on in John 3:14 to connect the reality seen in Numbers 21:4-9 with His upcoming crucifixion. Beholding how the serpent is petrified on a wood pole on a hill depicts what He Who knew no sin will do to Satan when he throws everything at Jesus in His weakened state on the cross. Then as Jesus takes that Adamic reality inspired by the devil to the great hush of its nonfunctionally in His death, Jesus says that beholding this reality is actually to our practical healing from the satanic poison. Yes, hold on to the implanted Logos-Word! Look to The Lamb! Fix your eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2)!

2Co 3:18’s Transformation Transposition functions as follows. The 2-D picture is the Bible story authored by the Spirit having place in many people. The Holy Spirit is like the 3-D reality in our illustration. Thus, our Bible record is a 2-D roll-out of the Holy Spirit’s 3-D Reality interacting with us. We can read the Bible stories like 2-D reality and never get past the moral of a story. However, the Spirit wants us to see Jesus. So, if we are set on seeing Him and thus knowing What Kind He is, the Spirit can “rend the heavens” so speak and communicate spiritually.

2Co 3’s example is Moses with a glowing face. The fact, that Paul uses this example, means that he has already taught it and the Corinthians are already familiar with it. How familiar are we with the story to the point we understand what the Hebrew word pictures about his glow, or the context of how this happened not long after Moses offered himself as a sacrifice in place of the people being destroyed? That such Jesus Pictures are not well-known, we see generally sloppy translations of 2 Corinthians 4:4, which alludes to Paul’s main point by using the rare Greek word augazó, “to beam forth like dawn”.

What a Berean would do, is camp in Exodus 34 and do some exploring of the Hebrew words that describe the glow in Moses’ face. If you take the time to read the 2-D picture of Exodus 34:35 in Hebrew, you will see that the verb used to describe the light beams means to grow horns. Light glowing like how horns grow sounds odd until you reflect how children draw triangles around a circle to depict the sun on paper. For Moses, it was a double, even triple-meaning from a higher vocabulary trying to express itself in a limited selection of flat letters.

In the Hebrew context of the Bible, horns always mean sacrificial animal, the animal’s power, and horns blown as a call to assembly in ancient Israel. All of these relate to us in the corporate body of Christ. Moses with a glowing face in the Bible story is depicted as the slain Lamb standing in all power, but our Reality is Rev 5:6, “…I saw a slaughtered little lamb standing…” at the throne of the heavens over the heavens.

Again, do not understand the words I have typed above – though necessary it is. Rather, allow the Holy Spirit of the Higher Reality to envelop you into Who Jesus is – What Kind He is giving Himself away completely. That is the ONLY reason why Moses’ face glowed, so that it would be a testimony of Jesus pictured for us today to know Him “as He is.” It is the beholding of this depiction of Jesus’s All-Authority Reality that is the key to living His Crucified Life. Jesus told Nicodemus so; Paul told the Corinthians and Galatians so, but do we even know it / Him? Behold The Lamb of God.

Ontological Friction

Rev 14:8 And another, a second messenger, follows, saying, “It falls! It falls! Babylon the great has made all nations drink of the wine of the fury of her prostitution!”

Rev 14:9 And another, a third messenger, follows them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone is worshiping the wild beast and its image, and is getting an emblem on his forehead or on his hand,

Rev 14:10 he, also, is drinking of the wine of the fury of God, blended undiluted in the cup of His indignation, and he shall be tormented in fire and sulphur in the sight of the holy messengers and in the sight of the Lambkin.”

Rev 14:11 And the fumes of their torment are ascending for the eons of the eons. And they are having no rest day and night, those worshiping the wild beast and its image, and if anyone is getting the emblem of its name.”

Rev 14:12 Here is the endurance of the saints, who are keeping the precepts of God and the faith of Jesus.”

Rev 14:13 And I hear a voice out of heaven, saying, “Write: ‘Happy are the dead who are dying in the Lord henceforth! Yea, the spirit is saying that they will be resting from their toil, for their acts are following with them.'” Concordant Literal Version [1]

Revelation 14:8-13 is a challenging passage from the last book of the Bible for many people. Its mysteries never started becoming apparent to me until I simply believed the first phrase of the Bible’s last book at face value, which is The Revelation of Jesus Christ, or better The Unveiling or Disclosure of Jesus the Messiah. Leave it to the devil to get us “sheeople” off focus and to obsess about future events in a book with such a title and introductory statement! The enemy does not want us beholding the “Being-Beauty” of Jesus revealed.

I am not saying that the Revelation of Jesus Christ does not present future events. Rather, I am saying that its primary purpose is to show us Who Jesus is BEING within and in and among a people, city, bride – and how easy it is for us to get off focus. The Ephesians church lost sight of their First Love, or more literally their “love, the one at first” – a reciprocal being-reality as opposed to something mechanical or more concrete. It is the devil that makes us look to this book for “last works” when Jesus explicitly says, “bring forth the first actions, energies, and works” of being in desperate pursuit of the one you love, which always comes as the result of His revelation and unveiling of His BEING in you.

The revelation you had at first that caused you to ask Jesus to come into your heart was never supposed to stop. Who Jesus is BEING is always new to us as we corporately seek to see Him being Himself in familiar Bible stories. When a body loses focus, the Apostle Paul is quick to call them bewitched (Gal 3:1). This danger of settling for familiar religion has arguably been the plague of all church bodies ever since Paul penned 2 Timothy 1:15, “…everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me…” All the churches in the book of Revelation are in the province of Asia (Western Turkey). Where are their congregations now? To whom was the Revelation of Jesus, The Anointed One written?

The study of the nature of being is ontology. Friction is resistance and contrariness to being acted upon. “They rub me the wrong way,” is a way of describing this. Ontological friction is then a state of being that is in contrast and opposition to how another person is being.

Consider this as the reality of the lake of fire. On the earth, friction leads to heat, then fire. Spiritual realities generally have earthly manifestations that depict it, since we often forget the spiritual existed before the material. The smoke of their torment is related to spiritual being. Its ascending and rising forever is a fuming resistance to The Lambkin’s Trajectory of Being. In other words, they refuse to give up their lives as Jesus did for a variety of reasons that are all missing the flow, thought and way of Jesus as the Dying Seed (John 12:24). Let’s ponder the nature of this friction that result in this fuming resistance.

By default, the trajectory of Jesus’ BEING is in our ontological blind spot. Peter receives revelation from The Father of the Son in Matthew 16:17, then verses later in 16:23 Jesus is calling him, “Satan.” Peter did not suddenly become evil embodied; rather he simply expressed the default all humans have of self-preservation. Jesus came to give Himself away like how a lone seed takes the trajectory of decline into the ground towards death. Peter is trying to stop The Promised Seed of Genesis 3:15 from following His cycle to increase: The Higher Way of Isaiah 55:8-11.

Jesus is quick to save those who call on Him. Prior knowledge is not a requirement. However, there is this being-way that permeates the God’s Kingdom and all its citizens that looks like their King in Revelation 5:6. The Lone Seed fell into the ground as the Slain Lamb, yet He stands risen and reigning in Life. This Way is The Way of the book of Acts. And even saved people in the primitive church like Ananias and Saphira can miss it.

Consider that the lake of fire’s reality became manifest with bronze altar, located before the Tabernacle, Tent, Temple, hence before the Presence of God. Thus, if every sacrifice pointed to Jesus, then only Jesus could give what the altar demanded, so to speak. Only Jesus, as the Son of God and man, has the ability and love to give more than death can take. In fact, if given correctly, as Jesus did, death becomes dislodged. Since Jesus is also fully a human being, He can share His victory over death with all who willingly “learn His BEING” by spiritually beholding Him in this Dying Seed Way as “Greater Love.” This term from John 15:13 aligns with Philippians 2:5-11 – both depicting the trajectory of The Seed’s Being as crucial Life Reality for us. The extent of Jesus’ love can easily be seen as scandalous. Paul describes the offense of the cross in Galatians 5:11. In Hebrews 12:2-6, Jesus despised the shame of the cross for love.

Thus, what is the lake of fire if not the place where we find those offended by and resisting This Love? God never changes. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. “Therefore, blessed are the dead…” Rev 14:13 says as a result, “who die in the Lord from now on.” Jesus’ death as Greater Love is their death too. They rest in Him as opposed to resist. “Dying in the Lord” means going with the Dying Seed on His path to eternal life increase. How else do seeds bring abundance? Thusly being congruent in heart, their works do follow them into forever’s life increase.

Spiritual Reality is bundled in such earthly pictures. It is how you should read Genesis 1 by focusing on the seed and then that seed’s cycle reality as our food. To make His point, God created Eve according to the seed-cycle picture in Genesis 2.[2] Adam is dirt and a lone seed falling to the ground, where God does a work by openings that pull out the stuff of that “giving all” – by which the living bride rises. She is of the same stuff of His descending, but she is also risen and living by Him.

From the start, before sin, there exists a trajectory of being that looks like a seed going on its cycle. As a result of the fall – taking in the forbidden seed of knowing good and bad relative to finite self – we got sucked into an inverse flow. I am still speaking of ontology here. It is a dead-end flow, disconnected from the seed-cycle for lack of a better term. And if you are not with that seed cycle – The Person of Jesus, Who is Life – then “loss of life” is what you have; the fading echo of life; “the smoke of your torment rising” as long as He is loving.

People debate about the eternality of hell, and invariable get off focus from Jesus, Who is by being Eternal Life. “How could a loving God let people fume in torment forever?” they say. However, I say, how could a loving God stop being Love? Love does not force Himself on people.

The eternal fire was created for spiritual entities that are locked into their opposing trajectory of being from outside of our space-time continuum (Matthew 25:41). It was never meant for human beings to experience. When we die, the trajectory of being within our core is locked in like the goats who shall go away motivated for self in Matthew 25:46. “For self” is in ontological friction with Jesus “for others.” As with a dying seed falling into the ground for the harvest, eternal life only has vitality when it is likewise directed for the increase of others.

Living for self is a dead end. All default human goals apart from inner congruency with Jesus giving Himself away by Greater Love for others are like a branch cut off from a tree. How long can the echo of life from Life fade if its source was Infinite? What could people want more than Greater Love giving All of Himself eternally? If you resist The One Who never changes being Greater Love, how long does that last?

Let us focus on Jesus as The Resurrection and The Life, True Reality and The Way (of the Seed)… for others in love. We can “learn Him” – learn His Heart this way by encountering His Spirit. While people where brutalizing and torturing Jesus to death on the cross – so they thought – Jesus was operating by a Higher Thought and Way by being The River of Life… for others by Greater Love. We can transcend the defaults of this life by freely drinking from The Way of Being flowing out from Jesus at the cross. Meditating on The OT’s / TaNaK’s Jesus Pictures can transform from glory to Glory, because it is really Him by His Eternal Spirit being beheld. Your sanctification is for others by Greater Love.

I strongly encourage you to read the books listed on the other page.

[1] I encourage the reading of this version, CLV, and the JMNT (Jonathan Mitchel New Testament) with www.e-sword.net , because both translations explore the possibilities of the Greek text, rather than the dominant tradition. Notice the word “dominant” and at least entertain the idea that a beast often dominates as opposed to the little Lambkin giving Himself away.

[2] God called and formed all things into being by The Way and Thought of His Being that came out of His mouth and follows the trajectory of seed in its cycle. Adam “falls into death” like a seed. He is both that seed and the mud dirt. The holes in and out are God’s doing as He takes of the very seed-stuff that gave and gives all from near the man’s sinless heart. That Dying Seed constitutional reality is provided in risen form at the presentation of Eve, the mother of all living. It is a Rev 5:6 picture being with a Rev 21:23 picture of the wife going the same Dying Seed way… descending.

God’s Passion – His Heated Breathing

You have heard of the “Passion of the Christ.” It is a movie from 2004 that graphically shows how Jesus willingly gave up His life to be tortured to death on a Roman cross. It is called a “passion” primarily because the Latin word for enduring suffering is passio. There is a related Greek word that perhaps explains this the best: thumos. (The hyperlink will take you to Biblehub’s definitions.)

I’d like to explain this word before I shock you with a passage from the Bible that uses this word in two seemingly different senses. Many, if not most translations, will not even translate the words the same, even though the two occurrences of thumos are only separated by one verse. Many others try to paraphrase away the intended narrative contrast – all missing the point – and all missing a VITAL opportunity to know more about Who our God is, What Kind He is.

Notice that Strong’s defines thumos as passion, specifically the outburst of passion. HELPS, a more recent source for definitions in association with Biblehub, would have us understand thumos as rushing along with heated breathing. Like many words, it has both a positive and negative sense. Getting all heated up about something rubbing you the wrong way can express wrath, fury, and anger. In a positive sense, well, I will let the Bible express it. As I said, the struggle is finding a translation that will let the thumos words be simply translated the same in the directly contrasting and scandalous sense they were intended to be seen. Below are two translations available with www.e-sword.net.

Rev 14:8 And another second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who caused all the nations to drink from the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”

Rev 14:9 And another third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,

Rev 14:10 he himself also will drink of the wine of the anger of God that has been mixed full strength in the cup of his wrath, and will be tortured with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Revelation 14:8-10 Lexham English Bible

Rev 14:8 A second angel followed the first one, saying, “She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! She made all peoples drink her wine—the strong wine of her immoral lust!”

Rev 14:9 A third angel followed the first two, saying in a loud voice, “Those who worship the beast and its image and receive the mark on their forehead or on their hand

Rev 14:10 will themselves drink God’s wine, the wine of his fury, which he has poured at full strength into the cup of his anger! All who do this will be tormented in fire and sulfur before the holy angels and the Lamb.. Revelation 14:8-10 Good News Bible

All the highlighted words above, passion, anger, lust, and fury are the Greek word thumos. Babylon’s thumos is cast in the light of a prostitute or porn star, which is an extreme image of the flesh getting its satisfaction. In an unsettling contrast, God’s thumos is Jesus being Himself on the cross, also with heavy and heated breathing as the flesh gets no satisfaction. In fact, while Jesus is on the cross during his excruciating suffering, He brought the flesh of Adam’s kind into inactivity, rendering it ineffective (John 1:29, Rom 6:6, 2Co 5:21, Heb 9:26, 1Pe 2:24, 1 Jo 3:5).

See in the face of Jesus, a type of passion for us that willingly gives Himself away to free us from the fleeting and temporal passion of the dying flesh (2Co 4:6). Jesus has a way of being that is a river of life for others even though He is being slowly tortured on an execution implement. He is the Light in the darkness. The flesh getting its satisfaction is the extreme opposite – primarily concerned about its own satisfaction.

These contrasting passions are set in context of the lake of fire situated before the presence of The Lamb, Jesus, and His set-apart messengers. Rather than fall into the devil’s trap of putting off all such images into the future, embrace this last book of the Bible as the Revelation of Jesus Christ – like it says in the first phrase of the book. You see, it is when the Holy Spirit shows you Who Jesus is being through the fire of affliction, you discover that He is always the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8). The messengers are therefore not angelic entities, but regular people like you and me who capture the heart of Jesus being Who He is by the same Eternal Spirit.

As Paul said in Galatians 1:12–16, the true, revealed Gospel is “preaching Him,” the Person of Jesus, not a teaching. The Gospel is not Jesus plus something, or even about Him – it is Him as the Good News! Learning how King Jesus governs in His kingdom reveals whether you are a law-abiding citizen of it or not. Those who resist His way of being, which is the Image and Likeness we as humans are designed to bear, express their ontological friction in Rev 14:11 as the smoke of their torment rising into forever. (Ontology is the nature of being.) Jesus called the way of His being, “Greater Love” in John 15:13. God never changes Who He is.

Therefore, this place people were never supposed to experience, simply resist Greater Love – not its intellectual attainment as a factoid, but its inner core trajectory of being. For more on this, look for the posts about Genesis 3:8, and how God has a sound of walking by His Spirit-Breeze-Breath that goes through all the trees unchanged, even the tree of knowing good and bad. Only a Spirit and Life encounter with Jesus’ Person can rescue people from this humanistic world sinking into existential despair.

Paul’s Underlying Logos-logic

“Concerning all ‘of which’ ‘I am being called in for accusation’ by Jewish-men, O’ King Agrippa, “‘I am already being led (by an outlook)’ (that is) ‘primed for increase’ ‘by making contact with’ you, ‘as a man being about’ ‘to explain my underlying logic-logos’¹ today,

Above is my Crucified Life Translation (XLT) of Acts 26:2. I’m getting close to finishing both it and the paraphrase, the Crucified Life Paraphrase (XLP). Both are devotional in nature. I’m close to completing the New Testament. After the book of Acts, the only two remaining books for me to translate are the two Corinthian letters. I’ve been saving the best for last, I suppose, since if you have ever read what I write or heard me speak, I frequently bring up the importance of 1 Corinthians 2:2 as being a finished and on-going and operative reality in and among us all.

I do not pretend to tell anyone that this is the official translation for everyone. I’m just one person, and I’m sure I make mistakes. Peer-review is especially important when making such a claim. No, the XLT and XLP are devotional, and the footnotes of the XLT are my reflections on the crucified life reality of 1 Corinthians 2:2 that is clearly missed in modern translations and so-called exegesis from both podium and pulpit. I try to do the paraphrase more like reading a modern novel by incorporating all the crucified life insights that the Holy Spirit has brought to my attention while wresting with the Greek text. I only make them available for others to look over my shoulder and see what I am seeing. And what I am seeing is category-shifting, for instead of writing about a topic – what and how – I see Him Who is my life.

The world is always “going to hell in a handbasket” as they idiom goes. Before any of us have come to be born on this planet, there has been a plan with Mordor-like intent to blanket the world with its type of “freeing” darkness. It is imprisonment without having the onus of the sun calling for seeds to die, so that increase can occur. Jesus has always been the target of this obfuscation, because if any of us would settle long enough at His feet like Mary at the end of Luke 10, then the Reality coming out of His heart through His mouth could potentially find places in our own heart’s soil. To this point I leave you here to ponder the “devotional” footnote at the word I translate as to explain my underlying logic-logos. Oh, yes, keep in mind that TJPs is the abbreviation for The Jesus Pictures or TaNaK Jesus Pictures. On the other page you can find print and Kindle books that will explain that.

[1] By repeating the word, there is clearly an emphasis here on the underlying logic and matrix from which Paul will speak to the situation he is in. Notice how I am purposefully avoiding the words defense and apologetic. I do not find these words helpful, but rather less precise and subject to a general misunderstanding of the logos-family of Greek words employed by Luke and Paul, even John and James. Obviously, defense is a fine translation – gold star for precision. However, when Jesus is the Logos / the Word, and knowing Him this way is key to transformation, then let us not haphazardly settle for the gold star of excellence in scholarship. Reality is knowing Jesus through Spirit-to-spirit Presencing, everything else is a side-show at best, a slide into death at worst. The underlying matrix of Jesus’ Eternal Spirit provides the only Living Definition of Reality to which we must be conformed to or suffer loss at best, or at worst, remain in a state ontological friction. Humans were never designed to undergo that experiential heat of having a contrary state of being. The entire anatomical design of humans, reflects the spiritual design of face-to-face intimacy and care for others through the corporate life-bearing of God’s Image and Likeness. Therefore, the Logos as the spoken assemblage of all underlying factors of reality coming to bear and account is paramount not to miss. Yet, we do in Genesis 1:1 all the time. For, “what is unseen is eternal” has its corresponding letters in Genesis 1:1 with a word that is unspoken and untranslatable. I mean this literally. Open an interlinear of Genesis 1:1 in Hebrew and stop at the first word with no translation. It is the fourth word, the 15^th and 16^th letters, in the entire Bible. Identify the letters. What are they? Aleph and Tav. As you probably know in Hebrew, this is the first and last letters of the alphabet. As you also likely know, each letter in Hebrew has meaning associated with it. For instance, the word “east” is spelled picturing that direction: Qoph (sun at horizon), Dalet (through door), Mem (to sea). Moreover, by 10 sayings, God creates the universe. Therefore, Logos / Word in Greek, written and spoken in its various forms by Hebrew Messianic believers, is filled with a universe of meaning reflective of the Creator’s original intent and eternal design for His creation and creatures. It could not be otherwise. Rather than dispassionately ignore such things, as cultural tourists, we need to stop making these scholarly faux pas, so that we can get into the right spirit of communication of first century Messianic Judaism to the Greco-Romans world. The Logos is The Higher Way and Thought of Isaiah 55:8-11. Php 2:5-11 and 3:8-14 are designed to get the Greco-Roman hearers into the proverbial “swing of things” – conformed to the ontological trajectories of Jesus as the Dying Seed on His Way through us for increase to bless others with His Life. We learn these best by the Spirit vivifying TJPs, illuminating His Spirit moving through the very lives that were designed to be expressive of That Image and Likeness.

Present your bodies – (plural) – a… (one) living sacrifice

The Bible Project has been doing a great job of showing us how to read the Hebrew Scriptures by exposing the methods and means of their style and composition. The Original Testament often sets up a conflict in the story that it answers later. This is how Romans 12 is to some extent. We can read Romans 12:1 about presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice and think it is something we are doing or being by our religious adherence. However, the answer comes later in Romans 12:5. If we would just take that verse to heart, then we would not have this self-centric – I mean Christian-centric view at all.

CJB so there are many of us, and in union with the Messiah we comprise one body, with each of us belonging to the others.

AMP so we, who are many, are [nevertheless just] one body in Christ, and individually [we are] parts one of another [mutually dependent on each other].

ERV In the same way, we are many people, but in Christ we are all one body. We are the parts of that body, and each part belongs to all the others.

The ERV does a great job of translating the first word of 12:5, so that we realize it is referring to “present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Living Sacrifice is singular and it is Jesus, especially Who He is. I often refer to this as His heart trajectory. I think Paul would call it the mind of Christ. I know the prophet Isaiah referred to it as the Higher Way and Higher Thought of God in Isaiah 55:8-11.

Jesus – Who He is – makes us a living sacrifice, because He is the Slain Lamb standing in Revelation 5:6. He is the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His heart trajectory in us, is the Living Sacrifice we all experience together when we lose our soul-lives to know Him (Matthew 10:39). As Romans says just before 12:1, all things are out from Him, through Him, and unto Him. Let’s not waste any time conforming to the world as 12:2 says, but rather be in it, but not of it… be of His heart trajectory that ended our oppressively special identities and self-care importance.

Only His dying process, “nekrosis,” active in us means life manifest in our body to others (2 Corinthians 4:10). Him being Who He is, is how He forgave us and saved us on the cross. Him being Who He is, is also How He sanctifies us, makes us holy and set apart. As 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, he is our sanctification-holiness. It is not a thing we get, but Him being it.

As He is-being, so also are we in this world! 1 John 4:17 Only Jesus’ Heart Trajectory, His Way of Being… only Him this way is Life and Reality.

Within Son… That is Reality

In the past, at many times and in various ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, and made the universe through him. Hebrews 1:1-2

The quote is an amalgamation of many popular translations. My point is to show you that what this verse means is typically missed, because the awareness of The Jesus Pictures and their Hebrew root patterns are missed.

First, lets look at this phrase about, “by his Son.” In the Greek, it literally says en Huio, which is “within Son” https://biblehub.com/interlinear/hebrews/1-2.htm . You can see that the literal translator cannot resist to add [His], because they do not understand what the author of Hebrews means by comparing first with second, which is a Jesus Picture pattern. Your Bible is a first and second pattern that has its roots in dozens of first and second pairs. The five easiest to discerns are:

Cain (1^st) and Abel (2^nd)
Ishmael (1^st) and Isaac (2^nd)
Esau (1^st) and Jacob (2^nd)
Moses and the first exodus generation (1^st) and Joshua and the second exodus generation (2^nd)
King Saul (1^st) and King David (2^nd)

After mastering these, the pattern goes deeper into a treasure trove of what it means to know Jesus by His crucified life in the Original Testament (OT). This is what the writer(s) of Hebrews are getting at in their introductory statement. it goes like this:

In the first, God used a mode of various stories that pictured the reality, but did not give us The Reality. In the second, we have The Reality “within Son” – in Him Personally, in Him as new creation, in Him as high priest, in Son as a body, a house, a temple, and so on.

Then we are supposed to ask, what for, why, to what purpose? Then that is when verse 3 becomes super powerful! The Son is the radiance of God’s glory! The Son is the exact representation of God’s Nature! The reason why God only talks now to us within the realm of His Son, “in Son,” is because there is nothing outside of Him that is really living or saving us from this present darkness. Knowing the Son through The Jesus Pictures like first and second is actually leaning Jesus “as He is.” Moreover, I’m referring to the OT. Seeing Jesus in the second ones listed above is powerful. It is so powerful that the Apostle Paul had this to say:

Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit-Ruach, and where the Ruach-Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Ruach-Spirit. 2Co 3:15-18

(Look further down into the posts about the Ruach of the day from Genesis 3:8. That is what the Holy Spirit-Ruach shows you in The Jesus Pictures when you compare first with second. He is Living! He is The Way! He is the only Reality that increases with endless life!)

Greater Love is Jesus being the Grain of Wheat

In John 15:12-13, Jesus defined greater love this way:

This is my end goal for you: that you all love one another according to the pattern I love you all and have loved you all. No one has greater love than this: that the one would lay down his life for his friend.

In Philippians 2:5-11, Paul pictures this greater love in the midst of that assembly of beleivers: Let this regulating mindset be in and among you all, which was also within the Anointed One Jesus… Then Paul goes on to explain how Jesus was above and one with God, but like a lone seed came down, emptying Himself. In Bible-lingo this is called, “kenosis” – the idea of rendering your rights and status void. It is the idea of becoming of no reputation, the servant of all. Philippians 2:8 takes it right to the bottom where the seed falls into the ground and dies: Jesus humbled Himself, even becoming obedient unto death – like Isaac – and even the worst of deaths: on a Roman cross.

But since seeds have to die before life can spring up into increase, often do not understand this point of Jesus being the Grain of Wheat in John 12:24. Jesus said, “Most assuredly this is how it is: I conclusively say to you all, if a grain of wheat doesn’t actually fall into the ground and die, it remains alone. However, if it actually does what an obedient seed does, then it bears much fruit!” Jesus is claiming to be the Seed!

Greater Love is just like this, a willingness to be with Jesus in His Anointing One Reality of a seed going to increase. It looks like death, but it is how life goes and grows. I cannot make myself do it, but I can be with Jesus in such a way to hear His heart and see pictures of this reality in Old Testament stories. And seeing the pictures and templates in the Old Testament, means I see the Spirit of Him being active. And since Genesis 1:26 tells us that this is our design, His Image and Likeness in us, then seeing Him “as He is” in this way means we are being with Him in His Way. He is the Way, so it is Him! As He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). Thus, within this situation, love has been brought to its end goal with ongoing reality with effect for us, so that we may have confidence in the day of crisis that sees what we are really made of (1 John 4:17 too).

…LORD God walking in the garden in the ? cool ? of the day…

It is translations like this that cause me worry. They are missed opportunities for expressing the power and awesomeness of the LORD God. Let me suggest an alternate translation and explanation for Genesis 3:8 that is more literal, straight forward, and explains how Jesus sanctifies us. My primary target is this word, “cool.”

You are reading this on the web, so open this verse on Biblehub’s interlinear in another window at this link: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/3-8.htm You will need to read it backwards from English, right to left, in fact. Make sure you become familiar with how the interlinear functions. The top number is called a Strong’s number. It is for those of us who do not read Hebrew and would like some definitions of the word. Biblehub ups that to include all the instances where the word occurs. Biblehub offers 2, 3, and sometimes 4 different sources for a definition.

The line below the number is also something you can click on. It is how you pronounce the word using the English alphabet, but the link is also a search that includes the various conjugations and spellings according to its placement in Hebrew grammar. The line below that is in Hebrew script as it has been since the Babylonian Exile, then below that is an English translation, and then below that is the parsing tag to tell you what part of the Hebrew language the word belongs to.

I want you to take note of the word with the Strong’s number of 7307 and translated as “in the breeze.” Click on that and it will say “7307. ruach” with various definitions. Notice that the three definitions are essentially say “breath, wind, spirit.” Ruach is all of these together. When we talk about God’s Spirit, we are also talking about God’s Breath and God’s Windy Breeze. Bible Project has a great video and podcast on this at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNNZO9i1Gjc or https://bibleproject.com/podcast/holy-spirit-part-2/ . The ideas are all conflated in Hebrew as they are in Greek. Spirit is wind and breath, because it is an invisible animating reality. A wind rustles the tree leaves and a person is alive because they breath. So is it with God’s spirit.

Also, towards the end of the verse, click on the word number 8432 that is translated as “among.” Keep it in mind. It means “midst.”

Now let’s apply this idea to Genesis 3:8. Cool of the day is a horrible translation. Breeze of the day is a little better, but they still all miss reality of the story. Why not go for the jugular and translate it as spirit, or even spirit-wind? Below is an amalgamation translation from all the popular translations, except that for the words “spirit-wind” and “in the midst of;” those are mine.

And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the spirit-wind of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God in the midst of the trees of the garden.

I don’t know about you, but chills just went down my spine! If that didn’t happen for you read it again and more slowly. God walks by the spirit-wind of the day means that he breezes through all the trees of the garden equally and unchanged! Just like wind blows through a forest, God’s spirit blows through all trees, and God is still Who He is. But Adam and Eve on the other hand, having just ate from the one tree they were forbidden to touch are now entrapped in its matrix. This ontological entanglement expresses itself as abhorrence and fear of God’s spirit just being Himself. (Ontological means how a thing is being and existing.)

The serpent was not lying when he said Adam and Eve would be like God Who already knows good and bad-evil. What he did not tell them was that this knowledge hopelessly entraps all finite beings in its matrix like an inescapable vortex or blackhole. Once ingested it is a severance from Life. Sure, Adam and Eve did not drop dead physically in that moment. Rather, like a branch sawn off a tree, they were dead.

Functionally it is by trajectory of being. That may sound odd to you until you ponder how a seed brings about life increase by first dying. Perhaps the words of Jesus may sound familiar to you? Lose your life, carry your cross? Or how about Jesus talking about Himself as a seed needing to go into the ground in John 12:24? God’s spirit goes His Way. He goes through all the trees equally, even the tree where the serpent is still entrapped and was forbidden to us.

Adam and Eve had just eaten of the tree and now with their inverted trajectory of being to that of God’s, there is a “friction of being.” Adam and Eve want to self-preserve now. But God, Who makes the seed go its cycle, wants give all selflessly, completely, and with no hold back like a seed falling into the ground. And since He is Infinite, the tree forbidden to us is just another tree to Him. With any tree, even the forbidden one, He gives Himself away through it like all the rest. His Spirt breezes through all the trees and He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

The cross had this reality on display. Jesus came in the fullness of God’s Spirit. Jesus was hung on a tree. Maybe you are saying, “No, Jesus was hung on a cross.” Well, my answer to you is that it depends on which language you speak. In Hebrew, and Greek by the way, a tree is any wooden construct that includes Roman crosses, wood clubs, scaffolding, and trees. Jesus died a death like no other that the veteran Roman centurion who had seen hundreds, if not thousands, die by crucifixion, realized he had never seen anyone die like Jesus. Seeing the whole process, He explained, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

How did Jesus die? Well, not like any other man, ever! He never lashed back or claimed innocence. His inner reality remained selfless in giving just like a seed falling into the ground. He forgave those killing Him. He loved his enemies. And he asked for his mother to be cared for. Never once, even remotely did anything within His heart stir up against any person for this grossly unfair death drummed up on false charges. He remained in union with His Father, breezing through that tree unchanged in Who He is: Greater Love.

Moreover, this is not only how Jesus saved us, but also how He sanctifies us. He is always Who He is. And because He became a human, He made it so that humans can learn His heart and share His Spirit that breezes through all the trees of the garden alike. I hope you have heard what I wrote. Jesus has not only forgiven you from sin, but He also has given you a highway out from the forbidden tree, so that you can too can walk through the garden where He is in any tree, situation, or circumstance.

Sanctification is not trying harder next time, or exerting fleshly force to mortify the evil within. Rather, it is as simple as knowing Him where He governs, which can sound like a poster slogan until you realize one of the huge tools He has given us to make this a reality. I am referring to The Jesus Pictures. Because the same Spirit breezing through all the trees can breeze through history and people and events the same too. The Hebrew Bible is this record. You can learn His Spirit by beholding that trajectory of being for yourself. 2 Corinthians 3:18 is the goal in that success story. Galatians 3:1 is the failure when you stop.

To discover more, read The Jesus Pictures, Spiritual Knowledge, 24:27, and Life Portals.

First and Second

Bible patterns, like First and Second, exist in the Scriptures to show us Jesus. They are important on two levels. First, they actually show our intellect that there is a grand design to the Scriptures, specifically the TaNaK / Old Testament (OT), that leads to Jesus. Second, they are for learning how Jesus leads a person’s heart by The Spirit of His heart.

As to the first level, these Bible patterns I call “Jesus Pictures” are the prime evidence for me that the Hebrew God is real, Who He says He is, and only really known in the face of Jesus. Moreover, this is most gloriously realized when Jesus gave Himself on the Roman cross. Apologetics, the defensive of the faith, has been a lifetime endeavor for me since college in the 1980s when I had to chose what I believed. I was a Bible Answer Man junkie back in those days. But at the end of 2011, I had a vision of the cross that changed everything, and I realized that most people simply miss the greatest reality in their Bibles: Jesus Pictures.

When that time of clarity began, it became more real to me than anything else. In other words. I define reality according to what is most real to me. Thus, when God blended the picture of how He made Eve with a vision of the spear hole in Jesus’ side on the cross, involving me somehow, I started to know firsthand what it means to be formed as a complement to God’s Son, the Last Adam: flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone. In fact, I would be so bold to say that I have direct knowledge of Who Jesus is and “What Kind” of Person He is. This is reinforced especially now after years of His forming of this personal and relational knowledge through what Jesus Pictures in the TaNaK / OT really exist for. They are not merely for the intellect, but are designed to catch us up into the trajectory of His Being. This is best realized by mystically contemplating the flow of blood and water out the “doorway” in His side where a spear pierced His heart.

The First and Second template addresses this basic level of knowing God. The intellect can identify and learn these pairs, but since the devil has done a crack job of hiding their life-giving reality from the Church, our default intellect is skeptical, even agnostic. First ones always think they know something about God. Moreover, they tend to take the positions of leadership. Furthermore, when encountering a second one, their way is baffling to a first one, even seen as subversive. As a result, whether overtly or unconsciously, a first one naturally persecutes or marginalizes a second one. Cain, Ishmael, Esau, and King Saul all did this to their second one of the pair.

Thus, the great value in spending time with the Holy Spirit on Bible stories is that if you allow Him, He will gladly start exposing you as a first one, so that in seeing Who Jesus is being in TaNaK / OT stories, exposure to His Second Man[i] Reality is transformative. We are all born as first ones; we remain so even after becoming what passes these days for a modern Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, or other type of Jesus follower.

Where do you start? Choose the obvious pairs in the TaNaK / OT. Start with the low-hanging fruit of the OT There are many First and Second pairs in the Scriptures, and much that comes from learning the basics, including a resurrected-risen version of the second, which some people think of as a third.[ii] Once we understand the obvious stories as the root system, then the Holy Spirit will branch off from there. The five basic pairs are listed below in order of first one followed by who the second one is:

Cain and Abel[iii]
Ishmael and Isaac[iv]
Esau and Jacob[v]
First generation and Second Generation out of Egypt[vi]
King Saul and King David[vii]

Master these five above by seeing Jesus in the second one by the Holy Spirit and then you can move on to the next level in the pairs, some of which crop up in the New Testament (NT). These are (and I am sure that I am missing some):

Abram-Sarai and AbraHam-SaraH (Both had an H added to their names)[viii]
Hagar and Sarah[ix]
Leah and Rachel[x]
The un-named, first kinsman redeemer and Boaz[xi]
Peninnah and Hannah[xii]
King Saul and Jonathan (1 Samuel 14-15)[xiii]
The two callings of Jonah[xiv]
Shebna and Eliakim (Isaiah 22)[xv]
Vashti and Esther[xvi]
The first leg of any roundtrip story and its second leg including Isaiah 55:10-11[xvii]
Martha and Mary at the end of Luke 10[xviii]
The Pharisees representing the first covenant and Jesus representing Jeremiah’s new covenant[xix]
Anything the NT says about the flesh vs. the spirit.[xx]

From there they start to be more sublime in varying degrees, literally woven into the warp and woof of the TaNaK / OT such as Noah on both sides of The Flood and the two attempts to bring The Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem.[xxi] Moreover, what you will discover is a new appreciation for why the book we call Hebrews was written, because upon closer examination after time spent with the Holy Spirit, the overall content and goal of this letter will be obvious. You won’t fall for the typical mistranslation of Hebrews 9:28 with the extra added word “time.” Scholars only add that out of their ignorance of these Bible patterns that fed the New Testament authors with Jesus’ crucified life. In fact, you will walk away from reading the book, especially Hebrews 10:7-9 with a new understanding that the writer of Hebrews had been literally spelling out the pattern, even being overtly explicit here, and the best educated Christian minds of us were blind to it all along! That is when that first one second one starts to hit home more deeply about the personal nature of human blindness.

Finally, I will leave you with some last words on this post about First and Second. This is just one pattern designed to operate with the other key Bible templates: the Doorway, the Roundtrip, and the horizontal line that divides what is above from below and represents the covering. Taken together, these reveal to us the Nature of Jesus’ Own Crucified Life. And what I mean by that is: He is living. Eternal Life is knowing Him (John 17:3). Exposure to Who He is in these stories is transformative when the Holy Spirit, Who is the stories’ Main Author, breathes on them. Jesus is as living now as He was 2,000 years ago. Moreover, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That includes Who He was showing Himself to be through a chosen people in TaNaK / OT Bible stories. Jesus put the first away in a cosmic sense, and the TaNaK / OT is filled with a many classroom dealings where we can learn the reality of our co-death with Christ on that cross as Galatians 2:20 says. After all, this is all the early church ever had. They were mostly Jewish background believers who only had memory knowledge of the TaNaK / OT they heard read to them on Saturday.

Thus, our time on this earth should be filled with time spend with the Lord where the early church spent time with the Lord revisiting these stories in our hearts and minds throughout our days with each other. Each discovery of Jesus as He is BEING in that record of old is a gem most precious today, and forever! Once you have seen Him, you can not unsee Him, for truly these are the gifts upon which He adorns His bride. Avail yourself of this precious time with Him where He is.

[i] 1 Corinthians 15:45-47

[ii] Seth and King Solomon are two examples.

[iii] The key is in what kind of offering. These two represent the foundation that all other pairs rest on. Moreover, you do not need to believe me, just believe Hebrews 12:24.

[iv] The key is on what happens if we try to help God out with generating the Promised Son reality with our good ideas. Not yet convinced? Read the end of Galatians 4.

[v] The key is in their descriptions as what kind of sons they are. Who else despised their birth right?

[vi] The key is in Joshua-Jesus’ view of how to enter the finished work of what God gives in the form of the Promised Land. Where did the water cease from when they crossed the Jordan? Think of Jesus’ view on the cross.

[vii] The key is in what it really means for David to be flowing by God’s heart. Pay attentions again to their physical descriptions. Moreover, pay attention to how David treats Saul in the cave and later when Shimei was casting rock at him. How did David gain or keep power? Who else had close companions who didn’t understand his view?

[viii] “H,” hay, as a letter in Hebrew has a meaning in and of itself. “H” means beholding in a full-spectrum way, from what is terrifying to what is joyfully wonderous. The old script depicts a stick figure with arms raised.

[ix] The end of Galatians 4 even tells you why Paul called Christians brothers.

[x] How does Jacob see them? The flesh easily cranks out more flesh, because they-we have a seeing problem.

[xi] A key is the names of the dead and their inheritance. There are so many in Ruth! Simply listen to Naomi’s advice to Ruth when she sends her to Boaz’s threshing floor. Take her advice to heart and contemplate that most glorious picture of the cross. It is rich like a treasure trove! Stay there until He speaks.

[xii] The song of the second will tell you all you need to know about what happens when we allow What Kind He is to rule in and through us.

[xiii] A key is seeing that the first one has all the power, can even detect when God is moving, and takes over movements of God, and in the process, he condemns the one living the flesh crucifying reality of Jesus life. By the way, here is a freebie, all staffs and wood poles in the Bible are pictures of the cross and the crucified life reality on display on the cross.

[xiv] The key is the “doorway” trajectory in this story. Jesus spoke about it in terms of three days and nights in Matthew 12.

[xv] The key is pondering the motivations and what people are watching from the rooftops as Assyria destroys Israel.

[xvi] The key is knowing what your Husband the King of kings wants. Who is the real bride? What phrase best in the book characterized her motivation?

[xvii] Line up John 12:24-33 with Isaiah 55:8-11 and consider Moses leaving Mount Sinai and returning to Mount Sinai.

[xviii] The key is realizing that Martha really is trying hard to serve Jesus! What do Martha’s words do to Mary? What is the one needful thing? My recommendation to you is do that one needful thing!

[xix] The key is realizing this is the culmination and all the TaNaK patterns. Hebrews 1:1-2 is real, especially verse 2 because of verse 3. But you would likely not see it unless you read it in Greek at Biblehub’s interlinear. For the text actually says God speaks to us today within Son. That is the context, sphere, and realm now for wherein God speaks. Why? Because of what we can see in verse 3.

[xx] The key is realizing that the NT authors had in mind the very things I am sharing here (2 Corinthians 3:15-18).

[xxi] The default issue with Adam as humanity’s forefather is woven in us from natural conception and birth in the same way. Only He Who from nothing is hidden can be the sword in us (Heb. 4:12-13).