Monthly Archives: April 2018

LOVING GOD FIRST, PART 2, BY KIANG P LEE

“Owe nothing to anyone–except for your obligation to Love one another” (Rom.13:8).

Greeting Friends!

This is the sequel to my blog posted in February 2018, titled, “The Command to Love God First.” You may read the post at http://bulamanriver.net/11833. I ended my post with the question… “How does God make it possible for humans to enter His reality in His Love and Triune existence?” This is a relevant question to answer as we approach the Day of Pentecost (May 20, 2018). The day depicts human union with God through the power of His Spirit.  Let’s answer that in this second segment of my two-part post.

“Whoever Lives in Love Lives In God, and God In Them” (1 John 4:16) (Pic: Wiki Commons)

There is just one place in all of the created and the uncreated universe where true Love resides and springs forth: the very Triune Being of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (1 John 4:8, 16; Matt.28:19; Eph.3:14-21) God is omniscient (knows everything), omnipresent (everywhere), and exist in all of life both physical and spiritual. God is the alpha and omega of Love in all its grandeur and glory. Most of what is seen and practiced in human experience that is called love, is self-righteous love. It is love based upon man’s expression in his fallen state of existence which began from the fall of Adam with the evil influence of the devil himself. Although it is selfish love, it is love nevertheless but directed inwards to the SELF. Be that as it may, it authenticates the Love-image of God in humanity which can never be erased but remain intrinsically part of man’s nature fashioned in God’s Love-likeness. (Gen.1:26-27; 1 John 4:8,16)

But since Adam’s fall, mankind’s love has ‘turned’ inward unto himself and cease to be outward toward God. Yes, God’s Love-likeness in man can never be erased. The enemy’s ploy is always to present a counterfeit to the nature of God and His work. Thus, Love becomes its opposite: fear and lust. Fear breeds hostility and hatred. The devil realizes he can never erase God’s Love-image He created and planted in man’s innermost being, so he contrive counterfeits in order to deceive man. Paul said, “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Cor.11:14). Yes, counterfeit means he makes evil look right, virtue is turned into vice, and sin becomes trendy and accepted.

With fear as the driving force, our fallen humanity became self-centered, prejudiced, and inward-looking. Paul said, “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money,… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim.3:2, EST; 2 Tim.3:4; Phi.2:21). Lovers we remain for we were made in God’s Love-likeness, but love has been turned inward and becomes fear, a mere human expression, no longer divine but humanistic. Yes, fear is the basis of the enemy’s counterfeit activity, and the Bible provides the only answer, “There is no fear in Love. But perfect Love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in Love” (1 John 4:18). Yes, God has a plan to bring man back to his rightful inheritance in creation and His Love.

We saw God’s Love as an exercise of the mind (spirit) and comes through a decision-making process, not something hard, fast, and inflexible. Love can be lived selfishly or unselfishly, inwardly or outwardly, and we are given the freedom to choose. Life beckons to us to ‘choose’ for all have the gift of divine freedom as the intrinsic makeup of Love. (see Blog Post “Freedom“ at http://bulamanriver.net/10980) The devil has always had a counterfeit to God’s moral character in order to deceive humans, and this is no different with God’s Love. He presents its opposite in attempts to deceive man to follow him. The devil turned Love into lust. His love (lust) is one that’s inward and selfish instead of God’s Love that’s outgoing and selfless. One ‘gives’ while the other ‘gets’ and they are the exact contradictory image of each other. The self-centered love may seem right and appealing but its end is death. (Prov.14:12; 16:25; Rom.6:21)

Man made in God’s Likeness: “Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion” (Gen.1:26-27). (Wiki Commons)

However, man, through Adam and Eve, once shared God’s benevolent Love in His divine presence in the Garden of Eden. It was the most joyous and paradisiac union any human had ever lived and never experienced with God since. Eden was synonymous with God’s way of life of Love. In the middle of the Garden God planted the ‘tree of life’ to supply our first parents with God’s Love. (Gen.2:9) There was no record as to how long they remained faithful in their union with God before the fall, but as long as they ate from the tree of life which symbolized God’s Love, they had the Spirit to empower them with Love to live with God in His presence. (Rom.5:5) There was a second tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of good and evil which symbolized the self-centered way of life of deciding for oneself what is right and wrong. They were commanded to not go near that tree, let alone eat of its fruit or they will die. (Gen.2:17; Prov.14:12) They succumbed to the devil’s continuous pressures and temptations and ate the forbidden fruit. Once was enough to sever their Love relationship with God. Having succumbed, Adam and Eve sinned.

What is sin? We may have heard many definitions, notably legalistic ones. But it all began from what is commonly called the ‘original sin.’ In its untainted definition, sin has to do with man ‘turning’ his love away from God and inward toward himself under the sway of the devil. Our first parents fell for the devil’s lies, and their love ‘turned’ from an outward focus toward God to an inward focus in themselves. (Gen.3) What happens when the self becomes the center of the personal universe? Yes, fear takes over and we live defensively rather than confidently. And so, sin and self-centeredness becomes man’s philosophy for living. God’s Love defines His nature and way of life, and ought to be the believer’s core value system. The two trees depict two ways of life that are diametrically opposed to each other, so God expelled our first parents from Eden and the pathway back to Eden and the tree of life was blocked. (Gen.3:6; Amos 3:3)

By planting the two trees with opposing motivation in the middle of the Garden, God gave man the gift of freedom to choose. Love and freedom are flip sides of the same nature of God, hence the two trees appear together in the center of Eden. (Gen.2:9) Love’s inherent double is freedom. Freedom must be constantly defended and cultivated through our choice of eating from the ‘tree of life’ (divine selfless Love), and reject the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ (human self love). Only through God’s Love is our freedoms safeguarded. Paul said, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal.5:1).

Since Adam’s fall, the seeds of self-love and self-worship was sown over the breeding ground for all kinds of evil fruits (activities) which grew and fester through fear, vain-glory, lust and narcissism. We saw in my first post how the self-centered person places the material world around him in higher priority above God, thus, turning material things into gods to be worshiped. (Psa.62:10) God does not deprive us of the material things in life. He created this earth and its abundance so we could see the generosity of His heart toward mankind. (1 Tim.6:17-19; Psa.50:12; 24:1; Hag.2:8) But it always comes down to Love and how to prioritize Love in our lives. It is a matter of the heart and what we choose to rank first above all else. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Luk. 16:13). The Bibles says if we “seek first God’s kingdom (His way of life),” He will bless us materially without our asking. (Matt.6:31-34; Prov.10:22; Deut.8:18) God promises that none of His children will beg for a living. (Psa.37:25) (You may read about how Jesus’ defeated the four material gods mankind has worshiped since the fall of Adam at: http://bulamanriver.net/11339)

Paradise Lost: Adam & Eve Expelled from Eden (Wiki Commons)

Our first parents had no mediator to reconcile them back to God, thus, from the outset when they were removed from Eden, God promised a Savior would come to restore Adam’s descendants (mankind) back to Him. (Gen.3:15) Four thousand years later, Jesus appeared as the second Adam, the Immanuel (“God with us”), with His new humanity to save and reconcile man back to God. (1 Cor.15:45; Matt.1:20-23) Today, believers are privileged recipients of God’s New Covenant promise ratified in Jesus’ blood (cross) so we can choose to be in a state of perpetual forgiveness through His unmatched grace. (2 Cor.5:21; Heb.8:7-13; ) Jesus lived the perfect life which man cannot live. This Bible passage lays down the incarnation principle for us: He (Jesus) became us (Immanuel) in order that we may become Him. He defeated Satan in the temptations and redeemed Adam’s (our) downfall, and died on the cross for our redemption. (Matt.4:1-11; Matt.27:32-56) He glorified our humanity through His resurrection and ascension so humanity may follow Him into glory. (Luk.24:1-8; Act.1:1-11; Rom.8:28)

After Jesus appearance, sin’s definition came into sharper focus. Jesus Himself explained it for us, “About sin, because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:9, CSB). Here, sin is defined as our  rejection of Jesus as personal Savior. A person may reject Jesus through ignorance, or by denial and/or defiance. Jesus is the only Savior God has provided for our redemption upon whom our faith must squarely rest. (Heb.12:2) John said, “Whoever believes in Him (Jesus) is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18). Only through the unbroken mediatory work of Jesus on our behalf as God’s heavenly High Priest today, can we be made at one with God the Father in our Love-relationship. (Heb.4:14-16) Hence, Paul said, “And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority” (Col.2:10, BSP). (You can read about Jesus’ High Priestly function at: http://bulamanriver.net/11230).

So, now humans can adopt Jesus’ new humanity in a new birth so we can live in unbroken Love-relationship in God’s Triune presence. Jesus said, “You must be born again… of the Spirit” (John. 3:7-8). Paul said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor.5:17). Jesus explained it was not a physical rebirth, but one that is from the Spirit. The human body is merely a temporary shelter, which Paul calls a temple for the Spirit of God to inhabit and do His sanctifying activity, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor.6:19; also John 14:16-17). If the human body of the believer is God’s earthly temple, then Jesus’ glorified divine/human body is the heavenly temple. The “new creation” is Jesus new humanity who now lives and walks in us and with the Spirit’s anointing consecrates us as the temple of God upon the earth. With the Spirit constantly transporting us spiritually to the heavenly temple of Jesus’ glorified body, He mediates for us in Himself as our High Priest so that we are presented holy and righteous before the Father always. “You have been made complete in Christ” (Col.2:10).

The human body is the temple for the Holy Spirit, but the real person is Jesus’ new humanity who is spiritual and housed in the temple with whom the Holy Spirit unites Himself through the human spirit/mind and dictates the activities of the spiritual person in the temple (body). Jesus said, “He (Spirit) will live with you and in you” (John 14:17). Without the human mind, the body is rudderless and unsteerable. Jesus said, “Life is spiritual. Your physical existence doesn’t contribute to that life. The words that I have spoken to you are spiritual. They are life” (John 6:63, God’s Word T.) Jesus is the Personified Word of God. So, Jesus attests that at the primordial level, true life is spiritual not physical. The spirit is the master of the physical for the body will always carry out the bidding of whatever spirit occupies and directs the mind. God’s Word (Jesus) is received by the person’s mind (human spirit) and with the help of the Holy Spirit (Love) fused to it, manifests the believer’s divine purpose and destiny. But unbelievers possess the self-centered spirit doing what seems right in their own eyes.

Before Jesus’ crucifixion He promised to send the Advocate or Helper to be with believers “forever.” (John 14:16) He said, “Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7; also, John 16: 8-15). Here, we see the collaborative trinitarian principle at work where one cannot do without the other, for they exist in one Triune Godhead.  Then He explained the role of the Spirit specifically, “He will bring Me glory by telling you whatever He receives from Me” (John 16:14). The Spirit is the power who manifests Jesus’ glorious new humanity in human believers. Jesus repeats the Spirit’s role for double emphasis, “The Spirit will tell you whatever He receives from Me… He will not speak on His own” (John 16:15, 13).

So, in God’s trinitarian activity, our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit to personalize Jesus’ glorified humanity in us, thus unifying the true self (believers) to the Father in Jesus. (Rom.8:29; 1 Pet.1:2) The original New Testament Day of Pentecost is a memorial of the giving of the Holy Spirit so the Triune God can finally unite humanity to Himself forever. (Act.2:1-4) We have come full circle from Eden when the way to the ‘tree of life’ (Spirit/Love) was blocked because of sin, to that moment in time on Pentecost when man was given access back to the Spirit (tree of life) through Christ.

Paul expands further on the purpose of the Helper or Holy Spirit, “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5). Jesus’ new humanity in His glorified form is Love, for “God is Love” (1 John 4:8; also John 1:18). The Holy Spirit is in us to personify Jesus new humanity in God’s divine Love, replacing the rebellious self-centered life inherited from man’s fallen Adamic humanity. The three Persons of the Godhead always work in harmony to bring to fruition God’s highest purpose of conforming humans in Christ’s Love-likeness. (Rom.8:29; 1 Cor.15:49) (You may read about Jesus’ new humanity at: http://bulamanriver.net/9718)

Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:19). (Wiki Commons)

The Holy Spirit was part of Eden symbolized in the ‘tree of life’ (Love) and man was forbidden to reenter the Garden because of rebellion and sin. Sin is darkness, divine Love is light. Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the Light of Life” (John 8:12). Despite Adam’s fall, God’s Love for man never diminished a single beat and He promised the Savior to rescue man from sin and Satan’s spiritual imprisonment. (Gen.3:14-15)

The devil had cunningly packaged the perfect lie when he tempted Adam and Eve, saying in effect that God did not love them because He was holding something out on them. This raised suspicion and mistrust in their minds. (Gen.3) What was the lie? Under this air of uncertainty, the devil falsely promised them immortality and a chance to become literal gods with matchless wisdom, “You will not certainly die…you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad… Eve thought how wonderful it would be to become wise.  So she took some of the (forbidden) fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it.” (Gen.3:4-6, GNT, emphasis added).

We need to appreciate the world of our first parents in Eden before the fall. Stop for a moment and consider: there were no other humans to relate with except each other and with God as their Father and supreme Creator Being who sustains all life. They were taught about other spiritual beings, especially angelic beings with superpowers and more wiser than them. Regardless of their mortal and limited human form, Adam and Eve lived a life of unequaled bounty and paradisiac happiness with angelic care and protection. But they were conscious of the fact they were weak and powerless by comparison to the spiritual reality around them.

Lucifer’s Rebellion-Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”- Luk.10:18 (Wiki Commons)

Satan, realizing the power of human affinity and attachment, instilled in them a false sense of security. Appealing to their vanity, Satan promised our first parents immortality and wisdom beyond their wildest imagination, and circumvent this ‘human anomaly’ of human temporary existence with all its flaws and shortcomings, so they can be part of the far superior spiritual realm they saw and related with around them. (Gen.3:4-5). But Adam and Eve forgot what God taught them from the start about why they were created physical beings with mortal existence. Like the devil’s own sin, they let their pride and self-importance cloud their better judgment. We must appreciate that the Genesis account of creation and the fall of Adam in the Bible was very concise and bereft of details. Later, Paul was inspired to write about that valuable lesson when he said, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom.8:20-21, NASB).

Humans were predestined to be gifted with something that not even angels were offered: to become the very offspring of God like Jesus His Son, with Love at the core of their existence. (Heb.1:13-14) As a child of God, Love and immortality are inseparable, you cannot have one without the other. Jesus inaugurated God’s plan for human immortality by becoming the first human to become immortal through His resurrection, while at the same time being the second Person of the Triune Godhead. He was the prophesied “Immanuel,” God who became human. (Isa.7:14). He opened the way for mankind to follow in His footsteps to human immortality and glory. (Rom.8:29-30; Phil.3:10-11, Phil.3:7-9; 1 Cor.15:50-54) Our physical existence is a necessary part of God’s wondrous plan to bring mankind to immortality in His spiritual family, and restore the corruption, both spiritual and physical, that was brought on by Lucifer’s original rebellion. (Isa.14:12-14). Adam and Eve saw the outward appearance of power and wisdom, but true life was not about power, wisdom, or any other physical qualities they saw around them, but it was solely about “being Love” in the Spirit. They forgot that the holy angels are always present to serve God’s purpose in humanity of making us into the very Love-Being of God. (Heb.1:14)

But what Satan offered our first parents was a wicked boldface lie. (John 8:44) It was a false promise which the devil could never deliver on because only the everlasting uncreated God could confer immortality and true wisdom on whomever He chooses. And His plan is to confer immortality upon those who have His Love (Spirit) at Jesus’ return. (Rom.5:5; Rom.8:11, 9; 1 Thess.4:16) ) Any form of life that is created, whether spiritual or physical, have a beginning and has an end, and does not possess life in itself nor can it impart life to others. The only life form closest to God’s creative power is the physical procreation we see in humans and other non-human life forms upon this earth. However, physical life has its limitations for it ultimately ends in the graveyard of the dead … unless immortality is conferred as a gift from God alone and none other.

Adam and Eve forgot, perhaps momentarily, that true life was not about power and wisdom, but it was solely about Love. God could give power and might automatically as an inbuilt gift like He did with the angels, and certain fearsome beasts of this earth (read Job 40:15-24 & Job 41:1-34). But not so when we speak of God’s divine Love. Love is a matter of “BEING” like God is a Love-BEING. We must be “natured” in the Love-nature of God through His Spirit (Love). Paul said this, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you” (Rom.8:11). Did you notice that, the Spirit is the One who will give human believers (in Christ) the gift of immortality with the gift of God’s nature of Love. (Rom.5:5). Adam and Eve were not deprived of that opportunity to be like God for the ‘tree of life’ (Spirit) was always available to them in the Garden. The prophet Zechariah quoted God, saying, “‘Not by might nor by power (knowledge/wisdom), but by My Spirit (Love/immortality),’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zech.4:6, emphasis added; Rom.5:5).

So, what was actually inside of the package of lies the devil handed our first parents: it was the fruit of rebellion. Rebellion is the opposite of Love. Rebellion is sin, and sin as we saw is Love being “turned” away from God to the self. And rebellion against God will mean certain defeat and death for mankind, and so it was. This cloud of death hung over mankind since Adam’s fall until Christ, the second Adam, came and removed it and brought humanity back from the road to certain destruction to the path of salvation. (John 3:16; John 3:36) So, instead of immortal life and wisdom, the devil cannot promise anything other than eternal death which he brought upon himself in his own rebellion. He was Lucifer, the angel of light who became Satan the angel of darkness (death). Jesus is the light in this dark world of the devil. (Eph.6:12; John 8:12; Col.1:13-14) Yes, that is what he handed down upon them, rebellion through ungodly knowledge resulting in death, not wisdom not immortality. Jesus alone is “the storehouse of all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom,” and immortality. (Heb. 12:2Col. 2:3; John 11:25)

Satan resents the fact that humans can be given spiritual birth and conferred human immortality as God’s own children like Jesus. And he will do all in his wicked best to hide this wonderful message to mankind from God the Father. (John 3:16; Rom.8:29; 1 Cor.15:49) This was the same sin of rebellion Satan introduced to the angels much earlier which drew one third of them who have become fallen angels. (Isa.14:12-14, note especially V.14; Jud.1:6) Note how Genesis 3:5 and Isaiah 14:14 appear eerily familiar for it proceeds from the same rebellious heart of the devil himself. Satan was promoting a counterfeit love – the inward love of self in place of the outward Love for God and fellow man. (Matt.22:37-40) The devil had ‘turned’ the authentic divine Love that once embraced man in Eden and replaced it with the counterfeit human self-love (lust) of this world.

Las tres cruces.png

The Death of Jesus Made Possible the Gift of The Spirit (Dove) For Our Sanctification (Wiki Commons)

So, to answer the question we asked at the start, “How does God makes it possible for humans to enter His reality and receive His Love and immortality?” Fundamentally, it begins at the root of our existence where a person (believer) undergoes a spiritual rebirth from the fallen Adamic humanity so the glorified Christ can now enter and live His life in you and me in His new humanity, with His Love (Spirit) at the core of our being. (Rom.5:5; John 3:3; 2 Cor.5:17) This is what true conversion in the new birth looks like and comes only through the gift of repentance and forgiveness. (Act.2:38; Eph.2:8; Rom.3:24) Paul states rather succinctly what conversion and the rebirth is, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh (temple) I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20, NIV, KJB; also 1Cor.3:16). The fact that we still have the freedom to choose whichever humanity we live by (Adam’s or Christ’s) proves that we do not lose our unique freedoms as humans. At the deepest recess of your being no one can decide a course of action for you, but you – it’s called self-determination. Our freedoms originate from the divine source. But it must be said that there is true freedom and a counterfeit freedom. (John 8:36; Gal.5:1) On true freedom, Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Hence, we are compelled to attest to our divine destiny and personhood when we freely choose to live in God’s Love through the reciprocal interdependent Triune Life* in Christ through the Spirit’s (Love) power. (Gen.1:26-27; John 3:3; Rom.5:5; 2 Cor.13:14)

Jesus came as God the Son and embraced our humanity and becomes fully God and fully human. (Matt.1:23) Through Jesus’ glorification in His resurrection and ascension, human believers are made part of the Trinitarian God and thereby spontaneously receive the Spirit as part of the communal Triune Life.* (John 14:15-18, 26; John 16:6-11; Act.2:1-4) We are made to live within the sanctuary and shelter of God’s divine Love-nature in and by the Spirit who now makes His abode in our bodies (temple): “God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom.5:5). So, we see how the Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, each freely playing their part in expressing their singular Loving care for mankind. The end-result is the Father is always embracing us in His Love through the work of Jesus and Herald*** the Spirit.

Concerning immortality, Jesus said this, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never ever die” (John 11:25-26). Paul was inspired to write, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh (fallen Adamic humanity) but are in the realm of the Spirit (Christ’s glorified new humanity), if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you. (Rom.8:9-11). At the last trumpet sound of the angelic hosts, Christ will return and we will all be raised to immortality and participate in the Love relationship the Tri-Personal God shared from eternity. (1 Cor.15:50-58) Though man’s existence is temporary and ends in death, he has the potential for eternal life in the resurrection. (1 Pet.1:3)

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Fountain of Eternal Life, downtown Cleveland, Ohio, USA (Wiki Commons)

I will close with the prayer Paul offered for the Christians at Ephesus. Note how he invokes the names of the Father, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, in the Tri-Personal work of making believers become Love as “God is Love”:-

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in Love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the Love of Christ, and to know this Love that surpasses knowledge (power and wisdom)—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Eph.3:14-21). 

The function of the mind is the most complex aspect of human life. But it is made complex only because we are trying to compel the human mind to live by the fallen self-centered philosophy of Adam. We fail to understand that the human mind was created in God’s Love-image to function in harmony  with the Holy Spirit. Only then can the human mind can be opened up to an otherwise unknowable and unimaginable world. Regrettably, mankind has been defying the Spirit since Adam ate the forbidden fruit. You and I will never know in a million lifetimes all that is truly good for us – only God can manifest them when we choose to align ourselves to Him in His Triune Love-nature through His Spirit. In this place of abode where we live in alignment with His Love in Christ through the Spirit (Love), we are in our sphere of superabundance from which every good and perfect gift flows. (Jam.1:16-18)

So, to love the self above God is really an act of degrading and disparaging our humanity that’s fashioned in God’s Love-likeness. For this reason humanity is regressing not progressing. And we will drift further and further away from the only reality that matters in the continuum of space and time: God’s Love! (Zech.4:6; Eccl.9:11) Alternately, you authenticate, dignify, and honor your humanity when you Love God first and highest. Beyond question, it is the noblest thing you can do for yourself and humanity in this fleeting earthly life because the higher you Love God, the deeper you Love yourself – more than you can ever imagine possible, and this endows you to Love your neighbor fittingly, for you were created to become Love as “God is Love” (1 John 4:8; Gen.1:26-27; 1 Pet.1:23-25).

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or you may email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com. Thank you for visiting.

Blessing:
Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life”* in the person of Jesus’ “Immanuel humanity.” Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Kiang,
(Your Servant In Christ)

*“Triune Life” means to inherit human personhood identifying us as true persons with gifts in Christ and living according to the image and likeness of God. (Gen.1:26-27; Rom.8:29) It means a believer who lives the 3-dimensional life with the Triune God, as opposed to the ‘solitary’ 1-dimensional life in himself (“Adamic humanity”). It means to live in relationship with God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who lives and walks in you (“Immanuel humanity”). Man’s union with the Triune God, or “Triune Living,” is made possible by Jesus, who Himself, is one in substance and reality with the Triune God, who took our humanity into the very Being of the Triune Godhead. To live the “Triune Life” is the miraculous expression of the Spirit in us. The miraculous life is the promise of the New Covenant, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My ordinances, and do them” (Ezek.36:27) This is a life of divine power. You can read more at: http://bulamanriver.net/9092, also at: http://bulamanriver.net/?p=8036)

*Read about my true-life miracle I shared in my book and post, titled, “Miracle Living-No Ordinary Life!” I hope you find it inspiring and encourages you to receive Jesus and live the “Triune Life.” Go to: http://bulamanriver.net/2634

**Bulamanriver: To read the different facets of the life of the Bulamanriver, go to my website, www.bulamanriver.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, xulonpress.com, and other book store sites where you can order a copy of my book, “Bulamanriver – The Miracle of Triune Living”

***Herald is the name I have come to call the Holy Spirit in my personal relationship with Him. It is personal and subjective with the way we relate to each other, not to be imposed on others.

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Life Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

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