practical theology

What if Jesus took a selfie?

/ E Bishop Wooten / Leave a comment

You ever heard the one about there being so many selfies and so little knowledge of the self?

Have you ever wondered what one of Jesus’s selfies would look like? I have to confess that of all the pictures I have seen of Jesus, I have never seen an original.

For those that attended Sunday school growing up, do you remember that old song:

“This is the church

This is the steeple

Open it up

And there are the people”

God said many times in the Old Testament that He would not dwell in a house made of human hands. The ancient Israelites tried to build a temple twice and look what happened to it.

The Body of Christ is His people. If you want to see a picture of Jesus, just go look in the mirror.

More specifically, if you want to read something that is divinely inspired, just go take a look in the mirror.

What are we so afraid of?

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You ever notice how people always talk about how they are getting old? Some people start doing this as young as 20. The healthiest people and those who live the longest lives all tell us that age is just a number and we are only as old as we feel. So why do we tell ourselves how we are getting old and falling apart?

For one reason, most people don’t understand the power of their own self-talk. The more we tell ourselves how old we feel, the more it will appear that we are falling apart. If we affirm that we are in good health and strive to take care of ourselves, we will actually start to look and feel better.

Part of the fall of man is the descent into the negative mindset. This is very hard to overcome. A growing number of people are aware that they are slaves to negative thinking but they feel powerless to change it. In order for positive affirmations to actually work, you have to actually believe what you are trying to tell yourself.

Maybe at its core, we do not fear getting old. It’s the fear of our inevitable death that haunts us, with each day bringing us closer to our fate.

When we come to the knowledge of God and understand that life is eternal and we will live forever somewhere, that fear of death instantly gets replaced with more positive energy; if we really believe it anyway. Remember the Bible also says that perfect love casts out fear. Faith is the opposite of fear. Since most sicknesses are the result of stress, anxiety and hidden fears, walking by faith is the proverbial cure all that will heal us. Sadly, don’t expect most doctors to tell you that you have the power to heal yourself of pretty much every disease.

Gotta Beatitude Problem?

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I read something in a catechism or a Catholic article that said that anyone who had a “Beatitude attitude” was led by the Holy Spirit; whether they were aware of it or not.

Jesus said by their fruit you will know them. What is this fruit? Besides the fruit of the Spirit that Paul named in Galatians chapter 5.

The first Beatitude is blessed are the poor in spirit. This has nothing to do with being financially rich. A rich person can be poor in spirit if they know they are nothing and everything comes from God.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. This could refer to the empathy and highly sensitive people who are bothered by some of the shit that goes on down here.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. A meek person is a humble person that knows the source of everything comes from God. When we trust in God, we are not tossed to and fro by worldly troubles and have an assurance of life everlasting; this we overcome the world and inherit the earth.

Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. This follows the poor in spirit. It involves knowing there is a better way to live than just accepting things as being human nature. And it knows the source and seeks after it diligently.

Blessed are those who are persecuted. When you pursue righteousness, you run counter to the world. You will likely encounter some subtle, or not so subtle, persecution. The grace of God will empower us to rise above it and keep pushing forward.

Blessed are the pure in heart. Jesus said love for God and love for neighbor fulfills the whole of the law of God.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Those that strive to live in peace while worldly types are always in conflict of some sort.

Blessed are the merciful. We are saved by the grace and mercy of God. When we show mercy and not judge others, we are being merciful. The bible promises we will experience mercy because mercy triumphs over judgement.

The late Evangelist, Billy Graham once told a story about how he witnessed to a Buddhist monk. The monk received Jesus and went on to say that he already knew Him, but he didn’t know him by name.

Anybody who exhibits this kind of Beatitude attitude is no doubt led by the spirit; directly or indirectly.

The Bible summed up in one blog post

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A long time ago, maybe a couple of days in eternal years, the earth was without form and void. Next came the big bang theory; that is, the Creator spoke and life begin. Plant and animal life alike, and humans, the crown jewel of creation. Humans have freewill because they have dominion over the earth. Unfortunately many humans use their freedoms to take away the freedoms of others and oppress them.

Then male and female were created and the female, being the smarter and more insecure of the two, ate of the forbidden fruit. She questioned her Creator. This led to her offspring, while being born beautiful souls, becoming filled with pride and declaring that they would become like the Most High (Isaiah 14). This was the Luciferan Spirit, which though it manifested as light became the Satan, or adversary of God. The war in heaven ensued and the spirit of man was cast down to the abyss, Earth, and spent much of their lives trying by their own efforts to get back into that perfect Utopia from where they originated. You can probably read about this in John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

The Spirit of God chose a young virgin at the fulness of time and made her pregnant (without sex obviously)-all things are possible in the Kingdom of God. The Divine became His Only Begotten Son, sent to free people from their slavery to all things matter. While He amassed a great following, He died a violent death that all prophets who speak the truth die of. Although He transfigured into a spiritual being and resurrected His way out of a man made tomb and established His spiritual kingdom on earth that not even the gates of hell could prevail against.

In the Beginning

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Genesis 1:1. . .”The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good.“

The beginning of man is similar to the creation of the planet earth; that is, without form and full of darkness and God hovering over us, waiting for us to invite Him to be a part of our lives. I have heard it said that water is a symbol for matter. Our bodies are 70% water, so our bodies exist as a solid form of water. When we are baptized in “water”, the Spirit of God merges with the spirit of man.

God said the light was good, but until the light is received, all we have is darkness. Life will not make any sense. We will have toil and hardships as we struggle to get back into that perfect utopia that we were created to live in with God.

You can’t really prove God exists. This is why intellectual types prefer science to religion and struggle with anything that simply rests in faith. The whole act of trying to “figure God out” is eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of life is simply believing that God exists, no matter what name we give Him (or gender), and resting peacefully in Him.

The only way to prove that the things of God are true is to seek “Him” out for ourselves and have a direct experience with the Holy Spirit. When this happens, our lives change and we won’t be able to deny that there is something bigger than us out there. Not even that far out there either.

Apart from the direct experience with the Creator, we can experience the life hidden with Christ in God by having fellowship with other believers. I usually feel like I am in a whole different world when I attend some church related gatherings. It is the same when I listen to inspirational music or watch faith-based programming on Pureflix.

Jesus said “by their fruit you will know them”. Whenever I see churches giving out food and clothing to people that lack these things, it is also proof that my faith is true. The community that the world seeks and desperately needs can only be found when it is centered around God and His truth that is contained in the Holy Scriptures.