Unfettered Ministry

THE CHAPLAIN’S BUCKETFULL

(THE DR IS IN)

The Hem of HIS Garment

Chaplain, the summer is past, autumn is upon us and I am still hurt, sick, and feel so destitute. WHAT, WHAT CAN I DO? My family needs a turn of fortune in our lives. My wife is sick, my children are sick. There is too much month left at the end of our money. I don’t know the way of life. It has been this way for so long. If only someone would come to our aid. Is there hope for us?

Yes, those who mope have hope in the one who is LIFE ITSELF. It has been truly observed that one is more likely to look up only after hitting the bottom. But one need not wait for that desperate moment. Another truism is “a PERSON IS WONT TO BLAME HIS PLIGHT ON ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT GOD SAYS IS HIS PROBLEM. That should not be. Nor is it God’s desire to chastise for a wrong conclusion because one has chosen the wrong solution to his pollution.

Reach for “the hem of the garment” of Him. Well…, it does rhyme…. Let us have a smile during our desperate while. But let us turn to serious and compelling direction from the Lord’s word as He traveled on His journey of rescuing us from our desperate dereliction. Read Matthew 9. Jesus has called Matthew to follow Him as He teaches and reaches out to the people we call the Jews (and to the rest of us). Matthew becomes a disciple of Jesus, meaning that He recognizes Jesus as one who can teach him the way of life, adventure, excitement, and give his life more worth than he can otherwise find. Now, anyone can decide to do the same as did Matthew. The difference is that the person whose life is desperate can use a compelling proof. Matthew witnessed many miraculous healings. Each one brought thrills of excitement and a surge of adrenaline. Such would serve, and does serve, to convince many that Jesus is truly GOD and worthy to be one’s own teacher. The promise of a life of fulfillment is a great motivator. Is it enough? Perhaps one needs a more personal touch of THE MASTER’S HAND. One’s question is, “but what about my situation?” What can I do to make the difference that Jesus would heal and prosper me and my family? See Mat. 9. 20-22; Mark 5.2 5-34. “She said within herself, if I may but touch the hem of His garment (His prayer shawl, called a talit), I shall be whole (circumstances will change both physically and materially).” WHAT, WHAT happened?

Twelve years of fears: That is a long time to be sick and tired of being sick and tired. Physicians could not help her, rather they cost all she had…but she grew worse. See Mark 5. 25-34. Sound familiar? Everyone is given THE MEASURE of FAITH. This dear lady exercised what was perhaps the last part of her measure of faith. Before that time, to be sure, she had not known of Jesus. But she did know that His talit represented God, the closet of prayer, the power of God, God’s ability to heal , His desire that all should be made whole, and that God is the God of another chance. The knots and twists in the hem of the talit, the tassels (Tzitziot) represents the 600 (or 640?) laws known by the Jews that were then followed by them. The talit therefore represented life itself. “If only I can touch the hem of HIS garment, I shall be whole.”

One’s soul is made whole when one takes this gos-pil RX for life: “Reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by. You will find He’s not too busy to hear your heart’s cry. He is passing by his moment your need to supply. Reach out and touch the lord, as He goes by.” So we sing…. So we know the truth of that old hymn because we have experienced the truth of God’s grace. So will you.

UNFETTERED

CH(LTC) UA Ret, Lyn Barnes, DMin, MDiv, MS. BS, MOG

Email: unfettered.1@Juno.com

                          THE DR IS IN

                         He needs to be

Dr, we need help!   We just returned from visiting relatives in another state. They have the friendliest critters there. They jumped upon us, and wanted to come home with us. They started eating  at our expense and did not stop until some days later. What shall we do?

What can I say? I joined the fray. Those friendly critters are called chiggers,  red bugs of old  known to be ever so bold. Digging right in, they always win, especially for a few days.  My grandfather once said of such, “They don’t eat much but their board bill is heavy.” Pesky mosquitoes with their salivating ways leave such itchy places on us, matching the scratching.  The mosquitoes come to us out of the friendly skies, united on the airways. The chiggers, it figures, live in the grass at my brother’s house.

When the enemy comes in like a flood: The Lord promised to raise up a standard against him. Who knows what the best defense and offense are? Tell us, won’t you? What about OFF and CHIGGER RID? What about some nice “smelly” stuff? Those relatives of old had one that worked. It was called “Grin and bear it, like old Robinson Crusoe did.” Scratch when prompted….

The hiding places: Those friendly critters know all the best hiding/feeding places on a body: all the soft/tender (oh no, not there) places.

Does the Pentagon know about this invasion?  The present day “people” enemies are flooding our shores. They also act friendly, but they don’t seem to mean it. They are, however,  jumping on us and taking what is ours. The history of these “critters” is bloody. They have that in common with the friendly critters from my brother’s yard. But “Momma Mia,” the object is Sharia law. Pentagon, God has already given you the weapons that will cause such discomfort among the enemy that they will want to leave and come not again, don’t you think? Enough critters and they won’t stop scratching the itches long enough to do us real harm…. Do you wish to live?  I love America, and  America would ever be free. If all Americans loved America as I love America, will America ever be? Comments?

God’s Rx for life:  Rx 1, God will defeat the enemy with the sword of His mouth: His teachers, evangelists, pastors, apostles and prophets. See Eph 4. 32.18; Rev. 19.15.  Rx 2,  Send out a “Turtle”. See Eph 6.  10-18. Am I right about it?

UNFETTERED

Lyn Barnes, DMin, CH(LTC) USA Ret, MOG

Email:unfettered.1@juno.com

(!Help!?)

Singing new circumstances

Dr, you seemed to have some insight into one’s non-peculiar circumstance  of  being unable to manage a  controlling spirit, either that possessing another person or  self. Is there more that one can know and do about such?

Yeah, sing, you ugly thing. We are talking about being in an environment wherein one’s sins return, a  haunting spirit,  if you will, and can’t seem to get it under control. Paul and Silas were in jail because they were  telling people of Jesus and how to be saved from  the wages of their sins. The picture is of Silas in the  corner and Paul leaning against a wall at the door.  Silas begins a conversation: “Paul, those people got kind of excited over  us. They didn’t seem to like us too well. I think they would have  hurt us if something had not stopped them. I wanted to tell them ‘where to get off’.’ ”  Paul speaks up. He did not like the way things went in the argument with the antagonists either.  He had a few “smart answers” he could have used, but was prevented because someone called “9/11”.

Yes, time to sing, you ugly thing. As Silas was speaking, Paul had an urging of the Spirit: “hold it Silas,  I feel a hallelujah coming on.” They both caught the urging and began to sing hallelujahs to the King.  Now back  to the controlling  spirit. When in a combative confrontation, and one’s “last word” can’t stop that spirit’s  strong will and the circumstances are ugly, one can sing a set of new ones. Sing you ugly thing. As Paul and Silas sang, the Father was holding court with the angels  in heaven. Those hallelujahs had wafted out of the jail, down the street, up through the stratosphere, the ionosphere, the troposphere,  the what’s it sphere,  and on up  to  heaven.

The result of the consult: “Hold it angels, something is happening down on earth.” But Lord God, something is always happening there.” “Yes, but this is different.”  (As you know, the heaven is God’s throne and the earth is His footstool.) He began to tap His foot to the singing. The rhythm began to shake the earth and it set up an earthquake. The shaking caused the chains to fall off of the prisoners  and shook the jail doors off heir hinges. You know the rest of the story.  He result of the whole affair was that the jailer and his family were saved. What will the results be for us?

The end of the blend: Can you see that if one dislikes  the circumstances, sing a set of new ones?  Secondly, what is needed is a great peace during, and victory over “conflictions”. The Lord’s word here, is Isa 26. 3, “Thou wilt keep him in  perfect peace, whose  mind is stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee.” So how does one keep one’s mind on the Lord so that He can give that perfect peace?  Practice the principle of Praise to the Lord. When the focus is on Him, it won’t be upon the adversary, a problem  or adverse circumstances.  Am I right about it? Songs, hymns and protestations of praise should be continued until the peace comes, leaving only love for the adversary. Trust me.

So my brother, what other thing can I do? The Holy Spirit speaks to us by speaking into our  thoughts. (See Prov 16.3, Jhn 14. 26, and Jhn 16. 13-15.) Jesus said that He only did what the Father showed Him. Ah Ha! My prayer is that the Lord will hear from the Father and reveal to the Holy Spirit who will then reveal to me, what else I can do. The question many ask is, “Lord what will you have me do? In another discussion of such a topic,  The question was about EXPERIENCING DIVINITY. See my web site. It is not so much, “what does the Lord want me to do?  He does  not USE people just because He can, and not in a sense that we might think of being used by someone. Rather we should seek to work alongside the One who has called us friends. “Take my burden upon you and learn of me, My yoke is easy and my burden  is light,” He said. It is He in me and I in Him, working together.  Maybe what is needed is a new ME and a new YOU.  Take these 4 Gos-Pils  for life: Rx 1. Believe the Lord. Rx 2. Follow through. Rx 3. Sing yourself a new set of circumstances and rejoice. Rx 4. Wait upon Him. He will not let you down as you trust in Him.

UNFETTERED

CH(LTC) USA Ret, Lyn Barnes, DMin, MDiv, MS, BS, USACHSCH, USA CGSC, MOG

Email:unfettered.1@juno.com

THE DR IS IN

God’s Judgments are upon Us II

SHOULD GOD DO WHAT HE TOLD YOU TO DO?

Dr,  Should a Christian ask God to do something that has been delegated to the redeemed? Does that apply to ending the judgments upon the world, and if so, to what else?

Rather than abort, I shall make it short: The Bible must answer for us. The answer is in Mark 16. 15-20 and in II Chron 7. 14.  In God’s Judgments I, I cited II Chron 7. 12, 13, and I Kgs 8.  Briefly, God has said that the Church is His  delegated authority to rectify what He has made to happen,  ie., storms, hunger, disease, wars, etc. What we are experiencing in our time is the same thing that God and Solomon discussed in those passages.  Must we not conclude that today is no different than then? I believe that YE S, it is the same. God makes It all happen because of the sins of mankind. He said so, see  II Chron 6. 22, 26, 36, etc.

Hark to Mark: We are to act: “In My name….,” in  vs  17,  believers are told what to do for people’s  circumstances, just as He did in II Chron 7. 14. Why should He do what He has told His people to do? Even though Jesus also said that whatever we ask in His name, He will do it. But  the answer to the question at hand, is, God will not do what He has told the Church  to do: repent in humility and  turn to our Him; seek His face..

Mankind tries to unwind what God Has set in motion. Am I right about it? An example is Global warming, said to be caused by men. Yes we have sinned and mismanaged God’s creation, and men are told that men must fix it. True, but mankind is wont to blame our problems on everything except what God has said is the problem. See on my web site, the discussion titled What Is Your Problem. It is how one perceives the problem, that is the problem. An example, a person needs money:  “too much month left at the end of the money.” One’s  first question should be “what does God say about one’s need for money?” The answer is in whether he is a giver and tither. That’s what God says is the answer to money problems. Mal  3. 8-18.  Who of us wants to believe that? So mankind strives  to find a way to get money., when God says it is because one is cursed for “robbing God”.

Whammin’ the Mammon: Recently I was in a conversation with Paul Pierce at the Church we both attend. He is very interested in and teaches about God’s word regarding money. Mankind, he said, is wasting the mammon, that  which is a necessary part of meeting one’s needs. We are burning up and  whammin the mammon that God has given us and wants us to have. Mammon when personified and worshiped is sinful, but money and other mammon is not sinful unless inordinately “worshiped” as if it will solve all one’s problems. Do what God says to do. Nothing else will solve the problem. One must not say that the cause of one’s problems is other than what God says it is.

Prayer in the lair (congregation): How can two walk together unless they are in agreement? Amos 3. 3. Brother Paul was in agreement that “too many prayers are just a lot of noise.” Why are not more prayers honored and more needs met? Yes, the congregation BURSTS into “prayer” over needs, but if one cannot understand what is being said in the prayer, how can one agree with it. It is when two  agree, Jesus said, that we will be given what we ask. See Matt 18. 18-20.  It is when one at a time prays and others agree that the desire of one’s heart is granted. Why, indeed should God do what He has told the church to do? Am I right about it? Comments and questions welcome.

Rx for spiritual life: Take these two gos-pils for living effectively. Rx 1,  Pro 3.5,6, Trust in the Lord rather than human understanding.  R x 2, Agree with the Lover of your soul. See John 10. 10, He came to give us abundant life and and abundance in life. Am I right about it?

UNFETTERED

Dr Lyn Barnes, Ch(LTC) USA Ret, MOG, CPA

Email: unfettered.1@juno.com

!!LOVE IS WHAT!!?

Dr, I know you have studied the subject of LOVE. We have just celebrated the greatest expression of LOVE the world could ever know, though Jesus was actually born on April 1, 5 BC as per the chronologist, Edward Reese who produced The Reese Chronological Bible. I observe people and listen to conversations and read what is written when love is the topic or adjective expressed, I yearn for reality. I think that it is possible that one can use the term LOVE with a very loose and shallow understanding. Am I right about it?
To firm the term, you are right. It has been a long journey as I seek to understand LOVE. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to “love God with the heart, mind, soul and strength:” Love: emotionally; Mind: intelligently; Soul (personality): all that one is; Strength; all that you do. As I have put it together the heart has to do with emotions, ie., what one feels emotionally. The substance called love is a pure emotion. Psychologists have said that love is learned. The behavior of love is learned. One does not learn an emotion. He feels it.
A daffi-nition, to give volition: Love Between a man and a woman is that love is a feeling you feel when you feel like you are going to have a feeling that you never felt before. Am I right about it?
The assumption of gumption. So as not to make a mistake, one must use gumption. which is that stuff that if one takes a teaspoon full of and puts it on a hound dog’s nose, he won’t bark up the wrong tree. To make a mistake about love is hurtful.
To love God who IS LOVE: I had a great insight about love and God who is LOVE. Jesus’ prayer that we would all become one with Him and the Father helps here. Can you see that we are talking about a very intimate relationship? To be in Him and He in us is true LOVE. THAT IS WHAT LOVE IS. To know that one loves God is when He loves his neighbor whom he can see. Thus God tells us, “I know that you love Me whom you cannot see because you love your neighbor whom “you can see.” The second commandment tells us the same thing, It is like unto the first, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”. When I can feel what God, or my neighbor feels, can see what God or my neighbor sees, and/or can smell, etc as God or my neighbor does, in the same way and for the same reason, that is being in God and He in me…, and I respond accordingly, !!Love Is That!! Am I right about it? The Holy Spirit effects that. He convicts/convinces one via The Fruit of the Spirit.
The light of insight: Recently, a fellow Christian noted regarding Acts 1.8, “when the Holy Ghost comes upon you…,” reveals that you are “clothed with Him” and also has the idea that you are the clothing of the Holy Ghost. That is the same picture that Jesus gave us when He prayed that we would be in Him and the Father. How much more intimate can one be with the Lord? !!Love Is That!!
To know is to enter: It has been seen that to know has the idea that one has entered into an experience. One has an experiential knowledge. To know one’s spouse is then to enter into a very intimate relationship together. If I can be clear without being vulgar, it is to have an intimate intercourse. Indeed when a theologian speaks of Jesus’ bride being the Church (His body on earth, He in us, us in Him), He could have not given a clearer picture of the relationship of Himself and the born again, redeemed person.
Love and the above: We read in the Bible about the action of LOVE, seeing LOVE as a verb. True, but again the substance of LOVE is the source of the action. The action is not the substance. It is the learned behavior of the qualitative substance called LOVE. See I Cor 13.
Rx for life: So Love Is What? It is being in God and Him in me. Am I right about it? Compare the relationship one has with his neighbor. Comments, discussion, and questions welcome.
UNFETTERED
Dr. Lyn Barnes, CH(LTC) USA Ret, DMin, MDiv, MS, BS, USACGSC, UACHSCH, MOG
unfettered.1@juno.com

As I awoke this AM, it came to me that I couldn’t remember the last time I was in a church that actually discussed the biblical passages pertaining to salvation. Thus the reason for this discussion, the first of at least two, Lyn Barnes

THE DR IS IN
JESUS SAVES From Sin
(Why? What? and How?)

Dr, one hears that Jesus saves. Do people really know what that means, and why does a person need to be saved, and from what is a person saved? Is it Biblical? How can one understand what it means and be able to explain being saved to another person?
Yes, this question needs a session to give an answer to a person’s need to be saved from sin. The first question is, what is sin? Let us start at the beginning of history. Genesis 1.1 starts with “B’resheet Elohim”, Hebrew for “In beginning, God (Elohim, Father, Son and Holy Spirit)….” God said that everything He created was good. Then He (Elohim, God, who is one though of three persons) created Himself a family and called us mankind.
The next jump was to take a lump of mud and fashion mankind in the likeness of Elohim. He had completed creating all living things, then said (to Jesus, the Word [Jn 1.1], and the Holy Spirit) let us make mankind (duplicates of ourselves), an Adam (of the earth, clay or mud) who is just like US. We can better understand God’s reasoning as we understand that all other of His creation reproduced after its own kind. Mankind was different in that God crowned mankind with His own glory (think gorgeousness), and the authority and responsibility over all the rest of creation. All that was expected was that mankind (Adam and Eve) would reproduce themselves, thus enlarging the family of God, and work (tend to) the paradise in which they were placed. It belonged to mankind and was for mankind.
Satan was a waitin’. The eternal struggle of the universe is, “who is going to be in control?” Satan, the old serpent (think dinosaur, saur meaning serpent) placed himself in the paradise called the Garden of Eden. I can imagine what he was thinking: “I want (deserve) to be in charge and here this paradise was given to this family ‘come lately.’” Everything mankind would ever need for life and growth and prosperity was already in place. Satan’s attitude was contrary to that of Jesus, of whom it is written, “He made of Himself of no reputation.” Jesus did not think He was being robbed by merely being only a part of the Elohim in heaven. In time, He was sent from His place at the Elohim throne to earth with a mission. Satan, on the other hand, wanted more, a higher position, than he had in the heavenly realm. He waited where there was produced a fruit that God warned mankind to stay clear of. It was called a “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The fruit, God told them, would be the cause of their death if they ate it. I can see that it was the produce of deception. Satan, waiting at that tree, had his story ready. God had lied to them, he told them. The fruit of that tree would make them know what God knew. They would know everything, whether good or evil, once they tried it.
The whackage of the package: Satan never wraps or presents anything in an ugly package. The fruit was pretty and actually delicious (why does forbidden fruit always seem to be so?). “I prefer to call it a ‘stimulus package’ ” ( isn’t that a good turn of phrase?), Satan was saying. Thus the first man (mud) was fooled into committing sin. Jesus was sent to redeem mankind from the sin (i.e., mankind “missed the mark [of truth and life]”). Adam and Eve did not immediately drop dead. That came later. Can you see that their mission to reproduce had to be fulfilled first? Thus we have sin. It is disbelief in God’s warning. Its wages is death, Rom 3. 23; 6. 23. Mankind has never recovered from that stimulus package. Recovery comes through Jesus.
The wage of our age: In the first decade of the XXth century, the USA and the rest of mankind has been presented another “Stimulus package.” We were told that this package would “bale us out of all our problems.” I fear that Satan has wrapped up another “stimulus package” that fools mankind into his trap of earning again the wages of death. Shall mankind recover from this one? Our main concern seems only to be that we are prosperous and physically healthy. Therefore, mankind is easily deceived into anything that promises such. Witness the so-called health bill and the financial stimulus package. But God’s stimulus package is eternal.
Rx for life: Rx #1: You must be born again (John 3.3,6); Rx #2: Confess and be cleansed (1 Jn 1. 8,9.)
UNFETTERED
CH(LTC) USA RET Lyn Barnes, DMin, MOG
Email: unfettered.1 @ juno.com