Down and Out

Why is it that during what is supposed to be one of the most joyful times of the year so many people feel so down and out? It is as if we must work so hard at having an enjoyable time. Maybe it is because we seem to work so hard at everything in our life, which is exactly what the Bible says happened when we lost the Garden. What so many do not know is the fact that we can have the Garden back if we simply accept the Kingdom in its place. Just like the Garden, the Kingdom comes with one simple requirement–acquiescence.

Complete surrendering of ones self to the Trust of God. Most people can understand the methodology behind Trust Funds, where one gives money to another with the trust that the other will make more money for the one by way of the other placing the money in various investments with complete authority over the one. Of course, (hopefully) one does not blindly give money to another without first researching the others’ abilities to make money.

The same is true with God and His Kingdom. We once had the chance to blindly accept God’s authority over us, but we chose the Tree of Knowledge instead. That choice established a set of restriction that we now must follow, namely, self-consciousness. Which leads everything we do until we disconnect our self to our knowledge and begin depending on God’s. For this to occur one must first learn who this God is and little by little begin to trust God for the everyday needs of ones life.

That is why the Bible stresses the importance of patience, because the road back to the Garden through the Kingdom is long, and few stay on it to the end. However, those of us that have been on the road long enough to see the Garden ahead can help others to stay the course even if that means taking a little longer to get there, because that is what the Kingdom is all about.  Let’s not forget what we are here for. Soon we will all be up and in!

Why Are We Here?

So many believers and non-believers have been convinced that the human race is on this earth to live out earthly pleasures and enjoy life to the fullest. Here at Cepher we think they have got it half right. We are here to enjoy life, the Garden of Eden should tell us that. However, just as inside the Garden, in order to live life to its fullest we must live life within the direction, and under the authority of God. But what does that mean?

2 Peter 1:3-11, tells us all we need to know to follow God and have an abundant life. Verses 5-7 list all the character traits that one needs to display in life in order to have what verse 3 describes; God’s divine power granting to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. What more could you want? Well, that is the problem, is it not? What we want, and what God desires for us to have are very different indeed, and that is where the problem occurs in a believer’s life who is doing everything they can to get God to give them all that they believe they deserve. Ouch!

You see, us humans are a peculiar lot. We have trouble deciphering between what is good for us and what we want to be good for us, what is good for us–eternally– and what feels good to us –temporarily– are usually very different. That difference is what is costing the believers today, because they have no real shepherds helping them to understand the detriment of the difference. How many of you have asked God recently why you are not receiving the particular blessings that you feel are yours?

“Why God? What do I have to do to get to that place in life that gives me all that I need and keeps me from all harm? When will You help me get past all this stress in life?”

Is that what we are here for, for God to bless us to our specifications? Is that why we serve God, to receive a blessed life in return? Is that why we were born?

Make no mistake! God does want to bless His children, however, as Job 28:13 explains how we have no true understanding of wisdom, and that we have no understanding of its value for our lives. Only God knows what is truly good for us and we must learn to trust Him before we can truly follow Him. Until we sincerely follow God for the single reason that that is what we were born to do, we will be asking Him, where is He, and after all that I have done for Him why can’t I find Peace?

Check It Out!

If you have not ventured over to our Quote page lately you have not seen the half of it. While you are at it, why not spend some time each week and look through the many other pages that we have to offer from our side bar. Each has been written with the same care for the Blessed Holy Spirit’s authority as has all our posts.

A-Alpha

Let’s go back to the beginning. Because we have screwed up the present to an irreparable degree. We seem to believe that God is here for us. We also believe that if we work extra hard for God, our lives will be made better. Everything we do is based on one simple premise; making our own life on earth better. Even when we do for others it is still motivated by that same single premise. Let’s go back to the beginning–in Eden–where we had the chance to have God at our side 24-7. There is not a human being on this earth today that would not have eaten from the tree of knowledge, at least we have never met anyone who had ever met such a person.

In the Garden God made a place that simply allowed everyone there to live with God. There was no work needed, there was no souls to be saved, there was no effort at all to life. That is the beginning we are all striving to return to in one way or another. Why? Maybe because that is what our inner spirit was designed for, and the world keeps getting in the way. The first thing that we must do to get back to the Garden is understand what was expected of those who were in the Garden, and that was to simply trust God. However, apparently, that whole trusting bit is not in our DNA, at least not in any dominating context that would allow us human being to easily trust without first testing the water, so to speak.

Here at Cepher we have one aim, that is to allow the Blessed Holy Spirit some Internet time. In that aim we have seen a singular message which consist of learning how to trust God by letting go of this world. In essence, it is a matter of allowing your trust in God to become bigger than your trust in the tree of knowledge. That seems to be extremely difficult for human beings and that is where our God’s great empathy steps up, gently at first, to dislodge us from our trust in the tree and guide us toward His waiting open arms.

That is where we see so much that we consider suffering, i.e., a widower of seven years missing his wife of fifty years, the death of a young child, sickness, and the list goes on and on. The point is whether or not we trust this world that is filled with this type of suffering or we trust in the creator, not of this suffering, but of the Garden where this suffering was never found? How do we trust in God? We first must let go of the tree and all that it is attached to.

Please…

Civility is fading within our society, and when it disappears completely we will understand how important it was. One of the reasons Faith has been promoted for so long by civic leaders is the understanding that most society’s leaders have had of its ability to bring about civility. The Bible is about discipline, obedience, societal civility, and at the same time, individuality. It is that strange complex combination of individuality working hand in hand with societal forces that bring about the necessity of Faith to community leaders of the past. That is what we are losing today. The understanding of Faith as the balance of complexity when left alone to mold into whatever a particular community is in need of.

Today’s problem is created by public leaders trying to use Faith as a public divide. Most churches today want to represent the community instead of just their followers. Decades, centuries, and millennia ago when churches were few and normally represented each community it served, there was no problem with competition. However, today with so many churches fighting for followers within each community it is bound to disrupt the natural flow of Spiritual Faith. The competition of churches for followers is not conducive to a natural spiritual flow of Faith.

Make no mistake, there has been a major competition for followers since the beginning of time. It has always been between God’s Spirit and the evil spirit. A spiritual war has been taking its toll on unsuspecting humans for millennia and now has been enlarged and complicated by allies that do not even realize they are in a fight to the death. The evil spirit has been using churches just as it used social networks before churches came into existence, and now has positioned them against each other.

We can never accomplish God’s desire, divided. When we look back at the very first priority of the New Covenant we can see that unity was key. John was sent by God to do what? To bring people together! That is and always will be the priority for believers to follow. Just ask yourself, does society develop unity or conformity? Does it encourage group think or individuality? Does this world predicate unity of the masses or grouping by ethnicity and class?

Before we can address issues like global warming, nuclear disarmament, starvation, homelessness, disease, and the economy, we must come together. Because we cannot help ourselves until we learn to help one another.

Together we can make it, divided…

Until Morning

Though we would begin working on one post with a specific theme in mind, many times we would end up writing a completely different post by the time we were done. We consider this being led by the Blessed Holy Spirit. There is no possible way of proving this theory, and we would never even bother. However, just because something cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, it dose not make that something any less plausible. In fact, many factual ideas today were considered impossible fantasy decades and centuries ago. Time confirms all things one way or the other.

In fact, we believe that life is not appreciated today by very many, instead, most are intensely focused on everything but life. Today most people are living for the future, some live in the past, many live strictly for money, power and fame. Few live each day just for the privilege of being alive on that particular day; to live and be thankful for those utterly unique twenty-four hours–one second at a time.

For us here at Cepher, if there is a sure thing to concern our thought with it is the very heart beat that beats the very second that we consider being alive, and that is more than enough reason to jump for joy while we thank the Good Lord for that very beat. There is so very much we do not know about life, this earth, the deep blue sea, and of course, the immense space above our heads (and for some of us, inside our heads). Because there is so much unknown, we think that what few things we know to be true within our own lives should be considered deeply and appreciated the same. Also, we must never stop learning, which requires an open mind and an active curiosity.

However, the most important agenda in life is to live it! This does not require a big production, a great deal of money, or excellent physical conditioning. Appreciation is all you need to live life to its fullest. It is the appreciation that makes life so wonderful. It is the appreciation that makes life so enjoyable, and it is the appreciation that makes life so livable. In that appreciation one learns to live selflessly. In that appreciation one can see life for what it was truly created for. It is in that appreciation of life that one finally finds that one reason for being born.

It is not a matter of what one knows, but what one is capable of learning, that will open ones eyes and begin the appreciation of life. Today, so many lives are wasted either by chasing the brass ring or by the pressure of not chasing it. When in reality, the brass ring holds no bearing on the quality of ones life.

LIFE

Long infuriatingly frustrating existence–Life.

At birth, before you have had the tiniest of opportunity to do anything bad, you are hit with–teething! Teething! Inflammation in one of the most important, not to mention tender, parts of your young body causing so much pain you think twice about eating and constantly about returning from where you came, just to escape the mind numbing pain! As if that were not enough, just months into your life and on top of the pain in your mouth you begin to feel the tickle of one of the most hideous conditions known to human kind, diaper rash–on the most tender part of your body!

This is just the beginning, but without you knowing it at the time, you are being prepared for existence inside a world that is becoming more violent by the minute. And every species on earth has had to become tougher to adapt to this self-destruction mode that the earth has been kicked into. There was a moment in time when this earth was perfect. Because this earth was designed to respond to the dominant spirit, which just prior to and immediately after the introduction of human beings, was God. Unfortunately, we humans rejected God’s Spirit, and our spirit became the dominant force. It is that spirit today that is continuing to digress bringing the earth along with us.

We would be doomed today had God abandon us to our vices, and simply began again on any one of the zillions of planets that He has created. Not only did God stay with us , but He came down here to show us how to do it right! Of course, we crucified Him. It was not enough that we rejected Him the first time! Who does God think He is, coming here to try and show us how to live in peace, contentment, and love? Besides, who needs that stuff in this world?

There is no doubt that we have more sickness, disease, disasters, wars, and anguish, then any other time in modern history. For every disease science eradicates we create another one worst than the last, and the last one usually comes back worst than it was originally! The powers that be would like to convince us that our future is looking better every day, and for them in a strange way it is. Though, for the average person today, we need God more than ever.

What is “believing in God”?

At Cepher it means loving God with all our heart, soul, and being. It means following King Y’shua Messiah within His very footprints. It means becoming a vessel for the Blessed Holy Spirit to fill up with God’s Agape Love to be poured out over humanity. At Cepher, believing in God simply means trying to be the best human being by displaying compassion, understanding, patience, wisdom and allowing God to live through us. We do that by spending as much time as we can with King Y’shua Messiah learning everything He can teach us about Him.

Believing in God has nothing to do with judging others, passing laws, making money, proselytizing, or segregating. But it has everything to do with living in such a “Way” that reveals in your life a light that is unlike anything else on earth attracting people to seek God. At Cepher we think that the reason there are so many divisions within the church, the country, and the world; and there are so many people who do not know God, is because there are so few vessels to allow Him to be seen.

Time to become “poured out”.

LIFE = Lovely interesting fellowship eternally.     It all depends on where you live!

A Future To Avoid

Things are moving upon the USA very quickly now and we all must become aware of the changes. Our lifestyles are going to be changing as well, if they have not already, and the sooner we can become acclimated to these new demands the sooner we will be able to live comfortably with the changes.  Some are trying to do things outside of Biblical advice to live by the sword, die by it. Some are trying to stock up with enough supplies to last the coming shortages. The problem with that, outside of not relying on God, is trying to calculate the amount of supplies one may need. How long will you need to maintain on your supplies? Only God knows, and He can and does supply.

One must realize why these changes are occurring in the first place. Nothing on earth happens by chance. We are living in a time of extreme decadence, and it cannot, nor has it ever been allowed, to last. So, as believers we can simply turn to God and ask for His guidance, which He will gladly provide. However, His advice may not be what we would like to hear and we will have to make a decision whether or not to follow God’s advice.

What God has been leading us at Cepher to do is to tighten our belts and begin to learn to live with much less than we have ever done in the past. We are also to learn to be more appreciative with whatever we do have; even if that means a roof over our heads without electricity or running water. Not to imply that it will ever get that bad, although it could. The point is to learn to live inside a much smaller footprint than what we are currently used to.

We may be completely wrong and it will be wonderful if none of these changes come to fruition. However, just in case we are not wrong, or for the fact that as a society we could all benefit from a reduced life style, economic change or no change forcing us to do so, we should at least seek our God’s leadership on this front and follow His response. That is exactly what we are doing at Cepher in a spiritual nature through payer and Biblical history, in an intellectual nature applying Scriptural teachings to worldly activity of our society, and in an emotional nature by following current events within our society and society’s responses.

Here at Cepher, it all points to a very serious problem that the USA has gotten itself into with only one possible solution, which is of course God. He will not abandon His people, but as we have seen so many times before, some situations required a great deal of agony before God’s people finally turned back to their God.

Uniqueness

At the risk of redundancy, there is something very special in the uniqueness of life. Something we here at Cepher think most people do not realize. Not that they do not display this uniqueness, but that they fail in realizing its place in their lives. Science tells us that evolution develops unique traits to better the species. That same uniqueness is found in people to a significant degree, however, we do not acknowledge it in ourselves or allow it to better us.

Why is it that some people do wonderfully with a surprise influx of a large amount of money and others do not, though they are almost identical in every meaningful way?

Why do some love, almost to an obsession, the adrenaline rush one receives in highly stressful conditions; when others of very similar physic, and mentality, throw-up at just the thought?

Why do so many people live in urban settings where they find so many things objectionable, and yet, they thoroughly enjoy the outdoors, camping, fresh air, open spaces?

Everyone is born with a specific trait, talent, love; a specific ability to do something that provides a great deal of satisfaction and serenity to that specific individual. For some it appears that the trait develops over time. For others it is recognized very early on, and yet, for some they never find it, which leaves a bitter pit in the center of their lives. Two-hundred years ago there were more people finding their talent, then there were who did not. Today, few even know that they have a talent to exploit, and sadly enough, even fewer of those people ever utilize their talent.

There are so few who find their talent and live with it, but the ones that do are always the most satisfied people one could ever meet. The bible tells us in a number of different places how we should never seek the peace and prosperity of others. The problem today involves people doing all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons. Too many people are trying to keep up with, or surpass, their neighbor with little or no regards to just being friends with their neighbor. What each person needs to do is to find their soul and attempt to listen to their spirit. People must stop striving after the wind long enough for the Wind to make a difference.

How can you be true to anyone or anything if you cannot be true to yourself? The easiest way to discover ones talent is by asking the Creator of everything.

What Is Life?

Science tells us that our conscience derives from implanted memory from experiences passed on through evolution like the fear of fire and the flight or fight response in primal fears. One would think that since some animals like elephants exhibit an ability to pass on information genetically, and evolution is designed to improve life, maybe we should see more than fear transferred through evolution. Why do we not see every human capable of swimming perfectly at birth since we came from the water and evolution is capable of passing down information like fears, would not it be far more Darwinian if our past evolutionary experiences were used to improve the animal human?

We ask this question in the midst of the newest assumptions from science that says our consciousness is simply a factor of evolutionary productions. If that were true we should see far more improvements in the human being than we see. Also, the fact that for the past five thousand years societies have gone from basic to advanced to basic and back to advanced, until now when we see both basic and advanced societies living side by side.

Just as in religion, we see far too much assumption presented as facts that only leads to more questions than answering some of the most crucial questions. If only spirituality and science could become partners in search of life’s perfections. We would be far more advanced in every aspect of life if we could just humble ourselves and work together. No more, Christians and Muslims, Communists and Capitalists, White and Non-white, Believers and Atheists; just people living and working together with different beliefs, looks, opinions. All of us just trying to learn how to live on this planet as partners, not as competitors. No more titles and labels, all of us will be just people; members of the human race.

We here at Cepher are convinced that though this dream may not be possible, we refuse to be the reason it would not succeed! Everything we do is based on attempting to be as humble as possible by the grace of God, so we never purposely offend anyone, and we try to live as if the dream could begin at any moment.