our ep, our city and our God

In our album "Springfield, Ohio" the lyrics of the songs speak of hope dancing on the horizon, Springfield becoming a champion city again, a lion moving in the streets (not just in the church buildings) and bricks being repaired in the ruined city walls. In some ways I think people have thought that our songs are very blunt and are speaking of this wide spread super charged revival coming out of the clouds. But our songs are speaking of very practical change coming in a maybe unexpected, yet powerful way! We speak of revival, but using the word for what it really means. Re-vive. Like a fresh renaissance or a renewal in business, maybe an awakening in the arts. Fill in the blank with what you're passion is. Sometimes you have to use extreme language to describe simple truths. Metaphorical lingo can at times paint very vivid imagery. In Beautiful Place we sing: "Love rises in Springfield, Ohio to wash away the hate. Disappointment palls as destiny calls and hope inflates. And all things old are made new and all things dead are breathed into and the past is being over taken by the future." It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the economic struggle in Springfield. If you look around you can see the depression or oppression. Or just take a simple walk through the Heritage Center museum and you can tell that things aren't as they used to be. But it will take a bunch of bright, amazing people full of creative, visionary ideas to see Springfield transformed. I think we already have those people in our city. I think our keys to change and our tide turners are right under our noses. In some ways I have forgotten what our own songs are all about. But I see the hope dancing on the horizon again. I see it in places like "Running With Scissors" and "Fair trade winds"! I see a visionary chamber of commerce with the opening of the "Champion City" store off of Limestone. I see creativity exploded. The lion really is moving in the streets. As we sing: "I've seen a lion walking Limestone St. Yeah, I've seen him walking around. And I've seen him in the faces of the people I meet and he's moving into town." The Lion in this song is clearly a picture of God. Taken from C. S. Lewis or even from descriptions in the bible of Jesus as the Lion from the tribe of Judah. A lion walking in the streets of our city could appear to be bad news. But this lion is nothing but good news. If God walks down our streets winter turns to spring, death turns to life, and creation explodes on the scene! God is the most creative being in the universe! He's the most visionary, he has all the best ideas and he has more money then Bill Gates. ha ha God will express himself through you and me! God is reviving this city through the men and women who occupy it. With that said keep dreaming! Support other people's dreams! Look at what we do have in this City! Invest in what we already have rising!

- Micah Level

Repentance

Earlier this week I read something from Francois Du Toit. 

Here's what he said:

"No such word as repentance! It was manufactured by a massive religious lie to squeeze guilt money out of people; from the Latin, penance, then they added the 're' to get even more mileage out of sin consciousness! Re-penance! The word, repentance does not belong in the Bible! The original Greek text uses the word metanoia, from metanous, meta, together with, and nous, mind. From Is 55:8-11 it is clear that this word suggests to co-know with God! It is my mind intertwined with my Maker! So every time you read the word repentance, scratch it out and write, co- know with God (think what God thinks about me! Jesus is God's mind made up about me!)"

It really made me think. I have been chewing on repentance for the past few weeks. The main thought being that repentance isn't an awareness of sin, but an awareness of God. So he inspired me to write some stuff on Metanoia.  

The English word Repentance doesn't do the Greek word Metanoia justice! Repentance in the English Dictionary means:

1.deep sorrow, compunction, or contrition for a past sin, wrongdoing, or the like.

2.regret for any past action.

Metanoia means: 

Greek, from metanoiein to change one's mind, from meta- + noein to think, from nous mind

Metanoia is to change your mind. Metanoia isn't a sin consciousness! It is God consciousness! Metanoia isn't a deep sorrow for being naughty. It's a deep joy of being made new and good! To say that Metanoia is regret for any past action is wrong! God doesn't want anyone to have deep sorrow and regret for past sin. Listen, Jesus finished the work! Jesus destroyed the very nature of sin. To suggest that God want's us to have a deep sorrow for sin would be to suggest that the trinity has turned on it's self! We can't say in one hand that Jesus destroyed sin (Romans 5, 6, 7, 8) and then think that God wants us to have a deep sorrow for sin. He want's us to come into the deep joy of discovering the fact that He has set us free from sin! There is a word for deep sorrow for past sin and for feeling regret for any past action... That word is CONDEMNATION. But thank God the gift of no condemnation has been given in Christ Jesus! 

The fact is this, God loves you! God has set you free! He has destroyed the prison cell of SIN! Cut away the very nature of SIN and removed you from the land of SIN! Now you have been given to another! To Jesus! He is our righteousness! He is HOLY! You have been placed into the nature of HOLY! You have been moved to the land of HOLY! You have been given a new name! All your sins, past, present, and future have been wiped away by the cross of Christ! At the cross all your sins where in the future anyways. He already wiped them away, and not only that but He took away the nature of sin! God doesn't want you in a puddle of tears at an alter feeling sorry for yourself! He wants you feasting, rejoicing and celebrating because of what HE HAS DONE! Just like Isaiah 12 says: "With joy YOU will draw water from the wells of salvation" 

I will leave you with Romans 2:4. "...God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance (metanoia)" God's kindness, goodness, and love leads us to a mind change. Not comdemnation, sorrow for sin and judgement. His kindness! God is love! All that He does is good. 

Bless you!

-Micah   

We are One, now I can enjoy Him

I want to live my life always being aware of God's ever nearness and closeness to me.
He has drawn near to me! He is closer then my skin. I am in Him and He is in me. He is like a vast ocean of water! There is no height, no depth, no end! He is the endlessness, the infinite. I am likened to a small sponge... God in His great mercy and goodness grabbed me and dropped me into Himself. Now I can righ

tly say that I am in Him and He is in me. The sponge is in the water and the water is in the sponge, we are one, but not the same. I was made for nothing less then this! To be united with Him. Now like Brother Lawrence, I make it my business only to persevere in His holy presence (an awareness of His nearness), wherein I keep myself by a simple attention and general fond regard to God!

Christ

The work of Christ is general and objective, but it is also personal and subjective. Both are real and true, but the personal and subjective is only true because the general and objective is a pre-existing reality. As we are rooted in the general and objective reality of Christ's work we are opened up effortlessly to the personal/subjective mystical experience of that reality. We need to have more

 faith then the reformers and have deeper experience then the mystics of old. As we trust in His all inclusive work that had nothing to do with any effort on our part we begin to enjoy the depths and riches of it on a personal level. In the Phillips translation of the New Testament, Colossians says "May your spiritual experience become richer as you see more and more fully God's great secret, Christ himself! For it is in Him, and in Him alone, that men will find ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." As we come to see and understand Christ and His finished work, we effortlessly come to enjoy and experience it.

Jesus is the vicarious man! He is God, He is man. God clothed in skin. He united Himself with our humanity. In His oneness with humanity He died, He was buried, He resurrected, and He ascended! Now seated on the throne forever is Jesus Christ: fully God, fully man! Just by being who He is, He is in continual intercession for us. His intercession is a state of being. He is our high priest. In Chris

t we find forever complete oneness and union with Humanity and God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Nothing can break this union! Nothing can take away this oneness! Jesus once and for all united man to the Godhead.

 Jesus is the complete union between man and God for all of eternity. The complete collusion of heaven and earth... IN CHRIST! This union has nothing to do with your devotion, nothing to do with your efforts. This union is the fruit of another. This oneness is found in the new man Jesus Christ! Jesus came into the world clothed in skin... Jesus ascended to the throne clothed in skin. Don't let anyone tell you Jesus is with out form! He is still clothed in skin, has flesh and bone. This is the reason for our oneness! Christ! Grace has saved us, nothing of our own. Jesus alone lifted humanity out of darkness and into light! He alone lifted us into His glory and presence. His passion wasn't just for you, it was AS you. He died as you, He rouse to life as you and He ascended as you!

Sin is gone, Holy is on

The word SIN is a noun (person, place or thing), It isn't a verb. The word HOLY is a noun (person, place or thing), it isn't a verb. No matter how hard we could or would try we could never leave the slave master of sin. Even if we worked really hard by trying to keep a moral code to stop SINS as a verb; we were still in the noun of SIN. None of our efforts could get us out of the noun of sin and into the noun of holy. The good news is this! Jesus Christ came and didn't just cover or wash away your sins (verbs) by his blood. He actually destroyed, killed and buried the very nature (noun) of sin. He cut it away! He took you out of the prison cell of sin and placed you in the prison cell of righteousness! Now being free from the noun of sin, you have been placed into the noun of HOLY! Romans 6:22 says "But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way!" Jesus i

s our Holy! He is the person we have been placed into! Holy is a person and you have been united with him! He destroyed, killed and buried the noun of SIN. You were included in this death. SIN died once and for all. But when we were raised, we were raised to newness of life. Life in Christ. Oneness with HOLY. Oneness with God. 

The former noun produced evil actions (verbs)... The latter noun produces holy actions (verbs)! You are HOLY! You are righteous! Now the old has pasted away and the new has come. Now being placed into the noun of Holy, you are prone to righteousness. HOLY (noun) effortlessly produces HOLY (verb). 

Favor

Some times as people we feel we have to work hard to walk in favor or that we have to get around really powerful, favored people and hang on to their coat tails. But the fact is this: You already have all of God's favor. You have been united to the most favored person in the whole universe. Jesus is our high priest, He is our favor. The truth is that He (favor) came and united himself with humanit

y! You can't look any farther then Christ in you. You aren't lacking anything! You have already been given grace and truth! Colossians 2:9-10 says "For in Him (Jesus) the WHOLE FULLNESS of deity dwells bodily, and you (insert your name haha) have been (past tense) FILLED in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority." That is some extreme favor right there! He is the head of ALL rule and authority. In other words His favor is the highest. You can't get any more highly favored then Him. So why look any farther then Him? You are highly favored... In all of life. Your favor is within you! It's already there in fullness! Bless you, love you - Micah

Good News Part 2

I believe in Heaven 100%. I believe in Hell 100%. Both are real places! Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Could it be possible that Heaven and Hell are both filled with saved people? And the only difference is that some believe that Jesus saved them and some do not believe. It's a mystery. I don't know how it all works. On one hand Christ's work is all inclusive. Saving all of humanity. Then on the other hand if you confess with your mouth you will be saved? huh! Which one is it?? It's both. We are saved by grace, through faith. Grace saved us, faith opens us up to enjoy our salvation. We must repent and believe to experience this salvation. But repentance and faith do not save us. Jesus saved us. God doesn't give me salvation when I repent and believe, as a mere transaction. He gave me salvation as a gift, therefore I believe. Believing comes down to enjoying and experiencing what is already a reality. God's saving work is done and complete, apart from any action, belief, works, etc. of our own. But every person must believe in this work.

Grace Communion International wrote: "God forces this personal decision/acceptance upon no one. Love must be freely given and freely received; it cannot be coerced, or it is not love. Thus human decision, the exercise of human freedom, is of great importance, but only in this context of accepting God's gift that has already been freely given." The decision to believe in Christ's all inclusive work is for each person to decide. But their decision to believe doesn't save them. Rather they are choosing to believe in a work that has already been completed. Robert Capon wrote an awesome story about faith. It went something like this. Imagine a man was sick in the hospital, he can't leave and he has been in there for months. The whole time he has been in the hospital he has been fretting about his home. He knows it is falling apart. The paint is pealing, the grass is tall. The water pipes are leaking. But he can't do anything about it. So in comes a friend of his and says, "Hey bro, don't fret or worry about your house. I got it all taken care of. I hired a contractor and he fixed the whole thing up." Here is the question: does the sick man believing or disbelieving the word of his friend add a single thing to the reality that his friend fixed his house? NO, not at all! The sick man's decision to believe his friend's words will let him enjoy the peace and rest that his home is fixed and safe. If he doesn't believe he will continue in worry and anxiety. But either way, whether he believes or not his friend did fix the house. It wasn't fixed because he had enough faith or believed ... It was fixed because of the strength of his friend.

Faith then is an effortless response to an already present reality. Thank God, I was saved by the strength of another! I was saved by Jesus! The good news is simply this: Good... News. News always talks about something that already happened. If we believe what the news man tells us or if we disbelieve it, it doesn't change the fact that what they reported about actually happened. It's the same with the Good News! Jesus already died, He said "It is finished!" Now we get the honor of telling others what he already did! I encourage you to dive into the word and search for yourself. Come to the word with a clean slate and see what you will find! Without going into detail here are a few verses you could start with. Acts 10, John 3:16-21, Ephesians 1:4, Revelation 13:8, 2 Timothy 1:9, Ephesians 2:4-10, Romans 4, Galatians 3, Romans 5, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 Bless you! :) Cheer up! Be happy! I LOVE YOU!                                             

- Micah