It was a crazy year and I let a little thing called Flint JAHbone’s Cerebration fall by the wayside. I didn’t mean for this to happen, but it did and as is custom in the New Year, I’ve jumped in to say that I resolve to maintain this blog. I am, of course, hopeful to be in that 8% of people that actually keep their New Year’s Resolution.

I’ve made quite a few resolutions this year in hopes that the ones I don’t keep will be those little useless ones like not drinking as much Coke.

Here’s to hoping it’ll be different this year!

Recently I was reading about Solomon and his glory and wisdom and it did only one thing for me as I read it. I found myself getting irritated with Solomon as I read, and this was a strange reaction for me. In the past when I read of Solomon I’ve seen him as this cool dude who is super-intelligent, so innovative and he really cleaned house when he first started as king. But this time, not only was I irritated with him, but it showed me the utter disgust I have for myself and our modern “church”. Being unsure what to think, and reflecting on what was really bothering me, I prayed, “LORD what can all this mean?” One huge resounding question, which seemed to be the irritant, tumbled around in my mind. “Why is Solomon living in the lap of luxury while his father toiled day and night to establish this kingdom?”

There is a lot of good things that can be spoken of about Solomon. He asked the Lord for wisdom when he was offered anything he wanted; was  filled with wisdom and couldn’t be thwarted by any question. The Queen of Sheba heard of his wisdom and went to him. When she saw the splendor of his kingdom and his wisdom she exclaimed that he was great, she also included God in there at the end.

The truth of the matter is that if God is on a list of things to thank, things to do or of priorities, though we’ll mention He’s first, He’s most likely last. For David YHWH was everything. (see my blogs “The Problem with Jehovah 1, 2, 3 for more on this topic of God being on lists or being everything)

David bled for his kingdom. Did battle for his kingdom. Sacrificed for his kingdom. Became a man of no reputation for his kingdom. Became a commoner for his kingdom. This lifestyle and these actions show that David loved his kingdom and would die for her.
He appreciated her because he toiled, because he went through hardship and because he conquered for her.

Solomon reaped the benefits of his father being so committed and he started out in the same manner but he and Israel became spoiled.

Solomon means “peaceful” so it is thought that he is a “Christ Type”. I would argue that he isn’t, but that he represents something else.
You see, the reason Solomon’s Kingdom was the “Peaceful Kingdom” is because David had already done battle with Israel’s/The People of God’s enemies.

Let’s look at a few things building my case. We’ll, as usual, look to the scriptures and Jesus.

Jesus Quotes:

Matthew 10:34-39

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

This verse seems to be proclaiming that there will be peace for God’s people, or “with whom He is pleased.”

So peace does come, but at what cost?

I said earlier that I didn’t believe that in this case Solomon was the “Christ-type” but rather something else. I believe in this scenario, that David is the “Christ-type” and that Solomon’s Kingdom, or the Peaceful Kingdom, is a result of David’s conquest. Interestingly enough Jesus is the one who came to do battle. As we saw earlier He came to bring a sword, he came to do battle! Matthew tells us He came to seek and save that which was lost, but John, in his epistle, told us how He planned to do so.

1 John 3:8b The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus came to do battle so as to bring peace to the Kingdom He was changing and developing.

So David, not Solomon, is the Christ type in this scenario. So what does that make Solomon?

… read the next one to find out …

- end part 1

Flint JAHbone here with another cerebration. Being a parent of 2 I’ve been able to see, only a fraction (if that) of course, how God has to deal with His children. This isn’t a deep theological blog, or is it? It’s simply that I’m a minister and have often taken life lessons and experiences and flipped them into sermons. So let me begin and let’s cerebrate good times, c’mon!

I was playing with my kids in their room one day, and we were actually wrestling. I was getting my hind end handed to me as my 6, then 5, year old and my 4, then 3, year old dropped elbows and jumped off of the “top ropes” to crush and pin me. The youngest got bored and started off down the hallway. She stopped at the banister and started to look through them to the empty floor below. I was watching her from about 12 feet away when she jumped on it and slipped through, barely holding on with one little arm. Though this drop is only about 4 feet, this could have been a rough injury should she land on the hardwood flooring. I panicked and jumped to my feet and bolted out of the room to grab her. I got to her and reached through and abruptly pulled her to safety and embraced her tightly. The act of me grabbing and pulling her through, scared her more than anything, but it probably was jarring and a little rough on her little sides. She began, in her little, hard-to-understand, 3 year-old voice, to explain how she was upset because daddy hurt her. Upon trying to explain to her how it would have been much, much worse had daddy not grabbed and “saved” her from what was coming. She wouldn’t have any of it, because based on her perspective, she was fine and I hurt her.

As I was trying to think of how to explain it further, God really spoke to me. The impression I got was that He was trapped in the same position sometimes and that even though He’s had to hurt me, or allow me to be hurt, whichever fits your theology better, it’s often much better than what was going to take place, or happen or hurt me worse. Thought my little girl was devastated that daddy hurt her and though she ran to her room upset with me, I knew I had done what was necessary to keep her from a far worse harm. Often times we’re angry with God for things that happen in this world, and “more importantly” things that happen in our world, and really it’s Him metaphorically grabbing us abruptly and pulling us to safety. Though we feel injured and we can’t be convinced otherwise, God has done us a great service and saved us from something much, much worse. He’s a great God, and a perfect Father. If I, being evil, do what’s right for my kids, and do whatever it takes to keep them from the greater of 2 evils, how much more does our Heavenly Father do what’s right, no matter how it feels, to keep us from the greater of 2 evils? He’s awesome, loving and a better dad than any of us.

So like I wish my little one would do for me, give Him a break and thank Him, when in trials, that this will not only make us stronger, but that He saved us from something much, much worse.

Hello readers. Flint JAHbone here with another Cerebration! So let’s cerebrate good times, c’mon!

Recently I was driving with my wife, most likely to a restaurant, and it was sunny so I decided to wear my sunglasses. We pulled up to a red light at a busy street and I waited to make my right-hand turn when my phone vibrated. I looked down and noticed, not the text message I received, but the rainbow that my screen was producing. Not a reflective, up against the ceiling, kind of rainbow, but more like an, oil mixed with water, kind of rainbow. It caused me to think a moment about the science behind why it was happening. Perhaps the natural oils from my face, or the light mist from the humidity was causing refracted or reflected light to become divided, as through a prism, into its individual colors and wavelengths. As we pulled away I noticed that the speed limit sign was doing the same thing, so I wasn’t sure if my deduction was correct. That is to say, we obviously needed more tests. I decided it must be my glasses and I removed them. The next speed limit sign produced nothing without my glasses. Eureka! The glasses were the culprit. “You have to check this out”, I said to my wife who normally humors me when I have these little asides in life. I followed with, “Put on my glasses and look at my phone and then a speed limit sign. Then tell me what you see.” She said, “I don’t know,” probably understanding that I take things a little deeper than need be at times. I asked her to look closer and tell me if she saw rainbows and she said she did. I asked her to remove the glasses and she said she couldn’t see them. Before I could even get into explaining my theories as to why this was taking place, she uttered a simple phrase that rocked my proverbial world. “Interesting how if we change the way we look at things, we can see God’s promises in everything.” Completely floored, I looked at her with the thought that I would’ve completely missed that looking for the reason behind it.

With my wife’s profimple statement (If I can be so bold as to invent a word combining profound and simple), came a flood of thoughts, sermons and even a blog. Sometimes we try so hard to figure out how something is going to work out, what the explanation is behind something that we miss the answer right in front of our faces. The profimple answer is that no matter what stands in our way, no matter how down we are, no matter what we are about to face, God’s promises will hold true. The only requirement from us is to put on our faith glasses and trust that His word is true and that He’ll make sure to perform it. We have to try and see the promises of God through any adversity or trial.

James writes:

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

How can we count it as joy when we’re going through the hard times? Just simply look at God’s promise through it.

David, the psalmist, sings:

4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

The key word for me in that verse is “shadow”. If there is a shadow, there has to be light. Even if death is at our doorstep, to the christian this is the just the beginning of life. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope for the hopeless. In every situation, there is Christ. In conjunction with the 23rd Psalm, Solomon said, ” A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24 – ESV) Jesus is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. He’ll, “…never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5b; Joshua 1:5b – ESV) Try to lean on these promises and you’ll see the rainbow in everything.

We ended our last session talking about how we have mistransliterated YHWH into Jehovah. As previously stated (at the end of Part 2) I have another disclaimer. I’m not saying that name can’t be used, and I’m not saying it’s of the devil, but if you are freaking out about what I’ve said so far, please, return to The Problem with Jehovah (Part 1) and walk through steps 1 – 4 at the top of the page.

Now we know what YHWH means, and that it’s what God wanted to be called, but what does Jehovah mean? Well most agree that it’s, “I am the Lord who,” and it’s typically followed by something that He does for us. So Jehovah seems to be a God who does things for people. How is this a bad thing? Easily answered, it’s not. As a matter of fact I’ve experienced my God doing great and wonderful things for me. He died for me, rescued me from a life leading to death, forgave my sin that put Him on the cross, and He’s gotten me out of impossible situations. It’s amazing and it is an attribute of our God for be faithful and not deny Himself. So why do I have a problem with “Jehovah?”

For starters YHWH means I AM and this was the everlasting name God gave to Moses to be known for all generations. Moses was given all he needed to know in the name “I AM.”

If I could indulge, I would say God was telling Moses; “Moses, there are two million people (approximately) in Egypt. Go and get them out. Don’t tell them I’m going to give them money. Don’t tell them I’m going to give them fame. Don’t tell them I’m going to give them healing. Don’t tell them I’m going to give them food. Don’t tell them I’m going to help them through they’re trials. You tell them I AM! I AM their reward! I AM their fame! I AM healing! I AM their bread! I AM deliverance! I AM! I AM! I AM! For 400 years they’ve cried out for me to rescue them, to deliver them, for financial freedom, to help them with their pain and to assist them in their trials. They’ve wanted more comfort in their lives and have cried out to me for it. Not once have they simply asked for Me. Not once was I what they needed, but only what I could do was what they wanted. Nevertheless, I have heard their cry and I will intervene.”

God still performed mighty miracles and rescued them by His power of His hand, but Israel’s appetite was insatiable and they continued to press for more from God not more of God. They felt like God owed them something and they remained carnal in their thinking and just wanted more, more and more. They received manna daily, quail, and water from a rock! They got supplied but never filled. If only He was their desire they would’ve have been satisfied. All they needed, and should have wanted, was Him.

We can’t have carnal mindsets desiring a genie and expecting “Jehovah” to just keep “hooking us up.” Of course He’s going to help us along our journey as He did Israel, and He’s going to try to guide us back to Him. But when we get too comfortable with this aspect of Him giving what we think we need He quickly becomes our “sugar daddy”. We start to serve Him for what He has and can do and not for who He is and this makes us people who have our minds on the flesh and seek out what it desires. According to Romans 8 this eventually makes us God’s enemy and will cause us to wander in the desert until we die there. Instead of us rubbing the proverbial lamp and continually seeking after what He can do for us and let us seek after Him. Let’s see a comparison.
Jehovah

I am the Lord who

YHWH

I AM

The reason He wanted to be known by this name is so that the people would know that He is all in all. He is everything they’re looking for. Sure, He’s completely able to change things, give things and do things for us, but He wants us to desire Him for Him, not for His wares. For example:

You see the difference between these to perspectives of God. He wanted to be known as the answer to everything we ever need, not as having the answer. He doesn’t just want to give you life, He wants to be your life. As Paul quoted in Acts 17:28 (ESV); “In Him we live and move and have our being.” In Him we do all things. That explains how Jesus, in John 10:10b, could give us life in abundance. It doesn’t get more abundant than your life being in the Almighty God. The One who IS your healing, IS your sight, IS your covering, IS your provision. Adam was not Eve’s help-mate and neither should Jesus be the church’s. The bride is to be the groom’s helper and not the other way around. He is the vine, and we can only produce fruit when in Him. He is the life, we just live it.

So what’s my problem with Jehovah? Nothing! The Lord who takes care of us is mighty, merciful and wonderful. I have a problem with people’s perspective of YHWH we’ve come to. That we’ve changed His name so that we can ask, “What can He do for me?” And the church has catered to this question and provide a sloppy gospel because they’re wandering in the wilderness following Jehovah and whining for stuff, instead of arriving at the mountain to me YHWH and living in a land of Promise. A place that flows with milk and honey, where the insatiable are satisfied, a place of plenty. That place is in Him.

So let us all do Him a favor, let’s see what we can do for Him. Because He IS all He ever has to do for us! Flee from the “Sugar Daddy” version of God and let’s serve the real creator of the universe. Let us walk in Him and reflect that wonderful image of Jesus to this dry and weary world and lead them to the land of promise by showing them He IS the great I AM!

It’s like seeing someone you dislike or even loathe. If you could see your own reaction it might even scare you. This is because we react without even knowing it sometimes and that’s more of the power of perspective. Let me show you some examples.

1. What do you see?

If you look at it directly you’ll see a person wearing glasses, but if you tilt your head to about a 45º angle you’ll see the word “Liar” written out. For some this is easy, others have to trace it with their finger, but either way the first thing you saw, or how you saw this image might not have been what it was in it’s entirety.

2. Which is longer?

Much to my surprise, and I measured approximately 20X, they’re exactly the same size. (You can measure yourself if you’d like.) I was flabbergasted, but according to my perspective and how I perceived this image, I saw the table on the left as much longer.

How we see things isn’t always how they are, but it is how we’ll define them.

To recap slightly we deceive ourselves into having a perspective of ourselves that makes us comfortable with our lives as they are. Another deception is to have a perspective of people like Paul, Peter and John as men that are men of Super Faith and this makes us comfortable with the fact that we don’t measure up to them, let alone Christ. But to, “Be doers of the Word…”, we have to be doers of what Jesus did, in that He’s the Word. That’s one of the reasons Jesus came and live as a man, so we could get some perspective on how one should live, walk, think, love… BE! Not only did the Father send us His Son, but He gave us the written Word also, to study, meditate on and teach us to “Be”.

So we’ve learned that we as humans like to deceive ourselves but especially others into thinking we’re something we’re not. Sometimes we’ll use big words, (that we used a Thesaurus to find) so we sound like we know what we’re talking about. We’ll put intellectual books on our shelves to look like we read the “Good Stuff” so that we look intelligent or like we read a lot, we’ll tidy up the house when we know company’s coming so they’ll think we’re neat and have it together. We alter peoples’ idea and perceptions of us and trick them into thinking we’re our ideal thought of ourselves. Over the years governments have also done this so that people will learn to fully rely on them so they can control the way people think. It comes under the guise of something that is good for people but really they’re robbing your rights. While doing this they manipulate and control people into thinking they need more and more government involvement in their lives and by the time the people realize it, they’re subject to a communist and corrupt government.

The devil himself has employed this strategy to slowly and methodically water down the gospel, our God and scripture in our minds and lives. See we’ve not only lessened our view of ourselves by calling other Christians “Great/Super Faith” Christians, but we’ve lowered the view of our God.

In Exodus God has called Moses to go speak to Pharaoh and lead His people out of captivity and into a land of promise. Moses has a question for this “God of the Burning Bush”, which is:

Exodus 3:13-15 (ESV – emphasis and underlining are mine)

13Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” And He said, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.” 15God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

According to my limited knowledge of our bible, this is the first time God had named Himself for the people. He told them He was “I AM” and that this name is what He wanted to be known as for all generations. Yet the people of God will either change the image of this God, or change what they call Him. So His name was to be called YHWH (I AM) and we, through Secular Humanism and other worldly ideals, have renamed Him through a mistransliteration of YHWH have come up with Jehovah. (Please read the next post to get my next disclaimer before losing your mind here. )

END PART 2

* p/p represents perspective/perception

I usually post a disclaimer and will thus do so on this post. You therefore must agree to my 4 steps before you read this blog. And they are:

1. Hear me out before you freak out!

2. Look at all my points before you deem me a heretic.

3. Read carefully what I’ve written and weigh it.

4. When your done reading and think you’ve got an opinion of what I’m saying… See steps 1 – 3.

Now that that’s out of the way let’s get started.

I have a problem with “Jehovah” and I’m not afraid to say it. Some of you will think I’m nuts already, but see steps 1 – 3 if you need a refresher course.

Thanks to those who have decided to continue on! One of the most powerful things, broken into 2 subcategories, in our world is perspective/perception. The way one views something is how they’ll treat it regardless of it’s real worth, value or meaning. Once you see something one way, it is very hard to see it in any other way. Some people, knowing the power of perception, put on a display but are inwardly different.

Proverbs 23:6-7 (ESV)

⁶Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;
do not desire his delicacies,
⁷ for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you.

Or in the Message Bible:

⁶Don’t accept a meal from a tightwad;
don’t expect anything special.
⁷He’ll be as stingy with you as he is with himself;
he’ll say, “Eat! Drink!” but won’t mean a word of it.

This person is showing that he’s generous and hospitable, but inside he’s greedy and really doesn’t want you to take it, eat it, or use it. We even have the ability to view ourselves in such a way that we deceive ourselves.

James 1:22 (ESV)

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

So by not doing what the Word says, you’re in danger of deceiving yourself into thinking you’re doing something your not.

Galatians 6:3 (ESV)

For if anyone thinks he is something, when he becomes nothing, he deceives himself.

We are a people who have deceived ourselves and others. We often say one thing and mean another. We’ve continually, simply fallen in line and followed the leader and never challenged our beliefs or systems of belief. We use terms we don’t understand, and because they’re common “Christianese” terms they seem to fit (repent, gospel, Jehovah) and no one questions what we mean by them. We’ve become a people who hear the Word, hopefully, but don’t do it. Because most Christians today only get what is presented on Sundays, sometimes that’s garbage. (Yeah I said it.) In any case that’s all we hear and we don’t even do that half of the time.

There aren’t a lot of people being found with their noses in the books or whatever one uses to study their Bible in this technological age. Studying the Word, meditating on His truth should be something that is of the utmost importance to us especially since Paul wrote, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15 -ESV)“, and to, “…not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12b – ESV)” This idea of studying and laboring in the kingdom has been hindered because we’ve become a society of lists. We are a society that’s organized into lists, even our chaos is organized in most cases. We prioritize and weigh what is the most important thing and place it on a list. This list has the ability to change and shift based off of our most current outlook (p/p*). For instance if we’re amongst other Christians, or when things are going our way, or when God’s “being good” and/or “blessing us” our list looks one way. However when it’s going down the tubes, it may look another. For example, if you were to ask the average church-going, born-again Christian what their list of priorities was they would most likely say something like;

1. God
2. Family
3. Church
4. Work
5. Self

However when stuff starts going wrong, and our outlook on life’s not so good it starts to shift and we see a new list (and I’m being generous);

1. Me
2. Myself
3. I
4. Maybe God
5. Church I guess

This is why God can’t be on a list. In our minds, as long as we say He’s on the list at number one, we’re good to go, when in fact He can’t be on a list of priorities when He’s supposed to be your life. Myself, as a married man with kids, should have a list with my wife first, kids next and so on with God as my life. It’s definitely more comfortable with Him on a list because then our lives are still our own and He’s there to hook us up when we need it. When you become a person of The Order of the List you become fickle. What church you go to doesn’t depend on where God wants you, but where you want to go, as long as you’re at a church, because that’s on your list. Then you’re covering God and Church in one swoop. If God’s on a list we don’t have to pray, study or get into the Word at all if we don’t want to, because He’s at the top of the list and that’s that. If He’s your life, the thing holding you together then you’ll want to know a little more. In turn we won’t do the things God wants because He’s on our list of wants.

So we can see that these things are all a matter of perspective/perception which, as we’ve seen, a very powerful thing. Take for instance the ever-hilarious, FART! I know. I’ve just gotten some sort of reaction out of you. Whether it was your laughter or whatever, there are 4 main reactions to the methane emission and they are:

1. Shock/Horror: “LET ME OUTTA HERE!”
2. Disgust: “YOU’RE TERRIBLE! YOU DISGUSTING PIG!”
3. Indifferent: “WHATEVER MAN”
4. Hilarity: “BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

So the stimulus in this case is the “Fluff/toot” and your reaction to it is based off of your p/p* of the act.

END PART 1

* p/p represents perspective/perception