Difference between First & Second Hand Relationship

Do we have a first hand or second hand relationship with Christ?

What do I mean by that?

Well, is all we know about being a Christian, about Jesus; our growing walk with Him, learned through others or is it something that we learn as we pray, read and study the Scriptures ourselves?

There are countless stories in the Bible when you hear a dialogue where one person speaks of God as someone they personally know, and the other person speaks of God as a distant understanding.

Hannah was a woman in 1 Samuel who was so distressed at not having a son that she went to pray in earnest...she was approached by the priest of the time Eli, who had not been doing what he needed to as a faithful and diligent steward of the tabernacle. She cried out to God directly, she speaks of having spoken and asked of Him directly...while Eli speaks of the God of Israel; a third party.

In the Book of Jeremiah we see similar situations play out...after Jerusalem had been vanquished by the Babylonians and the set governor was assassinated, the remaining people are terrified of the repercussions and retribution of Babylon's fierce army. The people clamor and beg Jeremiah to find out from 'his' God what they should do...Jeremiah seeks out God's Counsel personally, and is given specific directions from God Himself. When Jeremiah tells the people he TRIES to have them make this a personal relationship for them and incorporates them into the relationship by saying that 'your God' has said....But instead of the people responding with 'our God' they respond by saying 'your' God back to Jeremiah. God is recognized as Jeremiah's God and not theirs. Then they refused to do what God had directed...proving they had no relationship with Him at all and if it wasn't going to be words they 'wanted' they weren't going to accept them.

Probably my single most favorite story that shows a desire for a first hand relationship is when dear ol' doubting Thomas, doesn't believe the 10 disciples that had seen Jesus Risen from the dead...In a frustrated outburst he demanded that he see the scars and touch Jesus himself!

Do we take time to pray and dialogue, with Christ personally? Have a conversation....share your heart, your concerns, your joys etc., It doesn't need to be fancy, frilly or fluffed up with all kinds of mumbo jumbo that sounds Christian....

Do we take time to read the scriptures?...It's HIS response in the conversation...as we read through scriptures there may be things that speak to our heart...to encourage us, teach us about His personality, His likes His dislikes, His manner of dealing with people, situations, and heart attitudes....His Corrections, His instructions, His pleasures, His disdain for things....

The more time we spend in these two areas, the closer and more intimately aware of WHO God is we become. That is what makes for a First hand relationship. A first Hand relationship is paramount....

It is far too easy to just sit in church or watch it on TV and feel like we have a relationship with God. Yet that is not a vibrant relationship...I think we as Americans, so soaked in a microwave society, with visual stimulus and virtual everything, seem to think that just spending an hour or so in a church service or listening to the radio or christian bands or watching some preacher on TV gives us our God fix....I'm guilty of it myself....and yet it does not satisfy the deep gnawing cry of my spirit to truly personally KNOW my God.

We all have times when life is busy, and we get side tracked...it happens. He has promised that HE will never leave or forsake us, WE unfortunately cannot make that kind of promise and keep it in our own power....we fall short all the time....We must hear the Cry of the Spirit calling us back to our first Love, recognize it and respond to it...Hear what the spirit cries...."Come"
There are several things in life that can cause our hearts to look away, and then we seek to get our God fix through second hand feeding tubes. But if we allow this to continue, if we get lazy and neglectful or just dont want to be accountable anymore for our attitudes, actions and agendas, it is deceivingly dangerous.

A second hand relationship with Jesus Christ at best a produces a false hope. Worse case scenario... it sets us up as easy prey for those with diabolical agendas, the Jim Jones' of the world....

There's a difference in having a second hand relationship or sharing with others in a first hand relationship.

In a proper first hand relationship with Christ, we pray and read, read and pray - as well as have fellowship with others. That's where most of the time we put into practice those things God is teaching us about, and wanting us to submit to Him...

Others are required to encourage, equip and engage me in a right relationship with Christ. They help to correct my faulty filter through which I might want to interpret God to satisfy and justify my own error...it becomes a safeguard of multiple counselors encouraging me forward into Christ - BUT it is never to become my soul or sole source of the relationship.

We learn from others. As I listen to a speaker or preacher I gain so much because they are showing me an aspect I didn't see, a slightly different perspective of God's Character that I had not come to know...

I've played a game called Boggle for years...its a fun game where you try to find 3, 4 & 5 letter words through a grid of 5x5 letter cubes....as everyone is searching for words in the grid, after a while you get stuck and can't see any more...until someone says "can I spin the board of letters?" as they do, WOW - a whole bunch of other words come into view....the same holds true when Others tell me of their relationship, their understanding, their gleaning of the Spirit. As someone else shares their encounters with God, we rejoice with them, learn with them and grow with them.

We are made richer by what every joint supplies.....






Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com

Sweatlodges, Labyrinths, Meditation, Yoga OH the list goes on....

Sorry, But I can't help myself....

Been asked this by a few people and I am amazed at the mixing of religious beliefs....What do you think about Yoga, Christian Yoga, Martial Arts, Meditation, Labyrinths, even Sweat Lodges? - I feel the same way about them as I do, Tarot cards, horoscopes, ouija board, seances and levitations! They are NOT authorized by God, INFACT they are part of religious practices that God specifically rebukes and commands HIS PEOPLE to repent of, turn from and refuse to participate in.

I feel the same way about Movies that highlight and give praise to Vampires, witchcraft and demons.

I am amazed at how many Christians that want to do or claim to do spiritual warfare, claim victory in Christ and tearing down of strongholds actually entertain, and 'dine with demons'.
Having had several people over the years ask me why they can't seem to get victory in certain areas, I have to ask why are they still participating, setting the table for and inviting in on many different levels, trying to enjoy the pleasures of the enemy and yet don't want that same enemy to exert power over them...HELLO....An enemy is always and enemy - spiritually speaking - regardless of how often he may show himself as an angel of light!

It reminds me of a very simple, practical application I learned in High School....Garbage In, Garbage Out!

Some people have asked, "well the meditation (shutting off or down the mind to supposedly hear from God), labyrinths and other forms of monastic prayer should be fine, after all they came from the catholic priests of the 1400's"....Well if you look at that history during that time alone, you'll find hugely bizzare practices and corruptions, but go back to where those priests got those practices....they brought them back from the budhists and hindus of India and China....and just tacked on Jesus or Mary or Saint so in so....

Sorry! I just can't justify the mixing.

I have always been an advocate for keeping Christianity pure...When I read God's word I do not find God tolerant, or wishy washy on certain matters (even though I might like Him to be). So many times we as christians seek out the worldly ways or pagan ways of doing things rather than seeking the Word's ways....we do this even with prayer...as if the world or those that dont know Christ, have something better than Christs' own recommendations on how, when, and why...to pray...Gosh - does it have to be so formulated? All of the Psalms are prayer, praise and worship. There is so much prayer in the scriptures that it presents us with 'how to' pray...yet people look for the mystical, ethereal, goosebumps rather than the truth and power of the Holy Spirit.

Deut 12:30-32 specifically states....Be careful not to be ensnared by the nations(which the Lord destroys because of their wickedness and pagan practices) and their ways...Do not inquire about their gods, asking, "How did these nations worship their gods? I'll also will do the same.' You must not do the same to the Lord Your God, because they practice for their gods every detestable thing the Lord hates.

Christians give excuse after excuse, justification after justification for their own want and lust of these mystical practices...whether actively involved or passively, ie., 'I would never go to a palm reader but guess what movie I'm seeing tonight.' They lust for the supposed 'power' it seems to give them...just like Simeon of Acts that Peter rebuked....

But if these practices, this thirst for a mystical experience is not of God, What right do we have to rebuke the devil when we participate in them? What possible expectancy of victory can one truly have when he/she is dabbling in a religiously justified, light form of witchcraft. Let's not forget the devil will try to deceive Christians with doctrines of demons and 'angels of light' which are often nothing more than mystical experiences...that are not able to stand up to scriptural scrutiny.

Before I accepted Christ, I did Ouija boards, seances and levitations....and I realized how they were unacceptable in Christ...Yet years after I became a Christian, while working a boring job, I was reading a Christian book of a person set free and delivered from witchcraft. After reading it and excited at the thought of God's power I read another Christian author similar in nature, but my attitude was changing. I was now intrigued by the scenarios that were mentioned in the book...after that book and reading in yet another Christian authored book along the same vain, I was violently rebuked by the Holy Spirit. It shot like an arrow in my heart and mind
- I WAS DABBLING IN WITCHCRAFT!!!

Yes that's right, it didn't matter that I was reading a Christian author who spoke of Christ's victory over these things...My heart was intrigued by the witchcraft itself...I could have justified it and made excuses, and NO ONE would have been the wiser for it...

But the Holy Spirit was sharp! That two edged sword came out and separated soul and spirit. It cut and rebuked and corrected me...

That's what I'm talking about....are we doing these things and looking to justify them? Do we participate in something in what I call 'embraced ignorance' - where we know deep down that something is wrong, but heck, it's ok - God don't mind right?

WRONG! that little tug, is the Holy Spirit clueing you in to something...Pay attention...

I dare you to read ALL of 2 Peter Chapter 2....

"Now the Spirit explicity says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared." 1 Tim 4:1,2

What the pagan religions do and participate in, they offer as 'sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons! You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons. Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?" 1 Cor 10 20-22


Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com

ohhhh - you make me so mad....

Ever get so mad that you just can't control your self? Ever get so frustrated by things that you act out, perhaps even violently?

Years ago I struggled with anger....and from time to time it rears it's head...When you might ask?
When ever I get so frustrated with the inability to control someone or something else that I feel I have an inherent right to...Where does that inherent right I feel I have come from?

Well, back in the Garden, yes that Garden, the first garden...Satan tempted Eve with something that she was not permitted to have....He twisted her understanding of the boundaries (she wasn't allow to eat, but I don't think touching was a problem) He twisted her reasoning for not having that which seemed pleasing to the eye, and very possibly good for food! He taunted her with the rationalization that it's within her domain, her right, and being withheld unrighteously - bad, bad god!

Once she took, Adam soon followed....once confronted with the transgression, Adam immediately, violently, burst with a frustration that tore a huge rift between all parties.....the woman that YOU gave me!!! - he scolded and blamed everyone else but himself for his selfish, quest for godhood!

gee....is that where that anger comes from....not getting my way? my wanting to be selfish, demanding all others to bow to me....to be my own god?

yep!

Now I'm not talking about when we are angered with injustice - impropriety - or unrighteousness...I'm talking about the anger that causes us to sin...Self Worship - Self Idolatry! The erroneous attitude that says we have the right! we deserve what ever we want at the expense of others, because we are the center of our own universe!

The Anger and violence comes when we hit the wall - because the above statements are soooooo not true! and every selfish, egotistical cell in our body and mind cries against the reality!

We struggle and fight outside of the true God for those things and for control of things we have no right to. Assuming that we can secure them in our own flesh and power of mind or strength. How frail we are and we don't even realize it....How quickly the idol can be cast down and broken into pieces!

Self control, is the only thing we have control over, and that ONLY in Christ - only by the Holy Spirit's power at work in our lives to change our flawed and fallen understandings and to debunk the myths of the garden...

We cannot be gods, we are not gods. There is only ONE God and He will not give His glory to another...The sooner we surrender to that understanding, the more anchored we are in Him and the less frustrated we are with life's inevitable kinks.



Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com

Are You YOKED to God?

"What does it mean to be Yoked to God or Yoked by the Spirit?"

I'm not talking about egg yokes...I'm talking about the yoke that goes around an animals neck that harnesses them to a plow or cart. The picture I'd want you to get in your head is a double yoke, meaning two oxen or horses are pulling something side by side.

Jesus told us that if we were laden down with heavy burdens he would give us rest. He stated that we are to take His yoke upon us because it is easier and lighter than that of the world. Because the scripture is almost always used when trying to encourage the weary, the portion that says to take upon His yoke is some how overseen as if it weren't a constraint of some kind. Jesus is in fact telling us we are to take on a constraining yoke and a burden, His!

God rebuked the people of Judah during the time of the prophet Jeremiah for having broken the yoke and bursting off the bonds of His leading. For that he spoke words of desolation against them.

"What is the yoke for? What purpose is therein being placed under a burden? Aren't we to be set free? Haven't we received liberty in Christ?" Yes, and No! The Yoke is as much of our freedom and liberty as our salvation. The yoke is for our training process. Training is the breaking of the self-will, reprogramming a formerly wild & unruly animal for the work of service in a new habitation. So that one can live in an orderly fashion in the protection and blessing of a master. All of the Disciples except Judas Iscariot underwent this process and took this yoke upon themselves. James and John were quick to react with violence before they under went it, they were called sons of thunder for wanting to destroy and call down fire on others. Peter was an arrogant prideful man before he submitted to the yoke.

Paul was certainly yoked by the Lord and sensitive to that yoke. He recognized when it was steering him to the right or to the left. He often times speaks of chains, but never with a discouraged heart. He understood the purpose of the Holy Spirit in those chains. Though they were literal chains he recognized the spiritual yoke or chains on him in obedience to God. He saw himself as a slave of Christ.

He encouraged the Roman believers and us, that we should see ourselves as slaves of Christ. We ought to submit to the leading of the Spirit and present our bodies as slaves of righteousness for holiness. It's in so doing, we will have the fruit of that holiness worked out in our lives and in the end have everlasting life. He states that those that are led by the Spirit of God, those are the sons of God.

"If we are sons of The Father, aren't there rules of the house?" "Doesn't every home have some laws, rules to adhere to?" The book of Proverbs mentions these laws and many times equates them with the wisdom of God. We are told not to forsake them , and though they will be graceful ornaments on our head they will also be chains around our neck. The blessings they grant are long life, prosperity as well as the favor of man and God. We are encouraged by the Word of God that if we submit to the leading of the Spirit and willingly obey we shall have blessings of eternal weight.

Being yoked by the Spirit allows us to learn of his ways, go according to His guidance, recognize His prodding. All of this is for the conforming of our will and desires to His. Being conformed to anything, is fashioning one's self according to a pattern; taking on the exact shape of a mold. The pattern and mold set for us is Jesus Christ. We have been predestined to be conformed into the image of the Father?s Son. Romans 12:1-2 requires us to make our bodies as a living sacrifice on a continual basis so that we will be transformed by the renewing of our mind and will. The more we submit to His leading, correction and will the more we break the image ofthe world and take on the image of the Son.

Bearing the yoke of the Lord and being harnessed by His Spirit strengthens our walk. Due to the resistance involved in bearing the weight of the yoke, our spiritual muscles are increased. The longer we couple ourselves to the Lord the more mature we become, able to understand what the Lord is intending for us. Not only are we conformed, taking on a pattern not our own; we become transformed, becoming something different than what we are. Staying in that harness we go further than simply taking on the form of godliness, we become holy. It equips us for tasks beyond our abilities!

I've been in various situations where I was not capable of performing to speed and yet God used the situation to form me and because I was willing to come under His harness he equipped me for it. If we are willing to be yoked by God, Willing to go to the fields He sends us to, then we will be increased and strengthened to become the strong laborers He needs and desires!

Sometimes the Lord takes us into a new field, we think that the terrain is not for us, someone else is better equipped for the task, He can use us and prepare us for it if we will let Him. If we are doubtful, He will encourage, embolden our hearts to go. But if we refuse and remain in the stall, or refuse and stay out where we think we are free in the fields of the world's pleasures and justifications, galloping and frolicking on the hills, mocking those we seek allowing themselves to be restrained by God's training and spirit, we most often are merely being stubborn, self-willed & rebellious to His request, and may not have a second chance.

Being in the Yoke with Christ, is when we can say, 'Where you lead, I will follow', 'Your strength (grace) is made strong in my weakness'.

Short Answer: Being Yoked is being submitted to His Authority in our lives and following Him unconditionally. As we grow in that, we are made strong in Him and with a faithful, obedient and diligent heart, our privilege is life abundant and liberty unsurpassed!


Check out the website www.GraciousVine.com or www.JoannaFruhauf.com