It’s difficult to work out what offends people more....

The offense of the gospel is that we are containers.
We are not self powered beings
We are not even front of house people
This really offends people.
It is actually glorious as all God things are.
It’s like those birthday presents that look like nothing until you open them, and they turn out to be a priceless jewel or a very rare penny black stamp or some nano sculpture that has to be seen under a microscope.

It’s no small secondhand thing Gods doing here.
New Agers are quite close but they are completely sold in carnality , listening to a demon trying to explain pure holy God stuff while the demons themselves are covered in their spiritual excrement. Less than impressive.

It was pretty darned glorious for Adam to be breathed into.
But we are
In the Spirit
Made
Of God Himself.
When Paul writes my life is hidden with God in Christ

The Greek is
Entwined
Inter layered
Twined like rope

There is no clearly defined point where
Jesus
You
The Holy Spirit and the Father
Begin and end

If that’s offensive to you you need your brain seeing to....
It means you haven’t yet looked upon His glory and seen yourself clothed in His same glory .

It’s difficult to work out what offends people more
That you are a sinner
That you have no independent self so you can’t technically be a sinner unless you choose to be eternally entwined with the original sinner.....
We chose sin
We complied with sin
But we have no intrinsic nature of our own

This is the massive racket and rattling of bones on the Internet

You have Francis DuToit and Andre Rabe presenting the gospel as our authentic self,
But they don’t define what a self is nor how one works,
Which means they are perfectly able to drum up Mediterranean cruises because nobody is essentially challenged to their core, but everyone is free to enjoy the sun the beaches , the decks, and the Mediterranean cities knowing we have “ arrived” at our glorious authenticity.

Which is true but only half true.
It doesn’t mean the gospel is only half true.
The gospel is yes and Amen. Totally.
But simultaneously true is that Ishmael does not get to share one tiny bit of inheritance with the Child of Promise that is pure Christ in us as us.

There is a double edged sword coming for us in Hebrews 4.
It doesnt mean that we shouldn’t have cruises, but for the sake of the rest of our life on this planet we need a true apostolic foundation
Of all that we are
And all that we are not.

I spoke in tiny snippets in Andre Rabes conference.

Within a couple of minutes two things had happened

One lady Rosie got smacked between the eyes with a revelation

The rest you could see having their eyes glazed over.

We are used to this happening with our teaching. We used to be the same.
I had to be practically frogmarched into a talk by Basilea Schlink which changed the whole course of my life.
Could I articulate it to anyone?
Nope.
Were they offended by the bits I managed . Totally.
But now I can explain it much better.....
To those who want to hear.
To the others, we let them file out with glazed reptilean eyes until they too are desperate to learn the secret.