CASTING DOWN IMAGINATIONS

   "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:  in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."  (2nd Corinthians 4: 4)

   Think about it.
   Without God in the knowledge of man, man can be whatever man imagines himself to be, which is an image of himself, which makes him a god without a rival as he will also arise to rule and reign over others in all the ways that he can imagine.
   Think about it.
   Everything that man has built upon the earth he has built out of his own imagination.
   Man builds companies and creates jobs, and people work their jobs according to the outlines they are given from others out of their imaginations.  As they work their jobs, they imagine the ways they will spend their money---some for housing, some for food, some for clothing, some for fun---and if there is not enough money to meet his desires he will imagine ways to reduce his spending and not go broke until his next payday.
  Think about it.
  Man created sports and sports arenas, and as the athletes perform, we imagine ourselves playing in their places and playing better than them while imagining the attention we are getting instead of them.
   Think about it.
   Man created religions out of his imagination and built the buildings where he gathers to worship in the ways that he has written---the rites, the rituals, the prayers, and even the men in priestly garments he appoints to lead others in man's way of worship unto himself.
   Think about it.
   Without the knowledge of God in minds of man, man is free to be to be himself with no limit to his imaginations:  for man will not restrain himself:  for there is no limit to the evil that man will pursue, for the evil of man is the good of man in his own mind, which is to please himself while he polishes his own image in the presence of others:  as he desires others to bow to him instead of him bowing to others:  as he believes that men can be gods, too.
   Out of his own imagination, man will cheat, and not call it cheating.  He will steal, and not calling it stealing.  He imagines wars and creates wars.  He imagines peace treaties and makes peace treaties, then imagines ways to break the peace treaties.
   His religion gives him a license to confess his sins, then return to his previous behaviors as they were before he entered the building of his religion as if he had never confessed at all, for his confession was only in his imagination.  For outside the building he returns to the other page of his imagination:  to the imaginary life that he was living on the other side until his next appointed time to enter the building.
   Man lives there.  Where?  In his imagination.  This is the world in which he was born and there he remains, doing as he pleases and in all the ways that he can imagine. 
   God?  Where is God?  Man knows not.  He asks not.  All he knows is what others teach him from his birth and from their imaginations. 
   A man without God will not be seeking God, but he will be seeking a religion because from living in his imagination he imagines that religion is the place where God abides.
   A man of religion can say, however, that Jesus is in his religion, but the Jesus he believes is real is only an image  of Jesus that has been cast in his mind from the god of his religion.
  What, then, should man be doing?
   He should be:
      "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."  (2nd Corinthians 10: 5)
    
      "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  (Romans 8: 38-39)
 

WALKING IN IMAGINATION

   When people choose to walk with God, the Lord will give them many stories to tell; but when people turn their faces against God, they are walking in their own imaginations and telling their own stories.
   More than this, people can also walk in the imaginations of others.

   In the Bible, God warns us about the power of man's imagination as well as the power of man's heart.

   First, "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."               (Genesis 8: 21)

   Secondly, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:  who can know it?"   (Jeremiah 17: 9)

   Therefore, when man puts his evil imagination to work and mix it with his deceitful and desperately wicked heart, what will man do? 
   He will produce evil things because nothing good can come out of him.
   When people, obviously, agree with the imagination of others, they also walk in their imaginations:  so that they surrender their own minds to the minds of others, thereby becoming like them because they have also surrendered their own identity for the identity of others as their ways become their ways and their beliefs become their beliefs:  they become walking-talking textbooks of their role models, or their idols:  so that everything they do and pursue is reflected from others into their own souls.
   More than this, evil man will persuade others to agree with him for the purpose of producing a war against God, a war against God's people, and a war against the Bible, the Word of the Lord. 
  And the vehicle man has produced to fight against God is man's invention of religion from his evil imagination and from his deceitful and desperately wicked heart:  for everything that religion is it is a work of deception, thereby leading people to also turn their faces against God:  for religion is an evil thing, for it is out of man from whence religion comes and not from God.
   Perhaps we should stop here and ask a question:
   Are you walking in your own imagination and telling your own stories, or are you walking in the imagination of others and telling their  stories? 
   Once people enter the arena of religion, for example, they are walking in the imagination of others.   For it is there that they cannot take their eyes off their religion, just as they cannot take their eyes off their leaders, who stand before them in either fancy suits or priestly garments, and to their words they accept and obey as if they are hearing words from above:  as it is also here where they teach their children to do likewise:  to become followers of man instead of becoming followers of God.  Now that the parents are deceived, the parents will then contribute to the deception of their own children by agreeing to have the heads of their children dipped in the same indoctrination from the time they are toddlers, or even at the beginning of their infancy.

   Again, God issues a warning for people in their deception of others:

      "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD."  (Jeremiah 17: 5)

   But God, because of His grace, gives people a door through which they can escape the wicked leadership of man:

      "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is."    (Jeremiah 17: 7)

   Furthermore, it must also be said that, as children grow up in the arena of religion (or as they become adults) they retain their childlike minds because they were never instructed to make their own decisions, but primarily because they have always relied on their religion's rulers to make their decisions for  them.  In other words, their religion does their thinking for  them; and to their religion they cling to all the days of their lives while still believing in the same teachings when they are seventy just as they were taught to believe when they were seven because the script never changes.
   When we arrive in arenas of fake churches and fake Christian religions, we see yet another truth in adults with childlike minds; for after attending Christmas Eve services in their institutions, some people will rush home to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'  to their children.  Instead of reading the second chapter of Luke from the Bible, concerning the birth of Christ, they choose instead to read a book of fantasy  at this most important time of the year because they, the parents, still retain their childlike minds and they like the story as much as they believe their children will also like the story and thereby believe that Santa Claus is the lord of Christmas and not Christ the Lord.  Baby Jesus was the story at church, but at home a mythical character is the story with the children not knowing the difference because the parents, still with childlike minds, do not know the difference.  And just as the parents continue to walk in the imagination of their religion, the children learn to walk in the imagination of their parents and in the same religion, which can extend across generations and even for hundreds of years.
   But the Word of the Lord tells us the truth about these circumstances:

      "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:  but when I became a man, I put away childish things."  (1st Corinthians 13: 11)

  Men and women of religion, however, are unable to put away this childish thing of religion unless their minds and hearts are converted to the knowledge of Christ. 

      "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  (Hebrews 11: 1)
     "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  (Romans 10: 17)
     "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent."  (Romans 10: 14, 15)

   The people of religions and fake churches are not people of faith because they are people of sight.  They can see their temples, shrines, and cathedrals; they can see the carpeted floors, the padded pews and padded kneelers; they can see the lofty ceilings and dangling chandeliers; they can see their images of idols of worship on the floor or hanging on the walls; and they can see their ministers and priests standing in front of their eyes.  To them, seeing is believing.  For, if everything they see with their eyes were taken away, what would they have to believe?
   Walking in one's imagination is easy to do, for people do not have a problem with disagreeing with self.  We can easily achieve small tasks we see in our imaginations and leave the more difficult visions for another time, or ignore them entirely. 
   It is also easy to walk in the imaginations of others, for all we need to do is agree with them:  at which time we become like-minded.  By agreeing with them, their thoughts become our thoughts, their ways become our ways, and their words become our words:  after which we can become "witnesses" of the person we agreed with and tell others all about this person and his plans:  at which time, too, we can invite others to come on over and join us in our endeavor. 
   Politics is all about telling people what people like to hear. 
   Religion is also telling people what people like to hear.
   Please remember that man uses his imagination for man himself:  to exalt man, to exalt the works of man, and to exalt man in his own mind with the belief that he knows better than God, and that man can build his own way to heaven in his own way, which is why man created his institution of religion that has many branches, just as a tree has many branches from the same school of thought:  out of his "deceitful and desperately wicked heart"  ((Jeremiah 17: 19) in his war against God.
   To know Christ, people must stop walking in imagination and come out of religion and its imaginary world of fantasy and make-believe. 
      "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."  (2nd Corinthians 6: 17-18)

DIRT

   And man created religion in his own image, in his own image created he religion because man believes that man knows best that which is best for man.
   Beginning at the tower of Babel, man has created religions all across the face of the earth that reflect the image of man's gods and man's goddesses, which he stores in his temples, shrines, and cathedrals, and to these buildings pagans go to worship because the idols and images of idols never move.  They never leave the buildings.  They never return to the heavens and back again.  They never die for sin and they never are resurrected from death.  They simply sit on the floors, or hang on the walls.  They are like mannequins, all dressed up to go nowhere.  Yet the pagans adore them as they bend their knees and bow their heads in obedient worship.
   Obviously, religion is an institution instead of a living organism. 
   Obviously, too, people of the institution of religion are spiritually dead, yet they seek a place in the buildings to be revived again.
   We know that a tree is dead when the tree has no roots or leaves.  We also know that even water will not revive a dead tree to grow new roots, or new leaves.
   Religion, therefore, is the same as a dead tree in that it has no roots as well as no leaves.  By this we should also know that even water baptism out of the earth cannot revive a person that is spiritually dead.
   To be clear, religion is the place where people go to die even though the ministers and priests have people believing that they will live and walk in new life in a place called heaven if they will submit themselves to water baptism and believe in religion:  as if religion is the house of their salvation.

   "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life:  and man became a living soul."  (Genesis 2: 7)

   God created man out of the dust of the earth, man created religions, and because man is made out of the ground, his religions are also out of the ground and through man, which means that the value of man's religions are no greater than dirt; for just as man will return to dirt after death, his religions will fall with him as his religious houses will also return to dirt.
   Yet, millions of families throughout human history have devoted their lives to religion and to gods that do not exist, and all for a value that is worth no more than dirt.

   Jesus said,
      "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"  (Mark 8: 36-37)

EMMANUEL

    If God came to earth, would we believe He would reveal Himself in a human body, beginning as a baby in a woman's womb?
   We would likely say no.
   But that's exactly what He did.
      "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:  for he shall save his people from their sins."  (Matthew 1: 21)

   If God came to earth and dwelt among us, would we believe He would allow men to crucify His body to a cross for the sins of the world?
   We would likely say no.
   But that's exactly what He did.
      "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  (John 3: 16)

  If God should resurrect His body from death and ascend to heaven, would we believe He will return in the same human body to gather His people unto Himself?
   We would likely say no.
   But that's exactly what He will do.
      "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."   (Acts 1: 11)

   "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

   "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written."  (John 21: 25)

   Emmanuel:  God with us. 

   Till we meet again.