I’m David Raboso and here’s a bit about me and what motivates me to write. I’m a technologist and father of two amazing young men who love God and others in ways that make me look quite bad by comparison. I’m married to a lovely woman who can organize the world and still have time to spend hours in front of God. I studied at a renown Evangelical Bible school but I’ve had to restudy pretty much everything I learned to make sure I can separate the lies from truth. Would you like to connect? david@godbeyond.com It’s been said that “nobody expects the Inquisition” and they’re correct. I know my wife and I were not expecting it and yet, the long-term missionary we invited to start a church-plant with us, proofed us stupid. My professors at Moody had not warned me that was a possibility, my Church growing up was only able to offer a demonstration of it, but also, no warning. But those are just excuses. We did not expect it, much less inside the Body of Christ because we did not believe Jesus, Paul, Peter, Jude… enough. So when a long-term, beloved by all, missionary, and ministry partner asks both you and your wife in separate conversations, two days apart, if you have good life insurance, the response of yours truly and the wife is that of surprise and disbelief. Our fault, not Yah’s. Not the Scriptures. Not Jesus’. Our fault. I’m now convinced there’s an even bigger one we’re not expecting, not even the Church, again. We are not expecting the Kingdom of God. We have come to expect nice Sunday services, we expect our members to give money to maintain the infrastructures we build or rent, we expect them to bring people to special events so they can hear the preacher and hope he doesn’t mess up too much that day and our cringe factor is low… We are getting excited, expecting Egypt to save us. Bill Bright, Cunningham, and Francis Schaeffer had “a vision from God” to arouse the Church to take over politics, education, business, the arts… all to prepare the road so that Jesus could find the job done on Earth and might consider coming back. They laid down for us a 7 Spheres great commission. I guess then someone realized Google was not a friend of Christians searching for the meaning of “the seven spheres” and decided to change it for “seven hills” knowing full well Christians would also not be searching for that expression in their Bibles because “it’s not really worth studying eschatology anymore”. We are getting excited that Satan is bringing down his own scaffolding of pedophiles and psychos so we would learn to love his Utopian deranged nightmare. His own “kingdom of god”, as his servant Blavatsky said, his New Order after the evil New World Order is teared down and we’re all exhausted, as his servant Alice Bailey said… A long time ago we decided it was best not to expect the Sons of God to be able to heal the sick and cast out demons in the Name of Jesus. Only every once in a while a Wesley would show up and tip that lying apple cart but our institutions quickly succeeded in hiding his personal notes from view, and the notes of XXX and the encounters with the Holy Spirit of people like Moody and Dr. Loyd Jones and others. We celebrate their numbers, we build new institutions around them, but we ignore and cover-up the Source of their power. They become “great leaders” others can fail to emulate and feel useless by comparing themselves to them. Again, it’s OUR fault. Not Yah’s, not the Scriptures’, not Jesus’, not even history’s because the documents are out there. OUR fault. WE own it. At some point we decided our mandate was to preach the Gospel of the 4 Spiritual Laws. Then, not even repentance was needed. All along we forgot that Baptism was not an afterthought but a very real death and resurrection into new life in Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ. At some point we forgot to proclaim that THE Kingdom of God is coming crushing in. In a noisy way, in a way no one will miss. In a terrifying way for most. The Son of God literally breaking through the firmament (remember that word?) from Heaven above, ripping open the blue or night sky to reveal for all to see the throne of our Father. We chose to believe Plato and his “spiritual” garbage and forgot that our Creator did everything for our enjoyment and He saw that it was GOOD. Matter is not evil, it’s not a hologram, it’s not an emanation of God’s thoughts, it’s not virtual. It’s real and it’s good and it’s here to stay. So then it became easy for us to forget we were supposed to look forward and proclaim to everyone that He’s coming back and you better get ready and repent from sin or be crushed by it. We forgot what Abraham was expecting, that after that Kingdom that Isaiah and David, and Zechariah, and Malachi and Paul and Peter and innumerable others preached and expected would pass after a thousand years and after Satan would, once again be released to snare the nations… we forgot their hope was in new heavens and a new earth. We forgot their hope was in the New Jerusalem, a real and amazing city the size of most of Europe, would come down FROM Heaven and God would dwell with man forever. Now THAT’s good news. And we forgot that we have the power, the mandate, and the opportunity to demonstrate for a dying world around us that this Kingdom has been “at hand” for two thousand years. We forgot we were to heal the sick and cast out demons, so man would believe us when we say the King is coming, and they need to repent and believe that Gospel and baptize and be free from sin and live victorious lives. We forgot, and it’s our fault, and our teacher’s fault, and our pastor’s fault and our parents’ fault… but at the end of the day, it is MY fault and YOUR fault. May God have mercy on us and grant us a bit more time, so we can get enough oil to be ready when He comes. Ab-out
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