The Greek Word Lambano - "Receive"

The Greek word of the day is Lambano.  Lambano is the word used in the bible translated many different ways but they all mean "to lay hold upon", "to take possession of", "to receive".  It's an active rather than passive word.  One person said it's the difference between someone throwing a ball into an open window in your house and you actively catching a ball which was thrown to you.

Lambano is a very important word in the scriptures because God is the giver and we are the receivers. Actively receiving from God requires the will or desire to receive.

But to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.  -- John 1:12

Sometimes, receiving from God is simply to engage the will and at other times, the way we receive has everything to do with whether we receive.

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.  -- Mark 10:15

In my opinion, the kingdom of God is received when we engage our will with the attitude of a little child.  It's important to note that Jesus made the above statement just prior to the rich young man asking what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus told him that the key to inheriting eternal life was to keep the commandments.  He told Jesus that he had kept the commandments from his "youth".

And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.  -- Mark 10:20

By claiming that he was no longer a child (a youth), he kind of knocked himself out of the running for the kingdom of God - which REQUIRES receiving as a little child.

One other thing to remember is that "it is more blessed to give than to receive."  We like "giving to God" but when it comes to receiving FROM Him, we sometimes don't do so well.  We LOVE to make promises for God to believe.  We mistakenly think that if God believes our promise then we are righteous - as long as we carry through with our promise.  This is the gospel in reverse.

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. -- Romans 4:3

We are justified (righteous) when we believe the promises of God - not the other way around - but the doctrine of "strong commitment" toward God is drilled into many sincere Christian's heads by well-meaning teachers and preachers.  But it makes us happier (more blessed) to give God our promises than it does to put ourselves in the uncomfortable position of believing on and waiting for the promises of God.

Trusting God, therefore, is absolutely essential to receiving (lambano) the gift of God's righteousness.  We can keep a lot of religious rules - cross our T's and dot our eyes - and have a form of righteousness that the bible calls self-righteousness.  We all know people who put on a great show of piety but they can't bring themselves to trust in the promises of God.

Test yourself.  When you read God's exceeding great and precious promises in the scriptures, how do they make you feel?  I have personally witnessed the passage in John 15:7 cause the leadership of churches to stumble.  Are these leaders important?  Maybe.  Are they righteous?  Definitely not.  They cannot receive (lambano) God's righteousness because they cannot bring themselves to believe that God is as good as the bible says He is.

Challenge yourself this week, this year, this lifetime.  Read the word of God and whenever you see a promise of good things from God, pray and ask God to soften your heart so that you can trust Him, believe His word, and receive (lambano) His promises.  It will revolutionize your walk as it has mine.

Don't Let 'em Cut Ya!

Medical doctors (MDs) are good at setting broken bones, stitching up wounds, removing bullets, and administering (prescribing) antibiotics but for chronic disease, they are the wrong dog for the hunt.

Mainstream medicine (so-called, Allopathic Medicine) grew up in the battlefields of the world where emergency treatment is what's needed. Battlefield medicine is what our culture considers "mainstream" and every other form of medicine is called "alternative".  Whether Chiropractory, Holistic, etc. if it's not Allopathic (i.e. battlefield) medicine, it's considered "alternative".

It has been said that if the only tool you know about is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail.  Medical doctors know how to attack and combat symptoms.  Period.  That's what makes them good at battlefield medicine (what our culture calls mainstream medicine).  And indeed, when you're "bleeding out", you NEED an Allopathic MD and you need him quickly (on an emergency basis).

Naturopathic medicine, on the other hand, starts from a whole other place.  Naturopaths start out with the fundamental belief that God created our bodies with the ability to heal themselves if they are given the proper nutrition (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc.).  Chronic disease, therefore, is the symptomatic expression of one or more nutrient deficiencies.

If you have an infected limb (as is the case on the battlefield), a medical doctor can amputate that limb in order to save the life of the patient.  But if you have asthma, pre-diabetes, cancer, arthritis or any other chronic disease (i.e. non-emergency), the Allopathic MD is extremely limited in what he is able to do.  His training is inappropriate.

When faced with a chronic condition (high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, tonsillitis,  etc.) the MD employs the same battlefield tactics he learned in medical school against the patient's disease.  You hear it in the verbiage used when they "combat the symptoms".  Have you ever heard of someone who has had their tonsils removed?  The MD's concept of "cure" is to merely eliminate the symptom (i.e. cut off the limb, cut out the diseased gland or organ, etc.)

But simply cutting off the diseased portion of your body does not address the underlying deficiency.  One of the reasons surgery and radiation tends not to work is that cutting out cancer is not the path to healing.  It only masks the symptom of a nutrient deficiency.  People don't get cancer because they have a chemo-drug deficiency but they can get cancer because they have a calcium and magnesium deficiency.  If you address the deficiency, you cure the condition - reversing the symptom.

So the lesson is to not let them cut you.  You cannot heal limbs that have been cut off, organs or glands that have been cut out - barring a flat-out miracle.  Certainly, everything is case-by-case but as a general rule: Don't let 'em cut ya!

Excerpts From Dead Doctors Don't Lie

To give you a taste of the wealth of information in the book, Dead Doctors Don't Lie, I've taken a few excerpts and posted them here:

Diseases and Symptoms of Chromium Deficiency

• Low Blood Sugar
• Prediabetes
• Diabetes (adult onset, Type II)
• Hyperinsulinemia
• Hyperactivity
• Learning disabilities
• ADD/ADHD
• Hyperirritability
• Depression
• Manic depression
• Bi-polar disease
• Anxiety attacks
• Panic attacks
• Dr. Jekyll/Mr.Hyde rages – “Bad seeds”
• Impaired growth
• Peripheral neuropathy
• Negative nitrogen balance – protein loss
• Elevated blood triglycerides
• Elevated blood cholesterol
• Coronary blood vessel disease
• Aortic cholesterol plaque
• Infertility
• Decreased sperm count
• Shortened life span

Copper Deficiency Symptoms and Diseases

• White, grey, and silver hair
• Dry brittle hair (“steely wool” in sheep)
• Ptosis (sagging tissue – eyelids, “crows feet,” skin, breasts, stomach, etc.
• Hernias (congenital and acquired)
• Varicose veins (including hemorrhoids)
• Spider veins
• Aneuysms (cerebral artery, coronary artery, and large artery blowouts)
• Kawasaki disease (congenital aneurysms with streptococcal infection)
• Anemia (especially common in high milk and vegan diets)
• Hypo and Hyperthyroid dysfunction
• Arthritis (especially where bone growth plates are involved)
• Ruptured vertebral discs
• Liver cirrhosis
• Violent behavior, blind rage, explosive outbursts, and “criminal behavior”
• Learning disabilities
• Cerebral palsy and hypoplasia of the cerebellum (congenital ataxia in sheep)
• High blood cholesterol
• Iron storage disease (hemosiderosis)
• Reduced carbohydrate tolerance
• Neutropenia (low neutrophil count)

Clinical Diseases Associated with Vanadium Deficiency

• Slow growth
• Increased infant mortality
• Infertility
• Elevated cholesterol
• Elevated triglycerides
• Hypoglycemia
• Hyperinsulinemia
• Narcolepsy
• Prediabetes
• Diabetes
• ADD, ADHD
• Depression
• Manic depression, Bi-polar disease
• Tourette’s syndrome
• Cardiovascular disease
• Obesity

 Who needs to know this stuff?

 

The Trap of Conventional Thinking

A malady, from which we all suffer, is being stuck inside the box - and science and technology are no exceptions.  If contemporary cosmological thought says, "The universe is made of omelets" then, as an astronomer, you design instruments to look for traces of an intergalactic egg.  And if you don't find any, no problem... it's due to instrument failure.

Somebody once approached a philosopher and said, "What a bunch of morons people must have been a thousand years ago, who looked up at the sunrise and thought that what they were seeing up there was the sun going around the earth",  to which the philosopher replied, "Yeah, yeah, but what would it look like if the sun were indeed going around the earth?"

The point being, of course, is that it would look exactly the same.  What he was saying was that in any circumstance - despite any and all evidence - you see only what your preconceived paradigm TELLS you you're seeing.  In order to change your mind about ANYTHING, you first have to break out of the box of conventional paradigms.  Which is to say, in order to think differently... you have to think differently.

Whether it's taking care of your health, inventing something new, or following the Lord Jesus Christ, unless you break with convention, all you'll get is what everyone else has gotten.  History is LOADED with examples of people who changed their paradigm and revolutionized the world - Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Jesus of Nazareth, the Apostle Paul, Thomas Edison, Dr. Joel Wallach and the list goes on.  The saying may be trite but it's true: "If you keep on doing what you're doing you're going to keep on getting what you've been getting."

How do we go where no man has gone before, if no man has ever gone there before?  Jesus gave us the keys of the kingdom of heaven and so we have to look to His teaching for guidance.  He said, "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat.  But strait is the gate and narrow the way that leadeth unto life and FEW there be that find it."  The road to success, in any endeavor, is the "road less traveled by".

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost

The only way to have a new paradigm, in my opinion, is to get it from above.  It takes prayer and meditation and trust in God to lead us to that new place - that undiscovered country.  This requires that we take ourselves off the throne and submit to the One who created us - to give Him the glory and honor that He rightfully deserves as the Creator.  We glorify Him for imparting to us the necessary wisdom sufficient to overcome the trap of conventional thinking.

I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. - Proverbs 8:12

(Rob's Notes - 

I would be remiss by not crediting James Burke - brilliant educator, science historian, and producer of such educational programming as Connections and The Day The Universe Changed.  I lifted (almost word for word) his speech from the first show in his series, The Day The Universe Changed.  The first three paragraphs are largely his words.)

Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics is defined by Dictionary.com as follows:

Hermeneutics - noun, (used with a singular verb)

1.The science of interpretation, especially of the Scriptures.

2. the branch of theology that deals with the principles of Biblical exegesis

This blog post will be useful in "rightly dividing the word of truth" (see 2 Tim. 2:15).

1. Let the bible interpret the bible
2. Let clear passages interpret unclear passages
3. Speak where the bible speaks and where the bible is silent, keep silent
4. Consider who is speaking and to whom he is speaking
5. Context is king (Be very careful with this one)

 If you maintain this discipline while reading and studying the bible, you will avoid the myriad pitfalls of denominations and have the best understanding of who God is and what He wants.

The Head and The Body

In the bible, when you read about the head and the body, it's important to understand that this is the language of marriage.  Head and body describes the relationship between husband and wife.

Ephesians 5:23-33 -  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
²⁴ Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
²⁶ That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
²⁷ That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
²⁸ So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
²⁹ For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
³⁰ For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
³¹ For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
³² This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
³³ Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

If you think about it, a disciple to a teacher (rabbi) is described in largely the same way.  A disciple listens to his teacher, accepts what he teaches or asks questions to clarify.  A disciple doesn't assume he knows more than the teacher - although there are moments when logic needs to be worked out.  We see this interaction between Jesus and His disciples.  They asked questions but at no time did they ever presume to know more than their rabbi.

One thing to keep in mind is that it is NOT a peer-to-peer relationship.  As a Christian, I am of the body of Christ and as such, subject to Him and His teaching.  I'm not equal to Him.  My opinion is not called for nor is it pertinent.

In our culture, since marriages are not arranged beforehand, we take time to "get to know" one another.  This is the time to establish whether the wife can be the body (disciple) of her husband and whether the husband is qualified to be the head (rabbi) of his wife.  This doesn't take too long to figure out but it does take time.

Compatibility, therefore, is determined by whether the Head / Body relationship can work.  Does the rabbi seem to know what he's talking about?  In other words, can he lead?  Has he done his homework?  If not then it's probably not a good idea to hitch your wagon to this rabbi.  Compatibility doesn't depend (so much) on The Five Love Languages.  Those things are nice but they're incidental.

Notice, that this has nothing to do with money or who has the "better job".  Jesus was an itinerant preacher who had no visible means of support yet He led (and continues to lead) people.  It has nothing to do with "looks".  How good looking the teacher / student are is irrelevant.

Also, notice that, in a marriage relationship, the man is the Head and the woman is the Body.  In the above text, the apostle quotes from Genesis chapter 2, which details how and why God made woman from man (Adam).

This is a topic with legs.  Since these things are true, our entire culture must be re-examined, as none of these biblical "norms" are at all present in our society today.  And when I look at the relationships I've had, I can see how this Head /Body (rabbi / disciple) paradigm was never achieved (nor was it even the goal).
 

Belief? Unbelief? What's the Difference

The gospel teaches that the only thing that counts for righteousness is our faith in what God has promised.  You can be a dues paying member of your local church and very active in the programs there and still be unrighteous, according to the scriptures.

Many church people, in fact, have positive feelings toward God, are decent people, and are involved with their church but the just shall live by faith.  It is very common to hear a church person challenge the promise of God - even mock it.  Such people are lost, despite their church involvement or their otherwise nice personality.

How many of the promises are we obliged to believe?  The short answer is, "all of them".  Think about it.  If you believe God for heaven when you die but you teach that all the other promises are not true then you're not righteous.  It's all or nothing.  You cannot call God a liar and get away with it.