The Father of Lights

What is Light?

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. (James 1:16-18) 1:16  Μὴ πλανᾶσθε ἀδελφοί μου ἀγαπητοί 17  πᾶσα δόσις ἀγαθὴ καὶ πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθέν ἐστιν καταβαῖνον ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων παρ᾽ ᾧ οὐκ ἔνι παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα 1:18  βουληθεὶς ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς λόγῳ ἀληθείας εἰς τὸ εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἀπαρχήν τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ κτισμάτων" (James 1:16-18 Koine Greek)

James the Just, one of the half brothers of Jesus was a leader in the early church in Jerusalem, until his martyrdom in AD 62. His Greek is remarkable! He describes God as the Father of the Lights, referring to the sun, moon, stars, the moon ad the planets and "innumerable" angels. Followers of Jesus are called lights."Variation" is an astronomical term for eclipsing. "Shadow of turning" refers to astronomical parallax. The planets move throughout the year, the stars do not."Begat us again" refers to spiritual rebirth (John 3:16).

For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.  But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,   not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,  whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:3-7)

In the Bible a generation is usually 40 years. Thus, Jesus walked the shores of Galilee 50 generations ago. From Matthew and Luke we have the family tree of Jesus from Adam, 77 generations.. We are gen 127 from Adam. George Barna does helpful studies of recent gens (x, y, z). Our present world population of 8021 million persons are all descended from Adam and Eve. Barna sets one generation as 20 years. This makes sense in talking about America since 1960.. I was 28 years old in 1962 and I remembered those days well. I would come to know Jesus Christ in 1962.

Great changes have taken place in our culture since those days. Two sexual revolutions hit us, and they weren't revivals from Jesus! My mentor Ray Stedman called our attention to a core group of married couples at Stanford who exchanged wives for a week. The Kinsey Report (1948 and 1953) suggested that Americans were far more sexually active than had been previously reported. At the time Kinsey's claims gave an entire generation tacit permission to be sexually active--married or not. Playboy Magazine was in the bottom drawer of a college single man's chest of drawers under the socks. It was an open secret back then that "95 percent of single men masturbate, and the other 5 percent are lying." A guy's sex drives were very high, he wouldn't be able to marry for another decade--the old fashioned "no premarital sex before marriage" mantra had to go. The Summer of Love in San Fransisco in 1967 ushered in the Jesus Movement with all the sex, drugs, rock n roll anyone wanted. Alan Watts and imported gurus from India introduced community living. No one reminded us of the failed attempts at alternate living together practiced in this country when we were a young nation. Example: The Oneida Community, mid 1800s.

Please see our article on the absolutes of God Ephesians 5. I for one believe we have reached the end of old-fashioned genital sex. Heaven will have two genders: boys, girls, men, women--all ages from all 195 nations. My friend Melinda Compton suggested many years ago that both men and women would have "smooth areas" after the Rapture, where the genitals once were. Gender is determined, as you know, by a specific chromosome we received from our dads.

George Barna and others discuss a huge cultural change--a disconnect--in America in the past three generations. I experienced that church-divide vividly when I was recovering from my ten year NDE in 2022.. I saw there were few x,y,z kids at church. Younger people I learned, find that our old-school way of doing church is for them utterly uninteresting and irrelevant. In one arena a constant conflict between the genders exists especially regarding abortion and homosexuality.

Finally I met a young unmarried man from my church--he grew up there. He agreed to answer my deepest questions. In twenty-some years of church attendance, with the family who had adopted him, Steve said he had met only two youth pastors he could respect. The local "Christian" high school turned him off big time --because of their failure to live out what they professed to believe in real life. I was shocked when Steve told me about "connecting:" (sexually), in the millennial generation. He told me he had started having sex when he was in high school and had probably slept with 200 girls. He was perfectly straight he said, but had quite a few homosexual fiends.

Millennials hate hypocrisy in adults. They live in an information-saturated world, (like zombies--information reaching our iphones is not necessarily true nor relevant). And since we old fogies can't be trusted and are marching to the beat of an unknown drummer. Today's youth, often can't be trusted. They will politely listen to what we say but follow their own guidelines for living. This seemed to me to be more Hindu than anything. "Hook-ups" are standard for many Millennials, I learned. This in acted out as follows: Find a girl (or a guy your age). Spend an entire weekend with them trying every form of sex known to man. Part company on Sunday night having learned how to experience the full range of unabashed sex. This is the only path to follow, they say, if one wants to be eventually married! Consider how miserable our parents are--and they followed '"the Book."

Tim Keller had great insights a couple of years back when speaking at the Howard Hendricks Foundation at DTS (Dallas Theological Seminary), June 2019. The Great Generational Disconnect is what started my trying to better understand the root causes of some of today's awfullest theological dilemmas. Keller is surely correct in his statement that the older generation churches rightly see that the universe is "two storied" while the Millennials usually live in a one story world. (The universe is actually two-storied). The resolution of this issue is that all parties must know Jesus personally as Lord because that is reality.

But I need to speak bluntly. They can't trust their parents or their teachers at school. The porn they are into is right out of hell. Can a boy today trust his father? It is not unusual to receive an email for a kid in his twenties who writes, "I found my dad's porn stash." "I always thought my mom and dad probably didn't ever have good sex."

When families break down to this degree, marriage is surely pure hypocrisy, professions of faith are empty. The bonding Jesus Christ has with His Father is the deepest bond in the universe. Related to this is spiritual circumcision for guys and purity of heart for women.

Reddit is a San Francisco based social media site with discussion groups for every topic under the sun. I follow several, especially r/NoFapChristians, r/Pornfree and r/SSA/Christian. Most men who post to the first group are in their 20's, nominally Christians who are addicted to M and P. Typically a guy who posts will be seeking help in overcoming his addiction to PMO. He is single and in his 20's. He masturbates a lot, daily is not unusual. He started at puberty--age 11 or so. Later he added P. His dad is remote and unapproachable. What works is for this kid is to develop a personal, intimate walk with Jesus Christ. Of course every follower of Jesus is supposed to be living in union with Jesus. See Symptoms of a Huge Meltdown.

I personally am "old school orthodox." I believe there are absolutes in the universe--God never changes. End of Rant! I could continue this report for hours.

If you don't have a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, please give Him full permission to make you all new, head to foot.

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 

To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? 

 For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

Notes by Lambert Dolphin 

I recovered from a NDE in mid 2017 and have written about 800 articles since.
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Music for today 

There is a Balm in Gilead

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I Sing the Mighty Power of God

Jesus, The Light of the World

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James Alan Shelton - Song for Greta

Gigantic Legless Cauldrons - Sodium Chloride

      

March 8, 2023. September 17, 2023.