Belonging House Fellowship

Human beings are not a means to an end.

Every human life is precious in the sight of God. And God said, be fruitful and multiply. This isn't just about having babies. This is about fullness of living, and prospering. It's about being faithful to God, and it's about the beauty of work. It's about seeing that this world is made by God, is a revelation of God, and our job is to restore rebuild, and repair this earth, so that it becomes a reflection of heaven.

Christ (rhymes with "wrist") John Otto leads a community of artists and creative people called Belonging House. Each week we gather as a community for Beth Charashim: the House of Artisans. For more information about Belonging House Media, go to our website, https://Belonging.house. Christ John Otto writes on Substack. Get his Friday email here: christjohnotto.substack.com Our community connects on MightyNetworks here: https://belonging-house.mn.co If this teaching is helpful, please help keep it going by buying a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto

When Jesus is called into question, he doesn't choose one of the ten commandments as the first and greatest. Instead, he chooses a phrase from the Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, with all your mind, and will all your strength. All the law all the commandments are summed up in the foundational truth, Our God is the most relational being the universe, and you cannot do anything apart from a love relationship with him. If you aren't in love with God then as Paul says in I Corinthians 13: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing. Often people talk about love in vaguaries, but Jesus makes it clear here. Love is directional and personal. You need to be in love with God first. And then Jesus pulls a verse out of Leviticus 19, from what is known as the Holiness code. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Remember, the theme of Matthew is found in Matthew 5:19 "I came not to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them." Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience, and his version says all the things other writers say, but in a distinctly Jewish way. Matthew is saying what John says in John 13. A new commandment I give you: love one another. Jesus says it several ways in Matthew: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments: Loving God and loving others hangs all the law and the prophets.

Christ (rhymes with "wrist") John Otto leads a community of artists and creative people called Belonging House. Each week we gather as a community for Beth Charashim: the House of Artisans. For more information about Belonging House Media, go to our website, https://Belonging.house. Christ John Otto writes on Substack. Get his Friday email here: christjohnotto.substack.com Our community connects on MightyNetworks here: https://belonging-house.mn.co If this teaching is helpful, please help keep it going by buying a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto

We are in a continuing series on getting a Kingdom perspective.

One of the best classes I remember

from college

was a course called "The Impact of Science on Society."

And in that class

I had very rudimentary introduction to quantum physics.

And one of the things I learned

was that some subatomic particles

are changed when they are observed.

And of course

this is very befuddling

and troubling

to physicists,

because they cannot prove something

when it changes every time you look at it.

It is interesting

that one of the principles of the kingdom is this:

whatever you look at grows.

Paul says something like this

in his little letter to Titus:

To the pure,

all things are pure,

but to the corrupt and unbelieving,

nothing is pure. (1:15)

In other words

we are back to the grid.

We call this confirmation bias.

If you make up your mind

to see things a certain way,

then all things will line up with your grid.

Christ (rhymes with "wrist") John Otto leads a community of artists and creative people called Belonging House. Each week we gather as a community for Beth Charashim: the House of Artisans. For more information about Belonging House Media, go to our website, https://Belonging.house. Christ John Otto writes on Substack. Get his Friday email here: christjohnotto.substack.com Our community connects on MightyNetworks here: https://belonging-house.mn.co If this teaching is helpful, please help keep it going by buying a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto

Christ (rhymes with "wrist") John Otto leads a community of artists and creative people called Belonging House. Each week we gather as a community for Beth Charashim: the House of Artisans. For more information about Belonging House Media, go to our website, https://Belonging.house. Christ John Otto writes on Substack. Get his Friday email here: christjohnotto.substack.com Our community connects on MightyNetworks here: https://belonging-house.mn.co If this teaching is helpful, please help keep it going by buying a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto

Christ (rhymes with "wrist") John Otto leads a community of artists and creative people called Belonging House. Each week we gather as a community for Beth Charashim: the House of Artisans. For more information about Belonging House Media, go to our website, https://Belonging.house. Christ John Otto writes on Substack. Get his Friday email here: christjohnotto.substack.com Our community connects on MightyNetworks here: https://belonging-house.mn.co If this teaching is helpful, please help keep it going by buying a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto

Christ (rhymes with "wrist") John Otto leads a community of artists and creative people called Belonging House.

Each week we gather as a community for Beth Charashim: the House of Artisans.

For more information about Belonging House Media, go to our website, https://Belonging.house.

Christ John Otto writes on Substack. Get his Friday email here: christjohnotto.substack.com

Our community connects on MightyNetworks here: https://belonging-house.mn.co

If this teaching is helpful, please help keep it going by buying a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto

This week, The Rustic Mystic, Jim Leach gives a life giving and encouraging teaching on tithing. This is worth your time. Christ (rhymes with "wrist") John Otto leads a community of artists and creative people called Belonging House. Each week we gather as a community for Beth Charashim: the House of Artisans. For more information about Belonging House Media, go to our website, https://Belonging.house. Christ John Otto writes on Substack. Get his Friday email here: christjohnotto.substack.com Our community connects on MightyNetworks here: https://belonging-house.mn.co If this teaching is helpful, please help keep it going by buying a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto #artists #creative #prosperity #tithing #celebration

Everything in the Bible is about the Kingdom.

If you come upon something that doesn't make sense,

ask yourself how it relates to the Kingdom.

We are in the 10 Days of Awe.

These are the feast of the Lord that have not been fulfilled in Messiah,

these are the feasts about the establishment of the Kingdom.

Have you ever noticed that the second half of the Christian year is empty?

That's because the Jewish fall feasts were not really mentioned by Jesus,

and they were not fulfilled in his first coming.

These feasts all look forward

to his second coming.

We have left the lectionary for the next three Sundays.

And when I asked the Lord about what readings to use this week,

he asked me a question.

Always pay attention to when the Lord asks you a question.

"Can you mate a sheep with a goat?'

That is an interesting question.

The short answer is,

no,

you can't.

It turns out some have tried,

and when you do

the offspring is always still born.

And when I asked the Lord about this,

I was brought back to this passage from Matthew,

where Jesus sits upon his glorious throne.

And he separates the sheep from the goats.

Religious thinking wants everyone to get along

and cooperate.

Let's keep the sheep and the goats at peace.

Jesus,

is a peace maker.

Peace requires a division and a separation.

When you try to keep things that do not belong together,

you are going to have conflict.

And these ten days are a symbol of this separating ourselves

from the world,

and being set aside for God.

Christ (rhymes with "wrist") John Otto leads a community of artists and creative people called Belonging House. Each week we gather as a community for Beth Charashim: the House of Artisans.

For more information about Belonging House Media, go to our website, https://Belonging.house.

Christ John Otto writes on Substack. Get his Friday email here: christjohnotto.substack.com

Our community connects on MightyNetworks here: https://belonging-house.mn.co

If this teaching is helpful, please help keep it going by buying a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto

In the 1950's A.W. Tozer wrote and preached about

how people used the phrase "accept Jesus."

Tozer said Jesus never asked us to accept him

he called us to turn to him,

leave everything

and become a disciple.

Like the phrase "accept Jesus"

there is another completely unbiblical thing people say:

"I repent of blah blah blah."

This phrase does nothing in the spiritual realm.

The Bible says that if you want your sins to go away,

you humble yourself,

confess them,

and receive forgiveness.

Then you turn to God,

and be transformed in your thinking.

"I repent of ...."

is neither confession nor forgiveness,

confession and forgiveness are a transaction.

Saying "I repent" is not a change and turning to God.

Just like saying "I cook" is not feeding your family.

And the change and turning has to happen

first in your thinking,

and then in the fruit of your life.

The word that is translated "repentance"

the word Jesus used here at the beginning of his ministry

is metanoia.

Meta means to change or transform,

and moia means the mind.

But not just thinking.

The Mind in this sense is your soul,

your inner being,

your heart.

So Jesus said,

change your mindset

your way of thinking

guard your heart

from the world's way

to the Kingdom way

because the Kingdom is at hand.

It is here

it is now

and it is happening whether you like it or not.

The contractions have begun

and the time for the birth is near.

You can't stop it.

And your old way of thinking

is not going to help you when the Kingdom breaks forth.

And when it does

you might miss it.

Christ (rhymes with "wrist") John Otto leads a community of artists and creative people called Belonging House. Each week we gather as a community for Beth Charashim: the House of Artisans.

For more information about Belonging House Media, go to our website, https://Belonging.house.

Christ John Otto writes on Substack. Get his Friday email here: christjohnotto.substack.com

Our community connects on MightyNetworks here: https://belonging-house.mn.co

If this teaching is helpful, please help keep it going by buying a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto

#prophetic #repentance #transformation #mind #roshhashanah #artists #creative #bible #declarations #prosperity #secondcoming #eschatology

Periodically we have a Sunday where Christ John Otto answers any question from our community. We had some amazing ones, like is being under covering Biblical, and it Belonging House a cult? Christ John Otto directs Belonging House, an international community of artists and creative people. This teaching is from our Sunday congregation, Beth Charashim, the House of Artisans. You can find out more at https://belonging.house Get our Friday email, https://christjohnotto.substack.com If you enjoy these teachings, share them with your friends or buy a coffee to show your support. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/christjohnotto These teachings are made possible by our patrons. You can be one too at https://patreon.com/belonginghousemedia Thanks to all our patrons! We are so grateful. #covering #prayerofjabez #witchcraft #christianity #prayer