CHAPTER 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

CHAPTER 7

OVERCOMING

I don’t usually use the Living Bible, but in this case it drives home a point we all need to hear in light of matters of salvation:
Psalm 11:1-7  “HOW DARE You tell me, “FLEE” to the mountains for safety,” when I am trusting in the Lord?”  (You are saying what the world is saying).. For the wicked have strung their bows, drawn their arrows tight against the bow strings, and aiming from ambush at the people of God. “Law and order have collapsed,” we are told. “What can the righteous do but flee?”
But the Lord is still in His holy temple; He still rules from heaven. He closely watches everything that happens here on earth. He puts the righteous and the wicked to the test; he hates those loving violence. He will rain down fire and brimstone on the wicked and scorch them with His burning wind. For God is good, and He loves goodness’ the godly shall see His face.”

Rather harsh words. Yet to over come any fear of adventuring out into the big bad world, be it either in a physical sense or traversing their literature, I for one will not back off.  Dangers, yes; will we be deceived at times, yes; will we be rattled at times, yes.  We will find ourselves being persuaded rather then persuading at times, yes. THIS IS A TEST….and you might ask, “A test of what?  Know this, it clearly says God does not test us, but we of our own lust and entice are drawn away; and when this lust gives birth it produces sin (revealing of our Adamic nature), and when sin is finished it produces death. The death of our ever thinking we could ever handle any situation apart from Him. Adam’s mistake and we inherited!! So, when you find yourself duped, tricked, lying flat on our face; thank God for the revealing of your weakness and at that moment ask for His strength. This Psalm clearly said the Lord puts the righteous and the wick to the test. And I can hear it, “But I thought you just said that He doesn’t test us?”  And I would answer, yes, I did just say that. Without a long lengthy explanation, think on this in light of this idea of testing…You are in a class room, the teacher has been trying to get you to learn something for weeks and months. The only way for this teacher to know if he or she is getting through your thick brain what he or she desires, is to TEST YOU. Now the teacher isn’t testing you to DESTROY you, the teacher is testing you to see if what he or she had taught you sunk into your brain. If you had failed to PAY ATTENTION, your will not pass the test and that test sheet will walk all over your brains till you feel like it is going to explode.

There is NEVER a situation that will come upon you that isn’t common to all of us, BUT GOD HAS PREPARE A WAY OF ESCAPE, that you might endure it. You do not have to be afraid of any situation that He might want you to encounter, because before it occurs, if you had paid attention, He would have prepared you for it. Yet, if you are worshipping your own strength, your own method of handling life’s situations, you are going to have to be knocked off your high horse, blinded, then lead by the hand of some reluctant prophet, so the scabs over your eyes can be removed and for the first time in your life you realize that it is not by might nor power, but by His Spirit that you walk in strength and have NO FEAR; it is then that you eyes are opened and you SEE HIS FACE….the knowledge of the Glory of God through the face of Jesus. Before this you may have heard of Him with the ear, but now you see Him with your eyes; and there isn’t a place that you can’t go, for He is there and you see Him in all life’s situation, good and bad. And because He over comes the world, YOU DO!!

CHAPTER 8

THIS MATTER OF DOING GOOD

If I am trying to do this thing of goodness, true goodness cannot come.  The good works that God wanted to perform though us is stored in the eternal realm; it must come from there.  For God’s goodness to come He must put a stop to self performance and its orientation, which we have been taught sense birth and by the world around us; when this happens it allows this goodness to flow.  It’s kind of fits what Jesus had said, “No man comes to the Son unless the Father draws him.”  Unless God, as James so said, unless this good gift comes to us from God, any so-called good that we might think to perform is tainted with “self” (Secret ambitions of recognition and glory).  God’s good gift of good works through us is to the glory of the Son. (Whatever you do in word or deed, do to the glory of God; For by grace are you save, not of yourself, unless any man boast).  We sing it…”To God be the glory, great things has He done,” yet if self is involved in any degree, this isn’t the case. 

If we go about establishing our idea of righteousness, we forfeit this righteousness which God would have performed through us; that righteousness being what Paul said in Ephesians, the good works from before the foundations of this world and its idea of goodness.  There is none that does good, not one.  If there isn’t the ability for us to do good, what is meant by this?  I believe it is clear enough, our idea of what is good compared to whatever idea God has of goodness it radically different in some way.  We could be doing what we think and feel is good, yet in God’s idea of goodness we could be doing that which isn’t good. 

How do we come to that place where this Goodness of God would work through us?  It would be God drawing that situation, circumstance, person, place or thing to us, then He through us flowing this goodness to that situation, circumstance, person, place or thing.  It would then not only have profit in this life but also in the life to come.

To activate this, we would have to stop this natural tendency to perform which came from our natural inclinations being performance oriented.  We must learn to wait through the Spirit for this righteousness to come. It would be God drawing Himself to any particular circumstance, then through an individual acting as a channel, He would then flow that needed; this would be the only time that pure goodness flows.  Any other time, as I’ve said, self is involved thus that goodness we might desire is tainted.  Desire and ability to perform that which God would desire at that moment would “all” come from Him and self is left out.  Read in scriptures, “Submit yourself unto God, resist the Devil and he will flee from you….don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.”  If good is initiated by self, you would know what the right hand is doing…self is involved with its secret ambitions and goals. 

He that expects no gratitude shall not be disappointed.  When we are disappointed with those who do not thank us for our good deeds or show us gratitude, it is proof that we have acted with self motives and secret ambitions. (“The ambitiously motivated individual is easily angered and hurt”)  When you are prompted of God to exercise HIS goodness through you, no disappointment is felt because your action is not prompted by self and secret ambitions and motives, instead is prompted of God. 

I once heard it said, “Do things with only two clear motives involved, 1. It simply needs to be done, whether I want to do it or not, or  2. It is something you love to do and would have done anyway.   If you haven’t learned to follow God’s prompting to do that good which He would desire, then at least follow these two motives; it cuts back to some degree of selfish ambitions and motives until such time you can follow God’s leading in any given circumstance.  Remember, there is a time to embrace and a time to reframe from embracing no matter what the world around you might think or you were taught in the days of your performance orientation.  You have experienced this; some well meaning individual comes to help you.  They don’t ask if you need help, they just force their help on you whether you want it or not.  If you reject this help because you really do not need it, they are hurt. If you don’t reject it, they end up doing things you did not desire simply because they never asked you what it was you needed; instead they “DO THINGS THEIR WAY” not knowing their way wasn’t what you really needed.  This kind of help we all can do without.  They are only helping you out of their own selfish need to help; it has nothing to do with God and His goodness.

I know, in some cases the individual might be two proud to except help.  That a different matter and would be their problem and you would out of respect leave it at that until they ask you for it; don’t become the problem.  Respect their rejection of help.  Check yourself and ask, “Was I lead of the Lord in this case or was I acting by natural inclinations?”  God will handle this.

We have at times thought, “She or he is so ungrateful!”  That may be true; yet I would question that individual’s motive for helping.  What were you expecting?  Come to where you do not expect gratitude. (“He that expects no gratitude shall not be disappointed.”)  If we have any idea of the condition of humanity which “ALL” of us are part of, we would understand that all of us at some time or another have acted in an ungrateful way.  Jesus said what He said on the cross, “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing,” he said this with a clear understand of the condition of fallen humanity.  This kind of unconditional love is the constraining, controlling element that should govern our actions towards others and ourselves….’For the love of Christ constrains me and keeps me from considering any other way, for I thus judge, if One die for ALL, then all were dead (had the same condition) and that He died, we which live should no longer live unto ourselves (secret ambitions and motive in this case to do good) but unto Him who died and rose again.”  

CHAPTER 9

GOING THE WAY OF CAIN, BALAAM, CORE

GOING THE WAY OF CAIN

I will begin with this opening thought:  “If you reject God’s unconditional love, which is as it is clearly defined, not limited in any way; if you reject this unconditional love, you go to hell.”

Rather harsh one might think, “Go to hell?”  By the time I get done with this chapter of this book you will understand why.  For now, let me gradually work you back starting with Jude 1:11 “Woe unto them; for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.”

For those of you who may not know anything about Cain, Balaam or Core, let me give you a brief highlights of these three Biblical characters so that what I will be sharing makes some sense.

First, Cain is the first Son of Adam and Eve, the one who killed his brother in a fit of rage and jealousy.  After the fall of Adam and Eve, God had provided away to cover their transgression by shedding the blood of an innocent animal using the skin of that animal to cloth, cover, their nakedness.  This feeling of nakedness ran deeper than their unclothed bodies, but reached to the heart of their dilemma, guilt for the disobedience to what God had warned them about, to not eat of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  There is more to this, but that gives you some idea of what will follow concerning Cain.  It is understood that this sacrifice of the blood of an innocent animal to atone for their sin was practiced by not only Adam and Eve but also their descendents.  Cain’s brother Abel, Adam and Eve’s second son, understood this and was obedient.  It is said that he was a keeper of sheep, thus it is assumed that he offered a lamb for this sacrifice.  Cain being a tiller of the ground growing vegetables, fruits etc., thought to offer the works of his hands.  God accepted Abel’s obedient sacrifice and rejected the labors of Cain’s disobedient act. 

THE WAY OF BALAAM

With that brief account of our first character let me now give a brief account of Balaam.  The story can be found in Numbers Chapter 22.  Balaam, a prophet, is contacted by King Balak, King of the Moabites, out of his fear of the nation of Israel coming against them.  He asked that Balaam curse them, because he knew whoever Balaam cursed they were curse, and whoever Balaam blessed they were blessed.  He offers Balaam great rewards if he would do this.   Balaam thinks about it and says he would consult the Lord on this matter.  Of course God tells him he cannot curse the Jewish people and he reports this to King Balak.  This goes on for three separate attempts by King Balak offering Balaam more wealth and honor to get the job done.  Finally God seeing that Balaam doesn’t get it and is attracted by the wealth and honor tells Balaam to go ahead and meet the King.   Balaam excited hops on his ass and heads out to meet up with King Balak.  Along the way he meets God’s Angel blocking the road.  The ass, with it animal instincts, sees the angel and runs off into a field; Balaam beats him and gets him back on the road until they come to a narrow part of the road with walls on both sides.  The ass still seeing the Angel attempts to slide by him crushing Balaam’s leg against the wall.  Again Balaam beats him.

The road way narrows even more too where the ass cannot get around God’s angel, thus stops dead in his tracks.  So Balaam beats him again.  God at this point touches the mouth of the ass and causes him to speak.  Note it wasn’t the ass speaking, animals don’t have this ability; it is the Lord speaking through the animal, since Balaam couldn’t hear God any more, God has to take it down a notch using an animal.  Makes you wonder who the dumb ass was?  Balaam loses his ability to hear God’s voice, thus the ass is used; a lower method.  The ass questions why Balaam was beating him.  Imagine the shock on Balaam’s face!  The ass points out the fact of the Angel in the middle of the road; Balaam at this point gains his spiritual sight back and sees the Angel, repents of his spiritual blindness.  God then instructs him to say only that which He would tell him to say when he meets up with King Balak.

To get on with this story so I can get into the third character, Balaam tells King Balak he cannot curse God’s people.  Now catch this; he has King Balak create seven alters where they sacrifice a bull and a ram.  This is done several times.  Why would he have the King to do this?  It’s was an attempt to get the King to gains God’s favor, using God’s methods that Balaam knew God used in other situations, thinking surely God would like this and maybe change His mind and allow him to curse the Jewish people.  (Remember this point, I will bring it up later how we attempt to manipulate God using His methods to gain our desires or others.)   At the end of this story Balaam seeing it is hopeless to get God to curse His people, suggests Balak send his beautiful women into their camp having them commit fornication, and then God would have to curse them.  This is done and God has to curse His people.  Later in the history of Balaam we discover that King Balak does give Balaam great reward and honor for this.  Yet the tragic end of this story is that later on the Jews attack the Moabites and in the battle Balaam is slain, thus God’s just reward.

THE WAY OF CORE (KORAH)

Now let me share with you the story of Core.  It is believed that the name Core used by Jude was a different spelling in Old Testament history. In Numbers 16 you get the whole story with the spelling of Core being Korah.  Listen to the definition of the word “gainsaying” which Jude used to describe Core’s (or Korah’s) gainsaying: Deny or dispute; refuse to admit to the truth; to refuse to accept as true, valid, or worthy of consideration.  Numbers chapter 16 develops Korah dispute and unwillingness to admit to the truth that God had placed Moses in charge of running that Nation, thus attempts to turn the Nation against Moses.  He along with Dathan, Abiram, On, (Sons of Reuben) took men and they rose up against Moses, along with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown; they rose up against Moses and Aaron.  They challenged Moses and Aaron saying who were they to think they were holier than the whole of Israel, when God was with all of them.  Moses falls on his face at this accusation before God.  God says through Moses, “Tomorrow we will find out who is holy and who is not.”  Well, you can imagine what happens.

This brings you to where I will begin to share with you what is meant in Jude 1:11 ”They have gone the way of Cain.”  Jude is giving revelations of the end times in his book.  If one did not know the story of Cain and Abel, what Jude is attempting to warn us about would not be understood.  So what is this warning and how does it apply to us, those who are living in the End Times. 

We are in a generation of mass information. This matter of judgment and with the knowledge we have excess to, have increased our ability to judge one another.  Three warnings have been given; a warning to avoid what is now taking place. I will share with you several article I have written that fit these warnings:

                                     VALUE OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS

When people judge you as a Child of God, and don’t take into account the fact that you stand justified by God’s grace, even if what they are saying is true and you have done something wrong, that person, He will judge that day. For they have failed to see that your righteousness, right standing before God, has nothing to do with whether or not you commit a wrong act, but lies in the fact of “Christ’s righteousness” not yours.

In truth, they judge that pure, sinless personage of Jesus Christ the Son of God. They shouldn’t have done that. They go the way of Balaam. We stand accountable to no man, only to God. It’s the task of the Holy Spirit to bring us to this truth; thus getting us to acknowledge the errors of our walk and free us of any guilt brought upon us from the world’s condemnation. (Romans Chapters 1-3 reveal all of what I’ve written.) You can see why we are warned to not judge at all.  Judge nothing before the time.  Balaam sought to judge God’s people. Could their actions of that day, the Jewish nation, justify what Balaam was asked to do by King Balak, King of the Moabites? Sure.  But, the message God has always intended to bring was that righteousness had nothing to do with behavior but a “listening” to God.  Baal wasn’t listening!  Are we?

April 9, 1992
Paul C. Woodward

JUDGING OUT OF FEAR OF CONDONING

“We judge that which we do not understand, out of our fear of condoning it.”  (We feel that since we know something to be wrong, against the law, that we have no choice but to judge the individual or situation)  We have been taught in life to “judge”, not only in a religious life style but also in a secular life style.  We read of warning after warning to not judge in scriptures, yet we still judge. 

We are taught law and morals not understanding their purposes.  I have addressed this in some of my past personal studies, the matter of the misuse of the law and its end intent.  It was never given to make us better, but to expose a condition in all of humanity.  It’s this very point, the wrong handling of this law that produces things like we read in the News papers or hear on T.V. News.  For example the very Biblical text many times used by religiously minded individuals to attack, for an example, the gay life style, which is definitely in Romans chapter 1, yet they fail to see that this same chapter is also judging them for judging, thus is the very text that condemns them.  Hear it…

“They hold down the truth with a lie”….or expressed in this way, they are holding, or holding down the truth in an un-right way.”   Both are applicable. 

If the true end intend of the law is not seen, the second or third generation will produce what is described in that Romans text.  You see this coming out even in what are called Preacher’s kids….we have seen it.  We all have been taught the dangers of self-righteousness and the byproduct of this life style.  I hear it on the job, when a gay inmate comes into the unity, from not only religious minded officers by also those that do not claim to be religious.  Think of this quote given to me….”We largely judge in others that which we are denying in ourselves.”  Can you hear the objections…”I could never do that!”   Are you sure?  How about knowing that the “potential” of any life style, or so-called sin is potentially possible in you from the very condition you inherited from your father Adam.  This is basic stuff.  Yet today it’s being rejected.  I can understand why.  Look at the news…about priest, ministers and what they produce following a self-righteous religion….they end up in that which they judged for years.  Or local political figures, not necessarily religious, just self-righteously pursing their platforms.  They had thought that they could never do these things.  Either they end up in it or their kids.  And we say, we don’t understand?  I think it is understandable.  But it begins with you and not the one we would project it on to.  Start as I had to do by looking in the mirror, looking back three generation even.  You may not like what you find…the truth of your nature.   We can not accept this and do every thing possible to dismiss it or project it on to others.  I once preached against divorce….I ended up divorced.  I lost my self-righteous religion in Vietnam. 

Yet you see me still in love with God and His word.  It has taken on a new meaning.  I looked in the mirror.  God was not to blame.  It was His Law that led me to the grace I now live in and share to those around me.

There are things of a personal nature that I can not share in this book that I do share one on one.  I probably sound and come across religious, yet if I were to share some of these personal things you would understand that I am no longer religious as I once was. 

Ending this chapter, let me give you one more thing the Lord gave me once which I was judging a matter when I didn’t know better.  I was given this thought…”We judge in others, what which we can not accept in our self.’  In other words at that moment I was refusing to face a truth about my self and projecting it on to someone who definitely did have the same problem.  Yet what I was failing to see at that moment was that this individual was only a REFLECTING MIRROR of a truth I was failing to see in myself.  I will be dealing with this more later in this book at a greater depth.

CHAPTER 10

BUILDING ON A FOUNDATION

Nothing matters more than the foundation upon which anything is built.  As the foundation goes, so does the building.  Without a doubt I believe we all, too some degree or another, believe and understand this.  So the question is, “What is the foundation upon which you are building using .choices for us today which amounts to only three; the first is the predominate one being taught in our education system today, and that is EVOLUTION.  If one follows this ideology it leads to the second one of ALIENS and the seeding of this planet.  If you don’t believe this, you haven’t done your home work.  Go off and search the many books and web links that reveals this; I won’t do that for you.  Remember, as the foundation goes, so does the building.  So I would strongly advise you to consider the foundation you have selected.

The third and final one is upon the claims of a man named Jesus; who also claimed to be the Son of God, in the MODE of a son of man, establishing a foundation using what His life would build, a called out assembly, saying, “the gates of hell would not prevail against this foundation.”   He also said that any other foundation would be like “sinking sand.”  What He would offer would be like a solid ROCK, upon which nothing would prevail.  I personally have spend at least 46 years of my 66 years of life on this planet and found that I am persuaded that what He claimed is true and will stand the test “against that day,” that day of testing while in this life and the life to come.  What caused me to start this search was my discovery that I was building my life on sinking sand, and one day saw the house that I had created go crashing down.  At the time I wasn’t too happy about this, and blamed everything and anything other than my poor foundation.

I would again challenge you to take a good look at the foundation you have laid, both, the man of the world and the man in some form of religion.  Ask yourself, “How would I know anymore about a spiritual foundation, than I would about a physical foundation, if I had not asked how such a thing would be accomplished?”  In the physical world you would be considered foolish to not consult a “Master Builder” when it came to building your home.  Even then you would check around to find the best; not every so-called Master Builder is what they claim.  We can, in a spiritual idea of a foundation point to someone who claimed to be a Master Builder, who claimed to lay the one and only true foundation, and that foundation was the finished works of Jesus Christ.  This Master builder was none other than Paul the Apostle.  We can read this claim in I Corinthians chapter three.  “According to the grace of God given unto me, as a WISE MASTER BUILDER, I have laid the foundation, and another built thereon.  But let every man take heed how he builds thereon.  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  (I Cor. 3:10-11)

MATTER HIDDEN

The foundation of a house is the most hidden aspect of a house, being underground, that if you don’t ask you would not know.  In looking at home listings you will see this reveal with the use of words such as, “No Basement;” “Crawl Space;” “Full basement or particle basement,”  You would not want to buy a house with no basement if that wasn’t what you were looking for.  In our case of this study, you would not want to buy a house with no stable foundation.  You can find homes built on stilts in some parts of this world; but a good wind could easily knock it over.  You can buy a Mobil Home on wheels or stacked corner blocks, but you had better have tie down or watch it get blown away.   Not everything that appears as stable is stable.

Paul in I Corinthians gives us more insights on this matter of what we build on a foundation and warns us to take heed of what we built. You could have a great foundation; in the physical sense of this, cinder blocks stacked, or poured concrete walls or slab; but if you build a lean-to shack on this foundation the test of time will prove to be a lost.  You may still have the foundation, which is the most important thing, yet your lack of wisdom would stand out like a concrete slab in a tornado torn town.  In areas designated as tornado alleys, hurricane, flooding, earthquake prone areas have very strict building codes.  As strict as these codes may be, there is nothing in this world that can assure your building efforts will work.  It is something like Paul’s warning to us to beware of what we build on this foundation.  He liken it to wood, hay and stubble, being works that have no eternal lasting ability; then in comparison he mentions gold, silver and precious stones, all elements that have stood the test of time and fire, thus have eternal value.  To explain the difference between the two, he said in his letter to the Ephesians 2:10 “For we are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus unto GOOD WORKS which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.”  (Note – “that God had before ordained.”)  That which God had before ordained is locked up in us.  You can see why Paul commands in Phil. 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a GOOD WORK in you will perform it until the DAY OF JESUS CHRIST..”  Note this; it is something that God begins and performs.  The question would be, “How does He accomplish this?”  We read in  Phil. 2:12-13 “Wherefore, my brethren, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, WORK OUT your OWN salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is GOD which WORKS in you both to will and to do of HIS GOOD PLEASURE.”  Our only so-called work is to discover that which is locked up in us.  Note this; even the DESIRE to do this must come from Him, and once this God given desire comes, it is God doing the performing and not ourselves as this text reveals.  Our pray would be, “Father create in me this Desire to allow you to DO your good pleasure through me. Amen.”  This is what constitutes the gold, silver and precious stones on this foundation; elements wrought of God and are eternal.  Anything not desired of God and performed by Him through you, constitutes wood, hay and stubble.  Please note this; this matter of things built on the foundation is not matters of eternal salvation.  The foundation constitutes salvation, and there is only ONE CHOICE, Jesus Christ’s accomplished works via His ministry, death, burial and resurrection and not any works we had thought would gain God’s favor.  Any other foundation is SINKING SAND – PERIOD!; no matter what other might believe.  This isn’t a matter of my opinion; it is a FACT OF GOD’s own word.  Make your decision today!   Paul

MORE ON FOUNDATIONS

This is a matter that has come to my attention lately after viewing many other forums and web sites on this matter of “The Foundation” which is written that the Apostle Paul was the master builder of, that Foundation being Christ.  You can’t imagine the differences expressed on these other sites.  It gets into what is called Millennium Exclusion, and the Judgment Seat of Christ.  I won’t get too much into what they are sharing; it would take many, many post to do this.  So, I will simply share what I have been given after asking, that the confusion I got from reading all these other sites and views, be resolved.

You all know the foundation text, so I won’t give it.  We know that we can build what is called wood, hay and stubble on that foundation, or what is called gold, silver and precious stones.  That’s clear enough with out our debating just what constitutes all mentioned.  What I’d like to touch upon is whether or not it is a future matter or something which we could enter into in the present, now, thus not wait for what is called, “saved as by fire” which will test the building we all are creating on that foundation.

I have spent the last 30 years building my home and the buildings on my property.  Knowing what little I know from doing this, I know one thing is vitally important, the foundation of a structure.  As the foundation goes, so does the building.  I laid the foundation for my home using block, and under these block there is a concrete footing to the local codes, which gives it its foundation.  If this foundation did not meet the code, the structure would be in jeopardy.

We all know that the focus, when it comes to our salvation, is not on the wood, hay and stubble, or the gold, silver and precious stones, but on the foundation itself.  We all know that this was the finished works of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  This is a matter I no longer question, nor wish to debate; it’s for me an Eternal fact.  This is the only thing that gets us entrance into that eternal realm. 

“A historical event, that manifested an eternal reality”…this is the True Foundation and what I mean to imply in addressing this matter of a Foundation; a foundation which was determined and held, preserved before, which is written, “before the foundation of the world.”  The gold, silver and precious stones are things which undergo the fires and test of time and this experience which prove to have come from that eternal realm; the “good” gifts that come down from our Father in that eternal realm.  The wood, hay and stubble, called many times the flesh, are the fuel to the fire needed to purify these eternal gifts; fuel which intent was for burning and not to ever enter that eternal realm.  They, the wood, hay and stubble, fuels, are only tools, carnal experiences, which have their purposes, called by me the peaks and valleys of life, to who’s end and consumption manifest via test and trials (fire), that wrought in us, before the foundation of this world, His good works which we will work out with fear and trembling.