..."theocognizance" is knowing God...
...as Galatians 2:20 affirms, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
...we have long studied "about God", "theology"...but as this Life is experientially living in a relationship with Him, eternally, there certainly is more to knowing Him than what can be studied with the mind, practiced with the heart, yet not realized until He literally becomes in us Who He says He Is...
...all else literally pales into insignificant comparison from truly knowing God personally in a "thimble-full" size of experiential grace, compared to knowing volumes about Him as a mental, however heartfelt effort...
The wisdom of Ecclesiastes 1:2 tells it simply, "all else is vanity" or illusion, or perhaps a waste of time, energy, and valuable personal resources, which is mentioned over 30 times in that book of the Bible.
...if after you have enjoyed the results of a "prodigal son" experience/s...referred to as "brokenness" by Watchman Nee...you are finally ready for a life full of genuine love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...
...Galatians 5:22,23 tells of these qualities becoming your own personality, your own irrepressive nature...
...please then, spend a few moments of your eternity into knowing Truth not disguised under a clever subterfuge of religious dedication, zeal, devotion, or any other words that show others "how much" you're a child of God...
...do one of the most beneficial things you can ever imagine in your entire time here on Earth...
...allow yourself a spiritual retreat in making the all important difference from a 'study of God', "theology", to a 'knowing of God', "theocognition" (Galatians 4:9)...
Consider this, knowing God as Life, through personally experiencing Him, His Nature, as opposed to knowing about Him through various studies such as the offerings of theology or fervent and sincere adherence to religious practices.
...in the Community Section you will learn of First Stone's venture through "The Eye of the Needle", a non-denominational monastic experience where others commune to develop their own lives as God's Children...
...as it forewarns, the harvest is great but the laborers are few and many are called but few are chosen, (Matthew 22:13,14 and Matthew 9:37,38). This Eye of the Needle is the process whereby brothers and sisters are welcomed into the community of First Stone as a calling, to spend tenures of 3 years to life being involved in a continuing growing experience of knowing His as Life.
Religion, as is increasingly evident by how Man manipulates it to serve his own selfish purposes of greed and power, is tragically an institution, a device of Man, inspired by satan, so that Man is deceived into thinking and acting from that thinking that what is done is of and for the glory of God, when it tragically is an expression of satan's powerful influence in distortion and deception.
If truth is still a desirable virtue personally or corporately then, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?", Mark 8:36. Man's basic nature confirms that "more is better" and greed devours many who seek excesses for the sake of signifigance. This "love of money", 1 Timothy 6:10, truly becomes the source of continuing and pervasive evil, yet it is often met with disastrous results when this obsession is addictive.
As this accumulative attitude becomes acceptable in a society that consumes at a unprecedented rate, eventually the pendulum will swing back in the opposing direction for one reason or another.
This site is "a voice crying in the wilderness" as found in Luke 3:4 where John the Baptist speaks of the coming ministry of Jesus. Continuing into this site as a consideration, a challenge, for experiencing a spiritual exercise to read suggested books that have been studied, meditated upon, and endorsed as you develop your own understanding of your relationship to God.
No religion or denomination sponsors any of this; it is for the purpose of each person to discern their own peace with who they are and how they relate to God. Be sure of one thing, it is not traditional and you are encouraged to actively participate in realizing your own truth.
These stones pictured above illustrate the result of being smoothed and transformed by the irresistable force of relentless water. Christianity has always been a spiritual relationship that is only personal in nature.
We, like the stones, are transformed into His likeness when we surrender our present life to allow Him to be our Lord and Savior, (John 12:24).
Man, not Christ, under the subtleties of satan's influence, developed worship into the religions of the world with rules to live by, that were external in nature, not of the soul, ruled by the Holy Spirit. Knowing Him as Life is NOT a religion whereby a person accepts a list of rules or laws and by doing what those laws prescribe, the person is either more or less in God's favor. You can never be loved more than you are by God right this very second! There is nothing God can ever want from you except to first give you a rest from your separation from Him, and then a life that is not dependent on your human strengths and abilities but His omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent grace.
To know Him is not about doing or not doing anything! All the "doing" was done at the Cross and by God's love and grace to us, individually and corporately, we are able to receive the gift of Life. We are all invited to experience the true relationships just as the earliest Christians did in knowing Him as Life!
There is a desire to provide to all who come into contact with First Stone the truth of: 1) who they are in Christ, their Christian Identity and; 2) how to live in freedom and victory, choosing the fruit of the Spirit by using their Christian Authority and; 3) true ministry as recognized in Matthew 25: 35, 36..."For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
Please continue with these following pages to get acquainted with considering First Stone as your very own expression. Many will venture this road in so many ways during a lifetime, but few will perservere to the end, which is available for each and every one of us, so easily, yet the journey will be so challenging for those adventurous souls in finally realizing what His Life is truly about.
