Nov. 11, 2007

The meaning of the word 'condescend' is to voluntarily come down in humiliation to teach, not the connotation the word has today.  If I am now able to understand the Bible with clarity because of my persistent study, I am to condescend to teach what I have learned.  This means I am to learn to associate with others who may not study as much or know as much.  I am to look for every opportunity to witness to the truth of God's Word no matter who I am around.  I am not to avoid a certain class of ideologies necessarily because of their ignorance in full biblical knowledge.  I am the one exercising pride when I avoid a group of people because they do not study as much as one should, but profess Jesus Christ as Deity.  

August 28, 2007

What are we acknowledging when ending our prayers in the name of Jesus? Jesus is the promised servant in Isaiah and the promised seed in Genesis. When you say "in Jesus" you are acknowledging God's promise achieved. "In Jesus' name amen" means to say God's promise of salvation has been completed, and we submit and pledge our lives to God's purpose.

August 27, 2007

The movie Evan Almighty is a silly idea of Noah and the Flood. The teaching of the Bible on the Flood is man had gotten so far away from God in wickedness, he was to be destroyed. The account of the Flood tells us more about the history of man than just his tendency toward sin. We have a general idea of the changed environment of the earth, of man's lifespan; never mind that the ark and its measurements were the first example of any watercraft of that size of its time.

But the movie turns the whole event into a humorous myth of only symbolic meaning. Forget the historical evidence of reality of thousands of people dying for rebelling against a holy God.

It is amazing how we as Christians want to fit in with our current world. We use movies like this to separate those who are too serious about the teachings in the Bible and those the world can trust to be their friends.

August 27, 2007

I found myself in the doctor's office about to have my heart x-rayed. The suspicion was a possible enlarged heart. As I stood there, I thought about dying and the reality that I really would not die at all but actually just transfer into the presence of God. Of course there was some fear or anxiety with the thought of dying, but I have to admit there was a little excitement. I thought about who I was going to see. I would see the very God/man, JESUS, who walked the earth. He would be as Thomas had seen him. I would be able to see those very real scars in his hands myself. This is the reality and promise of the resurrection. We will leave these bodies down here for a while and will be reunited with them later. But I will still be aware of my surroundings. I will never really die. For a moment I did not fear death because of the hope of him waiting on the other side. This must have been somewhat like what Stephen experienced as he saw Christ sitting at the right hand of God while being stoned. I did not see anything, but had the assurance of victory over death.

August 15, 2007

Man's tension is seeking a known good in a world of wrong.

Without guidance, he ends up destroying what is right in order to explain what is wrong.

August 15, 2007

Does God determine every single event in the universe? If He does, this raises some real thorny questions one must answer. Why will one person's life be spared and not the other? Why will one person be healed and not the other?

These days, you hear from the pulpit a lot about God's destiny and divine will for your life. God has a special plan for your life and if you will just seek Him, it will be shown to you.

The problem with this special plan is what about now? Here you are listening to someone telling you to believe God to show you your way and suddenly you realize by default, you're not in God's plan.

You may be married and suddenly you can ask if this is the one God meant for you to marry. What is happening is, you are being told to find a plan from God and really a plan has already been made. Who gave this person the right to say you are not in God's plan now? You may have raised children and put them through college and what are you to do now?

This is a form of manipulation to appeal to your sense of wanting to do right, especially if you are in a church and acknowledge a God to whom you have pledged an allegiance.

You find this a lot in the TV evangelists when they ask for money. They say give what's on your heart or whatever God speaks to you about. This is putting you in the situation of proving God would speak to you personally. If you do not give something, you cannot possibly be spiritual. Crowd mentality is real and anyone can succumb to it.

July 19, 2007

Having to assume/believe in the historical authenticity of the Bible, physically written by men and yet claiming to be God's communique to man, is a total act of trust. Unless one comes as a child, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Man's intellect grows on assumptions fed to him through knowledge and experiences.

God has compiled His testimony in such a way as to appeal to the reason of man and to demand trust from the reason of man. By accepting the Bible as what it claims to be, you are putting your entire life and trust in the assumption of men from antiquity claiming to have seen the Christ raised from the dead.

If your eternal life is based on this assumption, you had better make sure the claims these men make are cogent with the reality you live in. After a while of studying the Bible, you understand man could not produce such a consistent discourse through the time in which the Bible was written. You begin to see your trust is not in the hands of men who physically wrote the Bible but in the God they claim. Assuming something is true is done every day. Having adequate reasons for your assumptions is quite another matter.