The 119

"How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands."

New Testament - Old doubts...

Last night I was thinking about the New Testament. I was thinking just how outlandish it all is. The idea that God would put on skin, that He would walk around, that He died and that through that our sins are forgiven and we are redeemed from an afterlife spent in hell. I thought about the idea that He was then raised back to life after being for 3 days, I mean, His heart had not beaten for three days, rigamortis had set in, he was , . It is all so unbelievable. What I started thinking about is how there are so many other documents that record events that are just as spectacular or at least similar in their miraculous nature, that we simply discount as frauds. The book of Mormon is one that comes to mind readily.
Here is what I realized. The New Testament is different from all other Manuscripts of this type. It is a set of documents that were all written in the same span of time that the events took place. Let me explain it this way. People live for 60-90 years. Jesus died in the early 30 AD's. The new Testament was all written before or up to about the 80's. This means that a maximum of 40 years had surfaced between the latest writings of the New Testament and the of Jesus. THIS MEANS: that the reports of the New Testament were testable. Individuals could have read the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, and simply gone and talked with Nicodemus or Zacchaeus and asked if they had really witnessed Jesus in the manner the gospels record. No other document that I can think of has this same kind of "testability" to it. Joseph Smith wrote about things that had supposedly happened in the past. There is no way we can go and ask someone, did this happen. But early observers of Christianity had this luxury. It is no wonder the church grew by leaps and bounds in those early days. People in Jerusalem had seen all that had happened, they had heard reports and they were asking themselves, "what does this all mean?" Along comes Peter, he does a bit of preaching and explains the "Good News" and THOUSANDS accept Christ. It is no wonder. They accepted because it filled in the blanks for what they had witnessed.

Ezekiel Ramblings

I have been reading Zeek lately.  Some of it fly's right past me, but other parts are really sticking.  Last night, I was really struggling, I didn't really want to read the Bible.  I just wanted to read the books I've been getting into.  I was just about to give in and leave the Bible on the night stand, when I thought, "why would I read Bill Gates or Andy Stanley, when I could read the God of the Universe?"  So, I opened up Zeek and started reading.  I read about how God was fed up with the shepherding that the Israelites leaders had been doing and how He Himself was going to come and be their shepherd.  I began thinking about Jesus being the "Good Shepherd", about how Matthew said that Jesus had compassion on people because they were helpless and like sheep without a shepherd, and how Jesus asked Peter to feed His Sheep.  I could see Jesus being the direct fullfillment of this prophecy spoken in Ez. 34.  How God Himself showed us how to lead, how to love, how to have compassion.  It was just super interesting and a really cool study.  When it was all done with, I realized that if I had given in and not read, I would have missed it.  I would have missed seeing my savior fulfill a prophecy that was way before His time. 

Boy, I know I have missed so many other things because my mind has been distracted or my heart was just in other places.  I want to be sold out.  I want to be a world changer through Jesus.  As a teen I thought all of those things, I desired them all, but it was in immaturity, not really knowing what it takes, how hard it is, how life can subtly turn you.  Now I think them and think, "the only way is through the strength of Jesus".  I am not much by myself...  Not much at all...

Mr. Stumpy

Isaiah 6:13b
"But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump of the Lord." God may cut down the whole tree, but the stump will be holy...

Jesus does Hosea

Hosea 2:19-20
I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.

I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.

As I read Hosea today, I could not help but see the picture in Revelation 19 of the wedding of the Lamb!
In Christ this prophecy of Hosea's will be fulfilled.
It is quite a thing to be caught between these two passages, awaiting the day when to two will become one. New and Old mesh into a single thread of prophecy fulfillment!
The passage in Revelation says that the "bride has made herself ready." She is adorned in white, a white that claims its color from the righteousness of the saints of God. She is beautiful and he has come to sweep her off her feet. I love the idea that she has made herself ready. She is indeed, expecting his return. If Christ is the fulfillment of Hosea, the church should be the fulfillment of those words of readiness. We should be a beautiful bride dressed in white, a white that is not of a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which is by faith! So put off your jealousy, fits of rage, grumbling, gossip, back biting and all sorts of evil and dress again in the clothes given to you at the time of your death and resurrection in Christ!
Our suitor has gone to prepare a place for us, but mark His words, He will come back again!

It would be so nice, to grow old with you...

Last night I preached on the story surrounding the birth of John the Baptist. I realized shortly before I got up that the last time in the history of Israel when an elderly couple got pregnant was with good ol Abraham & Sarah. Through their child Issac and his child Jacob, would come the whole nation of Israel. The first covenant between God and man came from the birth announcements sent out by this old couple. We fast forward a couple thousand years and again we have a barren elderly couple who has faithfully followed the Lord. Except this time their child will usher in the new covenant not through his bloodline, but by his preaching and pointing people towards the messiah. I think it is as if God is saying, "this covenant I am now bringing will be similar in form to the old but will far surpass it in every way..."

Broke Bread

I understand the desire in churches to return to the pattern found in Acts, whatever that may be. One thing that is interesting to me is Acts 2:46-47 where it talks about the believers meeting to break bread in their homes, this follows vs 42 where they speak of devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 46 starts by saying "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts...". Every day. I wonder if this is the reasoning behind Catholic Mass every day of the week. These folks lived in community with one another. As the church we do not hold to having a true fellowship like this. I wonder what would happen if we began to devote ourselves to a more full living out of the early church's pattern?
If I had a time every day for my students to gather together, would they? Would adults? Should we? I'm not sure yet...

Author's Intended Meaning?

I was reading a book for my greek tools class last night and the gentleman (Alan Black) was discussing doing good exegesis. One of the things that he was stressing, as all good bible college professors do, was the need to find the Author's Intended Meaning (AIM). I have always struggled with this idea. I struggle because there seems to be a dichotomy between our means of interpretation and our stance on the source of biblical literature. What I mean is this. When we talk about scripture, defend it, etc. we express the idea that these are not man made works but Spirit of God driven, divine masterpieces. Yet when we study them our goal is to find out what "Paul" or "Matthew" meant. We would argue that they are divine in origin and yet study them as though they were any other piece of literature. I guess the question I am struggling with, is if the Spirit of God is big enough to create within the scripture itself nuansces that even the hand that was writing them did not fully grasp. Is it possible that Paul was being carried along by the Spirit and wrote things that amazed him? If so, what would his intended meaning have to do with anything? I hope this makes sense.

Upernikwmen

Upernikwmen - is a transliteration of a Greek word, it is pronounced, hoop-er-nik-ah'-o. The word means overwhelmingly conquer. It is used once in the entire New Testament, and that one occurrence is found in the book of Romans ch. 8 vs. 37. I love the idea found in this simple, chosen Greek word. The idea is that through Christ we conquer, in context, deth (had to mispell cause my computer is psycho and takes the real word out), life, angels, demons, things in the present or things to come, powers, height, depth or any created thing. The idea of hoopernikaho is not only that we conquer these things but that we overwhelmingly conquer, it's not even a fight. It is a word that is in the present tense indicative. That means that Christ is overwhelmingly conquering all things in the present, and will continue to, it is a simple statement of fact! He conquers all these things so that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, that is in Christ. What a powerful word...

Fwd: Luke 16:1-14 -- True Riches

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager (study these verses)

1Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'
3"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg— 4I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
5"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
6" 'Eight hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,' he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'
7"Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'
" 'A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,' he replied.
"He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'
8"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
13"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
14The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

El Logos

On Friday I subbed at Jenni's school (St. Mary's Catholic School). We had to attend mass. I had several thoughts as I participated in the goings on, actually there was more observation than participation. One major thought I had was how much scripture is weaved in and out of their liturgy. The priest even hit on this in his homiletical address. He talked about the words they say right before they take communion and how they are a reworking of the words the centurion said to Jesus in Luke 7, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." (what Catholics say before receiving the Eucharist).
My thoughts over the extraordinary inclusion of scripture into all that they do made me ask the question of "Why?". Why does the Catholic Church have so much scripture inter weaved within their mass and prayers. I have a feeling that the answer has to do with several factors. One major and obvious factor is that the scripture is one of the places Catholics base their belief of Jesus upon (the other being the church - as I understand the Catholic theology). Other factors I might speculate upon would be literacy rates throughout history, the availability of printed scripture, etc. I don't know that I have a good answer as to why, but as I asked the question of "why" I found myself asking "why not?".
The typical protestant church puts much pressure on congregants to study scripture on their own accord. We have individualized the faith. The letters written in the New Testament were letters written to churches, not individuals (excluding Philemon, and the Timothy's - even these letters became documents that were passed around from church to church). It is also inconceivable that the early church had copies of every letter for every person, it is more likely that each congregation (however you want to interpret that) had it's own copies of some of the letters, and maybe not even all... I imagine these types of prayers and repetitious speaking was a common event in their services in order to place the words and thoughts of God in the minds of their people.
I can't believe that we have taken this completely out of our protestant churches. We elevate "fly by the seat of your pants prayers" above scripted ones because they have more personal meaning. By doing so we loose the benefit of filling anothers mind with the Logos (the word). We leave out the congregational reading because it is dry and dull, and yet for some it is the only time they will allow the words of life to pass through their lips.
I am not saying we need to adopt a Catholic service as our own. It was indeed interesting to me - but part of that has to do with it being different. I feel much of it is dull and slow paced, not because the content has lost it's power, but because our culture has lost it's patience. I will be doing thinking on this. I think it is a great idea to be instilling the scripture within a person without expecting them to necessarily have to go and sit down and read it...