"We are too swept up in the culture of our day, finding the entertainment, the methods, the psychology, and the wisdom of our age more enlightened and engrossing than the crude insistence on radical purging and cleansing. We have turned away from the priestly thing of sacrfice and blood. It is another way of saying that we have turned away from 'the offense of the Cross.' "
Art Katz
viernes, diciembre 31, 2004
For FIRE or BRSM students (grads in particular)
This kind of flows out of my last blog I wrote, and pertains to myself and I definitely hope other grads read it, because I'm noticing some differences in our lives outside of the FIRE community as opposed to when we were in it.
This past week I've watched a lot of TV at my grandparents'. Not anything overtly sinful, but the quantity of time I spent watching TV was more than how much time I spent with the Lord on good days.
I remember in the 8 months away from FIRE working a full time job how gradually I became more and more comfortable watching TV or movies, and standards I held as to what I'd allow into my system got lowered more and more as time went on. Then one thing that's undeniable is that I'd find it harder to pray or read the Bible, and I'd rather go see what's on TV or go to Blockbuster Video. This was a far stretch from in Pensacola where you'd pray in tongues for hours a day, and people might think less of you if you own a TV let alone if you have channels on it. I remember my first place I lived in Pensacola, being an international student and not being able to work, I remember my roomate/landlord insisting he didn't want a TV because it wastes so much time, and though I agreed with him, it was still shocking to me because I'd spent so much time a day that I didn't realize was a waste. And that semester in 2001, I was reading the Bible hours a day, and when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit I was praying in tongues hours and hours on the weekends. I stayed in Pensacola over the Christmas break that year, and even disconnected the internet to my laptop so it wouldn't distract me from spending time with Jesus. I mean, I really got myself detoxed as far as TV goes. Dont' get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with TV, but it definitely is a modern day idol dare I say. I was becoming less and less familiar with anything going on in all the TV shows I used to watch.
It was May of 2002 that I came home, and I sat in front of my parents' TV, with digital cable for the first time in 9 months. I felt so defiled and what I watched was a comedy show, but there was humor I didn't share. Then that night I changed the channel and saw in 10 seconds a murder take place in some kind of what I perceived to be a horror movie. I went to bed that night thinking I'd throw up and being so scared that I defiled the purity I had in my heart. But through whatever series of events I went through, I was gradually back to watching TV a lot again by the end of that summer. In the fall I couldn't get across the border, and I found myself spending an entire week in September of that year without reading the Bible a single page in a day, and watching the kind of stuff spiritual people wouldn't. And at one point eventually I forsook it again, and realized the slippery slope I had fallen back down on.
Now you may be wondering what is so wrong with watching TV, and I respond like Paul and say "everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial to me." I know Christians who will die if they miss an episode of their favorite TV show, but have no problem sleeping in on sunday if they feel like it and missing church. I know for a fact, that when you're pumping yourself so full of the garbage of this world, it influences you, and as those of you remember Brian Parkman saying, whatever you expose your soul to, it will adapt to. And I don't want the spirit of this age shaping me, but I want the purity of the Holy Ghost's influence to make me more like Jesus.
I don't have a problem with people watching TV per se. But I notice in my life the desensitizing effect it had on my spiritual senses. I seemed to have a harder time hearing the voice of God, and I operated less and less in faith, words of knowledge, and believing I could heal with the laying on of my hands on people. My favorite thing about FIRE when I've been there has not been the atmosphere specifically, but the fact I don't own a TV in any of the living arrangments I've had, and therefore had no choice but to find other things to do with my time. And I struggled with reading everything there is to read on the internet instead. So any situation can become a vice if we don't watch our heart. I know Christians who play video games and shrug at you if you point out the ridiculous amount of violence and bloodshed taking place in it. As for those shoot 'em up games, doesn't God say in the Bible thou shall not kill? Does it have to be specifically in real life or does it apply to a fantasy world? And what are we doing going to the entertainment world, the internet, video games, movies to relieve stress for anyway? Is God not good enough?
For those of you who are getting really mad at me reading this, how much time do you spend in prayer a day and how much time do you spend watching TV a day? How much time do you spend reading, studying or meditating the Word of God? Is He pleased with the kind of stuff you willingly and in some cases PAY to watch?
I've noticed in my life not just the desensitizing that takes place, but the lack of confidence I have in the effect I can have with the power of the Gospel. I remember sitting around one afternoon and my friend came by wanting me to go with him to lay hands on someone really sick that he knew, and my confidence level was very low--why? Because I knew how full of the world I was from sitting around on my butt instead of on my knees. I knew how full of the world I was instead of full of the Holy Ghost and I was afraid nothing would happen as a result. Now don't get me wrong it is entirely God who does things through us, and not us working ourselves up to a place of being "right enough" that He will flow through us, but there definitely is a posture before God I'd like to have and I don't get that way from watching hours of TV. And it's not even necessarily the quantity of what I watch. You can defile yourself in moments with filth on TV.
I had a roomate in a living arrangement who'd watch a specific soap opera every day. I had another roomate another time and place who'd watch ridiculously violent action movies.
Let me ask you a few questions if there's nothing wrong with TV:
-Is it ok to cuss, fornicate, take the Lord's name in vain, or murder someone in real life? Does that make it ok to watch someone else do it on TV?
-Does what you're watching get you closer to God, or do you have less confidence about getting in the prayer closet or in the Word as a result of watching it?
-Can you pray in tongues for an hour, and then watch that TV show or movie without feeling convicted or stuff wrong in your spirit?
-Can you watch that show or movie first and THEN pray in tongues for an hour without feeling anything's wrong?
At any rate, this is based on stuff I'm going through, and pose it as questions for people I know watch more TV than I do and watch stuff I'd never watch. If these thoughts are good enough to change my life, why not share them and see if it might impart life to other people who've come up out of the same atmosphere as I have. What you let in influences you and I'm tired of trying to muster something up in the Spirit if I haven't been living a clean enough life that the Spirit would flow through me. For those of you who've heard me mention shows I watch and thought "how could you call yourself a Christian and watch that?" even though 'clean' as they may be, I'm revamping my schedule, and making this stuff disapear that I may be wine poured out for the people around me.
Steve
This past week I've watched a lot of TV at my grandparents'. Not anything overtly sinful, but the quantity of time I spent watching TV was more than how much time I spent with the Lord on good days.
I remember in the 8 months away from FIRE working a full time job how gradually I became more and more comfortable watching TV or movies, and standards I held as to what I'd allow into my system got lowered more and more as time went on. Then one thing that's undeniable is that I'd find it harder to pray or read the Bible, and I'd rather go see what's on TV or go to Blockbuster Video. This was a far stretch from in Pensacola where you'd pray in tongues for hours a day, and people might think less of you if you own a TV let alone if you have channels on it. I remember my first place I lived in Pensacola, being an international student and not being able to work, I remember my roomate/landlord insisting he didn't want a TV because it wastes so much time, and though I agreed with him, it was still shocking to me because I'd spent so much time a day that I didn't realize was a waste. And that semester in 2001, I was reading the Bible hours a day, and when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit I was praying in tongues hours and hours on the weekends. I stayed in Pensacola over the Christmas break that year, and even disconnected the internet to my laptop so it wouldn't distract me from spending time with Jesus. I mean, I really got myself detoxed as far as TV goes. Dont' get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with TV, but it definitely is a modern day idol dare I say. I was becoming less and less familiar with anything going on in all the TV shows I used to watch.
It was May of 2002 that I came home, and I sat in front of my parents' TV, with digital cable for the first time in 9 months. I felt so defiled and what I watched was a comedy show, but there was humor I didn't share. Then that night I changed the channel and saw in 10 seconds a murder take place in some kind of what I perceived to be a horror movie. I went to bed that night thinking I'd throw up and being so scared that I defiled the purity I had in my heart. But through whatever series of events I went through, I was gradually back to watching TV a lot again by the end of that summer. In the fall I couldn't get across the border, and I found myself spending an entire week in September of that year without reading the Bible a single page in a day, and watching the kind of stuff spiritual people wouldn't. And at one point eventually I forsook it again, and realized the slippery slope I had fallen back down on.
Now you may be wondering what is so wrong with watching TV, and I respond like Paul and say "everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial to me." I know Christians who will die if they miss an episode of their favorite TV show, but have no problem sleeping in on sunday if they feel like it and missing church. I know for a fact, that when you're pumping yourself so full of the garbage of this world, it influences you, and as those of you remember Brian Parkman saying, whatever you expose your soul to, it will adapt to. And I don't want the spirit of this age shaping me, but I want the purity of the Holy Ghost's influence to make me more like Jesus.
I don't have a problem with people watching TV per se. But I notice in my life the desensitizing effect it had on my spiritual senses. I seemed to have a harder time hearing the voice of God, and I operated less and less in faith, words of knowledge, and believing I could heal with the laying on of my hands on people. My favorite thing about FIRE when I've been there has not been the atmosphere specifically, but the fact I don't own a TV in any of the living arrangments I've had, and therefore had no choice but to find other things to do with my time. And I struggled with reading everything there is to read on the internet instead. So any situation can become a vice if we don't watch our heart. I know Christians who play video games and shrug at you if you point out the ridiculous amount of violence and bloodshed taking place in it. As for those shoot 'em up games, doesn't God say in the Bible thou shall not kill? Does it have to be specifically in real life or does it apply to a fantasy world? And what are we doing going to the entertainment world, the internet, video games, movies to relieve stress for anyway? Is God not good enough?
For those of you who are getting really mad at me reading this, how much time do you spend in prayer a day and how much time do you spend watching TV a day? How much time do you spend reading, studying or meditating the Word of God? Is He pleased with the kind of stuff you willingly and in some cases PAY to watch?
I've noticed in my life not just the desensitizing that takes place, but the lack of confidence I have in the effect I can have with the power of the Gospel. I remember sitting around one afternoon and my friend came by wanting me to go with him to lay hands on someone really sick that he knew, and my confidence level was very low--why? Because I knew how full of the world I was from sitting around on my butt instead of on my knees. I knew how full of the world I was instead of full of the Holy Ghost and I was afraid nothing would happen as a result. Now don't get me wrong it is entirely God who does things through us, and not us working ourselves up to a place of being "right enough" that He will flow through us, but there definitely is a posture before God I'd like to have and I don't get that way from watching hours of TV. And it's not even necessarily the quantity of what I watch. You can defile yourself in moments with filth on TV.
I had a roomate in a living arrangement who'd watch a specific soap opera every day. I had another roomate another time and place who'd watch ridiculously violent action movies.
Let me ask you a few questions if there's nothing wrong with TV:
-Is it ok to cuss, fornicate, take the Lord's name in vain, or murder someone in real life? Does that make it ok to watch someone else do it on TV?
-Does what you're watching get you closer to God, or do you have less confidence about getting in the prayer closet or in the Word as a result of watching it?
-Can you pray in tongues for an hour, and then watch that TV show or movie without feeling convicted or stuff wrong in your spirit?
-Can you watch that show or movie first and THEN pray in tongues for an hour without feeling anything's wrong?
At any rate, this is based on stuff I'm going through, and pose it as questions for people I know watch more TV than I do and watch stuff I'd never watch. If these thoughts are good enough to change my life, why not share them and see if it might impart life to other people who've come up out of the same atmosphere as I have. What you let in influences you and I'm tired of trying to muster something up in the Spirit if I haven't been living a clean enough life that the Spirit would flow through me. For those of you who've heard me mention shows I watch and thought "how could you call yourself a Christian and watch that?" even though 'clean' as they may be, I'm revamping my schedule, and making this stuff disapear that I may be wine poured out for the people around me.
Steve
Deserving
"The man who seriously is convinced that he deserves to go to hell is not likely to go there, while the man who believes he is worthy of heaven will certainly never enter that blessed place."
A.W. Tozer
A.W. Tozer
Backsliding is stupid
People never have a good enough excuse to backslide. What is a good enough excuse? THERE IS NONE!!!!
I’m getting pretty annoyed to hear of former grads or students from either BRSM or FIRE not walking with the Lord anymore. And now that I’m back home in Canada I’m pretty annoyed to hear the latest about who are living in some kind of public sin. What do I mean by public? I don’t mean the personal struggles that people try to overcome--by public I mean they that won’t deal with something in their lives that everyone, both believer and unbeliever can see in their lives and it stinks up their nostrils—as well as God’s.
You may not like the tone of this entry and think I’m being too critical, but before getting upset with me, ask yourself if there’s sin in your own life you’re not dealing with or if you’ve backslidden in your heart towards the Lord and therefore words like this are just convicting you. I don’t pretend this is an anointed writing either, I’m just spilling forth my own thoughts and frustrations.
I won’t mention any names, but if you read this and you know I’m talking about you, then deal with it. I know a few people really close and personally who’ve gotten to go to Pensacola during the revival in 1995-2000, as well, I know some people who’ve attended the school as well as FIRE, or graduated from one of these atmospheres, now living in sin, or blatantly away from God as if He never touched their lives. I know a brother who got offended that some people at school never thought of inviting him to a prayer meeting, and so he eventually stopped attending school and the church under the guise of “not fitting in anymore”, and turned his back completely on God over this offense. I know another person who comes from an amazingly committed family of the most on fire adults to ever pour into my life outside of the FIRE atmosphere, and this brother wades his way in and out of the world on a pretty frequent basis, and is in a carnal state of spirituality the last I talked to him.
How is it that people could have such great things going for them, and STILL be ungrateful towards Jesus who saved them from everything they deserve to be dealt? I never got to go to the revival in Pensacola! I never came from a Spirit-filled on fire family that prayed together and moved heaven like some of these brothers and sisters who are too selfish to realize what they’ve got and how much the Lord has done for them! Again, I’m venting my own frustrations. If you are struggling with sin, there’s enough power in the grace of God to forsake it and be the over comer, by the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Ghost in your life to bury that vice or sin or struggle for good. But I’m talking about them that choose not to, I’m talking about them who know better. What lie from the pit of hell do people believe that makes them think they’ve got a good enough case to turn from God? What do these people think God owes them? Have they become so selfish they think they have a right to revolt against their one and only true master and friend?
I got saved in March of 1997, and have never turned back and never looked back since. I don’t have a bunch of vices like drugs, alcohol or sex partners in my past that I’m tempted to go back to. So what the heck would I go back to if I wanted? I relate to the disciples whom Jesus asked if they wanted to turn away from him to which they answered, but where will we go? Sure I’ve had battles with sin in the initial years of my salvation, and I look back now and wonder how God was ever using me when I had such crap in my life that wasn’t repented of. But God is wonderful, He is gracious, and will complete the work He began.
So what is it that makes people give up on this grace? If there’s nothing we could have done in the first place to make ourselves right with Him other than accepting His provision, than what on earth could NOT be good enough about it after that?!?!?! Ask yourself, backslider if that’s who’s reading this? What is in your heart, do you hate Jesus? Was what he did not good enough for you? Are you forsaking delicacies of the kingdom in order to eat the vomit of this world? May I submit to you for your consideration it takes a revoltingly sick type of selfishness, and ungratefulness to think you have reason to turn your back on God.
Please reconsider your lifestyle if this pertains to you and ask God to shine His light on what the problem is, because I guarantee you the problem is not God.
I’m getting pretty annoyed to hear of former grads or students from either BRSM or FIRE not walking with the Lord anymore. And now that I’m back home in Canada I’m pretty annoyed to hear the latest about who are living in some kind of public sin. What do I mean by public? I don’t mean the personal struggles that people try to overcome--by public I mean they that won’t deal with something in their lives that everyone, both believer and unbeliever can see in their lives and it stinks up their nostrils—as well as God’s.
You may not like the tone of this entry and think I’m being too critical, but before getting upset with me, ask yourself if there’s sin in your own life you’re not dealing with or if you’ve backslidden in your heart towards the Lord and therefore words like this are just convicting you. I don’t pretend this is an anointed writing either, I’m just spilling forth my own thoughts and frustrations.
I won’t mention any names, but if you read this and you know I’m talking about you, then deal with it. I know a few people really close and personally who’ve gotten to go to Pensacola during the revival in 1995-2000, as well, I know some people who’ve attended the school as well as FIRE, or graduated from one of these atmospheres, now living in sin, or blatantly away from God as if He never touched their lives. I know a brother who got offended that some people at school never thought of inviting him to a prayer meeting, and so he eventually stopped attending school and the church under the guise of “not fitting in anymore”, and turned his back completely on God over this offense. I know another person who comes from an amazingly committed family of the most on fire adults to ever pour into my life outside of the FIRE atmosphere, and this brother wades his way in and out of the world on a pretty frequent basis, and is in a carnal state of spirituality the last I talked to him.
How is it that people could have such great things going for them, and STILL be ungrateful towards Jesus who saved them from everything they deserve to be dealt? I never got to go to the revival in Pensacola! I never came from a Spirit-filled on fire family that prayed together and moved heaven like some of these brothers and sisters who are too selfish to realize what they’ve got and how much the Lord has done for them! Again, I’m venting my own frustrations. If you are struggling with sin, there’s enough power in the grace of God to forsake it and be the over comer, by the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Ghost in your life to bury that vice or sin or struggle for good. But I’m talking about them that choose not to, I’m talking about them who know better. What lie from the pit of hell do people believe that makes them think they’ve got a good enough case to turn from God? What do these people think God owes them? Have they become so selfish they think they have a right to revolt against their one and only true master and friend?
I got saved in March of 1997, and have never turned back and never looked back since. I don’t have a bunch of vices like drugs, alcohol or sex partners in my past that I’m tempted to go back to. So what the heck would I go back to if I wanted? I relate to the disciples whom Jesus asked if they wanted to turn away from him to which they answered, but where will we go? Sure I’ve had battles with sin in the initial years of my salvation, and I look back now and wonder how God was ever using me when I had such crap in my life that wasn’t repented of. But God is wonderful, He is gracious, and will complete the work He began.
So what is it that makes people give up on this grace? If there’s nothing we could have done in the first place to make ourselves right with Him other than accepting His provision, than what on earth could NOT be good enough about it after that?!?!?! Ask yourself, backslider if that’s who’s reading this? What is in your heart, do you hate Jesus? Was what he did not good enough for you? Are you forsaking delicacies of the kingdom in order to eat the vomit of this world? May I submit to you for your consideration it takes a revoltingly sick type of selfishness, and ungratefulness to think you have reason to turn your back on God.
Please reconsider your lifestyle if this pertains to you and ask God to shine His light on what the problem is, because I guarantee you the problem is not God.
jueves, diciembre 30, 2004
Chords of eternity
"Every step you take, you tread on chords that will vibrate to all eternity. Every time you move, you touch keys whose sound will echo through the hills and dales of heaven and through the dark corners and vaults of hell. Every moment of your lives you are ex'erting a tremendous influence that will tell on the immortal interests of souls all around you."
Charles Finney
Charles Finney
Influences
This entry is testimony that I have gotten Word working on my computer. This may not mean much to most, but I prefer writing blog entries as they come to me, without having to wait until the next time I’m online.
What’s interesting, is how when you don’t have access to the internet or have the time to write the entries, you feel like you’re bursting at the seams with stuff you want to post, but then when you’re presented with the opportunity, suddenly you no longer have much to write.
Some of the thoughts floating around my mind have to do with how much people influenced me for good or for bad. Like today my day was basically ruined and a burden put on me by someone else’s bad mood and crappy attitude. When I even said something to them, they’d blow up more. And then the thing they were upset indirectly towards me about turned out to be their fault not mine. But the hours after the situation occurred, it just floored me and I am amazed at how much some things can impact us. So to anyone reading this that I’ve been careless with my words to or hurt no matter how minor or just in passing, I apologize. The last thing I want to do is ruin anyone’s day. I’m not writing this post to get anything off my chest, it’s just an aside that I realize I can hurt with my tongue without realizing it.
But I don’t like writing negative entries. If I vent I want to also provide some kind of solution, which is what this blog is supposed to be for me –sure I’ll write “how my day was” journals, but for the most part I want to provoke and stir people up in a good way.
I heard Curry Blake say “provoke” literally means to make people so mad that they go do something about it, and that’s the kind of idea I have in mind writing these entries.
Also, to flow back into my thoughts on how people influence for good or bad. Though I’d love to broadcast to the blogging world how much people have made an impact on me, I also am careful to be vague sometimes, and usually anonymous in what I write about on here, since I never know how people would feel if I write about them, good or bad.
In fact, it really gets on my nerves to read blogs by other Christians who blatantly talk trash about people behind their backs, on *their blogs!*. I don’t want to go too far down a rabbit trail by saying this, but if anyone reading this thinks I’m talking about them, then deal with it where appropriate, but it amazes me that some people I read blogs by consistently will trash people and talk about how much better they are than everyone else, and it just wreaks of arrogance. I vow never to have anyone feeling I’m doing that about them on this. If I have something to say to people they hear it from me personally in real life, not on the internet for everyone else to read about. But anyway, moving along.
The last day or two I’ve been really reflecting back on a time of my life I went through nearly two years ago when I was stuck in Canada, and things didn’t go nearly as I hoped and I never got to go back to FIRE right away, and how much I had one friend in particular being a tremendous source of encouragement to me. Though we had a falling out that this friend has since rectified with me that had resolved a year and a half of not speaking, I still always was able to relate back to the positive about that season of my life, and remember the encouragement, joy and sense of confidence in my relationship with God that this person brought by being in my life. A few months of blessed encouragement and just all around being there for me made more of an impression on me than not speaking to me over issues that have mostly been resolved.
It boggles my mind, but makes me feel totally comfortable that I’m in God’s hands, and He knows perfectly well when to introduce people into and out of our lives for the influence that He knows they’ll have and He handpicks them for the specific purposes and times that He does, knowing what impact they’ll have on us.
Another person just told me last time I saw them in North Carolina that normally whenever they were at school or a church service and had anything heavy hanging on their heart, that I was usually the person that would say something funny or light-hearted to cheer him up without even knowing it. You have no idea how that floored me, because that was an example of being careless with my words in a good way that brought life to someone.
But then again I can relate, because I remember one time in my second semester of school, during the first week of it, that I was not wanting to be there, and wanted to leave because I was hurt bad by two people, a friend backstabbing me, the other being a sister in the Lord I had really fallen for, but who not only didn’t feel the same way back, and decided not to speak to me ever again (so it was at the time). And I remember leaving the chapel service that day and walking back and forth down the hallway at New Hope, and I bumped into another classmate. Don’t get me wrong, this girl is not hard to look at by any means, but when she walked by, she gave me a smile and said hi, and that impacted me in such a positive way that I now understood those what I thought were lame sayings about never having any idea how much a smile could bless someone. But this particular instance made my day! And I always remembered it, and it always remained in my memory about this person, and I’m sure everyone that ever comes in contact with her walk away with their day made too, just because of her smile.
At any rate, I don’t know how to sum all that up, but it has to do with how much our words, actions and just all around impressions we leave on people, can really make a world of difference on people sometimes without them even knowing it. For good and for bad.
Steve out.
What’s interesting, is how when you don’t have access to the internet or have the time to write the entries, you feel like you’re bursting at the seams with stuff you want to post, but then when you’re presented with the opportunity, suddenly you no longer have much to write.
Some of the thoughts floating around my mind have to do with how much people influenced me for good or for bad. Like today my day was basically ruined and a burden put on me by someone else’s bad mood and crappy attitude. When I even said something to them, they’d blow up more. And then the thing they were upset indirectly towards me about turned out to be their fault not mine. But the hours after the situation occurred, it just floored me and I am amazed at how much some things can impact us. So to anyone reading this that I’ve been careless with my words to or hurt no matter how minor or just in passing, I apologize. The last thing I want to do is ruin anyone’s day. I’m not writing this post to get anything off my chest, it’s just an aside that I realize I can hurt with my tongue without realizing it.
But I don’t like writing negative entries. If I vent I want to also provide some kind of solution, which is what this blog is supposed to be for me –sure I’ll write “how my day was” journals, but for the most part I want to provoke and stir people up in a good way.
I heard Curry Blake say “provoke” literally means to make people so mad that they go do something about it, and that’s the kind of idea I have in mind writing these entries.
Also, to flow back into my thoughts on how people influence for good or bad. Though I’d love to broadcast to the blogging world how much people have made an impact on me, I also am careful to be vague sometimes, and usually anonymous in what I write about on here, since I never know how people would feel if I write about them, good or bad.
In fact, it really gets on my nerves to read blogs by other Christians who blatantly talk trash about people behind their backs, on *their blogs!*. I don’t want to go too far down a rabbit trail by saying this, but if anyone reading this thinks I’m talking about them, then deal with it where appropriate, but it amazes me that some people I read blogs by consistently will trash people and talk about how much better they are than everyone else, and it just wreaks of arrogance. I vow never to have anyone feeling I’m doing that about them on this. If I have something to say to people they hear it from me personally in real life, not on the internet for everyone else to read about. But anyway, moving along.
The last day or two I’ve been really reflecting back on a time of my life I went through nearly two years ago when I was stuck in Canada, and things didn’t go nearly as I hoped and I never got to go back to FIRE right away, and how much I had one friend in particular being a tremendous source of encouragement to me. Though we had a falling out that this friend has since rectified with me that had resolved a year and a half of not speaking, I still always was able to relate back to the positive about that season of my life, and remember the encouragement, joy and sense of confidence in my relationship with God that this person brought by being in my life. A few months of blessed encouragement and just all around being there for me made more of an impression on me than not speaking to me over issues that have mostly been resolved.
It boggles my mind, but makes me feel totally comfortable that I’m in God’s hands, and He knows perfectly well when to introduce people into and out of our lives for the influence that He knows they’ll have and He handpicks them for the specific purposes and times that He does, knowing what impact they’ll have on us.
Another person just told me last time I saw them in North Carolina that normally whenever they were at school or a church service and had anything heavy hanging on their heart, that I was usually the person that would say something funny or light-hearted to cheer him up without even knowing it. You have no idea how that floored me, because that was an example of being careless with my words in a good way that brought life to someone.
But then again I can relate, because I remember one time in my second semester of school, during the first week of it, that I was not wanting to be there, and wanted to leave because I was hurt bad by two people, a friend backstabbing me, the other being a sister in the Lord I had really fallen for, but who not only didn’t feel the same way back, and decided not to speak to me ever again (so it was at the time). And I remember leaving the chapel service that day and walking back and forth down the hallway at New Hope, and I bumped into another classmate. Don’t get me wrong, this girl is not hard to look at by any means, but when she walked by, she gave me a smile and said hi, and that impacted me in such a positive way that I now understood those what I thought were lame sayings about never having any idea how much a smile could bless someone. But this particular instance made my day! And I always remembered it, and it always remained in my memory about this person, and I’m sure everyone that ever comes in contact with her walk away with their day made too, just because of her smile.
At any rate, I don’t know how to sum all that up, but it has to do with how much our words, actions and just all around impressions we leave on people, can really make a world of difference on people sometimes without them even knowing it. For good and for bad.
Steve out.
miércoles, diciembre 29, 2004
Computers and blogging and other such stuff.
Hey there.
Well, I might wind up blogging less often than I thought, my dear friends and other complete strangers who read these entries.
Just last night I went to start up my laptop after having it turned off and plugged into the wall while I was in Brantford. When I started the laptop up, the screen was all fuzzy, and there was this weird cackling noise. I thought that was odd, and tried turning it off and restarting it a few times and still the fuzzy screen would appear, and I was now beginning to smell something weird. I tilted my computer to look at the connections where the monitor is attached to the keyboard since mine is fragile and gradually cracking all around the edges, and I could see sparks in the right hand side, and then poof--it caught fire! I freaked out a little bit because there's no reason to my knowledge why it would be damaged and do that, so I blew it out like a candle, turned the thing off and took it upstairs and explained to my dad what happened, and he took the battery out and told me to try again and be careful and watch it, and so on. Then it turned on no problem. Man. So I'm using it kind of sparingly and not leaving it running or plugged in when I'm not using it.
Also, the other setback, besides the letter "L" not working and you have to press hard on a certain angle that wears on your finger after pressing it a lot--is that now my computer won't recognize my Microsoft Office programs. I was not using my laptop online during the last trimester of school, but I'd plug my flash card reader for my digital camera into it, and write blogs on my laptop and then plug the memory card I was using into my roomate's computer and paste them onto Blogger and put them online. That's how come some of my entries are so long--I'd work on them in more than one sitting and then put them together, then paste them online.
Well, when I plugged my laptop into my dad's ethernet for the first time in over four months once I got back to Canada, the number of updates there were to download from Windows was insane, and once I finally finished installing them, none of my Windows Office XP programs would work without asking me to insert the original disc into my CD rom. So my dad can't find it anywhere, so now all sorts of programs that use Microsoft frontpage won't work properly as a result, and blogs/sermon ideas I'd been working on are being held hostage on my computer and won't open until this problem is fixed. So this is a big hindrance to the method of which I'd been writing blogs.
Which is unfortunate because I had been working on an entry on the thorn in Paul's flesh and how contextually it has nothing to do with sickness and disease like popularly taught. But this would be a far second to the word God was putting in me about the David and Goliath passage, and the methods of fighting our Goliath society/culture around us. Most of my work on it is already done as a Word document that I can no longer access. So for those of you who've been reading and you remember me mentioning a few times several weeks back to look for it and were wondering where it is, this is why it hasn't been posted yet.
Well, that is about all I have the time or patience to write for now. Soon something will turn up.
Update on the fund raising:
I have roughly half of what I need in order to go for six months. So if you'd please pray for the finances to come in for March/April roughly, and/or for God to enlighten me with more marketable ideas like He did with the Ten Commandment Penny Bracelets, then please do. Anyone reading this that would like to make a tax deductible donation, just contact me for info on how, or if you'd like to "not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" and give anonymously, then in Canada click here, and in America click here.
Otherwise, be blessed one and all alike.
Steve
Well, I might wind up blogging less often than I thought, my dear friends and other complete strangers who read these entries.
Just last night I went to start up my laptop after having it turned off and plugged into the wall while I was in Brantford. When I started the laptop up, the screen was all fuzzy, and there was this weird cackling noise. I thought that was odd, and tried turning it off and restarting it a few times and still the fuzzy screen would appear, and I was now beginning to smell something weird. I tilted my computer to look at the connections where the monitor is attached to the keyboard since mine is fragile and gradually cracking all around the edges, and I could see sparks in the right hand side, and then poof--it caught fire! I freaked out a little bit because there's no reason to my knowledge why it would be damaged and do that, so I blew it out like a candle, turned the thing off and took it upstairs and explained to my dad what happened, and he took the battery out and told me to try again and be careful and watch it, and so on. Then it turned on no problem. Man. So I'm using it kind of sparingly and not leaving it running or plugged in when I'm not using it.
Also, the other setback, besides the letter "L" not working and you have to press hard on a certain angle that wears on your finger after pressing it a lot--is that now my computer won't recognize my Microsoft Office programs. I was not using my laptop online during the last trimester of school, but I'd plug my flash card reader for my digital camera into it, and write blogs on my laptop and then plug the memory card I was using into my roomate's computer and paste them onto Blogger and put them online. That's how come some of my entries are so long--I'd work on them in more than one sitting and then put them together, then paste them online.
Well, when I plugged my laptop into my dad's ethernet for the first time in over four months once I got back to Canada, the number of updates there were to download from Windows was insane, and once I finally finished installing them, none of my Windows Office XP programs would work without asking me to insert the original disc into my CD rom. So my dad can't find it anywhere, so now all sorts of programs that use Microsoft frontpage won't work properly as a result, and blogs/sermon ideas I'd been working on are being held hostage on my computer and won't open until this problem is fixed. So this is a big hindrance to the method of which I'd been writing blogs.
Which is unfortunate because I had been working on an entry on the thorn in Paul's flesh and how contextually it has nothing to do with sickness and disease like popularly taught. But this would be a far second to the word God was putting in me about the David and Goliath passage, and the methods of fighting our Goliath society/culture around us. Most of my work on it is already done as a Word document that I can no longer access. So for those of you who've been reading and you remember me mentioning a few times several weeks back to look for it and were wondering where it is, this is why it hasn't been posted yet.
Well, that is about all I have the time or patience to write for now. Soon something will turn up.
Update on the fund raising:
I have roughly half of what I need in order to go for six months. So if you'd please pray for the finances to come in for March/April roughly, and/or for God to enlighten me with more marketable ideas like He did with the Ten Commandment Penny Bracelets, then please do. Anyone reading this that would like to make a tax deductible donation, just contact me for info on how, or if you'd like to "not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" and give anonymously, then in Canada click here, and in America click here.
Otherwise, be blessed one and all alike.
Steve
martes, diciembre 28, 2004
The man with an experience
“A man with an experience of God is never at the mercy of a man with an argument, for an experience of God that costs something is worth something, and does something.”
Leonard Ravenhill
Leonard Ravenhill
Christmas with the Bremners
Hey.
It's been a couple of days since writing a blog, but I'm positive few noticed.
I spent a few days at my dad's parents, and then the next few days at my other grandmother's, where the rest of my family stayed once they arrived.
Some aspects of it were great, other aspects not so alright. I brought lots of Kenneth Hagin tapes since I've only read his material, but never heard him preach. As well as Curry Blake, Robin McMillan and Dr. Brown.
But otherwise, I watched a whole lot of TV and we rented a few movies. I felt so lazy. But I had good reason as well, since we got over a foot of snow the day before Christmas Eve, and then on top of it ice pellets, and then more snow, it was heavy shovelling. About a third of the way into it I threw my back out, and had to rest. There's really not a whole lot you can do with a sore back other than read, listen to tapes, and watch TV.
Also, my aunt got me "Bibleopoly", and my grandfather got me a King James Bible. I was pretty happy about the Bible because that's one of the few translations I don't have a copy of the Word in, so I was pretty grateful for it.
Anyway, that's all I can think of for now, I will write again soon.
It's been a couple of days since writing a blog, but I'm positive few noticed.
I spent a few days at my dad's parents, and then the next few days at my other grandmother's, where the rest of my family stayed once they arrived.
Some aspects of it were great, other aspects not so alright. I brought lots of Kenneth Hagin tapes since I've only read his material, but never heard him preach. As well as Curry Blake, Robin McMillan and Dr. Brown.
But otherwise, I watched a whole lot of TV and we rented a few movies. I felt so lazy. But I had good reason as well, since we got over a foot of snow the day before Christmas Eve, and then on top of it ice pellets, and then more snow, it was heavy shovelling. About a third of the way into it I threw my back out, and had to rest. There's really not a whole lot you can do with a sore back other than read, listen to tapes, and watch TV.
Also, my aunt got me "Bibleopoly", and my grandfather got me a King James Bible. I was pretty happy about the Bible because that's one of the few translations I don't have a copy of the Word in, so I was pretty grateful for it.
Anyway, that's all I can think of for now, I will write again soon.
martes, diciembre 21, 2004
Do we really believe we have any influence with our Gospel message?
Hey, earlier today I went out to lunch with the associate pastor of my church. There's this place less than halfway between my church and my parents' house that we always meet at called Stop A-While and in such a short time I've never seen a restaurant go through so many owners and so many paintjobs in such a short amount of time.
But it was good and we provoked each other to a lot of thought on the average Christian's walk with God and I personally was left with several things to think about. We took notice of how much more passive the Canadian Church is and apathetic to the engulfing liberalism of the culture around us, versus how much more proactive the American Body of Christ is. Like for example, it's hard to come across a group that would do something like The Cause people were in front of the Supreme Court last October to demonstrate against abortion and pray for laws to be changed in the land, whereas here, we'll vote in the people who gradually take our rights and money away. I am proud to be Canadian, don't you worry, but I really really fear more for the Candian church than I do the American ones.
Darryl and I got to talking about this, and how marginal of a part of the Church actually believes we are wall to wall conduits of the Holy Ghost, manifesting the kingdom of God either for good or bad everywhere we go. Has it dawned on people that the world was changed in many facets--immigration policy, security measures, a way of thinking--all were changed by 19 people [with a network larger than we know behind even them] by crashing airplanes into 3 buildings on Sept 11th 2001. Nineteen people? That's just a couple of pews in our church on Sunday morning, multiplied by millions all across just our country, and multiply that by countries all around the world and all sorts of different cultures--why the lack of impact for the Gospel? Why can 1% of the population get the definition of the institution of marriage changed and the rest of the majority accomodate that? But the at least large percent (I know in the US 80% but I know in Canada it's less, but still substantial) that call themselves Christians do nothing, and don't even necessarily live any dfferent than the world by and large--we can't get the world not to think we're irrelevant. Do we really believe we have the Spirit of God living in us? (Those of us that actually are His). Do we really live, act and believe like everything we can has eternal significance for good or bad?
It hit me last night, and I articulated this as best as I could for Darryl at lunch today. But last night I was reading teachings out of my big green book. Of course, I'm talking about The Complete Life Teachings of Smith Wigglesworth--I got Maria Woodworth Etter's and John G. Lake's as well, but it was Wigglesworth I was reading and it dawned on me: I'm reading material by somebody I've never met, and who lived, and finally died decades before I was even born, and he was a man just like I am a young man. Never ordained, couldn't even read or write, and all he ever read when he could was the Bible. This man who died in 1947 never wrote a single one of these teachings I'm now reading in 2004! People put to paper teachings of his, he never sat down to write anything to ever be published in a book of any kind, and people all over the western world who weren't alive in his day can read his teachings, be influenced by this apostle of faith as he's been dubbed, and do it themselves. What do you do with your life? Watch TV shows, go to church on sunday morning, and entertain yourself and live no different than the world? Or do you live as though each step you take and every word you speak and every e-mail you write (or blog entry you write online for anyone to read) that you're treading on chords of eternity that will make a lasting impact on somebody somewhere?
I'm staggered at these thoughts, and I hope I could make you as well dear reader. Reading today or decades from now....
Steve
But it was good and we provoked each other to a lot of thought on the average Christian's walk with God and I personally was left with several things to think about. We took notice of how much more passive the Canadian Church is and apathetic to the engulfing liberalism of the culture around us, versus how much more proactive the American Body of Christ is. Like for example, it's hard to come across a group that would do something like The Cause people were in front of the Supreme Court last October to demonstrate against abortion and pray for laws to be changed in the land, whereas here, we'll vote in the people who gradually take our rights and money away. I am proud to be Canadian, don't you worry, but I really really fear more for the Candian church than I do the American ones.
Darryl and I got to talking about this, and how marginal of a part of the Church actually believes we are wall to wall conduits of the Holy Ghost, manifesting the kingdom of God either for good or bad everywhere we go. Has it dawned on people that the world was changed in many facets--immigration policy, security measures, a way of thinking--all were changed by 19 people [with a network larger than we know behind even them] by crashing airplanes into 3 buildings on Sept 11th 2001. Nineteen people? That's just a couple of pews in our church on Sunday morning, multiplied by millions all across just our country, and multiply that by countries all around the world and all sorts of different cultures--why the lack of impact for the Gospel? Why can 1% of the population get the definition of the institution of marriage changed and the rest of the majority accomodate that? But the at least large percent (I know in the US 80% but I know in Canada it's less, but still substantial) that call themselves Christians do nothing, and don't even necessarily live any dfferent than the world by and large--we can't get the world not to think we're irrelevant. Do we really believe we have the Spirit of God living in us? (Those of us that actually are His). Do we really live, act and believe like everything we can has eternal significance for good or bad?
It hit me last night, and I articulated this as best as I could for Darryl at lunch today. But last night I was reading teachings out of my big green book. Of course, I'm talking about The Complete Life Teachings of Smith Wigglesworth--I got Maria Woodworth Etter's and John G. Lake's as well, but it was Wigglesworth I was reading and it dawned on me: I'm reading material by somebody I've never met, and who lived, and finally died decades before I was even born, and he was a man just like I am a young man. Never ordained, couldn't even read or write, and all he ever read when he could was the Bible. This man who died in 1947 never wrote a single one of these teachings I'm now reading in 2004! People put to paper teachings of his, he never sat down to write anything to ever be published in a book of any kind, and people all over the western world who weren't alive in his day can read his teachings, be influenced by this apostle of faith as he's been dubbed, and do it themselves. What do you do with your life? Watch TV shows, go to church on sunday morning, and entertain yourself and live no different than the world? Or do you live as though each step you take and every word you speak and every e-mail you write (or blog entry you write online for anyone to read) that you're treading on chords of eternity that will make a lasting impact on somebody somewhere?
I'm staggered at these thoughts, and I hope I could make you as well dear reader. Reading today or decades from now....
Steve
lunes, diciembre 20, 2004
Lifting our hands up, AND reaching out...
"If we worship in spirit, we will also worship in truth. To lift our hands in adoration to God, yet refuse to reach out our hands in evangelism for God is nothing but empty hypocrisy. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve" (Matthew 4:10, emphasis added) is more than a mere satanic rebuke. If the average church made as much noise about God on Monday as it does to God on Sunday, we would have revival."
Ray Comfort.
Ray Comfort.
domingo, diciembre 19, 2004
The Lord of the Harvest and revival
"It is true that [many] are praying for worldwide revival. But it would be more timely, and more scriptural, for prayer to be made to the Lord of the Harvest, that He would raise up and thrust forth laborers who would fearlessly and faithfully preach those truths which are calculated to bring about a revival."
A.W. Pink
A.W. Pink
viernes, diciembre 17, 2004
The offensiveness of not offending people
Removing Christ from Christmas
Well, since my laptop can only access the internet if I take it downstairs in my parents' house and hook it up to my dad's ethernet, I turn on the TV for background noise or whatever. I love watching CNN. I know most Christians won't, because supposedly this station is very liberal, but so far from what I've always seen them give fair "access" to Christians or include them in the discussion, and so forth, whenever relevant things have been going on. Which leads me to an interesting question. Can a real on fire born again uncompromising Christian, be a liberal?
Has anyone out there ever watched Crossfire on CNN? I forget the name of the liberal, but the Reblican guy's name is Tucker Carlson or something like that, I could look it up but I won't. But the setup is they have a Republican and a Democrat host, and sit at a table with guests on both sides of the table, and discuss current events and politics. It usually gets worked up, and the audience cheers at points made by either host, but mostly they just argue in front of an audience. I love it!
Here is something that gets me though, and it's the fact that on today's show, the guest on the left side was a reverend, but get this, he was the director for the separation of church and state! I totally agree with the original concept of the separating of church and state, which is to keep the government from telling Christians what they are allowed to do in terms of religious worship activities. But that was not this reverend's intention. They had him and a radio host on, sitting opposite from each other on the table the hosts sit at, and debated if they should take Christ out of Christmas and change everything to 'Holiday season', instead of 'Christmas season'. This "Christian" who obviously is as Christian as Marilyn Manson, said that though he is a man of faith, we need to ignore the fact that the largest representation of the people is Christianity, so as not to offend all the rest of other religions or who have no religion.
Hmmm, though I see the value of not wanting to offend the others with our obnoxiousness, does that really mean the majority accomodate the minority of a culture or country? And also, we want to remove any offensiveness about the Gospel from our culture? This reminds me of how offended movie critics got over Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ because a beaten and bloody savior twisted on a stick was not "loving" enough of a movie, but offensive. Friends, the Gospel IS offensive, the cross is offensive, and there's nothing more offensive to Jesus than hiding your light under a bushel because you don't want to offend anyone. How pleased with you do you think they will be when they get before the Saviour you were trying to not offend them about, and find out He is the judge of righteousness and that Allah is fake, Buddha stayed dead, and there is no other one after that other than eternity in heaven or hell. Is there anything more than to hear from Him "Flee from me I don't know you" at the implication that they were never told because we would rather be politically correct and not tell them so as not to offend them?
I'd rather have people offended with me now, than to be offended with me then....
Well, since my laptop can only access the internet if I take it downstairs in my parents' house and hook it up to my dad's ethernet, I turn on the TV for background noise or whatever. I love watching CNN. I know most Christians won't, because supposedly this station is very liberal, but so far from what I've always seen them give fair "access" to Christians or include them in the discussion, and so forth, whenever relevant things have been going on. Which leads me to an interesting question. Can a real on fire born again uncompromising Christian, be a liberal?
Has anyone out there ever watched Crossfire on CNN? I forget the name of the liberal, but the Reblican guy's name is Tucker Carlson or something like that, I could look it up but I won't. But the setup is they have a Republican and a Democrat host, and sit at a table with guests on both sides of the table, and discuss current events and politics. It usually gets worked up, and the audience cheers at points made by either host, but mostly they just argue in front of an audience. I love it!
Here is something that gets me though, and it's the fact that on today's show, the guest on the left side was a reverend, but get this, he was the director for the separation of church and state! I totally agree with the original concept of the separating of church and state, which is to keep the government from telling Christians what they are allowed to do in terms of religious worship activities. But that was not this reverend's intention. They had him and a radio host on, sitting opposite from each other on the table the hosts sit at, and debated if they should take Christ out of Christmas and change everything to 'Holiday season', instead of 'Christmas season'. This "Christian" who obviously is as Christian as Marilyn Manson, said that though he is a man of faith, we need to ignore the fact that the largest representation of the people is Christianity, so as not to offend all the rest of other religions or who have no religion.
Hmmm, though I see the value of not wanting to offend the others with our obnoxiousness, does that really mean the majority accomodate the minority of a culture or country? And also, we want to remove any offensiveness about the Gospel from our culture? This reminds me of how offended movie critics got over Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ because a beaten and bloody savior twisted on a stick was not "loving" enough of a movie, but offensive. Friends, the Gospel IS offensive, the cross is offensive, and there's nothing more offensive to Jesus than hiding your light under a bushel because you don't want to offend anyone. How pleased with you do you think they will be when they get before the Saviour you were trying to not offend them about, and find out He is the judge of righteousness and that Allah is fake, Buddha stayed dead, and there is no other one after that other than eternity in heaven or hell. Is there anything more than to hear from Him "Flee from me I don't know you" at the implication that they were never told because we would rather be politically correct and not tell them so as not to offend them?
I'd rather have people offended with me now, than to be offended with me then....
jueves, diciembre 16, 2004
miércoles, diciembre 15, 2004
Some questions for the ACLU
If something is a lie, and has been proven false, should it continue to be taught in public schools and textbooks, supported by taxpayers' money?
If inteligent design isn't science, how is a theory that has been changed and proven to be nothing but a theory for over 140 years, considered science?
Does the ACLU know that Charles Darwin was not a scientist, and his only degree was in theology?
At any rate, I just read this article and find it fascinating--why are they so afraid of the truth being taught in public schools ALONGSIDE the lie of evolution? After all, this school board isn't asking it to replace evolutionary theory, but be taught alongside it.
If inteligent design isn't science, how is a theory that has been changed and proven to be nothing but a theory for over 140 years, considered science?
Does the ACLU know that Charles Darwin was not a scientist, and his only degree was in theology?
At any rate, I just read this article and find it fascinating--why are they so afraid of the truth being taught in public schools ALONGSIDE the lie of evolution? After all, this school board isn't asking it to replace evolutionary theory, but be taught alongside it.
martes, diciembre 14, 2004
Exposing sin
“Brethren, in the light of the “bema seat”, we had better live six months with a volcanic heart, denouncing sin in places high and low and turning the nation from the power of Satan unto God (as John the Baptist did) rather than die loaded with ecclesiastical honours and theological degrees and be the laughing stock of hell and of spiritual nonentities.”
Leonard Ravenhill
Leonard Ravenhill
Anxiety over Abortion
Here is an article on MSNBC's article "Anxiety over Abortion" concerning abortion rights and the latest goings on concerning laws being made or current ones being reversed. The picture at the top with the young man wearing red tape over his mouth that says LIFE was part of the silent siege a bunch of us from FIRE went up to DC to be a part of in October before the election. Almost every news coverage I've read on it erroneously called it a protest, but we weren't 'protesting' per se, but merely praying, and demonstrating using the tape over our mouths that unborn babies don't have a voice, and their cries are silent as the most horrific death they could die overtakes them, as the woman uses her right to "choose."
Take note of the law mentioned "Laci and Connor's law" in the article, in conjuction with the thoughts I shared yesterday:
Democratic lawmakers have found themselves boxed in by a pro-choice orthodoxy that fears the slippery slope—the idea that allowing even the smallest limitation on abortion only paves the way for outlawing it altogether. As a result, most Democrats opposed popular measures like "Laci and Conner's Law"—which makes it a separate federal crime to kill a fetus—and a ban on the gruesome procedure called partial-birth abortion. (midway through the article). Interesting they fear passing a law that would dish out justice and punish them that would kill a "fetus"--it's not a fetus it's a baby, a human life!
Please give this a read, and pray, and consider what to do. Lou Engle has moved to Washington D.C. and is obeying the call God put on his life to spend the rest of it doing all he can to erradicate abortion.
If Bush succeeds in appointing at least three pro-life judges, this could help tip the scales in terms of voting blocks and bills getting, and since judges are in for life, those appointed could affect the country and these laws for decades to come. This is a pivotal time in history, if the Church only would realize the revolution we could start in this time!
Also check out www.bound4life.com to see what else you could consider doing to reverse ungodly American laws.
Believing friends, don't remain apathetic to the cry of over 50 million murdered babies. Like Abel's blood, theirs cries out for justice. There will come a time when God will hold us--the Church--accountable for what we allowed to happen in our lifetimes, and whether you like Bush or not, this is a critical period in US, and to some degree as a result world history--to see a change--to see revolution.
Take note of the law mentioned "Laci and Connor's law" in the article, in conjuction with the thoughts I shared yesterday:
Democratic lawmakers have found themselves boxed in by a pro-choice orthodoxy that fears the slippery slope—the idea that allowing even the smallest limitation on abortion only paves the way for outlawing it altogether. As a result, most Democrats opposed popular measures like "Laci and Conner's Law"—which makes it a separate federal crime to kill a fetus—and a ban on the gruesome procedure called partial-birth abortion. (midway through the article). Interesting they fear passing a law that would dish out justice and punish them that would kill a "fetus"--it's not a fetus it's a baby, a human life!
Please give this a read, and pray, and consider what to do. Lou Engle has moved to Washington D.C. and is obeying the call God put on his life to spend the rest of it doing all he can to erradicate abortion.
If Bush succeeds in appointing at least three pro-life judges, this could help tip the scales in terms of voting blocks and bills getting, and since judges are in for life, those appointed could affect the country and these laws for decades to come. This is a pivotal time in history, if the Church only would realize the revolution we could start in this time!
Also check out www.bound4life.com to see what else you could consider doing to reverse ungodly American laws.
Believing friends, don't remain apathetic to the cry of over 50 million murdered babies. Like Abel's blood, theirs cries out for justice. There will come a time when God will hold us--the Church--accountable for what we allowed to happen in our lifetimes, and whether you like Bush or not, this is a critical period in US, and to some degree as a result world history--to see a change--to see revolution.
The blatant contradictions in the Scott Peterson death penalty verdict
This entry will be different than the themes I normally write on, but I still find it relevant enough to devote a few of my public thoughts to.
I have been following to a small degree the Scott Peterson murder trial since it unfolded some time ago. This is a man accused of murdering his wife and their unborn child. The reason this has caught my attention is not just because of the attrocity of it, but how it is relevant to abortion rights in our society. Though I have no opinion I will share here on if I even feel he's guilty or not, I do find the sentance of death for him to be preposterous in an age of legalized abortion on demand.
For example, as far as MSNBC's article detailing the sentancing of Scott Peterson to death for his crimes is concerned, "Connor", the unborn baby is refered to interchangably as their "unborn son", and only a "fetus" in other times. Why the difficulty making up their mind as to what state of life the baby was in? Interchangably this article's coverage, and many others over the duration of this trial, have refered to the baby by the name it would have been given, and a other times as a fetus. It is a baby NOT a "just a fetus". Why is the media having a hard time realizing that any unborn child is a life, with a personality and future waiting to unfold? No human being is only a human being at a certain point of the pregnancy. "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" Psalm 139:13-17
What I'm having a hard time understanding is, that if a woman has the "right" to choose to kill a baby just because it's inside her body and not born yet, then how can they even try the father of this unborn baby for murder since they don't when the woman aborts it? Theoretically, to be consistent, they only had the right to charge him with one count of murder and not two. Or how about this, if Scott Peterson is guilty of murdering someone unborn, and is receiving the death penalty for this crimes, then why not go find the some 45 million women who've killed their babies in the last 31 years and give them the death penalty for their crimes? Hey, it's only consistent. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 5 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
It amazes me the outrage the average person has toward this man, that God can forgive for eternity should Scott choose to repent before God, but society by and large has a total apathetic view and lack of concern that for over 30 years it has been legal for the woman to do this very heinous crime to her own baby, pretending that because it's her body she has a right to do it. On that note, if her mom had an abortion, she wouldn't have lived either--same difference. Something is wrong with the picture.
We need a moral revolution....
I have been following to a small degree the Scott Peterson murder trial since it unfolded some time ago. This is a man accused of murdering his wife and their unborn child. The reason this has caught my attention is not just because of the attrocity of it, but how it is relevant to abortion rights in our society. Though I have no opinion I will share here on if I even feel he's guilty or not, I do find the sentance of death for him to be preposterous in an age of legalized abortion on demand.
For example, as far as MSNBC's article detailing the sentancing of Scott Peterson to death for his crimes is concerned, "Connor", the unborn baby is refered to interchangably as their "unborn son", and only a "fetus" in other times. Why the difficulty making up their mind as to what state of life the baby was in? Interchangably this article's coverage, and many others over the duration of this trial, have refered to the baby by the name it would have been given, and a other times as a fetus. It is a baby NOT a "just a fetus". Why is the media having a hard time realizing that any unborn child is a life, with a personality and future waiting to unfold? No human being is only a human being at a certain point of the pregnancy. "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" Psalm 139:13-17
What I'm having a hard time understanding is, that if a woman has the "right" to choose to kill a baby just because it's inside her body and not born yet, then how can they even try the father of this unborn baby for murder since they don't when the woman aborts it? Theoretically, to be consistent, they only had the right to charge him with one count of murder and not two. Or how about this, if Scott Peterson is guilty of murdering someone unborn, and is receiving the death penalty for this crimes, then why not go find the some 45 million women who've killed their babies in the last 31 years and give them the death penalty for their crimes? Hey, it's only consistent. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 5 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
It amazes me the outrage the average person has toward this man, that God can forgive for eternity should Scott choose to repent before God, but society by and large has a total apathetic view and lack of concern that for over 30 years it has been legal for the woman to do this very heinous crime to her own baby, pretending that because it's her body she has a right to do it. On that note, if her mom had an abortion, she wouldn't have lived either--same difference. Something is wrong with the picture.
We need a moral revolution....
lunes, diciembre 13, 2004
domingo, diciembre 12, 2004
Samuel Chadwick quote
“The Church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is college-trained but not Spirit-filled works no miracles.”
Primordial soup
“If there were a basic principle of matter which somehow drove organic systems toward life, its existence should easily be demonstrable in the laboratory. One could, for instance, take a swimming bath to represent the primordial soup. Fill it with any chemicals of a non-biological nature you please. Pump any gases over it, or through it, you please, and shine any kind of radiation on it that takes your fancy. Let the experiment proceed for a year and see how many of those 2,000 enzymes [proteins produced by living cells] have appeared in the bath. I will give the answer, and so save the time and trouble and expense of actually doing the experiment. You would find nothing at all, except possibly for a tarry sludge composed of amino acids and other simple organic chemicals. How can I be so confident of this statement? Well, if it were otherwise, the experiment would long since have been done and would be well known and famous throughout the world. The cost of it would be trivial compared to the cost of landing a man on the moon. … In short there is not a shred of objective evidence to support the hypothesis that life began in an organic soup here on the earth.”
– Sir Fred Hoyle (British physicist and astronomer), The Intelligent Universe, Michael Joseph, London, pp. 20–21, 23, 1983.
– Sir Fred Hoyle (British physicist and astronomer), The Intelligent Universe, Michael Joseph, London, pp. 20–21, 23, 1983.
sábado, diciembre 11, 2004
The carnal mind
"Forsaking the use of the Law in evangelism has made many in the Church think that apologetics are our great weapon in the battle for the salvation of the world. One could make a convincing case for that thought in this "age of enlightenment," when issues such as evolution and atheism have made these times unique in history. However, arguments come from the sinner's intellect. The ungodly mind is like a brick wall; it has been built to keep God out. It is at emnity with Him. It refuses to bow to the Law of God --"Because the carnal mind is emnity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). The human mind lays up arguments against God, so if you stay in that area you can expect a vicious battle."
Ray Comfort
Ray Comfort
viernes, diciembre 10, 2004
jueves, diciembre 09, 2004
God vs. other 'gods' part 1
This break I’ve been having a hard time putting down a phenomenal book we received in our Jeremiah class. It’s called The Prophets and is written by a man named by some as being the foremost Jewish theologian of the 20th century, named Abraham J. Heschel.
Dr. Brown gave it to us in our Jeremiah class as the text book, and stated the impact the book had on him personally, and how when it got into the hands of the late Leonard Ravenhill he said it was one of the most important books that he had ever read. It is phenomenal, and though I don’t know if it would make it in my top five of most impacting books I’ve ever read (and trust me, I read a lot) this book is definitely something else. Especially given that the author wasn’t even saved, but was a Jewish theologian—which makes it all the more staggering the depth and scope of revelation he speaks with in this book.
That being said, I’ve been reading through it throughout the day lately, and the copy I have is two volumes in one, hardcover edition, and I’m primarily reading the second volume now, the first one focusing on some specific of the Old Testament prophetic books. But as you get into the second volume the chapters start to be more concentrated on specific themes, and I was provoked to thought about the Gospel message, and the differences between our deity—God and the deities, philosophies, and systems of thought of other ‘religions. Where I’m at right now, Heschel takes a lot of time concentrating on one distinguishing aspect of God’s character—which is His pathos. I’m not going to get into it too much here, nor is this entry’s purpose to write a book review, but trust me, if you see it at a Flee Market or in a church library—pick it up, you won’t regret it, trust me!
At the outset of beginning to read this blog entry, you may have no idea how on earth I wound up where I’m going with this, but follow my thoughts as best as you can—the sign of a good preacher is that he can make you ‘get’ what the Living God is saying, not just teach you something and you understand it. So this might come off as one of those ideas that some reading will ‘get’ and others will have no idea how I got from A to B in my thinking sometimes. That’s why these blogs are practice for me. Some of my snippets from the book will be direct quotes, but mangled too much to bother quoting, but I want to make sure you know some of the stuff that sounds too lofty to be Steve—it is.
This particular entry, has everything to do with the stuff that’s been bubbling in me and a common theme of my online blog in general – the Gospel we know, and what we’re going to do to change it and bring it back to the New Testament Gospel Jesus lived and commissioned us to live.
I will begin by putting into my own words (to some to degree) the thoughts out of the chapters I’ve been reading, and then follow it by my specific application for your consideration.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To the prophet, God does not reveal himself in an abstract absoluteness, but in a personal and intimate relation to the world. He does not only rule the world in the majesty of His might and wisdom, but reacts intimately to the events of history. Our actions have the intimate most concern to Him. God does not stand outside the range of human sorrow, He is personally involved in, and even stirred by, the conduct and fate of man.
On the one hand, the divine pathos is not an absolute force which exists regardless of man, something ultimate or eternal. It is rather a reaction to human history, an attitude called forth by man’s conduct; a response, not a cause. Man is in a sense an agent, not only the recipient. It is within his power to evoke either the pathos of love or the pathos of anger. On the other hand, pathos is not a self-centered and self-contained state; it is always, in prophetic thinking, directed outward; it always expresses a relation to man. The life of sin is more than a failure of man, it is a frustration to God. Man is not only an image of God, he is a perpetual concern of God. Whatever man does affects not only his own life, but also the life of God insofar as it is directed to man.
But the prophets face a God of compassion, a God of concern and involvement, and it is in such concern that the divine and the human meet. Pathos is the focal point for eternity and history, the epitome of all relationships between God and man. Just because it is not final reality, but a dynamic modality does pathos make possible a living encounter between God and His people.
[Steve: The following is important, so read carefully:] In contrast to our civilization, the Hebrew people lived in a world of the covenant rather than in a world of contracts. God’s chosen sphere is that of covenant (remember that concept--covenant, I’m going to refer back to this part in my application to this blog entry). God’s relationship to His partner is one of benevolence and affection. The indispensable and living instrument holding the community of God and Israel together is the law (covenant). Anterior to the covenant is love, and the love of the fathers (Deut. 4:37, 10:15), and what obtains between God and Israel must be understood, not as a legal, but as a personal relationship, a participation, involvement, a tension. Biblical religion is not what man does with his solitariness, but rather what man does with God’s concern for all men. From the point of view of the unequivocal covenant-idea, only two forms of relationship between God and people are possible: the maintenance or the dissolution of the covenant. This rigid either-or is replaced by a dynamic multiplicity of forms of relationship implied in pathos.
[Steve: If I were preaching a sermon, I’d repeat that whole paragraph again so you’d get it in your mind as a foundation to what I’m going to go off on in several paragraphs.]
Part 2
Dr. Brown gave it to us in our Jeremiah class as the text book, and stated the impact the book had on him personally, and how when it got into the hands of the late Leonard Ravenhill he said it was one of the most important books that he had ever read. It is phenomenal, and though I don’t know if it would make it in my top five of most impacting books I’ve ever read (and trust me, I read a lot) this book is definitely something else. Especially given that the author wasn’t even saved, but was a Jewish theologian—which makes it all the more staggering the depth and scope of revelation he speaks with in this book.
That being said, I’ve been reading through it throughout the day lately, and the copy I have is two volumes in one, hardcover edition, and I’m primarily reading the second volume now, the first one focusing on some specific of the Old Testament prophetic books. But as you get into the second volume the chapters start to be more concentrated on specific themes, and I was provoked to thought about the Gospel message, and the differences between our deity—God and the deities, philosophies, and systems of thought of other ‘religions. Where I’m at right now, Heschel takes a lot of time concentrating on one distinguishing aspect of God’s character—which is His pathos. I’m not going to get into it too much here, nor is this entry’s purpose to write a book review, but trust me, if you see it at a Flee Market or in a church library—pick it up, you won’t regret it, trust me!
At the outset of beginning to read this blog entry, you may have no idea how on earth I wound up where I’m going with this, but follow my thoughts as best as you can—the sign of a good preacher is that he can make you ‘get’ what the Living God is saying, not just teach you something and you understand it. So this might come off as one of those ideas that some reading will ‘get’ and others will have no idea how I got from A to B in my thinking sometimes. That’s why these blogs are practice for me. Some of my snippets from the book will be direct quotes, but mangled too much to bother quoting, but I want to make sure you know some of the stuff that sounds too lofty to be Steve—it is.
This particular entry, has everything to do with the stuff that’s been bubbling in me and a common theme of my online blog in general – the Gospel we know, and what we’re going to do to change it and bring it back to the New Testament Gospel Jesus lived and commissioned us to live.
I will begin by putting into my own words (to some to degree) the thoughts out of the chapters I’ve been reading, and then follow it by my specific application for your consideration.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To the prophet, God does not reveal himself in an abstract absoluteness, but in a personal and intimate relation to the world. He does not only rule the world in the majesty of His might and wisdom, but reacts intimately to the events of history. Our actions have the intimate most concern to Him. God does not stand outside the range of human sorrow, He is personally involved in, and even stirred by, the conduct and fate of man.
On the one hand, the divine pathos is not an absolute force which exists regardless of man, something ultimate or eternal. It is rather a reaction to human history, an attitude called forth by man’s conduct; a response, not a cause. Man is in a sense an agent, not only the recipient. It is within his power to evoke either the pathos of love or the pathos of anger. On the other hand, pathos is not a self-centered and self-contained state; it is always, in prophetic thinking, directed outward; it always expresses a relation to man. The life of sin is more than a failure of man, it is a frustration to God. Man is not only an image of God, he is a perpetual concern of God. Whatever man does affects not only his own life, but also the life of God insofar as it is directed to man.
But the prophets face a God of compassion, a God of concern and involvement, and it is in such concern that the divine and the human meet. Pathos is the focal point for eternity and history, the epitome of all relationships between God and man. Just because it is not final reality, but a dynamic modality does pathos make possible a living encounter between God and His people.
[Steve: The following is important, so read carefully:] In contrast to our civilization, the Hebrew people lived in a world of the covenant rather than in a world of contracts. God’s chosen sphere is that of covenant (remember that concept--covenant, I’m going to refer back to this part in my application to this blog entry). God’s relationship to His partner is one of benevolence and affection. The indispensable and living instrument holding the community of God and Israel together is the law (covenant). Anterior to the covenant is love, and the love of the fathers (Deut. 4:37, 10:15), and what obtains between God and Israel must be understood, not as a legal, but as a personal relationship, a participation, involvement, a tension. Biblical religion is not what man does with his solitariness, but rather what man does with God’s concern for all men. From the point of view of the unequivocal covenant-idea, only two forms of relationship between God and people are possible: the maintenance or the dissolution of the covenant. This rigid either-or is replaced by a dynamic multiplicity of forms of relationship implied in pathos.
[Steve: If I were preaching a sermon, I’d repeat that whole paragraph again so you’d get it in your mind as a foundation to what I’m going to go off on in several paragraphs.]
Part 2
God vs. other 'gods' part 2
Differences between the God of Israel and other ancient religions
To maintain a flow of thought somewhat consistent with the theme of my blog as of late, I will not in any way exhaust the spectrum on all the worldviews out there, but here’s a smattering of things to distinguish our Gospel, not allowing it to be “like” any other.
Philosophical theologians have maintained that while man is dependent upon the Supreme Being, the Supreme Being has no need of man, standing aloof from the affairs of man. Religion to them is a monologue, pure theotropism.
The Hindu view of a supreme being is one of him or ‘it’ indifferent to his or its creation, taking on the form, not apt to broadcast any correct notions about Himself to the creation. To the Deists of modern times, God’s transcendence implies His complete detachment and apartness form the world. They deny that God stands in any personal relation to nature and man. And because His creation is perfect, no adjustment is ever necessary. Reward and punishment are nothing more than cause and effect and there is neither need nor room for any special intervention of God in human affairs.
Plato taught the relationship of things to the transcendent is signified by the participation of the phenomenon in the idea. Aristotle took this further in saying that a god, needing nothing, will not need a friend, nor have one. A self-sufficient being whose perfection is beyond all possibility of enhancement and diminution could not be in need of any being not itself. However, the relationship of the world to the transcendent is signified by the participation of God (pathos) in the world.
Absolute distance and aloofness characterize the Supreme being in Confucianism, in which there is a reverent recognition of heaven as the source from which man derives its nature, although for the attainment of virtue little importance is attached to any communication between heaven and man. The God of Israel however, is not a Law, but the Lawgiver (giver of a covenant). The order He established is not a rigid unchangeable structure, but a historic dynamic reality, a drama. What the prophets proclaim is not His silence, but His pathos. To understand His ways, one must obey His will. [Steve: this would be another point I’d emphasize again if I were preaching this out loud—understanding God’s ways—concerning even healing and salvation involves knowing His will.]
The concept of karma would be a profound contrast to God’s pathos. Karma claims that souls have been transmigrating from the beginning, and the well-being and suffering of every individual is the result of acts committed in a previous incarnation. From the standpoint of the strict Vedanist, karma is the law of consequences by which the amount of pain is precisely equated with the amount of wrongdoing throughout the series of re-incarnations. Such would have a hard time believing a god would have any right to come in and confound this beautiful exactitude of adjustment by freeing individual sinners from the consequences of their actions. The secret meaning of Enlightenment in Buddhism is the supreme, long strife through ages of incarnation to attain release from the universal law of moral causation (karma).
Considering the depth of the peoples’ iniquities, man may reach the conviction that the human situation could not stand the test of God’s judgment. And yet even when the people seemed to be doomed by their own deeds, the mercy and grace of God may save them from disaster. Divine pathos may explain why justice is not meted out in this world.
However, and I directly quote Heschel since I could not reword it any better if I tried to contemporize it: “The way to God is mediated not only by the interplay of deed and retribution. A variety of relations between God and man – multifarious modes of approach and encounter, and also the direct orientation of the inner life of man toward God as subject –are made possible and justifiable by the conception of pathos."
The LORD is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love...
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
Nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
So the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalm 103:8, 10-14
And; as for his forgiveness and not dealing with us as our sins deserve – even when it may be disease or sickness as a result of sin, as some can be, what if He chooses to heal and that doesn’t fit our current [erroneous] theology on how, when, and why God heals? I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but how this relates to healing is the direction I will have taken this blog entry when I’m done with it. But, as the prophet said:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your
ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
Other contrasts on the idea of absolute sovereignty and supreme power; Zeus, although acknowledged as the supreme god, was not regarded as having supreme power. When his son Sarpedon was about to be slain, Zeus shed a rain of blood upon the earth, but left him to his fate, knowing that even he could not snatch a man, “whose doom has long been fated, out of the jaws of death” (see Homer’s Iliad)
In many civilizations we find a basic awareness in man of being subject to a primeval, determining power which roots him to this very life, this very time and space. The Greeks experienced it as sheer power, power that is beyond good and evil. One cannot argue with Fate.
The Stoics maintained that Fate is a force which permeates the entire universe. While to most of them it was equated with Providence, Cleanthes, in his effort to explain the existence of evil, admitted that there was a sphere of fate which Providence did not extend.
The people of Mesopotamia were led to the idea of a Necessity controlling all things, superior to the gods themselves. The Egyptians too, had a definite concept of predestined fate. Astrology, first elaborated in the temples of Mesopotamia, teaches the fatalistic belief that the apparent motions of heavenly bodies has influence on human destinies.
Anyway, divine pathos represents a sharp antithesis to the belief in destiny or the idea of the inevitable necessity controlling the affairs of men. The God of pathos may be contrasted also with the God of Islam. For all the belief in divine mercy, Allah is essentially thought of as unqualified. Omnipotence, Whose will is absolute, not conditioned by anything man may do. He acts without regard for the specific situation of man. Since everything is determined by Him, it is a monologue that obtains between Allah and men, rather than a dialogue or a mutuality as in the biblical view. Not the relation between Allah and man, but simply Allah himself is central to Islam. “The Koran does not describe Allah as the Father of mankind: He is throned too high for that.”
In Greek religion, the gods are not regarded as friends of man. In Homer, gods as well as men are indifferent to crimes committed against others than themselves. It is Zeus who sends weal and woe upon mankind according to his own good pleasure.
The Sumero—Akkadian gods, with the notable exception of the benign Enki and the ethical Shamash, were not as a rule sympathetically disposed toward man. The elements of love and compassion played hardly any role. “Man was a necessary nuisance, fashioned for the sole purpose of providing the gods with food and shelter so that they could live a life of leisure.” (Plato). “Just as the serf rarely has intimate relations with the lord of the manor, so the individual in Mesopotamia looked upon the great gods as remote forces to whom he could appeal only in some great crisis and then only through intermediaries.”
The idea of envy or jealousy of the gods played an important role in Greek thought. It was believed that there are times when the gods seem to send calamities to man without cause and to be jealous of their own superiority and prerogatives, or even to be animated by ill-will at the sight of the prosperity of others.
Part 3
To maintain a flow of thought somewhat consistent with the theme of my blog as of late, I will not in any way exhaust the spectrum on all the worldviews out there, but here’s a smattering of things to distinguish our Gospel, not allowing it to be “like” any other.
Philosophical theologians have maintained that while man is dependent upon the Supreme Being, the Supreme Being has no need of man, standing aloof from the affairs of man. Religion to them is a monologue, pure theotropism.
The Hindu view of a supreme being is one of him or ‘it’ indifferent to his or its creation, taking on the form, not apt to broadcast any correct notions about Himself to the creation. To the Deists of modern times, God’s transcendence implies His complete detachment and apartness form the world. They deny that God stands in any personal relation to nature and man. And because His creation is perfect, no adjustment is ever necessary. Reward and punishment are nothing more than cause and effect and there is neither need nor room for any special intervention of God in human affairs.
Plato taught the relationship of things to the transcendent is signified by the participation of the phenomenon in the idea. Aristotle took this further in saying that a god, needing nothing, will not need a friend, nor have one. A self-sufficient being whose perfection is beyond all possibility of enhancement and diminution could not be in need of any being not itself. However, the relationship of the world to the transcendent is signified by the participation of God (pathos) in the world.
Absolute distance and aloofness characterize the Supreme being in Confucianism, in which there is a reverent recognition of heaven as the source from which man derives its nature, although for the attainment of virtue little importance is attached to any communication between heaven and man. The God of Israel however, is not a Law, but the Lawgiver (giver of a covenant). The order He established is not a rigid unchangeable structure, but a historic dynamic reality, a drama. What the prophets proclaim is not His silence, but His pathos. To understand His ways, one must obey His will. [Steve: this would be another point I’d emphasize again if I were preaching this out loud—understanding God’s ways—concerning even healing and salvation involves knowing His will.]
The concept of karma would be a profound contrast to God’s pathos. Karma claims that souls have been transmigrating from the beginning, and the well-being and suffering of every individual is the result of acts committed in a previous incarnation. From the standpoint of the strict Vedanist, karma is the law of consequences by which the amount of pain is precisely equated with the amount of wrongdoing throughout the series of re-incarnations. Such would have a hard time believing a god would have any right to come in and confound this beautiful exactitude of adjustment by freeing individual sinners from the consequences of their actions. The secret meaning of Enlightenment in Buddhism is the supreme, long strife through ages of incarnation to attain release from the universal law of moral causation (karma).
Considering the depth of the peoples’ iniquities, man may reach the conviction that the human situation could not stand the test of God’s judgment. And yet even when the people seemed to be doomed by their own deeds, the mercy and grace of God may save them from disaster. Divine pathos may explain why justice is not meted out in this world.
However, and I directly quote Heschel since I could not reword it any better if I tried to contemporize it: “The way to God is mediated not only by the interplay of deed and retribution. A variety of relations between God and man – multifarious modes of approach and encounter, and also the direct orientation of the inner life of man toward God as subject –are made possible and justifiable by the conception of pathos."
The LORD is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love...
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
Nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
So the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalm 103:8, 10-14
And; as for his forgiveness and not dealing with us as our sins deserve – even when it may be disease or sickness as a result of sin, as some can be, what if He chooses to heal and that doesn’t fit our current [erroneous] theology on how, when, and why God heals? I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but how this relates to healing is the direction I will have taken this blog entry when I’m done with it. But, as the prophet said:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your
ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
Other contrasts on the idea of absolute sovereignty and supreme power; Zeus, although acknowledged as the supreme god, was not regarded as having supreme power. When his son Sarpedon was about to be slain, Zeus shed a rain of blood upon the earth, but left him to his fate, knowing that even he could not snatch a man, “whose doom has long been fated, out of the jaws of death” (see Homer’s Iliad)
In many civilizations we find a basic awareness in man of being subject to a primeval, determining power which roots him to this very life, this very time and space. The Greeks experienced it as sheer power, power that is beyond good and evil. One cannot argue with Fate.
The Stoics maintained that Fate is a force which permeates the entire universe. While to most of them it was equated with Providence, Cleanthes, in his effort to explain the existence of evil, admitted that there was a sphere of fate which Providence did not extend.
The people of Mesopotamia were led to the idea of a Necessity controlling all things, superior to the gods themselves. The Egyptians too, had a definite concept of predestined fate. Astrology, first elaborated in the temples of Mesopotamia, teaches the fatalistic belief that the apparent motions of heavenly bodies has influence on human destinies.
Anyway, divine pathos represents a sharp antithesis to the belief in destiny or the idea of the inevitable necessity controlling the affairs of men. The God of pathos may be contrasted also with the God of Islam. For all the belief in divine mercy, Allah is essentially thought of as unqualified. Omnipotence, Whose will is absolute, not conditioned by anything man may do. He acts without regard for the specific situation of man. Since everything is determined by Him, it is a monologue that obtains between Allah and men, rather than a dialogue or a mutuality as in the biblical view. Not the relation between Allah and man, but simply Allah himself is central to Islam. “The Koran does not describe Allah as the Father of mankind: He is throned too high for that.”
In Greek religion, the gods are not regarded as friends of man. In Homer, gods as well as men are indifferent to crimes committed against others than themselves. It is Zeus who sends weal and woe upon mankind according to his own good pleasure.
The Sumero—Akkadian gods, with the notable exception of the benign Enki and the ethical Shamash, were not as a rule sympathetically disposed toward man. The elements of love and compassion played hardly any role. “Man was a necessary nuisance, fashioned for the sole purpose of providing the gods with food and shelter so that they could live a life of leisure.” (Plato). “Just as the serf rarely has intimate relations with the lord of the manor, so the individual in Mesopotamia looked upon the great gods as remote forces to whom he could appeal only in some great crisis and then only through intermediaries.”
The idea of envy or jealousy of the gods played an important role in Greek thought. It was believed that there are times when the gods seem to send calamities to man without cause and to be jealous of their own superiority and prerogatives, or even to be animated by ill-will at the sight of the prosperity of others.
Part 3
God vs. other 'gods' part 3
The real and knowable God
Contrary to philosophical ideas of Him, God is not unknowable, and does not stand aloof to the affairs of men but is deeply moved and concerned by them. And contrary to popular Hinduism, God has revealed Himself to us, to his people Israel, and then through His Son Jesus Christ. The Old Testament shares many instances too numerous to mention here of His sorrow at man’s sins, for example the flood in Genesis 6 influenced by the evil of men. Jesus Christ, the Son of God in the flesh, was a man of many sorrows and other such human emotions. And so on.
God is not some emotionless and uncompassionate Greek god that has fun at our suffering and limited in his power like Zeus. In fact, God is all powerful and omnipotent. Contrary to the Allah of Islam, God’s will is indeed influenced by His children, in the covenant relation to him, and directly related to his children in a relationship.
At any rate, I do not wish to beat a dead horse, but all of the world’s systems of thought, and ideas of God fail in all these ways that are intertwined to this one aspect of the character of the true and knowable God – pathos. His LOVE for us.
The Psalmist said “what is man that you have anything to do with him?” and asked a legit question. Even the Scripture writers could not fathom the depth of God’s love, or understand His ways—and no human being ever can. However, God reveals it to us in that while we were still sinners, He sent His Son Christ to die for us that we could be set free from our sin that separates us from Him. His one and only Son. The selfish human heart has no concept of this. Even in our love relationships, some degree of selfishness will still permeate our heart, and we need to die to ourselves daily in them, but there is nothing in God of selfishness, but nothing but a depth of love that we will never ever exhaust even after millions of years with him.
Love, I’d like to venture, is single-handedly the biggest obstacle people have in their understanding of God. Since we cannot fathom such a Being, that would love us with such sacrifice, we lower him into our own ‘gods', and make up how He really would be. Falling into ditches of either side of the correct view; the one ditch saying because God loves us so much he’d never send anyone to hell for their sins, and the other ditch saying God is so holy no human being deserves to enter into his presence at all ever, and never could and never will. But--ah! That’s where the Love enters in, and makes both of those statements false – his judgements are an act of love. But nowhere in the Scriptures does God make someone sick because He loves them. That’s just plain child abuse! The things the modern church accuses God of!!! Does not the Scripture say:
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:9-13
That Scripture plainly says even wicked people wouldn’t even do it [give to their children something other than what they asked for].
So what am I getting at? Well this was a pretty roundabout way of getting against this erroneous teaching that God is the author of sickness, because it is far from His pathos to. It is also far from His character of compassion to be ‘able' to heal miraculously, but choose not to. For one thing, it would be against his character to put diseases on his obedient children. The times God has put plagues on people, it’s been the wicked. We, the Christian--or to qualify, the obedient child of God, as mentioned earlier, are in a covenant with him.
“All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies” (Psalm 25:10)
What does the Bible say? Look at one of the aspects of the covenant Israel had with God: "If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God" Deuteronomy 28:1-2, and then verse 15 "However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you".
That to me is one instance of God differentiating between those who are obedient to him and those who aren't. Using what? Diseases (v.21), fever, inflammation (v.22); boils, tumors, festering sores and "the itch"(v.27). As well as madness, blindness and confusion of mind. The whole chapter spells out the kinds of things physical and terrible that God puts on the DISOBEDIENT, not the obedient. For to put on them---nay, I say even allow diseases as mentioned in this chapter onto his obedient children would be a violation of His covenant with them, and would go against His pathos.
As well, "When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken." Psalm 34:17-20. It seems to me, that God indicates He keeps and delivers people who follow him from this particular thing.
Then turn a page or two in your Bible and King David writes while repenting of sin and asking God for mercy (basically, you can look it up in context) "O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh." Psalm 38:1b-7. Psalm 91 in it's entirety is pretty clear that sickness and pestilences are something God protects his children[them that dwell in His shelter] from.
Try Psalm 103:2-5
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.”
Is it reasonable then to conclude that God puts diseases on his children? No. No. And a thousands times NO! He is not anything like any of these other deities or gods we just compared Him to.
Part 4
Contrary to philosophical ideas of Him, God is not unknowable, and does not stand aloof to the affairs of men but is deeply moved and concerned by them. And contrary to popular Hinduism, God has revealed Himself to us, to his people Israel, and then through His Son Jesus Christ. The Old Testament shares many instances too numerous to mention here of His sorrow at man’s sins, for example the flood in Genesis 6 influenced by the evil of men. Jesus Christ, the Son of God in the flesh, was a man of many sorrows and other such human emotions. And so on.
God is not some emotionless and uncompassionate Greek god that has fun at our suffering and limited in his power like Zeus. In fact, God is all powerful and omnipotent. Contrary to the Allah of Islam, God’s will is indeed influenced by His children, in the covenant relation to him, and directly related to his children in a relationship.
At any rate, I do not wish to beat a dead horse, but all of the world’s systems of thought, and ideas of God fail in all these ways that are intertwined to this one aspect of the character of the true and knowable God – pathos. His LOVE for us.
The Psalmist said “what is man that you have anything to do with him?” and asked a legit question. Even the Scripture writers could not fathom the depth of God’s love, or understand His ways—and no human being ever can. However, God reveals it to us in that while we were still sinners, He sent His Son Christ to die for us that we could be set free from our sin that separates us from Him. His one and only Son. The selfish human heart has no concept of this. Even in our love relationships, some degree of selfishness will still permeate our heart, and we need to die to ourselves daily in them, but there is nothing in God of selfishness, but nothing but a depth of love that we will never ever exhaust even after millions of years with him.
Love, I’d like to venture, is single-handedly the biggest obstacle people have in their understanding of God. Since we cannot fathom such a Being, that would love us with such sacrifice, we lower him into our own ‘gods', and make up how He really would be. Falling into ditches of either side of the correct view; the one ditch saying because God loves us so much he’d never send anyone to hell for their sins, and the other ditch saying God is so holy no human being deserves to enter into his presence at all ever, and never could and never will. But--ah! That’s where the Love enters in, and makes both of those statements false – his judgements are an act of love. But nowhere in the Scriptures does God make someone sick because He loves them. That’s just plain child abuse! The things the modern church accuses God of!!! Does not the Scripture say:
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:9-13
That Scripture plainly says even wicked people wouldn’t even do it [give to their children something other than what they asked for].
So what am I getting at? Well this was a pretty roundabout way of getting against this erroneous teaching that God is the author of sickness, because it is far from His pathos to. It is also far from His character of compassion to be ‘able' to heal miraculously, but choose not to. For one thing, it would be against his character to put diseases on his obedient children. The times God has put plagues on people, it’s been the wicked. We, the Christian--or to qualify, the obedient child of God, as mentioned earlier, are in a covenant with him.
“All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies” (Psalm 25:10)
What does the Bible say? Look at one of the aspects of the covenant Israel had with God: "If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God" Deuteronomy 28:1-2, and then verse 15 "However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you".
That to me is one instance of God differentiating between those who are obedient to him and those who aren't. Using what? Diseases (v.21), fever, inflammation (v.22); boils, tumors, festering sores and "the itch"(v.27). As well as madness, blindness and confusion of mind. The whole chapter spells out the kinds of things physical and terrible that God puts on the DISOBEDIENT, not the obedient. For to put on them---nay, I say even allow diseases as mentioned in this chapter onto his obedient children would be a violation of His covenant with them, and would go against His pathos.
As well, "When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken." Psalm 34:17-20. It seems to me, that God indicates He keeps and delivers people who follow him from this particular thing.
Then turn a page or two in your Bible and King David writes while repenting of sin and asking God for mercy (basically, you can look it up in context) "O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh." Psalm 38:1b-7. Psalm 91 in it's entirety is pretty clear that sickness and pestilences are something God protects his children[them that dwell in His shelter] from.
Try Psalm 103:2-5
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.”
Is it reasonable then to conclude that God puts diseases on his children? No. No. And a thousands times NO! He is not anything like any of these other deities or gods we just compared Him to.
Part 4
God vs. other 'gods' part 4
Healing and Isaiah 53
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5
Act 10:36-38: “As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing ALL who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
Jesus never changes. By his deeds he showed what he wanted to do – so we could see what He was and is. Jesus said God the Fathersent him to do those works.
He is not like the world, going through phases – one day in the mood to heal, other days not. He doesn't tell anyone “no I will not heal you, you have this disease because you’re reaping what you’ve sown”, but He healed them. He would say “go and sin no more lest something worse comes on you", but He still healed them! He is the Son of righteousness with healing in his wings.
Healings demonstrate the essential truths of Christianity and distinguish God from other religions and concepts, and demonstrate who He is. Jam 1:17 says: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." That expression "variation or shadow due to change" is like saying there is no shadow left by God because He changed and moved from how He normally is. No variation or shadow due to change literally means, not only will He not change, but it doesn't even LOOK like He will! He never inclines or declines, rises or sets – he is always at His glory. He always was and always will be the Healer and the Savior
Healing originated with God, it wasn’t the charismatic or Pentecostal church’s idea. In Genesis, before saying anything, God healed Abimelech when Abraham asked Him to—where did Abraham get the idea God would heal if he asked Him to? (Gen 18:27) Intimate relationship with God caused Abraham to know He would. Not dry orthodoxy and "correct doctrine" like today's church, resulting in a powerless Gospel. Does healing NOT sound characteristic of God? God did it because it was His nature, if you enjoy doing something you tell people of it, if you don’t, you will keep quiet. God didn’t keep quiet about healing – He didn’t just talk about it, He did it! And He didn’t just DO it, He had it written in the Bible so years later we’d know He did it! And if He doesn’t change, but healed then, He heals now!
The Gospel of John records Jesus healing people without them specifically asking Him to such as the man at the pool, and the blind man in John 9 – Jesus asked him, not vice versa.
Conclusion
So to tie this all up: It is nothing like God’s character to say He is a God who makes us sick or puts diseases or cancers on us to teach us a lesson. To say so would make a sadistic God, like the Greek gods or other mythological views of a supreme being. But we know He is not. And if God is all loving, which He is, then He would not have sent His Son to die for our sins and sicknesses, and then turn around and put it on us ‘to teach us something’. To sum it up, His character doesn’t permit Him to not be a healer. And, being driven by divine pathos, why would we not expect Him to have compassion and heal His children who are in right relationship with him? It just doesn’t make sense.
The thing also about writing this entry, is I am well aware of the popular erroneous teaching about Paul’s thorn in 1 Corinthians 12, and will devote a totally separate blog entry to that. But it’s not a priority of mine at this moment, so don’t hold your breath checking for it if that’s your top argument to what you’ve just been reading--if you’re reading these in complete disagreement with what I’m saying, if not, then you’ll just enjoy that entry as well.
Previous entries worthy of consideration for now:
River of Life
My reflections on Jerry Shriver's funeral
More than a feeling
Healing in the Atonement
Outside the four walls of the church
Stuff to think about regarding Divine Healing
How about we just *believe* the Bible?
Testimony of my mom's healing from fibromyalgia
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5
Act 10:36-38: “As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing ALL who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
Jesus never changes. By his deeds he showed what he wanted to do – so we could see what He was and is. Jesus said God the Fathersent him to do those works.
He is not like the world, going through phases – one day in the mood to heal, other days not. He doesn't tell anyone “no I will not heal you, you have this disease because you’re reaping what you’ve sown”, but He healed them. He would say “go and sin no more lest something worse comes on you", but He still healed them! He is the Son of righteousness with healing in his wings.
Healings demonstrate the essential truths of Christianity and distinguish God from other religions and concepts, and demonstrate who He is. Jam 1:17 says: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." That expression "variation or shadow due to change" is like saying there is no shadow left by God because He changed and moved from how He normally is. No variation or shadow due to change literally means, not only will He not change, but it doesn't even LOOK like He will! He never inclines or declines, rises or sets – he is always at His glory. He always was and always will be the Healer and the Savior
Healing originated with God, it wasn’t the charismatic or Pentecostal church’s idea. In Genesis, before saying anything, God healed Abimelech when Abraham asked Him to—where did Abraham get the idea God would heal if he asked Him to? (Gen 18:27) Intimate relationship with God caused Abraham to know He would. Not dry orthodoxy and "correct doctrine" like today's church, resulting in a powerless Gospel. Does healing NOT sound characteristic of God? God did it because it was His nature, if you enjoy doing something you tell people of it, if you don’t, you will keep quiet. God didn’t keep quiet about healing – He didn’t just talk about it, He did it! And He didn’t just DO it, He had it written in the Bible so years later we’d know He did it! And if He doesn’t change, but healed then, He heals now!
The Gospel of John records Jesus healing people without them specifically asking Him to such as the man at the pool, and the blind man in John 9 – Jesus asked him, not vice versa.
Conclusion
So to tie this all up: It is nothing like God’s character to say He is a God who makes us sick or puts diseases or cancers on us to teach us a lesson. To say so would make a sadistic God, like the Greek gods or other mythological views of a supreme being. But we know He is not. And if God is all loving, which He is, then He would not have sent His Son to die for our sins and sicknesses, and then turn around and put it on us ‘to teach us something’. To sum it up, His character doesn’t permit Him to not be a healer. And, being driven by divine pathos, why would we not expect Him to have compassion and heal His children who are in right relationship with him? It just doesn’t make sense.
The thing also about writing this entry, is I am well aware of the popular erroneous teaching about Paul’s thorn in 1 Corinthians 12, and will devote a totally separate blog entry to that. But it’s not a priority of mine at this moment, so don’t hold your breath checking for it if that’s your top argument to what you’ve just been reading--if you’re reading these in complete disagreement with what I’m saying, if not, then you’ll just enjoy that entry as well.
Previous entries worthy of consideration for now:
River of Life
My reflections on Jerry Shriver's funeral
More than a feeling
Healing in the Atonement
Outside the four walls of the church
Stuff to think about regarding Divine Healing
How about we just *believe* the Bible?
Testimony of my mom's healing from fibromyalgia
martes, diciembre 07, 2004
Changes to my blog
Well I finally got around to putting pictures in my blog. I probably put between 25-30 of them through out the whole site, meaning if you're reading this saying to yourself "I don't see any pics" it's because you need to go through my previous posts. For example, I went back to the entry I made about going to Washington D.C. and put pictures of the Supreme Court in there, or other times when I've had get togethers and took pics I put them in around the time I took the pics.
Also, with the help of computer savy Matt Baxter found out how to put links to other sites in the sidebar to the right, underneath where it lists my archives and previous posts. He did it for me and showed me what to do so I could put more in there in the future as I feel led.
So, that's all for now, I just thought I'd mention the changes to my blog.
Also, with the help of computer savy Matt Baxter found out how to put links to other sites in the sidebar to the right, underneath where it lists my archives and previous posts. He did it for me and showed me what to do so I could put more in there in the future as I feel led.
So, that's all for now, I just thought I'd mention the changes to my blog.
lunes, diciembre 06, 2004
Never underestimate the power of God to break out in a service
Hey
Last night I was really blessed by service. When I got there, it was evident none of the faculty or leadership were even there, and it being break, the turnout was smaller than normal-by a lot. It's interested the way we judge things by outward appearance, and I decided in my heart this was obviously just a 'run of the mill' service. However, boy was I wrong.
The worship time was interesting, and I don't think I've seen what happened happen in quite a long time. After singing a few dance around and have a mosh pit in the front kind of songs, and then moving into the slower ones, we just sang in the Spirit, and had no 'song' to sing for a long time. Like it had to have been 45 minutes of doing this. I felt something and got somewhere in intimacy with God that was precious, and despite my week and how crappy I've been feeling about some struggles and some failures in my life, I knew He was smiling down on me and we were having a good time together. It was unique and I won't forget it for a while.
That was that.
The other part was that Pastor Thant from Evangel, the church that houses FIRE church and school, preached. Or sorta. He had a word of knowledge about someone with a pinched nerve in their neck, and it turned out to be the worship leader's wife. He prayed for her, and she could move her neck around and so forth. Then, he called out and asked if there was specificially someone there who had been struggling with the temptation to commit suicide in the last few days, and a brother courageously put his hand up and came forward--this was a guy I knew who had cancer and had to quit school due to his failing health, so I really could understand it would be him. The next was a young woman from school he had called out who had this type of ringing in her ears. When she explained herself, she told of how ever since she was little, when she tilted her head a certain way she'd always hear the sound you hear when you hold a sea shell to your ear, like a muffled noise. He laid hands on her and she couldn't feel or hear it anymore. The next was a sister I went to school with when we were in Pensacola. Pastor Thant called out someone had one leg slightly longer than the other, to which she went up and explained that she just found out a few weeks ago the reason she had frequent pain in her shoulders was due to her incorrect posture as a result of having one leg slightly longer than the other. He had some sisters come and pray for her, and as of yet, there was no way she could physically tell yet that she was healed or not, but trust me, I have no problem believing so I still write it.
It was really exciting, and though I try to write few blogs that are just regurgitations of services I attended, this had an impact on me because it wasn't about hearing a good tickle your ears sermon, but it was a demonstration of the kingdom of God. What's funny is how I prejudged how the service would go because none of our faculty were here, and like half the church were present because of being away on mission trips or gone home for the Christmas break.
Anyway, I gotta go. I set some personal goals for my days this week, and need to manage my time wisely.
Blessings
P.S. We only see as of much of the power of God as we expect.
Last night I was really blessed by service. When I got there, it was evident none of the faculty or leadership were even there, and it being break, the turnout was smaller than normal-by a lot. It's interested the way we judge things by outward appearance, and I decided in my heart this was obviously just a 'run of the mill' service. However, boy was I wrong.
The worship time was interesting, and I don't think I've seen what happened happen in quite a long time. After singing a few dance around and have a mosh pit in the front kind of songs, and then moving into the slower ones, we just sang in the Spirit, and had no 'song' to sing for a long time. Like it had to have been 45 minutes of doing this. I felt something and got somewhere in intimacy with God that was precious, and despite my week and how crappy I've been feeling about some struggles and some failures in my life, I knew He was smiling down on me and we were having a good time together. It was unique and I won't forget it for a while.
That was that.
The other part was that Pastor Thant from Evangel, the church that houses FIRE church and school, preached. Or sorta. He had a word of knowledge about someone with a pinched nerve in their neck, and it turned out to be the worship leader's wife. He prayed for her, and she could move her neck around and so forth. Then, he called out and asked if there was specificially someone there who had been struggling with the temptation to commit suicide in the last few days, and a brother courageously put his hand up and came forward--this was a guy I knew who had cancer and had to quit school due to his failing health, so I really could understand it would be him. The next was a young woman from school he had called out who had this type of ringing in her ears. When she explained herself, she told of how ever since she was little, when she tilted her head a certain way she'd always hear the sound you hear when you hold a sea shell to your ear, like a muffled noise. He laid hands on her and she couldn't feel or hear it anymore. The next was a sister I went to school with when we were in Pensacola. Pastor Thant called out someone had one leg slightly longer than the other, to which she went up and explained that she just found out a few weeks ago the reason she had frequent pain in her shoulders was due to her incorrect posture as a result of having one leg slightly longer than the other. He had some sisters come and pray for her, and as of yet, there was no way she could physically tell yet that she was healed or not, but trust me, I have no problem believing so I still write it.
It was really exciting, and though I try to write few blogs that are just regurgitations of services I attended, this had an impact on me because it wasn't about hearing a good tickle your ears sermon, but it was a demonstration of the kingdom of God. What's funny is how I prejudged how the service would go because none of our faculty were here, and like half the church were present because of being away on mission trips or gone home for the Christmas break.
Anyway, I gotta go. I set some personal goals for my days this week, and need to manage my time wisely.
Blessings
P.S. We only see as of much of the power of God as we expect.
domingo, diciembre 05, 2004
The river of LIFE -- Ezekiel 47:1-12
The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.
He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.
As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep.
He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist.
He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in— a river that no one could cross.
He asked me, "Son of man, do you see this?"
Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Sea. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.
Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds— like the fish of the Great Sea.
But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.
Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing." Ezekiel 47:1-12
If God is the author of life, and if everywhere his river flows, life comes forth, and healing, then where do we make up doctrines like God puts sicknesses or diseases on us to 'teach us something' or 'draw us closer to Him?' How come this passage doesn't say, according to the doctrine of many in the church today "everywhere the river flowed, people got cancer" or something like that? Just some thoughts.
Stay tuned. An entry I've been working on, praying about, and doing some research for the right references about is just about done, and probably will be 3 or 4 parts long.
Blessings.
He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.
As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep.
He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist.
He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in— a river that no one could cross.
He asked me, "Son of man, do you see this?"
Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Sea. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.
Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds— like the fish of the Great Sea.
But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.
Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing." Ezekiel 47:1-12
If God is the author of life, and if everywhere his river flows, life comes forth, and healing, then where do we make up doctrines like God puts sicknesses or diseases on us to 'teach us something' or 'draw us closer to Him?' How come this passage doesn't say, according to the doctrine of many in the church today "everywhere the river flowed, people got cancer" or something like that? Just some thoughts.
Stay tuned. An entry I've been working on, praying about, and doing some research for the right references about is just about done, and probably will be 3 or 4 parts long.
Blessings.
The Cross in the Market Place
"I simply argue that the cross should be raised at the center of the market place as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town's garbage heap; at a crossroad, so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin and Greek...at the kind of a place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He died. And that is what He died for. And that is what He died about. That is where the church--men ought to be and what men ought to be about."
George Macleod of Scotland
George Macleod of Scotland
viernes, diciembre 03, 2004
More than a good sermon
“Had Saul met only a preacher and heard only a sermon on the Damascus road, he might never have been heard of again. But he met Christ! (Sermons and preachers can be avoided – they often are- but Christ can never be avoided.)”
Leonard Ravenhill
Leonard Ravenhill
jueves, diciembre 02, 2004
Charles Spurgeon quote
"Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that. The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners and his blessed Master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the brave fireman, who cares not for the scorch or the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity has set is heart. If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned or unprayed for."
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon
miércoles, diciembre 01, 2004
Getting the hang of blogging
Greetings
Well, it's been a few months since I started blogging, and I find myself writing entries more often now, and not just quotes or refering to other articles. But that is also because of how much time I have on my hands for the next two weeks before I go home. There's lots of creative stuff and sermon ideas floating around in me that I find myself using this blog as an outlet to speak them out, and who knows who reads them.
I'm fascinated by the whole concept of blogs, and public journals as it were. You can see how people are doing that you don't talk to much, and as for writing them, people can know what's going on with you (if you chose to write about your life and daily things) without bringing it up. I was talking to a friend in Alabama earler this week who asked me a question online. I scrolled back up through our MSN chat to see what she was referring to, when it dawned on me she was referring to a blog entry I wrote. It dawned on me just what one of these are for and the usefullness of them.
So, reader, whoever you are--someone from my life in Canada/Peterborough, or former or current FIRE chum, or just some random stranger from the internet -- seriously consider writing one of your own. I realize not everybody has the same kind of time on their hands, or even the focus that they could put their thoughts to paper or computer screen, but I'd really love to be more in touch with many of you and writing each other e-mails all the time sometimes is time consuming, but I'm finding myself really benefiting from the two or three other people I know who write blogs regularly. No pressure, but if you start one, let me know what it is.
Also, I've got these two concurrent 'writings' I'm working on--the one I already mentioned last time about the David and Goliath, and another thing on healing is boiling in me. I got a revelation today about why we need healing and miracles for our Gospel message or it's a false Gospel--but that's opening a door way too big to bother with here if I want my blogs to be short enough people will read them. I don't know if I'll put them together, but I feel they relate to each other. It might be one is a part 1 and the other is a continuation of the flow of thought, because now that I've got them both started on my laptop in my 'ideas folder', I see how they relate, but I don't want to write too long of an entry if I put them together. Anyway, keep checking, sometime this week they might be ready to post.
Blessings
Steve
Well, it's been a few months since I started blogging, and I find myself writing entries more often now, and not just quotes or refering to other articles. But that is also because of how much time I have on my hands for the next two weeks before I go home. There's lots of creative stuff and sermon ideas floating around in me that I find myself using this blog as an outlet to speak them out, and who knows who reads them.
I'm fascinated by the whole concept of blogs, and public journals as it were. You can see how people are doing that you don't talk to much, and as for writing them, people can know what's going on with you (if you chose to write about your life and daily things) without bringing it up. I was talking to a friend in Alabama earler this week who asked me a question online. I scrolled back up through our MSN chat to see what she was referring to, when it dawned on me she was referring to a blog entry I wrote. It dawned on me just what one of these are for and the usefullness of them.
So, reader, whoever you are--someone from my life in Canada/Peterborough, or former or current FIRE chum, or just some random stranger from the internet -- seriously consider writing one of your own. I realize not everybody has the same kind of time on their hands, or even the focus that they could put their thoughts to paper or computer screen, but I'd really love to be more in touch with many of you and writing each other e-mails all the time sometimes is time consuming, but I'm finding myself really benefiting from the two or three other people I know who write blogs regularly. No pressure, but if you start one, let me know what it is.
Also, I've got these two concurrent 'writings' I'm working on--the one I already mentioned last time about the David and Goliath, and another thing on healing is boiling in me. I got a revelation today about why we need healing and miracles for our Gospel message or it's a false Gospel--but that's opening a door way too big to bother with here if I want my blogs to be short enough people will read them. I don't know if I'll put them together, but I feel they relate to each other. It might be one is a part 1 and the other is a continuation of the flow of thought, because now that I've got them both started on my laptop in my 'ideas folder', I see how they relate, but I don't want to write too long of an entry if I put them together. Anyway, keep checking, sometime this week they might be ready to post.
Blessings
Steve
Voices vs. Echoes
“John [The Baptizer] was a “Voice”. Most preachers are only echoes, for if you listen hard, you will be able to tell what latest book they have read and how little of The Book they quote. To reach the masses you need a Voice – a heaven-sent prophet to preach to preachers! It takes broken men to break men. Brethren, we have equipment but not enduement; commotion but not creation; action but not unction; rattle but not revival. We are dogmatic but not dynamic!”
Leonard Ravenhill
Leonard Ravenhill
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