I Believe We Shall Win!

Who Was Jesus?

2011-03-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

Influential British Philosopher Bertrand Russell echoed a common sentiment about Jesus in his famous essay Why I am not a Christian-

“Historically it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if he did we know nothing about him.”

He was not alone in his thinking. There are many who doubt the historical accuracy of Jesus, but here are the facts-

· Biblical records about Jesus were written by eyewitnesses within forty years of the events that occurred.

· The Biblical accounts of Jesus agree with evidence from secular and Jewish historians of his time.

· Luke, one of the Biblical authors who wrote about Jesus, mentions thirty-two countries, fifty-four cities, nine islands, and several ancient rulers in his accounts about Jesus and the early church. He never makes a single historical error about any of them!

· There 5366 manuscripts used to translate the New Testament of the Bible. Compared to the 643 manuscripts available to translate Homer’s Iliad, the Bible is a very reliable historical record.

· Even without these many manuscripts, almost the entire new testament could be recreated just from quotations from the church fathers.

All of these facts together show that the Bible is indeed an accurate historical record. Ultimately the only way to know if Jesus was real, or if He was who the Bible says He was is to look for yourself.

Ready to take a small step of faith?

Jesus on judging others-

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

Matthew 7:1

Jesus on treating others-

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 22: 39

Jesus on salvation-

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

The WORD

2007-02-24T22:13:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about the Word of the LORD. It's a HUGE concept. The Word of the LORD is completely sovereign. Nothing tops it. It's the most important thing in all of existence. God's word is an extension of Himself. The gospel of John begins with the words "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Christ and the Word of God are inseparably the same in a way that is so very mysterious.

The Word of the LORD is living and active. It is sharper than a sword. Man needs it to survive as much or more than food (after all, man does not live on bread alone!). It has the power to create something from nothingness. He spoke in the beginning and things came to be just because He spoke! Amazing!!

God's Word is vast and powerful. His Word is eternal, which causes this crazy backwards paradox. His Word is perfect and Holy and complete, but He gives it to incomplete and sinful men to speak and to handle. How does that make sense? How can something so great and eternal come from something so flawed and finite? He has placed eternity in our hearts, and yet we are so concerned with temporary things.

God give us the grace to handle your Word rightly today. Amen.

It's been a long time...

2007-02-06T17:17:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, it's been along time, but I am still living and active. Check out this passage I found in 2 Peter-

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

19 And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

I love how the name of the LORD there is Majestic Glory. This passage is so poetic and powerfully validates the prophetic word. Prophets are still speaking His Word and I see the Church is beginning to listen. I see the Lord is raising up a whole new generation of Prophets to speak His Word. I'm super excited about it. Someone recently spoke a Word from God to my Corps about our kids becoming prophets. Wow. The times are exciting. They are transitioning to something new the Church hasn't experienced in a long time, or maybe never before. All I can say is- exciting!

All glory and praise to YHWH our God, the Majestic Glory!

Thanksgiving thoughts...

2006-11-24T11:01:00.000-08:00

So at the daycare we've been trying to press into the brains of the preschool class why we actually celebrate Thanksgiving. For some reason I've been finding it really interesting, so although you probably know, please allow me to refresh you.

So some pilgrims came to North America long before it had been really settled by western society to find religious freedom from the Anglican church. The winter after they arrived proved to be quite harsh. Their houses and shelters did not do enough to keep them warm and there was not enough food to go around and as a result, many died. The following spring, however was quite fruitful. The natives helped them big time by teaching them how to hunt and gather and plant foods like corn. The pilgrims prospered and the harvest was plentiful or something like that. So the governor called for a feast to celebrate and give thanks to God for all He had done for them.

There area a few reasons why this story is so interesting to me. I think it's a pretty important piece of Church history, as they were the first group of Christians to settle in North America. What's also so fascinating is the mass amount of religious content in the story. The name "pilgrim" is literally a person on a religious journey. The fact that the Holiday is called "Thanksgiving" assumes that these religious people were giving thanks, most obviously to God. What's also overlooked and incredibly interesting is that these celebrated pilgrims were Puritans, an ultra conservative group of Christians. You could quite justifiably label them "extremists." In our society, being a super conservative Christian isn't often looked at positively, yet we follow in their footsteps by celebrating Thanksgiving with them every year. Really, if we take a serious look at it's roots, Thanksgiving is a strong Christian holiday where we observe the feast of the Puritan pilgrims and are meant to follow in their footsteps by giving God our own thanks for what He has done for us.

One more interesting point- The story of Thanksgiving points out that the Church's first relationship with the American natives was a very positive one, with cooperation and acceptance across the board. They even invited the Natives to join their feast of giving thanks to God. Very incarnational and relational. Possibly even a postmodern(ish?) attempt at evangelism?

Anyway, those are just some interesting points I've been observing in the story of our religious feast of Thanksgiving. What are your thoughts?

Living life loudly

2006-11-18T13:22:00.000-08:00

The other day I was really tired while driving to work. It had been a long week and a long weekend before. That made driving difficult. I needed to get to work, but I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. So I began to shout and sing loudly to keep myself from falling asleep.

I think that past morning was kind of a parable of my life recently. In order for me to remain spiritually awake and alert, I need to shout to the LORD and sing loudly. Shouting is often a great way to let your spirit express itself to God. Samuel Logan Brengle, one of the Salvation Army's early holiness theologians, once wrote an article about shouting that became part of his book Helps to Holiness. He says that nothing scares off the forces of Hell more quickly that a hearty, loud, honest shout of praise to the LORD. There's something about being loud to the LORD that excites our spirits and frightens the enemy.

So I'm going to shout. I need to sing praise and do it loudly. I need to shout and hoot and holler for the LORD, because I haven't been, even though I've wanted to, and I spiritually fell asleep. My life became drudgery and difficult and completely unsatisfying. I need to shout because it feels a little more like the abundant life Christ came to give me. Lord, help me to never be afraid to publicly shout your praises. Amen.

Simple Holiness

2006-10-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

There's been quite a bit of talk on holiness here at Seattle Temple recently, so I though I'd blog a little on it.

Holiness can be a complicated issue. There are a lot of theologians out there with their different takes on the gift and how we receive it, and there's a lot of complicated terminology around holiness. The truth is, holiness is the simple truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He went to the cross, took our sins upon himself, and defeated the power of sin on the cross. Then He rose from the dead and now lives to God in eternal and completely abundant life. If we believe in faith that His victory was won for the sin in our lives, He will respond by removing our sinful nature. That is complete grace working in response to our faith. It's hard to believe, but that's why faith is required. We don't feel like He has taken away our sin because the enemy doesn't want us to feel that way. The enemy works hard to convince us of the lie that we are controlled by sin, but the truth is, if we believe in faith that Jesus can take away our sin, we can live a life of freedom from the enemy. He will still tempt us, but we have to understand that temptation is no longer because we are sinful, it's a temptation from the enemy that we have victory over. By the power of God, we don't have to sin. We are free to do what we want. And if we do sin, Christ is our advocate in Heaven to provide forgiveness and freedom. Just know that your sin was defeated on the cross and all that holiness is, is simply believing in faith that this is true.

All is peace. All is balanced.

2006-09-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

YHWH is teaching me.

All is peace. All is balanced. There is no chaos, there is no unbalance.

There is only YHWH. YHWH is peace. YHWH is balance.

What seems to be chaos and disorder is only a small part of God's balance and peace.

You see, YHWH is eternal and He holds time in His hand. We are bound by time and are forced to flow through only a part of it. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says "He has made all things beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end." We are eternal, but we only see a small picture of eternity. However, then we shall know Eternity just as we are known (1 Corinthians 13). I say all is peace because, looking at eternity as a whole, it is balanced and peaceful. Only, what we see as balance isn't always what YHWH sees as balance. We assume that balance must be equality, i.e .5+.5=1. This is balance, but so is .7+.3=1. They both end in one whole, but if you only see the means, you cannot possibly understand the end. YHWH sees all and knows the whole, but we only see some of the parts. So what seems unbalanced ends in goodness and peace, but man cannot find out what He does from beginning to end.

That's all kind of deep and complicated. Maybe one of these days I'll get it better and be able to explain it more simply. What do you think?

Raise up a generation!

2006-09-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

The LORD has been stirring up in me a passion for discipling youth. One night while in prayer for revival to finally come to the downtown eastside, the Lord began to speak to me about times and seasons. There are different times and seasons in the church and just as scriptures tell us, there is a time for all things. The Lord showed me that night that this isn't yet the season for a great harvest, but a time to raise the harvesters. This is a time for raising up a generation.

Something is happening in the Church. People everywhere are feeling it. The people that don't feel it can see it, the people who don't see it are definitely hearing about it. Something big is coming, and right now YHWH is doing something with the youth. Kids are getting passionate for Jesus. I keep hearing stories and seeing evidence of youth getting saved and getting passionate for the Kingdom in real and often tangible ways.

I feel like God is giving the Church a generation to take raise up for Him. In the West we have a whole generation of hurting kids. Some people call it the Fatherless generation. Kids are constantly becoming victims of divorce. A lot of kids just don't have parental figures to look up to at home. The only place they have to go for help and support is their peers who are struggling with the same problems. The result is younger and younger kids struggling with drugs and sex and different mental health issues. YHWH's heart breaks for each of them and He longs to touch them with His all powerful love. He is sending us, the Church to reach out to them, to love them, and to bring them to Jesus. It is time for some sincere discipleship. We need to put some effort into our kids and teaching them solid truth of the gospel. Then they will be able to go out and bring in the sheaves. And we will all give the glory to God as we see the greatest harvest the world has ever seen!

That being said, let us raise up a generation of harvesters! Praise God!

Healing the Body

2006-08-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

The Lord has been teaching me about ministering in the body. What I've been seeing and experiencing a lot is that there is always someone who is hurting, there's always someone who has fallen and needs a hand up. My friend Andy MacDonald was praying earlier this year when he got this picture in his mind. It was the army of the Lord actively engaged with the enemy. Whenever someone was wounded, their comrades around them would use their free hand (the other wielding a strong sword) to uphold and heal them. I think this is God's will for His army.

We are all actively engaged with the enemy, whether we realize it or not. The thief comes to kill steal and destroy, and he doesn't take breaks. He is constantly attempting to bring us down into sin, discourage us, and fill us with lies. It's our job as the united body to be actively using our spiritual gifts to help each other. And we need to be looking out for one another. If we are too focused on what we are doing, we won't notice that our brothers and sisters are hurting. So we need to be looking out for one another. If someone seems to be having a bad day, go and ask how they are doing. And if someone is asking how you are, be honest. If we hide all our hurt and pain inside of us, that's where it will stay; inside of us. We need to speak out what we are going through. If you are struggling with some sin, tell someone. If you know someone who is struggling, ask them about it. If we aren't actively trying to keep each other up, we'll end up with an army full of wounded soldiers who can't really fight. Conversely, if we are constantly seeking out the wounded in the body so we can heal them, we'll have an invincible army that will never fall. Imagine if Napolean's army had the ability to heal the wounded, every time. They would have won every battle and taken over the world! And so will we, if we can fight united, in the strength of the King!

Let the Redeemed Say So

2006-08-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

During our last two weeks in the War College, we are having two exceptional guest teachers, Capts. Marshall from Portland, Oregon. Robert Marshall has been teaching us how to prepare ourselves to preach and how to "observe the text, observe the text, observe the text." In observing Psalm 107 today, I realized something...

1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble.

4Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; 5 hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. 6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 7 He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. 8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men! 9 For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, 11 for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. 12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor; they fell down, with none to help. 13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. 15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men! 16 For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron.

17 Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; 18 they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. 19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 20 He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. 21 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men! 22 And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!

23 Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; 24 they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. 25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. 26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; 27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end. 28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 29 He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. 30 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. 31 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men! 32 Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

I read this time first time thinking it was about the lost. How silly was I! For I was the one wondering in the desert! I was the one in the darkness, in the slavery to my own sin! I was the fool, my soul the one perishing in it's own sin, I have been the one in the chaotic storms. Then I cried out and He heard my cry and answered! I am the redeemed! I am the redeemed! And the Psalmist commands "Let the redeemed say so!" He cries out "Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men!" As the redeemed we must give Him thanks for all He has done! Let the redeemed say so! I've been redeemed! His steadfast love endures forever! Out of the wondering desert, I've been redeemed! From the cruel bondage of sin, I've been redeemed! From the death of my own sin, I've been redeemed! From storms and many troubles, I've been redeemed! Let the redeemed say so, His steadfast love endures forever and ever! Amen! I've been redeemed! Hallelujah! Glory to the Lamb! Glory and honor and power and all authority to the King of all kings, who was and is and is to come! Glory! Glory! GLOOOOORYYYYY!!!!!

True leadership potential

2006-08-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

When looking for leaders, we often try to find someone who is ambitious, visionary, a good speaker, and someone who knows how to lead. We see those people who naturally take the lead as our "natural born leaders." I've heard someone call childhood bossiness "unsanctified leadership potential." I'm beginning to doubt this model of leadership. People will submit to someone who knows how to lead simply because no one else is leading them and we need to follow someone. However, people will submit to someone who is admirable and just because they want to. Even more, people will submit to someone who has been a servant to them out of love and gratitude. YHWH has been showing me a different kind of leadership lately.

I've also learned leadership from my friend Andrew Stringer. He is one the most humble men I know. He is a consistent servant and full of loving kindness. I've never struggled with him, probably because he is quick to make peace and submit. When he was put into a position of leadership, I trusted him and was willing to do whatever he asked of me. Why? Because I knew he had the best intentions. He was a servant at heart and wouldn't ask me to do anything he wouldn't do himself. He had loved me and in return I loved him and was willing to follow. That is natural leadership.

Or take a Biblical example. Why did people follow Christ? It wasn't because He was dominating or because He put Himself in a position of power. I would say people followed because they saw so much love and goodness in Christ. He stood up for what was right, reached out to those who were hurting and alone, and He was a loving servant to boot! Who wouldn't trust Him as a leader?

So how do you know if you're cut out for leadership? Forget leadership training seminars or self help books. Just try serving people, and ask the LORD to make you humble. If in your humility, He lifts you up into a position of leadership, you were made to lead! If you stay in humility and servitude, perhaps the LORD has more use for you there, so praise His name and give Him glory!

How do you like my model? Am I missing out on something? Or is this wisdom? What do you think?

Why I don't like the Sunday morning service.

2006-08-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

Last blog was about my problem with preaching. Let me expand that to the Sunday morning service.

My first problem is more of a semantical one. Service is a verb. You can't go to a verb. And the verb "service" really doesn't describe why we're there. We don't go to Church to serve, we go to meet with God and the Church. It's corporate worship. I could harp on this, but its not that important, so I'll stop. In conclusion, I call it a meeting, because that's what we do. Meet. And meeting is a noun.

My biggest beef with the Sunday morning service is that it leaves many limbs numb. What I mean is we are the body of Christ. Paul uses this analogy to describe our unity. We are all different parts of the body, given different spiritual gifts to use, and when we use them, our body is functioning well and we are united. But in our Sunday morning service, the one time a week where the whole body is meant to meet, many people are only expected to sit and listen, singing when it's time and then putting some money into the plate. We have a teacher teach, worship leaders lead in worship, musicians play/sing etc., but most of the other gifts are not exercised. When does the prophet prophesy? When do we heal the sick? When do those with words of knowledge speak them out? What if someone is supposed to speak in tongues? What we end up with are limbs that go so numb, we forget they are even there.

Or how about this- Perhaps a church cycles through preachers to make sure all the teachers in the congregation get to operate in their gift. But what if God gives a teaching to teacher John when it's time for teacher Seth? Or what if during the sermon, Holy Spirit gives one of the intercessors a burden to lay hands on someone and pray for them outloud? Everything is so regimented and we expect Holy Spirit to work through our plans instead of the other way around.

Cells are a good alternative. They give everyone a chance to share and are fluid enough to let Holy Spirit take us by surprise. But cell is only meant for small groups. I like the old Quaker model of worship. Everyone comes together without any kind of plan. If they feel led to sing, they sing or to pray they pray, if some gets a word, they give it, if someone has a teaching, they teach. We all just come together and let Holy Spirit do the "Order of Service." Nice. And what if there is no leading? We sit in silence and listen for His voice. Glory to God! Beautiful!

So are my complaints legit? Do I make a big deal out of a small one? Do I even make sense? It's been a strange day, I'm feeling a bit off. Pray for me. I'm going through an awkward stage of transitioning. And as always, feel free to give me a little feedback.

Why I don't like preaching.

2006-07-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Jesus once told His disciples that He would send them Holy Spirit, and Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth. That was a promise He made to the group of them. I believe that there is no truth that YHWH wishes to keep from His Body, but I don't think He will reveal everything to just one person. YHWH gives us truths in revelation, and I believe He wants to give full revelation the His full Body.

That being said, let me pose an obstacle- the preacher. On a Sunday morning in your average corps or church, one preacher will preach a sermon. But if we are all individual parts to a whole body, don't you think we might be missing out if only one person is allowed to share? What if there are a number of people in the congregation with different, but complementary, insights to a given truth? If only one person is supposed to share what God has shown them, then we miss out on what God has shown to everyone else! The body then cannot be guided into all truth because, as a Church, we have decided to only value what the preacher has to say! Also, there are different types of teachers who teach in different ways. If we only value one way of teaching, we only get one perspective on truth, only one piece of the truth puzzle. Imagine how much more we could learn if the sermon was a open to everyone!?

Since there are different types of teaching, allow me to express this differently- Say YHWH wanted to reveal the truth of what and elephant was to His church. To one man, he reveals that elephants are big. To another, he reveals that elephants have long trunks. To another He reveals that they are mammals, are grey, and what sound they make. To another, something else, etc. Many have been given a revelation of what an elephant is, but only the first shares, because he is the preacher. So the congregation hears the elephant is big. Only His revelation is given consideration. Nobody else thinks their revelation is important anyway, or is too afraid to speak it. So all we understand is that the elephant is big. This is good and true, but we're really missing out! I know the analogy isn't perfect, but I think it at least explains what I'm trying to say.

So what do you think? How do we fix the problem? Or do you think there is no problem and I'm just a crazy person? What truth has our God revealed to you about this? An by the way, YHWH told me elephants have big ears!

Eyes to see...

2006-07-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they aske d him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red. 3 And in the morning, It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. So he left them and departed.

Jesus criticized the Pharisees and Sadducees because, although they could discern physical signs, they could not discern the signs of the times. Jesus was the promised Messiah, but they could not see what the Spirit was doing.

Ecclesiastes teaches that there are different times for all things. YHWH works in His time. We can look through history and easily see the different times where Holy Spirit did new things. The question is, can we discern the signs of the times today? What is Holy Spirit up to today? Do we have eyes to see what He is doing? Do we have ears to hear what Holy Spirit is saying to the churches?

EYES, BE OPENED!
EARS, HEAR!
WAKE UP! SEE, HEAR!

May our spirits be awakened to the call of Holy Spirit. YHWH, help us to discern the signs of the times. Holy Spirit is moving, and something big is coming along. Do you feel it? Can you see the evidence of Holy Spirit working? The time is coming soon. We have to see it coming. We must hear to know what we must do. Lord save us. Save us from being like the blind religious leaders who could not tell the signs and missed the greatest move of the Spirit known on this earth. Oh YHWH save us now! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! And highest praise be to YHWH our God and King! All glory to His matchless name! AMEN!

Witness without words

2006-07-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

Just a thought.

Preaching the gospel is great. We should all be actively spreading holy Truth, always in a spirit of love. But what I've been seeing a lot of this past year is non-believers who've heard a little too much of the gospel. A lot of people are tired of hearing it. The problem is, while the Church often has its mouth open, in rarely looks much different from everybody else. There are a lot of good people who have no faith in Jesus Christ. A lot of people are willing to help the poor and volunteer with kids and do many great and admirable things, but have no love for Christ. The world needs to actually see that Jesus Christ has more to offer than what they have now. They need to see radical, self sacrificing love. They need to see a fully functioning Body of Christ. They need to see a total disregard for self. People need and want to see not just good people, but holy, spirit filled radicals. People need to see some miracles.

Before we start witnessing to the love of God, we need to exhibit it. Perhaps then the unbelieving world will see the reason for our hope and surrender themselves to His wonderful redeeming, fully saving grace that we so fully enjoy. Praise be to our God and King!

"What do you mean 'Good Samaritan'?"

2006-07-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

In my last blog, I rewrote the parable of the Good Samaritan. I want to talk a little more about that today.

We often tell this story, but rarely focus much on the context. The parable was in response to a lawyers question. He asked Christ what he had to do to go to Heaven. Jesus answered his question with another question- "What does it say in the Law? What's your take on it?" The lawyer answers with the same answer Christ gives the lawyer in Matthew 22, to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Here's where things get interesting. Christ tells the man "Do this and you will live." But this lawyer wants to justify himself, so asks "Who is my neighbor?" Basically "Who do I really have to love?" Christ's answer is the story of the Good Samaritan.

Its a little ironic that we even call the story "The Good Samaritan," because in Christ's day, the average Jew would probably see that as an oxymoron. There was nothing good about Samaritans. They got their name from the city of Samaria, which was the capital of the Northern Kingdom, Israel. When Israel was taken over by Assyria, the Israelites mixed with Gentiles (non-Jews). So these Samaritans were half-breeds, partially Jewish, but also disgustingly part Gentile, and that made them social outcasts. They were not allowed into the temple for regular worship. They were socially unclean and thus made outcasts.

I find it very interesting that Jesus' story didn't come out and say "You should love the Samaritans" or even a more general plea to love the outcast. Instead, He chose to shame the socially elite religious people. Priests and Levites held a lot of respect for leading the worship at the temple, but in Christ's story, they are the bad examples, not showing love to their neighbor and disobeying the law. Instead, the outcast Samaritan is showing extraordinary love to a stranger.

And all this in response to the lawyer's question "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Is Jesus really saying these good religious people are not going to inherit eternity? Was He possibly alluding that this Samaritan, who was not accepted by the religious, would be accepted by Father God and given a place in Heaven? Sounds pretty radical to me. What do you think?

The Good Goth

2006-07-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

I was just preparing for VBS which starts tonight. The Bible story I will be teaching is the story of the Good Samaritan. As I was cutting out the paper Samaritan and Levite, I began to think that perhaps the parable has lost a little of its shock value. So I decided to re-write the parable using more modern symbolic people groups.

A man was walking through a park on the way to church one Sunday morning when a couple of thugs jumped out of the bushes, beat him up, stabbed him a couple of times, took all his valuables, including his nice slacks and shoes, and left him half naked and bleeding on the path.

A couple of minutes later, a pastor walked by, on the way to the same church. He saw the man bleeding on the side of the path. He thought about helping him out, but then he realized the man was probably some addict or maybe a drunk who had gotten into a fight. He got what was coming to him. The pastor stepped aside and looked away as he passed by.

Soon the worship leader came by on his bike. He saw the man and stopped, wondering what he could possibly do for him. He thought he might have recognized him, when suddenly his cell started buzzing. He said a quick prayer before answering his phone and rode his bike away. "Probably just some homeless guy..."

A little while later, a young looking guy walked down the path. He was wearing all black and couple of chains. He had some piercings around his face and a few tattoos. He saw the man laying on the ground, now covered in his own blood, but still breathing. He recognized the man from the church. He'd gone there once before, although the visit didn't last very long. "Was he the one that kicked me out..." his thought trailed off.
He took out his cell, dialing 911. He did his best to stop the bleeding, from what he could remember of his first aid training. The ambulance came to pick the man up 10 minutes later. The next day the same goth kid went in to see how he was doing. He found out the man had just been fired from his job and couldn't afford to pay his bills, although he was grateful for the help. Before the kid left, he stopped at one of the counters and paid off the man's bills.

So what do you think of my rendition? Does it match up? Is it slightly offensive? It ought to be, as Christ's was. May we all gain a greater understanding of what Christ meant in His parables and teachings, and may we have a good revelation of His truth applied to our lives right now. Amen.

Faith with feet

2006-06-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a thought about faith.

Abraham is praised for his faith. God saw his faith and counted it as righteousness. Paul uses him as an example of faith in Romans.

What did Abraham's faith look like?

God told Abraham to go to a new land. He promised to give the land to Abraham and to make him into many nations. Abraham believed God, even thought he never really saw the fruit of the promise.

But Abraham's faith wasn't just believing. He went to a new land where he was a stranger and settled there. His faith wasn't just a headstrong belief. Abraham's faith was much more. He believed God to the point where he did something about it. This was the faith God counted as righteousness.

James said that faith without works is dead. Abraham's example of faith helps us see what that means. Faith doesn't just believe. Faith does. Faith doesn't just believe God heals. Faith prays for the sick until some get well. Faith lives in poverty, knowing "God will provide." Faith keeps praying, even when it feels like God isn't listening. Faith isn't just a belief, and faith isn't works. Faith is a conviction of truth that runs so deep that it effects how we live. And God sees our faith and counts it as righteousness.

What does your faith look like?

Prophets

2006-06-27T07:39:00.000-07:00

People are starting to prophesy again. It seems to me that God is doing a new thing. People outside of Pentecostal churches are beginning to prophesy. Israel Gaither agrees. My friend Olivia Munn was recently at the Eastern Territorial Congress. The National Commander for the Salvation Army in the US, Israel Gaither, gave a word for those attending. Quoting my friend Olivia, he said-

"The Lord is doing something new in the Salvation Army, something to do with prophesy, especially in regards to the youth. Everyone-- if a young person comes up to you and prophecies-- listen to them! God is doing something in the youth of the Salvation Army, and they are beginning to prophesy."

Prophesy is God speaking through His people. As long as God and man have been in interaction, there have been prophets and prophesy. We haven't seen or heard much prophesy lately. But people are beginning to prophesy.

An ancient Israelite prophet, Joel, once prophesied that one day the Holy Spirit would fall on all people and all kinds of people, young and old, rich and poor, would begin to prophesy and see visions and dream dreams. Look around, be aware, people are doing it.

Can you feel it inside you? Do you see it around you? YHWH is doing something new...

What is the Spirit saying to the churches today?

Love your neighbor

2006-06-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

We are meant to be loving. "But who is my neighbor?" the lawyer asked (Luke 10: 29). Jesus tells him a story about a man beaten half to death and robbed naked. A bunch of church people walk by and ignore him. Then a social outcast finds him and takes care of him far more than anyone would expect. That reminds me of my friend Charlie.

Charlie leads the teen center at the corps here. He isn't a Christian. Like the Samaritan, he has been rejected by the Church. That means my people pushed him away. Charlie, however, works for the Salvation Army running the teen center on Friday nights to give teens a safe and positive environment to grow and play. He isn't an officer/soldier/pastor/worship leader, kind of modern examples of the priest and Levite, but he is the one reaching out to the broken here.

Who are the broken?

A generation of kids who are being raised by themselves. With the high divorce rate, many kids are dealing with the outcome of broken marriages. There are loads of kids who need to be adopted and even a bunch of kids who are "unadoptable." Then you got your "latch key" kids who have parents who are always working or away. So they lock themselves into their homes and raise themselves. People call it a "Fatherless generation." So many kids don't have a physical father. So many more haven't been introduced to our Heavenly Father. This generation is the beaten up, naked, half dead man on the side of the road, beaten down by our old enemy satan and ignored and rejected by the people of the LORD. Thank you YHWH for samaritans.

We need to become more like the Samaritan. It requires sacrifice. It requires humility. The Samaritan gave up his donkey and a lot of money for a half dead bleeding stranger. This is Christ's example of love. We need to love. We need to accept people like Charlie. We need to be fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters to a generation who is hurt and broken, full of sex and drugs. I met a kid recently who is in Narcotics Anonymous. I think he was 14, maybe younger. His family is angry with him. He was a bad example to his 11 year old brother who is starting to smoke crack now too. But this story has a good end. The 14 year old found love and acceptance from an older Christian who listened to his story and spoke God's Truth into his life. The boy accepted Jesus' blood for his sins and now has a Father.

We need to love. We need to love. God commands it, we need to love. Please, please, please love. Without love we are a hopeless, fruitless people. Start with your friends. Start with your family. When you can love them, love the rejected. Love your enemies. The LORD will make you love. It's a fruit of His Spirit in our lives. Lets love. Please love. Nothing is greater. Nothing is more important. LOVE.

Another link to Xanga...

2006-06-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been blogging here. I tend to use this for spiritual insights and the other for personal stuff and a lot lately for Army stuff.

I've been blogging and having discussion on the uniform. It's been good thus far. I like hearing what people are saying about the issues.

My last two blogs there have been about Army spending and soldier giving. I encourage you to read them. It's another important issue to me. Check out my Xanga, and if you need to, post comments here!

www.xanga.com/ibelieveweshallwin

Uniform talk continues...

2006-06-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

The conversation continues! Check out my blog!

www.xanga.com/ibelieveweshallwin

Read and make your reply!

Uni Beef 2

2006-06-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

More thoughts on the uniform! Please read an respond!

www.xanga.com/ibelieveweshallwin

Freedom!

2006-06-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

Hey, I did some listening prayer with Doug and Denise on Friday. And interestingly enough, as soon as I blog about legalism and how I "used to be" so legalistic, Jesus shows me traces of legalism still lingering about in my walk. I've been really legalistic about time with God. He's shown me how I've been and told me how to not be. Well, He's leading me down that path anyway. So praise the LORD for greater freedom from lies!

I get to do some more moving of heavy things tomorrow! Hurray!

Have a good day. Don't forget to fight and pray!

Talk on SA Uniform

2006-06-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

I just posted this on my Xanga (www.xanga.com/ibelieveweshallwin) and I thought I'd put it here too. I want people to respond. So please do! And if you know anyone who would be interested in the topic, invite them too! I want a lot of sincere opinions. Thanks!

If you've ever looked at my little xanga picture, you can see I am a young uniformed Salvationist. According to the 24 Hours newspaper in Vancouver, I actually make the uniform look cool. I even occasionally wear my cap when I'm walking around when I'm out on my War College Open Air meetings. But to be honest, I'm beginning to have my doubts...
What I mean is, why do we have a uniform? The spirit of our fathers was to avoid traditionalism and legalism by evaluating everything done to see it's use in Salvation. As I understand it, if it wasn't any good, they'd change it, replace it, or throw it out all together.
So in keeping with this tradition, lets evaluate the uniform. How is it helping us win the world for Jesus? How is it possibly hindering?
Let me begin with my biggest beef-
I think right now in the Western Army (as I have experienced it) the uniform is working as a conduit of legalism and division. How many soldiers have been harassed about the way they are wearing their uniform? I know I've been stressed out a number of times for forgetting my tie. There's often little to no grace or mercy for these things. If I show up to the morning meeting and I don't have my tie on, I'll be laughed at or scolded. Or how often are women scolded for their hair touching their collar? (I kind of worry about my long hair too...)This leads to little arguments and some offense and eventually hard feelings and judgments. None of this is useful to the Kingdom and certainly isn't getting anyone saved.
I also think we've kind of lost the original meaning of the thing. How many soldiers even know why they wear the thing? Sometimes I don't really understand...
That's kind of the tip of the ice berg. I want to discuss this with people. I want to make a solid decision, whether or not uniform is still a good thing. So post your opinions. Lets work out the truth, in a spirit of love and grace of course!

Legalism vs. Grace

2006-05-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

I was thinking a little bit about legalism today. It ties into my testimony I posted recently, so I think I'll share my thoughts.

Legalism kind of gets the short end of the stick... in a way. Really, Christian legalism on it's best days is mankinds' greatest achievement. Its man doing his best to be righteous and obedient to the Lord. The problem is, man's righteousness is like filthy rags to the Lord. Even though it may have the best intentions possible, it's ugly, disgusting, and completely detestable to YHWH. That's because man can only fix his outward sin. Even though he may look quite pious and upright, on the inside he is still sinful.

Luther said that the law can't be obeyed just by doing what it says. We must obey from the heart! Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. What YHWH desires is a heart of obedience, and of this no man is capable. That's why Psalm 14 says "there is no one who does good, no, not one." We are incapable of true heart obedience!

The Pharisees are kind of the poster boys of legalism. They probably had good intentions. They followed the law to the very letter. But Jesus saw through their outward obedience and saw a heart full of pride. That's why He said they were like white washed tombs. On the outside, they looked quite righteous, but on the inside, they were rotting and disgusting, full of death. Their problem was they understand God's grace.

So what's the answer? How can a man be good? How do we crawl out of this disgusting legalism? The grace of God! When we have faith that God forgives us of our sins, He sees our faith and counts us as righteous. He looks at us, sees faith, and by His grace decides there never was any sin at all. And when we have faith to believe He can make us truly good, that He can actually free us from sin so that we obey outwardly and inwardly, He changes our hearts and makes us clean inside. Then we are holy! It's a matter of faith, believing God can/is/has made us good and whole.

Here's another thought- Legalists can't recognize they are legalistic. Why? They are obeying as best as they can! As far as they understand, they are doing what it right. The problem with people stuck in legalism is that they don't understand that inside, they are full of pride and lust and rebellion and etc. It's not until they are confronted with the reality of God's grace and goodness that they can possibly see the sinful state of their own heart. I couldn't get out of my legalism until I realized that in my heart, I didn't want to obey. I didn't really even love God. I saw that my obedience was empty, but God could make me good. God saw that bit of faith and changed my heart forever.

Are you like me? Are you obeying God simply because you know it's right? Check the condition of your heart. God can change you. Jesus' blood can make you good, inside and out. Just believe on Christ. Have faith, and the One who is faithful and true will do it!

The Full Functioning Body of Christ

2006-05-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

This came to me the other day:

There are three chapters where we find lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament:

Romans 12
1 Corinthians 12
Ephesians 4

All three of these passages are written in the context of unity in the Body of Christ. Paul is making the analogy of a human body to explain to people that everyone has a role to play in the church. Just like our physical bodies, if one part is missing, the body doesn't work properly.

I found it interesting that when Paul talks about working together in unity, he lists spiritual gifts. It seems he's saying that we need to use our spiritual gifts within the Body of Christ for it to work properly.

First Corinthians 12 explains it clearly. The chapter begins with Paul explaining that the Holy Spirit is the source of all the different gifts. He goes on to explain that each of us has a gift to help the Church. Next is a list of gifts the Holy Spirit gives to individuals. He complements this truth with the analogy of the human body, that all the parts are important and necessary for it to work.

Do you know what your gifts are? Paul tells the Corinthians that he doesn't want them to be ignorant of the gifts. That means he wants them to know what they are, how they work, and he wants them to know what gifts they personally have and where they personally fit into the Body.

Paul makes the point that we need all the parts of the body to function. We can't just have eyes or just heads. We need feet and hands and ears as well. We also need all the gifts God desires to give us. We can't just have teachers, apostles, and administrators. We also need prophets, healers, and pastors!

So here's the deal- Do you have a well functioning body? In your Corps/church, do you have teachers, prophets, healers, intercessors, apostles, tongues, interpreters of tongues, administrators, gifts of mercy, encouragers, workers of miracles? Without at least some of the gifts, you're probably a part of a disfunctional body, according to Paul. But the more well working parts you have, the stronger the body!

Do you know what gifts you have? Do you use your gifts? If you're not using your gift, you're not helping the body. You might be like a numb limb that won't work. Now there is no condemnation in Christ. Don't feel bad or guilty. Just seek out your gift. Pray to our God and ask Him to show you your spiritual gifts and where you fit in the Body of Christ. When He shows you who you are, walk that out! Pray, listen, do! Then you will be a well working part that works with the rest of the Body to do Christ's work in the world!

One more thing- be proud of who you are! God made you the way you are for a purpose! Don't be ashamed of your gifts! The Body needs the eyes as much as it needs the feet. We need toes just as much as we need the lungs! Be glad for who you are! You are important!

I know I'm saying stuff some won't agree with. But I'm taking it all out of three like passages of scripture. I'm working within the analogies Paul used to describe how the Church works together and how spiritual gifts fit in. So it isn't my own stuff, and it certainly isn't unorthodox. If you think my theology is off, please show me my errors so that I might walk in light and truth. I'm still young and growing in Truth. Lets work together for victory!

All praise and thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

This is my testimony

2006-05-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

So I've been busy and haven't blogged here for like a month or so. I know you missed me!!!

So I have a testimony to tell you. I've come to a greater realization of where I have been and where I am now. So here I go.

I said the sinners prayer at 6, I was converted at the age of 13, and I was saved at 20. That's to make a long story short. Now to make a short story longer....

When I was six years old, I was given an opportunity to say a prayer to ask Jesus into my heart. I didn't quite get it, but I said it. Later that night I said it in my bedtime prayers to show my mom. She was so exicted that she took me to the garage to say it to my dad. He was glad too. What parent wouldn't be glad to hear their young child accept Jesus?

I continued to go to church. At church I learned to pray. I came to realize that if I prayed well people would tell me I was a good prayer. It was good to be encouraged to pray, but it also gave birth to something dark in me. Something evil was born out of something good. Sin loves to abuse the good to make itself more wicked and more corrupt.

As I grew in the church, I learned to do what was right. I never strayed very far. I never got wrapped up in some great, obvious sins. But I was sinful nonetheless.

At 13, I really dedicated my life to Christ. It was the first time I had a desire to do something great for the Lord. The speaker was talking about Booth and his commitment at a young age to live for Christ. I wanted to do the same so I could be used as he was. Booth's example led me into closer devotion with the Lord. I began to read my Bible and made my faith mine. But I was still missing something. There was obediance, but I knew deep inside that there was something more.

I grew in odebiance and knowlege. I was devoted to following Jesus. But what I lacked was an understanding of His grace. I was still under the law! I was obeying commandments, and it looked good on the outside. I had very good of intentions. I thought my obediance was good, and it was, but it was my own righteousness. My own righteousness was as a filthy rag compared to who I truely was in Christ. I was like a Pharisee. The problem with the Pharisee's wasn't that they were outwardly wicked. In fact, they followed the law more closely than anyone else. But their own righteousness created in them great pride. They were as whitewashed tombs, clean on the outside, but dead and rotting within. And that's where I was, having my sin in secret and my obediance zealous, but on my own strength.

I went to the War College simply because it was an environment I knew I would grow in; a year devoted to God and growing in Him. Early in the year He showed me where there was pride inside. He taught me His power to change me and I began to rely on His grace. Then I began to grow, not in obedience and knowlege, but faith and understanding. Through my faith in His complete grace, I became free from the law which bred the sin of pride leading to death. I became free in grace! God has made me like Him. Instead of pride, now there is love. Instead of zealous obedience, I have faith in the work He will do in and through me. His grace covers all sin! I am free! I am free from the bondage and slavery I was in under sin. I am now free to walk in true righteousness, righteousness that begins in the heart.

That's my testimony of the work of His grace in my life. He is truely good and His love for me had endured and will endure forever! God be thanked and praised for His goodness and His ultimate gifts!

Consecration for holiness!

2006-04-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

Here at 614 Vancouver, we just fished an all night of prayer, where we stayed up all night praying and praising the name of Almighty God. I thought it was interesting that between the days of Passover and Good Friday we spent the night praying (like the disciples and Jesus in Gethsemane?).
So every hour had a different theme, and for the 4-5 AM hour, I was asked to give a short preach. The theme was consecration and mission. It was a really good opportunity, because God really taught me more of what consecration was and even more just helped me "get it". Here's what I said about consecration.

Consecration has a lot of different definitions. The first that came to my mind was "Set apart", which was kind of strange because sanctification also means "set apart". It also has the connotations of to gather, fill one's hand, dedicate, destroy, and perfect. All this was kind of confusing, so I asked the LORD for some guidance. This is how He helped me put it all together-
When we consecrate ourselves (set ourselves apart) we "gather" together all of who we are, all our time, talents, wants, desires, even our sins and shortcomings, and we "fill our hands" with the offering of us. Then we lift that to God, dedicating all of who we are to Him. Now here is where consecration and sanctification meet. When we fully give ourselves over to God, He takes the offering, "destroys" the bad, and "perfects" us. Consecration is our act of "setting apart", and sanctification is God's act of "setting apart." Really, consecration and sanctification are two sides to the same coin, and that coin is holiness.

One more thing- Our consecration needs to be full. If you withhold part of yourself from God, God can't (won't) sanctify you fully. If we desire holiness, we NEED to give ALL. Anything less is only a hindrance to sanctification and holiness.

Make sense? Am I way off? Agree? Disagree? Tell me about it!

The Greatest Strategy (it never fails!)

2006-04-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

I edited my last post a little. If it's worth your time, you can read it over. Only a couple of changes though.

I want to talk more on holiness. But before that, a little Brengle on the Army.

Brengle wrote a book called Ancient Prophets and Modern Problems. His 23rd chapter is titled "What About the Future of the Salvation Army?" It's very interesting and incredibly helpful, especially in this time of the Army's life, where people are wondering "What is the Salvation Army?" This is Brengle's prediction of the future of the Army:

"We must still prove our discipleship by our love one for the other. It is not enough to wear the uniform, to profess loyalty to Army leaders and principles, to give our goods to feed the poor and our bodies to be burned. We must love one another. We must make this the badge of our discipleship. We must wrestle and pray and hold fast that we do not lose this. The Army is so thoroughly organized and disciplined, so wrought into the life of nations, so fortified with valuable properties, and on such a sound financial basis, that it is not likely to perish
as an organization, but it will become a spiritually dead thing if love leaks out. Love is the life of The Army. 'If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.' But if love leaks out we shall lose our crown, we shall have a name to live and yet be dead. We may still house the homeless, dole out food to the hungry, punctiliously perform our routine work, but the mighty ministry of the Spirit will no longer be our glory. Our musicians will play meticulously, our Songsters will revel in the artistry of song that tickles the ear, but leaves the heart cold and hard. Our Officers will make broad their phylacteries and hob-nob with mayors and councilmen and be greeted in the market-place, but God will not be among us. We shall still recruit our ranks and supply our Training Garrisons with Cadets from among our own Young People, but we shall cease to be saviors of the lost sheep that have no shepherd."

What do you think?

Has love leaked out?

Have his predictions come true, or are we as passionate and loving as ever?

How is your love? Do you love your brothers and sisters and fellow soldiers/salvationists?

Test your love. Are you patient? Are you kind? Do you envy? Do you boast? Do you think highly of yourself? Do you behave rudely? Do you try to get your own way, or let others get theirs? Do you get angry with others easily? Do you forgive easily, or tend to hold on to offense? Are you ever happy when wrong is done? Do you rejoice when you see/hear/experience the truth of God, even those truths that are hard to accept? Are you willing to bear all things? Do you think the best of others? Do you hold tightly onto hope? Will your love endure through anything?

That kind of love will NEVER fail. It's got the Biblical stamp of solid Holy Spirit Truth.

Let us spur one another on to love and good deeds.

PS- If you want the whole chapter, I can e-mail it to you...

Holiness from the cross...

2006-03-26T20:52:00.000-08:00

been thinking/studying a lot about holiness lately. It seems like a huge subject, but I find it's far simpler than we make it. Here's my take on biblical holiness.
God created man in a state of innocence. Man sinned with that whole apple deal. So sin entered our being and made our nature dirty. So thousands of years later, a woman bore a son by the power of the holy spirit. His name was Jesus. Because His Father was not a man, but God, Jesus was born with the nature of God. He lived without sin, never giving in to corruption, never receiving the lies of the enemy, never being stained by sin. Then a miraculous thing happened at the cross. He took all the sin of the world- all our sin, and killed it with Himself. He put it to death on the cross and finally conquered it in His resurrection.
There it is. There's holiness! Our sin is already dead. Christ crucified it. What makes us holy? When we finally agree in faith that Christ killed our sin. He didn't just provide atonement. He didn't just forgive us. He KILLED our sin. When we agree with God in faith and receive that freedom, we are made holy and innocent.
Scripture describes Christ as the "second Adam." Born under the first Adam, we receive a nature of sin. Christ's cross not only takes away that sin nature, it also replaces that old nature with a new one- Christ's nature! We receive (by faith!) the nature of the "second Adam." Under the Grace of God in Christ, we can be "born again" into the family of God. We receive His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. We receive the nature of God. 1 John 3 talks about this.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on holiness. Think over it and pray about it. Holiness is freedom for the sake of intimacy. It's incredibly important. It is our right and our duty as lovers of God to cast off the cords that bind us in sin that we might draw closer in love to God. So whether or not my Theology sounds good, PLEASE seek the blessing of holiness.
God grant you freedom from all that separates you from Him.

Rant of Righteousness!

2006-02-28T19:54:00.000-08:00

This "rest" of God, the true Promised Land, is living in complete relationship with Him, through holiness. Doesn't it make perfect sense? It's what He's been doing since the beginning of time!

God HATES sin and LOVES righteousness! Doesn't it make sense? Do you get why?

Look! Here is an important truth SEPARATES MAN FROM GOD!

Adam and Eve are created, loved, and placed in the greatest paradise man has ever seen, a place where God can walk and talk with them. But they tasted that forbidden fruit and had to be cast out of perfection.

Cain kills Able. Then he leaves the presence of the Lord!

The descendants of Cain didn't know God; they were all wicked.

The descendants of Seth were all righteous; they called on the name of YHWH. Did you get that? They were righteous, and they called God by His name. Name basis with the creator of the universe! But then these sons of God (the righteous descendants of Seth) mixed with the daughters of men (the wicked descendants of Cain), and they were all corrupted! Then God said that He was sorry He created the world. It actually broke God’s heart to see mankind being so sinful!

So He tried to start all over again. He found Noah, the only righteous man left on the face of the earth, and did the whole ark thing. He killed off all the wicked, but even the sons of Noah were soon again corrupted by sin!

Then He calls out Abraham who is called the FRIEND OF GOD because of His righteousness! God made Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s children His own children and He called them out to be holy.

This Promised Land was LIVING A RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH YHWH!

God created the world to love it and be with it, but as soon as sin entered, all of creation drew away and away and further away from the Father. He had to sit there and watch everything He loved fall away from Him.

He kept trying! He kept trying! Everything He has done since that day has been to draw His true love back to Himself, but in the stubbornness of sin we kept drawing away from Him! So He finally even cast off His very deity, all that made Him God, and came to earth as a lowly man. He endured every horrible temptation, yet without sin. He faced complete rejection, by both God and man, and carried all of our sin. Yes, Jesus Christ on His cross was the ultimate sacrifice, all that He could do to win us back to Him! He destroyed sin on the cross and defeated death in His resurrection and now we can say to death “Where is your sting?” And it was all so we could be rid of that sin AND BE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM!

Oh, God misses you and I. His heart has always been for us, and He’s just waiting, just waiting for us to cast off that sin and enter into His rest, into His complete love! His heart breaks continually for us! Have you ever had a broken heart? Has anyone you've loved, and I mean really loved, done something to break your heart? Imagine what God must go through for us! Consider how many tears He must have wept for you alone, just because He longs to be with you!

But we can't be with Him now, not without His righteousness. Sin separates us from God. It always has and it always will. That’s why He says “If you love Me, you'll obey my commands.”
That’s why He says “Whoever sins has neither seen Me nor known Me.”
That's why He says “Without holiness no one can see Me!”

All of scripture and religion and life are summed up in this principle: God desperately loves us and completely desires us, but He cannot be reunited with us until we cast off our sin and accept His free gift of grace. He’s waiting for us. He’s been waiting for all of time. He will continue to wait, because that’s all that’s left. He’s done EVERYTHING He can for us. He continually calls us closer; He’ll never stop doing that. But Christ has finished the work of God and now sits at His right hand. YHWH waits for you and me.

There is one thing to do in light of all of this, and that is simply to deny and cast off all sin. Holiness is no longer an option. We must desire righteousness, for God’s sake and for our own.
The next few blogs will be about grace and faith and some stuff God’s been teaching me about that and how all that ties in to holiness. The Lord bless you and you draw near and nearer to Him in complete holiness.

The Promised Land?

2006-02-28T19:44:00.000-08:00

The last blog was all about the blessings and curses that went along with God’s covenant with Israel. Basically, when the Israelites held their side, they would receive increasingly great blessings, with the pinnacle promise being that God would walk among His people.

The next step for the people of Israel was to enter the Promised Land. Unfortunately, when the time came for them to go and take the land, the Israelites were afraid of the people who dwelt there. The task of taking over the land seemed too great. Really, they just didn’t trust in God. In fact, they even said that they would rather go back to Egypt or even die in the wilderness than to enter into the Promised Land.

So God gave them what they asked for. He told the people that their generation would not be allowed to cross over into the Promised Land. They would wander in the wilderness until every last one of that generation had perished, save Caleb and Joshua, the only two of the entire congregation that remained faithful. Out of the hundreds of thousands of Israelites over the age of twenty, only two were faithful to God. The rest would die in the wilderness.

It was because of their disobedience that this generation was unable to enter into the land. Hebrews 4:6 says “it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience.” Because the Israelites separated themselves from God by their lack of obedience, God couldn’t allow them into the land. Instead, this generation had to die off in the wilderness before the nation could enter into the land.

The people finally did enter the land, but they still missed out on it. The truth is, the nation of Israel never completely received the inheritance of the land, because the land wasn’t just a physical thing. The land was a place of complete blessing. The land was a place where “I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.” This land could only be obtained through righteous obedient faith, the faith of their father Abraham. The people never walked in that. The people didn't really seem to understand that. We probably don't either.

Hebrews 4 talks about how we need to be diligent to enter into the rest of God, because the Israelites never did. So what is this rest?

Blessing and Curses

2006-02-17T21:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry this blog is so inconsistent. I just don't have a ton of time to get into it. Plus I'm not as passionate as I ought to be in finishing the series of thought I've begun. It's all based off of a big revelation I had a while ago. I'll try to be more consistent and finish this little series thing I'm doing.

Alright, so last blog ended with Abraham nearly slaying his only son of the promise. God stops the affair, praises Abraham for being obedient. Later, Isaac begets Jacob, Jacob begets his twelve sons, the Patriarchs, who are the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Through a series of events they end up in Egypt. A few generations later, the Egyptians persecute the descendants of Jacob. God sends Moses to take them out of Egypt. God sends a bunch of plagues on the land of Egypt through Moses and Aaron, his brother. The we have the parting of the sea and the Israelites are finally free of Pharoh's clutches when he and his army end up under the waters of the Red Sea. This is the Exodus.

So the next Israelites in the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land. The book of Leviticus is all about the law God gives to the people. Numbers is a counting of all the people, plus some neat stories about their journey through the wilderness and the disobedience of he people. Deuteronomy is the last words of Moses before he dies and before the people enter into the land. In Deuteronomy, Moses repeats the law and reminds the people of what God has done for them.

Sorry for all the background. It's sort of necessary.

In Exodus 24, God and Israel make a covenant with each other. The rest of Exodus talks of the Tabernacle, the place where the people would meet with the Lord to offer sacrifices. Leviticus gives most of the law. Then comes Leviticus 26, where God lists His blessings and His curses for the people if they keep or break covenant with Him. This is my summary of the blessing and curses:

If the people obey, God will give them, in this order-

1. Good harvests
2. Safety in the land
3. Victory over their enemies
4. Abundance
5. Close Relationship with God (He says He will "walk among them")

These are the promises of obedience. For disobedience comes-

1. Illness and disease
2. Defeat at the hands of their enemies
3. The land will produce nothing
4. Wild beasts will take their livestock and their children
5. More defeat and exile ("I will scatter you")

The language used to describe the curses is very strong. At one point, the LORD tells them that they will hear a leaf shake in the wind, and they will flee as if from an enemy who is trying to kill them, and they will fall. Just take a second and imagine it. How terrible.

The blessings and curses hold one thing in common- a succession that leads to completion. Perfect disobedience leads to perfect terror. Perfect obedience leads to perfect relationship with God. He promises even to "walk among them." The only other time I can recall that happening in scripture is Genesis, before sin entered the world.

Sorry this wasn't too exciting. It kind of reads like a text book. But it sets the stage for the last blog or two. So it was necessary. Thanks for reading. I hope you learned something!

Isaac, or Jesus?

2006-01-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

Last post was about Abrahamic covenant. It wasn't too exciting, but it's important. Read it please!

So God has promised Abram/Abraham a nation through a son by his wife, Sarai. In a moment of weakness and act of "little faith", Abram has a son through Hagar, Sarai's maid. She has Ishmael, who is the father of the Arab people. God later finally fufills His promise (He always does, He always will, praise His name!) and Sarah bears Abraham a son named Isaac. Through Isaac, his promised child, will come many nations and the promised land. Isaac is Abraham. His sons will be Abraham's lineage, and his sons will inherit his promise. Isaac is essential to Abraham, his pride and joy, his only hope. Then God does something nutty.

1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." (Genesis 22)

This blows my mind. Absurd. Actually, its offensive. How could He do that to such a man?

Lets dig into it.

So Abraham does as he is told. Why? He had faith. Hebrews 11 says he had faith that God would even raise him from the dead. Do you have faith to do what God asks of you?

Another interesting tidbit- The mountains of Moriah are where Solomon later builds the Temple. Interesting, isn't it?

To make a long story short, Abraham takes his son to the mountains, prepares him as a sacrifice on the alter, raises the knife to slay him (he was really going to go through with it!) 11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." 12 And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." Only son.. Where have I heard that before?

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Another interesting tidbit- The Angel of the Lord is not just an angel. It is the pre-incarnate Christ, Jesus before he came to earth as a man. In Judges, Gideon says to one identified as 'The Angel of The LORD' "Alas, O Lord God!" The Angel doesn't correct him. Anyway, The Angel of the LORD is the pre-incarnate Christ. If you don't believe me, ask some scholars and study it for yourself.

So check this out- Abraham is about to slay Isaac. It seems absolutely horrible, but look at it this way- we are all sinners, worthy only of death. Isaac was also the father of two wicked nations. How much wickedness could be spared if he was put to death? Really, Isaac deserved to die, for his sins and for the sins that would be committed by Israel and Edom, the two nations that would come from him. Now this is cool. This is really cool. Keep reading.

The pre-incarnate Christ, Jesus Himself, God's only Son stops Abraham dead in his tracks. Abraham has been faithful, and Christ comes in and provides a sacrifice in place of the son.

13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

Jesus provides a sacrifice, a ram in place of the son who deserved death anyway. But that wasn't it. Do you see the connection? Do you see it?

JESUS TOOK ISAAC'S PLACE! He didn't just provide a ram, he provided the Lamb! Christ, the Lamb who was slain! Isaac deserved death, but God stopped his death because Abraham was faithful. God loved Abraham, so he sent HIS only son to replace Isaac. Christ gave a ram that day, but He also gave Himself. He chose to die, and He was obedient to His Father unto death. Isn't it beautiful? Do you see it? Isn't it beautiful? Christ, the son sacrificed in Isaac's place, in Israel's place, in the place of all mankind, in your place, in mine. All for the sake of love, for Abraham the father, for Isaac the son, and for all men.

Do you see it yet? Pray that you do, it's beautiful, it's so very beautiful! Thank you oh my Father, for giving us your Son! Hallelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah hallelujah!

Abrahamic Covenant

2006-01-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

I have to apologize. I haven’t posted in a near eternity. I’ve promised this series of theology and I haven’t delivered. My bad. I ended up with less time than I thought I’d have. The downside is this revelation is now a little old in my mind and so there’s a chance the point might not be quite as kickin’. But don’t worry, it’ll still be worth it. It’s like getting promised a million dollars and only getting nine hundred ninety nine thousand dollars instead. It’s not quite as good, but it’s still sweeter than honey with sugar on top. By that I mean it’s still good.

We all know my posts are as long as a novel, so I’ll get on with it.

So this guy Seth begets Noah who begets Shem who begets Terah who begets Abram and some others that aren’t as important to us right now. One day long, long ago, God tells Abram to go to the land that He shows him. He promises to make him a great nation, to bless him, to make his name great, and to make him a blessing. He also promises that all the families of earth would be blessed through him. So Abram goes with his nephew Lot.
Some time later, Abram and Lot split up and Lot takes the good land and leaves Abram with the poor land (remember that one from Sunday school?). God promises the land to Abram and his descendants. The land is promised to him, thus it becomes the “Promised Land.”
In Gen.15, God tells Abram to chop some animals in half, down the middle, and to put the halves of the animals in two columns on the ground facing each other. Then God puts Abram to sleep. God tells Abram of the captivity of his descendants in Egypt and their exodus. Then a smoking oven and a burning torch appear and pass through the halves of the animals, symbolizing God, covenanting Himself to Abram. This covenant is referred to as the ‘Abrahamic Covenant.’
Later, God gives him the sign of circumcision, a sign of the covenant between him and God. He also changes his name from Abram, exalted father, to Abraham, father of a multitude. God tells Abraham he will become many nations, that kings will come from him, that the Promised Land will be an EVERLASTING possession of his descendants, and that He will be their God. So as a side note, according to God the Palestinians have no official place in Israel. They can be resident aliens, but they can’t own the land. It belongs to the Jews. God made Abraham an everlasting covenant.
Thus concludes the third in the series. The next will be about Isaac. It should be short-ish. Hurray! I hope you learned something new about the Abrahamic covenant. I’d go deeper into covenant and what that is all about, but I probably wouldn’t do it a justice. So there you go.

And God said...

2005-12-22T21:14:00.000-08:00

I'm starting off this post with Gen. 1 and 2 for your convenience, but if you'd like you can skip down to what you really want to hear, my stuff!

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

6 Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens." 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all F2 the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

29 And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so.

31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

4 This is the history F3 of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; F4 it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

18 And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

So there it is- all of creation.

I in the begining, nothing... then

BAM!

The heavens and the earth! Sweetness!

God starts creating things. The creation process is quite formulaic. Here's how I see it-

1) God makes a decree ("God said," "let there be", "let the earth bring forth" etc) By the power of God's Word, creation comes into existence. He speaks, and it comes into being. This is an interesting principle, because according to the gospel of John, Jesus is the Word. Christ is referred to as the Word of God. By God's word/Word creation comes into being.

2) God's decree comes to pass ( i.e "and there was" or "and it was so"). The word becomes physical matter. By the spoken Word, the face of the earth is made and manipulated.

4) God names/classifies His creation (i.e. "And God called the..." or "according to it's kind...") By naming His creation, God exhibits His ultimate dominion over it.

5) God checks out His work and He enjoys it. He declares it "good".

Nice formula, fairly consistent, BUT something happens that throws all this organized creation off. The formula is altered. Everything is different.

Difference one- "God said 'Let Us make man...'" Not just let there be, but God speaks to the rest of God. Then He even goes as far as to suggest that man not simply be, as the rest of creation came into exsistence, but that they make man.

Difference two- "in Our image, according to Our likeness;" God doesn't just speak it to be, but makes man, and even in His own image and likeness.

Difference three- "let him have dominion over the (stuff)" (I put the stuff in there, it's not scripture, just in case you didn't catch that yourself) So God decides, even before it's created, that man will have dominion over all living creatures, which would inculde himself. Self dominion I think can be rephrased into free will.

Difference four- God tells man that He has given him and the animals all the herbs and fruits for food. God hasn't yet told man He has been given animals to eat. So thus far, all of creation is vegetarian. It's not until Genesis 9, after the flood, that God makes any mention to man that he can eat meat. I imagine man hadn't even thought about eating animals before then. It seems from the text that, before God's declaration in chapter nine, man had a friendly relationship with animals. This would explian how, if dinosaurs did exsist, they co-exsisted with man without destroying us (like Jurasic Park, whoa!). Anyway, Gen. 9: 1-4 is my reference.
So there's this vegetarian cycle of life where nothing had to die for something else to eat. Now we kill animals to eat, but then, man and the animals ate the plants. Even the plants didn't nessecarily die, but they gave their leaves and fruit to animals and man, the animals and man would digest and poop out to fertilize the plants, that would then produce more leaves and fruit. There was this perfect, friendly continuation of life.

Anyway, we already see God is taking extra care with man. He even gives every other living creature to him to take care of. Chapter two tells us God made the garden of Eden and placed man into it. God created the garden after He created man, so we can assume God created Eden for man. I would even assume God created Eden to be a kind of hang out for Him and man to coexsist. Chapter 3 verses 8 and 9 give evidense to that, although I'll go into that a little later.

Verse 7 tells us God formed man form the dust in the ground, and then breathed into his nostrils. Two interesting things-
1. God only breathes life into one creation, the man.
2. God formed man.
The interesting thing about God forming man goes down to the root of the word. In Hebrew, the word used for most of creation, create, or bara, simply means to create, possibly out of nothing. To form, or yasar, has the meaning of a potter molding something out of clay. This word indicates far more creativity and care than the rest of creation. God simply creates the world, but He forms man.
So its apparent God took extra special care making man. Not only does He go about it differently, He is far more creative and then He gives the rest of creation to man. Then He takes even more creative lisence in making Woman. He could have formed her out of the dust like man, but instead He takes a rib and made, or banah, which can be translated as built. God builds Eve out of a rib.

So sum up so far- God makes the world, then He takes a LOT of extra effort, thought, and care into making His ultimate creation- Us! In chapter 2, God forms animals after He forms man. If we follow the two chapters chronologically, we can read it as God creates the world, He forms man, sticks man into the garden paradise of Eden, and then creatively forms animals to keep him company. These animals aren't fitting, so He builds woman out of Adam's rib.

Unfortunatly, man chooses sin. Verses 8 and 9, however, shows us a beautiful picture of God walking through His lush creation in the cool breeze of the day, looking for Adam. This little glimpse shows us something very important- God created the world to be relational with it. God walked through the garden. He called out for Adam. While it wasn't a pleasant conversation, Genesis records a personal conversation God has with Adam and Eve. He was with them and loved them and talked with them like we talk to one another.

So what's my point? God created to love. He created to enjoy and to be in relationship with His creation. His favorite part was people. He took a lot of care with us when He made us, more than the rest of creation. Why? Because God knew us before He made us, and He loved us. God is love. He loves His whole creation. He created to love, He created because He loved. God loves us, so He created. That's my conclusion. Pretty simple in the end. There's more to it, but I can't give it all in one blog, so keep checking back. The next installment presents sin, and the third is Seth and Cain, which I already posted. The final conclusion is what all the posts mount up to, and it was a pretty big epiphany for me. So keep reading my Theological blogs and I'll try to convince you God loves you and wants you to be holy.

Cain and Seth

2005-12-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son--Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.

19 Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. 20 And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. 22 And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.

23 Then Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me. 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, "For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed." 26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. ^F7 Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.

That's Genesis 4. So here it is. Adam has two sons, Cain and Able. Cain kills Able. God gives Adam Seth to replace Abel, which I think is a bit of evidence against the theory that Adam and Eve had a lot more kids, although I haven't really cared to look into that enough to find more truth. Anyway, that's not the point. Cain is the first recorded murderer. Then he goes and starts the first city. Amoung his decendants are the first polygamist, the first metal smith (and the first to take apprentences), the first nomad, and the first musician, not listed in order. Cain sinned and went away from the presence of the Lord and started civilization as we know it. Rather than living with and depending on God, they lived out of His presence and were self reliant, trusting in themselves and their new inventions. Also, 4: 23, 24 show an account of Lamech, who was wounded by a young man, so he killed him and bragged about it to his two wives. This shows all the sin that was already spreading through Cain's tainted line. All of this is to say that Cain's decendants were sinful and did not know God.
Seth's decendants, however, called on the name of the Lord, which is actually to say that they used the name YHWH, Yahweh or Jehovah, take your pick, either way it means the actual name of God, like George or Sam. Amoung Seth's decendants are Methuselah, Enoch, and Noah. Enoch was so righteous, rather he walked so closely with the Lord, that he never died. He just ceased to be. The technical term for it is being translated. God took him to Heaven. Methuselah was the oldest recorded man ever to live, and one could make the argument that he lived so long because he was righteous and sin didn't reign in his body, sin which has the power of death. Later on, Noah is spared amoung all of mankind because he's the only righteous man left.

So then we come to this verse that says

that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

3 And the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive ^F9 with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.
Gen 6

Now people generally assume that this means angels had sex with women and they produced giants. But if you look at the logical progression of Genesis up to this point, it seems far more likely that the sons of God are actually the righteous decendants of Seth. Verses three and five confirm this. There were two strains of man, one righteous and one wicked. Then all of the sudden God says in v. three that "he is indeed flesh" and in five "the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great." Man became wicked. The rational progression of Genesis three through six would suggest that when the "sons of God saw the daughters of men" it was the righteous strain of humanity, the sons of Seth who called on the name of the Lord, people who knew God by name, that saw the daughters of man, the decendants of wicked Cain who reveled in sin.

The word giants comes from the word nephilim, which can also be translated as mighty or fallen ones. In this context, it seems more likely the nephilim here weren't giants but mighty ones, perhaps even mighty in their sin. That's not to say there weren't ever giants, just not neccesarily here.

So what can we draw from all this interesting stuff? Sin separates us from God. Seth's decendants were righteous and close to God. Cain's decendants were self reliant and sinful (just look at Lemech, who brags to his two wives about how he killed a man) and never mentioned God. Cain knew God. Look at how God speaks to him before he kills Able. It's friendly and fatherly. But after he sins, he leaves the presence of God and starts civilization. Sin separates us from the great relationship we can have with God.

I think I'll start a series of blogs on some stuff I recently studied. This is part of it, although it goes further back to creation. God gave me some heavy revelation recently and I thought it was pretty exciting. So I'll share it with you in spurts, because some people probably won't even read this because it's so long and because I don't have time to throw it all out there right now. Peace be with you from the Lord God through our Savior from all sin, Jesus Christ.

Happy holidays!

2005-12-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

I posted my Christmas wishlist on my Xanga at www.xanga.com/marvelmonkey so go check it out and bless my pants off this holiday season.

As an added bonus for reading my blogger, I will present to you the truth about Sante, thanks to www.brainofbrian.com. If you have kids or are a kid, you may want to spare them this post.

After much research, we present the annual aeronautical engineers report on the theory of Santa:
No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer, which only Santa has ever seen.
There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish & Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total -378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes that there's at least one good child in each.
Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with. This is due to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits/second. That is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has .001 second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house.
Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles/household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles; not counting stops to do what most of us do at lease once every 31 hours, plus eating etc. So Santa's sleigh must be moving at 650 miles/second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a pokey 27.4 miles/second. A conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles/hour.
If every one of the 91.8 million homes with good children were to put out a single chocolate chip cookie and an 8 ounce glass of 2% milk, the total calories (needless to say other vitamins and minerals) would be approximately 225 calories (100 for the cookie, give or take, and 125 for the milk, give or take). Multiplying the number of calories per house by the number of homes (225 x 91.8 x 1000000), we get the total number of calories Santa consumes that night, which is 20,655,000,000 calories. To break it down further, 1 pound is equal to 3500 calories. Dividing our total number of calories by the number of calories in a pound (20655000000 / 3500) and we get the number of pounds Santa gains, 5901428.6, which is 2950.7 tons.
The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (2 lb.), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300lb. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see #1) can pull 10 TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with 8, or even 9, reindeer. We need 214,200. This increases the payload - not counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. This is four times the weight of the ocean-liner Queen Elizabeth.
353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles/second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft reentering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within .00426 of a second. Meanwhile, Santa, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250 lb. Santa, being very conservative in terms of guessing Santa's weight, would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 lb. of force. If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Next General!

2005-12-05T00:41:00.000-08:00

I wrote this in an e-mail to one of our Salvation Army publications. These are my essentials for the new General-

My name is Joel Boyd. I am a soldier of the Seattle Temple corps in Washington. I've been a soldier in the Army for six years. I've written this article to express one active soldiers opinion on what the next General should be like. Thanks for letting my voice be heard.

The Salvation Army is at a crossroads, and the next General will be the one that decides which direction we will take. That being said, he/she could be the most important General since Booth himself. The Salvation Army in the West is full of officers and soldiers who are dissatisfied with the way things are. Some desire a return to the "good old days" and some seek radical change. The problem is neither group believes we're where we should be as the Army. I and many others believe that the Army is ripe for change, and the next General will be our leader to bring us through that change. We need to take a deep, careful, Spirit-filled look at the Army as it is now and then decide who will lead us to where we should be.

Recently, while reading the parable of the sower and the seeds (Matthew 13), the Lord led me to a new application of the different soils and how they relate to the Western Army of today. The different types of soil relate to the spiritual conditions of the Army's collective 'heart'.

The "path" or "wayside" soil represents, amoung other things, traditionalism, an attitude that says "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." In Commisioner Pil Needham's Salvationist ecclesiology, Community in Mission, he states that "...faithfulness to tradition is not adherence to traditions; it is adherence to the gospel, allegiance to Christ, openness to the Spirit's leading- and letting the chips of traditionalism fall where they will... the Church must courageously maintain flexibility in matters traditional." According to Commisioner Needham, rather than sticking to old traditions, we need to maintain constant flexibility. We need a General who will courageously examine every tradition, even down to the uniform, and prune away every bit that is not useful to the mission. The General needs to be completely open and sensitive to the Holy Spirit, taking His guidance as to what needs to stay, go, or be changed. We need a General who can lead us into breaking through the 'hard path' of traditionalism into soft soil, ready to receive all the the Sower's seeds.

The rocky soil represents a lack of spiritual depth. In the parable, the rocky ground kept the seed from growing deep roots, and as a result the crop failed under pressure. I believe, as an Army, we have lost much of the spiritual depth of our salvationist forefathers. As a result, many of our soldiers have become demobilized. Our mission needs to be spurred on by deep passionate love for our Heavenly Father, but much of that deep, first love has faded. We need a General who can not only be a great spiritual leader of the Army, but one who has a passionate, even prophetic relationship with Christ. Our General needs to love our Shephard and know and follow His voice. Only this kind of leader can help guide our roots into deeper soil, thus strengthening our crop.

The thorny ground represents cares of this world, and for the Army, pride in our name and reliance on money. The Salvation Army is known world wide for it\'s incredible work helping the poor and the helpless. Every good soldier knows that one only needs to show up in uniform and drop the name "The Salvation Army" and people will be glad to donate. Our problem is we pride ourselves too deeply on our name recognition and not on the fact that it\'s God that has gotten us where we are, and it\'s God that will take us where we are going. Also, we\'ve begun to lean on money to drive our minestry and have been lacking in the faith that drove the early Army. One only needs to look at the DHQ\'s to see the departments dedicated to minestry are often understaffed in comparison to those dedicated to finance and business. The burning passion of early salvationism has been choked out by worry about money. We need a General whose faith will vastly outweigh reliance on anything else. Our trust should be in God, who is our Great Provider, not in money or respect from the world. Our General needs to guide us away from the thorns we\'ve embraced and help us to lean on God our Father. He is the one who will sustain our mission and minestry.

The rocky soil represents a lack of spiritual depth. In the parable, the rocky ground kept the seed from growing deep roots, and as a result the crop failed under pressure. I believe, as an Army, we have lost much of the spiritual depth of our salvationist forefathers. As a result, many of our soldiers have become demobilized. Our mission needs to be spurred on by deep passionate love for our Heavenly Father, but much of that deep, first love has faded. We need a General who can not only be a great spiritual leader of the Army, but one who has a passionate, even prophetic relationship with Christ. Our General needs to love our Shephard and know and follow His voice. Only this kind of leader can help guide our roots into deeper soil, thus strengthening our crop.

The thorny ground represents cares of this world, and for the Army, pride in our name and reliance on money. The Salvation Army is known world wide for it's incredible work helping the poor and the helpless. Every good soldier knows that one only needs to show up in uniform and drop the name "The Salvation Army" and people will be glad to donate. Our problem is we pride ourselves too deeply on our name recognition and not on the fact that it's God that has gotten us where we are, and it's God that will take us where we are going. Also, we've begun to lean on money to drive our minestry and have been lacking in the faith that drove the early Army. One only needs to look at the DHQ's to see the departments dedicated to minestry are often understaffed in comparison to those dedicated to finance and business. The burning passion of early salvationism has been choked out by worry about money. We need a General whose faith will vastly outweigh reliance on anything else. Our trust should be in God, who is our Great Provider, not in money or respect from the world. Our General needs to guide us away from the thorns we've embraced and help us to lean on God our Father. He is the one who will sustain our mission and minestry.

When all these soils are dealt with, all that is left is the fourth soil, the good soil. The good soil grows up seeds into a crop that produces fruit, some up to a hundredfold Like I mentioned earlier, our next General will be the one who brings the Salvation Army into a new era of it\'s life. We need to find a General who is ready, willing and able to deal with all the problems, all the bad soils, and bring us into a renewed period of passion and mission. God has great plans in store for the Salvation Army. I believe if we can find the right General, he/she may help lead the Salvatin Army to live out these words our founder Catherine Booth prophesied- "I believe this Movement is to inaugurate the great final conquest of the Lord Jesus Christ."

The crappy servant and the crazy king

2005-11-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer:

So I just finished typing and this ones a doosey or some other word that means long. Then again, since when did I write short blogs? It's one of my better ones though. Check it out!

So here's what I gathered from the parable of the wicked servant....

23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' 27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. 28 But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!' 29 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet F90 and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' F91 30 And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. 35 So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses." F92 Matthew 18

So the first servant owed ten thousand talents. That translates to about 60 million denarii. One denarii is one days wage. The second servant owed him only 100 denarii. Lets do some math....

Granted I didn't put much effort into my math, I still think it makes a good point. Check it out-

To pay off his debt, the first servant would have to work 60 million days and give every cent he earned to pay off his debt.
To put it on a more reasonable scale, if he worked every day of his life, from his day of birth to the day of death, without a single day off, sick day, vacation, Sabbath or weekend, without any childhood and never retiring, and then he lived to the ripe old age of 85, he would have to live one thousand nine hundred and thirty-four life times to pay off his debt, and that's without taking a single penny for himself. This proposal is preposterously simple and generous, considering according to Jewish law, one couldn't work on Sabbath and I'm sure no man employs new born babies...
Look at it this way- If he somehow gained immortality, then worked every day of his immortal life to pay off his debt, and never kept a cent, he would only have to work for 164,383.5 years. Pittance.

When he told his master he could pay off his debt, he must have been lying through his teeth, completely insane, or vastly ignorant of the immensity of his debt. Now for the second servent who owed 100 denarii...

To pay off his debt to the first servant, he would have to work a full 100 days and give every penny to him
Translating into dollars, if he worked an eight hour day getting a low pay of $6.50/hour, his debt would amount to $5,200, a substantial debt, especially for a low income earner. If he had a family to support, this debt could quite possibly be unpayable.

So a glance at both debts shows us that both responces were appropriate for the time. The kings original plan, to sell the first servant and his entire family to pay off at least a fraction of the debt, was quite acceptable. Likewise, the first servant's responce to the second servant was not at all unwarrented. My denarii-to-dollar example may not be completely historically accurate, but in some places $6.50 or even higher is the minimum wage, so I think it works. If you were working a minimum wage job and somebody owed you $5,200 and just wasn't going to pay off, how would you feel? Society would say sue him or send him to debtors prison (assuming we still had such a thing...). This was his responce, perfectly reasonable.

So what's the spiritual application? This is obviously more than just a story about some people owing each other money. The servants represent mankind, the king is God. We all owe a debt to God, and like the wicked servant, we all owe a debt that's so immense it's almost funny, except for the fact that the wages of sin is death. Because we've all accepted sin (for all have sinned and fall short) over the grace of God, we all deserve complete and horrible damnation. When we choose sin, we spit in the face of God, the embodiment of Love itself, a Love that lives out it's very existance soley for you. How horrible a thing. This Love has and will try everything to reach you, even if this Love knows you will never love it in return. So great a Love is this, it's simply uncomprehendable. The wicked servant is a fool for allowing himself to fall into such a deep, unpayable debt. How infinitely more foolish are we to deny Love the only thing it wants for it's love- our flawed love in return. We scoff at the wickedness and foolishness of the first servant when the fact of the matter is Jesus is pointing at us- every man or women born to this earth, and our debt and wickedness far extends the bounds of finances. I could go on, but I think I've expressed myself- we are the first servant, and we suck, really really bad.

Back to the story- the king forgives the debt of the servant. This king is so gracious and compassionate, it is offensive to the mind. The very fact that the king gave so much to the servant in the first place makes us wonder how sane this king really is, or if there was some scandal behind his giving. Then he just forgives him. What? How dare he! It almost seems like an injustice! It's rediculous finacially and hard to come to terms with morally. That servant ought to have been taught a serious lesson at least! What kind of grace is this, grace that is so good, it's almost scandelous? Am I on my own on this one? Seriously, this servant was crap and at least something ought to have been done. Not even a slap on the wrist or some sort of agreement- "You pay me 5 bucks a month, we'll call it even." Nothing. Complete, unconditional, 100% forgiven. Not a penny owed. And the worst part of it all is, this analogy Jesus uses is only a fraction of what the kingdom of God is really like. It's only a snippet. In reality, we are far worse than the servant and God's grace is so much more than that of the king.

Consider owing somebody over 160,000 years worth of work. Seriously stop and think about it. Think about one year in a crappy, hard, unfufilling job, and getting nothing for it. That, times 160,000, and there's still more to go. And that's only an analogy. There's much more to it. Praise the Lord. Praise Him with tears in your eyes, tears of remorce for how much you've grieved Him, and tears of gratitude in its truest form, dripping with love. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. May His name be praised on earth as it is in Heaven. Glory, glory, glory be to God on high!

The second servant owed the first a lot of money. There's no way he could have gotten the money together in any reasonable amount of time, not as a servant. There's living expenses to pay, possibly a family. If you buy my $5,200 model, consider working $6.50/hour and raising a family. People do it, I don't know how. It's commendable really, especially in our materialistic Western society. Now imagine working $6.50/hour with a $5,200 debt, and he demanding you pay up. It just isn't possible. "It's too hard to make mends meet as it is, how can I even pay five denarii?", I imagine him thinking. He owed him a great debt.

Who owes you a great debt? Have you let someone borrow money or some tangible thing that you're still expecting back? Are you still expecting somebody to make good on a promise, or is the debt even deeper? Has somebody hurt you in the past? Perhaps someone has broken your heart in a such a way, there's nothing they can do to repair it. Perhaps somebody owes you an unpayable debt...

The debt the second servant owed was great, but lets compare the two-

The first servant would have had to work a measley 164, 383.5 years to pay off his impossible debt
The second servant would have had to work a whopping .274 of a year to pay off his debt
Like I proposed before, the second servant owed a possible conversion of $5,200. If you convert the wicked servenats debt into dollars using the same 1 denarius to $6.50/hour for an 8 hour day, his debt would amount to a minescule 3.12 BILLION dollars.

Even my improper use of adjectives doesn't mask the incredible difference between the debts. Looking at the comparison, we naturally feel he should immediatly be so filled with gratitude that he forgives the other man's debts. And why not? He nearly lost his life, but because of the indescribible grace of the king, he has been given a new life, a new start! He owed lifetimes of debt to the king, now he literally owes him nothing! (and now he owes him so much more than he did before) Because he throws the second servant into prison, onlookers report him to the king, who in his fury delievers him into the hand of torturers, an even worse fate than he faced before. We feel his punishment is just.

How about you? Are you holding some debt against someone? Have you thought about that debt in comparison to the immeasurable debt God has forgiven us? In fact, don't even bother comparing the two debts, just consider how much you actually owe to Him. Try asking Him to help you understand just how much He's forgiven you, and then chew on that for a while. Dwell on the mercy you've recieved. Consider going to Hell, and, if you've recieved His free gift of grace in faith, be grateful He's pulled you out of that and into eternal glory. When you begin to realize just how much He has done for you, just how much He loves you, all the other problems of this world just don't seem to matter as much. He can handle it if you just trust in Him.

If I wanted to say this in a lot less words (a LOT less....) perhaps I could simply have said this-

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangly dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Amen.

Check out my Xanga!!!

2005-11-23T23:01:00.000-08:00

PLEASE go to

http://www.xanga.com/marvelmonkey

That's my Xanga. I know, it has a rediculous name, I made it up in Jr. High and kept using it on the internet until I was twenty. Kinda like how I wore sweatpants to school until I was in like 8th grade or how I had a bowl haircut from the begining of grade school until I was 16. Anyway, ignore the name lame and the fact it is Xanga all you xanga haters out there. I spent a long time posting about spiritual gifts and I'd really appreiate it if you read it and gave me feedback. Poke holes in it, tell me if I'm wrong (but use scripture or maybe some of the Weslian quad or I'm likely not to listen). It should be the secod or third post down. It's pretty long, but it's also pretty good. You could read it as a morning devotional, and if you want to make a comment, but can't because xanga is lame that way, make a comment here on my blogger. Thanks mucho, gracias my homies, peace out.

My First blogger blog eva!

2005-11-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

I decided to start a blogger because people can view and post without being a member and people here in Canada probably won't look at my xanga. I'll try to update both (fat chance) but if I do one, I'll probably link the other to it. Eventually I'll probably stop using Marvel Monkey because the name marvelmonkey was invented in Jr. High and now I'm twenty and find MarvelMonkey slightly embarassing...

I got my name from a chorus ( SASB # 820) that says

"I believe we shall win,

If we fight in the strength of the King."

While I'm quoting songs, check out this old Army verse (SASB #800)

No, we never, never, never will give in,

No we won't! No we won't!

No we never, never, never will give in,

For we mean to have the victory for

ever.

With salvation for every nation,

To the ends of the earth we will go,

With a free and full salvation,

All the power of the cross we'll show.

(Here it comes!)

WE'LL TEAR HELL'S THRONE TO PIECES,

AND WIN THE WORLD FOR JESUS

We'll be conquerors forever,

For we never will give in.

How did you like that? "We'll tear Hell's throne to pieces and win the world for Jesus"! That's awesome! Let's live it out together! Come on, don't give up! Don't give in! And don't get distracted by the world and cares of this life! Those who keep their lives for themselves will lose them! That's not a Joel quote, that's Jesus. Lets tear the gates of Hell to the ground (Jesus said we could!) and save the suffering souls, every last one of them. I don't think there's enough urgency, even in my own heart! Don't we realize people are going to Hell? And it will be our responcibility. People are going to Hell and every Christian is responcible. I would even dare to say it's every Christian's fault for not giving every ounce of ourselves to Jesus, for not accpeting the plans and gifts He gives so freely to us. So press on! A true soldier lives for the fight, the thickest of the fight, even dies in it! (I admit, that's taken from Booth...) We MUST endevor with every breath to live with Christ, to abide in His presence, in His friendship. We must be passionate for holiness. We need to live the life He has commanded us to. "Go and sin no more" Jesus said it! He said a lot of other things too. Figure out just what it is Christ wants us (the Church) and you (you...) to do from the gospels and the rest of scripture, then do it. If you don't, who will? If the body of Christ won't, who will? If we can't even live the life, how do we expect the world to join us? If we don't experience Christ, what is Christianity? A bunch of do's and don'ts that make life boring. Maybe that's why so many people don't buy into this "Christian thing." We need to live the life. Christ wants to use us to take the world, but first He wants us to conquer ourselves- our flesh, the old man. How do we do that? Submit to Christ and stop sinning. He'll do the hard stuff, we just need to do our part, and sometimes I think we don't even let Him do His part, much less we do ours.

I suppose I ought to stop my rant. I have things that I need to do five (make that... 12?) minutes ago. But this is sooooooo important. Care about those people who are going to Hell. Jesus does. We all need to give more, care more, and give more of ourselves. If you don't agree, at least say "praise the Lord" with me. If we (Christians) can agree on that, we've got something to build on.