2 Timothy 2:1-2

Revival And The Spirit Of Antichrist

2008-08-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world". (I John 4: 1-4)

Even in the first century of the Christian faith there were people who proclaimed themselves Christians, but who had separated themselves from the Christian community. They fashioned theologies that used Jesus to represent the mystical, pagan and worldly ideas that permeated their surroundings. Their Jesus was not God who became man, dying and rising from the dead so that man could be reconciled to the Father, and who comes as a person to live in our hearts and to lead us by His Holy Spirit. Instead, their Jesus is a lifeless icon, representing religious works, denying that God who became man shed His precious blood to redeem mankind. The spirit of antichrist denies that Jesus is indeed the Christ, and that spirit has been at work in the world to prepare the world for the son of rebellion, The Antichrist.

The Antichrist is identified in Revelation as being one of the horns that comes from a beast that comes out of the sea "having ten horns and seven heads" (Rev. 13:1), who will appear at the end of this age, not only to lead men to worship the false god of this world, but also to try and complete the process of rebellion in this world that has been going on since the evil one first sinned. The evil one has always wanted, not only dominion over this world, but also to be recognized and worshiped as the true god of this world. But the end of this age will instead see the Son of Man restoring all to the plan that the Father always had. Jesus is the Christ, and He will reign and rule on this earth, and He will give all the glory to the Father, and will restore all things to the Father.

In one of his visions Daniel saw a series of beasts. The 4th one was "dreadful, and terrifying and extremely strong", and it had 10 horns. From among the horns rose up a little horn which would grow bigger and rip out 3 of the first 10. Daniel keeps looking at the vision until he sees that "thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His hair was like white snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, and the books were opened". (Daniel 7: 9-10)

This is an awesome picture of a judgment that is yet to come. God is shown here as a holy and righteous judge who has waited patiently for thousands of years for rebellion to take its course, but is now ready to burn away all the accumulated rot and re-establish His dominion and kingdom. Dominion over the earth had originally been given to mankind through Adam, who surrendered it to the evil one. Jesus came thousands of years later, living a life that was obedient to the Father, showing Himself glorified at the transfiguration to Peter, James and John, so they could testify as to who Jesus really was, dying on the cross as the sacrifice that the Father required to conquer sin, rising from the dead as the first fruits of a promised eternal life with Jesus and the Father, ascending to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father and asking the Father to pour forth the Holy Spirit to change, empower and comfort all those who would confess that Jesus had come in the flesh to be their Savior and Lord. The kingdom of God could now be in the hearts of people, who in turn could minister in the power of the Spirit to change the hearts and lives of others. But there still remained a struggle over the dominion of the earth and the control of its kingdoms.

The little horn is a picture of the coming Antichrist who will make an agreement with the many that is to last seven years (see Daniel 9:27). I believe that this agreement will allow the Jewish people to once again set up a tabernacle in or near Jerusalem. When it is set up they will anoint priests, cleanse the tabernacle, and set up daily offerings and sacrifices. Midway through the seven years the Antichrist will cause the offerings and the sacrifices to stop. An image of the Antichrist will be set up in the tabernacle, and it will be given the power to speak by the false prophet, who has received power and authority that came from the evil one, and many will begin to worship the image (see Matthew 24:15). Worship of the image in the tabernacle is the ultimate denial that Jesus is God come in the flesh, who became the sacrifice the Father required to reconcile man to Himself. The evil one, through the Antichrist (who may possibly even be the seed of the evil one), wants to inherit and rule through the Antichrist the earthly kingdom promised to Jesus, and from there to have permanent dominion over all the kingdoms of the world.

But it is not to be. Daniel sees that the forth beast (the kingdom of the Antichrist) will be slain, its body destroyed and given to the burning fire. Then Daniel notices with the clouds of heaven "One like the Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed"

(Daniel 7: 13-14). We are told in the first chapter of John that Jesus, who is called the Word, was present with God from the beginning, and that all things were created by Him and for Him. Jesus is called the Son of Man because the Word became flesh. As both the Son of Man, having become the second Adam, and the Son of God, He will be given authority and dominion over the kingdoms of the earth, ruling from Jerusalem.

John writes later in the Book of revelation; "And the beast (the Antichrist) was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who have received the mark of the beast, and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone" (Rev. 19:20). The evil one is bound for a thousand years, released for a short time near the end of the 1000 year reign of Christ, then is also thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone for eternity. After this there will be a new heavens and a new earth, Jesus will turn everything over to the Father, and things will be different in ways we cannot now imagine. Indeed, even now our image of who God is; His glory, His eternal nature, the vastness and complexity of a creation that He designed and implemented, and His love, we are so limited in understanding.

The visions in Daniel would identify the ancient of Days as being the Father. But the apostle John records in the beginning of Revelation another vision in which he sees seven golden lamp stands, "and in the middle of the lamp stands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters" (Rev. 1: 13-16). Here John, who saw the transfigured Jesus, sees in a vision someone who has the same look as the person described in the visio of Daniel, who appears as both priest and judge, and who identifies himself a few verses later as God did to Moses at the burning bush; "I am the first and the last" (v17). This is repeating how Jesus identifies Himself to John earlier in the 1st chapter; "I am the Alpha and the Omega', says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8).

My daughter Becky went to a Division I University to play soccer and to get her nursing degree. Eighty per cent of the students at that college had been born and raised Catholic, maybe 40 per cent had gone to private Catholic high schools, and religion for most was part of their daily lives. So Becky, coming from a religious and conservate non-Catholic home was very surprised to find out that most of her teammates would get drunk every weekend and many were sleeping with their boyfriends on a regular basis. I don't suppose that this was any different than the average secular college, or perhaps the same thing can be said for a lot of other Christian colleges today, Catholic or non-Catholic, but it was upsetting to my daughter. She saw in so many cases religion without any relationship with Jesus, and tradition that did not lead to a healthy fear of the Lord. Becky eventually began to pray that there would be revival at that school. She prayed for revival everyday and even started a meeting that meet early in the morning at the student union, joined by students from a variety of Christian groups on campus to pray for revival. But it was easy for her to get discourged. One time Becky expressed to me on the phone her frustration that she was not seeing anything happen, and I e-mailed her some encouragement, telling her that I sensed that there would come a time when people would fall under the power of the Holy Spirit at the school, even in the classrooms.

One evening that winter she went for a prayer walk around her downtown campus, lifting it up to the Lord for revival. As she was walking it started to snow. Becky had actually walked several blocks pass the campus, and when she turned around to go back she noticed that everything on the campus was covered by in white. Even the main city road running alongside the campus was now snow covered without any traffic having cut channels through to the pavement. At that moment God spoke to her and said something like this. "Revival will come when repentance covers the campus as the snow you see now is covering the campus. And when it does you are to lay your hands on people and say - Believe in the Lord God, the Almighty; who was, and who is, and who is to come. - And when you do, they will fall in the power of the Holy Spirit".

John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus, and he ministered with a baptism of repentance. Jesus said of John that no greater man had walked the earth. But when Jesus eventually came, John realized that the focus of what the Holy Spirit was doing through him wasn't about him at all. John's attitude was that he must decrease so that Jesus would increase. We read and hear stories about revival and we want to see the Holy Spirit move in our family, our church, our schools, our city and region. and just as Peter, when he saw the transfigured Jesus, wanted to build a little camp there, so we too are inclined to look for a place to camp that resembles what we have heard and read about. The spirit of antichrist is ultimately a spirit of pride, blocking the will of the Father and the move of the Spirit because we are slow recognize who we are in relation to who He is.

Lord, it is my prayer that you would search my heart, and show me where pride is limiting the move of your Holy Spirit in and through my life. Show me where sin is hiding. I repent of my rebellion towards you and my lack of love toward those around me. Burn your light into every corner of my life, and let my life be pleasing to you., I reject the lies of the evil one, and I will make every effort to walk in honesty and humility before you and my fellow man, no matter what the cost. This is my prayer, not just for now, but for the rest of my days on this earth. You have been my Savior for these many years. Help me know you as Lord each day forward.

He Is Faithful

2008-06-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Thus begins the great chapter on faith found in the Book of Hebrews. The word "now" brings us back to the theme found in the previous chapter. The people the author of Hebrews wrote to were enduring very difficult times. Jewish by birth or as converts, they had come, by faith, to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Now, instead of being led to the knowledge of the truth by Jewish customs, laws and sacrifices, they had something much better; "And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us . . . saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days says the Lord; I will put My laws upon their hearts, and upon their mind I will write them'". (Hebrews 10: 15-16)

The Jewish people had a temple which was patterned after the wilderness tabernacle, which itself was patterned after a tabernacle in Heaven. In the wilderness tabernacle there was a most holy place where the presence of God resided, the entrance blocked by a veil. Every year the Jewish high priest would enter through the veil into the most holy place to sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice as an offering for the sins of the nation. At the moment Jesus died on the cross the actual veil in the temple in Jerusalem, said to be two inches thick, tore from top to bottom. From then on all men, not just Jews, could come before the presence of God through the blood of Jesus; "by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh". (v.20) Jesus Christ offered His own blood in the original tabernacle in Heaven as an offering for our sins, and He becomes, for all who come to Him by faith, "a great high priest".

This high priest does not have to continually offer His blood as a sacrifice for our sins. It was offered, once for all; "But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God". (v.12) When we come to Him by faith the Holy Spirit, because of the shed blood of Jesus, can bring the Spirit of Christ into our hearts so that we can become a new creation. The blood of Christ is not applied each time we sin. Instead, at conversion, it has changed who we are. We now have relationship with Jesus brought about through our faith in His shed blood. Out of that relationship develops fellowship with Him. Sin and rebellion affects the closeness of our fellowship. Yet the Holy Spirit is able to cleanse our body and our heart to restore any lost fellowship. The Spirit calls, revealing to us who Jesus is. We answer by faith, receiving new life by having a changed spirit. Our spirit, or heart, has now become a temple for the Holy Spirit, who will guide us and enable us to have fellowship with the Father.

God is now truly our Father, and Jesus, the first born of creation, is not only our High Priest, our Lord and Savior, but in a real sense is also our brother. Although Jesus became man, and lived among us in this physical world, experiencing the good things that the physical world has, He also was tempted as we are, and endured suffering and sorrow. Jesus, with a resurrected physical body, resides in Heaven, and although we still have an un-resurrected physical body our true citizenship is no longer in this physical world. Jesus leads us by the gentle prodding of the Spirit to a life that can overcome the world.

There are different kinds of faith. One leads to our eternal salvation, a salvation which we will know and experience in our lives now. It begins with faith, changes who we are, and positions us to be a holy people before the Lord for eternity. We are a holy people, not by what we do but by what He has already done. Through the blood of Jesus we have already overcome the world, but being in the world still affects both our walk with Christ and the fellowship that He greatly desires with us now.

A second kind of faith gives us the ability to resist the compromises of this world. We are confronted by attacks that are physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, and each one is a type of persecution designed by the enemy to take something away from us, and to rob us of our fellowship with the Father. The enemy wants us to focus on the pain and struggles at hand, or on the false promises of happiness and security that the world seems to provide. But God has provided for us another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who will help us through the struggles of today and lead us toward the direction that God has planned for us. The Hebrew Christians, being in a time of great stress, wanted the comfort of familiar customs and ritual. They were looking at their lives from the lens of where they were and not from the perspective of where God was leading.

Thus we see the context of the faith examples in Hebrews 11. Even though these are Old Testament examples, they are testimonies that God will reward those who have to make difficult choices because they saw by faith a greater reality. Many did not see or experience the full evidence of the promises during their physical lives, but their obedience to the word that God gave them made possible the plan that God desired for them and their offspring. Many had to wait until only a miracle of God could make happen His promise, and although discouraged, they still trusted, finally seeing in a physical sense what they through faith already saw in their hearts.

We live in a culture that does not trust that God knows what is best for us. Instead of searching the scriptures with an open and humble heart to hear the Spirit and discover the heart of God for us, instead of confessing our sins before God and man and taking steps to change as the Spirit leads, and instead of carving out of our lives the time needed to fellowship with our Father, we would rather have the comfort of religious laws and customs, with the option of disagreeing with the particular tenants that make us uncomfortable.

By faith we come to know God. By faith we begin to understand that His promises are just and true, and that He can accomplish in and for us all that He promised.

"Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful". (v.22-23)

The Empty House

2008-06-04T05:59:00.000-07:00

"And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, nor will shephreds make their flocks lie down there. But desert creatures will lie down there, and their houses will be full of owls". (Isaiah 13: 19-21 - see also Jeremiah 50: 39-40)

"For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. And its (Edom, now the part of Jordan south of the Dead Sea) streams shall be turned into pitch, and its loose earth into brimstone. And its land shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night or day. Its smoke shall go up forever, from generation to generation it shall be desolate; None shall pass through it forever and ever. But pelican and hedgehog shall posess it, and owl and raven shall dwell in it; And He shall stretch over it the line of desolation and the plumb line of emptiness". (Isaiah 34: 8-11)

This last month has seen some terrible natural disasters. Cyclone Nargis took an unusual path and hit the coast of Myanmar very hard, killing tens of thousands in the first few hours. A combination of factors may result in hundreds of thousands dying in the aftermath. The removal of large sections of forests and swamplands in the years prior allowed for more sustained wind intensity and a greater storm surge. Transportation in the coast lands of this very poor country is mainly by boat, both preventing escape before the storm and prohibiting quick assistance after. Help was offered and even sent immediately, but the proud and corrupt military leadership dragged their feet for two weeks before they let in even a modest amount of foreign aid and outside emergency specialists. And when the aid started arriving much of it ended up for sale, the leaders making a profit while little children and their parents die from exposure, hunger, cholera and diarrhea.

A week before the storm I met a woman from Myanmar. She was getting her driver's license so she could go to work without having others always dropping her off and picking her up. She was happy and full of hope, and I imagine that part of what she earned at her job ended up supporting family in Myanmar. I wonder if she has any idea if they are now even still alive? There was some video the other day from Myanmar on TV, and hearing statistics is one thing, but seeing endless devastation and hundreds of people with hopeless looks on their faces is another. TV has also shown the devastation and faces of grief in China.

An earthquake, now upgraded to a size 8.0, hit a region in China, killing at least 75,000 people, but maybe 2 times that many. Unlike Myanmar, the government responded quickly and massively, outside assistance was welcome, and billions of dollars in donations was freely given in the first few days by the newly rich and the still poor of that country. The saddest part of the situation is that school construction codes apparently were quite lax, resulting in the needless deaths of tens of thousands of children, crushed by falling roofs in the middle of the school day. The goegraphy of the country changed somewhat in that over 30 new lakes were formed by earthquake moved debris blocking rivers, and some very large towns have to be completly rebuilt. Several large aftershocks have destroyed hundreds of thousand more homes. As in Myanmar, there are millions of homeless. China has even requested over 3 million tents from foreign aid services to provide temporary shelter.

Someone pointed out that the number 8 is considered by the Chinese to be a lucky number, and so the summer Olympics being held there this August are scheduled to start at 8:08 PM, 8/8/2008. China is a growing world power and they are most anxious to show off to the rest of the world their new found prosperity and powerful athletic prowess. I love sport and will watch the games if I'm still around, but I find some things interesting. The origin of the Olympics date to ancient and pagan Greece. The revived Olympics is truly an event shared by and shown to the entire world, and they honor and promote the achievements of man, paying homage at the same time (as I'm sure we will see in China) to the traditional false gods. Is it a coincidence then, that the earthquake was a magnitude 8.0, happening 88 days before the start of the games? The Chinese would say, "bad luck", but I don't believe this was just chance. We get comfortable that everything will always be the same, but for millions of survivors in Myanmar and China, things forever changed in one day and will never be the same.

Those people, regardless if they worship a pagan god or gods, regardless if they have a false theology or ideology, regardless if they have evil or corrupt leaders, and regardless even if they sometimes are without love for God or their fellow man, are real people with families and friends. They laugh and cry, love and hope, and each has a spirit which will never cease to exist. I do not wish the judgment of God on any of them. I trust that God is merciful as well as just, and I am aware that revival is going on in China and that every year millions have become believers in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, perhaps many even live in that quake stricken region. But time will not go on as usual, with death in the course of natural history being salvation's last call. These diasters should be a sign to us that God's plan for the nations could very well be coming to an apex, and that America may not be unaffected.

A while back Hurricane Katrina hit the coastlands of Mississippi and Louisiana very hard, and the aftermath of its devastation is still evident for thousands of square miles. I live in a Northern border state, but Katrina has had a more personal impact on me than other weather related disasters because I know so many people who have given of their time to travel to places like Biloxi, Mississippi and New Orleans, to work on rebuilding homes and churches for those despeated people. Many have gone more than once, and most have found the sacrifice tremendously rewarding. I don't know if Katrina was a judgment on America or not, but it should be a sign that things, even here, can change overnight.

I believe that God knows each individual and is aware of the course of each nation, and that He puts a wall of protection around people as well as nations who honor Him and seek after His will, putting partial limits on what the evil one can accomplish. But in His loving grace and foreknowledge He still allows bad things to happen to good people, people whose hearts are right with God. Diasters can still hit nations even if they are filled with Christian churches and have built up a reserve of good works. It is natural for us to always be hopeful that the moral condition of our country will improve, that revival will change society by changing enough hearts to make a difference, and it is good and right that we pray and work toward that goal. But we must also recognize two things. Things are not getting better, they are getting worse, and world events make it clear that we are in a time period just before the return of Christ, which must and will happen.

This April a certain minister had a brief vision, and in it there was a tremendous shaking and he saw a river so wide that he could not see either shore. Then in May he had a vivid dream. He was in an empty house which was violently shaking, surrounded by terrible loud noises. An old Spanish looking map was displayed, and on it the names of two towns. He felt that the dream was a continuation of his previous vision. After he woke up he researched the locations of the towns. The name of one was in both Illinois and Mississippi, and the name of the other was at a mid-point between the two, near the New Madrid fault, along the Mississippi River, south of St. Louis.

Between December and February of 1811-1812, there were four major earthquakes centered in the New Madrid area. From records they were estimated at being an 8.1, 7.0, 7.8, and 8.0 magnitude. The Mississippi River was rerouted in places and for a time ran backwards, new lakes were formed, church bells rang as far away as Boston from the shaking, but loss of live was minimal because the territory was sparsely populated. The geology of the Mid-West will mean that a major quake there will cause much more damage over a wider area that a West Coast quake. Experts say that the potential damage and loss of life will make Katrina seem minor by comparsion. There are hundreds of minor quakes in that area each year. This Spring a quake of 5.0 was felt in my Michigan town, and geologist estimate that there is a 90% chance of a 6.0, which would cause major damage in St. Louis, in the next 30 years and a 10% chance of an 8.0 quake in the next 50 years. That is pretty scary.

Last month I read on a web site that I often check out a report by a woman who had a dream, and in it she noticed that her house was empty but that there were strangers wandering around inside of it. She believed that this was a picture of conditions after the Rapture, and the story made an impression on me. That web site is devoted to subject matter that concerns the Rapture, and many diffeent people, for many different reasons, point to this June as a strong possibility for the Rapture. Now, if you were a betting person you could have won 100% of your bets by saying, "No, it won't happen this year", even if everything looked pretty convincing, so it's hard to get real worked up about this June. But I am anxious in my spirit, so one evening last week before I went to bed I asked God for a sign if this indeed was the time. The next morning I went out the front door of my house to get the paper, and sitting on a branch about 10 feet high and only about 20 feet away was a very large, gray owl. This was very unusual because I cannot recall ever seeing an owl. I went inside, got my camera, and walked out again and snapped the photo. After it eventually flew away I thought that perhaps this was the sign that I had prayed for. Finding my concordance and checking out the references for owl in scripture, I read and reread each verse and the sections they were in.

At first, the references seemed to indicate that an owl would be a symbol of God's judgment. There were two sections concerning the judgment of Babylon, and one concerning another judgment just before the second coming of Jesus. It finally occurred to me the next day, when I remembered the account of the woman and her empty house and the vision of the minister in an empty house, that the owl I saw could very well be a sign that soon my house would be empty because of the Rapture. The signs in nature are increasing, and the redemption of Zion is near. And so, whether here, there, or in the air, we can talk about this later.

"I have become like an owl of the waste places, I lie awake. I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop. My enemies have reproached me all day long . . . But Thou, O Lord, dost abide forever; And Thy name to all generations. Thou will arise and have compassion on Zion; For it is time to be gracious to her, For the appointed time has come". (Psalm 102: 6-7 and 12-13)

The Restrainer - Part II - The Coming Deception

2008-05-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

"Let no one in any way deceive you, for it (the Day of the Lord) will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness (the Antichrist) is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God". (2 Thes. 2: 3-4)

The Day of the Lord is a time, I believe coming soon, when God will remove the spiritual blindness from the eyes of the Jewish nation, and they will call upon the name of the Lord. This Jesus, who lived on earth at an actual time in world history, who 40 days after He rose from the dead ascended into the clouds, will descend from the clouds at an actual time, returning to Jerusalem and defeating the armies of the world gathered against Him. At this time the unholy trinity; the evil one, the Antichrist and the False Prophet, will be bound and Jesus will rule on the earth, which will then be unaffected by the rebellious leadership of the evil one, for about a thousand years. At the end of the thousand years the evil one will be released, he will deceive once again the nations and gather them together to wage war against Jesus, the saints and the holy city of Jerusalem. This time God will bind and seal away the evil one for good, there will be a resurrection and a judgment of all mankind who did not have a reborn spirit, and then God will end the world as we know it, creating a new heavens and a new earth. Those whose names were written in the book of life will go into eternity with the Lord Jesus, and those whose names were not will suffer eternal separation from God and His people.

The Day of the Lord will be a time of great trouble in the entire earth, but expecially in Israel. There will be wars and earthquakes, giant hailstones and meteor impacts, demon armies and famine, and depending on how one calculates scripture, one quarter to three quarters of the world population will die within a seven year period. Death by martyrdom will be common for all who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, and lawlessness will be everywhere.

The Thessalonians were going through a great period of persecution and hard economic times. They had been taught by Paul on one of his previous visits about the Day of the Lord, and evidently after Paul was gone they came under the impression from other sources that they were now in The Day of the Lord. Paul wrote to reassure them that The Day had not yet begun, and also that those in their community who had recently died had not missed out on being gathered to meet the Lord. "Now we request you brethern, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, that you not be so quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has begun". (2 Thes. 2: 1-2)

Paul goes on to say that the Day of the Lord will not come until "the apostasy" comes first, and the man of lawlessness, who is called elsewhere in scripture, "The Antichrist", is revealed. The word "apostasia" has been translated into English in our current bibles as "apostasy". The word has the sense of "falling away from" or "being removed from", and so the understanding we get from the word apostasy is that of a falling away from the faith. But English translations before the King James version rendered the translation as "the removal". This is interesting, because if that is the proper rendering of "apostasia" Paul is telling the Thessolianians that the Day of the Lord cannot begin until something is removed that is restraining the coming of the Antichrist, an idea consistant with verse 6; "And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed".

There are different opinions as to who or what that restrainer is. Some early church fathers believed it was human government, as represented by Rome. Roman law prevailed throughout the world known to those early theologians, and the might of Rome kept lawlessness in check. Others believve that it is the archangel Michael, who is holding back the spirit of the Antichrist until the proper time. And a third opinion is that presence of the Church, or the Body of Christ, being indwelt with the power of the Holy Spirit, is now restraining the worldwide lawlessness that will accompany the arrival of the Antichrist, a condition that must precede the return of the Lord. "And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work . . . that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish". (2 Thes. 2: 6-9)

I believe the third one was what Paul was telling the Thessalonians. The Church (which includes them) must be removed before the revealing of the Antichrist and with it the worldwide rebellion against God that he would help bring. God had been patient with rebellion and lawlessness, but He would not let it go on forever. Just as the evil one was allowed to deceive one third of the angels to follow after him, so would the evil one, with the help of the Antichrist and the False Prophet, be allowed to deceive the nations so that truth could finally conquer falsehood, and light could finally roll back the darkness. The Holy Spirit will be present in the hearts of those who become reborn after the removal, but the intercesion of believers will not hold back the culmination of rebellion that God will now allow. Because of rebellion the world and all who lived in it had been subject to fear, corruption, pain and death. But Jesus was going to return as Redeemer King, and all rebellion would be dealt with. Although the condition of the Thessalonians was harsh, the world wide condition of lawlessness, as led by the Antichrist, could not begin until they are removed. And they can know that God's promise for their removal, as well as for the resurrection of their loved ones, was still valid because the Antichrist would exalt himself above every so-called god, and place himself in the Jewish temple to be worshipped, and that obviously had not yet happened.

All the English translations prior to the King James rendered the word apostasia as "the removal". This was not done by the translators to further a "rapture" theology, since at that time the early reformers still favored Roman Catholic doctrine on the interpretation of what would happen in the last days and what was the timing of the return of Jesus. Fourth century Catholic theologians had a world view that did not include the rebirth of Israel or the regathering of the Jewish people into that land, or a physical return of Jesus as the longed after Jewish Messiah, finally accepted by them, who would rule the Gentile nations from Jerusalem for 1000 years. The book of Revelation was spiritulized, as were prophecies in Daniel, Ezekiel and elsewhere to reflect that theology. Catholics do teach that in the last days there will be an apostasy, or falling away from the Roman Catholic faith, with a coming of an Antichrist, who may even be a false pope. But God will protect the true "institutional" Church during that time, until the Antichrist is once more bound by Michael.

Caholic theology views it's institutional Church as replacing Judaism. Theirs is the new priesthood, and Jesus is already present on the earth through His presence in the sacraments, especially communion and the display of the host. Through His establishment during His time on earth of the sacraments and the apostolic based priesthood, He will not need to return until the final judgment, just prior to the new heavens and the new earth. Although most Protestants have a historical rejection of the pope, the priesthood, and the sacramental system, they have still retained a theology that transfers God's unrevokable promises for the Jewish people and nation upon the Church, although they define Church differently. The majority of Protestant denominations still spiritualize many parts of scripture, including most or all of the prophetic passages.

The Catholic Church explicitly rejects the idea that Jesus will return to earth to rule for 1000 years. Point 676 in the Catechism Of The Catholic Church states; "The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the intrinsically perverse political form of secular messianism". (It is "intrinsically perverse" because the return of Jesus to rule on the earth would upset the need for apolstolic succession, sacraments, etc.) Catholic theology accepts a tribulation period, which is defined as a period of apostasy from Catholicism, perhaps accompanied by other worldwide diaster, and led by an Antichrist. That period will end when the Antichrist is bound by the archangel Michael. This will usher in a universal Time of Peace, when the nations will flock to the presence of Christ as found in the sacraments and the priesthood of the Catholic Church. At the end of that undetermined time Michael will release the Antichrist, who will gather the nations against the Chruch, which is ruling from Jerusalem at this time, for the final war of Gog and Magog. It is at this time that the Church will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air. The Bride will then immediately return with Jesus to do away with all rebellion. There will be a final judgment, and finally "a cosmic upheaval of the passing world".

I believe that there is coming a specific point in time when everyone who has a reborn spirit will be physically removed from the earth to meet the Lord in the clouds, and thus to reside with Him in His Kingdom forever. This will be proceeded by a resurrection of the physical bodies of all those from the time of Jesus until now who had a reborn spirit at the time of their death. There will be left many people in the Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Churchs, as well as many Jews, alive at that point in time who did not have a reborn spirit, which comes about through faith and not through baptism, or obedience to the tenants of any particular faith tradition. The day after the removal all of these chruches will be filled, and there will quickly arise false teachers and prophets, some even accompanied by false signs and wonders, who will deny the truth and confuse those who honestly desire to turn to God. There will be signs in the heavens to deceive the world. I believe one will be the appearance of the Virgin Mary, appearing clothed with the sun, standing on the moon, with twelve stars around her head as a crown. This description comes from Revelation 12, a woman Joseph saw in a dream which scripture interprets as the Jewish nation, but which has been intrepretated by the Catholic Church as Mary. This apparation will say that her womb which bore Jesus is the new ark of the covenant, and that during these times they should find their safety in her. There will be many other signs as well, leading away from surrender to Jesus, and ultimately toward the worship of the evil one, who will sit in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, proclaiming himself to be god.

But scripture also shows that God will have many ways during this awful time to proclaim the eternal gospel throughout the whole world. Many who receive that good news will be killed, choosing light and truth over darkness and lies. Paul told the Thessalonians that, although they too might have to die for their faith, they could not now be in that time of lawlessness and judgment.

"But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through santification, by the Spirit and faith in the truth". (2 Thes. 2: 13)

"Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word". (2 Thes. 2: 16-17)

The Restrainer Part I

2008-05-14T06:41:00.000-07:00

"And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed . . . " (2 Thessalonians 2: 6-7)

Helen, my 88 year old mother-in-law, has been a member of St. Joe's parish her entire life. Although she still drives a car and can pretty much take care of herself in the same house she moved into when she first married, Harry has been gone for 10 years and health issues the last 2 years have made it difficult for her to drive herself to mass very often. None of her 10 children and spouses or her 95 grandkids and great grandkids attend church at St. Joe's. Jackie and I were the first to leave the Catholic faith, and most of the rest of the family followed later when the time was right for them. The family of Helen's oldest son still attend mass regularly, but they live several states away. Although that son goes to mass and receives the sacraments, he does not believe that Jesus is God.

My wife will take the hour and a half trip to Kalamazoo once a week to spend a Monday or Tuesday night, and half of the next day with Helen. They talk, play rummycube, watch TV and sit by the fire. Every third week Jackie will color Helen's hair, and each week Helen will have waiting for Jackie a list of things for her to do or fix around the house, "cause Jackie can do anything!" A couple of other daughters will also spend a night with their mom, and I'm sure they and some of the other kids each have special projects or things to go out and get for their mother.

Recently Jackie and I were at church and our pastor mentioned that Mother's Day was in a couple of weeks and that everyone should make an effort to bring their mother to that service. This planted a desire in Jackie's heart to take Helen to mass at St. Joe's on Mother's Day, accompanied by as many of Jackie's sisters and brothers that could make it, followed by a traditional pork roast dinner at the house. So this last Mother's Day Jackie and I picked up Helen and then Angie, an 89 year old friend of hers who also would normally not be able to get to mass, and met 5 of Jackie's sisters just inside the door of St. Joe's. Helen was thrilled to show off her kids to a couple of people she knew when we were coming in, and the whole day was delightful.

Mother's Day coincided with the Feast of Pentecost, which remembers the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the first followers of Jesus, who were waiting as the Lord had instructed at a room in Jerusalem, partially fulfilling the prophecy in Joel that was quoted by Peter in his sermon to the large crowd that had gathered outside; "And it shall be in the last days, 'God says, that I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind . . ." Father Mike, who had come to St. Joe's as an assistant priest in 1972, the year Jackie and I were married there, centered his homily on the idea that Jesus had breathed on his disciples, telling them to "Receive the Holy Spirit". This was a good point in that the congregation could better understand that the gift of the Holy Spirit comes from Jesus, who imparts it upon the church. But it was a little misleading in that Jesus did that, not at Pentecost, but when He appeared to the disciples after the resurrection, but before His ascension. The next verse of scripture goes on the say; "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained". (John 20:22)

Let's understand what was happening here. Jesus had died and had risen from the dead, and salvation was now available to all who would call upon the name of the Lord. The disciples, by faith, believed that Jesus had died for their sins, understanding that through the Holy Spirit. That same Holy Spirit united the spirit of Christ with their spirit so that they now were reborn in Christ. Because they had a reborn spirit they were also now a temple of the Holy Spirit, who was present in their lives even before Jesus breathed on them. Jesus was now imparting a particular gift of the Holy Spirt to the first believers. He was not establishing an institutional structure, where priests would have a chrism to forgive sins, but a universal church, where all believers are impowered by the Spirit to proclaim forgiveness. We see this a little better at the end of Luke, where the resurrected Jesus insturcts the disciples; "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem". Jesus then goes on to say; "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you, but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high". The clothing with power from on high was to come at Pentecost.

I think Fr. Mike's point was intended to support the Catholic practice of receiving the Holy Spirit through the impartation of the Bishop, the thought being that Pentecost began an institution called The Church, with the bishops and priests and the sacraments they administer being the visible presence of Christ on the earth. This theology affects how the Catholic Church views scriptures that concern the last days, including who or what The Restrainer is and what The Apostasy is. I will talk more about those in my next post.

The Feast of Pentecost as celebrated by the Western Church always comes 50 days after Easter, the timing having little to do with the actual anniversary of Christ's resurrection, which I believe to be accurate should be celebrated on a Sunday nearest to the Jewish feast of First Fruits. Jesus last supper and death came during the Jewish Feast of Passover. He was in the grave during the Jewish feast of Unleavened Bread, and He rose from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits, thus fulfilling the prophetic purposes of the first 3 of the 7 major Jewish feasts.

The pouring out of the Holy Spirit came on the 4th of 7 major Jewish feasts, coming 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits, and is called Pentecost after a Greek word that means 50 days later. Scripture has instructions for determining the timing of the Jewish feasts, and real Pentecost occurs this year beginning Sunday evening on June 8. This date interestingly enough also coincides with the 41st anniversary of the Six Day War of 1967, where the Jewish nation, after thousands of years, regained complete control of Jerusalem, including the temple area, as well as the Gaza, West Bank and Golan Heights areas. Jewish soldiers had placed a Israeli flag on top of the Dome of the Rock Mosque and had army personal stationed on the Temple Mount area, but the Israeli general Moshe Dyan, rejecting the gift of God, ordered them removed. I believe this began a 40 year period of testing for the Jewish nation, which will end on the 8th or 9th of June.

The first 3 Jewish feasts come in the early Spring, with Pentecost 50 days later, and the last 3 Jewish feasts occur in the fall. Some have suggested ways in which Jesus has already fulfilled the last 3 feasts, but I believe that there are still prophetic events ahead for them, on the actual feast days. Pentecost is an interesting feast in that as the 4th feast, coming between the 1st three and the last three. it follows the 1 - 4 -7 pattern of the lampstand in the tabernacle, a pattern found throughout scripture. The design of the lampstand was given to Moses by God on MT Sinai, and the main lamp in the center, or the 4th stand, holds the oil (a symbol of the Holy Spirit) which feeds the other 6 lamps.

Students of prophecy for years have been saying that they believed that the Rapture of the Church would occur on the 5th feast, which is the Feast of Trumphets. This was because there had already been a prophetic fulfillment of Pentecost, and that scripture equates a trumpet sound with the Rapture, and the next feast in line is called Trumpets. I have always had a feeling that the types found in Pentecost, and certain things that happened in the Old Testament on the Feast of Pentecost, would indicate to me that there might be a dual prophetic purpose for that 4th, and central feast. And there are trumpet blasts connected with the other feasts. Now it seems that a lot of prophecy students are coming to the same conclusion. This doesn't make it right, but there seem to be new insights concerning prophetic patterns coming out every day. Perhaps this will finally be the year, or maybe something else major will happen soon, but the world is changing fast.

One thing that has been suggested, and which I find very interesting, is that there may be a gap of some days between "and the dead in Christ shall rise first", and "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord". (1 Thess. 4: 16-17) The thought is that just as some graves of the Old Testament saints opened up in Jerusalem after Jesus died on the cross, which was accompanied by an earthquake, with some Old Testament saints seen walking around, so will there be worldwide earthquakes, with graves opened and a resurrection of the dead in Christ, with some seen walking around. It has been suggested that this could happen 10 days before Pentecost, on the anniversary of the Ascension of Christ, or even prior to that, with the Rapture on the anniversary of the Ascension and Pentecost being the complection of the last days outpouring of the Holy Spirit as spoken of by the prophet Joel.

The coming of Jesus as a thief in the night refers to His second coming and not to the Rapture, so I have always thought that it would make sense to have some obvious sign for the Church just before the Rapture, and perphaps earthquakes with graves being opened might happen. There might also be worldwide earthquakes at the time of the Rapture, adding to the confusion and anxiety of the left behind world. The time could be soon. Pray for your family and friends that they may know The One who died for them so they can become part of His eternal family.

Dude, I Even Sing In Tongues

2008-04-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

"Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that all of you would sing in tongues". (1 Corinthians 14:5) Revised Bob translation (RBT)

When I was a young teenager my dad put in an 8' high steel gymnastics bar behind our garage. He informed me that "When I was your age I could do one arm chin ups". After some months of working on chin ups, either with palms facing forward or with palms facing back, I was able to do some one handed if my other hand was gripping my wrist. I never was able to accomplish a complete unaided one arm chin up, but that was OK. The bar was great fun, not only for working out but also for swinging on, or hanging upside down from my knees. And all of that effort produced some large, nice looking arm muscles, which I was never shy to show off. Now, my natural tendency when alone while playing on that bar was to sing. I remember thinking one day, while hanging on that bar and singing some pleasant tune, that I loved to sing, and what would I ever do if for some reason singing was no longer possible? I would also sing while using the power mower while cutting my parent's grass, or years later on while cutting my own, not aware that anyone would be able to hear me over the engine's noise. Evidently I was mistaken at both locations, as I would find out somewhat to my embarrassment some years later.

"And do not get drunk with wine . . . but be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord". (Ephesians 5: 18-19)

When I surrendered my life to Jesus, confessing Him as my Savior and my Lord, I stepped out in faith, opening my mouth to speak in an unknown language. That was almost 36 years ago, and I think I have spoken or prayed or sung those tongues just about every day since. I make an effort to speak in tongues everyday because I believe it is spiritual exercise, building up the muscles of my spiritual man. (Not for show, but because I need the wisdom and guidance that the Holy Spirit provides). Yet without thinking and with less effort it has been a natural thing for me to sing in tongues when I am alone, especially when driving. I think some people that pass me on the road must wonder what CED I am singing along with.

"What is the outcome then? I shall pray with the spirit and I shall pray with the mind also; I shall sing with the spirit and I shall sing with the mind also". (1 Corinthians 14:15)

In my times of prayer I will usually begin in English, and when I have exhausted knowing what to pray or say and I still feel a burden, I may continue on in the language the Lord has given me until the burden lifts. I may not have an understanding as to the exact words my heart has expressed to God, but the exercise seems to unite my heart to the Lords.

"And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts kows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God". (Romans 8: 26-27)

When I am in situations where I am with someone for the purpose of praying for them, I will usually begin by praising God in English, and then softly pray in tongues until I have a clear direction as to how to intercede out loud in English. In all those instances, tongues operates in my life as a private prayer language, given to me by the Holy Spirit to build me up, and to help my spirit express to the Father much more than what I could do with just my natural mind.

Sometimes when praying for a person, or in a prayer meeting where the group is in an attitude of prayer or intercession for someone or something, and if I feel a prompting from the Holy Spirit, I may speak or sing out in tongues. In those instances the gift from the Spirit is a form of prophecy. The Father, through the Spirit, has a word of encouragement or direction for the group or for an individual. Now, when I am alone in a time of prayer and worship, I have boldly sung out to God in tongues and have then followed the unknown words with choruses in English, perhaps interpreting what was given to me in the spirit. But not being confident to do that in a group I will not speak or sing out in prophetic tongues unless there is someone there that I know has the gift to interpret.

Psalm 100: "Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyfull singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture"

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; Bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting. And His faithfulness to all generations".

In our prayer meetings with the extented family we would often spend the first hour singing our favorite religious songs that had made their way into a songbook that one of us had compiled. The last couple of songs were always good worship tunes, usually ending with the 8 fold Alleluia, and then singing in tongues to that melody, or to a melody that would develop from that. I have sung in tongues in churches where hundreds are also in worship in the spirit, the voices and various melodies combining to make a beautiful sound of worship. And I have been in Charismatic conferences where thousands of voices are singing in the spirit, the overall effect being quite amazing and uplifting. I have been made by God to love Him, and to be loved by Him. He has put a song in my heart which declares that although He is too awesome for me to comprehend, yet still I will praise Him. I cannot begin to understand His mercy. I cannot find enough words to say thanks. At times I don't know even what my needs truely are, or how best to continue on in prayer when Ive said all I could say and I still feel the burden. Yet the Spirit helps me in my weakness, and in joy I praise Him with my mouth; In word, and in song, and in the spirit.

Light Affliction

2008-03-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

"For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison". (2 Corinthians 4:17)

It was the week before this Easter, as I was engaged in my daily reading of scripture, that I came across the above verse. Just before picking up my Bible I had read something in our local newspaper that caught my interest, and it must have still been banging around in my head enough to make it difficult to concentrate on the chapter from 2 Corinthians. When I read "light affliction" my first thoughts were - What type of difficulty does light cause someone? - When I get a faceful of sun it makes me sneeze. Is it like that? - Was there something called "light affliction" in Jesus day? - Do I need to check another translation to figure this out? I actually had to reread the paragraph a couple of times before the "light" went off in my brain. Several days later I went back and read chapters three, four and five to get the full context of Paul's argument. I also read chapters nineteen through thirty-four in Exodus to better understand the analogies that Paul was drawing from. Eventually I understood that, in both 2 Corinthians and Exodus, there is a type of "light affliction" that all mankind has in common, and that the resurrection of Christ, celebrated at Easter, provides us a promise of hope that one day we will be healed from it.

Two verses past 4:17 it says; "For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house (our body) is torn down, we have a building from God (a better body), a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. Inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life".

Our assurance that Jesus actually rose from the dead, and that He will change our earthly tent into an eternal dwelling place with Him, is given to us by the Spirit. By faith we followed the leading of the Spirit and confessed that the death of Jesus on the cross was for us personally, both the punishment and the payment that The Father demanded because of our sins and our sinful nature. This faith allowed that same Spirit to bring Christ into our hearts, changing our spirit nature into a new creation. The Spirit can now dwell within us, and where the Spirit is there is light, a portion of the glory of God. But, although our body will one day be changed and we will be able to more fully abide in the glory of the Almighty, it is now still earthly. We struggle daily to overcome the carnal desires of both the body and the mind, and the tendency of all matter to breakdown over time. And like Paul, we may also endure trials from a fallen world that hates the light, and thus hates those in whom the light abides. It is a struggle to live a life in the light of Christ when the opposition comes from both without and within. We may often long to be released from the confines of our earthly body and soul, to be in the glorious presence of our God. But Paul tells us it is best to follow this simple advice. Our desire should be, both in this life and in the next, "to be pleasing to Him". (2 Corinthians 5:9)

The book of Exodus tells the story of the Jewish people leaving their captivity in Egypt, and the journey to the land promised to them by God. On the first day of the third month they enter into the Sinai wilderness, and camp next to MT. Sinai. The awesome presence of Almight God is made known by the dark cloud and the flashing lightening at the top of the mountain, and later when the top of the mountain looks like it is on fire. When God speaks to the people His voice sounds like thunder. And the physical sights and sounds of God frighten the people. One of the things He tells them is that they are to honor Him alone, and are not to fashion idols. Later on He tells Moses, Aaron, Aaron's two oldest sons, and seventy of the elders of the people to advance up the mountain, although only Moses is allowed to come near to God. When they went up the group "saw the God of Israel, and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself". (Exodus 24:10) The group eat and drink before God, who then calls Moses to come into His presence. At this time the others descend the mountain and wait for Moses. "Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. And the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights". (Ex. 24: 15-18)

Some amazing things happen during those 40 days. On the top of the mountain God gives instructions to Moses concerning His laws, and shows Moses the patterns for the tabernacle, including the materials, the furniture, the priestly garments, and the things that the priest were to do. And God Himself writes down His laws (my sense is that this is much more that the 10 commandments) on tablets of stone for Moses to take back with him. But on the bottom of the mountain, even though there is still an obvious visible presence of the cloud and the fire on top of the mountain, the people grow restless. They forget about the pillar of cloud that was with them every day since they left Egypt, and the pillar of fire that was with them every night. They complain to Aaron whose tribe will become the priests for the nation. They begin to doubt that Moses is going to return, and they ask Aaron to make them an idol to be a god that they can worship. Now the people already knew the will of God concerning idols. Aaron and his sons and the seventy elders had seen God and had eaten before Him. For four months the nation had seen and heard the awesome power of God, had been instructed as to His plan for them, had entered into a covenant with Him. They knew all these things with their brain, but their hearts were still in darkness. They were worried about what to eat. They were worried about being left to die in the wilderness. And they were having an awful time trusting a God whose features they could not describe and who was making them wait. (And are we really much different?) So Aaron collects gold from them, throws it into a fire, and out of the fire is fashioned a golden calf. The people imitate the religious practices of the Egyptian people they had recently been delivered from, and rise up to sing, dance and cavort before a god made in the image of corruptible flesh.

Moses brought down with him from the mountain laws that God Himself inscribed upon stone. When Moses saw what the people were doing, already at the beginning rebelling against those very words the finger of God engraved, he smashed the stones. But the words inscribed on stone were never intended to bring life to the people. It was not God's plan to make a religion where people would be justified by doing everything that was written there. Following the letter of the law instead brought death. God's intent was to drive man to the tabernacle to make sacrifice for his sins, yet even here scripture says often that God took no pleasure in the blood of the animal sacrifices. Instead of works of religion God was looking for obedience because of the desire of the heart. It is the physical part of us, our body and our mind (the soul) that tries to be justified by works. But it is in the heart, the reborn spirt where the Spirit of God resides, that surrenders to God.

Exodus tells us that Moses set up a tent outside the camp, and when he would go into the tent the cloud would descend upon it and the glory of God would reside inside. He would talk to God there, and when he left the tent Moses would put a veil over his face, because the brightness of the glory of God that came onto his face, even though it would eventually fade, was too much for the people to look at. (Maybe the brightness made them sneeze) Paul says that "if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?" (2 Cor. 3: 7-8) The veil over the face of Moses is a reminder of the hardness of the heart of the sons of Israel in that day. and there remains a veil hiding the glory of God for them today, as well as for everyone else, until it is lifted by the Spirit when a person turns to the Lord. "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might n0t see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God". (2 Cor. 4:4)

Trials and tribulations are a part of the lives of believers while we live on this planet in our earthly bodies. And one reason is because "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves". (2 Cor. 4:7) May we live our lives in the strength of the Spirit. And may the light of the Spirit and the truth of Christ shine into the lives of all those we know who struggle in this earthly realm.

Heads Or Tails

2008-03-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

The history of the Jewish people shows that it was a constant struggle for them to be obedient to the commandments given to them by God, and for them to trust in God for their needs and for their safety. The Jewish nation would have a righteous king who would honor the house of the Lord, reveal the word of God, and remove the pagan altars and high places, and God would be active in the affairs of the nation. That was always followed by several wicked kings who allowed the pagan altars and priests and ignored the word and the tabernacle, and things would again go sour for the nation. Then again for a short time a righteous king would arise who would attempt to clean out the pagan filth. Although the blessing of God would return for a time, the later glory was never as bright as the former.

Today we hear a lot of preaching about seeking the blessings of God, and it is usually tied into a quid pro quo type of deal. We give to God (or to the ministry in question), and we will receive in turn blessings from God. But while scripture does have a lot to say about God's desire for us to give, and His desire to bless us, it also puts the blessings of God into the context of our being obedient to the commandments that God has given to us. The focus of many churches today seems to be either on what we can get from God, or what we can do for God. But God has revealed to us in His word and through His Spirit a revelation of what the will of God is for us. And He has done that, not in a legalistic sense so we can be justified before Him by obeying the letter of the commandments, but in a context where we can be in a right relationship with a Holy but loving Father who wants to share His life with us. We come into that relationship through the shed blood of Jesus, where our sins are forgiven and our spirits are reborn, making us part of His family. But the closeness of our experience with the Father requires that we daily seek to be obedient to His will, putting aside our desire for the false promises of the pleasures of this world.

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul compares the experiences of the Jewish nation in the Exodus to the challenges for Christians living in a fallen world today. "For I do not want you to be unaware, brethern, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved . . . Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No tempetation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it." The way of righteousness is not easy. All of us crave evil things and we a good at making compartments in our life where the Spirit of God is not welcome. It's funny, but life for us as God designed it leads to the opposite of what the world promises. Obedience leads to freedom, surrender leads to power, giving leads to increase, and holiness leads to health. We get forgiveness by forgiving, and experience love by loving.

There is a promise that God gives to the nation of Israel in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. I have heard part of it quoted quite often as a proof text, used by those that preach that it is always God's will for Christians to prosper financially. "And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail, and you shall . . . be above . . . and not beneath". (v13) The idea of being the head and not the tail sounds good, and it is true that giving God the first of our increase is a concrete way to express our dependence on Him, and God will indeed bless those that put their trust in Him by freely giving. But that is not what chapter 28 or verse 13 is talking about. Earlier in Dueteronomy, God has made a covenant with the Jewish people, as a nation that would one day enter into the land that He had promised them. But in addition to the covenant He also provided for them a place where His presence would reside, and commandments to help them understand that they would often fall short of His perfect will for them. He desired not only their obedience to those commandments but their desire to come to His earthly dwelling place for both worship and restoration. And in chapter 28 He tells them that there would be many blessings for them in that land if they followed His commandments, but also many curses for them in that land if they were not obedient to what He commanded.

"Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city . . . and in the country . . . Blessed shall be the offspring of your body, and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts . . . The Lord shall cause your enemies . . . to be defeated before you . . . The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself . . . all the people of the earth shall see you are called by the name of the Lord and be afraid of you . . . The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens to give rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of yourr hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow . . . And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail, and you only shall be above, and you shall not be underneath, if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today".

Our Father loves us and wants us to be obedient to His commandments because He knows that is ultimately what is best for us. Our obedience enables His blessings to be poured out. When we reject or ignor His commandments it opens us and the nation up to the curses which come as a result of being outside of the will of God. "But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes whith which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city . . . and in the country. . . . Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground . . . The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail . . . And it shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. Moreover, the Lord will scatter you from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth".

Even though they had the scriptures, the temple, the priesthood and the sacrifices, the Jewish people ended up being scattered to the ends of the earth. God's desire is to bless us. But when we disobey what He commands, when we approve the corrupt actions of this world, when we crave evil things, when we hold onto unforgiveness and bitterness, when we don't trust that God is able, we severly limit His ability to pour out His blessing into our life and our nation. The solution is not to ask God to pour forth His blessing, or to find a spiritual principle where we give and then get. Instead we must seek Him, and make daily decisions to be obedient to His revealed will, and trust that He who made us and designed us and saved us knows best.

Religion And Politics

2008-02-03T15:07:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow there will be voting in primaries across the country in what the press calls "super Tuesday". Later that night the political pundits will have a pretty good idea of the party nominees for the next presidential election. Perhaps the races for either party will be close enough that an actual decision will not be made until the political conventions are held later this year. Right now the two remaining contenders for the Democrats are Clinton and Obama, and the two strongest showing Republicans candidates are McCain and Romney, with Huckabee far behind in 3rd. I have felt for the last year that Clinton will end up both representing the Democrats and being elected as the first woman president, but I don't claim to be a prophet. The strong showing for Obama has surprised me. This week he also picked up the Ted and Caroline Kennedy Camelot mantle, which may help him do miracles, or it may give him the power of invisibility, which is not a good thing for a politician

I remember Camelot. My first actual blog type posting was a little newspaper I produced for my family at around age 10, with the first issue having the headline; "Kennedy Wins!" My dad had previously voted for Eisenhower but his parents were life long Democrats. He said that when he grew up the word Republican was always preceded by the adjective "dirty". As a Catholic he was delighted to vote for Kennedy, and while our family didn't have a picture of JFK displayed next to the Pope, it was certainly a matter of pride for us. I can clearly remember being in art class in 8th grade at St. Francis de Sales on a Friday afternoon when Sister Mary Kenneth came in to announce that the President had been shot. Our whole family stayed glued in front of the television for the whole weekend. We saw Jackie arriving back to Washington, Ruby getting shot, and little Caroline and John John walking with their still shocked mother behind the horse drawn cassion, heading for the capitol building. I also remember my feeling of grief and sorrow for the Kennedy family some years later when Teddy Kennedy gave the eulogy for his slain brother Bobby. JFK, Martin Luther King, RFK, Kent State, each death made me wonder how our society would end up.

But time and facts have a way of demystifying some of our heroes. Our family business use to have a showroom on the 17th floor at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, a huge building where over 25,000 people work. The Mart was owned by Joseph Kennedy Sr., who made part of his fortune during the depression because he had a legal loophole to sell alcohol for "medicinal" purposes. My take on the matter is that he realized that being in politics would also be good for business, and although he was able to become an US ambassador, there apparently were enough things in his background that contributed to limiting his political ambitions. Thus he encouraged his children to seek public office. And the age and good looks of JFK and his family, their style and progressive politics, especially in the opposition to segregation and the vision for jumping the technological hurdle to put a man on the moon, will always be remembered fondly. Thus we tend to ignore that he laid the foundation for US escalation in Viet Nam (not saying that was necessarily bad), was considered by our allies to be naive and inept in foreign affairs (sound familiar?), and had a private moral compass that far out reached even the desires of our last Democratic President. Be that as it may, it was not because one was Catholic or the other was a Baptist with a well worn Bible in their oval office desk that made them fit or not fit to be our President. I don't know what part prayer or a relationship with God, or even their religious affiliation contributed to their world view or shaped their decision making. The Catholic was for a strict seperation of church and state, and the one with the big Bible was for unlimited abortion, same sex marriage, liberal Supreme Court Justices, while also encouraging Israel to give up land for peace.

Our country has had Presidents that were Episcopilation (11), Presbyterian (10), Methodist (4), Baptist (4), Unitarian (4), Disciples of Christ (3), Congregationalist (2), Quaker (2), Dutch Reformed (2), Catholic (1) and Jehovah's Witness (1) (Eisenhower, who became Presbyterian soon after his 1st inauguration). Jefferson was a deist and Lincoln did not claim a denomination. Many of these men, including Washington, and in recent history FDR, Truman, LBJ, and Ford, were also members, and some quite high leaders, of Masonic lodges. I will not go so far as to see a vast conspiracy here. I think that lodge membership was the type of thing that many wealthy and/or ambitious men saw as a way to advance their financial and/or political careers. Yet it really bothers me that there are occult symbols throughout everything Masonic, and that various Egyptian and other false gods are honored, with oaths given, through each step of advancement. I believe that evil spirits hang around those symbols, that involking those names give them certain legal rights to latch onto anyone who does so, and that family members in the next generations may inherit problems related to those same spirits. Most of the churches listed above have warnings about occult involvment, and many of the men involved may have belonged to a church for the same reason they belonged to a lodge. Perhaps they actually were ignorant of the spiritual dangers involved with their activities. At least I hope so.

There are a number of considerations that I look at when deciding who to support for President. Economics is extremely important, but it is not my hot button issue, unless some other things are equal. I consider the cause for the advancement of the rights of the unborn to be as important as was the long struggle to eliminate the barbarism of slavery. And I see our country in a huge struggle to redefine what is normal for family and morals. Thus, even though I am more in favor of Republican economic and national security policies, I would vote for a committed pro-life and socially conservative Democratic canidate over a Ford or Reagan or GHW Bush wishy-washy social conservative any day. But those Democrats must have their own invisibility mantle. I believe that our country will reap what they sow as far as who they support in regards to moral character. I also believe that our country needs to support the nation of Israel. While it is true that most of their population is secular, that does not cancel out my belief that God made an eternal promise to the Jewish people, giving them the rights to an area of land, part of which was returned to them in 1948, and again in 1967. I know we also have to be concerned for the social needs of the so called Palestinians, who suffer mainly because of the Muslim desire to eliminate the nation of Israel. Their on going poverty is a direct result of the desire of those nations and terror organizations to keep them that way, as a leverage against Israel. I believe that each time our government presses Israel to surrender land for peace, God lowers his shield of protection over our country for a while, despite our long-standing overall support for that country. I might be overly influenced by my theological views concerning the Jewish nation and end time prophecy, but it is my feeling that our countrie's current tottering on the edge of recession is partly accounted for by our president's call for a Palestinian state by the end of this year.

I find it curious that in this point of our history, while we are at war against a radical Muslim religious system that wants to destroy not only Israel, but our country and our way of life as well, that we have an attractive Presidential candidate with a Muslim surname. I know he belongs to a (liberal) Christian denomination and would probably view the separation of church and state as strongly as Kennedy, but it's interesting. Although his policies are against everything I've listed above (not sure on Israel, but the Obama name does give me pause), I still think it is terrific that our country can have a viable black canidate for President. I also think it is great that we can have a viable woman canidate, although she happens to be more liberal than her husband who appointed the ultra liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court. With the other party we have the thorn-in-the-side to conservatives McCain. I know that he has been on the pro-life side for quite a while, but is considered a moderate, although strong on national security. At this point I am not well enough informed on what moderate might mean in regards to his other social positions. I like Huckabee quite a bit, but it would take a miracle for him to get the nomination. Commentators believe he is staying in the race to set himself up to be a vice-presidential canidate, but I wonder if he might be staying around partly to split conservative support, taking in the process votes away from Romney. Romney comes from a socially conservative religious culture (if you ignor the historical ties to pologamy), and he now claims to be a pro-life supporter. His position on Israel is not clear to me, but since his religion teaches that Jesus will return to Zion, Missouri instead of Jerusalem, Israel, I have some serious doubts there.

The question that has been banging around in my head this past week is; Considering that I cannot place a vote for someone who supports abortion on demand, including partial-birth abortion, and who would also favor policies that I believe weaken the traditional family structure, and who would most certainly appoint liberal justices throughout the system that will do a lot of their dirty work for them for years to come - could I then vote for Romney if he indeed does become a candidate for our nation's highest office? And here is what bothers me. Romney is a member in good standing in the Mormon religion, and that religion carries with it a mindset of deception that began with the circumstances of its very beginning, and which carries through even to today. The religion was created by a man, Joseph Smith Jr., who came from a family that was heavily involved with occult practices, who incorporated occult practices and symbolism into the activities of that religion, who communicated with demonic spirits, and who had at least 30 wives, many of them quite young and many who were still married to other men. He encouraged his other followers to engage in this adultery and pologamy, but they would only legally record one marriage with the State, an example of the incorporation of deception into the fabric of the religion. Most of the first followers of Smith were also heavily involved in the occult, as was Bringham Young, who became the Mormon leader after Smith was killed in 1844. Young moved most of the followers to the Utah territority and saw to the design and construction of the early Mormon temples, the first being the current one in Salt Lake City. This temple has many occult symbols, and the temple ceremonies have many Masonic/occult featurres. Almost no one could advance in leadership positions in the church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) without having "plural" marriages, with incestuous arraignments not unheard of. This officially continued until 1890, when wanting to become a state the LDS leaders "agreed" to end the practice. Privately it was still encouraged by the leadership at least until 1915 or 1920, and perhaps even much longer than that.

As a young man Joseph Smith Jr. and his father engaged in something called money digging. This was a combination of folk magic and scamming, the purpose being to make people think there was something of value which could be found by Mr. Smith, who, being paid the proper amount, would make an animal sacrifice to confuse the guardian evil spirit over the treasure, then gaze into his sear stone, finding perhaps enough so the person would pay again, hoping to find more. There was a term in that day which was applied to them, called "juggling", which is defined as "manipulating and practicing deceit in order to achieve a desired end". I believe the formation of the LDS scriptures are a result of both the influence of evil spirits as well as the practice of juggling. Most of the inspiration for the stories found in the Book of Mormon, or the Pearl of Great Price, as well as many of the theological ideas incorporated into the Documents and Covenants, can be traced to writings that came from within a 50 mile range from where Smith lived, or from ideas, theories, or beliefs that were common in the time and area he lived. And if there was a problem with what he claimed an angel or God told him (could be either because there are at least 3 documented versions of his first vision, a keystone belief for most Mormons), it was revised, without objection from his followers. One of his biggest tricks (see the serpent's question to Eve in Genesis 3 - "Did God say?") was to claim the Bible as a Mormon sacred scripture and then announcing that all translations and interpretations of those translations could be corrupt, and would only be correctly understood by God's prophet (meaning Joseph Smith Jr. and his successors). So even today, revelation from Joseph Smith can be revised because God can speak to the reigning prophet (president/apostle), trumping any past revelation. That is why polygamy and the idea that blacks are a cursed race could later be changed (at least "offically").

Today the LDS officially condems occult practices. The problem is that they engage in many things that I would consider occult, but they do not define as such. Examples would be the symbols in and on the temples, and temple clothing, and the objects and words used in the temple ceremonies. Perhaps there are common tailsmans, to protect against evil spirits. They claim that the Book of Mormon has a "familiar spirit", but do not see anything wrong with that. I have a niece who took her kids to play with some kids from a Mormon family. They came back saying that those kids had a spirit pet that they played with in the basement. When Mormons say that they listen to the spirit, they are not talking about the same Holy Spirit that I would. When Mormons say that salvation only comes through Jesus, they all know that Mormonism defines Jesus and God the Father much differently than traditional Christianity does. Salvation for a Mormon also has a totally different meaning than with other Christian traditions. I do admire the idea of enabling young men and women to go out into the world for missions. But they initially disguise the true meaning of their spiritual language to Christians in order to gain acceptance, and also to convice people that they too can become like God the Father, and someday rule their own planets and maybe even their own universes. They believe that their status in the next life will be enhanced by you becoming a Mormon. Mormonism is intentionally deceptive to the outside world in order to juggle you.

Perhaps this is what bothers me about Romney. He is known for changing and shaping his views to best appeal to the people who might vote for him. True, other politicans are known to do the same. And in this regard I believe there are evil spiritual beings that help manauver many men and women into positions of authority. I have a feeling that there is a particularly strong spirit involved with Mormonism, which has been wanting to push someone to a critical position in our country for a long time. Romney's father was a popular governor of our fair State of Michigan, who became a top contender for the Republican nomination, until he changed his position on a certain issue. When asked why he previously supported a position that was now unpopular, he claimed that he had been "brainwashed". Needless to say, after Johnny Carson got hold of that, the country decided that it really didn't want a President who could so easily be brainwashed. Well, that strong spirit is back, and the problem for me is not that Mormonism is not really Christian, but that I think the odds are great for that strong spirit to have influence on the affairs of our country if Romney is elected.

Planet Rahab - Part II - Return of the Dragon

2008-01-27T16:25:00.000-08:00

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?' ". (Genesis 3:1)

"And the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life; And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel' ". (Genesis 3: 14-15)

"And another sign appeared in heaven; and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his head were seven diadems . . . And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old, who is called the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him . . . And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child . . . And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus . . . And he (the dragon) stood on the sand of the seashore. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were seven diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names . . . And the dragon gave (the beast) his power and his throne and great authority . . . And (the world) worshipped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast, and who can wage war with him?' " (Revelation 12:3 - 13:4)

"And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. and he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence . . . And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are the spirits of demons, performing signs, to gather them (the nations) together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty".l (Revelation 13:11 - 16:14)

"And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat upon the horse (Jesus), and against His army . . . And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence . . . these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire . . . And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him, who sat upon the horse . . . And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed, and after these things he must be released for a short time . . . And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth . . . to gather them together for the war . . . and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever". (Revelation 19:19 - 20:10)

Scripture introduces us to the evil one three chapters into Genesis, and reveals to us his final fate two chapters before the end of Revelation. We know that God made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, and that he looked at what He made and called it good. For some reason scripture does not tell us exactly when the angels were made, or when rebellion first came to part of that race, or why God allowed that rebellion to eventually infect mankind. We know that angels are spirit beings and that their chief residence is not on earth, but that they can come to earth and interact with it. It appears to me that there must be a lot of time elapsed in the unrevealed history of the evil one prior to his deception of Eve, and that clues to part of it can be found in Ezekiel's 28th chapter. It starts with a description of the prideful human leader of the ancient and important island city/nation of Tyre, and then in verses 11 - 19 it describes the ultimate source of that type of pride, which many Biblical scholars believe is a reference to the evil one. In verse 14 it says that "You were the anointed cherub who covers".

The cherubim seem to be a class or type of angel charged with protecting, or limiting access to, the holy presence of God. In Genesis 3:24, after God drove man out of the garden of Eden, "He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned in every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life". The tree of life, later seen in the New Jerusalem, is or represents then something much more than just a fruit tree. There were two gold cherubim placed on top of the mercy seat, present in the Holy of Holies in the wilderness tabernacle, and in Solomon's temple there were embroidered two giant cherubim into the fabric covering the inner sanctuary. Although those were not actual angels, they represented the ones who were guardians before the real and awesome presence of God, His glory residing in the most holy place of the wilderness tabernacle, and later for a time in the first temple. In the 1st chapter of Ezekiel there is a description of the four living creatures, identified later in verse 10:15 as cherubim, and they carry what appears to be the throne of God, and they reside in, and transport, the brightness of the glory of God. It was from such a class of beings that one rebelled. This one is a deceiver and a destroyer, who was beautiful in appearance, and who had close access to the glory and majesty and very presence of the Almighty, but who became filled with pride because of his beauty, and desired for himself the worship and awe due to God alone. For some reason God did not stop the rebellion at its beginning, allowing instead the enemy to bring lies and distortion and even accusations against Almighty God, leading to the rebellion of both angels and man from the path of light, truth, and life. The result has been corruption and destruction, pain and sorrow, to both created beings and to the rest of creation.

We have an account in Genesis of a serpent who talks to Eve. Although there is not a description of what that serpent looked like, I will guess that it was much different than our picture of a snake hanging from an apple tree. Through the Old Testament the same Hebrew root word, tannin, could be translated either serpent, meaning our picture of a snake, or dragon, as in a sea monster or a large serpent like creature with legs and wings, possibly breathing fire. Perhaps this was even a class of dinosaur, alive before most types (but apparently not all) were destroyed at the flood. It seems that although this serpent/dragon was more crafty than other created beasts, possibly even able to speak, it was not just the beast by himself, but the beast being used as a tool of the evil one, who deceived Eve. The physical judgment came to the beast, changing its form to become snake like and having to eat dust all the days of its life. But the spiritual judgment is carried through the seed of the evil one, who used the serpent/dragon to deceive. The types then go on throughout scripture. The evil one is pictured as a dragon, the evil source and power behind other beasts, who may be nations or kingdoms or individual rulers who oppose the people of God.

This helps us to better understand the references to Rahab that occur in Job 9 and 26, Psalm 87 and 89, and in Isaiah 30 and 51. There are people who mistakenly interpret Rahab as being a planet that was between Mars and Jupiter, and that planet was the the dwelling place of the evil one. They interpret certain references in scripture in interesting ways. The 10 precious stones in their settings of the ruler of Tyre as seen in Ezekiel 28 are 10 planets. The 5th planet was Rahab, where the evil one ruled, until it was split apart by God, becoming the asteroid belt. One of those asteroids hit earth, causing the moon to come out of it, and making the earth formless and void, the condition we see between verse I and 2 of Genesis. The evil one still resides in another of those asteroids, called wormwood, and he will be cast to earth with his asteroid in the Day of the Lord. The amber stone represents the planet Saturn, which is seen as the location of Heaven, its rings as being the glory around the throne, and the cherubim in Ezekiel are really the first 4 visible planets, the wheels within the wheels being their orbits. Now I agree that our solor system, the location of the stars, the moving of comets, the rotations and orbits of them all, are planned and laid out by God. In them He has put representations and marked time, and our understanding of the signs in the sun and moon and stars has largely been corrupted. But the planet Rahab people are taking each of those scriptures out of their context, making up an imaginary world. Yet in studying the scriptures to check on their interesting claims, I have gained a little better insight into the description of the evil one as a dragon, and the powers that that oppose Israel and God's people as beasts.

In both places in Job the word Rahab has been translated "pride" in the Septuagint translation. And we can certainly associate pride with the evil one. But Rahab is also connected with the name of a mythological beast found in the traditions of the early Mid-East civilizations. This was a large, sea dwelling beast, with multiple heads. Perhaps in the early centuries following the flood there actually were large, multi-headed dinosaur related, sea creatures that dominated their area and terrified the human inhabitants, and that there is some truth in the myth. The references to Rahab are all connected to the water, with the idea that God has conquered Rahab and is in control of the water, and thus also in control of the destiny of His people. Rahab might then be seen as an ancient sea serpent/sea dragon, an enemy of God, who God has defeated. Allusions can then be made, for example, to the deliverance of Noah from the flood, and also to compare a nation such as Egypt, which oppressed the Jewish people, to the beast Rahab. God delivers them through the waters of the Red Sea, crushing Pharaoh and his army in that sea.

In Job 26: 12-13 it says; "He quieted the sea with His power, and by His understanding He shattered Rahab (defeated the sea monster). By His breath the heavens are cleared (the sky, not space); His hand pierced the fleeing serpent". In Psalm 89: 9-11 it says; "Thou dost rule the swelling of the sea; When its waves rise, Thou dost still them. Thou Thyself didst crush Rahab like one who is slain. Thou dost scatter Thy enemies with Thy mighty arm". In Isaiah 30: 6-7 it says; "Through a land of distress and anguish. From where come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys. And their treasures on camels humps, to a people who cannot profit them, even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty. Therefore, I have called her Rahab who has been exterminated". And lastely from Isaiah 51: 9-13; "Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not Thou who cut Rahab in pieces, Who pierced the dragon? Was it not Thou who dried up the sea. The waters of the great deep; Who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over? So the ransomed of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion; And everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away". HEH! When you look at the use of Rahab in its context you don't need a degree in theology or a special revelation from God to understand the meaning.

Sidetracked By The Planet Rahab

2008-01-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling that 2008 will be a very important year prophetically. I don't know if the rapture will come this year, or even in the next 5 years, but it may. Recently I had a dream in which I was outside in a field with a group of people. Dark storm clouds filled the sky, and from one particularly dark cloud I could see that a very wide part descended to the ground and then started to rotate. Looking around, to the left of the main funnel, there appeared several more funnels, and to the right, many more funnels, stretching across the near horizon in a wide arc. I started to tell everyone that we needed to get away right now to find a safe place, but every one's first reaction was - Huh? - What? Perhaps my dream means that there will be a series of upcoming challenges or dangers, or perhaps it means something else. But whatever it means, I am anxious in my spirit that time is running short and we must be prepared to witness to family, friends and others to the glorious salvation available to all who call upon the name of the Lord. I have been trying to work on a couple of different subjects to post, but always seem to get pulled back to thinking about the times we are in, the people I know who do not have a reborn spirit, and how urgent it is for them to open their lives to the truth and light that comes from Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

The study of Biblical prophecy concerning the rapture and the second coming of Jesus has been a pleasure of mine for the last 35 years. Even when I was in college and an atheist, majoring in Political Science, we studied Israel's six day war of 1967. The head of our Political Science department remarked in 1971 that Israel was in the news every day, but eventually other events in the world would move them out of the papers. It did not happen that way. Some months after my conversion came the Mid-East war of 1973, and every month since then has seen world events moving nations and peoples closer to that as described in the prophetic scriptures, with Israel planted firmly in the center of it all. As these things happen, and the time to the return of Jesus gets closer, the Spirt has opened up a greater understanding of the prophetic scriptures. Sometimes we may even need to set aside long cherished interpretations of certain parts as the Spirit gives us better understanding of another piece of the puzzle, bringing the whole picture into greater focus. Doing that is always difficult, because our natural tendency is to hold onto theological ideas and intepretations that take root early in our spiritual journey, especially if the source of those ideas and interpretations came from people we really admire and trust. That being said, even the earnest student of the Bible can read things into scripture and can come to conclusions that are not valid if sound principles of Biblical study are not learned, or are thrown aside to make scripture fit the theory. When verses and words are taken out of context, we head down paths that may be interesting, with theories and timelines that may have an appearance of truth, but truth will not be there. What is real and what is not may run many parallel courses, but in the end, a theory based on scripture taken out of context will prove to be a distraction, and a hindrance to the Spirit's ability to give us a clear understanding of the plan and the purpose of God.

An example of using a scripture passage out of context to determine the timing of the return of Christ comes from a saying of Jesus in the 24th chapter of Matthew in the illustration of the fig tree. "Now learn the parable from the fig tree; when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; even so you too, when you see all these things , recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.". This is the key scripture quoted by most of those that look to calculate the timing of the rapture, the event or pre-event leading to the last 7 years before Christ returns. The interpretations follow in this manner. The fig tree represents the nation of Israel, and Israel became a nation again in 1947/48 after thousands of years. After the six day war of 1967 they aquired control over the eastern half of Jerusalem, containing the land area of the ancient Jewish temples, also acquiring the historical Jewish lands of the Gaza, West Bank, and Golan Heights (The branches putting forth their leaves). The word "generation" in the Matthew quote is seen as the length of time it will be between the fig tree beginning to bloom and the return of Jesus.

Different examples are used to demonstrate the length of a Biblical generation, coming in anywhere from 35 to 40 to 42 to 48.33 to 70 years. Go forward in time a generation from either 1947/48 or 1967, and they arrive at the date for either the rapture, the end of the Church age, the wrath of God, or the second coming (although most people are trying to pin down the date of the pre-tribulation rapture). The 39/40 year span is popular because there are many Biblical examples of 39 or 40 being a time of testing. Mix into this the teachings of patterns and cycles for the 49/50 year Hebrew Jubilee, the 430/490 year national cycles, the 42nd and 43rd generational patterns, the 360 day prophetic year, and the timing and patterns of the major Jewish feast days, and you get some interesting stuff, including lots of different dates for events that will happen in "the last days".

These dates and the reasoning for them get revised every year the rapture doesn't happen. The next date offered always seems to be very close, and I think this is because: everyone wants to be alive for the rapture, life for us here on earth can be tough, and anyway, wouldn't it be nice for Jesus to come tomorrow? One thing that bothers me is that this "blessed hope" can even supesede our desire to see widespread rival in our families, our cities, or our nation. I don't think revival has to come before the rapture, but sometimes I wonder if, instead of praying "Come Lord Jesus" it would not be better to pray; "Please Lord, give them a little more time".

As a student of Biblical prophecy I believe that there are plans and patterns with everything God does. I see the emergence of the nation of Israel only 2 years before my birth, a regathering predicted by Jesus to happen "in the last days", as being huge. The reclaiming of additional lands promised to them by God, especially their gaining control of the ancient temple area (perhaps needed as a prophetic requirement for the rebuilding of a temple that will be descrated by the antichrist during the mid-point of the tribulation) is also huge. Because there are other scripture references (eg. Jeremiah 24) that confirm the relationship of the Jewish people with figs, I believe that a dual interpretation of the fig tree in Matthew is permissable. The context uses the progression of the fig tree growing fruit as a call to watch for the signs of the times, ie., one thing will surely happen after the other. Thus we can also watch Israel itself to know that we are in a special time. These are some of the things that convince me that the time for the return of Jesus, which in my theological understanding is preceded by the rapture, is near, and maybe in my lifetime. But date setters (and I also would like to know) are having the same problems as those that see a six thousand year time frame from creation to the second coming. It has been more than six thousand years from creation until now, and it has been more than 40 years from 1947/48, then 1967, until now. They now have to redefine how long a Biblical generation is, still thinking that the word "generation" in Matthew is a clue.

The thing that must be considered in interpreting the 24th chapter of Matthew is the audience to whom Jesus is speaking, the timing of the events He is talking about, and thus the context of Jesus being "near, right at the door", and the context of the word "generation". It seems to me that Jesus is prophesying to a Jewish audience that will be alive and in or near Jerusalem during the last part of the tribulation. Thus the return of Jesus, indicated by "He is near, right at the door", is not the rapture, but the second coming, ruling out using these verses to support either the theology or the timing of the rapture (except perhaps because of its Jewish character as another argument for a pre-trib rapture). But my main concern is the way in which so many authors, preachers and teachers interpret the word "generation" In the context, the way a normal person would read it if not pre-influenced, the idea conveyed is that some of the (Jewish) people, alive at the time of the events Jesus outlines in Matthew, will make it through alive to the end of the time of tribulation, when Jesus returns. The people, or the race (both are consistent with the way the word generation can be translated) will not die out, despite the tremendous judgment and resulting death that occurs. To take the word "generation" as a code for a 40 or other year period is a manipulation of the verse, because the sense of the verse is of encouragement to the Jewish people that even in the most terrible of times, God will establish His kingdom through Jesus in the land He promised to them, and some will be left to receive that inheritance.

Your favorite prophecy teachers will probable still talk about the length of a Jewish generation, and frankly, they are all much smarter than I am. I have learned a lot from them. Unfortunately, there are many young Christians today who are not interested in the study of Biblical prophecy. Perhaps this is because it takes time, and who has time today? Or perhaps it is because they think that their elders have focused too much on it, speaking our own private language. Maybe it all seems so overwealming and they don't know how to begin, or maybe life is complicated and they just don't want to think about the world going to pieces. I can understand all of that. If we think that believing in the rapture is a way to grab a special ticket out of here, then we are completely missing what the Spirit is always trying to show us.

But let me present it this way. Our spiritual life should never be about what we know, but about Who we know. The closer we know Him the more we realize how holy He is, and how much we need Him, and how much the world needs Him. We see that He had a plan for our lives from our very beginning, and we begin to see that He has a plan as well for our family, friends, and even for the nations. To know Him better we read the scriptures, and as we meditate on what we read, the Holy Spirit moves in our hearts and minds, building us up, speaking to us concerning our daily lives. But He also speaks to us to go forth, to share the good news of this glorious salvation to others. Prophecy warns us that things will not always proceed as they have, but that He is faithful and true. Prophecy tells us that the clock will someday stike the hour and everything will change, but He changes not. In 1948 prophecy jumped out the pages of scripture and proclaimed to the world, loud and clear - "I am coming soon!". I believe as we get closer to that time there will arise false prophets and false teachers, and churches and individuals will be pulled in directions that are not in the plan of God. Everyone will be affected in one way or another, which is why we all need to grow in knowing how to read the scriptures that are being used to support the misdirections, and why we need to have sound foundations for our spiritual beliefs, including prophecy. And that leads us to discussing the Planet Rahab, but more about that later.

Dating Da Deluge

2007-12-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

Fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls, showing a portion of Genesis.

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually . . . Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them, and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth . . . I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life . . . But I will establish My convenant with you" . . . Then the Lord said to Noah, "Enter the art, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time" . . . In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the flood-gates of the sky were opened, and the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights . . . And all the flesh that moved on the earth perished . . ."

"Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth . . . Then God spoke to Noah, saying, "Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you . . . that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth". So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark . . . and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth". (Genesis; 6:5 - 9:1)

Last year after Christmas I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a book that was on sale called - The Timechart History Of The World (6000 Years Of World History Unfolded) - a 12" wide x 18" high book consisting of glossy Victorian style art, charts, timelines, maps and graphs that could be unfolded to 15' (plus another 15' of other interesting stuff on the flip side). The Timechart was based on a Victorian wall chart that was published in 1890, using dates calculated from the Bible and known history by an Archbishop Ussher in the seventeenth century. Genesis presents a history of a righteous line, that goes from Adam's son Seth, all the way to Abraham and to his desendents. Other books in the Bible also provide clues and information which pave a way straight through to Jesus. Scripture seems to go to great lengths to present this ancestral trail. Genesis was written by Moses, who would have used information passed down from his Hebrew ancestors. But Moses also spent two sessions of 40 days in the presence of God while at the top of Mt. Sinai, as well as being in His presence many other times in the tent of meeting, helping us to have trust in the historical information Moses provided as author of the 1st 5 books of the Bible. It sure seems to me that God had a purpose to put specific dates, times and ages into the accounts. And Archbishop Ussher used that information to create a timeline from creation until his day, also showing the origins and development of other major early civilizations as they progressed along that timeline.

A problem we run into however, is that there always seem to be other pieces of the puzzle that pop up, which may change the calculations. Ussher came up with an exact day and hour for the creation of the earth and of Adam, and the year he came up with was 4004 BC (BCE). The flood of Noah is dated at 2348 BCE. Abram (Abraham) is born around 2000 BCE, and Jesus was born close to 4 BCE. These calculations have been used by many who study Biblical prophecy, and who are looking for the soon return of Jesus to set up His 1000 year reign on earth. The idea is that if we take the verses in scripture that say that "with God, a day is as a thousand years", and if we see the 6 days of creation in Genesis as being a pattern for the age of mankind on earth, then it would be logical to assume that since it was 2000 years from Adam to Abraham, and 2000 years from Abraham to Jesus, and 2000 years from Jesus to the present day (a total of six 1000 year days), then Jesus could return at anytime to rule for the last 1000 years (corresponding to the 7th day, when God rested from his labors).

While this is a nice, tidy way to look at things, it can easily be seen that even for those of us who believe in the inspiration of the sacred scriptures, who believe that everything contained within them is there for a reason and a purpose, who see a literal Adam and a literal Noah, with a deluge that destroyed all life save that on the ark, that there are some difficulties with this seven, 1000 year day plan. One is that we are already well into the last 1000 year day, and another is that a flood date of 2348 BCE, while perhaps possible, does not look very probable. Yes, we need to turst in scripture, even when it may not agree with what science and history teaches. We need to also realize that science and history should agree with scripture. Certain scientific and historical conclusions may be tainted by prejudices of long time frames, uniformarinism, and atheistic viewpoints. But our scriptural interpretations may also be influenced by someone else's conclusions, or by limitations inherent in translation of language, text, or culture.

Archbishop Ussher calculated his dates using a translation of the Hebrew scriptures known as the Masoretic Text (MT). From the MT, depending on how certain things are interpreted, one can date Adam anywhere from 4004 BCE to 4118 BCE, and The Flood anywhere from 2348 BCE to 2462 BCE. Of the different texts used for translating the Old Testament, and calculating in the same manner, the MT provides the shortest time frame from now, then back to the flood or to Adam. There is the Samaritan Text which dates the flood at 3112 BCE, and Adam at 4419 BCE. The Septuagint (LXX) can date the flood as late as 3242 BCE, or as early as 3547 BCE, and Adam as late as 5484 BCE or as early as 5803 BCE. To understand the differences, let me give you a very limited primer.

Most of the Old Testament was in Hebrew, a language with an alphabet that did not use vowels or punctuation marks in it's written form, allowing for many words to have multiple meanings. The originals were made by hand, then recopied and passed on for generations, and the material used was subject to decay and destruction. The Hebrews were very concerned that the copies would be accurate, and had come up with different methods to insure accuracy. But mistakes can happen over time. Yet, even if the copies are perfect, there are always the questions; what was the original meaning of a word or phrase, and how should the words be pronounced when read in public? The oldest surviving texts in the original Hebrew only go back to the 1st century BCE, found in the pieces and sections known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. I remember from visiting the traveling exhibit that came to the Grand Rapids museum recently that, although the shapes of some of the Hebrew letters had slightly changed, the scrolls and fragements do show that the texts of the 1st century BCE were very close to those of the 10th century CE.

The Septuagint (LXX) is a translation into Greek of Hebrew texts, done in the 3rd century BCE by a group of 70 (or 72) Jewish scholars. The Greek empire was ruling the Holy Land and many copies of the scriptures were made, some which have survived. This brings us closer to the original texts timewise, and although it is not the original but a translation, it does show how the Jewish scholars of the day interpretated the text they had. Commentators say that this was the text used by the Jews in Jesus day, and that evidence from the New Testament confirms that. The LXX was favored by some of the early fathers of the Christian Church, and was used as well by the Jewish historian Josephus. The MT was compiled in the 7th to 10th century CE, partly as a reaction by the Jews who saw the LXX being used by the Christians, and who wanted a purely Jewish translation. They included in the MT not just the Hebrew letters, but notations in the borders indicating 7th-10th century CE Jewish understandings of interpretation, punctuation and pronunciation. The Protestant translations of Archbishop Ussher's day used the MT as a primary source. Most of scripture is identical between what ended up in the MT and the LXX, but there are differences in the ages recorded for many of the personalities. I don't know which one is more accurate, but the LXX is certainly much more in line with what can be known for sure in recorded history outside sacred scripture.

Three of the oldest civilizations with recorded history are the Egyptian, the Sumerian, and the Chinese. As far as I can tell, you really cannot be too sure on any of their records that predate 2800 BCE, and perhaps even earlier/later than that. There is a list of rulers carved into an Egyptian tomb, and if accurate, the list of kings for Egypt may be dated to a first ruler named Menes, about 3100-3150 BCE. The 1st Chinese dynasty was the Xia, dating from 2000 - 1500 BCE. Their Longshorne culture may predate that to 2500 BCE and their Bronze Knife culture may go back to 3000 BCE. Evidence seems to indicate that the Sumerians became an organized society around 2800 BCE. If we look at the spread of civilization listed in the Bible, we must first have time to build up family groups from the three sons of Noah, they had to be gathered together to build the tower of Babel, and then they needed to disperse to the rest of the world, eventually developing organized civilizations. It is interesting that history shows that not only do those 3 civilizations begin at about the same time, but that we know nothing about any organized civilizations that predate those. A flood date of 2348 BCE is really pushing the envelope of possibility, whereas the LXX date of 3242 - 3547 BCE should fit quite nicely with current interpretations of historical evidence. The only scientific obstacles are the claims of humonoid remains dating thousands or tens of thousand of years earlier, which are dependent on the accuracy of Carbon-14 and Radiometric type dating, and the presuppositions they are based on, or a certain fosselized tree ring theory. But they are subjects for another day.

It seems to me that scripture, science and history can fit quite nicely with a fairly recent flood and a fairly recent Adam, if we are not bound by someone's teaching that requires a 7000 year time frame. Mankind is still suffering the consequences of a sin that happened perhaps 7500 years ago. Our present world geography was formed by a judgment against wickedness that happened perphas 5250 years ago. We all have hope because of a redemption, brought by the second Adam, that happened perhaps 1977 years ago. But the time of decision, for each of us, is today.

Let There Be Light

2007-11-21T15:13:00.001-08:00

"Then God said, "Let there be light", and there was light . . . and God separated the light from the darkness . . . And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day". (Genesis 1: 3-5)

"Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night . . . And God made the two great lights; the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness . . . And there was evening and there was morning, a forth day". (Genesis 1: 14-19)

"Now I can see!" (From a recent blog entry by my youngest daughter Becky, telling about changing a headlight all by herself on her Toyota Corolla)

When I took biology in high school, our teacher told us that we shouldn't look to the Bible for information on the beginnings of life, because in the Biblical account, vegetation appears on the third day, and the sun isn't created until the forth day, meaning that all the vegetation would have died instantly without the sun. I suppose in a unverse without a Designer and Creator, that begins from point B (point A cannot be discussed), and which runs through to point Y (Z also cannot be discussed), where all matter expands from a BB sized unit, expanding and forming in that expansion - time and space, gravity and forces, elements and stars, planets and water, nuclei and DNA - that all the vegetation would have indeed died. In a viewpoint that does not include a Designer and Creator, all things must be reduced to mathematical equatons, which the average person cannot even begin to cipher or comprehend, although we are asked to trust both the method and the messenger. Understand this. There is no such thing as being belief netural. All men are both physical and spiritual beings, and the physical and the spiitual are intertwined in all creation. To claim that spiritual considerations are not science ignores the fact that atheism is a religious viewpoint. And if atheists make the rules for science, then science becomes an extension of that intellectual denomination.

Nova recently did a program looking at a 2006 court case brought by the ACLU, representing a parent group, against the Dover (PA) school board. Our newspaper reviewer praised this as being a very even handed presentation, which was not my reaction to the parts that I viewed. Clue 1; The judge in the "reenactments" always displayed an approving smile anytime a "true scientist" would testify. Clue 2; There were shown ample examples of religious bigotry and hysteria. Clue 3; A scientist displayed and discussed a fossil of a fish with leg bones that he identified as a missing link between fish and land animals. Not discussed here were the facts that (A) no fossils exist showing the process of development of more complex features (all features found on fossils are already fully developed and useful for that particular species), (B) no reason is given why non-working leg bones would be a benefit to that species for the million years it took to develop them, (C) there was no consideration that the DNA of the species might be programmed so that form and shape can change to adapt to different conditions (that of course would require "intelligence"), and (D) no mention of the obvious; Contrary to what the public has been led to believe, it has not been observed in the lab, or in nature, that genetic mutation increases complexity. Species are observed becoming extinct, but new species do not appear (unless discovered in previously unexplored areas or classified as new because of variations of existing features). Life forms change, but not from simple forms to more complex forms, except in the minds and charts of certain scientists. A reasonable person should consider these more than just "minor" difficulties.

The Dover case is hailed as a benchmark victory of scientific evidence for evolution crushing the religious belief of intelligent design, although the case had nothing to do with the merits of either. Yes, arguments for both were presented, but the case was all about the idea that any challenge to the teaching of evolution is an imposition of religion doctrine into the public classroom. It was an argument that could not be won by debating the validity of evolution, and the outcome was predetermined by the acceptance of the perception that the definition of science excludes the discussion of design by an intelligent force. In other words, there is already a pre-existing religious doctrine (atheistism) in place, which prohibits discussion of opposing religious viewpoints.

Several Christian members of the Dover school board, believing that evolution is more theory than fact, pushed through a proposal whereby the 9th grade science teacher needed to read a brief prepared statement at the beginning of the first day of class, only stating there were "gaps" and "problems" with the theory of evolution, and that intelligent design was another option to consider. If any student wanted more information, the school had available the book, Of Pandas and People (which discusses intelligent design without reference to God). That was it. The ACLU argued, and the judge agreed, that the words "gaps" and "problems" came from creationist literature, which talks about a Judeo-Christian God, meaning that intelligent design was simply creationist doctrine in disguise. The use of those two words implies acceptance of creationist ideas by the school administration, and thus was the imposition of religious doctrine into the school.

That was the type of catch-22 logic used in the old Soviet bloc countries. Any citizen that would disagree with Soviet policies must be crazy, and was sentenced to a mental hospital in the gulag. Here we have science excluding a Designer and Creator from consideration, making evolution both a necessary and a foundational concept. Any disagrement with with the foundational concept cannot be true science, allowing the judge to rule that intelligent design was not science. Even though all complex structures, including the cell, look designed, design cannot be included as a consideration in science because all matter and structure must be the result of non-intelligent, mathematical processes of movement and relationship.

Now, let us briefly take a closer look at the two passages from Genesis, from the viewpoint of those that consider the word of God to have been written by the inspiration of the holy Spirit, and is an accurate account of the beginning of life on our earth. We believe that the Designer and Creator of all matter can do anything He wants with it, and the result will still be within the bounds of the laws of physics that He Himself established. From this camp there are three major, but different viewpoints. Each looks at scripture literally, but each sees a somewhat different story. There is the traditional interpretation, where creation happens over six, 24 hour days. All matter began about 6,000 years ago, and all life was formed from the material of the earth, by God, during those days. Species multiply each after their own kind, but with possible variations designed into each species. Then there is the group, best represented by scientist Hugh Ross, who see the six days as being long ages, with the age of the earth, and the progress of creation during those ages, as being compatible with current scientific understanding. They see God implanting in the physics the design for the beginning of life, with life evolving on an evolutionary model, albeit under the watchful eye and plan of God. Perhaps man was created separate, or perhaps God put into an existing creature, at the right point of evolution, the first divine spirit. The third group believes that Genesis may be telling the story (after Genesis 1:1), not of original creation, which may have happened thousands, or even millions of years before, but of a restoration of the earth after a judgment by God. They see the evil one as having an exalted position on the pre-Adamic earth, and judgment coming upon the earth after he rebels, taking with him a third of the angels. The earth becomes formless and void, and the Spirit of God hovers over the waters (v2), and restores shape and life to the earth over six, 24 hour days. Things then progress from there along the same lines as the first group.

Exploring these three viewpoints would take quite a bit of time, but I want to move on to the answer for my high school biology teacher. A careful reading of verses 3-5 indicates that the earth was rotating on the 1st day, and that there was a fixed light source, causing the side of the earth toward the light to be in the day, and the side away from the light to be in the night. The presence of vegetation before day 4 meant that there was also some source for heat as well. Although we are not given the identity of that light source, it could be the sun, depending on how the passage is interpreted, or it could be something else. An example of a something else is given in the 21st chapter of Revelation, in the description of the New Jerusalem. The time period is after Jesus returns, and rules on the earth for 1000 years. Near the end of those 1000 years the evil one is released for a short time to bring rebellion to a close, and then is thrown into the lake of fire. This is followed by a final judgment for those whose names were not found written the the book of life, who also end up being thrown into the lake of fire. "And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband . . . And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almight and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God ilumined it, and its Lamp is the Lamb".

Viewing the physical world without any comprehension of it's spiritual dimension is like driving at night in a heavy rain with only one headlight. There is so much more that is out there.

Double Clicking the "God" Icon

2007-11-08T10:22:00.000-08:00

"Rejoice always - Pray without ceasing - In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus - Do not quench the Spirit - Do not despise prophetic utterances - But examine everything carefully; hold fast to what is good - Abstain from every form of evil". (I Thessalonians 5: 16-22)

It was in the very early 1970's, and Jackie's aunt Eva took a bus to South Bend, Indiana, to visit her mother-in-law. On her way back she noticed that someone had left a book on the bus seat that she had chosen, called "Catholic Pentecostals", written by Kevin and Dorothy Ranahan, early leaders of the Catholic Charismatic movement. She brought it home and gave it to Jackie's dad, thinking that he might be interested in it. And indeed, Harry got so interested that he attended a Charismatic prayer meeting held at an abbey in Three Rivers, a city about a half hour away. Harry began to get a strong desire to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, as well as the desire to receive the gift of speaking in tongues. Not knowing how to go about it, he lay in bed and repeated the name, Jesus, throughout the night. The next morning when he got out of bed he was not tired, and so he went to the machine shop that he owned with a brother-in-law, working all that day with the machines. That night Harry again stayed awake, repeating his prayer of "Jesus, Jesus, JESUS", all night long. And again that next morning he got up, not tired, and worked all day. The third night, still determined to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, he lay down on his bed, and immediately after the first "Jesus", his words switched over to a new language, and Harry spent the entire night in worship and prayer to God using the tongues that the Holy Spirit had given him.

My experience was different. I had been an atheist for over 4 years by the time I married Jackie. She remembers always believing that Jesus was her Lord and Savior, and shortly after her dad's experience, the summer before we got married, he prayed with his children that they would open their hearts to the moving of the Holy Spirit, and Jackie eagerly asked for and received the gift of speaking in tongues. So we began our married life as a mixed couple, something that now I would not recommend. We went through pre-marriage consoling with Jackie's priest, Father Fitzgerald, and even though he knew I was an atheist, he still allowed us to get married in the church during a mass at St. Joe's.

Several months later came the big after-dinner-with-the-whole-family-blow up-on abortion and religion, and that began an amazing 2 month period leading to my conversion and Baptism in the Spirit. I'll share one story from that period. I was working as a traveling salesman for our family furniture business. In October I went to the Fall furniture show in North Carolina that lasted 10 days, and at night I had time to read some books that Harry had given me. Although the books helped me understand for the first time things such as - Jesus death on the cross was intended for me personally - I still could not even begin to comprehend God. The one thing I knew was that I didn't know God, nor how God could be. And so I tried to pray. But the only thing I could think of each night, while laying on my bed down there in North Carolina, was to say the Our Father. And I did that each night. Unlike Harry, I didn't spend very long each night praying, but I was knocking on the door, and seeing that, Jesus was preparing me for the time when He would open it.

The scripture verse that finally cut deep to my heart applies well to both of the stories above. One day, during my time of seeking, I thought; "Oh, I could speak funny words like Jackie does when she speaks in tongues", and I began to try to talk funny, when a strange word came out. I immediately stoopped because the thought in my mind was; "I don't know if there is a God, and I don't know if there is a devil, but if there is a devil then I certainly don't want anything that comes from him". It was a few weeks later, while I was reading a book by a Dr. Robert Frost, that I got excited about the possibility of knowing God. I put down the book and asked God (this was the 3rd time I had done so) to reveal Himself to me. Unlike the other times, when nothing happened I was extremely disappointed. Letting out an audible sigh, I picked up the book again and read a passage which Dr. Frost quoted from Luke 11, where Jesus says;

"Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?".

I had been seeking. I had been asking. I didn't know Him but now I desperately wanted Him. Through that passage He told me that I could trust Him to be a loving Lord, and a Precious Savior, and that whatever he had for me was good. And so I knelt down, and examined my conscious, and confessed my rebellion, and asked Jesus to come into my heart and to fill me with His Holy Spirit. As a step of faith I opened my mouth to speak forth in a new tongue. And in the instant before I spoke, as I began to give it breath, I came to know Jesus as a person.

We live in a microwave, fast food, instant gratification, super high speed Internet world. Our TVs have 200 channels, or ipods have 2000 songs, our cell phones have 2000 minutes a month. We give God a few hours a week of our time, but if we have a need we want to be able to access Him right now by double clicking on His icon. And yet, God is not a program running somewhere out there, ready to dispense the right stuff if only we know the correct pathways. He has revealed Himself to us as a person, and He wants to be in everything we do. His Holy Spirit will call us to come to know Jesus, and through Him the Father, but we must respond. And if we seek Him, He will be found, and will come into our hearts to bring a new birth to our spirits. The Holy Spirit has spiritual gifts for our benefit and for the benefit of our community. But we need to seek after them, and learn to grow in them. We get frustrated when we don't see immediate answers to prayers. But God wants us to trust Him, and to have joy in the journey. Sometimes trust means that we need to surrender more of our time to seek after, and to wait for, what He has for us. And trust means that when He shows us what we need to do, we respond, even if the evidence or logic is not immediately apparent. When we allow Him to be in every part of our lives, asking Him to move in our areas of concern, we will truly be able to give Him thanks in everything, rejoicing always.

Star Wars Rosary

2007-10-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

"And a great sign appeared in heaven; a woman clothed with the

sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth . . . And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne; And the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days". (Revelation 12: 1-6)

"Now he (Joseph) had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, 'Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me', And he related it to his father, and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, 'What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?'" (Gen. 37: 9-10)

Above is an example as to how scripture should be used to interpret scripture. The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to His dearest disciple John is full of language and symbols that John would have understood because of his Jewish background. Perhaps John did not grasp the ultimate fulfillment or timing of the visions, but he would have had a good idea as how to interpret the symbolism. The identity of the woman described in Revelation is clearly laid out for us in Genesis. God made some promises to the Jewish people, beginning with Abraham, and flowing through to his descendants. From Abraham came Isaac, and from Isaac came Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons from whom would become the 12 tribes of the Jewish nation. In the Genesis dream, Jacob interprets himself as the sun, his wife as the moon, and his 12 sons as the stars. John would not have interpreted the woman in his vision as being Mary, a person he knew well. Instead he would have seen the woman in his vision as being the woman described in Genesis; the nation of Israel, whose foundation was in Jacob and his 12 sons. And John would also have understood that it will be the Jewish people who one day would have to flee into the wilderness, in a place prepared for them by God, for 1260 days.

And yet, in order to find ways to elevate Mary, the Catholic church interprets her as the woman in Revelation, often pictured as Queen of Heaven, wearing a crown of 12 stars. The reasoning is that if Jesus is King of Kings, then His mother must be a queen mother; queen of angels, co-redemtrix, intermediator between man and her Son, bestower of graces, mother to all Christians, mother of all nations, queen of heaven. And to enable the theology to work she is described as being conceived without original sin, ever sinless, ever virgin, and assumed into heaven at the end of her earthly life, before her body could undergo any decay. Well, except for Mary being a virgin at the time of her conception with Christ, made special because God the Father chose her as the human vessel needed so that the Word could be made flesh, all of those titles and attributes are man made, conflicting with, or without mention in, holy scripture. Despite claims of the Catholic church otherwise, veneration sure looks to a one time Catholic like me to be worship. I have discussed how the ideas of praying to Mary and the saints began in the early church in my post of April 15, 2007 And they have continued to develop, even up to today.

One of the forms of adoration to Mary is the rosary. The roots of the practice began in the 10th and 11th centuries. In certain monasteries, monks would pray the psalms every day. There are 150 psalms, and these were divided into 3 groups of 50. Later on the common people wanted to adopt this practice, but because most were illiterate, they would substitute memorized prayers, such as the early forms of the Hail Mary, in place of the psalms. Catholic legend says that Mary appeared to St. Dominic (founder of the Dominicans) in 1214 and gave him the first rosary. The rosary is a set of beads, 50 of which are for the Hail Mary prayer. There are also beads for the Our Father and Glory Be prayers, the Apostles Creed, and places to contemplate events in the life of Jesus, called the Mysteries. Although there are 4 sets of these, one set to be used for each saying of the rosary, I think originally there were 3 sets (a total of 150 Hail Marys, equal to the 150 psalms). Many of the mysteries do not include Mary, but there some that only include Mary, such as the glorious mystery; "Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth". In 1858, Mary appears to Bernadette at Lourdes, and the apparition is wearing a rosary. In 1917, Mary appears to 3 children at Lourdes, and tells them that for the conversion of the world, everyone must do penance and pray the rosary daily. Pope John Paul II was very devoted to Mary and especially to the apparition of Mary at Fatima. Mary appears again to some children in the Croatian village of Medjugory in 1981. Ever since then she has given at least one of them a monthly message, which are all available at the Medjugory website, and which will include from time to time a request to do penance and to pray the rosary daily. The fact that tens of millions of people, some whom we know, go to these places even now, should remind us that Mary veneration is not just a part only found in past Catholic history.

My mother grew up in the Reformed tradition. Her family went to church faithfully, and I remember that anytime I would stay with my grandparents, before dinner my grandpa would read aloud from a big Bible that sat next to the table. This was a unique experience for me because I never saw my Catholic dad or my mom read the Bible, either aloud or by themselves. My Catholic grandparents, also regular church goers, always had a Bible sitting out on a lamp table, but there wasn't any evidence that those stiff, shinny, gold edged pages had ever actually been opened. Later on, my parents had a purely Catholic translation of the Bible, called the Douay Bible. This was born as a Catholic response to the use of the King James translation by the early reformers. I tried reading from it and believe me, it's more difficult to understand than the King James. Around the time I was in 5th grade my mother was going through a crisis of faith. During this time she went to her minister for answers, and as it was related to me years later, "He only told me to read my Bible". She then went to see my dad's priest, who must have been able to give her answers that made sense to her. She decided to go through the process of becoming a Catholic, and I suspect that it was at this time that my mother made a decision that opened up her heart, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus in for salvation.

The 5 kids in our family had been raised Catholic from birth, part of the deal that a non-Catholic must make when marrying a Catholic serious about their faith. So of course I was very pleased when my mother became Catholic. The down side was that she initially wanted to be a very fervent Catholic. And so for awhile that summer before 6th grade, she gathered her little innocent children into our hallway, in front of the crucifix hanging on the wall, with palm branches stuck behind it, and ignoring the sounds of other children outside, happily enjoying the forbidden pleasures of freedom, my mother would lead her little clan in saying the rosary, using the same boring tones as the ladies from the rosary guild, who would sometimes lead the school children in the saying of the rosary before the mass that began each academic day, a monotone "halemaryfullofgracethelordiswiththeeblessedartthoughamongwomen . . .", over and over.

My mother really didn't understand anything about my asking Jesus into my life when I was 22. In her mind I had become "religious", and a little overboard at that. After a couple of years, although still Catholic, I had immersed myself in scripture and had read many books written by non-Catholic authors. It had already become obvious to me that scripture contradicted many Catholic practices. One day my mother stopped by to visit Jackie and me at our little house in Kalamazoo. She and my dad had just come back from Europe and she said that she brought back a present for me. Out of her purse came an ordinary little rosary. She proudly gave it to me and said; "The Pope blessed it". Now I must tell you that in my mind I pictured the Pope walking through a warehouse somewhere in Rome, full of holy cards, rosaries, and other religious objects, waving his hand in one great swoop, and saying in Latin; "Bless this stuff". I realized that my mother was trying to express a spiritual connection in terms that she understood, but I soon became really distraught at the thought that maybe my parents were actually missing a saving relationship with Jesus. A day or two later, I was kneeling by my bed, pouring out my heart with as much emotion as I ever had, praying for the salvation of my parents. In the midst of that the Spirit of the Lord settled upon me, and unspoken, gave me the assurance that they were right with God. Even though we couldn't talk the same talk, and even though our theologies were quite different, God had given me a life long peace about them.

Jackie and I sent our oldest 3 children to a Catholic school for a few years. When Ben was in 2nd grade, he came home with a black plastic rosary that the school gave each of the kids. Jackie went into his room, decorated with sports and Star Wars items, and noticed his new rosary hanging from his top bunk (Ben slept on the bottom, the top was for when his friends might visit). Curious, she asked Ben why he had it hanging like that. Now the rosary has a medallion , which usually has a picture of Mary on it. But in Ben's 2nd grade mind, the image of Our Lady of Fatima on the black plastic medallion looked just like Darth Vadar from the Star Wars movie. And so he proudly displayed it. We thought this was quite humorous, and we were actually relieved at the limits of Catholic indoctrination. As it turns out, Ben's interpretation might have some merit. Prayer beads have been around for thousands of years. Jesus could have partially been addressing those types of prayer in Matthew 6 when He said; "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the gentiles do; for they suppose they will be heard for their many words". Jesus then provides a pattern for prayer which is now called the Our Father. Well, guess what? Repeating the pattern as a prayer with endless repetitions was exactly what Jesus was telling us not to do. And saying 10 Hail Marys to each Our Father is not exactly addressing our prayers to the Father either.

Our heavenly Father wants to change our lives and draw us closer to Him. And He speaks to us through His Holy Spirit in many ways. It is the Holy Spirit, and not Mary, that always works to reveal Jesus to us, because we can go to the Father through Jesus. To hear God we need to have a heart that seeks Him and is willing to respond to what He says. When I cry out to God from the depths of my heart, and worship Him with made up songs and unknown tongues, and weep in response to a verse of scripture that I've reflected upon, moving me to repentance, that is better than ten thousand rote prayers or even hours of reading the Bible. The veil has been torn in two. And neither priest, or minister, or saint, or Mary, should be an intermediary between us and the Father.

Prayer And Fasting

2007-10-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

This will be the 11th straight year that Jackie and I have observed a 40 day period of prayer and fasting which we begin on the first of October. I actually started doing this 2 Timothy 2:1-2 Blog a week after last year's fast, having felt from my time of prayer during the fast that it was something that the Lord wanted me to do.

Our fasting is relatively minor. We abstain from carbonated beverages, deserts, and from eating anything between meals. This has been a good way for us to fast because it is difficult, it takes a commitment to achieve, and we know we can see it through to the end. In the weeks before we start we each ask the Lord to show us what we should be praying for, and then right before we begin we talk together about the burdens that God has laid on our hearts. Doing this we end up with a common prayer focus. And prayer seems to be more effective when two or more are in agreement.

About 48 hours into the fast we always get a headache which lasts for a couple of days, apparently cause by the lack of sugar to our systems. After the pain fades we get the dreams. It is the same type of dream every year. I eat a candy bar or piece of pie (my daughter Ceci who also fasts and prays with her husband during this time has numerious M&M dreams), before it occurs to me that - Whoops! - I've messed things up. It's not that there is anything legalistic about not eating what we are fasting from, or even that circumstances might require an exception. But we feel that our annual fast is an important thing for us to do, and we really don't want to compromise it. We praise God, not just for the answers to prayer and for the spiritual growth that comes every year, but also for the goodness of our Lord and Savior, whom we appreciate more because of this time we have spent, unified in prayer and in denying the cravings of our bodies. The results of this time have been much more than seeing God move in the areas that we were praying for. They have shown us that although we may begin and end on a certain day, pre-determined by us, the God who loves us and who knows our needs is outside time.

For example, our fast begins on the 1st of October and ends at midnight on the 9th of November. On the first year we did our fast Jackie's dad had a major heart attack on the 10th of November. He lived for 6 more days at the critical care heart center on the fifth floor of Borgess Hospital before he went to be with his Blessed Redeemer. Harry was a man of great faith, a gifted teacher of scripture, who prayed with many for salvation, for baptism in the Holy Spirit, for healing and for deliverance. The family would usually look to him to be the leader in praying for healing or for receiving a word from the Lord. His heart attack became a time for many more in the family to learn how to search the scriptures, to cry out to the Lord, and to hear and speak forth the prophetic word.

One of the prophetic words during that time came from a vision that God gave Ceci. She was with Jackie and some of her aunts and cousins, praying intensely for Harry. They were in a semi-secluded area in the hallway, near the visitors waiting room, on the 5th floor at Borgess. In the vision she saw angels with their swords drawn, coming into the hospital on the 1st floor, and fighting their way up to the 5th floor, and she gave the play by play to the women as the vision unfolded. To me this vision represents the power of their collective intercessory prayer. God is showing that He is in control, and that He does respond, even if the result was not the recovery they were praying for. And one of the things that show me that God is in control is that He led Jackie and I to fast and pray prior to those events, preparing us, and especially Jackie, for the emotional strain of seeing her father die, and for the intense time of prayer and spiritual warfare that the family would be involved in.

On the next year we ended our fast as usuall at midnight on the 9th of November. Jackie had asked her mom to come and spend the night at our house because it was near the 1st anniversary of Harry's heart attack and she was worried about her mother being alone at that time. Helen wasn't able to make it, but events proved to be very interesting, as I partially shared in an earlier Blog. There was an all day steady wind of between 40-50 mph. That evening it started gusting to 60-70 mph. Occasionally we would hear a "Whomp!", which was the sound of a tree falling somewhere nearby. The power was out before we went to bed, and Jackie and I prayed for protection for ourselves, our 15 year old daughter Becky, and for our house. Shortly afterwards we heard and felt the tremendous crash a tree hitting our house, followed by the scream of our daughter. I grabbed a flashlight and bolted down the dark upstairs hallway to her room, finding her huddled in a ball on the floor. There was a jagged 2 x 4 from the roof truss sticking into the middle of her mattress. Looking up past the wood and drywall and trees I could see the sky. Becky was unhurt and did not know how she ended up on the floor, and Jackie and I both had the sense that an angel had intervened, moving Becky off her bed at the last second. Two rooms sustained quite a bit of damage. The other belonged to our daughter Missy who was away at college. And that was the room where Jackie's mom would have been sleeping if she had come. There were a couple more upsides to all of this. Tarps covered the roof for three weeks before it could be repaired, and it never rained during that time. Being in a woods, our roof was covered with moss, and insurance paid for a new moss resistant roof as well as for all the other repairs. The missing trees opened up a nice large sunny area out back, which Jackie had wanted for a long time. Even though our house got hit, our time of prayer and fasting had prepared us. God protected us physically and gave us more besides.

Living our lives as Christians is not about religion or religious acts. It is not about if or how we fast or the fervency of our prayers, or the volume of scripture we read. It all has to do with a living Lord, who loves us and who wants to share a loving relationship with us. He desires to be in every part of our lives, and He desires that we share with Him the things that He finds pleasure in. Prayer and fasting help in bringing down the barriers of the world and the flesh that come between us and the relationship that He wants to have with us. I recently read the 8th chapter of Ezekiel during my morning prayer time. In it the Lord gave Ezekiel a series of visions showing the people of Jerusalem engaged in idol worship, spirit worship, Tammuz worship and sun worship. In one of those, Ezekiel digs a hole through a wall to uncover a secret place where seventy elders of the House of Israel were standing, each with a censer filled with incense before walls that had "every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the House of Israel, were carved on the wall around it". Upon reading this my stomach felt nauseous. I became sad because I realized that God loved this people and wanted so much for them, and in return they rejected Him. But of course, this isn't to point a finger at a particular people. I realized that I too can think that I have a secret place where God cannot see. And those things that are kept in a secret place are just as much idols, and just as creepy and detestable to God as were the things worshipped by the elders of the House of Israel. Although I know these things will affect my relationship with Him, the solution is not to bring everything into the light just because things will be better for me. These should also be brought into the light because I understand that my sin hurts the One who loves me.

The real benefit of a time of prayer and fasting is not just in what we are seeking from Him. The practice declares that He is the Lord of the Universe and that we believe that He is in control of our lives and that we are putting our trust in Him for all things. That trust will help soften our hearts, and a soft heart will bring a closer relationship, and the love of God will give us the strength to conform our lives to the pattern that He, in His love and wisdom, has established for us.

Fog Horns and Red Flags

2007-09-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

The apostle Paul concludes the Book of Romans with a warning to that church; "Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites, and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil, and the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you." (Romans 16: 17-20)

It was in the late 1970's, and my father-in-law would meet once a week for lunch with other leaders of the Charasmatic community in Kalamazoo. One of the groups in town had become involved in what was known as the shepherding movement, which was started by a group of 4 very well known national Charasmatic teachers who had formed a ministry based in Florida. Although really respecting the overall teachings and work of 3 of the 4 men, Harry never liked the particular concept of headship that was being promoted by that ministry and had been adopted by a once vibrant Charasmatic fellowship in Kalamazoo. At one of those lunch meetings Harry spoke of his concerns that perhaps a scriptural principle was being violated, and he was immediately verbally attacked personally, and his ministry was attacked, for 30 minutes by the main leader of that fellowship. Harry told me that during the whole time he felt a tremendous peace and calm from the Holy Spirit, but noticed that not one of the other leaders, either from his own group or from any of the other groups, had said a word in his defense. At the end of the tirade Harry stood up and said; "This is what I purpose we do. We all agree. We ask the Holy Spirit to dry up my ministry if I am in error, or to dry up . . . (that man's) ministry if he is in error". The man and all the other leaders agreed. Two days later, the man left town, without a word to anyone in his fellowship and without a forwarding address. It was only then that the other leaders in that fellowship began to understand the fear and oppression they had been under. Most privately had concerns, but thought they were the only one.

When I was a child my parents owned a cottage along the Lake Michigan shore. I would share a bed room with one of my brothers, and if I had the top, slightly sandy top bunk that was right next to a little one foot tall window, I would often listen to the early morning, low moaning of a fog horn, located at a pier about a mile to the south. Double piers, or breakwaters, extended from a channel connecting Lake Macatawa to Lake Michigan, and although light beacons were present at the end of each pier, the fog could be so thick that the horn was needed to warn both recreation and commercial boats that there was a huge concrete and metal structure sticking far out into the water. Just to the north of the breakwaters was the Holland State Park. For the safety of swimmers, and for boaters exiting the channel, there were flags that would be displayed at the park advising the conditions either for small boating or for swimming. If the wind was at a sufficient velocity, and coming from the right direction, a red flag would be posted, indicating it was very dangerous for people to be out in the water.

There are spiritual warning signs that act as a type of fog horn and red flag. When we hear or see them we might not immediately know what the danger is, but we should exercise caution before we approve the message or become too accepting of the messenger. Learning to recognize these warnings, and to "keep an eye" on those that we are warned about will be helpful in protecting us from dissension's, false doctrines, and spiritual oppression. The Holy Spirit moves through spiritual gifts, prophetic words, dreams, visions, and other signs and wonders. He speaks to us through the reading and the preaching of sacred scripture. And He speaks to us through the consul of mature believers. But where we find the Spirit moving, we will also discover that the enemy is working to hinder, distort, and silence the Spirit's moving.

Unfortunatly there are men and women "of their own appetites" who gain acceptance, recognition and power in the Christian community. I am not talking about sincere believers who may not be mature in their faith and who say or do things that could be done better. Every group has people who desire attention, or who add a lot of their own thoughts, desires and theology into a little of what the Spirit is doing. Instead, I am talking about people that are placed into a group by the enemy, or unbalanced men and women that were already part of a group and are advanced by the enemy. And also in today's mass media age, preachers, teachers and authors who have gained a wide audience for their distortions of scripture and for their false visions and prophetic words. These people always sound "spiritual", but they are really promulgating the theologies of man or of evil spirits. They are spiritual con artists, who gain influence as a way to make money, and spiritual war lords, whose desire is to dominate others.

The goals of the enemy are the same as they have always been. The Father desires our worship, and wants us to worship Him alone. The enemy tries to get us to worship man, objects, or evil spirits The Father designed us to have a relationship with Him, and made that possible through Jesus. The enemy will deny our need to surrender to the lordship of Jesus, and will instead place a man, or a spirit, or a law, or a theology between us and the Father. The Father wants us to follow Him, and to trust Him in everything, because He loves us. The enemy hates us, and exchanges burden for love, and doubt and formula for trust The Father poured out the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we would experience freedom and joy, and so we would have the power to live holy lives and be able to minister that power to others. The enemy places on us burdens and chains, fear and doubt.

Here are things I know to be true. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is peace, and freedom, even in discipline. It is the Spirit, and not law or the demands of a church or a leader that will change the desires of our heart to conform to the will of God. Because we were made to worship the Father, the Holy Spirit moves when our focus is on the Father. When we were born again in the spirit we became part of God's family. Our spirits are perfect even if we fall short in our thoughts and actions. Sin then, for the one born again, affects our relationship, but not our salvation. The main lesson that God has for us everyday, is to trust him. Fear has to do with sin, and with our lack in trusting the Father. Perfect love casts out all fear.

Perhaps the warning signs that the Spirit gives to you will be slightly different than what He gives to me. My foundation is on an understanding of holy scripture in it's context, and what I have witnessed and experienced from the Holy Spirit that agrees with scripture, some of which I have shared above. If a teaching runs counter to that I see a red flag. I am sensitive to the way that scripture is used to validate a teaching or a theology. Some men are very good at teaching "scrptural principles" and "Biblical patterns" as a way to raise money. They understand the language that is used in the Charismatic and Pentecostal communities, and use that to their own gain. When anyone says "write that check", or "make that call" - "RIGHT NOW!", you have a red flag, no matter how convincing the personality or how blessed you have been by the program. And if someone recounts a dream, or a vision, or a spiritual encounter, and splices in supporting scripture, it's a sign to me that the source of the dreams and visions and encounters are not from the Lord. It is ok to examine any scripture being used and ask, "Does it really support what is being taught?" And if someone has a word from the Lord in a prophecy, dream or vision, it is also ok to ask, "Would God really speak like that?"

The Holy Spirit is creative and may move in ways that are new and are different than what we were brought up with. Yet there are principles and standards that do not change. When we hear and see those principles and standards being violated, and when we see an obvious misuse or misdirection of scripture, we know that the Holy Spirit is warning us to be extra cautious.

The Obelisks of Jeremiah

2007-08-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday night as I sat with a group of people at the top of a dune by the shore of Lake Michigan, watching a beautiful sunset and the bright orange glow that later spread across the horizon of the lake, I pondered how it is possible for anyone to witness the same without wanting to worship the Designer and Creator. Yes, I know that there was a time when I did not have a personal relationship with the Lord, and my small brain could not even begin to grasp the possibility of God. But know I see Him in everything, and the beauty and order and complexity of it all screams out to me in the sunset; "I am! I know you! I love you! I have a plan for your life! Your life is designed and has purpose, just like the sunset!"

Someone had remarked earlier that evening that the great author Hemmingway described the town he came from as having wide lawns but narrow minds, but now that town was known as having narrow lawns but wide minds. I didn't say anything, but it occurred to me that Hemmingway put a loaded shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, and what became a really wide mind didn't bring him any closer to the One who designed us in His creative image. Talk also turned to the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, who also came from that same town. An uncle of mine knew someone who had a relative that commissioned Wright to design a house for them, but never went through with the project because Wright wanted everything done exactly as he designed it, and was not flexible to make any changes. My uncle recently visited a place that displayed plans of everything designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and on one of those plans was the name of that particular person. The plans and the buildings are a testament to the genius of a person who was instrumental in introducing a new style of architecture, and who was noted for incorporating the character of the site and the use of local materials into his designs. I am in awe of the genius of men like Frank Lloyd Wright, but his abilities came from, and are a reflection of the Master Architect.

God has a plan for the Hebrew people and their nation, but with few exceptions the people always decide to follow designs of their own making. Many from each generation would follow after false gods and were not obedient to the instructions that God gave them through Moses and the prophets. And the nation never strove to possess anthing close to the extent of land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants. The greatest extent came during the time of Solomon. But after he died the nation became split into a northern kingdom, called Israel, and a southern kingdom, called Judea. Eventually the northern kindgom was conquered and the people were deported. The prophet Jeremiah lived just prior to the conquering many years later of the southern kinddom of Judea by the Babylonians, and into the immediate time after. When the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and either kiled or deported everyone considered high or middle class, they left the poor in the land to take possession of what was left. The Babylonian king appointged a puppet governor over the people, and he let Jeremiah remain in Judea.

There remained in the land armed groups of Jewish rebels who hid out in the countryside. The leader of one of those groups killed the puppet governor, and then all of the commanders of the rebel forces as well as their followers came to Jeremiah, saying; "Please let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, that is for all this remnant; because we are left but a few out of many, as your own eyes now see us, that the Lord your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do . . . May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not act in accordance to the whole message with which the Lord your God will send you to us . . . Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, in order that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the Lord our God." (Jeremiah 42: 2-6)

What a great speech they gave to Jeremiah, and through him to God. Over and over God had used Jeremiah to warn the Jewish inhabitants before the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem that the Babylonians were God's chosen instrument to punish them, but if they would surrender, the city of Jerusalem and their own lives would be spared. Instead, the ruling powers listened to the voice of the false prophets who advised alliances, and had Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned.Now the remnant were saying that they would listen to the word of the Lord as given by Jeremiah, and would do everything that the Lord told them. God honored that, and replied; "If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up, and not tear you down, and will plant you and not uproot you, for I shall relent concerning the calamity that I have inflicted on you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand. I will also show you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own soil." (Jeremiah 42: 10-12)

But the true desire of the people was not to trust in the Lord. They had their own plan, and that was to escape to the safety of Egypt. The people replied to Jeremiah; "As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you! but rather we will certainly carry out every word that proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifies to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem". (Jer. 44: 16-18) God told them that if they indeed fled to Egypt; "Behold, I am going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon . . . He will also come and strike the land of Egypt; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for capitivity to capitivity, and those for the sword for the sword . . . he will burn the temples of the gods of Egypt . . . He will also shatter the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt." (Jeremiah 43: 10-13)

The word "Heliopolis" means "house of the sun". The obelisks were coated with a combination of 1 part silver and 4 parts gold, and these mammoth 69'6" tall structures were aligned with the sun so that their effect would be truly inspiring. The Jewish remnant would leave the land, even after a promise by God that He would deliver them from both oppression and famine. They would flee to Egypt and adopt the Egyptian gods, and trust in them. But Nebuchadnezzar did come and built his headquarters at Heliopolis, the fate of those Jews was as God promised, and the obelisks were knocked down. A funny thing happened to three of those obelisks thousands of years later. One ended up in Paris, one ended up in London, and one ended up in New York City Central Park. The silver and the gold had long since disappeared, but I believe those large stone needles are where they are today as a visible sign and reminder to the Jewish population living those countries.

There are 13.3 million Jewish people living in the world today. The Jewish population of Israel, which only became a country again after almost 2 thousand years, is 4.9 million. In the United States and Canada there are about 7 million Jews, 1.8 million of them living in New York City. The country with the next largest Jewish population is France, with over 600,000, and then comes the UK with 275.000. There is a time coming, and I believe it is sooner rather than later, that God will be clearly calling His chosen people to go back to the land of Israel. But many will be reluctant to leave what they see as the comforts and safety of their own countries. Those obelisks are a sign that they should not trust in the governments of France, Britain, or even the United States to care for and protect them. And they are certainly not to follow after false gods, even if signs in the heavens lead the rest to the world to clamor after the queen of heaven. Just as it has always been, they are called to trust only in the Lord their maker, the Master Designer, who will protect them in the midst of the fiery furnace that is to come.

The Long Coal Train

2007-08-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

Everyday, sometimes twice a day, a very long train passes through our town. Each car is heaped with as much coal as it can carry, the top few black feet clearly visible from the lower vantage point of my waiting automobile. This train is heading to a power plant about 12 miles north, and I marvel at the ability of the two or three engines to move so much weight. And some of the times when I am lucky enough to be held up for the ten minutes it takes for the train to rumble by, I think about something related to me by a guy who once worked for the utility, driving a large bulldozer that moved that coal around. He asked his superiors, noting the immense amount of volume consumed each day, if we would soon run out of coal, and was told that our country has enough for hundreds of years more. Sometimes I reflect about where the coal comes from. I'm not talking about whether it is western or Appalachian coal, but rather how all of that coal came to be.

You would think that is the type of question that any school child, seeing the same train, would ask. And you would think that there would be an answer that seemed logical to anyone really interested in the orgin of coal. The problem is, you can get a text book answer as to how coal is made by natural processes over time, but the answer is only theory because there is not any place on earth today where seams of coal are in the process of being formed. Peat is being produced by natural processes, and the text books tell us that peat turns into coal. Peat has to somehow get buried with enough of the right covering to create the pressure needed to convert it into coal. But that has not been observed by man in the present or in the recorded past.

Coal comes from vegetable matter such as plants and trees. In growing, these living things convert energy from the sun with molecules from the soil and water, and the structure is made up of carbon atoms drawn from those sources. When a plant dies, oxygen works to break down the atomic structure, and everything gets recycled. Dead plants on the ground eventually disapper. I live in a woods, and each fall I rake the large amount of dead leaves into the wooded areas just past my lawn. The old leaves are several inches thick, but the volume does not increase, because the leaves of two years ago have disappeared. And just like my woods, the ocean floor is not mucky with dead vegetation or dead marine animals (the source material for oil). In our current world, if vegetation dies in a swampy area where the water is oxygen poor, the old matter will grow thicker, and peat may form. But coal requires a large mass of vegetation to be rapidly buried, the burying material shielding it from further contact with oxygen. And the burying material has to be in sufficient volume to create the pressure needed to convert the vegetable material into coal.

The text books will tell you that it takes thousands of years for the buried peat to turn into coal, although it has been demostrated that coal can be produced by man in a very short time. There are coal seams that span hundreds of square miles. Some seams can be very thick, and some are only a few inches thick. The surrounding material found around ALL coal seams is sedimentary rock (water carried material). And the current scientific explanation for the formation of these hugh expanses of coal requires that in the distant past there were extreamly large swamps, multi-state wide in area, covering the western and eastern parts of our country (and in many other parts of the world as well). The rotting vegetation in those swamps were quickly covered by sediment brought in by sea water (note: the effect of the extra oxygen brought in by the sea water not accounted for). The ground then had to rise (this is called an "uplift"), and then the land eventually had to sink again to create another swamp, and then rise and sink again and again over hundreds of thousands or millions of years because there are multiple layers of coal seams. As unlikely as that scenario sounds to me, science assures us that it must be true, because anything can happen if you allow for millions of years. The presence of rootless trees, some upside down but vertical, that cut through multiple layers of coal seams and sedimentary strata (or millions of years of time) are unexplained, as are the esistence of boulders in the seams (logically transported by being entangled in the roots of trees and transported by a major flood).

I checked into coal formation on a Google search, and found a site which gives school teachers an experiment to demonstrate how coal comes to be. First you get an empty aquarium tank, place a layer of sand on the bottom, fill it with water, place vegetable matter in the water, wait for the vegetable matter to sink to the bottom, place another layer of sand into the tank to cover the rotting vegetable matter, put the tank in a well ventilated area because it will stink - and if you do this, after several days you will give the students a visible picture as to how coal is formed. The experiment does not actually produce coal, or peat for that matter. All it does is provide a picture, or an icon, of the theory of coal production. And years later the kids will remember this icon, satisified that Mr. Smith could demonstrate the slow formation of coal over endless centuries.

A while after I became a believer at the age of 22, I had to come to grips with how to understand some scriptures that conflicted with what I had learned in high school and college. I believe that scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that every part of it has meaning and purpose. That meant that the accounts of creation and the flood were much more than stories related by ancient monotheistic peoples. And I believe that scripture was meant to be taken literally, unless the ovvious rendering shows types and examples. Something like the age of the earth, or the timing of the flood, can be understood literally with different interpertations. But as I see it, there had to be a literal first man and woman, Adam and Eve. And they had to have been created without sin, and then sinned, for it to make any sense for Jesus (the second Adam) to have to come and die on the cross for the sins of man. And for various reasons, one being that Jesus is very specific about it, there had to a a Noah, there had to be a universal flood, just as there will be a universal judgment coming upon the whole earth.

My convictions came through faith. I jumped into the arms of an invisible God, and when He caught me, He showed Himself to me. And when I began to trust that His word was true, He began to show me how faith does not conflict with science. The physical evidence for all of what scripture says is there, but many cannot interpret it correctly because their lack of faith, or outright antagonism toward faith, has blinded them from considering their Creator. Scientists tell us, our kids are taught in school, and the secular press eagerly confirms, that scientists and the scientific method have no bias. But in truth most scientists start with an atheistic assumption that everything in the universe has a purely mechanical origin, it is running a mechanical path, at a fixed pace, and will end with a mechanical implosion. They have to believe in an evolutionary process, and long time frames (see the anything is possible comment) to make it work. And that skews what they are looking for, and the way then interpret all data. We must remember, even the greatest scientists are still people, with an immortal soul, struggling against a powerful enemy they cannot see and do not believe in.

My faith freed me to look at evidence, and to approach firmly held beliefs, from a different perspective. One of the first books that provided me with another viewpoint toward a universal flood was - Earth's Most Challenging Mysteries (1972), by Reginald Daly, a Ph.D. in goelogy who had taught at Harvard. He made me aware how many of the features of the earth, from the ice caps to the Grand Canyon, can be best understood in the context of an earth wide catastrophic flood. In the book he talks about coal and oil formation, and how the geology of the earth in relation to the settling of the flood waters can even point to the location of coal seams and oil and gas deposits. Sadly, 35 years later, there is not any serious debate in the scientific community concerning even the possibility of a universal flood. It is not because they have solid counter arguments concerning the evidence. Their atheistic viewpoint does not even allow them to consider a "Noah's Flood", and their response to any theories suggesting such is always met with ridicule, scorn, dismissal, and misrepresentation of the viewpoint. And yet, day after day, the long coal train makes it's way through our town. And it reminds me that even in judgment, God was designing and creating something benefical for man, and that He is awesome beyond my imagination.

"Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation'. For when they maintain this it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." (2 Peter 3: 3-6)

Delivered From The Wrath To Come

2007-08-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

"For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit . . . You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit . . . For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you . . . in every place your faith toward God has gone forth . . . (so) wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." (1 Thessalonians 1: 5-10)

I saw a show today about earthquakes and the tsunamis they create. Our nation's entire West Coast is just east of something called the ring of fire, where tectonic plates collide and subduct, building up incredible pressure until released, the ensuing pressure waves having the potential to cause massive damage to cities like Seattle, Washington. Recent research has surprised scientists who are trying to see if these magnitude 9+ earthquakes can be predicted, showing them that there is a pattern of buildup and slow release. The odds of "the big one" coming will increase dramatically during one of the two week long release periods. My thoughts turned to the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Perhaps it will be shown that there were continual increase of load, causing a series a unnoticed internal failures, finally resulting in the whole structure giving way in just a few seconds. There is no way that anyone could have predicted the day of the failure, just as guesswork is involved in earthquake prediction. Yet, "the big one" is coming, and those who might be affected should do everything they can to be prepared.

We live in a world that has been in the process of rebelling against God since the time of Adam. God wiped out the entire human race, save 8 people, and completely destroyed all human achievements, and in the process, He remade the physical map of the earth. God promised Noah that He would not destroy the earth again by water. But scripture is clear that there is another judgment coming. No rebels will survive to repopulate the land, and the geography will once again be quite different. Even though our lifespans are short compared to the overall history of man, and living in relative comfort has given us a false sense of security, we should not ignor that history is quickly drawing to this major climax, where God will defeat the spiritual and human forces of rebellion. Periods of crisis and tribulations have come and gone, but they have left internal fractures that have weakened the overall structure. The United States has been a brace that has helped stabilize the dynamics in the world, but rust is corroding this brace, and the world is about to collapse. It should give us pause to think that prophecy reveals that this next judgment, although it encompasses the whole world, is centered around Israel and Jerusalem, and that Israel only became a nation again in 1948, regaining rights to the holy places in 1967, and that America is currently engaged in a war in the Mid-East. Pressure is building and a terrible time is coming. God gives us encouagement to sound forth the word through our world, so that many can become reborn and part of His family. And He comforts us with the assurance that He will remove His family from the earth before this time of trouble.

The apostle Paul was shown by the Spirit a mystery concerning what would happen before Jesus returned to set up His kingdom on earth. It was clear from the Old Testament that a messiah would sit on the throne of David and rule the nations from there. "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely, and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. and this is the name by which He will be called. The Lord our righteousness". (Jeremiah 23: 5-6) Jesus is the messiah, and the context of His rule is as a Jew, ruling from a Jewish throne. Scripture is also clear that there would be great tribulation just prior to the coming of the messiah. There are two reasons for this tribulation. God would be judging the Jewish nation for putting false gods before Him, for not honoring Him by being obedient to the plan He gave them by the prophets, and for not trusting Him as deliver. The ultimate purpose for this judgment was to cleanse the nation of all rebels, and to cleanse and prepare the land for the coming of messiah. The second reason for the tribulation was to judge the Gentile nations as well, both for apostasy, and for the manner in which they treated the nation of Israel and the Jewish people.

The early church was composed exclusively of people who were Jewish. When Jesus ascended into heaven He promised them that He would one day return, coming down from the clouds to Jerusalem. The early believers expected Jesus to return at any time to set up His earthly, Jewish, kingdom. They knew there would be a gap in time from the ascension to the second coming, but they had no idea how long that gap was. Eventually the Spirit sent Peter to the household of Cornelius, beginning the ingrafting of Gentile believers into the Jewish trunk. The Holy Spirit gave Paul a deeper understanding of this thing that was a mystery to the prophets of the Old Testament. Salvation was not just for the Jew, but included all who would approach God in faith and call on Jesus as Lord and Savior. Ths group of redeemed people, both Jew and Gentile, from the resurrection of Jesus until His return, would comprise a special group. We call this group The Church, or the Body of Christ. But we need to also understand this group as people who have been born into the family of God through the rebirth of their spirits by the
Spirit of Christ.

The Spirit showed Paul another mystery as well, concerning God's plan for the church before the time period known as the seventh week of Daniel, which we usually call The Tribulation. In the 24th chapter of Matthew Jesus tells His disciples the events that would happen prior to His second coming. He talked about false christs and false prophets, wars and famines, and great tribulations. He mentioned the appearance of the "Abomination of Desolation" that Daniel prophesied. And then He said; "But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather the elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other". The Spirit showed Paul that there was something that preceeded this. There would be a bodily resurrection of the dead in Christ, as well as a bodily ascension of the alive in Christ, at a time before the tribulation spoken of in Matthew. Thus the "elect" who are gathered immediately after the tribulation of those days cannot be you or I, who are part of the church. They will be people who became believers during that time and were not martyred, and they go on into the new millennial age to repopulate the earth. The living who are "taken" in verses 40-41 then, are the non redeemed, who are removed to a judgment. In this scripture, the ones "left behind", are the believers.

The Thessalonians understood that Jesus could return at any time, but they were confused because they were enduring great persecusion, and because some had died, when they had expected the Lord to return before that happened. Paul told them that although they were enduring trials, there would be coming a special time of great tribulation, but they would be "caught up" (in Latin "rapere", from which we get the word "rapture") to meet the Lord in the air before that time. Paul assures them that whether alive, or "asleep", all were part of the same family in Christ, and all would be removed from the coming judgment.

The other night I dreamed that my little two year old granddaughter, Mallory, was a bit too high up on some playground equipment. "Come over here and sit on the floor next to your grandpa" I told her, and she got her little blankee and snuggled up next to me. Later that night I dreamed that she was riding on a two wheel bike (in dreams very young girls can do that), and I was instantly worried that she didn't have the ability to stay out of the traffic, so I ran over to steady the bike. Like Mallory, we all live in a world where bad things can happen. But we have God as our heavenly Father, and He loves His children with a greater emotion than I feel for my family. The wrath of God is coming to the world, but we were not destined for wrath.

Don't Even Go There

2007-07-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord". (Dueteronomy 18: 10-13)

The last Harry Potter book has finally arrived, prefaced by weeks of speculation as to the fate of the young wizard, with last minute shots of anxious young kids and adults dressed as characters from the series, waiting at midnight at Barnes and Nobles, to satisfy this particular fantasy addiction. Part of the devoted newsprint was an article by a local minister, who applauds the positive messages of friendship, devotion and sacrifice, enabling good to triumph over evil. She freely admits to mining this potter's field for sermon illustrations. It seems somewhat ironic to me that in doing so she ignores the warnings that the Holy Spirit gives us through holy scripture about being deceived by anything connected with the occult.

God hates those things, and the reason He hates them is because association with them always leads people away from God and toward bondage, fear, sickness, and sometimes even death. They are connected to the world of the evil one and are accompanied by evil spirits, yet are never advertised as such. There is a spiritual war going on that involves and impacts every living person. The main weapon for the enemy in this war is deception. He has established strongholds and maintains certain territorial rights. When we venture without protection into his strongholds or territory, it gives him what I like to call a legal right to oppress us. I am a mature Christian, and put on the armor of Ephesians 6:12 daily, yet the Holy Spirit tells me to advoid those strongholds and territories. And if they are dangereous for me, why would I want my children or grandchildren exposed to them?

After becoming a believing Christian and being filled with the Holy Spirit, I began to gradually grow in spiritual maturity as led by the Spirit. Along the way God would show me things, and I would have to make decisions as to how I would respond to those revelations. One day the Spirit put it in my mind to examine the music I listened to. So I decided it would be a good idea to toss out everything that sang about sex, drugs, eastern religion or the occult, thinking that a few albums might have to go. As I began to look over the song titles it occured to me that maybe the only thing to remain of my collection would be the Christmas albums. Ninety percent of the rest did end up in the trash. My bohemiam brother-in-law Larry almost cried. "You could have given them to me!" Of course, that wasn't the idea. Now much of that music is coming back, considered by today's standards, classic, but tame. Still, none will end up on my iPod (if I had and iPod).

Another time the Spirit had me examine my past, and I prayed that He would bring to mind anytime that I had participated in things where the evil one could have gained a foothold in my life. Some were obvious, such as playing with a ouija board, or a time when I was a child and a neighbor invited me over for a seance where they did some table lifting, or the time I went to see the movie, Rosemary's Baby. But I recalled other involvements as well where God wanted me to seek forgiveness and cleansing. My cousins and I would get together almost every Sunday afternoon from the time we were little until we started college. We made up a make believe world which we called "the ghost club". Although I cannot recall much about what we did in our ghost club, we were smart and creative kids, and I'm sure we invented some great characters who had amazing adventures. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with kids using their imaginations, or with fictional stories, or with having fun by being silly. What I am saying is that there seems to have been a certain spiritual dimension involved in part of what we did. And that those areas should be advoided because they may have consequences that become lifelong afflictions. As parents we need to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we will be able to teach our children principles that will protect them from the attractive deceptions of the evil one.

We tried to teach our children the principles of the spiritual war that we are involved in, so as they grew they would know not just the what not, but also the why for. However, we did put a fence of protection around them as well. That fence included our prayers, our examples, and our guidance. It also involved decisions on what they could read, or watch, or listen to, and where they could go, and with whom. I know this will seem silly to most, but our kids were not allowed to see the movie, The Wizard of Oz, or watch the cartoon show, the Smurfs, because Papa Smurf was a wizard. We would not let them go to slasher movies, because those types of experiences can also be entry points for demonic spirits. We did not withdraw from the world, but we always had to work to discern what was in the will of God, and what was not. And acceptance by the culture was not a guage we used.

It is very difficult to raise children in our secular world, and not have them be involved in certain cultural things that most of their friends are. We can lay down a law as a fence to protect them, but we must also lead them to the helmet of salvation, and show them how to put on the coverings of truth and righteousness, and teach them how to use the shield of faith. And as they grow in being guided by the Spirit they will be less inclined to sneak over that fence. Instead, they will learn to wield the sword of the Spirit. That sword will be for protection, but it will also be used by those young boys and girls, chosen by the Lord God Almighty in this special day and age, to tear down the strongholds and destroy the territory of the enemy. Truth is more exciting than fiction, and the stories of the adventures that God has for our young will fill much more than seven volumes.

"For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever our obedience is complete". (2 Corinthians 10: 3-6)

More Than Overcomers

2007-07-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus". (Romans 8:1)

Jackie and I were part of a leadership team with several other couples for a Catholic Charismatic prayer meeting that met for a good number of years in the basement of a local Catholic church. Even though I disagreed with a lot of Catholic doctrine, I always felt freedom to teach what I believed to be truth, careful to be respectful and not openly critical of Catholic doctrine. It was easy to do because most people, including Catholics, have limited understanding of the meaning of the doctrines their churches teach. I was transparent about my relationship with God, sensitive to the move of the Holy Spirit while leading a meeting, excited about worship and proclaiming His majesty, and people responded to that. After helping in leadership for many years, there came a time when a couple of people started to ask for more specific teachings on Catholicism (ideally by a priest or a nun). One time I gave what I thought was quite a good presentation about Mary, but as luck would have it, the people who wanted us to be more Catholic were missing that evening. It wasn't long after that, actually after one of the best meetings we had in a long time, that I felt a loss of freedom to present things the way the Holy Spirit was leading me. Overnight I developed a strong feeling that my time at that prayer meeting was over, and soon Jackie and I left.

It was only a couple of months later that the Lord finally gave us a release to leave the Catholic church as well. When we did there were several other couples that also soon left, including one of the leadership couples who were very good friends of ours. We ended up going to different churches, and they went to a non-denominational Pentecostal church on the south side of town. Mike became very active in that chruch, but gradually he got sucked into their legalism, and without realizing it, he was being oppressed by their authoritarian pastor. One day he asked me to listen to a tape of one of his pastor's sermons that really made an impression on him. Later that day I put it in my car tape player, and was horrified at what I heard. The pastor began by browbeating some of his congregation, not by name of course, and then went on with some gibberish which made little sense. But it was easy to pick up, even from that tape, the main focus of his teaching. Stated simply, it argues that Christ is coming soon for a bride without blemish - before Christ comes there will be tribulation - people who do not live holy lives may falter in this tribulation and may even lose their salvation - for the bride to be umblemished, judgment will start first in the church -everyone must conform to the pastor's idea of holiness. Even though this was a church where the gifts of the Spirit were allowed, their misguided theology on the meaning of "a bride without blemish", and the subsitution of law for the leading of the Holy Spirit, put on the people a burden where no one ever felt truly redeemed. And anyone who questioned the pastor on this was considered a cancer, brought by the devil, to destroy that local church.

I felt really bad for Mike. His wife knew that they were losing the freedom in the Lord they once so richly enjoyed, and she had wanted them to leave that church for a long time. I met with Mike to show him the red flags that the tape revealed, but he couldn't seem to comprehend any of my points. He is the type of person who will go 110% at anything he does, and so there was an appeal for what appeared to be a calling for a life totally dedicated to the Lord. But this was leaving him spiritually oppressed and confused. I interceded for Mike for over a year, asking God to lead him out of that place. Everytime during the two hours it took to mow our lawn, Mike was my special prayer focus. And praise God, eventually things came to a boil and he got burned enough that he realized he had to leave that church to retain his sanity. Leaving a church under those conditions can produce the same depression, grief and anguish that a death in the family does, and it took Mike well over a year to recover. We ended up having home church with his family and ours for seven years, and the Lord really blessed it.

I relate the above as a word of balance, because it is the desire of the Lord for all of us to grow in holiness. In the first chapter of Ephesians is says; "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him, in love". God does indeed want us to be holy and blameless, and we became that way when we were born again by the rebirth of our spirit. At salvation our reborn spirit, which now is perfect as Christ is perfect, also became sealed by the Holy Spirit, to protect our spirit from corruption and separation from God. "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory". (Ephesians 1: 13-14)

So even though or mind and our body may struggle with being out of the will of God, our reborn spirit now belongs to Him, and is protected by Him. When we surrendered our life to the Lordship of Jesus, and our spirit united with His Spirit, from that point on our spirit belonged to Jesus. Many view salvation in the sense of a direction we are heading, which may change based on our actions. Christ then only lives in us while we believe, and proclaim Him as Lord. But I do not believe that a human spirit, once reborn in Christ Jesus, can become un-reborn. The world cannot make it happen, and we cannot. We are allowed to rebel in the body and the mind, but we lost the ownership, the lordship, of our spirit when we surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus. Rebellion will result in the loss of fellowship with the Lord, but we remain part of His family. We belong to Jesus, who is our Lord, our brother, and our good shepherd. And as a good shepherd, Jesus will not lose any of His sheep. "Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8: 35-39)

This is a hard concept to grasp. We do not make ourselves holy by striving to conform our thoughts and actions to an ideal laid out in scripture, or presented by a pastor, or teacher, or even as directed by the Holy Spirit. We are holy by virtue of having a reborn spirit. Our minds and our bodies, even after we are reborn, may still struggle to understand or do what God desires for us. But holiness is not in what we do, but rather it is in who we are in Christ Jesus. We are saved by grace; "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast". (Ephesians 2: 8-9) This grace came when we were still living carnal lives apart from God. But it caused our spirit to be reborn, making our spirit a holy temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. His presence should produce in us a desire to live in a way that is holy and pleasing to God, because we were created by God to do good works and to live in them. And this will come as we allow the Spirit to transform our minds, so that our bodies also will learn to be submitted to His will.

Jesus is coming for a church that includes both the living and the dead, the great and the small. And all will one day stand before God's throne, hearing the four living creatures proclaim; "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come". (Revelation 4:8) That is a promise to all who know Jesus as Savior and Lord.

A Day, An Hour, A Minute

2007-07-04T19:34:00.001-07:00

I was sitting at our dinning table this 4th of July morning eating breakfast, reading the back cover of a DVD loaned to us by an elderly lady whom Jackie was doing some sewing work for. Miss Marple said it was her favorite movie. The DVD seems to be about a swinging single man who ends up having to take care of an orphan, and the cover quoted a review by Playboy magazine, which said; "Terrific!". As luck would have it, the DVD case was empty, the favorite movie of the elderly lady evidently still in her DVD player. The short review brought to mind a picture of Hugh Hefner, somewhere in his 80's, trolling around the Playboy mansion in his bathrobe, with well endowed wannabees, each playing their sad little games. I then thought of Donald Trump, who earlier this year during his TV show called Mr. Hefner, "my very good friend". You too, he implies to the anxious apprentices, can fly in my luxurious jet and visit there. And lastly, Princes Diane came to mind because there is going to be, or just was, yet another show about the tragic early ending to her life.

Mr. Hefner and Mr Trump, and indeed all men and women, can learn a lesson from the story of Princess Di, and that is that death will eventually call to them. There will be an actual day, a specific hour, and a precise minute when the heart has stopped and the brain ceases to function. The only escape is to have a reborn spirit and be alive when Jesus returns. And Jesus will come, both at the rapture and at the end of the age, on an actual day, a specific hour, and a precise minute. This is a blessed hope for me as a believer, to be alive when He returns on the clouds. But if I am not alive at the right point in history, death is surely coming. And I have a promise, made sure by faith, that there is waiting for me a place, prepared for me by my Lord and Savior. Perhaps this place is a mansion, or perhaps scripture means something else by that, but the nature of the actual abode is not important to me. The great thing is that I will be where my precious Lord is, interacting with family and friends and others who, because of a reborn spirit, are also part of His family. Hefner and Trump live in their mansions, which will one day become dust. And although Di had to leave her palace early, she was living in the mansion of celebrity, which was still unable to keep her from her appointment with death.

Death came into the world because man rebelled against living obedient to the instructions of his Creator. The Lord had wonderful things planned for mankind, but Eve listened to the serpent, who said; "Did God say?", questioning His instructions, and ultimately questioning the Lord's love for us. Corruption then entered the world, and so did physical death. But death to man was not a total victory for the evil one. There were two special trees in the middle of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil, and eating the fruit of that tree brought spiritual separation from the Lord, and led to their eventual physical death. But there was also in the middle of that garden the Tree of Life. If they had eaten from that tree after they sinned there would not have been physical death, and the eternal soul and spirit would have never been able to have been redeemed. So God brought the first physical death into the new world. In clothing Adam and Eve with leather garments an animal had to be killed, and its blood was shed. The animal died because of the sin of Adam and Eve, but its sacrificial death prevented an immediate judgement of physical death. By doing this God also provided an example of how they were to approach Him in faith.

In His second step of mercy God then drove Adam and Eve out of the garden, preventing them from eating from the Tree of Life. And although Adam lived for over 900 years, his day and hour and second eventually came. God prepared a place for those that were to die, and it had two sections. One part was for the soul/spirit of all the righteous dead, who could not dwell in the presence of the Lord until the death and resurrection of Jesus made possible a reborn spirit. The other part was for the soul/spirit of the unrighteous dead. After Jesus sacrifical death He brought the dwelling place of the righteous dead, Paradise, from somewhere under the Earth up to Heaven. The abode of the unrighteous dead remains somewhere under the Earth. One day, at a specific day, and hour, and minute, there will be a resurrection of the physical body for all those with a reborn spirit, uniting those newly glorified bodies with their soul/spirits. God's plan always was for man to be a three part being, and in His mercy, physical death preserved His ultimate design and plan.

There will be another day and hour and minute when there is a resurrection of the physical bodies of all the unrighteous. They will go first to a judgment, and then to an eternity of torment, separated from the presence and love of an awesome, loving, merciful, yet holy God. I cannot understand eternal physical torment, but scripture is clear that it awaits all who are not reborn in their spirit. Princess Di did not make 50, and Hefner and Trump with all their money, will not live longer than 120 years. There is a day, an hour, and a minute when our eternity will begin. And when that minute comes, earthly time for us will cease. Some will be able to run to the arms of the Word made flesh, and fall down to worship Him without restraint. But many will hear those awful words; "Depart from me, I never knew you".

"And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things that were written in the books . . . And if anyones name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20: 12-15)

"And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life . . . and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations . . . And there shall no longer be any curse". (Revelation 22: 1-3)

From Psalm 119 - He

2007-06-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

"Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. . . . . . Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law, and keep it with all my heart. . . . . . Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. . . . . . Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to dishonest gain. . . . . . Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me to Your ways. . . . . . Establish Your word to Your servant, as that which produces reverence for You. . . . . . Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your ordinances are good. . . . . . Behold, I long for Your precepts, revive me through Your righteousness."

God spoke to mankind in various ways prior to the time of Moses. His Word was being made known, not in writing, but through His speaking to man either in dreams, or visions, or in an audible voice. God provided man with a variety of physical signs that gave witness about Himself, and what His plan for redemption was, and how mankind should live their lives. Examples of these are God's establishment of a blood sacrafice, the order of nature, and the arraignment and movement of the stars. To go along with this there was an oral tradition that taught the meanings and types. The Holy Spirit could not dwell in the heart of man, but He could speak to the soul through these things to give wisdom and insight to be able to understand the physical signs. The spoken tradition began with Adam, who talked with God and who lived over 900 years, and carried on through the righteous line of Seth, with others such as Enoch adding to the treasury of wisdom. It continued to Noah. Although Noah did not know Adam, his father very well could have, as Noah's father Lamech was 66 years old when Adam died. Noah and his family went through the flood, and the new world began with them, and the teachings and traditions continued. However, most of mankind again turned away from God, and with that the meanings and interpretations of the signs and the oral traditions became corrupted. The message of salvation as laid out in the stars took on occultic meanings, sacrifices were made to demon gods, and nature instead of the Creator was worshipped.

There remained some in every generation who sought after the Creator, and who passed on what survived of the truths in the oral traditions. There were some in every generation who heard directly from God. And so, God spoke to Abram, and made a covenant with him. His descendants, 70 in number, went to Egypt and grew to become a people of over 2 million. Moses led them out of Egypt, where they spent 40 years in the wilderness. It was in the wilderness that God wrote the 10 commandments on stone, and where He spoke to Moses for many days on the top of a mountain, giving him directions for the tabernacle, and instructions for offerings and sacrifices. It was in the wilderness that Moses wrote the first 5 books of scripture, containing in them the law and traditions that they were to follow. The writings of Moses were directed and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Just as every sign and type and oral tradition spoke in some way of the Son, so does every chapter of Moses written word. The Word of God was now in writing. Over the years it became lost and forgotten, and when it was found and read, the people wept. They cried in joy for it being found, and in anguish for what they had missed.

Why does it seem to be a foreign concept that the path to the best possible life is to study the Word in order to find out what the will of God is? Think about it. God loves us and wants the best for us. He knows that we live in a fallen world and that we are easily deceived, not only by the evil one, but by our own desires. He as given us a written word so that we may find the true way designed by Him for our lives. There is reason and purpose for the religious practices contained in scripture, but it was not written to be used by the soul as a means for religious practice. Instead, it has as a companion the Holy Spirit, who will reveal the depths of scripture and it's meaning for every part of our lives. When we do so, our study of the Word leads us to a closer relationship with the Author. When I became a Christian and was filled with the Holy Spirit, I had a great hunger to read scripture. That hunger was not because I wanted to gain head knowledge, but because I needed more of God in my life. The more we come to know God, the bigger He becomes. I wish everyone could experience the excitement I've had when the Spirit reveals a part of God's plan and design, or the peace He has given me when He has lead me to a passage, and in it is confirmed His love for me. There have been times when I read a passage and said, 'all right God, you do know best'. In the Word we will discover the true nature of the Awesome God, and begin to appreciate His power and might, His holiness and majesty, His love and patience. We will also discover that rebellion results in corruption and sickness, lying and murder, lust and hate, fear and bondage. When the desire of our heart is to trust God, and when we decide to be obedient to His will as revealed by the Spirit in our reading of the Word, the result is peace and joy and thousands of other blessings as well.

We live in a world that says that God wants to take something away from us. Scripture is seen as a book of outdated rules that keep us from enjoying all of what the world has to offer. The Old Testament is thought to be about an angry and mean God, who is really not much more than the creation of a tribal community, trying to explain God through the lens of the harsh life in which they lived. The New Testament is seen as reflecting the teachings of a very wise historical character, or his followers. These are thought to be good as general principles, but no one should get caught up in specifics. The modern world has a philosophy that replaces the truth of scripture, and it has a spirit that interprets that philosophy as well. We and our kids are bombarded with this message every day; There is no absolute truth, and the way to find peace is to be tolerant of all beliefs without imposing your values on anyone else. Of course, after the fall the world system has been ruled by the rebellious one, who has always opposed the Word. If he cannot keep us from hearing the Word, he will seek to replace the Holy Spirit as interpretator, which always leads to bondage.

This is the battle that is happening full bore in the Western world today. We need to understand that none of us is immune from the cultural forces working against us, trying to keep us from entering the kingdom of God, or failing that, trying to rob us of the fullness of life that God has for us. The Word of God is living, and because it is living it can give us life. That life will transform our lives, able to mold us into the man or woman that God designed us to be. Let us, as the psalmist did, ask God to teach us and to give us understanding, and to establish His word in our hearts, for we will delight in it.

The Gift of Prophecy

2007-06-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

"Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)

Several months after I married Jackie we were over at her parent's house for a Sunday dinner with a bunch of her brothers, sisters and spouses. After dinner everyone was sitting around the table talking, and a cousin stopped over to visit, having just come from working on a Right to Life mailing. The discussion turned to abortion, and led from there to religion. I was an atheist, as was Jackie's oldest brother Jon, and although I had vowed to myself never to argue either religion or politics with Jackie's family, it was soon a full blown shouting match with Jon and myself against the rest. Being quite upset when we got home to our apartment, I told Jackie that, obviously if there was a God then I would want to know, but I can't intellectually understand what God could be. I asked her to lay hands on me and pray that God would reveal Himself. She did that but there was no bolt of revelation from the sky.

However, over the next six weeks many things began to happen. I started reading Christian books, which answered some of my questions, but which brought up even more. And I went to a few Charismatic prayer meetings with Jackie, and these were quite amazing because every week the same thing would happen. During the week I would be wondering about a couple of things, and at the prayer meeting someone would get up to talk to the group, either with a prophecy, or a sharing, or a teaching, and each one seemed to provide answers to my questions. During those prayer meetings God moved in the hearts of other believers, giving them a message that ministered to my needs, ultimately leading me to surrender my life to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

In the scripture on top from 1 Corinthians, Paul is making the following argument, which leads up to the verse. - At one time the Corinthians were pagans, and as pagans they were led to worship and follow after idols. The idols were inanimate objects, with no life in them. Now they are believers in a living God, and more than that, they have dwelling in them the Spirit of the Living God. This Holy Spirit brings revelation that Jesus is Lord. And this Spirit works in each of them, giving gifts, ministries and effects. The Spirit distributes these to individuals, but they are given to benefit the common good, so that the body of believers would be a healthy body. Although there are a variety of gifts and ministries and effects, and although some of these rank about the others, each one is considered by the Spirit to be important to the health of the body. Even though the Spirit has not distributed the same gifts and ministries and effects to everyone, all are encouraged to desire the greater gifts. The greater gifts and higher ranking ministries are not given to elevate the individual. They are provided by the Spirit because God loves the individuals who make up the body, and He wants the body to be healthy. Those who operate in the greater gifts have a greater responsibility, and they need to show the same love for the body as does God. And while the gifts and ministries of the Spirit are perfect, they operate through imperfect people. Thus, although there may be times when the gifts will fail, an attitude of love will never fail. Love then, is even more powerful than the greatest gifts. It is the reason the gifts were given, it enables the gifts to operate more purely, and it reflects the personality of the One who will one day make the body perfect.

This argument holds true just as much today as it did then. The Holy Spirit has the same gifts, ministries and effects available to any in the body who will ask for them, still given for the health of the body of believers. We are advised to "desire" the gifts, which indicates first, that some are available to all, and second, that seeking may be part of the process to receiving. And we should especially seek after the gift of prophecy, because when used in love and descernment it can be an important way for God to move in the lives of others.

Prophecy usually operates, not as a revelation about future events, although that may happen because God has a plan for every life, but as a message of encouragement that speaks to the needs or desires of a person. Sometimes the Spirit will give guidance, sometimes correction. Sometimes He will just let a person know that He is with them in their pain or struggles, and that He loves them. But the prophetic word will be empty if it is not met with a response. This can be a quite "thank you" to God for an encouragement, or a conscious effort to remember the prophetic word given, praying about it later. Why would the Spirit give direction, or an encouragement to do something, if we were just to say "neat", and forget about it. The prophetic word will usually be a confirmation to what the Spirit has already been speaking to a person.

The Holy Spirit can speak prophetically in a variety of ways. Someone may be praying for a person, and while reading the Bible they see a passage that just seems to leap out at them. The response then is to pray with the wisdom that the Spirit has given in that scripture, or to share that passage with the person being prayed for. Someone may feel a leading from the Spirit to speak out a message in tongues, and someone else, not understanding the tongue, but receiving a word from the Spirit that they know matches what was just spoken in tongues, will give the interpretation. The word may come as the person opens their mouth to speak, or they may have received a sense or an outline of the message. The combination of the two is considered a prophetic message, and tongues here is a different gift than what is available to all as a private prayer language.

A prophetic word will often come without being preceded by tongues, and again, the speaker may just have a word or a phrase to begin with, or they may have a more full sense of the message. In either instance, if it is appropriate for where they are, they need to trust God and speak out what they have, sensing what the Spirt is saying as they speak. If the Spirit stops, the person should stop, not adding personal desires or theology to what the Spirit is saying. I have seen times where one message is given by several people, one pausing and the next picking up in mid sentence. Jackie will often see a picture in her mind of the sense of what the Spirit has, and it becomes more clear to her as she speaks out. At times a person may have a vision, or perhaps a dream that comes from the Spirit. One time before going to bed I was praying for a relative who was very sick, and woke up just after a vivid dream in which I was praying for that person, the Spirit giving me directions as to how to pray. Knowing that the dream was from God, I felt the correct response was to travel to see that person and to pray as I saw in the dream, and I believe that it played an important part in her recovery.

There are other ways in which prophecy may come from the Spirit, and it is important to understand that our souls can often get in the way, either in the proclaiming, or in the receiving of a prophetic word. We need to grow in maturity, having the desire to seek the gifts, the courage to begin to operate in them, the willingness to be mentored in them by more experienced Christians. And we need to grow in spiritual descernment, being able to distinguish between what comes from the Spirit from that which comes from man or from the evil one. And if all things are done in love, we should do well.

Sleeping With The Fishes

2007-06-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Some of the scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus and asked Him to do a miracle, which would be a sign that He was a prophet. Jesus replies; An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here". (Matthew 12: 39-41)

I came to know God through faith. Although raised in a Catholic home, with parents who were serious about their faith, I became agnostic in high school, and was an atheist in college. Shortly after I married Jackie, God moved in my life, leading me one afternoon to surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus. I stepped out in faith, one moment unable to grasp God, and the next with an assurance that He is, and that He had come into my very being. My life chaged, not through adopting a new theology, but because I had allowed the Spirit of the living God to move in and through my life.

In the past I had lain awake at night, trying to get hold of what God could be. But now I often laugh because, even though I know Him, and talk to Him, even though I need Him and long for more of His presence, even though I can talk and write about my understanding of how spiritual things work, yet still He is so intelligent and powerful and glorious that my mind even now can only hold onto a tiny part of who He is. The universe goes on for millions of light years, filled with multi-trillions of stars and other matter, held in balance by a thread . . . and He, the designer and creator, is there. The micro universe has comparatively similar distances between electrons and protons, with vast energy and amazing balance, and that is just one part of billions of more parts that make up one tiny building block for any material thing . . . and He, the designer and creator, is there. There is a spiritual creation, just a real and vast and intricate as the material world . . . and He, the designer and creator, is there. He, having designed us, and knowing the limits of our minds, has revealed Himself to us in time and space, creating us after His own image, and sending to us His Son, who came into the world as one of us.

Most of the scribes and Pharisees, when they encountered Jesus, could see Him with their physical eyes, but did not recognize Him as Lord of the Universe with their spiritual eyes. Doubting Jesus, they asked Him to show them a miracle, and the sense is that they were saying; 'Perhaps then we will agree that you are a prophet'. The interesting thing here is that prior to this Jesus had been performing quite a few miracles in His ministry. And many of the simple people came to believe in Him because the miracles helped open their hearts to accept Him. But the scribes and Pharisees were the educated people of the day. My guess is that their hearts were closed, not just because Jesus did not match their profile of Messiah, but also because they had discounted to some degree the accounts of miracles in their own scriptures. And so Jesus tells them that the wicked Assyrians who lived in Niniveh repented, their hearts being open to God without the benefit of signs, when Jonah preached to them. The witness of those men and women would testify at the judgment against the people in Jesus day. They wanted Jesus to do a miracle to prove that He was a prophet, but He was much more than a prophet. They would get their sign when Jesus, as Jonah did, would come back from the dead after three days. Even then, for most, that sign would not be enough to open their hearts.

It's funny, but as much as things change, many things remain the same. Today, even in the church, many have a hard time believing that Jonah could have spent three days and nights in the belly of a sea creature, and many even doubt that Jesus actually rose from the dead. They write these off as stories used to teach spiritual principles, although while doing so they miss the true principles. God can bend and shape material and time to His purpose. For anyone who is truly in awe of Him, miracles should not be a problem. My father-in-law was fond of saying that if Jonah spent those three days inside that fish sitting in a lawn chair, drinking lemonade, and enjoying air-conditioning, it would be fine with him. Jesus not only believed that the story of Jonah was true, but that it was pointing to His death and resurrection. The modern world cannot understand this, as they cannot understand a loving God who will one day judge those who keep their hearts closed to His Spirit. It understands neither love nor justice. It will not accept either the miracles of the past, or the move of the Spirit in the present. Yet it will flock to false signs and false wonders, and believe in false messiahs.

In the 24th chapter of Matthew, Jesus gives His great prophetic description of the events that will happen just before His second coming. "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be".

Like the story of Jonah, Jesus is confirming for us the truth about Noah and the flood. And in so doing He uses Noah as a warning to those whose hearts are closed to the Spirit. The Son of God did indeed come the first time, and will surely come again. Noah preached repentance to the antediluvian world before the flood, but unlike the citizens of Ninevah, they did not repent. And so it will be for many just before Jesus comes again. The Holy Spirit is still working today through scripture as well as through signs and wonders. Don't let the scribes and the Pharisees of the day rob you of that precous gift.

The Prince of Persia

2007-05-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

"Then he said to me, "Do not be afraid Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. but the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me, for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Now, I have come to give you understanding of what wil happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to the days yet future." (Daniel 10: 12-14)

The Book of Daniel tells the story of a Jewish man who was deported from the southern kingdom of Judea when it was overthrown by the Babylonian empire in 605 BC, and who then was placed into the court of Nebuchadnezzar, it's powerful king. Daniel is much more than just the story of an individual because almost the entire book is devoted to prophecy that will affect the Jewish nation. If we want to understand and correctly interpret Biblical prophecy that concerns the times leading up to the second coming of Jesus, and there is a lot contained throughout scripture, we must first understand the prophecies in Daniel. And the first key to unlocking the mysteries in Daniel is to realize that everything has a connection to the geographic location which God promised to Abraham and his descendants. The book talks about the countries and empires that would invade and control the Jewish nation from the time frame of Daniel, up to the time of Jesus. And it talks about the forces that will be involved in "the latter days", when a person known as "The Antichrist" will invade the same geographical area in an attempt to oppose the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

The second key that helps us understand the mysteries in Daniel, as well as many other prophecies in scripture, is to realize that there is a struggle, a conflict, affecting that geograpic area, and indeed the whole world, that has been going on unseen for thousands of years. This is a struggle between the angels loyal to God and the angels and evil spirits loyal to the evil one. Scripture does not present us with a clear "This is how everything works" manuel on spirit to spirit warefare. But scripture does give enough puzzle pieces to help us appreciate , at least a little bit, the struggle going on in the spirit world, and that if affects in a major way the politics happening in the physical world. This is true, not just as we look at prophetic scripture in a historical sense, or as an intellectual exercise, but also as we consider what is happening geo-politically in the Middle East region today.

The conflict is much more than just a two way struggle between God and the evil one. All intelligent creatures, whether spirits without physical bodies, or people with a body, soul and spirit, were created by God, and each individual is allowed by God to follow a course of actions that is determined by the individual. Angels do not have physical bodies, but it appears that many exist in such a way to interact with the physical world. At some point an angel, created by God, and having been given both great physical beauty and earthly responsibilities (Ezekiel 28), rebelled from God. Then he convinced other angels to join in his rebellion. He is, in a sense, the leader of all beings, both spiritual and physical, who oppose God. This is not a battle between two equal forces. God allows rebellion, but all rebellion will be dealt with by God. The forces that oppose God are not necessarily united in their opposition. The same selfish will that rebels against God is also competing with others for it's own gain. Just as man competes against man for resources, honor and power, so it seems rebellious angels and evil spirits compete for the same. Man may act counter to the will of God, and in so doing has aligned himself with the desires of the evil one, but that does not mean that he will be doing everything that the evil one wants. And many of the angels that followed the evil one in rebelling against God may also have their own agenda.

With both man and angel there are some who exercise more authority. They have a greater degree of power and influence, controlling the actions of others, and competing for territorial advantage. However, the physical part of man eventually dies, and the struggle for dominion must be left to his descendants or allies. But spiritual beings do not die. They work to influence man and events in a particular geographic area, and they struggle in the atmosphere above the land against other evil angels. Perhaps when they gain an advantage in the heavens they have greater access to man on the earth. And perhaps when certain things happen on earth, they lose out in the heavens.

It seems to me that the person talking to Daniel in the scripture above is Jesus, who for this message has taken on a human form. He is sent by God the Father to provide Daniel with an important prophetic word for the future of the Jewish nation, but was opposed in the heavens (the atmosphere above the earth) by a powerful angel named the Prince of Persia, along with others called the kings of Persia. Daniel was in Babylon, but the Babylonian empire had recently been conquered by the Medes and Persians, as Daniel had earlier prophesied. The Lord was delayed by those spirits for 21 days, but a powerful angel, Michael, who is the chief angelic prince for the Jewish people, comes to help. After the Lord has given Daniel the message, He concludes by telling Daniel that an angel known as the Prince of Greece would one day surplant the Prince of Persia as ruler over that area.

Here is a brief primer about the empires, ultimately influenced by strong angelic spirits, that controlled the land promised by God to Abraham and his desendants. The first was the Egyptian, followed by the Assyrian. Both are prior to Daniel, and are not mentioned in the prophecies of nations leading up to Jesus first coming, but both are involved in the "latter days". Assyria is a nation that began in an area which is now the northern part of Iraq, spilling over into today's Turkey and Iran. The area today is inhabited mainly by the Kurds (although some here still call themselves Assyrians). I mention this because the Antichrist is several times in scripture referred to as "the Assyrian". It will be very interesting if Iraq ends up being divided, with the Kurds becoming a separate nation. The first and greatest empire mentioned in Daniel is Babylon, and it's orgin is in the area of modern day Iraq. The Median and Persian empire is next, existing at the time of the prophecy above to Daniel. Persia is modern day Iran. The Greek empire follows, led by Alexander the Great, and at his death broken up into four smaller empires. The Antichrist will emerge from one of those four. Then came the Roman empire, which controlled the Holy Land in the days of Jesus. Each of these is pictured in Daniel as a particular "beast", perhaps also a reference to the angelic spirit influencing that empire. After the Roman empire the area was ruled by Arabs, Christians, and Turks. It appears that the current strong angel in the Middle East today is Allah, which the Arab people once worshipped as their moon god. Today there is a bloody struggle between different branches of Islam, indicating that there may well be angelic sub princes fighting for control. The chief princes of each of these ancient empires still desire to rule that special area, perhaps to gain greater favor with the evil one.

At some point the evil one will step in to start taking direct control ovr the politics in the Middle East. He will create his empire by deceit and force, and many will submit to his will. Powerful evil spirits and demonic armies that have been bound for thousands of years will be set loose, and the judgment of God will be upon the earth and upon those opposed to Him. As bad as things are today, there is still a Restrainer. People can choose to follow the will of God and through prayer can affect the battles that happen in the heavens. Nations can still overcome the desire of evil princes to influence them. And regions, cities, and even chruches can stil be victorious over the evil spirits sent to corrupt and destroy.

The Four Spiritual Laws

2007-05-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes". (Romans 1:16)

It was in the mid 1950's that the late Dr. Bill Bright founded Campus Crusade for Christ. He began by printing pamphlets or tracts that explained what he called "The four spiritual laws". Since that time there have been over 2.5 billion of those pamphlets printed. Even today the very simple and easy to understand message found within that tract is the number one tool used by Christians worldwide to present the gospel message. Through it's use millions of people have been led to commit their lives in faith to accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord. People can discuss religion all day long, and point to people in other places and other situations, but the statements and the questions in the four spiritual laws bring the focus directly to the individual. Most want to be right with God. Many work hard in various ways to be right with God. But the Holy Spirit testifies to each individual that they still come up short.

The first law says that God loves us, and that He has a wonderful plan for our lives. John 3:16 is quoted to show God's love, and John 10:10 is used to show that God wants us to have abundant life. Most people have this belief that God is love, but they really don't know what that means. Surprisingly, many even doubt that God can love them. All people desperately want God to love them, but the reason they doubt is their conscience (the Holy Spirit talking to the heart) has indicated to them that they have done things that God is not happy with. Deep down people want to feel accepted by God, and they want to know that their life has meaning.

The second law states that man is sinful and is separated from God, therefore he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life. Romans 3:23 is quoted telling us that everyone has sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God, and Romans 6:23 says that sin causes spiritual separation from God. Man was created to have fellowship with God, but our self will, putting our desires before God's desires, causes that separation. Understanding this is important because the number one belief in the world today is that if a person is good enough, if they do all the works their religion or personal philosophy demands, if they cancel out the negative by adding more of the positive, their lives will be in a positive position after death. They think that others have achieved this, and most feel that they themselves are basically a "good" person. And yet, if they are honest in looking at their own life, they know that they actually fit into the category of "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God".

The third law explains that there is only one way to bring man and God together. "Jesus Christ is God's ONLY provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life". The quote used from Romans 5:8 is great because, again contrary to what man normally thinks, he does not have to do things to make himself worthy to receive God's love. "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". And to show that Jesus is more than just a great teacher or philosopher, scripture shows where Jesus testifies of Himself; "I am the way; and the truth, and the life. no one comes to the Father, but through Me". (John 14:8)

Finally we are instructed that it is not enough just to understand intellectually the first three spiritual laws. "We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives". The pamphlet then explains that we receive Christ through faith, which leads to a new birth of our spirit which was separated from God. The first step in receiving Christ is to hear the invitation He makes to us. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears and opens the door, I will come in to him". (Revelation 3:20) I believe the Holy Spirit uses that scripture to bore directly through all the clutter and confusion in a person's life, direct to the heart, so that they really do hear this invitation.

The next step is to make a decision of the will to repent from past actions and attitudes dictated by our selfish desires. Again, it is not enough just to agree intellectually that Jesus is God's Son, and that He died on the cross for the sin of man. There still needs to be a desire to turn over the lordship of our own life to Jesus, so that He will be our Lord. And to believe as well that when Jesus died for sin, He died for our sin. We follow through on that desire by examining our conscience, asking God to bring to our mind anything that is in rebellion to Him. We then ask God to forgive us for those things. And we promise God that to the best of our ability we will now live for Him.

There still remains one more step for us to take. We have repented from our past actions, asking Him to be our Savior. We have told Him that we want Him to be the Lord of our life. Now we need to ask Him to come into our hearts, so that our spirit will become reborn. We do this by faith, not looking for a feeling or emotion. Faith is the trust we have to ask this, and our belief that He loves us, that He is trustworthy, and that He will do what He promised in His word. Confirmation may come with emotions for some, but the true gauge will be the resulting change in what we desire. We should then thank Him for forgiving our sins and for becoming the Lord of our life.

Other Christian groups have adapted this message successfully. When I was a Catholic, involved in Charismatic prayer meetings, there was a seven session teaching called "Life in the Spirit seminars", which was usually held before or after a weekly prayer meeting. Week 1 presented the first law that God loves us. Week 2 talked about the second law that man sins and falls short of the love of God. And week 3 gave the good news that man can be united with God through Jesus as Lord and Savior. Week 4 talked about what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is, and was a preparation for week 5, which was devoted to praying for anyone wanting to receive the release of the Holy Spirit in their life. After each presentation a seminar would break down into smaller groups, each with a leader, to answer questions about the presentation. Between week 4 and 5 a leader would try to meet personally with each person to better answer any additional questions. Then week 5 began by leading each person individually in a short prayer of repentance, and asking in that same prayer that Jesus would be their Lord and Savior. It was only then that a person would be prayed for to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Weeks 6 and 7 were devoted to explaining the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, and how to live a balanced Christian life. I believe that for many Catholics, where salvation is not emphasized because of the belief that salvation comes at the sacrament of Baptism, the prayer at the start of week 5 became their rebirth experience.

Christianity is not religion. It is a relationship with God brought about because our spirits become reborn. One does not have to be taught a lot of theology to become a Christian. The message is simple, and the truth of the message is conveyed by the Holy Spirit to the heart of man. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Scripture says, 'but how can they hear if there is no one to tell them?' If you have just read this, and have never surrendered your life to Jesus, now would be a good time.

The Witness of Nature

2007-05-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

I live in an area that once was a woods, and the name of our neighborhood still has "woods" as part of it, and rightly so. We are surrounded by trees, many of them very tall, and if you walk down any of the roads nearby you will often find yourself looking up to the gap in the tree canopy that the road creates. It makes you realize just how tall many of those trees are, and I am in awe as to how beautiful they look. However, with the beauty does come the challenge of living in a woods. No matter what the time of year, there is always something falling from those trees. One day it may be pollen, one day tiny green worms that hang from somewhere up above. In the early fall we will wake up to the bang! bang! of acorns hitting our roof or deck, sort of an early warning system to the mass of dead leaves sure to come in the late fall. Anytime year round when there is a windy day we will find lots of branches on the ground, and one year after a particularly strong all day wind that averaged 50 miles an hour, with gusts that night up to 80 mph, our house was hit by a very large tree that brought five others with it.

It was about one o'clock in the morning, the electrical power was out, and a terrific boom! shook the house. My wife and I then heard our youngest daughtger scream from her bedroom, and we immediately grabbed the flashlight and bolted down the dark upstairs hallway toward her room. We found her lying unhurt on the floor next to her bed, huddled in a ball, and noticed that there was a broken two by four from the tressel of the now open roof, it's jagged edge piercing the center of our daughter's mattress. We had been praying hard all day for protection from the effects of the wind, and I don't know why the trees still hit us, but my wife and I both believe that an angel moved our daughter off her mattress just before those trees hit. And as things worked out, insurance did pay for a brand new roof that was moss resistant, a problem we had with the old roof.

Just a short time ago I listened to an interview on the radio about the discovery only 24 years ago of a whole unexplored eco system in the canopy of some old growth redwood trees on the North coast of California. One of my daughters, after hearing me ramble on about it, went on line to Amazon Books and had them send me the book, Wild Trees, which discusses the same thing. Although I loved the book it was interesting to me that neither the author nor any of the other main people involved in this exploration seemed to give God any credit for the amazing beauty and biological diversity described. They could think of these trees as ancient, and living. They named all the tallest ones, and some felt New-Age mystical while spending the night in the canopy suspended over 300 feet high on a hammock type device. They had been able to experience a beauty of creation that few others ever have, yet without being aware of the Creator.

Two weeks ago Jackie and I went to a church service where a third daughter and her family attend. Their church sponsors a variety of missionaries and they send someone from their church every year to visit each one they support. On this Sunday a man from the church had just returned from his visit to a woman who was ministering in Nigeria, and we were able to hear stories and see photos of a bible center and the surrounding area. The woman visited was one of several teachers in a small bible school that was mananging to train a large number of Nigerians to be pastors. One of the photos showed a very big tree that was worshipped by most of the people in what we would call a county wide area. The man from the church told us that this was by far the largest tree for miles around, and while they were allowed to take a picture of it, they were told that they could not approach it or touch it. He reported that he could feel the oppressive spiritual feeling in the area. As I have mentioned in other posts, evil spirits will inhabit objects used for worship, whether it is a tree or an idol or even a talisman given to someone by a local witch doctor.

The first chapter of Romans talks about the witness concerning God that comes from what He has created. It says that "that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them". Or in other words, the same God who designed nature also designed the heart and soul of man. God placed in man's being the ability to recognize God through nature. "For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made". Romans then goes on to say that men who do not acknowledge God are without excuse because even though they have been designed to know God, "they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks. They became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened". The heart receives light, or truth, or life, from the Holy Spirit. When man rejects the witness designed into nature, and revealed to the heart of man by the Holy Spirit, the heart remains in darkness. "Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image . . . they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever".

People that do not recognize the truth of God as Designer and Creator, Savior and Lord, are believing in a lie. They follow after philosophies created by man or by evil spirits, and they live in spiritual darkness. The professors who climb the tall trees without awareness of the One who planted them are in no less darkness than the people who worship trees and live in fear of evil spirits. Indeed, all of the world's non Judeo-Christian religions and beliefs deceive men, hiding or distorting the true nature of God, and of His plan for man and for creation. But it is God's desire that all men would seek Him, and honor Him, and receive Jesus into their lives by faith, so that the Holy Spirit can transform lives, and can work to conform lives, into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the will of the Father, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Son called forth creation. Sin put the status of man and of nature into darkness and confusion, but the One who created is also the One who saves and restores. Death and corruption came into the world through sin, affecting every living thing. But praise God, Jesus is called "The First Born From The Dead". A promise to us and to the world we live in.

Our Helper

2007-05-06T16:18:00.000-07:00

"Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father".

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

If you love Me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever, that is the Spirit of Truth, who the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you". (John 14: 11-17)

Look at all the words connected with the way the Holy Spirit works. He reveals who Jesus is, and the mysteries of God, He draws men and women to encounter the Christ, and He convicts the conscience, bringing to us awareness of our sin and weaknesses. He brings Christ's healing to the body, soul and spirit. He is the power that descerns the intent of men's hearts and the presence of evil spirits, providing power as well for deliverance from evil spirits, and from all things that bind us. And He gives us scripture as a sword to fight the evil one. He creates out of nothing, moving and changing our understanding of time and space and physics, in ways we call miracles. He comforts those who are hurting. He restores both the body and the soul, and builds up the individual. He unites those in the larger body of the church to honor and serve the Father for a common purpose. He explains things to us, and directs us in the way that God desires us to go. He teaches and interperts, He exhorts and inspires, He excites and enables.

In doing all of those things the Holy Spirit never seeks to draw attention to Himself, but instead He always brings the focus toward Jesus, and ultimately toward the Father. The Son, in obedience to the Father, sent the Holy Spirit. The Spirit draws man to the Son, and then brings the Spirit of Christ to man to unite with man's dead spirit, bringing about a rebirth of our spirit. The Holy Spirit then works in man to conform him to the image of the Son, so that the kingdom of God may be proclaimed and established on the earth. One day we will be with the Son in the presence of the Father. And the Son, by the power of the Spirit, will one day complete the restoration of all creation. Sin, sickness and death will be no more. And He will give this all to the Father.

There is a word found in scripture that describes Jesus, but can also be applied to the Holy Spirit, and that is "advocate". An advocate is a witness, or someone who will go to court to testify for you. "If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world". (1Jn. 2: 1-2) "Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high". (Job 16: 19) When Jesus told His disciples that He would send them another Helper, the Greek word for "Helper" is "Paraclete", and it is the same word that is translated "Advocate" in 1 John. The Spirit testifies to us concerning the truth of who Jesus is, and in doing so He also gives us the power to testify to the world. And the Son gave us the Spirit not just to testify in word, but also through the "greater works".

The Holy Spirit as described in the words above has already been given. It already is the will of the Father that we have the Holy Spirit, and that He will work in power in our lives, so that we may grow in spiritual maturity, having as evidence the fruit of the Spirit. It is already the will of the Father that the Holy Spirit will flow through us in power to minister to others, so that the "greater works" will be evident in our lives and in our ministry to others. What do we accommplish when by singing or praying we ask God to send more of His Holy Spirit, or to send the Spirit in power, or to fill the place where we meet? The best way to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, and to have the power ot the Holy Spirit evident, is to focus our prayer, our praise and our worship on the Father. When we surrender our voice, in understanding and in the Spirit, when we cry out to God to exult and to glorify Him, when our focus is not on what we can get or what we can feel, but is instead directed to surrender to the Father, we are doing what we were created to do.

Our tendency is to focus on what we see, or what we feel, and that distracts us from seeing the Truth in faith. But praise God, we have been given a Helper.

"We Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident"

2007-04-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

In the 8th chapter of John is found the story of the scribes and the Pharisees bringing to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. They were looking for an opportunity to accuse Him, and we remember from this story that Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground, and all the accusers left one by one. Jesus says to the woman; "Did no one condemn you?", to which she answers; No one, Lord". "I do not condemn you either. Go. From now on, sin no more."

American values have changed dramaticly in just the last 50 years. For example, sex outside of marriage is no longer considered a sin. This is not only a secular view but it is held as well by many church going people. The reason for that is simple. We live in a country which is covered by a thin veneer of Christianity, overlaying a core mostly made up of non-Christian values. This was not always so. Even though there have always been a lot of non-believers, non-religious, or other religious people in this land, most our our founding fathers, such as John Adams, were well educated and deeply committed Christians. Or they were Deists as was Thomas Jefferson. Our country's founding documents reflected the mindset of a large majority of the early leaders that there existed an Almighty God, and that all rights and obligations of a country and it's citizens were based on what came from Him. And through the centuries, as both everyday evangelism and large revivals drew scores into the faith, and as colleges, universities and churches were founded to educate young Christian minds, most laws and judicial decisions reflected values consistent with Christian scripture.

This didn't make America a Christian land. Christianity was not a state religion. But it was considered right and natural to acknowledge God, and to ask for His guidance and blessing publicly as well as privately. People were still sleeping with others outside of marriage, and all the other vices were evident. Yet overall, society in America had laws and values that reflected the Christian beliefs of a good portion of it's population. And in most cases these were not people looking to throw the first stone to condemn the sinner, but neither were they seeking to condone the actions of the sinner.

It is different today because worms have eaten away the meat of the wood beneath the veneer. We still have the founding documents, but more and more they are interperted by "an evolving social conscience". We still have prestigious centers of higher learning, but they are now bastions of secular thinking. Even in most colleges that are Christian in name, many students that are Christian by family affiliation still freely engage in sexual relations, heavy drinking, and drug use, finding no contradiction between historic Christian teaching on morals and doing what safisfies their bodily desires. We still have seminaries that were founded in response to spiritual awakenings, but now the gods of situation ethics, scriptural demythology, and passionless, blah-blah, milky-toast theology walk many of the halls. And we still have a wide variety of church buildings in most cities and villages, many of them now pastored by men and women taught by the gods of those liberal seminaries. Now it is the conservative Christian who is ducking stones, accused of violating the chief value of this post-Christian society, "tolerance". In the public mind, truth, rights and obligations no longer flow from the will of an Almighty God. And if the light that reveals truth does not come from God, it must then come from the mind of man. A mind that is strongly influenced by the desires of the flesh, and just as easily deceived by the appealing lies of the evil one.

Just after His conversation with the woman caught in adultry, Jesus says the following things; "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life . . . You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. But even if I do judge, My judgement is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me."

"Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed . . . I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me."

We need to have a firm foundation in our relationship with God, being reborn in the spirit so Jesus is truly our Lord and Savior, and we need to build upon that foundation in truth and light. We come to know the will of the Father through prayer and worship, by studying scripture and other inspired commentaries, and through interaction with mature believers. In all this we should be attentive to the move of the Holy Spirit. And we need to be diligent in leading our children to the light, providing them a foundation in the scriptures, and teaching them, by word and example, how to listen to the Spirit, and how to stand firm against temptation. The values of a society are determined by the people of that society. Truth must be proclaimed and defended. And the light of truth comes from the Father.

Saint Tifying Grace

2007-04-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

John Paul II is on a fast track for becoming a saint. This last week papers were submitted to the proper department in the Vatican, giving medical proof that a certain nun was healed of an incurable disease after praying to him. As soon as the Vatican approves a second confirmed miracle, they will file the right documents, and shortly afterwards John Paul II will officially be declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the Christian body placing in front of us the example of lives lived in submission and service to the Lord. Hebrews presents a list of people from the Old Testament whose faith without seeing affected the way they lived and acted, demonstrating their trust in God and His promises. The book of Acts talks about people like Stephen, who served God in the power of the Spirit, and was the first martyr of the body of Christ. As a youngster I read about the lives of various Catholic saints, and lately I've enjoyed books giving accounts of great missionaries, or men and women used by the Spirit during outbreaks of revival. However, the true witness of each story is not in the greatness of the individual, or the magnitude of their accomplishments, but rather that they had a part in advancing the kingdom of God on earth. It is good to have their examples placed before us, but ultimultly all the praise and glory rightly belongs to God, who moves through people by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we miss this, we miss everything. God is our designer and creator. He desires not just our obedience, but also our worship. He loves us, and wants us to spend time with Him. He is jealous toward anyone or anything that becomes a priority before Him.

During the 40 years that the Jewish people were in the wilderness, God gave them the law and the tabernacle, showing the direction He desired for them. His first commandment declared that He is the Lord, their God, and they were not to have false gods before Him. When God sent them into the promised land His instructions were to wipe out the inhabitants, possess the land, and worship God as He had taught them. God did not want the Jewish people to be compromised by the pagan idols, holy places and practices existing there. He forbade displaying images of man, animal or insect, less they become objects of worship. The ancient enemy rebelled from God, desiring the worship due to God alone. And pagan temples, high places, sacred trees and sacred objects are dwelling places of evil spirits who serve the enemy. Unfortunately the Jewish people did not fully possess the land, did not wipe out the inhabitants, and they did not have a land free from pagan worship.

In Leviticus 19:31 God says; "Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God". Saul was the first Jewish king. In 1 Samuel 28 is an account where Saul is surrounded by his enemy and becomes very frightened. "When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by Urim or by prophets. Then Saul said . . . 'Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go and inquire of her'". In defiance of God Saul consulted with the witch of Endor, a medium, wanting to talk with the spirit of the prophet Samuel. Mediums do not have the power to bring forward the spirits of the dead. The illusion that this happens is brought about by deceiving evil spirits, who may know information about a particular person. But in this instance, to the surprise of the witch, God intervenes, bringing the spirit of Samuel to Saul to give him a devastating prophecy about Saul's kindgom and royal line. In the Old Testament God forbids contacting the dead. The practice invites the involvement of evil spirits into a person's life. And no approval is given or examples found for this in the New Testament.

So how did the practice of praying to the souls of the dead gain acceptance in the organized Church? The beginning Chruch was composed primarily of people from a Jewish background, who brought with them a foundation of scripture, traditions, and a mindset that acknowledged Almighty God. But eventually Gentiles became the majority. They were ex-pagans living in a pagan dominated society. And they brought into the Church some compromising ideas that conflicted with scripture. The idea of praying to Mary or to the souls of the departed martyrs is a good example of this. In the ancient world the most powerful and appealing deities were those associated with the mother w/child goddess. Eventually the qualities ascribed to Mary went beyond that of her yielding to the desire of God and the move of the Holy Spirit to become the vessel God used so that the Word would be made flesh. She was given non-scriptural qualities such as being born sinless, remaining sinless, staying a virgin, ascending to heaven, being a primary intercessor or mediator between man and God, and reigning as queen of heaven. She became god-like in her qualities, which made it OK to direct towards her prayer and veneration.

Along with this was the fact that the first three hundred years of Christian history saw intense periods of persecution, resulting in many martyrs. The examples of those martyrs were naturally used to encourage the faith and hope of others who might one day face the same trial. And as Mary was elevated and it became OK to pray to her, it was easy to allow prayer to the souls of the martyrs as well. These are traditions and theology that gained acceptance early on, both in Rome and in the other centers of Christianity. And they put up barriers to a direct relationship with God, and to experiencing a free and powerful moving of the Holy Spirit in a person's life. Religion replaces relationship, obedience to religious law replaces discernment, and praying to Mary and the saints replaces a direct conversation with the creator of the Universe, robbing both us and God. When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple that separated man from access to the Holy of Holies was torn in two. No longer was there a need to present offerings to a priest, who would in turn present them to God. No longer was there a need for a high priest to enter the Most Holy Place to sprinkle blood for the sins of the nation. The blood of Jesus, our High Priest, did this for us. His Spirit now can unite with our spirit, so that we will become temples of the Holy Spirit. God does not need, nor does He desire, an intermediary between Himself and man.

The theology of Thomas Aquinas added another dimension to this. He taught that grace was a quanity of something, produced by the actions of Christ or man, that was stored in heaven, and which could be transfered to people on earth. Thus Jesus, by living a sinless life, and by His suffering and death, produced a limitless quanity of grace. But Mary also, by her holy life and her agony over the crucifixion of her Son, and the martyrs and other saints by their lives and sufferings, added grace to the heavenly storehouse as well. The Holy Spirit would transfer this grace to men in two ways. One would be through participation in the sacraments of the organized church. And the other would be through prayer to God or to Mary or the saints. So salvation in a Catholic sense comes because the sacramental act of baptism transfers grace, earned by Christ on the cross, to the person being baptized, canceling out original sin. Sin that occurs during a person's life must also be canceled out by grace, either acquired by that person through their acts and suffering, or through participation in the sacraments of the church. If what is produced in a lifetime in not sufficient, then more must be produced through suffering in a non-scriptural location called Purgartory, or through a transference of grace from the living. If follows then that if John Paul II produced grace through his extraordinary life and holiness, and if that grace was sufficient to pay what would be due to either advoid or have a short stay in Purgatory, and if he had grace to deposit into the heavenly storehouse, then some of that grace could be transferred to whomever prays to John Paul II, thus affecting a healing. The healing would then be proof that John Paul II is in heaven, and can be declared a saint.

I do not dispute that people pray to Mary and the saints with sincere hearts, and that sometimes their prayers are answered by a loving God. But there is a better way.

He Is Risen!

2007-04-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

There is always joy in my heart on Easter when I am with family and one of us will smile and say; "He is risen!", to which the other will always say; "He is risen indeed!" The joy is there because at one time I did not know the Father, or the Son, and I thought that the only thing that would remain of me after death would be memories, or what I had built or accomplished. But now I have an inner witness that the resurrection of Jesus was the first fruits for my eternal life with Him. Someday in the future, whether I am dead or alive, my body will rise up to meet the Lord in the air, and that glorified body will combine with my soul and spirit body and spend eternity with God. I can see that each of my children also share the same inner witness, the same relationship with the Redeemer, that causes us to smile when we reply; "He is risen indeed!" Together we celebrate, not our theology, but a living experience, through both good and rough times, of our love and trust and hope in Him. This joy increases as time goes on, and as I witness the faith life of my wife and children.

I have a larger family of faith as well. We may have differences in language, tradition and theology, but because our spirits are reborn we are all part of the same body, brothers and sisters in Christ. When Jesus asked His disciples in Matthew 16 to tell Him what people were saying about Him, they responded that some thought He was Elijah, or another one of the great prophets. "But who do you say that I am?", to which Simon responded; "You are the Christ, the son of the living God". Jesus tells Simon that this was not something that he figured out for himself, but rather it was revealed to him by the Father in heaven. Jesus calls Simon by a different name, Peter, which translated means, a little stone. "You are Peter (a little stone), and upon this rock (Simon's acknowledgement, revealed to him by God, that Jesus was the Redeemer and Son of the living God) I will build my church". The Church is compared in scripture to both a building and to a living organism. It is comprised of all, living and dead, who share with Peter a reborn spirit, made possible because of each person's declaration in faith that Jesus is God, and the He is Redeemer. This became possible for Peter and for us because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Neither the enemy or death (the gates of Hades) will be able to overcome us, and authority has been given to us (the keys of the kingdom of heaven) to bind the enemy and to set free the captive.

Although all spirit reborn people belong to the same body, and are part of the same spiritual building called the Church, there are and have been since the time of the apostles many divisions that keep us from sharing the joy of salvation with one another. In the book of Acts, Paul takes Peter, who God used first to bring the faith to the Gentiles, to task for not associating with Gentile believers. And Paul again had to urge the leadership of the early Church, at a council presided over by James, not Peter, to accept new non-Jewish believers into the faith community, without putting on them the burden of Jewish traditions and laws. After Pentecost, Jerusalem was the primary center of the Christian faith. But as time went on, Jerusalem was destroyed, and major centers developed in many places, including Syria, Northern Africa, Asia Minor and Rome. Each center had it's own character, they developed different traditions, and doctrine and liturgy were not imposed by any central authority. At around 165 AD, there develooped several major areas of disagreement on specific theological points, so each center made lists to trace their spiritual lineage, and by inference, the correctness of their theology.

The church centered in Rome eventually took this one step further, claiming primacy over the entire Church. Roman bishops traced their roots back to Peter (who may or may not have acutally been in Rome) and Paul. And they taught that Peter was given authority by Christ to rule His Church on earth, as were each of his successors. Suffice it to say, although you can find a list of popes going back from Benedict to Peter, Peter had the scriptural office of apostle, not bishop, all the early bishops of Rome were given the title "pope" posthumously, and bishops of Rome did not exercise authority over other centers of Christianity for hundreds of years. Even in the first example scholars cite, a letter written about 190 AD to the Roman bishop Victor, from a bishop of Alexandra, asking advice on a serious matter. Other bishoops were consulted as well, and Victor's advice was not taken. Politics, economics, and brute force consolidated Roman power, and made dominate Roman theology and tradition.

Jackie and I were baptized, raised, and educated as Catholics, and we know many Catholics of deep faith who have reborn spirits, and who share the same joy of the risen Savior as we do. Jackie never wavered in the faith she had since childhood, but grew closer in her relationshiop to Jesus after being baptized in the Holy Spirit during the time we were dating in college. In high school I became an agnostic, and was atheistic throughout four years at a Catholic college. After asking Jesus into my heart and being filled with the Holy Spirit several months after marrying Jackie and graduating from college, we still worshipped in the Catholic church for 10 more years. As our children grew, and as scripture became clearer, we became more uncomfortable with the teachings and the traditions of Catholicism that seemed to us to clearly run counter to how we understand scripture. And eventually God gave us the freedom to leave. The most difficult part for us after leaving was that our parents felt in a sense that we were rejecting a part of them. We were not just leaving a religion, but a culture as well.

In future posts I may be talking about some of the traditions and theology that gained acceptance early on, both in Rome and in the other centers of Christianity, which I believe stifle the free and powerful moving of the Holy Spirit, and which have created barriers to a personal relationship with the King of Glory. My intent is not to condem a faith tradition, but to explain to the best of my ability the truth as I understand it. The logic found in Catholic doctrine is consistent throughout. If A and B are true, then C must follow. But if A or B are wrong, it does not follow that those who teach or believe such doctrine are evil people. Nor does believing that A + B = C negate the possibility of a real relationship with the Lord, even if we use different terms and worship in different ways. Truth must be declared, but the author of truth is a loving God who gave His life in love for all who will honestly seek Him.

Interesting Times

2007-04-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago public television had a show about Aimee Semple McPherson. Sister Aimee was a traveling Pentecostal evangelist in the early 1900's who later on built a large church in Los Angeles. From that church arose a major Pentecostal demonination, The Church of the Four Square Gospel. Jack Hayford is perhaps the best known leader identified with that group today. There were photos dated from about 1910 to 1920 showing her riding in a variety of cars while on a preaching circuit, and painted on each car was; "Jesus is coming soon". The idea that Jesus could come at any moment was one of the driving forces compelling the early Pentecostals to go out and evangelize, and there are interesting correlations between the history of the Zionist movement leading to the establishment of the State of Israel, and the move and direction of the Holy Spirit in the Christian Church, although I will not get into those for this post.

About two weeks ago a group of British armed forces were kidnapped by Iranian forces in the Shatt al Arab, which is a disputed waterway between Iraq and Iran, and is near the joining of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, flowing into the Persian Gulf. They were released this week. There are a number of things concerning this whole affair that I'm curius about, but one aspect is really interesting. This week I was reading a book by Bill Cloud which talks about the historical enmity between the Jews and Arabs and the connection between that and events in the last days before Jesus returns. In the book he mentions a scripture from Revelation 9. This tells about a time during the tribulation when the bottomless pit is opened, and out of the pit come demonic locust-like creaturres. "They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss, his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon". Interestingly, scholars have felt that the entrance to this pit is located near an actual town or island which is on the border between Iran and Iraq called Abadan, and which is in the Shatt al Arab waterway! I don't know what the connection is, but I something like this must be more than just coincidence.

Also this week were seen typical results of world efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. There was a mild protest from the UN concerning the seizure of the British troops by Iran. If the UN had its way, Israel, with 1/20th the land of it's Arab neighbors, would turn over half of that amount to the Arabs, leaving Israel with no defensible borders. The European powers still have done nothing to stop or slow down the Iranians in their nuclear advance. We saw a shadow foreign policy being conducted by the Democratic party who seems to think they have already won the 2008 presidential election. They sent the Speaker of the House to Syria, a state which harbours and finances Hezbolla, allows or directs foreign troops into Iraq against our troops, is dedicated to the elimination of Israel, and which I believe is storing Sadaam's WMD's. And violence continues between the different factions in Iraq. We know that this will one day be resolved because scripture is clear that Babylon, located in Iraq, becomes the headquarters for the coming world leader. I sure hope that it is God's will that the US is there, because we seem to be playing a major part in setting up conditions for what will happen in the last days prior to the return of Jesus.

I sometimes wonder if most Christians really believe that Jesus will one day return, or if we really think that it could be soon. There are many in the organized church who do not have a reborn spirit, so it would be surprising if they were watching for the Lord's return. And there are many who have a reborn spirit but do not have a theology that looks at scripture literally. Most of the Christians in our government's administration are typical of those who love Israel because of it's historical connection with Christianity, but do understand the promises made by God that are still in effect for the Jewish people and the Jewish land. They, like the rest of the world, believe that a political solution is possible to bring peace to the Middle East.

There is a statue, shown above, that is in a park next to the United Nations, with a saying on it from the 2nd chapter of Isaiah, which says; "And they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war". The saying reflects the desire of man to have a world organization that can bring about peace upon the earth. This is, of course, always a worthwhile goal, and Jesus Himself said; "Blessed are the peacemakers". I met a man this week who was from Israel, served in it's army, and had friends that were killed last year while fighting Hezbolla in Lebanon. War is terrible, and we should always strive for peace and peaceful solutions, but there is a context for the conflict happening there. It began thousands of years ago and it's conclusion will not be settled by a peace treaty.

The quote from Isaiah is part of a larger passage that talks about world peace being made possible because of the Lord coming to rule the nations from Jerusalem. "It will come about in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths'. For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; And (then) they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war".

The things happening today are just a fraction of an overall movement of events, clearly showing that we are in times leading to the soon return of Jesus. I believe the early Pentecostals thought it was close because the Spirit within them was testifying to it. Even though that was 90 years ago, which seems like a long time to us, we need to be mindful that the whole map of the Middle East has been redrawn in that time. Oil is drawn from sand, giving power to peoples who were nomads when Sister Aimee began her ministry. Israel reappeared in 1948, ruling itself for the first time in over 2000 years. Iran's traditional enemy Russia is helping them process uranimun, leading to events talked about in Ezekial 38. Traditional Christian religion is almost dead in the emerging United States of Europe. And ancient names found in scripture are appearing in the news.

The Gifts of the Spirit

2007-03-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

"Therefore, my brethern, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. But let all things be done properly and in an orderly manner." (1 Corinthians 14: 39-40)

The Holy Spirit dwells in the spirit of all born again believers. He moves from the spirit, through the soul, as the believer allows Him to. The fruit of the Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, patience, understanding, etc., will be produced in the lives of all who earnestly seek to do the will of the Father and who are willing to be led by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit equips each person with abilities helpful to advance the kingdom of God. Yet while all of that is certainly good and necessary, there is still an impartation of power that God wants each child of the kingdom to have. Usually that is not a result of a natural growth in spiritual maturity, but instead is a special gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift floods the soul part of man and can often result in the impartation of what scripture calls the "gifts of the Spirit". The initial bestowing of this special gift is known as "the baptism of the Holy Spirit", indicating an immersion of the soul into the Holy Spirit, and a death of self-lordship in the soul.

There are nine gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12; "For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues". These are not natural abilities that we are born with, or learned actions. These gifts are not dependent on the maturity of the believer, but instead result from the willingness of the person to yield (a decision of the soul) to the moving of the Spirit in a supernatural way. The Corinthian church was filled with immature believers and leaders who non-the-less were blessed with many supernatural giftings of the Holy Spirit. Paul's instructions were part of their process of gaining spiritual maturity in the use and operation of the gifts.

The gifts of the Spirit come from God and not from the knowledge or ability of man. Wisdom would be a Spirit given instruction, knowledge would be a Spirit given revelation, faith would be a Spirit given assurance. As there are different types of sicknesses and injuries, so there are needed different kinds of healing gifts for the purpose of bringing about a physical restoration of the body. A miracle is a creative work of the Spirit, adding or accomplishing something not normally possible in nature. There are at least two types of prophetic words. One is a word of encouragement given by God, and the other is information given about something in the future. Distinguishing of spirits is revelation given by the Holy Spirit showing the source and sometimes the idenity of spiritual forces active in a person or location. There are three types of tongues that I am aware of. One is a Spirit given private prayer language. The next is a Spirit given ability to speak to another person in their language or dialect. And the third is when the Spirit directs someone to speak out in a meeting in tongues. The last type should be accompanied by a Spirit inspired interpretation of tongues. The operation of the two gifts together is often refered to as prophecy.

Notice how the moving of the Holy Spirit in the soul is expressed in the physical. The Spirit gives us direction or guidance, and often times He will only give us a part or a beginning, and the gift becomes manifest as we start to act or speak out in the physical. Sometimes when we are praying for a person my wife will get a prophetic word for them. She may have a picture in her mind of what the Spirit wants to convey, or an impression of an overall theme, or maybe just the start of a sentence. But the word for that person takes shape and becomes complete only after she begins to speak out. God wants us to trust Him and to believe without first physically seeing, and the Spirit helps us grow in the gift as we learn to be obedient to the Spirit's prompting.

That is why the gift of tongues as a prayer language is such an important part of the baptism of the Holy Spirit It is valuable as an initial gift, and as an aid in growing to maturity in the Spirit. Although I believe it is possible for a person to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and yet not be able to speak out in tongues, tongues is usually the first gift evident in a Spirit-baptized person. The yielding to the move of the Holy Spirit through the surrender of our language in the physical, builds up our faith, thus opening up for us the activity of all the other gifts as well. And speaking in tongues daily as one part of our conversation with God not only helps us to be more sensitive to the moving of the Spirit, but it is a spiritual exercise for our soul. We want to be able to talk to God all through the day, with understanding as well as with a language that the Spirit gives us. Through tongues our soul and spirit express to the Father worship, praise, and inner desires and concerns that we often cannot find the proper words for.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts associated with it, are for the building up of the body of Christ, of which all people who are reborn in their spirit are members. Jesus sent the Spirit to help us grow to maturity in our soul, and to better enable us to minister in the power of the Spirit to those already in the body. The baptism of the Holy Spirit also equips us to minister in power to those outside the body. Jesus provided for us a salvation that changes the spirit of man, and in His love for us He has sent the Spirit to transform our souls, and our physical nature, so that we may be built up into the image of Christ, Who is our Lord and Saviour.

Jesus Is Lord

2007-03-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

"And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, 'Which', He said, 'you heard of from Me; For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now . . . You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.'" (Acts 1: 4-8)

I saw a license plate on the front of a car recently which said; "Jesus is Lord". I was brought back to the 70's when it was early in my marriage and I was young in the Lord. Jackie and I attended charismatic prayer meetings, helped out some with prayer meeting leadership and Life in the Spirit seminars, and we went to a couple of the big charismatic conferences at Notre Dame. The theme of a lot of what the Spirit was doing in the Catholic charismatic renewal at that time was summarized with the saying, "Jesus is Lord." It was on banners, and bible covers, and often expressed verbally. And it really is a good phrase to express both an accurate theology about what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is, and how a Spirit baptized person feels toward Jesus.

What was Jesus asking His disciples to wait for in Jerusalem? He had taken on the sin of man while on the cross, His perfect blood had paid the price that the Father demanded, and He had risen from the dead as first fruits of an eternal life now possible for all men with the Father. The disciples believed that this was so, and I think that their faith had already allowed the Holy Spirit to bring the Spirit of the risen Christ to unite with their spirits so that their spirits had become reborn. The Holy Spirit had been active on the earth prior to this time, was active in the ministry of Jesus, and Jesus had already breathed on them saying; "Receive the Holy Spirit". Before the redeeming death of Christ the Holy Spirit was present in their lives, equipping them for ministry. And it was the Holy Spirit who recognized the faith of each disciple, bringing to them the Spirit of Christ, to make a reborn spirit in man. And because they had a reborn spirit, allowing Jesus to live in them, they already had the Holy Spirit present as well in their spirits.

The disciples were waiting for Jesus to pour out upon them the Holy Spirit in a different way. It was going to be more than equipping man with a particular gift or gifts for the purpose of declaring the kindgom of God, although that was part of it. But more importantly, it was to be an impartation of the Spirit of God into the soul of man, to clean and to renew, and to allow the soul of man to better worship and serve his creator. To understand this we remember that we are more than a two part being; Body, Soul/Spirit, but rather a three part being; Body, Soul, Spirit. The soul, which is our personality, our will, and our desires, has a physical dimension and a spiritual dimension. God designed us to come to know His will by having the soul hear the Holy Spirit moving in our spirit. The Spirit then would minister life to every part of our soul, affecting our decisions, our feelings, our relationships, and our memories. And the Spirit-led soul would bring the body into submission to the will of God as well.

The sin of Adam changed things because the fruit of that sin caused the soul to become master of the three part nature of man, often times strongly influenced by the desires of the flesh. And the body was now subject to physical death. When death came, the soul and spirt of man could not be in the presence of a holy God. The sacrifice of Jesus made it possible for us to have a reborn spirit, which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But we have a soul that still needs to be transformed. In everyone's soul there are different experiences, memories, and personality traits. And our body places demands on our soul as well. I have always pictured the soul as a house with many rooms and closets. Jesus wants to be Lord of every part of our house, to let His light shine in every room and corner. But we are fearful of losing lordship in certain areas. There are dark places where we have been hurt, or are ashamed, where we keep sin, and where pride is master. We often are blind to the simple truth that God wants to heal, that He already knows what is hiding at the bottom of that dirty pile of rags, that He longs to forgive, and that all of our abilities have been given with a purpose by Him. Whatever He has for us is better than what we are holding on to.

The disckiples knew Jesus as the One that was sent by God the Father. The Holy Spirit in them testified to that. But at Pentecost, the walls of the rooms and closets in their houses were blown down, and they could know Jesus as Lord of each part of their life. And they responded by praising and magnifying God, and by yielding themselves, both in their minds and their bodies, to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Of course, being baptized, or flooded in the Holy Spirit was just a beginning. It shows us that the Lord can move in us and through us with power. But there are usually doors that still need to be opened, and more that the Lord wants to show us. His Spirit is gentle, not forcing Himself without our permission, but always prodding us to grow closer to Jesus.

When I say "Jesus is Lord", I am thanking Him for how He has changed my life. I praise Him for His presence and for being there when I pray. I magnify Him because He is worthy, and has shown me just the slightest glimpse of who He is. And He is Awesome! "Therefore God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". (Phillipians 2: 9-11)

Time and Numbers

2007-03-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

I love big numbers, although I can barely comprehend them. For example, light from the Sun can get to the Earth in less than 10 minutes. But if you had a spaceship that only traveled as fast as the car in your garage and started heading for the Sun today, neither you nor the kids that you brought along for the ride would live long enough to get there. The Sun is 93 million miles away, so you do the math. And yet if you wanted to travel to the next nearest star with a possibility of a planet, and could travel at the speed of light, it would take you something like 20 years to get there. Well, except for one little problem. A few nuclear fuel rods allow a large submarine to go for a year without refueling. But if all the atoms present in the entire Earth were split, there still would not be enough energy produced to enable that same little spaceship to obtain light speed. Or let me put it this way. UFO's do not come from beyond our solar system.

The Hubble telescope has scanned the universe, and it is estimated that there are 200 billion trillion stars. Scientists have looked at something called red light shifts, and calculated the speed and time that all matter is moving outward from some central point, and have estimated the universe is between 13 to 20 billion years old. I recently heard a creation scientist ask this question. If we divide 200 billion trillion by 20 billion years, there needs to be 20 million stars formed per second, from then until now, to reach 200 billion trillion. If this is so, then why do we see so few stars being formed? So I checked out star formation on Google, and got the neat picture above. Seems that Hubble has identified a lot of "star birthing areas", visible only with infared scanners, and these have great "potential" to form lots of new stars, although the last new star identified for sure was birthed 1000 years ago. But not to worry, it's a little telescope and a very big universe. So what's 20 million per second among friends?

We are told that the Earth began forming about 4 billion years ago, and that conditions for life were not present until about 400 million years ago. Now 400 million years is a lot of time, but not enough to program by trial and error the 3 million links of genetic code needed for the most basic initial life form. Even if chance could provide the first 100 links, which I doubt, why would links be added year after year after year, when those links would not benefit the potential life form until a million years later? The same argument applies to the latest idea that there might have been millions of shorter RNA links floating around. What is the purpose of their existence? What would cause more than a few links to combine over any amount of time? As my two year old grandchild once said, shaking her head; "I can't like this!" I think the DNA of all life is already pre-programmed to allow for variation up to certain limits. But check out sources such as the National Geographic edition on evolution, or check out evolution web sites, and still you will not find any evidence that shows gradual development of new features over time. Anthropologist can chart extinct species, and suggest that one led to the next. But the fossil record is absent of uniqueness in development. You might find a small dinosaur fossil with wings, and if that is an actual fossil, it's an already done deal. We simply do not have wings in the process of being developed over time. Nor do we find in any species of animal, plant or insect, existing today, new features in the process of development. Maybe we should call that "faith based science".

So is the universe really 14 billion years old, beginning with a big bang? Did life begin 400 million years ago? Have the ancestors of modern man been walking around this planet for 100,000 years? The search to understand the ever increasing flood of knowledge is both exciting and important. But we need to learn how to properly balance what science tells us, and what scripture teaches. Science looks at material evidence, and interprets everything mechanically and mathematically. It looks at only the material world, and cannot measure or comprehend the spiritual world. And it is limited by two biases. The first is that because it cannot measure the spiritual, it denys it. I personally believe there are physics that govern both, perhaps the same physics, and if so then their glass will always be half empty. And the second is that because everything is regarded mechanically, science is most comfortable with a uniformist view of time. This measures the pace that things happen at today and the conditions that are known today, and then applies that pace and condition when looking backward. So an earth-shaking event like the flood is ignored, not because of a lack of a tremendous amount of evidence, but because that would be "introducing religion".

There can be bias when looking at scripture. We need to seek the leading of the Holy Spirit to help us understand and descern what is written, and what is taught. If there is a conflict between what God says in scripture, and what science says, God is always right. I don't worry about science questioning miracles because I know that He is designer, creator, and substainor. But if a verse talks about the "four corners of the earth", I should understand the truth in that statement without having to believe that the earth is flat. Scripture talks about the sin of Adam and Eve, and believing that Adam and Eve were real people is criitcal to understanding God's plan of redemption for man. But putting a time frame on when Adam lived, and when "God created the heavens and the earth", is a matter of interpretation. Science may lead us to better examine certain sections of scripture, and it could be very wrong in its interpretation of evidence. However, the tools we use to help us understand scripture, such as teachings, and commentaries, and books, may or may not be inspired. Honest people can look at scripturre literally, and consider scriptural evidence as a whole, and still have areas of disagreement.

Unfortunatly, the overall tendency in the church today is to try to conform scripture to current scientific and cultural information and standards. There is an evolutanry flavor being injected into the teaching of redemption and morals. It denys the authenticity of people and events in the Old Testament, and transforms a Spirit-breathed, spirit-reborn, relationship with the Creator of the universe, into a values-changing, society-conforming, philosophy left by an evolved grand master. But this has been true, even from the time of Peter. "Mockers say, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation . . . When they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, flooded with water. But the prresent heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men . . . Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people should you be in holy conduct and godliness . . . But according to His promise we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells." (2 Peter 3)

"It Will Be Months, Not Years"

2007-03-06T11:36:00.000-08:00

About a year before he died of a heart attack, my father-in-law heard what he believed was the audible voice of God. He had always been a great student of Biblical prophecy, as well as gifted in the prophetic, and had been praying, asking God as to the timing of the rapture. Harry believed that before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He promised that one day He would return to this Earth, and he believed that this return would come in two phases. The term that is commonly given to the first phase is "the rapture", when Jesus will bodily come to the atmosphere of the Earth, a heavenly trumpet will sound, and all humans who have a reborn spirit will instantly be transformed, and caught up into the atmosphere, to meet Jesus there. Jesus then returns to Heaven with this "caught out" group for a period of time. Harry was in the camp that believes that the rapture will take place prior to the beginning of a seven year period known as "the tribulation". This is a time of great judgement upon the Earth, where men will need to declare to whom they will serve. The tribulation ends with the second phase of Jesus return. He comes to the Earth with an army of those that had been reborn, His feet finally standing on the spot that He ascended from, the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. He defeats The Enemy, the Antichrist and False Prophet, and the armies that come to oppose Him. Jesus will then rule on the Earth for 1000 years, at the end of which will come a rebellion, a judgment of all those who have not been reborn in their spirits, and the creation of a new Heavens and a new Earth.

In response to Harry's question in prayer as to the timing of the rapture, God said; "It will be months, not years". Harry was surprised to hear the audible voice, which had happened to him only once, and that was a voice that said "WAKE UP!" when he had fallen asleep and was heading off the road while driving back from a prayer meeting in Paw Paw. He was also surprised at the directness of the answer. And so he prayed, "How can I know that this is really true?" And the audible answer was; "This year, when you go deer hunting, you will get your biggest buck ever". And a month later in November, at a location in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where his group had been going for years, often without success, and on their last day, a huge buck walked out 20 yards in front of where Harry was waiting, giving him a clear shot. I think it dressed out at over 300 lbs. It was so big that one of their party, a nephew who had traveled the world to hunt big game, and who has a pole barn full of mounted trophies, asked if he could have the animal head stuffed. That head is now hanging at a hunting "lodge" owned by a group of family relatives, many of whom are not believers but who still admire "the big buck".

Harry told this to us at a family prayer meeting shortly after he returned. He said he was reluctant to share it with us before he went hunting, and even after the confirmation, because of the message, he still wanted to be cautious. The events happened about 10 years ago. As I said, a year later he had a heart attack and died. One of his sons always believed that this was a personal message from God to Harry that his time was short, and in a sense, events would bear that out. I have never been comfortable with that explaination, believing that the message was actually talking about the timing of the rapture, but unsure as how to interpret it. The most obvious interpretation would be to establish a certain time frame from the giving point of the message, to the happening of the rapture. But 10 years is 10 years, and not months. This has bothered me for a long time, and I have often prayed about it. I am convinced that the message was from God, and not something from the enemy, or imagined. One of the reasons is that Harry had a real passion for searching out scripture concerning the end times, and had prayed specifically concerning the timing of the rapture. And I believe that there must be some purpose, some reason, for God to give such a message.

A couple of months ago I started thinking and praying about it again, and I remembered a comment from my Bible's footnotes on the book of Revelation. The first verse of the first chapter says; "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-spevants, the things which must shortly take place". The commentary says that the word "shortly" is the same Greek word which is translated "speedily" in Luke 18:8. In other words, the time frame of the events that are laid out in Revelation did not necessarily have to begin soon, but rather when things started to begin, things would happen quickly. And I think that would be a reasonable explanation for the word that Harry received. When certain prophetic things start to happen, know that the rapture will soon follow, in a time frame of months, not years.

Now, I hold to the theological view that the rapture can happen at any time, and that there is nothing that has to precede it. But I have a suspicion that it may happen during the time frame of a future Jewish feast of Pentecost, or perhaps Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Feast of Trumpets, although I don't know when. And I also have a suspicion that if my interpretation of the word given to Harry is correct, that the starting event will be obvious to those that search the prophecies of scripture. And that might be something like the invasion of Israel laid out in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Various Biblical scholars have identified Magog as Russia, which leads a coalition of countries against Israel, with Persia (modern day Iran) as their main ally. At the last moment God intervenes for Israel, destroying the coalition forces. It is my opinion that action against Iran's nuclear facilities may be a trigger for those events to happen.

This could happen five, ten, or twenty years from now. Or it could happen in 2007. The rapture may signal the beginning of the tribulation period, or there might be a space of months or years after the rapture before the tribulation begins. Whatever the case, or whatever the timing, we should be concerned for all those who do not have a reborn spirit in Christ Jesus, and pray frequently for those we know. At a specific point in time the Word became flesh. At a specific point in time He suffered, died, and rose from the dead, changing forever the dynamics between God and man. At a specific point in time He ascended into Heaven. And whether we are ready for it or not, He will return at a specific point of time. Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus.

The Sword of the Spirit

2007-02-26T18:38:00.000-08:00

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist". (Ephesians 6:12-13) "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God". (Ephesians 6:17)

The evil one is the unseen ruler of this world, and so it should not be surprising that the world is not only opposed to the gospel, but to the scripture which proclaims it. This has been true from the earliest times until now. The opposition may be blatant, or subtle, but it is constant. It began when the serpent asked Eve; "Did God say?", and the same question is asked today, even in our seminaries and churches. Whether you are aware of it or not, you and I are in a daily battle for the revelation of truth, and the eternal soul of man lays in the balance. And if the enemy cannot win that battle, he conducts a thousand others, all designed to keep us from a close relationship with God. The enemy wants to rob us of joy, peace, health and material blesings. He wants us to worship at the altars of this world instead of at the foot of the heavenly throne.

One of the main tools that God has given us to find, and to understand truth, is sacred scripture. I believe that the Holy Spirit reveals truth, and gives understanding, and although He does that in many ways, He has given us His written word as a sure and unchanging standard against which we must submit everything else. This standard is not to be a law, which leads to religious rules interperted by others, actually blocking the working of the Holy Spirit. Instead, it is to be a fountain of life for those that humbly seek, and a sword for those that respond in faith.

Here are some things that may help you hear the Spirit as you read and study scripture. Begin by having a short talk with God before each reading, asking for understanding and retention of His word. Have an attitude that desires to know what is true, and is willing to surrender to that truth. Realize that there are usually three different ways to look at a passage. The first is to consider what the author was saying to the people he wrote to. Check the overall context and the context of the section in which the verse is located. The second is to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us from the passage. Although written by men, the true author is the Holy Spirit, who can speak to our hearts from any verse to inspire, guide and instruct. Third, there may be a prophetic purpose to a passage.

I believe scripture ends up making the most sense if looked at it in a literal sense, except when the context is obviously allegorical. And to understand one section of scripture we may need to compare it with other sections. This will help keep us from forming opinions and doctrine based on just a little piece of a bigger puzzle. The concordance in the back of your bible can be very helpful. The other day a sister of mine who lives in another state, and who just started going to a bible study two years ago, called to inform me that she just discovered that Christians were cheaters. "I thought they had all those verses memorized, until I found out that your could look them up in the back of the book". And lastly, listen to wise and Godly consul from others. Listening to the Spirit is still your responsibility, but God does place people in our lives to help.

Here are some well known passages, in their context, concerning the necessity to learn, apply, believe, and use scripture. In these verses we see a common theme. The world, it's attitudes, it's system, cannot comprehend and thus instruct us to know the will of God. But the inspired written word, through faith, can. The author of Hebrews, beginning in the 3rd chapter, compares Jesus to Moses. The people that Moses led out of Egypt had a chance to enter into the promise of God, but did not take up their swords because of unbelief. But we have a promise given by God that reads; "let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed, we have had good news preached to us (the Word of God) but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard . . . Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart".

In the 3rd chapter of 2 Timothy we see that difficult times will come but that scripture will equip us and help lead us through those times. Compare this discription with what we are being bombarded with every day. "Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconsilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power . . . always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth . . . You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work".

And finally, Peter advises; We did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty . . . And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention, a lamp shining in a dark place . . . But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God". ((2 Peter 1:16-21)

Who Are You Going To Serve?

2007-02-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

Last night I had a dream in which I was outside at a kind of camping area, and a lot of my family and friends were there. Looking up I spotted a lion coming into the camp and so I yelled out a warning to everyone. We gathered under the roof of an open shelter and the person who was in charge told us that we were to stay calm, but if the lion kept approaching any one of us, that person should extend their hands to the side of the lion's head and scream at it. When I awoke I realized that the lion represented the evil one, and the dream was showing me the subject of today's blog.

As I've stated before, the world we live in has both a physical and a spiritual dimension. Each is real, and each affects us, even if we do not see the spiritual world with our physical eyes. God is the creator of both, and it may be inferred from Genesis 1:1 ("In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth") that since "heavens" is mentioned first, then perhaps angels and other spiritual beings were created before man. And we may also deduce that, just as our physical world has in it an astounding variety of creatures, so also would there be a huge variety of spiritual beings. At some point in the time before man, one of those beings, an angel of the highest rank, rebelled against God.

Scripture does not pinpoint the exact time of his rebellion, but we do see in Ezekiel 28 an account of its beginning, and the reason for it. Ezekiel gives an account of the prince of Tyre, a powerful city state located along the Mediterranean Sea just north of Israel. Then we get the account of the force, the spirit behind the evil ruler of Tyre, and this spirit is called the king of Tyre. "You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God . . . You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God . . . You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence and you sinned . . . Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor". This angel is not a force which is the opposite of God. He was designed and created by God, to be creation's most intelligent and beautiful creature, his beauty representing the splendor of God, his abilities conveying the worship of created beings toward Almighty God. But from here and other places in scripture we see that he became proud of his beauty and, although intelligent, he thought that he should be considered equal with God, receiving some of the worship that belongs only to God.

We also see that his desire to obtain this was so strong that he would lie, use violence, and even murder to obtain it. And so he became the father of those things (John 8:44), and through those things became the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), the ruler of this world (John 14:30), and the accuser of the brethren (Zechariah 3:1, Job 1). We live in a world with an enemy whose desire is to keep us from a relationship with God that enables us to freely worship God for who He is. This enemy wants us to have the values of his kingdom because he wants to keep us under his dominion. God the Father has made it possible through Jesus for us to spend eternity with Him, because He loves us and desires the best for us. Yet our enemy wants us to suffer, and while suffering, he wants us to blame God as the cause of it. Our enemy comes disguised as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and he presents as attractive and desirable those things which God, in His wisdom and love, has warned us about.

He started it in the garden by talking through the serpent, questioning God's instruction to Adam and Eve to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by saying; "You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil". And we are told that when Eve saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that it was desirable to make one wise, then she ate and gave it Adam to eat (Genesis 3). The enemy has not changed his tactics. He still hates us and has not given up in his efforts to deceive us.

We need to understand that this enemy is real. He leads a host of evil spirits that want to bring to us sickness and fear, distress and condemnation. However, God has provided for us ways to confront our enemy, many listed in Ephesians 6, beginning with verse 10. God wants us to approach Him daily in prayer, and worship, in spirit, and in truth. Always ready to confess our sins and weakness, always ready to forgive and to seek forgiveness. We should be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit regarding our entertainment and our habits, and really, all aspects of our life. And we need to remember that God wants the best for us, but we are easily deceived by the attractions of this worldly kingdom, whose lord is our enemy.

"Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert, your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you". (1 Peter 5: 6-11).

With All Your Heart

2007-02-15T18:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some comments on the first three sayings at the beginning of Proverbs, chapter 3. Each begins with a word of wisdom from God, and is followed by the result of following that word.

"Let your heart keep my commandments. * For length of days and years of life, and peace they will add to you." For me, this is the corre, the center of what the Lord desires of us in our relationship with Him. The tendency of man is, and always has been, to want to live by rules apart from, and instead of, relationship. We want someone else to determine for us what is the will of God for our lives. And we do this because we think we can have one part of our life be religious while still retaining control (lordship) of the rest. However, God wants us to draw close to Him and to be led in all things by the Holy Spirit. It is scary to enter into a close relationship with God because He really wants to be the Lord of every part of our lives. He loves us, and wants us to experience that love. And when that happens, when we are obedient to His leading because it comes from the desire of our heart, it is easy to give up those things and areas of our life which are not really what God desires for us.

"Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. * So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man." Kindness and truth, how interesting that these two are mentioned together. Kindness needs to be an attitude that will express itself no matter what our situation or circumstance is, no matter how people act toward us. God acts in kindness toward us dispite our rebellion, and we should reflect that same attitude to others. God also does not try to deceive us. Instead, deception comes from the father of lies. We should be open and straightfoward with all whom we come in contact with, but mixing that truth with a sensitivity toward the feelings of others. Again, acting in kindness and truth requires that it be both the desire of our heart, and of our mind. And if so, then it will be easy to act as God desires.

"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. * And He will make your paths straight." Our daughter Becky recently got married and several days before the wedding Ryan sent her two dozen tulips, which Jackie and I have been enjoying while they have been on their honeymoon. When I look at those flowers up close I am so in awe of their beauty and design, and I marvel at the vast wisdom and goodness of my creator. Who could think that beauty could come from chance? And even if we see beauty in what appears to be the chaos of nature, that too was designed by God. I know this in the depths of my heart. I feel it. And I express that awe to God everyday. Trust, like obedience from the heart, has to do with our relationship with God. I trust Him because I know in my knower that He loves me. I believe that every hair on my head is counted, that all things work together for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. And when He reveals His will to me, and asks me to conform to it, I know that His plan will be better for me than my plan.

Faith To Move Mountains

2007-02-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

Note: Shown to the right is Mt. Harvard, a 14,420 ft. peak in Colorado I climbed when I was 17. I was going through a boulder field on the way down and about a 1000 pounder came rolling by, just grazing me. When you are 17 you simply think; "Hmm, that was close."

When Jackie and I resided in Kalamazoo we knew an older couple from the prayer meeting we attended. They had two sons, both rough characters and no-believers. One son, Mick, did the hitch hike out to California without any money thing, actually lived for several months in the large cemetery that is near downtown Kalamazoo, and was into tarot cards and other occultic things. One day my father-in-law talked to him, led him to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and as baptizer in the Holy Spirit. As a new believer he got rid of all the occult stuff, pretty much straightened himself out, and had a great thirst to read the Bible, although sometimes while high on drugs. At that point in his life it seemed like a natural thing to do. After a couple of months the Holy Spirit got to him and he gladly gave up the drugs.

I remember Mick especially for two occurrences. We had a family prayer meeting for years that met every Friday or Saturday night with Jackie's parents and a large bunch of her sisters and brothers, spouses and other family. We included Mick and his wife for a time, and during one prayer meeting about a half year in, Mick said that he felt the Holy Spirit was telling him to ask that we pray for his teeth. Mick had a mouthful of really crooked teeth, and after we put him on the "hot seat" and laid our hands on him and were praying, his mouth started to quiver and shake like jelly. After a couple of minutes it seemed to me that there had been about a 70 per cent improvement in the condition of his teeth. I know now, after reading about spiritual giants in the healing ministry such as John G. Lake, that if we perservered longer with prayer for Mick that it was very likely that the healing for his teeth would have been complete. However, 70 per cent was a huge improvement, and it was really exciting because that was the first micacle I had seen.

Awhile after Jackie and I moved to Holland there was a prayer meeting at the house of a couple we knew and I invited Mick to come and share his testimony. At the end of the meeting we had a time for prayer. One of the men there, Lloyd, had started coming to the Holland prayer meetings as an unbeliever a year earlier. He had also been a pretty rough character as a young man, and marriage to a believing wife had changed him quite a bit. He initally went to the meetings to be with his wife, but God got to him early on, and the fruit of accepting Jesus continued to change him. At this meeting Lloyd asked for prayer for his arthritis. Every morning Lloyd would need to place his hands under a hot faucet for 20 minutes to get his fingers loose enough to work well. Mick advised Lloyd that sometines arthritis is the resulf of unforgiveness. That immediately struck a nerve with Lloyd, who felt that God was telling him that he would get healed from the arthritis after he sought out his father and another person with whom he had really bitter feelings for, to ask for their forgiveness. Lloyd did as God directed and the arthritis was completly gone.

Now back to Mick's brother. Eventually he came over to talk with my father-in-law, asked Jesus into his heart, and was filled with the Holy Spirit. He left the house flying high, got into his car, and found that the battery was dead. Thinking that this shouldn't be a problem for the God of the universe, he laid his hands on the hood of the car and prayed someting like; 'Start in the name of Jesus'. He then got back into the car and it started. Mick's brother, unjaded at that point by theology or the world, could simply pray "without doubting" in commanding the battery to "move".

It is interesting to notice the different aspects of faith present in the stories above. All three men saw something about Jesus that they desired enough that they were able to surrender the lordship of their lives to Him. They heard the living word about Him, and believed that He was Savior and Lord. And they heard the living word about the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and by faith willingly asked and received. The Holy Spirit was able, at the moment of salvation, and over time, to change the desires and thus the actions and lives of those men. Mick and Lloyd both sensed the Spirit's direction as to how to obtain healing, and by faith were obedient to the Spirit's leading.

And of course there is the faith of the rest of us. Obedient at times, confused at times, sometimes strong in faith and sometimes weak. We grow in faith by trusting God when He seems both near and far, by taking time with Him in prayer, by searching the scriptures with a desire to know the truth, and by listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Through these things we know the will of God, and trusting that it is the will of God, we can say without doubt to the mountain Jesus mentions in Matthew 21: 21-22, "Be taken up and cast into the sea. And all things you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive."

Trip To Mars

2007-02-05T06:01:00.000-08:00

One of the main goals of space exploration is to find water on other planets or their moons. Scientists are looking for water because water is necessary for life, and if life forms can be found outside of our planet Earth, then it would offer support for one hypositheis about the origin of life on our planet. This hypositheis suggests that life first developed somewhere else and was carried to Earth by a meteor, and from that meteor carried seed of life, all life on Earth evolved. There is one main reason for this hypositheis. Evolution requirres a starting point, and scientist do not know how life began. No experiments have produced life from non-life. No instances of spontaneous generation of life have been observed. No mechanisms for spontaneous generation have been identified. Yet life had to have a beginning, and science in our generation is not allowed to have a non-mechanical origin theory. Finding life on other planets or moons actually would not solve the ultimate question about spontaneous generation, but the thought is that perhaps with other combinations of chemicals and such they will come up with a better theory. The one assurance the public is given to justify the cost of this space exploration is that we have recently found new life forms near thermal vents deep in the ocean floor, and microscopic life beneath glaciers, and if life can thrive in what are described as hostile environments, then perhaps simple life forms are possible outside of the more ideal conditions present because of Earth's unique climate and distance from the Sun and its location in the Solar System.

The problem with this view is that life is not simply a matter of the correct chemistry. The general public has an impression of a primordial soup, chuck full of the right ingredients, mixed with a little lightning, given millions of years to stew, and then arising from that the first simple cells. This view is not only misleading but false. It is false because even if we select the right ingredients, in the correct amounts, with a perfect environment, and using water as the universal solvent which can mix everything together, life does not begin through a chemical reaction. Life requires information. And it takes a lot of information to produce even the most basic life forms. The simplest cells need a huge amount of information, on a multitude of levels, operating independly. And each independent ooperation is necessary for the construction, the functioning, and the reproduction of even the most basic cells. Information is needed to build proteins, to shape them into a multitude of different cell building machines, to determine shape and function and energy reception, waste removal, and reproduction. The information chain in the most basic cell is over 3 million links long, each link needing a mixture of different acids and sugars, providing information possibilities thousands of times more vast that a computer binary code. In human life this chain is 3 billion links long. Now theoretically life could function with an information code of only 300,000 links, but you see what the problem is. We have not observed nature building these links on its own, nor have scientist been able to build these links from scratch.

I was an athethist prior to becoming a Christian at age 22. When I started to study scripture it was a first difficult to take certain passages literally because I assumed that science had proven evolution. Sincere Christians can take scripture literally and come up with different conclusions and I'm not going to define here what mine are. But my point is that is wasn't until I became reborn in the spirit and decided to believe that God's word was inspired that I had the freedom to question the prevailing wisdom of the world. The other day I was reading from one of the gospel accounts and it told about the disciples out in the sea in their boat at night, crossing over to the other side, and Jesus walks right out to them on the water. And I thought, how cool was that! It's not a problem for me because I believe that God is the designer and the creator, and that He can figure out how to do stuff like that.

But the world is blinded to seeing God as designer and creator. Science has told us that we must have a mechanistic explanation for life and it's diversity, and any discussion outside of that is promoting religion. So we will be spending billions on a quest to see if somehow other not yet know conditions could have produced amazing and complex information links that survived a meteor ride to earth to produce the dogma promoted by our most educated inhabitants.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it". (John 1: 1-5)

The Plans of the Heart

2007-02-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

At one time I was part of a group of leaders for a prayer meeting that met in the basement of a church that Jackie and I attended. Part of my responsibility was about every three or four weeks to take a turn leading the meeting, and that meant having a 20 to 30 minute teaching. I often had this experience. I would study up on a certain subject matter. I would read, hear or see something on a completely different subject that made a big imprression on me, and something would be happening in my life or with someone I knew in a spiritual area. Then while in prayer as I was driving to the meeting. not really knowing what God wanted me to say, He would connect the dots and the talk would formulate in my mind.

The meetings started with praise and worship and people were encouraged to share what God was doing in their lives that week, or to have a scripture reading that struck them, or to request a special song. And there would often be a time during or just after the worship to be quiet before the Lord, and sometimes a person would then have a word of encouragement or a prophecy. The amazing thing was that on certain nights all the pieces would fit together wonderfully on a certain theme. The songs, the sharings, the scripture, the prophetic word, these were by different people, and yet it would all relate to the teaching which God had given me on the way to the meeting but which had yet to be delivered. That, my friends, is the work of the Holy Spirit.

I heard a story just last night which will illustrate the difference between hearing and seeing, and understanding. My nephew Scott really wanted a new Wii (?) game system, as apparently millions of others also do. He asked his dad Jim, who he knew was very good at getting hard to find stuff, to check it out for him. Jim found out that Target was having a sale on them at midnight, got there third in line, and bought it without Scott knowing. The next day Jim and Jennifer put the syhstem in a Talbots bag (a clothing store), went over to visit Scott and Betsy, and when they got there Jennifer told Betsy to check out the new dress that she bought for our daughter Becky's upcoming wedding. Betsy saw the game system and excitedly remarked how wonderful it was. Scott, sitting in his chair by the TV, and while actually looking at them, remarked how great the dress looked. The game system was right in front of Scott but he didn't see it because a little switch in his brain clicked off when it heard - mothers dress for wedding.

Talking to others about spiritual subjects often requires that we be sensitive to the move of the Spirit in our preparation, and that we present it in a way that allows the Spirit to move upon the listener or the reader. We don't want the little switch in our or their brains to be clicked off. In preparation there is one main thing to be aware of. It is God who touches and changes hearts, not us. We may have a great plan, a great delivery, a perfect setting, yet if God is not in it we may move the mind or the emotions, but the heart stays tucked away. So we need to prepare with prayer, with hearing God through His written word, and with reflection on things that make an impression on us. There is usually a reason for having a strong impression.

If we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, without even realizing it, God will be preparing us with something that will combine with how He has been moving in another person's life. And that combination will unlock access to the heart. "The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in is own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives. Commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be established." (Proverbs 16: 1-3)

The Last Supper

2007-01-27T16:49:00.000-08:00

In the 22nd chapter of Luke is one of the three gospel accounts of the last meal that Jesus has with His disciples. It was on the first day of the Feast of Passover and Jesus, the Passover Lamb sent by God, was getting together with His closest friends to celebrate the traditional meal. "Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching . . . Then came the first day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed, and He sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it' . . . And when the hour had come He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, 'I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God' ".

There were seven major Jewish feasts, and three of them ran together at the beginning of the Hebrew calendar. The timing of the new year was established by God through Moses at the first Passover, and the first three were agriculturally based, occuring in the Spring harvest time. Passover remembered God's deliverance of the Hebrew people out of Egypt and their protection from the 10th plague. The meal that they ate was prepared in a hurry, so Unleavened Bread was a symbol that they must always be ready. And because leaven represents evil, the bread without leaven is also a symbol of cleaning out evil from one's life. The celebration concludes with the Feast of First Fruits, thanking God for His provision for the people.

The context then of Jesus last supper was a Passover meal. The unleavened bread looked like a large cracker, stripped because of the way it was cooked. So when Jesus takes some of this bread, He gives thanks and, "He broke it, and gave it to them, saying 'This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me' ". The bread that they were eating was the bread from the old covenant. It was eaten once a year, just as it was only once a year when the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat for the sins of the nation. Now Jesus was telling His disciples that this bread was always looking forward toward Him, and from now on when they would eat it they would remember that it was His body that was broken for them, His body that was lashed with stripes for their healing (Isaiah 53:5) And it is new life in Him that is the bread that feeds their souls.

Jesus then takes a cup which if filled with wine. He has already told His disciples earlier in John 15 that "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser", and they needed to abide in Him to be able to bear fruit. The fruit of the vine at the Passover meal represented the blood from the slain lamb that was applied to the door posts and header on the night before their ancestors left Egypt. Jesus at the beginning of the meal gives thanks for the cup and says; "Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes". And then after they eat the bread He again takes the cup, saying; "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood". Here Jesus was telling His disciploes that the Passover cup was always looking forward to Him, and from now on they would remember that the blood He shed on the cross would make Him the Passover Lamb. Indeed, at the moment of Jesus death the curtain in the temple that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was torn if two from top to bottom. No longer would there be need for the high priest to sprinkle blood once a year for the sins of the nation. By the shed blood of Jesus God could give new life to the spirit of man. This was a new provision from God, a new covenant that would bring men into the kingdom of God. And that is what all the disciples of Jesus should remember when they would eat the Passover meal.

The early church was a Jewish church. They still observed the Jewish feasts but now they understood the complete symbolism of the different parts. Jesus was the Passover Lamb, the Unleavened Bread, and His resurrection came on the Feast of the First Fruits. He was the first to be resurrected, a promise that one day they also would be. This early Jewish church recognized that because there was no longer a separation between God and man that they could remember Jesus as often as they wanted in their fellowshiop meals through the bread and the wine. Eventually Gentiles would become believers and greatly outnumber the Jewish members, and the understanding of the Passover context in the communion meal would be lost.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

2007-01-21T14:37:00.000-08:00

"Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip; 'Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?'" (John 6:4-5)

The context of Jesus feeding the 5000 in this story is that it was at the beginning of the feast of Passover. A great number of people were following Jesus because He was healing the sick. They were away from home, hungry, and not having the Passover celebration with their families. Andrew finds a boy with five barley loaves and two fish, and Jesus blesses this food and distributes it to the multitude. Everyone eats as much as they want and twelve baskets full of leftover fragments were gathered. In a sense, Jesus, the Passover Lamb, is having a Passover meal here with the Jewish nation. In Jewish tradition, at the feast of Passover, a chair is left at the table empty, and this is for Elijah, a great prophet of the past who was prophesied to one day come again. He would either proceed, or be, the Prophet Messiah who would deliver the Jewish people from their oppressors.

The multitude does not understand Jesus as the Passover Lamb, but the sign of the multiplication of loaves and fishes does lead them to believe that He is this promised Prophet, and they want to seize Jesus and make Him king. Jesus escapes to the mountains alone and later that night walks on the water to the boat of His disciples and arrives at the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The multitude find Him there the next day and Jesus tells them; "you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you." The people ask Jesus to tell them what the works of God are, and He replies; "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." Understand here that the people have seen Jesus heal the sick and feed the multitude. Their theology permits them to comprehend Jesus as a Prophet in the vein of Moses or Elijah, but not as God come in the flesh. So they inform Jesus that Moses gave the nation bread out of heaven (the manna) to eat, that this was a sign that Moses was from God, and that Jesus should confirm to them that, because of the sign of the multiplication of loaves, He too was the Prophet that would deliver them.

Jesus answers them; "it is not Moses who has given you bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world . . . I am the bread of life; he who come to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." Jesus was telling the people that there was something much greater than Moses or Elijah here. Moses prayed to God in the wilderness, after the people grumbled about being hungry, and God provided manna as food everyday until they entered the promised land. The Son of the Father God that Moses prayed to was in their midst. And He was more than a healer, provider, and political deliverer. In Him was eternal life. "No man has seen the Father, except the One who is from God . . . he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die . . the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh . . He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

God provided food for the people in the wilderness and yet death still came to their physical bodies. God now has provided, in Jesus, food that would spiritually lead them to eternal life, and physically lead to a bodily resurrection on the last day. Jesus gave up His flesh on the cross for the sins of man. By believing in Jesus we are partaking of the bread that comes down from heaven. "It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." (John 6:63)

The Old and The New Covenant

2007-01-18T17:31:00.000-08:00

The blood that runs through my veins is pretty much the same blood that ran through the veins of Adam and Eve. Each beat of my heart counts forward to a brand new day, and looks back to where I came from. My children have pretty much the same blood that Jackie and I have. We are family, and by blood part of a clan, a people, and all who have gone before us. But I am not just life composed of flesh and blood. I have an eternal spirit, a spirit which has been reborn through Jesus Christ, and this makes me as well a part of a family with all those who also have a reborn spirit, either here on Earth or with the saints in Heaven.

In Genesis is the account of how God called Abram to be the father of a people who would have a special relationship with Him. God changes the man's name to Abraham, and requires that he and his male descendants be circumcised. He makes a covenant with Abraham, ratified with a sacrifice of innocent blood, and dependent solely on the faithfulness of God to be accomplished. The covenant is a promise of land with specific borders, a promise of multiplication of Abraham's offspring, and a promise that some of them would be kings. The promise of kings was looking forward to David, and his descentent, Jesus.

Abraham didn't quite know how all of this was going to work out because he is 86 and his wife is 76. So he has relations with his Egyptian servant Hagar and from their offspring came the Arab nations. Fourteen years later (God sometimes likes to make things even more amazing) Sarah gives birth to Isaac, and later Isaac's wife gives birth to the twins, Easu and Jacob. Esau is the first born, but sells his birthright to Jacob. The descendants of Esau end up in Edom, which is part of present day Jordan, and would be the line from which most of the present day Arab Palestianians come from. God confirms his promise to both Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob has 12 sons. Jocob with 11 of his sons and family join his 12th son Joseph in Egypt because of a famine in Cannan. During the 400 years they are there the people grow to become a nation within a nation of about 2 million, which makes the Pharaoh very nervous. The Egyptians severly opprress the Hebrews, who call out to God, and God raises up Moses and his brother Aaron to lead the nation back to the land that God promised.

Because the Pharaoh does not want the Hebrews to leave, God sends a series of 10 plagues upon the Egyptians. The last one is an angel who will kill the first born of everyone in the land. But God has a plan to protect the Hebrew people. They gathered together as families, including with them neighbors who lack enough family, selected and killed a lamb without blemish, and put some of the lamb's blood on the door posts and header. They were to cook the lamb with fire, eat it, and share a meal including unleavened bread and bitter herbs. "And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you. Now this day shall be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanant ordinance". (Exodus 12) This was the first of seven major feasts that God would give the Hebrew peole, and it was known as Passover, because when God saw the blood He would "pass over" the households, sparing them from God's judgment.

The feasts of Passover celebrated afterwards by the Jewish people were looking back to the deliverance God had provided, and looking forward to the coming King who would one day rule the nation, and nations, from Jerusalem. This feast had an important place in the New Testament. Jesus fed the 5000 on a Passover and His last meal was a Passover meal. John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to the water and cried out; "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". And Paul, urging the Corinthians to walk in holiness wrote; "you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed". As mankind we are family because we share the same blood. As born-again believers we are an even closer family because we have been delivered and changed by the shed blood of Jesus.