Ushering In The End Times - Tickle My Ears

The events of the past few months in the middle east shows to anyone who has eyes that the end times are roaring down on us at breakneck speed, but if you listen to the world of religion anyone who has ears knows: The End Times Are Here.

Their message is so soothing, so warm so inclusive, it's no wonder why their popularity increases with leaps and bounds. Tens of thousands flock to hear their words, to see their multi media spectacular presentations, to buy their books and CDs and DVDs... However Timothy (and Peter, and Paul, and Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, and John, and Jude, and Titus, and James, and Jesus) warned us these people were coming, and guess what - they're here:

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons - 1Tim 4:1

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 2Tim 4:3-4

Since its inception the Christian Church has been plagued with fads, fashions and frivolous notions starting with Gnosticism, which seems to rear its ugly head every few decades, (I actually heard Gnostic gospels being preached in a Lutheran church once a few years ago) right into today. Remember Jesus Freaks? Superstar? "The Prayer of Jabez"? WWJD? The fads keep coming at an accelerated rate and right now it seems that everyone is jumping on some bandwagon or another. Unfortunately somewhere along the line, the bandwagons morphed into Trojan horses (to quote Phil Johnson)

Probably the most insidious fad to have ever violated the Bride of Christ is still gathering momentum and followers. I speak of the money driven steam roller: The Emergent Church. They have differing names: Purpose Driven, Seeker Sensitive, Vintage Christianity, post-modern Christianity... the bible has a name for them: Laodician. They're using biblical satires to preach their twisted version of the word of God and have traded salvation through grace for the gospel of self esteem. 

Tens of thousands of potential believers pack into those salvation factories to sip lattes and watch the latest multi-media presentation and hear polished semi-scriptural life coaches entice them away from the Bible in order to make the world a better place. Their doctrine is a flexible house of jello built on sand. Emergent guru Brian McClaren states that certainty and faith are mutually exclusive concepts but what is faith but certainty? This conflicted lie of McClaren's is the heart of the emergent movement. The sheep watch a rapper prance around the stage and bust a rhyme about the Grinch that stole Christmas while zombies dance to Michael Jackson's thriller in the background (really) and honestly think they're getting a Christian message. The sheep don't even notice the wolf's teeth at their throats.

Here's some quotes from emergent church leaders who still claim to be Christian:

“I am not sure I believe in God exclusively as a person anymore either…. I now incorporate a pantheistic view, which basically means that God is ‘in all,’ alongside my creedal view of God as Father, Son, and Spirit.” –Spencer Burke

“God is going to judge the life and repair, and restore and heal the life of everybody in the same way.” –Doug Pagitt

"This is actually about changing theology. This is about our belief that theology changes. The message of the gospel changes. It’s not just the method that changes.” –Tony Jones

“The church has been preoccupied with the question, "What happens to your soul after you die?" As if the reason for Jesus coming can be summed up in, "Jesus is trying to help get more souls into heaven, as opposed to hell, after they die." I just think a fair reading of the Gospels blows that out of the water. I don't think that the entire message and life of Jesus can be boiled down to that bottom line.” –Brian McLaren

“For Jesus, heaven and hell were present realities. Ways of living we can enter into here and now. He talked very little of the life beyond this one…” –Rob Bell

"That statement, 'The methods change, but the message stays the same' is actually a lie." –Shane Hipps

If you don't see a problem with these quotes (and this is just scratching the surface) you have some studying to do. These men are twisting the word of scripture, cherry picking the Bible until they find the exact quote they want, and if they don't find one, they write their own bible and use that. Unfortunately we westerners have become such a cult of personality that when a church leader like Tony Jones feels a need to be pragmatic about church goers who practice polyamory and open marriage we do not drive them from our presence until they re-learn the words of our savior. Jones once stated that pastors should rip Romans out of their bibles, sounds like he tore out 1 Corrinthians out too.

Heavenly Father

I come here not to condemn but to expose those who put themselves above your words and attempt to drive themselves between your loving grace and those that sincerely wish to find you. I pray that you reach out to these men and women who preach a twisted word and deceive their followers with distractions of glamour and heretical practices we once were able to correctly identify as paganism and draw them back to you. Please reach out and touch my heart as I explore this apostasy further and help me to rationally explain the inner workings of the emerging threat to your followers, in Jesus name I beg you

Thou Shalt Not Anything. At All.

For this blog post I was working on a different subject* but in the middle of the research for that I suddenly realized God was telling me "Hey - do something else!" Will God let me go back to that subject? More than likely, it's important, but right now we're talking about something that hits closer to home (for now): LEGALISM

Some advice I got for this blog was "Don't be legalistic" which I didn't think would apply because I've never studied law. Then again I realized that I've heard the word Legalism many times in the Christian community and had no idea as to what was meant by that.  So what is Legalism in the Christian sense?

According to Matt Slick at CARM Legalism is defined as the excessive and improper use of the of the Mosaic law and this can take 3 different forms. The first form is believing that the Law must be kept in order to attain salvation. To a Jew this is fine, but to a Christian this is heresy. To both it's impossible. Paul emphatically states that it's impossible to attain salvation by keeping the law: 

"For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." Rom. 3:8

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness" Rom. 4:5

“I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” Gal 2:21

Don't you think that God realizes that the law is impossible to keep throughout an entire lifetime? Just the bacon prohibition alone will subject me to the infernal regions for multiple eternities with no hope of parole, but  that's the hazards of being flawed human beings (and isn't that what the Old Testament is all about - to teach us that salvation through the law is beyond our abilities?) But to profess that a Christian can attain salvation through the law is a false teaching. Worse of all this belief denies salvation by grace through faith, a foundation of our Christian beliefs.

Example: (Over simplified but an example) You're a guy and you want to date a really totally awesome girl and she's sooooo crazy about you that she paid off all those embarrassing parking tickets you accumulated. But being a guy you keep screwing up here and there and she's upset. So to get in her good graces you wash her car, you cut her lawn, you bring her flowers, you paint her house, you clean her cat's litter box, but no dice, she won't go out with you. All she wants you to do is say "I'm so sorry I messed up all those times, and thank you so very much for paying for my parking tickets, will you please forgive me?" You say that, and mean it, and suddenly you're in a deep committed relationship with her. The chores meant nothing to her because they're just busy work, she wanted your heart, and that's what God wants. Not chores, but you.

The next form of Legalism is when a person is saved and tries to keep his salvation by keeping the law. Of course this doesn't make a lot of sense, you couldn't GET saved by keeping the law, how can you maintain that by doing the same thing? 

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph 2:8-9

This awesome beautiful person in my previous weak example was not initially impressed by your chores, why should you think that now that she's said yes to marrying you that fixing up stuff around the house mean anything more to her? She still wants your heart, not your hands. Now it is true that when you've been accepted into the family of God that you change and you'll want to keep the law - to do good works - but that's a side benefit of your relationship, not the key to attaining or maintaining the relationship. Some say that once you are saved you don't need to maintain your salvation, some say you do. We're not discussing that today, but if you're of a mind set that you want to perform maintenance on your salvation why not do what got you saved in the first place? Confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is your lord and savior and repent of your sins. 

⁹that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; ¹⁰ for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. - Rom. 10: 9-10

The last form of Legalism is where a Christian keeps certain laws and looks down on other Christians that do not 'measure up' to their own level of self perceived holiness. I've seen these people in action, it's like some kind of Christian sharia law, they'll look down on contempt at someone who enjoys a cold beer on a hot day or a glass of wine with dinner, but then they'll sit down and watch brain rotting sitcoms on television. Are either of those sins? To a non-Christian no, but to a Christian both are debatable  Personally I believe subjecting your brain to Family Guy to be a horrible thing to do while others will look at my glass of Merlot  jump up and shriek "REPENT SINNER!!!" 

Believe me, we'll be getting into judging and judgmentalism later, I'm arming up for that one, but right now wouldn't it be best to show those who don't measure up to your version of holiness the proper way to be a Christian and live your life as you would like to see others live theirs? Lead by example! As long as we are living by scripture how could you go wrong?

Heavenly Father:

     Thank you for this time on earth where we can not only read your word but to live it, to show those around us how you would like us to live. Please guide us as we draw closer to you and please help us remove the plank from our eye so we may go forth and help others remove the speck from theirs. In Jesus name we pray

__________________________________________________

*Martyrdom of Christians in North Korea

A Week of Days

It's been an entire week since I started this blog and my mind is still aswirll over what to do next. I've got so many ideas, so many things are being revealed to me as this journey continues. I've inaugurated one regular feature so far; OT Tuesday, where I find something awesome in the Old Testament, research it, and present my findings for your edification, education, entertainment, and enlightenment (maybe).

Another feature I plan to introduce will be L.O.T.S. (Lord Of The Sabbath) go ahead, guess who that's about and when it gets posted.

So as week #2 rolls into view I make the following pledges to the Lord, to myself, and to you the reader:

1. To use gentle humor as often as possible when appropriate

2. To use really awesome post titles (like Bridegroom of Blood!) when they're appropriate because nothing's worse than a boring post title other than a boring post.

3. To always use FULL biblical verses to illustrate or make a point. Few things infuriate me more than people that use partial verses to back up their point, because I've found that sometimes when they do that they're trying to make a non-biblical point and are desperately trying to legitimize their idea with a partial verse that sounds good... which leads me to -

4. To use biblical verses that are subject appropriate. Lucky you, the reader, this means I won't be using a verse from the Olivette Discourse to justify switching brands of dog food on my puppies without their knowing or some such thing. (yeah, I've seen goofiness like that on other blogs. Writers block is an ugly thing)

5. To always use verses from the New American Standard Bible or the New King James Bible - both versions are accurate translations and true as possible to their source material. I also will be using references from the MacArthur Study Bible, John MacArthur has made the gold standard of study bibles, if you are shopping for a study bible I highly recommend this one.

6. To only use verses from The Message as an example of "Go Home And Do It Again" Don't get me started. It won't be pretty. (but it will happen eventually)

7. To offer a prayer for forgiveness whenever writing about the false teachers of the Great Apostasy. It's not going to be pretty and as the voice of one calling out in the wilderness I will need to temper the requirements of 1 Tim 5:20 with a prayer that the transgressors who lead thousands astray return to Christ.

8. To beg like a starving puppy for your feedback, because in my mind I know I'm right and funny and entertaining, you may have a valid opinion that corrects this delusion.

9. To beg my Lord for his words and thank him for his inspiration when ever I work on these posts

O.T. Tuesday: Bridegroom of Blood!

Exodus 4: 24 – 26 is one of the oddest passages in the bible to me. The first time I read Exodus I missed it completely but the next time I read Exodus I didn’t miss it.  I was shocked to say the least at this quick vignette:

²⁴ Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. ²⁵ Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” ²⁶ So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood”—because of the circumcision (Exodus 4:24-26)

And that’s it. Moses and his family were enroute to Egypt and God was briefing Moses on what he expected Moses to do when they got to Egypt when suddenly God shows up and threatens to kill Moses. Wow! Wait… what?

This is a pretty stunning passage, and the more I read it the more confusing it seems to me. Normally when I come to a passage that confuses me I back up a little bit and take a run at it then go a little past it to get the context of the verses. The bible isn’t a series of stand-alone quotes, it’s a unified work of literature. Taking a look at the surrounding verses puts a verse into perspective. My favorite example is Luke 17:36 "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left." I’ve been told by more than one person that Jesus is talking about the rapture here, but if you read Luke 17:37 it says And answering they said to Him, "Where, Lord?" And He said to them, "Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered." Not exactly the rapture I've heard so much about. However in this case looking for the context didn't help because previous to this they were traveling to Egypt, then God threatened to kill Moses, then they’re back on the road.

I even wrote to askarabbi.com to find out what was up with this. I got a pretty awesome answer from them, let’s face it, if you want to learn about the Torah, ask a rabbi. He knows. Let’s look at these three verses a little more carefully; firstly nowhere does it say that the Lord threatened Moses, verse 24 just says “him”. However we can infer from events that “him” is not Gershom or Eliezer (the only other males mentioned in this narrative) and it wasn't Zipporah (the bible NEVER confuses gender) and it couldn't be anyone else that wasn't mentioned because there would have been some explanative narrative that would reveal why God was satisfied when Zipporah circumcised her son for someone other than the child’s father. So at this point we’re safe to assume that the “him” in question truly is Moses.

So we know God is going to kill someone, and we know that the someone in question is Moses, so Zipporah then circumcises her son and God backs off? Really? Yeah really. One weird thought that popped into my head is that after circumcising the baby Zipporah then turned to God with the flint and said “You’re next if you don’t BACK OFF!” but that’s too Starsky and Hutch, even for the old testament. And it’s not like she was bored and started lopping bits off her baby. So what’s the deal?

The problem isn’t with Zipporah, or God, or the baby boy, or the narrative. The problem with understanding this passage is us. When God wants you to do something, especially in the bible, it’s not a guessing game, he tells you. You do it. End of story. (Ask Jonah – God gets his way.) This is something we need to keep in mind while studying the bible. The narrative isn’t going to explain every single nuance, every jot and tittle, it’s going to tell us what we need to know and God expects us to use our BRAINS not our hearts when reading the bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, so when he wants something done, something gets done. (Ask Noah – 480 isn’t too old to take up shipbuilding). There was no guesswork here, there was a son of Moses that needed to be circumcised and there was no question in anyone’s mind that night thousands of years ago.

God had chosen Moses to be a leader of his chosen people, so Moses needed to be a shining example of Judaism and circumcision is mandatory for all descendants of Abraham and their servants. This is a sacred symbol of the covenant between Abraham and God. And the briss must take place on the 8^th day after birth, not the 7^th, or the 9^th, but the 8^th. How could God have his people led out of captivity and into the promised land by someone that can’t keep the covenant?

Obviously Moses was getting very close to missing the 8^th day for circumcising his son. I’m guessing here but when God showed up to kill him, Moses was a bit shocked, so stunned that he couldn't do anything. But Zipporah kept her wits about her, grabbed a shard of flint (which is actually incredibly sharp) and did the job for Moses. Being the spiritual leader of his family the task of circumcision the new born son fell to Moses, who for whatever reason forgot to do it so Zipporah did what Moses failed to do. Was he too busy with travel plans? Was his mind distracted by the Lords commands and instructions so that he overlooked this most important part of the Abrahamic covenant? It doesn't really matter, he failed to do the job and God had to remind him or replace him. Lucky for Moses his wife is a deft hand with a sharp flint otherwise he'd be a small smoldering crater hundreds of miles from Egypt and his brother Aaron would be talking to a burning bush who was saying something like "Ok, let's try this again..." 

I’m going to go out on a limb and postulate that Zipporah wasn’t happy about having to perform the circumcision for her husband. Not happy in the least. After all, she had to save her husbands life from our Lord by hurting her baby boy, and it was all Moses fault for not doing it in the first place. I'm betting that Moses was going to be sleeping on the Old Testament version of a couch for a while after this. Tossing the baby’s foreskin at his feet and calling him a bridegroom of blood which I’m guessing is not a compliment. Or is it? Do you have any insights to this?

I Love This Time Of Year

I absolutely love this time of year, not for the carol bells (ok, I like them) or the holly and the ivy (ok, I like that too) nor the trees and the lights and the shining orniments (which I love) but for the promise kept.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (Isa 7:14)

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa 9:6)

There's so many, many prophesys that were fulfilled on that night in Bethlehem so long ago, and I can feel Him reaching out to me across the gulf of time, touching my heart, and holding me close.So many more fulfilled on Calvary, but right now let me consider the manger in Bethlehem and the promise of that child whose first cradle was so rude.

Yeah, yeah, I know Christmas is not Jesus birthday, it's not even close. (Saturnalia? Yawn - Sol Invictus anyone? Bet you didn't even know that) so what? I can celebrate anything I want anytime I want, so there. Nyaaaa. So if I want to celebrate the anniversary of the greatest promise ever kept, I'll do it any time I want. And I want to do it now.

For your homework tonght review Exodus 4:24-26. We'll be discussing it tomorrow.

The Watchman's Bagpipes: Random Apostasies and Heresies

The Watchman's Bagpipes: Random Apostasies and Heresies: Well, here goes another episode of reporting on various things happening among the Christian Church, which brings disgrace to the name o...

Wide Is The Gate: The Emerging New Christianity DVD Trailer

Without a doubt one of the most important videos I've ever seen. This isn't just about scriptural differences, this is about heresy and apostasy (as prophesied) in the church leading tens of thousands of people that believe they are worshiping Jesus in a different, terrifying, direction.

The full video is well done and solidly based in scripture. It makes many very important points without hysterics or baseless accusations, just the truth.

My Salvation is Based Upon...

Salvation is at its heart a simple thing: to believe that the price of my sins was amply paid for by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name John 1:12

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whomever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life John 3:16

Nothing I can do by myself can come close to buying a ticket to heaven. There's not enough money to donate to charity, not enough widows and orphans to feed, not enough homeless people to shelter to pay for the sins I've committed in my life. No church is holy enough that my participation will even get Jesus's notice, no theology so right that my memorizing every jot and tittle will ever even get my name so much as a footnote in the book of life. Since God is the only arbiter of salvation, my salvation has to come from God Himself and all He asks that I do to earn such a marvelous gift is to confess that Jesus paid for my sins with his death.

How many times have I sat in church and mouthed the words first spoken by John the Baptist without thinking of their real meaning: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." (John 1:29) As I learned more and more about biblical history the meaning became clear. For centuries it was the general practice among all nations to worship their gods by means of animal sacrifice and the Jews were no different in worshiping the one true God. There were various offerings the ancient Jews would make, one being a sin offering where an animal would be sacrificed for the atonement of sins. Most often that animal was a perfect lamb. 

Centuries before Jesus stood before the Sanhedrin God asked his beloved Abraham to sacrifice his only son to prove how much Abraham loved Him. Of course God stayed Abraham's hand and replaced Issac with a ram, but on Calvary God repeated the sacrifice, this time with His own son to show how much He loved us. While thousands and thousands of lambs were being slaughtered in the temple in Jerusalem, the Lamb of God was being sacrificed on Mt. Calvary to pay for our sins. In return all God asks is that we acknowledge that final sacrifice. If we do that our sins are paid for in full.

My Salvation is Not Based Upon...

Salvation is a fairly simple concept at the surface, so I'll start out with what my salvation is based upon: grace and faith -

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:9)

But people being people, we tend to take the simplest things, disagree about them, assign false importance to them, and generally muck things up. The hard part of salvation has been done for us, all we have to do is believe that Jesus died for our sins. There's a little bit more to it than that but not a lot more which I'll go through next, but here's a partial list of what will NOT contribute to my salvation:

Works: Salvation through good works sounds awesome, and to be honest good works are what you find yourself doing as the Holy Spirit works through you, but good works are not nearly enough. Oddly enough good works are not a good way to be saved because only saved men are inclined to perform them: 

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. - Ezek 36:25-27

You can give to the poor, clean up parks, plant trees, protest power plants all you want, without accepting Jesus as your savior all those works are not going to do anything more than make the world a nicer looking place to go to hell from. 

The Law:  The Law is of course the Mosaic Law - the 10 Commandments and 603 other laws handed down from God to the people of Israel. Not being perfect beings it's impossible to always obey the 10 commandments, let alone all the other laws and requirements. According to the law atonment for sins is by sacrifice, unfortunately there's no temple in which to perform a sacrifice so the law leaves us high and dry there.

Being Good: False teachers of the Emerging Church want us to believe that God is totally good, so if you're totally good too, you're totally going to heaven! So is everyone else! Whoo Hoo! I get to spend eternity with Jeffery Dahlmer, Josef Stalin, and George Soros! False teachers like Rob Bell want you to know that maybe if you mess up a little and accidentally murder 6 million Jews a bit, it's ok! A little time out in hell (which can be a bit uncomfortable but you'll get used to it) and poof! God see's your natural awesomeness and next thing you know you're singing lead in the heavenly choir. One small problem with this scenario: scripturally it's wrong. This is a good formula if you want to go to hell (hey - don't blame me, blame Adam, Eve, Satan, and his minions) to get to hell all you have to do is do what you're doing. But you have to change to go to heaven. No where in the scriptures does it say anything except that.

Theological Agreements: Where, when, how, the rapture happens I don't know, and to be honest, I'm not really worried about it. And to be totally brutally honest my salvation is not based upon when or how it happens and I will never allow it to be based on something as man centered as theological discussion. To some people The Rapture has become a religion to itself and there's really some vicious arguing between the Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, and Post-Trib believers. There's a lot of disagreements  like this, and all it comes down to is interpretation of the scripture. Interpretation of the scripture is a job for theologians, I'm not a theologian, I'm a blogger, a believer, and a wretch (they wrote a song about guys like me) 

Sacraments: No sacrament is going to do anything to insure I get to heaven. Nowhere in the new or old testaments is confirmation, last rights, or holy unction even mentioned. Forgiveness of sin comes to me from God himself - if I've wronged someone I'll beg their forgiveness but if they say "No" in the long run it does nothing but weigh on their heart. Communion is a reminder to me of Jesus' tremendous sacrifice for my innumerable sins, and baptism is my declaration to the world that I am a believer and passionate follower of my savior and lord Jesus Christ, but that's all they are - religious rites and rituals meant to remind ME - not God - of His holiness. 

Why a Christian Blog

Why am I writing a Christian blog?

I could do a political blog, in fact I have one, but I don't update it any more. Politics is too annoying and very heartbreaking. I dedicated my life for over 20 years to defend and protect the US Constitution only to watch the very people I protected this country from now in office and shredding it on a daily basis. This past election (along with many other things that I will eventually cover) shows that the US has gone past the tipping point, and now it's a long downhill slide until our Savior returns.

I could do a hobby blog, which would be fun, but I don't have a lot of time for my favorite hobby: railfanning. Colorado is the place to get some spectacular photographs of trains clawing their way through the mountains or shrieking across the prairies, but that takes a lot of time and gasoline. Maybe if I change my commute to parallel the Union Pacific main line...☺

In the end much of the things in my life that I could blog about are just vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun. However my life is now revolving in different circles and now some things in my life are very blog worthy: uplifting, encouraging, and joyful as well as terrifying, mysterious, and nerve wracking. Daily I watch as biblical prophesy comes true, right now the Great Apostasy is gaining steam and the heart breaking thing is that so many people caught up in it actually have been convinced by the false teachers that they are on the path of salvation.

There are so many things for me to blog about; my testimony, the testimony of others around me, apostates to avoid, teachers to follow, cults to avoid and how to get them to avoid you, angels and demons and saints and sinners, and always always always the word of God Himself.  As I move away from the mantras that the RCC told me would guarantee my salvation and I learn to pray properly I'll share my prayers, and as I learn to understand what the Holy Spirit is sharing with me I'll share it with you.

Right now I'm absolutely certain that at this moment this blog is my calling. Is it  a stepping stone to something bigger? I don't know, but if it is, it's probably not the ministry. I'm not very good with languages and to be a proper minister I would really need to learn Greek and Hebrew to do the job right. (Besides, I have a horrible feeling that if a parishioner came to me with some whining about church politics the ol' Sergeant will come out and brief them thusly and vigorously)

As Dr. Bill Creasy says God has given us various talents, skills, and abilities and we need to use them in our own way to glorify God. I may not be able to learn foreign languages, but I am well acquainted with the English language and I can write in an entertaining and informative manner. Firstly this blog is intended to keep me centered on God, but if one person reads this blog and picks up his bible and hears the word of God, or returns to the Lord after a time apart (which happens) then this blog is a success. So this is my ministry for now and I will do my utmost to make it true to Gods word and entertaining enough for a good read. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2Cor 5:10) and my heart longs to hear my adopted Brother look down on me from his throne and say the words that alone will be my final reward:

"Well done, good and faithful servant!"

Follow Your Heart - not

I very often heard "Follow your heart" but is that a good thing? Google "Follow your heart" and you have pages upon pages of new age dogma, yoga, and egg free mayonnaise (which culinarily is impossible). Follow your heart seems to be a battle cry for the 21st Centuries do-your-own-thingathon

Now read Matthew 15:19 - "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, slanders."

Jesus wasn't just asking his disciples to walk with him when he said "Follow me", by imploring us to follow him and not our hearts he was saving us from ourselves.

Proof Enough!

If you search the internet for visual agnosia you’ll come up with the following information:

Visual agnosia is the inability of the brain to recognize or understand visual stimuli. An individual with visual agnosia has otherwise normal visual functioning and can see, but is unable to interpret or recognize what he or she is seeing. This condition often affects people who are recovering from cortical blindness, which has caused them to lose their sight not because of damage to their eyes or optic nerves but because of damage to the brain regions that process visual information.

Visual agnosia was first tentatively diagnosed in 1890 with full description nearly 100 years later. If you search you’ll find that there is no cure, there’s therapy to get the sufferer to survive life with this condition but no actual cure.

What does this have to do with a spiritual blog? Let’s take a quick look at the Gospel of Mark chapter 8:

²²And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him. ²³Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, "Do you see anything?" ²⁴And he looked up and said, "I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around." ²⁵Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.

As you can see, Jesus first cured the man of his cortical blindness, then He cured the man of his visual agnosia. Could Jesus have cured him of both afflictions at once? Of course, but here He’s taking advantage of the situation to teach us a lesson. He’s not teaching his disciples but us here in the 21st century. First Jesus cures the blindness, then He pauses and asks the man “What do you see?” and the man described “Men like trees walking around”. At this point it’s like Jesus is telling us across the gulf of centuries “Here’s a typical case of visual agnosia.” And then He proceeded to cure what we are still incapable of curing. For all our medical and scientific prowess we can’t even come close to doing what Jesus did with the touch of His hands.

How many centuries has Mark 8:24 been meaningless, or an unfathomable mystery? Not only was this a proof of Jesus’ divine power but of the infallibility of the bible: there was no science or medicine to cure someone of cortical blindness 2000 years ago, and because visual agnosia was unknown until recently how could it possibly have been imagined? There’s no way this could have been faked.

Wake up my sleeping brothers! Across the gulf of millennia our savior calls to us, showing us His glory, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt His power and love and divine wisdom and the sanctity of His word. Wake up and renew your love for Him, He’s waiting with open arms.

Wide Awake Christians Unite!

Romans 13:11 - And do this because you know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed

In the new testament the word sleep is used mostly to describe physical death, but Paul also used it to describe spiritual sleep. In 1Cor11:29-30 Paul says  "For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep." He's not talking about food poisoning, he's talking about improperly celebrating Communion, and maybe he is using 'sleep' meaning death, but he may also be talking about spiritual death; the hardening of the heart, the coldness to Gods word. Look around and you will see the sleepers, their spiritual life in a fuzzy state of numbness as they mouth the familiar words at service, lip sync the hymns and eventually drift off.

I was like that, I knew that Jesus was my savior *yawn*, I knew that the Bible is God's word *yawn*... For years the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear "Wake up, time is growing short!" And for years I rolled over and spiritually went back to sleep. If the Holy Spirit can manage a 2 by 4 I think that's what He took to my head one day and I finally woke up and everything changed...

Now as I read the Bible it's not just a cool book, even though I knew it was God's word, now I know that it's God's word and every time I re-read a chapter I see something new. So many times I think to myself "You should have seen that before." (God's throne has wheels? Really? Youbetcha! Check out Daniel 7)

There's so much I need to know, there is so much to learn, but deep down I feel that there is so little time left for us. And as I look around I see so many people around me spiritually asleep, in both meanings that Paul used the word sleep: spiritually unaware, and spiritually dead. It's like an asomatous version of the poppy field scene from The Wizard of Oz. But now, thanks to Jesus, I'm awake. Still a bit groggy but I'm overjoyed to know that I'm walking with God, and not just sleepwalking.

Join me in my blogged journey, to celebrate being awake and shake the shoulders of the nappers, to thank those that help with my walk, to share the blessings in my life, and to point out the heresy and false teachings that infest our world and act as spiritual nerve gas. I hope to blog twice a week, maybe more as the Holy Spirit moves me.