Never Read A Bible Verse!

Never read a bible verse, don't do it. Read a bible paragraph, read a bible chapter, read before the verse you're using, read after the verse you're using, get the context, but don't just read a bible verse. I'm not a scholarly bible student but I've been through The Book more (much more) than the majority of people who call themselves Christian and have learned that other than Genesis 1:1 and Revelation 22:21 most of everything between them needs to have their context examined before being used. Check this out:

"And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree" - (Revelation 9:4) - Seen on an Earth Day T-Shirt.

This one's a classic. This verse was actualy worn on a T-Shirt at an Earth Day rally. I wish I had been there to see it, not only is it out of context, it's only a partial verse. On the surface it looks warm and fluffy and earth friendly, but let's look at Revelation 9:4 again, this time  in context:

1 Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. 2 He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. 3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it  stings a man. 6 And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them. (Revelation 9:1-6)

Nothing says "Happy Earth Day" like a plague of man eating locusts.

OT Tuesday: The Ultimate Sacrifice

Isaac was the son of promise. He was born to Abraham and Sarah when Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety. God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of  many nations, in fact God even changed his name from Abram  (meaning exalted father) to Abraham (meaning father of many nations) but Abraham and Sarah remained childless until they were well past the age most people would live, let alone have a baby. Both Abraham and Sarah though that having their first son in their old age to be both a wonderful blessing and an incredibly funny joke that God played on them. Really, they did:

6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” 7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” (Genesis 21:6-7)

In fact the name that God had earlier told Abraham to give his son, Isaac, means "He laughs". We all know what happened then, God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, an angel stopped him, they killed a ram and Abraham became the father of the Jewish nation. But let's look at this again as Christians with the knowledge of several thousand years of history.

The Five Solas

The Five Solas ( or more properly, The Five Solae) are five Latin phrases that emerged during the Protestant Reformation and summarize not only the reformer's basic beliefs but ours as Christians as well. "Sola" is a Latin word that means "alone" or "only". The Five Solas are the essential original teachings of Chirstianity, especially in regard to salvation. In essence, when it comes to God, the 5 Solas are all you need.

Sola Scriptura - the Scripture Alone is the standard. The Bible is the word of God, it's a divinely inspired unified work of literature, it's Jesus' autobiography, and contains everything you need to know to get into heaven. Every word of the 66 books of the bible is inspired by God's Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit also helps us understand the scripture. The bible does not contain all the knowledge that God holds, there's not enough paper for that. What the bible does contain is what God needs us to know to reach him and receive his grace. 2 Tim 3:16-17 tells us that "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 Proverbs 30:6 tells us "Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar." Additions include catechisms, traditions, watchtower magazines and books like the Pearl of Great Wisdom.

They Went Praising The Lord

Upon his resurrection Jesus' closest disciples, Simon (Peter), Andrew (Peters brother), James and John (The sons of Zebedee) Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (the son of Alphaeus), Judas (the other Judas), Simon the Zealot, but not Judas (THAT Judas) went from being disciples to Apostles. The word disciple comes from the latin word discipulus which means pupil. Apostle comes from the Greek word apostellein which means 'sent out' and 'messenger'. They went from being students to being teachers as they carried out Jesus' Great Commission.. Of course Paul and Barnabas became apostles too, but it's for theologeons to decide if they were apostles or Apostles. For me, I'm just happy to know they were there, spreading the Lords word. 

Along with being the first people to spread the Gospel of Jesus, they were also the first entries in Fox's Book of Martyrs. Every Apostle died an unnatural death, and every one of them went to their deaths praising the Lord. The first martyr for Christ was, of course, Steven who was stoned to death by the pharisees (Acts 7:54-60) followed not long after by James, brother of John (Acts 12:1-2). Tradition also states that the executioner had two people to execute that day as the Roman officer who was  guarding James was converted by James' faith, declared his new faith to the judge, and knelt down next to James to be executed too. 

OT Tuesday: Towering Confusion

A while ago God got really fed up with us people and decided to clean house, so to speak. So the entire world experienced a rinse cycle the likes of which have never been seen before or since. Slowly the waters receded and the sons of Noah began to replenish the earth.

As we know, Jesus likes little kids (Matthew 19:14) and that's because God does too, on more than one occasion He commanded us to go out and have lots of babies (Genesis 9:7) for him to love. Several times God told us to "Go forth and multiply", because he wanted mankind to spread over the earth he built for us

So humans being humans we thought we had a better idea, we got together and decided to build a town:

³ They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. ⁴ They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:4-5)

Lots of people believe that the idea of building a tower that will reach to heaven is the sin of Babel but that may not be so... 

God Heals All Wounds

Sometimes things happen, we're imperfect creatures in an imperfect world and the good times cannot last forever. Something bad will happen. Why? I don't know, but having been in this world as long has I have been it's a guaranteed fact that three good days in a row is a blessing we should be eternally thankful for, because that really really beats the averages.

So often we're left to wonder "Why do bad things happen to good people" when we as Christians know for a fact that no one is good other than God, we see that in Matthew 19:17 and Romans 3:10. However even in the bible we see this question being raised, Solomon writing in Ecclesiastes 8:14 brought up this subject, why does it seem that the righteous suffer while the evil get away with evil. 

Can we blame Satan for all of our pains and woes? You could, but what good would that do? We're still imperfect creatures in an imperfect world. It's what we do with our pain and our needs that counts. Lucky for us our creator is perfect and knows our pain and wants to help us, John 6:44 tells us that God is trying to draw us closer to Him and we should let ourselves be drawn to Him and let his love heal us:

¹⁹ Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
    He saved them out of their distresses.
²⁰ He sent His word and healed them,
    And delivered them from their destructions.
²¹ Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,   And for His wonders to the sons of men! (Psalm 107:19-21)

Why do Atheists Hate Jesus?

Atheists can say the nuttiest things, and sadly most of it comes from ignorance. Much of their hate is misdirected irrational hate that most likely comes from a deep seated self-loathing. Some of it comes from arrogance and pride and a deep seated belief in the infallibility of man (in particular themselves), and other times it's a deep seated need to be offended.

But the vast majority comes from complete ignorance of what they're complaining about. I'll list a few examples and you tell me if I'm wrong.

1. Jesus is a bigot because of Matthew 10:5-6 and Matthew 15:24. 

If the complainant had actually read Matthew he would know that in Matthew 10:5-6 Jesus was sending his disciples out on their first evangelical mission, he wanted them to deal with familiar people in a familiar setting. You don't send a novice evangelical out against Bill Mahr and Rosie O'Donnell on their first outing. In Matthew 15:24 Jesus was testing this woman's faith and using it as an example for his disciples. Had the complainant actually read Matthew 15 and assessed it spiritually he would have seen that. Maybe. 

Pope as Bond Villain

Not The Pope

Whoo hoo! We got a new pope, and the whole world goes crazy. My church got a new pastor a while ago and the world didn't say a thing, not even mentioning the huge difference between Pastor Brimstone and  pope Francis,  (which is the fact that Pastor Brimstone has read the bible and follows it) Pope Francis looks a lot like one of my favorite Bond Villains  Elliot Carver. (Ok, he's not a great Bond villain but Tomorrow Never Dies had my favorite Bond girl, Michelle Yoeh). But what is the pope?

Simply stated the pope is the Roman catholic bishop of Rome whose office decided that Rome wasn't big enough. The term Pope comes from the Greek πάππας which means "Father" which is a familiar form of address  that is specifically forbidden by Jesus Christ Himself as recorded in Matthew 23:9 

Top 10 Countries That Love To Kill Christians

Here's a top 10 list of the countries that have made the persecution of people for their Christian faith a state goal. From worldwatchlist.us:

10. Eritrea - This tiny country on the horn of Africa has banned any religion that is not   Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran or Islam. Any persons caught practicing a form of religion that falls outside of these will be arrested, locked in military prison camps and held in shipping containers. Nearly a third of captured Christians die in captivity.

9. Yemen - There is some religious freedom for foreigners  and a few government permitted churches for the Christians of the city of Aden, but other than that no church buildings are allowed. Evangelism and conversion is forbidden and Yemenis who leave Islam will be executed.

8. Iran - Bible training and publishing Scriptures in Farsi are illegal, the government monitors all Christian activities, especially meetings in private homes. Native Iranian Christians are being forced to flee the country. Muslims who leave Islam face the death penalty.

And so the end begins...

The liberal utopia has taken over and to prove it they have chosen to target you, the Christian for their police state harassment.

So they want to watch us, big deal, maybe they'll learn how to treat people decently. Of course it won't stop there, but then, I wouldn't mind trying my hand at a prison ministry

TOP OF THE WORLD MA!!!!

OT Tuesday: Judging Barak

The fledgling country of Israel crossed the Jordan and continued on with taking up their claim in the promised land. The tribe of Judah lead the fight against the Canaanites and the Perizzites winning a huge battle at Bezek capturing the king Adoni-bezek. Adoni-bezek had a habit of cutting off the thumbs and big toes of the kings he conquered before he made them serve him, and Israel gave Adoni-bezek a taste of his own medicine. Adoni-bezek eventually died in Jerusalem, thumbless.

The tribe of Judah conquored the cities of Jerusalem, Zepath, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron. The tribe of Joseph attacked and took Bethel, many great battles took place. Unfortunately all wasn't going well for the Israelites, they were falling into the sinful ways of their enemies, and suddenly the Angel of the Lord appeared before them and said

“I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, ² and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? ³ And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’” (Judges 2:1-3)

Remember who I said that the Angel of the Lord was? 

Emergent Monday: Repentance in the Emergent Church (lol)

As I've mentioned before, repentance is a command from Jesus, it's not a small thing, it's found throughout the New Testament. In Luke 5:27-32 He explains exactly why he's here, to call the sinners to repent. This whole repent thing is also mentioned in Mark 1:14-15, and Matthew 3:2, and Matthew 3:8, and Luke 13:1-5, and Luke 15:10, and Luke 24:46-47, and Acts 2:38, and Acts 3:19, and Acts 11:18, and Acts 17:30 ... wow, that's eleven references in the New Testament alone, and that's not nearly all of them. So with eleven plus references to repent you may get the impression that repentance is important, and if you did get that impression you, of course, would be right. 

But what if you didn't get that impression, what if you didn't like the entire idea of repentance for the forgiveness of your sins? What if you decided to redefine the word and make it fluffy and warm and not the internal war with sin that it is? In that case you'd be Rob Bell and you'd be condemning people to hell. 

Random Bits

Jesus was Gay? Don Imus thinks so... well, he doesn't think so, but he thinks a bit second century fiction which implies Jesus was gay is accurate. That's what happens when you allow someone who knows nothing about the bible or Christianity to comment on the bible or Christianity. Unfortunately his mic was turned on.

Nothing to watch on TV? The FCC wants to insure it stays that way.

I'm not going to call your president a liar, let's just say that he accidentally uttered a prepared falsehood on purpose.

Admittedly the New York Times published their article in their Europe Section rather than the Religion Section. Neither neither section really knows much about Jesus Christ, but at least they tried.

We all know about this, and so does the media. You get 3 guesses why the media won't cover it (Hint: the words atheistic and arrogance are in the correct answer)

Bill O'Reilly is a devout practicing catholic, but he is not a Christian. He claims he is, but then he says he knows more than Jesus Christ,  so much so that he claims that where the bible says Jesus was teaching about Jonah and Noah it never actually happened. Now his new book on Jesus (which I refuse to name) promises to be just as pathetic and poorly researched as his previous books on Kennedy and Lincoln (which as a lover of history I also refuse to name). Don't blame Bill O'Reilly for being bad at history, he taught history in a public school.

Speaking of the bible, the History Channel's version of The Bobble Bible, got a couple of things right, unfortunately theology wasn't one of them. Guess the one little bitty thing they failed to mention. Personally I think they got one thing right.

Ignorance is bliss, that's why members of emergent churches are so happy.

Stranger in a Strange World

To heck with this world. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the nonsense and stupidity and sinfullness. This rock has been an accursed place since Eve shared a fresh picked picnic lunch with Adam and the way that the worlds "leaders" are now governing the world into the ground it's like they're piloting the Hindenburg but with less concern for human life. 

The world is falling apart so fast it's like Satan has been elected UN Secretary General and God is just kicking back saying "I told you this would happen, now where's those seven trumpeters, it's almost show time."

Then again, try and prove me wrong, I dare you. 

OT Tuesday: Jesus Loved The Old Testament

Many times I've heard it said that we don't need to study the Old Testament because it's Old, everything we need to know is in the New Testament. That's sort of like saying "I'm trying to emulate Sir Isaac Newton, I don't need to know anything about math or physics."

Jesus loved the Old Testament and quoted it quite often, and why not? It is the law, it is the story of God's chosen people, it is His autobiography. Throughout His ministry on Earth, Jesus quoted the Old Testament and taught from the scriptures always confirming its accuracy and authenticity. Jesus Himself stated bluntly not to ignore the Old Testament nor because the messiah is here do not think that it was replaced:

17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)