Archive for the ‘Christian life’ Category
Friday, November 2nd, 2007
What’s in a name?
Salvation: Jesus (Joshua - God is salvation) Christ (Messiah - annointed one)
It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is
” ‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone.’ - Pslam 118:22
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:10-12
Healing: Jehovah Rophe (The Lord that heals thee)
He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.” - Exodus 15:26
Sanctifiction: Jehovah Mekaddishkem (The LORD that sanctifies thee)
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. - Exodus 31:12-13
and a couple more
Those are only a few of the covenant names of God. Very interesting stuff if you study up on it a little bit. There are a few good resources to cut your teeth on I found this one about the names of God to be useful. A google search will reveal many more for you to consider.
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Sunday, October 21st, 2007
Scriptural Interpretation: Luke 18:9-14
Interpreting the meaning of scripures has always been something I’ve enjoyed doing. Even before becoming a Christian, but since becoming one I’ve had my eyes opened in all new ways by the Lord. One interesting thing about scriptures is that they can all have multiple meanings depending upon what God wishes to show the reader at that time. We’ll start in Luke 18:9-14.
Luke 18:18-25
A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
This is sometimes called “The parable of the rich man”. First thing that we see is this ruler calling Jesus a “Good teacher” It’s important to keep in mind that this wasn’t jolly old England where someone might call you a good lad or something along those line. The phrase “good teacher” means something more than a skilled teacher as well.
In Romans 3:23 we learn that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If someone sins they can’t be good. By this rich ruler calling Jesus good he was acknowledging something. He further acknowledges that same thing when he asks “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
First he calls Jesus good, a title only God himself can rightfully bear. Next he asks how to inherit eternal life. Again an answer only God himself could possibly know. In one sentence we see this man seek the Lord’s council, and admit that Christ is God. Personally I don’t believe that this man knew at the time what he was admitting, I think the truth was “hidden in his heart”.
Even in Jesus’s response, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone it seems as if the Lord is testing him. Like saying “Oh, you think I’m good? Why do you think that? Do you believe I’m God?” The second part of Jesus’s response is the one that gave me pause for consideration.
You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother. At this point the man is being setup by Jesus. We see the setup completed in the mans response. All these I have kept since I was a boy.
Now notice how Jesus respondes to the man? He says You still lack one thing. One thing that the man lacked that would prevent him from entering the kingdom of God. Further Jesus instructed him by saying Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.
Let’s recap real quick what has happened. A rich young ruler is asking Jesus how to inherit the kingdom of Heaven. Christ reminds him of the commandments to which the man proudly declares he keeps them. Finally Jesus tells the man to sell all of his possessions, give to the poor and THEN follow him.
What is Jesus teaching us with this scripture?
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Friday, October 19th, 2007
Halloween is just around the corner
I’m pretty excited about Halloween this year. It’s not like the past 10 or so years where I had nothing to do but get annoyed by the whole thing. This year is different though. It’ll be an opportunity to share the Good News with people. In case you didn’t know I’m starting with YOU!
The truth about Halloween
A lot of Christians are all up in arms over Halloween. Why? Don’t you know that every day is Holy unto the Lord? Don’t you know that even Halloween is the day that the Lord has made? It is not an evil sinister witches holiday. No indeed it was created by the early Christian church. The term Halloween is the contracted form of Holy Evening which is the night before All Saints Day (November 1) when Christians are take time to remember our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who have taken their seat before us.
I’ll say that again, Halloween is the Holy Evening. Stop fretting over it being a wiccan, pagan or satanic holiday. It’s not. It is 100% Christian. We’ve just temporarily loaned it out. As my pastor said the other day it is the only time of year when people are beating a path to your door to talk to you. Use it to witness. Either they’ll keep coming and you’ll keep sharing or they’ll think you’re the crazy nutcase in that creepy house and no one will come bug you anymore. Tell me that’s not the best of both worlds?
What are you doing for Halloween? Getting dressed up?
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Monday, October 15th, 2007
Blog Action Day: The environment from a Christian perspective
From the very beginning of mankinds existence we have been charged with dominion over the earth by Almighty God. Genesis 1:27-28 tell us this.
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.â€
The key word in here is dominion which among other things means supreme authority. So God gave us complete control, dominion, over all of the earth when He created us. Sounds good huh? Oh but wait there’s more to it than that. We belong to God as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price…
Further more we see that EVERYTHING belongs to the Lord God by reading Psalm 24:1 which says
The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness,The world and those who dwell therein.
Throughout scripture we are admonished to glorify the name of the Lord.
- If you claim to be a Christian and you don’t have respect for His property (the earth and all its fullness) are you glorifying God?
- If you claim to be a Christian yet do not take dominion over what He has given you and instead let it be abused and wasted are you glorifying God?
Just something to think about on this, the day that the Lord has made.
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Sunday, October 14th, 2007
Living by faith
We’re going to switch gears for a moment here and talk a little bit about faith. First we’ll take a look at the dictionary definition of faith as Merriam Webster’s online dictionary defines it. We’ll just look at the part of the definition that pertains to our purposes, but if you don’t believe me please feel free to check it on your own.
(2): complete trust 3: something that is believed especially with strong conviction;
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. - 2 Corinthians 5:6-8
So what does it all mean? Looking at the dictionary definition for faith we see it means complete trust. The Biblical passage above backs that up in the very first 5 words when it says So we are always confident. Always confident… complete trust.
Next the dictionary definition of faith means something that is believed especially with a strong convinction. Personally I think the word “especially” is misleading in this definition. I would say when it comes to faith either you have strong conviction or you don’t have faith at all.
So in short the dictionary tells us that faith is believing in someone, something, or God. I have faith that she’ll pass the test, or I have faith this bridge won’t collapse, and finally I put my faith in Christ to help me through the hard times. All of those have faith a central theme, but all require different levels of it. By far the greatest faith is to put your trust in a saviour you’ve never seen with your eyes.
The dictionary definition however isn’t the focus. The focus is the scripture. Let’s divide it up and take a look at it piece by piece.
- So we are always confident
-
- We already covered this but it bears repeating. It means we (the body of believers, the church of Christ) have complete trust in this truth.
- knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord
- Things start getting a little more tricky here. Before we go further we’ll refer to Genesis 1:26
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[a] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.â€
The first question most people ask is “Who is Our?” Our is the first overt reference to the Triune Godhead (Father (creator), Son (life and saviour), Holy Spirit (convictor). The next question is “What is Our image?” For the answer to that we move on to another scripture.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24
By now knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord should be a lot more clear to you. If this is still not making sense to you I’ll try to explain it. We are spirits (created in the image of God) who reside in a temporary home (a tent) the God has supplied us. While we are in this “tent” we are far away from God due to the sinful nature of our flesh.
- For we walk by faith, not by sight
- This part is fairly simple for our interpretation of this scripture in this situation. It simply means that we have faith in something that we can’t physically percieve. We can not touch, hear, smell, see, or taste but we know that we are absent from God in our body.
- We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
- This last part means that we look forward to being stripped of our tent and being at home in our mansion with the Lord.
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. - John 14:2
How do you interpret 2 Corinthians 5:6-8?
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