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| My Confession. |
| 03.31.04 (4:09 pm) [edit] |
This is a confession of sorts. Take it however you like.
I am tired of apologetics. I have little tolerance for people who claim to be open-minded yet are closed off to the spirit and the word completely.
I’m tired of chasing down rabbits with patriot missiles only to have missed the mating season by a fraction as 100 new ones scurry off in different directions.
I’m sick of people thinking Gnosticism, Zen Buddhism and following Christ can be neatly tied together and made into a life-plan.
I’m exhausted with watching other Xians sit passively by on their collective rumps while a handful engage the battle. Xians who spend all their time on the sideline......nevermind. That wouldn’t be productive.
in general I’m sick of watching wave after wave of the same arguments from the same people getting nowhere all the while people are using all manner of subterfuge to wage war on the saints.
I’m going to rest now and later today i’m going to have my regular Wed night bible studies with the college and youth. I’m going to tell them not to bother. To quietly believe what they believe but to keep it to themselves because it’s their own personal belief.
I’m going to tell them not to bother with ever discussing anything about Christ with anyone and to instead just do good deeds and let them speak for you - that the good deeds actually gain favor with God even if they come from an atheist.
I’m going to say that not everyone is meant to be on the front lines and that there are those Xians who will always be support only types.
I’m going to tell them this with a straight face, and if they don’t reject the idea outright and give me fits over it I’m going to fast and pray for them because I don’t believe you can be a committed child of God and believe such junk.
I’m done dancing with theology. I only want Gods active presence in my life transforming me into something beautiful.
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| The Yahweh-Jesus Coin. |
| 03.31.04 (1:21 am) [edit] |
I was asked recently, "How can Jesus and Yahweh act so dramatically different from each other and still be one and the same?"
here is my reply:
A man on his way to work sees a coin lying on the ground tails side up. He bends over to glance at it but without picking it up and taking a very close look at it he goes on his way. Later he is telling his friend about the coin and attempting to describe it. He explains that it had an eagle on it holding some wheat and barley stalks and he finishes his description by stating that there is some wording that he couldnt quite make out. He is convinced of what he saw and is sure he is right about the description.
His friend reaches in his pocket and pulls out the very coin he had picked up on the way in to work only a few minutes behind the first man. He holds it in his hands tails side up and the first man exclaims that yes, this is indeed the coin. The second man then flips the coin over to reveal to the first man the other side with its picture of a man's profile and some more words. The first man is aghast in horror and reels away, shaking his head and exclaiming that no, it is not the same coin after all, that it cannot be for the coin he saw was surely the same on both sides. It doesn’t make any sense to him why there would be a coin with two seemingly different sides.
The second man sits down with the first and calmly explains to him the story of the coin from beginning to end showing him that the two sides are indeed the same coin and that they are in fact directly related to each other. He states that he hopes this information helps the first man understand a little bit about the nature of the coin and then he gives the coin to the first man and after embracing the other man he returns to work.
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| Another Thought On The Passion |
| 03.26.04 (10:38 am) [edit] |
Something that struck me while experiencing The Passion is that one of the things the Priests and Pharisees said was, “Let him come down and we will believe.” Yet if he had, their belief in him would have been of no more use than their disbelief in him as remained on the cross.
These people, God’s Holy Nation, who had been the benefactors of 2 centuries of God’s providence in preparation for the coming of Messiah, committed the ultimate crime in dissolving their covenant with Yahweh. Not only had they repeatedly run off to worship idols at a moments notice throughout their history and been graciously brought back to God each time, but now they had finally taken the very Messiah promised them and vehemently refused him, to the point of killing him, just to make their decision clear to God. In essence they were saying, “No, God. We don’t want to worship you and in truth we wish you were dead so we could go on with doing what we want.”
Note that Jesus only response concerning these people mocking him in his hour of death at their hands was, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
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| What Did It Cost God? |
| 03.18.04 (5:03 pm) [edit] |
This is a transcript of a conversation I had with another poster on CARMs forums a while back. His questions are in bold.
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I thought about this for a while before answering. What did it cost God? Hmmm...
[b]I'm interested to know however, exactly WHAT it cost God. It's all very well to say it cost him his only son, but did it really? Doesn't he have his son back nowadays?[/b]
Did it really cost him his only son? Yes. Consider, God the Father and Jesus live in eternity together. They have always been together. They are both spirit. Jesus becomes a man, and all of this changes. For 33 years the Father and the son have a distinctly different relationship than they ever have had before. Like a son going off to college can still be called and talked to, they still communicated but it was not the same as before, Jesus was no longer purely spirit. Their relationship had changed. Jesus, having always been with and part of God then goes through the crucifixion ordeal. He who was once purely spirit having taken on flesh is now subject to something he had never been subject to before, death. Christ is crucified and dies, being forsaken by the Father for the sin he bears on the cross. Their relationship has never faced this. Father and Son are now separated by not only Jesus' humanity, but his bearing of sin. Their relationship has changed. In the resurrection Jesus is still shown to have his humanity intact (albeit glorified). So, Jesus ascends back the Father but never again to enjoy the same relationship as before as Jesus is now both God and man. The Father and Son have a relationship that is incapable of being destroyed, but it is different now. It has changed. It has cost them both the benefits of their previous state.
[b]Or did it merely cost God some temporary discomfort?[/b]
Merely temporary discomfort. An interesting wording. Let’s look at this closer. the Father who has never been anything but spirit and so united with the Son who has never been anything but spirit exist together in an immortal state, never needing or having to face death. Jesus spends 33 years here and is faced with death. Temporary discomfort? No. Look at what happens. Every person Jesus had known including his closest friends and his family abandoned him to face his trial alone. He is taken under orders from Pilate to be flogged. 39 lashes with a whip called the cat of nine tails. This whip had pieces of broken glass and pottery, small lead balls, and nails affixed to each strand. They rip his back open, bruise and batter his ribs and kidneys. He is crowned with a makeshift crown made out of thorns. Beaten down around his ears and into his scalp and brow. Blood trickling down into his eyes, stinging them as it mixes with the sweat. They cover his mangled back with a robe which begins to congeal with the blood and as he faces further trial, it dries fixing it as though it were part of his skin. He is finally given over to a group of his kinsmen for execution and they peal the robe off, tearing away the congealed clotting blood and reopening every wound. They take a large rough wooden cross beam and drop it onto his shoulders. Not only is the weight of this thing bearing down on him as he languishes under the emotional and physical stress he is enduring, but these weren’t sand-papered 2x4s. Splinters drive into his shoulders and back as he carries it uphill toward the site, further heightening his excruciating pain. So much so that he falters 3 times and is finally unable to proceed. They draft a by-stander to carry the wood and two husky roman guards grab him under his arms dragging him the rest of the way stretching him out and exposing even deeper layers of the open skin on his back. They lay him on the cross beam and drive nine inch spikes through the bones of each forearm with a hammer. Slow and painful hits until he cannot move his arms. They hoist the cross beam up with ropes as Jesus hangs only by the spikes, his whole body weight supported on his wrists. They do the same with his feet overlapping them and driving another spike through the each heel into the wood stranding him completely on the wood. As he continues to tire his body sags and the positioning of his body makes it hard for him to breathe so he has to pull up on the spikes in his wrists and push up on those in his feet to get air. His lacerated back rubbing against the splintered wood driving more splinters into it. With each movement. He hangs there naked as his kinsmen, and strangers mock him and make fun of him; as his mother looks on crying. Later, a soldier takes a spear and thrusts it through his rib-cage. Merely temporary discomfort. An interesting wording to be sure.
[b]Or did it cost God some permanent "scarred", somehow? (Wouldn't this mean he isn't perfect?)[/b]
Permanent scarring? Yes. After the resurrection he shows Thomas his scars while in his glorified body. Imperfect? No. He still has never done anything wrong. These scars have made him even more perfect as he has done what had to be done to provide for salvation and glorify the Father. They will be a lasting reminder of what it cost...the death of God.
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| The 3 Relationships |
| 03.10.04 (11:36 am) [edit] |
Adam was created human. He was created in relationship to God and the earth. God states in Genesis 2 that something was lacking and goes on to create Eve as a suitable helper for Adam. Thus when God looked down on all he had created and said it was good he was looking at man as the highest form of creation, and set it up for man to be in relationship to 3 things; God, each other, and the earth. We are likewise created in relationship to these 3 things. We can glean our understanding of what it means to be truly human from this first expression of Gods creative power and the manner in which he set established man in relationship to everything else.
We however are not in right relationship to these 3 things. According to Paul every person ever to live falls into one of two categories of relationship to these things. We are either related to Adam in our sinfulness and therefore facing punishment or we are related to Christ by faith and therefore facing redemption. In Romans Paul sets out the Adam class as everyone related to Adam. Since we all stem from Adam we are all related to him and thereby all born subject to the marred relationship he brought upon us in the fall. Paul goes on then to set out the Christ class as everyone related to Christ. This group is necessarily exclusionary as not everyone is related to Christ. The purpose of the gospel is to share the good news that though we are seen in the law to be related to Adam, we can by grace through faith be related to Christ and be thereby subject to the adoption as sons and the full inheritance of the Kingdom of God.
In a sense then every man shares the image of God as established in creation but only those who are in Christ have the re-creation image being established within them for the time of the re-creation. The creation image was twisted and perverted by the fall. As such it is no longer capable of sustaining a relationship with the Creator as it was before. The re-creation image is however the mark of perfection being wrought in those who are in Christ that they may be able to be in right relationship to their Creator, each other and the new heavens and new earth. God instituted the Law to show men their fallen state and point them to their need for a means of re-establishing relationship with Him. This he fully planned for and implemented by sending his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross bridging the gap between the Creator and the fallen creation, making it possible only through Him to enter into the re-creation process. When this process is complete runs correspondent to when the re-creation of heaven and earth are complete and the entire re-creation will exist of the Father, by the Son and through the Spirit.
To be a complete human then is to be in right relationship to God, mankind, and the world, so in a sense it is correct to say that we will not experience it in this life. But likewise it is therefore correct to say that we are not experiencing what it means to be truly human. This is not to say we are not human, but that we are not experiencing what it means to be a complete human. Adam and Eve experienced what it means to be truly human for a period of time. Jesus experiences it still and we will one day experience it - being a complete human, devoid of sinfulness.
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| Good people. Good intentions. Long line for hell. |
| 03.04.04 (1:46 pm) [edit] |
So many people believe something other than the truth and think that if they are just good enough it will be okay.
So many people believe something other than the truth and think that if they just have good enough intentions it will be okay.
This false teaching is so prevalent today and it makes me utterly sick. So sick that I want to vomit. It throws me onto my knees to beg God to open their eyes to the truth he opened my eyes to a while back. I plead his mercy over them as Christ did from the cross.
The sad truth however is that not everyone will experience the glorious presence of God in paradise. So many are deceived by the bankrupt ideals of relativism that they refuse to accept the truth. They worship the false gods of their own making in vain.
Many have whole-heartedly followed other lies believing them to be true. They have the best intentions and earnestly practice their religion thinking and hoping it will save them. They are misled but have gone along willingly. Their eyes are not open to the truth and they too will be separated from Gods paradise.
Even more disturbing is the fact that there are those who know the truth and pervert it. They are privy to the truth and use it for their own gain, taking advantage of those who are easily deceived. These people are enemies of God, perverting and distorting his truth to their own ends and their end will be darkness.
Still more grotesque are those who have the light of the truth and withhold it. I have nothing but sadness in my heart for those who know the risen savior Jesus Christ and keep it to themselves thinking that the means by which each man finds God is a private matter. Our world is fallen and there is but one hope, yet so many hide their relationship with Christ out of fear instead of sharing Jesus with those they come in contact with.
My heart is breaking for all these people as I write this. If yours is not, I beg you to join me in fasting and prayer for the lives of those around us who fit these descriptions. May the hearts of Christians everywhere be broken for the lost. May they be stirred to hunger for righteousness as well as opportunities to introduce others to Jesus. May they be deprived of sleep or contentment until they fall down on their faces before God and surrender wholly to his will. May they thirst only for Gods truth and be filled to overflowing so that no one they meet will walk away unaffected or unchanged.
Holy God in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, break your people.
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| The Passion |
| 03.02.04 (12:27 pm) [edit] |
My reaction to the movie.
None of the Catholic imagery bothered me. None of it was distracting or problematic. I also thought the non-biblical additions were incredibly plausible and that this material was not a hinderance.
This is perhaps the first of the Jesus movies to ever really display the spiritual nature of what was going on in and around the events that took place and I really liked that.
I also noticed that Jesus continued to connect with different people throughout his ordeal and even in death. This stood out with the African in Herod's court with the gold head-dress who looked down after looking into Jesus eyes while Herod mocked, Simon after he had dropped the cross at the top of the hill and looked at Jesus face to face, and the Roman guard Cassius who speared Jesus side as the blood and water sprayed him.
I felt tense the whole time. My chest began to hurt when Christ locked eyes with Peter in the Sanhedrin court scene and it was still sore the next morning when I woke up. My eyes were not dry from that moment forward either.
The flogging was brutal. Even when I wasnt looking the sounds hurt. Each time I saw or heard the lashes my whole body shivered and ached.
Interestingly, one of the two men beating Jesus seemed German in appearance. I dont know what significance that has if any it just stood out that way in my mind and it could be Indiana Jones' fault.
The Via de la Rosa seemed the longest sequence to me. Every time he fell I felt heavy and when Mary ran to his side I strained to hold back the hurt in my throat trying to get out. Maybe because I'm a parent. I was especially torn by the irony of Simon's statement about being an innocent man carrying a condemned man's cross.
The cross scenes were painful to watch and I found myself looking down a lot there as well. When they drove the nails I felt numb all over and when they flipped the cross and then dropped it in the hole I felt like I was being thrown around. I got dizzy.
The temple earthquake veil ripping part actually lifted and then crushed my spirit. I sensed the agony of God in this scene in a way that seemed to be clearly mixed with righteous indignation yet I was angry with myself more at this point than any other. It was here that God through his own agony dismantled the barrier and yet I have raised a banner of sin in place of the veil. I was and am still so ashamed.
This is not the greatest evangelical tool in 2000 years but it is an excellent tool for Xians with respect to conviction, confession, repentance and motivation to Godliness and self-sacrifice.
It is a spctacular movie and I never want to see it again.
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