Got Fruit ?

For the past few weeks I’ve been burning the midnight oil ripping,editing and converting sermons for the web site belonging to my church. As I was working I had the opportunity to revisit past messages and one in particular struck out. The pastor’s message is on faith;how doubt is not necessarily a “bad” thing.

Though not the heart of the message, he has a part near the beginning that comes as reassuring words to those that may see, unfulfilled life expectations as failures. You can check out the message titled “Faith, repentance & rest”. I hope you enjoy.

Grace and peace be with you.

Earlier in the evening I read an excellent story from the Christian Standard titled Reclaiming Joy in Daily Life.

Just something to pass on to those interested, plus posts have been a bit anemic this past week due to Vacation Bible School (VBS).

Grace and peace be with you.

Remembering back to my teenage days of attending church, I recall not the exact date of deciding to be baptized, but rather the events leading up to it.  I was about 14 or 15, and there had been some activities and speakers coordinated for the youth group during the summer.

Among the activities that stands out was a session on secular music.  A group had been invited in to give a lecture to the teens on secular music and backmasking.  Talk about being freaked out!!  In addition there had been several studies and discussions on the Book of Revelation as well during that week of summer youth activities, accompanied by a short “Left Behind-esque” movie that was presented to the youth group.  Needless to say, I had the “hell” scared out of me that summer, and made a decision to accept Jesus’ offer to be my personal Lord & Savior.

Now, to be honest I hadn’t a clue at the time as to what being a Christian truly meant or demanded, I mean I knew that I had to be “good”, but the relational aspect was beyond me.  I wasn’t interested in finding out what the Bible prescribes for being “good”, the main thing was that I wanted to save my neck.

To quote the late comic Richard Pryor on his drug related brush with death during a freebasing episode: “Fire is inspirational. They should use it in the Olympics, because I ran the 100 in 4.3.”  And in the same thought fear can debilitate or “inspire” one to spring into action.

Leading up to His crucifixion (murder), Jesus shared some powerful words with His disciples (Peter, James, John & Andrew) on the Mount of Olives concerning the End of the Age in Mark 13.  As I read the chapter, I couldn’t help wonder if the disciples felt fearful of the things Jesus spoke of.  After being asked what signs will precede the End of the Age, Jesus describes to the disciples that magnificent buildings will be toppled, wars and rumors of wars will prevail, arrests &  floggings of believers will occur.  Jesus goes on to tell of desolation, dreadful days,distress; the sun being darkened, the moon ceasing to give it’s light, the stars falling from the sky and the heavenly bodies being shaken following the days of distress.  Seems like some significantly eventful happenings that are bound to stir up the adrenaline in my opinion!  But wait… let’s not forget about those false Christs & false prophets that Jesus mentions.

Mark 13:21-23
21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

From the reading of Mark 13, the persistence of Jesus’ warnings to His followers stood out from the mental pictures painted of the chaos and destruction.  Jesus peppers His speech to the disciples throughout Mark 13 with these instructions:

• 5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name…
• 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed….
• 9 “You must be on your guard…
• 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand…
• 13 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
• 21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.
• 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
• 28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree…
• 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.
• 34… and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
• 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!‘ “

Fear may have been what prompted this knucklehead to follow Jesus, there is however the flip-side of the coin; those claiming to be Christian that use fear coupled with warped doctrines to lead folks astray.  As I read of Jesus warning His disciples, I couldn’t help but wonder if He had an image in His mind of people that failed to take His words to heart, running around like Chicken Little yelling: “The Sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

Grace and peace be with you.

A short & sweet answer to the question: “Why is there evil & suffering in the world?”

“You must believe that God is separate from the world and that some of the things we see in it are contrary to His will.”
-C.S. Lewis

Grace and peace be with you

Since May of last year, I’ve been reading from the devotional by Rick Renner titled “Sparkling Gems from the Greek: 365 Greek Word Studies for Every Day of the Year To Sharpen Your Understanding of God’s Word“. Looking back over the past 12 months spent in this 1000 page+ book, the time and energy invested in making it part of my daily routine has been both pleasurable and worthwhile. Last week I realized that I had reached the end of the year long read when some of the devotionals came up sounding familiar. Funny, I can recall what I read (not verbatim), but forget to subtract my Insurance payment from my check ledger every mid-month.

As the title implies, Renner dissects key words from Scripture; giving both background stories on their Greek origins, along with modern day equivalents and application to the Christian’s walk in Christ. Dependent upon which verse(s) are discussed for a particular day, plays into the depth and number of words analyzed, interpreted and explained. Daily devotionals usually range from 2-3 pages, some however have covered several more pages.

The reading is easy going as Renner doesn’t come off as an Academilogian (yea I made it up); posing questions for the reader to meditate upon from a relational and Scriptural basis as they apply to the lesson learned at the end of each devotional. Renner’s tone is consistently that of talking to the reader with a sincere sounding concern for their personal growth in Christ, not at the reader.

In the first 4-6 months of study my personal experience was that I received quite a bit of understanding concerning New Testament Scripture,not in the sense of absorbing someone else’s thoughts or interpretation of Scripture as my own, rather in gaining a better grasp of the cultural context of Scripture and how it relates to the message from our modern day perspective. Not a new twist on it but a better linguistic understanding (linguistic, not linguini), there’s a lot to be said for some of the nuances lost between the Greek (Koine)language and modern day English.

For those that read the King James Version of the Holy Bible, I recommend checking this devotional out as the verses covered are pulled from the KJV. For newly immersed Christians using the KJV; the word explanations as a matter of opinion, should prove helpful to understanding Scripture better (as a supplement to actual Bible study time).

The latter half of the year long devotional wasn’t always as climactic as the first half; I would say though that this should not be read as indicative of any shortcomings of the author nor his material. I think in my case it was simply a result of going through a different season at the time, plus I had to assess how I was approaching the devotional time; I found myself for a while in devotional time for the sake of knowledge, instead of seeking a deeper relationship with Christ and seeking/asking for Godly wisdom. (For shame!) With all of that said, Sparkling Gems is now retired to my Wal-Mart special MDF book-shelf; maybe in a few years I’ll pick it up again and start over or perhaps just revisit occasionally as God’s Holy Spirit dictates.

For the near and short term future (40 days), I’m now onto finally checking out “3:16 The Numbers of Hope” by Max, you say Lou-Cah-Duh I say Lou-Kay-Doe. Having read the first 4 days of Lucado’s book/devotional, I’m impressed so far, and happy to have picked it up on a “whim” from the clearance rack of one of the local Christian Stores in town.

Insert your own segue…it’s late and I’ve got to get my beauty rest.

Grace and peace be with you.