Waiting for God? DON'T!

We have all heard mature Christians state, "I'm waiting for God...." This is often followed by a sigh with or without a shrug of the shoulders. What does waiting for God produce in you? (Christian-speak translation: What is the fruit?)

 

 

Feeling impatient?  Feel your time is being wasted?

 

 

Feeling bored, not knowing what to do?

 

 Feeling rejected, forgotten or unimportant?

 

Maybe you don't have any of the reactions above.  Then likely the best you can come up with is that it bears no good fruit.  Either way there is no benefit, so why not stop saying, "I'm waiting for God"?

There is a another way that better communicates the waiting and produces good fruit.  Instead just say:

I'm waiting with God.

Our minds have been trained to associate waiting for someone as that someone is not there.  However, saying "I'm waiting with God" reminds you of the basic fact of New Testament Christianity that God is always with you.  It reminds you that Christ abides in you.  The Holy Spirit is not only always with you but always in you!  Sometimes we do feel that God is somewhere else.  This feeling is real but it is not reality.  This feeling lies to you.  You need to constantly and persistently remind yourself of the truth that God is always with you.  That is why you need to say, "I'm waiting with God."

Furthermore, this produces even more good fruit in your soul when you also remember that God loves you. He is crazy about you and wants you to have good things.  He wants good things for you that you never even thought of.  

An all-knowing God wants these good things even more than you do!

So if the God who created you has to wait to fulfill His desire to give you the best with the best of timing, shouldn't you consider it an honor to wait with Him?

So let's all renew (i.e., retrain) our minds.  Let's stop waiting for God and instead enjoy the privilege of waiting with God.  

Just a suggestion . . . .

Want to see the year of jubilee?

Some folks asked me, an economist, to explain the relevance of the Year of Jubilee and the impact of applying it today.  It may seem a bit pedantic, but I need to build up to the answer.  First, let’s look at what Jubilee was in the Bible.  Next, let’s explain what it wasn’t in the Bible.  Third, how do we apply it today?

What’s the Bible say?  The Year of Jubilee is explained in Leviticus 25:9-55. Please take a moment, click the preceding link, and read it. To see what is actually written in the Bible is of the upmost importance.  You should want God’s Word, not what others want you to think it means.

STOP!  Did you really read the passage?

Yeah, it is a long passage.  I know it is hard, but you can do it.  So MAN UP!  (Grow a couple.)  Click: Leviticus 25:9-55.  Let’s do this right!  If you can’t be bothered, then please stop reading this and go back to looking at cat videos and pictures of other people’s food on Facebook.

Highlights Concerning Property in Leviticus 25:

• Land was an inheritance from God and could not be sold outright (v. 23).
• Land could be “sold” but the owner or a relative could redeem it, or buy it back (v. 25).
• The price of the land, and the price to redeem it, was based on how many years were left until the year of Jubilee (v. 26-27).
• If no one redeemed it, then in the Year of Jubilee the land would revert to the original owner since it is his inheritance from the Lord (v. 28).
• A house in a walled city could be sold in perpetuity but the owner had a right to redeem it only during the first year after the sale (v. 29-30).

Highlights Concerning People in Leviticus 25:

•  Lending or selling for profit to an Israelite in need was prohibited (v. 35-37).
• A poor Israelite could not sell himself and his family into slavery to another Israelite.  He must be treated as a hired hand and only required to serve until the Year of Jubilee (v. 39-40).
• The Year of Jubilee did not apply to non-Israelites (sojourners and foreigners).  They could be bought and sold as slaves and owned in perpetuity (v. 44-46).
•  A poor Israelite could sell himself and his family into slavery to a non-Israelite but only until the Year of Jubilee (v. 47, 54)
•  All Israelites could be redeemed, whether serving as a hired worker to another Israelite or as a slave to a non-Israelite (v. 48-49).
• As with land, the redemption price was based on how many years were left until the Year of Jubilee (v. 50-52).

Financially, the Year of Jubilee applies to two things:  the debts of Israelites repaid with labor, and the land that God gave as an inheritance to the Israelites.  First, non-Israelite slaves were not set free.  The Jubilee only applied to slaves who were Israelites.  The Children of Israel belonged to God.  They could not sell themselves into perpetual slavery because they were not their own, but God’s property.  Second, the land was a gift from God, an inheritance, bequeathed with the unchangeable restriction that it was the permanent possession of the Children of Israel.  In short, they could not sell it outright.  It is like Canton’s Village Park which is actually owned by the Presbyterian Church.  It was bequeathed to the church with a restrictive covenant that it could not be sold.  The church cannot give the land title to the Village of Canton and be done with it, even with the guarantee of its continued use as a park.  Neither could the Children of Israel sell their land in perpetuity. 

What’s NOT in the Bible?  An implication of the above is that none of the following has anything to do with the Year of Jubilee:

• Cancel all debts!
• Stop the foreclosures!
•  Free those in financial bondage!

You might be thinking that although it may not literally be in the Bible, can’t the Year of Jubilee be an application of biblical principles that are indicative of God’s desire, his heart for social justice for those in financial bondage?

No.

Why not?  The short answer is because such an application uses the Bible to deny, even pervert, the picture of God’s mercy, love and holiness.

(As you might suspect, the long answer is to follow.)

In Leviticus 25 the Jubilee requires neither the renunciation of debts nor the nullification of agreements or contracts.  The agreement to the sale of land is not voided by the Jubilee because there never was a sale in perpetuity.  It is very clear that both sides were to understand up front that purchasing use of the land was only temporary until a buyback (redemption) or until the Year of Jubilee.  God said, “And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another” (v. 14) when outlining the amount of the sale and the redemption prices.  Likewise, the obligation of a hired man or an Israelite slave to work was also known to everyone involved to be temporary until a buyback or the Year of Jubilee.

Of course there are numerous Bible verses concerning the forgiveness, including the forgiveness of debt.  However, the admonition to forgive debts is always to the lender not the borrower.  Forgiveness is voluntary, not imposed by a third party, and certainly not by God.

No one is entitled to receive forgiveness.

God is a promise keeper, not a promise breaker.  He will not coerce a lender to accept another person’s violation of an agreement.  God is all powerful but not unrighteous.

How Do We Apply the Year of Jubilee Today?  The Year of Jubilee presents a beautiful picture of God’s love for his people.  The Children of Israel received an inheritance of land from God.  God guaranteed this inheritance would be restored even if someone purposed to lose it.  Children of Israel may put themselves into slavery but God guaranteed they would be restored.  They were His.

Today each of us was once part of a people who were not His people.  With our sin, we each sold ourselves into slavery.  We belonged to Satan and he was not about to forgive our sins and set us free.  Rather, Jesus redeemed us.  Satan was not forced to renounce his hold over us.  We were not stolen from Satan as a result of the coercion of an all-power God.  Rather, Jesus redeemed us.  The price for sin was death but Jesus paid the price for our sins, life for life, with his own blood.  There is no entitlement to receive such forgiveness.  Rather, Jesus redeemed us.
.

Since Jesus redeemed us, we are now the Children of God by adoption.  We are his and he can renounce the debt of sin because he paid for it.  God owns us and we cannot change that even if we want to because we are not our own but were bought with a price.

In accepting Christ's redemption, we are co-heirs with Jesus.  We cannot lose our inheritance.

Jubilee is not about a Get-Out-of-Debt-Free Card.  It is all about Jesus.  Jesus is our Jubilee.

A little Q & A....featuring answer man Ernie Miller.

Q: So. What do you say to God when you're a total failure? What do you say to Him when you want something you don't think He wants for you? What do you say to Him when you don't even know if your thinking is correct or right? How about this: What do you say to Him when you know where you are coming from is wrong? How do you handle the anger? How do you handle the disappointment? You know the truth but you do not want to submit? I'm not asking you, because you don't know the answer. But, think of it. Have you been there? Have you been in the place where you KNOW what your doing or thinking is wrong, yet, you continue in it? Does that thing have a hold on you and you don't want to give it up? What do you do? You say you love God but you continue in doing that which He hates. Who are you? What are you? What are your choices in this situation? I can hear the answers of the legalistic. But what does God say? How does He handle someone who is in that place? It is easy to speak platitudes. But, in the end, the heart is evil and desperately wicked without Him. (OK, for all of you who don't acknowledge Him I am not quite sure what you would say.) So? What is a follower of Christ? What should that person look like? And further, what is the person that DOESN'T look like it? Jesus said that "His" road is narrow and that few go by that way.

A: ...[T]hese things are not a surprise to the Lord ..actually they are the plight of every man . Somehow we decide what to allow in our lives, our thoughts, our hearts, and when a whole group of people agree on these things ...you have religion . Yet Gods standard is perfection. Thank him for being able to see in such a way, many cannot . But this is the very thing Christ died for. When we admit were not willing, our hearts are far from Him...this is the very truth He is looking for .

And what does a Christian look like...blameless before our God..for the blood of Christ is sufficient ..nay more than sufficient

So many preach holiness and righteousness and to that I say Amen. But even to those the truth is this...holiness and righteousness is not only a thing of the past , but of the present and of tomorrow..and what will a man do not for yesterday's sins, but tomorrow's? Shall his holiness save him ? Or will He call out for the mercy and grace of our Lord? There's no other way. For its by grace alone that we are saved and by grace alone that we stand...so no man may boast .

SOURCE:  Copied and pasted without permission from a Facebook page without attribution. This does not constitute plagiarism since I do not claim authorship. I stole it!  

The Groundhog Day Gospel

The Gospel of Christ is not a gospel of second chances.  Yes, God gives second chances.  However, we do not have a gospel of second chances.  Let me explain.  Many of us think to ourselves, “I have sinned and failed.”  We come to Christ and he forgives our sin and failure.  This gives us a clean slate.  We have another chance.  We go out and purpose to try to do better.  When we eventually stumble then we have Christ to again forgive us, pick us up, and maybe give some coaching or teaching so we can live better lives.  We go out clean, then stumble again, and then repeat the process.  And then repeat the process.  Again.  And again. 

We hope we have been improving, getting better, and becoming a better person.  Maybe we are getting to be a better imitation of Christ?  Maybe we can get closer to God?  What else can a person do?

The above is not the Gospel.  The above is a spiritual application of the movie Groundhog Day.

We don’t have a Gospel of Second Chances.  Why not?  Because we never had a first chance. Without the first chance, then how can there be a second, a third, or even a seven-times-seventieth chance?

Why no first chance?  We were all born into a broken world, a world broken and dysfunctional since the Fall in the Garden.  We were not only born into a fallen, broken world, we ourselves were born broken, born with a sinful disposition. This was not God’s desire, not at all what he intended, but we and all before us have been broken and have contributed to the vicious, downward cycle of dysfunction and brokenness in this world.

We never had a first chance because we never had a chance to live holy, righteous lives in the first place.  Yes, God gave Moses the Law but the purpose was not to give us a manual showing us how to live lives pleasing to God.  The Apostle Paul wrote that the purpose of the Law was to show us we do not, and will not, live sinless lives.  The purpose was to show the world that we cannot fulfil the Law, to show that we can never, no matter how hard we try, never be holy, never be righteous, never be sanctified, and thus never be acceptable to God (Romans 3:19-20).  We are guilty and already condemned.  Showing us this is a good thing since the Law shows us the absolute necessity of God’s mercy. The penalty is death and without the Blood of the Lamb to pay that price for our freedom we have no chance.

The Gospel of Christ is that God through Christ Jesus came not to give a second chance to you or me, but to bring death to the old man and to bring to life a new creation in us.  This new man, this new creation, this new person has the Holiness, Righteousness, and Sanctification of Christ.  It is through the efforts of God, not the efforts of man; it is Christ in you or me, not you or me, that makes us a new creation.

Yes, we can act holy, but without Christ we cannot be holy.  We can do righteous works, but without Christ we cannot be righteous.  We can act sanctified, do the works of one who is sanctified, but only Christ can make us sanctified.  Yes, in our own efforts we can act sanctified, righteous and holy, but we can’t keep it up.  We can’t keep it up through our own efforts because it is only an act.  I do not mean we are phonies or hypocrites; I mean these are merely acts, not who we are.

The Groundhog Day Gospel is a gospel of bondage, of endless repetition, of continual frustration.  A gospel that does not bring us closer to God but lets us cling to the delusion that we can do better next time; the delusional that it is all about becoming better people.  The message of the Groundhog Day Gospel is, “Not good enough” with the subtext, “Try harder, fail better.”  Like the movie, each day we repeat the cycle.  Unlike the movie, we never escape the cycle.  Being better is not good enough.  The word gospel literally means “good news.”  This Groundhog Day Gospel is bad news.  It is a false gospel.  While this false gospel will not keep us from having our names written in the Book of Life, it can rob us of a lot of joy that God wants us to have in Christ. 

What to do?  How can we be freed from the slavery of this false gospel?  How can we escape the living hell of not good enough and try harder, fail better?  Christ suffered death on the Cross to free us; he never intended to settle for us just being better people.  What God wants is more than we can give him though our own efforts.  He died and rose again to make us sons and daughters of the living God.  “Because of what God has done, you belong to Christ Jesus.  He has become God’s wisdom for us.  He makes us right with God.  He makes us holy and sets us free” (I Cor 1:30 NIRV).

What to do?  Jesus was asked by the people, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”  Jesus answered, “The work of God is this:  to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6: 28-29).  Believe we are each a child of God if we have come to faith in Christ Jesus.  Believe Christ did it all and that our standing as such is settled and will not change.  God wants a close relationship with his children. How close?  God wants to abide in us, to live in and with us, through the person of the Holy Spirit.  Accept that the efforts of Christ brings this about, not our own efforts.  So rest, take a Sabbath, take a permanent vacation from your own efforts.  Rather than look to the efforts of our flesh, our human nature, look to God. (Romans 8:5-8).  Follow God and let the Holy Spirit work in you and through you. 

Rest from your efforts; abide in Christ; let the Holy Spirit do the work that he was given to do.  You may be surprised when you realize your acts, your behavior, your inclinations will be changing, moving toward godliness.  That God is working in you.  You will find that being changed by God, by abiding in him, brings permanent change that could never be obtained by your own efforts.

Be blessed!
RB

John Newton in the 18th C. on a 21st C. problem

I asked the Lord that I may grow

in faith and love and every grace,

Might more of his salvation know,

and seek more earnestly his face.

'Twas He who taught me thus to pray,

and He I trust has answered prayer,

But it has been in such a way

as almost drove me to despair.

I thought that in some favored hours,

at once he'd answer my request,

And by His love's transforming power,

Subdue my sins and give me rest.

Instead of that He made me feel

the hidden evils of my heart,

And bade the angry powers of hell

assault my soul in every part.

Nay, more, with His hand He seemed 

intent to aggravate my woe,

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,

blasted my gourds*, and laid me low.

"Lord, why this?" I trembling cried,

"Wilt Thou pursue this worm to death?"

"This is the way," the Lord replied,

"I answer prayer for grace and faith."

"These inward trials I employ

from sin and self to set thee free,

And cross thy schemes of earthly joy

that thou might find thy all in Me."

John Newton, Ol­ney Hymns (Lon­don: W. Ol­iv­er, 1779).

Text Source: Treasures in Christ by Jean Oathout (7 July 2015).

Image: "Hymn 36" in A Selection of Favorite Conference Hymns with Historical Sketches of Church History: through every century of the Christian Era, edited by J.A. Burke (Albany, NY: A.N. Sherman, 1829), p.34.

*Alludes to the plant that provided shade in Jonah (4: 6-7, KJV).

Arminian v. Calvinist? Don't think so.....

This afternoon I read this exchange between an elderly John Wesley and a young Charles Simeon which occurred in the mid-1780's. I then found it reprinted online and did a cut and paste. Here Simeon writes of the meeting and refers to himself in the third person.

Wesley  Simeon A young Minister, about three or four years after he was ordained, had an opportunity of conversing familiarly with the great and venerable leader of the Arminians in this kingdom; and, wishing to improve the occasion to the uttermost, he addressed him nearly in the following words:

Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I suppose we are to draw daggers. But before I consent to begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a few questions. Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your heart?

Yes, I do indeed.

And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?

Yes, solely through Christ.

But, Sir, supposing you were at first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards by your own works?

No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last.

Allowing, then, that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?

No.

What then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother's arms?

Yes, altogether.

And is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom?

Yes, I have no hope but in Him.

Then, Sir, with your leave I will put up my dagger again; for this is all my Calvinism; this is my election my justification by faith, my final perseverance: it is in substance all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially unite in those things where in we agree.

Sources: here and there.

a year of big anniversaries

40 YEARS AGO  we graduated from college, got married and moved across country so I could go to grad school at Virginia Tech.  (The order of the previously listed events is based on chronology, not importance.)

30 YEARS AGO after completing a Fulbright Lectureship at a Nigerian university,  we moved to a little college town in Northern New York.  The Sunday before Labor Day I attended Christian Fellowship Center for the first time.  Despite never having been in a church quite like it, I immediately knew it was home.  It has been ever since.  The next day (yes, on Labor Day) I taught my first class at St. Lawrence University.

20 YEARS AGO I visited a church, Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, and experienced the so-called laughing rival (a.k.a., the Toronto Blessing, the Father’s Blessing).  It had a huge impact on me.  I have never, ever since questioned God’s love for me, no matter what has happened in my life. God's love was never an issue, not even during a period of severe depression.

10 YEARS AGO I experienced probably the worst day of my life.  This caused me to seek professional counseling for depression.  After counseling, after living most of my life with the illness, I have been depression free.

ZERO YEARS AGO I now know a great God and I am knowing Him better each day.  I have a great wife as companion and friend and I find her more attractive in more ways each day.  I attend a great church with over-the-top wonderful pastors for whom I am thankful to God each day.  I have a great job (with tenure!) teaching great students at a great small college for which I am more grateful each day.  I live in a great little village in the great undiscovered paradise of New York's North Country and I appreciate living here more each day.

As you can see from the previous great-full paragraph that I am grateful.  I'm not bragging since I cannot really take any credit.  At a minimum, that would assume I thought I knew what I was doing! I have been greatly blessed in a great many ways.  The past decade has literally been the best years of my life and the last two years by far the happiest of those.

I know I deserve none of this and that realization makes me very grateful indeed.

Be blessed!
RB

for christians only (orthodox, catholic, evangelical)

If you consider yourself devoted to Christ, please watch the following short video:

   

Please consider signing the Manhattan Declaration after reading more:

http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/index.html#1

Thank you,
RB

unacceptable! obama's accommodation compromises religious liberty

The official position of the Bishops’ Conference signals that no compromise concerning the HHS preventive care mandate could succeed. It is not the government's role to define or limit the mission of a church or any other religious organization:

Unacceptable

February 27, 2012

The Obama administration has offered what it has styled as an accommodation for religious institutions in the dispute over the HHS mandate for coverage (without costsharing) of abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. The administration will now require that all insurance plans cover (cost free) these same products and services.Once a religiously-affiliated (or believing individual) employer purchases insurance (as it must, by law), the insurance company will then contact the insured employees to advise them that theterms of the policy include coverage for these objectionable things.

This so-called accommodation changes nothing of moral substance and fails to remove the assault on religious liberty and the rights of conscience which gave rise to the controversy. It iscertainly no compromise. The reason for the original bipartisan uproar was the administration’s insistence that religious employers, be they institutions or individuals, provide insurance thatcovered services they regard as gravely immoral and unjust. Under the new rule, the government still coerces religious institutions and individuals to purchase insurance policies that include the very same services.

It is no answer to respond that the religious employers are not paying for this aspect of the insurance coverage. For one thing, it is unrealistic to suggest that insurance companies will notpass the costs of these additional services on to the purchasers. More importantly, abortion drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives are a necessary feature of the policy purchased by the religious institution or believing individual. They will only be made available to those who are insured under such policy, by virtue of the terms of the policy.

It is morally obtuse for the administration to suggest (as it does) that this is a meaningful accommodation of religious liberty because the insurance company will be the one to inform theemployee that she is entitled to the embryo-destroying ―five day after pill pursuant to the insurance contract purchased by the religious employer. It does not matter who explains theterms of the policy purchased by the religiously affiliated or observant employer. What matters is what services the policy covers.

The simple fact is that the Obama administration is compelling religious people and institutions who are employers to purchase a health insurance contract that provides abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization. This is a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand.

It is an insult to the intelligence of Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other people of faith and conscience to imagine that they will accept an assault ontheir religious liberty if only it is covered up by a cheap accounting trick. Finally, it bears noting that by sustaining the original narrow exemptions for churches,auxiliaries, and religious orders, the administration has effectively admitted that the new policy T2 (like the old one) amounts to a grave infringement on religious liberty. The administration still fails to understand that institutions that employ and serve others of different or no faith are still engaged in a religious mission and, as such, enjoy the protections of the First Amendment.

[Followed by 42 pages of signatures]

Source:

www.becketfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Unacceptable-2-27-11am2.pdf

integrity of the scripture: is what we have now, what they wrote then?

I love reasoning tested by evidence. I guess it is part of my training as an economist. That is why I love the following 48 min. video of a lecture by Daniel B. Wallace of Dallas Theological Seminary. He is one of the world's leading experts on NT textual studies -- trying to figure which, if any, of the current NT writings are accurate.

This lecture was presented to a lay audience so even I could understand it!

Guest Speaker :: Daniel Wallace from Antioch Church on Vimeo.

not nostalgic for jesus

If you could travel back through time and could visit one historical person, who would that person be? If you are a Christian, you would be expected to say Jesus. As a believer, what historical figure could be more important?

Personally, I would not want to go back in time to be with Jesus. I also think I have Scripture on my side in not wanting to go back to be with him.

[Okay. I think it would be really cool to go back and witness the Resurrection on that first Easter morning. But that would be merely a form of historical tourism. However, I would not want to stay there. I really don’t wish to go back to be with Jesus.]

Think of those who were with Jesus before the Accession, before he in his glorified physical body went to heaven (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9). Those who were closest to him, those who walked with him, they celebrated. Even after they came down from the adrenaline rush of witnessing Jesus disappearing in the clouds, they never looked back.

Something I find interesting is that there is no record of Jesus’ disciplines pining for the time they spent with Jesus in the flesh. Not even a hint of it in any NT writings. In John’s first epistle he starts out by recounting that he heard, saw, and even touched Jesus in the flesh (1 John 1:1-3) but this is just a statement of fact. A witness to something experienced, not something yearned for. Yet John was the apostle closest to Jesus, “the one whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20). If anyone would have missed Jesus, it would have been John. Neither John nor anyone else seems to have been nostalgic about having been with Jesus.

Why didn’t they miss the good old days with Jesus? Because they had something better after Jesus ascended. At least they did after a ten-day wait for Pentecost (Acts 2:4). They had the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is better than physically being with Jesus? That is an idea that is very strange to most Christians. This is despite many having read of Jesus actually telling his disciples that it was to their benefit that he leave so that the Holy Spirit could come (John 16:7). What most folks now experience does not seem to come close to being better.

This disconnect between the Word of God and our personal experience is something that should be quite disturbing. Was Jesus lying? Maybe he was hyping the coming of the Holy Spirit so that his leaving earth would be more palatable for his friends and disciples? Jesus isn't supposed to lie so maybe the whole thing is all a lie then?

Maybe these promises were for the first century only and have ceased? Some Christians cite 1 Corinthians 13:8 to support this explanation. However, this only makes sense if the verse is taken out of context. There is nothing in Scripture to indicate the promises of God concerning the Holy Spirit have expired and are not valid anymore.

Rather than something being wrong with Jesus, or that his promises had an expiration date, an alternative explanation may be that that we are missing out. If we are not experiencing what the Bible promises then maybe we are missing out on something God has for us that is really big and incredible? Maybe our expectations for God are much less than what He wants for us? Maybe we should start seeking His gifts?

There are numerous verses concerning the Holy Spirit in NT writings which promise joy, comfort, wisdom, knowledge, personal transformation and more. They are too numerous, or rather I am too lazy, to mention or even cite. There are examples in these writings of people realizing these promises. The historical record since is also replete with such examples.

Maybe we should search the Scriptures for those promises and to seek something better?

Maybe it is time to dump the nostalgia? The good-old days with Jesus may have indeed been good, but they are not supposed to be better. I am grateful for what I have, but if there is more, then I want it. Come Holy Spirit. Come.

Be Blessed!
RB

merry christmas

Click image to to enlarge
[source]

the stethoscope

>

this covers all the basics - one minute sermon

Try to keep up with her:



[ht her]

a fool for christ

Manute Bol died on June 19th. The following appeared in the June 25th edition of The Wall Street Journal:

Manute Bol's Radical Christianity
By JON A. SHIELDS

As any churchgoer who tuned in to watch the recent NBA finals contest between the Lakers and Celtics already knows, the term redemption is probably now heard more often in NBA sports broadcasts than in homilies. A Google search under "redemption" and "NBA" generates approximately 2 million hits—more hits than "redemption" and "Christianity." The term can also be found in more than 2,600 stories on ESPN.com.

What does redemption mean in the world of professional basketball and sports more broadly? It involves making up for—or, yes, "atoning"—for a poor performance. When the Lakers beat Boston, for instance, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times called the victory "redemption for the Celtics' 2008 Finals beating."

More often, though, sports journalists use the term to praise the individual performances of NBA superstars. Thus, the Associated Press reported that Kobe Bryant "found redemption" after he won a title in 2009 without the aid of his nemesis and former teammate Shaquille O'Neal.

Manute Bol, who died last week at the age of 47, is one player who never achieved redemption in the eyes of sports journalists. His life embodied an older, Christian conception of redemption that has been badly obscured by its current usage.

Bol, a Christian Sudanese immigrant, believed his life was a gift from God to be used in the service of others. As he put it to Sports Illustrated in 2004: "God guided me to America and gave me a good job. But he also gave me a heart so I would look back."

He was not blessed, however, with great athletic gifts. As a center for the Washington Bullets, Bol was more spectacle than superstar. At 7 feet, 7 inches tall and 225 pounds, he was both the tallest and thinnest player in the league. He averaged a mere 2.6 points per game over the course of his career, though he was a successful shot blocker given that he towered over most NBA players.

Bol reportedly gave most of his fortune, estimated at $6 million, to aid Sudanese refugees. As one twitter feed aptly put it: "Most NBA cats go broke on cars, jewelry & groupies. Manute Bol went broke building hospitals."

When his fortune dried up, Bol raised more money for charity by doing what most athletes would find humiliating: He turned himself into a humorous spectacle. Bol was hired, for example, as a horse jockey, hockey player and celebrity boxer. Some Americans simply found amusement in the absurdity of him on a horse or skates. And who could deny the comic potential of Bol boxing William "the Refrigerator" Perry, the 335-pound former defensive linemen of the Chicago Bears?

Bol agreed to be a clown. But he was not willing to be mocked for his own personal gain as so many reality-television stars are. Bol let himself be ridiculed on behalf of suffering strangers in the Sudan; he was a fool for Christ.

During his final years, Bol suffered more than mere mockery in the service of others. While he was doing relief work in the Sudan, he contracted a painful skin disease that ultimately contributed to his death.

Bol's life and death throws into sharp relief the trivialized manner in which sports journalists employ the concept of redemption. In the world of sports media players are redeemed when they overcome some prior "humiliation" by playing well. Redemption then is deeply connected to personal gain and celebrity. It leads to fatter contracts, shoe endorsements, and adoring women.

Yet as Bol reminds us, the Christian understanding of redemption has always involved lowering and humbling oneself. It leads to suffering and even death.

It is of little surprise, then, that the sort of radical Christianity exemplified by Bol is rarely understood by sports journalists. For all its interest in the intimate details of players' lives, the media has long been tone deaf to the way devout Christianity profoundly shapes some of them.

Obituary titles for Bol, for example, described him as a humanitarian rather than a Christian. The remarkable charity and personal character of other NBA players, including David Robinson, A. C. Green and Dwight Howard, are almost never explicitly connected to their own intense Christian faith. They are simply good guys.

Christian basketball players hope that their "little lights" shine in a league marked by rapacious consumption and marital infidelity. They could shine even brighter if sports journalists acknowledged that such players seek atonement and redemption in a far more profound way than mere athletic success.

Jon A. Shields is assistant professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

just being helpful....

For a context listen to this sermon.

finding out what someone is really like

Have you ever caught yourself being surprised, maybe shocked by discovering what someone is really like? More often than not this occurs when someone has done a very wrong or quite unpleasant act or says an awful thing. He does X which is bad, and we conclude that X exposes a dark underlying flaw which defines the true nature of the person.

Christians should not be surprised at others, or ourselves for that matter, doing some awful thing. It is after all just revealing our sinful nature or natural inclinations of our Adamic nature. But surprised we are.

The problem I think is not that we are surprised but the interpretation we make of the surprise. What does it mean? To expose who we really are? Doesn't this imply there some underlying reality that is the true self? Does all the good stuff we do just mask the true self?

Frankly, if that is the case I'd rather not find out. It is bad enough that the longer and better you know someone, the more garbage you find out about them. Sure you can find out more good things, but the discovery process seems to be biased toward finding garbage.

Someone, I forgot who, once said something to the effect that if you want to find a little gold you have to dig through tons of dirt. Well I'm not sure that is worth the effort. At least it seems to me like a small payoff for a lot of effort, unpleasant effort at that.

What is the reality? The tons of dirt or the small amounts of gold?

That is likely the type of question about which semi-drunk sophomores can have long, deep late-night discussions. As for me, I'm not interested this debate because I think I have the answer:

Neither.

Maybe, just maybe, we Christians ought to take God's view? While I usually do not have problems finding fault with a person, the Lord seems to have a different take. When I bother to check with Him, He is not interested in the past and not even too concerned with the present. He seems to view a person as He intends him or her to be, as the person is designed to be, and as He desires for them to be, rather than care about the how sin and circumstance has made one a distorted caricature of God's design.

Actually, the Lord just might be on to something here. It is much healthier to focus on God's ultimate vision, His truth, than on the temporary distortion of the past or present. I am not advocating denial of reality but rather focusing on results rather than temporary conditions.

I don't really want to find out people's secret garbage. This is also not denial. I've seen enough garbage and it no longer holds any fascination for me. In a similar way, I have no interest in examining a toilet after someone has used it and before it has been flushed.

We think we have brilliant insights into the truth when from God's perspective we are believing a distorted picture of the truth.

Let's see things as God sees them. Maybe this is an application of the instructions of Philippines 4:8?

Be blessed!
RB