Category Archives: Bible

Bible Study lessons and Theology

Randy the Recanter

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Some time ago I wrote about working from home and one of my reasons for getting things done was ‘fear.’ I’d like to withdraw that publicly as a reason that anyone should do anything. Fear is a bad motivator in most situations (I’m not going to generalize and say ‘all’ because I’m sure we could put our collective minds together and say that, “fear is a good motivator if…”). In fact working from anywhere should be inspired by integrity instead of fear.

If you get things done with integrity then the only fear you have to have is that you won’t get paid or that you won’t get credit for something. However, you don’t have to fear failure because integrity often includes things that preclude failure [again, that’s a generalization and we can come up with exceptions]. Doing things the right way because its the right way will often lead to better quality work because your work ethic is motivated correctly. Motivation, drive or whatever you want to call it: integrity is the way to go. Lets pass on the fear motivator for working. Don’t fear unemployment, don’t fear ‘not enough money,’ don’t fear failure. God may very well be closing one chapter in your life to open another chapter; further, this life is not the end, death is seperation from this body.

Why Fear when you can have integrity?

The Road from Rita

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Tonight as I saw the lines of cars on the news I realized something very incredible: People were going to run out of gasoline and the gas stations on their way away from Rita were going to be closed because the people responsible for running the stations were going to be leaving, too. Further, police and various other sources of security and protection are going to be leaving at some point in time simply because it is not safe for people to be in the path of this hurricane. Even worse: elderly and handicap will be left behind in this. I don’t know who, I don’t know where but there will be reports of people who were simply left behind.

I’m praying for the folks in the route of this, including my co-workers, and I am trusting that God, in His wisdom and strength, will protect a large amount of people, and those who die will do so in His mercy. Death is not evil, bad or nasty, but it is a change – may God’s glory be shown in this time of what looks like chaos.

Christian Foundations Study

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Tonight is the first Study in the new Christian Foundations Study we’re doing in Aurora. Its also the first adult Bible Study I’ve lead, so I’m a wee nervous. Not because I think I’ll fail but mostly because I’m used to questions that High Schoolers or Junior Highers/Middle Schoolers ask. I want this to be a great foundation study that will allow new/young believers to grow on. I’ve been a Christian since I was about 4 (I don’t know the exact date I asked Christ to be my savior – I don’t think I knew what a date was back then 🙂 ), but I’ve only grown as much as I have since I was about 20. Prior to that I was a a Christian without direction or understanding. I had been discipled some and had grown some but I had not been equipped. Having the understanding to start growing through your own personal study made things handy. What is amazing is how many times you get told ‘Read the Bible.’ when you really have no idea how to read the Bible and understand it. Not that the Bible is not understandable but that its an immense book with lots of styles of writing and topics in it.

You need to know how to identify various things that are historical, understand thte timeline of events so that you’re not just reading anything and trying to apply it to yourself. These are all things I hope to cover in the study, and I hope that those who attend find it fulfilling since I’m going to be pouring myself into it as best as possible.

Color Me “Religionist”

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This is not a post for everyone. If you are not a protestant, if you are not a Christian, this is not for you. You will take offense at this most likely. With that said… I’ve probably sucked you in and you’ll continue to read and then get upset at me. I’m not sorry if you ignore this warning 🙂

I subscribe to the Bible in a Year Podcast. This weekend the host/reader/producer of the podcast, Rick, posted a ‘special’ podcast wherein someone else did a “study” on prayer. I place quotes around the study because it was really hinky. The first prayer he looked at was all of the following:

Jesus. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I recognize that Rick is a Catholic. I recognize that Catholicism is amazingly different from protestantism. I also recognize Jesus as my personal Savior. This is not a prayer. This is the name of my savior, a person. When I pray, it is not one word, it is to one person: God. To put this in perspective, prayer is communication with God. Similarly talking to my wife is communication with Jessica. I would not, no matter how goofy I am, walk up to my wife and say:

Jessica.

And then walk away.

I stopped listening to the podcast after about 10 minutes (I wasn’t keeping track, it could have been less, I’m just guessing). Why is it that I get so riled up about others trying to pray in single word prayers? Mostly because when Christ was talking to His disciples in John 15 he calls them friends. The principle in this context is that believers are not just removed from the Law, but that they are brought close to God and are hidden in Him (Colossians 3:3). If you have a friend in Jesus you’re not going to pray His name! His name is priceless, precious and special because He is a friend. It is not a prayer. Paul wrote in I Thessellonians 5:17 that we should pray without ceasing. Try praying that prayer very long and you’re going to give up and move along. However, if you are praying to your friend Jesus you will have lots to talk about. You will have lots to be thankful for, lots to request that He would be glorified, and lots that you can ask about for wisdom. You can pray for opportunities to share the Gospel, you can pray for lots of things, but it won’t just be His name over and over.

I’m still subscribing to the podcast because its nice to get incremented sections of scripture to listen to. I will not be listening to the rest of the special messages to avoid this sort of rant in the future. If I do listen, I will not blog about them :).You don’t need to read too many of these sorts of things.

OK, sorry if you’ve read even though I warned you not to and you’re now all bent out of shape about it. Like the title suggests I’m an intolerant Religionist. I guess this makes me a “fighting fundy.” [actually, not, I’m not much of a fighter.]

All Things To All Men

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When I was in seminary I met a guy named Ezra Boggs. He happened to know more about various musicians than me, and he was into the local indy scene. I was humbled by this since it seemed that lots of folks were ignorant of it and he new way more than me. I was also humbled by his attitude of being an instrument or the living of Christ out for all men to see. I bought his band Not Called Common‘s CD “Love Songs for My Enemies” on iTunes today. The lyrics are intense, though the vocals are a little hard to pickup in some of the mixes.

Either way, read this article: All Things To All Men that Ezra wrote. It caused me to sit with a slight tear in my eye as I humbly realized that God works outside of my world in a bigger way than I’ll ever imagine.

Amen.

Resurrection Sunday

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It’s here. The day that celebrates rabbits, eggs and excessive amounts of candy – well, one of the days, because there’s probably a great similarity with Halloween in that regard. However, similarly what were once the eve of all saints day and the celebration of the resurrection of God are now Hallmark Holidays [TM]. However, I do celebrate my risen Lord and welcome you to join me.

Have a good Holy-Day or a good holiday… but either way, avoid the tooth decay, brush regularly and floss even more regularly… at least once a month.

Blog Fodder, Too Good to Pass Up

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Spam King Reports on Ministers of Spam. When morons do moronic things, you have to point it out. Why on God’s green earth would you solicit people for money in the form of email? Why would you want to thwart legitimate spam blocking services at companies such as Yahoo! and Hotmail to get money for God? This is just insane.

I do understand now how people could reject Christianity if this was the representation that they see. This doesn’t represent Christ, Christianity or anything else, it represents a bad attitude. If God wants you to minister in China, Prisons or next door he’ll give you the passion to do so and the required funds and transportation. I can just imagine Jesus out with his disciples passing out flyers asking for money, hoping that God the Father would provide. Dumb.

Hospitality

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Jessica and I have been married for over six years now, and it’s been great. Jessica is much more introverted than I am. When people come over I get charged and want them to stay until 10:30 or 11:00. Jessica, however, is tired when people leave because often she is just exerting so much more emotional energy. However, she loves to entertain. She’s a great cook and she loves to make special foods, little treats and throw together a little social event.

I had suggested that we buy a house that meets various needs we have and Jessica threw something my way that just caught me off guard: she wants good room for hosting people, having guests spend the night, feeding more than two other adults and room for kids to actually (gasp) play. Basically she wants to be hospitable and that’s something that I think is terrific. I was just listening to an MP3 from Mars Hill church in Seattle and the teacher is talking about hospitality. I have harped on others needing to be hospitable (scripture says elders need to be hospitable – if your pastors and elders are not so, take a close look at I Timothy 3) and have left church because the people were not. Surely this is something that should be ingrained in me. And in fact it is. My parents were very hospitable folks growing up and I don’t remember them letting a week go by that they didn’t have someone over for a meal, often times multiple families at multiple meals.

So… in summary I love my wife and I’m glad she’s thinking that way. Also, the pastor in that lesson talked about how our architecture today for homes and buildings is not conducive to hospitality. Looks like we’ll be buying an older home.

Grace, The Other White Meat

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James Robinson writes about love and grace in his post: WWJD? Love Somebody, Perhaps?. If there’s one thing that believers tend to do its talk about grace and lay down the law. Surely Romans 6’s talking about walking uprightly is important, but I have since moving to Denver found some really important truths to be a key to an effective walk with Christ.

The Positional Truths
Holly Hills Bible Church is very attached to the Pauline epistles where we learn that our position in Christ is settled. In the heavenlies we are hidden in Christ (Collosians 3), our salvation is secure and no amount of sin can separate us from God (Romans 8:38-39). Here’s the thing about Grace that is really key: it’s inexhaustable. We can in no way find the end of the love of God because He is infinite, and love is one of His perfect attributes. Therefore, His love is infinite as well.

Back to the positional truths. The positional truths are as follows:

When a person becomes a believer their sin nature has been crucified with Christ.
The believers are resurrected with Christ, ascended with Christ and then seated with Christ where we are hidden with him. Positionally we’re secure. I, no matter how much I sin stand confidently before God as one of His own due to the work of Christ. My works are nothing.

Our condition on this earth, as we’re sanctified (setting aside more and more of ourselves unto Christ, being conformed to His image), is never effecting our position. However, our position, because of Christ is being conformed to our position, which is hidden in Christ. The unbeliever’s condition and position are consistent because they are both directed towards the flesh, however, any inconsistencies that we have as beleivers are paid for by the blood of Christ.

I have found myself at times thinking things and realizing that they were not consistent with my position and therefore, as Paul writes, brought them into submission of Christ. My condition is effected by the flesh but not ruled by the flesh – Romans 7 is followed by Romans 8 where we learn of the victory that the believer has over sin through abiding in Christ.

Love Trumps Tolerance
Our pluralistic, relativistic culture touts tolerance as ‘the lord of the ring’ because it sounds to unifying. It’s not, it just allows for separation into categories while looking the other way. In engineering there is what is called a tolerance level that is the amount of error that is acceptable. Tolerance almost always has some limit. For example we can tolerate Christianity in our United States of American culture as long as we don’t have prayers in public places, no “In God We Trust” on our money and promote other religions based on the fact that none of them is actually true. We tolerate Christians, but once they’ve exceded a tolerance level then we must limit and control their practices. Tolerance is not friendly to justice, which is exacting.

Love, on the other hand looks past errors (I Corinthians 13:4,8) and is patient in growth and injustice. However, love is compatible with Justice because it says, “Let justice be done, there are consequences for actions” but is not contrary to still loving the person before, during and after punishment.

God Gets the Glory – No Matter What
One last thing that just recently hit me is that God gets the glory no matter what. If we’re righteous in our lives He gets the Glory of enabling us to be so. If we sin He gets the glory for being so gracious and loving. Ephesians 2:10 says that God has good works planned for believers – we’re going to do righteous things in our lives – we can plan on it. When we do those thing God gets the glory, we get rewards in heaven for it, and we get to be with Him as he reveals His glory to us. Wow! That’s so amazing.

Lord, We Give You Glory
I tried to sum up the concepts in this post two Sundays ago in a song that I’ve written. The lyrics are below and a rough and dirty recording is available to listen to as an MP3 (email me for guitar chords).

Lord We Give You Glory MP3.

Lord we give you glory
Lord we give you praise
You are the first born from the dead
The one with whom we’re raised

Sealing our position
We’re hidden with you
We are your possession
Jesus we love you

Your grace knows no boundary
A gift from up above
Knowing me you found me
And gave me your love