My wife and I are using the start of the Jewish New Year as a start for a new Bible Study.
This will be an in depth study of the Scripture led by Tom Bradford, a Christian Hebrew scholar and on-line Bible teacher.
We are prayerfully considering whether we should attempt this as a group study; but finding a place in our busy schedule for another meeting is challenging.
Today we started with the introduction, and even that was rich with new insights, etc.
I am really looking forward to this study.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Monday, September 7, 2015
The essence of "True Religion"
There are but a handful of Bible verses that appear to "sum up" all of the law and prophets - that is, they appear to put in a nutshell all that is expected of the believer. Here's my short list, see what you think:
1. Michah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
2. Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
Freely you received, freely give.
3. Matthew 22:37-39
He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind'
This is the great and foremost commandmet.
The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'
4. Matthew 25:31-40
I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
I was a stranger and you invited me in.
I was naked, and you clothed me.
I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you came to me.
To the extent that you did it to one of my brothers, even the least of them, you
did it to me.
5. James 1:23
Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit
orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the
world.
I believe it is pretty easy to see the "fruit" - it's easy to see if a person is doing these things, to what degree they are doing them, and what the result is. From these verses it is obvious that the expectation of faith is not "to be" but "to do."
The controversy, then, comes, not in the "what" but in the "how." My observation is that the modern Christian movement spends far too much time judging people on the "how" rather than just observing if they have the "what."
Yeshua plainly teaches in Matthew 25 that some will be invited to enter the kingdom, and they will not even know why or how they "made the cut." There will be others who are smugly self-confident that they are "in", and they will be rudely surprised to hear the master say "depart from Me, I never knew you."
Perhaps we should start paying more attention to the "what" and be less focused on the "how."
1. Michah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
2. Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
Freely you received, freely give.
3. Matthew 22:37-39
He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind'
This is the great and foremost commandmet.
The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'
4. Matthew 25:31-40
I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
I was a stranger and you invited me in.
I was naked, and you clothed me.
I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you came to me.
To the extent that you did it to one of my brothers, even the least of them, you
did it to me.
5. James 1:23
Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit
orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the
world.
I believe it is pretty easy to see the "fruit" - it's easy to see if a person is doing these things, to what degree they are doing them, and what the result is. From these verses it is obvious that the expectation of faith is not "to be" but "to do."
The controversy, then, comes, not in the "what" but in the "how." My observation is that the modern Christian movement spends far too much time judging people on the "how" rather than just observing if they have the "what."
Yeshua plainly teaches in Matthew 25 that some will be invited to enter the kingdom, and they will not even know why or how they "made the cut." There will be others who are smugly self-confident that they are "in", and they will be rudely surprised to hear the master say "depart from Me, I never knew you."
Perhaps we should start paying more attention to the "what" and be less focused on the "how."
Sunday, September 6, 2015
The Necessity of Possession
Before I had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, I dabbled in the occult. As a result I experienced demonic oppression and, subsequently, deliverance. It is a bit of a conundrum, I guess, that I unintentionally validated the existence of God by first validating the existance of Satan and his minions.
One thing I learned from my experience is that the human spirit is designed to be bound to something. I find it interesting how all of creation demonstrates this truth; but this makes sense, since all of creation is designed to reveal and give glory to the Creator.
We see this "need to be bound" in marriage, a human relationship ordained and instituted by God. We see it, for example, in chemistry where an oxygen atom almost never occurs alone; oxygen atoms occur in pairs, forming the molecule O2. Many chemical elements, when "unbound", become unstable - the "unbound" state cannot be maintained.
So too the human spirit is designed to be connected to something else for completeness. This is what makes a human susceptible to demonic oppression/posession.
What I realized in contemplating this is how closely "possession" by the Holy Spirit and "possession" by any other spirit are related. The Bible makes it clear that if we repent of our sins and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God comes in to dwell with us - we become "possessed" by the Spirit of God. Similarly, if I give myself to something other than God, I can be "possessed" by the spirit associated with that thing/behavior/choice. This is often manifested as "addictive behavior", psychosis, etc.
The effects of possession can be similar. While possession is the "normal" state for the human soul/spirit, the meeting of the spirit world and the physical world produces some predictable, and often seemingly dramatic results. In my case, my involvement in the occult resulted in a spirit other than my own gaining temporary control of my body (and immediately trying to leverage the situation to destroy me.) Similarly, once I repented and was "baptized in" the Holy Spirit (another way, I think, of saying I am "possessed by the Spirit of God"), then I had a different paradigm; I now had a spiritual force at work from within me, to preserve and enhance my life. Previously, when I moved to do something evil, I often felt a physical "rush" that essentially served to reinforce the action. Now, when I attempt to do something evil, I tend to have a sense of dread/foreboding... "something" tells me not to do what I am about to do. When I "move through" that sense and do the wrong thing anyway, then I find myself confronting a sense of guilt/remorse, which leads me to repent of the thing. This is a "negative reinforcement" - the feeling is so uncomfortable that I do not want to experience it again.
Moreover, the interaction between the spiritual world and the physical world, in a human body, can sometimes produce "manifestations". I personally believe this is because a human body exists outside the spiritual realm, and is limited in its ability to respond to spiritual influence. In the case of demonic activity, you sometimes see people manifesting "seizure like" activity or symptoms that mimic psychosis, etc. In the case of Holy Spirit activity, you sometimes see people trembling, falling down as if passed out, etc. Obviously, all of this can be faked, and I believe there are limits to what should be expected/accepted in these "manifestations" - but the point here is just that manifestations can and do occur when there is spiritual activity in a physical body.
Drawing a parallel between the activities of evil spirits and the Holy Spirit also can explain, in my mind, the difference between "oppression" and "possession".
A person can be "oppressed" by an evil spirit, meaning that the person still has control of their physical body, but the external spiritual influence causes pain, suffering, emotional distress, etc. The person is being "harassed" or oppressed by the demon.
Similarly the Holy Spirit works externally on a person - to woo them, to call them to repentence, etc. Once a person submits to this process, and repents, the Holy Spirit can then "move in" and be joined to that individual's own spirit, and this relationship can then deepen and grow, resulting in sanctification for the individual. If the relationship is nurtured and developed, the person will gradually be renewed and changed to look more and more like Jesus, who is, himself, the "very image of God the Father." And that should be the goal of everyone who is pursuing righteousness and relationship with the Father.
One thing I learned from my experience is that the human spirit is designed to be bound to something. I find it interesting how all of creation demonstrates this truth; but this makes sense, since all of creation is designed to reveal and give glory to the Creator.
We see this "need to be bound" in marriage, a human relationship ordained and instituted by God. We see it, for example, in chemistry where an oxygen atom almost never occurs alone; oxygen atoms occur in pairs, forming the molecule O2. Many chemical elements, when "unbound", become unstable - the "unbound" state cannot be maintained.
So too the human spirit is designed to be connected to something else for completeness. This is what makes a human susceptible to demonic oppression/posession.
What I realized in contemplating this is how closely "possession" by the Holy Spirit and "possession" by any other spirit are related. The Bible makes it clear that if we repent of our sins and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God comes in to dwell with us - we become "possessed" by the Spirit of God. Similarly, if I give myself to something other than God, I can be "possessed" by the spirit associated with that thing/behavior/choice. This is often manifested as "addictive behavior", psychosis, etc.
The effects of possession can be similar. While possession is the "normal" state for the human soul/spirit, the meeting of the spirit world and the physical world produces some predictable, and often seemingly dramatic results. In my case, my involvement in the occult resulted in a spirit other than my own gaining temporary control of my body (and immediately trying to leverage the situation to destroy me.) Similarly, once I repented and was "baptized in" the Holy Spirit (another way, I think, of saying I am "possessed by the Spirit of God"), then I had a different paradigm; I now had a spiritual force at work from within me, to preserve and enhance my life. Previously, when I moved to do something evil, I often felt a physical "rush" that essentially served to reinforce the action. Now, when I attempt to do something evil, I tend to have a sense of dread/foreboding... "something" tells me not to do what I am about to do. When I "move through" that sense and do the wrong thing anyway, then I find myself confronting a sense of guilt/remorse, which leads me to repent of the thing. This is a "negative reinforcement" - the feeling is so uncomfortable that I do not want to experience it again.
Moreover, the interaction between the spiritual world and the physical world, in a human body, can sometimes produce "manifestations". I personally believe this is because a human body exists outside the spiritual realm, and is limited in its ability to respond to spiritual influence. In the case of demonic activity, you sometimes see people manifesting "seizure like" activity or symptoms that mimic psychosis, etc. In the case of Holy Spirit activity, you sometimes see people trembling, falling down as if passed out, etc. Obviously, all of this can be faked, and I believe there are limits to what should be expected/accepted in these "manifestations" - but the point here is just that manifestations can and do occur when there is spiritual activity in a physical body.
Drawing a parallel between the activities of evil spirits and the Holy Spirit also can explain, in my mind, the difference between "oppression" and "possession".
A person can be "oppressed" by an evil spirit, meaning that the person still has control of their physical body, but the external spiritual influence causes pain, suffering, emotional distress, etc. The person is being "harassed" or oppressed by the demon.
Similarly the Holy Spirit works externally on a person - to woo them, to call them to repentence, etc. Once a person submits to this process, and repents, the Holy Spirit can then "move in" and be joined to that individual's own spirit, and this relationship can then deepen and grow, resulting in sanctification for the individual. If the relationship is nurtured and developed, the person will gradually be renewed and changed to look more and more like Jesus, who is, himself, the "very image of God the Father." And that should be the goal of everyone who is pursuing righteousness and relationship with the Father.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Another Viewpoint on Suffering
I have long resisted the idea that suffeing comes from God, that somehow it is His will that we suffer. There is plenty of evidence that this is true; however, it is difficult for me to reconcile this with what I know of the nature and character of God (which is admittedly incomplete.)
However, during our Sabbath meeting this week, we got into a conversation about the purpose of the law and the gospel, and we examined the possibility that the purpose is to build character - to build us into the image of Yeshua, the Christ - who was, in character, the image of the Father.
Some of this discussion involved Joni Erikson Tada as an "example", but others could easily be named (Corrie Ten Boom comes to mind, but there are many others.) The point is, has the suffering these people have endured wrought a change in their character? The obvious answer is "Yes, absolutely!"
In a similar way, the suffering of the Jewish people, perhaps, was intended to work character into them. God never abandoned them when they were suffering, but it is certainly true that they have endured many sufferings for their character flaws.
The next question this stirs up in me is, "what it would be worth, what would I be willing to pay, to have a character that is absolutely pleasing to Adonai?"
I have to be honest and say that this question cuts to the heart of who I am and how I perceive myself; a mirror has been held up and I don't think I like what I see...
Next
Friday, January 23, 2015
Voting with your Dollars: Healthcare - How to Defeat Obamacare
Had an interesting "combination" experiences tonight... First, went to a Chamber of Commerce mixer at representative R. Lee James' office, and met the physicians from Medicine Made Simple (medicinemadesimple.net)
Hurried home in time to see a free Webinar on the new documentary film "Wait Til It's Free ('http://vimeo.com/58986827 )
The movie mentions a ministry, Samaritan Ministries (http://samaritanministries.org/) - similar to Medi-Share (https://mychristiancare.org/Medi-Share/Medi-Share.aspx).
It occurred to me that if you used a physician who operated outside the paradigm, and joined a Christian Medical Sharing program, you could "defeat" Obamacare - voting with your dollars.
I will have to consider this prayerfully, since I am one of the "fortunate" folks who have a job, and insurance; but at the same time I am concerned about handing over my healthcare to the government, and this may be a way to be more consistent with my beliefs.
What do you think? Should we volunarily "give up" our "benefits" in order to be more aligned with our principles?
Hurried home in time to see a free Webinar on the new documentary film "Wait Til It's Free ('http://vimeo.com/58986827 )
The movie mentions a ministry, Samaritan Ministries (http://samaritanministries.org/) - similar to Medi-Share (https://mychristiancare.org/Medi-Share/Medi-Share.aspx).
It occurred to me that if you used a physician who operated outside the paradigm, and joined a Christian Medical Sharing program, you could "defeat" Obamacare - voting with your dollars.
I will have to consider this prayerfully, since I am one of the "fortunate" folks who have a job, and insurance; but at the same time I am concerned about handing over my healthcare to the government, and this may be a way to be more consistent with my beliefs.
What do you think? Should we volunarily "give up" our "benefits" in order to be more aligned with our principles?
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