My favorite theme in Romans is the theme of unity. Don’t argue over things but instead be unified. Check out this verse: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5-6 NRSV).
I have a friend who wrote a song with the theme of unity. I love the song so much because it should be every Christian’s prayer. When I was growing up, my church had two pastors. Both of them were great at sharing the gospel on their Sunday. Something happened though. As a result, the founding pastor was told to leave. Along with the pastor, many of the members of the church left. That caused pain throughout the body. I doubt that anybody would dispute that. It is like cutting a person in half.
The pastor left causing pain in himself and his family. The members who were all friends one day were arguing. Some left causing more pain. Yet if they had stayed they would have remained in pain. The people who stayed had differing opinions and argued more. That caused more people to leave. Within a short period of time, our standing-room-only two service church became a one service church with many open seats. Even today there is still arguing over whether or not the pastor should have been told to leave.
All that time wasted. Think about that. Every moment we spend arguing is another moment that we are not spreading the love of Christ. Maybe it is because of my time watching a church break that I do not like to argue about issues that do not directly relate to the basic creed of Christianity.
What is more important, you tell me…helping the woman down the street understand that there is hope and showing her the love of Christ, or arguing about what color carpet should be placed in the foyer of a building with a steeple on it? I am about to go cliché on you, so be forewarned: What would Jesus do? Would he sit around the table discussing why he prefers crimson and fluffy carpeting over the flat and dull dark green?
Another problem I have encountered is what I am allowed to do as a Christian. We tend to like to argue about what we have the freedom to do and what we do not have the freedom to do. Obviously there are some things that the Bible clearly states that we are not to do. The Ten Commandments are a few of those things. However, there are gray areas. Christians like to fight over the gray areas, don’t we? I learned in a study this past summer that if God has not convicted you in a specific area (that is not one of the areas that he has told all of us not to do) then we are able to do that. For example, if a person feels a conviction not to watch a movie that is rated R that is great. That person then should not watch rated R movies. However, that person cannot force his/her convictions onto all the other Christians. In the same way, Christians who do not have that conviction should no recommend movies that are rated R to that person. I really enjoyed Romans 14 for this reason.
If Christians could learn how to be unified that would be the start of something absolutely amazing. Now, I am not saying that we must agree on everything. I may have a strong opinion that blue is the greatest color in the world and you by no means need to agree with me. Maybe you like pink. Or maybe you think that the six days of creation were thousands of years. I would completely disagree with you. However, I would rather help orphans and widows who need help rather than debate that.
I do not mind discussions. You can tell me why you think the flood was local but do not expect me to argue with you. Do not expect me to agree with you either. This is also a personal thing. I really hate arguments, I do not like watching debates where there needs to be a winner. I hate that mentality that one person is obviously smarter than the other person. Do you know why? Because all of the members have that same thought throughout the debate and after it is over, nobody has changed their minds and yet all think they have won.
There are exceptions to this. If you told me that you were a Christian but said that you did not believe that Jesus died and rose again, then you would hear from me. That is part of what a Christian is supposed to believe. If you told me that Jesus was only human, you would hear from me. However, you would not hear me demanding that you take my side. However, there would be a lot of passion in what I had to say.
Unity, that is the key to being the Body of Christ. It is something that I do not see very often in the American Church (as a whole). It is something that I pray for. Let’s learn to get along now; we are all going to spend an eternity together. If we learn how to be unified now, then God won’t have to teach us that before we go to Heaven because that will become something He has already taught us.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Romans Blog 1
The author of Romans is Paul and the person who wrote it down is Tertius, “I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord” (Romans 16:22 NRSV). Romans was written around 57 AD “give or take a year” (Edwards, 2007), and was probably composed in Corinth (Tafoya) or Ephesus (Edwards, 2007) to Rome. The Church in Corinth was started by unknown believers. In the year 49 AD, Emperor Claudius tells all of the Jews in Rome to leave because he got tired of hearing disputes about “Chrestus” or Christ. From that time to Emperor Claudius’ death, the Church is completely Gentile. Once Claudius passed away, the Jews were allowed to return to Rome. As far as we know, Paul never visited the Church in Rome. The genre of Romans is an epistle. The argument presented in Romans is to persuade readers (Keener 413). The form of the letter is called ‘diatribe’ which is when an argument is stated and then all of the possible objections are refuted.
Paul writes concerning a few conflicts between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles because they both have different ways of living as Christians. For example, Jews were more careful in picking out their food so that they would not offend God by eating food that was associated with idols of Roman religion while Gentiles were not as concerned about where the food came from. Craig S. Keener also points out that this dispute also arose from the two groups having different ways of expressing their faith (Keener, 412). The purpose of Romans is pretty much answering the question “How do Gentiles fit in?” and the key is that all people are justified by faith. The first thing that Paul establishes in the book of Romans is that all humans, Jews and Gentiles alike, are sinful and are therefore guilty. There are three main issues that Paul addresses in Romans. The first is in chapter seven and is the issue with the law, the second is in chapter 11, which addresses the Christian Gentiles’ arrogance, and the third issue is admonitions of the strong versus the weak in chapters fourteen and fifteen (Tafoya).
Romans 1:1 says “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ…” (NRSV). In my notes that go with the New Revised Standard Bible says that ‘servant’ could be changed to ‘slave.’ I have thought about this a lot. The commentary by Craig S. Keener has a note on this verse. He says “A slave of someone in high position had more status, authority and freedom than a free commoner; the emperor’s slaves were some of the highest-ranking people in the empire as the Roman Christians would know. In the Old Testament, prophets from Moses on were generally called ‘servants’ or ‘slaves’ of God” (Keener 414). I just thought that it was very interesting that being free of God is really an imprisonment. Of course I have heard that if you don’t serve God, then you have a different master. But even taking that into my mind, God is of higher status. So, either you are free from God and ‘independent’ which makes you have less freedom or you are serving a master who is not as high in society as God. If this master is not as high up, then his slaves are still under him and therefore have less freedom than he does. If we serve God and He is ultimately free, then in our slavery to Him we have more freedom because He has more freedom to give.
Romans 3:29-30 says “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also, since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.” This was an interesting thing to read because there is this amazing flow of logic that I had never caught before. Surely, there is only one God. Certainly that God is the same God for Jews as for Gentiles. Therefore, why would Gentiles not be able to enter His kingdom on the same grounds as the Jews?
Romans 4:13 says, “For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham to his descendants through law but though righteousness of faith.” Abraham entered into the covenant with God through faith. The Hebrew word for “land” could also mean “earth” (Keener 422). Actually, now that I think about it, I wrote a paper on the Great Flood last semester at the University of Idaho. One of the arguments is that the word for “earth” could mean “land” which means that the flood could have been simply a local flood and not a global flood. My main point, because I was writing to Christians, was that if God only judged the world partly back during Noah’s time, then he would not judge the world as a whole on the Judgment Day. I have always taken the Hebrew world “earth/land” as earth. Nothing will change my opinion. In church about two weeks ago, I heard the pastor say something about Abraham actually being told that the earth would be given to his descendants. The pastor rushed the reference and all I got was “Romans” so I was excited to find the verse in this reading of the book of Romans. I have found my self making the same conclusions as always: The Bible is pretty cool! And of course, that is a major understatement!
WORKS CITED
Books:
Edwards, James R. “The Letter of Paul to the Romans.” Pages 2007-2009 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Keener, Craig S. “Romans,” Pages 411-450 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
Class Lecuture:
Tafoya, Stace. “Intro to Romans.” Bible 114 Early Christian Literature. Colorado Christian University. 22 Oct 2008.
Paul writes concerning a few conflicts between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles because they both have different ways of living as Christians. For example, Jews were more careful in picking out their food so that they would not offend God by eating food that was associated with idols of Roman religion while Gentiles were not as concerned about where the food came from. Craig S. Keener also points out that this dispute also arose from the two groups having different ways of expressing their faith (Keener, 412). The purpose of Romans is pretty much answering the question “How do Gentiles fit in?” and the key is that all people are justified by faith. The first thing that Paul establishes in the book of Romans is that all humans, Jews and Gentiles alike, are sinful and are therefore guilty. There are three main issues that Paul addresses in Romans. The first is in chapter seven and is the issue with the law, the second is in chapter 11, which addresses the Christian Gentiles’ arrogance, and the third issue is admonitions of the strong versus the weak in chapters fourteen and fifteen (Tafoya).
Romans 1:1 says “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ…” (NRSV). In my notes that go with the New Revised Standard Bible says that ‘servant’ could be changed to ‘slave.’ I have thought about this a lot. The commentary by Craig S. Keener has a note on this verse. He says “A slave of someone in high position had more status, authority and freedom than a free commoner; the emperor’s slaves were some of the highest-ranking people in the empire as the Roman Christians would know. In the Old Testament, prophets from Moses on were generally called ‘servants’ or ‘slaves’ of God” (Keener 414). I just thought that it was very interesting that being free of God is really an imprisonment. Of course I have heard that if you don’t serve God, then you have a different master. But even taking that into my mind, God is of higher status. So, either you are free from God and ‘independent’ which makes you have less freedom or you are serving a master who is not as high in society as God. If this master is not as high up, then his slaves are still under him and therefore have less freedom than he does. If we serve God and He is ultimately free, then in our slavery to Him we have more freedom because He has more freedom to give.
Romans 3:29-30 says “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also, since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.” This was an interesting thing to read because there is this amazing flow of logic that I had never caught before. Surely, there is only one God. Certainly that God is the same God for Jews as for Gentiles. Therefore, why would Gentiles not be able to enter His kingdom on the same grounds as the Jews?
Romans 4:13 says, “For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham to his descendants through law but though righteousness of faith.” Abraham entered into the covenant with God through faith. The Hebrew word for “land” could also mean “earth” (Keener 422). Actually, now that I think about it, I wrote a paper on the Great Flood last semester at the University of Idaho. One of the arguments is that the word for “earth” could mean “land” which means that the flood could have been simply a local flood and not a global flood. My main point, because I was writing to Christians, was that if God only judged the world partly back during Noah’s time, then he would not judge the world as a whole on the Judgment Day. I have always taken the Hebrew world “earth/land” as earth. Nothing will change my opinion. In church about two weeks ago, I heard the pastor say something about Abraham actually being told that the earth would be given to his descendants. The pastor rushed the reference and all I got was “Romans” so I was excited to find the verse in this reading of the book of Romans. I have found my self making the same conclusions as always: The Bible is pretty cool! And of course, that is a major understatement!
WORKS CITED
Books:
Edwards, James R. “The Letter of Paul to the Romans.” Pages 2007-2009 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Keener, Craig S. “Romans,” Pages 411-450 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
Class Lecuture:
Tafoya, Stace. “Intro to Romans.” Bible 114 Early Christian Literature. Colorado Christian University. 22 Oct 2008.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
"Over and Over and Over and Over Again"
Three blogs in a day is crazy. But, honestly, I could not help myself to returning to this informative state. It may have something to do with the fact that I have homework up to my ears that I am slowly falling behind in. However, I believe that it is more like God. Not that God is telling me to procrastinate. No, that is not the case at all.
Something amazing happened (“over and over and over and over again”—I’ll explain this later) again tonight as I read through Craig S. Keener’s commentary on the New Testament. What I read is up for later blogs. What I got from it I am willing to share right now for no grade at all.
This requires no grade because it has nothing to do with the who/what/when/where/why/how/and “aha” of any book of the Bible. Instead it has everything to do with why I am here. “Here” is Colorado right now. In December “here” will be Idaho. I am sure by now that you want to know what in the world I am talking about. This is called “suspense” is it killing you yet? No, you say? This is “irritating” you say?
What I re-discovered when I was reading was how crazy I am. I am crazy in love! You see, I am a terrible person. The blogs I have posted in the past are also a call to myself to change. I am not perfect by any definition of the word. However, there is this God who somehow is able to look beyond that. How, I have no idea. But the important part is that he can and he does. God reached out to me. I had no desire to really follow Him when I got hurt by a body of believers. Yet, here I am. I am a Christian.
Long story short, I left Christian life for a while. I kicked God out because all of His followers were hurting me and I felt that it was only a matter of time before I got hurt by God Himself.
That act of leaving and returning opened a long season of doubt which continued through my high school years. I left my Sunday church in pain and wondered why God’s church looked nothing like He did. I told God that I would never return to a Sunday church and stay. No church would ever be allowed to get so close that they could hurt me again.
Instead of Sunday churches, I went to three different youth groups a week. I got hurt by all three. But I wasn’t there for them. I was there for God. I wanted to know Him like I knew my family. I wanted to believe without doubt that He cared about me. Somehow, I knew that I fit in as His friend.
Upon college, I was afraid because I did not want to go to Sunday church, but I was too old for youth groups. I found Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship and a campus pastor named Jason who frustrated me so much that I returned the next week. And the one after that. And again…suddenly, I loved it there. But I would not let any of those Chi Alphans get close.
During my sophomore year I tried a church out on Sundays. However after a couple weeks I began recognizing faces. That was bad. If I could name them and they could name me then they were too close. They could hurt me. I stopped going to the church. Nobody seemed to understand how much pain I was holding. I did get questioned about why I wasn’t going to church. I hated the way that people looked at me. You know that look? The one that says “Oh, she is one of those college students who grew up in the church and then leaves God by the time she graduates from college. She left God.” I learned Matthew 7:1 to counter people’s thoughts and glares. I am not judging you, stop judging me.
Last fall, God prepared my heart for a surgery that would heal pain. By the time December rolled around and I had finished my last final, I was drained. Everything had become so hard. School had gotten difficult and I had been working 20 hours a week on top of my full credit load. Also, I had been asked to join Chi Alpha’s leadership team. There was a lot going on each day. I couldn’t sing. I know that you do not know me, but when I say that I couldn’t sing, it is very serious.
I went to the International House of Prayer (IHOP—the place for spiritual pancakes…well, not pancakes, but you get a lot of God and Jesus). There I learned a lot. This is not the blog that will go into all of that. What I will go into is that I found myself in a place where I was ready for God to begin a deep surgery in my heart. God has me on this journey where I am constantly surrounded by Christian college students.
Today I was walking to class and I felt a small wave of pain. A thought had triggered the pain. The thought was about the people around me and how they are accepting me. I said “Ouch” and God seemed to say “I got a splinter out.” I then questioned, “What splinter? Where?” God was talking about a splinter in my heart. If you have ever experienced a splinter, it hurts to have it and it hurts when it gets pulled out. But after it is pulled out, you feel better. God is not done working on my heart in this healing, mostly because I have been pretty unwilling lately for Him to come close. It hurts. There is this song by Jason Gray. The song is called “The Cut.” The chorus goes “You peel back the bark/tear me apart/to get to the heart of what matters the most/I’m cold and I’m scared as your love lays me bare/but in the shaping of my soul/the cut makes me whole.” And in the second verse, he sings “but I see that you suffer too/in making me new/for the blade of love cuts both ways.”
How beautiful a God we serve!
So, tonight I was in awe (“over and over and over and over again”—explanation is coming up!). There is this Misty Edwards song (music is cool!) called “Simple Devotion” that is so amazing! It is about the speaker who constantly (“over and over and over and over again”) realizes the amazing-ness of God. My favorite part of the song goes “And then I hear You say/as You gaze over the balcony of heaven/I hear You say as You peer through the lattice of time/I hear You say as You stand in heave/I hear You say as You rejoice over me/‘Oh angels oh angels/look and see/through that dark night of faith she is gazing at me!/Oh angels, oh angels look and see/through that cloud of unknowing she’s gazing at me!/And you have ravished my heart/my sister my bride/with one glance of your eye’/over and over and over and over again….”
Last week was midterms and God gave me one that He did not tell me about. All I have to say now is “Praise God.” He still loves us when we blow it. I bombed his midterm last week. But he gave me a grade of grace and of love. I would have failed me if I were God. “Don’t you learn?” I would have said. God, instead, said “I’m sorry that you have been hurt again. Keep trying to love the students around you.”
Isn’t God amazing?
Edwards, Misty “Simple Devotion.” Eternity. By Misty Edwards 2003.
Gray, Jason “The Cut.” All the Lovely Losers. By Jason Gray 2005.
Something amazing happened (“over and over and over and over again”—I’ll explain this later) again tonight as I read through Craig S. Keener’s commentary on the New Testament. What I read is up for later blogs. What I got from it I am willing to share right now for no grade at all.
This requires no grade because it has nothing to do with the who/what/when/where/why/how/and “aha” of any book of the Bible. Instead it has everything to do with why I am here. “Here” is Colorado right now. In December “here” will be Idaho. I am sure by now that you want to know what in the world I am talking about. This is called “suspense” is it killing you yet? No, you say? This is “irritating” you say?
What I re-discovered when I was reading was how crazy I am. I am crazy in love! You see, I am a terrible person. The blogs I have posted in the past are also a call to myself to change. I am not perfect by any definition of the word. However, there is this God who somehow is able to look beyond that. How, I have no idea. But the important part is that he can and he does. God reached out to me. I had no desire to really follow Him when I got hurt by a body of believers. Yet, here I am. I am a Christian.
Long story short, I left Christian life for a while. I kicked God out because all of His followers were hurting me and I felt that it was only a matter of time before I got hurt by God Himself.
That act of leaving and returning opened a long season of doubt which continued through my high school years. I left my Sunday church in pain and wondered why God’s church looked nothing like He did. I told God that I would never return to a Sunday church and stay. No church would ever be allowed to get so close that they could hurt me again.
Instead of Sunday churches, I went to three different youth groups a week. I got hurt by all three. But I wasn’t there for them. I was there for God. I wanted to know Him like I knew my family. I wanted to believe without doubt that He cared about me. Somehow, I knew that I fit in as His friend.
Upon college, I was afraid because I did not want to go to Sunday church, but I was too old for youth groups. I found Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship and a campus pastor named Jason who frustrated me so much that I returned the next week. And the one after that. And again…suddenly, I loved it there. But I would not let any of those Chi Alphans get close.
During my sophomore year I tried a church out on Sundays. However after a couple weeks I began recognizing faces. That was bad. If I could name them and they could name me then they were too close. They could hurt me. I stopped going to the church. Nobody seemed to understand how much pain I was holding. I did get questioned about why I wasn’t going to church. I hated the way that people looked at me. You know that look? The one that says “Oh, she is one of those college students who grew up in the church and then leaves God by the time she graduates from college. She left God.” I learned Matthew 7:1 to counter people’s thoughts and glares. I am not judging you, stop judging me.
Last fall, God prepared my heart for a surgery that would heal pain. By the time December rolled around and I had finished my last final, I was drained. Everything had become so hard. School had gotten difficult and I had been working 20 hours a week on top of my full credit load. Also, I had been asked to join Chi Alpha’s leadership team. There was a lot going on each day. I couldn’t sing. I know that you do not know me, but when I say that I couldn’t sing, it is very serious.
I went to the International House of Prayer (IHOP—the place for spiritual pancakes…well, not pancakes, but you get a lot of God and Jesus). There I learned a lot. This is not the blog that will go into all of that. What I will go into is that I found myself in a place where I was ready for God to begin a deep surgery in my heart. God has me on this journey where I am constantly surrounded by Christian college students.
Today I was walking to class and I felt a small wave of pain. A thought had triggered the pain. The thought was about the people around me and how they are accepting me. I said “Ouch” and God seemed to say “I got a splinter out.” I then questioned, “What splinter? Where?” God was talking about a splinter in my heart. If you have ever experienced a splinter, it hurts to have it and it hurts when it gets pulled out. But after it is pulled out, you feel better. God is not done working on my heart in this healing, mostly because I have been pretty unwilling lately for Him to come close. It hurts. There is this song by Jason Gray. The song is called “The Cut.” The chorus goes “You peel back the bark/tear me apart/to get to the heart of what matters the most/I’m cold and I’m scared as your love lays me bare/but in the shaping of my soul/the cut makes me whole.” And in the second verse, he sings “but I see that you suffer too/in making me new/for the blade of love cuts both ways.”
How beautiful a God we serve!
So, tonight I was in awe (“over and over and over and over again”—explanation is coming up!). There is this Misty Edwards song (music is cool!) called “Simple Devotion” that is so amazing! It is about the speaker who constantly (“over and over and over and over again”) realizes the amazing-ness of God. My favorite part of the song goes “And then I hear You say/as You gaze over the balcony of heaven/I hear You say as You peer through the lattice of time/I hear You say as You stand in heave/I hear You say as You rejoice over me/‘Oh angels oh angels/look and see/through that dark night of faith she is gazing at me!/Oh angels, oh angels look and see/through that cloud of unknowing she’s gazing at me!/And you have ravished my heart/my sister my bride/with one glance of your eye’/over and over and over and over again….”
Last week was midterms and God gave me one that He did not tell me about. All I have to say now is “Praise God.” He still loves us when we blow it. I bombed his midterm last week. But he gave me a grade of grace and of love. I would have failed me if I were God. “Don’t you learn?” I would have said. God, instead, said “I’m sorry that you have been hurt again. Keep trying to love the students around you.”
Isn’t God amazing?
Edwards, Misty “Simple Devotion.” Eternity. By Misty Edwards 2003.
Gray, Jason “The Cut.” All the Lovely Losers. By Jason Gray 2005.
Acts Blog 2
What is going to happen to Christians? Around the world Christians are already being persecuted. America is blessed. Do not think that you, America, are beyond something as terrible as persecution. Christians in America, do not think that your citizenship to an earthly country will prevent you from ever experiencing persecutions. We are very blessed, and I thank God for that. We are allowed to worship Jesus! We can sit in a park and hold a Bible study or a church service. People in China sometimes can only find caves to worship in.
The Holy Spirit was given to help us. It was not given, however, to prosper us. The Holy Spirit is not our “you-can-never-lose” slot machine. Neither is it a pot of wealth given to those who ask for blessings. “Bless us, Lord. For we sit back and treat our neighbor like trash. Bless us, Lord. I treat everyone the same: like dirt. I continuously forget that the car ahead of me who just cut me off has a driver who was created in Your image so bless me by not letting anyone else cut in front of me. Bless us, Lord with Your Holy Spirit so that I can pursue myself. Lord, bless me because I deserve more money at work. I deserve the best of everything because I accepted Christ as my Savior. Yes, bless my wickedness, Lord.”
The Holy Spirit was given to help us. It was given so that we would have God near us when we pursued the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is a Helper who is here with us, inside of us, to give words when we have none. The Holy Spirit was given to draw the people of the world closer to God. This God is the One who deserves the glory, not us.
Now, before I go on I need to say that not every American Christian is hooked on a selfish way of thinking. Yet every single one of us is that Christian. Some of us recognize this selfishness and briefly are able to do something that actually makes God smile. We have compassion on others every once in a while. We do spread the gospel at times. Those times, unfortunately, do not happen enough. The rest of the time, do you know we look like? We look like the world, like we are completely of the world.
What is it going to take, American Christians? Do not make Acts repeat itself in the way of how they began to evangelize. What happened right before the gospel began to spread with fire? Stephen was martyred. Is that what it is going to take here? Are we first going to have to lose our freedom to proclaim the Word of the Lord without fear of death? I pray that it does not take America that long. Look around; there are so many people even on your street who need to hear of the hope of Christ today. They cannot afford that you wait until some Christian dies for the name of our Precious Lord. No, they need a Savior now.
I am not saying that you should go out there and be a Bible thumper. No, those people frustrate me a lot. I used to listen to one once a year on the University of Idaho campus. He would come and preach the fear of hell into each student. Or so he thinks. He said that homosexual people would go to hell and those having sex out of marriage would follow. Those people who kill babies would be next. What a gospel there. That would turn me off to hearing about Jesus. He accused us all. Where did Jesus accuse the lost in the Gospels? I believe Jesus loved them. He loved the woman caught in adultery. He loved the ones who were demon-possessed. He loved the ones who were considered too unclean to touch. He today loves the homosexual people, and the woman who just gave up her child to abortion. He loves the people who try anything to be satisfied from drugs to sex to religions that do not lead to Him. LOVE! As Heidi Baker, in the documentary Finger of God, says, “Don’t complicate the Gospel. The Gospel is all about love.”
I once heard a message where the speaker asked us if we would die for Christ. We all raised our hands. Yes, we were willing to take a bullet for Christ. Then he asked if we were willing to live for Christ. Instead of a bullet, would we take beatings? Hardly any hands went up. Mine stayed down. This was a new thought to my teenaged brain. I had not heard anything like this in church before.
Last year as I read through Revelation, it occurred to me again that I should be willing to not deny Christ even if it caused pain. Honestly, I was uncertain if I would be willing to suffer for Christ even then. I talked to my campus pastor about it and he told me that he too had been struggling with the same thing.
So there are two things this blog is trying to communicate to you. The first is that Christians have been given the Holy Spirit for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. The second is that American Christians also should be willing to live fully for Christ. They should be willing to suffer for Him and to die for Him if it comes to that.
Are you willing? I am.
WORKS CITED
Finger of God. Dir Darren Wilson. Wanderlust Productions 2007.
The Holy Spirit was given to help us. It was not given, however, to prosper us. The Holy Spirit is not our “you-can-never-lose” slot machine. Neither is it a pot of wealth given to those who ask for blessings. “Bless us, Lord. For we sit back and treat our neighbor like trash. Bless us, Lord. I treat everyone the same: like dirt. I continuously forget that the car ahead of me who just cut me off has a driver who was created in Your image so bless me by not letting anyone else cut in front of me. Bless us, Lord with Your Holy Spirit so that I can pursue myself. Lord, bless me because I deserve more money at work. I deserve the best of everything because I accepted Christ as my Savior. Yes, bless my wickedness, Lord.”
The Holy Spirit was given to help us. It was given so that we would have God near us when we pursued the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is a Helper who is here with us, inside of us, to give words when we have none. The Holy Spirit was given to draw the people of the world closer to God. This God is the One who deserves the glory, not us.
Now, before I go on I need to say that not every American Christian is hooked on a selfish way of thinking. Yet every single one of us is that Christian. Some of us recognize this selfishness and briefly are able to do something that actually makes God smile. We have compassion on others every once in a while. We do spread the gospel at times. Those times, unfortunately, do not happen enough. The rest of the time, do you know we look like? We look like the world, like we are completely of the world.
What is it going to take, American Christians? Do not make Acts repeat itself in the way of how they began to evangelize. What happened right before the gospel began to spread with fire? Stephen was martyred. Is that what it is going to take here? Are we first going to have to lose our freedom to proclaim the Word of the Lord without fear of death? I pray that it does not take America that long. Look around; there are so many people even on your street who need to hear of the hope of Christ today. They cannot afford that you wait until some Christian dies for the name of our Precious Lord. No, they need a Savior now.
I am not saying that you should go out there and be a Bible thumper. No, those people frustrate me a lot. I used to listen to one once a year on the University of Idaho campus. He would come and preach the fear of hell into each student. Or so he thinks. He said that homosexual people would go to hell and those having sex out of marriage would follow. Those people who kill babies would be next. What a gospel there. That would turn me off to hearing about Jesus. He accused us all. Where did Jesus accuse the lost in the Gospels? I believe Jesus loved them. He loved the woman caught in adultery. He loved the ones who were demon-possessed. He loved the ones who were considered too unclean to touch. He today loves the homosexual people, and the woman who just gave up her child to abortion. He loves the people who try anything to be satisfied from drugs to sex to religions that do not lead to Him. LOVE! As Heidi Baker, in the documentary Finger of God, says, “Don’t complicate the Gospel. The Gospel is all about love.”
I once heard a message where the speaker asked us if we would die for Christ. We all raised our hands. Yes, we were willing to take a bullet for Christ. Then he asked if we were willing to live for Christ. Instead of a bullet, would we take beatings? Hardly any hands went up. Mine stayed down. This was a new thought to my teenaged brain. I had not heard anything like this in church before.
Last year as I read through Revelation, it occurred to me again that I should be willing to not deny Christ even if it caused pain. Honestly, I was uncertain if I would be willing to suffer for Christ even then. I talked to my campus pastor about it and he told me that he too had been struggling with the same thing.
So there are two things this blog is trying to communicate to you. The first is that Christians have been given the Holy Spirit for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. The second is that American Christians also should be willing to live fully for Christ. They should be willing to suffer for Him and to die for Him if it comes to that.
Are you willing? I am.
WORKS CITED
Finger of God. Dir Darren Wilson. Wanderlust Productions 2007.
Acts Blog 1
The early church and many scholars today believe that Luke wrote Acts which is the sequel to the Gospel of Luke. In fact, it is very obvious that whoever wrote Luke also wrote Acts because the same themes (prayer and the Spirit) are found in both. Also, Theophilus is again addressed “In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.” (Acts 1:1-2 NRSV). The genre of Acts is a histography, like Luke is.
Acts is thought to have been written before 64AD because the narrative cuts off before Paul’s death. Scholars sometimes lean toward the date of Acts being after 70 AD because of Luke 21 where Jesus talks about the destruction of the Temple. Also, some people think that Acts ends before Paul’s death simply for literary reasons (Keener 321).
There are many purposes that are found in Acts. The first is pastoral guidance, “Luke presumably a Gentile Christian, helps his communities to know how to remain faithful to tradition while reinterpreting it for their new circumstances” (Reid 1953). There are scholars who think another purpose of Acts was that it was written to act as a “court brief on Paul’s behalf” (Keener 321). Yet another thought on the purpose of Acts is that Christians wanted to find coherence between Judaism and Christianity because Christianity was a “young religion.” Yet at the same time, Christianity still uses the Old Testament.
Act’s message is that “prayer, signs and wonders, the Spirit, and world evangelism” (Keener 321) are extremely important and should remain important to Christians. Barbara E. Reid, in her intro to Acts in the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, also adds “meals and inclusive table practices, concern for the poor and the use of riches, fulfillment of Scripture, and witnessing” (1954) to the list of messages. It could be easily said that all of this is what Acts’ message is.
One of the biggest things that popped out at me as I read through Acts this time goes along with class discussion on October 20, 2008 in my New Testament class. The question was “why is the God of the Old Testament seemingly so different from the God of the New Testament?” During the past few months I have restarted reading through the Bible from Genesis through. I was on several missions as I read. Two of them will be found in this blog.
The first was that I wanted to know if God wanted me to go to the University of Idaho or Colorado Christian University and I was taking a study that said that the answer would be found in Scripture and confirmed everywhere else. While I knew that Genesis 51:8 would not say “Theresa, go to [insert school God wants me to go to here], thus sayeth the LORD” (By the way, don’t look up Genesis 51, you will not find it), I knew that the text was living and God could still communicate “Colorado” or “out of your mind” through His Word. I felt that God wanted me to start in Genesis. Yes, at first I complained. Not because I did not want to read Genesis, but I had seen a pattern every time I had begun in Genesis when reading the Old Testament. I would read through those fifty chapters no problem and then go on to Exodus and have a lot of good times reading through chapter 21. Come chapter 22, I got tired of the lack of narration and would switch back to the New Testament where I could at least understand the laws. God seemed extremely determined with His answer of “Begin in Genesis” so I did. Maybe someday you will find out the rest of this story. It has nothing to do with Acts so I am going to move on.
The second reason was because I wanted to make sure that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. Do you know what I have found? I have found a God who desires us so strongly that He is grieved when we turn away. I found a God who is full of compassion, constantly forgiving people. Yeah, there are wars and God does have wrath, but I also see the God who is jealous. This same God who today wants our hearts over heartless worship is the same God who wanted Israel’s heart and not heartless sacrifices.
One morning while reading Jeremiah, I got a little frustrated. God had told Jeremiah to do something strange. Because I cannot find the reference, I will not get too specific. Anyway, I was asking God why He asked people to do “odd” things like that. At the same time, I was preparing myself to take the midterm in my New Testament class. I reached for my favorite necklace and I felt like God was challenging my motives for wearing the necklace on that day. I pulled back quickly. “Lord, I will not wear it if You think I am not wearing it to remember You.” I sat looking at the necklace then asked, “What am I supposed to do? In tests, I fidget. You know that about me. I tend to reach for a necklace while I answer questions. It helps me think. What should I do?” I felt that God said that I could wear any other necklace. He suggested a different cross necklace that I had not worn in a few days. I picked that one up and put it on. Then God seemed to remind me of what I was reading in Jeremiah. I am sure that He asked me why I would listen to such an odd request. I laughed. I answered Him, “I did it because I love you.” Then I wondered if that was why people like Jeremiah listened to “odd” requests.
See, it is the same God!
I also thank God for my faith where it is today. I went through stages of doubt that the Bible contradicted. When James 1 says that God does not have a shifting shadow, I questioned that because God seems to constantly pour out wrath in the Old Testament.
Call me crazy, but Yahweh who told the Israelite in the desert how to live and gave the laws to Moses is the same Yahweh who stopped Paul from persecuting the Christians (who had not yet been called Christians). That is the same Yahweh who is full of love that He is love (1 John 4:8).
What does all of this have to do with Acts? Well, there was a dispute among the Jews about Gentiles needing to be circumcised. Peter said “‘And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” (Acts 11:15-17 NRSV). Peter says this after being questioned why he was with uncircumcised men and why he had eaten with them. God did not hold back the Holy Spirit to Cornelius even though he was not circumcised. Acts 10:44-45 says, “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.” God had overlooked that Cornelius was a Gentile. Strange is it not? No, it is not. Look back at Matthew 1 and see that there are Gentiles in Jesus’ lineage. There is Rahab and Ruth. Those two women are in Old Testament stories where the same God reigns.
WORKES CITED
Keener, Craig S. “Acts,” Pages 320-406 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
Reid, Barbara E.. “The Acts of the Apostles.” Pages 1953-1954 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Acts is thought to have been written before 64AD because the narrative cuts off before Paul’s death. Scholars sometimes lean toward the date of Acts being after 70 AD because of Luke 21 where Jesus talks about the destruction of the Temple. Also, some people think that Acts ends before Paul’s death simply for literary reasons (Keener 321).
There are many purposes that are found in Acts. The first is pastoral guidance, “Luke presumably a Gentile Christian, helps his communities to know how to remain faithful to tradition while reinterpreting it for their new circumstances” (Reid 1953). There are scholars who think another purpose of Acts was that it was written to act as a “court brief on Paul’s behalf” (Keener 321). Yet another thought on the purpose of Acts is that Christians wanted to find coherence between Judaism and Christianity because Christianity was a “young religion.” Yet at the same time, Christianity still uses the Old Testament.
Act’s message is that “prayer, signs and wonders, the Spirit, and world evangelism” (Keener 321) are extremely important and should remain important to Christians. Barbara E. Reid, in her intro to Acts in the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, also adds “meals and inclusive table practices, concern for the poor and the use of riches, fulfillment of Scripture, and witnessing” (1954) to the list of messages. It could be easily said that all of this is what Acts’ message is.
One of the biggest things that popped out at me as I read through Acts this time goes along with class discussion on October 20, 2008 in my New Testament class. The question was “why is the God of the Old Testament seemingly so different from the God of the New Testament?” During the past few months I have restarted reading through the Bible from Genesis through. I was on several missions as I read. Two of them will be found in this blog.
The first was that I wanted to know if God wanted me to go to the University of Idaho or Colorado Christian University and I was taking a study that said that the answer would be found in Scripture and confirmed everywhere else. While I knew that Genesis 51:8 would not say “Theresa, go to [insert school God wants me to go to here], thus sayeth the LORD” (By the way, don’t look up Genesis 51, you will not find it), I knew that the text was living and God could still communicate “Colorado” or “out of your mind” through His Word. I felt that God wanted me to start in Genesis. Yes, at first I complained. Not because I did not want to read Genesis, but I had seen a pattern every time I had begun in Genesis when reading the Old Testament. I would read through those fifty chapters no problem and then go on to Exodus and have a lot of good times reading through chapter 21. Come chapter 22, I got tired of the lack of narration and would switch back to the New Testament where I could at least understand the laws. God seemed extremely determined with His answer of “Begin in Genesis” so I did. Maybe someday you will find out the rest of this story. It has nothing to do with Acts so I am going to move on.
The second reason was because I wanted to make sure that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. Do you know what I have found? I have found a God who desires us so strongly that He is grieved when we turn away. I found a God who is full of compassion, constantly forgiving people. Yeah, there are wars and God does have wrath, but I also see the God who is jealous. This same God who today wants our hearts over heartless worship is the same God who wanted Israel’s heart and not heartless sacrifices.
One morning while reading Jeremiah, I got a little frustrated. God had told Jeremiah to do something strange. Because I cannot find the reference, I will not get too specific. Anyway, I was asking God why He asked people to do “odd” things like that. At the same time, I was preparing myself to take the midterm in my New Testament class. I reached for my favorite necklace and I felt like God was challenging my motives for wearing the necklace on that day. I pulled back quickly. “Lord, I will not wear it if You think I am not wearing it to remember You.” I sat looking at the necklace then asked, “What am I supposed to do? In tests, I fidget. You know that about me. I tend to reach for a necklace while I answer questions. It helps me think. What should I do?” I felt that God said that I could wear any other necklace. He suggested a different cross necklace that I had not worn in a few days. I picked that one up and put it on. Then God seemed to remind me of what I was reading in Jeremiah. I am sure that He asked me why I would listen to such an odd request. I laughed. I answered Him, “I did it because I love you.” Then I wondered if that was why people like Jeremiah listened to “odd” requests.
See, it is the same God!
I also thank God for my faith where it is today. I went through stages of doubt that the Bible contradicted. When James 1 says that God does not have a shifting shadow, I questioned that because God seems to constantly pour out wrath in the Old Testament.
Call me crazy, but Yahweh who told the Israelite in the desert how to live and gave the laws to Moses is the same Yahweh who stopped Paul from persecuting the Christians (who had not yet been called Christians). That is the same Yahweh who is full of love that He is love (1 John 4:8).
What does all of this have to do with Acts? Well, there was a dispute among the Jews about Gentiles needing to be circumcised. Peter said “‘And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” (Acts 11:15-17 NRSV). Peter says this after being questioned why he was with uncircumcised men and why he had eaten with them. God did not hold back the Holy Spirit to Cornelius even though he was not circumcised. Acts 10:44-45 says, “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.” God had overlooked that Cornelius was a Gentile. Strange is it not? No, it is not. Look back at Matthew 1 and see that there are Gentiles in Jesus’ lineage. There is Rahab and Ruth. Those two women are in Old Testament stories where the same God reigns.
WORKES CITED
Keener, Craig S. “Acts,” Pages 320-406 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
Reid, Barbara E.. “The Acts of the Apostles.” Pages 1953-1954 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
John Blog 2
While there are countless things that the Gospel of John has to offer for readers even today, there are two things that have been on my heart during this read-through of John. The first is how Christians are supposed to be servants and the other is the importance of intimacy with God. Part of being a servant in God’s eyes is to love one another. Through love, the gospel of Jesus Christ is able to come alive to a person.
Turn to John 13 and what do you read first? The very first thing s that come up in verses one through twenty have Jesus’ intimacy with his disciples “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Jesus, the Son of God, took of his outer robe and washed his disciples’ feet.
After He finished washing their feet Jesus said this, “You call me teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” (verses 13-17).
When I was a kid I remember first learning about when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. The name of the church was Mountain View Bible Church and I was in the basement at Sunday school. The pastor’s wife taught us that day. She had us take off our shoes and socks and she washed each of our feet telling us the story of when Jesus did the same. Today that memory sticks with me not because it was a good way to teach us about being a servant, even though it was. Rather it sticks with me because it was the pastor’s wife who served us.
Later on in John 13, Jesus gives a new command to his disciples “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love fore one another” (verses 34-35). Then in chapter 15, Jesus continues to talk about love, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (verse 12). How well did Jesus love the disciples? He called them and walked with them. He ate with them and taught them. He prayed for them and he died for them.
If Jesus asks us to love others the way He has loved us then there should be no limit to our love for others. It is easy to hang out with them and eat with them. It can be easy to learn from them or to teach them. Of course it can be hard to learn from them or to teach them. Do we love our Christian friends enough to pray for them? Most likely. Do we love our Christian friends enough to die for them? Maybe a few of them.
Jesus hangs out with us all of the time. He loves us when we are in a good mood and when we are in a bad mood. How many times do we turn from friends when we are in a bad mood or when they are in a bad mood? Isn’t it easier to walk away from them? This reminds me of a song by Chris Rice called “Sometimes Love.” The chorus goes “Sometimes love has to drive a nail into its own hand…” You know what, that is love. If “love” is not willing to do that then one must question if what is going on is really love.
One thing that I really enjoyed during this reading is something that I noticed about a year ago when I read John was the extent that Jesus prayed for his followers. In my spiritual walk last year I was struck at how Jesus prayed for those who had not yet been born. What I was thinking was how amazing it was that Jesus prayed for me. It is amazing, the more I learn about Jesus, the more I know what I am supposed to be like. More importantly, the more I learn about Jesus the more I love Him.
Turn to John 13 and what do you read first? The very first thing s that come up in verses one through twenty have Jesus’ intimacy with his disciples “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Jesus, the Son of God, took of his outer robe and washed his disciples’ feet.
After He finished washing their feet Jesus said this, “You call me teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” (verses 13-17).
When I was a kid I remember first learning about when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. The name of the church was Mountain View Bible Church and I was in the basement at Sunday school. The pastor’s wife taught us that day. She had us take off our shoes and socks and she washed each of our feet telling us the story of when Jesus did the same. Today that memory sticks with me not because it was a good way to teach us about being a servant, even though it was. Rather it sticks with me because it was the pastor’s wife who served us.
Later on in John 13, Jesus gives a new command to his disciples “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love fore one another” (verses 34-35). Then in chapter 15, Jesus continues to talk about love, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (verse 12). How well did Jesus love the disciples? He called them and walked with them. He ate with them and taught them. He prayed for them and he died for them.
If Jesus asks us to love others the way He has loved us then there should be no limit to our love for others. It is easy to hang out with them and eat with them. It can be easy to learn from them or to teach them. Of course it can be hard to learn from them or to teach them. Do we love our Christian friends enough to pray for them? Most likely. Do we love our Christian friends enough to die for them? Maybe a few of them.
Jesus hangs out with us all of the time. He loves us when we are in a good mood and when we are in a bad mood. How many times do we turn from friends when we are in a bad mood or when they are in a bad mood? Isn’t it easier to walk away from them? This reminds me of a song by Chris Rice called “Sometimes Love.” The chorus goes “Sometimes love has to drive a nail into its own hand…” You know what, that is love. If “love” is not willing to do that then one must question if what is going on is really love.
One thing that I really enjoyed during this reading is something that I noticed about a year ago when I read John was the extent that Jesus prayed for his followers. In my spiritual walk last year I was struck at how Jesus prayed for those who had not yet been born. What I was thinking was how amazing it was that Jesus prayed for me. It is amazing, the more I learn about Jesus, the more I know what I am supposed to be like. More importantly, the more I learn about Jesus the more I love Him.
Friday, October 10, 2008
John Blog 1
The gospel of John, according to most scholars, was written by John who was a disciple of Christ. John was also thought to have been the “beloved disciple.” However, the introduction to the Gospel According to John in the NISB Bible says that this gospel is anonymous and therefore may not be the apostle John. The genre of John is ancient biography, like the other gospels.
Most scholars believe that John was written between the years 85-90 AD although, according to Keener, dates in the 60’s have been proposed but most people believe the former. The place that John was written could have been Galilee or Syria “where conflicts with the Judean Pharisees would be most easily felt in the 90’s of the first century” (Keener 260), although John probably lived in Ephesus.
After 70 AD conflicts between Rome and Christians came up because Christians refused to worship the emperor. Conflicts also arose between Jews and Christians grew stronger and Pharisees took more religious power. Keener states “John writes his Gospel to encourage these Jewish Christians that their faith in Jesus is genuinely Jewish and that it is their opponents who have misrepresented biblical Judaism” (Keener 261).
The message of John is that God is the Word and the Word became flesh. It also emphasizes God’s Spirit “John encourages the believers to argue not only from the law but also from their possession of the Spirit” (Keener 262).
During this read-through of John I learned several new things. Actually a lot of them were simply remembering things from previous times. However some things were definitely new. The main thing is in John 8:1-11 which is the story of the woman who was caught in adultery. Craig S. Keener in his commentary says “ God wrote the Ten Commandments with his finger…perhaps Jesus writes the first line of the tenth commandment in the Septuagint of Exodus 20: ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife’” (Keener 284). Keener goes on to say that if Jesus did write that, then the accusers were all guilty of adultery. Also suggested by Keener is that Jesus is simply passing time as they all leave. Having grown up in the church, I have heard a few suggestions for what Jesus was writing. One is that Jesus was writing the Ten Commandments. Another suggestion was that he was writing their names in the sand and possibly sins that they had committed.
Personally, I like just considering the options. The option offered by Keener was one that I had never heard before and made that text come alive for me because Jesus is always trying to get His followers to follow God’s heart in matters and not sin. God also in the Old Testament tried countless times to get His people to obey him with their hearts. Coveting could be a completely internal sin. Of course a person could say “I want…” but they are thinking it first.
This passage reminds me of Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust as already committed adultery with her in his heart.” This passage does not exclude an unmarried woman, but it definitely would include a married woman.
A person does not have to live long before realizing that following God’s laws is tough. If the first laws were hard, try adding what was spoken of in the gospels. Not only that but I believe that God gives each person separate convictions that may not apply to their friends. Sounds impossible right? It is.
Keep reading the story though. The woman deserved to die because that is the penalty. Jesus, however, does not condemn the woman but forgives her. Look at the text at how they went away “one by one, beginning with the elders” (in verse 9 emphasis added). Jesus had just said “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (In verse 7). Even the elders recognized that they were sinful and were in no position to judge the woman.
One of my favorite verses in John is John 21:25 which I discovered years ago but had forgotten which gospel it was in. I hope I have remembered for a longer while this time. Anyway, the verse is “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every on of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Do you think that that is true even today? Does the Internet have a limit? Of course, Jesus is still alive and continuing to work in people and through people. Therefore, I have no doubt that it is even more true to day than it was back when John wrote that statement down.
Keener, Craig S. “John,” Pages 259-319 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
O’Day, Gail. “The Gospel According to John.” Pages 1905-1907 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Most scholars believe that John was written between the years 85-90 AD although, according to Keener, dates in the 60’s have been proposed but most people believe the former. The place that John was written could have been Galilee or Syria “where conflicts with the Judean Pharisees would be most easily felt in the 90’s of the first century” (Keener 260), although John probably lived in Ephesus.
After 70 AD conflicts between Rome and Christians came up because Christians refused to worship the emperor. Conflicts also arose between Jews and Christians grew stronger and Pharisees took more religious power. Keener states “John writes his Gospel to encourage these Jewish Christians that their faith in Jesus is genuinely Jewish and that it is their opponents who have misrepresented biblical Judaism” (Keener 261).
The message of John is that God is the Word and the Word became flesh. It also emphasizes God’s Spirit “John encourages the believers to argue not only from the law but also from their possession of the Spirit” (Keener 262).
During this read-through of John I learned several new things. Actually a lot of them were simply remembering things from previous times. However some things were definitely new. The main thing is in John 8:1-11 which is the story of the woman who was caught in adultery. Craig S. Keener in his commentary says “ God wrote the Ten Commandments with his finger…perhaps Jesus writes the first line of the tenth commandment in the Septuagint of Exodus 20: ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife’” (Keener 284). Keener goes on to say that if Jesus did write that, then the accusers were all guilty of adultery. Also suggested by Keener is that Jesus is simply passing time as they all leave. Having grown up in the church, I have heard a few suggestions for what Jesus was writing. One is that Jesus was writing the Ten Commandments. Another suggestion was that he was writing their names in the sand and possibly sins that they had committed.
Personally, I like just considering the options. The option offered by Keener was one that I had never heard before and made that text come alive for me because Jesus is always trying to get His followers to follow God’s heart in matters and not sin. God also in the Old Testament tried countless times to get His people to obey him with their hearts. Coveting could be a completely internal sin. Of course a person could say “I want…” but they are thinking it first.
This passage reminds me of Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust as already committed adultery with her in his heart.” This passage does not exclude an unmarried woman, but it definitely would include a married woman.
A person does not have to live long before realizing that following God’s laws is tough. If the first laws were hard, try adding what was spoken of in the gospels. Not only that but I believe that God gives each person separate convictions that may not apply to their friends. Sounds impossible right? It is.
Keep reading the story though. The woman deserved to die because that is the penalty. Jesus, however, does not condemn the woman but forgives her. Look at the text at how they went away “one by one, beginning with the elders” (in verse 9 emphasis added). Jesus had just said “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (In verse 7). Even the elders recognized that they were sinful and were in no position to judge the woman.
One of my favorite verses in John is John 21:25 which I discovered years ago but had forgotten which gospel it was in. I hope I have remembered for a longer while this time. Anyway, the verse is “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every on of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Do you think that that is true even today? Does the Internet have a limit? Of course, Jesus is still alive and continuing to work in people and through people. Therefore, I have no doubt that it is even more true to day than it was back when John wrote that statement down.
Keener, Craig S. “John,” Pages 259-319 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
O’Day, Gail. “The Gospel According to John.” Pages 1905-1907 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Luke Blog 2
“Religion is what you're left with when the Spirit leaves the building.” ~Bono
I think that it is very possible that of the four gospels, Luke is my favorite. My last blog hinted at why, but here is the answer spelled out so that anybody reading will not be confused. I love God. I love watching Him work. The Holy Spirit is at work. I love seeing the evidence of the Holy Spirit at work. Luke is a great source to see the Holy Spirit at work. When the Holy Spirit fills a place, things happen.
While Jesus walked on earth, He was constantly in tune with His Father. Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1) and was “filled with the power of the Spirit” (Like 4:14). Luke 11:13 says “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Therefore, you and I can be filled with the Holy Spirit.
This semester I have watched the film Finger of God four times. I purchased the film near the end of the summer before coming to Colorado Christian University. I prayed that God would show me anyone who would be interested in watching the film. God has been answering that prayer. I have met many people who are extremely interested in seeing what God is doing today. I am surprised that I have not told you about Finger of God until now. Remember my Matthew 2 blog? I had watched the film twice prior to writing that blog.
For those of you who have never heard of Finger of God, please visit http://fingerofgodfilm.com/ and click on "View Trailer."
What does this have to do with the Luke 2 blog? If Jesus walked in the power of the Holy Spirit and Christians are supposed to follow what He does, then why aren’t more Christians walking in the power of the Holy Spirit? Things that I noticed in Luke were that Jesus prayed and the Holy Spirit was with Him. Jesus healed dozens of people through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus also said that we would be given the Holy Spirit if only we would ask.
How can a Christian read Luke and not do what Jesus does? Jesus states over and over that God will provide. Check out Luke 12:22-34. How can we read that and then continue striving to make more money than everyone else? How can we read that and simply have nothing to say about it. How often do we read that passage or others like it and still do nothing?
I am struggling with this. I give time to Christ in ministry. However, I am concerned because that time is technically forced at me. At Colorado Christian University I have to complete the equivalent of 22.5 ministry hours for every semester that I attend. I have to. I love that I have to, do not get me wrong. Thankfully, I have never felt forced to participate. I have loved serving God through ministries offered at CCU and am considered a mission trip this summer. However, being forced to do these ministry hours becomes problematic if the service never becomes so engrained in me that it becomes part of me. I will probably graduate in three years. What then? If serving the Lord does not become part of my life by the time I graduate, what is going to happen?
Similarly, if I do not realize how magnificent the Holy Spirit is by the time I graduate, what will happen? Here at school, I have the opportunity to learn. I am learning about God. This is the perfect time to make walking in the Holy Spirit’s leadings something that comes naturally to me. Later is too late. Think about that. Upon graduating from college, I am expected to get a job and begin my career. Under society, time for God gets pushed away unless I do not allow that to happen. It’s all about creating a life habit.
Lord, I need You to be in my life habit. I desperately want you to be my life habit, God.
Let’s be bold! Let’s ask for the Holy Spirit!
I think that it is very possible that of the four gospels, Luke is my favorite. My last blog hinted at why, but here is the answer spelled out so that anybody reading will not be confused. I love God. I love watching Him work. The Holy Spirit is at work. I love seeing the evidence of the Holy Spirit at work. Luke is a great source to see the Holy Spirit at work. When the Holy Spirit fills a place, things happen.
While Jesus walked on earth, He was constantly in tune with His Father. Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1) and was “filled with the power of the Spirit” (Like 4:14). Luke 11:13 says “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Therefore, you and I can be filled with the Holy Spirit.
This semester I have watched the film Finger of God four times. I purchased the film near the end of the summer before coming to Colorado Christian University. I prayed that God would show me anyone who would be interested in watching the film. God has been answering that prayer. I have met many people who are extremely interested in seeing what God is doing today. I am surprised that I have not told you about Finger of God until now. Remember my Matthew 2 blog? I had watched the film twice prior to writing that blog.
For those of you who have never heard of Finger of God, please visit http://fingerofgodfilm.com/ and click on "View Trailer."
What does this have to do with the Luke 2 blog? If Jesus walked in the power of the Holy Spirit and Christians are supposed to follow what He does, then why aren’t more Christians walking in the power of the Holy Spirit? Things that I noticed in Luke were that Jesus prayed and the Holy Spirit was with Him. Jesus healed dozens of people through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus also said that we would be given the Holy Spirit if only we would ask.
How can a Christian read Luke and not do what Jesus does? Jesus states over and over that God will provide. Check out Luke 12:22-34. How can we read that and then continue striving to make more money than everyone else? How can we read that and simply have nothing to say about it. How often do we read that passage or others like it and still do nothing?
I am struggling with this. I give time to Christ in ministry. However, I am concerned because that time is technically forced at me. At Colorado Christian University I have to complete the equivalent of 22.5 ministry hours for every semester that I attend. I have to. I love that I have to, do not get me wrong. Thankfully, I have never felt forced to participate. I have loved serving God through ministries offered at CCU and am considered a mission trip this summer. However, being forced to do these ministry hours becomes problematic if the service never becomes so engrained in me that it becomes part of me. I will probably graduate in three years. What then? If serving the Lord does not become part of my life by the time I graduate, what is going to happen?
Similarly, if I do not realize how magnificent the Holy Spirit is by the time I graduate, what will happen? Here at school, I have the opportunity to learn. I am learning about God. This is the perfect time to make walking in the Holy Spirit’s leadings something that comes naturally to me. Later is too late. Think about that. Upon graduating from college, I am expected to get a job and begin my career. Under society, time for God gets pushed away unless I do not allow that to happen. It’s all about creating a life habit.
Lord, I need You to be in my life habit. I desperately want you to be my life habit, God.
Let’s be bold! Let’s ask for the Holy Spirit!
Luke Blog 1
Hear is the basic information about the Gospel According to Luke. Early traditions attribute the authorship of the Gospel of Luke to Luke, friend of the apostle Paul. Luke is thought to have been written before 64 AD by some scholars because Acts “breaks off before Paul’s death” (Keener 320). However, other scholars date Luke to after 70 AD based on chapter 21. Also, because Luke probably used Mark as a source, Luke would have had to be written after 64 AD. Either that or Mark was written earlier than 64 AD.
The purpose of Luke was to spread the gospel of Jesus to all, even to the Gentiles. Setting in Luke is to the Greek readers who were probably upper-class Romans (Keener 185).While the Gospels are all considered ancient biographies, Luke is called a “histography” or “history writing” by the introduction to Gospel of Luke in the NISB. This is because Luke is written in a style closer to Greco-Roman history rather than a biography. (Keener 186). The message of Luke is the ministry of Jesus reaching out to the outcasts of society. During Jesus’ ministry, he reached out especially to those with little or no social status like the religiously unfit, the poor, and the women (Keener 186). Luke has a “theme of salvation” (Green 1847). This salvation is for bringing restoration to Israel and fulfilling God’s promise to save Israel. With that restoration and saving, Israel is also to be a light to all nations.
Last fall I read from Acts to the end of the New Testament. After finishing, I circled back and read Matthew. Then I decided that I wanted to read Acts again. After finishing Acts, I worked again through the New Testament. Unfortunately, I did skip over Mark through John. I have read all four gospels many times and I really like them. At the same time Acts is my favorite book of the New Testament. What does this have to do with the Luke 1 blog? If you follow me a little longer I promise that you will find out.
Last fall I learned about the third part of the Godhead. I had grown up learning about God the Father. The same amount of attention had been given to Jesus, God’s son. However, little attention was given to the Holy Spirit. I decided a long time ago that the Holy Spirit was kind of like a Teddy Bear. Soft. Cuddly. Comforting.
I figured this was the role of the Holy Spirit: So say the little Christian slips and skins her knee. She is sad and probably crying and there is probably a little bit of blood and dirt. Jesus or God the Father takes down the Holy Spirit Teddy Bear and hands it to the little Christian. While the little Christian cries and holds the Teddy, God the Father or Jesus clean up the knee and puts a Band-Aid on it. God the Father or Jesus lets you hold the Teddy Bear until you feel better. Then He will take the Teddy Bear and put it back up onto the shelf where it will stay until the next little Christian skins his elbow.
This however is a very wrong view of the Holy Spirit. I learned that when the Holy Spirit is present big things happen. That is why I love the book of Acts. I had been challenged to read Acts and underline every time I saw the name “Holy Spirit” and underline all the times that the Holy Spirit moves and works in Acts. So I did. Most of my copy of the book of Acts has underlines and notes in the margins that are because I found the Holy Spirit working.
Ever since that read-through of Acts, I have underlined the term “Holy Spirit” whenever I see it regardless of which book of the Bible I am reading. I was surprised at the number of times I saw “Holy Spirit” in the Gospel According to Luke. However, after thinking about it for a moment, I realized that there was no reason to be surprised at all. Luke and Acts go together like a cell phone and its reception.
Another general thing (seen throughout the book of Luke) that I noticed while reading was that Luke continuously points out that Jesus follows God’s Law. Well, the first time that I noticed this obedience was actually done by Mary and Joseph when Jesus is eight days old. As the Jewish law states, males are to be circumcised the eighth day. Mary and Joseph also named him that day according to what the angel had said.
A specific part of Luke caught my eye and that is in chapter seven when the Centurion sends Jewish elders to Jesus. The Jewish elders call the Centurion worthy to have Jesus heal his slave (in verse four). However, in verse six, the Centurion sends some of his friends to Jesus to say “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you under my roof.” All the Centurion wanted was for Jesus to heal the slave. I just found the contrast of worthiness extremely interesting. The Centurion, a person of higher status, understands that Jesus is of even higher status. The Jewish leaders here feel that the Centurion is worthy enough. Jesus’ reaction is fascinating to me. He says, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” And verse nine also says that Jesus, upon hearing what the Centurion’s message, was amazed. A Gentile once again amazes the King of Kings.
Green, Joel. “The Gospel According to Mark.” Pages 1847-1850 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Keener, Craig S. “Mark,” Pages 185-258; 320-323 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
The purpose of Luke was to spread the gospel of Jesus to all, even to the Gentiles. Setting in Luke is to the Greek readers who were probably upper-class Romans (Keener 185).While the Gospels are all considered ancient biographies, Luke is called a “histography” or “history writing” by the introduction to Gospel of Luke in the NISB. This is because Luke is written in a style closer to Greco-Roman history rather than a biography. (Keener 186). The message of Luke is the ministry of Jesus reaching out to the outcasts of society. During Jesus’ ministry, he reached out especially to those with little or no social status like the religiously unfit, the poor, and the women (Keener 186). Luke has a “theme of salvation” (Green 1847). This salvation is for bringing restoration to Israel and fulfilling God’s promise to save Israel. With that restoration and saving, Israel is also to be a light to all nations.
Last fall I read from Acts to the end of the New Testament. After finishing, I circled back and read Matthew. Then I decided that I wanted to read Acts again. After finishing Acts, I worked again through the New Testament. Unfortunately, I did skip over Mark through John. I have read all four gospels many times and I really like them. At the same time Acts is my favorite book of the New Testament. What does this have to do with the Luke 1 blog? If you follow me a little longer I promise that you will find out.
Last fall I learned about the third part of the Godhead. I had grown up learning about God the Father. The same amount of attention had been given to Jesus, God’s son. However, little attention was given to the Holy Spirit. I decided a long time ago that the Holy Spirit was kind of like a Teddy Bear. Soft. Cuddly. Comforting.
I figured this was the role of the Holy Spirit: So say the little Christian slips and skins her knee. She is sad and probably crying and there is probably a little bit of blood and dirt. Jesus or God the Father takes down the Holy Spirit Teddy Bear and hands it to the little Christian. While the little Christian cries and holds the Teddy, God the Father or Jesus clean up the knee and puts a Band-Aid on it. God the Father or Jesus lets you hold the Teddy Bear until you feel better. Then He will take the Teddy Bear and put it back up onto the shelf where it will stay until the next little Christian skins his elbow.
This however is a very wrong view of the Holy Spirit. I learned that when the Holy Spirit is present big things happen. That is why I love the book of Acts. I had been challenged to read Acts and underline every time I saw the name “Holy Spirit” and underline all the times that the Holy Spirit moves and works in Acts. So I did. Most of my copy of the book of Acts has underlines and notes in the margins that are because I found the Holy Spirit working.
Ever since that read-through of Acts, I have underlined the term “Holy Spirit” whenever I see it regardless of which book of the Bible I am reading. I was surprised at the number of times I saw “Holy Spirit” in the Gospel According to Luke. However, after thinking about it for a moment, I realized that there was no reason to be surprised at all. Luke and Acts go together like a cell phone and its reception.
Another general thing (seen throughout the book of Luke) that I noticed while reading was that Luke continuously points out that Jesus follows God’s Law. Well, the first time that I noticed this obedience was actually done by Mary and Joseph when Jesus is eight days old. As the Jewish law states, males are to be circumcised the eighth day. Mary and Joseph also named him that day according to what the angel had said.
A specific part of Luke caught my eye and that is in chapter seven when the Centurion sends Jewish elders to Jesus. The Jewish elders call the Centurion worthy to have Jesus heal his slave (in verse four). However, in verse six, the Centurion sends some of his friends to Jesus to say “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you under my roof.” All the Centurion wanted was for Jesus to heal the slave. I just found the contrast of worthiness extremely interesting. The Centurion, a person of higher status, understands that Jesus is of even higher status. The Jewish leaders here feel that the Centurion is worthy enough. Jesus’ reaction is fascinating to me. He says, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” And verse nine also says that Jesus, upon hearing what the Centurion’s message, was amazed. A Gentile once again amazes the King of Kings.
Green, Joel. “The Gospel According to Mark.” Pages 1847-1850 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Keener, Craig S. “Mark,” Pages 185-258; 320-323 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
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