Head-dibs

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It was voting day in Jerusalem. An enormous crowd had gathered, and what excitement there was! There had never been a day like it before, and there has not been a day like it since. Pilate, the governor, was presiding over the gathering, and took the vote of the people as to whether they were for Barabbas--a murderer, or for Christ Jesus the Lord--the Saviour of lost sinners. The governor asked, "Are you for Christ?" "No," they cried out all at once. "Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas." Their choice was made. Their vote was recorded. They had rejected Christ, and instead chosen the murderer Barabbas. "What then shall I do with Jesus?" asked Pilate. "Away with Him: crucify Him," they all shouted. So Christ, the rejected Son of God, was taken out and nailed to a cross on Golgotha's hill. There He hung between heaven and earth as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. The same question that was posed that fat...

This is the book I am reading now. "We Christians greatly enjoy talking about the provision of God, how Christ defeated sin on the cross and gave us His Holy Spirit to empower us to victory over sin. But we do not as readily talk about our own responsibility to walk in holiness. Two primary reasons can be given for this. First, we are simply relunctant to face up to our responsibility. We prefer to leave that to God. We pray for victory when we know we should be acting in obedience. The second reason is that we do not understand the proper distinction between God's provision and our own responsibility for holiness." (From the Preface) If it's not been through your hands, it should be. If it's on your shelf, maybe it's time to get it down again . . .

[If you've been following along the past few weeks, I've been studying Daniel and recording some reflections here. For the previous entries in the series, please consult the side-bar: Bible-OT-Daniel. The first post in the series will be the last on the page, the most current on top. I don't program 'em, I just post 'em.] These final chapters of Daniel have been most challenging as we move toward a conclusion of our study in Daniel. As I've attempted to neatly sum up this final section in this post, I've begun to appreciate the spirit of 12:4, "But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase." First, remembering this work was not written with chapter and verse, this final section can be treated as a whole (in contrast to our previous studies, which have neatly fallen within chapters as are presently presented). Second, the task of going back and forth (...

Candidates, political parties, and supporters spend millions of dollars in campaigning for the office of the presidency of the United States. For the one who wins the job, there is also a tremendous physical and emotional price, resulting from the vigorous schedule and incredible pressures and responsibilities. Despite the financial and physical price the office exacts, there is no shortage of people willing to campaign for the job. Each new candidate brings a list of plans and promises, intending to bring about incredible progress. But when the president takes office, do these promises necessarily come to pass? Generally, a substantial percentage of them do not. Even the most honest candidate with the best intentions cannot keep all of his promises--the problems faced are simply too complex, and the resources available are simply not adequate to solve every problem. This is why one person after another is voted into power with great expectations of progress and peace only to find that...

Ten Indictments (A Historical 21st Century Message) by Paul Washer "Preached Wednesday, October 22nd at the Revival Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Paul Washer delivers a urgent appeal to the Christians and Churches in North America that many have been believing a false gospel and have false assurance of their salvation. He lists 10 indictments against the modern Church system in America. This is a historical urgent message, tell others and spread the message. We need a reformation and revival of a biblical standard!" posted by Greg Gordon at Sermon Index ************ "There is little need for the devil and evil men to oppose a man praying for revival unless he is also laboring for reformation. We have been given truth, and we cannot simply do what is right in our own eyes and then expect the Holy Spirit to come down and bless our labors." (Paul Washer, from the above message)

"The source of strength lies in God's grace, not our will power, or in our spasms of earnestness. When we attempt to strengthen ourselves through self-effort, we are like the man who tried to make his stalled boat move by pushing against the mast. We exert ourselves a great deal, but actually get nowhere." N.A. Woychuk, "Exposition of 2 Timothy."

"I am afraid of the pastor that is another man when he enters the pulpit from what he was before. Reverend, you should never think a thought or do a deed or be caught in any situation that you couldn’t carry into the pulpit with you without embarrassment. You should never have to be a different man or get a new voice and a new sense of solemnity when you enter the pulpit. You should be able to enter the pulpit with the same spirit and the same sense of reverence that you had just before when you were talking to someone about the common affairs of life." A.W. Tozer, "Worship: The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church."

by Gayle Erwin 1. The Old Testament was filled with feasts A. They had at least one feast every month B. Three of those feasts lasted at least a week C. God set up the feast system D. God commanded that the feasts be filled with joy 2. When Jesus Came He was accused of being a glutton A. That surely meant that he had a weight problem, since no one that you know of who was skinny was ever accused of being a glutton. B. Most of the gospel of John was written around a table. C. The family of Jesus (in Mark chapter 3) thought he had gone crazy because he was not eating his lunch. 3. What did Jesus leave us to remember him by? Food! Bread and wine. 4. Jesus became angry only a few times. One time was when he was hungry and a fig tree, though well leaved, did not yield any fruit. It made him angry enough to kill the tree. 5. After the Resurrection, every time you see Jesus, what is he doing? Eating! A. Right after he appeared to the scared Apostles hidden in a room and told them not to fear,...

"Selected obedience is not obedience at all, it is merely convenience." --Haddon Robinson

"The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He announces a Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of Fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness." A.W. Pink (1886-1952)

"Let no man decieve you with vain words or vain hopes or false notions of a slight and sudden repentance. As if heaven were a hospital founded on purpose to receive all sick and maimed persons that, when they can live no longer to the lusts of the flesh and the sinful pleasures of this world, can but put up a cold and formal petition to be admitted there. No, no, as sure as God is true, they shall never see the Kingdom of God who, instead of seeking it in the first place, make it their last refuge and retreat." John Tolliston (1630-1694)

A flippant youth once asked a preacher, "You say that people carry a weight of sin. I feel nothing. How heavy is sin? It is ten pounds? Eighty pounds?" The preacher replied, "If you laid a four hundred pound weight on a corpse, would it feel the load?" The youth replied, "It would feel nothing, because it is dead." The preacher concluded, "That spirit, too, is indeed dead which feels no load of sin or is indifferent to its burden and flippant about its presence."

When one football player jumps offside, the whole team is penalized. " Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned ." (Romans 5:12)

"Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up all the former weary efforts to do or feel something good, in order to induce God to love and pardon; and the calm reception of the truth so long rejected, that God is not waiting for any such inducements, but loves and pardons of His own goodwill, and is showing that goodwill to any sinner who will come to Him on such a footing, casting away his own performances or goodnesses, and relying implicitly upon the free love of Him who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son." Horatius Bonar, " Not Faith But Christ ."

"When I look at religion I have two questions. One, has anybody ever conquered death and two, if they have, did they make a way for me to conquer death? I checked the tomb of Buddha, and it was occupied, and I checked the tomb of Confucius and it was occupied, I checked the tomb of Mohammed and it was occupied, and I came to the tomb of Jesus and it was empty. And I said, there is one who conquered death. And I asked the second question, did He make a way for me to do it too? And I opened the Bible and discovered that He said, ‘ Because I live you shall live also .’" G.B. Hardy

As I write these thoughts on Brian McLaren's book "More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix," the headlines report in national news: the death of a hot air ballonist; the death of a child who was refused to been seen by a doctor; the death of a teenager who partied too hard; the pedophile who smiled and clapped, celebrating his 126 year sentence in the face of his victim; waiters who beat their patron to death; two men fighting it out with a hammer and letter opener; and the on-going stories of missing children or bodies found in freezers . . . Last week I was boldly approached by a man who made a point to tell me that he was going to get drunk and not even Jesus could stop him. I gave him my card, showed him my phone number, handed him a pen and told him to write on the card the day and time he was going to die--call me just before then. McLaren's book is hard to take seriously with these things in mind. In his introduction, McLar...

"Faith is required of thee, and a sincere life, not loftiness of intellect, nor deepness in the mysteries of God. If thou understandest not... the things which are beneath thee, how shalt thou comprehend those which are above thee? Submit thyself unto God, and humble thy sense to faith, and the light of knowledge shall be given thee, as shall be profitable and necessary unto thee." Thomas A'Kempis (1418)

"Why should an man have power over any other man's faith, seeing Christ Himself is the author of it?" George Fox (1624-1691)

Warfare: strife, confusion, variance, at odds, state of hostility. What is it good for? On the one hand, war produces defeat for the victims, cruelty, indignancy, atrocity, humiliation, disgrace, and destruction; on the other hand, war also produces victory for the victor, purging, peace, reconciliation, restoration, and comfort. War is not a process entertained half-heartedly, passively, as if there was “just a war;” rather, warfare is accomplished wholly, for justice is fully engaged—war is about justice. A dogfight is not the battle. War is aggression against God on both the spiritual and human levels; in other words, a lifting of the hand in the physical realm is a sure sign that a battle in the spiritual realm has already been lost. Wickedness is the unapologetic enemy of righteousness. “But,” one may inquire, “if warfare is evil, wouldn’t the defender of righteousness also be evil, and subsequently be no longer righteous?” Hardly. Cooperation with the enemy is treason. The defend...

The last verse of Daniel 9 has been the subject of intense study and long, deep debates among those who seek to discern the matters concerning Daniel’s 70 weeks of prophecy. Why so much energy is expended discussing this final verse of this twenty-seven-verse chapter to the neglect of the previous twenty-six verses is partially driven by the fact that the first 69 weeks of Daniel have already been fulfilled. With great excitement, students of the Bible are eager to know if they will see the unfolding prophecy of this final week. Daniel is good to give us the setting, a significant historical marker as to when he received the vision that includes this final week of intense interest: the first year of Darius the Mede. We were first introduced to Darius at the end of Daniel 5 as the one who received Babylon the same night that Belshazzar the Chaldean was slain—Darius was an invader. For the captive people of Israel held in Babylon, hopes of deliverance were at an all time high. Danie...

Today is Jonathan Edwards' 305th birthday! Have some cake!

"Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the LORD'S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the LORD set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the LORD you...

At a conference in Tokyo, Japan, a shinto expert from the government center of communication addressed more than 300 Christian representatives from all over the world. His closing comments were, "You Christians claim that you have a message that every man, woman and child should hear. When will you wake up and communicate it in a manner that they will hear and understand it? When and how do you expect to reach the masses of mankind?"

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"--because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. (Acts 17:16-18)

Were do you like to fish? Where thousands of people are stepping all over each other, using the same bait in a lake known to have been heavily fished day after day for decades? Perhaps you like to fish where the catch is already gorged with bait, swiming wearily away as you plop more bait-a-plenty near them? Maybe you enjoy fishing for a place among fishermen, jockeying for the pole-position, stumbling over one another? Or do you prefer to fish where the terrain may be difficult, where danger may lurk in the vicinity, where the lake is attainable only after sacrifice and hardship, but, oh, the hungry fish! Multitudes fight and starve for even one morsel of food, and many others have never so much as seen one time the bait you have to offer . . . Is that you? Do you prefer the last fishing hole? That is missions.

Is one command of Jesus more important than the other? In this excellent article , Steve Strauss examines the question: “Which is more important, that I share the gospel or minister to this person’s human need?”

"I'd like make three points today," a minister began his sermon one Sunday. "First, there are millions of people around the world who are going to hell. Second, most of us sitting here today do not give a damn about it . . . . . . my third point is that you are more concerned that I, your pastor, said the word 'damn' than you are about the millions of people going to hell." Having undivided attention, he proceeded to preach a sermon on putting obedient faith into action.

A while back I was walking through the park, along the black metal fence that surrounds the lake. As I made the gradual curve, taking me back toward the cascades, I could not help but notice the string tied to the top of the handrail. The string went up, up, up into the sky. I followed the string with my eye to see the kite was on the other end. Up, up, up, went the string, until it disappeared into the blue sky. I saw no kite. It was almost as if someone tethered the sky to the handrail. A cloud floated by. I stared into the sky. I felt the string. Yup, definitely something there alright, I could feel the tug. What do you think was up there?