By Their Spirits

Text: 1 John 4: 1-6

Translation: NKJV



Here is where the rubber meets the road. Either you believe Jesus is God, or you don't. And Christians are only supposed to believe those who profess Jesus to be God. Now, we can be led astray by those who do say that they believe; however, we who profess that Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God, incarnate in the flesh, and that the Bible is the inerrant word of God know that we are saved. According to the 6th verse, it is the Spirit of Truth that shows us this, i.e. the Holy Spirit. Soli Deo Gloria!!!! This is why I harp on the whole "unity of belief" theme a lot. If we have unity in what we believe, we can't be led astray as easily, if we don't have this unity then we are pretty well screwed in our witness as Christians, our communal life (church), and our relationship with God (self-doubt about what we believe). This is why in these verses we are given a litmus test of sorts to test people against to see if what they say has any measure of truth to it. I'll leave off here due to shortness in my personal schedule but I will leave you with this:

The more concise, systematic and logical our worldviews are, and the more unity we have on all matters doctrinal, theological, and scriptural, the better witness we present to the world, and the more Godly we may become. Remember, if we can't give the world a reason to see that we are different and for concrete reasons, they will never see the reason to convert to Christianity, because who is ever put under conviction of sin by ideas and a God that seem no different and fallen than they are.

Love that food? Where will your descendants eat it?

Text: 1 John 15-17

Trans.: NKJV

Okay, we all know the praise song that, granted is monotonous and not all that great, "Jesus, lover of my soul". Now, were not supposed to lover the world and not obey fleshly lusts.(say last two words like a Shakespearian actor & it sounds cool) How many of us consider ourselves "materialistic"? Not many, I know I don't. Then I look at my schedule. Tonight, I'm going to meet my friends at a coffee shop for fellowship and good times. Tommarrow, homework and a lot of other things. Now, this is my schedule to a great extent. I go out, do school, come home, repeat, lather and rinse. I am for all intents and purposes a very materialistic guy. Sure, I study the Bible, have a very indepth relationship with God and the rest, but I don't say "Hey, Gordo, maybe you should just relax and be with God instead of surffing the net, watching tennis, or Dr. Who" whatever it is. Then I look at what will come after I die. I like food, but I wonder where I will eat that food, and what my actions of my own will determine where others will eat there's. No one is going to remember that awesome prank I pulled on one of my friends on a youth retreat or what possesions I have ( if they do, they need a life bigtime). I should be more concerned about what I am leaving behind after I die on the passing world. What will my legacy be? Sure, the fellowship with my friends is important, I don't deny it, but at what cost are we as a society, especially those of us who claim to be Christian, paying to enjoy the now when we leave no legacy behind us. This is especially true for Christians today. Look at the bible, at all the geneologies that are in it. They say "Look where you have come from, what you are expected to uphold, and what you must pass on to the next generation." There is an excellent teaching dvd on the subject of legacy that can be found at Worldview Acad.'s website. It is called "The Next Name in the Toledoth". I encourage everyone of you to buy and watch it. Because really, if we don't leave a legacy of not being in love with this world then what reason is there to spread the gospel, go to church or believe in God himself? There comes a time to say, yes that trip with the youth would be fun to do, or yeah I'd like to really go do that, but that trip with the youth might be just another fun trip disguised as Christian fellowship and devotionals, or that trip by yourself could be your way of giving in to your flesh. Don't get caught up in satisfying what you want to do in the present and instead focus on what you will leave behind for the future when you are gone, whether it be death or you simply leave your current situation. If we can't give future generations of Christians something more than a fun outing or a trivial teaching on how Jesus loves kids then they won't have anything to run the race with and our descendants will truely dine in Hell.

There won't be any questions for this post, just this: Granted that man needs material things and stuff of the Flesh, ask God what things need trimming in your life.

Phi. # 10- Rabid dogs, and iminent victories

Today's Text: Phill. 3:1-11
Translation: NKJV

Ok, so your walking down the street and that mad rabid dog that the neighbors keep starts barking up a storm and jumping up and down trying to get at you. Most of us would freak and run or move to the other side of the street. Well, what if that mad, rabid dog IS your neighbor? Then What? Most of us would think our neighbor needed to go to Broughton or some other mental institution, right? Well, life isn't always that easy. We are surrounded by non- Christians, some who are very much against Christianity and will do anything in there power to bring us down, those that don't really care just as long as we leave them alone, and those who smile to our face then backstab us every chance that comes along (obviously, these aren't all the different types of non-Christians, but for now they will have to do). Paul is telling us to beware of people who are not Christians in case they really are trying to bring us down.
However, there is reason to rejoice! We are in Christ, circumcised, and have no confidence in the flesh (our own power).Paul then goes on the talk about how he was a devout Jew, obeyed all the laws, and had every right to have confidence in his flesh. However, as stated elsewhere in the Pauline letters, the law merely shows us God's commands and our fallen sinful state. Paul himself has confidence in Christ, who gives righteousness through faith and the Holy Spirit, which is where we as Christians should have our confidence as well. We are all in Christ(those who are saved) and in response, Christ has given us the gift of faith and eternal life and resurrection of the Body along with sending us the Holy Spirit to guide us. These are the reasons that we should have confidence in Jesus Christ.
To God be the glory, great things He has done.



Note: The video is just a tongue in cheek deal that I did when I was bored. PLEASE don't take it too seriously!

Commentary on People Who Have Lost Their Faith

This is the promised commentary on the article from the last post. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE ARTICLE WHOSE LINK IS IN THE LAST POST PLEASE DO SO BEFORE CONTINUING ON.

First, I would like to point out that Mr. Ehrman is considered an authority on the christian faith and has written several books on it. Now, Mr. Ehrman says that he lost his faith due to his studies of the Chritian faith. He was once of the view that the Bible is inerrant historically and geographically. His scholarship as a student led him to the view that these views are wrong. He says that these views shifted him from being an "Evangelical" to being a "mainline liberal Protestan Christian". For those of you who know me personally, and go to church w/ me, you will know that several (more than likely most) of the members hold a view similar to this- that the bible is not innerant in any way and that it is riddled with descrepancies. Mr. Ehrman lost his faith from coming to realize that there couldn't possibly be a God that intervenes in the world given its present state.

Now, to give a fair view of the article for those who haven't read it, all of those interviewed said they do not believe in the inerrancy of scripture.

To move on to the Baptist minister-Mr. Strange- he says that he sees no connection between his faith and any scholary research. This is interesting. He sees faith and reason as to seperate things- that faith is something that comes from God and therefore cannot be touched by reason. Here I'm going to interject something that's coming from me and my experience. We as Christians cannot seperate our faith from our reason. God made us as creatures who can think and reason things out. To seperate ourselves from reason in our faith in God is DANGEROUS. We can say that it is based on our experience- like Mr. Strange- but there is a reason that comes from being saved where the Bible comes together as a whole for the first time in our lives. This is part of the gift of Faith- the ability to see the Bible as resonalble.

Also, Mr. Strange says that his faith is not based on propositional truth- that is, truth that can be tested and found to be true no matter what. For him faith cannot be tested and found to be true, therefore it is to him just another part of his existence. He also says that having a relationship with God is like being in love- when your in love you are overwhelmed and incapable of uttering propositions. He says that his scholarship has had no effect on his faith.

Now we switch back to Ehrman- he says that his scholarship led him to question the historical claims of Christianity. I.E.- the resurection ,etc. He sees Christianity as rooted in faith and that to deny any of those claims is to invalidate ones faith(my wording). Strange on the other hand sees the resurection as a metaphor and is not to be taken literally. To do this is to invalidate the 2nd coming of Christ, as well as the experience of those who witnessed Christ's resurection. Now, most of the article goes on to interview Lawrence H. Schiffman and William G. Dever. Here is the link to the article so that you can read the rest of it.http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/bswbba3302f3.html . The article continues on in much the same way. An interesting note- what these gentlemen base their faith or lack thereof is their experience. They are saying that our experience trumps the experience of those who wrote the Bible. This is to say- I didn't experience it therefore there is always the possibility that it didn't happen. Well duh- there are hundreds of things that I didn't experience- the Gaulic wars, Socrates and Plato's dialogues etc. and yet there is more to evidence to say that Jesus existed and was(and is) the son of God than these things happened the way they are taught. Either Jesus was who he said he was and not some crack pot fool or he was a crack pot fool. You can't have both- either you accept the Bible as fact or not.

I will give Mr. Ehrman this- He has Intelectual Integrity, that is to say that he sees what Christianity is founded on and does not believe in it. He is striving to be consistent in his worldview.

Debate Q's for the comments page:

Who, if any, in this group is saved? Give evidence(gut feelings are acceptable).

Do you agree and disagree with anything (or nothing) that these men have put forward.