Holy Pentecost!

Pentecostal Flames caught by the camera of Randy Timmerman

 

Pentecost Sunday.  This is the day Christians remember the beginning of Christ’s Church on earth.  Jesus’ followers were crammed into the upper room of a house, wishing to know what was to become of them. They were frightened and confused.  they had no direction and felt as those they had no one to guide them.  Then a wind howled through the room and tongues like fire descended upon the believers and they were filled with the Spirit of God and were empowered and began speaking in tongues and could remain hidden no longer so they spilled out onto the streets and the people came running to them by the thousands to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The photographs in this post are undoctored in any way.  They were originally published in “Revival Fire in The Mountains” in which I described the event itself. The fire in the picture above looks huge but was, in fact, very small.  It was just big enough to stay lit, in fact.  Notice the flames resting on the worshippers.  Look closely and you will see that they rest on some but not all of the worshippers.  It’s Pentecostal fire, my friends: the fire of the Holy Spirit.  Of this there can be no doubt.  Ask any of the hundreds of men and young men who were present that evening and they will tell you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Holy Spirit came down like few had ever experienced and of them, not in a very long time.  These photos are evidence of what all witnessed and experienced that evening.  There is absolutely no question of this.

I was blessed to help out that week and one of my duties was to assist the campers in checking in.  One after the other expressed the troubles they experienced in the weeks preceding this Territorial Rendezvous.  Not a few felt it was a God thing that they even made it.  Jobs had been lost.  Family issues reared up.  Others fought off the inexplicable urge to simply not come and even quit the Royal Ranger program altogether.  All knew in their hearts that they had to be there that week.  No one knew why.  Me?  There was no good reason that I or my son made it there either except that we felt we needed to be there and a good friend knew it was important as well and made sure we got there.

There was an expectancy in our hearts.  Randy Timmerman, the leader who was in charge, followed his heart in not over planning.  “We’re going to let god be God this week,” he kept repeating to the leaders as they arrived. I know for a fact that this was very much a faith statement on his part.  He hoped and prayed that it would be a good week.  This event almost didn’t take place at all. The original host site balked.  The second site was in danger of bursting into flames and this one was far away for many of us. As  men arrived after weeks of personal trials and days of travel, the sence of relief and blessing to have merely arrived was evident all around the camp.

 

A Flame as if From Heaven by Randy Timmerman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Origin of Sin

Reblogged from Christopher C. Randolph:

 

 

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

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It's not that Adan listened to his wife. It's that he didn't listen to God. It's the first example of some one not loving God with all his heart, mind, and strength. Nothing has really changed, has it?

Breaking the Law With Jesus

Reblogged from Christopher C. Randolph:

 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

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Another post from yesteryear. I guess you could say that this bog is going "green" and doing a bit of recycling. This one kind of hits on the flipside of the coin of what we've been discussing. Legalism. Some will agree and some will not. But there it is in Scripture. Do you follow Christ or the Law? You can't do both. God Bless Christopher

Romans 14:23 Faith

Reblogged from Christopher C. Randolph:

I tell people all the time that the key to living life in Christ is faith.  Romans 14:23 says,”. . . whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”  So, you don’t have to take my word for it.  When I teach with this passage I make a big deal of Paul’s use of the word “whatever”.  Whatever means anything and “proceeds” means “start from” or “out of”. 

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This something I posted a few months ago. It seems like time to post it again in light of my last few posts. God Bless, Christopher

What’s It All About Jesus?

Faith

Sometimes when I’m teaching students how to read and I want them to test their comprehension, I’ll walk up to their desk and place my hand down on top of their book and ask them “What’s it about?”  Invariably, they want to look around or through my hand so they can find some key words or the topic sentence because that’s what they’ve been trained to do.  “Just tell me what you’ve been thinking as you read?”  I say.  “Ummmm. Whales are big?”  Then I take my hand off the page and we scan the page using our study skills to double-check. They are almost always right.  “You just told me the main idea in your own words,” I say, “Good job.”

What’s my point?

My point is that we can do all the Scriptural studies and divide the Bible this way and that way but there comes a time when we just have to close the Book and ask ourselves, “What’s it all about?”

I have come to the conclusion that the Bible is about living by faith.  Period.

The prophet said, “The righteous  lives by his  faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4 ESV).  Paul based his letter to the Roman church on this verse as well as at least had it in mind as he wrote much of Hebrews.  If Paul had what we might call a “life verse”, this is it.  If Revelation has a single message it’s “Have Faith.”

We can break it down this way:

Righteousness is being right with God/who our Father created you to be.

True Life is granted through the Holy Spirit.  A person who does not have the Holy Spirit in him or her is spiritually dead.

Faith is that deep trust beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt in Jesus and His Gospel.

If we wish to be who our Father intends us to be, we must partner with the Holy Spirit to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The question now is: What does that look like?  This is really what I’ve been trying to figure out. Isn’t it?

Help me out here.

God Bless,

Christopher

Jesus and Adam

“I am the true vine…”

A primary theme on this blog lately has been asking questions.  As it’s been said, “A good question is better than a good answer.” We should never be afraid of asking questions.  Nor should we be afraid of answering questions.  That’s a way that “iron sharpens iron” as the saying goes.  There’s a question I asked a while back that seemed innocent enough when I first asked it.  I thought that such a simple seeming question would have a simple answer and that it would be an interesting footnote at best in the grand theme of theology and Biblical studies.  As it turned out, it was a tiny pebble that caused an avalanche in my Biblical world view and sparked what I’m thinking of calling “Reconciliation Theology”, though I’m afraid that name is already taken.

Why was it OK for Adam and Eve to be running around naked in the garden before they ate from the tree of good and evil but not Ok for them to be naked after they ate the fruit?

See? It seems like a simple enough question.  It ought to have an easy answer, right? The problem is that those easy, simple answers don’t really answer the question.  These answers tend to focus on the innocence of Adam and Eve.  They were like innocent children who didn’t know any better and so spent their time in the presence of God in blissful ignorance.  There was no sin so all was good….until they disobeyed God and ate the fruit.  Such answers just skirt around the question without answering it, though.  Once I realized this, I realized that something didn’t feel right.  Something was being missed.  So I looked at what God said:

 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3:11 ESV)

In other words, it was just as “bad” to be running around naked before they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil as it was after the fact.  God knew that they must have eaten the fruit because they now realized that they ought to be wearing some clothes. What tha means is that since and not if walking around naked was as sinful before the fruit was eaten as it was afterward, then we can’t call the incident at the tree “The Original Sin.”  I suggest that it is better labelled as the “Origin of Sin” since it appears that knowledge/wisdom makes one legally culpable of one’s actions.  It also burdens one with guilt which may be impetus for God removing Adam and Eve from the Garden so that they would no longer have access to the fruit of the Tree of Life and live forever.

So, in less than 500 words, I just stuck a knife in a major Christian doctrine, the doctrine of “original sin”.  This is not something I take lightly.  I’ve been keeping this on the back burner for quite some time since I predicted that this would anger many people.  It has angered the few I have shared this with in the past and others have just brushed it off like I was crazy.  The thing is, no one has proven this to be wrong.  Unfortunately, quoting doctrine doesn’t prove this to be Biblically incorrect. I wish it did, in a way.  Then I could just blissfully go on my way.

Of course, the answers to any good question always lead to more questions and I was led to ask, “What does the crucifixion have to do with the eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.”  I’m not gong to get too deep in answering that question at this point.  suffice it to say that it has to do with the previously mentioned culpability gained by knowledge which required the legal payment for our actions.  Sin, as we normally think about it is, after all is said and done, a legal term.

Once one gets over the initial shock of all of this and begins to accept it as Biblically accurate, a new set of questions arise.  For instance, how is Jesus like Adam?  I mean, look:

 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.   (1 Corinthians 15:45 ESV)

That is, without a doubt, a comparison.  Adam’s name is cited, so Jesus is being compared to Adam.  Is this saying that Jesus did what Adam did not?  I think the answer is an unequivical “Yes”.  Since Paul writes again and again about faith and jumps off of Habbukuk 2:4 so much, this means that the real issue in the garden was not disobedience, but faith.  “…The righteous will live by his faith” (Habukkuk 2:4 ESV).

I could go on and on citing verse after verse etc. But I think my point has been made.  Not my point really.  It’s right there in the Bible.  It’s ok to be critical of this.  My challenge is for this to prove this wrong Biblically.  I know what the doctrines say.  I also know that the doctrine of original sin is not an Essential Doctrine of the Christian Faith.

 

God Bless,

Christopher

What Does Jesus Expect?

Turn back to God.

In the Trivialization of Jesus, I stated that being a Christian is a state of being, not a lifestyle choice. I still think that’s true.  Like I said, no matter what we do or don’t do, we are all sinners saved by grace.  We need to understand what it is Christ Jesus calls us to be.  which isn’t to say that being a Christian isn’t a call to action.  In fact, that’s exactly what it is.  Christians are not to do good works to be saved but are to do good works because we are saved.  But the problem still remains.  Too often christians define themselves by what they do not do.  We define ourselves by how we do not act like “the world”.

Action, however, implies doing something: moving forward. If Paul’s words in Romans 14:23 are to be believed, and anything that we do that does not proceed from faith is, in fact sin, that puts a whole new spin on things.  Think about it. If we do something that is looked upon as “good” by the Church or society but it as any sort of genesis other than our personal faith, it’s sin.  On the other hand, if we do something that may be considered “bad”, but it is spurred on by faith, then it is not a sin.

It’s a risky business to be sure.  But it points to why a personal understanding of Scripture is so important.  We need to be asking questions about what the Bible actually says.  We have to be good readers not just sponges in the pew.  Are there  some things that we’ve been taught that don’t necessarily coincide with the Biblical record?  Are certainly things that are emphasized over emphasized to the detriment of others?  Different churches and denominations etc. teach different things for different reasons.  I’m not demonizing the churches here, I’m just saying that maybe it’s time for some re-evaluations of our priorities.  And top on the list, I think, is the question, “What does Jesus expect us to do?”  And by “us” I mean the local people in the local church; you and me.  The Church doesn’t need to become relevent to the culture. I detest that whole train of thought because it almost always concerns it’s appearance to the world. It already is relevent to the world.  But it needs to prove it to the world.  More than that, the world needs that proof.

God Bless,

Christopher

Praising God; Do You Ever Wonder?

Praising God

I’ve been thinking (“Again?” you might ask)…  I know how I feel when my wife says something specially nice to me.  My feet don’t touch the ground.  In times like those, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that anything is possible.  “Honey, you are awesome.” Are you kidding me?  If anyone else says that, I’m like, “Yea.  Whatever.”  But when the love of my life says something like that…. whoooooaa.   If she asked me to fly her to the moon right after that, I’m pretty darn sure I can do it.   I’m serious.  Sometimes I wonder if women know what kind of power is at their disposal.  A kind word in their man’s direction and there you go.

Do you ever wonder if Jesus is like that? When (if?) His bride looks at him and says, “Wow.  You are awesome”, do you think He gets puffed up and wants to do anything she asks just for the sake of doing it for her?

Churches do this every weekend.  We do the praise and worship.  Say a prayer.  Hear the Word.  And we call that Church.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  that’s not what I’m saying.  But I’m reminded of a line from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies; the second one, I think.  The pirates are trying to lift a curse and they have some words that someone must recite for the desired effect.  The first guy says it like a high falooting prayer….Nothing happens.  This one-eyed pirate steps up and clarifies that it must be said as if to a lover.  That does the trick.

It’s the way our wives say those things.  “The car looks great, hon.”  “Thanks for taking out the garbage, dear.” Boom.  We’re putty in your hands. And that’s a secret to praising Jesus as well.  We need to mean it.  We need to praise Him as if to a lover.  Yea.  It might sound awkward to us guys to think that way about Jesus but that’s not really the point.  As the Church, we the people, need to give more than lip service to the idea of being the “Bride of Christ”.  We have to act that way if we want to be affectual here on earth.  If we truly love the Lord, we need to show it and not be ashamed.  It’s not the words so much as it’s the heart behind them that matter most. Those who truly do Love Jesus know what I’m talking about.  If that’s you then I challenge you to lead the way for your brothers and sisters all around you.

God Bless,

Christopher

The Great Commandments

Reblogged from Christopher C. Randolph:

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 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

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[caption id="attachment_450" align="aligncenter" width="203"] the ten commandments[/caption] This is from back in January. Jesus' Great Commandments were brought up in the comments to yesterday's post, so I thought it might be good to revisit this topic. Currently, I have nothing new to add so I'm simply reblogging this. God Bless, Christopher

Jesus, I Have a Lot of Questions

Really Jesus?

The title of this post is an affirmation that even as I write these questioning post of late, I am not only bringing them to whomever might read the blog, I am also asking them of Jesus as well.  In fact, I ask these questions of my Lord numerous times before they appear in the blogosphere. Just so you know.

Here’s a run-down of recent activity on this little blog of mine:

We once again pondered the age of the world according to the first few chapters of Genesis in  The Day God Created Man…. and More on Early Genesis….

We briefly talked about what it means to be a Christian in What is the Gospel?, Jesus, the Gospel and other Essentials of the Christian Faith, and A Christian Is….

And, we, more or less began the journey with Questioning Faith.

Actually, now that I think about it I, personally got going on this whole questioning kick with We Have Met the Enemy or maybe back when I wrote The Trivilalization of Jesus.

I sometimes wonder why I write this stuff.  What difference does it make?  Does anyone really care what I think.  Do I do it just to satisfy my ego? Is this just the adversary trying to get me to stop?  Maybe it’s God helping me stay focused?  Maybe I’m just crazy? Well, writing this stuff out does help me clarify my thoughts and I purposefully blog it so that others can read it and tell me if I’m full of it or not. I want comments and questions and try to make that abundantly clear.  I’m not afraid of being proven wrong.  Sometimes I wish I was wrong.

Considering the increased number of views and comments and follows the blog is receiving since just before Easter when this began in earnest, it seems that I’m not the only one with these questions.  So people do care and these posts are making a difference.  It has over 8,000 views now which may not seem like a lot to some bloggers but with almost half of those in the last month and a half, to this blog, it’s a big deal.

To be honest, I can’t sop asking questions.  I am hard-wired to do so.  What else is a guy with a 140 IQ and an INTP personality going to do? Accepting something just because someone says it’s so just isn’t going to happen, not when claims can be investigated.  So that’s what I do.  And I post so I can share.

Enough about me….  My next question concerns the local church.  Taking into account the early Church of the New Testament as well as what has happened to it since and the contemporary Church, what would your “perfect church be like”?  Maybe ask yourself “If I were a pastor this is what I would do.”

There’s one rule to this and that is to be respectful of everyone’s idea.  Many Christians have differing views about what they believe the Bible stipulates about certain aspects of the church and authority and such.  However, nowadays there are men and women and believers and nonbelievers reading and following this blog an a daily basis.  I want to hear from any and everyone on this so all are encouraged and welcome to chime in.  Maybe in a couple of days I’ll post my “perfect church” ideas and then you can say whatever you want about that.  Fair enough?  Good.  I’m looking forward to your responses.

God Bless,

Christopher