Personally, I know that the miraculous, the supernatural, is real and does happen today.  I won’t argue with you or really even try to convince you of this.  Why?  Because it seems that for some Christians and definitely for those outside of Christ’s kingdom, it would make no difference.  Most minds are already made up.

But I have my own question about this.  Why are more signs and wonders going on in some third world countries than in the USA, a supposed Christian nation?  This is if the stories are real: and the sources for a lot of them seem to be of unquestionable integrity.  At least in my personal experience they are. 

When I read about the early church I see so much more supernatural activity than we experience today, yet the number of disciples today vastly exceeds those of their time.  What might be called a miracle today?

I think it would be something that happens with absolutely no way for it to be explained in the natural world.  As I said, I know they happen and I know it because, I have experienced them. 

But when I read about the signs and wonders in the bible I notice that they are always succeeded by an increase in the Kingdom of Christ. 

Is that the answer?

If miracles are only given by God to further the gospel, to advance the Kingdom, and we live in a culture that is going to insist on them being false even when there is pretty good evidence of the reality of some of them, might that be why they do not happen more often? 

Sorry about the length of that question. 

And with some of the things that are going on supposedly in the name of Christ, is it any wonder why no one believes?  This simply has to be rebuked, and harshly.  But that is another post.

I was saved because of signs and wonders.  God did a couple of things to me that could not have happened.  At another time, God caused an aneurysm in my wife’s brain to disappear before the specialist could decide on surgery.  But, even when someone is healed such as my wife, it did not convince anyone that they need to serve Christ.  Not even my kids took it as a sign to get right. 

It seems that the answer could be that if no one is going to pay attention, that if God is not going to be glorified and the Kingdom increased, then He is not going to bother.  God help us.

Love you all

Tags: America, Body of Christ, Faith, Holiness, Jesus Christ, Kingdom, Miracles, Pentecostal, Salvation, Signs and Wonders, Supernatural

Our lives can be measured by a number of key events or stages.  All have a beginning and most can be seen to be an ending also.  Some of these are totally out of our control and some we can control to some extent. 

Conception is where each one of us began.  God only created two as far as we can tell.  After that He asked us to share in His plan by being fruitful.  Since that command the population has depended on procreation.  There is not one person alive that was not conceived by a man and a woman.  Our lives began there and we can say with assurance that there was not an ending of anything.  Unless we try to say it was an end to our nonexistence.  Which I think is rather absurd.  So we can call this The Beginning.

Birth is another and the very next beginning for all of us.  Our mothers carried us all through the first stages of life and then when the time came for us to be born, we entered into another stage.  Birth can be called an ending in the sense that we had to leave the perfect nurturing embrace of the womb and enter the cold hard world we live in.  But for most it isn’t too bad.  A lot of people who came before are there, to love and embrace us, and keep us safe.  Birth is both a beginning and an ending.

School is the next major beginning for most of us.  We come to that place in time where we must start our preparation for what is to come.  We do that by leaving our homes and going off for the first time alone.  So we can learn what society believes we need to know.  Some of us never finish school.  Some of us seem to never want to finish school.  But we all have to move on at some time. 

Work.  Entering the workforce is the next beginning point that we can measure.  It is an ending of the time where we were basically as free as we would ever be.  We now take on real life responsibilities.  All of those teens who just wanted school to end will now be able to see that they had it made.  Work is the thing that most of us will do for the majority of the time we live on this earth. 

Marriage is another major beginning.  It might not fall in this order.  Some marry in school.  And although it may be very rare, some even get married after they retire.  Marriage is one of the best beginnings.  A lot of people joke about it and a lot of people don’t make it all the way through.  But almost all of us really want someone to share this life with.  It is the way God made us.  If it is going to work it should be an ending to our selfishness.  We must give ourselves to the one we marry.

Parenthood is a beginning for most people.  It is not for everyone but it is a very important stage in life.  We not only finally get to share creative power with God; we also get to share in the love for those who are so much less than us.  At least to start.  If it is not, it should be an ending to our own immaturity.  We may have finished school, gotten a job and gotten married, and still be babies ourselves.  But if we want to be the parents we should be, we need to grow up.

Retirement is next if we make it that far.  We finally get to stop working and live out our remaining years in a somewhat less demanding structure.  But it is an end to the bustling world of deadlines and meetings, stress and tiredness, and some just can’t do without it.  At a time when we should be at rest some find only boredom and anxiousness. It is very much an ending as well as a beginning.   

Death is the next beginning.  And it is the best of all.  Some of you may look at it as only an ending, an ending to life.  Some may see that it is not just an ending but is also a beginning.  But do you really see it as the greatest beginning of all? 

2Co 5:1  For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2Co 5:2  For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

2Co 5:3  if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

2Co 5:4  For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened–not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

2Co 5:5  He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

2Co 5:6  So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

2Co 5:7  for we walk by faith, not by sight.

2Co 5:8  Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

While we are at home in this body we are away from the Lord. Death is the doorway we go through that allows us to leave behind all the beginnings and endings and spend eternity with the only one who has no beginning or ending, the Alpha and the Omega. 

When we were conceived we were doomed to a pretty rotten future.  But God made us a way through Jesus Christ to achieve that most glorious of all beginnings.  We call it death but God calls it homecoming

Love you all. 

Tags: Beginning, Conception, Death, Ending, Faith, God, Hope, Love, Marriage, Parenthood, Retirement, School, Work

Flipping through channels the other day I saw that the movie, Overboard, was on.  Again.  It seems like it plays on some channel at least once a month.  I have seen it once in its entirety and different bits and pieces on a number of occasions.  It is a fun movie.

If you haven’t seen it I will give a synopsis of it so that I can make my point. 

Goldie Hawn plays the part of a very irritating and arrogant rich woman.  Kurt Russell plays a rather simple, but conniving, carpenter.  She hires him and then treats him like she does everybody and cheats him out of his payment.  Through a series of comedic mishaps she gets amnesia and does not remember anything about who she is. 

Kurt’s character finds a way to convince her that she is his wife and the mother of his rather wild children.  He does this to simply get his money’s worth from her in service to his family.  It may not feel right to her but the new family is able to finally convince her she is who they are telling her she is.  There is a lot more to it but this gets me far enough to move on.  It is a fun family movie if you haven’t seen it.

Now let’s move to bible interpretation. 

There is a lot of different ideas out there about how to interpret the bible and a lot of different people telling us what it says.  There are some people with a slew of different degrees and many years of education that say one thing and then there are others with just as much education saying the exact opposite. 

Some say we could never lose our place in heaven and others say we can toss our tickets out if we choose.  Some say everyone can be saved and others say only a few are chosen.  Is eternal damnation or annihilation what the lost have to look forward to?  Should we be speaking in tongues, or not?  Is Satan really out to destroy me or is that just a symbolic representation of the sin in this world?

There are just so many issues out there that no one seems to be able to agree on.  When I look at the various ways true, scholarly men of God use the Word to back up their beliefs I am sometimes thrown into a state of confusion.  They can’t all be right.

It looks to me like the problem is, that no matter how hard we try, we bring our own set of preconceived notions to the table every time we open up the bible.  We see thru lenses that are tainted with who we are, where we come from, what we have been taught, and what we want.  Some seem to be able to keep this to a minimum while others are heavily influenced by these things. 

That’s why I am wondering if maybe amnesia could be a blessing.  I wonder what would come out of the study of the Word of God if John MacArthur, Jack Hayford, Greg Boyd, and Father John Corapi all got amnesia and were given the bible to study with nothing else to filter it through.

But who am I to say all of this?  I’ve got my own set of glasses.

Love you all

Tags: Amnesia, Bible, Father John Corapi, Greg Boyd, Interpretation, Jack Hayford, John MacArthur

I do not really want to write a lot of political commentary on this blog.  But a thought came to mind that I just have to get out of me. 

The liberal Democrat will let you know in many wonderful words and beautiful sentiments how much they care for everyone.  And at the same time, if they are in politics or entertainment, they simply do not conceal their attitudes of superiority and arrogance. 

The conservative Republican, on the other hand, does not usually portray any concern for the common man.  But their actions sometimes do show they care a little bit.  But they are much better at hiding their condescending thoughts about us.

The thing that seems obvious about both sides is simply that they care mostly only about themselves and will say anything to promote what they care the most about.  I am talking about those on both sides that are in the limelight.  The prominent, important people in our world.

But my real question is, are we any better?

 Rom 3:10  … “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;

Evidently not

Love you all

Tags: Character, Conservative, Government, Identity, Leadership, Liberal, Politics, Republicans, Self, Vote