free book contest

Shay Bills has a book out titled 'Is your Spirit Holy'. From what I have read it should be a good read and an excellent guide to analysing and understanding one's relationship to God. Click the title to read some of the author's prose and possibly enter a contest to win a copy of the book 'Is Your Spirit Holy?'

Sophromismos

There is a study going on at Shadow Hills, admittedly on again off again, but it is a review of the book by Gene Getz called 'The Measure of a Man'. You may surf there and read for yourself by clicking the title of this post. Today I was reading in Getz the call to meekness described as 'not weakness'. Getz uses 2 Timothy 7-8 'For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;' to show how Paul, who constantly and consistently acknowledges God's right and power to rule over him, and that the necessary element of our proper relationship with God is an open heart to our neighbor, encourages Timothy to be confident in his faith. To look forward to the suffering inevitable in the sharing of the Gospel. And, to the point here, to be sophromismos, or of a sound mind, disciplined. I know he says disciplined is the KJV word but I do not find it in my copies of the KJV, but do like it, as it tells us to rely on what we have learned. If we think of the discipline used to teach those going into battle then we can feel confident in believing he is speaking of a knowledge, if not even wisdom, discerned by frequent repetition at practice, the kind of practice(repetition) Navy Seals, professional athletes, consummate musicians, successful archictects use. Discipline builds confidence and character and awareness for the unforeseen. So get out there and practice practice practice, and when it is obvious that God could not possibly have meant for you to do any of it, just make yourself available for Him to do it with you. There is the meekness that overcomes the doubt and causes those about us to say 'what a great (fill in your on blank) so and so is'. Please be sure to give credit where credit is due, for that is an important part of what God's will for us.

The leadership yoke

The leader of a church is described by Paul in such terms that, as far as for behaviour it would seem that he need not sancification. But surely this is a blurriness of human understanding and so we a church goers generally back off the hardline and follow 'The Message' inference and choose 'men from among you whom everyone trusts' leaving off the 'without reproach' of many of the other versions which would force us to observe much more closely those we would have in charge of our daily church life. Rgw King James seems to also have an ameliorative phrasiology in calling for men of 'honest report'. pergaos refering to men with pasts such as Zaccheus who whole heartedly and obviously have turned that corner from the past to a blessed newness of life.

Comparative Acts 6:3

KJV

Acts 6:3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

ESV

3(C) Therefore, brothers,[b] pick out from among you seven men(D) of good repute,(E) full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

YLT

3look out, therefore, brethren, seven men of you who are well testified of, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may set over this necessity,

HCSB

3 Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, (C) full of the Spirit (D) and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

NASV

3"Therefore, (G)brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, (H)full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.

TM

So, friends, choose seven men from among you whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense, and we'll assign them this task.

NLT

3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility.

NKJV

3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business;

NIV

3Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them

Amp

3Therefore select out from among yourselves, brethren, seven men of good and attested character and repute, full of the [Holy] Spirit and wisdom, whom we may assign to look after this business and duty.


"You can see by the above," he said while cheswing on the middle part of his tongue with the upper and lower molars of his jaws, leaving the tip of his tongue to dance around the inside of the side of his mouth, "YOU HAVE to be careful which VERSION you read!"

A thin blue line

Purity What is purity, Getz says it is not necessarily sullied by temptation--but can be, so be careful out there.

So Getz says, (and this is a little out of order in the sheme here, but the first opportunity I have taken to blog on the reading of The Measure of a Man), that sinful thoughts involve planning the accomplishment of the sin, perhaps he really means thoughts with intent to sin, rather than just the thought of an awkward(sinful?) situation.
That would seem to be a relief.

Book study and review underway with Pastor Doctor Randy Rogers

It has already begun, so I am tardy as usual, but there are twenty characterisics we have the opportunity to think on and incorporate into our lives...do I have to list 'em or can you find them in Timothy and Titus? More later...

recustomize alert

I have added what I think are interesting features to this site. I will be using it as my homepage. You are invited to scroll down and observe and use the 'Newslinks' which have been added to the right column.

from God's Chisel

Perfection, an eternal ultimate, after a lifetiime of encountering wandering, observing or ignoring, accepting or rejecting, and applying maybe misapplying, then processing or reprocessing in order to venture forward, surely not backward. Then suddenly GRACE: Otherwise imperfection.

The violence of the Good News is both nail head hitting and way overstated.

Pardon the lengthy title, it was only meant to start and finish this post succinctly. Now for the ambling about: When the Hebrews described the creation of the world it was with words of tumult and roiling imagery, hardly a peaceful or idyllic scene. When light enters the world it is sudden and abrupt, separating, surrounding and rejecting while encompassing and warming and enlightening. This is the world we live in. A place teeming with life in such a way that it more than calls, it cries for salvation.

If God is Holy and His holiness is beneficent then by His nature we must be changed from our flesh-tendency in order to abide with Him, otherwise goodness would be corrupted by proximity and mingling with unfettered shortcoming and meanness.

God required that an animal be skinned to provide the peace of mind Adam so desparately wanted-foreshadowing the day that Pilate would tack a hide to his wall and thus atonement would be made, access to God granted, and peace established as the bedrock for all mankind.

But we look about and see murder and mayhem, war and torture, greed and lust. Not somuch a peaceful picture as yet. We observe even the select few who have found Christ and often they slip and must ask forgiveneness, and fall and must call out to God for help. The people of today, the ones coming into the fray we call life, they have a new perspective that some of our own group may have thought about taking on. That perspective is one that couold perhaps simply be stated as a desire to be honest, to not be a hypocrite, to do and follow with passion and vigor but not so much from duty or discipline, rightness or value, as from the knowledge of purity of character and fidelity to intent. This may become understood to be sophomoric in the end, but what virtue, when it is raised to the level of demagoguery is not foolishness.

The point is that each generation is given its choices and its chances and its reign. Honesty and integrity to oneself and thereby to God, while a cart before the horse sort of configuration, will at least develop people who can be trusted to do what they say they will do. At least until they begin to realize they have followed the letter of the law and missed the Spirit. Of course through all of this there will be the very select few who will understand the futility of being true to oneself while ignoring the need for depending upon guides based in traditional(longtime pre-existant) strictures which are sometimes unwieldy but often the very thing which protects civilizaton from civilization. So into the 'next' next generation will be infused the opportunity to correct the heading of this next generation so that perhaps through time and trial and error we as a religious sub culture have the opportunity to appeal to yet another generation of souls who might not otherwise come to the table with that new song mentioned in the psalms. I think that is what revolution means, that things just keep on roiling until the Master returns and says, "It is finished". The peace we yearn for is ours as spirit and hope, but we must continually refresh ourselves in the living water we find about us, and that means we must make judgements and choices and stop and start over again and again, knowing that we are forgiven, even though we hung no stars, nor breathed no life into a leviathan, and probably will be mean or short or stupid a time or two before we are gone home. I just hope I will have said some of the words of peace and enlightenment which tend toward salvation to the ones appointed for me to do so, before I go.

Robert

Memorial Day Burger Burn at Shadow Hills Baptist Church

for a record of

Good food
Good people
Good times

click on the blog title

Are post-moderns given to avoiding right/wrong judgements and how does that set with a rise in Calvinism

The title springs from a question posed to me about an assumption I made concerning Post-modern thinkers. The assumption I made was meant to indicate they seem to live in a world of gray areas, which I, rigntly or wrongly, labeled universalism. So maybe a course in philosophy should be undertaken to define these systems of thought so that we all are talking the same dialect.

Well I will have to do some background research first...

After some thought rather than research into definitions I have deceided that Post moderns are probably drawn to Calvinism because of the popular notion that Calvin did not seem to allow for free will, but rather to the thought that because 'an all powerful God' then nothing happens except God will it, and this is the explanation for the way things are is that they are what they are and cannot help themselves. It rally has little to do with right or wrongness. What could be wrong if it is as it was meant to be?

to be continued.

kleronomia

Colassians 3:24

Helps us to understand that ultimately God is there for us. 3:15 presses that He is there for us now.

The question then becomes are we there 'for(thankfully)' or 'despite(to spite)' God.

a human+1 to eternity God

1 Cor 15:28. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Matt 1:23. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Mark 15:44-5 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.
And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.


Is God not human or is God more than human?

Rev 21:22-3. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

1Cr 12:27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

Merry Christmas

A Mountain of Laundry

Insincere racaism

So you think you're a bad boy, eh? Look, there is none worse than me! I have been baa-aad! Don't you even start to kid yourelf. The reason I am so bad is that I am bad-to-the-bone. I mean to say I will always be bad, and there is no way I can be any good. But you oughta see that guy across the aisle, now he is unredeemable!
Only God is good.

So what is imagery?

taking the most to beganagain

I will begin some housekeeping and try to categorize and divide these posts into some sort of order.

RFR

Did Adam know the Earth was Round

Unless Adam is merely legend, only rooted in truth and not actualized as an individual of flesh and bone, or indicative of a tribe, rather, even so, then, they would be much closer to God and His knowledge by His choice and the understanding by them of the actual shape of Universe might be more attuned to their purer DNA as well as a Biblically unreported or lost revelation from God[surely not!(I mean what good is truth if it is incomplete?)], or even just common knowledge later corrupted by 'you know who'. Now that might be something to report on...just when was truth interrupted and how fast did its corruption spread thus disallowing natural observation and overrinding that with shaded assumption? And just how complete was it or was there some remnant of acknowledged and perceived truth in existance until today concerning the shape of the universe. Does 'above and below' prescibe a flat earth? What seems more real than the physical realities we live in and accept, and how does the physical condition of our existance effect our need for salvation? so, 'Why report on it?' seems to be the operand. Or, am I living in fantasy, and the world really is flat, is that it? <8~} Then allow me repentance and confession, long live the Pope Paul V(a snake in puppy's cloth to Galileo) and Pope Urban VIII, his Inquisitor, as well as Melanchthon, his antithesis to the Protestant!

Fun duh mentality

Fundamental of or relating to the necessary

fundamentalism one of a modern group of protestants

modern and basic?

how does this jibe? I have my doubts! I have a Great Grandfather from Missouri, you know, I mean like what are the fundamentals the fundamentalists of fundamentalism are purporting? Love and forgiveness? the Faithfulness of God to an unwarranted people?

Evangelism Now

Links to a couple of places influencing my thought right now.

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/the-problem-with-real-christians

http://evangelicalmanifesto.com/

http://aintsobad.typepad.com/pastorspal/2007/12/instantaneous-s.html