Jul/090
A Primer On Sin
You’re probably a good person. You try hard, you watch your mouth, try not to steal, haven’t killed anyone, the whole works. A generally good person. God knows that, right? He forgives you when you make mistakes, right? It seems logical.You’re certainly not sinful. At least not too much. Sins are bad things we do that God doesn’t like, things like the acts mentioned above.
That’s what most of us think, that sin is an act. While there are sinful acts, the entire nature of sin is widely misunderstood by most people. Sin is a state of being. A state of being that exists outside of God’s purpose, and we as his creations are in that exact state.
To illustrate, consider this. We consider infants and young children to be sinless, and while it’s true that they don’t commit willfully sinful acts based on knowledge, they are born in a state of sin. That’s why we have to train them not to hit. It’s why we train them to share instead of take and to be kind instead of cruel. Our nature is outside of God’s intended purpose for us.
It’s that simple. That explains why we need forgiveness of sin. God created us to conform to HIS standards and be filled with HIS spirit, yet Adam and Eve chose to reject HIM and do things their own way. Now we must seek him and choose to serve him on an individual basis. God’s standard is unimaginable to us, something we believe cannot exist, and in our present state, we cannot uphold it.
All Christians are sinful, contrary to what many of us try to tell others. We are, however called to a higher standard, which we should strive to maintain, but we’re still in a state of sin and still commit sinful acts. The same acts that those who have not come to the throne of Jesus Christ, commit. The very same ones. The difference is that Disciples of Christ have recognized their need for his Atoning Sacrifice to pay their debt.
It’s that Standard of God, that debt we owe him and the payment made to him on our behalf Jesus Christ made for us that is at the crux of the whole subject.
Jesus Christ is not just a deity, one we choose over Buddha or Mohamed or any other simply because he fits our personality. He is God. He is one third of the Holy Trinity. We can’t understand His nature.
The Bible is not just another religeous book, one to choose off a shelf and peruse to see if it fits you at the moment, it is the story of God, his history with his creation and how he’s pursued us throughout the ages to repair our relationship. He loves us with a love we cannot comprehend.
In the coming months we’ll go through just what sinfulness is, how it affects us and how Jesus Christ, as God in the flesh of a man makes perfect sense as a God wholly worth our devotion, praise and worship. We’ll cover The Holy Bible and a number of other topics so many people desperately need to grasp, ones that have been horribly misrepresented
Christ never said to make Christians, he said make disciples. Christianity was instituted as a religeon by man. Religions reach up to God. In Christ, God came to us.
As always, I encourage you to reach me with any questions.
Jul/090
The Books of The Bible (first impressions)
I’ve been looking forward to having one of these for a long time and thanks to IBS Direct I have one to review.
This is a presentation of the TNIV translation of the Holy Scriptures with the Chapter and verse names and numbers removed. Pure Bible reading. The books have also been rearranged from the order most of us are used to, partially to to give easier understanding, partially to restore books that were divided in history for various reasons, to their full status.
My very first impression was one of discomfort. It felt weird and somewhat disrespectful to me to pick up the Bible as a book without those little verse numbers and chapter headings. Bibles have those. I’m used to it. That quickly faded as I jumped in where I had left off in my ESV and read this one for a while. After a night of reading I’m beginning to really like it.
Reading Scripture this way flows beautifully and so far I can say that rather than missing the verse numbers and chapter headings, I like them gone. They got in the way. They disrupted the story. Most importantly, I think, they have offered us a convenient way to divide and misquote scripture in ways they weren’t intended. Novels aren’t written this way, why should God’s story be any different?
Chapter and verse Bibles are more suited for study purposes. I think presenting these to those unfamiliar with God’s Word is intimidating and uninviting. Even those mature Christians with years of Bible study behind them will find this publication liberating.
I’ll spend more time with this book and get back to you. So far I think it’s going to keep getting better.
Jun/090
Crossway ESV Classic Thinline Celtic Cross
Crossway ESV Celtic Cross Thinline
To begin, I have to apologize. I have no pictures at the moment except fot this stock one. I took them, but every one of them was bad. Really bad. I’ll get you those soon, I promise.
You’ll want to see the pictures, too since this is one really nice Bible. Let’s look it over, shall we?
Translation: English Standard Version. This one is becoming very popular in a hurry. It’s easily readable without sacrificing theological accuracy. There are a ton of resources out there explaining bible translation. Go look them up. In addition, the ESV is building up a hefty and respected library of reference materials, so if you like the straight translation of the Bible, you’ll have a good amounf of study aids available to you.
Cover: The cover is TruTone, a synthetic material made to look lile leather. Frankly, I like it better than the leather Bibles I own. TruTone is more flexible than my leather covers and lays flat for hands free reading; something I have come to like quite a bit. The cover is black, featuring a celtic cross bordered tastefully crafted scrollwork and a stitched edge. Very attractive. The binding features “Holy Bible” at the top, then “ESV” underneath, followed by the ESV insignia, which is tasteful, “English Standard Version” below that and “Crossway” at the bottom. All are imprinted and make for an austere appearance. Time will tell how well the TruTone wears.
Edge Gilding: The silver gilding on the page edges is fairly sparse and has worn down rather quickly. Not huge, but it’s noticable.
Paper: The paper is thin enough to lie flat easily, but tough enough not to rip under handling. Highlighting stays on one side when I do it and doesn’t warp.
Pages: Margins are sensible and no type dips into the gutter, forcing you to pry the spine open to read.
Type: Since there are no reference notes, there is enough room for decent sized print. The font is easy to read and doesn’t tire your eyes. It’s big enough to read easily without being large sized type. I dread the day when I finally admit I’m aging and reach for the giant print Bible.
Binding: The binding is sewn and sturdy. None of the pages separate at the spine. Nice and solid.
Conclusion: I reviewed my favorite Bible first. This is a great Bible to carry around with you and rad. The size is sensible, the bok itself is solid and the translation is a joy to read. Go buy one.
Jun/090
The Kingdom of the Occult
The Kingdom of the Occult by Walter Martin
The Kingdom of the Occult bty Walter Martin is a huge volume, extensively researched and passionately written. It’s a real eye opener for lots of us and a clear warning about just what sort of world we really face. Many Christians approach the Bible as merely a story book or a list of rule, or that book in front of them at church from where the pastor draws his sermons.
The Bible is much more than that. It’s our spiritual guidebook, and in its pages are numerous references and warnings about the realm of the spirit. That’s because it’s real and outsude of God’s protection, it’s extremely dangerous.
Martin goes into striking and powerful detail in this work. He defines common term we often take for granted. He gives stories regarding actual occurences. He cites Biblical instances where the world of spirit are mentioned.
Frankly, it’s a scary book. Within it’s pages martin reveals to us a world just outside of our sight, the one God warns us about, and how it affects our physical, mental and spiritual lives. The good news is that he also understands our standing as Christians in the army of God’s Kingdom and points us very clearly back to His word for guidance.
This should be standard reading for Christians.
Jun/090
Nelson’s Illustrated Guide to Religions
I’m not sure what I expected from this book. Perhaps more of an argumentative attitude or more of an attack on other religions from a Christian standpoint. Either one of those choices did not turn out to be the case and I’m glad for it.
Nelson’s Illustrated Guide to Religeons offers a concise guide to the beliefs, teachings and principal players, both recent and historical of the world’s religions. It’s very well written, informative and clear.
At the end of each religion’s treatment, there is a Christian response, one to be used more for thought and debate. In my opinion, this is a welcome feature, but the responses are uneven in their strengths. For example, thesectionon Jehovah’s Witnesses is a strong and well written essay, exposing the hypocrisy of the organization and it’s many contradictions. The Christian response is strong and useful for ministry. Buddhism, on the other hand is well written, interesting and informative, but the Christian response is not as extensive and is based largely upon the conversations the author held with the Dalai Lama himself. It is understandable that there will be differences in the treatment of the various religions and variation is to be expected.
Where the Christian responses may be a tad uneven, the presentation of the material, it’s thoroughness and clarity are not. These traits alone allow for the Christian student to form their own response to the teachings.
Over all, I would reccoment this book for any person seeking to gain a fundamental grasp on the teachings and actions of the world’s religions and how they relate to Biblical Christianity. It’s a valuable resource.
Jun/090
Bible Reviews
May/090
A Timely Addition
The American Patriot’s Bible
Published by Thomas Nelson Publishers
As an overall statement, I love this Bible. It’s a New King James translation, which I like quite a bit.
This is my first hardcover Bible. I’ve avoided them until now just because I didn’t want to have to lug one around, and I also have a partiality to soft covers. I have to say that I’m happily surprised with this one. I’d expected to receive a giant doorstop of a book with newspaper pulp between the covers. Instead I got a sizeable book printed on high quality paper featurinng beautiful illustrations, tasteful watermarks and a well chosen typeface in an easily readable point size. A typesize that allows me to read Scripture easily, but comes just shy of forcing me to admit I’m getting old man eyes. It’s spared me my dignity.
At first I thought I might have a problem reading it due to the illustrations and inserts, but that’s not the case. The non-Biblical material is well placed and unobtrusive, and the illustrations are well chosen and dignified. The color scheme blends well and doesn’t compete for attention with the Scriptures.
The inserts themselves are well written and relevant, providing a much needed retelling of the Christian history of our nation. With more and more of our history being rewritten each day, it’s important to have historical proof that our nation was founded on sound Biblical principles so that people may come to realize the desperate state of spiritual bankruptcy that is our present national situation. Learn from the past to secure your future. Our future is and always was with God.
After carting this Bible around for a week or so, another great use for it emerged; reaching my thirteen year old son. He hates to read, except about history. So now, I hand him this Bible and let him read both about our Lord Jesus Christ, and how life in his service applies to our lives. God always provides.
Physically this book is beautiful. The cover is beautiful and the illustrations have dignity and add to the overall impressiveness of the package. The paper is high quality, with the inserts being of a slightly thicker stock, which I assume makes finding them and navigating the pages a little easier for a book of this size. Until now, I’d always struggled to read my smaller print bibles, pridefully refusing to believe that my eyes are waning, but alas, I’m forty-three. It happens. The larger print in this edition is a gift, making late night and early morning reading a simple task.
Overall I recommend this book highly to anyone looking to gain insight into our nation’s heritage and it’s service to God. This couldn’t have come out at a better time.
May/090
We Serve Him.
The Word of God is being reduced to a self-help program with Jesus Christ as the poster child. Apart from being abhorrent to God, and therefore to Biblical Christians, it’s devastating to the population of our nation. America needs the pure, unadulterated Word of God delivered to the people, and that Word is not always easy to swallow, but pure truth hardly ever is.
The rapidly growing Prosperity Gospel is the most obvious evidence of this trend. Incredibly popular preachers pack stadiums weekly with thirty thousand spectators to hear these messages. Audiences love these sermons because they tell people what they want to hear; that God wants them to be financially prosperous, free of disease and that their relationships should be trouble free. The key to achieving this is often preached as simply praying to Jesus Christ and saying “I invite you into my life,” and then keeping a positive attitude. Stay with that plan long enough and God will give you “double for your trouble,” (That’s a quote from the sermon posted below.) You’ll become rich with money, popular and healthy all because you said that prayer and kept your head up. In addition, whatever dreams you have should be kept at the forefront of your mind because as a child of God, you are a winner. Whatever dream you have, stick to it because God put it there.
Nothing could be more harmful or disgraceful. First things first: we were created first and foremost to worship God. Subservient. To serve His purposes, not the other way around. In return for our obedience to His laws, God will show us mercy, and through His son Jesus Christ, he forgives our sins because our fallen nature has no good in it. The theology forgiveness of sin is for another time. The Biblical fact remains than Man is evil. He is dirty because he operates outside God’s intention. So what does that say about some of the dreams many of us have?
Not many people want to hear that message. It’s unpleasant. It hurts their feelings, makes them change the way they see themselves. It puts an unmovable yardstick of measure against which they are judged. It’s downright threatening and it’s supposed to be.
The Bible is a direct threat to the evil spiritual culture of our world. It offends most of us right from the start when it reveals that we are unclean and deserve to burn in Hell. That’s a hard pill to swallow, no doubt. It challenges our love of comfort, money, possessions and our selves. It shows us how God sees us and the picture is not pretty.
God sees us all the same way, by his standards, not ours. He sees liars accusing others of lying, he sees people with overabundance allowing the poor, lost and forgotten of our world to perish without a thought.
We should be serving God by coming to the aid of or fellow man in whatever form they need, with the Holy Spirit as our guide. How can we emulate Jesus when we see him as a means to achieve our goals of greed and idolatry?
The Church of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world, and that hope is shared by serving Him as he commands, whatever that command may be. He may want you to go to Africa and help the poorest of the poor. He may want you to start a Christian youth center in your town. He may simply want you to raise your family in His ways and give your whole heart to Him. Whatever the call, Jesus Christ wants your total devotion, all of your heart and your obedience.
Before ever believing one word you hear from the pulpit, you should know the Holy Bible. It’s not just a story book or a history book. It’s alive. It is a spiritual book that God uses to transform the hearts of men and reveal himself to them. All things should be checked against Scripture, which means understanding the entire text, not small snippets placed out of context.
We should be asking Jesus Christ to transform our hearts of stone into ones of flesh that we may spread mercy and joy as he did. He sees us as we are, not as we think we are. A sandwich to a starving man means more to him than a mansion means to the rich. Knowing him is all the a blessing and he gives you everything you need.
Remember, we serve Him.
Watch below and see how the Gospel is turned to our wants rather than to Christ’s service. It’s not very subtle once you measure it correctly, but it’s easy to see how people want this.