Prophets Of Gloom

Yet at the same time they are learning to be idle also, wandering about the homes.  Yet not only are they idle, but gossips also, and meddlers, speaking what they must not.  

1 Peter 5: 13, Concordant New Testament 

Their unprovoked attacks come without warning.  They give no heed to the thoughts or fears of others.  Their only goal, it seems, is to cause distress among those they associate with.  They may be decent people, but their words would not lead one to believe as much.  They are those among us who speak gossip and to the fears of others around us.  I got another dose of this this past week while in a conversation with a few coworkers.  One individual in particular, whose habit has been to create anxiety among others, mentioned the fact that the Portland area could be seeing snow this week.  To most, this is a innocent comment.  To those who struggle to commute to work in adverse weather, it creates anxiety in the heart.  It is for this very reason that I have never had much time for those who are the prophets of gloom among us.  If it snows, I am fully capable of getting where I need to go.  If the economy is bad (Thank you, Joe Biden, it is!), then I am able to fend for myself.  It is my belief that I do not walk this world alone, which is why I think I'm able to lay waste to much of the gossip which I hear daily.  I believe that speaking gossip goes against what the Lord has planned for us.  For not only are we bringing despair unto others, but we are putting ourselves in Gods place.  Who are we to tell someone else what the future will bring?  This is the domain of God and God alone.  But, you say, weatherman make predictions all the time!  True, but how many initial weather reports turn out to be right?  Just this week I have seen three to four different weather scenarios for Portland's weather this week.  If we could predict the future, many people would make a living out of gambling.  Scripture tells us that we are not to make such plans {James 4:13-17}.  We do not know what tomorrow will bring, but God knows.  Are we truly believing that we know more than He?  I often think that if the Lord has a sense of humor, and I'm sure that He does, that He is quite amused by many of the failed predictions which we often make.  

Come now, you who are saying, "Today or tomorrow we will be going into this or that city and should be spending a year there, and we shall be trafficking and getting gain."  Who are not versed in that which is the morrow's, for what is your life?  For a vapor are you, which is appearing briefly and thereupon disappearing.  Instead of your saying, "If the Lord should ever be willing, and we shall be living, we also shall be doing this or that."  Yet now you are vaunting in your ostentations.  All such boasting is wicked. 

James 4: 13-16, Concordant New Testament 

I profit the Lords brother, James, for providing us the perfect response to anyone who gossips that they know whatever calamity will befall us next.  If the Lord wills it, it will be {James 4:15}.  Usually, this is more than enough to leave any gloom prophet dumbfounded and at a loss for words.  But the truth is in my words.  The entire creation of this world is the Lords.  We are but dust, given the breath of life by God Himself {Genesis 2:7}.  Who are we that we should provide the schedule of time to God?  On the contrary, when He is willing, God provides us with the plans He has made.  Far too many people are hesitant or fearful when it comes to the future.  The future brings uncertainty and the unknown.  When someone speaks to the future, many times these same anxieties and fears come back to haunt us.  Yet, if we know in our hearts who it is that holds tomorrow in His hands, those anxieties might just be eased a bit.  If we know in our hearts that those speaking to our anxieties and fears are speaking against the Lord and His desires for us, it empowers us to shrug off the arrows of the prophets of gloom.  Yes, they might speak of bad events, but it is God who is Lord of all.  Nothing may befall us unless the Lord wills it.  Now, that is a true prophesy.  

~Scott~ 

A Mediterranean Cruise

 

Now Paul, remaining still a considerable number of days with the brethren, taking leave, sailed off to Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow.  Now they arrive at Ephesus and he left them there.  Yet he, entering the synagogue, argues with the Jews.  Yet at their asking him to stay on more time, he does not consent, but, taking leave and saying, "I shall come back again to you, God willing," he set out from Ephesus.  

Acts 18: 18-21, Concordant New Testament 

A recent conversation with a coworker brought me to the realization of the missionary journeys of the apostle Paul.  Besides being recognized as one of the best speakers of the gospel (s) of Christ who ever lived, Paul also is recognized for spreading that gospel throughout the ancient world.  His ministry took Paul from Israel in the south and up into the Mediterranean region north as far as Greece and what was then Asia as well.  My coworker is Egyptian by heritage, and Christian by belief.  He has shared with me accounts of how the Muslim Brotherhood tried to instill in him the edicts of the Muslim faith.  When he questioned those edicts, he was punished.  Desiring the freedom to practice the Christianity he knew, he immigrated with his family to this country some years ago.  The beliefs which he has become accustomed to are those of the Greek Orthodox church.  I can imagine that the apostle Paul had a hand in the introduction of the gospel of Jesus into the very region my friend hails from.  Indeed, Christianity has a strong foothold in that portion of the world, albeit in the watered down form of different parts of the religion.  You have the Greek Orthodox as well as Eastern Orthodox more common in the Russian territories.  There is also the Roman Catholic church, which expounds on the gospel of Jesus in its own way as well.  While adopting the gospels, these local Mediterranean religions also have put their own spin on what Paul spoke to the world.  I was made aware of this this past week as I attempted to have a conversation about Jesus with my friend.  It didn't take too long before I was able to see that the Greek Orthodox religion is steeped deeply in traditions.  There is Jesus, but Jesus, as in mainstream Christian teaching, is alive in heaven separated from the Gods children.  It is through my own upbringing that I am able to follow along with my friend as he attempts to male sense of who Jesus truly is.  

And coming down into Caesarea, going up and greeting the ecclesia, he descended to Antioch.  And, spending some time, he came away, passing consecutively through the Galatian province Phrygia, establishing all the disciples.  

Acts 18: 22-23, Concordant New Testament

I found myself thinking this week that my friends view of a far off Jesus was one that I once shared with him.  In my younger years, I was exposed to the "religion" of Christianity.  I knew OF Jesus, but I did not know Him as I do now.  When I speak of the Jesus I know to my friend, his common response is a look of confusion.  If I could, I would hear the cells of his mind racing as they struggled to comprehend this new Jesus he obviously has never been introduced to.  The Jesus of personal relationship.  He will pour over his Arabic scriptures, searching for some reference to what I am telling him about Jesus.  I get it.  I faced this very same struggle as I was introduced to the revelation of Christ in me.  The scriptures I knew and trusted were all from the lens of the church teachings.  When I was introduced to the letters of Paul, who describes the presence of Christ in us, I was confused.  The Jesus whom I was taught was far away from me, was in fact closer to me than I had ever known.  This is the struggle which my friend now faces.  A Jesus contrary to all which he has been taught.  A Jesus not desiring to domineer or punish, but to love.  As he journeys through his own revelation, my friend will retrace the steps which I took in my own journey of knowing Jesus.  I look forward to hearing his story.  

~Scott~ 

The Church Of Christ

 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves, according as the custom of some is, but entreating, and so much rather as you are observing the day drawing near. 

Hebrews 10: 25, Concordant New Testament 

It's a common question that many Christians face, what church do you go to?  As a good friend of mine once related, the question became your identity.  People associated you with whatever church you were going to at the time.  If it was a large, successful church, you were a successful Christian (Think Saddleback church in North California).  However, if you simply attended a small po dunk church on the outskirts of town, then you were seen as being in a "growing" congregation.  If people had a bad experience in a church, they would associate you with that experience as well.  You...were the church.  I've had the opportunity to attend both small and large scale churches in my time.  Some were successful while others not so much.  But here is where I split hairs with many in the Christian community.  What defines a successful church?  Is it the size of the building?  Is it the success of the ministry?  Is it the size of the congregation?  Well, the way that I see it, it is none of these.  For these are all the ways which man uses to decide whether a church is worthy of being a religious institution.  You have to have a good, God fearing pastor who preaches the sermons we've all heard before.  You definitely need to have a good sized congregation who obediently fill the pews each and every Sunday morning.  If you have this, then you have a successful church.  It matters not what you teach or how many people you lead to the Lord, if you have a good sized church then you are doing it right.  Well, the trouble is that many traditional churches are bleeding numbers from their congregations at a high rate.  This has to be concerning to those who keep track of such things.  People in the churches of America are beginning to realize what I have come to know, that the church is more about the body of believers than the brick and mortar facades which man has created.  

And He is the head of the body, the ecclesia, Who is sovereign, Firstborn from among the dead, that in all He may becoming first, for in Him the entire compliment delights to dwell. 

Colossians 1: 18-19, Concordant New Testament

Scripture tells us that God does not dwell in temples made by the hands of men {Acts 17:24}.  When we say that we are going to "Gods house," where is it that we are headed?  Society tells us that the local church bears that distinction.  Yet, in recent years we have seen more new churches pop up than coffee shops in most towns.  So, which one is God affiliated with?  Which church do I need to walk into in order to have it known that I am in Gods house?  Well, the way I see it, any building where the followers of Jesus can meet is known as a church.  Here in Portland we have seen churches pop up in drive ins as well as old warehouses.  Some years ago, local pastor Brett Meador had the idea to hold a open bible study in downtown Portland during the noon hour.  Years later, followers of Jesus still flock to this study in the downtown blocks.  To understand the meaning of church, we must first understand the relationship of Christ to it.  We're told that Christ Jesus is the head of body of believers {Colossians 1:18}.  It is Jesus who is the head of the church, that is, the body.  The body of believers IS the church.  Throw aside all of traditions and trappings of the brick and mortar buildings and what you're left with are the followers of Jesus who congregate in His name.  THIS is the church.  The local pastor may preside over the affairs of the church, but there is no doubt that Jesus is the head.  When someone asks you what church you are attending...tell them the church of Jesus.  

Now all those who believe were also in the same place and had all things in common.  And they disposed of the acquisitions and the properties, and divided them for all, forasmuch as some would have had need.  Besides preserving day by day with one accord in the sanctuary, besides breaking bread home by home, they partook of nourishment with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor for the people.  Now the Lord added those being saved day by day in the same place. 

Acts 2: 44-47, Concordant New Testament 

~Scott~ 

More Than A Game

"A new precept am I giving to you, that you be loving one another; according as I love you, that you also be loving one another.  By this all shall be knowing that you are My disciples, if you should be having love for one another."

John 13: 34-35, Concordant New Testament

Today is super bowl Sunday, and honestly I couldn't care less.  I know that the Kansas City Chiefs will be facing the Philadelphia Eagles, but that's where my interest dies.  Perhaps if my Minnesota Vikings were in the game I would take more interest, but I'm good where I stand.  Obviously, the Super bowl has not become a world wide icon, with networks and the internet broadcasting the game across the world.  With this popularity comes a unique opportunity for the advertisers who will spend millions for one short ad to be played during the game.  Sure, we all expect to see the Budweiser, Frito Lay and Coca Cola commercials we've all grown accustomed to.  Admit it, those Clydesdale commercials are pretty cool.  Yet, here's something you probably were not expecting to see during the super bowl.  This year, people across the globe will see ads featuring...Jesus.  Yes, Jesus.  It seems that the Hobby Lobby corporation has purchased ad time during the super bowl to spread the message about Jesus.  What is this message that they are already sharing with the world?  Simple...Jesus gets us.  Now, most mainstream believers already know that, but there are many who do not.  If I were Hobby Lobby, I would give a big fat bonus check to whichever advertising executive came up with the Jesus gets us campaign.  I like to think that this is not simply about the ads, as Hobby Lobby is a well known faith based business.  What better way to introduce someone to Jesus?  Instead of some boring sermon or over used scripture, tell us something about who Jesus is.  They certainly nailed this one in my opinion.  Scripture tells us that we have a high priest that sympathizes with our weaknesses {Hebrews 4:14-16}.  Jesus gets us.  This is exactly the message about Jesus that the world needs to hear.  In a world filled with sorrow, pain and uncertainty, Jesus has suffered as we have.  

Having, then, a great Chief Priest, Who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, we may be holding to the avowal.  For we have not a Chief Priest not able to sympathize with our infirmities, but One Who has been tried in all respects like us, apart from sin.  

Hebrews 4: 14-16, Concordant New Testament 

I'm not a new believer, but if I were I would want to know more about this man named Jesus.  I feel that our mainstream churches are lacking in this regard.  We know OF Jesus, yet we seldom actually know Him personally.  I look back at some of the greatest leaders of all time, and the ones that garner the most attention are those that have walked the same roads as those they were leading.  There is definitely something to be said for walking that mile in someone's shoes.  Jesus has done just that.  There is no situation or pain which we have ever experienced that Jesus cannot personally attest to having experienced Himself.  For before He was even crucified, He lived a life of the flesh, yet without sin.  Scripture tells us very little of the formative, young years of the boy Jesus.  We can assume that He was active in the same ways as children of His age.  We can assume that this boy Jesus was disciplined as a child as we were.  We can also assume that He spent a good amount of time in Joseph's workshop learning His fathers trade.  One of the best films I have seen that depicts the boy Jesus and what He must have experienced is The Young Messiah (2016).  I feel that, lacking scripture references, that the writers of this movie did a good job representing what life must have been like for the boy Jesus.  Jesus gets us.  The focus of the Hobby Lobby ad campaign is not one designed to entice more people into church.  No, the focus of these ads is to entice more people to come to know Jesus.  

~Scott~ 

The Cult Of Christianity

 "So no, I'm not too big on religion...and not very fond of politics and economics either...And why should I be?  They are the man-created trinity of terrors that ravages the earth and deceives those I care about.  What mental turmoil and anxiety does any human face that is not related to one of those three?" 

William Paul Young, The Shack 

I confess that I was once an avid attender of Sunday morning services at my favorite church.  It was here where I found teaching and comfort in the brotherhood of those around me.  Yet, it was also where I found a lot of pain, frustration and questions.  I heard a dear friend of mine this past week pose the question on why we Christians are so apt to hold steadfast to what the mainstream church throws our way without question.  Think about it, we go to church on Sunday and we sit in our assigned pews or classes and listen to a pastor or teacher regale us with a story from the bible or a snazzy sermon which is seldom meant to cause questions but to relay the our orders from God through our local pastor.  It is but through one man, or group of pastors, that the teaching of the Lord is entrusted.  Tell me this doesn't sound like a cult.  Now, more than a few believers would look unfavorably on me for comparing the Christian faith to a cult...I get it.  But it's not the believers in the faith that I are the basis of this cult.  No, they are merely followers being led by their teachers.  Tell me, is it common practice to question the words of your pastor?  Are you looked upon favorably for questioning his words?  My guess is that anyone who does so would get the same response which I myself received the few times I made it be known to a pastor that I disagreed with their sermon.  You would think that I had created some unpardonable sin.  A good teacher is one that allows their students to question what they are being taught.  Good luck with that in the mainstream church.  No, as Christians we are to accept the traditional church mantra without question.  We all know the story.  God created the world.  God sent Jesus to wipe away our sins.  Jesus was crucified and laid in a tomb and rose from the dead three days later.  It is Jesus who now sits at the right hand of the Father.  This is what we're told to believe.  

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God, for many false prophets have come out into the world. 

1 John 4: 1, Concordant New Testament 

The first time I was introduced to the words of John who calls upon us to test the spirits I was taken aback.  I'm supposed to question those who bring me the word of the Lord?  Yes!  In reality, anyone can lay claim that they are speaking on behalf of the Lord.  The names Charles Manson, David Koresh and Jim Jones are painful reminders of what can happen when we blindly follow man into religion.  It was Jones who, claiming to be the messiah, called upon over 900 of his followers to kill themselves one evening in Guyana.  If someone seemingly speaking on account of the Lord asked this of you...what would your reaction be?  By blindly following the mainstream church mantra over the years, we have missed the boat on the very truth of Jesus in our lives.  The apostle Paul explains to us that it is Christ who is alive in us {Romans 6:5, Galatians 2:20}.  Yet for many believers this is a subject prone to blasphemy.  This week I asked a believer friend of mine to read Paul's writing in Galatians and tell me how he then saw Jesus.  His response was a blank look of confusion.  I get it.  The cult of Christianity had claimed another victim.  Why is knowing the truth of Christ in us such an important issue?  Because when we know Jesus we eliminate the middle man when it comes to hearing from the Lord.  No longer do we require a pastor or leader to speak to us the voice of the Lord.  When we know ourselves as an extension of Christ, we can more readily hear what He is saying to us.  Never has Jesus put it upon my heart to drink poison and kill myself.  Instead of being the ordained voice of the Lord, the leaders of our mainstream church are but His servants to guide Gods children unto Him.  

Woe to you, Pharisees!  Seeing that you are loving the front seat in the synagogues and the salutations in the markets.  

Luke 11: 43, Concordant New Testament 

~Scott~ 

The Fathers Eyes

 But Yahweh said to Samuel, you must not look at his appearance and at the loftiness of his stature, for I have rejected him.  For not as a human sees, does the One, Elohim, see.  A human sees the visible appearance, yet Yahweh sees into the heart. 

1 Samuel 16: 7, Concordant Old Testament 

A lot has been said as to how we feel when we fall short and miss the mark.  We feel defeated and rejected by many around us.  Contrary to popular belief, I've been in those shoes before.  I remember well the lectures from seemingly well meaning Christian brothers in church after the revelation that I had once again fallen victim to whatever it was the world had to offer.  Many would tell me things about God that made me cringe.  God was angry.  God was ignoring me.  All of this because I somehow had not measured up to His holy standard.  Then again, who can?  The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 3 that ALL have sinned and fallen short {Romans 3:23}.  Funny thing, though, I rarely heard that verse preached by my Christian brethren as they lectured me about my latest misgiving.  For to do so would have forced them into the spotlight as well, and they weren't about that.  This was the attitude which I carried with me inside and outside of the church.  Every time I would stumble, it was like I could almost feel the Lords stare of disapproval upon me.  This was how I viewed God.  A stern and short tempered overseer.  Yet never once did I take the chance to see how it is that God saw me.  How was it that God looked upon me in those moments where I wept because I had let Him down once again?  How many more chances would He give me until He was done with me forever?  How many more lectures could I look forward to from seemingly well meaning brothers in the faith?  One day, out of curiosity, I began to search for the answers to my questions.  How does God see me?  Is He really the angry ogre I was told about?  Well, it turns out that I had been misled by many in the church.  Whenever I would fall, it was God who was there ready to receive me to Himself once again.  Not as a condemned sinner, but as His loved child {1 John 3:1}.  This is how I looked through my Fathers eyes.  

Who rouses Him from among the dead, you also being dead to the offenses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He vivifies us together jointly with Him, dealing graciously with all our offenses, erasing the handwriting of the decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and has taken it away out of the midst, nailing it to the cross. 

Colossians 2: 13-14, Concordant New Testament 

One of my all time favorite parables of Jesus is of the prodigal son.  I believe that this story illustrates all too well the love which God has for His children.  This mans son took his fathers inheritance and squandered it on simple pleasures in the big city (think Las Vegas or New York of the day).  Eventually, his money gone, the young man finds himself in need of work.  He agrees to work feeding the pigs of a local farmer, which must have been quite the reality check for this son of a wealthy man.  Finally, fed up with his lot in life, the young man decides that he will return home, apologize to his father for his wayward ways, and seek a job as his servant.  Yet, we're told that even when his son was far off, his father saw him returning and ran to him and kissed him {Luke 15:20}.  This is the love which our heavenly Father has for us!  I like to think that perhaps Jesus perceived there were some listening that day who had been taught a wrong idea about God.  We know that the scribes and Pharisees of His day were big on religion.  Were there more than a few listening to Jesus that day thinking that they were being punished by the Lord?  Perhaps.  But then Jesus proceeds to tell the world of the true nature of the Father.  Not as a mean overseer, but as a loving Father who only desires to be united with His children {John 17:21}.  When we began to see God as He sees us, we get a closer look at the love He has for us.  

He who is not loving knew not God, for God is love.

1 John 4: 8, Concordant New Testament 

~Scott~ 

Gods Hand Extended

 Brethren, if a man should be precipitated, also, in some offense, you, who are spiritual, be attuning such a one, in a spirit of weakness, noting yourself, that you, also, may not be tried.  Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. 

Galatians 6: 1-2, Concordant New Testament 

A lot going on this week in the world of faith and knowing the Lord.  First off, I learned that a dear brother in the Lord had stumbled and fallen into the wiles of the world.  What's funny is that my very first reaction was to somehow lecture this fallen brother with all sorts of scriptures about the dangers of the world, that we're better than that blah blah blah.  There I was defaulting once again back into that which I was brought up to believe.  Growing up in the church, it's easy to see why I'm inclined to return there every now and then.  That is the mainstream church model in dealing with a misbehaving brother caught up in the world.  Let him know what those bible verses say and that we, as Christians, are different. I would dare to say that we who know Jesus are different.  Different than the legalistic drama of the mainstream church.  Different than the rituals and traditions they practice.  We may call ourselves religious, but when it comes to Jesus Himself, we are as anti-religion as Jesus was.  As I thought of my brother this week, I wondered the jumble of emotions he must be enduring.  I can certainly relate, because I've been there.  That's right, I've been in the crosshairs of the anti sinner mainstream church mafia before.  As I thought of my brother, I also wondered, what if it had been me?  What sort of reaction would I be expecting from my church going brethren?  Sadly, I already know that answer.  I hate to lump most church going believers into the holier than thou crowd, but this is the reaction many who stumble and fall in the world face.  When I summoned up the courage to admit my own shortcomings, I was weak, I had abandoned God and now He was punishing me for my behavior.  I learned pretty damn quick not to divulge my shortcomings to those in the church who claimed that they were there for me.  As I said, we who truly know Jesus are different.  

"I don't need to punish people for sin.  Sin is it's own punishment, devouring you from the inside.  It's not my purpose to punish it; it's my joy to cure it." 

William Paul Young, The Shack 

There is a weekly Christian radio call in prayer show on Sunday evenings where the hosts proclaim that they are simply being Gods hand extended.  That is, by offering prayers over those in the grips of the world, that they are extending the love and mercy of the Lord over them as well.  I would agree.  I would take this a step further to say that we who come beside those who have stumbled are also Gods hand extended.  For it was never the intent of the Lord to punish those who are suffering.  Jesus invited all who were weary and heavy laden with the burdens of the world to come to Him {Matthew 11:28}.  Yeah, but that was back in the days of Jesus right?  Gods hand extended.  Jesus proclaims that we who believe should let our light shine before others {Matthew 5:16}.  It can be said that Jesus will be known through those who know Him.  Gods hand extended.  When He who is in us reaches out to the afflicted, the glory is not ours but Gods alone.  We have become, in effect, the Lords hand extended unto others.  For those who have stumbled, there is no safer place than in the presence of Christ Jesus.  I am confident that my friend who has suffered affliction knows the Lord.  As we all know, knowing the Lord has never been a bullet proof way of preventing affliction.  However, knowing who to turn to when the rubber meets the road can go a long way to making our suffering easier to deal with.  Bible verses and legalistic teachings will not calm a heart damaged by our own guilt and shame.  Jesus calls upon us to bring those burdens to Him.  

So that, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the primitive passed by.  Lo! There has come new! 

2 Corinthians 5: 17, Concordant New Testament 

~Scott~