The Doctrine of Perfection

I've had the pleasure lately of hanging out with a good friend of mine and his wife and well some interesting things have come up in our discussions one I'd like to call the "Doctrine of Perfection."

What I mean by this is this, you've met those people who give you the attitude that if your a good christian you'd wear these kinds of clothes, listen to this type of music and act in this way. There were a group of people in Jesus day that taught the same things, they gave such teachings on obedience of the law that there was no freedom there was nothing they could do, they were no longer able to just be people. These people were the Pharisees, that's right I'm saying that people that preach the Doctrine of Perfection are our modern day Pharisees, but remember something when these people come to condemn you for the things you do and that is a simple bible passage out of Luke 7:36-50 it's when a "sinful" woman came in and annointed Jesus and washed his feet, Simon critized her for this but Jesus rebuked him for rebuking her because she had done such a beautiful thing. He on many occasions has critized the Pharisees harshly and called them hypocrits because of what they taught and then went out and did. Another example with this is in John 8:1-11 when a prostitute caught in the act was brought before Jesus and he said "let he who has not sinned throw the first stone" then later he says "woman where are they? has no one condemned you?" "no one sir," she said. "then neither do I condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin." How powerful this is!!! Jesus would not even condemn a prostitute yet people in our churches today condemn people for listening to music and wearing clothes that they have deemed "unacceptable". I do not believe that Jesus would stand there and condemn these people, he would sit with them and talk with them and heal them of their broken spirits. He hung out with the dirty, sinful and unclean the people who the higher order of the Jews had thrown away as unclean and he made them all clean. So whenever you encounter someone teaching the Doctrine of Perfection remember this "realize that it was a prostitute who annointed Jesus and washed his feet, not those doing the 'right' things."

Have a good one all.

Egypt's Plagues

So yeah, another rare post but I thought I'd give you some thoughts on the ten plagues of Egypt that are covered in the book of Exodus.

I was thinking that God was sending these plagues so that his name would be known in all the world, but also God sent Moses to deliver the plagues because of the suffering of the Israelites by the Egyptians. Interesting thoughts when you put it all together. Have you ever been persecuted by someone for your faith or just for being you? It's quite miserable, it hurts and will leave emotional scars that will last for probably a life time. However think about this story of just before the Exodus. Pharoah was tormenting the Israelites in slave labour, slaying their first born and putting work loads on them that were unbearable and suddenly out of nowhere appears Moses that curses the land with God's plagues so that the power of God may be known to all the world. Yet I'm not sure it was just to show the unbelieving, but the believing as well. When Moses first came the Israelites doubted the validity of Moses being sent by "I am" or God. So the terror on their enemies would have been a faith booster to them as well, too bad as we know later in the Pentateuch (first five books of the bible) the Israelites continue to falter in their ways. Howevre back to the point I made at the beginning, have you ever been persecuted? Did you bless the person or curse them? I would hope that you blessed the person for it says in the bible that to bless your enemies is to heap more coals on their heads. You see, God is looking out for you, when people come and bad mouth you, make fun of you or hurt you I know for a fact from this story that God will look down at you and say "no no no, I don't think so do you not remember what I did to the Egyptians?" and I'm sure that that persons life will not be all that pleasant since that sin that brought them to hurt you is now evident in their lives. Sin leads to a great number of calamities, Pharoah's sin lead to the devastation of Egypt and other peoples sin against God's children has it's own reprecutions. But this also applies to us, if we start bashing other people and those in our churches God will be like "what the hey are you doing?" and will have no choice but to let us suffer the consequences of our own actions, thus it is possible for us to bring the plauges of Egypt down on ourselves as well. But all in all remember, God is looking out for you just as he did the Israelites in Egypt, so in your suffering rejoice because the almighty God of heaven is with you.

A shocking announcement

After much consideration I've decided to make a change of pace in my life. I'm going to start searching out a new church. It's a big move I know, but something I feel that I need to do in order to move on as a christian. The church I'm attending now is stagnant, there hasn't been any movement no growth, nothing. In fact the congregation is dying. People are becoming complacent and I'm not getting the spiritual food out of this church that I need. For the last few months as far as attendance goes, yes I've been there, but that's it. Just been warming a pew, it's sad I know but that's way it's been. It's time I believe for me to move along. I may not leave totally but I need to find a place where I can fit in. I'll miss playing on the worship team and what not. But God will provide for what I need in whatever new church I decide to go to. I hope that you can all pray for me as I "church shop" and try to find a place to fit in. I'll hopefully talk to you all soon.

Nothin' too thought provoking today folks ...

Okay, so it's Easter Sunday and for the service my pastor had set up a tomb in our parking lot to re-enact the empty tomb scene. Well we're all walking out to start and a good friend of mine *cough*collinwilson*cough,cough* says that I should run out, hide in the cave and when they say "he is not here, he has risen" for me to jump out of the tomb and shriek "surprise!!!" So of course when that part of the skit comes both us crack down laughing uncontrollably.

Well tonights blog is just going to merely consist of a prayer request. I've been rather confused as to what to do about a certain situation and all I can do it to call out to all my brothers and sisters out there for prayer and hopefully I'll get a picture as to what God wants. Here's the story thus far in this situation.

It's the middle of January and after a long day of doing nothing I'm laying in bed and I suddenly get a strong urge that a friend of mine in Edmonton had broken up with her boyfriend, I shunned it away as selfish hopeful thinking and went to sleep, very shortly afterwards I got another sense that I should call her. Again I thought, she's in Edmonton, this is stupid I can't call her then that same voice was like "no no, call her at home here in Ingersoll." I thought to myself that it wasn't possible and to just get on my way. Well in knawed at me and one day this girl was online and I talked to her and she told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend and that she was in Ingersoll for three weeks. I nearly fell off my chair and immediately started to pray about the situation. I asked some people at church what I should do and they all agreed that I should tell her and see what happens. So that's what I do I tell her that God had told me about the whole thing. I also said that I didn't know what God wanted and that hopefully we could both find that out. Well the months have passed now and I've talked to her whenever I could and I suddenly find myself falling for her. I'm in Ontario, she's in Alberta and here I am having a heartache for this girl. Confusing? I think so. I just don't know if this it what God wants me to do, to go down a path like this again (cuz it's happened before with very very dire outcomes, although this is also very very different in it's own right). This isn't the first time I've started have these sorts of feelings for her and I'm sitting here wondering if this is the right thing for me to do, what God is leading me to. I don't know and if you could all pray for me in this aspect that God would direct me where he'd have me go that'd be very greatly appreciated.

So nothing too profound today just a prayer request for you to pray for me about. Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated as well seeing as God does speak through the mouths of his people.

But I will leave you with a very incredibly powerful piece of scripture and it comes from Job 3:2 in the NIV translation, it says "He said:" so think about it .... yeah .... isn't that great stuff?

Hey again all!!!

Wow, the last time I posted was February 27, that was like a month ago! Either I've been very busy or very very lazy, I chose the busy one, yeah that's right I'VE BEEN BUSY!!!

Anyway, I've kinda pushed some of my other reading aside for a bit as some new shipment of books came in, the biggest of those that came are the complete 7 volumes of the Sermons of Martin Luther (just a little bit of light reading, it's no problem....yeah right) and it opened up with a very intriguing thought. Luther uses the image of Christ coming into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and then illustrates this of an aspect that it could have meant. He says that Christ didn't come riding in on a war horse looking triumphant because to have come waltzing into Jerusalem like that could have been interpreted as Christ's attempt to conquer us but instead he comes on on an ass, which in those times were beasts of burden they carried the load as you were able to walk free and without it. What a true statement about the person of Christ!!! He didn't come to conquer us but to set us free from our burdens and allow us to live a free life in him. I just thought this was interesting and thought to share it with all of you.

I know this is short but I havn't had my mind geared to deep theological thought for quite some time. I've just been dealing with some issues in my life that are keeping my busy and my mind occupied. I hope your all doing well and hope to talk to you all soon.

Intolerance? Tolerance? Or is it a matter of love?

So I was sitting in church during worship and an interesting idea came to my head, a few of us should perform a study, you might get mad at me for suggesting this but here it goes to prove a point, one of us (probably me) get drunk and walk around a church/bible college/youth group and see what the reaction is of people, whether they shun/reject/run away/accept this person. I'm afraid to say I'm inclined to think that the person would be shunned and judged, how sad this really is, is this the attitude of Christ we were told to mimic?

I remember a few years ago at a youth group meeting in my own church a girl spoke up and said how proud she was of everyone there, we weren't out drinking and partying that we were all here being good people. I just about choked. First off at that point in my life I was a borderline alcoholic and some of my friends in the group were almost on that line as well. Her attitude showed no sign of Christs' love. In fact it was rather judgmental of her to say that people struggling with alcohol related problems were not welcome. Another time in my first bible college experience, myself being a diabetic, my blood sugar went low and I was literally walking around and acting like I was drunk, when I really wasn't, everyone in my dorm that year, went in their rooms and locked their doors to keep me out because they didn't want "the drunk" to be in their rooms. What hypocrisy!!! To think that these people are taught never ending about Christs' love and yet they lock out one of their own Christian brothers from getting help. Luckily the only guy that believed me that my bloodsugar was low was my RA Nelson and he helped me, Gods blessings on you brother. I don't think that Christ would have rejected a drunk if he encountered them, in fact I'm almost willing to bet he would have reached out his arms and hugged that person and comforted them saying there was a way out through him. How can locking a person away from you and judging them so quickly help that person? Seems to me like a Christian form of exile. I'm quickly reminded of a series of verses that Jesus spoke to a group of Jewish leaders, it's called the 7 woes. He condemned these people because they were judgmental setting standards that people couldn't reach, thinking themselves better than their brethren and refusing to help those who needed it, instead keeping everything that they had for themselves he says seven times "Woe to you Pharisees!!!" Yes, that's right, I'm suggesting that all you who are unwilling to help those who are in need and judge those who don't live an "up to par" lifestyle (*shudder* I hate to think that people are THAT judgmental), are no better than the Pharisees of when Jesus walked the earth. Yes alcohol is not a way out, yes being drunk is evident of a sinful lifestyle but Jesus calls us to love these people, not shut them out. At this same bible college in fact I did see once a reach of God's love in this subject. A drunk man stumbled onto the campus and some girls were greatly concerned about his because he was so out of his tree, so they took him into the school to some pay phones, called 911 and got him to detox, it took them a while to get there, but the girls helped this guy out until help arrived. If I could speak to these people again I would give them praise, it's too bad that people of that caliber in our churches are very very few in number. I hope that more of you can reach out to the hurting in this regard and not turn them away for what shameful things they may do.

So I got a whole 8 hours worth of work for myself this week, it's rather sad but hopefully I'll get more hours next week, if I don't I'll say something to my manager, cuz new recruits are getting more hours then me, which is against union rules. But I got a concert in London to look forward to that I'm rather hyped about. I can't wait. :D Take it easy all.

An early lesson in pride.

Recently I ordered a "New Jerusalem Bible" and have started reading it as part of my devotions, it's a very interesting read the way they word certain phrases and the way the use Yahweh when talking about God. Something you don't find in other translations you just find THE LORD and I think the use of Yahweh makes it much more personal, but that's just my opinion.

Upon my reading of Genesis I came across an interesting passage about one of the descendants of Cain. It's quoted from Lamech it says "I killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me. Sevenfold vengeance for Cain, but seventy-sevenfold for Lamech." Genesis 4:23-24 this come from the seal of protection put on Cain by God in Genesis 4:15 "'Very well, then," Yahweh replied, 'whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.' So Yahweh put a mark on Cain, so that no one coming across him would kill him." When I read this earlier today I was puzzled about what it meant, well actually I read the first verse quoted alone and was stumbled about it then I remembered the verse a couple of lines before it and thought about it some more. It makes sense to see the Lamech thought that he was as good as if not greater than Cain. It seems to be an issue of pride for Lamech. Lamech claims to have killed two people in vengeance and so in a way seems to look at himself as a step up from Cain. Is this not how sin works? You look at what you did and say to yourself "See what I have done, admire how great I am!!!" It's evident here of Lamech who doubled the crime of Cain wanted ten times the protection from God that Cain had. What an unfair balance, to award a sin as such, I can understand why Cain was protected, he was the only one of his line and he needed to prosper, Lamech on the other hand other other brothers and the line could continue there was no reason for him to think himself better than the father of his line. Pride however can do that you look at those before you and try to out do them. Copy cat crimes are an example of this, they try to repeat it and to make it better some psychopaths try to make themselves the "best" criminal in the world by getting their name in history books making them feel as though their immortal. Lamech seemed to have the same attitude about doing wrong, "I will be remembered forever, so vengeance on those who go against me." What a sad attitude to have towards sin it will only bring your destruction, a lesson he would have learned later in his life.

So I've got a lot more reading to do now seeing as I got two more books along with my new bible. To think that I'm not even done the theology books yet :S. Oh well, it'll give me a lot to do till the time that I need to start reading for school, I just need to stop procrastinating with it, lol. See you all later.