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Death is a transition
In my last post I mentioned two fascinating ideas presented by JRR Tolkien in his work, “The Lord of the Rings.” The first was the unending life of the mortal elves (a contradiction in terms) and the gift of death given to men. It is the second idea that I am addressing here.
Death in the New Testament writings of Paul is presented as our enemy.
Rom 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (KJV)
Rom 8:6
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (KJV)
1 Cor 15:26
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (KJV)
1 Cor 15:54-57
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (KJV)
After becoming a Christian, these and other verses that declared death to be our enemy, made his statement ludicrous. So what did Tolkien mean when he called death the gift of men? He was a Catholic, so he had a some Christian world view that he wrote from. And I think he had a Christian meaning in this statement. Read the rest of this entry →
The elves of Middle Earth are immortal yet can not die
Long before I ever knew Christ personally, I loved JRR Tolkien’s, “Lord of the Rings.” His depiction of elves fascinated me. All I knew before that time was the tiny pointed ears of Santa Clause and Keebler cookies. For the elves to be this strange and majestic people who lived forever, yet could die in battle, amazed me. I had always thought this characteristic to be odd. Why should Tolkien create characters who could live forever, yet could die in battle? Equally mystifying to me was his oft repeated claim that death was a gift for the children of men.
I put these thoughts aside after I came to know the reality of Jesus Christ. The hope that all believers share is immortality. As a new Christian I used to think that our glorified bodies would be like Superman. Our example is Christ in his post resurrection appearances. It seems that He was able to appear and vanish in a blink of an eye. It seems that He could walk through walls, enter rooms when doors were locked. Philip was translated and instantly moved from one location in Israel to another. Besides, we will all have died before we get our glorified bodies, so when we return with Jesus on white horses in the sky to stop the Anti-Christ, we can’t die again. That battle will be a cake walk for us. No fear of death since we have already died, and the brightness of His coming will end the conflict instantly. Read the rest of this entry →
As the commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.
Josh 5:13-15
13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 ”Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
15 The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (NIV)
Joshua asked the natural question when he encountered the angel of the Lord before beginning his campaign against the Ammorites. We ask the same question as the Church whether someone is liberal or conservative, pro-life or pro-abortion, for big government or free enterprise. But this is the wrong question for the Church to ask. It is the same mistake that Joshua made.
In the same chapter Joshua was commanded by God to circumcise the Israelis since a new generation had grown to replace the generation that died in the wilderness with Moses. The circumcision was the renewal of their covenant with God. They were now in covenant again. But they, like so many of us in the Church, thought that God was now on their side.
It is believed by many, and I am one, that this is a Christophany of Jesus before His incarnation. Jesus is the Captain of the Host. His reply set Joshua back on track: God is not serving Israel, but Israel is serving God. Jesus is not serving the Church, but we are serving Him.
Many who have left organized religion disdain to call themselves Christians. Instead they prefer, “Christ follower.” I don’t think it is necessary to drop the name Christian, but I do agree with their intention. We are not to follow organized religion, but only Jesus. Which means we do not take either the side of organized religion or the world. We follow Truth, of which Jesus is the source. Read the rest of this entry →
I said in my haste, “All men are liars”. (Ps 116:11 KJV)
I am continuing to meditate on what it means to have root in oneself. I am convinced that this is essential for discerning truth from lies. Its bottom line is one’s trust in one’s own senses. But it is not just trust in the 5 senses for the physical world, but also includes one’s spiritual senses.
Our spiritual senses are developed as we listen to our heart and gut feelings. Sensitivity to the spirit increases as we meditate on the meanings of our dreams. It develops as we sense right and wrong through our conscience. It develops as we learn to trust our instincts.
Developing root in oneself must occur before salvation. Everyone who comes to Christ has developed some roots in themselves, otherwise they would not believe in Jesus. Belief is the foundation of knowledge. All that we know is what we genuinely believe. To know something is the completion of faith. Mental assent is the beginning of knowing but it is not knowing. To know something is to be fully convinced in the conviction of what one knows. It is completed faith. Read the rest of this entry →
When we build our views on the opinions of others we precipitously see only the tip of the iceberg.
This Word has been growing in my heart for several weeks. I wanted to write this earlier, but my business had kept me quite busy.
A few weeks ago in teaching gymnastics at my Christian Gymnastics School one of my children was practicing a handstand to a bridge. She fell on the landing mat without doing the bridge. I told her to push up the bridge. She said, “Yes,” then began to stand up. I told her to get down on her back and push up the bridge. She looked at me perplexed then realized I meant “now”. So she pushed up the bridge.
I stopped the class and told all the students that unless they do the movement for themselves, they will not learn to do gymnastics. I asked the children, “Where in the Bible do we have this command?” None of the kids knew. One of the moms sitting watching raised her hand, and said, “I know, I know!” So I let her answer. “In James. We are to be doers of the Word, not hearers only.”
So I turned back to the kids and told them, unless you make Jesus your own God, He will remain the God of your parents, not you. You have to believe Jesus for yourself and test Him for yourself, so that you will know that His Word to you is true. Read the rest of this entry →
Seth Godin linked to this You Tube video. The host of the channel had this to say about the video.
The lovely and amazing performance poet Gabrielle Bouliane performs for the audience at the Austin Poetry Slam.
This would be her last public performance.
Gabrielle was diagnosed with Stage Four Cancer shortly before this video was filmed. Our dear sister fought hard, but she ended her fight January 29, 2010. She was surrounded by family and friends, and her passing was in a very quiet, peaceful room full of love and affection. She was so brave.
Please share this video with everyone you know. I am sure it would tickle her to no end to have this video get as viral as a video can be. Tell the world.
She uses foul language occasionally, but her message is just as biblical as Paul telling us, “Behold, now is the time of salvation!” (2 Cor. 6:2) or James telling us that our life is but a vapor and no one knows the time of one’s death (James 4:14). This woman realized that time is short and reminds us all to live life to the fullest today.
I bought this picture while a student at Christ for the Nations. It is still hanging over my fireplace as a reminder of the love God has for the Jewish people. As a student at CFNI I earned a Jewish Studies Minor degree. The degree program required that I go to Israel during the summer, where I lived on a kibbutz for 3 months at Ramat Rachel. The kibbutz is between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. In the early morning hours I would sit in the ruins on Ramat Rachel which overlook the Temple Mount for prayer. I had been to the Wailing Wall on several occasions since Jerusalem was in walking distance from the kibbutz.
The Jewish people have had a profound influence in my life. When I was in 7th grade I was drawn to two Jewish girls, Laurie Lieberman and Leslie Snyder, although I was too immature to have a relationship with them. In high school I lived with my best friend, Daniel Benveniste and his family for 1 school year. The Benvenistes are Sephardic Jews from Spain many generations back. I was drawn to Dan because of his innate since of morality. I was not a Christian then. I was raised in a secular atheist family who believed in evolution. I love their family and Dan’s parents gave me the first example of a loving husband and wife since my own parents were divorced. I love Paul Wilbur and messianic worship. I love Jewish humor.
A Messianic Jew led me to Christ when I was 32. Igor was an Ashkenazi Jew. As a brand new Christian I worked at the Jewish Community Center while I read the Old Testament. Since I had no religious background, the practices of the Christian Church at large seemed unbiblical (and still is), so I naturally gravitated towards messianic congregations, although I found the prancing around with the Torah scroll to seem a bit idolatrous. My draw towards a Judaic expression of Christianity ended while I was working on the kibbutz. The Lord spoke to me suddenly, and said, “Stop it, you’re not Jewish.” Read the rest of this entry →
After the death of their husbands, the wives forgave the Ecuadorian Waodani and brought them to Christ
Because organized religion is part of the world system, it is difficult for those of us who have left it to understand what is the Way of Jesus Christ. The organic church is not house church meetings, but the organic life of God Himself within the heart of every born again believer. Being led by the Spirit is the foundation of the Way of Jesus Christ.
But for the last few weeks, the Lord has impressed upon my heart the admonition of Paul to overcome evil by good (Rom 12:21). The way of the world is so infused into church thinking that we do not realize that we are trying to “fight” the world with the weapons of the world. Having our minds renewed means discerning the difference between the ways of the world and the way of Christ. Read the rest of this entry →
I was not going to write about this movie, even though I have already seen it two times in 3D. I have talked on Facebook about this with my friends, and felt that was enough. However, my second viewing of the film was at the IMAX theater and I had bought my tickets online in advance since the local IMAX is a 30 minute drive from my home.
The online ticket system sent me an email asking me to write an review of the film. I usually write my movie review on the Internet Movie Data base (IMDb), but figured there would be a multitude of reviews already, so I didn’t. But this was a small group, so I thought I may as well.
They limited me to 750 characters, which meant I had to keep editing it down until I reached their limit. But then they told me that my review had profanity and was unacceptable. I had no profanity. However, I did call the movie a New Age and Politically Correct film. To them that was profanity. So I erased what I wrote and simply re-wrote, “Go to Hell.” They responded by saying that I was not using their minimum of 5o characters!
So now I find myself motivated to write out what was rejected by that group, who apparently don’t want any comments on political correctness. So here is what I wrote. Read the rest of this entry →
Happy Holidays is becoming a sore point for many Christians. They cite this as another attempt to undermine Christianity by the secular world. Christmas for many Christians is a sacred time of remembering the birth of Christ. The sentimentality of the manger scene and Christmas songs are held as sacred to many believers. These ancient songs are a testament to faith in their minds.
I love Christmas songs, so I am not taking the position of the Grinch who Stole Christmas. But, as a late comer to Christianity (Christ came into my heart when I was 32 and I was raised as an atheist with no church background), I have had to become a student of church history to catch up.
From my studies I have found that Christmas songs, for the most part, only date to the 19th century. To be sure there are several songs that go back in history, but the majority of the songs we sing are from the 19th and 20th centuries.
More significantly, Protestants did not celebrate Christ-mass until the 19th century for several reasons. The many pagan roots and the winter solstice are supporting reasons, but not the main reason. The main reason for not celebrating the Catholic Christ-mass is because the Mass itself is an abomination to the Reformation Protestant mind. We have forgotten its significance. Read the rest of this entry →
