You know, I used to blog religiously (poun intended) almost daily back in the hayday of blogging – written blogs, anyway. These days I have a lot of life that sort of gets in the way. Probably many of you are in the same boat. Life sometimes makes us so busy.. In my case most of it has been medical – it’s the cost of getting older for many. I just wanted to stop in and say hello and share my love and remind you to keep Jesus in your holiday celebrations, and also to make sure to enjoy your time with your family. Someday they may not be there.
Colossians 3:15 “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”
Apologetics
Apologetics, that’s a funny word. What does it mean? Well it is being able to answer questions and maybe objections about your faith, and it is something that the Word instructs us to do and be prepared for.
1 Peter 3:15-16
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
Well, why do I bring this up now after such a long pause in my ramblings here? I was talking with a friend (Dave G) online and lo and behold he also has a website where he does apologetics posts. Wonderful stuff! https://www.legatichristi.org/. And then he told me of yet another site he enjoys on the subject, https://coldcasechristianity.com/, and this site even has podcasts if you want soemthing to listen to when you are unable to read. Lastly our conversations eventually led us to the Great Commission and spreading the Gospel and reaching souls for Christ and that reminded me of my favorite method, designed by Bill Fay. He designed “How can I share my faith without and argument?”, which has both a booklet you can get here and an audio track to listen to, which you can find here.
All these resources are definitely worth checking out and my hope is that they will help you be prepared and comfortable enough that you, too, can participate in the Great Commission as we are supposed to as Christians.
Matthew 28:19-20
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Be back soon!
I know I haven’t been posting on here lately – definitely not as much as I had planned for. I am in the process of moving and, God willing, will be back here full force from a new location within the next few weeks! Please say a prayer for my family!
Are you listening?
I think God talks to us all the time. Through our prayers, through the Bible. Through his people. He even talks to us through signs on the side of the road.
God is talking to you. Are you listening?
Lamb of God?
OK, what is all this lamb of God stuff we all hear about around Easter?
Well, this has to do with another thing you hear about around Easter, which is Passover. Your Jewish and Catholic friends are probably pretty familiar with that if you ask them..
Passover has to do with with the Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians many many years ago. They were warned by Moses who told the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go or many plagues would befall them. One of these plagues was that an angel of God would descend upon the land killing the first born son of all the people who didn’t follow a particular symbol of protection on their household.
This symbol of protection, pasting lamb’s blood over their doorway, was the angel’s indicator that the family inside were Israelite and to skip their household and not take the life of their first born.
Now you know where the “lamb” part of this comes from. This lamb was sacrificial to protect the children of God.
Much later, Jesus Christ was born, and he has become the sacrificial “lamb of God”. He was sacrificed on the cross to pay for the sins of all God’s people – so if you accept that gift, that sacrifice, then YOU are a child of God too and your sins have also been paid for by that sacrificial lamb!
New knife
I like pocket knives. Always have. I bought a new one – it’s a Barlow with a Christian Flag emblem on it. When it came I noticed there are a couple little cracks in the handle and I was about to return it because I am particular about such things. Then I thought about it….
Every Christian comes from a rough past. None of us is a perfect person and sometimes those cracks still show through. They are sure hard to get rid of….
I think I’ll keep it.
————————————
My father often used to say:
‘My boy don’t throw a thing away:
You’ll find a use for it some day.’
‘My boy don’t throw a thing away:
You’ll find a use for it some day.’
So in a box he stored up things,
Bent nails, old washers, pipes and rings,
And bolts and nuts and rusty springs.
Despite each blemish and each flaw,
Some use for everything he saw;
With things material, this was law.
And often when he’d work to do,
He searched the junk box through and through
And found old stuff as good as new.
And I have often thought since then,
That father did the same with men;
He knew he’d need their help again.
It seems to me he understood
That men, as well as iron and wood,
May broken be and still be good.
Despite the vices he’d display
He never threw a man away,
But kept him for another day.
A human junk box is this earth
And into it we’re tossed at birth,
To wait the day we’ll be of worth.
Though bent and twisted, weak of will,
And full of flaws and lacking skill,
Some service each can render still.
Thou shalt not judge?
“THOU SHALT NOT JUDGE!”
Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I heard someone issue this statement in an accusatory manner, I could be having someone else write these blogs for me.
In today’s world, it’s fashionable to feign outrage over the “disadvantages” of every unfortunate situation or perversion that exists – even those that don’t. To that end, people LOVE to batter eachother with this most mis-quoted passage of the Bible. To those people who haven’t actually read the Bible, this passage is supposed to convey that only God, Himself, is supposed to be able to judge others on their actions.
Malarkey.
Let’s start first by reading the ENTIRE actual passage in context, instead of cherry picking here:
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” – Matthew 7:1-5
Now, if you read that IN CONTEXT and in its entirety you see that this is referring to hypocritical judgement. That’s right, take the mote out of your own eye before judging others. So, does that mean you shoud not judge people? Well, let’s see if the Bible further clarifies that (hint, it does).
“So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” – Matthew 8:7
Does Jesus say “don’t judge her”? Or does he say don’t be in hypocritical judgement of her? Don’t take her life for sinning because you, too, have sinned…
“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” – John 7:24
“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly (did you judge them to be unruly??), comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.” – 1 Thes 5:14 – perens mine
“Prove all things (Judge them to not be evil); hold fast that which is good.” – 1 Thes 5:21 – perens mine
“Abstain from all appearance of evil.” – 1 Thes 5:22
Wow! stay away from things that even LOOK evil – but how do you do that without somehow judging them?
“Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.” – Luke 17:3
Here we see that we are supposed to rebuke a brother going awry, but how do you do that without “judging” that the brother is doing wrong?
And there are SO many more examples than these few but I think the point has been made. This is easily the most mis-quoted scripture I have heard and the one that pashaps has the most devestating consequences. You see if you believe it is God’s will that you never judge another person’s wrongdoings, you are really endorsing and encouraging their sin (which God hates). It’s important for you to watch for sinful activity and to rebuke your brother (or sister) when you see it. And that means you *lovingly* but strongly point them back to God.
Remember, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” – John 7:24, and as always, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’.The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:30-31
Here it comes!
Now is the time to get in on the fun or bring new people to the site!
New year and many topics planned. Here is just a short list and if you have any comments or suggestions, now would be the time @ Linc at ReverendLinc dot com!
- What do they believe?
Major religions of the world and what thir core tenets are.
- Which version of the Bible is the right one?
There are so many versions of the Bible, how do you know which one to use and what are the differences.
- Thou Shaly Not Judge.
Clarification of the single most mis-quoted verse of the Bible.
Bad Politics
I have tried, thus far, to stay away from political posts on here and talk about intertesting Biblical topics. This post is sort of a mix between the two, though.
I recently came across this article where a priest is preparing his congregation for some tough years under a Biden presidency.
I fear he is right. There have been some really alarming things happening recently. After months of arson, looting and destructive riots which have been wholely supported by the Democrat party in the USA, they have gained complete control over the Presidency, the House and the Senate, giving them free reign legislatively to carry out all their plans.
Historically, some of their plans involve forcing people to pay for other people’s baby murders (and celebrating that objective). They have been particularly anti-semite in policy – especially the “squad” in Congress. They have been increasingly friendly with nations which have horrible human rights violations (like China). They have recently grouped together to try and gain complete control over all free speech, which is very frightening. You are, apparently, free to say what you want, as long as they agree. We are also likely to see a form of martial law applied under the guise of Covid to severely limit or obstruct all together your ability for free movement.
With all these things going on it will only be a matter of time until they start the wholesale persecution of the Church. Of course they will put it under the guise of “Separatiopn of Church and State”, which will mean for them that there should be NO religion anywhere, but it will be “selectively” applied toward Chrisatianity. Mark my word. You would be able to bring a prayer rug as a Muslim to work, but not a Bible. I have seen it before.
The Bible says this is coming.
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, (1 Tim 3:2)
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 5:10)
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Cor 4:8-12)
Remember my brothers and sisters that Jesus is our peace and if we call out to him he may still heal this land. Pray hard for that – for your neighbors – even for your enemies that they might have the scales of bitterness and hatred and evil lifted from their eyes and see the truth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Calvanism vs Arminianism
In our last post we delved into Which Denomination is the Right one? and we talked about several denominations but really left off on some of the more divisive information on the Protestant side.
We know from the last post that the Protestant Refpormation really started with Martin Luther, which started Lutheranism, but the rabbit hole goes way farther than that with many many protestant divisions. This time we are going to talk a little bit about probably the main division which is the Calvanism vs Armenianism argument.
Martin Luther was the man who paved the way for the reformation, but there were plenty pf people waiting in the wings to run with it once it started. One of the real notables in the “second wave” of reformers was a Frenchman by the name of John Calvin.
While Luther was a Priest, Calvin has been described as more of a professor or academic. He and Luther had some interesting theological differences like their stances on Transubstantiation (I’ll leve that one for you to look up for now) and Baptism, etc., but the real meat there was that John Calvin believed in Predestination.
What he means by Predestination is sumed up in one of the 5 points of Calvinism which is called “Unconditional election”. With this, John Calvin surmised that God has chosen from time eternal, who is going to be with him, and he will give mercy to those chosen people. Calvinism ended up being very prevalent in Denominations like the Presbyterians.
The converse theology in response to John Calvin’s theories are called Arminianism. Now Arminianism, as you might have guessed, was founbded by another early Protestant reformer. This time is was a Dutch fellow by the name of Jacobus Arminius. Now Jacobus’ name has been lost to most but people who study these theologies, however, one of his theologifcal successors is more well known, John Wesley, who chartered the very first Methodist church, that we are all familiar with today.
I mentioned before that there are more theological differences than just Predestination, and I’ll leave you to find them in the annals of the internet, but where does this leave you, the lay person? What do you or should you believe? How do you know without doing mass research, and, really, who has time do do all that anyhow?
Heh! Well, we are right back to the Bible. This theory and many more are all based on different passages in the Bible and how this person, or that person interpreted them at the time. While there are different interpretations in the Bible about ancilliary items, all the Protestant denominations agree on how to become saved and agree that information is in plain print in the Bible for all to see. The most wonderful part of the Bible, aside from that, though, are those passages that perhaps one person reads differently that another. It’s these magical passages that allow God to speak directly to us, individually, in our circumstances and in our spot in life. All you have to do is look!