The Bible Is God's Word. Period.

 I want to cast my vote for making the Bible the word of God. Period. Not the writings of any man or the thoughts and revelations of particular individuals. We use book, chapter, and verse to help us locate something in the Bible. But I think that by calling it by the authors name, we cheapen God's word to us.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Jn.1:1

Christ is the word of God made flesh. But He did not write his own biography. Yet since He is the Word we can rightly cite his teachings and quote His words as Gospel. Not so with Moses or David or Paul. 

I just think that we need to stop saying that this is what Paul said or this is what Solomon said. Let's let God's word be God's word and let God's word speak for itself. No matter what style of preaching you practice, it revolves around God's word. God anoints His word, not ours.

We are way past the time when the Bible was put together. We are way beyond the time when it first came to our attention who wrote what and why.  Let God be true, and every man a liar.

Just Saying

 One reason why a local church slows down and settles in is the simple fact that we become very conservative as we get older. Not politically, but in real life. We reach a point where we are more concerned with maintaining the status quo and we lose the vision that is needed to go on to the next level. We have more to lose so we become risk adverse. We have had some successes, but the failures make us think twice about trying or venturing. We have so many financial responsibilities that we learn to budget and to count costs. And one day we realize that we are more interested in maintaining what we have than in getting more. They say the the biggest enemy of the great is not evil, but good enough.

Most men do not die in the valley of despair. They leap from the pinnacle of the temple of success. Just saying.

Communion Service Thoughts

 We had a communion service tonight. Yes, we did it on a Sunday night, not on Easter Sunday morning. Why? The short answer is you would have to ask our pastor. I think that pastor thinks it is too religious or too churchy. It's not hard core enough or something. Maybe he is afraid that people will feel too religious and not be on fire for God. It might surprise him to find out that Christianity is a religion and that we are religious people who love the pomp and circumstance of religion.

We also do not have a communion set to serve from. We make it work, but it is really not very impressive. Those sets are not very expensive. And it might make communion be a little more organized and a lot less chaotic. In the church where I grew up they had a travel sized communion set to use when visiting those who could not be there in person. I'm sure we do not have one of those in pastor's office.

At least we finally had communion and we who served managed to serve everyone. They say we take communion seriously, but our actions do not agree with our words.

The Effects Of Sin

I am beginning to think that most of the crazy health and wellness fads we are bombarded with begin in the gay community. These are guys who are so scared to death of AIDS and HIV that they will try anything to beat the rap that their lifestyle exposes them too. Also, when God uses the word confusion with reference to homosexual activity it tells me that leaders who come up with goofy ideas often turn out to be gay men. 

God is not mocked. Sin has consequences. Those effects are not just eternal damnation in Hell. It is affecting the physical and emotional and mental and psychological life now.

What is interesting to me is how crazy business leaders and not liked or supported by the unsaved world either. This is an issue that normal people recognize as a problem that needs to be solved.

There is not a supplement available today that can take away sin. Only repentance and faith in Jesus Christ can do that.

Bribing God

 "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe." Deut. 10:17

Pastor used this verse in his sermon this morning. He used it one way, but it jumped out at me in a different way. Especially the idea that God cannot be bribed.

Have you ever heard a preacher tell you that if you give X dollars in this offering, God will give you 100X dollars in return? They use this as a ploy to raise money and to entice you to give. But it made me wonder if this is just trying to bribe God.

A bribe is money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgement or conduct of a person in a position of trust. This according to the dictionary.

Are we being asked to give money in order to get God to do something for us? Sounds a lot like a bribe to me. A presumptuous one at that.

Our text tells us that God shows no partiality. He is not moved by our status of position. And that God does not take bribes.

Give and trust God with what's left and you will be fine.

Church Picnic

 We were all set to have our spring church picnic. Until the weather forecast changed our plans. There is a good chance of wind and rain tomorrow so they cancelled our picnic. This is disappointing. We put a lot of effort and a lot of money into these picnic. Guys buy hundreds of dollars worth of meat to grill. Desert makers try to come up with award winning deserts. It is a big deal for our church.

This is an example of something that is typical of bigger churches. If we were a small church, under 100 people, we could shift gears and have an indoor picnic at the church building. But big churches cannot shift gears like that. So we will have our Overcomers Prayer tomorrow morning. But no picnic.

Now we have to wait until next fall for our next chance at a church picnic.

One more thought. If it was up to me we would have the picnic rain or shine. Just saying.

An Easy Thought

 An easy idea to discus today. Do angels have wings? Do they fly to get around?

The only angelic beings described as having wings are the Seraphim.

"Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." Is.6:2

No other description of angels anywhere else in the Bible describes angels as having wings. They do not fly, they just are. Kind of like light itself.

It is only in the minds of some artists and some theologians that angels have wings. Do your own Bible study. Look up every reference on the word angel. They do not have wings.

See, I told you this would be easy.