For just a few seconds imagine if you will that you are enclosed in a room totally devoid of any light. At first the room would appear pitch black making it virtually impossible to see anything. And yet, over time however your eyes would begin to adjust to the darkness and something truly amazing would begin to happen. As your eyes adjusted to the darkness something you would begin to see, believe it or not, light!
Now I'm not about to get into a lesson on the physics of light because simply put that would be tantamount to the blind leading the blind!
What I can say with certainty is that in a darkened room our eyes would adjust to the point that they would actually able to sense single photons of light as they penetrated the walls of the darkened room. These photons penetrate and pass through all forms of matter such as our bodies and walls. These photons of light are what our eyes are able to pick up even if we were to be placed in a blackout room.
And this brings me to my point. Being placed in a blacked out room is analogous to, and illustrative of, how the light of the world - Jesus Christ - enlightens the darkened of heart of man. The heart of course isn’t the literal heart but is our mind - our thinking, our reasoning, our understanding and our comprehension.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John the disciple tells us quite plainly in verse 4 that, “In him (Jesus) was life; and the life was the light of men.” Verse 5 continues by saying “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
John is telling us that in Jesus was life and the life of Jesus was the light of men and that this light shines in the darkness and the darkness just can’t understand this. And yet we can understand from a very simple illustration that light does indeed penetrate even a darkened room devoid of is light.
This light is still with us and still available to us anytime we choose to seek it through Christ’s Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit our darkened minds can be illuminated to His life and His life, told to us in His word, lightens our path which allows us to see our way even as we travel in the dark!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Why Can't I Own a Canadian?
One of my Facebook friends recently posted this letter from 2002 titled, "Why Can't I Own a Canadian?" Here's the link to the article: http://bit.ly/aqaCrk
The letter is rather funny in spots, yet also quite sad in a way, especially when we contemplate the necessity for God to even have to give people such laws in the first place. Looked at wrong and it can give one the impression that God is simply mean, vindictive, harsh, vengeful, arbitrary, exacting and capricious. Personally I think misunderstanding God makes God look bad.
For example from the letter is this: "I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?" Now that's funny if for the simple fact that footballs are made from cowhide and not pig skin! However it should not necessarily render such advice from God as being somehow arbitrary or severe. Pigs are after all fairly dirty animals, especially if we can imagine the conditions during the days of the Exodus. The way I see it God was simply dispensing good advice to the children of Israel.
It's the same principal as when a parent doesn't want their child to eat all the cookies in the cookie jar before dinner when we really think long and hard about it. Is it because the parent is trying to ruin junior's fun or is it because the parent knows what will happen to the child that eats nothing but cookies? You know, I always post this video when questions about God's guidance as to what to eat or what to touch come up because it illustrates just how good and true God's guidance really is : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJCh7bR1Nf0 - this video is quite informative and definitely insightful.
Another example might be, "...as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend)...." Hopefully we'll learn to know that garments, i.e. clothing, in the Bible are always a sign of Christ's righteousness...always. So there is actually some deep spiritual connotation to this advice that God dispensed.
Job 29: 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
Isaiah 59:17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. (Eph. 6;15-17)
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. The NIV changes "put on" to clothed.
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Interestingly the law of God dealt only with marrying flax and woolen garments together which, when we ponder them, are of themselves quite symbolic. I did a presentation at one of the prisons I go to for the inmates regarding this one time.
When we question the laws of God without seeking the meaning of them or attempting to understand the reasons why God felt it necessary to give them to the Children of Israel then we run a huge risk in misunderstanding God and His nature and character. Our Heavenly Father is a wonderful, loving, gracious and merciful God. He loved us all in spite of ourselves and all our faults, and demonstrated this most vividly and poignantly on the cross! Our God is the same today as He was yesterday, and yet when we misunderstand Him it is easy to characterize Him as vengeful, arbitrary, vindictive or severe.
As I have had it illustrated to me by Dr. Brad Cole of Heavenly Sanctuary in one of their Good News Tour events we as parents tell young kindergartners not to run with scissors in their hands but we don't tell grad school students to do this. Could you imagine a world where we had to? The children of Israel were equivalent to kindergartners, not grad students. God had to bring them along in the wilderness because He had to meet them at the level of understanding the could comprehend.
The letter is rather funny in spots, yet also quite sad in a way, especially when we contemplate the necessity for God to even have to give people such laws in the first place. Looked at wrong and it can give one the impression that God is simply mean, vindictive, harsh, vengeful, arbitrary, exacting and capricious. Personally I think misunderstanding God makes God look bad.
For example from the letter is this: "I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?" Now that's funny if for the simple fact that footballs are made from cowhide and not pig skin! However it should not necessarily render such advice from God as being somehow arbitrary or severe. Pigs are after all fairly dirty animals, especially if we can imagine the conditions during the days of the Exodus. The way I see it God was simply dispensing good advice to the children of Israel.
It's the same principal as when a parent doesn't want their child to eat all the cookies in the cookie jar before dinner when we really think long and hard about it. Is it because the parent is trying to ruin junior's fun or is it because the parent knows what will happen to the child that eats nothing but cookies? You know, I always post this video when questions about God's guidance as to what to eat or what to touch come up because it illustrates just how good and true God's guidance really is : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJCh7bR1Nf0 - this video is quite informative and definitely insightful.
Another example might be, "...as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend)...." Hopefully we'll learn to know that garments, i.e. clothing, in the Bible are always a sign of Christ's righteousness...always. So there is actually some deep spiritual connotation to this advice that God dispensed.
Job 29: 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
Isaiah 59:17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. (Eph. 6;15-17)
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. The NIV changes "put on" to clothed.
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Interestingly the law of God dealt only with marrying flax and woolen garments together which, when we ponder them, are of themselves quite symbolic. I did a presentation at one of the prisons I go to for the inmates regarding this one time.
When we question the laws of God without seeking the meaning of them or attempting to understand the reasons why God felt it necessary to give them to the Children of Israel then we run a huge risk in misunderstanding God and His nature and character. Our Heavenly Father is a wonderful, loving, gracious and merciful God. He loved us all in spite of ourselves and all our faults, and demonstrated this most vividly and poignantly on the cross! Our God is the same today as He was yesterday, and yet when we misunderstand Him it is easy to characterize Him as vengeful, arbitrary, vindictive or severe.
As I have had it illustrated to me by Dr. Brad Cole of Heavenly Sanctuary in one of their Good News Tour events we as parents tell young kindergartners not to run with scissors in their hands but we don't tell grad school students to do this. Could you imagine a world where we had to? The children of Israel were equivalent to kindergartners, not grad students. God had to bring them along in the wilderness because He had to meet them at the level of understanding the could comprehend.
They Have Made Void Thy Law - Parts I & II
Professor Veith from the "Rekindling the Reformation" series. Great stuff as always.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Obama's Choice
If President Obama's choice for the soon to be vacant Supreme Court seat presently held by John Paul Stevens, Elena Kagan, the U.S. solicitor general and a former dean of Harvard Law School, is confirmed there will be a grand total of ZERO protestants on the Supreme Court.
Gee, that's fairly interesting.
Gee, that's fairly interesting.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Do you remember your birthday?
How many of you actually remember what day your birthday is on? I’m going to guess everyone does. Mine happens to fall on March the 8th and for that reason March 8 is always significant in my life. Now as I’m sure you are aware March 8th doesn’t fall on the same day every year. Sometimes it’s a Monday, as it was this year, or sometimes it’s a Thursday, or a Saturday, or it could fall on another day of the week. Oh, and just in case you have begun planning ahead next year March 8th falls on a Tuesday; mark your calendars!
Similarly this Monday, March 29th at sundown marks the historical significance of a time that I would imagine might also be quite meaningful to most of us that have chosen to call themselves Christian, provided we know about it. For you see, just like your birthday the date itself never changes, yet your birthday may fall on a different day from year to year so to then the time of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior occurs during a specific time period, yet never actually falls on the same day from year to year.
If you aren’t aware Passover begins this coming Monday at sundown which, according to Hebrew reckoning, is really the 14th day of the month of Nisan. If you’ll recall, from the instructions given to the Hebrew people by God in the book of Exodus chapter 12 the Hebrew people where to set aside a one year-old male lamb, without spot or blemish, on the 10th day of the first month (Ex 12:3-5). On the 14th day of the month that lamb was to be slain and its blood placed upon both the upper and side door posts of the house (Ex. 12:6-7). This was to be done as an act of faith to remind the Hebrews of the protection that the blood of the slain lamb would offer from the visitation of the angel of death.
The symbolism of Exodus chapter 12 is still very much with us to this day and that is why Monday, March 29th at sundown should actually be quite significant for you, the Christian. For just like your birthday, it marks the time when Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior; the Lamb of God slain before the world was first created, was crushed by the tremendous weight of sin in the Garden of Gethsemane, so much so that He actually began to sweat drops of blood. He was then arrested, tried in a sham trial, and shamefully handled mistreated, beaten, bruised and subsequently crucified - all to bring mankind into full reconciliation with God the Father.
Thus just before sundown on March 30th which would mark the beginning of the 15th day of Nisan we are privy to remembering our Savior’s on the cross and His last plea to His Father when He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” We can remember His last gasping breath, “It is finished.” We can remember this was the eve of the Sabbath where pious and holy men were able to kill the Son of God (this doesn’t mean you’re off the hook) and rush home in time to honor the Sabbath day.
This means then that the actual anniversary date that Jesus Christ rose from the tomb, thus holding captivity captive; so that we too could have that blessed hope and faith of being resurrected from the dead and into a new life with Christ will fall on Thursday, April 1st, for He rested in the tomb on what would have been Nisan 16 or this year the 31st of March. So when you awake next Thursday morning remember the truly awesome significance of the day. For it is the anniversary when Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James came to the tomb of Christ to finish anointing Him with the spices they had prepared only to find that the stone covering the sepulcher had been rolled away and two men in shining garments asking the women, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again”
Let us prayerfully remember the events of that Passover so long ago when our Lord and Savior, through His death on the cross, sought to bring mankind into greater understanding of the love of our Heavenly Father and the great expense He chose to pay.
If you would like a deeper, fascinating description of, and look into the events surrounding the crucifixion of our Lord I invite you to read chapters 74 to 83 in the book, The Desire of Ages by Ellen G. White.
God Bless.
Similarly this Monday, March 29th at sundown marks the historical significance of a time that I would imagine might also be quite meaningful to most of us that have chosen to call themselves Christian, provided we know about it. For you see, just like your birthday the date itself never changes, yet your birthday may fall on a different day from year to year so to then the time of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior occurs during a specific time period, yet never actually falls on the same day from year to year.
If you aren’t aware Passover begins this coming Monday at sundown which, according to Hebrew reckoning, is really the 14th day of the month of Nisan. If you’ll recall, from the instructions given to the Hebrew people by God in the book of Exodus chapter 12 the Hebrew people where to set aside a one year-old male lamb, without spot or blemish, on the 10th day of the first month (Ex 12:3-5). On the 14th day of the month that lamb was to be slain and its blood placed upon both the upper and side door posts of the house (Ex. 12:6-7). This was to be done as an act of faith to remind the Hebrews of the protection that the blood of the slain lamb would offer from the visitation of the angel of death.
The symbolism of Exodus chapter 12 is still very much with us to this day and that is why Monday, March 29th at sundown should actually be quite significant for you, the Christian. For just like your birthday, it marks the time when Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior; the Lamb of God slain before the world was first created, was crushed by the tremendous weight of sin in the Garden of Gethsemane, so much so that He actually began to sweat drops of blood. He was then arrested, tried in a sham trial, and shamefully handled mistreated, beaten, bruised and subsequently crucified - all to bring mankind into full reconciliation with God the Father.
Thus just before sundown on March 30th which would mark the beginning of the 15th day of Nisan we are privy to remembering our Savior’s on the cross and His last plea to His Father when He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” We can remember His last gasping breath, “It is finished.” We can remember this was the eve of the Sabbath where pious and holy men were able to kill the Son of God (this doesn’t mean you’re off the hook) and rush home in time to honor the Sabbath day.
This means then that the actual anniversary date that Jesus Christ rose from the tomb, thus holding captivity captive; so that we too could have that blessed hope and faith of being resurrected from the dead and into a new life with Christ will fall on Thursday, April 1st, for He rested in the tomb on what would have been Nisan 16 or this year the 31st of March. So when you awake next Thursday morning remember the truly awesome significance of the day. For it is the anniversary when Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James came to the tomb of Christ to finish anointing Him with the spices they had prepared only to find that the stone covering the sepulcher had been rolled away and two men in shining garments asking the women, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again”
Let us prayerfully remember the events of that Passover so long ago when our Lord and Savior, through His death on the cross, sought to bring mankind into greater understanding of the love of our Heavenly Father and the great expense He chose to pay.
If you would like a deeper, fascinating description of, and look into the events surrounding the crucifixion of our Lord I invite you to read chapters 74 to 83 in the book, The Desire of Ages by Ellen G. White.
God Bless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
