The Salvation Question!

Jews are well-known to always answer a question with a question. The story goes of a Jewish fellow and a non-Jewish fellow walking down the street, and the non-Jew says to the Jew, “How come you guys always answer a question with a question” and the Jew replies: “So what’s wrong with that?!”

Questioning, of course, is central to learning and growing. And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good” (Matthew 19.16-17a).

Questions are very powerful tools for making decisions and solving problems, for inventing, changing and improving our lives as well as the lives of others. The question of eternal life is certainly a big question and it seems that most everybody is looking for an answer to it. Even the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were diligently studying the Scriptures in order to possess eternal life (John 5.39-40). What’s up with that?

Questions allow us to make sense of the world. Certainly the young man’s question to Jesus assumed that eternal life could be achieved by doing some good thing but it also assumed that eternal life was the paramount thing to get.

Yet Jesus’ reply did not expressly focus on salvation. Rather Jesus obliged the young man to think more seriously about the word good. Answering a question with a question can sometimes trigger something to get us moving in the right direction. “Only God is good,” Jesus said. By emphasizing the goodness of God Jesus questioned the man’s idea of goodness. You see, goodness is found in relation to God, not by ‘good deeds’ of our own devising. In other words, Jesus is asking, “Do you believe that I am good and therefore that I am God?”

Think about it! Surely salvation is good! But if Jesus is good, then He is God, and knowing Jesus (His Person & Work) is far better than salvation. No! Even more, knowing Jesus is salvation (John 17.3).

Any questions?

enjoy, ron

Monkey Around?

Prince Charles is quoted as saying, “I learned the way a monkey learns - by watching its parents.” Perhaps so but I wonder who learns fastest, the Prince or the monkey?

According to recent scientific findings, when it comes to serious mental powers like short-term memory, young chimpanzees can significantly outperform the Prince at some short-term memory tasks.

In the words of Winston Churchill, “Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.” After all, scientists have the video to prove it. And one of the lead researcher’s says that chimps seem to have something akin to "photographic memory," at least for short-term tests. Don't believe it? Well, then, here’s a way for you to test yourself against the chimp. Just click the link below for a video test.

Click: Test yourself against the chimp!

FYI: Rules of the Game: First, researchers in Japan taught six chimps--three 5-year-olds and their mothers--to recognize and order the numbers 1 through 9. Then they taught them to play a memory game.

In the game, the numbers would appear randomly on a video screen. The object was to touch them in order: 1, 2, 3, etc. But there was a catch. As soon as the chimps pressed 1, the rest of the numbers disappeared, covered over by white boxes. So they had to remember where they had seen the numbers and touch the white boxes that covered them.

Results of the Game: Not only could the chimps do this just as accurately as college students, they could do it faster, too. So the scientists devised another test, to see who could remember and order five numbers that flashed on a screen for just fractions of a second. Result? Another chimp win.

PS. Once I entered a free-style dance contest as a teenager. I won! My prize? A Monkees Album! "Hey hey we're the Monkees, People say we monkey around. But we're too busy pushing buttons to put Prince Charles down."

PSS.

Once I was a tadpole beginning to begin,
Then I was a frog with my tail tucked in,
Then I was a monkey in a banyan tree,
And now I am a professor with a Ph.D.

Enjoy, ron

Excommunicate Luther!

"Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me, Amen..." (Martin Luther)

On this day in 1521, Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, excommunicating Martin Luther, the German priest whose questioning of certain Roman Catholic practices initiated the Protestant Reformation.

Luther fought the good fight of faith to the very end. Seized by a crippling heart attack, Luther eulogized before his death, "When I die, I want to be a ghost... So I can continue to pester the bishops, priests and godless monks until that they have more trouble with a dead Luther than they could have had before with a thousand living ones."

Here is a short biography with links:

1483 (November 10) Born in Eisleben
1505 Monk in Erfurt
1512 Doctor of Theology in Wittenberg
1517 Nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church
1521 Outlawed and exiled to the Wartburg
1522 Return to Wittenberg
1525 Married Katharina von Bora
1534 Published the complete Bible in German
1546 (February 18) Died in Eisleben

“Through faith in Christ, therefore, Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness and all that he has becomes ours; rather, he himself becomes ours. Therefore the Apostle calls it 'the righteousness of God' in Rom. 1:17; For in the gospel 'the righteousness of God is revealed…; as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by his faith.' Finally, in the same epistle, chapter 3:28, such a faith is called 'the righteousness of God': 'We hold that a man is justified by faith.' This is an infinite righteousness, and one that swallows up all sins in a moment, for it is impossible that sin should exist in Christ. On the contrary, he who trusts in Christ exists in Christ; he is one with Christ, having the same righteousness as he. It is therefore impossible that sin should remain in him. This righteousness is primary; it is the basis, the cause, the source of all our own actual righteousness. For this is the righteousness given in place of the original righteousness lost in Adam. It accomplishes the same as that original righteousness would have accomplished; rather, it accomplishes more.” (Luther – Two Kinds of Righteousness)

Enjoy, ron

Note: A site devoted to interactive annotative study of the writing of Martin Luther can be searched here.

Note: On this PBS site there are a number of interesting offerings included with a documentary titled Martin Luther: The Reluctant Revolutionary.

The Purple Nurple!

enjoy, ron

Piper & the Prosperity Word!

The following message flickers into living rooms accross the globe each night:

Be faithful in how you live and how you give and God will shower you with material riches!

Pastor John Piper offers an antidote!



enjoy, ron

12/25

Although the precise origin of the date is unclear, Christmas is celebrated worldwide on 12/25. It was first identified as the date of Jesus' birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221. Regardless the date, Christmas is when we commemorate and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is at work.

Have you read Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" lately? As you may recall it is a heartwarming tale of how the penurious old coot is transformed by the Spirit of Christmas. Certainly the story carries a far greater legacy than merely giving us the phrases "Bah, Humbug!" and "God bless us, every one!"

It is more than 150 years since Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. But that story endures and retains the power to move us because it speaks to the human condition, and offers an alternative to selfishness and materialism. It points us, albeit dimly, to the source of our being. As K Barth put it: “Christmas is where we come from…”

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas ... perhaps ... means a little bit more!” “And what happened then ... in Who-ville they say [is] that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!” - Dr. Suess

Enjoy, ron

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Lazy Tuesday (Neo-Orthodoxy)

Word Up Barth!

enjoy, ron

a-lit-er-ate or il-lit-er-ate?

Caleb Crain in The New Yorker:

In 1937, twenty-nine per cent of American adults told the pollster George Gallup that they were reading a book. In 1955, only seventeen per cent said they were. Pollsters began asking the question with more latitude. In 1978, a survey found that fifty-five per cent of respondents had read a book in the previous six months. The question was even looser in 1998 and 2002, when the General Social Survey found that roughly seventy per cent of Americans had read a novel, a short story, a poem, or a play in the preceding twelve months. And, this August, seventy-three per cent of respondents to another poll said that they had read a book of some kind, not excluding those read for work or school, in the past year. If you didn’t read the fine print, you might think that reading was on the rise.

You wouldn’t think so, however, if you consulted the Census Bureau and the National Endowment for the Arts, who, since 1982, have asked thousands of Americans questions about reading that are not only detailed but consistent. The results, first reported by the N.E.A. in 2004, are dispiriting. In 1982, 56.9 per cent of Americans had read a work of creative literature in the previous twelve months. The proportion fell to fifty-four per cent in 1992, and to 46.7 per cent in 2002. Last month, the N.E.A. released a follow-up report, “To Read or Not to Read,” which showed correlations between the decline of reading and social phenomena as diverse as income disparity, exercise, and voting. In his introduction, the N.E.A. chairman, Dana Gioia, wrote, “Poor reading skills correlate heavily with lack of employment, lower wages, and fewer opportunities for advancement.”

More here.

PS. Thousands of years ago the sage wrote “Of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). If this was true then, how much more is it true today when we see tens or hundreds of thousands of books being released every year.

PSS. Click here if you need help with your 2008 Bible reading plan.

enjoy, ron

Come, pray & enjoy!

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you'” Again, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Je 33.3; 29:12).

“Behold, … I will heal … and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. I will restore … the fortunes … and will rebuild them …. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.

“It [you] will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for [you].

“… the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, 'Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good, For His loving-kindness is everlasting”; and of those who bring a thank offering into the house of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,’ says the Lord.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'There will again be in this place which is waste, without man or beast, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds who rest their flocks (Je 33:6-9; 11-12).

Enjoy, ron

(All Bible quotes taken from NASB Updated edition)

Jeremiah’s mud hole!

Jeremiah preached repentance
To those who would turn from hell
But the critics gave him bad reviews
Even threw him to the bottom to the well
(Yonder Comes Sin, Bob Dylan)

When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You must die!”

Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. Now therefore amend your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will change His mind about the misfortune which He has pronounced against you.” (Jeremiah 26:8, 12-13)

“The Lord has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be the overseer in the house of the Lord over every madman who prophesies, to put him in the stocks and in the iron collar, now then, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who prophesies to you? “For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, ‘The exile will be long; build houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their produce.’” ( Jeremiah 29:26-28)

Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud. (Jeremiah 38:6)

Enjoy, ron

Word!

Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NASB)

enjoy, ron

Name that Teddy!

A trial that prosecutors said would be "swift and fair" opened Thursday in Sudan's capital for Gillian Gibbons. She is a British school teacher better known as “Miss Gibbons” to the 7-year-olds in her second-grade class at the Unity School in Khartoum, Sudan. She is righteously accused of inciting religious hatred by allowing her students to name a teddy bear for the prophet Mohammad.

Here is what happened. As a class project, Miss Gibbons introduced her students to a cute, cuddly little teddy bear. And then she said “Now we have to give the bear a name.” All the students raised their hands and suggested names for the bear - eight names in all, including Abdullah and Hassan. To be fair, since there were so many great names to choose from, Miss Gibbons suggested they take a vote. And the winner, by a vote of 20 to 3, was: Muhammad!

Now, said Miss Gibbons, we will all take Muhammad home, one at a time, and we’ll bring him back with an essay about what we did with Muhammad the Bear when he was home with us. And so, one by one, the students took Muhammad the Bear home and wrote essays, and eventually Miss Gibbons bound all the essays into a book with a picture of the bear on the cover and the title “My Name Is Muhammad.”

Alas, the diabolical deed was stealthily uncovered by the ever efficient Sudanese police who immediately arrested Miss Gibbons and charged her with blasphemy and insulting the great prophet. She was locked away and told that her most likely sentence would be 200 lashes with a whip. Meanwhile a huge, unruly crowd collected outside the Khartoum jail bellowing fiercely and relentlessly for the immediate lynching of the western infidel.

In fact, if convicted, 54 year old Gillian Gibbons could be jailed for six months and subjected to 40 lashes. Her students have tried to claim responsibility for the act, which Britain's Foreign Service has called "an innocent misunderstanding."

enjoy, ron

Old School!

The following are a few verses from Jeremiah 6 that stood out as I read my morning devotions.

To whom shall I speak and give warning
That they may hear?
Behold, their ears are closed
And they cannot listen.
Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them;
They have no delight in it.
(Jeremiah 6:10, NASB)

For from the least of them even to the greatest of them,
Everyone is greedy for gain,
And from the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
(Jeremiah 6:13-14, NASB)

Thus says the Lord,
Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls.
(Jeremiah 6:16, NASB)

enjoy, ron

Thanksgiving!

Thou who hast given so much to me,

give me one more thing -

a grateful heart!

George Herbert

Psalm 100
A Psalm for giving thanks!

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

(NASB)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
(Philippians 4.4-9.NASB)

He has brought us to this place and has given us this land,

a land flowing with milk and honey.
Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O Lord have given me.

And you shall set it down before the Lord your God,

and worship before the Lord your God;
and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.
(Deuteronomy 26:1-11; NASB)

thank you

ron

Jesus Jones!

I was reminded today of the miracle performing Jim Jones who claimed to be an incarnation of Jesus.

James Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder of the Peoples Temple, which became synonymous with group suicide after the November 18, 1978 mass murder-suicide by poison in their isolated agricultural intentional community called Jonestown, located in Guyana. Over nine hundred people died from cyanide poisoning or gunshot wounds in the aftermath of Jones ordering his men to kill visiting Congressman Leo Ryan and numerous members of his entourage.

In 1 Corinthians 12.10 the apostle Paul then refers to the “ability to distinguish between spirits”. The Bible talks of other extraordinary things appearing in an alternative or even counterfeit form. For example, in Exodus we see that some of the miracles that God performed through Moses were imitated by the court magicians of Pharaoh. More explicitly, Jesus himself says, in Matthew 7:21-23 21.

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ‘And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Clearly, amazing and diabolical things can be done in Jesus’ name by people that do not even know Jesus - which is a sobering thought. And that sort of reality renders the gift of being able to “distinguish between spirits” - i.e., the ability to determine the authenticity of a particular thing - as a valuable gift for Christ to give to His church.

Faustian Bargain!

Elena Oumano writes in her book, Marianne Williamson: Her Life, Her Message, Her Miracles that New age leader Marianne Williamson claims that a number of years ago, after a “nervous breakdown” and in the midst of her study of A Course in Miracles, she met “Jesus.” One night she said she felt the presence of “Jesus” by her bed. “I was not normal and I knew it,” Williamson said. Hence, she started talking to the presence that she assumed was the real Jesus:

“So I said to Jesus, ‘Look, if you can give me back my life, if you can restore me somehow, then I will do whatever you want me to do for the rest of my life.’ Like people make a pact with the devil, I made a pact with Jesus.”

Or was it in fact another Faustian bargain? After all, the “Jesus” that Williamson follows is the false New Age “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles, not the real Jesus of the Bible.

“Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3.7-8).

A deal with the Devil, pact with the Devil, or Faustian bargain is a cultural motif widespread wherever the Devil is vividly present, most familiar in the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, but elemental to a Christian view of the world.

According to traditional Christian belief in witchcraft, the pact is between a person and Satan or any other demon (or demons); the person offers his or her soul in exchange for diabolical favors. Those favors vary by the tale, but tend to include youth, knowledge, wealth, health or power. It was also believed that some persons made this type of pact just as a sign of recognizing the Devil as their master, in exchange for nothing. Regardless, the bargain is a dangerous one, for the price of the Fiend's service is the wagerer's soul. The tale may have a moralizing end, with eternal damnation for the foolhardy venturer. Conversely it may have a comic twist, in which a wily peasant outwits the Devil, characteristically on a technical point.

For example, the story goes that Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. However, shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.

“And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20.10).

enjoy, ron

Saturn Radio!

Are you bored with listening to all the normal stuff on radio? How would you like a very brief reprieve? Click here to listen to something that is literally out of this world. What you hear is an audio file of Saturn's radio emissions.

FYI: The Cassini spacecraft monitors radio emissions from the planet Saturn. The radio waves are closely related to the auroras near the poles of the planet and are similar to Earth's northern and southern lights.

From article: Bizarre Sounds of Saturn's Radio Emissions

enjoy, ron

The Jesus Guy!

Have you seen the Jesus Guy around? You may soon! He's begining to make headlines. For what it's worth, many feel that the Jesus Guy looks a lot like Jesus Christ Himself (an angilicized version, no doubt). They say he preaches like St. Francis of Assisi. Some rather candidly say he’s “a kook.” Others, confess him to be “a blessing from God.” I'm cluless!

Of course, contemporary liberal scholars, news pundits, and Hollywood have had many stupid opinions about Jesus and this guy fits the stereotype. He even answers the "name question" with a counter question "What's your name?" I suppose that's better than "I AM" for an answer. Sure he walks around barefoot in the snow (not, on water) and he's clad in a white robe but what does that say? Well, he likes to walk! According to reports, he’s walked through 47 states [and 13 countries] on a 16-year mission. So now the media wants in! Lately, both 20/20, Time and the Wall Street Journal have all helped to get the Jesus Guy a little free publicity.

So what's next? Interested? Click here to view more information about a documentary by Sean Tracey titled The Jesus Guy. The documentary covers the mystical journey of America’s “Barefoot Evangelist.” Oh, and by the way, the Jesus Guy is broke, penniless! So, if philosophy is for cynics and pop culture is for bimbos, what's this Jesus Guy all about? Does he have any good news?

enjoy, ron

Atlas Shrugged?

Today, October 12, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged. It was a huge, hotly debated bestseller in its day, and its sales have held steady ever since. According to a 1991 report by the Library of Congress, Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand is second only to the Bible in the influence it has had on readers' lives.

I must confess! I passed through a rather intense Ayn Rand phase in my own philosophical journey. At that point, all around me, I was hearing the words: “Atlas Shrugged changed my life.”

Rand was from a educated, prosperous Soviet family who suffered terribly under communism. Her lifelong hatred for communism was superseded only by her love for the United States. She loved its skyscrapers, its technology, its machinery, its individualism, its energy. She was a thorough bred Aristotelian both in word and deed.

Unfortunately for Rand, she loathed religion as much as she hated communism. Being a fool for Christ myself, I was saddened to discover that she saw Christianity as the religion of fools and slaves. The woman was audacious in her worldly wisdom. For example, when faced with the writings of C.S. Lewis, Rand declared him to be a “driveling non-entity,” a “mediocrity,” and “scum.” (see, 1 Corinthians 4.13)

In place of Christianity, Rand, the antichrist, heralded objectivism - with objective reason as its god! Rational, responsible and principled individualism was her philosophy for living. In and of itself, objectivism is very compelling. It promotes values like love, friendship, wealth, and comfort. It respects science, technology, and innovation. It emphasizes reason and clarity. It values purposefulness, achievement, and success. It reveres passionate living, and pursing the greatest heights. All good things but meaningless without a knowledge of Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection.

So instead of glorifying and enjoying God, Rand set personal happiness as the extreme goal and objectivism as the philosophy that gives you the tools to figure out how to achieve it. Consequently, Atlas Shrugged turns out to be no more than diddly squat in light of the ultimate influence of the Bible.

Jesus Hugged!

enjoy, ron

"ba da ba ba baa.. I'm lovin' it"

With the current McDonaldization of society it is no wonder more and more Americans know the ingredients of Big Macs than they do the Ten Commandments. It's a fact! Just check out this news story and weep.

BTW can you guess the correlation between morality and obesity? Have you seen the documentary Super Size Me?

Of course, this news is hardly all that shocking, particularly when so many American evangelicals (younger & older alike) are often about as clueless as the rest of the public when it comes to the Law of God.

What about the golden rule? How long before it goes the way of the golden aches (or golden calf)? What can be said about a society that no longer believed killing, cheating, stealing and slander are wrong? That envy and jealousy are good things? Help me here...

If we as Christians can remember the condiments on a hamburger over the contents of God’s commands, it’s a pretty good indication that our morality it shot. It is only through the knowledge of God’s Word that we are prevented from sinning.

With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes!

(ESV, Psalm 119:10-12)

enjoy, ron