Pastor’s Blog, April 2007
2007:
February March
May June
July August
September October
November December
2008: January February March
April May June
July
Progress digitizing Faith Assembly recorded sermons: February 26, 1995 p.m.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
John 12:12
8:10 p.m.
I don’t often give you the actual verse within a chapter, because I usually
stop reading at the end of a chapter. But, when I stopped at John 12:12, I
realized there was something very special there. Go back to Friday,
April 12, 6:25 p.m. and read that section. I believe that totally
establishes that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday, and the Passover meal was on
a Wednesday. Now, look at the first verse of John 12.
{John 12:1} Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
So, we can count, can’t we? Passover was on Wednesday. One day before the Passover was therefore Tuesday. 2, Monday; 3, Sunday; 4, Saturday; 5, Friday; 6, Thursday. So, it was on a Thursday that Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with precious ointment. Now, read it carefully down to verses 12–13.
{John 12:12–13} On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, {13} Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
The next day! The
anointing was on Thursday; the Triumphal Entry had to be on Friday. These are
not a matter of debate. They are absolutely fixed, based on the perfectly clear
statements of specific days and numbers of days from one event to the next. I
have often said that there is no way all the events attributed to “holy
week” could have happened just between one Sunday and the next. But, adding
two extra days definitely does suffice.
It always amazes me when I see something like this. It was
there all along, but I never noticed it before, and, it would seem no one else
did either. This is not the kind of thing that scholars should even have to
debate, but should be completely familiar as the facts of the case to everyone
who can read the Bible and put two and two together
Today I had the difficult task of publicly saying farewell to two of my children who have decided that Faith Assembly is not the church for them. None of us knows the future, so I can say it is their present decision, without having to confess it is their permanent choice. They will still be living in the area, and they both love the Lord and mean to serve Him, but for their own reasons, they are not happy at Faith Assembly. What can we say, but “God bless you, and we pray He will watch over you wherever you go.” And, I will add to that, “I pray that He will watch over every one of us, and if we stray, He will correct us, just as firmly as required, to get us back on the path.” Gently, or severely, whatever it takes, I do not give up my children to go the way of the world, to fade into the religious systems of man, and live for the pleasures of this world, while “playing church” to appear spiritual to themselves and others. I am also trusting that, without the pressure of feeling they have to come to Faith Assembly unwillingly, maybe they will feel more at ease being part of our family otherwise. They know where we stand on various things. I pray they can respect us and not feel they have to prove anything by flaunting the differences that exist between us. This will, indeed, be a test of hearts all the way around. God bless you, Seth and Hannah.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
John 8
10:45 p.m.
Long day. Office 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Then canoeing with daughters Debbie and
Becky, an excursion that took from 12:30 to 3:15 p.m., till we got the canoe
loaded up, drove to the place, canoed a while, drove back home, and unloaded.
Then went to Fort Wayne with Sarah, Vreneli, and Abigail to get some things for
Vreneli’s laptop computer and a travel ice chest with electric refrigeration,
plus eat out. Back home by 7:30 p.m. or so. Worked on outline of Mark 3 for
tomorrow’s teaching. Then did some puzzles, falling asleep, so what I want to
do now is . . . Zzzzzzzz! Good night!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
John 7
9:00 p.m.
Thoughts of the moment: Read yesterday’s thought for the moment. I have had a
rough couple of days. So, okay, there is a
price to be paid to be a disciple of Jesus. But it is not my purpose here to say
dire things about anyone, so I’ve deleted what I wrote earlier.
In any case, I am determined that, like Paul “None of these
things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish
my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus,
to testify the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). Jesus makes it crystal clear that, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). I thank God for His
care over me and all my loved ones, and I am confident that He will complete His
work in each one of us. Only, I know I am, and my entire family is, saved by
grace, not because any of us deserve God’s favor. Thank You, Jesus!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
John 5
9:00 a.m.
Thoughts of the moment: God offers one way, one kingdom, one salvation, one
faith, one Answer. Man’s religious system offers choices: one God, but two
kingdoms, and we can serve God’s kingdom within man’s kingdoms; or, one source,
two methods of healing; or, we actually can serve God and Mammon; or, we can
promote God’s Kingdom using the ways and means of man’s kingdom. I am going to
preach on this tonight, God willing. You can hear the message live on Paltalk.
Just click the link
{Direct link to our Paltalk Room} and follow the instructions. The room will
open beginning around 7:00 p.m. eastern time. There will be worship until about
7:30, then the message.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
John 4
4:00 p.m.
Well, the main thing right now is that I have been profoundly challenged by Luke
21:8, which says,
“Take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time has drawn near.’ Therefore do not go after them.”
That hit me like a ton of bricks, because much
of my ministry has been centered on the theme of “Jesus is coming soon,” and,
frankly, I cannot see the difference between that and saying, “The time has
drawn near.” So, I asked God to show me what He means. Have I been totally
missing His will all these years? The answer is, I am to call people to follow
Jesus, not because His return is near, but because we owe Him our lives, no
matter when He comes. The common theme of “Jesus is coming soon,” has been the
focus of ministries as long as I can remember. As a result, people simply turn
off their minds when they hear that message. It encourages a shallow, “foxhole”
commitment, because people figure they can give up the pleasures of this life
for a short time, being led to believe Jesus will surely come within a few short
years. But, thirty years later, they feel they have been swindled, and no longer
trust any minister who talks about the second coming of Christ.
It is one thing to know that Jesus could come at any time.
That is a central part of the hope of the gospel. But, it is not supposed
to be “hype” to pressure someone into making a commitment, being continually led
along with virtual promises that He will come “very soon,” suggesting a time
frame of only days or months, or at the most a couple of years, like the
proverbial carrot on a stick held just out of reach of the reluctant donkey, to
keep him taking another step forward. God doesn’t want His ministers doing that,
and Jesus’ words in Luke 21:8 warn people not to follow that message. The
parallel passages of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, are to give the true
disciples of Jesus hope, to sustain them through all the things they will face
in life. Make no mistake, the signs of the times are getting more and more
serious. There is nothing preventing Jesus breaking in except his own
longsuffering, both toward the lost and toward the elect, that He is not willing
that any should perish.
So, our message is not to be the “hype” of “Jesus is
coming soon! Quick! Repent, so you don’t miss the rapture!” but, “Repent for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Jesus could come at any time. We don’t know when.
But, now is the day of salvation, because our life is but a vapor. None of us
knows the length of his own life on this earth, but the Bible is clear that we
must surrender to Christ in this life to be with Him in the next. What did Jesus
preach? “Repent for I am coming soon”? No, it was “Repent, for the Kingdom of
Heaven is at hand.” Repentance is for our lives here and now, as long as we
live. It is a life commitment, not just a short term sacrifice to get into the
rapture.
We need to remember, life is lived one moment at a time; one
step at a time. Every step we take is the first step of the rest of our life. It
is of utmost importance that we make the right decisions for each step we take.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
John 1
5:00 p.m.
Just a quick note to say I had plenty to do yesterday, so I didn’t get around to
entering a blog, and I really don’t have time to do a major entry now.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Luke 22; later, Luke 24
7:35 a.m.
I didn’t have time to blog yesterday because my wife, Rene, and I traveled to
Dearborn, Michigan, to spend the afternoon with her parents. We left around 9:00
a.m. and got back after 9:00 p.m. I read Luke 22 in the morning before we left.
My wife’s parents were missionaries to the Yagua Indians in
Peru for half a century, and her father is continuing to work on making the
scriptures accessible in their native language. He has been working on preparing
digitized recordings of the New Testament to be placed into small, solid state
devices that are solar powered and fully sealed, and so it is hoped will be
almost totally maintenance free, and impervious to the moisture and molds that
plague typical electronic devices in tropical climates. He needed help
converting *.CDA files (the format of any audio CD) into a file format he can
modify as needed, and eventually save in MP3 format. I was able to help him get
over a couple of hurdles so he can now continue his project.
After I have time to read some more, plus get some orders
filled for Faith Ministries, I will continue this entry.
6:25 p.m.
I have now finished Luke. I discovered a verse that further proves the
crucifixion must have occurred on Thursday: Luke 24:21, where the disciples on
the road to Emmaus, on the first day of the week, say, “This is now the third
day since these things happened.” Third day since? Okay, second day since would
be Saturday, the Sabbath; first day since would be Friday; so, the day it
happened had to be Thursday. And the Last Supper, which was the Passover meal,
was Wednesday evening after sundown, by our current reckoning. If we accept the
Bible as the infallible Word breathed out by God, there’s just no option to make
up our own chronology here. And, there is no way you can make it exactly 72
hours, because Jesus died at the ninth hour, which is 3:00 in the afternoon, and
rose on the first day of the week before dawn. I don’t care if you take the
first day of the week clear back to right after sundown at the end of the
Sabbath (which not even the Jews did, if you go by the way the gospels say “it
began to dawn toward the first day of the week” — they may have begun ritual
observances at sundown, but they still had the day itself as the first day,
second say, and so on); I don’t care if you have Jesus crucified on Wednesday
(which, if He was crucified on Wednesday, then the disciples on the first day of
the week would be into the fourth day since, not the third day since); it still
could not be 72 hours exactly. He would have to rise at 3:00 in the afternoon
for it to be 72 hours exactly. If you want to make up a doctrine that He arose
secretly at 3:00 in the afternoon on the Sabbath, then you will have to explain
why the disciples celebrated the resurrection on the first day of the week
forever after that. No, it is as I have taught it: He was dead during daylight
hours of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; and during the nighttime hours between
Thursday and Friday; between Friday and Saturday; and between Saturday and
Sunday; rising before dawn on Sunday. That, again, has the crucifixion on
Thursday, and the Last Supper on Wednesday.
Well, time for prayer meeting.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Luke 21
1:05 p.m.
As you can see, I am changing the format a bit here. So I can
have more than one entry without repeating the large sized heading, I am putting
the time of the blog at the beginning of the text. Also, notice that I am adding
a line above the blog to give the progress on the project of digitizing Faith
Assembly recorded sermons. I need to get on with preparing for tonight’s
teaching, so this will be all for now.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Luke 17; later, Luke 19
6:50 a.m.
Before I do anything else today, I want you to
know I did read yesterday and finished through Luke 17. Instead of blogging, I went
on a spring wildflower walk in the woods with my oldest daughter, Sarah. I will
blog more later. God bless.
7:45 p.m.
I had a productive day. I finished through number 178
digitizing the Radio Broadcast messages of Brother Freeman. Did the usual
filling of orders for Faith Ministries. Some of the Radio Broadcast messages
reminded me that the things I am teaching have not come to me totally without
human instrumentality. Here are a couple of examples of things that I have
taught that I heard on Radio Broadcast messages today:
1. The nine gifts of the Spirit in I Corinthians 12, and six additional in Romans 12, are not to be taken as the only ones God has given, but as examples.
2. Word of Knowledge is past and present facts, while Word of Wisdom is revelation of God’s plans and purposes not yet fulfilled in the temporal realm.
3. Word of Wisdom is not just human insight into the solution of a problem, but it includes supernatural revelations of answers beyond human wisdom.
This just reassures me of the advantage of
having received the message by listening to the tapes, over having heard Brother
Freeman live, mixed in with a lot of other ministers, who may or may not have
understood or taught the message clearly, and one could easily have confused
issues, as to who taught what, and did something another minister said from the
Faith Assembly pulpit have Brother Freeman’s agreement, just because he
allowed him to preach? Listening to tapes, there was no chance of any confusion
about who said what. It doesn’t make me any better than anyone else; but it
comforts me to hear confirmation of the things I have taught and am teaching.
That will be all for today. God bless.
Sunday, April 15, 2007, 4:50 p.m. EDST
Luke 14
I don't have time to blog just now, but there is my progress in reading. God bless.
Saturday, April 14, 2007, 9:30 a.m. EDST
Luke 10
My main projects this morning will be preparing for the next study in Mark for tomorrow morning, and more digitizing as time permits. If I have something to blog about later, I’ll be back.
Thursday, April 12, 2007, 2:45 p.m. EDST
Luke 8
Right now I am working on the project of
digitizing my own tapes. I have digitized two, and finalized the first of those
two. I will work on finalizing the second while a third is digitizing.
Meanwhile, I discovered after making reservations for
vacation that I had begun with the wrong start date. I managed to get two of the
reservations corrected, but haven’t yet been able to get through on the third. I
doubt there will be a problem, but it is always comforting to know it is
settled.
So, having nothing presently on my mind to blog about, I will
continue with my digitizing project.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 3:10 p.m. EDST
Luke 6
Praise the Lord. I have made all the
reservations necessary for our family vacation. Persistence was required, but
rewarded in the end. I will disclose more of our provisional plans in the days
ahead. All is subject to the Lord’s leading day by day, of course, and we must
not focus our attention so much on a trip two months away that we neglect our
duties here and now. We are witnesses, wherever we go; today, as well as on
vacation.
And now, it is time to focus on preparation for this
evening’s teaching.
Monday, April 9, 2007, 6:10 p.m. EDST
Luke 4
Well, you will just have to bear with me, I
can’t promise to blog every day. Saturday and Sunday were busy enough without
trying to work in time to write an entry here. As you can see, I am through Luke
4 now. I read Luke 1 on Saturday, and Luke 2–4 today. My reading on Sunday
was in Mark 2, preparing for the morning message, and Genesis 26, preparing for
the evening message.
I have some things I need to do, and I don’t have anything
pressing on my mind to say right now, so this will probably by my blog for the
day. God bless.
Friday, April 6, 2007, 6:20 p.m. EDST
Mark 16
Eh, what? I didn't blog yesterday? I didn't at
least sign in enough to say I was through Mark 13? Well, I was, and I finished
Mark today. Oh, I remember. I was going to blog in the evening, but instead, I
did two fatherly things. First, I cut out some parts for the hope chest project
I am working on with my daughter Abigail (junior in high school). Second, I
drove my car to my second son Seth’s house in Fort Wayne, because his car acted
up on him and he had to have it towed, and so he couldn’t run an errand he had
planned to run for his sister Vreneli, and so I drove my car, and Vreneli drove
her car to bring me back home in, and when we got there, Seth got in my car and
I drove Vreneli’s car and Seth led the way from his house to where the errand
had to be run (because he knows his way through Fort Wayne), so we would get to
the store before it closed. We made it with ten minutes to spare. By the time we
got back home, blogging was not on my mind.
Well, I must say, I am still concerned about my life and the
life of most Christians in this country. I question whether it is even possible
for us to conceive of taking seriously what Jesus required of His disciples. I
never hear anyone wondering how we so easily get out of the requirements He gave
the rich young ruler. The twelve who followed Jesus didn’t protest, “But, Jesus,
that isn’t fair! You have not required us to forsake all to follow you.” No, but
one of them did say, basically, “Lord, we have forsaken all. What will we get
out of it?”
{Mark 10:28–30} Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. 29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, 30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Go figure! People today take that to mean that
we don’t have to forsake all! I am sorry, but something doesn’t add up; at least
it doesn’t add up to me. They say, “Well, we have to forsake it in our hearts.”
Fine. What does that mean? What will the result be, if we truly forsake it in
our hearts? Again, I am sorry, but I think if people were forsaking their lives
in this world “in their hearts,” it would make a more obvious difference in how
they manage and use their material possessions. I am including myself. I am no
conspicuous big spender on myself or my family, but I am not satisfied that my
priorities are totally as they should be, either. I say that, knowing that if
the standard were “tithing,” that is, giving a measly ten percent of my gross
income to the Lord’s work, I am way ahead of the game! But tithing is not a New
Testament principle. We are called to the higher standard that everything we
have belongs to God, and we are merely stewards.
Prayer meeting time. God bless.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007, 3:25 p.m. EDST
Mark 10
Just slipping in long enough to update so
April is a separate document from March, and so February, March, and April are
all hyperlinked together, and so the home page link goes to this document.
Another thing I have noticed in Mark is that he goes into
more detail concerning healings and deliverances from demons. Putting fingers in
ears, physically touching eyes, spitting and touching the tongue, talking to
people while ministering, and so on: more of the process taking place in the
healings. Maybe there is some of that in other Gospels, but Mark seems to do it
more. Also, he seems to give more place names, and names of individuals (not
just Levi, but Levi, the son of Alphaeus; not just Bartimaeus, but Bartimaeus,
the son of Timaeus; also, Boanerges, nickname for James and John, sons of
Zebedee).
Well, I will come back and write more later as time permits.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007, 9:00 p.m. EDST
Mark 8
It is quite interesting to notice the unique
characteristics of each of the four gospels, particularly the three synoptics,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Most of the familiar stories of the life of Christ are
recorded in more than one gospel, but different gospels may record different
details. One example is the account of the great faith of the Syrophoenician
woman: her nationality is recorded only in the gospel of Mark. The rest of the
details, such as the disciples asking Jesus to send her away, are from Matthew.
Luke does not record the incident at all.
Such details are used by theologians and scholars to try to
establish the different purposes for the various gospels, although such
endeavors are somewhat speculative, at best, in my humble estimation. The
problem is, once they think they have an idea why Mark wrote his gospel, or why
Luke wrote his, then they start to interpret selectively or diversely, depending
on which gospel it is.
There is a popular idea among scholars that no one can
understand the gospels — indeed, the Bible in its entirety — unless they
have an in-depth knowledge of the culture and customs of the day when the
accounts were written. That means, if they are right, most people really are
wasting their time to study the Bible. While agree that there is a place for
teachers who can spend more time in study to bring out some of these details,
the fact is, our knowledge of those times is sketchy at best, and even those who
devote their lives to studying the subject come to different conclusions and
disagree among themselves.
No, our understanding of God’s Word does not depend as much
on scholarship as on knowing God, and having the Holy Spirit with us to guide us
into all truth. The faith of the Syrophoenician woman was great — and would
have been just as great if she had been Roman or Babylonian, or even Jewish! The
significance of her nationality was that she, a Gentile, asked Jesus, the
Messiah of the Jews, to heal her daughter, and how Jesus and the disciples
responded.
Anyway, reading through Mark, it almost seemed like a
“strange” book. I noticed the details missing from certain stories we know
better from Matthew or Luke — or even the details included that we just assume
must be in another gospel from which we perhaps recall most of the account.
Something else I noticed in Mark: in the call of Matthew, he is identified as
“Levi, son of Alphaeus.” But when Mark lists the names of the disciples, the
son of Alphaeus is James, and Matthew is another disciple. I believe it is clear
enough in the various references that Matthew is the same as Levi; so, then, are
Matthew/Levi and James brothers, sons of the same father? I would have to assume
so. In any case, that is the position I take in my own teachings. Mark also
records the nickname “Boanerges,” or “sons of thunder,” by which James
and John, sons of Zebedee were evidently known.
Probably the most remarkable thing I have found in Mark’s
gospel is his frequent use of one particular term. It is the Greek word eutheos
(transliteration, roughly pronounced “yew-THEH-ose”), usually translated
“immediately.” This word occurs 78 times in the entire New Testament, but of
those, 40 occurrences are in Mark’s gospel. And, I just do not believe Mark
was saying “immediately” this and “immediately” that all the time. The
word is a connective word for narration, and should often (probably most of the
time in Mark’s gospel) be translated, “next thing,” “after this,”
“afterward,” or “consequently,” depending on the context.
Well, anyway... I guess I’ll call it a blog, and get off of
here for now. God bless.
Monday, April 2, 2007, 7:30 p.m. EDST
Mark 7
Hmm.... I really don’t have anything in the front of my mind pressing to be said. What I think I really should do is go out and work on some repair projects in the shop. There just are times I need to do things under the category of husband and father, rather than pastor. If anything important comes to mind, I might write more later.
Sunday, April 1, 2007, 6:15 p.m. EDST
Mark 3
Consider the update of “Warring for What?” as my entry for the present time.