The First Idiot in Heaven

I have an extra copy of this EXCELLENT book by Martin Zender.  The first person to message me their name and address will get this in their mail!

Thoughts on Thursday night

  The recent events in the UK with the "Pornography Filter", the US with the frakas over Snowden, NSA and Manning and finally Russia with it's homophobia and the loss of freedom to speak freely regarding religious beliefs have all put me in the mind that these events are being co-ordinated by a higher power.

  No I'm not talking conspiracy theories.  This is beyond anything man made, Ephesians 6:12 says

CLNT
12 for it is not ours to wrestle with blood and flesh, but with the sovereignties, with the authorities, with the world-mights of this darkness, with the spiritual forces of wickedness among the celestials.

NIV
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

CEV
12 We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world.

 Obviously no matter how we translate it, there are forces in the spiritual world that are bringing world powers into alignment.  Embrace what freedoms you have today, they are being slowly eroded away as we march downward towards the end of this eon.  Do not be afraid though, God is in control and this is all as it is  intended.

   We know God works all things together for the good of those who love him.  We also know that he knows the end as he has from the very beginning and nothing surprises him.

  Although, be on your guard.  Satan's schemes have been the same since the day he brought down the fall of man.  When he wanted to destroy mankind, he did not tempt Adam and Eve through moral failings such as sexual desire, gluttony, or any of the other 7 sins.  His aim was simple.  He tempted them through their intellect.  And told them, "You can become like God, knowing good and evil." and, "Surely God did not say that, to die you will not be dying."

  We know how that ended.  So be on your guard, he will attempt to fool you by distracting you with "immorality" and other silly religious affections when his true goal is to beguile your minds.  It has always been to the intellect Satan appeals, yet we can stand firm against that.

  The word of God is true.  The gospel that Paul teaches is a firm foundation, and most of all - for freedom Christ freed us.

  Therefore, let us live freely to the high calling that God has called us to.  Live lives in obedience to your authorities and wait patiently for the exciting expectation we have in Christ Jesus.

  As Paul has exhorted us in Romans 13

1 Let every soul be subject to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except under God. Now those which are, have been set under God,
2 so that he who is resisting an authority has withstood God's mandate. Now those who have withstood, will be getting judgment for themselves,
3 for magistrates are not a fear to the good act, but to the evil. Now you do not want to be fearing the authority. Do good, and you will be having applause from it.
4 For it is God's servant for your good. Now if you should be doing evil, fear, for not feignedly is it wearing the sword. For it is God's servant, an avenger for indignation to him who is committing evil.
5 Wherefore it is necessary to be subject, not only because of indignation, but also because of conscience.
6 For therefore you are settling taxes also, for they are God's ministers, perpetuated for this self-same thing.
7 Render to all their dues, to whom tax, tax, to whom tribute, tribute, to whom fear, fear, to whom honor, honor.
8 To no one owe anything, except to be loving one another, for he who is loving another has fulfilled law.

and in 1 Thess 4

1 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

Amen,

Travis

Come to the Table

  So, last night Claude and I got the front half of the roof done.  There's not much left to do, Friday night we'll finish it all off and be done then this weekend I'll probably get the rest of my junk packed and the basement looking a hell of alot tidier than it has been in years.

   Thank god it's a long weekend, I'm looking forward to it.  We'll be putting the house on the market on Tuesday and we'll see how long it takes to sell.  Lots of changes and excitement in our lives these days.  It's exhausting though, but in a good way.  We sleep deeply lately, the kind of sleep you get from putting in a good day of work.

Come to the Table

  I did some googling and found that most churches reference the same group of verses regarding communion.  Unfortunately, it takes effort to shrug off the preconcieved traditional ideas when you read these verses.  Typically when we read communion, and "the Lord's supper" we STILL think of the small thimble sized cup of grape juice or wine, and a platter with crackers on it.

  This isn't at all what was intended when these verses were set out to begin with.  So, let's get started.  I'll go through only verses directly related to communion.  There are others that the Church reads into out of context that make oblique references to the blood of christ, his broken body, etc. etc.  Typically these ones are in reference to his actual sacrifice on the tree.  It has nothing to do with communion, I'm not even going to waste my time with these.  We'll see how much I can get done today, I may have to break this up into a second posting.

  Matthew, Mark and Luke all have an account of the first communion.  Here is one of them;

Matthew 26:26-30

26 Now at their eating, Jesus, taking the bread, and blessing, breaks it, and, giving to the disciples, said, "Take, eat. This is My body."
27 And taking the cup and giving thanks, He gives it to them, saying, "Drink of it all,
28 for this is My blood of the new covenant, that is shed for many for the pardon of sins.
29 Now I am saying to you that under no circumstances may I be drinking henceforth of this, the product of the grapevine, till that day whenever I may be drinking it new with you in the kingdom of My Father."
30 And, singing a hymn, they came out to the mount of Olives.

  Now generally, I take the Bible literally, except when it's obvious that it's being used figuratively or symbolically.  Here Jesus is offering his flesh and blood to the disciples.  Obviously he's not being literal, they are not suddenly taking up vampirism.  No doubt, this is a little odd to them.  Fortunately, I think they understood how he meant it figuratively, while not completely grasping the huge significance of this event.  He had said something similar to this prior.

John 6:47-59

47 Verily, verily, I am saying to you that he who is believing in Me has life eonian.
48 I am the Bread of life.
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
50 This is the Bread which is descending out of heaven that anyone may be eating of it and may not be dying.
51 I am the living Bread which descends out of heaven. If anyone should be eating of this Bread, he shall be living for the eon. Now the Bread also, which I shall be giving for the sake of the life of the world, is My flesh."
52 The Jews, then, fought with one another, saying, "How then can this one give us his flesh to eat?"
53 Jesus, then, said to them, "Verily, verily, I am saying to you, If you should not be eating the flesh of the Son of Mankind and drinking His blood, you have no eonian life in yourselves.
54 He who is masticating My flesh and drinking My blood has life eonian, and I shall be raising him in the last day,
55 for My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.
56 "He who is masticating My flesh and drinking My blood is remaining in Me, and I in him.
57 According as the living Father commissions Me, I, also, am living because of the Father. And he who is masticating Me, he also will be living because of Me.
58 This is the Bread which descends out of heaven. Not according as the fathers ate and died; he who is masticating this Bread shall be living for the eon."
59 These things He said, teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum.

 Most translations say eat instead of masticate.  To masticate simply means to chew.  It's the only conciously active act that we do when we eat.  Every other part of digesting a meal is involuntary.  Again, Jesus is using the figurative.  He's not requiring that we find his body and tear chunks off it and plug him for blood.  He's talking about partaking in his life, in who he is, and his sacrifice.  We are to conciously meditate on him, on his promises and who he is.  We are in effect "chewing" on Jesus.

John 6:60-69

60 Many of His disciples, then, hearing it, said, "Hard is this saying! Who can hear it?"
61 Now Jesus, being aware in Himself that His disciples are murmuring concerning this, said to them, "This is snaring you?
62 If, then, you should be beholding the Son of Mankind ascending where He was formerly -- ?
63 The Spirit is that which is vivifying. The flesh is not benefiting anything. The declarations which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
64 But there are some of you who are not believing." For Jesus had perceived from the beginning who those are who are not believing, and who it is that gives Him up.
65 And He said, "Therefore have I declared to you that no one can be coming to Me if it should not be given him of the Father."
66 At this, then, many of His disciples came away, dropping behind, and walked no longer with Him.
67 Jesus, then, said to the twelve, "Not you also are wanting to go away!"
68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we come away? Declarations of life eonian hast Thou!
69 And we believe and know that Thou art the Holy One of God."

  This was likely the first time the disciples had heard of this and it confused them.  Jesus explained his meaning to them, if somewhat cryptically.  Some of the disciples Jesus had couldn't accept this teaching and obviously left him.  However, Peter grasped, if not completely, what Jesus was teaching when he declared "Life eonian hast thou!"

  Jesus wasn't talking about a communion rite here.  He was talking about himself being the only way to the eonian life.  He is the ONLY way to life after this eon.  

  Tomorrow I'll go into what Paul has to say about "The Lord's Supper" and what that means to believers today.  

Come to the table!

Have a great Thursday!

Travis

  

Packing... and more packing...

Got more packing done last night.  Finally bottled my wine kit much earlier than I typically do.  Unfortunately with the move, I'm not going to move a 25L carboy full of wine.  If that thing cracked it would be a freaking mess and a horrible waste.  So I bottled my wine and packed up all my wine making gear.

  That took a couple hours.  But slowly and surely the basement is starting to clear up.  Tonight I expect to be finishing the roof with my friend and then the rest of this week's free time will be spent cleaning and packing more of my stuff.

  I think if I had known how much work it would take to do this move; I would've changed my mind. :P  Oh well, we've come this far now, we'll go the rest of the way.

Come Let us Dine together

  I'm shooting from the hip a bit here.  I'm definitely open for dialogue on this.  I've thought about communion for years.  It's become such a tradition for Christians to spend 5 minutes in somber thought as they hold a cracker and a cup of grape juice and meditate on Jesus' suffering on the cross.

   I remember at a young age trying to meditate on this so seriously that I could feel a profound sense of grief.  Unfortunately, as the years passed I became increasingly jaded to the cross and communion became just a necessary ritual to the faith.

  After I left the Church I re-examined every belief and tradition we observe, I continue to do so.  Communion was one I used to stumble over.  I'm not going to have time today to go over everything.  I'll write more on this tomorrow, but here's my take on communion.

  I believe what the Bible really meant in regards to this was for believers to come together.  To spend time in fellowship, having a meal together.  Experiencing the Body of Christ as called out believers together.  Not as though we were dining on the flesh and blood of Christ, but as though we were a living breathing organism that makes up the parts of Christ's body.

  That is what communion really means.  Not this sombre thoughtless tradition that innures you to the life of Christ as the years roll by.  The more I grow to understand traditions and where they come from and what they do, the greater I despise them.  Seeing how they harden hearts to God by simple process of repetition.

   They become so driven into our faith and become such a part of our culture that we have relegated Christ Jesus to being just white noise in our lives.  We never have a living and vital faith, because we've never questioned, studied, and wrestled with our understanding of God, Jesus, the Bible and what our purpose is.

  In the end, Christians tend to worship an idol, rather than the living God.  I don't know what's more tragic than that.  Really I dont...

   Anyways, tomorrow I'll delve into scriptures on communion and we'll find out what the Bible has to say on this.

Love and peace to you all,

Travis

4 more days...

Morning all,

   So last night, we take our king sized mattresses to my grandmother's place and spend the evening with her visiting for a few hours.  By the time it was close to Cassidy's bed time we left.  I grabbed a few things from Wal Mart and made my way home.

   The last two weeks have been crazy with packing moving and stuff, as you know.  So last night I simply relaxed on the couch with a glass of wine and watched an episode of Without a Trace.  No other moving stuff at all.  My wife and I DID sign up with welist.com so we can put our house up on the market on Saturday.

  From what I've been hearing, houses are selling pretty quickly in Calgary.  Hopefully we can price it right so it moves quickly, AND we can take a good downpayment for our new house with us.

   I've been looking at 24' trucks driving around Calgary.  I think I can handle that... I hope so. LOL  I guess we'll find out in a while.

   Sorry I'm out of theological thoughts today.  Most of my thinking is on what needs to be done next to get ready to sell.  Fixing, cleaning, and all that fun stuff.

Love you all, and be well!

Travis

What a Weekend...

  It's been an incredibly busy weekend.  Saturday I spent all day on the roof with my friend Claude.  From 8 in the morning til 6:30 that night we tore off the roof, and laid new paper, underlay and shingles down.  My face is burnt, my neck is burnt, and by 10pm that night, I was exhausted, sore, and shivering from a sligh case of sun stroke.

   Fortunately, a good night's sleep and lots of water cured that.

   There's not many days left before we put the house on the market.  So Sunday morning I got back at it.  Went downstairs and took apart my desk from the basement living area, and moved it into our newly designated "office" area.  I've taken out so much network cable throughout the house in order to make it look more appealing without all these cables going everywhere.  I ended up organizing all the cables, wires, and powerbars and other crap that I've had and put it into a bin for storage.

   There's still quite a bit to do by Saturday, I think we'll get enough of it done by then that we can put the house on the market.  Once we do, we'll continue cleaning, tidying and getting everything looking FANTASTIC before the house sells.

  Plus there's alot of stuff we can just put on Kijiji and sell.

You're So Vain

  Anyways, being on the roof and working all day with no ghetto blaster playing or distractions, I thought alot about alot of things.  Particularly the Bible and the Church.  And as I was working on the house, this scripture came to mind;

Psalms 127:1
1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
    the builders labor in vain...

  What is vanity? Webster's dictionary describes it as "marked by futility or ineffectualness"

Romans 8:20-21
20 For to vanity was the creation subjected, not voluntarily, but because of Him Who subjects it, in expectation
21 that the creation itself, also, shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 For we are aware that the entire creation is groaning and travailing together until now.

  Paul even points out that ALL of creation as it now stands is subject to vanity.  Also, King Solomon writes;

Ecclesiastes 1:2-5
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Assembler; Vanity of vanities, the whole is vanity. 
3 What advantage has a human in all his toil Which he toils under the sun? 
4 One generation goes, and another generation comes, Yet the earth is standing for the eon. 

5 The sun rises, and the sun sets And gasps back to its place, That it may rise there once more.

Because death is the lot of all mankind, and everything is subject to corruption.  Everything IS vanity.  It's empty.  It's meaningless.  Just think, once you die, everything you've owned gets dispersed.  For the majority of humankind, we will be forgotten to history, and even those who have their moments in history like Socrates, Alexander the Great, and etc.  Their effect on the present is so miniscule as to be meaningless.

This is what it means to be futile, to be in vain.

  Once again, back to the Psalms I spoke of.  I reflected on it, and on the contemporary Christian churches as they stand today.  When I was in the ICOC there was a heavy focus on numbers.  We would convert everyone and anyone no matter what the costs.  In fact, I know for certain Bible verses were bent out of shape, people would compromise, say and do anything to win a convert into the Church and claim that as "fruit".

  Who is building THAT house?  Certainly not God.  The Spirit has nothing to do with those conversions.  What are the fruits of the Spirit?

Galatians 5:22-26
22 Now the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 meekness, self-control: against such things there is no law.
24 Now those of Christ Jesus crucify the flesh together with its passions, and lusts.
25 If we may be living in spirit, in spirit we may be observing the elements also.
26 We may not become vainglorious, challenging one another, envying one another.

  I can guarantee you, those who claimed to bear "fruit" in the Churches by the conversions they made bore little in the way of this truly spiritual fruit.  Indeed, many of them "challenged one another" and "envied one another".  I can attest that it was not for God these conversions were made, for but self glorification and selfish ambition.

  The true Ecclesia of God IS made of God's own hands.  Whoever comes into the Body of Christ is called there.

Ephesians 1:3-4
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who blesses us with every spiritual blessing among the celestials, in Christ,
4 according as He chooses us in Him before the disruption of the world, we to be holy and flawless in His sight,

You cannot convert someone by your own power.  A person is a member of the Body of Christ if God has chosen that person.  And that person was chosen before the Garden of Eden was even a mote in God's eye.

1 Corinthians 3:4-11

4 For whenever anyone may be saying, "I, indeed, am of Paul," yet another, "I, of Apollos," will he not be fleshly?
5 What, then, is Apollos? Now what is Paul? Servants are they, through whom you believe, and as the Lord gives to each.
6 I plant, Apollos irrigates, but God makes it grow up.
7 So that, neither is he who is planting anything, nor he who is irrigating, but God Who makes it grow up.
8 Now he who is planting and he who is irrigating are for one thing. Yet each will be getting his own wages according to his own toil.
9 For God's fellow workers are we. God's farm, God's building, are you.
10 According to the grace of God which is being granted to me, as a wise foreman I lay a foundation, yet another is building on it. Yet let each one beware how he is building on it.
11 For other foundation can no one lay beside that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Again, we are God's building.  We may work on it, but ultimately everything we do is besides the point - it is God himself who will add to the building and make it grow.  There is so much in this that one could study for hours and hours and never reach it's limit on the study of the Body of Christ.  It is God's building and ought to be honored as such.

Lastly Paul warns of foolish philosophy coming into the work of Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:18-20

18 Let no one be deluding himself. If anyone among you is presuming to be wise in this eon, let him become stupid, that he may be becoming wise,
19 for the wisdom of this world is stupidity with God. For it is written, "He is clutching the wise in their craftiness."
20 And again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain.

Be certain you are standing on the firm foundation of the Gospel as Christ gave it to Paul.  Any other foundation is shifting sand.

Travis

PS.  In case I wasn't clear, my point is this.  Unless a believer's conversion is built on the solid foundation that God gave to Paul, and that person was called by God to believe in the Gospel of Grace, that conversion is in vain.  All the baptism, and all the "prayers asking Jesus into my heart" is all for naught unless the person understands and believes in the very foundation God gave Paul.  No one can give a believer that faith but God.

That's what vanity is.  Believing, to no effect.  If you have questions and I'm not clear enough, PLEASE ask me.

A Workman Not Ashamed

  So, I missed posting yesterday.  Not because I lacked anything to say, but I was on the go, busy the entire day.  For once I was nowhere near my computer but working in a different office suite instead, measuring out the entire suite so I could draft it in AutoCAD.

  Then as soon as I got home, I got busy taking apart a bed we had in our spare room, and moved it to the main bedroom.  We have taken apart our king sized bed and replaced it with the queen.  The idea is to turn the spare bedroom into an office, and the basement living room into... well... a living room.

  At the moment the basement room is an office/media room/excercise room/wine room

  Not exactly a great way to sell the house.  So I'm slowly packing things in the basement living room.  I have 2 cases of wine to bottle before I can put away all the wine equipment.  A desk to take apart and move into the office room.

   Needless to say, every night I get home I've been busy working away, slowly packing things, moving things and cleaning things.  I'm usually a sweaty mess by 7 o clock, which is around the time I stop so I have time to rest and unwind before I head to bed.

The Source of Truth

  I recently got into a discussion in a forum regarding suffering.  The responses I got were... ridiculous.  As I was discussing the reason for suffering to people, I discovered many of these "believers" rather than having beliefs that found their source in the gospel, instead had philosophies that had more in common with eastern religions than anything that was actually taught in the Bible.

   It baffled me.  These, good people, who love the idea of grace are teaching something that is so far from anything Jesus established.  To me, this is truly dangerous.  Even, if I dare say it, demonic.  Granted, not everything we do is laid out in the Bible.  Yet when it comes to doctrine, if the Bible says something different, we ought to be very careful in how we proceed.

2 Timothy 2:15-18 

15 Endeavor to present yourself to God qualified, an unashamed worker, correctly cutting the word of truth.

16 Yet from profane prattlings stand aloof, for they will be progressing to more irreverence,
17 and their word will spread as gangrene, of whom are Hymeneus and Philetus,
18 who swerve as to truth, saying that the resurrection has already occurred, and are subverting the faith of some.

   Paul himself does not mince words in regards to this, he begins by calling these philosophies "Profane prattlings' and ends with the final result being "subverting the faith".

  For this reason, we need to know the word of God all the more.  Continually testing these doctrines and philosophies against the scriptures.  Most importantly against the gospel that Paul taught, which is our gospel today.

Ephesians 6:13

13 Therefore take up the panoply of God that you may be enabled to withstand in the wicked day, and having effected all, to stand.
14 Stand, then, girded about your loins with truth, with the cuirass of righteousness put on,
15 and your feet sandaled with the readiness of the evangel of peace;
16 with all taking up the large shield of faith, by which you will be able to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the wicked one.

  The word of truth is our protection.

1 Thess 5:21

21 Yet be testing all, retaining the ideal.
22 From everything wicked to the perception, abstain.
23 Now may the God of peace Himself be hallowing you wholly; and may your unimpaired spirit and soul and body be kept blameless in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ!

   Be very careful of people who "spiritualize" the word of God.  In the majority, the word is to be taken literally, unless the context is obviously meant to be a figure of speach, allegory, or symbolical.  Those who alter the word of God to fit their philosophies do so at their own peril.

And one last word from Paul;

2 Tim 3:1-7

1 Now this know, that in the last days perilous periods will be present,

2 for men will be selfish, fond of money, ostentatious, proud, calumniators, stubborn to parents, ungrateful, malign,
3 without natural affection, implacable, adversaries, uncontrollable, fierce, averse to the good,
4 traitors, rash, conceited, fond of their own gratification rather than fond of God;
5 having a form of devoutness, yet denying its power.
6 These, also, shun. For of these are those who are slipping into homes and are leading into captivity little women, heaped with sins, being led by various lusts and gratifications,
7 always learning and yet not at any time able to come into a realization of the truth.

  

With all love and grace,

Travis