A couple of weeks ago, due to increasing blindness and decreasing mental acuity, I decided to cease my weekly blog posting. However, I have discovered that these handicaps don’t shut off my Abba Father’s communication to me in my heart! So, on occasion I’m afraid I’ll not be able to retrain from sharing with you what I believe God is showing me! I realize we are all in different camps on our “journey to the City with Foundations,” but we are all “right on…
This verse is a perfect description of time in God’s world, and for me it is an excellent analysis of my almost ten years writing this blog. However, as an 88 year-old octogenarian I find myself with negligible energy, mobility, and approaching near-blindness with increasing macular degeneration. For the first time, what has been a source of great joy, encouragement and spiritual growth for me has become a chore I find myself struggling to do! Friends have told me to learn how to write…
We have finally arrived at the third and final weapon in our three-part arsenal that God has provided for us to use in our task of ruling over the earth—the civil government. “The Sin of Certainty,” the title of last week’s posting, exposes a sin that afflicts, not just the arrogant Pharisees like I am, but all Wanna-Be Pharisees and Rebels as well. We are ALL ADDICTED to the Fruit of the Tree because we were “in Adam” when he sinned, and therefore, we…
Over the past few weeks, we have been investigating the Ship of the Kingdom diagram (below) , a visual illustration of the “sphere sovereignty theology” of Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper was a pre-WWI, Dutch theologian who also became Prime Minister of Holland.. This diagram beautifully pictures God the Father crowning Jesus as King of kings at the Ascension, and then seating Him at His right hand as ruler over the whole earth. Ten days later, at Pentecost, Jesus then DELEGATED THAT RULE TO US, living…
Last week we painted what appears to be a dark picture of mankind and its future. The results of man’s Fall are much more permanent and far-reaching than most of us have realized. This includes an addiction to trying to be God ourselves—trying to determine what is “good” and not “evil” ourselves, independently of God. However, this “terrible tragedy” of the Fall was exactly as God had planned, for He is ordering all things, even the “tragedy” of the Fall, according to “…the purpose…
When Adam ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, unlike Eve, he did so with a full understanding of what he was doing: “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression” (1 Timothy 2:14). Eve was deceived when Satan, in the guise of a serpent (Revelation 12:7-9) approached her and they had a conversation. The details of this exchange form the foundation of the Fall, and hence our addiction. “Now the serpent…
For the past few weeks we have been investigating how our individual families and churches will function as we learn to conform them to their biblical pattern. These are the weapons, along with the civil government (which we will soon examine), that God has given us to successfully carry out our eternal purpose of ruling over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28). How these weapons are used constitutes one of the two edges of the Sword of the Word of God. As the author of Hebrews…
This title may be the question we are asking ourselves as we have discussed church leadership in thelast few blog postings. Interestingly, this universally-used word for church leadership—”pastor” (Gk., poimen)—is used only one time in the New Testament as a noun (Ephesians 4:11), and there it is among a list, NOT OF AUTHORITATIVE OFFICES, BUT OF INFLUENTIAL GIFTS–gifts that are the men themselves, called by Jesus Christ and given by Him to His church. There they serve a specific function in the body of…
When one sees the word “church” in the New Testament it means something entirely different to the reader today than it did when originally written. As regular readers of this blog know, we want to present the original, intended meaning of “church” and present the amazing possibility of doing our best to follow that today! For example, in the New Testament church there was NO CHURCH AUTHORITY GREATER THAN THE LOCAL CHURCH; each was completely autonomous, independent of any extra-local authority. Of course, there…
Last week, we looked at the three structural models for today’s church, which unconsciously functions in society today as if it were a type of business—a ”sole proprietorship” (episcopal), “stockholder-officer” (presbyterian), or “partnership” (congregational). Are any of them what the Bible teaches they should be? A common thread runs through each of these models (thus throughout all of American churches today), and that is the concept of the PROFESSIONAL CLERGY–men who are “called to the ministry.” It is considered normal for all to see…