big cliams to my shame

this is what happens everytime! no sooner do i claim that i will be keeping up my blog at least weekly, that i get busy and totally slack off on it. the funny thing is, in one of my morning readings last week there was a warning about making oaths in our own strength that we can not keep. now this has a larger impact on me then just a blog. but it also made me think of my blog. i think things like this happen so God can remind us that if we try and do any thing in our own power, we are done for. as i am listening to this months free audio book from Christian audio (R.A. Torrey's, how to pray) i am starting to realize how important it is to involve God in everything we do. even the little things we think we can handle on our own (like writing a little blog post) should be done with God through prayer. i know that if i where to take the time to stop and seek God before making decisions, they would be better made. and not just to my benefit but to the benefit of Gods glory as well. if we are to do all things to Gods glory what better way then to seek him in everything we do and then Give him the glory for it. in the purpose driven life there is a sentence that cuts pretty deep, it goes something like this. all of Gods creation shows forth his glory, and there are only two things in all of it that fail to fulfill their purpose in doing so. fallen angels and people. we fail at this everyday. i think that through prayer we can start to repair our broken ways of doing life.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"i am still discovering right up to this moment that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. by this worldliness i mean living unreservedly in life's duty's, problems, successs, and failures. in so doing we throw our selves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously not our own sufferings but those of God in the world. that i think is faith."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer 6/21/1944 written the day after his plot to assassinate Hitler failed.

How a person can change his direction

A man must first come to the place in his life where he needs a change. Albeit, we can hardly imagine a life that would not need a change at some point. Life is often seen as a series of changes. As we move through life we often open our eyes look around and ask, where on earth am I and how did I end up here? Often it’s these times that a change is needed in our direction.

The next thing that a man must do is to come to some decision about where he is and where he would like to be. Just as a man can not change without seeing the need, he will not end up in a desirable place with out some proper brain storming. Some things to consider would be what is wrong with the current direction? What is it that you need to change in your life and why do you wish to change it? A clear concise look at your spiritual beliefs will help to point you in the right direction.

A mans beliefs can play a very large role in where he is headed in life. The only problem with this is that we as people have such a wide range of beliefs. It is my conviction that with out God, a change in direction will never be realized. Yes it is true that even non believers change their directions from time to time. I would argue that this is the

Common grace of God assisting them with out their knowledge. The best thing that we can do to insure that we are successful in this change is to make it a change toward God and his will. Because man is free in the sense that we can make decisions and choices. We are free to make the wrong ones (and often do). The only way we can set a new direction in life with the assurance that this is the right way, is through God.

He will need to pray. Prayer is the one way man can speak to God and set forth his desire for change. If this is a pure desire with pure motives you can start by thanking God. For this desire surly was not born of your own heart. The bible tells us that “the heart of man is deceitfully wicked; who can know it”. This man should then follow his thanksgiving in supplications for Grace and mercy in his life, that he may at length change his direction.

The final ingredient to a proper change in direction is the word of God. Just as with out God we can not change at all, with out his word any change in life will be fruitless. God sets forth in the bible everything we need in order to live out the rest of our days on a path that leads directly to him.

a day in the life of a trader and thief

Luke 6:13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;

Luke 6:14 Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,

Luke 6:15 Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,

Luke 6:16 And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.

Luke 6:17 And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;

Luke 6:18 And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.

Luke 6:19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.

Here we see Jesus ordaining his twelve, Judas in the mix. I wonder as he stood there watching this man to whom the whole world was flocking to, as he heals entire crowds of the sick and lame. Did he know at this time that he had it in him to do what he would come to do? Or was he just like John as he stood amazed by Christ? Standing there thinking I will follow this man where ever he will go! To jail, to the grave, no matter, I will go with him. It’s fair to assume that (and I am), because I would have been saying that if I where there. But! Knowing my self I do not think my self to be any better then he(at this point). My heart is just as wicked and deceitful as his and yours! It would be very easy for me to pass judgment on this man at this point and say he was evil from the start and hopeless to boot. But I will not say that, I think he was not hopeless. He left himself open and invited Satan in. he played a dangerous game with sin and lost. We all do from time to time. No I do not think he was hopeless. Think on this with me for a moment. This man was bad and open to evil there is no doubt about that. But he also knew that what he did was wrong. It took Satan entering into him to make him do what he did and he hung himself after, And why? All of the leaders of the day where dead set against Jesus, this might have been a very good opportunity for him to get in good with them and set himself up for a life of ease. But he does it for 30 pieces of silver that he gives back right before hanging himself. If he where just purely evil and all bad I can not see this being the course of action he would have pursued. Greed had the upper hand in his life time and time again. We all have sins that we seem to be powerless against. I must say that is because we are. The more we fight them the more we lose to them. It is not until we stop fighting and making empty promises of life with out sin that we start to win. It is when we give up totally and let Jesus take over that we finally do win. Until that day we are all like Judas. Slaves to the things that will one day kill us, when what we really need is to be slaves to the one who will heal us. Well enough speculation lets look at the man.

He saw Jesus heal in Luke 6:13-19 the whole multitude. This was just the start of what would be a very active three and a half year ministry of preaching, teaching, and miracles. Judas would have also seen these events in Matthew 12:15 and 15:20 that are very much like the one in Luke.

Mat 12:15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all;

Mat 15:30 And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:

He would have been there when Jesus raised the widow’s son from the dead, when he raised Jairus’ daughter who had just died or when he brought back Lazarus from the dead after four days. All of these things Judas would have been an eye witness to. This gave him a profound advantage to all of us. He saw and did not believe – how blessed are they who believe yet have not seen. It’s not as if there where no signs to his lack of self control. In John 12 we get a peek into what was going on inside this mans head. We see greed, we see self serving, we see a man open to the opportunity to score some extra scratch, but not open to the worship of the God.

John 12:4 then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,

John 12:5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?

John 12:6 this he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

John 12:7 then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.

John 12:8 For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

This maybe the one passage that can help us understand this man. “He was a thief” is the testimony given by the Holy Ghost. His heart was not on God but himself and his bank account. OH how we must take heed here. Do we really think that if we do not feel any different then he does? When given the chance to glorify God or make a buck he picks the money. Surly he thought “I can always fit in that worship later after I get this money”. Do we think we are really so much better then he in this point! Do not get me wrong im not saying you or I would ever do what this man did.... but it is not out of our reach!!! It is not beyond us, we are capable of it.

From here on out it’s all down hill for Judas. John 13:2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. And then, Luke 22:3 then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. After which Mat 26:14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, he goes to the priests and sells them the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver. He then takes the guard to Jesus in the place he goes to pray. Notice that he knew where to find him, (in prayer) he betrays the lamb of God with a kiss to show friendship. This was the all time most despicable act. He turned his back on the one who loved and gave to all of the downcast of man kind. It’s hard to imagine. Shortly after this he returns the money but they will not take back what he has done. When he sees that Jesus is condemned, he walks out of the city and hangs himself.

I started this entry by trying to see the humanity of Judas. By trying to show that though it is known as being the worst of all evils ever committed, this was a man. And like all other men who leave them selves open to sin he is over come by it and it takes him to places he more then likely never wanted to go. It will always have that effect on us. Jesus offers to take that burden for you. To lift it off and set you free to be his and he takes you places you can not imagine.

letting go of God

Today I listened to the story of a woman named Julia Sweeney. She just put out a book called letting go of God. This was her story of how a “happy catholic” (as she puts it) turns to atheism after a failed attempt to read and understand the bible.

The story starts out with some young Mormons coming to her door and sparking an interest in God that had gone out some years ago. She in turn goes looking for a church and settles on a catholic church about ten miles away and starts to attend mass every Sunday. Things are going well so far. Then she sees an advertisement for a bible study class and signs up. Immediately from this point on her story begins to become very hard for me to listen to. She starts to misquote scripture after scripture. She one hundred percent misunderstands everything. She misquotes, misunderstands, and misrepresents the bible from this point on. Everything from “what kind of God asks a person to kill their only son?” and things about Jesus like, “I always thought Jesus was kind but come to find out he is really very angry most the time”. She goes on about Jesus to say, “the new testament also says that our peaceful Jesus did not come to bring peace but a sword” and “sell all you have and go buy swords” and “that if some one does not follow me bring him to me and I will slay him” I can not even find that last one in scripture anywhere!! I think she just threw it in to complete the task of making the Saviour into a terrorist. The point is she removes all of the real verses from there context. Verse after verse pulled from the chapters and books to which they belong. much after the style of modern day cult movements who need secondary literature to explain the verses they rip from the bible. The very sad truth is that there is going to be a lot of seekers who will pick this book up because of the title and will go away from the thing completely disillusioned. They will have a false idea about who God is, who Jesus is, and what the bible says. It’s very very sad to me.

Her story is also very tragic, and very disheartening. I felt so bad for this woman who really thought she was seeking when in reality the only thing she was looking for was a way out of there. Maybe to ease her conscience or to just make life easier for her, I really do not know why she was so closed and blind. But I do know that her heart and mind where shut tight from the first page of the book.

I went onto I tunes and gave my impressions of her work, below is a copy of my comments.

I am very sure I could go through her book and remove statements from their context making Julia sound anyway I please. This is what she has done to the bible. Even someone with little knowledge of biblical exegeses knows that the 144000 are in heaven but not the only ones who will go to heaven (just one small example of how she intentionally tries to discredit the bible by making it sound crazy). She either misunderstands almost every text she talks about, or is on a mission to lead people astray by purposefully misrepresenting the text. No matter what her goals maybe in doing this it’s a false representation of biblical text and therefore totally discredits her book. I would also like to add that I found her story to be very sad, she never seemed to look for the positive in her journey. Instead she seemed to be on a mission to find something wrong. I do not like to speculate but I will, I have a feeling she wanted to prove to her self that there was nothing out there and that’s not hard to do…. U just close your eyes!

time to relax

so, here we are the last day of 2007. i feel somewhat guilty because i have not taken anytime to write a blog in so long. not that i think i have all that many readers or anything but this blog was created mostly for me to give me an outlet for the thoughts and studies that i do on God and theology. although i do know there are a few of you who do read this blog and so i am sorry i have been so lazy. i would like to make a commitment to blog something everyday in the new year but i think that i would only be forcing myself to write stuff that might not be very well thought out. so, i will commit to no less then one blog a week in the new year. i will however shoot for more. there are way to many benefits in blogging for me to just let it slip off into the "things to do" list of life. so with all that said, i am still going to take the next day or two that i have off work to relax. should i get around to doing a blog i will post it, but more then likely it will be after the new year. which is like a day away! lol! hope ya all enjoy it and stay safe, lots of crazys out there. till 2008 then, may he bless you

Question: Who is Judas Iscariot?

His name:

Judas – the name Judas means “he shall be praised” and comes from Jacobs forth son, Also known as Judah, and Jude.

Though this is a man’s name it was past on with his descendants and eventually became the tribe of Judah and then the Nation.

Iscariot – his last name means “men of Kerioth”. Kerioth being a city of Moab (just a quick side note that I had read that there is a city in Judah named Kerioth as well, but I could not find this in the bible). Is and always has been a thorn in Israel’s side. The name means “of the mother’s father” the people are the descendants of the incestuous son of Lot.

Amos 2:1 “Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime: 2:2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet”:

1. Could Judas be from this line and still be a jew?

2. Is the name proof he was an enemy of Israel from the start?

3. could this be a loose interpretation of his name (he shall be praised by the men of Kerioth)

4. What does all this mean?

The son of perdition:

The Lord refers to Judas as the son of perdition, John 17:12 “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled”. The bible goes on to talk about the end of times and what shall take place in those days, 2Th 2:3 “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition”.

Here the son of perdition is also called that man of sin. In the end times scenario the man of sin has another name, the Antichrist! In Rev 17:8 we see the beast (antichrist) will go into perdition. Rev 17:8 “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is”.

Notice also that it calls the beast he that was, and is not and yet is. Judas was (in the days of our Lord’s ministry), he is not (now), and yet is (if he returns and antichrist).

Jesus called him the son of perdition as we read in John 17, we also read that the beast would go into perdition. Now does the bible ever say Judas would go into perdition? No, it does not ever say that. But! The apostles do make a statement that is worth a look. In Acts1:25. “That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place”.

So now we know he was called this by the Lord Jesus him self. We also know the beast or antichrist is called by the same name. we see that the antichrist was, is not, yet is. We know the antichrist will go into perdition, and now we see Judas when he died went into his own place. I think now we should at least be able to see some possibilities. I am in no way saying he is the antichrist, only that there are some verses here that might need farther investigation.

One last note on this point…. When at the last supper Jesus said something like, he it is who will betray me whom after I have dipped the sop will eat of it. Sop… s.o.p, son of perdition!! Hmm?

For my next study I will look at his life as an apostle. I will look at what he saw day to day. See how he lived when under Jesus’ ministry. And muse the question, how can someone so close to life….die so badly