Double Sided Coin (Part 1)

“re·li·gion [ri-lij-uh

noun
1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.
3. the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: a world council of religions.
4. the life or state of a monk, nun, etc.: to enter religion.
5. the practice of religious beliefs; ritual observance of faith.” (religion)

There are few words in our culture that invoke as much emotion and opinions as the word religion, there are people who want to destroy it, save it, repair it, and ignore it. I think that very few people really stop to think about what religion really means and how our beliefs do and should impact our lives.
The definition above is taken from Dictionary.com and the third definition made an impact on me when I read it, “the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices”. It seems to me that Dictionary.com hit on something that a lot of Christians miss, a Christ follower, in order to fully experience a life in Christ, should be able to engage in a community of people who also profess to follow Christ.
That is obviously a academic and sterile definition, I prefer the one that Paul gives the church in Ephesians

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. (Ephesians 4:1-7 ESV)

The whole book of Ephesians is a great example of how and why we need to be in a community of God because it is one of a small number of books that is written to a community rather then an individual but this verse sums it up really well for me. We were all brought to God through Christ at the leading of the Holy Spirit (see Ephesians 2) and it is that reason that we need to “bear with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.
I am further struck by Paul’s use of words is unique, we are to eagerly maintain the unity that we have with our spiritual cohorts. We aren’t just suppose to engage in a community but find one that we like to be apart of, one that we look forward to going to and being a part of. These types of community are much easier to engage in because they spring up organically from our relationships and our much more impactful because they have an effect through out our lives.
I don’t think that these communities have to take on the form of a traditional church, that would be a very narrow definition of community, but rather a group of people who regularly encourage you and whom you encourage (I don’t know if that was the proper use of who and whom). After all the apostles where just a bunch of bros hanging out together in the desert.

Work Cited
"religion." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 29 Aug. 2011. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion>.
"Ephesians 4:1-7." BibleGateway.com. Web. 29 Aug. 2011. .

Image from  Benjamin Miller <http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/8911>

Rejoice with those who rejoice

Romans 12:15 "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." Some of the more iconic words spoken in the bible, right up there with John 3:16 and "Jesus wept". I have heard those words used in many sermons in my life to encourage people to get down, no matter how good there life is going, and mourn with people who have lost.

In the last few days I have come to see that first part of the verse in a new light, or maybe a better way to put it is a refreshed light. Five simple words, Rejoice with those who rejoice, that can be very hard, and at time impossible, for us to put into practice. What does it mean to live everyday, not just, mourning with those who mourn but also rejoicing with them as well?

I think that on the big stuff we have it down, birthdays, anniversaries, newly born babies, but on the little stuff I think that we have fallen short of where we should be. Psalm 116:12 says "What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits toward me?" if we only look at the big stuff in our lives and say that is what the Lord has given me then we are missing half the picture.

An example of this happened to me today. I had to get my emissions test done for my car today, now my car is a 1992 Saturn two door SC with 180,000 miles on it, now let me tell you what I have to do to start the car. Because the alternator on the car is dieing on the car it is sort of a crap shot if it will actually start when I put the key in, so when I do need to drive it I take it out of gear, turn the radio off, turn the fan off, then I proceed to turn the key on and off as rapidly as I can in the hopes that eventually the engine will turn over. Also if you didn't know one of the top rules at the emissions place is that a car has to enter under it's own power. All of this I knew but my definition of entering and their definition of entering are two different things, so as I pulled into the building and was asked to turn of the car my heart stopped. As the man was walking around the car, checking under the hood, and making sure that the gas cap didn't leak all I was thinking was "God please let the car start. Please, oh please, oh please." And as I went to start the car it fired right up on the first try.

Now I am not saying that this was a miracle, I wouldn't diminish the word miracle like that, But I would say it was one of many everyday things that we don't rejoice enough over. Bad news will travel from state to state, even jumping oceans sometimes but it is hard to hear about good news within your own group of friends, and that is a shame. It is something that I am endeavoring to get better at and I hope that others will join me in doing the same.

The Void made by Family

Ruth's sister and grandma have been it town for the past week, It has been a lot of fun to have them here. While they were I started to think about Family and what the role of the family is, both now and back in the first century. I personally think that the community is vital to the Christian life and I have the tendency to place it as the most important to Christian life, but no matter what I think about community I know that family is the most defining of all groups that a person will ever be in, even if the family group is non-existent it will still effect someone very deeply.

In the Old Testament the family was huge, ever week you had a whole day where you wouldn't be able to do anything except hang out at home with, guess who, your family. This was also a culture in which most people lived and died within 10 to 20 miles of where they were born, in the case of women many times they would never move out of their fathers house. In this environment Family was top dog, you had to be close to your family because there was no way to get away from them. Not only did you have to like your family, but at first glance there was a huge amount of pressure for the parents of the family to live right and set good examples for there children.

Moving into the New Testament there seems to be change in thinking, from the family driven society to a community driven society. With this change we call other Christian brother and sister, we think of God as are father, there is less of a family focus and more of a community focus. With trade routes becoming easier to travel and the access to ships becoming more common place you find people going to more distant places and stating for long periods of time. Even in this new mind set, however, the Bible still places a huge emphasis on the family which can be seen in places like Ephesians 5 and 6, the Bible says to judge potential elders and deacons of the church by how good of a family they have.

All of this leading us down to today is the 21st century and what is the role that family is taking today. In today's culture family seems to have taken a back seat, and there are many things that you can point at as being the cause of that, myspace, facebook, everyone in a house have there own computer/tv/cell phone. But I know a lot of people who have that and there families are very strong, so that leads me to believe that, while the things listed above might not help the situation, the big problem is complacent leadership in the family. Parents have stopped making defining memories for their kids, traditions that can be passed down from generation to generation. Now the traditions that I see being passed down are giving up, running a way. I don't see how people can look at families in this society and say that on the whole we are doing a good raising the next generation, the divorce rate is higher then 50% and rising every year, even in houses that might have both parents still together there is no unity or "togetherness".

None of this is to say that communities that have been created in the void made by family are bad, if fact I love them, but I do think that there is a point at which we have to stop and look around us and say 'we need to figure out where we came from'. Learning from our parents and grandparents mistakes is what keeps us from repeating them, learning from our family is also what ultimatly guides us in are communities and, in the end, helps us to guide our families.

Life Focus

In the past few weeks I have been talking a lot about the theological side of God. The sides that have caused a lot of controversy in peoples Christan walk, the side that no matter how hard people try they can't figure out. In past weeks I haven't really spoken about much else. I don't mind this, I rather enjoy it. It can provide a great challenge and can teach you a lot, in fact I think that people should try to develop more of a skill in seeking God I a scholastic manner. But with one matter in particular I was completely taken aback. I recently watched a movie called "Jesus Camp" (a movie that Chris also posted on), in the movie it talks a lot about becoming solders for Christ.

The movie follows a youth worker as she leads a small pentecostal camp in which she encourages the kids who come to become on fire for God. I will not say that everything in the movie was bad, but I wouldn't suggest anyone watching this movie unless they are very confident in their knowledge of the Bible. The theological miss leadings are weaved through out the movie, from speaking in tongues with out a translator, blinded spiritual warfare, declaring battle against culture, etc.

This movie is one that I didn't know what to do with. It is one of the few times that I was speechless. But as I was laying here tonight and was thinking about the movie and the type of people that would be watching this movie and the people who were in it, and I started to think that none of this was what Jesus was about. Jesus didn't come and declare a war against the world, He came a declared peace on the world. When He could have called down thousands of angles to save Himself from death he held back and instead healed those who where taking Him away to be put to death. God is not the ultimate warrior, He was the ultimate wooer. He lived His life as a slave and a savior.

Jesus lived going against the normal flow of the world, when people are doing and saying the things that these people where doing and saying they are not going against the world they are doing the very things that the world would do in their position, whether or not they were with God or with out God. People who go on about declaring war against the world are themselves trying to cut themselves off from the world. But Jesus says that He came to bring a sword, to set mother against daughter, father against son, we don't have to do what Jesus has already done, we don't even have to finish it, Jesus did all of that for us and what He didn't do two thousand years ago He is doing now. We aren't here to do Jesus' job for Him, we are here to show that world God's love and His peace and we aren't going to do a good job of that as long as we go around telling everyone that we are going to engage them in battle. This is not God's plan or will.

I think that the movement of Christianity that is shown in this movie is one that has been around for a long time and will be here for a long time, I also think as long as we have it we will have to deal with a way of thinking that is counter intuitive to God's plan. Like I said before I wouldn't suggest this movie, but if you are going to watch, do it in a group. I am making it sound like it is a scary movie but it isn't, it just has some elements in it that can be like a cancer if you let it work its way into your mind.

The Complete Man

So in the past few weeks I have been feeling incomplete in many areas of my life. I have felt that things were missing, something I could change and others I could not. In going through feeling this way I was also going through the Bible to see if/what it has to say on the matter. In going through the Bible and thinking back on the last few years I came to realize very quickly that, for me, there are a few things lacking in my life. The areas as I see them are Body, soul and mind.


I went very quickly from being able to provide for all of those adequately to not be able to provide for some areas, over providing in other areas and ignoring all together. But in the past few days I have tried to do what I can and I can really say that trying to fulfill some of these areas has helped me a lot, I only hope it can help someone else.

Scripture Used:
Matthew
11:28-30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

22:37-40 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

28:18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, " All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Mark
12:29-31 Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' "The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Acts
2:46-47 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

16:1-3 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, 2 and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

17:16-21 Paul at Athens
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"--because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? "For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean." (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

Romans
15:15-16 But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians
14:24-25 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

1 Timothy
5:23 No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
NASU

I found this in my computer as I was looking for material to teach with and thought that it was interesting. Last year I took a class on world views in which we read a book called “The Universe Next Door”. As we were going through that book I took the questions and tried to answer them based on my world view.

1. What is prime reality-the really real? God exists and created the world. He is omniscient, omnipresent, and ultimately personal longing for a relationship with you.

2. What is the nature of external reality, that is the world around us? Man sinned and broke the relationship with God. So God had to send His one and only son to save man from eternal damn-nation if a person decides to have a personal relationship. Jesus is the only way to God but the way that Jesus gets you to God may look very different from what someone else's spiritual life looks like, no two faith's look alike.

3. What is a human being? A human being is created to serve and glorify God, by doing His will which is communicated through the Holy Spirit.

4. What happens to a person at death? A person at death goes one of two places. A person goes to heaven if they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If a person does not have that relationship he can only go to hell.

5. Why is it possible to know anything at all? God created man back in the garden of Eden where He breathed His life into humans and in doing that imparted characteristics of Himself into us, including reason and logic.

6. How do we know what is right and wrong? God gave us a plumb line with the Bible, which is the start of all morals. Any person who relays on himself to come up with his own morals will come up short and his morals will be based more on the situation that he is facing at that moment more then on any firm foundation.

7. What is the meaning of human history? To show us were we came from, how we got here, and to lead us in an deeper understanding of God through the Bible and human recorded history

Community

Community is a vital part of any Christians walk. We are not commanded to go to church but we are called to be in a community, it is that singular act that can stretch, grow and challenge us the most. Community is a word that is thrown around a lot (especially in Christian “communities”) but when it comes to asking the questions what is community, what is it suppose to do and others it can get a little difficult to explain and define.

The American heritage dictionary describes it as “a social group or class having a common interest” and in essence that isn't far of. When you break down the word “community” it breaks down to “common” and “unity” meaning it comes out of unity from a common goal, task, interest, person, etc. so then the question becomes less what is community but more what is unity. we are called to have common unity with people but what does that mean?

Unity at it's simplest is being single minded, the book of Acts uses “in one accord” (Acts 4:24, 5:12, 8:6, 12:20, 18:12, 19:29). The word that is translated as “in one accord” is homothumadon meaning to be “one mind, the same as” and has a idea that we be unified with each other. In Ephesians we are told that because there is one body, one spirit we are to be unified with one another (4:1-13).

But then the question comes up with all the people at church's how are we to be unified with all of them? I don't even like half of them! The answer to that question is that you don't. We aren't called to like people only to love them, and there is a difference between the two. If we like someone we will go out of our way to be with them, we will want to hang out with them but if we love someone we will look at for their best interest, we don't have to like them for that to take place. Now it is easier to like someone you love but you don't have to, I'm sure that Jesus didn't like the Pharisees (being the ones that had Him killed) but He did love them and look out for their best interest, you can see that in His ministry going first to the Jews and the Pharisees first before the gentile.

So the next question would be if we are to be unified then what are we to be unified through? The answer is very churchly but it is also timeless. The answer would Christ, Christ is called the great unifier for this reason, He is the one that we are to unite over. There are people how I really don't like here at school but we are able to hang out and be amicable because we all have the Holy Spirit living and working through us and when we aren't living according to the Spirit and His will then you can tell because our relationships will be hurting. We are told in Ephesians 4:3 that we are preserve that unity that comes from the Spirit.

There is one picture of unity that I heard from one of my teachers that he took from the show survivor, in which there are two teams running a race but the twist is that all team members are tied together with a rope and are have to run this race together. At the beginning of the race both teams were doing well but towards that end there were people who started to trip on both sides and when somebody would trip the team would pick them up and start to encourage them, saying things like “you can do this, we are almost there”. Then coming into the finish the team that was in 2^nd was gaining on the team in 1^st just as they were crossing the finish line. Most people would look at that and say it true unity, everyone working together to achieve a common goal. The only problem with this is that the race was an immunity race so when it came time for the losing team to vote someone off the person that they chose the person that held them back. Now most people would have held that up as unity but in reality it was an external unity that was selfish in nature, but the kind of unity that we are called into is an internal unity. We are called to to be tied not to each other but all of us are called to be tied to Christ and let Him lead us (Ephesians 4:15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ).

Scripture used:

Ephesians 4:1-16 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says,

"WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH,

HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES,

AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN."

9(Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

NASU

Mentoring

In resent days Mentoring has come up in my conversations many times. In my classes at Ravencrest I am being made to get a mentor to interact with. The thing that really got me thinking about mentoring (more specifically what mentoring is) is Chris' blog (www.ChrisWarren.org) and his post asking what community is. As I was reading and started to think about it some of the conversation about Mentoring came to my mind. As I thought about the subject there were a few things came to mind.

If you take the word at it's original meaning a mentor would come along side a person for an extended period of time (usually years) and would observe and try to impact every part of a persons development. Even Jesus picked out a small group of 12 people to mentor, out of those 12 He picked 3 to primarily focus on (Peter, James and John), Later Paul would become the mentor of Timothy to the point of calling himself Timothy's spiritual father. In his letter the Romans Paul says that he “longs to see in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you” (Romans 1:11-12a).

All of that is good but if you don't have the time to be mentored long term or to mentor a person long term this could make you feel like you aren't going to be used in someone’s life to help grow them, that if someone moves around a lot or they have a job that would only let them meet with someone a few times a year that they can't be used By God. The truth is that you can be used in a very short time. I heard a joke in the past week were a man gets to talk with God, so the man asks God could you explain time to me? So God tell the man that 1,000,000 years is like 1 second and 1 second is like 1,000,000 years. Then the man asks could you explain what money is like to you? So God says 1 penny is like 1,000,000 dollars and 1,000,000 dollars is like 1 penny. So the man then asks can I have 1 of your pennies? God says sure, in 1 second. The same principle would apply to mentoring, it may seem like a short time to you (and a longer relationship is ideal) God can use anytime you can give. This is after all the God who destroyed the temple in 3 days which took man years to build.

Paul says in Romans one of the reasons that he wants to come to them is so that he may, through mentoring them, may be encouraged himself. Mentoring is not only for the benefit of the mentee but also for the encouragement and growth of the mentor. Mentoring can be very challenging to the mentor because in seeing someone else's struggles you can often see what areas of your life you struggle with (whether you want to or not). In those times it is important to have someone who you can go to and talk to so you can work through those problems in your life.

Once you find a struggle or problem in your own life one thought that will come up is how you can mentor someone when you have your own inadequacies and failures, but God can work in your failures and mine. It says in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 “Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong”. The Bible tells us in this and other passages that in our weakness God is strong because for most of us it is only in those that we truly rely on God, which is the most important thing when it comes to mentoring.

The last thing in this post is some more practical things on mentoring. A vary critical part in the mentor mentee relationship is honesty on both parts. Honesty, however, should start with the mentor, If he or she can't be honest they can't expect the mentee to be honest either. Another thing that is helpful is to a have a direction in the relationship, to have a focus, not just coming together to hang out but to clearly define the relationship as a mentoring relationship otherwise that mentoring relationship can fall apart through the course of time the relationship can fall away never to get back to what it could have been. A third thing that can help in mentoring someone is being mentored yourself. It is helpful in those times that you find that you have things to work on and when you face a problem that you don't know how to handle, even Jesus turned to the Father for help when He was down (Matthew 26:39)

The relationship that can be built by a mentoring relationship can be one that lasts for a vary long time and have lasting affects

Scripture used:

Romans 1:9-12 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.

2 Co 12:7-10 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong .

Matthew 26:36-46 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 " Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 "Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!"

NASU

The End of the Apocalypse

This blog was written on my computer (as are most of my posts) at an earlier date

So tonight I went to a small group that I go to when I am in Tucson and we talked about hurricane Katrina, and the conversation was good. We had great back and fourth about what people were feeling about the events and everything that took place afterwards. In this group it was really great to see these students relate to one another and lift each other up.

In the conversation we started to talk about the apocalypse and how it was coming soon. Now it doesn't matter where you land on the whole pre-trib post-trib debate one thing that has always been is that people think that they are in the end times. People look at famines, earth quakes, killing, crime one of the biggest is Jerusalem being under attack and the middle east being unstable.

The things that no one ever looks at or says is there have always been famines, earthquakes, killing and crime ,this is nothing new. The thing is that we in America have been in relative safety and have enjoyed about 200 years of a morality that the rest of the world hasn't but now as America gets older those morals are going out the window and things are getting worse. The world isn't any better or worse we are just catching up.

As for Jerusalem and the middle east. The middle east has always been unstable with all the people and empires coming in and out of power, the only time that it came close was when David was king over Israel. As for Jerusalem, Israel is one of the most fought over peaces of land in the world. Over 100 wars have been fought over that one peace of land, more then any other country in the world.

Only God knows when the tribulation will be. So if you want to try to find out when it will be go for it (it can be a fun thing to think about) just know that you may theorize but people have theorizing for thousands of years and we are only one day closer then yesterday.

In Christ
PJ