Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Stretch out the fabric of Space and Time

I am 12 miles north of the White house. All power was out through 7 pm Tuesday: sorry for the delay.

Monday, July 26, 2010: Isaiah 42:5-7

Thus says God the Lord,

Who created the heavens and stretched them out,

Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,

Who gives breath to the people on it,

And spirit to those who walk on it:

“I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness,

And will hold Your hand;

I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,

As a light to the Gentiles,

To open blind eyes,

To bring out prisoners from the prison,

Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

What words are used for God’s creation of heaven and earth? Stretched and spread, respectively.

What are the prison house’s characteristics? Darkness of the spiritual kind; inaction is implied in sitting.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010: Isaiah 61:1-2a

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,

Because the Lord has anointed Me

To preach good tidings to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives,

And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord

What are the prison’s characteristics in this passage? Being bound as opposed to setting at liberty.

Is the passage prophetic? Yes, it was used by Jesus Christ who added that it was fulfilled by Him.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010: Isaiah 47:10

“For you have trusted in your wickedness;

You have said, ‘No one sees me’;

Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you;

And you have said in your heart,

‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

What is at the heart of those who are in spiritual prison, bound and blind? The sense of I only know what is going on in me.

Thursday, July 29, 2010: Isaiah 48:12b-13a

I am He, I am the First,

I am also the Last.

Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,

And My right hand has stretched out the heavens

What words are used here for God’s creation of heaven and earth? Stretched and spread, respectively.

What are the prison house’s characteristics? Darkness of the spiritual kind; inaction is implied in sitting.

Friday, July 30, 2010: Isaiah 34:4

All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,

And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll

What words are used for God’s destruction of the stars of heaven and heaven itself? Dissolved and rolled up, respectively.

What occurs after this? There is no ‘after this’: eternity is independent of time or space!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Grudge Match

Monday July 19, 2010: James 4:1–3 (NKJV)

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Background: The root Greek word translated as fight or quarrel is ‘match’!

What irony creates fights or quarrels? Fights or quarrels start with a desire for personal pleasure.

Tuesday July 20, 2010: Titus 3:9 (NKJV)

But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless.

Why are we admonished to avoid arguing (about law)? There’s no conclusion, profit or use. Both sides end up saying, “I’m right, you’re wrong!”

Wednesday July 21, 2010: Titus 3:10 –Titus 3:11 (NKJV)

Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

What does ‘divisive’ mean? The Greek root word is ‘heretic’, a person who creates division. A divisive person gets others to choose sides. “Whose side are you on: mine or his?”

Thursday July 22, 2010: 2 Timothy 2:23 (NKJV)

But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.

Why avoid foolish and ignorant disputes when our input is wise and erudite? Joining a dispute is like pouring lighter fluid on an ember: it ignites that which was just smoldering. Extinguish the cinder.

Friday July 23, 2010: 2 Timothy 2:24–26 (NKJV)

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

So you say you serve the Lord! How strong are the words ‘must not’ that precede quarrel? In Greek, they begin the sentence. They are literally translated ‘It is a necessity that the servant of the Lord not quarrel’. Where do you stand on this? Do you get into many ‘grudge matches’?

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Thought

Sorry about the delay: my vacation was wonderful!
Monday July 12, 2010: Luke 9:46–48 (New King James Version)
Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him, and said to them, “Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all will be great.”
Is this passage speaking about the way of salvation? The least shall be great. The Preexistent One would die. Christ spoke about what He was going to do in obedience to the Father. Simply receiving this is salvation.
Tuesday July 13, 2010: Mark 14:72 (NKJV)
A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And when he thought about it, he wept.
Why did Peter weep? Peter’s thoughts went back to Jesus Christ’s prophecy of Peter’s future denials. Peter reasoned that if Christ could foretell what a fowl would do after Peter’s renunciations, he realized Christ’s love for him in spite of his perfidity: he wept. (Arguable)
Wednesday July 14, 2010: Acts 8:20–22 (NKJV)
But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
What was the gift of God? The Holy Spirit and His gifts to men; no price can be put on this gift. It is priceless, yet free.
Thursday July 15, 2010: 1 Corinthians 13:9–11 (NKJV)
For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Do we still keep childish thoughts like ‘I can understand all things in the strength of my own reasoning? We all do to some extent or another. The Bible shows us that His thoughts are infinitely above ours.
Friday July 16, 2010: 2 Corinthians 10:4–5 (NKJV)
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ
What weapons do we use in the warfare on our mind? God supplies our minds with the right weapons as we read His word. They are sufficient to bring down arguments that seem stronger than reason.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Prodigal, Dissipation and Salvation

Monday, July 5, 2010: 1 Peter 4:3–4 (New King James Version)

For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

Why would your former friends speak evil of you? They do because you’re not like them anymore, and it bothers them.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010: Ephesians 5:18–21 (NKJV)

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Why is drunkenness associated with dissipation? Drink dulls the prick of conscience and sense. The opposite is true enjoyment, thankfulness and submission.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010: Titus 1:5–6 (NKJV)

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you— if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination.

What is the implication of children who are non-dissipative? These children have seen and have voluntarily copied what their parents said and did.

Thursday, July 8, 2010: Luke 15:11–13 (NKJV)

Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

In the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son, what does prodigal mean? Prodigal is a synonym of dissipation in an adverbial form.

Friday, July 9, 2010: Luke 15:28, 31–32 (NKJV)

“But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.

“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

Why is ‘death’ linked to the prodigal and ‘found’ to the returning son? Biblically, death is separation from God; found is the antonym of dissipation or prodigal (which is ‘without saving’ in Greek). Its antonym is salvation or being revived.