Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2019

Complacent Christianity (Poem)

The Wondrous One

In a dirty cattle trough lay the desire of nations (Haggai 2:7) Born in a lowly town, surrounded by livestock(Micah 5:2) Such an entrance would seem rooted in utter humiliation. Yet, this glorious scene invokes worldwide wonder! To announce the coming of the King of Kings, Angels would sing to common shepherds. Prophets questioned and angel's marveled, but none could comprehend (1 Peter 1:12) That the simplicity, the sorrow, the promise of suffering, and death Would somehow be part of the splendor of God's loving plan. So that mankind, filled with darkness and decay, Would soon be filled with holy light and experience spiritual victory.

Timeout on Tech

The Command Module designed for NASA, during 1969, was basically a large computer that boasted a whopping 64Kbyte of memory and operated at 0.043MHz. Another computer used during that time was made by IBM and cost over 3 million dollars. It was the size of a typical Ford sedan. One would assume that given the size of such devices and the fact that they were used for space travel that they would be pretty powerful, but today's cheap smartphone holds much more information than any computer made in that time period. Your average cell phone is also over a million times faster. Indeed, because of technology, it truly has become a small world. By the click of a button, a person can have a video conversation with another who could be clear across the globe. Everyone appears to be connected and now unfathomable information is within almost instantaneous reach to anyone with the capabilities of getting online. With notifications sent directly to one's phone, computer, or tablet; he

The Devil Wears a Tie (Continued)

The first time I heard about Adam and Eve in children's Sunday school, I remember thinking that the devil was right when he told Eve that she was not going to die, because once she ate of the fruit, she still lived. Obviously, to a child it is unfathomable to think that there could be another kind of death besides the one where your heart stops beating. The reality is that, at the very moment Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, they both died spiritually and a dimension of suffering and hardship was introduced into creation. It was far worse than physical death, for spiritual death separates one from the holy presence of God. It bends our hearts towards unspeakable evil and makes us hopelessly inadequate for righteous attainment (Jeremiah 17:9, Isaiah 64:6). Now, I want to soon deal with the subject of Adam and Eve's initial responses concerning The Fall , but until then let's focus on the implications of Genesis 3:6, which reads,  “And when the woman saw that the tree

The Devil Wears a Tie (Continued)

Of all the ways the devil will tempt a person, catering to one's vanity is his favorite means to get them to fall. After all, before the inception of time, he also succumbed to pride. He believed he had an inward right to the heavenly throne, and through promulgating the potential of self exaltation to other angelic beings, he led a massive insurrection against the Almighty. There was absolutely no chance of a “successful rebellion”, but reason often dissipates when one is steeped in prideful bitterness. Simply put, the devil began to hate God, for being, God. This attitude of entitlement parades itself in every heart. We may be able to mask it for a while, but given enough hardships and displeasure, we often become the corrupted clay, vilifying the ways of God and distrusting the commands of His word (Isaiah 29:16). The apostle Paul's warning to believers at Ephesus was,  “Don't give the devil any opportunity to work  (Ephesians 4:27).” Yet, in the garden of Eden, we

The Devil Wears a Tie (Continued)

       In the last article, we have seen Eve's response to satan's deceitful question over God's command concerning partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Somehow she managed to add to the divine warning. Being cautious over consuming the fruit was not enough. There was, at some point, an implementation of fear over even looking at it! One may think that this was a noble way of avoiding temptation, but if he were to take into acco unt the way in which Eve succumbed to the devil's enticing words, then he would understand that her added standard stemmed from a latent, self-righteous motive rather than a wholesome desire for purity. Proverbs 30:5-6 states, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” It is imperative that we hold to the true doctrine of God's word, but it is equally important that we keep ourselves from adding to what h

The Devil Wears a Tie (Continued)

As we go back to the first garden, where deception and iniquity was introduced, we find the manner in which mankind is plagued with temptation. The serpent first causes Eve to question the command of God (“Yea, hath God said...”) and then magnifies confusion by exaggerating the truth (“...you shall not eat of every tree?”). But her response to the devil’s prodding was an interesting one: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” (Genesis 3:2b-3) You can’t touch it? Somehow, Eve took the command of God much further. God told them simply to not consume the fruit, but she had to throw in an ethereal, made up preference of not touching it! Now, someone may think that this is even better because it is more like a safeguard, but if there is anything that I know about mankind and standards, it’s that we easily manage to