Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

I find it interesting that the last Biblical book on righteousness would amount to a treatise on righteousness.  Just in the first 10 verses (2 Peter 1 - From righteousness to righteousness: Re-created in God’s Image, 2 Peter 1: Righteousness Leads to Christ’s Love Manifested in You), we have seen confirmation of the following:

Jesus is righteous, and through Him we receive righteousness (v. 1)
Jesus provides us promises that we should believe (v. 4), and of course belieiving is accounted to us righteousness
We are to love others in obedience (vv. 5-8)
Lack of obedience …

Interesting Article on When the Old Testament was Written

Friday, February 12th, 2010

http://www.livescience.com/history/earliest-hebrew-text-100115.html

Says the oldest known Hebrew writing was 600B.C., and it now 1000 B.C. Yet, my own study Bible has scriptures being written long before even that.  Interesting.

I googled on what language Moses wrote in, and found this blog posting.  Good reading: http://gotbible.blogspot.com/2007/07/did-moses-write-pentateuch.html

James 2 - Is faith without works possible?

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

In my last post, I attempted to explain James’ assertion that faith without works is dead.  I re-read my post, and though I said it was now simple, what I wrote isn’t.  Sorry about that.  Sometimes I get a picture in my head, and the picture is simple to look at… in my head.  How to get you to see it?
 20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by …

Hebrews 12 - God’s Discipline Produces Righteousness

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Has God ever seen you though something you weren’t sure you were supposed to do? How about something you were sure about, but you did it anyway? He saw you through that, too, didn’t He?  Well, that’s the kind of God He is.  But, here’s the thing… God will lead into things you wouldn’t expect Him to, and then seem to go silent as you cope with the most difficult situation you’ve ever faced.  Sometimes, that’s just how it is.  Other times, it brings on transformational change, as you make changes in yourself, your outlook, your attitude… and these are the times that came to mind as I read through Hebrews 12, leading in to our next scripture on righteousness. 
 1Therefore, since we are …

Hebrews 7 - The Order of Melchizedek

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

  1This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” 3Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.
Whether literal or symbolic, the significance of Melchizedek is that Jesus had a priest older than the law to join.  There were things to believe and to obey, even without a law.  Abraham was the first one recorded to …

Hebrews 5 - The Teaching on Righteousness

Monday, January 25th, 2010

After blogging on righteousness for over a year now, I shouldn’t be surprised anymore when yet another scripture has a fresh insight for me that I never thought about.  In this case, I’m suprised learn that not everyone is ready to be taught about righteousness.  To me, this means they are not ready to be taught to believe God and obey Him.  Strange.  Isn’t even the youngest pup in Christ already believing Him? And when they get baptized, aren’t they already believing Him?  Well, if you think about, God has more for you to believe than Christ dying for your sins.  Don’t get me wrong, Christ’s sacrific is sufficient for salvation, but once you are saved there are more truths …

1 Timothy 6:11

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

When Paul was writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, I swear he had “faith movement” preachers in mind (name-it-and-claim-it).  I can think of a few previous Assemblies of God preachers (remember Jim and Tammie?) who are described by this as well:
 3If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means …

Philippians 3 - Righteousness? Or Smoke Screen?

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

In Psalm 106 - Another ingredient of Righteousness, I described how righteousness is accounted to men for their zealousness for God and His name.  As such zealousness naturally leads one to live out God’s laws and commandments as well as possible, it is easy measure man and his salvation by his works.  After all, Jesus confirmed that you would know a follower of God their fruit.  But, wait.  Am I equating works and fruit?  Didn’t Jesus actually draw a distinction between them?  Yes, he did, and boy did He shake things up!

Basically, the first people who followed God and His Law did so for the sake of God and …

Ephesians 5 - May the Righteous Shine

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

As we read in Ephesians 4 - Raised in the ways leading to Righteousness, how people are raised will effect how open they are to receiving the gospel, and in turn how close they might get to God.  Basically, people who are raised in the ways of God have a foundation for assessing what is happening when God tugs at their heart; those who are raised outside a God-fearing home will have less such foundation.  Though they have the same need for God as the churched, those who grow up unchurched consequently develop hearts that are hard, insensitive, and dark, when it comes to Jesus Christ. They still …

2 Corinthians 11:14 - Is your pastor a slave of righteousness?

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
Paul has just finished “boasting” of the purity of his message, and his delivery of it, compared to other preachers who have been coming around to preach “the gospel” to the Corinthians… but a false one.  Based on what Paul is boasting on, my guess is that these other preachers have been making their living off their traveling Jesus show.  But, they are not really concerned about the …