You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God

The coming battlefield will not be about ideology or faith. It will not be about dogmas, doctrines or denominations. It will not be about Greek, Hebrew, the tongues of men or of angels. It will not be about whether we worship in Jerusalem, Samaria, Canterbury or Rome. It will not relate to the full moon, the sun, the seasons or the time of day.

Future battle lines will be drawn around one subject, the eternal word of God: Jesus the light of the world.

For all our original thought and the initiatives that have characterized church life through the ages, our wood, hay and stubble will all be tried in the fires of tribulation. From the flames will emerge the timeless gold, silver and precious stones of a refined and pure faith that is, was and always will be built on the rock of ages.

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Jesus is the only name given amongst men whereby we might be saved

Just two days ago I posted a blog on Newton's involvement in Arianism and how that signalled one of the great threats to our faith. I made the point that it is not the glaringly obvious errors that we must worry about, especially in this age of compromise, it is more the insiduous, subtle shifts in doctrine that are sadly quite widespread in modern Christendom. The more we try to contemporise the church, the more we expose ourselves to the risk of drifting off course and becoming assimilated into the world culture.

Well, today I found that on this day in 1553, John Servetus was arrested as a heretic and subsequently burnt at the stake. As a scientist and philosopher his public stature was significant, but we must add to that the fact that he actively participated in the reformation. He was no obvious heretic and even his Arianist views were ever so subtly removed from the central dogmas of the Christian faith. He accepted that the Logos, as described in Genesis 1 and John 1, was the eternal word of God and the force of creation. However, that Word only became Jesus when the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. Accordingly, He regarded Jesus as a created being, less than God. In no other respect did He discredit Jesus. 

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Will this age of compromise lead us astray or will the Lord of the Harvest intervene?

Early this morning I read that Isaac Newton was a closet Arianist, which means that despite his public testimony, privately he questioned the Trinity and believed that Jesus was created, making Him less than God. Later a friend invited me to join a group which advocates a Trinitarian position, but I chose to write instead.

Arius was a dissident of the Nicene position, the council commissioned by Constantine the Great to canonize the bible and its doctrines. He preached his alternative theology around 250 to 336 AD and was significantly influenced by Lucius of Antioch. However, proliferation of Arianism helped to reinforce and cement the Nicene view of a Triune God.

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Praying effectively: What role does Jesus play in our daily trials and struggles

According to Romans 8, "The Spirit makes intersession for us according to the will of God". I don't wish to be contentious, but Romans 8:26-27 is not about the Holy Spirit (in spite of any Greek subtexts in the passage).

The context is about Jesus and His role in sustaining our walk of faith. Thus Paul opens the chapter saying, "there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ", whilst adding later, "if anyone has not the spirit of Christ, He is none of His." It is Christ's indwelling life that sustains us in our journeys of faith, thus bringing about the transformation of our minds that ultimately reconciles us to the Father's will.

Therefore the interceding Spirit is Christ and the text is not an argument for speaking or praying in tongues. According to a number of New Testament writers (1 Timothy 2:5), there is only one mediator between God and man, and that is Christ. He alone is the great High Priest so adequately described by the writer to the Hebrews. To that end, Hebrews 2 argues that He had to be made like Hs brothers (verse 17) so that He might become a merciful and faithful High priest. No one else was more qualified to intercede between us and the Father, than the Lord Jesus Christ.

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There is empirical evidence that prayer heals, as reported by AFP

The following was so intriguing I replicated in full to be true to the originator, AFP:

Washington - Prayer heals when it's close-up and personal, and there's a study to prove it.

It's not just any kind of prayer, but "proximal intercessory prayer", or PIP - when one or more people pray for someone in that person's presence and often with physical contact - that was found by a team of doctors, scientists and religious experts to have remarkable results in healing some patients.

A team of medical doctors and scientists led by Indiana University professor of religion Candy Gunther Brown found in the study, conducted in rural Mozambique, that prayer brought "highly significant" improvements to hearing-impaired participants and significant changes to the visually impaired.

Fourteen hard-of-hearing and 11 visually impaired study participants were recruited at meetings of Pentecostal Christian groups in Mozambican villages and towns.

They were tested with a handheld audiometer or vision charts, depending on their impairment, before and after they took part in a prayer session.

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Its time to let go and move on, time to walk on the waters and live again

No matter what part we play in initiating our own crises, more often than not there is a degree of injustice in it all. If you think back to David's struggle with Saul, you might argue that David got ahead of himself and thus provoked the king to jealousy, but the ongoing persecution of David was still unwarranted and unjust. Yet David submitted to God and did little to defend his own cause until Saul fell on his own sword. The resulting closure enabled David to move on and live again.

Similarly Moses, who had done astonishing things, was challenged by Korah and his sons. Instead of defending himself, Moses turned to God, surrendered his rights and submitted the issue to divine counsel. When the disputing parties met again, God made His own position very clear by causing the earth to open up and swallow Korah and his family. God, not Moses, saw that justice was done.

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In the living years: settling accounts whilst we can so we leave with peace

In the beautiful movie, "The blind side", Lee Ann Touhy bemoans the fact that Michael, her adopted, black giant of a son, so struggles to remember his school work. Her husband then interrupts to say what will stay with me forever: "Michael's greatest gft is forgetting". After years of being rejected, forced to forage for food, facing cold and lonely nights or walking in the rain, Michael learnt to forget, let go and move on.

Today my own father told me of the reasons he wants to die and go. I told him stuff I can't fully share here, except to say that there are many outstanding accounts in his life. I urged him to call in each of his children, to forgve them and secure their forgiveness - as an act of release.

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Poem: Time only time - its all we have, our greatest and most underrated resource

By silver light, the watchman

walks on shadowed walls,

until the night’s last stand

heralds the waking morn.

A sigh goes up, how long

‘ere the break of day,

when all the trees by song,

shall dance to gilded ray?

Soon, he shouts, very soon,
the golden orb shall breech:
for methinks its overdue -
so be gone, blackness, flee.

But then inquires another
“by what means can you tell -
or can this day be summoned
as flows the village well?”

What man could bid the day,
or by the hour the sun?
His light though soon or late
plumbs the line of time.

Raised wrists n’er defined
nor moved the hand divine,
what heav’n alone decides
that now, at last, its time …

.. for by the same decree
grey seasons come to pass,
so fade the stars that lead,
until day dawns, at last …

… to resurrect, by sure degrees
let none say can or can’t,
what God alone decrees -
this day be thus advanced

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net

The book of Eli - do we own the Word of God or is it written on our hearts?

Denzel Washingon's portrayal of Eli in the Book of Eli, is a dark, apocalyptic movie. I can't say I enjoyed it much, because the violence was quite gratuitous.

What a pity to give such a great idea the Hollywood treatment, which generally translates into: if its a disaster make it in NYC (by now it should be the worst place on earth to live), if its got any romance in it, it must reduce to a sex scene (that must be a directorial interpretation of love. They even dare to call it lovemaking, which it isn't, its just plain sex) and if its a family movie where four-letter words are inappropriate then revert to some Oh my God's or maybe some blasphemy.

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Poem: Starting again - to the end of every season, comes a new beginning

To every brokenness

of our personal hells,

each empty soul ends,

what started so well.

The naked cry of souls,

in search of covering,

to make the broken whole -

is a long road, unending.

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