Friday, September 29, 2006

Twins!!!

I am proud to announce that my wife and I are expecting twins! We are so incredibly excited! We the 10 week ultrasound today and here are a couple of pics from it!




My birthday is tomorrow too, so this makes the perfect birthday gift. It was really cool today, because we got to see both of the babies kicking and moving. They are the proper weight that they need to be and they are right on track. Everything is looking good and we can't wait. God is good and life is good!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

John 1:8

John 1:8 says, 'He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.'

He is referring to John the Baptist.

I listened to Rob Bell's latest sermon last night entitled ' God Wants to Save Christians Part 2' and that sermon goes well with this verse.

What Rob talks about is that all we are called to do is to demonstrate, then explain and then leave. We are to demonstrate God's power through changed lives and when people ask where that comes from we explain it and then if they aren't interested we simply leave. We don't stay and harrass them.

John was not the light just like we are not the light. What we are, are people that the light has come into. We were born into flesh and sin, but God has forgiven us and come into our lives.

We are to bear witness at the light in our lives.

Rob goes onto say how we are not supposed to prove why everyone else is wrong, but to simply show (not talk) the power of God in our lives and to have an explanation for why we have been able to overcome darkness.

Some people haven't let the power of God into their lives and so they only know God with their minds. This leads them to prove to others how right they are and how wrong everyone else is. God is a God of experience and when we interact with him from a humble stance we can't help but to be changed.

We are not the light, but God is the light and we are to bear witness to it.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

John 1:6-7

John 1:6-7 says, 'There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.'

The John being referred to here is John the Baptist and not John the disciple. There isn't a lot that I am able to pull out of v. 6 outside of the facts that are presented. John was sent from God, but to do what?

v. 7 'He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.'

The word for witness in the first part of the verse is 'marturia' is greek. It means to testify as when one testifies in front of a judge, but it also means to testify the way a prophet testifies about future evetns.

The phrase 'to bear witness' is a different word or phrase in greek. This word is 'martureo' and it means 'to be a witness'. It is the act of being a witness or to be seen or heard.

So what is John supposed to testify about? the light or the 'phos' which we saw in v. 5 and v. 4 of John.

John is supposed to tell other people about the light, which is the light of all people and is the light that overcomes all darkness.

In Malachi 3:1 it says that John is to be the one to prepare the way for the Lord.

Isn't every christian a John? Aren't we sent from God to testify or give account about the light that is for everyone?

I find it interesting in the beginning of the verse that it says John came as a witness, to bear witness. What I get out of this is that God sent him as a witness, but he has to BE a witness. Likewise God has sent us to be a witness, but we must make sure we are witnessing. We can't just say, 'Hey I am a witness from God', which is what it means when you tell someone that you are a christian. We must BE a witness from God. We must speak up and we must be seen and we must be heard. Claiming to be something, but not actually doing it is extremely destructive to whatever you claim to be. That's called that hypocrisy.

So back to the end of v. 7. John is called to bear witness about the light, so that all might believe through him. I would first underline the word ALL. God shows no favoritism and neither should we or the church. If everyone in our church looks the same, there is a problem with that. We need to be reaching all different types of people, because all people need light in their lives, not just white middle class America.

Back to v. 7 - all might believe through him. The him is referring to the light just like in v. 3.

all things were made through him. 3
all might believe through him v.7

I like the parallel here. The word 'through' is the same greek work, 'dia'. In v. 3 I described God pushing all creation through the filter of 'the Word' and now we see people going back through the filter of 'the Word' to find God on the other side.

Often times on tracts you see Jesus used as a bridge to get people from one side to the other, but that's kind of weird for me. I like the idea of a filter. The idea that we must believe that the filter is the only thing that we can go through to get to God. The filter is also the only thing that God pushed creation through. This says to me that everything, everywhere hinges on the filter. If you are into science fiction I guess you could say the Word is the portal to which we pass through to enter God. The key to be able to pass through though is not based on an obect or buying a ticket through the portal, but on what you believe about the portal.

Anyway, I am starting to ramble.

John was sent by God to bear witness about the light, so that all might believe through him.
Christians are sent by God to bear witness about the light, so that all might believe through him.

Monday, September 18, 2006

John 1:5

John 1:5 says, 'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.'

The light is the greek word 'phos' which we found john 1:4. The word shines is the word 'phaino' and it means to bring forth, shed light, and to shine. The word darkness is the word 'skotia' and it means darkness. Finally the word overcome is the word 'katalambano' and it means to lay hold of, to obtain, take possession of, and to understand.

I take this verse to be true on a scientific level, but also a spiritual level.

Scientifically we can see this happen all the time. Anytime you turn on a light it lights the room and it overcomes the darkness. You never turn on a light and it the darkness stays pitch black. We are assuming here that your light is obviously in working order.

Spiritually it has two meanings for me. I believe that the light does overcome the darkenss, as in a conquering mentality. I also believe that the greek word for overcome in the ESV and comprehend in the NASB, means that the 'darkness' can't understand it.

1st the light overcomes all darkness. If we believe this to be true in our lives then we have power over all sin and addicitions and all darkness in our lives. God has always had victory over all forms of darkness and we must bring the victory to where darkness is in the world. I believe that God is everywhere at all times, but for some reason we has chosen to use us to display his light/glory. This means that we have the priviledge of showing people what God looks like by being light in their lives.

2nd the light can't be understood by the darkness. This is why people that don't know God act the way that they do. They can't understand it. Now I believe that as we have previously looked at, that all people can understand aspects of truth, but I am talking about saving knowledge and understanding of who God is. They aren't followers of Jesus, because they don't understand who Jesus is. This is where only God's grace can remove this cloud of misunderstanding. We can't yell or push someone enought to believe in who Jesus is. They don't understand it. Our job is to emit the light of God, but it is God's mercy that we allows them to see it and understand it. This is where we pray for those we know are hurting and are walking around in the dark and have no direction for their lives.

God is the light of the world and everything else is darkness. This goes straight to what Jesus says in Matthew 5:14-16. It says, 'You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.'

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

John 1:4

John 1:4 says, 'In him was the life, and the life was the light of men.'

'the life' is the word 'zoe' in greek and it means the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical.

'the light' is the word 'phos' in greek and it means light, with an emphasis on light that is emitted such as light from a lamp or a fire. It means to shine or to make manifest, especially by rays of light.

'men' is the word 'anthropos' in greek and it means each individual human being. It is not the word for a male, but the word that includes all humans wether male or female.

Let's try to break this down a little bit. We could reword it as saying , ' In the Word was the absolute fullness of life, and the absolute fullness of life was the visible light of all humans.'

Now let me bring in some reference scriptures that might help.

Let's just focus on the first part of the verse which says, 'In him was life'.
So again the word for 'life' is the word 'zoe' in greek and we find it John 3:15 also.
It actual shows up in 32 verses in the book of John, but using John 3:15 will show the one point that I want to get at with this.

John 3:15 says, ' that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.' or have eternal zoe!

If you are a Christian you have heard the phrase 'eternal life' since Day 1. What we hear a lot in America is a theology of how Jesus is our ticket to heaven and our pass from going to hell. I believe this to be true....sorta.

I do believe that through faith in Christ we are reconciled to God and we are a part of his family and we will no longer be thrown in hell at the time of judgement. What I believe is a little off is that I have always been taught that the focus is to accept Christ so you can leave the horrible Earth and be with Jesus somewhere 'up' there. That through Christ we have eternal life meaning that we will live forever with him, which I believe is true.

But....

when Jesus says that whoever believes in him may have eternal life or zoe. He is saying that if you believe in Jesus, which probably needs redefining as well, then you can have the absolute fullness of life right now, today!

God wants us to experience heaven now! He wants us to have the fullest life now and forever. It doesn't start whenever we die....it starts when you accept that Jesus's way of living is the best way to live. He has life/zoe in him and it is perfect. So our focus needs to not be on getting our one way ticket to heaven, but it needs to be on experiencing all that God wants us to experience right now with the fullest life possible.

Ok..onto the 2nd part of the verse. It says, 'and the life was the light of men.'

This is how the world changes! What Jesus has in himself is what every person on the world is craving for. There is a life, a rightness to how Jesus lived and wants us to live that is light to all of humanity.

It's a light that is visible and that other people can see. As Christians people should see something good and right in us. They should see Jesus. They should see us living the best possible way life could be lived.

Now what happens is that we create all of these rules for us to live and a lot of Christians have become the moral police of the world. Christians have pointed fingers and judged humanity for way too long. What needs to happen is that we need to live how Jesus lived. We need to associate ourselves and the church with the poor, the orphaned, the widowed. We need to not love money or possessions, but seek to show people that real love is a love that is self-sacrificing to EVERYONE. That living how Jesus lives means that no one goes hungry and no one has a need. But most of us look exactly like everyone else. We claim to know God and so they look at us to see what God looks like and all they see is themselves.

John 1:3

Ok to continue my journey into the book of John and my discoveries. My last blog was on John 1:1 and John 1:2 says, 'He was in the beginning with God.' So 'the Word' or 'logos' was active and living in the beginning of time or even before time with God. 'the Word' didn't come later or God didn't create 'the Word' later, but they existed at the same time as early as possible. Whenever that was. Don't try to go back to far cause you head will explode trying to understand that one.

On to John 1:3...it says...'All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.'


him = the Word

'All things' in Greek is the word 'pas' and it means all things individually and all things collectively. It means everything...nothing was missed. If you can imagine creation or even before creation you have 'the Word' and God together in the beginning. In my head I just see blackness and a void. I don't see God or 'the Word' present, but they are still there nontheless. Anyway, I see God yearning to create and he has with him 'the Word', which is his message (what he wants to communicate about himself), so he begins to create and he first soaks everything in 'the Word', before he creates it. You might also think of 'the Word' as a filter that God puts all of creation through and as the creation passes through and comes out on the other side it is covered in 'the Word'.

I take this to mean that whatever we can experience through our 5 senses has 'the Word' covered/soaked in it. There is no object, place, smell, emotion, sound, or sight that you can experience that 'the Word' is not present. No matter where you go or what you experience God is there and he is in everything that you experience. God is NEVER absent. It is impossible to not be around God. The World is soaked in God's presence.

The second part of the verse says, ' and without him was not any thing made that was made.' This says that God did not create even one thing that has not been affected by 'the Word'. It's all God's. Everything that you own material wise, every talent that you have, your physical look, your strengths and your weaknesses. Everything was given to you by God, but not only that...what has been given to you has been passed through 'the Word' and it is soaked in him.

You are the way you are for a reason and that reason is for God to send the message of 'the Word' into the world. In America, especially in the youth of America, we have a lot of people trying to be someone else. We have people trying to become someone that they are not, but God simply wants us to accept what we have and to acknowledge that what we have is good enough. We don't need anything else, because all our things, emotions, personalities are soaked in God. This verse says to me that we need to acknowledge that and to never forget why we have what we have and why we are the way that we are.

John 1:1

Ok. So I am starting to devote more time to bible study and meditating, so I have decided to go through the book of John at the slowest pace possible. Verse by Verse. I want to find Jesus for myself. I have gotten in a mode where I let all my 'christian' outlets tell me who Jesus is, but I haven't sat down and tried to written about the Jesus that I find in the scriptures. So here it goes....

I chose John, because he wrote this gospel to persuade people to believe in Jesus. I figure this would be the best book to go through, since the writer is only writing about Jesus in a way to tell me who he is and why I should believe in him.

John starts his book with this verse.

'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'

First observation is that John says that the first thing in the history of existence is the Word. I find it interesting that he doesn't say God.

Next he says that 'the Word was with God', meaning that 'the Word' was separate from God in existence.

Then finally he says that 'the Word was God', meaning that they are the same thing.

Phew! Wrap your head around that one.

So 'the Word' = God

But 'the Word' is also separate from God.

So if there is a separation somewhere, what is the separation?

The word, 'Word' is the word logos in ancient Greek (original text). The meaning of logos is really long and a lot of things really.

Here are some english words and phrases used to describe what logos means.

Reason, the mental faculty of thinking, meditating
The act of speaking, a continous speaking discouse - instruction
What is declared, a declaration
with whom as judge we stand in relation to

So here are my random thoughts after meditating on all of these definitions and words.

I feel that 'the Word' is the manifested message of God that we can comprehend through our senses. Meaning that this is the part of God that is visible in ALL of the universe. This is Truth that we find in all of the world. If you have a friend that doesn't follow Jesus, but that person may have a believe that is true and a belief that Jesus would agree with. A basic one would be that rape is wrong. That truth is 'the Word' and comes from 'the Word' and is a universal truth that all believe. Now that doesn't stop rape from happening, but something inside all of us breaks when we hear of someone who has been raped. This I believe is 'the Word' manifesting itself in creation to where all experience it, but not all acknowledge it as 'the Word'.

I also found the definitoin of 'logos' to be the line that all of line can be judged against. If we want to test if anything is true, right, perfect, lovely, we test it against 'the Word'. It is the very thing that God wants us to feel, know, and experience. 'The Word' is perfect. It contains a language that everyone in the world can understand. Things like love, giving, and hope can be understood by all no matter where they live.

So when we try to relate to people we can ALL relate because we all have 'the Word' in ourlives. Some of us begin to recognize this thing in our lives and begin to acknowledge that it is good.

In 1 John 1:1 he explains it like this. 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-'




Another thought is this. You know how football players are now saying...'The U', as in The University, like their univeristy is the best or only one that matters. Well 'the Word', is like that.'The Word' is the final judge of all. The Word is the way. The Word is the truth. the Word is the life. The Word is perfect. The Word is correct. The Word is the beginning of all things. The Word is the one with the most value. The Word is God.

My head hurts I am stopping now.

John

Currently I am going through the Book of John. I am trying to break down one verse a day and write about what I get out of it. Feel free to leave comments and to check back regularly.