Welcome...
UPDATED 08-02-2010. While this website has been up for 18 months now, it has been a work in progress, with completion of the "Something to Think About" page being completed this week , part 1 and part 2 with the completion of part 3 , "textual criticism " by the end of next week, August 14th. The "faith " page will be completed the following week by August 21st; with the uploading of the essays beginning at that point lasting for 2 weeks until September 4th. At that time taping for the video teachings series will begin and should be uploaded starting on October 1st. The information presented has been an accumulation of 35 years of meticulous research; and while attempting to explain complicated subject matter the author refuses to condescend to his audience, to speak down to the reader. There is a sincere effort to explain complicated issues, yet to do so by speaking at a Biblical maturely level beyond that of ingesting mike. And it is this author's desire that if the reader becomes frustrated by a lack of understanding, yet is willing to exhibit tenacity by continuing on until the Holy Spirit makes clear those difficult things (that many times He will only do when God's children are ready to make a whole-heart commitment to understanding His Word, especially those deep things of the spirit), wherein the Holy Spirit is truly the teacher, and greater understanding of God's Word is gained, rather than simply reading it. This is how the Holy Spirit taught the author; in tenacity and endurance, studying the old masters, those saints that God has blessed concerning understanding His Word, verifying their claims (Acts 17:11); wherein the fruits of these labors, God has blessed. Therefore, please have patience with a teacher is far too ill-equipped at presentation, yet desires to serve the Lord is giving Believers greater reasons for faith based upon God's Word (Romans 10:17), as opposed to rhetorical elegance.
The Christian Walk...
The most successful enemy of the best is not the worst; it is the second-best when it draws attention to itself from the best. On Christian websites, it is common to observe a focus on people in an effort to display their central theme of fellowship and relationship. And while God has called us to enter into fellowship one with another, as well as calling us to be good husbands and wives, good parents, and good people (and there is a place for teaching concerning families and relationships – yet never to be predominate to the ministry, from the pulpit as the focus of the church, but in mentoring, perhaps in classes or studies), however when these become the preoccupation of the Church of Jesus Christ, it starts down the road of dethroning the status of Jesus Christ in His preeminence as God incarnate, and Savior of the world. (Matthew 10:35-39;"37")
Each generation tends to make life better for their children than it was for them. And in an age when Satan attempts to make everything relative and change the meaning of words, is it any wonder that everyone has a different definition of what "better" is? Better is more and improved stuff, better is easier and faster, better is happy as opposed to harder, better becomes immediate gratification, and in the end becomes synonymous with serving self. (Matthew 16:24-26)
However, becoming Biblically better is modeling Biblical faith that keeps Jesus preeminent in all things while teaching us to deny self at the expense of putting others first, and doing so all in an effort to seek God's kingdom first, as opposed to our own pleasure and happiness. Too many Christians believe that God put us here to be happy, or that we were created to be loved rather than to glorify Him. (Isaiah 43:7)
It is when tolerance means compromise, when excellence means winning at any cost; it is when a society has learned to rationalize sinful behavior by neutering the Word of God, and the church follows suit, that the Church of Jesus Christ loses its potency. We have seeker friendly congregations which have taken Christ from His place as the best, and substituted the narcissism of proclaiming that becoming better people and having better lives is truly what Christianity is about. (I Samuel 15:22)
It is a lie of the devil that we can glorify God by "being all that we can be," because that draws the attention away from Him and back on ourselves. Unfortunately, the self-centeredness of our age has gotten to the point that the masses are leaving the church either in an attempt to further foster the self-centeredness they have been taught to expect through experiential emotionalism as seen in such efforts such as the emergent church, or to leave in disgust because of the material and worldly presuppositions, along with the self-help psychology which centers on themselves as opposed to Jesus Christ, all of which flow from the pulpit. Therefore, if you are in a fellowship that truly teaches "all the counsel of God;" the complete and unadulterated Word of God – rejoice! (Acts 20:27-32)
Biblical faith means trusting God (to the point of ~ Job 3:15a), not that He will give us everything we ask for, but that He is in control of our lives even when our lives seem to be a mess (Genesis 37:23-28 ~ Genesis 50:20). And that God, according to His Word is good, not an angry God, but loving to His children; seeking what is good for them in the long run, yet sometimes painful in the short (1 Peter 1:7; James 1:3). Faith is not simply to be seen as a tool to garner things and desires (and yes there is always a place for petition, but not as preeminent), but instead means trusting God that He is in total control of the believer's life, and that nothing can happen that He has not allowed. (Matthew 6:25-30)
Biblical faith is the only sure foundation for the Christian walk. It is going back to the basics of understanding that real Biblical faith is a complete reliance upon God for every need, and that glorifying Him is a fulfillment of our true purpose in life (as opposed to finding purpose simply as an extension of keeping the attention on ourselves, or focusing on purpose as opposed to Him), that dying to self by putting others first is a sincere act of love, that of getting back to God's Word, that of getting back to Biblical faith.
"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew 6:31-34)
