Move over Marshal Mathers…

I have recently started down a road of examining ecclesiology, or how the church is structured. Although I was taught a little about it in Bible College I have been challenged on the Biblical veracity of some of those teaching and so I began to study the concept. I understand that we all come into any conversation or study with tons of baggage and have done my best to come at this study objectively however I welcome any input you may have that could enlighten me on views I have not addressed.

With that I will jump right into some of the notes I took to get started, the words the Bible uses to address leadership in the local church.

Read the rest of this entry

I have to be honest, I am way behind with my reading and as I am hitting some very familiar territory, I am having trouble focusing because “I have read it before.” Then to top it off God begins to give the law this week, which isn’t the easiest stuff to read so I decided to try my hand a little historical fiction. I have thought all week about the exodus story. I wonder if we can truly see the story though out traditional lenses.

For instance, I wonder how the conversation went between Pharaoh and his magicians when the plagues began to hit. The Nile has just turned to blood before the eyes of Pharaoh and all of his officials. Pharaoh turns to his magicians and they repeat the plague turning water into blood themselves. Had I been Pharaoh I would have them executed, I didn’t want someone to repeat the plague, I would want it reversed. All they could do was add to the problem repeatedly, until they are not even able to do that. It appears that while Moses was receiving his instruction on how to consecrate Aaron, Aaron was molding a golden calf. Which speaks to me of God’s grace; God knew what Aaron would be up to still chose him to be the high priest of all Israel.

Unfortunately, this week will be a short post as I catch up on my reading and prayer.

I am going to update my posting schedule one more time to hopefully get to do everything I want to get done.  I will be posting my “Through the Bible” posts on Tuesday, my other thoughts on Thursday and Friday will be an entertainment based post.  Entertainment will be book reviews, videos, and jokes just for fun.

Hope you enjoy…

Review of Huckleberry Finn

As I begin writing this post, I don’t feel entirely adequate to review such a classic piece of American literature. Mark Twain was a brilliant man in many ways and his insight into the human condition is most astounding. The book is known to be one of the first to be written in the language of it is a kind of deep south dialect, and from the fist person view of Huck himself. This can make it terribly hard to follow and slowed my reading down considerably; it also has had a minor impact on the way I personally speak. I have found myself adding some of Huck’s colloquialisms to my own vocabulary, Bye and bye I suppose they will disappear but until then I enjoy using them.

The only other disadvantage I suffered by reading this book what the number of imitators I have experienced. Much of the comic effect was lost because many of what were original ideas have been reused so many times that they have almost become cliché. I do, however, greatly enjoy discovering where those clichés originated and I feel I have a greater insight into American literature as a whole for having read this book.

I just read a section of a new book, “Organic Church” by Neil Cole, which book has me doing some introspection. He had a very interesting section on the Parable of the Sower, or as some call it “The Parable of the Soils”. I like this second name better as the parable seems to say much more about the soils then the sower.

This Parable can be found in Mark 4 and I am sure many people are familiar with its contents. One thing that I may have forgotten or never realized is the significance Jesus places on this parable “Then Jesus said to his followers, “Don’t you understand this story? If you don’t, how will you understand any story?” perhaps indicating that this parable is foundational to all kingdom understanding, or the simplest of all parables.

Read the rest of this entry

I completely didn’t realize this is ash Wednesday!!!  How could I have not realized that, I guess I am not paying attention.  I don’t have anything deep to say about it just that I forgot.