Tag: theology

Puzzling Theology

I love jigsaw puzzles.  There is something both compelling and satisfying in assembling the pieces of a puzzle and watching a picture slowly emerge.

IMG_20151116_053153691A few days ago a co-worker brought a puzzle to work and many in the office helped assemble the 1000 piece seaside scene over the course of a week.  While the social dynamic of passersby stopping to add a piece or two was interesting, I pondered the unspoken pattern which was naturally followed by all of the participants.  First the corners and border were put in place, then major obvious parts of the image before the less clear and detailed pieces were assembled.

I’ve put puzzles together with many groups and the largely unspoken pattern is almost always followed.   Start with the most obvious and work toward the less clear. Continue reading “Puzzling Theology”

Farmers, skinny cows and dream interpretation

This week at Sukkot, Frank Houtz taught a series that included a segment about dream interpretation in Scripture.  One particular part tickled me….  (and, is a great lesson in hermeneutics.)skinny-cows

Generally, Christendom defends eating whatever they want, clean or unclean, by referring to Peter’s vision in Acts 10.  Unfortunately, to arrive at that interpretation, one has to violate a principle of hermeneutics that says the dream or vision is not itself the interpretation, rather the interpretation given in Scripture is the literal meaning of the dream or vision.  To explain, Peter’s vision is not the literal meaning, rather, Acts 10:28 is the literal interpretation of his vision.  Acts 10:28 says,

Acts 10:28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Scripture defines for us exactly what the vision means and we can take it no further by implying some other meaning contrary to established Scripture, both present and future.

To believe the dream or vision is itself the interpretation is pretty absurd, because we would have to maintain the same rule throughout Scripture.  Here is where I got tickled. Continue reading “Farmers, skinny cows and dream interpretation”

Aspartame vs. Honey

A number of months ago, I began using honey in my morning coffee instead of refined sugar.  In fact, because we have bees, my wife began substituting honey in a number of places in our family’s diet.

Well, late last week I was refilling the ‘honey bear’ PureHoneyBearfrom a Mason jar full of my bees’ honey and had a convenient ‘spill.’  Of course, I licked it up…  Hmmm.

Then it hit me, ‘this used to be the sweetest stuff on the planet!’  In fact, for thousands of years honey was the sweetest readily available ‘sugar’ on the planet.  Only in the last century has man begun to use the laboratory and myriad chemicals to develop alternative sweeteners, aspartame being just one, as well as a plethora of intense flavors derived from all manner of bizarre stuff.

Not long ago I saw a ‘hell’evision program detailing the constant quest in the food industry for new and intense flavors to make whatever food substitute item more desirable, thus selling more product.  And, ruining consumer’s health in the process.

My brain, taking those diverse pieces of information, as I licked up the spilled honey, suddenly made some interesting connections.  Continue reading “Aspartame vs. Honey”

Thank you, Judah!!

I wrote, in a very recent post , “Are there some things very special about Judah that we need to acknowledge?  Absolutely!! ”

Interview-Thank-You-NotesEven as I wrote it, I was thinking of a few things I am very thankful to my brother Judah, or the Jews, for.  Only later did I think, “I’m not sure I’ve ever said ‘thank you’ publicly!”

Indeed, all mankind has much to thank the Jews for as a cursory look at Nobel Winners will reveal a wildly disproportionate number of winners that are of Judaic decent.  Countless inventions, scientific findings, technologies, etc are directly attributable to those of Jewish descent.

But this is more personal.  As a believer Continue reading “Thank you, Judah!!”

A Christian Teacher Has Questions About Messianic Judaism

A Christian Teacher Has Questions About Messianic Judaism.

Reposted from a thread on our fellowship’s site.  Good overview email and a link to another blog I enjoy.

Christian Pastor: Why you should celebrate Halloween.

75 seconds that will blow your mind!  Paganism defined, justified, embraced.

From the pulpit.

Wow!

Original post with comments.

Sharing my journey… Some of the pain…

A few days ago I was reviewing the ‘About’ page trying to ‘see’ what others ‘see.’  You know, a sort of self assessment.

I noticed on the page that I had written that my goal for this blog is to ‘share the journey’ and ‘explain what I am learning.’  Well, it is pretty clear that I love sharing the fire in my soul that burns daily with new ways to challenge the reader to action and growth, but I realized that I have missed widely on the other ‘goal’ for the blog.  Sharing my journey.

While I don’t have  a particular story or encounter to share, I thought I’d take a post to give some general thoughts and experiences over the last two years as this transformation in my understanding of Scripture has happened.  Certainly, my post on Antisemitism was heart wrenching, and the early RT series more personal as I related the early parts of this ‘walk’ but I have missed that area a bit lately. Continue reading “Sharing my journey… Some of the pain…”

Excellent passage defending Messianic Torah observance!!

Here is an interesting passage that I already knew was a solid defense for Torah observance by the believer in Yeshua (Jesus), but, while referring to it in today’s Shabbat message, I noticed a couple words that have been there all along!  Funny how we can read verses and not SEE what is actually there.

Before we look at it, I want you to notice, this is a ‘last days’ passage.  Verse two gets quoted with the coming of Yeshua, but most never notice the context is decidedly eschatological…  End times!  Last days!  Has ‘not yet happened!!’

“[a]For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, Continue reading “Excellent passage defending Messianic Torah observance!!”

I Should Have Seen It Coming….

I have recently written several posts highlighting glaring translator error or bias.  Predictably, I have received multiple requests about Bible translation recommendations, or thoughts on a particular version…  I should have seen that coming!  So, here is a short post with a few thoughts..

While I am no expert on translations, I think there a few assertions I can safely make: