Thinking Differently

Second Night, 27 May 2006 1930

Tonight Dr. Ray spoke again, and this time he focused on the text Luke 3:21 through 4:32 dealing with the temptation of Jesus the Christ.

Dr. Pritchard focused on five words that illustrated what was happening. These words were Obedience, Assurance, Testing, Power, and Freedom. Specifically, Jesus demonstrated obedience in baptism, assurance from God, testing from the the devil, power from the spirit, and gave freedom to others.

In the middle of the passage, Luke gives us the readers a genealogy of Jesus. This seems out of place until we realize that this perfectly segues from the baptism of Jesus into the temptation. The baptism of Christ began the direct power of the Holy Spirit on His life, power which would sustain Him in the desert temptations. But we need the family tree to tell us why, partially, the temptation was necessary: Jesus was the second Adam. Just as Adam was tempted and sinned in the garden, Jesus was to be tempted, yet without sin, in the desert.

Temptation also came for other reasons, and these apply in the life of the believer. God uses trials and temptations to release His power in our lives. Indeed, when we are most filled with the Holy Spirit is the most likely time we will be tested. Jesus was led immediately into the desert. Immediately after what? the Holy Spirit descending upon Him in the form of a dove. (Luke 3:22)

James says this, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4) In our lives we are tested in order to produce growth. Jesus was tempted in the same way. (Hebrews 4:15)

Here a necessary deviation must be made. In the Greek (according to Dr. Pritchard, I am no scholar of Greek) the word translated “testing” and “tempting” is the same word. The difference comes in response. The Holy Spirit led Jesus to be tested, and Satan brought temptation. A right response to this makes it a test that grows, but a wrong response to this results in a temptation and sin. (James 1:12-16)

So stand strong, as Jesus did, in the Power of the Holy Spirit and the testing of God will make you stronger. Jesus was baptized into the Spirit of God, and left the desert full of the power of God. And this power brings freedom in our lives.

Sunday, 28 May 2006 0900

This morning began with Dr. Pritchard’s last message. Centering on Numbers 9:15-23, he spoke on the leading of God.

The children of Israel had a simple task. Follow either the cloud by day or the fire by night. God provided everything they needed, and only asked that they follow His lead. We must do the same. God leads us one step at a time. We must be willing to follow, even if the following does not make sense. Furthermore, God’s guidance is revealed as we are close to Him. We must stay in His word and in fellowship with other believers. Finally, rest assured that God’ guiding will be what you need. The children of Israel followed something easily seen, depending on the time of day. Cloud was more easily seen and followed in the brightness of day, and in the dark of night a blaze of fire was unmistakeable.

Be willing to follow, and God will lead.

Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Psalm 48:14, “For such is God, our God forever and ever; He will guide us until death.”

God still leads.

More to come on the rest of the day and conference.

the StormRider

BTW, if any of these links sends you to the wrong passage of Scripture, be sure to email and let me know so that I can fix that immediately. Thanks.

This weekend at Word of Life, we have Founder’s Conference. Our keynote speaker is Dr. Ray Pritchard.

He was here for the last week of January and the first of February to teach the first year class of the Bible Institute the epistle of Galatians. He is a good speaker who is entertaining and hard-hitting with the truth. He is fun to listen to and always masterful with the Word of God.

First Evening: 26 May 2006 1930

Dr. Pritchard opened the conference last night with a message from Matthew 11:1-11. His topic was doubt. Dr. Ray’s point was this: at times, even the greatest men of the faith, who knew things with absolute certainty, can come to doubt in dark times. John the Baptist was doubting whether Jesus was the prophecied messiah while he was in prison for speaking against the immorality of King Herod. This same John the Baptist had months before proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Jesus did not belittle or talk down about this man, but told his disciples to help John remember what he already knew. And as they left, as John doubted, Jesus proclaimed the man they called the Baptist to be the greatest man born of women.

The life application is this: doubt is not the opposite of faith, but the sign of a growing faith. Every Christian doubts at some point, but to doubt is to struggle with faith and to be willing to grow. So doubt your doubt, trust in what you know to be true, and put your faith in God.

Day One: 27 May 2006 0900

This morning Dr. Pritchard spoke again, this time on spiritual warfare. He came from the angle of asymmetrical warfare, which is the term for a smaller, loose-knit force engaging a much larger and more powerful army.

Using the examples of terrorist groups fighting the might of the United States Army, he drew the parallel of the ultimate terrorist, Satan, fighting a drawn out war against us, the soldiers of the light. We are in constant battle, and are on the superior side, but are fighting a foe that will not honor the rules of engagement. He fights dirty, he uses our strategies against us, and he is relentless. Only by standing together in the power of God can we have a hope of surviving the fight without giving up.

Make no mistake, the Christian soldier is on the victorious side; its not that we will win, its that Christ has already won. We merely need to keep fighting. And keep fighting we will, for this war will not soon end. You see, this is not a war of huge battles, but of a thousand daily skirmishes. So sharpen your sword and dig in, this is a life-long campaign.

Know too, that this fight is not our defense against Satan; this is our invasion of his territory. Jesus said to Peter, “…the gates of hell will not prevail…” (Matthew 16:18) Since when do gates march to war? No, an invading army attacks the gates of strongholds. We are on the advance, we are in a siege around Satan’s fortresses, we are bringing the fight to him. Just as our soldiers in Iraq and around the world are taking the fight to the terrorists, we are taking the fight to the forces of darkness.

Be encouraged and put your faith in our commanding King, the High King of Heaven. The war is won; be faithful in the fight!

Day One: 27 May 2006 1100

The second session today brought to us Dr. George Theis. Dr. Theis was the former executive director of Word of Life Fellowship, and has served in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Dr. Theis’ message was short, but to the point. He illuminated the story of Jonah, and exhorted us to “Be Available”. Jonah tried everything to be unavailable to the call of God. In our lives, we need to be sure to hold nothing back, to give all to God, and to be available for His call. Only when we are open to God’s leading can He use us to the fullest. Always be ready to serve God in any way.

So that is the conference up to this point, which happens to be 1325, Saturday afternoon. I will post regarding the further messages of the conference.

On a more personal note, I have been enjoying beautifully warm weather. Last night me and three friends drove off campus and started watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Alas the battery on the computer gave out halfway through, so after the meeting tonight we will be going back out to finish the movie.

for now,

the StormRider

U2 – Beautiful Day

The heart is a bloom, shoots up through the stony ground
There’s no room, no space to rent in this town
You’re out of luck and the reason that you had to care,
The traffic is stuck and you’re not moving anywhere.
You thought you’d found a friend to take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand in return for grace

It’s a beautiful day, the sky falls
And you feel like it’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away

You’re on the road but you’ve got no destination
You’re in the mud, in the maze of her imagination
You love this town even if that doesn’t ring true
You’ve been all over and it’s been all over you

It’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away
It’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day
Beautiful day
Don’t let it get away

Beautiful day

So yeah, its a beautiful day outside, summer is coming this weekend with high temps and thunderstorms!!

We have Founder’s Conference this weekend, and big high-toned and fancy-to-do. Ray Pritchard will be the keynote speaker. He taught Galatians this year at the BI and I am looking foward to hearing him again.

And beyond that, we have 7 days left in our school year!! yay!

so exciting stuff happening, stay posted for future bulletins.

I don’t update often, forgive me, but the thing is, not too much that I think is interesting enough to share with the rest of the world happens to me.

“Life in the wide world goes on much as it has this past age, full of its own comings and goings,” as Gandalf the Grey once said.

So I, more of the Shire than I would like to admit, don’t have much to say. Unless of course you want the whitherto’s and the whyfore’s of all that goes on in the Shire called Word of Life, in which case I post occasionally to tell you.

I hope your adventures are fun, and not all dark and full of gloom. I hope you come into sunlit vales and meet the most interesting creatures and people imaginable.

For myself, I have just had one breakfast (and the only I’m likely to get today) and want to fall asleep in a patch of sun, but must instead attend classes.

Bother!

so that’s interesting, not surprising for having grown up in a Navy town were accents get mingled.

What I am really curious to know is this, what American English do you MK’s that didn’t grow up in America speak?

So yeah, it has been almost a month since I updated. Please forgive me.

During that time, I have been in school and have been enjoying myself. So much to learn and do.

I have studied Church History, Biblical Counseling, Romans, New Testament Survey, Pneumatology (study of the Holy Spirit), and Eschatology (study of the end times) with Dr. Charles Ryrie.

Which isn’t really as much as it seems. On a personal note, I have been working every Monday for about 8 hours, and I have been working most nights for about 2 hours and am not quite raking in the cash, but enough so that I don’t always feel like a broke college student.

My weekends have been taken up by ministry. I worked a Mother/Daughter retreat which was interesting cause the mother/daughters didn’t do a whole lot. By work, I mean hung around different activities to make sure they know how to do it, etc. My activity was Paintball, and well, mothers/daughters don’t paintball much.

Heh heh.

The next weekend (last weekend) was a Father/Son retreat, and I did the same thing. Fathers/Sons know how to paintball, and that was awesome! It rained a bit, but nothing major. I think rain just makes things more interesting. Head over to my Flickr site for pics of paintball.

At some point I went canoeing with some buddies, and pictures of that are up, too. We have a nice big lake right here that is prime for canoeing. Fun stuff!

Also, the weather has been really nice, and really spring like! Whohoo! Summer is coming, I can’t wait.

Today I have ministry again, we are headed to Albany for an Arena Football game and an evangelistic outreach. Should be interesting if nothing else.

Lastly, I am sad, having finished the last of the Beef Crackers and Twisties my mom sent me. (“I want more, and I know I shouldn’t.” sorry, random Star Wars moment.)

*Em Tasol*