Truth

I constantly read and study to prepare to teach my Sunday School class and to dig deeper into my own Christian faith. I very much want to present the scriptures in proper context. What the scriptures are saying to the people who they were written to, when they were written to them and what (if anything) are they saying to us today? I also study to be up on current issues that are going on within the church today.

Here is the rub… You have to find a source that you trust, a student/scholar of theology to help bring perspective. Any good college student knows you need more than one source so you need at least couple of student/scholars that you can trust but if they are basically cut from the same cloth then you pretty much defeat the whole purpose of getting perspective. If they are on opposite ends of the spectrum then you have much to weigh to make decisions. What if they both have good arguments and there is truth in both of their positions and we all know there is no gray area in the Bible it is all black and white and this is the point where your pull your hair and scream!!! WHAT IS THE TRUTH!?!?

Coming from a good conservative Baptist background I am constantly flashing to that judgment seat where you are standing alone answering for, how you treated others, how you used your talents, what you taught others, how you lived your life and what you believed. I cannot stand before God and say, “Well so and so said that this scripture in the original Greek… Aramaic… Hebrew… said…” One, I don’t speak or read any of these languages and two, even if I did where do I find the original texts?

Sometimes when you study to get the true meaning of the scriptures you find many of the things you were sure of before you started you are not so sure of anymore. The reason you studied was increase you knowledge to be more prepared to teach.

Funny thing is when Jesus was teaching great truths He took a child to His disciples and said, “Unless you become as this child you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

So here is my starting point “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…”

I can build from there!

In the Desert

I have spent my fair share of time in the desert.
I played in the deserts of Saudi Arabia while the Iraqis were shooting scud missiles at me and the Americans were shooting patriot missiles at them. Both were causing the night to look like a ghost town. We knew the scuds would come after dark and be aimed at the city so many of the city dwellers were gone by dark. This was very exciting like riding a roller coaster that sometimes goes off the track and ...


The next time I spent time in the desert I was in Kuwait and guess what? You got it... The Iraqis were shooting missiles again. This time they did not even come close. They did mess up one of our Starbucks but only one.

Not only were the Iraqis shooting missiles but the locals were shooting Americans when we stopped at traffic lights so… We just stopped stopping at the lights. This was very exciting. If the missiles did not get us or the locals did not shoot us, we may kill ourselves because we did not stop at the red lights. It was very exciting.


The next three times were in Baghdad. Guess what? The Iraqis were shooting rockets at us. The first trip only had a little excitement but enough to keep us on our toes. The second trip had a little more excitement and one week after I came home a rocket blew up the truck I had been driving...

 

The last trip they got the closest yet. A rocket hit a little over a hundred feet from where I was. On my way home a mortar hit pretty close but... it missed.


I am in the desert again. This is not a literal desert. This time no one is shooting. The desert winds have dried my soul until I feel dry to the bone. I look at all I have believed all my life and wonder… WHY?

I do not doubt that there is a God. I know Yahweh is God and Jesus is His son.
I believe without a problem He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died for my sins and rose on the third day.
I believe without a doubt He was my sin sacrifice to the Father and is at the right hand of the Father.
I believe without a doubt that I will go to Heaven because I have believed in Him and have a relationship with Him.

I believe and understand I am to love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind… and love my neighbor as myself.
I know I am to love others as Jesus loved me. He laid down His life for me...

Everything else is subject to question.
I have been a Christian since I was a child of five. Lived for the Lord, failed the Lord, lived for myself, and failed myself, found forgiveness from God and myself but…
That’s just it…

BUT…

There is nothing else.

BUT... God let's us know there is hope...

Just found this... 8 April 10

Deuteronomy 32:10-11
He found me in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled me, he cared for me, he kept me as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone carried me.“

So... I am not in the desert alone...