Daniel made a dog house over Christmas. Here’s Luna and Ben making an inspection.

We, (I mean mankind in general) have a great way of adding explanations to God’s messages to earth.

1. God says something simple.

2. We know that people will misinterpret it if we don’t add a few conditions and explanations.

Result: What I call Legally Evangelical.

It’s quite similar to something that happened at work the other day.  Another organization recently approached me because it wanted to add a section to their Emergency Plan. They needed to specify a location to which their residents could go in case of fire, flood, plague, etc.  The solution was easy – we could write up a Memorandum of Understanding saying that their guys can stay at our Centre unless our E.D. said they couldn’t; with no obligation on us to accommodate otherwise if that were the case.  I typed it up, sent it to Headquarters and waited.  Yup, it came back. After going through the Legal Department whose job it is to protect us from liabilities. They do this essentially by taking the number of words in our little agreements and multiplying by a factor of 25. Now it’s clear. I guess.

We evangelicals do the exact same thing; as if we are afraid the legal department in Heaven would disapprove of any short and possibly misinterpreted bible passages or sermons. You know, like the one which inspired Martin Luther (est iustus autem ex fide vivit).   Sadly,  I believe doing so doesn’t mitigate anyone’s liability and it’s not to anyone’s edification, unless the Holy Spirit closes peoples ears to it and allows the hearers to hear only that which He is Speaking.  Take a few examples:

-  Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Legally Evangelical Translation: “Father, help them to realize that what they are doing is wrong, so that they are seriously repentent; desiring in their hearts to be clean and forgiven, so that You, O God, will forgive them if they believe with all their heart that You, O God will raise Me, Jesus, from the dead.”  Even then, we’d feel uncomfortable leaving anyone with such a brief explanation and would load them with literature exhorting them to tithe, attend an evangelical church regularly, pray, read their bible (the correct translation thereof), flee immorality, and perhaps also get baptized quickly before they forget and maybe throw in a doctrine or two about the rapture, or dispensationalism.

- Luke 2:8-14 “Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host priasing God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Legally Evangelical Translation: “Be afraid! For Judgement is coming! For behold, I bring you essential information that will allow you to live forever, if you receive it with your heart, the evidence being a transformed life, otherwise it’s proof you don’t believe: For today, in the City of David, there has been born for you who believe, a LORD, who is Christ, that is, the fullness of the Godhead – God, incarnate and He shall save some of you, but not all of you, so don’t get your hopes up! This message is only for Evangelicals.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and may it not be long before He crushes the vile and the sick and perverted, and all the sinners on earth!”

Thanks be to God we didn’t write the original script.

Below you will find an Audio file of a message I gave in Regina last Sunday…

Hope you can listen to the audio file.

Cessna 120 For sale

I hope you have time to listen to the audio.

We took Grandma out on the Prairie for her first time.  She was suitably impressed. It was beautiful.

Blessed are those that hear and keep the Word of God.  You know when the Holy Spirit has spoken truth to you.  Watch out ! Almost everytime, the enemy will whisper something to try and take away or nulify the truth God has given you.  Don’t let the enemy steal from your heart that which God has told you.  You hear that God loves you, and Jesus said: “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing” ?  Don’t let the evil one stop you from keeping that Word.  The enemy would whisper right away…. but I’m such a crumb….  Don’t accept that.  Praise the Lord for His Word.  Crumb or not, Jesus died to save you.

Luke 18:1-8

How many times have you read this and wondered if the unjust judge was supposed to be some sort of comparison or contrast to God the Father?  Let’s put that out of our minds. God cannot be compared with an unjust judge. It’s the two-pronged determination of the widow we must look at.

It’s less complicated than you might have been led to believe…. Were you told that you had to have a “right view” of important things like pre-trib rapture, dispensationalism, the identity of the anti-christ etc. etc. etc….? Well, listen to the audio. You might be relieved.

Yes, self control, cleanliness, sobriety and good relationships are good. But when someone “falls from the standard”, we shouldn’t call it “falling from grace”. After all, Grace is what catches us at the bottom when we fall. By His Grace, we are caught, lifted back up and protected.

My Fuji digital camera works great…. except that it suddenly developed a tendency to drain the batteries. Consequently, there are no pictures being posted here.  Maybe next week.