The Holy Spirit

In my previous article, I sought to establish that Jesus’ Second Coming is, indeed, very relevant to our generation now. I did not, however, provide much application... what does it actually mean for us, here and now, for it to be relevant? In other words... what are we to do, knowing that we are in the beginning of the transition period that will end when Jesus establishes His throne on earth? This is a huge question! One could write a book on this subject and not encapsulate everything. With that in mind, we will be looking at the passage we are already familiar with, which is Matthew 24-25, as Jesus lays out some important principles therein as to what we should expect and how we ought to live our lives in response.

"Studying Jesus' Second Coming has no real impact on us, now, and is therefore irrelevant."

I hear this all too often, or something similar. I'm sure you have too, or maybe that is your belief and you have said it yourself? I believe that this is not only an un-Biblical, but a very dangerous position to hold as a Christian in this day and age. Some will have objections to this, of course... probably the strongest being from the camp of Preterism, who in a nutshell believe that most or all of prophecy regarding Jesus was fulfilled in or before 70 A.D.  I will not address this, here... I will simply say that this doctrine misses the mark in a terrible way, and is not worthy of rebuttal here... I have some other thoughts on it in this blog post. If you do want me to address the topic of preterism more in full, I may in the future. The others that often object to the relevancy of Jesus' Second Advent, in my experience, often seem to base it around the idea that it doesn't actually help us living our lives now.

"I have been writing this volume while residing in Germany for a teaching trip. I am humbled by penning these 95 theses in the same country as Martin Luther did many years ago. I submit these to the evangelical church of our day and pray that God would allow anything of truth in these pages to bend and change men's hearts back to God." - Greg Gordon - http://www.sermonindex.net **

“It is useless for large companies of believers to spend long hours begging God to send revival. Unless we intend to reform we may as well not pray. Unless praying men have the insight and faith to amend their whole way of life to conform to the New Testament pattern there can be no true revival.” - A.W. Tozer

**

Well... I was writing an email, and this really got stirred up in my heart. Probably partly to do with finishing Tozer's book, too. Anyways... I was sitting in bed and considering the books I've read in the last five years, or so, and two in particular jumped out at me that actually both encourage and sadden me.

Oh gosh. I'm watching the end of "The Da Vinci Code". So dumb! It's entertaining if you can watch/read it as a mere story... but the assertions and deceptions contained therein regarding the nature of Jesus are ridiculous! On a different subject altogether, isn't it funny how people can try disprove God, but cannot? At the same time, neither can we prove the existence of God? Ahh, but I am not, cannot be agnostic, either. I experience God, every single day. How could I deny that?

Ahh, I began to write this blog in an entirely different way, but scrapped it. Today I have been absolutely blown away, once again, by the incredible complexity and depth of the Bible. Have you ever tried explaining a Biblical doctrine to somebody? I love it. I love teaching. I love imparting new things to people, challenging what they believe. Sometimes I am scared to do so, not wanting to offend them, or just afraid that someday I will recognise my error. Still... I think teaching is in my blood.

Hey friends! Sorry it's been so long since I have blogged, I don't really have much of an excuse! I'll record a video update sometime this week, though, let you know what I have been up to. Let's get to it! Lately, our desperate need to pursue God has been heavy on my heart. A friend told me the night before last that she, in essence, sensed that something was wrong with the Church. For all we do (and I'm including my present occupation in Youth With A Mission) at times, there seem to be relatively few new people being converted. Why?

Well, since I seem to suck at putting up regular blog posts these days, I think I'll get at least one in before the weekend, as it will be a bit nuts. Reef To Outback is headed out camping for a week or so, and I'm quite excited. I've been looking forward to it for well over a month, now, and it's almost here! Camping is always one of the best experiences here at RTO, such a relaxing and refreshing time away from everything. We're going to my favorite camping spot of any that I have been to in Australia...

Grace rocked my world. What is grace? Obviously it is a word which is quite... dynamic, but I'm talking, of course, about grace from God. That is the grace which we do not deserve: "unmerited favor" is a definition that is quite often used in this instance, and I believe it is certainly descriptive in part of God's grace; but when we use it, often we don't think of the implications of what that is (that, or, we use it because we do think of the implications, and it's the best phrase ready-at-hand that portrays the idea written on our hearts). Anyways...

Because I couldn't get this to format correctly, it's now in PDF format, free for you to download: [download id="6"]