Purpose

Few things inspire more melodrama than the day you 're too old to fulfill your childish dream. Mine was to be a fighter pilot.
Every other day you can psychologically leave the door open but then one day you reach an age when you can no longer make your dream real. Only because you've had one too many birthdays.

Even if I imagine pursuing a childhood dream... lets say I acheived every goal and dream. If that was my life I imagine I would still leave be empty and unfullfilled the day I asked myself the question "Is this it?"

And if chasing dreams isn't "it" what is?

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,

Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,
“ I have no pleasure in them”:

While the sun and the light,
The moon and the stars,
Are not darkened,
And the clouds do not return after the rain;

In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,
And the strong men bow down;
When the grinders cease because they are few,
And those that look through the windows grow dim;

When the doors are shut in the streets,
And the sound of grinding is low;
When one rises up at the sound of a bird,
And all the daughters of music are brought low.

Also they are afraid of height,
And of terrors in the way;

When the almond tree blossoms,
The grasshopper is a burden,
And desire fails.
For man goes to his eternal home,
And the mourners go about the streets.

Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
“ Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“ All is vanity.” - Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

Everything is futile and chasing the wind except one thing. It's Christ's purpose for you. The deepest sadness isn't failing to catch our dreams. Its a youth chasing after some other lover and then when he's done with us we all end up in the same place... knocking on God's door.

Don't give your youth to someone else.

Bible it

Here's an interesting debate topic I ran across and I've reproduced it for you here...

Username: Murad
First Post
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 7:11 am
Post subject: The $1,000,000 challenge to Christians
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The author of John claims that Jesus said:

Quote: Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (John 7:38)
Produce the reference, where exactly was Jesus quoting?

The following do not match: - Isaiah 58:11
- Isaiah 12:3
- Ezekiel 47:9


If you have the answer here's where to go to collect your money --> debatingchristianity.com/forum
 
I first came across this challenge in an atheist forum begging the question "Why won't God heal amputees?". I soon found an atheist posting under the moniker "Vynn" who asserted that nowhere in the bible does it say what Jesus claims in John 7:38 nor is there any concept like this anywhere in the OT.  And he knows this for sure because he "used to be a Christian" (which is a really interesting thing to say if you think about it)

Vynn's problem is solved with little effort because he allowed a metaphorical solution. To which I think Ezekiel 47: 1-12 could be one.

Murad, on the other hand, demands a verbatim, i.e. word for word, solution. This is of course, is impossible because John 7:38 is written in Greek and the scripture He quoted would've been written in Hebrew or Aramaic. But if we use the following logic: As "verbatim" is to "word for word" John 7:38 is to _______

Step 1) "Google it"

Here are some of the scriptures that have been posed as solutions to the problem:

The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. - Isaiah 58:11
 
You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,And did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, And gave them water for their thirst. - Nehemiah 9:20

Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation. - Isaiah 12:3

And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.- Ezekiel 47:9

The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook. - Prov 18:4

Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.- Exodus 17:6

Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.”- Numbers 20:8

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring; - Isaiah 44:3

None of these seem to be the ideal solution so the question remains... What scripture was Jesus quoting?

Step 2) "Bible it"

White knucklin' the rosary

Don't even try to tell me what prayer is for

My Genie in a bottle needs to give me some more

And when this mess is over-I don't need Him anymore

I'll put my God back on temporary ignore

If you will do what I need you to do

I'll find some time to praise you when this whole thing is through

If you get me out of this, Oh great Almighty

I promise I'll never do it again... well... maybe

White knucklin' the rosary

I know my God by what He does for me

Open only in case of emergency

White knucklin' the rosary

- White knucklin' the rosary, Tourniquet

I confess that 95% of the time, my prayer life is probably best described as shallow and one dimensional. It's not unlike typical communicatation between people. Everyone's busy being busy. Busy texting someone other than the person they went to lunch with. Too busy watching TV (or blogging) to talk to their spouse. When we need something done we're too busy to have an actual conversation so we send a quick email and then... "Ta Da" (dusting off hands) ...its now on their to do list.

Recently, I had to travel to two different remote worksites by float plane. Now I love flying in small planes. I love the feeling when the little plane accelerates and lifts off into the air. Seeing the earth speeding away below and the birds eye view of  a place that looks fairly mundane from ground level. But its not as fun in the winter as it is on cloudless blue summer day.

The first trip was fairly exciting. We travelled into Jervis inlet in the coastal mountains and the wind gusts through the mountains really tossed our little plane around. When you're in a plane your mind knows you are in the air but your body is tricked into thinking you are still on terra firma. Tricked by the seat and the floor of the plane. But when the plane drops suddenly and your body experiences weightlessness or slight g-forces in the the wrong directions. I feel suddenly uncomfortable. One drop in particular must have been about 200ft and we dropped so fast that the engine actually stalled and sputtered. Our bodies jumped violently in our seatbelts, the pilot quickly got the engine going and regained control. It took some time before my heart stopped thumping in my chest.

This set me up nicely for tmy next float plane trip the following week which was a longer flight up to a small community near Haida Gwaii. It was windy and bumpy but without incident. However, I prayed under my breath most of the way there because I was still moderately rattled by the experience the previous week.

This experience convicted me of my need to spend time in prayer with God that isn't just making lists of requests or for safety but a true conversation.

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Ilya Bryzgalov and the universe

Ilya Bryzgalov, a young Goaltender from Togliatti Russia, recently appeared on TV discussing the universe. It's a funny clip but opens a window into the mind of a professional hockey player who is obviously intelligent and interested in more than just playing hockey.

The first human to ever travel into space was a Russian cosmonaught named Yuri Gagarin. Someone said after his flight "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there". There is no record of Gagarin himself speaking these words but have a look at the next video to see what you think about the universe and if you get impressed like Ilya Bryzgalov.

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, - Psalms 19:1-4

Breathless wonderment

I find it amazing to think that there is nothing God can't control to fulfill His purpose.

You are probably thinking, "Yes.... This is news to you?"

Well,... no I understand He can do anything but it still blows me away.

It was His will that His son would be born in Bethlehem in a stable and the way He made that happen is nothing less than breathtaking.

Mary and Joseph were from Nazareth and so its likely that without intervention that's where Jesus would've been born. But Bethlehem, which means "house of bread" is where God wanted Him to be born and He wanted Him to be born in a stable.

For that to happen (and to generalize scandalously) certain conditions needed to exist. There needed to be a foreign dictator in charge of Israel that wanted a census of his empire and no room at the Inn.

Lets talk about one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen. No, I'm not talking about McDonalds but Imperial Rome.

Did God direct Hannibal Hamilcar to take his Carthaginian army over the alps into Rome? Because the ensuing war with Rome which eventually ended in defeat for Carthage gave Rome the confidence to look outward and conquer the majority of the known world.

After that Rome grew in power and gobbled up territory but she was a republic and had many controls in place to keep her safe from dictatorships. Until one man named Julius Caesar took control and placed himself at the helm.

Julius Caesar was, of course, famously betrayed by Mark Antony, Cassius and his friend Brutus. But Caesar left a will in which he declared Octavian to be his heir and Octavian became Emperor of Rome. Octavian is better known by his preferred title Augustus or "Revered one". Caesar Augustus established a civil service which then took a census of the entire Roman world.

And then this meant Mary and Joseph had to travel to their ancestral town of Bethlehem.

Pretty cool I think.

Oh yeah and the Holy Spirit also caused the virgin Mary to conceive. That may have been one of the reasons she and Joseph were denied a room anywhere in Bethlehem. Its unlikely that anyone would try too hard to find a room for a pregnant unmarried woman at that time. But that was all part of God's plan. He wanted His Son to be born in a lowly stable. Maybe because to the One who was involved in the creation of the universe there would be no difference between a stable and what you and I perceive as the greatest house on earth.

Neither could claim to be worthy of His presence.

But if I was Mary I might still wonder if there could've been a plan that didn't involve travelling 140km when I was nine months pregnant.

Jamais vu

Most people know of "deja vu" but have you ever heard of "jamais vu". Jamais vu describes the feeling you get when something that should be familiar becomes unfamiliar. Try writing the word "button" 25 times and see what happens.

Something similar happens when I read a passage of scripture over and over. Maybe the more you see something your assumptions and the associated inferences fade and the actual thing starts to stand out more starkly?

I've been reading Luke 5:33-39 over and over lately and I can't seem to grasp its meaning.
Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
 
I've never noticed that last statement before "the old is better" and It's only included in Luke's account.
 
I always believed this parable meant we must be changed before God's Spirit will be poured into us but now I'm not so sure that's what He's saying.
 
I started reading the context of that back to verse 27 and then the other two accounts of the same story in Matthew 9 and Mark 2. In the Matthew account Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6
 
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
 
Here are the facts of the three accounts:

1. Jesus called a tax collector Matthew to follow Him
2. Matthew held a feast with Jesus, His disciples, tax collectors and sinners
3. The Pharisees questioned Jesus on why He would eat with tax collectors and sinners
4. Jesus said, "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire Mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous but the sinners"
5. John's disciples questioned Jesus on why His disciples didn't fast
6. Jesus replied with 3 analogies: the bridegroom, the cloth and the wine in wineskins

I feel like the Hosea scripture is the key to unlocking the mystery.

God desires mercy for sinners more than the sacrifice of fasting that the Pharasees and John's disciples were offering. But a question still remains for me... What did He mean when He said "But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better." - Luke 5:38-39?

"The old is better"... This is the part I never noticed before and has got me scratching my head.

P.S. if you're wondering why there is a picture of coffee beans on this post its to demonstrate that if you looked at it carefully you would've noticed a creepy face lurking in those seemingly random beans.

Fallen

One of the more intriguing accounts in scripture is of the mysterious "Nephilim". Who or what were they?

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. - Genesis 6:3-5
 
Something about their birth or existence prompted God to limit man's lifespan to 120yrs and after that to bring the flood to rid the earth of violence and the Nephilim. And yet somehow years later they make another appearance as Israel is about to enter the promised land...
 
When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there . Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” - Numbers 13:25-33

God had miraculously saved Israel out of Egypt but still these people didn't believe that He had power to do what He said He would do. God explains it again to them that He is able and willing to conquer the land for them...

But they prefered the wisdom of Homer Simpson, "“You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is: never try.”

I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you. I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.” - Exodus 23:27-33

Sadly the people lacked faith and so they died in the wilderness. Years later, Joshua and Caleb would lead a new generation into the promised land. At that time God reaffirms His plan...

Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying,“Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. - Joshua 1:1-5

The Israelites saw God's power being manifested in such fantastic ways, why couldn't they believe that He would give them total victory? They were more focussed on the giants in the land. It's actually worse than that, the spies (other than Joshua and Caleb) lied. They told everyone that the Nephilim inhabited the land, but this wasn't true. How could it be? They were destroyed in the flood. So what is the reason for this spurious account? It can only mean that they hoped the mere mention of the name would spread fear throughout the camp and help convince everyone to call off the invasion of the promised land.

How can we apply this to our lives today?

1) Moses is a type of the Law and Joshua is a type of Jesus Christ. Just as Moses could not lead Israel into the promised land the Law cannot save us, it can bring us to the border but only Christ can take us in and give us victory.

2) God can and will give us victory over every single stronghold in our lives but it won't happen in one day or one year. Why? that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land

3) We should not be afraid of any enemy or make any covenant with it. for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you

God will not fail you or forsake you.