Is this Jesus our promised Messiah?

screamOne night my little brother, sister and I were coming home from our grandparents’ house. They lived in the same village as we did but at that time streetlights were a future dream and
it was dark and dark is spooky when you’re ten years old.

The road led us past a place where the forest came right up to the road. I was already a bit on edge when suddenly I heard a noise from the edge of the woods, “Grrrrrr…”

Electric charges ran up and down my spine. I imagined there was a bobcat or some hungry animal lurking in the trees ready to pounce and eat us.

Since I was the oldest I figured that I should find something to try to protect us but the only thing available was the pea gravel on the edge of the road. I needed to call in an airstrike and that was all there was–tiny rocks!

Suddenly something burst out of the woods and … and it was the son of our neighbor who had hidden himself when he saw us coming and decided to scare us. Continue reading

Was That a Heavenly Horse?

horse-dreamstime_xs_27741604Jesus really is coming back astrid a white horse

It’s funny the things you wonder about when you mind is out of gear and just kind of drifting around in the clouds (where my mind stays about 80% of the time).

The other day I was thinking about the battle of Armageddon and when Jesus comes back on a white horse leading the armies of heaven, all astride white horses.

And I wondered, “Are there horses in heaven?” I looked at some commentaries and a lot of them think the horses are not real, but symbolic. Someone else said that Jesus rode a spiritual horse.

A spiritual horse? What could that be? Is it like that old song, “Ghost Riders In the Sky”? (Here’s Burl Ives singing the original “Ghost Riders In the Sky” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2klh2cTa_Q)

I really don’t know too much about it. Spiritual, symbollic or a real as Trigger, whatever. (Trigger was Roy Rogers’ horse for you young readers. Roy Rogers was a famous cowboy for you young readers)

But heavenly horses have a precedent.   Continue reading

Jesus, the “Nano-God”?

God In a Pinhead

source: NASA

John Ortberg tells the story of the work of psychologist Milton Rokeach and his experience with three men, Leon, Joseph, and Clyde, who each thought they were the Messiah.

It was a bit frustrating at times. Rokeach would have the men together and one would say, “I’m the Messiah, the Son of God. I am on a mission. I was sent to save the earth.”

And the good doctor would ask, “How do you know?” “God told me,” the man replied.

Upon which another one of the ‘messiahs’ would chime in, “I never told you any such thing.”

You think you’ve got problems. Continue reading

God Speaks If You Ask Him To

 

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www.microsoftoffice.com

It amazing what the Lord will show you if you’ll ask Him. Once, I was reading the Old

Testament and I found the verse that said that you’re not supposed to boil a kid goat in his mother’s milk when you’re cooking him.

Later, in another Old Testament book I found the same scripture. I figure that space in the Bible must be at a premium and if it’s there twice, God must want to teach us something, but what? So, I prayed, “Lord, will You show me what that means?”

A few days later I received an unsolicited Bible devotional brochure. They gave you the first part, hoping you would buy the rest. Sure enough, the kid verses were commented on.

According to them, it was an idolatrous practice, current at the time that God didn’t want His people involved in.

(Maybe it was also a reminder that, though God has given us these animals for food, we shouldn’t be callous. Cooking a little one in his mother’s milk seems a bit cruel. Could we say that we should respect the things we eat?)

Anyway, I had another of those, “What is this about thoughts the other morning as I was reading Psalms 146:8. “The Lord gives sight to the blind …” Wait up a minute. I can’t remember any occasion under the Old Covenant when blind people were healed. In Jesus’ ministry there were a ton of physical healings but few before He came.

Were there a lot of unrecorded healings in the Old Testament? What in the world was this verse, written many years before the coming of the Lord Jesus, talking about?

Once again I prayed, “Lord?” Continue reading

Christian Power Rangers?

Real power pulses from the Cross of Jesus.

Everyone seems to be fascinated with POWER today. Kids watch Power Rangers and play video games where they’ve got superhuman power to do stuff, all the while dreaming of being Harry Potter.

Actually, I missed the Power Rangers. Superman and other comic book heroes wowed my generation. My kids left home before Power Rangers took root in kids’ consciousness. They were the Transformers generation.

Here’s what Wikipedia says about the Rangers, “Morphed Rangers generally possesses superhuman strength, durability, and ability in hand-to-hand combat. Some possess superhuman abilities such as super-speed or invisibility, attributes somewhat related to their Ranger abilities…When enemies grow to incredible sizes, Rangers utilize individual Zords that combine into a larger Megazord.”

“Megazords!” Got that? Continue reading