Category Archives: Bible

Jan 9 2012

The Parable of the Good Mormon

25 Then an expert on the law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to get life forever?”

 26 Jesus said, ”What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

 27 The man answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.” Also, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

 28 Jesus said to him, ”Your answer is right. Do this and you will live.”

 29 But the man, wanting to show the importance of his question, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

 30 Jesus answered, ”As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, some robbers attacked him. They tore off his clothes, beat him, and left him lying there, almost dead. 31 It happened that a priest was going down that road. When he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. 32 Next, a Levite came there, and after he went over and looked at the man, he walked by on the other side of the road. 33 Then a Samaritan traveling down the road came to where the hurt man was. When he saw the man, he felt very sorry for him.34The Samaritan went to him, poured olive oil and wine on his wounds, and bandaged them. Then he put the hurt man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he cared for him. 35The next day, the Samaritan brought out two coins, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of this man. If you spend more money on him, I will pay it back to you when I come again.’ “

 36 Then Jesus said, ”Which one of these three men do you think was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by the robbers?”

 37 The expert on the law answered, “The one who showed him mercy.”

   Jesus said to him, ”Then go and do what he did.”

I would like to suggest to you, that the Orthodox Jews looked at Samaritans, the same way as we look at Mormons. I think there is a parallel. And I think that we could stand for an adjustment.

I very much want to be a voice of reason, but also firmly based in what is true. I quite simply don’t believe Mormons are Christians.  My personal history with Mormonism has not been good. Back in May of 1982, I ventured in the Temple grounds at Salt Lake City. I was quite “stoned”, and I didn’t have on a shirt, and I was smoking a cigarette. My tattoos certainly didn’t create a lot of good will either.

Quite suddenly, two men in suits appeared. I have no idea where they came from. But they briskly escorted me out to the gate. I was told not to return. But outside the Temple grounds I met Christian believers, who were stationed outside to hand out tracts. I talked with them, and took all the reading material they had.

Within this particular parable, the deep heart of our Lord is strong. As He spoke, He dismantled issues split from its foes. There simply isn’t room to carry our personal issues. He takes us apart, but in a good way. We are brought into a special friendship with God.

The Samaritan also has been brought into the presence of God. He does not volitionally do so. We who follow, we must enter into His presence. But the Samaritan must press further in. All that he does, is factored in.  Samaritan love does have definite boundaries. But it does have humanitarian awareness. There is a profound sense, in a kindness that is true and kind. I heard someone once say, “If I had to choose only one, I’d rather be kind than right.”  I have to agree.

When we examine closely all that really matters, we clearly must take a definite stand against evil. In this case we find less a stand against what is wrong, and we step up to what is right. The Mormons approach us with a righteousness that is really quite evil. And as believers we do absorb it, but not with out a certain rationale.

The Good Mormon pushes us way beyond what we consider reasonable. He performs a great goodness, as he rescues this beat-up man.  I don’t know why, but I’m quite taken by this particular by the Mormon’s efforts. But when I come to the Lord Jesus, I want it to be certain. I have no intention of  letting it vacillate. I do trust in Jesus, and I must learn things from strange places.

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Sep 22 2011

Mix Faith With Doing

“In the same way, faith by itself—that does nothing—is dead.”  James 2 

Recipes are good.  I used to sit and read “The Joy of Cooking,” reading it like it was a literary novel.  I was quite fond about the simple way it divided everything up.  You had sections on Meats, and Desserts, and even Drinks.  And every so often it would insert a cooking tip.  Sometimes, I would start to smell that recipe I was thinking about.

I have never told anybody about this odd preference of reading material.  The really funny part is, I’ve read how to poach an egg, but I have never done it.  As a matter of fact, I don’t cook.  Never.  You see I have saturated myself in reading cookbooks, but that doesn’t make me a cook.  Only cooking makes me a cook.

We keep getting it messed up.  We seem to put the wrong stress on things.  We attribute value to things that we shouldn’t.  I happen to think that “faith” is a verb.  I also think that reading the Bible should activate us, and not to educate us. 

Often, I treat it like a cookbook.  I read and read, voraciously mind you.  But I don’t cook!  I have never put a single recipe to the test.  I have read about Eggs Benedict.  Or “Grandmas Tasty Cherry Pie.”  But it’s filed somewhere in my mind, and I have never moved beyond this.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this:  we must realize that Scripture is first and foremost for our hearts, and not so much for our heads. Being spiritual isn’t how smart you are, but what you do.  Cookbooks are good, but when it all shakes out, are you actually and really, cooking.  Or are you just reading? 

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Aug 26 2011

The Evil of Twisting Scripture

“It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.”

Judges 16:16, NASB

This has become a savage and vicious verse for me.  I used it to alienate a dear sister in the Lord. Vicki was a dear one who ran our office.  She had a heart that fully embraced our work of evangelism in the inner city in San Francisco.  She was an exceptional secretary.

She was wonderful.  She would constantly reach out to me, with the desire to see me established in this ministry of evangelism.  Her heart of kindness motivated me to press into the work of the Lord.  But there was something in my own heart that opposed her presence that was directed to me.

But her constant questions and comments every single morning had become a burden and a hassle.  Out of this frustration, I became somewhat more and more brazen and cynical toward her. I don’t really know why, really. Vickie continued to reach out to me, but I thwarted her work.  She wanted so much to contribute, and I figuratively slashed her tires with my dark skepticism.

One day I read this verse in Judges 16:16, “It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.”  I so very absorbed this and laid it on her.  I can see her now opening the Bible she kept in her desk.  She read with eagerness “the Word of the Lord” from me, and she was crushed. The tears streamed down her face.

Mishandling the Word like this should be a capital offense.  I have deeply regretted that moment when I slammed my sister with my twisted interpretation of scripture.  I wounded her very deeply, all ‘in the name of the Lord.”  I imparted to her with “my verse” which was a certain evil, in spite of my noble ministry of evangelism to the lost.

“Brothers, do not speak evil of one another” (James 4:11). Is not this a word which is much needed by some of us today? Alas, in some quarters the habit of discrediting others behind their backs has become so common that it is regarded almost as a matter of course; the mentioning to others of a brother’s faults or a sister’s failures, the repeating of unfavorable reports which have come to our ears—is so general that few appear to make any conscience thereof.

But we do this every day. We contaminate everyone around us with an awful evil.  At the first observation, it seems true and holy.  But as we press into it we find a powerful iniquity.  It is camoflaged and hidden.  But it is quite corrosive and detrimental.

Oh, dear one.  I hope you can circumvent this issue.  I hope you can resist the evil of misguided truth.  We effect so many, we come to this place of analysis where we can reject those on the boundries.  We place them into our “unacceptable” folder.

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Jul 8 2011

Ramblings of the Broken

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”    — C.S. Lewis

I think I am a creature of habit.  I honestly don’t think we have the power to steer our lives.  I rather think we choose our habits, and inclinations.  They in turn decide our paths.  We give ourselves too much credit, to decide and direct.  Simply put, we are not that big.

Somebody once told me, “The purpose of life is not to find your freedom; but to find your master.”  I don’t live that way, at least my inner propensity does not include God.  Did you ever think something like this?  “I wish God did not exist.  I want to be in charge, and I want to do what I want to do, when I want to do it!”  Living it all with no rules and no accountability!

But as we get older, our hair is gray and we look in the mirror and see bags and wrinkles, we realize how vulnerable and how precarious life really is.  If we are honest, and sufficently self-aware, we find ourselves needing to believe something more then us taking the universe over.

“Life is what happens while you are making other plans,” John Lennon observed.  Its reality is that it is something that springs on you, and you have an epiphany, shocked to the core.  Life has happened, and you didn’t even realize it.  We are quite undone, and we don’t really understand what it is all about.

I look at myself in the mirror, not in vanity but in amazement.  The ugly tattoos, and the track marks are from another life. I have scars on my wrists from a couple of suicide attempts.  There is the surgical zipper scar from a brain tumor.  I walk with a cane.  I am learning how to be broken.  And everything that has happened has happened for a reason.  C.S. Lewis once said, “Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn.”   I sense that he did learn, otherwise he couldn’t of said that.

Re-reading this I decided that I ramble a lot.  Forgive me.  Maybe there is a scrap or two in it for someone.

ybic,

Bryan

Jun 21 2011

Making It All Real

 

“[The LORD Is My Fortress] I live under the protection of God Most High and stay in the shadow of God All-Powerful.”

 Psalm 91:1 CEV

We must grasp this down deep.  He shelters us in a place that no one can reach.  He is a rock of a fortress, and evil will never penetrate him.  Our position is wonderful, and we rejoice in it, and yet a shield has been put into place that will never waver.  We are the “apple of his eye” and we stand very much protected.

The entirety of Psalm 91 is a confidence builder.  But it does so without us grasping truths that are vague or confusing.  It is a Psalm that states reality, without any anesthesia.  When we truly read it, the natural tendency is to be overwhelmed or confused by it.  But that isn’t its real purpose. It is there to communicate “security” in every perspective of life.  I am “safe” and nothing will ever change that.

As we shelter ourselves into his presence, we will end up drawing his “life” directly into our life.  Our blood now flows with his.  Our life, has been transfused or mixed with his.  He has gone the extra mile to make us one with him.  We are “blood brothers.”

Try as you may, you will not ever shake yourself free of this.  If you truly believe in Him, he goes ahead and puts his mark or seal on you.  At this point, you might as well surrender.  You have become his, and he will most definitely take control.

Psalm 91 points out so many issues.  Reading it, we find it takes us to a place where we trust him far beyond anything else.  He begins to comfort us, He soothes us into the very place, that we start bringing a grace that is quite exceptional.

May 4 2011

Saddened by My Fallenness

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”   Matt. 5:4, ESV

 

Scripture never flatters the human heart.  It acts on us directly, “dividing the spirit from the soul.”  I find no glowing review of our common humanity, nothing leads me to draw any other conclusion.  At our deepest essence, we are depraved, separated from truth and goodness.  In theology this is called, “original sin.”  (I don’t think there is really anything original about it.)

There is also a concept called “contrition.”   It means, “having sorrow or sadness over sin involving making steps to amend your ways.”  Notice the definition instills a sense of action.  Perhaps the idea of penitence need a new emphasis?

Does your discipleship include you?  There are broad, generalized teachings woven into the Word of the iniquity and fallenness of men.  It consistently talks a seemless truth, without fail. ( That’s one of the reasons why I know the Bible is true.)  The Father has made provision for our falseness and weakness, he sweeps nothing under a cosmic rug.  You might say the Scripture completely understands us, as us.  Our illusions and deceptions, blatant or subtle, do not confuse or mislead him.

Our discipleship must be “walked out” in brokenness.  We have absolutely nothing to boast about.  I cannot point to this blog– or having been a missionary, a teacher and a pastor as my “good things.”  Today, I sat and became very alert and aware of my inner wickedness.  Unless He directly intervenes in my life, I will die in my sins.

I am sad.  You see, I am fallen, a complete “junk heap.”  It’s easier to find water in the Sahara Desert than to find goodness in my heart.  As a matter of fact, I’ve taken evil to a new level.  I excel, and than I keep practicing it trying to squeeze out more and more power, pride and pleasure.

Those who mourn their contagiously evil hearts are the ones who God can comfort.  Our sadness over our sin (and the sin of the world)—is evidence of the Spirit’s action over our depravity. 

Original sin is in us, like the beard. We are shaved today and look clean, and have a smooth chin; tomorrow our beard has grown again, nor does it cease growing while we remain on earth. In like manner original sin cannot be extirpated [completely destroyed]  from us; it springs up in us as long as we live. Nevertheless we are bound to resist it to our utmost strength, and to cut it down unceasingly.

Martin Luther