Who Are You?

Then some of the Jewish exorcists who traveled from place to place tried to make use of the name of the Lord Yeshua in connection with people who had evil spirits. They would say, “I exorcise you by the Yeshua that Sha’ul is proclaiming!” One time, seven sons of a Jewish cohen gadol named Skeva were doing this; and the evil spirit answered them. It said, “Yeshua I know. And Sha’ul I recognize. But you? Who are you?” Then the man with the evil spirit fell upon them, overpowered them and gave them such a beating that they ran from the house, naked and bleeding. (Acts 19:13-16)

 This passage has one of my favorite ideas regarding our spiritual duties as Christians.
"But you? Who are you?" the demon asked. Yes, of course demons know Jesus (James 2 says the demons believe--and shudder!). And Paul had a reputation in Hell, such that they recognized him. In a sense, they revered him. Like the soldiers of one army hearing the name of an opposing army's general; they would recognize it and it might even stir them a little to know that he was the one commanding their enemy's forces.
 But these seven sons? Who are they? Nobodies as far as Hell is concerned. Seven brothers, sons of the high priest no less, who were all overpowered, stripped, and lashed by one man with one demon (never forget that Legion had thousands, and they trembled before Christ; let that be an image of power).

 What really caught me about this today was that they tried to cast out on authority with degrees of separation; from Jesus to Paul to them. They had no first-hand experience with Christ, yet they cast out demons, "by the [Jesus] that [Paul] is proclaiming!" They knew of Jesus, but only because they knew of Paul's message.

 How sad would it be to know of Jesus exclusively through the words of another? How vain our pursuits, to be shaped by only the image given us by mortal men? Without experience of Christ, what have we at all?
 Here's something else to think about; the Bible is the true and infallible Word of God, but it was written/logged/chronicled by fallible men. In man's language. Translated into another of man's languages by other men. And then the translation process happened again.
 The Bible as the Word of God has no flaw, but we, humans, do. So debate all you like about NIV, KJV, ESV, NASB, whatever translation you think is the right one; we're farther from the original Hebrew and Aramaic/Greek than these seven sons of Skeva were from Christ. Slight variations in wording is hardly consequential at this point.
 To go a step further, take into account that the Gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and that Acts was also chronicled by Luke.
 Again i say, how sad would it be to know of Jesus exclusively through the words of another?

 Now look around. We have preachers, straight out of seminary and Bible college, who have had no firsthand encounter with the Almighty (ironically, there's even a book titled, "How to Stay Christian in Seminary"). We have Biblical scholars whose connection with God is purely mental and not in the least bit Spiritual. We have missionaries that can only give a reason for believing in Christ from the text in the Bible (not to discount the authority of the Scriptures, but allow me to refer you to Revelation 12:10-11. Now a simple question: How do we overcome the accuser of the brethren?).
 Because you have read someone's autobiography and believe it to be true does not necessarily mean you know the author. You may be capable of quoting it backwards and forwards and still not know the author.

 How do you know Jesus Christ? Have you read his biography? The collected words of those witnesses?
Or have you met Him, known Him, trusted Him, and been a witness yourself? Can you look someone in the eyes and say, "Apart from the Bible, I know Him"? Is it in the mind only, or in the heart?
 We must yada (know something by firsthand, witness' experience) Christ.

 No one can stress enough the universal-scale of importance of Scripture. Each time you read the Bible, you are reading accounts of His qualities, you are being better-equipped to recognize Him. And how are we to know and to claim genuine witness about someone unless we recognize them?
 But unless we have met Jesus and we have received Him and been witnesses in our own lives and people who do the will of God, He does not know us.
 Reading the Bible does not save. Going to church does not save. Preachers and pastors don't save. Knowing Christ, with Christ knowing you, and having a relationship with Him does save.

Lesser Than, Greater Than

This is a very "out there" kind of post, and it has little practicality as far as application and usefulness go, but with it comes the hope that some may see the Word of God in a slightly more enveloping light. And to make it all the more enveloping, i must try to describe time and matter.

Since atoms convert into energy, they must end (the second law of thermodynamics, also known as entropy states this). Energy runs out, new atoms do not spawn. The universe is running out of matter and energy, and has been since "the beginning." So with that said, matter could not have existed for eternity. It requires a moment in which it began. This moment is also the moment that time was brought forth. So we are left with the idea that there was no time, and at some point time will again cease to be. There is a moment in between which we call the universe. And without time, there would be no start-point. There is a great paradox in this universe and it is answered only by matter being introduced from somewhere else, a place without time, a place where "forever to forever" is now and yesterday and will be tomorrow without distinction.
Hopefully that made some bit of sense. This was something incredibly difficult to try and expound before reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, but has since only become clearer in mind, not in word (and the chapter, "Is Theology Poetry?" from The Weight of Glory played no small part in the exposition of this idea).
In other words, the realm of God is more substantial and more real than this existence because it existed before this universe was born and already exists after this universe has died out.
Not to say that this existence isn't real, only that the existence that will be is more real. If this life is indeed a vapor, then what comes next must be something greater, thicker, and more present; a fluid. And just as a mist is easily passed through and an ocean much less, so this life is less substantial than the life that will be. Both are real, one just happens to have much greater substance to it.

And we are now presented with the Bible, the Word of God. I will call it our Anchor for various reasons to be explained.

The Bible is, obviously, paper and ink and binding, sometimes electrons forming letters on a screen, depending on the medium you choose to read it from. But despite that, the ideas, concepts, stories, chroniclings, poems, and the like within Scripture are considered "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16).
To take that as literal, to see the entirety of Scripture as being born of the thoughts of God, formed by His breath, we are then faced with the Anchorhood of the Bible.
God is eternal, without beginning and without ending. And though this paper that will decompose in its due time is the Bible, the substance of the Bible itself will not fade. It will not fade because it is from God, from a place that already exists tomorrow and existed before this universe was set in motion. The Bible, or at least the nourishment of it, is our Anchor to that place.
If it is from there, it is, in its message, preeminent of all things in this universe. It is our tie to God's existence. The stories were known and chronicled before time began, and set to paper only after these things took place. It is a drop of water in the vapor of our lives. It is a bit of substance in a fog. It is more real than this life because it is from another that surpasses it.

It may seem vague in its description of Heaven and the hosts therein, God, and the physical implications of anything Spiritual, but only because it would be as trying to describe a three-dimensional world in a two-dimensional one where the word "depth" has no meaning. We could draw a cube, a facsimile, but it is in fact still two-dimensional there. This is why Jesus didn't say exactly what Heaven is, but rather what it is like. This is why Jesus spoke in parables; we can't grasp the literalism (or literalness if we're going by the dictionary) of it because this is a step away, a dimension down, seeing through a mirror darkly. To word it in its entirety, He would've used terms that have no meaning here, perhaps made noises we could not understand--perhaps like that of those individuals so under the influence of the Holy Spirit that they cease to speak in earthly dialects. Could this be merely the spirit of the man meeting the Spirit of God and not being able to say or describe, to or through its mortal vehicle, what is going on, what is being said, or what is being exchanged?

The Bible is not just a collection of words; it is our Anchor to an existence that was and is and is to come because it was and is and is to come because it is from the One who was and is and is to come.

Seek God, Work For Love

Love won't pay the bills, nor will it put food on the table, but it will satisfy the soul.
What good is it to gain the whole world but lose your soul? Work first for love, for if we have riches yet no love, we have nothing.
Seek, above all things, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and your needs will be met/supplied (or are we so vain as to believe that His grace is not sufficient for us?).

Seek the kingdom of God, seek His righteousness, and you will not know need.
Work for love, and you will not toil in vain.
In these two things, the body is nourished and the soul fulfilled.

What is Love?

What is love?
More than a feeling, more than a chemical reaction, more than a craving, what is it that makes love what it is?
Anger is a feeling. There are books written about it, but not enough to fill a dozen libraries.
Grief is an emotion, too. Again, it has books written about it, but scarcely does one spend their life in search of it.
Sadness is one of the more popular emotions, but it’s not fantasized about endlessly.
Why is love set apart? Why do we seek it, sometimes our entire lives? Why does it fill our hearts and minds so that we fill countless books with tales of it? Why do we feel joy for those that experience it? How is it that it affects us by proxy so much that we can be brought to tears of happiness at imaginary scenarios involving it?

Love is a meaning. It is life.
When we seek love, we seek meaning.
When we fill pages with love, we fill them with life.

We must learn to love things with meaning, with truth, with meaning, or else our love means nothing and our pages are filled with a pointless life, and our search is never complete. We die hollow, empty, and alone.
Your love must be true.
Love truth. Delight in truth. Love wisdom. Seek wisdom. Pray for discernment. Trust in God, for God is love.

Everything that has a shell is hiding something--the beauty, the life; it's within.
It's dangerous to break out of that shell; it could damage you, and severely . . . But you'll not grow out of it if you don't.
Isn't life itself a risk? What is love without risk? What is life without love? 1 Corinthians 13 says we gain nothing if we don't have love.
Go, live, risk . . . And above all else, love!

Speak your mind . . .

Where i work, we have scripture verses posted on some of the walls. On our business cards, hats, ads, etc., there is one verse that is mentioned above all others: Matthew 6:33.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (ESV)
It's an awesome verse, but it, in and of itself, does little to explain what, exactly, will be added to us. "All these things" is referencing prior verses.
Now, i've been working there since i was 12; nine years past. That verse has been drove into my mind so much that i could quote it in my sleep, and in all that time i've not considered it heavily on many occasions. A few days ago i was sort of meditating on it, though.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all."

Those are the verses leading up to 6:33 (25-32, to be exact).
It addresses necessities of life. Don't worry about them, have faith in God, and seek His kingdom above all other things, and He will supply you with your needs.

It also addresses worth. In this, we see how God supplies for and clothes with splendor all things, even the birds and flowers; they have worth to Him--how much more His own children must!
This, at the time, didn't relate much to me, as i have more than i could need, and i don't suffer from a lack of self-worth (self-respect is another story). I told a friend of mine about how those verses struck me when paired with the following one, though, and how impressive i thought the overall message was.
It didn't occur to me that someone else might've needed to hear that . . . And at the time it didn't serve much purpose to either of us, but mere hours later, a scenario came up involving the same friend and a discouraging situation.
It was interesting, because we had talked earlier that same day about how it might seem that others see us as worthless, but God promises through these verses that He holds us with worth above things He holds with worth, and sees us as His children, and that He will supply for His children since He is our Father.
That may have been chance, but i honestly don't think so. I'm not saying it was necessarily 'ordained', or that God was speaking through me, just that He was able to utilize His own words by having placed reminders around me of that set of verses for the last decade.

My reason for putting all of this is to encourage you not to disregard what might somehow help someone else. Just because a thought that passes through your mind doesn't affect you doesn't mean it should be disregarded. Your thoughts, though they might not completely pertain to yourself, should not be ignored; someone else may need to hear what you have to say.
Think positive, then speak your mind.

Mouths and ears don't work at the same time. So many times i cry out for God's will to be made known, yet i won't be quiet long enough to hear Him speak.