A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

I listened to Ezekiel chapter 3 on the way to work this morning:  The voice said to me, “Son of man, eat what I am giving you—eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. “Fill your stomach with this,” he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.  Then he said, “Son of man, go to the people of Israel and give them my messages. I am not sending you to a foreign people whose language you cannot understand. No, I am not sending you to people with strange and difficult speech. If I did, they would listen! But the people of Israel won’t listen to you any more than they listen to me! For the whole lot of them are hard-hearted and stubborn.  But look, I have made you as obstinate and hard-hearted as they are. I have made your forehead as hard as the hardest rock! So don’t be afraid of them or fear their angry looks, even though they are rebels.” Then he added, “Son of man, let all...

 We love boundaries. We are surrounded by both visible, and invisible boundaries. My bedroom has walls, and a door. . . My home has doors, windows, roof, and walls. . . My yard has a fence around it dividing my property from our neighbors.  People have what is called their personal space, the distance at which you expect casual acquaintances to stay beyond. We feel uncomfortable when this shell of comfort is invaded. . . riding a packed subway, or otherwise being in a densely packed crowd can make us feel very ill at ease.  The boundaries of the varied political divisions our world is divided into, nations, states, counties, cities, townships. . . we take comfort and pride in our association with these varied boundaries.  Boundaries take many forms. Our actions and interactions are governed by our cultures acceptable rules of behavior. To enter into a different culture exposes how deeply ingrained and unconscious these “normal” rules of behavior are.  Thing...

How Long Until X-Giving?  For most Christ has been successfully removed from X-mas. There is nothing so removed from the life and love of Christ as buying innumerable made-in-China gifts from Walmart, Target, and Amazon in an appallingly corrupted celebration of His birth.  How long will it be until the thanks is removed from Thanksgiving. Let’s forget the ‘thanks’ and concentrate on the ‘giving’. What an inconvenience and embarrassment it must be to the politically correct, a holiday totally devoted to God, for  Who is it to that we are giving thanks other than God? Are we thanking one another? Are we thanking the government? Who do we thank for the blessings bestowed upon us other than God.  The corruption of Thanksgiving has long been underway. . . Black Friday. So very aptly named. People trampling, kicking, even shooting one another, right after our national day of giving of fervent thanks to God. How short our apparent memory. . .  Love God with...

Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.” And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy! Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland. The parched ground will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land. Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.  And a great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness. Evil-minded people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways; fools will never walk there. Lions will not lurk along its course, nor any other ferocious beasts. There will be no other dangers. Only the redeemed will walk on it. Those who have been ransomed by the LORD will return. They will enter Jerusalem ...

Five-fold ministry. . .  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:   (Ephesians 4:11-12 KJV)   Meditating and praying this afternoon, about the five-fold ministry, and how to apply it, when it comes to me that I have been quite possibly looking at it upside down. It has always seemed to me to be a pyramid, working from top down. Few apostles, a few more prophets, yet more evangelists, and pastors, with many teachers making the broad base.  But looking at the Greek definitions of the words:  Apostles; ἀπόστολος apostolos ap-os'-tol-os From G649; a delegate; specifically an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ (“apostle”), (with miraculous powers): - apostle, messenger, he that is sent.  Prophets; προφήτης prophētēs prof-ay'-tace From a compound of G4253 a...

I listened to the book of Ecclesiastes (NLT) on the way to work this morning. Hearing it in one sitting like that, rather than in bits and pieces very deeply spoke to me.   I think it is one of the most. . . if not the most evangelical books of the Bible. Written by Solomon, the wisest, the most wealthy man of the Bible era, and quite probably one of the wisest, most wealthy men of all time, speaking on the worthlessness of possessions, riches. . . really everything fleshly and physical.  Here is the last chapter of Ecclesiastes:  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.”  Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky.  Remember him before your legs—the guards of your house—start to tremble; and before your shoulders—the strong men...

Fruit of the Spirit. . .  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:19-25 KJV)  My life is defined by before and after coming to God. . . It was a pivot point. . . a line of demarcation. . . a transformation. Confusion, pain, anger, unforgiveness, shame on one side. . . peace, love, joy on the other. . . There is no comparison be...

One of the most common metaphors for Christian life, and the structure of the church is that of a Pastor as shepherd, and his congregation as sheep. As I’ve written several times before, this is a very good analogy in many ways. The shepherd devotes his life to the sheep. He has longer and better vision than the sheep. He is able to see things in the sheep that they probably don’t recognize in themselves.  Every pastor I’ve known, will hungrily devour books written on how to become a better shepherd. But what about the sheep? It’s not only the shepherd that has duties, and roles, and responsibilities.  How to be a Good Sheep   1. Stick with the flock: What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?  (Luke 15:4 KJV)  OK we get that. If a sheep wanders off, the shepherd must go track it down. That’s a legitimate part of his role, but t...

The Spirit of God. . . Among the many other divisions of Christianity, a deep division exists on how being filled with God’s Spirit is viewed.    This is a simplification, but on one side are those which believe that the Spirit of God enters a person at the time of profession of faith or baptism, and the other side, called Pentecostals, which believe the experience of God’s entering into a believer is the same as occurred on the day of Pentecost, documented in the book of Acts chapter 2.   Why is this something worth arguing or dividing our body of Christ about?  Jesus said: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.  For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked o...

Today’s digital DSLR cameras are amazing. From auto-focus to auto-selection of lens aperture, shutter speed, and ISO they are amazing, but even with all of their powerful internal electronics, and processing it is usually necessary to tweak the various levels of the image. I love shooting in-flight bird pictures.  For those shots, using a very fast shutter speed is required. I can correct for an exposure being too dark. I cannot correct for a picture being blurred due to too slow of a shutter speed. Oftentimes the raw camera image taken will be too dark, and there may be other problems. I usually allow the camera to automatically choose what is called the white balance. Each set of lighting conditions effects the color spectrum differently. Sunny/cloudy/shaded/fluorescent lighting all effect how the camera sensor records colors.  Occasionally the camera software will badly mis-interpret the lighting conditions and render very strange color effects in the image. One way ...

I was driving last evening when a good sized flock of seagulls flew overhead. I slowed down, and stopped so that I could fully enjoy their flight. Seagulls are a favorite of mine. As I gazed in rapt fascination upon their graceful traverse of the sky above me, one of the seagulls looked to be larger than the others. It might just have been the perspective, or maybe it was another type of gull mixed in with the other members of the flock. Regardless, it got my mind thinking as to why you don’t find predators mimicking their prey.  Why isn’t there a seagull hawk that looks nearly indistinguishable from a seagull. It could mix in and get close to the seagulls before its attack. Likewise I’ve never seen or heard of a predatory cat that looked similar to the deer on the plains of Africa, that could mix and mingle in with the grazing animals before striking.  Pondering on this, it comes to me that function dictates form. A predator would be unable to prey, in the form of its prey....