A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

It is annoying for me to go into a restaurant and to have a table that rocks and tips.  That just really bugs me no end.  Your water sloshes and spills.  Every time you lean against it as you chat everything comes toppling your way.  It is a chronic symptom of a table with four legs on an uneven floor.  It is next to impossible to get each of the legs the precisely needed length and if you do manage to do that, when the table is moved only a few inches to a new position the rocking begins again.   A three legged stool on the other hand will never tip.  It is geometrically impossible for that to happen.  It takes three points to define a plane.  Get a three legged milk stool and cut the legs to differing lengths all you want, place it on the most uneven floor imaginable and it will not wobble and rock.  Those three legs define a flat surface, and are inherently stable. I believe that our relationship with God is built upon communicat...

The premise of a recent movie was that somehow a man was made God for a day. Think about that. What would that be like? To have all power?. . .To know everything? and thereby to feel everything? The Bible is pretty clear, God has emotions: Genesis 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Mankind's actions hurt the heart of God. God knows everything. He sees everything. He feels everything. It is only the big things that God notices? Nothing on earth, nothing in the entire universe is too small for God. Nothing escapes His attention: Luke 12:6-7 Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. Sin and death entered into this world through man. It is not just man, but all of creation that pays the price for the sin of Adam. Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole ...

Last night after Jackie and I got home from shopping, I took Luke, our St. Bernard, out to Pipewort Pond the little nature refuge north of Bristol where I take many of my pictures. What a wonderful night. A couple of months ago I bought a pair of snow pants at a resale shop. A couple of weeks ago I got a pair of like new insulated boots and a wonderfully warm and very heavy leather coat at the same store. I'll bet that coat weighs 10 lbs. This really isn't meant to be an advertisement for Goodwill, but all these things cost me less than $10 total and I was totally comfortable in the knifelike cold west wind and moonlit, knee to thigh deep snow. It is amazing what a difference warm clothing makes in your enjoyment of the winter weather. The loop around the refuge is a little less than 1 mile (.86 as measured on Google Earth). The wind was bitter, the snow was deep, it was very quiet. I was very warm and comfortable. The moon was in and out of the scudding clouds. It wa...

1 Corinthians 2:11-16 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (12) Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (13) Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (14) But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (15) But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. (16) For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. I can personally attest to how much truth there is in the verse, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolis...