A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

Earlier this week a friend invited me to join a Christian community on Orkut. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Orkut , you can join or create communities there and discuss pretty much any topic under the sun with people from all over the world. I was active there for a while about a year ago, before tiring of the constant baiting and bickering and downright nastiness that came to dominate almost every discussion on Christianity. It just became tiresome to me. It wasn't like talking to people who had sincere questions and an open heart, but rather it was more of an arena for the continued scourging of Christ and Christians. . . But I thought out of courtesy to my friend in India, that I would look at this Christian community. It looked interesting and I joined it. One of the first threads that I read had been posted by a Muslim man, again another baiting opportunity for him I suppose. In his opening post, he challenged anyone to show him an Old Testament prophecy that...

Luke 9:49-50 And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. (50) And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us. Luke 11:23 He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. I had a quiet evening last night. Jackie, my wife, was on her way back from a conference in another city. I was listening to my audio Bible, as I tied the cords and strung beads for the door hangers of the little tracts that we pass out to the neighborhood around the church. I heard these verses from Luke read in succession over a period of fifteen minutes or so. These verses have rested in the back of my mind, for some time now, under a large question mark. They have seemed to me to be a contradiction. I did not know how to understand these two verses. How can we have on the one hand a statement: he that is not against us is for us . . . and on the other...

Lessons from the Parables of Jesus. . . Jesus did much of His teaching in the form of parables. He came up with little stories to illustrate the points he was trying to get across. Peter had a question about a teaching parable that Jesus gave in the immediately preceding verses and here in this passage Jesus explains what He meant. Here is Jesus explanation of the parable of the Faithful and Unfaithful Servants: Luke 12:41-48 Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? 42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 44 Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. 45 But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be ...