Random Musings of Brian A. Thomas. Love for Ari and Sidd.
Revelations from the Word
The Golden Compass
Nov 4th
The Golden Compass (Amazon link coming soon, but for some reason the link builder isn’t working) is coming to theaters soon (trailer) and a whole bunch of Christian groups are preparing to protest the movie, New Line (the film’s distributors) and in general making a fuss over the whole film and books. The controversy undoubtedly will make the film more popular then it would have been without the protest, as these things always do; however, unlike the Last Temptation of Christ, a crappy film that few would have seen had it not been for the protests, the Golden Compass has broad appeal and would be a huge commercial success even without the controversy, now it gets to be even more popular.
Some minor spoilers may be coming so keep that in mind as we go on. To be safe, I’ll bury the rest below the break.
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You Can’t and Shouldn’t Legislate Morality Part 3
Aug 26th
Following up part 1 and part 2 of this discussion let’s talk about Romans 13, which says to be subject to the government. It is this part of the bible that our government is pushing pastors to push on their people, and some pastors are doing it.
Here is the thing, would these pastors push people to support everything the government does and says if somebody other than Bush was in office? I doubt they did when Clinton was in office. Would they say support the government if it enacted Jus Primae Noctis (where the political leader got first rights to any bride ahead of the groom). Would they support Hitler? They don’t support the governments support on abortion or many state’s desire to support gay marriage, so they clearly have limits. Clearly if this was to be the case, then we should apologize to England and resubmit ourselves to English rule since if we take Romans 13 the way the Bush administration wants us to, then we were wrong to revolt against an unjust government.
Also, in context, this applies to good, Godly government. It is like the “wives obey your husband thing.” Yes it says that, but that doesn’t make her a slave to what the husband says, and it says in that same passage that the husband is to love his wife, which in principle means that he would never ask her to do anything she wouldn’t naturally do anyhow.
Besides, Bush is not the government. Our elected officials are not the government. Homeland Security is not the government. The IRS is not the government. The Constitution is our government, even from a Romans 13 perspective, and if we were to be subject to anything, that is what we would be subject to. Only one candidate stands for the Constitution, all the rest do not. Bush clearly does not stand for the Constitution.
Update on Ohio’s Idiot Legislators – More on Why God Does Not Approve of Legislating Morality
Jul 24th
I talked before about how Ohio’s Retarded Legislators AKA You Can’t and Shouldn’t Legislate Morality. Rather than stand up to the idiot bill, our Governor, can’t wait to get rid of him, let the bill become law without signing it.
A quick recap, the so called “Christian” group, Citizens for Community Values, who act very anti-Christ like, managed to convince Ohio’s legislators to crack down on strip clubs, adult books stores and the like. They have apparently dropped the 6 foot limit in favor of spelled out sticker regulations on touching customers. While it was already more or less against the law to touch a customer, they could generally touch their shoulders or something for balance, the new law now makes even that a crime punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine.
Read my original post for the majority of my in context Biblical based arguments against such laws. However, I feel I need to expand on a few further thoughts.
We always hear to be more Christ like. What would Jesus do, and all those kind of things. Not once do we see Christ, His Apostles or Disciples working to make laws legislating morality. What did they do? They did signs, miracles and wonders, then they preached the good news. They didn’t concern themselves with the laws and forcing people to be like them, they simply set the example. We need to get back to doing things the way Christ would have us do them, which wasn’t by force. We never saw Him bind anyone and force them to live a “Godly” life. We didn’t see Him or His followers go to the government and ask them to legislate morality. (Yes, I know, the Bible doesn’t mention all the other planets, DNA or any number of other things that exist, but the Bible is a spiritual book dealing with spiritual issues, and legislating morality would fall under that rule, so if God wanted it done, He would have made sure it was mentioned by Paul or somebody in the New Testament.)
Christ didn’t condom the prostitute but defended her, telling those without sin to cast the first stone. Yet the CCV feels they should be the ones casting stones, or at least having the law do it for them so they can pretend their hands are clean. A note to the CCV and others like them, God doesn’t care if you are the one who casts it, or ask somebody else to cast it for you, in God’s eye it is the same thing, and trying to legislate morality is casting stones.
Ohio’s Retarded Legislators AKA You Can’t and Shouldn’t Legislate Morality
May 13th
Never mind the fact that Ohio has one of, if not the worst economy in the US, our legislators have what they think are far more important things to worry about. Why help Ohio’s economic problems when there are strip clubs open to all hours of the night with strippers who can get close to the patrons. So it is that, thanks to the morons of Citizens for Community Values, a group out of Cincinnati who feel they are morally superior to God Himself (more on that in a bit), have pressured Ohio legislators to pass a bill that would do two main things. The first, is restrict the hours a strip club can be open, at least for the strip club portion of their business. Basically they can’t operate from midnight to 6 am. I think midnight is a tad early, if they made it 2 am, and this was the only provision of the bill, I wouldn’t raise much of a fuss. I would still wonder why the legislators are worried about such meaningless tripe when there are real issues facing Ohio, and I would still think the Citizens for Community Values are first class idiots who need to get off their high horse and realize they are not above God. Anyhow, the second part is the one that really got me going. The bill, if passed (it passed the Ohio Senate, and is being argued by the House) would require the strippers to stay 6 feet from the patrons, even after they put their clothes back on. Yes, that’s right, even after they put their clothes back on… and 6 feet. How unreasonable can you get? If it was perhaps 2 feet, and no restrictions after being clothed perhaps we could just say… well nothing positive, but 6 feet, even after she’s dressed is stupid to a level unheard of nearly anywhere.
Let’s take a moment to consider why one can’t nor shouldn’t legislate morality, and I’ll use the Bible itself to demonstrate why (and I do believe they are all in context, so I am not just picking a verse to prove my point, but picking a verse, using it in its original context).
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More on Faith Is…
Dec 2nd
You may recall a while ago I did a Revelations From the Word on Now Faith Is…. I have some more revelation to go with that. If you didn’t see it before, the short of it is:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
I told what things are, basically any good thing, any promise of God. That when it talks about faith is the substance, I equated that to the wood being the substance of the pulpit at the front of my church. Evidence is something presented to win a case. That was the message in a nutshell.
Anyhow, the new part to add to that goes with the substance part of that. We may not feel like we have the faith some times. We may not feel our faith has substance. However, while I can’t speak of the specifics of that particular pulpit, in general, you don’t feel or see the wood before you get the pulpit. You don’t provide wood to the craftsman to make the pulpit. Rather he provides you with everything you need for him to make the pulpit (okay, except for payment), after he is done he provides you with the pulpit. In much the same way, our Heavenly Father has provided us with His kind of Faith, and took it, fashioned it into the very thing we need, giving us a completed work. Our payment to Him for this? Love. Devotion. Getting into His Word daily…
Jesus sat at the Messiah Seat
Nov 7th
I figured I would share a little cool thing that helps explain one of the moments of Jesus’ ministry a little better.
I’ll give a little scripture, then comment as we go along.
So he came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Luke 4:16-19
The first thing we notice is it was a custom of Jesus to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath and to read. Nothing of real revelation there, nor in him being handed the book of Isaiah, it is when He quotes from it that things get interesting.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
Before I get to the point here, let us cross reference something. Philippians 2:5-8:
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
So we see from these that Christ came to us as a man, not as God. He removed all privileges He had as God. He needed to become as a man in order to take our place. To take stripes to take our sickness, to become sin on the cross so we would no longer be sinners, but saints and redeemed unto God. What we can see in John is that the Spirit of God filled Him and anointed Him, something He wouldn’t need to have happen if He was here as God. He was here as a man to go through stuff as we would go through them, to show us the way we can be ourselves, with the help of God.
Thanks to His sacrifice and suffering at the cross…. an aside is necessary here. His suffering wasn’t the beating, nor being hanged on the cross. None of that was the cup He asked to be taken away if possible. When He asked God to take the cup if possible, what He wanted to avoid was becoming sin, to become separated from God. He became sin, got separated from God to purchase for us redemption. So thanks to his sacrifice and suffering (becoming sin for us, being separated from God on our behalf) we are now reconciled and in right standing with God. We are no longer sinners. All we have to do is accept Christ as the Son of God and accept what He did for us.
I am glad I am no longer a sinner. Does this mean I no longer sin? Well, my spirit can not sin. Having accepted and believing in Christ, my spirit, the true me, is redeemed and in right standing. God sees me though the eyes of Christ, which sees me as perfect. Same for you if you have accepted Christ. However, we still have a flesh and a mind. The flesh and mind constantly want to rebel against God. It is the flesh and mind that can sin. This is why the Bible says we are to renew our mind and to crucify our flesh. We are not to literally crucify ourselves, but to bring our mind and body subject to our spirit, subject to the Word of God. So we still need to repent for any sins we may do in the flesh or mind, but our spirit man is sinless before God. Thank you Jesus for reconciling us to our Father, making us a true child of God, for making us an heir of God, and join heirs with You. (Romans 8:16-17)
Back to our bit from Luke 4:18
To preach the gospel to the poor;
To preach the good news to the poor. To preach to the poor they no longer need to be poor. I am not going to go off on a full prosperity message here and now. Needless to say God doesn’t want you to be poor. “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. (2 Corinthians 1:20)” Through Him, Christ, we receive all the promises of God. If you can find any promise God made to man, in Christ you can claim it. God is a good God, a good Father.
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
Brokenhearted is anyone hurt in emotions or feelings. Simple enough. If you have been hurt, Christ if for you.
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
We were caught in sin, separated from God. Christ has set us free, returned us to God. He has been anointed to heal the sick, lame, blind and the like. Jesus was healing people throughout His ministry.
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
This is in reference to the year of Jubilee. Christ has given us a permanent state of Jubilee. Jubilee was the year when all debts were forgiven, where anything taken from you was returned to you.
All of the above most of us in Word Churchs should be failure enough with. What may be new is what follows in Luke 4:20-21
Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
When He sat down He did not return to His old seat. History tells us there were two seats at the front of the synagogue, one of which was kept empty at all times as it was the seat the messiah would sit in. This is the seat that Jesus sat in. He was demonstrating to them that He was the messiah. Isn’t that cool? The Word becomes so alive when you start learning some of the history behind some events and why some things happened the way they did.
Now Faith Is…
Oct 9th
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
What are things? Things are any promise of God. Be it healing, freedom from lack, even unto prosperity, that your children will know God, all the many promises of God that we have in and through Christ our Lord.
What about substance? Substance is what gives a thing tangibility. You could say wood is the substance of the pulpit at the front of the sanctuary… I know, some pulpits are made of glass, metal, or something like that, but they are traditionally made of wood, so work with me here. The wood is what the pulpit is made of. Much like your faith is what your healing is made of, your faith is what your prosperity is made of. It is the tangibility of the thing. Without the wood the pulpit wouldn’t be there. The really nice thing is the wood was there before the pulpit was there. It sat in some craftsman’s shop, and he took the wood, measured it, cut it, trimmed it, put it together with more wood to make a pulpit.
Don’t you know that your Heavenly Father, the Master Carpenter, who knew us and “…chose us in Him before the foundation of the world… (Ephesians 1:4)” were laid, took the faith that He gave you (“…as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Romans 12:3), and from that faith fashioned the very thing you are believing on Him for?
People say “Well I am working my faith up to that,” or “I don’t have the faith for that yet,” speaking doubt into existence. If you keep speaking like that, you won’t get what you are hoping for. Not because God can’t get it to you, there is never a problem on the sending end, but because you keep blocking it from getting to you. God is infinite, and He has infinite faith. He used His faith to speak the world into existence. He gave you His faith. Mark 11:22 says, “So Jesus answerd and said ‘Have faith in God’.” It should read, to render the Greek properly, “Have the God kind of faith.” God has given you His kind of faith. Sure, you won’t be able to spin a universe into existence, but you can have all the promises of God, by faith, in and through Christ.
You have the God kind of faith in you, and He has taken that faith, and long before you needed it, took it and formed into the very things you need. Amen.
So we know have a basic understanding of things and substance, onto evidence.
Evidence is what you present to win a case.
The devil presents his evidence. A bad medical report. A foreclosure notice. A red mark in the checkbook. A bad report about your child. Whatever may be presented to you, if it doesn’t line up with the perfect will of God, your perfect father Who desires nothing but the absolute best for you… if it doesn’t line up with that will, then it is a lie from the devil. At the very best, it is circumstantial evidence. Don’t let your circumstances get in the way of the reality of who you are and what you have in and through Christ.
To his evidence you present your faith as evidence, and it trumps his bad medical, financial, family, or whatever report. The really nice part is that the Judge has already ruled in your favor. He has already decreed that you won the case.
Amen and amen.
I hope this has helped somebody. It has been on my heart for some time to share this message. I didn’t flesh it all out as well as I would like, but decided I shouldn’t hold off any longer. God bless.
The slate isn’t wiped clean, it’s an all new slate
May 24th
I was listening to a message by Buzzy Southerlin when he said something about the slate being wiped clean, and perhaps this is where he is going with it in this message, but I had to post this real quick so I paused the message to post this. (Edit to add: I should note that Buzzy had been sarcastic when he said it, and he is one of the ones who clearly know that it would be an all new slate.)
When we talk of salvation, so often we say the slate has been wiped clean, that you have been washed white as snow… This isn’t close to the truth. The truth is there is an all new slate, there is an all new you, there is nothing to wash white as snow. Upon salvation, you a redeemed through Christ. That is if you accept Him, you are in right standing with God via the death, burial and resurrection of of Jesus Christ. You are in a far higher position then Adam was before the fall, because when you accept Jesus, He dwells in you. Adam had the pleasure of being with God and communing with Him, but he didn’t get what we have through redemption, and that is the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily within us.
The Runner Prepares Before He Runs
Jan 21st
Welcome to the first installment of “Revelations from the Word,” a new sub-category of Religion here at Brian A. Thomas .com. In it, I’ll share personal insights I gleamed by reading the Word, or insights I got from others and felt I needed to share.
This installment I call, “The Runner Prepares Before He Runs.” Before I get to the story, we’ll start with our Text:
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? run in such a way that you may obtain it. 1 Corinthians 9:24, NKJV
After school let out, I went to my church and attended Healing School. Afterwards, I had time to go get something to eat and was going to go to McDonald’s, but one of my friends said “How about Subway?” So I said yes, and off to Subway we went. (I know, me at Subway, but it was a divine appointment in the end.)While pulling into the gas station at which it was at, we see one of our other friends getting gas, and she joins us. While my one friend and I ate, she gave a wonderful illustration of casting things aside, preparing yourself for God and the race He has set for you to run (I’ll paraphrase the story below):
When a racer is going to race, he gets ready on the sidelines, in the preparation area. He stretches and warms up, he takes off his sweat pants and shirt. Only then does he get in the starting block and gets set for the gun to race. You don’t see a racer running down the race track trying to get out of his sweats. It is important to prepare yourself for the race as much as it is to run the race well.
How incredibly wonderful is that revelation? We need to cast aside the things of this world that are not of God. We need to step into faith in God. As it was noted in Healing School that day, “Faith is our home field advantage.” We all too often become burdened by our cares and concerns in this life, but Christ said:
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light. Mathew 11:28-30, NKJV
Cast your cares upon Jesus and have faith in God. Then you can run the race and have victory through God and over all the things of this world.
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