Brian A. Thomas .com » Revelations from the Word

The Golden Compass

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:08:07 +0000

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.

Philip Pullman, the author of the books has been an outspoken critic of religion, especially Christianity, and in the books the church is an evil repressive force and eventually the children rebel against the Authority, who is worshiped as God on Lyra’s (the primary character) earth. The Authority is not God, creator of the universe, but is revealed to be the first angel, but as he is worshiped as God, and the actions of the church, some Christian groups are in an uproar.
I have to wonder if these groups think that God is in Heaven worrying about the books or movie series. If they do, then they are in fact saying the Pullman and the movies are more powerful then God Himself, which would be wrong. So let’s say that they are worried about the effect it will make them less likely to worship God in the future. Once again they are assuming the books and films are more powerful then God, that God wouldn’t be able to overcome this difficulty, which is absurd. What they are doing is placing their reality above God’s reality, thereby placing themselves above God. They would say God is above all things, but in reality they are placing themselves above God since in their reality God can’t deal with these these issues. If God is above all things, then we shouldn’t worry ourselves over such trivial things as books, movies and the like.
Let’s take a look at some of the valid criticisms against religion in general and Christianity in particular. Almost all the wars, and a great deal of the violence and hate come from religion and Christianity. Christianity is probably most guilty on this front, followed by Judaism and Islam, then a huge gap to get to some other smaller, mostly tribal religions, most of the others cultivate peace, or doesn’t factor other stuff… now I know lots of Christians will say that Christianity cultivates peace, which it is supposed to do, but seldom does, and that is what I am going to focus on for now.
Christianity is without a doubt, the largest hate group on the planet right now. I can see this even as a Christian, and I know I am not alone among Christians. We got the obvious Christian hate groups and actions like the KKK, Hitler using Christianity as a partial excuse to do what he did, the witch trials and Spanish Inquisition just to name a few, but there are modern day examples as well.
Christians are the ones leading the fight against gay rights. Largely using an Old Testament verse. The problem is that we are no longer subject to the Mosaic laws, and unless we were Jewish, we were never subject to them. All humans are subject to only a few laws of the Old Testament, the law of sickness and death, and the law of reaping and sewing. As Christians we are subject to the promises of the Old Testament, which along with the promise of Christ’s coming is what Christ was referring to when He said He came to fulfill the law not largely what He meant by not to destroy the law. The Mosaic laws have always applied only to Jews, and for them it still applies until they take Christ as their savior. The New Testament does talk about avoiding sexual perversion and the like, but it doesn’t specify much of anything. Even so, such things are simply sin, and way too many Christians make a big deal out of sin. For more on that everyone should read part 1, part 2 and part 3 of my You Can’t and Shouldn’t Legislate Morality series.
Christians are also among the largest pushers of the drug war (which originally was racial, which is largely comes from Christianity itself, just look at the KKK). Despite the fact that God made marijuana and even has it as a required ingredient in anointing oil (though the Bible calls it by it’s old name).
Christians are behind the attempt at ethnic cleansing going on now in the US wars in Iraq, soon to be Iran and that region. We have documents from our leaders talking how they want to bring that region under control, how they wanted to implement certain things that became part of the Patriot Act, and how the American public would never go for it short of another Pearl Harbor event, which they conveniently got on 9/11. Now I am not convinced that our government helped to demolish the twin towers, and can even buy the official explanation on Building 7, despite the odds against it; however, I find it impossible to believe that the knew nothing, and believe they knew most if not all the details and let 3,000+ Americans die so they can start their war as an excuse to do ethnic cleansing (oil is a bonus).
It was Christian church, who not too overly long ago killed people for thinking the Earth wasn’t flat. It was Christian church who killed people who proclaimed the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe. Lucky for us all that the Christian church isn’t advocating killing people for refusing to believe in Creationism. If it was, they would probably burn me at the stake as well, since I believe that the real physical creation of the universe looked much like the Big Bang and that evolution happened, just that God helped push it along when needed. I think to reject the scientific reality of evolution is foolish as there is plenty of room for God to work within that framework. The Genesis account is a recreation, and given the spiritual nature of the Bible, probably a spiritual recreation of the Earth at that. Genesis makes no account of DNA, that the Earth is round and not the center of the universe, that we have 8 planets, and yet all these things are accepted as reality. Genesis is not intended to be taken as a literal reality, there are plenty of things it doesn’t mention. As I said, there is plenty of room for God to work within the scientific reality… all of which is beyond the point. The point of this part was that the church was behind killing tons of people who refused to accept the church’s view of the world, once again placing their reality above that of God’s. The church was also guilty of killing tons of people as heretics who were most probably insane. The Christian church is also guilty of killing tons of people for practicing a different religion, or different form of Christianity… to the point that you would nearly have to add all other religion on religion kills together to equal it.
Well, I think we covered enough for now. I got carried away with the criticisms against religion and Christianity and was originally planning on focusing more on the fact that God isn’t worried about it, so you shouldn’t worry either, but I think you get the idea.

You Can’t and Shouldn’t Legislate Morality Part 3

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:51:39 +0000

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

Brian A. Thomas — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:13:27 +0000

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

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 13 May 2007 07:59:48 +0000

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).

Let’s start near the beginning. Samuel is getting old, his sons are not being the fair judges that he was, and so the elders of the tribes come to Samuel and ask that he give them a King.

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day–with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods–so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”
So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”
Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” – 1 Samuel 8:7-20

So, let’s sum that up in the event you weren’t following. They wanted a King, God didn’t want them to be ruled over by anyone but Himself. He was in essence a libertarian… or course the Old Covenant Law was still in effect, son not really, but you get the idea. God didn’t intend for them to have a large government, and since everything is even better under the New Covenant, all the more so now. Even after the dire warning however, the people still demanded a King and so God allowed them to get a King. However, it bares repeating, even under the Old Covenant, God didn’t want people ruled by a government, and now with us under the New Covenant built on better things, which retains all the promises of the Old Covenant. So we can see from this that government is against the will of God, and utilizing in a way that the Citizens for Community Values are using it is very far against the will of God. The bad thing is, they are undoubtedly doing it in His name.
It is people like the Citizens for Community Values and ugly hate groups such as the Westboro Baptist Church, the KKK and other so called “Christian” organizations that don’t act remotely Christ like, that make Christians appear as bad, intolerant people. It turns people off Christianity so that they can never come to know the love of Christ, or the way that Christ would actually have His people treat others. If I were God, I would say the Westboro people, the KKK and their ilk would be sent to Hell, regardless of them having accepted Christ since there is no excuse for their kind of behavior. Note I wouldn’t send the people of Citizens for Community Values there, but I would be sure they understood they defied me and went completely against my will, and tried to say they were morally higher then myself… but that is me. God is infinitely more compassionate than me, and since the only real requirement to eternal life with God is to have accepted Christ (as the Son of God and as Savior), they may squeak in, but they won’t get much reward and will be living in the Heavenly equivalent of a shanty town.
Romans 8:1 tells us that “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death..” Now, I am sure those groups would point out that this is talking about those who are in Christ, meaning those who have accepted Him, and while that is true enough, we also know the Golden Rule, expressed best (at least within the Bible) I think in Luke 6:31 “And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.” Anyhow, there being no condemnation isn’t the only point here. It is also a bit about what Jesus referred to when He said He came to fulfill the law not destroy it. He was not talking about the old Levitical Laws, but to fulfill the law that a Christ would come, that He would give the Spirit of Life and all that.
We are now under a new, better Covenant. The Levitical laws are nothing more than a footnote of our history, and more an example of what Christ brought us out of. We are freed of such old laws. The only real law now is to love one another. If we were to obey all the Levitical laws, I would guess we would all be bound for Hell or death. Unless your steak is well done, you are going to Hell under the Levitical law, wearing clothes with more than one type of fabric is against Levitical Law, any sea creatures that do not have both fins and scales (i.e. anything but fish, such as oyster, lobster, and shrimp, etc.) are an abomination, pork of course would be out, we would have to cast off from society any couple who has sex with a woman during her period, divorced and widowed women would not be allowed to remarry, heck you couldn’t go near anyone who had a defect even eczema (I guess I am unapproachable), it is against the Levitical Law to not only get a tattoo but to cut your hair or shave. You can’t pick and choose if you say one law applies, they all apply.
Does this mean that God doesn’t still view homosexuality or sexual immorality as a sin? No, He may, as the New Testament is repeat with warnings to avoid sexual immorality as well (though no real specific mention of homosexuality). However, it is all moot since sin means essentially nothing. God doesn’t care more than one iota about sin under the New Covenant. This doesn’t mean we have free reign to sin, and we should still seek God (not man, or somebody representing God, but God directly ourselves) for forgiveness of sins. However, God’s only concern is acceptance of Christ. The thief on the cross didn’t ask Christ to forgive him, he just recognized who Christ was, and Jesus said that the thief would be with Him in Heaven. We have been beat over the head for so long with the sin message we lost track of the real message of Christ and that is a pure love message. He didn’t berate people about their sins, as a matter of fact He often defended the sinners and often ate with them and showed them nothing but love. The only time we really see Him doing anything to any sinners was with the money changers in the temple, and that is more a topic to be saved about the dangers of the Federal Reserve than here. It has been said, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” I don’t think that is the way Christ would look at it at all. He would simply say, “Love the sinner.” The Holy Spirit will take care of the sin issue in that person’s life when the time comes for them to deal with it. Let God be God, and let Him be the judge. Jesus said in Mathew 7:1-2 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” He goes on from there talking about wanting to remove the spec from your brothers eye when you have a plank in yours, notice how He upped the size from the spec to a plank. Heck, I have a problem with any praise and worship song or hymn that says I am a sinner, since I am not in God’s eyes, and never have been… again that is another huge topic on its own so I won’t go into here, but just know that if you are in Christ, and you have no unrepentant sin in your life at the moment (all sins prior to accepting Christ are gone already, so any earned since then are the ones I speak of here) then so far as God is concerned, and remember He knows everything that ever has or ever will happen, you have never sinned. So to confess you are a sinner is going against what God has said, and say He is a lier… anyhow again that is another topic all together. (Note, that just because you are forgiven, doesn’t mean the plank is out of your eye.) The main point here is that sin in of itself does nothing to keep a person out of Heaven. The only ones that sin matters to really is us, and our sin consciousness, which we need to get away from if we are to be free.
Okay, so far we have seen that God doesn’t want us ruled by a government and that sin is a fairly moot issue so far as God is concerned. Yet we have people still trying to legislate morality, something God Himself wouldn’t approve of. The final evidence that we can’t and shouldn’t legislate morality, from a Christian perspective is simply that God gave us a free will for a reason. With no Levitical/Mosaic Law over us, we are even more free under the New Covenant. If God doesn’t force His will on us, then what gives us the moral superiority over Him to force what we think is His will on others? This is exactly what Citizens for Community Values and all others who want to legislate morality are saying, that they are morally superior to God and that they have to force what they see as the will of God is on everyone. Note I point out what they see or perceive as the will of God is. Does He want a person to go to a strip club at 2 am and be inches from the stripper? Probably not, but His will is that the person chooses of their own free will not to go. His will is not to force people to serve Him, but to choose to serve Him out of love. His will is to let other people have their free will to do as they wish.
While God wants everyone to have the free will to do what they want, this doesn’t mean that we should get rid of all laws. Some laws need to stay around such as laws against murder, rape, robbery and other crimes against other people. However, victim-less crimes, be it drug use, going to a strip club or anything else like that really need to go away.
We are called to be in the world and not of it. To use the government to force it to legislate morality is being of the world.
As Christians we need to accept people, not accept the sin perhaps, but ignore it for the most part and let God work on them when He feels the time is right. We need to love and accept people for who and what they are and not pass judgment. By doing these things we can reach the world, and they will listen and not scoff. Above all, Love. I’ll leave you with a few closing quotes from the Bible on loving one another.
“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” — Colossians 3:14
“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” “– 1 Peter 4:8
“Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins.” — Proverbs 10:12
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” — 1 John 4:18

Edit: The law passed with some refinements. See Update on Ohio’s Idiot Legislators – More on Why God Does Not Approve of Legislating Morality.

More on Faith Is…

Brian A. Thomas — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 21:13:23 +0000

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

Brian A. Thomas — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 13:47:41 +0000

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…

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 16:37:45 +0000

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

Brian A. Thomas — Tue, 24 May 2005 14:32:08 +0000

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

Brian A. Thomas — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 17:27:32 +0000

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.