Archive for category Bible
Why Be A Bible Thumper When God Is Active Today
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, Family, God, Life, Love, Philosophy, Relationships, Values on November 28, 2016
I was thinking the other night about my daughter, and how I could reflect that God is relevant today in everyday life. When I was growing up, hell, into my 20s, I didn’t read the bible and most of the described events in there, that I have heard from various sources surrounding me, were very hard to relate to today, to the struggles we deal with just trying to survive in this society, bent on rich people getting richer on the backs of the poor most of all, and then the middle class. Today I can see some major similarities, some relevancy that I have never seen before, but that was only due to the insightful people I have been exposed to, and the research I have done. I will do my best not to get off on a rant about legal tender, and the hording of it, using government as a tool so that those with it get to keep more of it than those without. Regardless of what I see today that I didn’t when I was younger, how can I relate to my daughter how God fits into:
- Being different than everyone around you.
- How to make friends.
- Where to find the right people to surround yourself with.
- How to get a job in a tough market with an inadequate skill set and education.
- How to find the right person to spend your life with.
- Then, how to actually spend your life with a person you live with for the rest of your life.
- How to tell when it is time to leave, a job, an abusive situation, a community.
- How to find a way to stay when things are tough, and why.
- What kind of car to buy and why.
- A reason to live.
- How to deal with debt, and what it really is.
- How people work, their motivations, and how it makes everything in society predictable and sad.
- How to keep on going when you know how broken society is.
- How to deal with difficult people.
- How to actually forgive someone.
- Why to forgive someone.
- What is love.
LOL, as if I could list all the things. But the list goes on and on, and every human needs to learn how to live, and every one of these elements fits in, and God fits into every one of these elements. I have heard from people this sad misunderstanding where they say “God doesn’t really fit in to taking care of my family, making ends meet” extremely paraphrased of course, but the idea is clear, they could not fathom how God fit into everything it takes to live today. Like finances, you can bible thump a lot of verses out about that, and not that they are worthless, but the societal gap, the lack of understanding of how things were then and how things are now, and how they were very similar, really kills the application of the bible to today. Subject after subject, you will fail to relate, so much lost in translation, and not just in translation of language, but translation of the situations that were in play then, and the same damn thing happening in one form or another today. David was right, there is truly nothing new under the sun, but starting out in your understanding and if you are lucky, study, none of it hits home.
As a father, I can’t help but revisit how it was when I was young. I still don’t know how I can help a young person see and believe that it is real. As a young boy, I was a hard case, one even today I would not know how to crack. Sometimes I wonder if the best thing we can do is raise them as close to how you want them to be, and pray. However, I worry about being just another “Christian” family that makes a little atheist because we paint and live such a hypocritical life, oh Lord, let us not live a hypocritical life. I believe that all atheists are in one form or another the fault of God believing people being terrible in the name of God, or while living under His name as “Christians”, okay I am getting off topic.
So, to summarize, I have come to the conclusion that the bible is good, but only after seeking God with all your heart and having Him guide you through it, otherwise it can be used as a tool of evil, just remember, even Satan used it for evil, and still does. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. I think something that may help relate to a young person who God is, and what He wants for us, is to write down the statistically anomalous events in our lives where God clearly pulled some strings. Not to discourage described events from the bible, but without described events from a little more recent time, it will be very hard to relate. One day I want my little girl to recall a story of where we had no food and no money, and the very day we prayed, out of nowhere people were cleaning out their pantries, and started to show up with boxes of food, and I want her to pray, and see what happens. I know my Friend, He will not disappoint a humble prayer, from a pure honest heart, who seeks Him, with all of their strength. Or I want her to look back, when she finds herself in a hard place with work, to recall daddy telling about how he just could not make it, there was no way to get out of debt, and prayed, and within a month was being paid nearly 3 times as much in a new job.
Heh, “doesn’t really fit into life”, that is really missing the mark. The wife I have, the home I have, the car I have, the child I have, the health I have, the fact that I am alive here today, only because of God. I have experienced how He really does fit into life, in every way. Its not simple, its not easy, it takes work in prayer, study, choice, belief, and action. You can’t con God, He is a *person, and I wouldn’t expect Him to respond to someone being a shit saying “prove you exist” (I did that once, didn’t work), but He will respond to someone who humbly believes in Him and calls on Him, asking some of the simplest of life’s questions. Many would say to that “how convenient”, and I would say “yup, deal with it, it is His choice, what would you do if for thousands of years you have interacted with your creation, and then a generation decides to discount a portion of written history for all kinds of reasons, and someone who still believes asked for help, and one who doesn’t believe asks for you to prove yourself again, who would you rather respond to?”. I can’t presume to speak for God, but I can say it seems fair at this point in history to let people believe what they want to believe, and respond to those who believe and call on Him. From my perspective, God has nothing to prove, at least not to me or mankind, He has done so quite enough in history.
I am so glad God is in charge of all that. I am not equipped for His job. The story is never quite as simple as I put it, I classically, at least part of me, wishes it were. Frankly I took the long way around, as I put it, I had to hit some walls before I even thought to ask God about any of those line items. Terrible relationships, before I finally asked Him to take care of that, but I was fine being single, ether way was ok at that point. I ended up going to bars to find friends and such, and I found that doesn’t always end well, and dare I say, from my experience, it has a high statistical probability that it is not going to end well. So I asked where I can find a good woman.
My next blogs will tell those stories, and how God responded.
Why I Believe What I Believe: Introduction
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, God, Life, Philosophy, Values, Why I Believe What I Believe on April 28, 2016
I feel it is time to write down what I believe, and why I believe what I believe. I think that somehow it will be important in the future, and quite often I find that it is an important process in working out thoughts, and even finding misperceptions in beliefs, ideas, or thought processes. Writing also has a nice way of solidifying things in the mind and memory when writing them. If I were to forget for some reason, this is a good way to remind myself as well. Below are the points that I plan to expand on, and for the title, shorten up.
- I believe in the spiritual world.
- I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God
- I believe in creation of the world as it is reflected in the Bible including it’s timeline
- I believe that evil spirits can prophesy about God and truth
- I believe that God limits Himself by the rules He has put in place for free Will’s sake
- I believe God gave us free will
- I believe that the law of free will explains why things happen
- I believe in miracles in the modern day and that God is active with us constantly
- I believe that every prayer is heard and God acts even if we don’t see it
- I believe God talks to us and communicates with us on a regular basis and sometimes we don’t even know it
- I believe Satan is the destroyer and a legalist, the ultimate lawyer and Heaven has been turned into a sort of court room as a result
- I believe the spiritual world has rules and those rules allow for quantifiable things like multiple people praying together having more effect than a single person
- I believe that the closer you are to God the more intense the spiritual and physical world results of stances, decisions, and actions.
- I believe that the 7th day is the Sabbath, and that is Saturday, and I do not believe that God or Jesus ever authorized it to be changed to Sunday
- I believe that Elijah was torn between 2 spirits, the spirit of God, and another spirit at times. The disciples asked if they should call fire down from heaven to consume them, Jesus said, “you do not know by what spirit you are of”. They were referencing the historical acts of Elijah, and I believe that this shows that it is a mistake to assume all the things that the prophets have done are of God, spiritual yes, but of God, not all of it.
- I believe Satan has had a lot more to play in biblical history accounts than we know, reflecting again that the simplistic view of the infallible bible just messes your picture of God up. I believe that all of the fire consuming people acts were from Satan, as a legalistic move due to the seriousness of our close interactions with God. I believe he is allowed to play in an equal access duality as to be legally fair to the legalistic Satan, so a person can be working powerfully for God, and yet be a part of something that is not of God, or even on the other hand call on ungodly powers for wonders.
- I believe that God never intended for the people of Israel to kill their way through the promised land, but it was a concession for their hard hearts, and their war cultured minds.
The First Shall Be Last, and The Last Shall Be First
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, God, Life, Relationships, Values on September 13, 2014
The first one to run to the parent when they come home to tell on the other, they are counted as right, regardless of the truth of their story, or rightness of their perspectives. The first one to tell the teacher about something is counted as right, regardless of the truth of what they say, as they may weave untruth, or have heavy biases to suit themselves. Many would perceive he gay community as flamboyant, loud, lisping, and always outgoing, this is not the case, not for all, but how can someone perceive a group of people but by what they hear and see, and they only hear and see the ones that are loud and visible. When in a position of perceived authority, quite often the only people who will come and talk to you are the ones who are having a problem, and so all you hear is the one side, a people already clearly biased to something being perceived as an issue. Are you going to take that as a nice even balanced approach, or should you not logically seek out an exact same number of people not complaining or “concerned” and talk to them about the issue?
We need to know our selves better than this, otherwise we will end up being tools of what ever comes our way, and when the only thing that comes our way is those who already see something as a problem, despite it being a problem or not, what then? When dealing with people, imperfect people, there will be some of each person that is imperfect and broken, and there will be some of that person that is good, and we better see that, because we will be accountable to our reactions and how we handle the situation. We have the power to condemn a person who is seeking the light, and to turn them to darkness by how we respond, we better not forget that! Or we can have hope, and beat things out with God, and He will let us see things as they are, despite the only vocal ones being biased to one direction, because who comes to authority to complain but those with a complaint, while all the others who see good things happening do not speak up, because as the kingdom of this world goes, who goes to the authorities but those seeking power over, and have a complaint.
We need to never forget the example of Jesus Christ, what did He say to Pilate? What did that mean? Who did He say was the Good Shepherd? Who did He say our teacher was? Who girded Himself and washed our feet? His Kingdom is not of this world, it is not like this world, people do not come to an authority figure in His Kingdom so the the authority can control or force about a change or an action overwhelming the will of another. We are not to be like them, that have perceived authority, and lord it over others.
Human Assumtions, Contrary to His Will
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, God, Life on July 23, 2014
How often does this happen. I tell you I have seen it time and time again, and now I have stumbled onto this story reflecting that in relation to God and what He says, we have been running this scenario over and over and over, even in the days of Jesus.
Luke 22:36:
And He said to them, “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one.”
And now the assumptions:
Luke 22:49-51:
When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, “Stop! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him.
So where did they, or we, for that matter, go wrong. What did He mean? By human standards, when we are told to arm our selves with swords, aren’t we clearly suppose to use them? Where did we go wrong? Perhaps we just need to be more attentive to what He says, combined with who He is, rather than assuming He means something He did not say. I don’t have the answers, but this happened over and over with regard to God or Jesus speaking, and how humans take it. We not only tend to take things so literally, but we go one step further and then assume what we are to do next after the literal is carried out.
What I do see this saying is that, even when we take things God says, and interpret them wrong, you can trust Him to heal the brokenness we have caused by our assumptions, but we should also take a step back and ask Him to keep us from stepping ahead of Him and doing what He did not say to do. And we need to be more attentive in the future. Perhaps even the body, the church is needed, to help interpret what is being said.
I Finally Understand Why Jesus Had to Die!
Today I was reading through Hebrews, and God showed me something I had been missing. It seemed so simple, but somehow I have been missing this the entire time.
Let me start by explaining how I see the God and Satan thing. I will not get into the big questions that I can not answer such as, why did God allow Satan on earth in any form, ever. Or the question of how can a being created good by God turn evil in the first place. I leave those for God to answer, and I always hold dear the reality, that just because I have a question that I can not answer, it does not mean anything, other than there is a question I have that I do not have an answer for. Some people take that lack of a good explanation, and believe what they want to believe, and say, well I don’t have an answer, so God must be evil for things to be like this. To think that way would be arrogant to the greatest extreme. I believe that I know a little, and in the vast domain of knowledge and understanding that I do not have, in it could exist a perfectly reasonable and moral explanation to these questions.
With that out of the way, I see this earth as a court room, where someone is trying to hold a charge against God’s ways. Satan is the one making the accusation, and at least one of these accusations is against mankind for betraying God, and going against His ways. Satan claims that because they believed him over God in the garden, and time and time again throughout history, that mankind belongs to him and he has dominion over them, like God. Much of this perspective is pulled from the setting laid out in Job, and it seems to fit in such a larger scale, that I suspect that much of the goings on here and in heaven with regard to humans, earth, and Satan, are just like what was revealed in Job. You can find other hints of how God recognizes authorities set up by mankind in Daniel 10. It seems clear that God has set up rules, such as free will (required for the existence of love), and authority, which He will not break or ignore. Mankind, who He originally setup to have dominion over the earth, also has the ability to stet up over them rulers, and by taking Stan’s word over God’s word, we believed God was a liar and what Satan said was true, and thus set him up as our “god”. Satan has since then perpetuated these lies, that God is bad, His ways suck, and that Satan’s ways are the only ways that work, or something like that. It is hard to follow what Satan’s point is, when you know God, because all of his arguments against God just fall apart, especially after Jesus.
On to my point, I understand that by God extending Himself into the human flesh, Jesus, and then giving Himself up, showing what sin does, and at the same time showing His love and forgiveness, that He also fulfilled something powerful in the heavenly court case going on since the beginning. I understood that humans sinning is an offense against God, and that the offended legally can forgive the offense. That made sense. It also made perfect sense that by dieing on the cross, Jesus proved the point that in the garden, the first lie by Satan, that God is selfish, holding back things from mankind, was false. That alone is enough to throw out the entire case, because all of the accusations of Satan are based on a deception now proven wrong. Think of it this way, if a piece of property is obtained by a false pretense, in court, it would go back to the previous owner. In this situation, we are the “property” obtained by false pretense, and now with Jesus and His selfless giving up of His life on the cross, and continual forgiveness and love, that false pretense was fully demonstrated as false. God is not selfish, He is the opposite, He is love. I got that, but what I didn’t get was the rest of the story. This is so totally God, when He does something, it means far more than just one thing, it ripples and echos truth and goodness in all different directions. The wrong that was done was not a simple theft, the wrong that was done in this court scenario is sin, and the wages of sin is death. If it were just theft, the wronged person could forgive the theft, and he himself would simply suffer the loss of what was stolen. In this situation, with the wrong being sin, and the wages of sin is death, the wronged Person can forgive that wrong, but only by suffering the wages of the wrong, which is death. The wages of theft forgiven is loss of the stolen item. The wages of sin forgiven is the loss of the life of the one who is forgiving.
I don’t know if you can follow that, but it was a very neat piece that I had been missing. Now it all makes logical sense, that is why He had to die, at least one of the reasons. The other reason was to show the most pure expression of love, which is being willing to lay your life down for someone. When I was a little kid, maybe kindergarten to 4th grade, somewhere around there, I called out to God, what is this love thing, how can I know if I love someone. His answer was clear, if you are willing to lay your life down for someone, then you love them.
Oh Paul, So Stuck In Your Ways
Posted by Jonathan Kinney in Bible, God, Life, Relationships on March 29, 2014
I have been working through the daunting task of reading the writings of Paul. He was used to spread the gospel to so many, and so far, but I have to say, that he should have set himself aside and his deeply engrained ways aside so he could simple preach Christ and Christ alone. If he were just to echo all that Jesus said and did, if only. But he does not, in fact for some reason in his writings he is often speaking things in direct contrast to what God said in Genesis, where God said “it is not good for man to be alone”, and indirectly, “Go forth and multiply”.
Specifically I am reading through 1 Corintians 7, and there is much said that I can not get on board with. I understand that there is much that can be inferred into writings that is not there in the first place, but I can not help but get the feeling that there is a measure of arrogance as Paul speaks of marriage. In 1 Corinthians 7:1 he starts by saying “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman”. Now maybe I am reading it wrong, maybe Paul is saying that they wrote to him saying it is good for a man not to touch a woman, and then he was addressing that, but without the quotes, it is left looking like Paul is saying this to them in response to the letter Paul received. But here comes the touch of arrogance that starts weaving in; 1 Corinthians 7:5-9:
Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But I say this as a concession, not as a commandment. For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that.
But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
I see parts of this as completely reasonable, and who am I to say that being able to be alone without issue is not a gift from God, but to say that it is only the lack of self-control that is a reason for a man and a woman to be married, that is not truth, as God himself said “it is not good for man to be alone” and then He created Eve for Adam as a helpmate. Now people joke that in the garden, perhaps it was because Adam was looking at the animals a little funny (read, burning with passion), that God decided to create Eve, but that is not what is said. I believe there are many reasons that it is good for a man to be married to a woman. Just as God said, a helpmate, yes, I can absolutely say that my wife is the biggest human helper I know in my life. She takes care of so many things, and with us working together so much more can be accomplished, yes, even so much more can be accomplished for God.
I was accepting of being alone for the rest of my life, but God knew better. He knew I needed someone, even though it was not apparent yet. I had not gotten seriously sick before, been without work before, bought a house before, or had a child before. God knew what He had in store for me, and he knew I could not do it alone, and so He chose the perfect match for me, a self proclaimed freak, an oddball, so unique I could not relate with others. I think differently, I act differently, I relate to people differently, and I see things differently than the majority of people I have met in this world. He found a beautiful woman who would stand by me and support me no matter what.
I guess my main point is, people are not perfect, no matter if they have writings in the bible or not. Paul was far from perfect, in fact, I have referred to him as a pompous ass at times, and other things. He is human, God touched his life, but he is still him. He has to fight against who he was brought up to be, and God used him and his strengths for much good, but it did not mean he did not have a bunch of worldly funk still attached to him that he has to fight against to keep God’s word and heart flowing without being over colored by him, a legalistic, hard, emotional guy. This is a powerful lesson for all of us as we walk with God. Never think anyone is perfect, except for God and Jesus Christ. I am not saying to not trust anyone, but I am saying never get to the point where you treat everything that a person says as 100% perfect, unless you are talking directly to God or Jesus. You must weigh what you hear, with the character of Christ, you must know Jesus that well, the heart of God. If you don’t, then you risk being tossed by the waves, no matter who is making the waves.
The concept that the bible is infallible, is in itself a powerful deceptive tool. It was written by men, God is reflected in there, but so are the ways of men, and written on the pages of the bible are the historical accounts of the horrible concessions God had to make, when there were only bad concessions open. God’s plan was not genocide, murder, theft and death. It was to make a place for a people who were to be a light on a hill, showing God’s love to the world and teaching people, ushering them into God’s way of living, the way He created His people to live, and ushering them into the knowledge of who God is, and how He wants the best for every one of His children on the face of the planet, the entire human race.