Baptized for the Dead

In Leviticus 23 God told the ancient Israelites to afflict their souls on the Day of Atonement, which occurred on the tenth day of the seventh month. God says: Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. Leviticus 23:26 The word in Leviticus 23:26 translated as "afflict" is translated as "humbled" in Psalm 35:13 when David wrote: I humbled myself with fasting. Thus the ancient Israelites understood the term "afflict your souls" to mean humble your soul and one of the ways that they did this was to fast as evidenced by David's fast. When we fast we deny ourselves something. Generally a fast refers to denying ourselves food for a certain period of time, but fasting can be applied to refraining from certain activities as well. As the ancient Israelites observed the Day of Atonement they would fast from...

According to Wikipedia there are approximately 41,000 Christian denominations. That's a lot of denominations. Presumably there are 41,000 different denominations because each of these denominations believe that they have the truth about what God wants for our lives. The question then becomes for the individual: "How do I find the truth?" Well, the bible answers that question in Isaiah 28:9 . The verse says:   Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? In this text God tells us that He will teach those that are weaned from milk and drawn from the breast. This means that God can only teach people that are not dependent upon others for their spiritual nourishment. Jeremiah 29:13 says: And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. When we compare these two texts we realize that the emphasis in Jeremiah 29:13 is on t...

In Malachi 3:6 the Lord declares:  "I am the LORD, I do not change." This sentiment is repeated through the apostle Paul in the New Testament when he writes in Hebrews 13:8: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." God according to the scriptures is constant: His character is consistent. The concept of a consistent, changeless God seems to be in direct contradiction with the ever-changing world in which we live. All around us it seems that things are changing. In fact we often state matter-of-factly that the only constant is change or that the more things change the more things stay the same.  But what is our role in relationship to change? Is change a good thing? Does God's seeming changelessness mean that we are also to be changeless? These are the types of questions that seem to bubble up to the surface of our consciousness when we are experiencing change in our lives.  To answer these questions there is no more potent source of i...

At first glance corporate justification and transubstantiation do not have a lot in common. But as we look deeper into the arguments that propel these ideologies certain similarities appear in the methodologies used to support these concepts. Transubstantiation as held by the Roman Catholic church states that at the Eucharist, which is the regular taking of the emblems of bread and wine, these emblems become the real body and blood of Jesus Christ. Proponents of this view believe that mystically Christ is sacrificed again and transformed into the local bread and wine. As a result of this denominations, that believe this, typically do not allow ordinary parishioners to serve themselves, but rather a priest or member of the clergy must officiate. Proponents of transubstantiation arrive at their conclusion based upon the words of Christ in Matthew 26 and elsewhere in the gospels: And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take,...

Recently I have realized that I am so tremendously blessed. Certainly part of this blessing has been the material provision of the Lord, but I find that I am greatly rich in other ways as well. The bible says: Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. Psalm 127:3-5 We are expecting another arrow in our quiver this October and this time we're getting more rose than thorn. God is great! As David so poetically wrote "My cup runneth over!" While there are times when the well is low the spring of the Lord never runs dry. May God add blessings to your life and may you praise Him for His wonderful provisions!

Halloween is over and little children have generally stopped dressing up like supeheroes, princesses and ghosts. But despite the untimeliness we still need to put on masks. Not masks worn to frighten, but masks to cover our sins. At our core we are sinful people. We were conceived in iniquity into a world filled with iniquity and we need to put on a mask. Recently I was watching Conan O'brien's self-titled show "Conan" the day after it aired (I don't stay up that late anymore) and in a segment of the show Conan pulled out masks for himself and his sidekick Andy Richter. The masks were suppose to resemble Conan himself, but because the company that produced the masks did not have the right to produce masks named after Conan they were instead called "The Ex-talk Show Host" masks. Conan feigned anger that they could be so cruel to name the masks that way given his recent and public exit from being the host of the Tonight Show. But the truth is that is exact...

The terms sacred and secular are often used to describe two distinct areas of life. We may equate sacred as referring to things that are not for everyday use but are set aside for religious purposes. Secular than would mean the opposite and refer to anything that is used in the everyday course of life. Is this dichotomy helpful or even natural? Should this type of thinking be embraced or ignored? In the ancient biblical world God Himself declared that there are somethings that are Holy or set apart from other things. In Exodus 16:23 God said: ‘Tomorrow (the seventh day of the week) is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD." In Exodus 20:8-11 God explained that while the Israelites had six days to work the seventh day was a day of rest where no work of any kind would be done. Later in Exodus 31:13 God would say "Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. ...