Smallest Seed

Jesus is the only Way..out. The idea has always been to get out. Abraham was called to get out of Mesopotamia. Jacob had to get away from Esau and then later Laban. Moses was called to lead Israel out. And that became the main story, the whole point--getting out of Egypt. It was to be the foundation of God's covenant with Israel--they became his people because God chose to rescue them out of their land of slavery. And that is the foundation of our covenant with God--God took us out of our Egypt, which symbolizes worldliness. Egypt in the physical--the geographical country in the Middle East--is a good country with good people. What we're talking of here is how spiritual Egypt was symbolized in the bible as worldliness . So, the main idea is to get out. And the only way out is God's Way. Therefore, Jesus is the only way out. You can't stay. If you stay you die. All Lot's wife did was to look back, and she died. The Israelites who didn't want to get out

Have you met what I call "Abneric" people? You know Abner, of course? He was King Saul's army general and bodyguard. If he were your army commander and bodyguard, having all that power and authority, you should beware of him. And yet, in some ways, you can also count on him. He is the type of guy who'd often prioritize personal interest to loyalty and the general good and yet appear trustworthy. Sometimes, there are Abneric church people. And pastors should be wise dealing with them. Doubtful Loyalty When Saul died Abner made it his duty to install Ishbosheth (Saul's son) to power, even if Saul was no longer around. He could have wrestled power from Ishbosheth, but Abner opted to stay loyal to his master's family. But it probably felt terrible having someone like Abner place you in position. Scripture says Ishbosheth feared Abner that he sometimes just played along with Abner's plans [2Sam.3.11]. It probably felt like Judas Iscariot kissed and e

Awesome Power! Amazing--this power of a new creation! A new creation in Christ is powerful! Unfortunately, very few Christians realize this. They zero in on grace giving them a chance to sin without the punishment. But if you really look hard at it, a new creation is powerful. It's more powerful than 10 nuclear warheads going off together. And anyway, God's true grace makes you want to be like him in true holiness, Paul tells Titus [2.11-12]. So, if you think grace makes you safe to sin, it's probably the devil's grace , if there's such a thing. New Years are celebrated with powerful firecrackers and displays, especially in our part of the world. Last New Year's Eve, the smoke from the firecrackers accumulated into one of the deadliest smogs in Philippine history, causing countless respiratory ailments after. Why do they do that? Because they want to make New Year's look powerful. They believe there's power in a new year, so they also lin

When December comes you can’t help but enter a mall or department store and take a look inside. They got lots of glittering things that make their merchandise look more appealing and attuned to the Season. Why do we find ourselves more prone to buy at Christmas time? Because some smart aleck said that Christmas is a time for giving gifts. And I’m sure that aleck was a big businessman. And a smarter aleck said Christmas was Jesus’ birthday and all Christians should celebrate Christmas. But I don’t know how to reconcile my Jesus with a worldly Christmas. Then the unthinking churches followed suit. They re-echoed the smart alecks and confirmed that, yes, Christmas was Jesus’ birthday and being so we had to give each other gifts. And these churches even bought Christmas lights (how do you connect the lights to Jesus? The star from the east?) and Christmas trees and little reindeers and Santa Clauses they hanged on the trees. The church gave their share in spreading a paganistic world

Thousands of years after my Jesus radically demonstrated what Sabbath meant (or demonstrated how to break it) church people still have funny ideas about it. They still reek of Pharisaical religiosity while they all claim thorough understanding and expertise on the subject. What’s the true Sabbath? One born again, after discussing the matter with an Adventist, asked me why Christians decided to turn Sabbath into a Sunday affair, obviously confused. She looked convinced that Sabbath ought to be observed on Saturdays because that’s how the Jews observed it in the Old Testament. I asked her why she didn’t see how Jesus broke it in the New Testament. Why see the Jews and not Jesus? Jesus was the one who died for us. Then sometime in the recent past, some church leaders told us that the only way to observe Sabbath was to do nothing else but to go to church on Sundays. Thus, church people spend all Sunday in their church buildings from morning till evening. That way, you fulfill

Artificial testimonies--it's amazing how people can twist things and then believe in them. I've heard lots of phony testimonies like that, nice sounding, very spiritual, but in the end you'd see how things had actually been twisted around to sound good, and then believed by the testifier as real. How did I know that they were phony? Wasn't I just being too judgmental about them?  It's easy--just be sharp spiritually and you'd see that they are artificial testimonies. Jesus gave us the hint--you will know them by their fruit. They say a lot of nice things happening to them spiritually, how they're growing in their spiritual lives, how they heard God tell them this and that, and how they spend much time with the Lord. But later you see how they really live and behave and react and think, and you'd know that everything they said were just artificial testimonies. It isn't just a one-time slip into error or misbehavior. You'd see that it

The superior church ministry of Jesus--which is based in heaven and totally free of anything man-made--is premised on a new covenant. If you don't have this covenant with God then you are not in the Jesus ministry and if you're not in the Jesus ministry which is heaven-based (not earth-based) you are not in covenant with God. It's as simple as that. If you're not faithful to God's covenant, he "turns away" from you [Hebrews 8.9]. And many Christians, even those active in church, do not realize this. You have to be found faithful to God through his new covenant. And the new covenant has a lot to do with God's law. And here's the problem--many churches teach that because you have received salvation by grace and not by works of the law, you can relax on the law. Thus, you find many Christians weak in the Old Testament, especially on the Law.  Worse, I even see Christians ignorant of the New Testament. They're just kept busy in church.