Feeling Alone

I'm feeling alone today. I know that I am not.  But I can't help feeling that way.

I know it's largely my fault.  I'm not surprised.  I put a lot of different thoughts out there. Sometimes I am pretty blunt.  I doubt there is anyone on the planet that agrees with everything I write about.

So I think people respond to me with a bit of hesitation at best.

But I know I'm not alone. On every topic I discuss, I know there are others that are coming to similar conclusions.  Many of these people are highly respected writers, theologians and brothers and sisters.

Yet in my world, I feel alone.

I have enough good friends that I am thankful for. In that way I don't feel alone.

However when it comes to the matters of faith that I am sorting through, I don't think most of my friends understand me.  I've gotten enough blank stares and silence. So I tend to avoid talking about these things in public.

I put myself out there. I am open to dialog.  I am not judging you, or assuming you need to agree with everything I say.

I don't even think everyone needs to engage in these topics. If you have a simple faith - keep it and guard it.  In many ways my simple faith is growing... I am seeing a lot of things simpler... but the journey there hasn't been simple.

I blog my journey for myself - it forces me to work through topics with some level of credibility.

I also blog to to encourage those who are students of Scripture to take a second look at the teachings of Jesus.

That is mostly what my journey has been about, and I have found it to be overall good for my soul.


But I know that it's not good to be alone.

Stop Calling The Bible The Word Of God

If you believe in the authority of the Bible, please quit calling it the Word of God. Please read it and see what it says about the Word of God.  Many Christians believe the Bible is the final authority for faith, religious practice, and morals.  Yet for some reason they call the Bible the Word of God.

Where am I going with this?

Please consider this question if you call the Bible the Word of God.

• Why do you call these 66 books the Word of God?
• Does the Bible tell you to call itself the Word of God?  Or did tradition?
• Did the Holy Spirit tell you to call the Bible the Word of God? Or did someone else teach you this?

I see the Bible teaching us that Jesus is the Word of God. (John 1:1-14)

There are other cases where the terms "Word of God" or "Word of the Lord" simply means that God is speaking to someone. (1 Kings 12:22, 1 Chronicles 17:3, Matt 15:4-6, Luke 3:2, Luke 5:1, Luke 11:28, Mark 4:33). 

The "Word" also seems to be a message that believers shared with others (1 Cor 15:2, Col 1:4-6, 2 Tim 4:2, Acts 13:44-49, Acts 15:35)

The Bible teaches that the Word of Christ lives in us and speaks to us. (Rom 10:8-9, Col 3:16, James 1:21-24, 1 John 2:14)

The Bible also teaches that the Word is something that is alive and active.(Heb 4:12, 1 Pet 1:23)

But I don't see the Bible teaching that the Word of God is a book that people read, study and follow.



So if you believe in the authority of the Bible, please quit calling the Bible the Word of God!

If you think tradition should trump Scripture on this one, keep calling it whatever you have been taught by those around you. :)

I do believe God speaks to us as we read the Scriptures with a listening heart. But He also speaks to us at other times. I think the Word of God is simply whenever God speaks to us. Jesus is also called the Word. He was and is God's message to us. Is that the Word we are listening to?

My concern is that by calling the Bible the Word of God, some have promoted the idea that Christians should follow a book instead of living in a natural relationship with a living God.  Following the book called the Word of God  will lead you to a religion.  Following the person "Word of God" will lead you to everlasting life.

Related Posts:

• Word Study on Word of God - lists a bunch of verses about 'The Word of God'
• Word study on Word of the Lord - more verses
• Word study on the Word - more verses and some summary thoughts
• Do you know God's voice
• Loving the Bible for what it is, not what I wanted it to be.
• Review of The Last Word 
• Freedom from Biblicism 
• Sola Scriptura
• Do you know God's voice
• Spirit of truth

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

A moment of tweekness? I'm tweetking the way people can follow my blog.  Supposedly this fad has caught on and a few people are using twitter to follow each others random thoughts.  I can be random. So I can tweet.  Tweet this! 

I even added a nice follow by Twitter button. 

Kingdom Taken Away

Continuing my series on the secrets of the kingdom.

Matthew 21:33-46  (HCSB)

“Listen to another parable: There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it to tenant farmers and went away. When the grape harvest drew near, he sent his slaves to the farmers to collect his fruit.  But the farmers took his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.  Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first group, and they did the same to them.  Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.  “But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’  So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.  Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”  “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told Him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his produce at the harvest.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruit.  Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whoever it falls, it will grind him to powder!” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they knew He was speaking about them.  Although they were looking for a way to arrest Him, they feared the crowds, because they regarded Him as a prophet.

Here is another parable where Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God. 


the kingdom of God will be taken away from you...

I welcome your feedback.  Does Jesus take away the kingdom, or is this simply a natural result of how the story goes?  I can't say I fully understand this part.

The farmers repeatedly rejected the landowner. At some point it makes sense that the land is given to someone else who will submit to the will of the owner. In the same way the priests and religious leaders repeatedly rejected Jesus, so it makes sense the offer of the kingdom would go to those who would submit to the rule of the kingdom.



... and given to a nation producing its fruit.

Some translation say "and given to a people producing the fruit of it".

So what type of people would "get" the kingdom of God?  I can't help but think of Gal 5:22 - 23, a familiar verse about what the  "fruit" of the Spirit is.  I'll make the connection then that those who produce the fruit of the Spirit are also those who are part of the kingdom or reign of God. Those with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

Here are some other verses that speak to who 'gets' the kingdom:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:3 NIV)

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:10 NIV)

 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Luke 6:20 (NIV)

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 18:3-4 NIV)

"Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" James 2:5 (NIV)

This parable speaks of people who were  given responsibility, and the task to produce fruit for the master.  If the Priests and religious leaders were somehow the keepers of the kingdom of God in the days before Jesus, it sounds like things were going to change.  God had entrusted these men to care for His kingdom, but it seems they wanted to claim the kingdom for themselves.

So when Jesus comes things change.  A different type of people are given the responsibility of caring for the kingdom and producing fruit for the master.   He doesn't just replace the old religious leaders with a new set of religious leaders. It seems this time he entrusts His kingdom to the least, the poor, and the lowly ones.

Eric's Dirty Worship Service

I just read about a dirty Worship Service at Eric's house.  Well actually most of the service took place outside with an old car. The service was done as an act of worship.  If this doesn't sound like a typical 'worship service' you can read Eric's post here: Worship Services at Our House

I wrote a similar post called Two Types of Worship Service after considering what service and worship means to me, and reflecting on two worship services I enjoyed in Paris.

Romans 12:1 talks about this true and proper worship:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. " (NIV)

How One Another

Finally part six of a series of the Five W's of One Another. I've been working through the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of the one another passages in the New Testament. Please take a look at the first post before reading further.

Part 1: Five W's of One Another - intro and verses showing what the one anothers are
Part 2: Who One Another
Part 3: Where One Another
Part 4: When One Another
Part 5: Why One Another 
Part 6: How One Another

So we now look at a how question.

How are the one another actions done?

As I've been going through these one another verses, I keep thinking they can all be summed up in the love one another command.   Isn't love the greatest command after all?

So here is John 4:7 - 19 (HCSB) that I believe sums up well how we love one another.

"Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.  No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us.  This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit.  And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world’s Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.  And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.  In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because He first loved us. "

 The love we have for others comes from God.  If we know God, and if God's spirit lives in us, He will love others through us.

If we love one another, we will also likely be living in harmony, not slandering, encouraging, teaching, instructing, admonishing (giving advice), agreeing with, forgiving, submitting to, singing together, showing kindness, humility, being compassionate, bearing with, serving, accepting, and showing hospitality to one another.

So there are my thoughts on the five W's of the One Anothers. Please feel free to comment and interact with one another on this topic.  :)