The Beast of the Mark

more comics and rations: www.sheepspeak.com/drwas.htm

Early Trinitarian text

The Trinity has been an interesting concept historically to fully understand in such a way as to articulate it to another so that that other may be able to in return understand and communicate the same. It is interesting though that even though the equivalent of the term 'trinity' is never used in the canonical texts, it is still (and it should be) a widely accepted concept. John 1:1 is often put forth as an early Trinitarian text. Today, I submit that we should also ponder Acts 16:6-10 in that same light:

6Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Chocolate Cake: Devotional Thought on Acts 10 and 11.

This devotional thought was presented to the Nipawin Leadership Team and Tisdale Corps Council meetings on the week of September 2nd.

We have all had the opportunity to read through the book of Acts together these past couple of weeks. I just wanted to open up today by sharing some devotional thoughts on Acts chapters 10 and 11 for us.

Do you remember the story of Peter and the Cornelius? Here is Peter, not only a good synagogue-going person but also a devout follower of Jesus and one day he has a dream. It is a most peculiar dream. One day he dreams of all these foods that he is not supposed to eat - now I am not talking about chocolate or cake or things that were bad for his diet - but I am talking about things that, in his day, good people who followed God wouldn't touch because well, they were just that; they were good, God-following people.

So Peter has this dream and in his dream the Lord's voice from heaven has asked him to eat this stuff three times. Now Peter isn't stupid and he not too long ago had just been caught denying Jesus three times before the rooster crows (Matt. 26:15, Mark 14:72, Luke 22:61), if you remember, and he is not going to race into any rash decisions here about this kind of thing; he shows the Lord that he is faithful to his Jewish covenant and declines the invitation three times. This is not what was wanted here though and this is not what the dream it turns out is about at all.

This passage not about dietary laws and what foods a good follower of Jesus will or will not eat and Peter should actually know this because he was there when Jesus fulfilled/abolished the dietary laws (Mark 7:19) by declaring as all foods clean. Peter knows that what the Lord's voice is saying here is true that he should 'not call anything impure that God has made' he knows that. This is not here a new piece of information. But there is something else here.

Peter and the resurrected Jesus are talking about here is something much more profound than diets. They are discussing the salvation and role of the Gentiles. You see the Jews had not thought to this point that the Gentiles, as they were, could be saved. They knew always that salvation was possible for them; Judaism always had proselytes. There were always people converting to Judaism but here in Cornelius' household, we have God-fearing people who are not like the regular synagogue-goers.

You see with every other Gentile to this point who converted/repented/changed, they all started to dress like the Jews, pray like the Jews, talk like the Jews, eat like the Jews and the men were even circumcised like the Jews - they joined the religion on Judaism's terms.

But now, however, there are people who do not eat like them, do not look like them, do not act like them and who are already in a relationship with God. How can that be? They don't dress like the Jews, pray like the Jews, talk like the Jews, eat like the Jews, and the men aren't circumcised like the Jews and yet they have already received the gifts of repentance and the Holy Spirit.

My question that I am going to leave us with - that we're not going to answer today is - who are these 'Gentiles' in our society that don't dress like us, pray like us, talk like us, eat like us, and otherwise act like us and how do we ensure that we are following God's Spirit in extending His mission to them like Peter did after his dream?

For more on my thought on this matter, this time in the context of Acts 15, I invite you to peruse Sunday, September ninth's sermon, The Chihuahua Barks Again (Acts 15:1-9) on-line at http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/ .

For our Nipawin Readers...

We are in desperate need in our food bank here. The cupboards are becoming
bear. If there is anyone in Nipawin who is able to support those in need in
our community we will be certainly exceedingly grateful.

The Mark of the Beast

more comics and rations: www.sheepspeak.com/drwas.htm

What the? Hail!

We're not in Victoria anymore, Toto.

There was hail and sleet in Nipawin today. We had the heat on in the corps in Tisdale yesterday.

I need to find a warm jacket; time to visit the store downstairs so I can ride my bike as long as I can here.

New Ministry Initiatives

In Nipawin and Tisdale we are in the process of trying to establish a couple of new important outreaches for at risk youth and others in our community.

We have been partnering with other organisations and are very excited by some of the opportunities that the Lord is providing...stay tuned for more.

We need candidates who are really religious

An interesting article out of the US - from the national catholic reporter:

The closer the United States gets to choosing a president, the more the event begins to look like a papal election: it's all about religion and little about what religion teaches.
The United States, we love to say -- and Europeans repeat in a kind of incredulous wonder -- is the most "religious" country in the world. Meaning, of course, the most church-going country in the world. Whether or not going to church correlates well with religious values is clearly a debatable subject. To wit, the corporal works of mercy -- as in, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the imprisoned, visit the sick, and bury the dead. It is on these criteria in Matthew 25: 31-46, however, that Jesus rests his definition of salvation. No small thing for those who considers themselves "religious." No small thing, then, one would think, if a nation -- if a candidate for political office -- were really serious about being "religious."

read more (really do) from ncr (http://ncrcafe.org/node/1296) or from Common Dreams (http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/07/3687/)

The Chihuahua Barks Again (Acts XV:1-19)

Sunday's sermon, The Chihuahua Barks Again (Acts XV:1-19), is up. Any comments or critiques are always appreciated. Thank you very much for everyone who has been holding me accountable via the e-versions of my sermons to date.

read the sermon: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/

Mike.

One anecdote. This sermon is about acceptance of one another, etc. At the end we really quite get into it about how we shouldn't write off people from various groups. So then after we get home someone lets me know that they ran accross this verse relating to our theme: Titus 1:12-13