Aug 25th - Where's Your Sword?

September 9th - At Ease!

Sword Lesson Two

Some of you get the early edition of the chaplain's corner. Don't fail to check out the final addition posted on the website. The commander does an excellent job of editing.  He cleans up my spelling, grammar and does wonders with highlights. He never changes the meaning of anything.  He calls me and goes over anything of question. The Commander keeps on file all of the lessons which even makes it great to share with a friend or a family member - anywhere, anytime. The Commander is doing a find job with the rest of the site, too.

Prayer list:   Mark's Jean has health problems.  Jean has fibromylagia, a painful and delibitating condition and lately has had been having problems with her blood pressure. Let's pray for them. 

On the lighter side, old Blue is going to be fifty on Sept 10^th.   Black Roses could be a nice touch. Luv ya, Blue!  Makes me want to put on an old Oiler shirt or something.  But, we do luv ya-Blue.

Now, for another lesson:  With your sword last week, you were told that the Bible is broke into the Old Testament and the New Testament.  You were told that the first five books of the Old Testament were the books of Moses and contained the Law of Moses and the history of man up to the Law of Moses. You were also informed that after that (the First Five Books or Penteauch) the rest of the books of the Old Bible were the history of God's people and their law.  All of which is true, but it doesn't do justices to all the other books of the Old Bible just to say they history.

There four books in the middle of the Old Bible that are so unique I just have to say a little more about them:   Psalms Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and The Song of Solomon.

 Psalms is a book of praises often put to music by David.   David wrote most of them, but certainly not all of them. The unique thing about Psalms is that every range of human emotion can be found and expressed in the Psalms. It will simply amaze as you read them how often you felt like that or wish you knew it said that. You were trying so hard to help someone depressed over life’s events. Now, you probably all know a little bit of the 23rd Psalms like “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life”.  But have you ever stopped and asked yourself, “What kind of man can write this and what is trying to say?”   Well, David was a King therefore he had life made (at least for that day and age).  DID HE??

David first wife tried to help her father kill him. His best friend had to die so that God could make him King. His first born son had to die because he was conceived in sin. Once he appointed King by God, he had to live life on the run. David had to run until God destroyed Saul the King (Saul was King of Israel at the time) and Saul’s son, Jonathon.   Jonathon was the rightful heir to Saul's kingdom and was David's best friend. One of David’s son's from one of his wives raped one of his daughters from another wife.  Then, the brother of the raped sister killed his half brother and others to avenge the wrong.  And you thought your children didn't get along! 

Oh, that's not all.   God rejected David's bid to build the temple because he had too much blood on his hands.   Now remember, David is "a man after my own heart" said God. Absalom, David’s son raised an army against him, ran him out of Jerusalem and took advantage of the wives King David left in hast.  Absalom was killed on the battlefield by David’s Army Commander against orders. David shed lots of tears in his life yet, he wrote the 23rd psalms. WOW.

Now, let me say something about Proverbs, it's a book of maxims. Maxims are sayings that are the general rule of thumb. Like “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.” That's a proverb of ours not exactly found in Proverbs the Book, but whoever coined the phrase (Benjamin Franklin) was well versed in the Bible. Just like that saying is not a 100% true,  it sure does carry a lot of weight. Proverbs is the single most useful book in the Bible for everyday living and accumulation of wealth. The Jewish people have been successful business people forever and now you know why. Young Jewish men that had a chance took four years of finishing school (college).  The first two years were spent studying history, law, rituals. The last two years studying proverbs. Churches that are big enough to have youth programs could really do some good if they would develop a two year curriculum for their young men and women to be able to really make something of themselves instead of trying to entertain them. Well, I could on and on. Just remember, God's Book - The Bible it's worth reading for a whole lot more than just a checklist of do's and don'ts

Now for a quick overview of Ecclesiastes - like Proverbs it was written by the Wiseman Solomon. Solomon was wise because God blessed him with wisdom which he had asked for.  People came from miles around to set at his feet and learn from him. Even by today’s standards, he would be considered wise because he was rich. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon breaks life into “a time and place for everything” and that “all of life's efforts are really vanity and vanity is like grasping for the wind”.  Finally, considering man's destiny, he sums it up in Ecclesiastes 12:13 "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man".  The words 'this is" duty" are written in italics are words written in to help us understand but sometimes they can take away from the meaning here is how it should read "Fear God, and keep his commandments for the whole of man.”

ATTENTION, DISMISSED.

With Christian Love, Your Chaplain, Tex

September 23rd - Precision of the Sword

The Bible is your sword it is the only weapon issued to the Christian - like any weapon - a soldier needs to have confidence in it. That's why I encourage you to read it!  “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" Roman 10:17.  Remember Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and powerful, and Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

Jesus sometimes taught in parables such as Mark 12:1-10, but He identified the lesson as a parable.  Many times, He goes as for as to explain the parable. Proverbs as we have already noted. Revelations is written in symbolic language.  I know this because it says so Rev. 1:1 "And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John" The Bible expresses liberties as in Romans 14:1-12 things left up to the individual Christian. But, the Bible is not written where we can not understand it or where we do not know what to believe. Just to the contrary, Ephesians 3:3-4 "how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)"

Now turn your New Testaments to Matthew 22:23-32. Go ahead get your sword and turn to Matthew. I'm not going anywhere.

Okay, Verses 23- 28 shows man and his wisdom at work.   It reminds me of those who have reasoned in their mind there could be no eternal hell. Verse 29-32, Jesus points out how their wisdom is flawed.  First mistake they did not know the Scriptures - second they did not know the power of God. If they knew their Scripture and the power of God they would have known that in heaven we will have the body of angels - no female no male, therefore no need for marriage. The Bible clearly teaches marriage is established to meet the sexual needs of mankind to avoid fornication. Hence, do away with sex and you do away with the need for marriage. But did you notice how Jesus pointed out to them the word am(present tense) was used as Moses wrote about their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They should have picked up on the fact that even though Moses was writing about dead men, he used the word am. Likewise, the apostle Paul made a similar point in Galatians 3:16 as he defended the teachings of Christ based on God's selection of the tense of a noun seed not seeds. If I am to understand the Bible I first must believe in It's Author and His ability to say what He means and to mean what He says.

 Now, did he create the world and everything in it in six days and rest on the Sabbath?  Well, if you learned anything today, you have to say “yes”. Oh, but what about the science that says... Stop right there - there is no scientific evidence that says otherwise. Theories of ice age prove by evidence that water must have covered the earth. The Bible covers that with the flood. Well, the earth is much older than the Bible accounts for life on it. Well, if God could make a rock this size by speaking it in existence why couldn't he speak an old rock into existence? Who said he had to start with a new one? If He is going to speak things into existence, why would it take him any longer than six days. unless He is a slow speaker? Truth is that people hate to face the fact that we are created because that means we must have someone or something to answer to. As surely as that grave was empty on the third day and Jesus is the Christ, God did just what He said He did when He said He did it. Our hopes for salvation are based on two immutable facts Hebrews. 6:18-20:  The first - God can not lie!  The second - that Jesus has become the High Priest forever.

Amen, Chaplain Tex