Code Words

[I cannot, and I will not, take credit for any of the thoughts on this Post. This Post consists of my paraphrasing and interpretation from my professor's thoughts and lectures from this week in my HT102 class. Any "genius" or "genuine" thoughts from this Post should be properly attributed to him, Dr. Jeffrey Bingham, while any "stupidity" can accurately be attributed to me... Please comment accordingly]

Just because you read the Bible does not mean you're a Christian. Just because you read the Bible does not mean that you know how to read it. 

What matters is not that you read the Bible, what matters is how you read it. If a child runs across the room with a pair of scissors, what do you do? You yell out, "STOP! Give it back!" As if to a child, we scream out, "Give those scissors back! Once you can learn to walk safely across a room, then you can carry the scissors..." Too many people are reading the Bible and using it to say whatever they want. The Biblical text does not pose a foundation for numerous theologies, all these differing views are a result of our failure to censure the past interpretations of the Biblical text.

Because we have become so passive in the way that we read the Bible, far too many words [in the Evangelical context] have lost a definite meaning. We have produced a vast Christian language that is full of code words. In churches today, new believers learn this array of words, but it is as if we have received a bundle of note cards with words on the front side, but blank on the back—there are no definite definitions! Words like Jesus, God, Jesus died "for" me, Grace, Sin, etc. all have become ambiguous. We baptize people in our church who have "placed faith in Jesus Christ," but have absolutely no idea what it means that God is One Essence and Three Persons. How can we be "Christian" if we don't know how we relate to this wonderful Triune God? Well, we aren't truly Christian. 

So ultimately, yes, anyone can "speak Christian," but all sense of orthodoxy and the meaning behind these words—as they have traditionally and accurately been held in the Church—can very easily be lost. Be careful what you say, and how you say it—but even moreso, ensure that you understand exactly what someone means when they say, "Jesus Christ is my Savior," or "I am a Christian." 

Some helpful books in understanding how to read the Bible: Living by the Book by Hendricks, Basic Bible Interpretation by Zuck, How to Read the Bible for all it's Worth by Fee and Stuart.

A Birthday Surprise, A Canoe, And A Black Eye

I've had a pretty busy week, with my HT102 Summer Class and I have been needing to post this brief story since last Saturday. 

Well, as I hope you know, last Saturday was my birthday (May 24). My wonderful wife surprised me with a traditional Bag-O-Deonna—a birthday bag full of all sorts of gifts and surprises. The Last gift was a receipt for a canoe rental. So, for my birthday, we rented a canoe and went out on White Rock Lake...

It was great fun. We took our dogs, too. They were a little uneasy at first, well, actually they were pretty uneasy the whole time. Both of the dogs fell in, off the canoe, at least once each. After exploring some of the creeks that branch out like fingers on the north side of the lake, we decided to head back and have some lunch. 

However, while we were paddling back, I thought it would be a good idea to jump in the water—after all, it was about 95 degrees. So, after jumping in and out of the canoe about two or three times, we began heading to the shore for our lunch picnic. At this point, Deonna was at the rear of the canoe (not too sure why...) and I realized resultant of my swim breaks, quite a bit of water was now in the canoe... enough to seriously scare me.

I started to yell back at Deonna, "Baby, you need to rudder so we head back to shore!" I was stern, and serious, and immediately started to paddle towards shore. 

Next I remember Deonna's shrieks, "What is rudder!!??" Then she just started shrieking... and I turned to see the canoe fill with water, and completely submerge. 

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem (I have extensive training from the BSA), but the dogs just started to freak out. For about 10 or 15 minutes, we floated in the water, struggling with our dogs and a sinking canoe, as all of our items floated away. This was around 2:00 PM on a Saturday afternoon... in Dallas, TX. The shore was just packed with an excited, yet unhelpful, audience. 

Luckily we made it out alive—my wife, myself, and our dogs—but not unscathed. Deonna and I both had pretty severe scrapes from the dogs, who desperately struggled while in the water, and I had a pretty good gash to my right eye, spilling blood, and producing a ripe black eye. 

The red "X" shows the approximate location where our canoe submerged. Notice the biker bridge just to the right (North) of the "X". 

Friday At Work: An Allegory?

I have a great job with High Point [Travel]. Our office is located in the "Hotels.com" building on Central Expressway in Big D:

The only bad part about working on the first floor of the Hotels.com building is: there is no restroom on the first floor. However, for me, this is not necessarily a negative because it means whenever I need to do a little "5–4–2" I get to explore the building—there are accessible restrooms on the 2nd, 5th and 10th floors. Depending on my workload for the day, the length of my break, and the urgency to go, I will sometimes go random floors to use the restroom—not only does each floor have a unique look in the Hotels.com Building, but also each bathroom has unique fixtures and layouts. So I like to mix it up from time to time. 

Anyway, on Friday I needed to take a little "5–4–2," and decided to go up to the 10th floor, for it had been a little while since I'd been up there. On my way back downstairs, I decided to get some exercise and go down the stairs. Yeah, 10 flights of stairs, I'm big time. And always, always, always when I'm in one of those large stairwells I love to be a little kid and look down, between the stairs, all the way to ground floor; and then I love to look up, and see how far up I can see. Well, that's all great. But when I looked up—from the 10th floor landing upward to the 16th—into a space that should have been dark and hidden, instead I saw an odd, bright light coming from above (Ps 113:4–6).

I had no idea what this light could be, so I started to ascend the stairs. As I grew closer to the top flights, the light was bright enough to cast my shadow down onto the floors below me. It really was quite interesting. As I reached the 16th floor, I realized that the light was the sun. There was a massive door in the ceiling that went out onto the roof of our building. And it was wide open. A steel ladder was bolted to the wall, which I assumed was used for mechanical purposes if for some reason there was a need to get onto the roof. Well I definitely had a need.

To see this ladder ascending into the sky, and the door to the roof wide-open, let's just say I got a little excited. It was like a dream come true. Slowly and quietly I worked my way up to the roof, then stuck my head out to look around and see if there were any workers out there that might yell at me... people always yell at me when I do stuff like this. But I didn't see anyone... so I jumped out onto the roof.

The first thing I noticed was the wind—which just about blew me back into the hole I had climbed out of and down 16 flights of stairs. And the second thing I noticed was the brick wall, probably 7 feet high that obstructed my view in all directions. So I danced around for a minute, then used a little beat-up wooden ladder that was randomly lain in the corner of the roof to prop myself up on the wall. 

Here's the view to the north, looking up Central Expressway toward the intersection with I–635:

It was awesome just sitting up there. Heights have never really scared me too much, and really , the only thing that scared me was the possibility of someone seeing me and calling the Police thinking I was going to jump.

Here is the view to the South West, toward my Beloved's place of work. Deonna works in the Preston Tower on Northwest Highway. It's the building in the center of the picture, just across the street from the Park Cities Baptist Church:

I kept waving for my Beloved to see me, but I think that she never saw me and that my bubbly motions were only attracting more looks from the people passing on Central Expressway below, fumbling for their cell phones to dial 9–1–1 to report a jumper. 

Here is a little lot to the South East corner of our Hotels.com building, just behind Circuit City:

And below is the view of downtown Dallas. It actually looks more hazy than it did in actuality. It also looks very far away. I guess it is about 10 miles from my work to downtown. On the horizon, about halfway between the buildings of downtown and the edge of the picture to the left, you can see the rectangular building just next to my school, Dallas Theological Seminary.

This picture is looking due South from the building. Traffic doesn't look too bad on Central Expressway.

And here is my final, and favorite picture. I actually sat up on the corner of the Hotels.com building and leaned over to take this one. At first I was scared for my camera—an awesome new Samsung S85 that my wife bought me for Easter—I thought that it might slip out of my hands and smash that little white Honda below. But then I started to get a little scared for myself.

I don't know if everyone has experienced it, or if it's just a portion of the population, but have you you ever been in a situation where you know that you could be really close to death? I'd have to say that the moments like that in my life I could probably count on one (...well, maybe two) hand. I have experienced moments—whether it be climbing up a cliff in Estes Park with my old friend Burns, or skiing off "Million Dollar Rock" in Steamboat, or diving under a black dock in some swampy lake, or this, sitting on the edge of a 16-Story building in Dallas, TX—in which I say to myself, "you know Kyle, the possibility of your death is very close; if you just lean forward a little more (or move your arm a little more to the left, or duck down too low, etc.), you will fall off this building and die." 

This experience—not the experience of death, but the experience of realizing the reality of my mortality—is a revelation. First, it makes me think about me... and about how I will die at some point. Second, it opens my eyes to the fact that I AM ALIVE. Me. Kyle Reed. I have life, and I decide what to do with it (as ol' Gandalf says in The Fellowship, "all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."). 

This is such an important realization because we live in a fallen world. Our actions do have eternal weight. And I hope that we don't ever get caught up thinking that our life is for us, for our pleasure, and I hope that we don't ever get sucked up in habits and patterns. We need to have fresh experiences, and fresh days. 

I am thankful that yesterday afternoon I broke from a little of my life's many habits and decided to go to the 10th floor during my restroom break. I am thankful that I decided to take the stairs back down—even though it was 10 flights—and I am thankful that I decided to jovially explore the stairwell, and look up, into the bright light from above.

Your Life... in Six Words

The other night I was at Barnes & Noble with my wife when I stumbled upon this little book:


I found it to be addictive. The more I read the more I was intrigued by the life stories found on every page... life stories shared in only six words. Apparently someone once asked Hemingway if he could write his life story in six words. Obviously up for the challenge, he calmly said, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn."

This book contains entries from all sorts of people who submitted their six-word life stories to SMITH Magazine. It is quite amazing how much can be said it just six words...


What's Your Story... in Six Words?

03—How Will Our "Post-Resurrection" Bodies differ from Adam's "Pre-Fall" Body?

Alternate Title: Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15: How Sin Ultimately Unfolds For Good.

1. Adam had the choice to commit sin.

2. Adam had the ability to commit sin.

3. ...What else is a difference?

Glorious Conclusion (to attest to God's infinite brilliance in creating man with free will and still sovereignly allowing every aspect of His creation to bring Him glory): 

Ultimately we must believe that a fallen, sin-saturated, corrupted body, which is then resurrected to glory is better than a body that never fell at all.

Because of the beauty and glory of redemption, God saw fit for the allowance of sin in His workmanship.

Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15:45

"So also it is written, "the first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit."

Adam: 

The body was created first, and God "breathed" life into him (Gen 2:7). Adam's body was first, then the spirit second. Yet Adam used that life to rebel against God. This is NOT significant because "a man in the position of representation for all creation rebelled," but instead it is significant because the first man rebelled—not just a man. The narrative in Eden was not that, oh, well, eventually some person will eat of the forbidden tree, but the story emphasizes how quickly the rebellion took place, and again, how it was the first person created. There was no "digression" in human goodness. God created. Man walked. Man walked right to the Tree. We are sinful. 

Christ:

God the Son exists eternally as Spirit. This Spirit chose to be incarnate as the man Jesus (the act of kenosis). Thus God the Son was Spirit first, then body. Yet He is a not a body that received life, but gives life. 

Welcome Home

Dr. Horrell, one of my professors this past semester showed this video in his Trinitarianism class when we were discussing God the Father. Every time I see the video it brings tears to my eyes, seeing the desperate love that the boy has for his father.

The Art of Fasting

I've been reading a great book, Ten Things I Wish Jesus Never Said, by Victor Kuligin. Though I'm not far into the book yet, he makes some great observations about fasting.

I agree with him that we have sadly lost the spiritual discipline of fasting... certainly this is true in America. Through it we learn self-discipline and self-control, which will ultimately make us more like Christ by withstanding the temptations of the flesh. 

Check it out:

"'Fasting has the power to detach one's mind from the world of sense and to sharpen one's sensibility to the world of spirit.' If you can abstain from the strongest human desires, the body's need for food, then you can control yourself completely." 

       (Page 26)

And How about this:

"The comparison between the first Adam and second Adam is striking in this regard. The first Adam in the Garden of Eden could not resist the temptation to eat from the forbidden tree while in teh midst of numerous tress from which he could eat. The second Adam, Jesus Christ, after fasting forty days in the wilderness, was able to resist the temptation of Satan to make bread out of stones with no other food available. Jesus learned to control his physical cravings and desires, and from that discipline came the ability to resist spiritual temptation as well."

(Page 26)

How "Perfect" Will We Be?

The Bible is clear that we will be resurrected. The last enemy that God will destroy is death (1Co 15:26) and once our physical bodies are raised, our spiritual being will be re-united with our physical body. We will then, finally, be perfect, just as God intended us to be... the end result of Jesus' redeeming work, the most beautiful rescue mission of all time.

However, will we be PERFECT? Without spot and blemish? I tend to think yes... because I don't think that Adam and Eve had (nor knew) any corruption in the Garden. Yet as of now, Jesus is the only person to have an imperishable body, for He has already been resurrected post-death. He is the only person who will never experience death (except of course for those who have already passed and perhaps Enoch and Elijah?). Jesus is the only one who has experienced the resurrection, He is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1Co 15:20).

It's curious, that Jesus has experienced RESURRECTION, yet He has scars (Jn 20:27). Perhaps He is the only person who will have scars once we are in the perfect, eternal state. His scars will be the everlasting parchment which tells the story of God's love toward us, and the redemption which took place as a result of that love. 

Galatians Study (Charts)

As you can see, this semester I did a little personal study in the book of Galatians. I have become accustomed to creating charts when I study the Word, which is a result of my training at seminary. I wanted to put my notes on this blog to get some feedback... please check them out, read through them, see if they make sense, etc. And give me some feedback!

Galatians Study—Chapter 4

Galatians Study—Chapter 3

Galatians Study—Chapter 2

Galatians Study—Chapter 1

02—On God's Will

In one of my classes this week, my professor began a discussion on God's will. Most Christians believe, or recognize, three "wills" of God: Sovereign, Moral and Individual.

God's Sovereign Will is the ultimate will of God, as humans we can see this looking BACK in time but trust that God is absolutely in control of the future. God's sovereign will: what God wants, happens. Example: It is God's will that the Devil will be cast into the Lake of Fire and tormented forever.

God's Moral will is what He desires consistently from every human, being that we would strive to be holy (like Him) and pursue a relationship with Him. For God's moral will we have the Bible. It lays out everything that we need to understand God's moral will for our lives, and this will is the same for all believers. Example: It is God's will for me to be sexually pure and a servant to others.

Lastly, we come to God's Individual will for all persons. This is basically the belief that God has a specific will—different from any other person—for my life. God has a preconceived will for the outcome of my life... really, for each day of my life. Example: It is God's will for me to go to Dallas Theological Seminary.

My question is this: Does God really have an individual will for all people?