Last Night

"He give his honour unto others" —  last night did not have to be:

 “For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. 

 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, 

 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. 

 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?" (Pro 5:3-20). 

 Thomas Annan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Beyond What is Written

This post remains under construction!

Shew us the Father

“Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us” (Joh 14:8).

How many today might likewise petition the Lord, in as much as Scripture does not always partition the Triune God distinctly, i.e.,  as Father, Son, and Spirit?

John Wesley “inappropriately” said “Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the triune God!”

Apparently, Wesley failed to understand that Christ came to “reveal” the Father and that Scripture is meant to be understood!

“Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Mat 11:27).

“Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father. … I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (Joh_20:17).

“Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph 2:18).

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature” (Col 1:15).

“That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ” (Col_2:2).

Paul, in the book of Ephesians, reveals the Father in ways He has never been revealed before: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).

We all fail at times to discern signature of the Father when it is imbedded in a plethora of insidious pronouns. However, it is critical to anticipate the Son’s intent to “reveal” the Father even when so imbedded, or our words will ring hollow when we pray “Our Father which art in heaven!”

Replacing the pronouns that shroud the “God and Father” with the same, we have the following illuminated paraphrase of the first chapter of Ephesians:

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

Eph 1:4 According as he [the Father] hath chosen us in Lord Jesus before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him [the Father] in love:

Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself [the Father], according to the good pleasure of his will,

Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his [the Father’s] grace, wherein he [the Father] hath made us accepted in the beloved [Jesus].

Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his [the Father’s] grace;

Eph 1:8 Wherein he [the Father] hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he [the Father] hath purposed in himself:

Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he[the Father] might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him [the Father]:

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him [the Father] who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his [the Father’s] glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his [the Father’s] glory.

Eph 1:15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,

Eph 1:16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

Eph 1:17 That the God [the Father] of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his [the Father’s] calling, and what the riches of the glory of his [the Father’s] inheritance in the saints,

Eph 1:19  mighty And what is the exceeding greatness of his [the Father’s] power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of hispower,

Eph 1:20 Which he [the Father] wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

 Eph 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

 Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

©2017 Christian. Textual content may be copied and distributed, but it may not be sold.

The Ever Immortal Soul!

Lazarus before the rich man’s house, Gustave Doré¹

The soul never loses it’s ability to think, to remember, to ponder and be aware of itself, whether it be in everlasting bliss or eternal remorse.

However, Stephen Hawking has convinced his worldwide brotherhood: “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

 "Because there are laws such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."



Yet, Jesus in a parable that was not a parable reminded “a certain rich man” ─ more righteous than Hawking:

“Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. … Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 

"Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (cf. Luke 16:26-31).

¹By Gustave Doré - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8710/8710-h/images/076.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=909870

The Church a Mystery?

On the Way to Damascus-Caravaggio³

Years ago, he asked, "What do you mean, the church is a mystery?" My answer was essentially "Old Testament prophets had no understanding of what we now know as the church — it was a mystery."

As the oblivious pastor continued his presentation unabated, it was obvious, he was without a clue regarding Paul's doctrine of "the mystery," much less the identity of the church, i.e., the Body of Christ of which he was a senior pastor.

“By revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (… Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ). Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy [New Testament] apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (cf. Eph 3:3-5).

On the road to Damascus, Christ declared His purpose for Paul to witness both of things which he had seen that day, and of “future” revelations “in the which I will appear unto thee” (cf. Act 26:16).

"By revelation he made known unto" Paul "the mystery." Not “one” mystery only, but the comprehensive all-inclusive will of the Father from which Paul unveils "the mystery of Christ."

After Ananias commanded “Brother Saul” to receive his sight, he further informed Paul regarding the Father’s will: “The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will” (cf. Act 22:14). Part of that comprehensive will is the mystery of the church, i.e., “the fellowship of the mystery”:

“That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs [with Jews], and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph 3:6-11).

A.T. Robertson¹ writes: "My understanding in the mystery of Christ" (tēn sunesin mou en tōi mustēriōi tou Christou). My “comprehension” (sunesin, Col_1:9; Col_2:2). Every sermon reveals the preacher’s grasp of “the mystery of Christ.” If he has no insight into Christ, he has no call to preach.²

A.T. Robertson biographical profile


¹A.T. Robertson, professor of New Testament interpretation (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) published 45 books, including his 1,454-page "A Grammar of the Greek New Testament" and six-volume "Word Pictures in the New Testament."

²A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Ephesians 3:4, 1927.

³By Caravaggio - scan, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15219516