Elijah / John the Baptist

Malachi says, "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes", and The Gospels say that John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Lord.

But is Malachi saying that Elijah will come before the day of Judgement, or was John the Baptist Elijah?

Soul? Spirit?

Alright. Here's something I've been wondering about for awhile. I have a few ideas about it, but I really don't know how to express them. I'm just going to ask you guys for help and we can all talk about it:

What is the Soul? And what is the Spirit? Are they different?

Could we really be perfect?

Here's an idea that I've been turning over in my mind and struggling with for the past month of so. Up until this week it's just been an idea. This week I decided to try and put it into practice. I did this because on Sunday our Bible class teacher, Mr. Kent Jeffers (more commonly known as KJ), gave us all a challenge to not sin anymore. So, this idea of not sinning anymore has been turning over in my mind for awhile now.

It seems like the idea that we could be perfect is contrary to most "Christian" teachings today. I've always been taught that because I'm human I sin. That there's nothing I can really do to change the sin inside of me. I've always learned that being human means being sinful and that's the bottom line. And I suppose that can be biblical: "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory" (Romans 3:23). But, there's just one problem with the idea that being human also means being sinful: Jesus.

It blows my mind to know that Jesus was fully human and he never sinned. How did he do that? If Jesus was human and he was perfect then I guess it means that I, being human, can be perfect too. This also blows my mind. But, as I read the New Testament more and more it seems like all of the letters written to the churches are saying one basic thing: "Stop sinning! Just stop it already!"

There's the famous Romans 6:1 - "Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not!..."

There's also this ridiculous passage from 1 John 2 - "I am writing this to you so that you will not sin..."

What about all the times Jesus told people, "Go and sin no more." Did he really mean that?

In Galatians 5:24 - "Those who belong to Jesus the Messiah have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there."

Ephesians 4:22 - "...throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life..."

Romans 12:2 - "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think."

These are just a few verses that I found out of, I'm sure, many, many more that you could find. So now that I'm done ranting, I'll open it up for discussion. What do you think: could we really be perfect?

The First Brush Strokes

The concept of this website is mostly taken from "Velvet Elvis." Instead of trying to explain a bunch of stuff I'll just let you read some from the intro of the book. And in case you didn't know a Velvet Elvis is a painting of Elvis on velvet. You can usually buy them on the side of the road from various aspiring artists. Now for the intro:

I think the best part of my Velvet Elvis is the lower left-hand corner, where the artist simply wrote a capital R and then a period.

R.

Because when you're this good, you don't even have to write your whole name.

What if, when he was done with this masterpiece, R. had announced there was no more need for anyone to paint, because he had just painted the ultimate painting? What if R. had held a press conference, unveiled his painting, and then called on all painters everywhere to put down their brushes, insisting that since he had painting the ultimate painting, there was simply no need for any of them to continue their work?

We would say that R. has lost his mind. We say this because we instinctively understand that art has to, in some way, keep going. Keep exploring, keep arranging, keep shaping and forming and bringing in new perspectives.

For thousands of years followers of Jesus, like artists, have understood that we have to keep going, exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and each other. The Christian faith tradition is filled with change and growth and transformation. Jesus took part in the process by calling people to rethink faith and the Bible and hope and love and everything else, and by inviting them into the endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live.

The challenge for Christians then is to live with great passion and conviction, remaining open and flexible, aware that this life is not the last painting.

This is what I want to do with this website. I don't want to teach. This website isn't a website for Bible Lessons. It is a place for discussion. Instead of coming here with answers I want to come here with questions. We can discuss them, wrestle with them, and come to some sort of conclusion for ourselves. We can all add our own brush strokes to the painting. We'll "keep exploring, keep arranging, keep shaping and forming and bringing in new perspectives."