A Discrepancy in Language

I know this could be a vast topic including a huge list of words. But at this point I really question only one.

PASTOR

This word in the bible refers to "shepherds" of the church, overseers, or elders. Today in most churches the word is used, more or less, to describe someone who speaks on Sunday mornings. I question some of the differences here and if they really are something that truly matter, something that we ought to make a big deal about and say things like, "Well, we really should call them ministers." Or something like that.

There are a few things I'd like to point out.

• As far as I know the "denomination" Church of Christ is the only "denomination" that chooses to call it's speakers/teachers/preachers ministers.
• I know that Baptists, most non-denominational (or community) churches, and some others call them pastors.
• Then you have Catholics, Episcopals, Anglicans, and such who call them Priests (which is arguably a completely different role than teacher/speaker).

A suggestion of why these "denominations" who call their speaker/teachers pastors is justified is that they more specifically will call them "leading pastors" or "teaching pastors." By that, they mean that they are one of the many pastors at the church and they have been assigned (by the other pastors) the role of leading and/or teaching the congregation.

Anyhow, once again -- I wonder if this language discrepancy is really worth fussing about at all. What do y'all think?

Sovereignty of God

Is God sovereign?
Is His supremacy so great that He knows every day and every moment of my life? (Psalm 139:16)
Does he know the hairs on my head? (Matthew 10:30)
Does he determine my steps? (Proverbs 16:9)

True Love Waits?

After talking to some friends of mine from church, I had this theory about love. Everyone knows what earthly love is: one person really caring about another. We would talk about, for example, how we feel about girls. Every guy has had a crush on a girl, it's natural. But sometimes, you would feel more than just a crush for her, and each day, you would eventually feel more in love with her. Therefore, you experience a deeper love for her.

God always shows great love for us. Remember that "Greater love has no man than this", which refers to Jesus. My theory is that you will constantly experience a deeper love, rather it be for that special someone, or for God. When your level of maturity in your love increases to a point, that may be when you see Jesus face-to-face: true love. (That may also be why the good die young.)

What are y'alls thoughts on that?

Drawing a Line...?

Yesterday I was having a discussion with a girl. Let me go ahead and say that she is a Christian who actually works at her church in a daycare sort of place for children. When we were talking about what we plan on doing after high school is over she told me she either wanted to go into Ministry or EMS (Emergency Medical Services). So, obviously she has a very Christian background. But during our conversation we started talking about something that, until we talked about it, I didn't realize could possibly have so many different ideas and philosophies about it. What we were talking about was sex.

Both of us believed that sex was to be between one man and one woman. Although we believed it for different reasons. This was pretty clearly understood between us. But where we started having some different ideas and philosophies was in the blurry line that is between sex and not-sex. I started talking about how it was important to "draw a line" somewhere so that when you got there you would know not to cross it. She believed that the only way she could live was to not have a line and to venture wherever she felt until she knew she wouldn't be able to go any further; until she knew that God was telling her to stop. I thought that didn't sound like a very good idea, but it brought this question up in my mind about how many teenagers or young adults that there might be out there who might have similar beliefs. People who might have beliefs and philosophies that God actual wants them to "test the waters of sex" if you will.

Before I really shout out the conclusion that I've come to I just wanted to read some of your philosophies on this matter. I want to have a conversation of what you've come to believe, and then I'll unpack what I believe. Do you believe that drawing a line is important? If not, why do you believe that? If so, where do you draw it and why do you draw it there? Let the painting begin...

Click here to view this painting on the Google Groups and take part in the discussion.

A New Medium for the Painting

Hello! I know that I'm probably the most annoying person ever. But I've found a better medium for discussion than a blog. And that it a Google Group. So, I've started using the Google Groups for Our Painting. Please join me as we discuss our faith.

http://groups.google.com/group/our-painting

The Truth About Truth

What exactly is a lie? I mean, I know that it is not telling the truth, and that it is a "no-no" in the scriptures, but are there certain "lies" that are okay to tell? For example, if you are having a surprise party for a friend or family member, and you can't tell the person about it or say that there isn't going to be a party to conceal it, is that okay? And if you are joke-lying or being sarcastic or something, is that okay or should you avoid all of those things completely?

Jesus' Return- In the Morning?

I've been looking through a lot of church songs, and they all refer to the Second Coming as taking place in the morning, such as:

"I'll fly away IN THE MORNING" - "I'll Fly Away"

"The MORNING of the rapture" - "I want to stroll over Heaven with You"

"On the bright and cloudles MORNING when the dead in Christ shall rise, ...
And the MORNING breaks eternal, bright and Fair" - "When the Roll is called up
Yonder"

"There is NO NIGHT there" - "In the Land of Fadeless Day"

There are many more songs, too. My question is why it takes place in the morning. It is true, however, that early morning is the best time of day, and that may be where they are getting it from. But is there any biblical refrence to the rapture taking place in the morning? Of course, only part of the Earth can experience Morning at a time.

(I apologize for my randomness.)

"What must I do to be saved?"

This question has been asked over and over throughout church history. There are multiple recordings of it in the gospels, it is asked in Acts, and we ask this question still today. There are many different answers to this question in scripture and people will tell you different things if you asked them today.

If someone asked you, "What must I do to be saved?" what would your response be?

P.S. Please continue the discussions in "Christianity Evolution" and "How long should we praise?"

How long should we praise?

Is there a set time on how long we should praise God? I mean, I know what he did a couple thousand years ago is impossible to repay, but couldn't you just do what's right when the situation come up and worship God every day (but not the whole day), and spend the rest of the day doing whatever as long as you stay righteous, or are you supposed to dedicate every minute of every day to Jesus, or is there a certain time we have to spend each day with Him?

Christianity Evolution

Have you ever looked into Christianity from a history book, and noticed how different it is today than it was then? When there was only one form of Christianity, it was very weird, and only now does it seem like we actually follow the bible.

What is your opinion on that?

Demon Posession Today?

My brother recently asked me a good question, which I did not know the answer to. The question is, "Do demons still posses people today?" There are many places in the bible, such as Mark 1:23, where a demon or demons have possessed somebody, and Jesus drove them out of people.

So, do demons still posses people today? Did they posses Hitler or Stalin?

My opinion is that demons still do possess. I say this because I know that they still exist, just like Satan himself, though I have not heard of any recent case of possession, and I have no evidence to back up my guess.

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."