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Name: Bernie
Location: Athens, Georgia, United States
Interests: A grandfather, father, husband, man, child of God who is following Christ Jesus and working out his salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in me, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13)
Expertise: Only that which the Heavenly Father provides - for all else I must shoulder both the fault and the blame
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
4/21/2004
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| Just wanted to thank all the folks here on Xanga who have subscribed to my blog, read the posts, left comments and engaged in conversations over the last 7+ years. You have all truly been a blessing to me ... thank you! But I sense it is time for a change so I am starting my blog anew over at wordpress.com. The new blog address is: http://believinginchristjesus.wordpress.com/ As the Lord leads, stop by and visit some time, leave a comment, subscribe if you like. I would love to strike up a conversation with you once again. Abide IN Christ Jesus, His love and His words brothers and sisters and be blessed in the abundant life He offers!!! Bernie | | |
| Most of my life I have believed there are only two degrees of righteousness – basically one is righteous or unrighteous. And quite frankly in the end and according to God’s perspective, that is indeed the ultimate truth. But from man’s perspective we struggle here on planet earth with at least four degrees of righteousness … maybe more. The ultimate and only true degree of righteousness is the one found through faith IN Christ Jesus by His children, who are born again of the Holy Spirit, who abide in Him and follow Him, etc. Their righteousness comes thru Christ alone. God opens the eyes of the sinner to see his or her need for repentance and forgiveness, and then thru Christ Jesus God meets that need and gives them life everlasting. Please feel free to comment on what other ‘etc.’ should be mentioned … or even removed. The second degree of righteousness (and in fact it is actually unrighteousness) we’ll call self-righteousness. We believe what we do is of equal or greater importance than what Jesus has done, is doing and will do to save the perishing people of this world. We act like our work plus the work of Jesus make us better than everyone else. Works are indeed born out of faith according to God’s plan … but works and behaviors that become notches on our belt of self-righteousness are rarely the same thing. (For more on self-righteousness, think Pharisees and read Matthew 23:1-36. ‘Woe’ is an extremely critical word when it comes to self-righteousness). Self-righteousness, pride and hypocrisy all tend to be partners in crime while the true righteousness of Christ is often validated in a believer by the fruit of the Spirit, oneness with God and community, humility and sacrificial love for others. The third degree of righteousness is unrighteousness before God that knows no guilt or remorse and literally embraces sin and seeks to lead others into the same direction … a direction ultimately leading to condemnation. At least, this is probably how we as followers tend to see them. While we may see them as being condemned and without hope (and they may actually see themselves in the same way), only God knows what He has planned. We (I) tend to see (and often act) as if people in this degree of righteousness are our enemies Failing to remember that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, we see them as our enemies. Failing to remember that they have been trapped in a snare of the devil, we taunt them … or simply treat them as quarantined. And yet have we not been called to be ambassadors for Christ, with God making his appeal through us? As Paul wrote, ‘We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.’ The fourth and final degree of righteousness (from my perspective) is indeed unrighteousness that is prompting a person to struggle with God. I have seen some people … specifically teenagers … that believe the things they have done are unforgivable and cannot be overcome by God … so they struggle at cliff’s edge … not fully realizing the power of what Christ Jesus has done for them. Then there are those who believe they must clean-up their act before they can come to Christ and/or church … the tentacles of self-righteousness have already ensnared them into a different kind of unrighteousness. Then there are those who realize they are in need of repentance and God’s forgiveness and are slowly but surely moving in the His direction. Are there other degrees of righteousness you have personally observed or experienced? All this said and written, this is really not my attempt to categorize and segregate the people I encounter. Instead I am learning (and I am an extremely slow learner in this regard) that these different degrees of righteousness (the final three above) are hopefully just phases of each person’s journey that ultimately is leading them into the sole/soul righteousness that is found only IN Christ Jesus. Please pray for me in this regard … I truly need your prayers. | | |
| a book review of the Kindle Single 'The Instigators' by David Wolman On February 11, 2011 after nearly 30 years as the President of Egypt and also after 18 days of demonstrations against his regime, President Mubarek resigned. What few people realized at the time was that the flames of revolution had been fanned since 2004 if not earlier by people like Ahmed Maher and Wael Ghonin. This fascinating Kindle Single tells the story of the conception, birth and execution of a revolution. What is interesting in this short read is understanding the key role social media, social networking, bloggers, microbloggers and the virtual world played through the use of digital tools like Facebook, blogs, e-mail, Yahoo chat, Twitter, Google Earth, online groups/forums, Google Docs, Gmail, etc. in conceiving a revolution. And even in the midst of that virtual world, a war was being waged between those leading the revolution and the Egyptian security officers intent on infiltrating and derailing it. However it wasn’t until the online organization bridged over into effective street organization as well that a revolution was born. The martyrdom of over 800 men and woman, the arrests, the beatings and Egypt’s last ditch effort to strangle the revolution by cutting off Internet access and cellular service – all only served to strengthen the revolution and finally bring about the resignation of President Mubarek. ‘The Instigators’ shares an interesting story of the revolution in Egypt. But it also reveals to us all how real change is being orchestrated throughout the world today and will be orchestrated in the years to come with the help of social media and social networking tools. Highly recommend this quick read. | | |
| Here are a few passages of Scripture to consider starting with a couple of verses from Acts 2 … Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 … And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." And from John 3:5-8 ... Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." While I will not share them here, also consider Romans 8:1-11 on life in the Spirit and then revisit Pentecost itself … Jesus, John, Peter and Paul ALL taught on the importance of the indwelling presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer … I think Francis Chan is right … the Holy Spirit has been forgotten … and I might add rarely even introduced to the new believer. How will a new believer know, sense and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in his or her life if he or she has never even been introduced to Him or even made aware of the work He does according to God’s plan and purpose? The work the Holy Spirit did in and thru people in the Old Testament and in the New Testament He is still doing today … and will continue to do … in and thru believers … followers of Christ Jesus. He gets honorable mention in baptism ceremonies … yet He is never introduced to the believer … we all know what God the Father has done, is doing and will do … we all know what Jesus the Son has done, is doing and will do … Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not ‘You Pick One’ or ‘You Pick Two’ options. Few have a clue as to the role the Holy Spirit has played in moving man to prophesy about the coming of Jesus (2 Peter 1:21), the role the Holy Spirit played in the conception of Jesus Christ (Matt 1:18,20), the role the Holy Spirit plays in bringing the words of the gospel to us in His power (1 Thess. 1:5), the role the Spirit has played in convicting and bringing us to Christ Jesus (1 Thess 1:5), the role the Holy Spirit plays in our rebirth (John 3:3, 5, 7-8), the role the Holy Spirit plays in indwelling within us as God's temple (1 Cor 3:16, 1 Cor 6:19), the role He is playing in revealing Christ and the wisdom and knowledge of Christ to us (1 Cor 2:9-16, Col. 2:1-3), the role He plays in teaching us ALL things (John 14:26), the role He plays in wielding the word of God as an active and living two-edged sword (Eph 6:17, Hebrews 4:12), the role He is playing in sanctifying us for Christ as His bride (1 Cor 6:11, 2 Thess 2:13), the role He plays in our regeneration and renewal (Titus 3:5), the role the strength of the Holy Spirit plays in overcoming our desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16, Romans 8:6), the role the Holy Spirit plays in giving us life (John 6:63, Romans 8:11), the role of intercession the Holy Spirit plays on our behalf (Romans 8:26-27), the role He plays in unifying us as ONE body of Christ (Eph 4:1-6), the leadership role He plays in our walk and life of faith and our acts of worship (Romans 8:14, Gal 5:18, Phil 3:3), the role He plays in comforting us (Acts 9:31), the role He plays in producing the fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:22-23), the role He plays in spiritual gifts (Hebrews 2:4, 1 Cor 12:1-11), the role He is playing in sealing us as God's guarantee for the day of redemption (2 Cor 1:22, Eph 1:13, Eph 4:30), ETC (cause I'm sure I've missed a bunch of roles … especially Old Testament ones). How many of these roles of the Holy Spirit are you seeing for the first time in the paragraph above? What are some of the roles of the Holy Spirit I have failed to list above? | | |
| Let's take just a moment to consider the first day of the church as recorded in the entirety of Acts 2 and look specifically at what happened after Peter's Pentecostal message: Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. Acts 2:37-41 (ESV) Remember there were 120 disciples praying in the upper room. So at 9AM on Pentecost there were but 120 … by the end of the day there were approximately 3,120 baptized souls in the church as a result of the work of the H I don't really know what you may have experienced regarding baptism in your life of faith and religion but I do know what I have experienced and I would like to share a description of the sequence of events I have typically observed regarding baptism. The typical chain of events have occurred something like this: 1. A person responds to some sort of altar call walking down to the front of church to 'accept Jesus'. 2. Subsequently over some period of time, that person goes thru some sort of counseling with a pastor, an elder or some other kind of counselor. 3. Some sort of confirmation is received in the midst of that counseling that the 'salvation decision' is real. 4. The person's baptism is scheduled for a future Sunday. 5. Baptism occurs, How does that compare with what you have experienced? Oftentimes in man's zeal for his religion and control of that religion, he quenches the Spirit of God and hinders the powerful work of God in the moment. Compare and contrast what happened in Acts 2 (also Philip and the people of Samaria, Simon the magician and and the Ethipian eunuch in Acts 8. Cornelius and his household in Acts 10, Lydia and her household in Acts 16, the jailer and his family in Acts 16, etc.) with the man-controlled process we often go thru in the church today. Scripture seems to reveal that a profession of belief and baptism oftentimes occur one right after another. The church I currently attend from time to time has a Sunday of open baptism. At the end of the worship service, an invitation is issued … not one filled with hell and brimstone pressure, not one long and drawn out … simply an invitation to answer the call of Christ you may be convicted to respond to in the moment. You talk briefly to some counselors in the hallway as you join the line for baptism. For those of you concerned with some of the logistical concerns of not coming to church prepared to be dipped and dunked for baptism, the church has set up a table of t-shirts and shorts in all sizes along with towels. The suggested prayer they offer on the screen for one to consider saying in privacy before the Lord looks like this: Father in Heaven, I am a sinner. Have mercy on me.
Forgive me of my sin through Jesus' sacrifice. Make
me your temple. I commit to follow you in obedience.
In Jesus Name, amen. Then once they have entered the baptismal pool, the pastor says the following three things: 1. (name) do you trust Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? 2. Do you promise to follow Him all the days of your life? 3. Based on your profession of faith, it is my honor to baptize you my (sister or brother) in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I find observing open baptism to be so exciting … to see God working in the lives of people and seeing them respond to that work is such a blessing … to see the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst is faith building. What's been your experience with traditional baptism with open baptism?
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