********At the risk of sounding redundant, every so often I  wonder why I started blogging. 
After 9 yrs of keeping God's Word in context, the effects of that are nothing less than amazing. 
Maybe I find it therapeutic to share how everyday occurrences, develop a clearer and sharper perspective simple because God's Word is back where it belongs. 

I mentioned before, that quite often, Sunday morning sets the stage for the week. 
Believers all know that come Monday, we will spend a majority of the next six days, being influenced by a hostile (to God's truths) world. 

From news media to pop culture, it never ends. 
With each passing day, it becomes clearer and clearer that I've lost the ability to just jump into some popular subject, whether it's Christian or not, but jumping into these subjects, absent any context, makes conclusions many come too concerning, whatever is they are discussing, very confusing. 

Since Noone has time for adding context to any issue, well you can see, communication is challenging. 
I love small talk and I respect people's views and as long things are fine. as you don't ask why they believe what they do. 

I'm truly not crazy. But I have to watch pop culture lead our Christian kids, to unimaginable, heart breaking situations only to come back years later, and chase after MORE of what led to them astray, in the first place? 
Can't help but ask "will we ever learn?" 

The reasons for that become clearer as one examines the "free for all"  atmosphere of the visible church. 

It's only Tuesday and I've already considered two difficult issues. 
1)persecution of the church. I listened to an extreme position and a contextual one. What i came away with is a deeper desire to pray for persecuted Christians. 
And 2nd was, I was reminded from a brother in Christ I respect, Jesus words about "what we bind on earth....... bind in heaven" verses in Matthew. 

Prayer has been something I've been focusing on and that's why that came up. 
So many times, I'm reminded of of my not considering the consequences of no longer understanding christian language. 
Case in point, this brother in Christ asked if I had a, face to face, nose to nose, eye to eye type relationship with Jesus. 
If I had been quicker on my feet, I would have said "no, and neither do you." 

Look, I get what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. 
I just don't get the language we use to describe it. 

I am usually ok with biblical issues that are more dividing than others. 
Where I jump ship at, is when selected verses are used to support ones divided  view. 

Whether it's the rapture, the Millennium, Israel, the church, our faith, what we can bind, and so many christian beliefs that divide, I myself need time to sort through it. 

Since the time I first read the Bible , I've noticed that when it comes to dividing views, that contain many many interpretations, I'm more prone to adopt the view that's most consistent with all of scripture. 

Take for example,that subject that came up with a friend this week. 
Those verses about what we bind here on earth. 
Now I respect this friend so it was worth my time to re educate myself. 

Why would Jesus interrupt His line of thinking to inform us, in this apostate culture, that we can bind demons? 
That's a first question. 
Who was He talking to? Where were they? What was He talking about? 
What's the theme of the entire Bible? What keys is He talking about? 

That's not even a scratch on the surface of this subject. Point is, if someone is reading their Bible straight thru, beginning at Genesis, and if by the time you get to Matthew you think your gonna tackle satan, in any fashion, you might wanna check your hermeneutics. 

Man, I can just imagine the disgust that some might have over what they  "think" I just said. 


Key word there is "think"  because something else I've noticed, about communication, since reading vrs by vrs,in context is, that in most discussions, the first couple things that come to mind as I try to share what God's been doing..

That ain't it! Those initial things that come to ones minds are the things that need to be plowed thru, when seeking to get to the truth. 

Those initial things that comes to ones mind are the very things I no longer consider. 
In doing so, this has given proper insight (only God can give) to the Bible.