Theology Evolved?

What is it about Christianity that makes you like it? Turn towards it? That gives you hope?

Mine?

There is nothing to profit in material gain on earth or after. It is the most humble faith. There are no virgins waiting for me, no planetoid, no sense of elitism, there is just worshiping God.

Christianity gives me a hope for a world beyond my own selfishness.

okay not really, but how about a quote from the author of this blog.

"Whenever a church legislates rules/morality bylaws that are not clearly biblically-supported, they reinforce the spiritual celebrity paradigm." -- Zach Tanksley (me)

Your thoughts?

"I say the future needs artists who are called to the church who love the church and who are in churches who know how to love and lead them." -- Rich Kirkpatrick

I heard this today, and it speaks to everything that I am. I love it because I am an artist. I adhere to it because I do love the church. And I pursue it as I pursue vocational ministry, because I want to lead the church in love.

The Conclusion
So there we have it. We have seen that God has the amazing capacity to have victory regardless of how far (if at all) involved we are in his work. We have seen him work with Moses who feared that he was not an eloquent man in order to topple a kingdom. And despite the arrogance and pride of the elder’s of Israel we found that God could still defeat the philistines using an inanimate object. Finally, we have seen God work alongside his prophet Elijah to defeat the enemies of the faith and bring Israel into right relationship with God.
The last story is one God has tried to put forward on more than one occasion. It is the story of the faith of his soldiers moving forward and trusting in his ability to maintain them and bring about victory. We have seen this in the story of David and Goliath, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, and even the stories of the Apostle Paul. God moves with us, his victory is already assured. So with this I leave you with one final lesson.
The Lesson? God=Victory

The other lessons can be found at

Onward Christian Soldier 1.1
Onward Christian Soldier 1.2
Onward Christian Soldier 1.3

Elijah at Mount Carmel. (1 Kings 18)

It would be yet later in the days, when Israel was well into its kingships, that there would come a time for God to reveal himself before his people again. It was a time when the king of Israel, Ahab, had gone off to follow Jezebel and the prophets of Baal, taking Israel with him as a confused and very sheep like nation. This Jezebel had destroyed all but one hundred and one prophets. One of which lived off the land, and the other hundred lived in caves being taken care of by a man who had great fear of the Lord. The one was named Elijah. God had taken him aside and let him know that there would be a serious famine in the lands, and had led him to a brook where he would continually be able to drink, and God commanded the ravens to bring him food. Ahab was very well aware of Elijah, and had a feeling that Elijah was connected with the famine, So when it did come time for Elijah to go meet Ahab and speak to him about his evil transgressions that Ahab was not in the best of moods.
However, a prophet, a soldier of the most high God, is still not someone to be trifled with, and when Elijah lays out a contest for Ahab, the cocky king cannot turn it down. So all the people of Israel are brought to Mount Carmel, as well as the 450 prophets of Baal, for a showdown of godly proportions. And Elijah more or less just says he will allow the prophets of Baal to receive the kick off. He allows them to build their altar of wood, and take the choice ox, and then allows them to call upon Baal to light their altar and ox on fire. And of course being the amazing god that Baal is, he creates a giant pillar of flame consuming everything and Elijah as well… nope, nothing, not even after hours of calling. So Elijah feels free to encourage them reminding them that their God needs time to sleep, or even relieve himself so perhaps they should shout out to him. And they do so, mutilating themselves too because he delights in that, and this time the fire comes… again no.
So Elijah takes it upon himself to then rebuild the old altar of the Lord. Not only that but he also gathers 12 stones, one for each tribe of Israel. Then he cuts up the ox and lays it upon the altar. Following that he digs a sizeable trench around the altar. The he commands the people of Israel to pour out four pitchers of water upon the altar. And then to rinse and repeat. And then one more time till everything is totally soaked, and the trench is filled with water.
Finally Elijah prepares to call upon God time and time again. Only one real difference here though. He only needs to call once. Asking God to remember His people, and to help turn their hearts back to Him. And he does so. The fire falls, and it falls in power. The fire consumes, the ox, the soaking wet wood, it devours the wet stones, and not even steam is left where the trench of water was. EVERYTHING WAS CONSUMED.
And so when Israel realized their stupidity, they went back to their God, the almighty God, and worshiped him. And with this, Elijah commanded all the people to gather up all the prophets of Baal, and Elijah slew all the prophets of Baal.

One man, One God, One Faith, One Outcome

The Lesson? God+Faith=Victory

The Capture of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4-7)
It would be much later on when Israel has established itself as a people looking to God for direction through his priests and prophets that the next triumphant act of God would happen. It will however have been one to show that God has no room for foolish pride and arrogance when it comes to his leaders.
You see God had appointed a judge, Eli, to preside over Israel, and Eli had two songs… Hophni and Phineas. Both of these young men preferred little gods, and did not care to know the lord, but were both priests of him. And when those brothers brought a curse upon themselves, and Eli did not do anything to rebuke them God decided it was time for that lineage to end. And this is how it unfolded.
After a devastating defeat of Israel by the Philistines the elders decided it would be best if the brothers, Hophni and Phineas brought the Ark of the Covenant to the next battle site and proclaim shouts of praise in order to strike fear in the hearts of the Philistines and that God would give victory to Israel, because obviously God would not allow his throne to fall into the hands of the Philistines. However, the Philistines girded themselves and went forth to fight despite their fear of the God (or as they saw it, gods) who struck down Egypt. And… they had a victory… a GREAT victory… they slew 30,000 Israelite foot soldiers, two high priests (Hophni and Phineas), and ultimately in a three-two-one victory captured the ark of the enemies gods. When news was brought to Eli who was sitting on a stool, old and blind, he fell over and his own weight caused him to break his neck.
Now one would assume that God did achieve his goal but at a great cost, His throne was in the hands of the pagan enemies. However, this was to be a multi-faceted lesson that God was teaching. For the Philistines needed to learn that indeed the God of Israel was bigger then their own gods.
The first place the ark of the covenant was brought to was the house of Dagon, a god of the philistines. They placed the ark before the stature of Dagon in his temple that night. The next morning, the priests found the statue laying face down in front of the ark, so they righted it. The next morning the same statue was face down in front of the ark, except, on the altar its head and hands had been cut off so only the torso remained, and the priests knew they were in trouble. This was culminated when God afflicted them with a couple of plagues to remind them of how he regards being treated like a lesser god. The people were afflicted with tumors, and mice were sent to ravage the land. And what did the Philistines do? They send it to a different city of their own… And what happens…? The Rinse and Repeat cycle through another 3 cities until the Philistines finally relent and send the ark back to Israel with a guilt offering.

So with no help by Israel, God demonstrated his power to foreign powers and foreign gods.

The Lesson? God -You = Victory

The Exodus (Exodus 1-14)
The first time that comes to mind when I think of God’s power being enacted in the face of overwhelming odds is when the not quite yet nation of Israel is a multitude of slaves in Egypt. They are a people have been told be meek, passive, and to humble themselves for the Egyptians and their host of gods.
And there is one slave who by the wisdom of his mother is orphaned for an hour to rise suddenly into power as a prince of Egypt. He is a young man who lives an alien life. At a crucial point he realizes who he is and tries ineffectively to show his people their true nature, and ultimately must run-away into the desert.
As this young man ends up living amidst an unchained nomadic tribe oh his people he gets to encounter his might God and learn his place in life, a Soldier of the most high God. And God sends him on a mission back to Egypt. Here one nomadic prophet, one former prince, goes before the most powerful mortal ruler who has a host of gods behind him, and this prophet has but one.
So what does he do? He tells this self-fancied incarnation of a god to release an entire people of slaves numbering in the hundreds of thousands. He does this because his King, God, commanded it. And being the all-wise, most powerful mortal ruler, self-fancied incarnation of a god, Pharaoh says… “No.”
What comes to follow is a battle of Godly proportions as the prophet proclaims supernatural plagues upon the nation of Egypt and 12 times more the Pharaoh refuses to surrender. Granted the pharaoh tried with the help of al his priests to disprove or duplicate the plagues as to diminish God’s power, but utterly failed miserably. It takes the death of his first-born son to finally release the slaves, capitulating out of grief to the prophet and his God.
But in his grief, there is also anger, and the ruler attempts to deceive the almighty God and his prophet. When the slaves are almost free, they are at a sea they must cross, the armies of the Pharaoh appear on the horizon to slay these weakened slaves while their backs are against a wall of water. But the prophet, at the bequest of his God stands before the water, and commands it to make way for the people of the God who created the water. And as the people rush through the canyon lined with water their enemies follow only to find out the terrifying truth of God’s wrath, as the water allows the slaves to pass but closes behind and crushes the armies.
The Lesson? God+You=Victory.

So this is the introduction to what I have been working on. Will post the actual first portion of the subject matter itself tomorrow. Enjoy

I am not the most eloquent speaker, I struggled through my classes, I spent more time pondering the mysteries of God then being able to actually answer or even properly attempt to address them in my classes. I have no masters, or even a doctorate. I am just one guy trying to share my thoughts with others. But ultimately I am also one thing, a Soldier of the Most High God. And in this I move forward in faith knowing that hopefully one day, this book will affect one more person, to stand tall as a Soldier of the Most High God.

God is powerful despite your immaturity, your incompetence, and in your faithfulness… aka… all the time.

Too often a Christian hears they should be meek, humble, timid, passive. They do not hear “You are strong!” or “You should be Proud” or even “You are POWERFUL!” So Christians duck their heads low, trying to move through life avoiding and chance of potentially offending someone Christian or no. The truth is, Christians, we are powerful. We have the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God at our backs, and as scripture says, “If God is at our backs who can stand before us?”

Paraphrased: “We got God, who the heck you got?”

This thought, idea, concept, has been established time and time again. The Old Testament proves it in a variety of ways both direct and indirect. God has shown his divine power when his prophet was unsure of himself, and even when his appointed elders were too sure of themselves. But best of all is when God has acted upon the faithfulness of his prophet.

So as you read please know ultimate truth I am trying to portray.




God does not fail…ever.

Complements and Catalysts: (Christ and the New Testament)

Of the present, the faith I speak of, Christianity, is founded upon the concrete process started by God's call in Abraham, and the development of the children, Israel. But the movement from Judaism to Christianity comes when a new catalyst enters the fray and a new complement attached to God's people for eternity.

Catalyst
This new catalyst was something akin to adding a small slow stream of vinegar to a bucket of baking soda. To those who are looking, there are things happening, but to those looking for something utterly dramatic it will be almost invisible. This new catalyst came in the form of a man who was also utterly God, Jesus Christ.

For 30 some years this man walked the earth maturing and growing but leaving God's fingerprints everywhere he went. But unless you were looking for him, he was just another person. For 30 years others would declare his coming and for these years people were still oblivious, but still he poured himself out. The reactions became more evident, the blind could see, the mute could speak, the possessed were freed, and the dead would rise. Here and there small eruptions came, but still some would doubt, and they would heap more of their own baking soda, their "law" to smother these eruptions. It would not be till they did smother Christ, would they see the full outpouring of the catalyst, and ironically, it would be his last drink, vinegar, before He poured himself out, in mass.

At the peak or climax of this catalyst's effect is the crucifixion and death of Christ, and for three days this catalyst would show its effect on both the mortal and the eternal. For when in three days Christs blood covered humanities sin, and his descent into hell just to come back, defeating death and its effects would consume and transform law into grace, maintaining yet changing it, adding to it.

This catalyst would blast open the gates and make heaven available to all who decide to accept the gift of grace offered upon the cross. Faith as the world knew it, dependent upon acts of service, following rules, and needing priests to act as go-betweens was shattered into a million pieces, but the road to righteousness was just beginning.

Complement
During his time of ministry, those three years Christ gathered and taught his disciples, it was He, God, who worked signs and wonders, but at his command he also empowered the disciples, but it would appear that the disciples lacked the faith to do similar acts. It must have been difficult to think that one could perform the same as God, when God Himself, broke bread with you in the day and you attempting to perform His miraculous wonders as an ordinary man.

However, when Christ ascended into heaven he also sent down His Spirit to join mankind, empowering, and yet more importantly driving and giving us conviction towards a Christ-like way of life, to become one with Christ within us.

Speaking from experience here, growing up before living with Christ within me, I feared "sinning" however, I got a thrill, a rush of adrenaline from "sinning." But after Christ and the Holy Spirit took resident within, committing sin would go so much against who I was, and am, that would make me feel physically ill to challenge the purity that Christ desires for me. This same Spirit dwells within all of us whom take up our identity in Christ. It's desire is to lead us down this well paved road towards a better life. And when in our peripheral vision we see that shiny, sparking glint of sin in the jungle, the Spirit warns, even begs us not to go after it. But we separate from the Spirit and pursue what would seem treasure and turn out to be nothing more than trash, a broken mirror laughing at us as we observe our broken image, dirty and torn up in the pursuit of ungodliness. But the Spirit continues to call after us, and when we decide to let the Spirit come help us, he leads us back to the pavement, machete in hand, cutting down all that would seek to harm us. It was simply waiting for the call for help from us, and the act of repentance.

As we continue down this road we come to the crests of hills, and we see the glory of God's majesty ahead of us, and the perilous valleys ahead are made for more starkly obvious. But knowing of the things ahead, we can trust the spirit when we enter the fens, the marshes, the steep sided gorges, and we trust that the Spirit knows the way to God, and we simply follow in those footsteps. And when more shiny things catch our eye, we must turn away, and watch for where the Spirit has set itself and follow forth. There are other things as well that the complement offers. The Spirit is here to empower, and teach us what great things we can do in God, to heal, prophecy, provide wisdom, cast out demons, all these things. Take refuge in the complement, look forward to the kingdom ahead.

Zach