Pastor’s Blog

There could be an argument made, at least, at first glance, for the possibility that people in the first century believed in ghosts.  IF they did, this would not mean ghosts exist, but rather just that they believed in them.  So, I’m going to take a quick look at:

 Why would some say that 1st century believers believed in ghosts?

Did they actually believe in ghosts?

What does the bible say about ghosts?

why does it seem the 1st century believers believed in ghosts?

There are two main stories that come to mind.  The first one is when Jesus came to the disciples walking on water.  The story is found in Matthew 14 and Mark 6.  In Matt 14:26 and Mark 6:49 the Word tells is that when they saw Jesus, they thought it was a ghost. 

 The Greek word translated as “ghost” in both these passages is  fantasma transliterated it would be “phantasma” which is where we get “phantom.” 

 Sounds like they thought it was His ghost, doesn’t it?  What are your thoughts?

The other story of interest is found in Acts 12 (one we just studied in church recently, check out the message at our home page if you’re interested).  Peter is freed from prison and goes to Mary’s house, where the disciples are praying (assumably for him).  He knocks at the gate and Rhoda, a servant girl, hears him, goes and tells the church gathered there, and they respond by saying, “it is his angel.”  (Acts 12:15).  The Greek there is aggeloV transliterated this is angelos, where we get angel, specifically, “messenger” in the New Testament. the phrase in that passage is interesting though.  it says, “the angel of him.” ( aggeloV autou ) Could it be that they thought he had died at the hand of Herod and his angel/ghost had come to them? Or did they think this was his “guardian angel”?

Matthew 18:10 is relevant here.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven. ”

 The Greek there referring to “their angels” is aggeloi (plural of angelos) autwn (plural of his, “their”).  So the Greek would be “the angel of them.”

 Comparing the two passages, it seems that “his angel” in Acts 12 and “their angels” in Matthew 18 are referring to the same concept.  The question is, are these passages referring to an apparition, or a guardian angel.  I lean toward the guardian angel concept, because if it meant otherwise, it could have used the word “phantom.”

 This doesn’t explain the fact that they thought Jesus appearing on the water as a phantom.  Notice it says, “a phantom.”  not “HIS phantom.”  They thought it was some sort of spiritual apparition, but not necessarily HIS “ghost.”

what does the bible say about disembodied spirits?

My favorite passages to go to here are Hebrews 9:27

“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this {comes} judgment,”

and

2 Corinthians 5:8

“we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”

This indicates we die, enter into eternity, and receive judgment.

What about alleged ghost sitings, then?  I my suggestion is that they are either demons pretending, in order to lead people astray, or people putting forth a hoax.

What do you think?

~Ian

Someone asked me after church if I was implying that it was merely an “accident” that Paul ended up writing most of the NT, but if things had been different, Barnabas would have (or maybe should have) written most of the NT.

This is not at all the case.  The statement in question was made when I was emphasizing the significance of Barnabas being a “team player.”  He was more than willing to recruit someone to his team, even if that someone was of such a high caliber that it would mean Barnabas would fade into the background.

Obviously God’s hand was in it, God had selected Paul and had plans for Paul to become His INSPIRED author of much of the NT.

Hope that clears things up.  Please fire away with any questions, and keep on encouraging!

As promised in my message on Sunday, I’m blogging about the idea of a gentile eunuch converting to Judiasm.  This question comes up because we were studying the passage in Acts 8 where the Ethiopian Eunuch is told about Jesus by Philip.  The text in Acts 8 seems to indicate he was some sort of a convert, or as close as could be.  He was on his way back from Jerusalem where he had gone to worship (Acts 8:27).  He was reading the scroll of Isaiah, which shows his commitment (both in the action of reading the scroll, and in the possession of it, as it was not an easy or inexpensive scroll to obtain).  Luke does not explicitly say that he had converted to Judiasm (as he does in Acts 6:5 in reference to Nicolas), but it describes the Eunuch in such a way as to indicate he was at least a God fearing gentile.

 There are several passages that discuss a gentile converting to Judiasm.

 Let’s begin in Deuteronomy 23:1.  it says, “No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD”

The main question that needs to be answered about this passage is what does it mean when it says, “enter the assembly of the Lord.”  It could mean the gathering of Israelites together for religious purposes.  It could also be referring to the physical Temple itself.  It can also refer to the Nation of Israel in general, as it seems to in Numbers 16:1-3, where the rebellion of Korah is detailed, and Korah is quoted as questioning Moses and Aaron saying, “why have you set yourselves up above the Assembly of the Lord?” (verse 3, paraphrased).  The previous verses are clear, Korah is saying, “All of the Nation of Israel is holy and chosen by YHWH, what makes you so special?”

If this is the meaning in Numbers 23, it is likely teaching that a gentile cannot “become” Jewish if he fits the description of someone found in Numbers 23.  If this passage is referrng to Assembly of the Lord, it could be referring to Jew and/or Gentile not being allowed to enter God’s prescense in their “imperfect” condition.  It could also be referring

Another interesting passage is Isaiah 63:1-6, where God seems to affirm His acceptance of Eunuchs who love Him.  Should this influence the way we interpret the Numbers passage?

What are your thoughts?

We’ve all been there.  By “we” I mean those of us that like it or not, are the primary launderers of our household.  By “there” I mean that frustration situation of what to do with the laundry once it’s been washed and dried.

 For me the dilema started with the division of labor concept.  It came at a time in our life when as a married couple we were both working full time.  Obviously it is not reasonable of me to assume that she would do ALL the household chores while holding down a full time job.  So, we did our best to share the burden.  I of course did the laundry.  She did the dishes, yada yada yada.  I found that things worked better if I helped her with the dishes on a “supplimental” basis.  In turn she said she’d help with the laundry, when she could.  So she said, “why don’t you put the clean laundry on the couch, then I’ll fold it while I watch tv or something.”

It was a great idea, great gesture, but didnt’ really work out.  The couch began to eat laundry, laundry began to be sat on, spread around the living room, wrinkled, made dirty, and back in my cycle, without ever being warn.

So we went through several variations of an attempt to share the folding responsibility and quite frankly, nothing worked. So here’s what I came up with that does work: I have 3 bins (you’ve probably noticed I like bins for laundry!) for each person. 1 for shirts, one for socks/undies/pj’s, and 1 4 pants. I also have a place to hang clothes on clothes hangers, and several bins for towels, rags, sheets, etc - all of this within 3 feet of the washer/dryer. so, as soon as a load is done drying I take the clothes out, fold/sort/hang, and then cycle the laundry. doesn’t really take that long, and the beauty is - whenever the bins get full, I just announce to the family “Come and get your laundry.” They file out to the garage and I hand them their bin, they go and put it away (it doesn’t end up on the floor, in the couch, or wherever else). They bring me an empty bin, I give them the next full bin…easy money!

it is a little extra work for me, but the peace of mind and lack of frustration is well worth it. It is the result of trial and error combined with a little proactivity. We as humans do most stuff by tial and error actually. I think we could use some more proactivity as well. In a world that champions delegation and such, I’d like to remind us that there are some things that are just worth doing ourselves!

Most guys, if they are lucky, will at least admit they may from time to time sort their laundry between what gets bleached, and everything else.  Or maybe they’ll do the ole “light and dark” thing, or maybe even, “warm and cold.”

OK, who am I fooling…most guys would just say, “aw, heck, I just wash it all in cold.”  I’ve even met a few people of the female persuasion that make this confession.  Ouch…man, I wish I could open their eyes, I wish I could cause them to see the value, importance, and pure joy one can derive from doing things the right way (hey…that applies to more than laundry, doesn’t it! People who live life w/out Jesus do not realize they are not doing it right, and that there is a better way, a way that is more fulfilling than they ever imagined.  We, as Christians, should desire to show them that way!)

 Anyway, in my garage, just to the right of my stack-able washer dryer, is a 6 bin laundry sortation system.  My middle child has the chore of bringing all the dirty laundry from all the baskets out to the garage, where I sort it.  Each of the bins is labeled, starting with the top left, moving down, then across: bleach, cold light, cold dark, warm dark, warm light, hang dry.

 Those are my 6 primary categories.  If I had room, I’d create two more (which I plan to do when I build my laundry room in the basement).  They would separate jeans & towels from the cold dark/warm dark, because the jeans/towels are to be washed separately (cotton sturdy) from the other clothing (perm. press).  anyway, getting ahead of myself there.

 Why bother with the sorting?  several key reasons.

More effective cleaning

See, if you wash your hands with cold water (even using soap), they do not get 100% clean.  Try it some time.  wash with cold water and then go ahead and dry your hands on your nice white towel.  It will be brown with the dirt left on your hands.  YUCK.  Wash your hands with warm water, and more dirt comes off.  Warm water breaks dirt down better, that’s just the physics of it.  So, if you can wash your clothes in warm or hot water, you should.

There are some types of cloth that should not be washed in warm/hot, because it may also cause the colors to bleed/fade or the fabric to shrink.  This is why tag reading is important, even for an advanced launderer, like me.  More on that in a moment, though.

Longer lasting clothing

Gunk builds up on clothing that isn’t washed properly, causing the clothing to need to be discarded prematurely.  This is evidenced in clothing looking dingy, showing pit stains and the like. 

Here’s what I do when sorting laundry:

1. all white cotton items get bleached (towels, socks, undies, rags, etc)
2. all dark towels, socks, undies automatically go to warm dark
3. all “dry clean only” and hang/lay flat to dry stuff goes to the hang dry, which, after being washed, does not go in the dryer (shrinkage = bad)
4. all other items go to their tag specified area, either cold light/dark or warm light/dark.

A word on tag reading:

I am amazed at how many people don’t know how to read clothing tags.  First of all, if the instructive tag is not located at the back of the neck/waist, look in the side inseam for shirts and near the pockets for the pants.  Once locating the tag, it may not have clearly disclosed instructions.  There’s a secret code, using dots and geometric shapes.

If you look at the shapes on the tag, there is one that is clearly a washing machine, and the other is clearly a dryer.  I’ll let you figure out which is which (I can’t spell it all out, what fun would that be!).  Inside the shapes you’ll see either 1, 2, or three dots.  1 dot means “low,” 2 = “medium,” 3 = “high.”  You could substitute hot for high, warm for medium, and so on.  My guess is that they invented this system of symbols for the illiterate yet meticulous launderers out there (insert sarcasm here).

 If you’re an astute launderer and reading this with a critical eye, you may be asking yourself why I would put a dry clean only item in the washing machine.  I’m glad you asked.  I have three reasons.

1. Lazy - I don’t feel like going to the dry cleaners.
2. Snobby - If a piece of clothing really does need to be dry cleaned, its not worth my time.
3. Sneaky - most “dry clean only” can be washed on a delicate cycle and hung to dry.  Your local dry cleaner doesn’t want you to know that! (great, now the DCAOA - Dry Cleaner Association Of America - has a price on my head!)

I should issue a warning about tags, though.  A lot of tags say, “wash inside out.”  I think that’s dumb.  most dirt ends up on the outside of the clothing…unless you emit a medically questionably large amount of toxic foulness…so the thing is, why hide all the dirt on the inside by making it inside out.  A lot of the reason tags say this is because they want to protect the print, embroidery, or fancy sequins on the garment.  If there are a bunch of sequins you should throw it away - i mean - turn it inside out.  Otherwise, don’t worry about it.  My experience is that turning it inside out is more important for the drying phase, so that is when you’d want to turn it inside out, after washing it.

In closing, while I sort, I also “fix.”  I uncrumple socks, make clothing be right side out, fasten clasps on bras, and close Velcro.  I do this because bra clasps and Velcro can really garble up a good batch of laundry.

As promised (if you’re still reading this, which you’re probably not), here are a few life connections.

1. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.  This applies to more than laundry.
2. No body wants to walk around feeling dirty.  Let that soak in (no pun intended).  How often to you walk around feeling spiritual fouled up?  Why not get clean?  Why not go strait to Jesus, every time you get gunked up by the world, and allow Him to spray-n-wash you (metaphorically speaking)?  And, why not share this great feeling with others?
3. In life you can’t just cram everything into one bucket, press the “old” button, and expect it to be right. There are things in life that need to be dealt with separately, specifically, intentionally.  Marriage, kids, finances, God…you can’t cram all that into the bucket labeled “life” and expect it to work out.  I’m not saying you should compartmentalize your life, but you should give each compartment it’s propper due.

In closing (hey, didn’t I already say that?) - Take the time you spend sorting laundry and pray for the people that wear/use that clothing.  It makes the task seem much more significant!

Till next time,

Laundry obsessed pastor guy

When I was a young man, my mom taught me how to do laundry.  She didn’t take me through a huge training program, or give me a test afterwords.  What she did was simply show me the directions on the back of the soap box and show me the tags on the articles of clothing.  Normally the male species does not respond well to directions, but I was young enough to not know any better!

So, I read the directions, and I started doing laundry.  At the time, she had no idea what a laundry monster she had created!  Fast forward to me being 20 years old, picking up my fiance’ to go do a date or something.  She says, “oh, wait just one second, I need to go put in a load of laundry.”  Being curious, I followed her into the basement.  What I saw was a horror that causes me to shudder to this very day!  She picked up a mountain of clearly unsorted laundry and began to stuff it into a *gulp* toploading washing machine.  The mountain must have been 5 feet square, and at least 3 1/2 feet tall.  it had socks all curled up, shirts and pants partly inside out, and all different colors and types of clothing in it - whites, darks, perm. press, cotton sturdy, and probably even some delicate/hang dry.  She crammed them all in there, to the point where the lid wouldn’t stay shut.  This presented a problem for her, because it was the type of model that wouldn’t run unless the lid is shut.  Not being daunted, she sprinkled a little soap on the top, forced the lid shut, and sat up on there.  Then, without any bashfulness she said, “It will just take a minute for it all to settle in, then we can go.”

I was speachless!  She had obviously done this before.  I tell you what, I would not have been surprised if the clothes at the bottom were never touched by water or soap, they were crammed in there so tight!

At that very moment I decided that if we were to be married, I would would have to have exclusive access to all things laundry in our home (she readily agreed).  So, though I live in this earth (a fallen, dirty world to be sure) I have the blessed opportunity to remove this world’s dirtiness from the clothing my family wears.  In the blog posts to ensue, I’ll provide a window into the the twisted mind of the pastor-husband that obsesses about laundry.  I’ll share my strategies, methods, principles, and paradygms that I base my laundry world on.  I plan on taking you through a journey of a standard laundry cyle, beginning with sortation, then strategy of load order, folding, putting away, and then special circumstances.  Lest you think this will be a mere trestise on laundry, I’ll share with you the plethora of spiritual symbolism inherent in proper laundry procedures.

 Until then,

 Ian

I don’t know about you, but I am one of those that watched the State of the Union Address this evening.  I recorded on my DVR, however, so I could fast-forward the tons of clapping and standing and all.  I personally think that the SOTUA is a great people watching event.  You get to see the who’s who of pop culture politics, as far as who gets to sit in that special place next to that special person.  You get to watch people’s body language, whether bored, fidgety, sleepy, or even more sinister, like a look of consternation on their face, a forced clap, sometimes even a smirk.

 You get to see Dem’s on one side, Rep’s on the other.  And in an election year, you get to do all of this with the overlay of the recent primary hoopla (Oh, joy!).

 And we all know what’s going to be said.  In fact, I asked a friend today if they were going to watch it.  The friend say, “here, I’ll save you the trouble:  ‘blah blah terrorism, blah blah immigration, blah blah economy, blah blah…clap clap, blah clap, stand blah, soldiers, blah clap clap.’”

While I can’t entirely disagree with him, it does get me thinking - why do (or don’t) we watch the SOTUA?  Is it for the people watching, the political innuendo, the left vs right?  Is that enough of a reason to spend a good 1 1/2 hrs of our precious time watching people, and groaning every time they clap or stand (or, heaven forbid….BOTH!)?

 I think there is a much greater reason for us to spend 1 1/2 hrs watching, and listening, to the President of the United States of America.

1.  We’re Americans.  Good, bad, or indifferent, this is the country we live in.  This is our leader talking.  These are our issues being discussed.  The ideas and people represented here tonight affect our lives, and those of the rest of the world, to a large extent.
2. We’re a democracy.  We actually have a part in the direction our country goes in.  Our success as a deomocracy depends largely on the public being informed and educated.  We should take an interest in the current thoughts of our leaders.
3. We’re forgetful.  Admit it, it’s been 364 days since the last time our President addressed the entire country with such a detailed account of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.  It’s good to be reminded of these things.

So, why do I care?  Why do I write this?  Well, in about two weeks, I’ll be giving my annual “State of the church” address at Felida Christian Fellowship.  It does not last as long, and there is not nearly the amount of clapping and standing ovations, but it causes me to wonder - are there lessons to be learned from the SOTUA and how people feel/think toward it?  I think yes, when looked at from the perspective of what it has to do with church attendance.

1. Some people go to church to do people watching; others attend to stay current on (political?) drama.  Still others attend because they have positions of importance, and they feel a need to sit and look important.
2. There are some better reasons to go to church, however.  I think we should attend church because things talked about are vital to our existance as a body.  As we study the Bible, as we grow as a unity, and as we embrace a common vision for the future, we are doing so as a body.

Let us not get caught up in the left/right Calvinist/Armeniast, Dispensationalist/Reformed theology debates.  Instead, let us look to the Head of the Body, Jesus, and study His word together, honoring Him.

 Lets face it, as Christians, we have a tendency to forget.  We forget what drew us together, we forget what unifies us, and we even forget certain biblical truths.  We know them, but they end up buried in the stratified layers of mental clutter that accumulates in the chaos of life.  So we go to church, where the Lord reminds us of what we should know already.

I love going to church.  I love being with fellow believers, I love applauding God Almighty, and I love hearing His Word.  Even if I know what is going to be said (Blah blah God, blah blah Jesus, blah Bible blah blah), I need to be there.  I need to be reminded.  I need to be involved.

…and no, you can’t fast forward church!