Praise Habit

http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Real_life_samurai_superhero_saves_police

Ok. This guy is close to my hero!

That is all for now.

Concerning the “Sword of the Spirit”

Paul uses some interesting wording here. He writes, as translated by the NASB, “…And take the Helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

I have always been taught that the “Sword of the Spirit” is always the Bible. As a growing Christian believing that, I would use this understanding to defend my faith with scripture as well as be on the offense with scripture. This understanding was also used for evangelism. While this might be correct, I wonder why Paul uses this wording. Was he referring to the scripture of the time? Or was Paul merely painting a picture of how to grow and advance in your faith?

Without armor and weaponry, a soldier could not defend himself and advance on the battleground. Knowing the ideas of spiritual warfare, I think Paul was using this imagery to convey a message on how to defend from spiritual attacks.

Looking at the main subject of this letter, Paul spends a lot of time talking about the mystical body of Christ. The end of the letter continues this idea, talking about the spiritual realm. This makes an interesting interpretation of this scripture and brings me to the wording that Paul uses.

Earlier, I alluded to “word” as being scripture. But a look at the actual Greek word that is used (rhema) brings me to a different conclusion. This word literally means an utterance or a topic especially of command. The interpretation this brings me to is the literal word, or command, of God. Since this is the “Sword of the Spirit,” I would say this is about the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we are in direct communication with God (in a sense). We can receive a direct command from God. This is the “word” that I think Paul is talking about.

Take these ideas and think about them. This is how I am interpreting this scripture and might be completely wrong.

So I’m reading a new book.  It is called “Velvet Elvis” and it is by Rob Bell of Nooma (those church videos that don’t remind you of church) fame.  The first chapter kinda made me think.

He likened doctrine and theology to the springs of a trampoline.  They are necessary, but not the point.  You can take one idea (spring) out and work it, strech it and the trampoline still works.  The problem is when we make doctrine and theology like bricks in a wall.  When you take one inflexible idea, the rest of the wall is weakened.

After reading that, I realized that my theology was just that.  I was building a brick wall and hiding behind it most of the time.  The process of turning that wall into a trampoline is going to be a difficult process.

I’ve taken a great experience and turned into an intellectual thing.  I’m struggling with my past of learning how to “sell” Christianity to others.  While I love to debate theology and doctrine, the hard part is living it.  I seem to have a hard time lately “delighting myself” in God.

I have the knowledge, but my heart is falling behind.  I hope these next few weeks will be enlightening in that aspect of my life and my seemingly hardened heart will become softer.

Brandon

BibleGateway.com – Passage Lookup: Hebrews 1

Jesus is supreme and heir to the kingdom. What does this mean? What does this mean for the kingdom of God?

This is exciting! The author of Hebrews is writing to a Jewish community. Knowing that the audience is Jewish helps a lot. We know that the ancient Jews place a lot of importance on Angels which is the point of this chapter. He (I’m assuming the author is masculine so I will use the appropriate pronoun) successfully uses the OT to explain how Christ is the messiah and the heir to the kingdom. He also does a great job on explaining the character of Christ.

Verse 3 contains a very powerful image of Christ. This image also lays a strong foundation for this text. I’m not to familiar with Hebrews so I’m excited to get more into this and reading more about Hebrews. I’m also very confident that this will help me get into the OT more as well.

Brandon

Well, in less than a week I’ll be rockin’ out to Weird Al’s latest parody filled album! I really can’t wait until it is released and I get to enjoy it. A quick teaser can be found here:

I’m taking part in a new study on Hebrews online. I’m hoping that insights I gain from this and from questions that are asked will spawn new thoughts and give me ideas to blog about.

Brandon

Ok, do you like music?  Do you like free stuff?  How about free music?  If you answered yes to any of those questions go to Free Derek Webb.com and download Derek Webb’s latest album “Mockingbird.”

Brandon

What a weekend. I went to my hometown Amarillo, Texas with my parents this last weekend. The circumstances of the visit were not very good, but somehow the weekend turned out very well.

It started on Thursday with a trip to Pittsburg, Kansas with Erin so I could meet up with my parents. While there, Erin had to get her tags renewed so we did that and hung out for a bit. When my parents got there, we (Mom, Dad, Erin’s parents and I) ate dinner at the Mall Deli in Pittsburg. Then we (my parents and I) left for Amarillo. We arrived at 3:30 AM on Friday.

Friday, after we woke up, we went to my Aunt’s house and dropped Mom off. Her sister is now with home hospice so she wanted to visit and be with her for a while. While Mom was doing that, Dad and I went and visited with old friends and people he knew. It was on the way to lunch that something amazing happened.

I got a phone call from Assurant Solutions offering me a position! I haven’t been able to blog about this because I was playing the waiting game and didn’t want to announce it prematurely. I’m very excited about this opportunity and I’m moving up in the world!

That pretty much made my day. After lunch, Dad and I went and ran around some more and then went back to my Aunt’s house. That was very emotionally draining because she was in a lot of pain. I was very glad I went and said goodbye to her though.

The rest of the weekend was filled with friends, relatives and food. I forgot what a real donut tasted like. Krispy Kreme is nothing compared to the Donut Stop!

Anywho, I’m excited to be able to talk about this new job and share my experience this weekend with all 2 of my readers.

-Brandon

I’m stressed.  There are a lot of things going on right now that I can’t talk about (but will post on later when I can).  This kind of stress is a stress that I know I shouldn’t have but I do.  I don’t know why I don’t trust God and wait.

I feel so drained as well.  I’m not getting as much sleep as I need in order to function well.  It is affecting my job, my relationships and my free time.  My free time is spent wanting to sleep or just sitting on the couch when I would rather be out doing things.  But I do know this will pass as things always do.  But do I believe it?  I don’t think so.

And on another note, my labor day weekend is probably going to be spent visiting my aunt who has been recently diagnosed with cancer.  She is not pursuing treatment.  My parents are going to meet me so I can go with them to Amarillo.  This is going to be a hard weekend but I know I need to go.  Saying goodbye is really hard.
Prayers are truly appreciated and I’ll write more after the weekend with my experience and hopefully other, more uplifting, news.

-Brandon

Just letting all of you know that I’m still alive and kicking.

Brandon