Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

We all have an appointment with death, and God will not cancel or postpone that reservation that has been made for each of us.  How do we prepare for death as Christians?  Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians that our bodies are like flimsy tents that will one day be replaced by "a house not made with hands", one that is "eternal in the heavens."  Can we accept the full reality of an eternal life?

Are the "spirit" (with a small s) of the Old Testament and the Holy Spirit of the New Testament the same being?  We look at this question, as well as the various ways that the Holy Spirit is described in the Bible.  Our goal is to determine just who the Holy Spirit is - and more importantly, what the Holy Spirit can do for us.

We look at social justice and the Bible: is taking up the cause of those who are marginalized simply a natural way of exercising our Christian love for others?  Or is there something in the Bible that gives us a clearer mandate to take up social justice - or admit that we are not at all followers of Christ?  We look at the Old and the New Testaments, and we discover just what the Bible says.  The results might surprise some, especially when it comes to comparing the two Testaments.
 

Modern TV preachers often want Christianity to sound like a lifetime in Disneyland.  Follow Jesus and life will be a self-indulgent pleasure ride.  But one of the greatest - and perhaps the absolute greatest - teachings of Christianity is rather negative.  Jesus said: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me."  We must be willing to live by that command.  We look at what this means in the daily life of a committed Christian.

We look at angels in the Bible, who they are and what purpose they serve - and at the non-biblical notion of a "guardian angel".  What is the basis for this widespread belief, that we each have an angel watching over us, guiding and protecting us as we move through life on Earth?  Just as an angel came to strengthen Jesus on the Mount of Olives as he was accepting the horror that was going to befall him, we, too can turn to this host of Heavenly beings.  

Attending church is a public experience: but attending church should be a personal experience, as well.  We look at the use of the Greek word "worship" in the New Testament, and this word, "proskuneo" is always used in the context of the state of mind and the responsibilities of individuals, and not on the collective nature of worship.  We consider how church can be a truly individual and inspiring experience.

A common - and often very angry - criticism of Christianity is that it somehow promotes violence.  We look at war and abuse in the Old and New Testament.  We consider the reason these stories are there.  We also consider the modern Christian and our relationship to biblical bloodshed.  We discover that the modern interpretation of these biblical stories is in many ways misguided.  We also discover that we are not bound by biblical violence.

Jesus repeatedly challenged the Sabbath day restrictions, using it as a day of healing when no "work" of any kind was supposed to be done.  He is doing this to make a point: the day of formalized ritualism having priority over true faith is over.  He is ushering in the New Covenant age - when each of us will focus on our relationship with God, not the "rules" of faith.

In Colorado, we frequently hear of climbers who suffer devastating injuries - or die - while free climbing.  We learn from the Gospels that Jesus did not come to this earth to necessarily keep us from earthly dangers, that he did not come here to be a king in this world.  But he did come to be our eternal king.  While he does not keep us from free-climbing in our earthy lives, he is there to help us from free-climbing in our spiritual lives.

What does it literally mean to mimic the life of Christ, to walk in his footsteps?  Jesus performed miracles.  Will we?  We look at several quotes of Jesus, from the Gospels, and we look at this issue.  When we examine the goals that Jesus had for his life of Earth, at the reasons behind his actions and his words, we discover that it might not be as difficult as it would seem to truly emulate Jesus.
 

Someone recently told me that if you are angry with your spouse, and if you end the night that way by going to bed without coming to a resolution, it's like letting milk sit out all night on the counter.  As we are told in Ephesians: "Do not let the sun go down on your anger."  You do not want to get up in the morning and chug down that sour milk.  We look at the New Life offered every day to the believer, and in particular, we look at the role of anger in that New Life.

When I was a boy, the Monsignor of my parish decided to gold flake the cross on top of the steeple of the church.  It didn't turn out well.  We look at Ezekiel, who spoke for God when he said: "I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel."  We see that a true spokesperson for God talks about the incredible power and devotion of God - not about the glory of humans. 

For the Apostles, it was a full-time job to bring the Word to God's people.  For us, we don't have to go on the road, giving up our homes and our jobs and our possessions and our families.  But being a person of faith is indeed a full-time job.  We don't have to be like Paul who emulated the Apostles by becoming a homeless preacher.  But we must be like Paul in this regard: we must serve freely and we must serve as as if we are Apostles ourselves.

Recently, while reading a heart-rending article about the civil war in Sudan, the targeted ad system used by ABCnews.com put up an ad tailored specifically for me - for a $3500 virtual reality headset by Apple.  We look at the callous nature of our consumer-oriented society. No, I did not leave the suffering people of Sudan so that I could look at the next exciting high tech toy.  And, here is the truth: if we can ignore the things of this world, what awaits us are amazing revelations from God's world.

The Imitation of Christ is considered the most influential book in the Christian world, second only to the Bible.  In this book, Thomas à Kempis provides, in an elegant, highly readable fashion, advice that is as relevant today - and in many cases, far, far more relevant - than it was in the 14th century.  In particular, he tells us how to maintain a clean conscious and how important this is to spiritual health and daily joy.  In an uplifting, faith-building fashion, he tells us that there are many things that we must NOT do...