Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

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...

We look at Samson, a Judge of Israel, and a biblical hero with extremely low morals. While he is a very powerful man physically, he consorts with the brutal enemy of the Israelites, the Philistines, and he falls in love with a Philistine woman.  We consider the famous metaphor of his hair - and what it really means, especially to us, today.

The one Gospel that was almost certainly written by a first person witness to Jesus' ministry on Earth is the Gospel of John - by the Apostle John.  This firsthand account is extremely different from the other three Gospels, which all bear some similarity to each other.  John's Gospel celebrates the majesty and power of Jesus Christ, as well as our ability to live in the Kingdom of God right here on Earth.  The hope is that after listening to this podcast, you will want to read the Gospel for yourself!

We look at the early emergence of the church system within the Christian faith, and how it mirrors the synagogue system that emerged after the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.  We also look at the many things that Christianity owes to Judaism - and how a better understanding of this extensive relationship can give us a deeper, more intuitive sense of our faith tradition.

We look at the horrors that await today's children: violent TV, captivating and addictive video games that teach hatred and immorality, and social media designed to corrupt them.  We make a comparison to an ancient church.  In Revelation, John of Patmos makes prophetic pronouncements to seven churches active at his time.  One of them is to the church at Pergamum.  He calls it the home of Satan's throne. Today live in the home of Satan's throne.

There is a major misconception that the Bible teaches predestination, that those who will spend eternity with God have been chosen in advance.  We look at Romans, Chapter 9, and consider just what this chapter truly says.  We learn, among other things, that what we do on this earth while we are alive very much matters.

There is much to learn from the Bible - even from what is considered the most difficult to interpret book of the New Testament - Revelation.  We look at the letters the author of Revelation, John of Patmos, wrote to seven churches active in his day.  They were all clustered in Asia Minor, today Turkey.  We consider the question: Which of the seven churches of Revelation most resembles our own personal church today?

We should worship a God who made us in his image, not a god we make in our image.  Paul reinforces this when he speaks before the council in the pagan city of Athens.  He diplomatically approaches these powerful people, gradually introducing them to the notion of the one, true God.  We learn from him how we should address others if we wish to win them over to a life of faith.

Jesus' kid brother told us that if we are steadfast under trial, we will receive the crown of life.  He clearly didn't think that any true God would never let us suffer at all - which is what many atheists argue today.  It's said that if there really was a God, there would be no hunger, no homelessness, no disease.  But we see that in truth when we suffer, we gain empathy for others and we are greatly empowered.  Challenges in life help us grow stronger as believers and as humans.

I recently came across a man who was preaching on a street corner.  He was abused verbally, but I found his teaching to be perfectly sound.  He was a man who had made a big change in his life, fully embracing the modest and dedicated life of a true believer.  We look at this man, and at our lives as believers, in the context of Acts, where Peter and the other apostles are judged by the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  Peter declares: "We must obey God rather than men."  

We're a week out from Easter.  Jesus has risen and is walking the earth for 40 days.  He has chosen individuals to act as witnesses to his resurrection and to his Word - that that means us.  Through the story of Cornelius, the first gentile to follow Christ, we learn our true purpose.  We've got another 30 days or so to answer our call...

It is Easter, and not Christmas, that captures the essence of what it means to be a believer.  We look at the resurrection and why this is the one Christian belief that non-believers do their very best to argue away.  But there is no scientific explanation: the truth is that we, as the faithful, simply have the gift of believing in something that only our intuition and our faith tells us is true.  And Easter ushers in a kingdom that, unlike all other kingdoms, has no end.

On Palm Sunday, we go along with Jesus on his journey from Jericho to Jerusalem, beginning on foot and ending on a donkey.  We see that Jesus disappoints the crowd who shout "Hosanna!", meaning "Save us," - and they mean "Save us NOW".  Indeed, Jesus arrived via Roman roads to usher in a spiritual, not a physical, kingdom.

We look at King Josiah of Israel, a person who is not well known among Christians, perhaps because we have to piece his story together from multiple books of the Old Testament.  However, he has perhaps had a very dramatic impact on our faith.  Helping the People of God hone their notion of monotheism, which is, of course, at the heart of Christianity, was a major mission of his.  For us today, we see how Josiah has helped us come to know our God.