Weapons

What was the most powerful weapon given to the church? Was it the Holy Scriptures? If so, why? If not, what is?

A Hearty Firstfruit

In response to Brian's comment regarding whether or not there is a connection between the Feast of Weeks and Pentecost, the short answer is yes. The long answer has taken me sometime to get, but now I have some reasons how it does so.

The most obvious connection between the two, the feast of weeks and Pentecost, is that they occured on the same day. As alluded to in the orginal post, there is probably more going on there than just a mere coincidence. And, after consulting the preacher of the sermon for clarification (which required a short walk upstairs. Kind of nice to live in the house of the one who gave the sermon!), part of it comes from the other name for the Feast of weeks, that is the Feast of the Harvest. At first glance it is somewhat odd that a feast in the spring time would be named the feast of the Harvest. However, the weather in Israel was such that they had a small first harvest, falled by a larger harvest in the fall. So indeed there was a harvest in the spring, and it was somewhat of an indicator of the harvest still to come.

We see this same idea paralleled by what happened at Pentecost. Again remembering that this is the same day as the feast of the harvest, we read in Romans 8:23 "And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." Romans 8 tells us that we have the first fruits of the Spirit, and that we await the larger harvest to come in the fall. Just as the feast of the harvest was a first fruits harvest, so the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Children of God is a first fruits of the kingdom of heaven. We are then forced to think, once we have understood the O.T. that is, that there will be a larger harvest in the future. This we call glorification, or the fall harvest.

That is reason number 1. Reason #2 that the Feast of Weeks was a celebration of the giving of the law. This is interesting because the same day Israel was celebrating the law being written on stone tablets, the day Holy Spirit came and wrote the law on our hearts. Thus Pentecost is in some sense a celebration of the writting of the law on hearts of flesh.

While I am sure this is not an exhaustive answer, it is the best that I can do for now. Also, any faults in the explanation are mine and not my landlords as I have expanded upon his words. Blessings.

Consider it all joy

A quick blurb from our Sunday School class. James exhorts us to consider it a joy when we endue trials and temptations. This is because when we have trials, we know that they lead to perseverance. Rarely do I work this out and I can tell because I am not thankful for the diverse temptations throughout the day. A downcast countenance during tempations is a telltale sign of ingratitude. God is growing you up and you just don't like it. May we not be stiff-necked and rebellious.

The funny things is that I wrote the above paragraph on Sunday night. Then, this whole week has been one of the most stressful (culminating in me almost throwing up in the middle of the day). I had to call 27 parents today apologizing for overloading their children.

This has been a week of trials (and phone calls). I truly believe that teaching prepares you for almost anything. And if there is something else out there, I am not sure I want to ever see it.

The Sweet Wine of Victory

Today is Pentecost, and it definately is a day deserving the best wine. Pentecost, as we learned this morning, is a day whose importance is hard to overestimate, yet easy to misconstrue. It is the day when the spirit of the Lord was poured out, and it was for the Israelites, the second of the three major Feasts.

In the Old Testament it is also known as the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of the First Fruits. While there is a great deal going on in the second chapter of Acts, three main themes present themselves: 1) Tongues of Fire, 2) The reversal of Babel, and 3) A World turned upside down.

All of these themes are rich and I would love to talk about all of them, but two things that really struck me came from the image of tongues and Peter's interpretation of the passage found in the book of Joel.

Christ conquered the world in the resurrection. He proceded to give the power of the Holy Spirit as the weapon of choice for His Famiily. We are not to wack off ears with swords as we subdue the earth, but we advance the kingdom of God by communicating. The Word conques the world through words. This really struck me in light of the great advances in the area of communication. English may not be a superior language when compared with Latin, but we have expontially progressed in the area of communication. The printing press, the postal service, the computer, internet, cell phones, and satellites all have blessed us with greater ways to communicate. It necessarily follows then that all of these various technologies have better equiped us to subdue the earth and take this world for Christ.

Pornography is bad, and drug lords use cell phones, but one of the aspects of Pentecost is that the tongues over the heads of the apostles were tongues of fire. For the unrepentent, fire means judgement. Because communication is the weapon we use to advance the kingdom, it is necessarily also a weapon for death and judgement upon his enemies. The tools for communication have vastly improved, and as a result, the Gospel has spread at an alarming rate, and those in rebellion against the Lord have been given a sharper object to impale themselves on.

The King is ruling now! we are not in the last days, but days of glorious conquest and victory. Peter lived in the Last Days. The prophet Joel warned us of the coming end, "'And it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind.'" We can see this as obviously relating to Pentecost even without Peter's help, but the next part is a bit suspicious for he goes on to say, "And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord."

Often we read these verses and think of the "end times," but Peter tells us they happened in his day, including the whole bit about the sun turning to darkness and wonders on earth. Did that really happen? Peter was inspired so we must say yes, but when was this? Is it figuratively referring to countries or rulers or something?

When Christ was crucified, darkness covered the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. The earth quaked and the veil was torn. The Old world has passed away and a new age has dawned.

The king reigns with power and might. He is preciding over the conquest of His land and we are winning the war with words. And as we celebrate the victory with fine wine, it is my prayer that this blog, this method of communication, furthers Christ's kingdom.