PAUL'S PRAYERS

For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware,

brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.

(Rom. 1:9-13 NASB)

Please read the following passages also. I'll wait. ;-)

1Cor. 1:3-7

Gal. 4:19-20

Eph. 1:15-23

Php. 1:3-11

Col. 1:3-12

1Thess. 1:2-8

2Thess. 1:2-4

2Tim. 1:2-6

Titus 1:4

Philemon 3-7

Are you catching a theme here? Everyone that we know for sure that Paul wrote to, he prayed for, or he pronounced blessings on them. The letter to the Galatians is the only one where he did not specifically say that he prayed for them, but he did say that he labored over them so that Christ would be formed in them. The chances that his labor did NOT include prayer are slim, fat and none.

Now, we could get all religious and say that this is an example for ministers to follow, and that would have some truth behind it, but it would too easily become a rule imposed by the flesh, upon the flesh, to produce an appearance of spirituality.

But take a closer look at those verses. What is really in Paul's heart? FAMILY!

What does family actually mean in this case? Obviously, Paul is not talking about the typical family structure of father, mother, and children.

I have observed that people in certain groups or professions refer to each other as family. For example, to every firefighter, every other firefighter is a brother (or sister). They don't care whether the other firefighters are active or retired, volunteer or professional. Neither do they care about which department they belong to, their particular assignment, experience, or where or how they got their training. They also don't care about each others' race, ethnicity, religion or political affiliations.

Introduce a firefighter from Boston to a Forestry Service smoke eater from the Pacific

Northwest, and they'll immediately see each other as brothers.

Why? Because they have a relationship, a common bond, that goes beyond formal

connections.

I have also seen this and experienced it among military veterans. Sad to say, but I would trust my life to some of the guys I served with in the National Guard before I would trust some TV preachers.

Why doesn't the Church act more like the family it is? We act too much like a natural family: barely functional at best, abusive at the worst. More than one factor probably plays a role in this, but religion and immaturity are most likely the two biggest factors.

What can we do to change this? Maybe start with Paul's example and start praying, by name, and individually, for churches and believers that we personally know. Besides keeping us busy, it will forge stronger bonds of love within and between us.

And while we're at it, let's do the same for the ones we know are operating in or promoting error. That will be the best thing we can do to get them out of it and back into love and truth.

Using Technology To Assimilate The Word

On July 31, 2011, Gary Carpenter spoke at the Family Prayer Center about Assimilating The Word.  I asked if I could tell about how I do it, and he handed the mic over to me for a few moments.  In this post, I would like to go into more detail because a couple of people have asked for more information.

I have a folder that holds several confessions and the text of the book that I am assimilating at the time.  I have prepared the text of every book of the New Testament in a format without chapter and verse markings.


I started with the E-Sword Bible software.  It is a free program that comes with the King James Version.  I paid extra for a module of the New American Standard Bible, because that is the translation I use.

I then would take the text of each book and clipboard it into a word processor.  I worked mostly one book at a time, but for books that are related, I would combine them into a single document - such as 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, etc.

In the E-Sword program, you cannot just highlight text to copy it to the clipboard.  You have to use a function called "Copy Verses."  Right-click in the text area and choose Copy Verses.  A dialog box opens.  Now you can select the range of verses to copy and the format.  By default, the verse underneath your pointer at the time you right-clicked is selected as the first and last verse in the range.  Use the drop-down windows to select the first and last verses of the chapter as the respective beginning and end points of the range.  Format option #7 will copy the verses as a single block of text with the chapter and verse reference in parentheses at the end.

Once you have clipboarded in all the chapters, then you can edit the text into a more readable format.

First thing I did was to erase all those chapter references.

I wanted to use a different font than what E-Sword used, so I would highlight the entire book and choose Arial, and set the font size to 10.

Italics would usually show as gray, so I would highlight the text and change the color.  For a book without red letters, I would highlight the entire book and select black.  For red letters, I would select the entire section of red and pick a shade of red that was darker than the default shade.

If the book is more than 3 pages, I usually add page numbers at the bottom of the pages.  This helps keep the pages in order when loading them into the folder.


Then I would break the text up into paragraphs and contexts.  I found that working from the end to the beginning made detecting the start and end points easier.

For the Gospels and Acts, I followed some of the guidelines I learned in community college:
Two spaces between sentences,
Space after every comma, colon and semicolon,
New paragraph for every change in speaker in a conversation or dialogue,
For a quotation of more than one paragraph, use only one ending quotation mark at the end of the last paragraph.

Quotations from the Old Testament would appear in all caps.  If an OT quotation was more than two lines, I would separate it out from the rest of the text by starting each sentence or major clause on a new line.


Once I was through with all the editing, I would convert the file to .PDF format.  I don't have a printer of my own, so I save the PDF onto a thumb drive and print it out at FedEx Office (used to be Kinko's).


Everything in my confession & assimilation folder is in page protectors.  When I am through with reading and assimilating a book, I put it a large binder with the other books.  Because some of these books cost a bit to print out, and I have gone through the NT once already, that binder is probably one of the most expensive NT's outside of a library or museum collection.


The E-Sword software is available at:  http://www.e-sword.net/.


The word processor I use is the Open Office Writer.  Open Office is a free alternative to MS Office and is available at http://www.openoffice.org/.


Open Office can export files directly to PDF's.  If you already have a word processor that you like, and it doesn't support PDF's, you can download pdf995, a free PDF converter program at http://www.pdf995.com/.  It installs itself as a printer driver, so you would use the Print command and choose PDF995 as the printer to convert a file.


If you decide to try this yourself, you can use different software if you desire.

Preparing a book for assimilation does takes some time.  As you read, you might see where you need to change the beginning or end of a context or paragraph, so you might have to do more editing and reprint the book.  I have.  As they say, YMMV (your mileage may vary).

Even if you don't prepare a text without chapter and verse markings, i do encourage you to start assimilating the Word if you haven't already.

Another Video

Here's the second message in the chain of 3 foundational messages:

I have removed the link to the playlist because I have been able to upload to YouTube the full length videos of all 3 messages.  Look for a later post or posts with all 3 messages embedded.  The segmented videos of the first 2 messages will be removed.

Video Messages

Last summer I recorded a message on video at the Family Prayer Center.  Learning the video editing software took some time, but I eventually posted the message on YouTube, in 4 segments.  I just now placed all four segments together into a playlist

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Lord has given me 3 messages that are foundational to Christianity and to the ministry He has called me to.  Right now, these are are the only 3 messages that I can freely give when I have an opportunity to speak

I have removed the link to the playlist because I have been able to upload to YouTube the full length videos of all 3 messages.  Look for a later post or posts with all 3 messages embedded.  The segmented videos of the first 2 messages will be removed.

Reading Through The Gospels

I started assimilating the Gospel of John on the first day of this year. Next month I will go through Mark, then Matthew and Luke. Why am I reading through the Gospels in this order?

I chose John because of his perspective. This Gospel is not so much a look at what Jesus said and did as it is a look at who Jesus is.

Some scholars have said that John wrote from a Greek, philosophical perspective. The Greeks were always taking a deeper look at things, seeking to understand the nature of things, and explanations for why things happen the way they do. In John's Gospel, we see Jesus as the Word, the Lamb of God, the Bread of Life, the One who gives the Water of Life, Son of God, Son of Man, the Good Shepherd, the Door to the Sheepfold, the Resurrection and the Life, the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Mark wrote from a Roman perspective. The Romans were doers. They built one of the largest empires in history, and not just by conquest. They built roads, amphitheaters, arenas, temples, warehouses, palaces, etc., throughout the empire. Mark focused on what Jesus did, and the teachings of Jesus he recorded are "action" teachings that give direction to our actions.

Matthew is written from the Jewish perspective. Matthew constantly quotes the Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. He records all of the Sermon on the Mount, and many of the parables. By doing so, he is presenting Jesus as a Jewish rabbi, because parables are a favorite device of rabbis.

Luke also wrote from a Greek perspective, but a historical one. He records events and teachings the others don't. He also references other historical events, such as the census. Many scholars see Luke's Gospel and Acts as one book in two volumes.

I chose the order of John, Mark, Matthew, and Luke because it provides the best approach to lay a foundation of understanding and building on it.

Chronologically, most scholars today think that Mark was written first, followed by Matthew, then Luke, then John. Why is Matthew first in the New Testament? Because Augustine, an early church leader, thought it was. This isn't a major issue, because if someone is reading the Bible straight through, then Matthew's Gospel provides the best continuity and transition from the OT to the NT.

This should get me caught up on posting "meditations" from my daily assimilation of the NT:

1 CORINTHIANS 13 MAR 10

The predominate theme of 1 Corinthians is unity - unity in the Body of Christs, unity in marriage, unity with the Lord, unity in communion and the conduct of worship, unity in the use of the gifts of the Spirit.

The key verse is 1 Cor. 12: 27 : "Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it." (NASB) The key thought is expressed in 1: 13 : "Has Christ been divided?" The obvious answer is no. Christ has not been divided, and His present Body on earth should not be divided either.

All division is based on the flesh.


HEBREWS 05 JUL 10

This morning while reading through Hebrews, I began to see a progression of subjects with a common theme. The theme is: Jesus is better.

Jesus is better than the angels.

Jesus is better than Moses.

Jesus is better than the Levitical priests.

Jesus serves in a better sanctuary than the earthly one.

Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant.

Jesus was a better sacrifice than sheep, goats, and bulls.


JAMES 13 JUL 10

The key verse of the Letter of James is Chapter 3, verse 13: "Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom." (NASB) This is the key verse because everything James wrote is wisdom.

Being joyful and patient in the midst of trials is wisdom. Being single-minded in faith is wisdom. Being impartial in your treatment of people is wisdom. Showing faith through your works is wisdom. And so on.

Wisdom shows in how we behave.

Meditation on John

24 OCT 09

Many aspiring to the ministry of disregard the importance of "lower" functions in the Church. By doing so, they may be passing up opportunities to be used for the working of miracles.

In John 2:1-11, we see the well-known story or Jesus turning water into wine. But notice the details of His actions.

Did Jesus touch the water? No.

Did He touch the waterpots? No.

Did He pray over the water, or speak to it? No.

Did He pray over the waterpots? No.

All we see Jesus do in this episode is to speak to the servants (the ushers), and they obeyed. The waiters (ushers) were the ones who handled the water and the pots. Sure Jesus performed the miracle, but He did so through the obedience of the servants.

Let's look at another notable miracle recorded in John 6: 1 -14.

Jesus taught a crowd of people one day, and He spoke to them long enough for the people to become physically hungry. Jesus wound up feeding five thousand men.

But look closer at what He actually did. He took one boy's lunch of bread and fish, and multiplied it enough to feed the crowd and have leftovers for later. Before Jesus started multiplying the bread and fish, what did He do? He told His disciples (later, apostles) to have the people sit down. He turned His disciples into ushers.

Then, when He started multiplying the the food, He had His disciples serve it to the people. He turned His disciples into waiters.

Sure, Jesus performed a miracle by multiplying the fish and bread, but the people were fed only by the obedience and actions of His disciples.

Remember, the word 'ministry' means 'service.'