Midspring

Hanging with the brothers and sisters, drawing our life from the vine; what could be better? We’re close, brother. We do everything together: bask in the same sunshine, get drenched by the same rains. I guess you could say we’re about as close as it’s possible to be. We’ve found the way, man. Community rocks!!! Too bad for all those other fruits that have to grow all alone and isolated – not like us. We’re just one big bunch of grapes.

Earlysummer

I’m not saying I don’t like it here or anything. This is better than anything I’ve ever known. Somehow I wonder, though . . . is this all there is? Seems to me there should be more. More of God’s glory, more power, more intimacy somehow. I mean, I know my brothers and sisters better than I know almost anyone else on the planet, but it still seems like there’s a barrier – a separation that we haven’t breached. What is it? How do I get inside and let them get inside me?  I know when the Vinedresser has His perfect will with us, we truly will be one as He is One. We haven’t gotten there yet, but I have hope that we will, one day.

Midsummer Night’s Dream

Last night I dreamed of darkness. I know that sounds strange. After all, dreams happen when you’re asleep . . . with your eyes closed . . . hello! But this was a different kind of darkness. I felt like I was somehow losing myself. I’m still trembling. The brothers and sisters seem out of sorts today, too, and I don’t know why. I didn’t tell them about my dream. Maybe they had the same dream? What does it mean? The sun almost hurts today it’s so hot. I can feel myself swelling with juicy goodness but I wonder: will I burst? My skin feels so tight. In the evening, the Vinedresser finally turned on the sprinkler system. What a relief! I don’t know how many more days like this I can take.

Harvest Moon

What a huge red moon just rose tonight! It’s getting cooler, too. We grapes have all grown so much. No one’s skin popped or anything, but I sure thought mine would a couple of times. I really have to wonder what’s next for us. We can’t keep hanging here forever doing no one any good but ourselves. What’s the next step? Where do we go from here?

Something Different

Today the Vinedresser came through the field and cut us from the vine! What does that mean? I don’t know what to think of this. Is He somehow displeased with us?  Now we’re all piled up in a kind of huge tub thing with lots of other bunches of grapes. There are sounds here and there in the night as vineyard workers scurry around doing what I can’t even imagine. Neither I nor any of the other grapes know what to think of this. It’s a chilly night, so it’s nice to be piled up so close to one another.

The Big Squeeze!

Ouch!!! What a painful day we’ve all had. The vineyard workers STEPPED on us! Over and over and over; feet treading all over us. Our skins really did burst and our insides all ran together. They stepped and stepped until all the insides were squeezed out of us and ran together to the bottom of the tub thing. You’d think I could no longer write in this journal, but the strangest thing is that though I and all of my brothers and sisters are all mixed together now, with no skins to separate us, I still know who I am and who they are. In fact, I know it better than ever. I can’t tell you, journal, how much it hurt to have our skins squished and broken and our flesh crushed. Oy! And yet, now that it’s over, I realize that the thing I’ve been wanting for so long . . . for us to be one . . . has finally happened. I never knew myself so well as I know now; now that I can see myself through my brothers’ and sisters’ eyes, and of course, I’ve never known my brothers and sisters the way I do now; now that we are truly one.

Becoming Must

The Vinedresser has taken to calling us “must”. We’re all together in a huge vat now, recovering from a seriously HARSH day. We were cooked! All together in this vat. I can’t tell you . . . the Vinedresser said it was to rid us of impurities that might spoil the wine, whatever THAT is. And then, just when we’d begun to feel comfortable and cool again, He poured in some brown powdery stuff all over us and stirred us up and covered us with a cloth. I’m feeling very strange.

The Fizz

Whoa! Something has definitely changed here. There’s a new kind of . . . I don’t know . . . LIFE here. The life isn’t in any one of us, but it seems to be all around us and running through us. Kind of a bubbly, fizzy sense of LIFE just bubbling up from the midst of us. The Vinedresser came and stirred us up a couple of times today and the “life” kind of disappeared for a little while, but then it would come back after an hour or so, even stronger. We seem to be rising in the vat – filling it more than we did before the LIFE was added.

Wineskins

After the Fizz started, we fizzed along for a week or so and then the Vinedresser poured us all through a sieve and THREW OUR SKINS AWAY! We didn’t mind as much as I thought. The skins has become nothing but a mushy pile at the bottom of the vat anyway. The skins did leave a mark on us. We’re still red, for example, and I think rather spicy. We didn’t need the skins anyway because the Vinedresser poured us into new skins – not each of us individually – that would be impossible – but all of us together. That’s the way we like it. We’ve been sitting in these new skins fermenting (I heard the Vinedresser use that word) and we can feel definite changes in ourselves. We were sweet before, but now we’re positively intoxicating. We were a little harsh, but now I sense we’re beginning to mellow. We’re blending together with one another so that we compliment and complete one another more. Bits I didn’t know were in us have settled to the bottom of the new skins. Tomorrow the Vinedresser says He will pour us off the lees. I think He means those bits there at the bottom. They don’t taste too good and aren’t really part of us.

New Wineskins

It’s official. We are now new wine and have been poured into new wineskins.  The lees have been left behind and we are pure and ready to be poured out to nourish and sustain the nations. The Vinedresser seems pleased with us. He declared us pleasant to taste and good for life. Hooray! Some of us will be left to age and develop into mature wine and some of us will be used immediately. When I say “some of us, I’m not talking about some of us as individuals, you understand. That wouldn’t be possible. We’re one. I mean some of us as in some of all of us. The Vinedresser is so wise. He cared for each of us even when we were little individual grapes, and He has nurtured us through this process of becoming one body of wine together. At last nothing is lacking. We are one in Him.

Wikipedia: to be definition: ”’obsolete”’ safe from danger or harm. →

Me: Lord, how is it that we have been meeting now for three years and yet we see so little progress? We really want You. I think we do . . .

It is your prayerlessness.

Me: But Lord, I don’t understand how to pray. Once I’ve asked You for something, after that it seems like vain repetition to ask over and over again. Should I do that? Is that what You want? It seems odd that You would require that. It seems almost disrespectful to keep pestering You. I don’t understand how this works or what You want me to do.

People talk about praying for hours, interceding, and apparently it works for them, but what do they do? What does it look like? What should it look like? I don’t see a lot of instruction in Your word.

Seek out the prayers in the bible and study them and you will have your answer. In My word is ample instruction on this subject. You have only to look for it, study it, and follow.

But about vain repetitions; this refers to reciting a rote prayer as though it were a magic charm. Such accomplishes nothing. It is indeed vain. However for you to continue to pray and beseech the heavens while yet seeing nothing is not vain. Pray until the answer is seen. This is warfare. This is divine energy flowing — from My Spirit and yours into the heavens and from the heavens back to you — to the earth — the physical realm.

Think of it in terms of a weapons exchange. You give Me your human strength and I, in return, give you My divine power. Think of the lightning. Heaven calls to you and you return your prayer; a powerful response to the stimulus I send you. The sky responds, and as the connection becomes energized, then comes the power; light in the darkness; great and concentrated power to and from the point of the call. The channel allows this exchange.

Me: Lord, that sounds dangerous. No one really knows how that works, and lightning causes destruction, not good things.

Lightning destroys things that are temporal. , and yes, it is dangerous, but it cannot destroy that which is real — that which is eternal.Only the things of this world can be destroyed. Lightning  has no effect on gold, pearl, or precious stones. (Obviously this is meant metaphorically.)

Call, and continue to call. It opens a channel to the heavenlies, and a door between the world that is seen and that which is unseen. I have given this power to you, but if all you do is send out weak, halfhearted meeps on occasion, little and little will you see.

Prayer alters the atmosphere. You need to understand this. You MUST call. You are My subversives. You are My revolutionaries. You are the ones I have called. Call back. Call back. Call out to Me and I will show you great and mighty things you do not know.

In Me you have all these things, but aside from Me you have nothing. You are like a power relay connected to nothing. Prayerlessness is powerlessness. Call out to Me and see if I do not respond with frightening power to your cries. Pray. Watch and pray. The storm is coming and will come, but you can hasten it. You can direct the strikes in accord with My will, for it is the Spirit praying in and through you — praying and pleading with unspoken groanings — that does the work.  You submit to My Spirit — you provide the human element empowered by heaven — you create (yes, create) the interface with your surrender, your hiding of the spies, your subversive actions against the prince of this present darkness — your connection with Me; and darkness has a hole in its wall for light to rush in.

Soon the dyke must give way, for the dyke holds only when it keeps ALL out. As soon as a little starts to come through, the dyke is doomed, place however many fingers in the hole you will.

You, My people, gather in prayer and pound on that dyke. Deep calls to deep. My Spirit in you all calls out to heaven, and will I not answer with power such as you can only imagine, and that faintly?

Me: Lord, I’ve tried this, and I just can’t pray for hours and hours.

Pray rather for minutes, Child. You don’t just one day wake up and run a marathon. You train. Yes, you must stretch yourself — you must strain — but you cannot expect to run ten miles if you’ve never run one. Neither can you strengthen your running without pain. Nevertheless, My Spirit joins to help in your need, for you do not know how to pray as you ought. Let the Spirit groan within you — not human groanings of private pain (though you may do that as you need), but Spiritual groanings of divine emotion for which you are a channel. If I give you words, then say them, but you supply the channel — you call the lightning — you dig pebbles from the dyke — you are My subversive element within the kingdom of darkness.

You let in My light. Light cleanses, exposes, destroys, and brings LIFE. Light rips the heart of the darkness, the chaos, the void, the virulent nothing, rends it, alters it, destroys and remakes it into a shining radiant, burning seed of light, life, goodness — a glory of all that is LOVE.

This light that comes from heaven alone drives out the darkness and shows people the way. It destroys pathogens, deactivates toxins, and brings about growth. No living thing can long survive without it. Even life in the dark places depends ultimately on light. Have light within yourselves. You get this light by your connection with Me.

Remember the little phosphorescent plastic stars? They will shine for a long time without being exposed to light, but they need some — even dim — light, and that regularly, if they are to glow. Without it, they become dimmer and dimmer and finally wink out.

You have life within yourselves, for My Spirit dwells in you. But if you allow the veil of your flesh to obscure that light, you will be indistinguishable from the darkness. Connect with Me, Daughters; plead with the heavens, Sons. Let the power flow between heaven and earth.

Wikipedia: A Life is a bittersweet comedy by Irish playwright Hugh Leonard. →

For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.

May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. (Col 1:9-12 HCSB)

I’m studying alone, so I did the Three Column Bible Study. Since I don’t know how to make three columns in my blog, I’m going to post the sections consecutively instead. In the first “column” (above), I copied down the prayer. If the passage has introductory material you’re not planning to study, you can skip writing it out, though you should still read it.

The next thing is to paraphrase your passage; put it into your own words. Since this is my personal bible study, I added some  things that I know from elsewhere in the bible and from my study of some of the words. If you’re with a group, it’s better not to do that. People feel inadequate if they see you as knowing more than they do, and they won’t feel they can do a study on their own. I don’t have to worry about you guys, though, and since this is what I wrote, I’m going to post it as-is.

I’m praying for you, that God will show you what He wants you to do in each situation so that you may act according to His wisdom, understanding the whole picture because you comprehend what is really happening on a spiritual level.

This will enable you to live in a manner that is fitting for His children to live before Him, as well as in the sight of the world — including the natural world and the opposing spiritual powers of this present age. He will be well pleased with you when you live in a way that glorifies Him by displaying His Son to all the world.

I am asking that you will grow in true knowledge of Him. As you walk united with Him, being led and governed by His wisdom, and enlightened by His spiritual understanding, your intimate knowledge of Him will mature.

May you be strengthened — not by natural resolve, but supernaturally — with all power — for He IS all power. His revelation is mighty — just seeing His power will give you all patience and endurance in your trials so that you may suffer joyfully, giving thanks always to the Father. He has enabled you; He has opened the eyes of your understanding; ripped away the veil of your flesh, so that you may now share in the inheritance of the saints (which inheritance is Jesus) in the light. No longer are you in the dark concerning this, but you have the light of life.

That’s my understanding as I read this passage. If you disagree with me or if you don’t understand something I’ve written, that’s okay. You can write your own interpretation, which is what a paraphrase is, in any case. The third column is the analysis of the passage; what does this tell us about God? About humans? Who do I know who needs to know what I’ve learned here? What will I do as a result of learning this? (How will I “obey” the passage?) Here’s what I wrote (well, most of it).

What does this tell me about God? About people?

He will show us what to do in our daily lives if we ask.
He will give us wisdom; we don’t have to rely on our own wisdom.
He will give us spiritual understanding; we can comprehend the situation in spiritual    realms with regard to our daily lives.
We can be pleasing to Him when we use these resources which He’s provided for us.

We can live lives worthy of Him.

Our good works can be fruitful. (What does it mean fruitful? In souls? In fruit of the Spirit? Are the good works themselves the fruit?)
We can mature in our knowledge of Him. (Does that mean maybe that walking in these things will help us to mature?)
He will strengthen us supernaturally. We don’t have to rely on our own natural strength to get us through trials.
His revealed might (His glorious might) will enable us to endure trials patiently and even joyfully.
We can live in gratitude to the Father because He has enabled us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. (Jesus and our relationship with and in Him is that inheritance.)

Is there a Sin here to avoid?

Walking in our own strength.
Eating from the wrong tree (of the knowledge of good and evil). He is our source of true knowledge and wisdom.

Does the passage contain Prayers? Praises? Promises?

It is a wonderful prayer to pray for fellow believers (saints).
We can praise God for making us able to partake of the saints’ inheritance in the light.
I think the whole prayer is a promise. Paul would not have prayed it if it were not God’s will revealed to him.

Is there an Example to follow?

We can follow this as an example of one way to pray for believers.

Is there a Commandment to obey?

There is an implied command: to walk in God’s power and His direction, wisdom, spiritual discernment and to remember our great blessing of Christ Jesus and give thanks for Him.

Do we gain any Knowledge of God by reading this?

We see that He is our source for everything we need in order to walk worthy of Him.

I put down a few names of people to share this with, which I won’t include here.
The last step is very important; don’t forget it. My I Will statement, directed toward the Father, is: I will pray this prayer daily, from my heart, for the people I plan to share it with for at least this coming week, and for as long as You lead me to continue.

I concluded by doing my “I Will” statement, and also asking God to help me.

So there you are — now you try it!

Blessings, Cindy

How many groups doing Bible studies actually study . . . the Bible?

Here’s a great way to allow the word of God to do the teaching. Anyone can do a Bible study like this. You don’t need an expert, because the Bible IS your expert. The leader’s only duty is to ask an occasional question and help keep things running on track.

Choose a passage – nothing too long. Stories are good, especially to start with. Use a modern translation that people will be able to understand.Everyone can bring their Bible if they want to, but you really only need one Bible.

Get your group together. The best size will be from 4 – 6 people, but fewer will still work. For larger numbers, divide into two or more groups so everyone will get to share. People should bring a notebook and pen.

• Start on time. Ask people to share something good that’s happened to them in the past week for which they’re grateful.
• Ask people to share something stressful that’s happened in the past week. Talk about how last week’s helping project(s) went. (see #10)
• Pray for one another and give thanks for the blessings. Everyone should have the opportunity to contribute to the prayer if they wish to. Ask for God’s guidance in the day’s study.
• Have the passage read twice; use two different people. Make sure everyone can hear and understand.
• Ask for someone to re-tell the passage in their own words. Invite the group to contribute any details the re-teller may have missed. If some important things are being left out, the facilitator may ask a leading question or two.
• Ask: What does this tell us about God and our relationship with God? Use SPECK to help you think about this:

• Is there a sin mentioned in the passage that we need to avoid?
• Does the passage contain praises to God, a prayer to, or a promise from God?
• Is there an example to imitate or to avoid following?
• Does the passage contain a commandment from God that we should obey?
• What knowledge of God is shared in this passage?

• Ask: What does this tell us about people and our relationship with God and one another?
• Ask: How can we obey this passage? Have each person craft at least one “I will” statement. They should write it down in their notebooks and memorize it, but they needn’t share it unless they want to. It’s important that the statement begin with “I will,” as this helps to motivate follow through.
• Ask: Who do we know – each of us – that needs to hear this? The people in the group should be willing to share with at least one other person something they’ve learned from the word in this study.
• Spend some time talking about the needs in #2. If there’s something the group can/would like to help with, arrange to do that.

Once you’ve done this a couple of times, you should switch off and allow someone else to facilitate. It’s important to avoid teaching in this kind of study, especially if you’re studying with people who know a lot less scripture than you do. If you seem to be a fountain of all knowledge, they’ll begin to depend on you. If the group is getting off track, lead with questions; don’t tell them straight out that they’re wrong about something if you can avoid it at all.

The group should be learning to rely on the Bible, not on the facilitator. If you keep it simple, everyone will feel confident that they too can facilitate a similar Bible study with the people they know.

When people introduce information or remarks that aren’t found in the text, the facilitator should ask: “Where is that in our text?” Otherwise, you’ll all end up talking about everything but the topic you came to discuss. People may enjoy the time, but they’ll soon stop coming if you don’t stay on topic.

The study should last about 45 minutes. It’s the facilitator’s job to make sure there is enough time for all the steps, especially the last three. Once the study is finished, people can hang around and enjoy one another’s company if they like.

The earliest direct reference I can find to God being Father is from the poetry of David, who is one of the main types or symbols of Christ in the Old Testament:

God in His holy dwelling is a father of the fatherless and a champion of widows. (Psa 68:5 HCSB)

In the passage below, Ethan the Ezrahite describes the covenant God had made with David (and prophetically foresees the Messiah.)

He will call to Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the rock of my salvation.’ I will also make him My firstborn, greatest of the kings of the earth. I will always preserve My faithful love for him, and My covenant with him will endure. I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as heaven lasts. (Psa 89:26-29 HCSB)

David describes a father as compassionate, and uses this as an example for God’s treatment of those who fear Him:

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. (Psa 103:13 HCSB)

This is a radically different concept of God from the self-serving Pagan gods that the nations surrounding Israel worshiped. The God who cares, who does not need placating, whose motive is the duty and love of a father toward His children. But Isaiah is the first to clearly state that God is not only like a father; He is the Father:

For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa 9:6 HCSB)

I find it interesting that the prophet seems to be speaking of Jesus here, and yet he calls Him “Eternal Father” or “Father of Eternity,” depending on your translation. Jesus never claimed to be the Father, and yet He is the exact image of the Father. (Col 1:15) Isaiah elaborates later in his career:

Yet You are our Father, even though Abraham does not know us and Israel doesn’t recognize us. You, Yahweh, are our Father; from ancient times, Your name is our Redeemer. (Isa 63:16 HCSB)

Yet LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; we all are the work of Your hands. (Isa 64:8 HCSB)

Was Isaiah among the first to see God in this way? Perhaps he was only the first to state it so plainly on the record. By Jeremiah’s time at any rate, God complains that the people call Him “Father,” yet do every evil thing they can think of. (Jer 3:4-5) But God will not give up on His offspring, Israel:

I thought: How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations. I thought: You will call Me, my Father, and never turn away from Me.

However, as a woman may betray her lover, so you have betrayed Me, house of Israel. This is the LORD’s declaration. A sound is heard on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, for they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the LORD their God. Return, you faithless children. I will heal your unfaithfulness.

“Here we are, coming to You, for You are the LORD our God. (Jer 3:19-22 HCSB)

Like many human fathers, God has mercy on His straying children and longs to bring them back. Unlike human fathers, however, God is mighty to save and fully capable of restoring His wayfaring daughters and sons. He has the time and He has the ability. What He has said, He will do. God is referred to as Father directly and indirectly in a number of other Old Testament scriptures. This laid the foundation for Jesus to declare God as His Father in a far more radical way.

Next time . . .

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created. Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man named John who was sent from God. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Joh 1:1-14)

In this passage, we see that the Word is another name for Jesus, the Son of God. We see that the Father and the Son were together before creation began, and that it was God’s desire (at the time Jesus was sent to the earth) that all men believe on the Son. Jesus came to enlighten the human race and to give (to those who received Him), the right to be children of God.

But there’s more;

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified. (Rom 8:28-30)

Clearly it is God’s desire that we should be the younger brothers (and sisters; the original text is not sex-specific) of Jesus, and that we should be like Him. This is a predestination situation. God has committed to making this happen; we are in ourselves helpless to initiate the process or to further it, though we are capable of cooperating (or resisting, for a time), and are commanded elsewhere to obey the commands of Jesus. Please note; we are predestined to this end, and while our cooperation can help expedite the process, the end is in the Father’s hands. He will do it.

I’ll carry on with this theme in my next post . . . .

Blessings, Cindy

I’ve only recently discovered what is (to me) a new method of studying God’s word, and I’m excited about it — so of course I want to tell you about it and how to do it. This is a simple and effective method of seeking God through His word, and if you’ll give it a try, I think you’re going to love it.

It’s called inductive, and this particular version of inductive study is called “Discovery.” You’ll find a good deal more about it at Church Planting Ministries’ training resources website. The three column version of the Discovery Bible Study is what you will do if you’re on your own without a group.

Choose a passage that you’d like to study. Stories are a good place to start, but you can study any passage you like. It should be fairly short. If it’s longer than 15 or 20 verses, you might want to divide it into more than one session.

1. Pray. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. No one can truly understand what God means by any of His word without His guidance.
2. Turn your paper or notebook on its side and divide it into three columns. Label each column . . . something like this: Scripture, My Paraphrase, and Action or “I Will.”
3. In the first column, copy out the scripture you’ve chosen word for word. This obviously slows you down, which gives you a chance to chew on the words as you go along.
4. In the second column, paraphrase your story. Write it out in your own words. Be sure not to miss any important details, but try to do it from memory if you can. When you’re done, read over it and then go back and add anything important that you might have forgotten.
5. Analyze the passage and note your thoughts in the third column. What does it say about God? About our relationship with God? What does it say about people? About our relationships with one another? Use the anagram SPECK to help you think about what the passage says:
6. SPECK:
   

   • Sin: Is there a sin to think about in relationship to this passage? Something to avoid, or something you may not have known was wrong or have been unconsciously doing, or something that is a temptation for you?
   • Prayer: Is there a prayer being made in the passage that you might want to emulate, or is there a command to pray, or something that strikes you that you should pray about?
   • Praise: Is there something here that you should praise God about? Or does something come to your mind that you have perhaps overlooked concerning God’s goodness?
   • Promise: Do you see a promise from God? What are the conditions of the promise?
   • Example: Does the passage contain an example that you should emulate, or one that you should avoid following?
   • Commandment: Are we directly commanded to do something by the passage, or is there an implied commandment?
   • Knowledge of God: What does this passage add to your knowledge of God?

7. What will you change or continue to do, as a result of reading and meditating on this passage? With God’s guidance, write one or more “I Will . . .” statements in the third column. Be sure to memorize these “I Will” statements, and share them with someone who will encourage you to carry out your statement.
8. Who do you know who would benefit from hearing about the things you’ve discovered in this study? Write down a name or two and commit yourself to tell these people what you’ve learned.
9. Thank God for His revelations to you, and write down anything you feel He’s saying to you.
10. That’s it. You’re done. Go about your day, but don’t forget your “I Will” statements or the people you’ve decided to share with.

If you do this, please let me know how it goes for you.

Blessings, Cindy

These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from His glorious strength . . . (2 Thessalonians 1:9 HCSB)

The word translated “destruction” in this passage is the Greek word olethros, and while it isn’t the usual word for destruction in the NT, it is also used in 1 Corinthians 5:4-5 . . .

When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus with my spirit and with the power of our Lord Jesus, turn that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:4-5 HCSB)

Paul clearly states here that the purpose of the destruction of the flesh is that this brother’s spirit should be saved in the Day of the Lord. Certainly olethros refers to the ruin of something, and the something in view here is the flesh — the sinful nature. The ultimate goal is that this man should gain blessedness and acceptance into the beloved in the Day of the Lord. So the goal of the destruction is in fact salvation.

This passage sounds harsh. The idea of handing someone over to the devil is offensive to the modern ear. Can you imagine your council of elders announcing to the congregation that brother so and so was hereby delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh? Paul makes it clear that the goal of this action is that the man in question should be saved in the day of the Lord. So the purpose of the judgment is in fact remedial.

Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you that 2 Thessalonians 1:9 teaches universal salvation. It’s a cry of pain and anger, and an attempt to comfort a body of believers that has lost loved ones to persecutors. The epistles were written by men not so different from the men and women of God many of you know personally. Paul knew the Thessalonians; probably slept in someone’s guest room and had breakfast with the brothers before they started the day’s work. He loved these folks. And now they were being persecuted and killed for their faithfulness to Christ. Yeah . . . he was angry. So I’m not sure we should look at this letter, and particularly this portion of this letter, as systematic theology. It isn’t Romans, for sure. It’s a different sort of thing, but Paul is nothing if not consistent, so I have a problem with Paul saying one thing in Romans and quite another here, even though he’s obviously hurting for his beloved friends.

The thing is, this passage could be interpreted either for or against the idea that all people will be reconciled in the long run. As Paul clearly talks about a universal victory for Jesus in many, many other places, I don’t think it’s necessary to take the less optimistic view here. It isn’t a universal salvation proof text by any means, but it also isn’t sufficient to prove eternal conscious torment or annihilation.

I’m not positive what I’ll be covering in my next post. If any of you guys (I know you’re out there, even if you don’t talk much!) have ideas for a scriptural text you’d like to get some insight on re: Christian universalism, feel free to suggest it.

Blessings, Cindy

            In this village lived people of all sorts; people who saw, people who felt, and people who knew. People who sought and found, and people who helped and helped and helped and helped. People who did and people who imagined, and as is always the case, people who merely dreamed within themselves and seldom did the dream.

            In this village, all times were good so long as the people loved and cared for one another, but my favorite time came when all the people came together to play and eat and learn and teach one another. These were times of laughter, hugs, giving and receiving and sharing in the best thing of all, which is love.

            Darkness always fell before the people met for their evening gatherings, for the villagers were busy people. Just living takes a lot of work, and the work of living takes a lot of time. But as the sun went down, the lamps began to shine. Everyone in the village had a lamp, and everyone brought his or her lamp to the gatherings so that their love feasts would sparkle with lamplight and firelight along with the friendlight and best of all, the Godlight. The villagers loved light, and the light of God’s presence is the best light of all.

            One night as the people made ready in their homes to go to the gathering, a little boy realized that he had no oil for his lamp. There had always been oil before, but it had been a long time since he had filled his lamp, and now it would only splutter a little and go out. And when it went out, nasty smelling thick black smoke curled away from the wick and made him cough.

            “Well,” he thought, “It will be okay. My sister and my little brother and my mother and my father will all have their lamps burning, and everything will be fine. I will just see by their light.

            And he was right, mostly. Everyone else did have light, and the little boy’s missing lamp was hardly missed at all. As As he saw that his missing light hadn’t dimmed the radiance or the joy of the gathering by much, our young friend became careless and often forgot to fill his lamp. No one really needed his light after all, and he was so busy that it seemed unreasonable to try to fill his lamp so very often.

            But in fact his little brother noticed all this, although he was too polite to mention it, and young as he was, he realized that if one missing lamp had gone unremarked, two missing were hardly more likely to draw attention. He also started to neglect his lamp. One by one, most of the children began to forget about caring for their lamps. After all, nearly all of the adults could be counted on to have their lamps lit, and most of the lit lamps burned brightly enough.

Still, if you had visited the village when all the people had kept their lamps brightly burning and filled with oil, and then if you had visited the village again a year later, you might have felt sad at the loss.

For want of the children’s lamps (and also some of the adults, who were very busy, you must allow) the love feasts had grown dim in contrast to those bright and magical nights of yore. But the people still came, and many of them brought their lamps. Some even brought their lamps. Some even brought two or three lamps, to make up for the lack. Alas, this had a negative effect, for seeing this, others also stopped bringing their own lamps. Why should they trouble themselves, when others brought extras?

In time, when the villagers came together, only one or two special Light Bearers brought a lamp. The others might bring a lamp if they wished, but must not light it during the gatherings. To do so would detract from the lamps of the Light Bearers, who were after all, the ones chosen to receive special quantities of oil, trained in the keeping of lamps, and skilled at lighting the way for those who had no lamp of their own.

Lighting one’s own lamp in the meeting was considered extremely rude. Non-Light Bearers (or lay light bearers) might and indeed should burn their lamps in the outer darkness, but as everyone knew, only professional Light Bearers were qualified to illumine the gatherings.

But then one evening, a little boy, the sort of little boy who is enchanted by light and fire and all things bright, decided not to put out his lamp when he entered the gathering place. He was young and sweet of face, and so the adults chuckled indulgently when they noticed his tiny flame flickering where it should not have flickered. Other children saw this, that the flame was beautiful, and that the adults thought the little boy delightful, and slowly one by one, they also began to bring their little lamps to the gatherings. In time, the villagers grew accustomed to the lambent atmosphere of children’s lamps. It became traditional for all children to bring their lamps to the gatherings and to allow them to glow throughout the evening.

As these children grew older, it was expected that they would lose interest in bringing lamps, but in fact they had fallen in love with the light. They put off the time when they should, as responsible and mature adults, put aside the childish practice of bringing their own flickering childlike lamps to the gatherings, and instead focus exclusively on the brighter lights of the professional Light Bearers. And so the childlike lamps now lit up the faces of youthful almost-adults.

The elderly, looking on, felt the tears burn as they recalled the faintly gleaming recollections of childhood gatherings; gatherings in which every single villager had brought a lamp and kept it lit all through the evening. One very old, very childlike lady shyly asked a child to light her lamp. There was plenty of oil, for this old saint occupied herself day and night with little besides gathering oil. She hadn’t thought her light worthy to shine in the gatherings, but looking on the beautiful lights of the young people, she suddenly didn’t care.

As her light blazed up brightly, people turned and stared. Some shook their heads at this lamentable evidence of senility creeping up. However, as she was a sweet old lady, and harmless, they smiled indulgence and turned away, trying to focus on the Light Bearers.  Somehow the official light had begun to seem a bit feeble, but the responsible adults disciplined themselves to attend to their leaders.

They tuned out the children exclaiming over one another’s lights and clustering around the old lady (and one or two other oldsters), to see why the grayhairs’ lamps burned so brightly and yet so softly. This went on over time as more and more of the elderly timidly lit (or failed to extinguish) their lights during the gatherings.

The teens got older and the elderly who carried lamps tended to be younger, until gradually the lights of the old and the lights of the young touched in the middle and the professional Light Bearers became what they had always wished to be; that is, just brothers and sisters sharing their light with one another and receiving light in turn.

One day, the villagers say, the One who brought about the lamp bearing in the first place will return to them. Then no more lamps will be needed, for His light, brighter than the sun in its glory, will shine from every heart and every face. But until that day, every villager; every boy and every girl, the young and the old and the middlers, the doers, the dreamers, the helpers and the knowers; those who feel and those who see, will remember and keep their lamps filled with oil and burning well. They will light one another’s paths with love and kindnesses so that the whole village will see His glory in the brightness of their oneness.

For that is the very best thing of all.

Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels! (Matthew 25:41 HCSB)

The HCSB translation of this verse certainly doesn’t work with our modern view of eternity — that is, having no beginning and no end. For that matter, a lot of verses using aionios can’t reasonably use the word eternal, at least not in this sense. In the verse above, as the fire has been prepared, it can hardly be said to have had no beginning. So the HCSB here (and elsewhere) perhaps uses aionios in the sense of having a beginning but no end. Other translations render this as everlasting, which works better with our traditional view of the fires of hell. Literal translations typically render this more or less as Rotherham does:

Then, will he say unto those also, on his left hand: Depart ye from me, accursed ones! Into the age-abiding fire, which hath been prepared for the adversary and his messengers; (Matthew 25:41 Rotherham)

And while the words eternal or everlasting often make logical sense, at least on the surface, age-during or age-abiding always work wherever aionios is found. There may be a reasonable argument for translating aionios as eternal when it refers to God, as God is understood to be without beginning or end, and as such, may so qualify the adjective aionios when it is used to describe Him, but the use of eternal or everlasting in translating aionios in some instances, as when it refers to the fires of hell, is at best arbitrary, and at worst, the reading back into scripture of preconceived and accepted  Augustinian doctrine. There is ample scriptural reason to suppose that God is not only age-during but also eternal. There is none (and much to the contrary) to suppose God’s punishment, whether by torment or by extermination, to be everlasting, let alone eternal.

Since the use of the words aion and aionion do not definitively show that God’s punishment is without end, we must find this concept elsewhere in scripture, if we can — but this post is about the “eternal, everlasting, and forever” passages, so I’ll stick to them for now.

There is another meaning for eternal which is often missed. Sodom and Gomorrah are said to have been consumed by eternal fire (Jude 1:7). Clearly this fire is no longer burning, so this statement cannot be taken to mean that the fire lasts forever, nor yet that the fire had no beginning or end. Could we then say that the fire is eternal in the sense that its results are eternal? No, for:

“I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and those of Samaria and her daughters. I will also restore your fortunes among them, so you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did when you comforted them. As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state. (Ezekiel 16:53-55 HCSB)

The indication here is that God means to restore both Sodom and Israel. We know this, since prophesy is clear elsewhere that Israel will be restored. God is not saying “when pigs fly.” He is saying that He will restore Israel and Sodom alike. And therefore we know that the eternal fires that destroyed Sodom will not, in the end, have an eternal result. So the fires had a beginning and an end, and their results are not everlasting. So what does scripture mean by calling them eternal? It could mean “age-during,” of course, since an age is an indefinite and finite period of time, but could it actually mean eternal in a sense we haven’t considered?

What if eternal fire refers to fire that has its origin in eternity? In God, in other words. We have French wine and Chinese firecrackers and African music; why not eternal fire? If eternal, in context with God, does have its modern meaning (and because of the Platonic influence with regard to the use of aion and aionios in context with the divine, there’s reason to suppose it could), it isn’t unlikely that when it modifies something that comes from God, aionios could refer to the kind of substance it is modifying — that is a substance from God, or from eternity. So the fire can be eternal fire in that it comes from eternity, not because it has burned and will burn forever (as the fires that consumed Sodom manifestly do not do.)

If this is the case, and it seems likely that it is, the eternal fires of Gehenna can be eternal without burning forever, and eternal destruction can also be eternal without lasting forever. This may seem far-fetched, but the word apollumi (defined by Thayer as: to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to, ruin, among other things) which is translated in some places as destroy and in other places as lose, etc., doesn’t appear to be as final as it sounds to us either. I’ll get into that next time. I know I promised to talk more about 1 Thessalonians 1:9 in this post. I’ll definitely have more to say about it, but I didn’t have room today. I’ll address it after a few words about the meaning of “destruction”; I hope this will be possible in my next post.

Edit: As you may have noticed, apollumi is not the word used for destruction in 2 Thess 1:9, but rather olethros. Apollumi is a fascinating study, and I’ll probably talk about it sometime later, but it is olethros we’ll discuss in the next post. Sorry for the mistake.