Your experience in the "assemblies"

Feel free to move the conversation over here. I'll be posting on that topic in short order here myself.

Update Re: Al

Someone kindly left a comment on the passing of my friend Al. Yea, he was a great guy... but if you didn't really know him, you'd think he was one of the most annoying people you knew.

So don't go judging a book by its cover.

Homecall: Alistair Sheach... 1982 - Feb 17, 2005

A good friend was called home to be with our LORD just two days ago, around noon on Feb 17, 2005. Alistair Sheach, a non-stop talker, and a happy-go-lucky, enjoyed life kinda guy. He was on his way up north to lend a hand to his little sister who was looking after his folks property while they were away on a missions trip in Bolivia... and while his older brother was away helping Tsunami victims in Sumatra. (the folks are back now, and Chris will be in the air, arriving here 4 hours from now)

It was sudden, and totally unexpected. Few details are out on what exactly happened, but it appears that weather (visibility) was a factor. I had just seen him the other day, he came into our office to have his eyes checked. Friday morning one of the doctors came to me and asked that I cancel his order for glasses; I hadn't heard yet, and as I had a hectic and busy day ahead of me, I think she didn't want to tell me yet. (or thought that I knew already) It was a hard thing when I heard a short time later, while trying to fix someone's glasses... I had a hard time getting the screw back in the hole, my hand was shaking too much. (I guess the Lord guided my hand, because I let go of the screw in the air, and it fell exactly into place so I could finish the job) It was really hard then to place his file in our "deceased" box. I had to put it a few rows back so I couldn't see it when I walked past. He had just got the ball rolling on a Youth conference on spiritual gifts... we've picked up the torch and are gonna keep it going.

We're still waiting on details, but I know it will a good funeral. Only Christians can say that, eh? I've been to a couple of tragic funerals of young people, and at all of them, there was a quiet sense of peace, and glad sharing of past memories, and rejoicing knowing that he's at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ... someone who's ear he'll never be able to talk off, and who'll never tell him to be quiet. We'd been joking and telling him that over the last few weeks... and you know what? I'm so glad that he was so stubborn, because now all of us have a fresh memory of his voice echoing through our hearts. Thanks Al, for sticking to being yourself, right up to the end.

Here's to the memories; Arkell Road Soccer Chapel (and cringing in terror when you had the ball, and he was comin your way...) The LOOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGG talks on car rides. (never a dull moment! He had some great opinions...and some not so great!) My nemesis in Trivial Pursuit. A half decent Eurche player. ("You called it on what Al?!?!") Fat Al-bert ("hey-hey-hey!"), Yasser Al-a-fat, Ali-STAR, Big Al... the one, the only, Alistair Sheach.

Keep on talkin Big Guy.
I'm sure you'll have loads to tell us when we get there.

Oops... my IQ shows me up

Someone pointed out to me a spelling error on my post from last night, in the section where I was "boasting" about my IQ. (Yes indeed, "Pride goeth before a fall") I've corrected the error. Ironically, the spelling portion of the IQ tests are usually where I fall flat on my face.

Hope it didn't detract from the rest of the content "eb".

Confessions of a Raving Fundamentalist

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Another one bites the dust... another friend and former street collegue has kissed Biblical truth goodbye... and it breaks my heart once again. I don't know if anything hurts more than when I see a friend "change his stripes", "drop the colours", "wave the white flag", etc.

Don't ask me for philosophy... I'm not a scholar. No matter how much I'd like to be, I'm not, nor will I ever be. I'm to simple for that. Yes, I have a high, near genius I.Q., (but not quite... Yates beat me) but I'm just too simple to understand all these teachings that keep stumbling the faith of my friends.

I'm losing track of them all. Too many of them. In Markham, Toronto, Fredericton, London. Ones who dig too deep into their cerabelum, and come up empty each time. Who fall in the Garden all over again... when "he" told them, just like "he" told her in the Garden, "You will be like God"...

As IF we could understand God. As if we could disassemble, discet, or take apart His wondrous ways. As if the clay could say to the potter "Why have you made me thus?"

To be true... reflection, meditation, study, are VITAL! Too few of us do it. And in that many others fall. But some, "professing to be wise..." do exactly what the verse says... "became fools". Yes, that verse is in the context of creation, but the point, I feel stands.

There's a verse the JW's love to claim as their own, and one of their books is entitled with it... "Let God be True!" Indeed, "...but every man a liar" as Paul said.

Ohhhh, Paul. That heretic. That neo-conservative, ultra-right-wing, pious, righteous, bigot. I love him. Boy, do I ever love him. Those modern-day "thinkers", eat your heart out. Please.

I just sit here shaking my head, waiting for it all to end. "He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming quickly.' Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" I love that tune by Rebecca St. James, "Come Quickly, Lord".

"Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?" I can't wait till all the plans of the nations are frustrated, and the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to rule and reign. When He wipes the slate clean, and shows the world what the Truth really is. Oh boy, I can hardly wait.

How about you?

A day will be coming...

I just heard a few minutes ago on the radio (CBC) that some U of T students are planning an "Israel Apartide" rally in the near future to protest Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people. Interesting. What about a rally protesting suicide bomber's treatment of the people of Israel?

But that's another issue... hearing that report made me think about days that are coming, the End of Days, the Day of all days... and here are some thoughts on that topic.

Now, I'm no theologian, nor will I ever be, but one thing I do want to be is someone who can "rightly divide the word of truth" as Timothy (and thus, we too) was admonished to by Paul in 2 Timothy 2:15. (Yes, this will be a blog that regularly quotes Scripture... just a warning)

Most in the world don't understand how this world is going to pan out... mostly due to the fact that Biblical truth is actively supressed in our "modern" age. But there is a timeline that has been Divinely drawn in ages past, just like the ones that each and every one of us drew at some point during our years of History education... a timeline with a start, noted points of historical significance, and then an end. I find that most cults (and many off base denomonations) get many of these facts wrong, and thus build incorrect doctrines as a result.

These Arab students planning this rally are no different, though they do not know of what I am talking as their faith has a different view on how the end will come. But a correct understanding of Biblical prophecy would enlighten them on the futility of their quest, as the Bible clearly teaches that they will not ultimately succeed in their plans for a Palestinian state.

I just happened to be reading the other day (and hence my thoughts were turned that way this morning) in Zechariah 8:20-23, of what it will be like during the end times. (in this case, it's the 1000 year reign of Christ, known as the Millenial Kingdom) That passage is a quotation of the LORD Most High, Creator of Heaven and Earth. HE says;

Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Peoples shall yet come, Inhabitants of many cities; The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, 'Let us continue to go and pray before the LORD, And seek the LORD of hosts. I myself will go also.' Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.
"Thus says the LORD of hosts: "In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." Zech. 8:20-23

Now, what is interesting is that Muslims would say that the Bible (mainly the Old Testament) was (past tense) the Word of God... yet this passage would not be heeded. This passage has not yet been fulfilled, meaning it has yet to be fulfilled. (and it will be, as will ALL Biblical prophecies) The Jewish nation is still a blessed nation in the sight of the Almighty God, and should be respected, not bombed.

SIDENOTE: Now, I do not agree completely with some of the things that are happening in that region of the world, but the present nation of Israel (it is not yet the full Biblical nation of prophecy) has been backed into a corner and has been forced to protect itself. I do fully believe the promises of the nation that when peace breaks out, and the suicide bombers stop, there can be peace and eventually an autonomous state of Palastine, though Biblically, it will be only temporary. But peace has never been allowed to occur due to the continual Palestinian violence perpetuated from generation to generation. Suicide bombers are hailed as heros... don't all kids want to grow up to be heros? Militants are seen as brave warriors fighting for a cause... for crying out loud, GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!!! (to all the Left wing thinkers reading this... you keep shouting that slogan at Bush for Iraq... try telling it to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas!!! I'll wager that you won't, because you're anti-Israel too! Hypocrits!) :END SIDENOTE

There are dozens, likely hundreds (I've never stopped to count them all, nor have I even noticed them all) of passages that deal with the future of the nation of Israel... Jehovah's Witnesses* (See NOTES at bottom), as do many well meaning Christian denomonations, make the mistake of thinking that the passages that refer to Israel apply to them, and that God is finished with the nation of Israel because they disobeyed Him one time to many. Well, first of all, a promise is a promise, and God promised Abraham that his seed would inherit that land forever. Read in Genesis 13:14-15; "And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: 'Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are--northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.' " Some Muslims would try to argue that the seed was that of Ishmael, and he is the fulfillment of this promise, but those who try to say that do not know the rest of the Scriptures that refute that, though I will not argue that point at this time. I take the word "forever" and point that out for one simple reason; God makes, and keeps His promises. No one else, no other people, will inherit that land.

One more passage, and then this post is done. I think it speaks for itself, and if you have any questions, please feel free to use the comments section... remembering that this is the Word of God, and what has been written shall come to pass;

"I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day forward. The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them."' "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name-- after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,' says the Lord GOD." Eze 39:21-29

Amen. Come quickly and fulfill these passages LORD God Almighty!


NOTES:
Jehovah's Witnesses: I hate that name, I will in future refer to them as Jehovah's FALSE-Witnesses or simply JW's, as to use the Name of the Almighty Jehovah in relation to them is blasphemy

In the beginning...

...Andrew created a blog. Or, rather, God created the heavens and the earth, then some 6000 years passed, then Andrew created a blog... or rather, Andrew clicked a button and the servers at who-knows-where created the blog, then asked Andrew to type something in. And he saw his work, went back, and re-edited it, as all imperfect, critical sort of people do. And thus, on the 7th minute, Andrew rested.