I WOULD BE ALL THINGS TO ALL SO THAT I. . .

I have decided on a life scripture. I found, some time back, that my great-aunt who was a missionary to India, had a "life scripture." I don't remember what it was, but it made me wonder what mine might be, or if that is an appropriate thing to do. I had thought of other scriptures and thought that they were it; but the other day I reallized how important that scripture of Paul's (see above) is to me.

It went like this: The religion section of the Houston Chronicle had an article about how muslims were intending to be more observant than usual in order to honor the month of Ramadan. One aspect was that women (in US?) who don't usually wear the scarf of the muslims will wear it at this time. That reminded me of how my heart goes out to the muslims who are trying to honor God, and that the Christian Church's refusal to acknowledge that there IS something about that in the NEW TESTAMENT is a man-made obstacle to the muslims that God did not put.

(Just as an aside, I think that the word for the religious laws of the muslims is "sharia". I wonder if that is another word which comes from the root of "shar" in the hebrew language, which means remnant. Sharia is a way that a group distinguishs itself- separating itself from the surrounding culture. See my earlier blog post called FUN WITH WORDS.)

We need to do what we can to bring others TO God, especially those who are seeking Him, in what ever confused a way that may be.

So that is my life verse. Now I must go find it so I can write it here accurately, and give you the address.

The verse is I CORINTHIANS 9:22b.

SINCE YOU ASKED

A Member on Theologica.ning.com asked what others thought that Jesus' return was going to be like, based on what they have read in the Bible. Answers were slow at the beginning. I have not read through the answers, and don't really have anything to add to what others have and are saying on that subject.

(oh yes! I did think of something: Jesus said in response to questions about when He would come that the homeowner did not know the time when the thief was coming else he would have prepared himself- ala "HOME ALONE". Since the devil is the lord of this word, maybe it is essential to not have the time of Jesus' return known so that the devil doesn't have any advantage that he would have if he had notice.)

. . . But I do want to share my idea about what the first half of REVELATION Chapter 9 might mean. I really believe this. This passage is about the "star that had fallen from heaven to earth" which had been given the key to the shaft of the abyss, who opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft . . . so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft." etc.

I think that this refers to the humongous amount of "information" and media imput that are so much a part of our culture now, that almost physically press in upon us, cloud up our minds,
(really! I have a feeling in my mind that the mass of information "mess" out there is actually clouding up the world.) There is so much out there that if people don't start seeing where we need to actuallly make choices about what is important to know and what is not, some will be overwhelmed, at least temporarilly. That passage does seem to indicate hope- that the effects of the cloud and the "scorpions" are only temporary, even for those who "do not have God's seal on their forehead". That's encouraging. I wonder if that means that people, in general, will come to the realization that more and more information and entertainment are limited in what they can do for people and the world? (just thinking as I type.)

One aspect of what I believe now about the Bible is that Jesus was actually prophesizing in many passages, and that prophecy is a special case of the general catagory of miracle, and that miracles are what God used to show people that Jesus was who He said He was- to back Jesus up. So these prophesies of Jesus, and the prophesies of John in Revelation, are part of what it will take to convince some. Of course, The stuff in REVELATION is pretty whacko. But, I'm thinking if we think of it more in terms of a dream, where things are more symbols for things, we might get more out of it. Another part of REVELATION refers to the two witnesses. I think that refers to the two people groups, jews and gentile christians.

The abyss part was mainly what I wanted to say here.