The Mount of Misinterpretation?

In my Bible Luke 9:27-36 is the passage that deals with the Transfiguration. They put verse 27 in the same passage as if it is somehow connected. It seems to reinforce the idea that the ‘some’ who will not die before seeing the Kingdom of God are actually Peter, James and John but that’s a stretch at best. If you sleep through this ambiguous conclusion feel free to dream on. I believe, based on the whole council of God that verse 27 relates to those who are alive to experience the day of Pentecost, the beginning of the thousand (indefinite number) year reign of Christ and the generation that witnesses the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It's interesting that so many Christian’s in general believe that the transfiguration was Jesus revealing His Kingdom. What happened to basic reason? The event proves nothing of the kind. The disciples slept through most of it (just like the ten virgins today) and when they came to their senses they began to think like American Christian's... Hey! Let's build something. It was a revelation to the disciples for bringing the law and the prophets to an end in Christ, thus fulfilling all prophecy (Dan 9:24); nothing more. One has to read so much into the occasion that is just not there in order to transform it into a coronation or at best, an incomplete picture of a kingdom. Two of the missing ingredients in the status quo interpretation would be the masses, the royal court and the awesome pageantry. If that's the best (in our thinking) the Lord can do for a royal crowning it only shows how little we appreciate His Majesty. He came in judgment and to end the OT (Israel's importance) era in 70 AD and He's coming again in His Glory to bring judgment on the world. Stay tuned it won't be hard to miss. 

Christ's Work No Failure

Notice in the following excerpt from his sermon 'Christ’s Work no Failure' that Spurgeon had a great understanding pertaining to end time prophesies. Now if we could adjust to the same sort of reasoning we might be using up a lot less imagination.

"Our Lord has come to save His elect and He will save every one of them! No soul for whom He stood as Surety and Substitute shall ever be cast away. The sheep shall pass again under the hand of Him that counts them and they shall all be there. “He shall not fail nor be discouraged,” but He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.

As for the Lord’s Second Coming, we know not when it shall be. Shall the world grow darker and darker till He comes? It may be so. There are passages of Scripture and signs of the times which may be taken to indicate it. On the other hand, shall the age grow brighter and brighter till He appears to bring the perfect day? Through the preaching of the Gospel shall there yet be periods in which multitudes shall be converted and whole nations shall be saved? I do not know—there are texts that seem to look that way and many a brave worker hopes as much. There are some who can map out unfulfilled prophecy with great distinctness, but I confess my inability to do so. They get a shilling box of mathematical instruments. They stick down one leg of the compasses and describe a circle here and a circle there—and they draw two or three lines—and there it is! Can you not see it, as plain as a pikestaff? I am sick of diagrams! I have seen enough of them to make another volume of Euclid. My impression is that very little is to be learned from the major part of these interpretations or speculations. I do not think that anybody can map out the future so as to be absolutely sure of anything definite except certain great clearly-stated facts.

It is certain that the Lord will come, that He will come in such an hour as the most of men look not for Him—and that His coming will be a surprise even to many of His own Church. He may come at this moment while yet I am speaking to you, but He may delay His coming, if it so pleases Him, through many a century. It may sound strange for me to say so, but if our Lord were not to come for ages, we should not be justified in saying, “My Lord delays His coming” nor would any prophecy of Scripture be broken. Furthermore, it seems to me pretty clear that truth and righteousness are to win the day upon the earth—the idols are to be abolished, war is to cease and the great Jehovah is to be called “the God of the whole earth.” Either before or after His Second Advent—I am not going into that question this morning—this polluted earth is to be cleansed and this round planet of ours, which today is darkened by sin, shall yet shine out, like a new-born sun in all the pristine light which beamed from it when first it came from its Maker’s hands! The Lord shall reign over all mankind and a period of peace, rest and holiness shall be the fruit of His blessed sway! The Lord Jesus will not rest till He has subdued all things unto Himself and put down all the spiritual wickednesses which now tyrannize over the world...."

My Autobiography In Five Short Chapters

Chapter 1

     I walked down the street as a teenager. There was a hole near the curb. I inadvertently fell into that hole. I felt helpless. Things looked hopeless and it wasn’t my fault. It’s going to take a while to get out of this but I’m young and can adapt for the time being.

Chapter 2

     I walked down that same street again. I was in my mid twenties.  There was a different hole in the path. I covered my eyes so I didn’t see it. I stumbled in again. I can’t believe that I did that but it’s partly my fault. It’s going to take some time to get out of this.

Chapter 3

     I strolled down the same street again.  I was forty five going on twenty one. There’s a similar hole in the sidewalk and it looks familiar. I know it’s there but I didn’t see it coming.  I jumped into it by no fault of my own and even though I’m older now, this is becoming a habit. I did get out after some struggle.

Chapter 4

     Here I go again down that same street. It’s the direction I always go. There’s a familiar hole that is always in the same place. I stop and look down into the hole as I imagine jumping in again. Finally, I walk around it.

Chapter 5

     I’m much older now and the Lord has given me a solution to the potential problem. I walked down a different street. The end.

Original concept was plagiarized from an unknown author and redone to fit the size of the holes mentioned and the character in question  2002      

Letter to a Big Name Preacher

Dear Big Name TV and Radio Preacher,

       I appreciate so much your concern about my personal faith, giving habits and tithing customs. I have noticed that you don’t live by the same concept. When I get a letter from you it does not contain a check or an offering of any kind. I feel that this is something we need to work on. Your attitude and approach should be open to change. When you claim that the Lord will surely bring an increase to me and even double the amount that I send to you, why wouldn’t that same recipe work in reverse? Please understand that the cost of operating and underwriting a family these days has gone up. In June when we reach our midway point we will also have to possibly drop stations and programming. Yours may have to be the very first to go along with the abundance of your often duplicated mail that I have had to generously donate to the paper recycling industry. If you want to keep the cost of postage and handling down and remain sensitive to the nature of manipulating God’s people, please become the kind of steward of the Kingdom that you expect from us. You see, the amount of gospel junk mail has increased substantially, but the spiritual or financial growth from or because of your input and personal concern stays at a less than modest level.

       Would you please see to the correct spelling of my name in future correspondence? My name is not Ann Tuckinmoney. In your form letters you often end with something like,” When you write us, be sure to ask for the free offer Ann Tuckinmoney.” The Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills and it’s very unlikely that He approves of His servants begging like a bunch of drunken panhandlers. The Lord knows about your ethics and fundraising tactics and if the Lord sees fit to allow you to stay on the air, it will be because He will fund it out of His vast supply. He is capable of keeping track of and supporting those who are honestly representing Him. The Lord works in mysterious ways. It just might be that you too should get a real job like the Apostle Paul and let the Lord continue to work in mysterious ways without the benefit of your influence. I will close this most verbally generous letter with a blessing for you and your future endeavors. May you receive exactly what you deserve and it is my earnest prayer and desire to see you in eternity so I can tell you in person what I really think.

                                             Sincerely in Christ, T. LaVigne

                                             September 24, 1999 

The Bone Farm Memorandum

It was in a Vineyard worship service back in 2007 that a line from the chorus went something like, I want to see you and be where you are Lord. We sang the hypnotic melodic mantra over and over. I remember thinking; do these people know what they are singing? At that moment I said under my breath, where are you Lord? I didn’t sense that He was even in the building. I heard in my spirit the answer to that question. “I am in My Word; in the Law and the Prophets, the Psalms and the Proverbs. I am the Gospel, the Acts and the New Testament letters. I am the Genesis and the Revelation. If you stay in my Word and My Word stays in you, you will be where I am. It is there that you will see Me and know Me.” I noted the moment in a notebook and I encourage anyone who is waiting on a visitation from the Lord to keep one handy, just like you do when you are expecting important information over the phone. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  Heb 4: 12.  If a person stays preoccupied with scripture and is in continual communication with the Almighty, those conversations become one with the marrow in the bones. When His word becomes part of a person through meditation, memorization and recollection then there is in some fashion the resurrecting power of life as we now know it and afterward in the grave also. Forgive any mystical comparison but His word stays in your dead bones until He Himself calls it back to Himself. His word and your bones in that respect are so attached that you become inseparable. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper whereto I sent it.  Isaiah 55:11.  Remember Elisha’s bones? If there is in a sense more prosperity in the bones of a saint who has gone on already, how much more is there in those of us who are alive and remain. My father’s body is mostly decomposed by now in a one bedroom underground bone condo in a fancy West Toledo landfill called Ottawa Hills Memorial Cemetery. Cleo and Beatrice LaVigne have a piece of land in a neighborhood together with strangers of both worlds. As for me, I’m still alive and remain ambulatory, above ground, like a living sign or a grave marker. As Paul once wrote, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Gal 2:20. To the casual visitor I look in fair shape on the outside as I remain upright with some brief but yet appropriate information chiseled on the face. Life and age have not worn away the truth that lies beneath. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is just a grave site. In some respects the only thing we have going for us is the resurrection; that final event that will disturb this otherwise comfortable repose and will ultimately ruin the handiwork of both mortician and grave digger. Another song says that soon and very soon we are going to see the King. When He comes, the tune goes on to say, there will be no more crying there. I don’t know about you but the absence of doctors, bankers and elite politicians alone thrills me right down to the core. Some may think me disrespectful as I have such little regard for the bones of the dead but we are nothing more than a collection of nerves and organs that are temporarily housed along with our soul, inside a shell of skin, and a very thin shell at that. We may as well shed that easily bruised and notoriously selfish nature as soon as possible and put on Christ. That would be as in, Christ “in” ( bones included ) you, the hope of glory.

Planting Season... What's in Your Garden?

Spring is in the air and everyone looks forward to a fresh start and maybe a new row of prize tomatoes. This last weekend of March gave us the pagan celebration of Ishtar along with engaging the Catholic mystical machinery as it closely coexisted with the cross pollination of Passover on the 2013 calendar. Iconic chocolate treats will be half price on April first; as any fool would take it as a sign of favor from God. Then we're on to other warm weather, family friendly distractions. A garden variety of social events and self improvement seminars are in store along with the usual suspects of concerts and conventions of all kinds. Christians often talk about revival and associate it with a week of heavy preaching, a visiting evangelist and a big name gospel band. In some cases its nothing more than a fancy fund raising gimmick that if its pulled off well will be forgotten the following Monday. I’m sure that isn’t the intention of every planning committee but if forgetting our past sin was as easy as this I wouldn’t be posting this.

 I believe Satan loves revival too. He would love to renew and enlarge your memory of an old habit, inclination or other such thing pertaining to our weak nature. What remains of some old sin, long forgiven by God could be the potential yeast for a brand new transgression. Our own righteousness and good works may also be placed into that novel category. To reuse some old dead thing would suit Satan just fine if for nothing else than to discourage you and keep you impotent in the things of God. Death is the devils business and production is at an all time high especially in these days of spiritual and economic bankruptcy. Since death is all he has to work with it is no wonder that he would like to rejuvenate an old temptation in order to possibly fashion a gentler and kinder death for the believer. He knows he can’t have your soul but he does want to diminish any gifts or potential productivity in Christ. To keep you busy with doubt and worry is the key hook in this selling point. He’ll assure us that all these items are still in stock and available for overnight delivery; if you are in the market that is. He’ll have you out hoeing in a freshly planted row of vain imagination in no time. Since historical iniquities lay dormant in our mind long after we are saved it would be a resurrection born in hell to get you to dwell on it anew. Don’t buy it! It’s nothing more than an old 60’s eight track player because sound thinking wise and in terms of usefulness it is obsolete already. Let us pray that those rotting carcasses would stay in their grave and that you would leave your shovel in the garage. Since digging up the past has run its course you might want to leave the sins of others alone too in case you thought you still had a bone to pick with someone. It may be planting season everywhere else but let us bury the past and be assured of a bountiful crop failure.

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. Mark 4: 26-28

That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Col 1: 10- 11

Lock the cemetery gate and give that key to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith and go out there and enjoy a new season of growing up in Him.

A Process in Progress

The Heart is a Word Processor and the mind reviews the content. The tongue prints the final copy and puts it before the public. The eyes eat at the table of contents and the mouth speaks even before finishing the meal. A man thinks in his heart and is lead to believe that he has concocted a potentially interesting opinion worthy of the attention of others. A subtle boredom lingers in the best of our intentions yet a man will become fluent in meaningless offerings of his fertile interest on many subjects. Speaking freely with absurd yet tasteful comments he will gain a false respect from those of his ilk who agree with him. They may see themselves as being something because they thought of something and with a minimal vocabulary are able to confuse most issues completely. Some are left to discuss ball scores and the weather so as not to actually have to think or reason. That’s how they lead each other though these colleges of blissful ignorance which produce the most misguided graduates since blindness assumed style. These, among others are the most spiritually illiterate pseudo sophisticated over rated professors who teach the gullible poets and songwriters of our time. The Blonde leading the blonde as the joke would have it. But there is no excuse for this organized dysfunction among Christians which masquerades as wisdom. The Word of God should be allowed to process the man and the man should review his fate if he should end up without God. But those who stuffed themselves with religion at the last Theology Department Picnic are eating off of the paper plates donated by the same idiots who couldn’t pour lemonade from a shoe if the directions were written on the heel; theoretically speaking. (1) The potato salad is contaminated with the milk of human indifference and even the salt is getting bland. The expiration date on the bologna has not become obvious yet but the green color should be a clue. Well peppered with empty words, the news print these days has become useless seasoning for future controversy. Wake us up Oh Lord, before the ants carry us away along with the crumbs of what was once honorable and dignified literature. Forgive me if I only have small helpings of manufactured opinion, a byproduct of a chatter box media. Even Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity can’t be trusted.* The reason I know that they can’t tell us the whole truth is because they are still on the radio and the radio is a satellite campus of the government. We are left to learn on our own with the aid of the only thing that makes any sense. That would be the Bible and eventually, (if you haven’t by now) we will have to also abandon the so called Christian News Outlet Store and Trinket Emporium. Digesting scripturally and philosophically challenged patriotic ideas without thoroughly chewing and swallowing it gives me a cramp that I just can’t process. I often yawn when I read their op-ed tripe and am tempted to nap through the next serious catastrophe. Thank you for allowing me to inspire your own heart beat as you too will be called on to make a comment about something, sooner or later. Your input is just as important as those who think they are in control of the media. I’ll see you at the next company picnic or class reunion.  Wear your name tag and stay away from the potato salad. **

                                                                               Sincere & blessed, T. LaVigne

*Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

                                                                                      Jeremiah 10:14-15

(1) Romans 1:22  **The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the staff and management of any university or college and that’s the problem.