2013--from Felicity Dale 070111

           

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute, Today, a reading from Felicity Dale, from her blog, www.simplychurch.com, from July 1, 2011:

(www.simplychurch.com/, July 1 entry in its entirety except for the last sentence that is a tie in to the next blog. You will have to scan down to the month of July, 2011 to see article, as it appears that page number within address line changes each month. )

(what I said afterward:)

In the Bible, only those believers who were going to communicate the message of Jesus where it has not been heard were supported.  This isn’t a problem that just began with the New Covenant.  The reason that Paul learned tentmaking was that Old Testament priests at times had a difficult time making ends meet when large amounts of the children of Israel fell away to follow other gods, and then didn’t give the tithes the priests were to live on, so the Pharisees demanded their students to learn a trade, which was why Paul could do tentmaking while on his missionary journeys.  Some of us today know former pastors who struggle today when something happens such that they can’t get a church job. 

That western culture has created a system that is contrary to the example we have in the New Testament has been a problem for our leaders for generations, albeit oftentimes not spoken of within earshot of those of us not on a church corporation’s payroll.   More on this tomorrow.

You can contact me at simplechurchminute@yahoo.com or by phone at 757-735-xxxx.

A transcript of this is posted at tevyebird.blogspot.com, dated July 23, 2011. 

For more information about simple, being the church in this area, visit www.hrscn.org. 

2003--I Don't Want to Die

            As I have wrote a few days ago, there are some excellent writings of others that would fit my idea of a series of radio commentaries.  I have said that some come from persons who have had experiences that I have not.  The following is one of those--Ross Rohde says some excellent things that I haven't had the experience to know, but I believe that the Spirit has at least given me the experience to recommend this writing to others.

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.  Today, I’m reading from Ross Rohde’s thejesusvirus.org blog, dated May 30, 2011, titled “I Don’t Want to Die”.

(I would use all of this blog except the last sentence of the first paragraph, and the first phrase of the second paragraph, the contents of which make sense in a blog, but not appropriate to a reading.)

1012--eternal purpose

 My last blog was a five minute version of a commentary on God's eternal purpose.  Back in December, 2010, my blog number 97 was a two minute version.  This is a one minute version.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.  Author Milt Rodriguez, on his blog, miltrodriguez.wordpress.com, wrote this one sentence description of God’s Eternal Purpose:

            “God’s eternal purpose is that the fullness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, would be displayed and expressed visibly through a vessel that would be a Family/House for the Father, a Bride/Body for the Son, and a Temple for the Holy Spirit.”

            This is something bigger than evangelism or doing good, although that purpose includes it, because the purpose was going on before creation and will be going on when this world is no more.  It is not affected by what any of us does, doesn’t do, or does in error.  An excellent book on this subject is Frank Viola’s “From Eternity to Here.”

            You can find out more about simple, non corporation, forms of worship at www.hrscn.org.  I have more about this at my blog, tevyebird.blogspot.com.

The references I have at the end of my July 19 blog, a five minute version, are applicable to this, also.

2012--eternal purpose

A couple of weeks ago, I started making a point of reading blogs of others writing from a simple church point of view, and realized the obvious thing that others have written about some of the subjects I am looking to cover better than I could, sometimes due to their having experience that I do not.  As on this one, a five minute time frame will allow most of this blog entry to be read, I refer to the original posting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute. What is God’s purpose in creating us humans and putting us on earth?  The main theme in many traditional evangelical churches is evangelism, but there was time before Genesis 3 when that was irrelevant, and when we reach the future time of Revelation 21, it will be again.  Liberal or progressive churches emphasize doing good, but the same hold true for that goal. Author Milt Rodriguez blogged,

 (miltrodriguez.wordpress.com blog of 7/6/2011, with the third and fourth paragraphs edited due to the sentences fitting a blog, but would not fit being read aloud, and outside a blog context)

            A family, a house, a bride, a body, a temple; there’s more meaning in that phrase than I can touch on in a couple of minutes.  These concepts are developed in detail in Frank Viola’s book, From Eternity to Here.

           You can find out more about simple, non-corporation oriented manners of worshipping Jesus at www.hrscn.org.  You can contact me at ________(email) or ______(phone).  You can find a transcript of what I just said at tevyebird.blogspot.com in the blog dated July 19, 2011.

2110--three tithes

One of the odd things about a blog is how everything is from newest to oldest, so I need to repeat some things I've previously written.  Back in December, 2010, I released scripts of 2 minute commentaries written for radio on subjects that some of us believers in Jesus would maintain have not been dealt with properly by the organizational church in our culture.  Currently, I have been making 1 minute and five minute versions of those, as, when I have the cash to run these on radio, those are time frames that fit stations I might deal with.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            My name is Tom.  This is Simple Church Minute.  In the Old Covenant, the children of Israel were commanded to give two tithes for certain, and probably a third, every third year tithe.   The first tithe, spoken of in Leviticus 27 and Numbers 18, was for the support of the Levites, the tribe of Israel who was not given land so that they could be responsible for worship among the people.  The next tithe, the festival tithe, was for celebrating Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, details of which appear in Deuteronomy chapters 12, 14, and 16.  Many, but apparently not all, who are familiar with these details understand there to also be a third, every third year tithe, for the poor and the Levites, which is based on Deuteronomy 14 verses 28 and 29.  When Israel was an ancient nation, the operating budget of the nation also appears to have come from the tithes, so this may not seem so excessive, although when it was subject to another nation, such as they were in the days of Jesus, when Rome collected their taxes additionally, it was certainly more onerous.  These tithes were part of the Old Covenant Law, or Torah, which we believers in Jesus understand to have been fulfilled by Jesus’ death on the cross.

          In Acts 15 verses 1 to 29, when the mainly non-ethnically Jewish believers asked the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, after being visited by persons who were teaching that the Old Testament law about circumcision was still to be obeyed, the apostles and elders, led by James, wrote them to abstain from food offered to idols, animals which were strangled, from drinking blood, and sexual immorality.  There was nothing there about paying tithes.  The New Covenant includes the virtue of being generous.  To this effect, for believers earning a superior income, 10%, 20%, maybe even 50%, may not be generous, and for those who are poor, anything is. First Timothy 6 verses 17 to 19 are appropriate.

          Further, First Timothy 3 verses 3 to 8 and chapter 6 verse 9 teach us that a qualification of elders, deacons, and teachers, which were not organizational appointments, but positions of experience and gifting, was that they were not to be greedy. We, in our culture, have an extremely distorted idea of wealth, as most of us have more material possessions and comforts than the extremely wealthy and royals of all previous generations and many current ones, although our culture’s expenses are greater, also.

          On the opposing side, nowhere in the New Testament have we been directed to spend money on buildings and support of local leadership.  The main example in the New Testament is Paul, who had a skill to support himself during the main part of his missionary journeys.  One liability of the church today in the west is occupational leaders whose only skill is theology, and avoid certain teachings of the Word in concern for their job and family.

          You can find out more about simple worship of Jesus locally at www.hrscn.org, and also at www.simplechurch.com. You can contact me at _______.  If you wish I could repeat what I said, a transcript of this with footnotes is at tevyebird.blogspot.com, dated July 17, 2011.

          I used the breakdown of the three tithes from www.biblestudy.org/belief/tithe-in-the-bible/three-tithes-of-israel.html.  As New Covenant believers are saved by faith in Jesus, not by obeying the Old Covenant Law/instructions, I used this as a simple explanation of the three tithes, and am in no way even wishing to quibble about whether a given Old Testament scripture refers to one tithe or the other; I brought this up as a matter of history, as it is irrelevant to following Jesus, except for it being a historical precursor, and that in the Middle Ages the term got dragged into faith in Jesus in error.  Frank Viola and George Barna’s Pagan Christianity, in chapter 8, p. 171-185, covers the historical detail on this subject with copious footnotes.

Come and Go With Me to That Land

            For whatever reason, a song I learned when I was involved with a college group of believers crossed my mind, called, “Come and Go With Me to That Land.”  It seemed as if it had an interminable number of verses, which I felt that I couldn’t remember, so I tried looking it up on other places on the net.  That told me that it was an old Southern spiritual, of which versions were used by Peter, Paul, and Mary and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds.  Those versions were similar, but didn’t have the distinctly Christian meaning of the verses that I was thinking of.  Therefore, before continuing, I’ll write out how I learned it, to the degree that I can remember it.

(Chorus)

Come and go with me to that land,

Come and go with me to that land,

Come and go with me to that land where I’m bou-ou-ound,

Come and go with me to that land,

Come and go with me to that land,

To that land, to that land, where I’m bound.

Gonna be lovin’ in that land,

Gonna be lovin’ in that land,

Gonna be lovin’ in that land where I’m bou-ou-ound,

Gonna be lovin’ in that land,

Gonna be lovin’ in that land,

In that land, in that land where I’m bound.

Milk and honey in that land,

Milk and honey in that land,

Milk and honey in that land where I’m bou-ou-ound,

Milk and honey in that land,

Milk and honey in that land,

In that land, in that land where I’m bound.

Gonna see Jesus in that land,

Gonna see Jesus in that land,

Gonna see Jesus in that land where I’m bou-ou-ound,

Gonna see Jesus in that land,

Gonna see Jesus in that land,

In that land, in that land where I’m bound.

Coke and pizza in that land,

Coke and pizza in that land,

Coke and pizza in that land where I’m bou-ou-ound,

Coke and pizza in that land,

Coke and pizza in that land,

In that land, in that land, where I’m bound.

            I’m see from the net that the artists above didn’t use the verses with overt meaning for believers in Jesus (which, of course, may or may not be correct), and I’m also certain that the last verse didn’t come from the old Southern (don’t we love political correctness!) spiritual.  I am also certain that it came to my mind due to yesterday at church, after our worship, we had pizza and, although there were many choices, I, for one, had Coke.  Part of the reason was that one person there had a birthday, and enjoys pizza (as most of us), so that was featured in the meal.  In other places, I and many others I either have or will link to have pointed out that communion is a synonym for fellowship, and enjoying a meal together is an act that accommodates fellowship, via which the Holy Spirit works, in my experience, far more regularly than any ritual, including theological teaching.  Also, I look back to when I was in college, and one of the campus ministers (as they were called) shelled out to take everyone in the group I was part of over to a local pizza place once a year.  I can now look back and see that, in my spirit and those of my brothers and sisters in Jesus on that campus, that simple act was teaching us something more strongly than if the campus minister tried standing up and saying the point in words (although he would not have described the fellowship as I just did).

As much as that last verse looks at first glance as a throw-in of a creative youth worker, I feel it to be a significant statement about true fellowship, at least in this subculture at this point in history, at least to the point that it was worth a blog post.

It's Been a Little Over Six Months

            It’s been a little over six months since I started this blog.  A couple of days ago, I was thinking that it was odd that I had not received one comment positive or negative about what I have written, so, in poking around, think that I have figured out that comments were not operating on this site.  Hopefully, I have that corrected. Since it cannot be seen from the outside, the counter said that I had 186 hits over that period of time.

            When looking at any blog, you see what has been written last.  Therefore, I wish to point out that, over in the archives, I have 100 posts in December, 2010.  These are scripts for 100 two minute commentaries written for Christian radio, with the 15 to 29 demographic in mind.  Most cover the major ideas in George Barna and Frank Viola’s Pagan Christianity and Wolfgang Simson’s Houses That Change the World.  I have them recorded on MP3, but have yet to have them aired due to my not having the cash.  In the proceeding months, I have a few of the ideas of these commentaries either shortened to one minute, or expanded to five minutes, due to my research indicating, that for local stations, they need to go back to one or up to five.  The reason for doing this is that, as far as I can see, most believers in my geographical area are unaware that the that these ideas exist, and that many believers I know, unlike myself, are not persons who will wade through a book of serious theological writing, even if written in simple English, and, unfortunately, many believers who are collecting a paycheck in some way connected to their faith are extremely unlikely to promote a thought that threatens that paycheck, even if it makes more sense than whatever their explanation of the same point is. 

            Therefore, if you haven’t read the two books I mentioned above, I would encourage reading what I wrote in December, 2010.  They don’t need to be read in order; each is a stand alone thought, unless the title has Part 1 or Part 2 as part of it.