A 12-year dream for me is about to come true. My course work with Reformed Theological Seminary begins May 1st. I’m focused on a certificate in Old Testament studies and hope to eventually work my way toward an M.Div.

It’s about time I educated myself.

I started on the reading assignments yesterday. I read two chapters of an introduction to Old Testament. I’ve got over a hundred pages to do by this weekend, also focused in Old Testament with the book, He Gave Us Stories, by Richard Pratt. I’ve actually read this book before, and liked it very much so I’m looking forward to digging into it more as a student.

Even though it’s distance education it still feels a bit strange to “go back to school” after 27 years. I’m a bit nervous, but looking forward to it.

I decided to go “back to school” to prepare for future ministry and also help me augment my current ministry with Eagle TV. I’m doing a lot more teaching now, and hope to increase that part of my activity.

I’ve wanted to attend RTS for nearly 12 years. But each year I checked on it there was something that kept it just out of my reach, health issues three years ago, financial trouble a few years before that, conflicts with ministry at various times. This is the first year that everything seemed to match up to make it possible for me to get started. I’m so thankful. My schedule is much more reasonable now, giving me time after working at Eagle each day to devote to study.

Your support helps me pay for the dream, so thank you for all that you do in supporting our ministry, and now, my education.

BTW, if you haven’t given in a while and would like to help with a gift of support then please visit www.thomasterry.com/gift.

What does it mean when we say someone is “spiritual?”

What is a spiritual person?

What is spirituality?

Comments or email welcome.

Came across this today while surfing ConversantLife.com. Great piece. Take a read.

I want to point out two things: first, there is no God in Buddhism. And secondly, there is no grace in Buddhism….

The writer, drawn to the presence of grace in Christianity, wanted to find such grace in Buddhism. He tried hard, and gave many suggestions about where grace might be found in Buddhism. But then the whole thing fell apart at the end of the article, when he wrote this:

“So you see, we have many examples of “grace” – the big difference in Buddhism is that it is not “unmerited” as in Christianity. As Pema Chodron is so fond of pointing out, us westerners often operate from a sense of poverty. We feel we are not deserving of this or that – and I believe this is especially true when it comes to grace.”

See the whole article here.

Just got word that one of our friends who lives in our building went to change a thousand dollars into tugrigs at the Golomt branch in Sansar. Lo and behold the more than 1.4 million tugrigs she received were all counterfeit. Every one of the 149 10,000 tugrig notes she received from the teller were fake.

Don’t banks scan their bills?

The news had me checking my wallet and thankful that I use my debit card for 90% of my transactions.

A Barna research report this week revealed that 58% of American Christians don’t believe the Holy Spirit exists. “Fifty-eight percent strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is ‘a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.’”[1] Interestingly, the same survey revealed that about 60% of American Christians do not believe Satan exists.

I suppose you could argue that if you think Satan doesn’t exist then what do you need the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit for? We can also argue that it doesn’t matter if you believe Satan exists or not. Without the Holy Spirit you are traveling up temptation’s raging river without a paddle—or a boat for that matter.

I’ve long thought that the problem many people have with understanding Who the Holy Spirit is, and His role, can be boiled down to our description of Him. The Bible always describes God’s character in human terms we can understand from our already pre-existing relationships. Two examples: When we call God, “Father,” we can understand that because we associate the term, “Father,” with that which is already familiar. We know what a father is and what his role is. The same can be true when we call Jesus the “Son of God.” We already have in our minds what a son is and what his relationship to his father is. These anthropomorphic descriptions of God’s nature, in part, aid our understanding of who God is.

But when we come to the descriptive term, “Holy Spirit,” we encounter a problem. It’s not like the term “Holy Spirit” is similar to “mother,” or “Father,” or “Son.” We have trouble wrapping our minds around how it works. We wonder exactly how the Spirit of God is related to God when we can’t picture him in anthropomorphic terms we already understand. The Holy Spirit is God, but He’s not the Father and He’s not the Son, and He’s not described with anthropomorphic terms. So how does that work exactly?

The Bible tells us quite clearly that the Holy Spirit is a person, with attributes of personality, and He is deity, co-equal with the Father and the Son. But the term, “Holy Spirit,” seems impersonal as opposed to titles like Father and Son. Maybe it’s because we think of the term “Spirit” like an essence instead of a person. Yet we forget that when we die our spirit enters God’s presence. I.E., we enter God’s presence. The spirit is us. So why don’t we take that thinking and apply it to God in the sense of personhood and personality? The Holy Spirit is God.

It’s troubling enough when a majority doesn’t believe in the Evil One. You can’t defend yourself against an enemy you don’t believe exists. But when you regulate the Holy Spirit to nonexistence in your belief system then you’ve wiped away the only source of power you have for defeating the enemy’s schemes. American Christianity is in a mess of trouble when it doesn’t recognize the existence of an essential member of the Godhead.

1. Most U.S. Christians Don’t Believe Satan, Holy Spirit Exist, Christianpost.com, April 13, 2009.

After being off the air for a few months because of my medical leave, my weekly Bible teaching program, Together Through The Bible is returning to air. Today we recorded eight episodes of the 26 episodes planned for the 2009-2010 season.

I’m especially proud of the new set for the program, single-handedly created by Eagle TV’s Art Director, Ganbataar. What you’re seeing in the picture is nothing more than styrofoam and glue with some granuals mixed it for texture. It took Ganbataar a couple of weeks to put everything together. He did an amazing job.

You can see a larger image of the set on my Flickr page by clicking here.

To continue with my theme from the last week’s series of blogs about the resurrection, there’s one more entry I’d like to post about what the resurrection does for us.

My most recent post was The Revolutionary Resurrection. In that post was a section called, “The Resurrection Reverses the Garden Curse.” I’d like to dig a little more deeply into that garden.

There are four things that Adam and Eve’s first sin brought to mankind that the resurrection of Jesus begins to reverse.

• Fear
• Death
• Works
• Slavery

Each of these four things didn’t exist prior to Adam and Eve’s sin, and each of these four things were dealt with by Jesus upon his bodily resurrection.

Fear to Courage
God warned the first couple about the effects of sin, should they engage in it. “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Sure enough after both of them ate from the forbidden tree, they immediately began to experience sin’s effects. One of those effects was fear: “They heard the sound of ?a?the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, “??I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid…” (Genesis 3:8-10).

Jesus resurrection from the grave began the process of reversing our fear of God[1] to bring us courage when we face the Almighty. “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you ?have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ (Romans 8:15).

Death to Life
The separation of the spirit from the body is another terrible curse that God warned our first parents about. Man was made a physical being and is not complete without his physicality. Sin brings death, but Jesus’ resurrection begins the reversal process from this terrible curse by guaranteeing us a resurrection from the dead like Jesus’ resurrection. “For ?a?if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be ?in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:5).

Works to Grace
Man’s natural inclination is to work for his salvation. Every religious system in existence shares one thing in common. Whatever their belief about eternal destiny, the religious adherent must earn their place in Heaven, or nirvana, or whatever the belief may be. Christianity is unique in that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and grants us eternal life with him purely by unmerited favor and grace.

We see a taste of the works mentality in Adam and Eve right after they committed their first sin. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings” (Genesis 3:7).

The attitude of man when recognizing his shame is always to find a way to cover his shame by his own efforts. But even Adam and Eve recognized that their efforts were not good enough. For after sewing fig leaves together to cover themselves they still felt the need to hide: “I was naked so I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10).

Jesus resurrection provides a wonderful reversal from the works mentality. “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus…For ??sin shall not ?be master over you, for ?you are not under law but ?under grace” (Romans 6:10-11,14).

Slavery to Freedom
Adam and Eve’s sin forever made them slaves to sin. “Through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners” Romans 5:19). But Jesus’ death for sin provided forgiveness and his resurrection provides power for a new life. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was ?b?raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life…knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our ?body of sin might be ?done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:4-5,6-7).

Conclusion
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus provides far more to the Christian than we can outline here. Suffice it to say that Christ’s resurrection from the dead provides us with real power to experience God, know him, and please him.

As we celebrate Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I want to offer up five significant thoughts about what the resurrection of Jesus Christ provides to us. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is far more significant than any other event in history. While most people tend to give more attention to Christmas, I’ve always felt that the resurrection was of greater importance. If there had been no resurrection there would be no Christmas celebration; the resurrection gives Christmas its meaning.

Aside from Christmas, the resurrection provides five things that make Christianity stand out as unique, remarkable, and superior to every other philosophy and faith.

THE RESURRECTION REVERSES THE GARDEN CURSE

We don’t often think of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden when we think of Easter. But the scriptures actually tie the two together. The first pronouncement that man would die was in Genesis 2:17. God warned Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” After their disobedience, in Genesis 3:19 God confirmed the consequences of their sin: “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

From that point on all men were subjected to the punishment of death for the disobedience of sin: “Through ?one man sin entered into the world, and ?death through sin, and ?so death spread to all men” (Romans 5:12). But Jesus, as the “last Adam” of I Corinthians 15:45, negates the final effects of the curse. Though we will one day all partake of death, the death of the Christian is only a temporary condition while we await our own resurrection that will give us a body like his: “Just as we have ?borne the image of the earthy, ?we will also bear the image of the heavenly” (I Corinthians 15:49).

THE RESURRECTION JUSTIFIES THE BELIEVER

Justification is the pronouncement by God that he has accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as the punishment for our sin. This acceptance by God results in the freeing of the believer from the terminal consequences of our sin. Romans 4:25 tells us that Jesus “was raised because of our justification.” No Christian need ever be concerned with his or her eternal destiny. The resurrection of Jesus Christ makes our destiny a surety. We will enjoy eternal life with Christ in our own resurrected, transformed bodies.

THE RESURRECTION TRANSFORMS

We already know from I Corinthians 15 that we will receive resurrected, transformed bodies during the resurrection of the righteous. But we sometimes forget that the resurrection provides transformation in this earthly life. We have two dramatic examples in the scripture of this very fact.

Following his death, Jesus’ disciples hid themselves away from the Jewish authorities. Their hopes for the coming kingdom seemed crushed following the crucifixion. Yet when the risen Lord Jesus showed himself to them, they were radically changed. This was not simple case of resuscitation. Jesus was horribly mangled from beatings and the cruelty of the cross. The flesh of his back had been ripped away. His body had been beaten, swollen, bruised, and bloodied. His death was attested to by soldiers, his friends, and religious leaders. A sword pierced his side, rupturing his heart. So when the disciples saw Jesus standing before them on the third day they could not help but be transformed. They had seen a man destroyed as well as dead, and suddenly there he was standing before them, restored.

The result for the disciples was a transformation from fear to courage. Each of them took the message of the risen Jesus with them. They had become dynamic missionaries, serving for years, with each of them dying a martyr’s death proclaiming the risen Savior.

The Apostle Paul is another significant example of the power of the resurrection. Paul, in a frenzy of murderous rage persecuted Christians from place to place until the risen Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Paul’s response to seeing the risen Jesus? “Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus ?in the synagogues, ?saying, “He is ?the Son of God” (Acts 9:20).

THE RESURRECTION IS REVOLUTIONARY

In our English Bibles we read the word “resurrection” and think of nothing more than a rising up from the dead. But in Greek there was more than one word used that we translate as “resurrection” or “raised.” One of those words has as a root meaning to rise to revolt, as in political revolution. How appropriate is such a word! The person who embraces Christ is doing nothing less than experiencing a revolution in his soul, rejecting the old sinful nature for the transformation of a new nature. The Scriptures say that since our old self was crucified with Christ we are freed from our sin (Romans 6:5-11). “Therefore do not let sin ?reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12). The Christian is to experience nothing less than a revolution of character having “rescued us from the ??domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of ??His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).

THE RESURRECTION PROVIDES PURPOSE AND MEANING TO LIFE

Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ Christianity is meaningless. “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and ??if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain…and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; ??you are still in your sins” (I Corinthians 15:13-14,17).

How dreadful life would be without the sure hope of the resurrection. Knowing our future state, that of bodily resurrection to become whole people the way God intended, gives us purpose and direction for life.

Nothing else in life offers the hope, purpose, and meaning that the resurrection of Jesus does. The atheist mistakenly looks to a future of nonexistence. The Buddhist hopes for a better rebirth and nonexistent nirvana. The deceived Muslim awaits his virgins. None of these offer the hope that the resurrection of Jesus Christ brings.

Following yesterday’s post in anticipation of Sunday’s resurrection celebration here’s another quote from another great theological mind. This comes from John MacArthur’s commentary on I Corinthians.

“Without the resurrection, Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all other human philosophy and religious speculation…the endurance of the church of Jesus Christ through 2,000 years is evidence of His resurrection reality. His church and his word have survived skepticism, persecution, heresy, unfaithfulness, and disobedience. Critics have denounced the resurrection as a hoax and fabrication, but have never explained the power of such a fabrication to produce men and women who give up everything, including their freedom and lives when necessary, to love and to follow a dead Lord!

“A follower of Buddha writes of that religious leader, ‘When Buddha died it was with that utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains.’ Mohammad died in Medina on June 8, 632, at the age of 61, and his tomb there is visited yearly by tens of thousands of Muslims. But they come to mourn his death, not to celebrate his resurrection. Yet the church of Jesus Christ, not just on Easter Sunday but at every service of immersion baptism, celebrates the victory of her Lord over death and the grave.”[1]

1. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: I Corinthians, John MacArthur, “The Evidence for Christ’s Resurrection,” pages 398, 400, and 401.

I’m studying for my message for this coming Sunday’s Easter celebration with our small group. This morning I ran across this passage from Dr. Robert L. Reymond’s A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith:

“Now it is significant that virtually all critical scholars today are prepared to admit that the disciples very shortly after Jesus’ death underwent a remarkable transformation in attitude, with confidence and certainty suddenly and abruptly displacing their earlier discouragement and dispair…it was this newborn confidence that created the church as a missionary movement…Nothing less than his actual resurrection can explain both the empty tomb and the disciple’s transformation from doubt and gloom to faith and the martyr’s joy.”

I’m looking forward to this Sunday’s celebration of the most important day in history.