The Foundation of God and Its Affect on Fellowship

Posted on 09/08/2015 by Paul Pavao

I wrote an article on my author site primarily concerning 2 Timothy 2:19 and what Paul describes as God’s “sure foundation.” It’s at http://www.paulfpavao.com/sure-foundation.html and it spills over into discussing with whom Christians should fellowship and with whom they should not.

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Psalm 71: The Personal Version

Posted on 09/05/2015 by

I was reading Psalm 71 this morning, and these passages seemed very personal to me.

(For those that do not know, I had acute leukemia in 2011, a bone marrow transplant in Jan. 2012, and then non-Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosed in Nov. 2014. I am in remission from both cancers, but have ongoing issues from the treatments.)

Do not abandon me in the time of old age. When my strength fails, do not forsake me. (v. 9)

At 54, I don’t qualify for old age yet, but I sure know about strength failing! I can testify that God has never forsaken me. I was curled up in bed, having food and water delivered to me—if I even had appetite to eat—and he was always there, always accessible, always ready to give me peace.

For my enemies speak against me … saying, “God forsook him!” (v. 10)

So they did. At least a couple suggested my cancer was a curse from God because they believe I am a false teacher.

Let those who falsely accuse my soul be shamed and forsaken. Let those who seek evils for me be covered with shame and reproach. (v. 13)

I couldn’t go this far. Instead, my prayer was that God would let them come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil (2 Tim. 2:26).

But I will hope continually, and I will add to all your praise. My mouth shall proclaim your righteousness, your salvation all the day. (v. 14)

This was not hard to do, for I knew him as faithful all these years. I also had ongoing support from family and the saints of God. I praised him not just for his salvation towards me, but towards us, for there is no better way to live than inside the church.

How great and evil are the afflictions you showed me, and you returned and made me live. You raised me up again from the depths of the hospital. You multiplied your greatness, and you returned and comforted me. (v. 20-21)

That verse doesn't really say hospital, of course. It says earth. I wasn't raised up from the depths of the earth, however. I was raised up from the depths of the hospital.

I hope there's something here for readers to learn or by inspired by. This is all purely personal, feeling the gratefulness for the love of God, who has rescued me time and time again because he still has things for me to do and people for me to serve.

Posted in Bible, Leukemia | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Psalm 71: The Personal Version

Posted on 09/05/2015 by Paul Pavao

I was reading Psalm 71 this morning, and these passages seemed very personal to me.

(For those that do not know, I had acute leukemia in 2011, a bone marrow transplant in Jan. 2012, and then non-Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosed in Nov. 2014. I am in remission from both cancers, but have ongoing issues from the treatments.)

Do not abandon me in the time of old age. When my strength fails, do not forsake me. (v. 9)

At 54, I don’t qualify for old age yet, but I sure know about strength failing! I can testify that God has never forsaken me. I was curled up in bed, having food and water delivered to me—if I even had appetite to eat—and he was always there, always accessible, always ready to give me peace.

For my enemies speak against me … saying, “God forsook him!” (v. 10)

So they did. At least a couple suggested my cancer was a curse from God because they believe I am a false teacher.

Let those who falsely accuse my soul be shamed and forsaken. Let those who seek evils for me be covered with shame and reproach. (v. 13)

I couldn’t go this far. Instead, my prayer was that God would let them come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil (2 Tim. 2:26).

But I will hope continually, and I will add to all your praise. My mouth shall proclaim your righteousness, your salvation all the day. (v. 14)

This was not hard to do, for I knew him as faithful all these years. I also had ongoing support from family and the saints of God. I praised him not just for his salvation towards me, but towards us, for there is no better way to live than inside the church.

How great and evil are the afflictions you showed me, and you returned and made me live. You raised me up again from the depths of the hospital. You multiplied your greatness, and you returned and comforted me. (v. 20-21)

That verse doesn't really say hospital, of course. It says earth. I wasn't raised up from the depths of the earth, however. I was raised up from the depths of the hospital.

I hope there's something here for readers to learn or by inspired by. This is all purely personal, feeling the gratefulness for the love of God, who has rescued me time and time again because he still has things for me to do and people for me to serve.

Posted in Bible, Leukemia | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Straight Outta the Tomb

Posted on 08/20/2015 by Paul Pavao

It is these kind of arguments that make the most sense to me.

MikeB's avatarDead Heroes Don't Save

StraightOuttaTomb

My point is … a first-century Jew, faced with the crucifixion of a would-be messiah, or even of a prophet who had led a significant following, would not normally conclude that this person was the Messiah and that the kingdom had come. He or she would normally conclude that he was not and that it had not.
…
Why did Christianity even begin, let alone continue, as a messianic movement, when its Messiah so obviously not only did not do what a Messiah was supposed to do but suffered a fate which ought to have showed conclusively that he could not possibly have been Israel’s anointed? Why did this group of first-century Jews, who had cherished messianic hopes and focused them on Jesus of Nazareth, not only continue to believe that he was the Messiah despite his execution, but actively announce him as such in the pagan as well…

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The Only One Who Can Predestinate

Posted on 08/19/2015 by Paul Pavao

I’m returning to blogging as well as categorizing many articles on my new site, www.paulfpavao.com. If I don’t know where to categorize something, I’ll put it here and let it run, then fade into probable oblivion. If I do know where to categorize it, off to paulfpavao.com it will go. (Don’t miss the “f” or you’ll wind up at interesting but odd old site of mine that I haven’t maintained in years.)

I have read two trilogies by atheist authors attempting to promote atheism that I believe failed miserably because they are blind and can’t understand God even though he is plainly revealed in the creation and his Spirit is always convicting the hearts of men; also because we Christians misrepresent him.

The two trilogies are The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman and Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I think the latter is actually four books now, but I only read two because my son told me about the third one and destroyed my interest.

In Golden Compass, Pullman has God grow old and die, and he turns out to be Lucifer himself. The whole idea of the series, which is incredibly interesting until the third book (too dark), is that the church and its god are not good but evil. How do the heroes of the series find out? They find out by a long series of obviously controlled and guided events.

The same is true of Christopher Paolini’s series. In Eldest, the second book, an elf gives a long explanation of why a God cannot exist. Yet he also says that some unnamed controlling force made sure there was a relationship between elves and dragons. Some unknown controlling force, that Christopher wants us to assume is an impersonal “destiny,” made sure that the one remaining dragon egg would appear near the only predestined dragon rider left on earth.

An impersonal controlling force contrived a plan to randomly predesting dragon riders, set up a system to link dragons with their riders, and then arrange for a randomly sent last dragon egg to show up with a blast just yards from the last destiny-chosen dragon rider?

Uh, sure.

It is true there are a lot of false gods, masquerading as the infinite creator of a hundred billion galaxies or more in the one universe we know about, though there may be others. That true God, though, the Creator of all, never ceases to exist because of the lesser false gods worshipped by other religions and sometimes (often?) accidentally by Christians.

The true, infinite, unsearchable, and all-wise God, however, is greater than all the petty competition. His plans are far above us and beyond our petty squabbles. He is unmoved by those, and he proceeds inexorably toward the end in which his Son appears to reveal himself as the King who conquers and destroys all other governing authorities, raises the dead, judges everyone, and sends the devil and his angels and those who followed them to be destroyed forever in the lake of fire.

Some will open their eyes and see the God in whom we all live and move and have our being. Others will remain blind, seeing only coincidences, spontaneous remissions, and the impossible thought of an impersonal destiny.

Let’s have eyes to see, for the God who is above all things, who hides himself, can be found anywhere you are.

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Debates?

Posted on 08/04/2015 by Paul Pavao

I think a lot can be learned in a good debate.

An example is the same-sex marriage issue. I have now read two sets of arguments defending lifelong, committed homosexual marriage. I am certain that both of them are very confusing to everyone except those who are staunchly opposed to homosexuality for cultural or political reasons.

I don’t think any of the arguments I read were remotely valid, but they sound impressive. Putting both sides of the argument on the same page puts context to attempts to turn clear scriptural teaching into a confusing intellectual and theological mess.

This is all the more true because there really are areas in which what seems to be clear scriptural teaching turns out to be merely ignorance of cultural context and the blindness of tradition.

What better way to clear up such topics than to present both sides in a dialogue, kept to a readable and understandable length?

So I put up a “Debate Challenges” page in hopes of providing that kind of information and benefit. I have a proposed list of topics, and some rules and word limits for the debates.

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A Psalm 50 Commentary

Posted on 07/21/2015 by Paul Pavao

I added a commentary on Psalm 50 to my Through the Bible project. It created a need for several other pages, so I may not get back to Through the Bible for a couple weeks.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for my health. After achieving remission from lymphoma, my second blood cancer, by your prayers and the mercy of God, my blood counts never recovered. Since February I have been clear of cancer, but also mostly clear of a functioning immune system.

The doctors have been trying to keep me well with shots that boost the immune system, but since February I have had at least five emergency room trips with fever.

On Friday, four days ago, my neutrophil count jumped phenomenally. (Neutrophils are the main component of your white blood cells, which are your immune system.) Yesterday (Monday), they were down, but still much higher than they have been since the lymphoma. I would love to have energy and time to devote to teaching, writing, and running my warehouse business—or at least to encouraging the managers who really run it—and I am having a LITTLE hope that my immune system will come back and keep me from living too big a portion of my life in the hospital.

Again, thank you for your prayers in the past. Please offer a prayer to God as it crosses your mind.

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Divine Healing and a Psalm Commentary

Posted on 07/17/2015 by Paul Pavao

I finally fought off hospital stays, fatigue, hemorrhoids, and the source of all of those, a low immune system, enough to finish some articles I had started.

Any recent ones you missed will be “What’s New” in the Navbar when you get to the site.

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Isaiah and Israel, God’s Servant

Posted on 06/11/2015 by Paul Pavao

I wrote an overview of Isaiah, and I even loaded it up on paulfpavao.com. Then I managed to land myself in the hospital again.

So this is the notification for that page.

The next article is going to be on divine healing. It will be an eminently practical discussion, but it will also be an exposé of my multi-year experience among those who believe God wants to heal everyone every time.

It’s one thing to claim something; it is quite another to produce results.

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Isaiah 1:21-23: Widows and Orphans

Posted on 06/05/2015 by Paul Pavao

I have written a lot over the last three or four days. Those articles are starting to come to fruition. Rabbit trails made them long, and I have started separating those rabbit trails into individual articles.

I could give you two more articles today, and then follow tomorrow with two more, I’m sure.

I’m not going to do that. Let’s stick with just my next Isaiah commentary, on 1:21-23, addressing widows, orphans, and how to get what God has for you from a seemingly dry passage.

I’ll leave the other article that is done for tomorrow, and then the other two I’ll spread out over a few days because I don’t think I’ll be writing this weekend. (I have to take some time off for the family.)

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