More Understanding About The Restrainer
I do have a Twitter account, and I probably should learn all about how splendid it truly can be. But to be honest, I really can't see what the big deal is. To live life by 140-character sound bites is pretty worthless. I don't know, just what I think. But really, nothing I've read or heard or learned about Twitter makes me think it is any less worthless than it is. And trust me, I've read and heard and learned a lot about it because I really want to understand what the big deal is. Still -- worthless.
I say this because I thought about "tweeting" on what I read in my devotional yesterday, something that floored me. But I realized that there is so much there that it is absolutely criminal to have to try to squeeze it into 140 characters. Oh sure I could tweet a whole bunch of tweets strung together, but come on. I could just as easily write all I need to here, and those who are respectful enough to express some interest in my take can just read it here, however long it is. It's not like I'm going to ramble and ramble -- I will be brief. But then, as I think about it, what if I have a lot to write? If it is meaningful, engaging, thought-provoking, then what of it? 140 characters. What crap.
Anyway, what struck me was my reading of the fifteenth chapter of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. I'd read it a number of times before, and at the beginning is stuff about the resurrection of Christ (great stuff!) and at the end is stuff about being rescued from our sin (also wonderful matters indeed!), and in the middle is some stuff about getting imperishable bodies and that small part the Mormons use to rationalize their ridiculous surrogate baptisms for their dead grandparents.
What blew me away was the stuff around verse 24. That stuff is about Christ destroying all the powers and principalities that are all around, and he's ultimately going to put them "under His feet." The under His feet part is unmistakable to the readers of that time, because Roman authorities would make colonies of other places and take their leaders and put their heads under those officers' feet.
Here Paul is saying that God is going to take the Barack Obamas of the World whoever they have been, whoever they are, whoever they will be, and every single one of them will be under the feet of Christ. Furthermore this is for the purpose of destroying all power, dominion, and authority. Essentially --
It is nothing other than the removal of the restrainer.
Then there was this, just a bit later. It is that when we are changed from perishable into imperishable, that it will happen in the twinkling of an eye. Yes, I'd read that a million times and every Christian is very familier with that phrase. It is key part of the Christian's hope, that at some point we will be completely transformed, indeed, as it says there in verse 49, we shall bear the image of the Heavenly Man.
So when is Christ coming? In the very next femtosecond. In fact, in a time even shorter than that. (And if you know how long a femtosecond is, that's pretty soon...)
So again, those of you who think that the next thirty or forty years you have to live is plenty of time to work your asses off to be the faux god you want to be, go ahead and keep doing that -- at your stultifyingly foolish peril. And those of you who are addicted to the high of snuggling up with the powerful people all around -- and it doesn't have to be any Obama type, it can be the dude whose job it is to rail valiantly against Obama in whatever group he leads -- you just keep doing that, go right ahead. Because when it is all said and done, your head will still be crushed under the weight of God's foot.
Oh how mean. Oh how intolerant. Oh I don't believe in that kind of God. Well, keep thinking those things too. They're not my words I'm sharing. They're the words of someone who is Truth and Justice and Reality About Those Things, but also Mercy and Grace and Overwhelming Sacrificial Love.
Read 1 Corinthians 15. Read it carefully and you will see. There's a place for those who flip off God in whatever way they do, but there's a place for those who humbly come before Him and seek forgiveness and mercy and salvation.
I say this because I thought about "tweeting" on what I read in my devotional yesterday, something that floored me. But I realized that there is so much there that it is absolutely criminal to have to try to squeeze it into 140 characters. Oh sure I could tweet a whole bunch of tweets strung together, but come on. I could just as easily write all I need to here, and those who are respectful enough to express some interest in my take can just read it here, however long it is. It's not like I'm going to ramble and ramble -- I will be brief. But then, as I think about it, what if I have a lot to write? If it is meaningful, engaging, thought-provoking, then what of it? 140 characters. What crap.
Anyway, what struck me was my reading of the fifteenth chapter of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. I'd read it a number of times before, and at the beginning is stuff about the resurrection of Christ (great stuff!) and at the end is stuff about being rescued from our sin (also wonderful matters indeed!), and in the middle is some stuff about getting imperishable bodies and that small part the Mormons use to rationalize their ridiculous surrogate baptisms for their dead grandparents.
What blew me away was the stuff around verse 24. That stuff is about Christ destroying all the powers and principalities that are all around, and he's ultimately going to put them "under His feet." The under His feet part is unmistakable to the readers of that time, because Roman authorities would make colonies of other places and take their leaders and put their heads under those officers' feet.
Here Paul is saying that God is going to take the Barack Obamas of the World whoever they have been, whoever they are, whoever they will be, and every single one of them will be under the feet of Christ. Furthermore this is for the purpose of destroying all power, dominion, and authority. Essentially --
It is nothing other than the removal of the restrainer.
Then there was this, just a bit later. It is that when we are changed from perishable into imperishable, that it will happen in the twinkling of an eye. Yes, I'd read that a million times and every Christian is very familier with that phrase. It is key part of the Christian's hope, that at some point we will be completely transformed, indeed, as it says there in verse 49, we shall bear the image of the Heavenly Man.
So when is Christ coming? In the very next femtosecond. In fact, in a time even shorter than that. (And if you know how long a femtosecond is, that's pretty soon...)
So again, those of you who think that the next thirty or forty years you have to live is plenty of time to work your asses off to be the faux god you want to be, go ahead and keep doing that -- at your stultifyingly foolish peril. And those of you who are addicted to the high of snuggling up with the powerful people all around -- and it doesn't have to be any Obama type, it can be the dude whose job it is to rail valiantly against Obama in whatever group he leads -- you just keep doing that, go right ahead. Because when it is all said and done, your head will still be crushed under the weight of God's foot.
Oh how mean. Oh how intolerant. Oh I don't believe in that kind of God. Well, keep thinking those things too. They're not my words I'm sharing. They're the words of someone who is Truth and Justice and Reality About Those Things, but also Mercy and Grace and Overwhelming Sacrificial Love.
Read 1 Corinthians 15. Read it carefully and you will see. There's a place for those who flip off God in whatever way they do, but there's a place for those who humbly come before Him and seek forgiveness and mercy and salvation.
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