Back to Christian Basics, Part 2

I heard of a pastor who refused to baptize new believers if they smoked cigarettes. Baptism in water belongs to every Christian so why deny someone because of a habit that is not mentioned, let alone condemned in the Bible? Because that would be unfair to the new Christian, having to struggle with such a habit throughout their Christian life.

All Scripture – Scripture meaning the Old Testament and the New Testament – is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16) so let’s go right into Isaiah Chapter 1:

16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. 17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. – Isaiah 1:16-17 (NIV)

It says to wash and make yourselves clean. Speaking to the Judah and Jerusalem but also to the spiritual Jerusalem that includes us, the believers in Christ. Sometimes we like to skip that important detail and go right into the following verse. 

18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. – Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Yes, I like that. Invite Jesus to your heart and it’s a done deal. No! Please continue reading.

19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; 20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. – Isaiah 1:19-20 (NIV)

If you think that you will eat the truly good things of the land without changing your ways you are deceiving yourself, and so is every pastor who tells you otherwise. It’s about doing right whatever it is. Please read Romans Chapter 6. We need to die to sin to be free from it. No need to over spiritualize things. Stop smoking and drinking until you are clear from the habit for good and only then take the baptism. I think that sounds good, don’t you?

6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. – Romans 6:1-4 (NIV)

Please take Christianity seriously. It’ll be so much easier. It is Jesus who says:

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

His burden is light. God bless you, Dear Reader.

Back to Christian Basics

10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. – Proverbs 9:10 (NKJV)

Have you ever wondered, what the fear of the Lord refers to in this instance? I can give you the right answer right away, thanks to the BibleGateway search option; please type in “fear of the Lord” in quotation marks and it will give you 28 Bible results from the New King James Version. The closest answer is right here, in the previous chapter of the Proverbs:

13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate. – Proverbs 8:13 (NKJV)

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Actual hatred of evil. Actual hatred of pride and arrogance and the evil way. And actual hatred of the perverse mouth. We are to take these words seriously in order to get anywhere in this search for wisdom we as Christians are to undertake. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

I think to hate something means not wanting to have anything to do with it. Not to humor it. Not trying to understand it.

7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. – James 4:7-9 (NKJV)   

James Chapter 4 has some of the best promises in the whole of Bible. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. You can do it, my friend. If you’ve ever been ill, you know what it’s like, but it will get better. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. It’s that simple.

22 Abstain from every form of evil. – 1 Thessalonians 5:22 (NKJV)

Let’s abstain from every form of evil. Hey, that thing over there has evil in it, let’s abstain! Let’s get back to the basics. Let’s get serious.

God bless you, Dear Reader.

Sherlock Holmes and the Quack of Death WMS Comics

The game is afoot! Who is the mysterious Quack of Death? How does the Green Hornet figure in all this? Please read the ten-page comic strip to find out. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is a character who doesn’t lend himself to irony easily. Like James Bond, or Hercule Poirot for that matter, he comes well equipped with all the needed self-satire, and to try to outhumor him can be like adding too much sugar to a well-balanced recipe. Therefore, the keyword must be homage; gently acknowledging the superiority of the original.

I don’t think there needs to be any absolute way of determining the difference. The film series starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson certainly set the gold standard starting with The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939). Parody comes in to play with the bumbling Watson, who was never as gullible and clueless in the original stories… or was he? Let’s think about it. Watson as the sole narrator had ample opportunity to frame himself in a good light. It’s just possibly he chose to overlook what is obvious to the viewer. Let’s take it from there.

In these comic strip episodes of the misadventures of our super-sleuths, Holmes and Watson meet the Green Hornet and his trusted sidekick Kato. Just which Kato is this, Bruce Lee, or his predecessor Keye Luke? Does Sherlock himself look more like Jeremy Brett than Basil Rathbone…? You get to decide. The main antagonist Professor Moriarty is once again up to his dastardly deeds, but can the Quack of Death be finally defeated, meaning there will be no deadly altercation at the Swiss Alps? At first this story was a one-page gag, then three, growing gradually to ten. I had fun plotting and drawing so here goes!

Is Everything That Happens God’s Will?

The question is difficult to answer without sounding arrogant. I think the only way to do it right is to use God’s own word, the Bible. Even then the context and the semantics will matter to the point that two honest, Bible believing Christians may differ in their interpretation on some aspects (not to mention the methods to carry out God’s will). I want this understood before we begin so I myself will not sound too arrogant as I attempt to tackle this difficult but important topic.

9“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ – Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. So, is everything that then happens God’s will? Do we have an active part to play?

Now, let us first establish that some things are in fact the will of God. For instance, according to Colossians 1, Apostle Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Either Paul is right, or the Bible is wrong. The premise is the Bible is right so no ambivalence here.

Second, we establish that all things are not the will of God. It is not difficult when you trust the Bible. The beginning of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:2-3 say, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” In Exodus 23:33, God continues to speak to the Israelites regarding the other nations around them: “Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.”

What happens is they disobey and serve the false gods to their peril, the sad trajectory of the results of breaking the Commandments being described in Isaiah 3, where the Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of His people, who have ruined His vineyard and plundered from the poor. They paraded their sin like Sodom, bringing disaster on themselves. Yet it will be well with the righteous.

10Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. 11Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done. – Isaiah 3:10-11 (NIV)

8He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:8 (NIV)

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” If we do wrong, we are not in the perfect will of God, and if we continue to do wrong, we may lose the sight of God’s will completely. The details are demanding. I leave you with this word.

3It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 (NIV)

God bless you, Dear Reader.