Timothy's Thoughts

Y ou’ve heard it said that Jesus holds the keys. You’ve heard the song. Perhaps you’ve read about it in the Bible. But what does it mean? For that matter, what keys does he hold? Some of the keys Jesus holds are those of hell and of death. But he holds more than that. The Bible says that he holds the key of David. He opens and no man can shut and shuts and no man can open. Does that mean that David had some special ability? No, I don’t think so. Let’s think first about what it means to hold the keys. When I was in college, I spent a summer working in fire protection at a large manufacturing facility. One of the tasks that I and some other college students had was to collect fire extinguishers throughout the building and carry them back to the shop for maintenance. Most of the facility was wide open. The workers were trusted to leave most things that didn’t pertain to them alone. If they couldn’t do that, they were walked out the door. But there were a few doors with locks on them. ...

D ue to a death in the family, I will not be posting here for a few days.

I t is with sadness that I say that my grandfather, Earl Fish, passed away this week. When I think back to my earliest memories of him, I think of a time at church. It’s always nice when your memories of someone involve church, but this was a frightening time for me. My grandparents were sitting behind my mother. I remember being lifted over the back of the pew. I must have been between one and two years old. Even with my mother only a few feet away, I suppose I thought I’d never see her again. Despite the rough start, I have so many good memories. I remember helping him on various projects. He always wanted to pay me, and it was always more than I thought I deserved for the little work I did. I helped him build a house, hail hay, split wood, and feed the cattle. We went fishing. We built fences. I don’t remember what the occasion was, but I remember staying with him at the cabin, just him and me, one night. He fixed soup. And I don’t mean he just heated up a can of soup. It was th...

R ecently, a commenter to my blog made the comment. “I don’t believe a LOT of what Paul said.” She further stated, “I cannot believe that Christ treated and felt about women the same way Paul did.” The comment was made after I made a comment after the difference in roles that God gave women and men, and referenced some of what Paul wrote. So is that true? Did Jesus teach something different from Paul? Many people want to look at the teaching of Jesus and focus on the what seems to be the loving nature of him, but because little is said in the gospels about some of the things Paul taught, they assume there is a difference. They compare Jesus to the God of the Old Testament and they see Jesus as being more loving while the God of the Old Testament is more firry. But look at what you see in the book of Revelation. In particular, look at what Jesus said to the church at Thyatira: Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, who calleth h...

T here’s been a lot of discussion concerning freedom of religion recently. To mention a few things, there is the Obama Care issue in which Christians may be forced to purchase insurance that pays for abortions. Then there is the New York schools trying to prevent churches from using their facilities when they are not otherwise used, but allowing other organizations to meet. Most recently, I heard about a couple in Orange County California fined for holding a Bible study in their home. With the first two, it is clear were Christians ought to be standing. The government should not be forcing people to purchase something that violates their beliefs, nor should it exclude a group from meeting just because it is religious. But what about the last one? It sounds terrible, doesn’t it? What right does the government have to tell people they can’t have a Bible study in their own home? And that’s the way people on Facebook were looking at it. They seemed to think this was a violation of freed...

Y ou’ve heard that there is power in the blood. Perhaps you have sung that wonderful old hymn about the wonder working power in the blood. It is fun to sing the words that Lewis E. Jones wrote, but have you stopped to consider why there is power in the blood? If you’ve watched the Indiana Jones movies, you know all about the Holy Grail and its supposed power to heal. I suppose, it there were such a thing as a Holy Grail that was used to collect the blood of Jesus as it drained from his body, then maybe that isn’t so farfetched. The idea that the Holy Grail was used to catch his blood is nothing more than an artist’s conception. Jesus’ blood fell to the ground, beginning at the garden, all the way to the cross, where blood and water came from his side. We talk about the blood being applied to our hearts and it brings to mind images of God using a brush to paint our hearts with the blood of Jesus, much like the blood of the Passover lamb was applied to the doorposts. But that is just...

T he great divide in Christianity today boils down to one thing. What do you believe the Bible is? In a discussion the other day, I used a passage from the Bible to prove a point. The other person in the discussion responded by saying that she didn’t believe that passage means the same today as it did then and more than that, she didn’t thing Jesus would agree with the passage. Then she made the statement, “the Bible contradicts itself.” Compare that to the follow excerpt from the doctrinal statement my church has adopted: The Scriptures are God's inerrant revelation, complete in the Old and New Testaments, written by divinely inspired men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (II Tim. 3:16; II Peter 1:21). Those men wrote not in words of human wisdom but in words taught by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 2:13). The Scriptures provide the standard for the believer's faith and practice (II Tim. 3:16, 17), reveal the principles by which God will judge all (Heb. 4:12; John 12:48), and...