bierkergaard

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (RSV) It is a common device to try describe spiritual truths by physical examples..."What a man sows so shall he reap" type of idea from the realm of farming. How about this one, "Whatever a man rips, he sews?" Or, more accurately, his wife sews (not saying that this is the way it should be or anything). You have probably heard something like this within the last couple of years, "the Holy Spirit is like a GPS" guiding us through the travels of life. There is one problem with this analogy...for all of the usefulness of GPS systems, they are often wrong. We need to be careful with such comparisons. Such analogies are heresy. The Holy Spirit is always right in both His remembrance (past to present) and teaching (present to future). Lina and I were up in New York City last weekend for the...

Genesis 39:20 And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison,a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison. Here I write on the biblical idea of God making a dream, breaking a dream, and taking a dream. We all have dreams. A man who no longer dreams, dies--yet while he lives. Some men dream for wrong things. In God, we can dream aright. There are many biblical characters who God spoke to in a dream. One of my favorite characters, Joseph, dreamed. Yet, he had not a clue of how hard the dream was going to be. Do we ever? The Scripture is somewhat silent in terms of a lot of his heartache. But, it had to be there. Betrayal by family, betrayal by a Master. These betrayals lead to 13 long years of slavery and imprisonment. Wow, with dreams like this, who needs nightmares? The university of adversity. Joseph got his doctorate from U of A. Then, he was second-in-command in Egypt, forgave and fed his family and saved them from famine. I had ...

Mark 6:39 Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. These words were from the mouth of Jesus right before he fed the 5,000. I recall my good friend Andrew delivering a sermon several years ago where he noted the "green" reference. It is one of the few sermons of his I recall with an almost You-Tube like clarity. I vividly remember his voice, his intonation, his pace, what he looked like when he said it. The only other time I remember a sermon statement of Andrew's verbatim was his talk on sex where he said if we wanted to "supercharge your wedding night" don't kiss until then. Andrew wasn't being a Legalist...he just wanted what was best for us. I happened to mention to Andrew in an email about a year ago (he is pastor in California now) the "green" reference. It was odd I remembered, odder that I mentioned it, oddest yet after he replied back. He responded amused...a member of his church and he had gotten ...

Mark 14:51-52 And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him but he left the linen cloth, and fled naked. "Here he comes, there he goes And he ain't wearin' no clothes Oh, yes, they call him the Streak Fastest thing on two feet If there's an audience to be found He'll be streakin' around Invitin' public critique" Yup, I am from the 1970's where "Streaking" was all the rage. Above are the lyrics song by Ray Stevens about Streaking that got a lot of air play. I did Streaking a few times with friends. It was weird and uncomfortable and before I drank alcohol. Needless to say, this young man mentioned in the verses from Mark was running naked from an audience and was hardly "inviting a public critique" (how about a public crucifixion?) from the hands of Roman soldiers. Evidence suggests that the naked young man was John Mark, an early follower of Jesu...

John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. Recently Lina and I had to replace our garage door opener (whole shebang). Back in January, when it was in the single digits, the old opener had gone bad. I ordered a new replacement part over the internet. Our wonderful and mechanically-inclined neighbor Mike installed the new part. How cool is Mike the Mechnical? He thanked me for helping him to fix my garage door! I kind of operated like the surgical nurse to his surgeon..."Suction"..."Yes, doctor." We decided to not do a major rebuild with the additional new parts that the company had sent me. It was too cold, time was too short, and we did too little. The truly "Terrible Too's." We were hoping that replacing the one part would fix the problem and save us some cash. Fat chance. All it did was delay the problem. Unfortunately, whatever was wrong with the garage door opener was more than ...

Neh 4:14 And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses. This verse is quoted by writer John Eldredge in the first chapter of his book Wild at Heart . Eldredge's work admonishes men to be men...to live a life of passion and adventure. The cover of Wild at Heart says it all; it has a photogragh of a man charging and leaping up a rock-face like a mountain goat who has drained a bucket of Mt. Dew. Eldredge disdains "nice guys"...wimps in need of a wedgie (also known as a snuggie , grundie , gotch pull , or mervin . What is up with "Mervin?"....like to do some research on that one...probably came from a boy named Mervin who was on the "receiving end"--get it, "receiving end?"--of so many wedgies that his name became synomous with the...

Rev 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it. (ASV) With the white stone mentioned above in the Scripture verse, "And will give him a white stone" it is "Supposed that by the white stone is meant pardon or acquittance, and the evidence of it; and that there is an allusion here to the custom observed by judges in ancient times, who were accustomed to give their suffrages by white and black pebbles; those who gave the former were for absolving the culprit, those who gave the latter were for his condemnation." (Clarke) What has brought about this essay was my purchasing the other day of some very white and new Nike jogging shoes. My old pair of Nike's have been worn down. I was developing serious pain in my feet which is a solid sign that it is t...