What’s In A Name?
2007-04-30 19:40:58
A few days ago in this post I wrote about how I plan to spend some time studying the Names of Christ this summer, in an effort to get to know Him better. Before I start getting into the Names of Christ, I thought it would be good to explain a little bit more about why I decided to study His Names.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the reason that I am doing this is to get to know the Christ behind all the theology. But some might be wondering why I choose to do this by studying His Names and titles. After all, a Name is just an identifier, right?
Well, that’s the way that it is today, but that’s not the way that it was in biblical times. Today we use names for identification and nothing more. For instance, my name is Joshua Spiers, and people call me Josh or Joshua. If I am in a place where there are several Joshua’s, then people might call me Spiers, or Joshua Spiers. If things got really confusing then people could identify me by my full name: Joshua Michael Spier
Every Little Thing’s Gonna Be Alright
2007-04-27 20:02:29
Anyone who reads my blogs knows that Delirious? is one of my favorite bands. This morning I was listening to one of their songs titled “Every Little
Thing
(Is Gonna Be Alright
),” and I started thinking about the words. More specifically, I started thinking about the word little.
As Christians we usually understand that “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Rom. 8:28). The problem is that we all too often think of this in a big scale. At least I do. What I mean is that I often trust God to handle the big issues; the major things. When a car breaks down and I am left without transportation, I trust God to work the situation out for the best. When a disease flares up or an unexpected bill arrives in the mail, I trust that God will sort everything out for the best. But as I was listening to the song “Every Little Thing
” this morning I started to think about how God wa
When Theology Becomes Practical
2007-04-27 02:21:16
I returned to school as a psychology major in February 2006. Since I was going to a Christian university I had to take a lot of theology electives. As many of my friends know, I fell in love with my theology courses and formally switched from psychology to theology this summer.
The upshot of this is that I have been taking theology courses (or courses closely related to theology) non-stop since February 2006. I love the courses, but sometimes it’s easy to fall so in love with the different philosophies and concepts that we fall out of love with the One Who we are studying for.
I have done school for 14 months straight (except for a brief break around Christmas time) and I must say that I have loved my classes. One thing that I have not loved, though, is how much my classes have cut into my personal devotion time. Sure, my classes are teaching me about God, but I’ve never yet seen a debate on Calvinism versus Arminianism help a person when they’re hurting. This isn&rsq
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Why is this night different from every other night?
2007-04-05 05:45:34
Tonight I had an interesting experience. One of the families in my church hosted a traditional Passover dinner. The family is not Jewish, but they wanted to host the dinner to show people how the Passover in the Old Testament relates to Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
Most of you reading this blog may be familiar with the Passover, but for those of you who aren’t I will give a brief explanation. When Moses went to Egypt and demanded that they free the Israelites from slavery, the pharaoh would not do it. So God cause 10 separate plagues to come upon the Egyptians. None of the first 9 would cause the pharaoh to let the Israelites go free, so the 10th plague was the worst. In this plague God commanded an angel to go through the nation of Egypt and kill the firstborn male child in every
house.
Of course, God wanted to spare the Israelites from this plague of death, so He gave them some special commands. He told them to kill a lamb and smear its blood on the doorposts of their hou
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John 5:1-9 - The Miracle Maker
2007-03-17 02:54:37
Ok, so I should be working on a couple of papers for school right now, but I feel like blogging instead. Before I get going, though, I should mention why I haven’t written any blogs in several weeks. The reason is not that I’ve given up on blogging, or that I’ve been too busy, or anything like that. No, it’s just that I’ve been going through one of those “learning phases” that God occasionally puts us through. I’ve had a lot on my mind, and my thoughts have been really scattered. So this blog isn’t dead, or anything like that, I just needed some time to work through some things and get my thoughts back on track.
Oh yeah, and I upgraded my computer to the new Vista operating system (which took several days), and I worked 80 hours in 6 days, so that had something to do with it too
Now that all of that’s cleared up I’m going to go ahead and share what’s on my mind tonight.
During the last few weeks I’ve b
Prov. 3:5-6 - Smooth Paths
2007-02-16 04:42:17
Pro 3:5-6 GW(5) Trust the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.(6) In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths smooth.
Yesterday morning I woke up thinking about the need for Divine guidance. As I was still laying in bed, I realized that lately I have been not putting my trust in God in the way that I should. I realized that I have been worrying over things that I should be leaving up to God to solve.
I got out of bed and pulled up my Bible study software, and I started looking up some Scriptures on guidance. Proverbs 3:5-6 was the first one that I turned to, and I noticed something about it that I had never noticed before. See, I have always thought of Proverbs 3:5-6 as a guidance Scripture, and in a way it is. What it actually says, though, is that if we put our trust completely in God then He will make our paths smooth.
I spent some time thinking about that, and I realized that there is a difference between God guiding us and God mak
Read more: Paths
Gen. 41:51 - He Helps Me Forget
2007-02-11 03:00:34
For the last few days my daily Bible reading has been taking me through the story of Joseph. When I read this verse today, it blew me away:
Gen 41:51 GW(51) Joseph named his firstborn son Manasseh [He Helps Me Forget], because God helped him forget all his troubles and all about his father’s family.
I’ve heard the story of Joseph so many times, and read the story so many times, but I’ve never noticed this little verse before: “God Helps Me Forget.”
I’ve been thinking about it all day today. Life gets rough sometimes, but I don’t think any of us have had it as bad as Joseph. We all have our own burdens to bear, and I’m not making light of anyone’s problems–including my own–but I don’t think that anyone reading this blog can claim that they had it worse than Joseph.
Sold as a slave by his brothers (they were going to kill him!)
Sold again as a slave to an Egyptian–someone who had absolutely no knowledge of Jos
Answered Prayers
2007-02-09 03:00:15
Wow! What a tough couple of weeks! First, a week of solid sickness, then two weeks of moving while I worked and did school. Total craziness!
But Tuesday morning I stopped and took some time for reflection, and I realized how many prayers God has answered in a brief time span. It really, really amazed me. You see, I keep a list of prayer requests on my PDA, and Tuesday morning I was going through the list during my daily devotions. As I started going through various requests on the list I started realizing that that many of the requests had been answered. What a great feeling!
One of the things I have been praying about for a while is an apartment in Spartanburg (where I work). I have been having to drive 1 and 1/2 hours round trip every time I came into work or to church or any other activity in Spartanburg. Not only was this very hard on gas, but it was very tiring and time consuming since almost all of my activities are here in Spartanburg.
Well, God has answered the prayer for an ap
Blog On Hold While I Move
2007-01-31 04:12:23
Hi, folks. I am putting the blog on hold for 1-2 weeks while I move. The Lord has blessed me with an apartment just 1 mile away from where I work (I have been having to drive around 30 miles to work). Things will be pretty hectic for the next week or two, so I think it will be best to put my blog on hold for a few days. I should be picking it up again sometime next week.
If you want to be notified when I start writing again then there are two ways that you can do it. First, if you are a friend on Facebook, then you just have to keep an eye on your news feed and it should let you know the next time that I post a note. Facebook is automatically importing my blogs, so you’ll see it as a new note on your Facebook news. If you’re not on Facebook then you can subscribe to my blog by clicking on “Complete Feed” under “Subscribe” on the right side of this page. You have to use some sort of news reader. If you do not already have a news reader then I recommen
Job 36:15 - Deliverance Through Affliction
2007-01-24 17:58:24
Job 36:15 HCSB(15) God rescues the afflicted by afflicting them;He instructs them by means of their torment.
This Scripture has always fascinated me, ever since I first noticed it about a year ago. If you’re familiar with the Book of Job then you know that Job is composed mostly of dialogues between Job and his four friends. Three of the four friends aren’t worth listening to (they say a lot of things that are incorrect, because they are trying to understand what is happening to Job through their own wisdom instead of through God’s wisdom), but the guy who speaks last–Elihu–has his head on straight. The reason that I mention that is because it is Elihu who says the words found in Job 36:15:
Job 36:15 HCSB(15) God rescues the afflicted by afflicting them;He instructs them by means of their torment.
When I first read this I thought, “Wow, God really does things backwards, doesn’t He?” It took me a little while to realize that it’s u
And He Shall Be Called…"The Amen"
2007-05-28 12:36:43
Wow, it’s hard to believe that this is my first post in the entire month of May! Let me tell you guys a little bit about what this month has been like:
May 3-5th - worked 13-hour days
6th - Spent all day doing errands, went to church
7th - 11th - Spent all week commuting to Greenville for training
12th - Friend’s birthday lunch, did errands, went dancing
13th - Mother’s Day! Can’t remember what I did, since Mum was out of town
14th - 16th - Worked 13-hour days
17th - Dr’s appointment, helped friends move, younger brother’s graduation, went dancing
18th - Spent all day buying camping gear and getting ready for my awesome camping trip
19th - 20th - Awesome camping trip, rolled out at 5:30 AM on the 20th so we could get back in time for church; Younger brother’s graduation party at 5, family in town so visited with them afterwards
21st - 23rd - Family in town, spent quite a bit of time with them, plus two small study groups, errands, etc.
24
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And He Shall Be Called…"The Advocate"
2007-06-15 23:16:31
In my last post on the Names of Christ I wrote about the name “Amen,” which is found in Rev. 3:14. If you read that post then you may recall that I said that faithfulness is not something that Jesus does, faithfulness is what He Is. There’s a tremendous difference between doing something and being something!
“Amen” is certainly one of my favorite Names of Christ. One reason that it is one of my favorites is because it opens up a window to understanding Christ and who He Is. After all, if Christ wasn’t faithful then why would any of His other Names matter? Why would it matter if He called Himself “Redeemer” or “Savior” if He couldn’t be counted on to tell the truth? Yet when we understand that Jesus is not just faithful, but He is faith–when we understand that He is not just truthful but that He is Truth–then our understanding of the Nature of Christ takes on a whole new dimension.
Now, some readers might be t
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, Advocate
Looking With Undivided Attention To Jesus
2007-06-30 15:44:11
Ever noticed how hard it is to focus on something? To really, truly focus? If you’ve ever tried meditating then let me tell you…it ain’t easy. It’s really, really hard to focus on something to the exclusion of everything else. Really hard.
I was thinking about this today in relation to my spiritual walk. I was thinking about the Scripture that says, “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus
, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end” (Hebrews 12:2). One Bible translation puts it this way:
[Let us look] with undivided attention to the Originator and Perfector of our faith–Jesus…
Obviously we can’t fix our physical eyes on Jesus anymore, so the author is talking about placing our focus spiritually on Jesus. But He’s not just saying to focus on Jesus spiritually, He’s saying to focus on Him to the exclusion of everything else.
Man, that’s hard.
It seems that I always have time to do the things that really matter t
Facing The Unknown - Part #1
2007-07-15 21:00:02
Have you ever thought about where the roots of our fears come from? I was thinking about it the other day, and I am convinced that the root of most of our fears lies in the unknown.
For instance, I used to have a terrible fear of spiders. If I got close to a spider then I became almost paralyzed with fear. If I found a little tiny spider in my house or apartment then it would take me hours–literally!–to work up the courage to get close enough to it to kill it. The problem was, as more and more people found out about my fear I got more and more embarrassed!
So one day I decided to break the phobia. The way that I did it was to get on the Internet and research all the poisonous spiders in the United States. I learned what they looked like, what happened when they bit you, where they were usually found, whether or not they could jump, and whether or not they were aggressive. I found out every detail that I could dig up.
And you know what happened? It broke my phobia of them al
Read more: Facing
, Unknown
Facing the Unknown - Part #4, Step #2
2007-07-18 07:00:02
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:6-9)
Let’s rehash the four steps that Dr. Habermas gave:
Pray (verse 6)
Give thanks and praise (verses 6 &
Change our thoughts (verse
Practice, practice, practice (verse 9)
In this post I’m talking about step #2: Giving thanks and praise. Praise is a difficult subject to talk about briefly because it can be so complex; a person can either say a whole lot or a whole little
Read more: Facing
, Unknown
Facing the Unknown - Part #3, Step #1
2007-07-17 07:00:02
The four steps that Dr. Habermas gives are based on Philippians 4:6-9, which says:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:6-9)
Dr. Habermas pointed out at the start of his lecture that there is nothing “sacred” about these four steps or about the order in which they are applied. In reality they should all be applied together. In other words, there is nothing magical about these four steps. They are not a magic formula,
Read more: Facing
, Unknown
Facing the Unknown - Part #2
2007-07-16 07:00:02
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)
Before a person can apply the four steps that Dr. Habermas gives and to being to possess the “peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension” (Php. 4:7) they must understand one thing: Everything works together for the good of those who love God.
Allow me to repeat that: Everything…everything!…works together for good to those who love God!
It was this understanding that allowed me to finally overcome worry and to have peace in my life, and I am convinced that understanding this concept can bring peace to anyone who is a follower of Christ. This is an important concept that must be grasped before a person can begin to possess the peace of God.
However, there is one major problem that people have with this concept: It requires that we place are trust unequivocally, with no reservation, in God and in His plan
Read more: Facing
, Unknown
Facing the Unknown - Part #6, Step #4
2007-07-20 07:00:02
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:6-9 NASB)
Let me recap, for the final time, the four steps that Dr. Habermas gave for dealing with emotional pain or, as I am phrasing it, facing the unknown:
Pray (verse 6)
Give thanks and praise (verses 6 &
Change our thoughts (verse
Practice, practice, practice (verse 9)
In this final post I am dealing with the subject of practice, and then I will conclude the post and the series w
Read more: Facing
, Unknown
Facing the Unknown - Part #5, Step #3
2007-07-19 07:00:02
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:6-9)
Let’s once again rehash the four steps that Dr. Habermas gave:
Pray (verse 6)
Give thanks and praise (verses 6 &
Change our thoughts (verse
Practice, practice, practice (verse 9)
In this post I am talking about step #3: Changing our thoughts. Dr. Habermas gave three steps for changing our thoughts, and I will go through each one of them in this post. (Note: Dr. Habermas gav
Read more: Facing
, Unknown
The Heavens Proclaim the Glory of God…
2007-09-11 21:21:22
A few days ago my aunt sent me an email a which contained the 10 images that astronomers voted were the best taken in the past 16 years by the Hubble Telescope. I just got around to reading the email tonight, and I have to say that I was simply amazed. I have always loved looking at the stars, and I have spent quite a bit of time browsing through pictures taken by the Hubble Telescope and other telescopes, but these were some of the most amazing pictures I have ever seen.
The first thing that I did was to get on-line and make sure that the email was legit. We all know that many (if not most) of the emails that get forwarded around have only a little truth in them. It just so happens, though, that the images contained in this email are legitimate. Not only are they legitimate Hubble pictures, but they were in fact selected as the top 10 pictures from the last 16 years.
So once I verified the pictures I started thinking about Psalm 19, which starts off by saying:
The heavens proclaim the
Read more: Heavens
, hellip
Surprised By Joy
2007-09-08 23:08:59
Sometimes God just catches me by surprise. Right now I am sitting in my favorite hang out spot (CrossRoads Coffee), and I decided to do some school before bed. I reached into my backpack to get my textbook and I felt my Bible in there. That reminded me that I had not read my Bible yet today, so I decided to do that before school. After all, as a theology major my schooling is all about the Bible, so it only makes sense to actually read it, right?
So I opened up my Bible to 2nd Peter, which is the book that I have been studying recently, and I started reading. Near the end of the first chapter a verse caught my attention in a way that it never has before, and I was surprised–surprised by joy. (To all you C.S. Lewis fans: Yes, I am unashamedly ripping off one of his titles.)
The verse that caught my attention was verse 19, which says:
So we have the prophetic word strongly confirmed. You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dismal place, until the day dawn
BLOG HAS MOVED
2007-10-31 10:30:30
This blog has moved to http://www.jspiers.org. I will no longer be updating it here. Please update your bookmarks. All of the old posts have been moved to www.jspiers.org, and they are available as well. There is also lots of new content. God bless!
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