mistic.flame

I was reading Genesis this morning and I came across this verse:

Gensis 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

And that last bit struck my interest because a) the idea of stealing someones front door and walking off with it amuses me, and b) I seemed to remember Sampson actually doing it. (Talk about a piratical joke. And people think God’s no fun…)

Judges 16:2 And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.

3 And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.

So it turns out that he had a good reason. It was a preemptive strike, but they were going to kill him so hitting second wasn’t such a good option. I just wonder how he kept himself from snickering (or waking anyone up while he was ripping the gates out of the ground for that matter.)

What he actually stole was the gate from the wall around the city, and the posts that hold them in place. This is a bit more important than anyone’s front door, because it was what kept attacking armies outside. (And if you read how much Samson kicked these guys asses, you’ll realize that they needed any protection they could get.)

And in case you’re wondering, Samson is in Abraham’s blood line. He was of the tribe of the Danites. The 12 tribes of Israel were from the sons of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham.

Also, if you havn’t seen it yet, The 9 Most Badass Bible Verses over on cracked.com is very amusing. (And just a bit dirty)

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Daniella sent this to me in an email and I thought it was pretty awesome:

It’s been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish… all before making a human. He made and provided what we’d need before we were born. These are best & more powerful when eaten raw. We’re such slow learners…

God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body!

God’s Pharmacy! Amazing!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye.. and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocados, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this?  it takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body’s cells. Today’s research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion,  garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

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I got the best compliment I’ve ever received today:

Amanda K: you know, not a day has gone by that if I was having a bad one, you made it better?

I’ve gotten a few good compliments, but I don’t think I’ve ever been given one that got to my heart quite like that did.

I was at a weekend in the Word in Illinois last weekend. the theme was “Rooted and Grounded in Love” from Ephesians 3:17. That compliment is the most perfect end to that weekend that I can possibly imagine.

The general gist of what I got out of the weekend was that 1) My job is to love God and the people around us 2) Loving is giving, and 3) We have God and Jesus Christ as perfect examples of how to love/give.

My job is to love God and the people around me

Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

That lays it out plain as day. (”Thy neighbor” refers to the people who your life touches.) Jesus Christ is quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5 for the first and Leviticus 19:18 for the second.

He says “On these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets.” These two commandents, love God and love the people around you, are the foundation of all of the law and all of the prophets. That’s pretty important.

Now, ever since Christ fulfilled the law, it hasn’t applied to us, so all that love stuff goes out the window, right?

John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Gotcha! This is the grace administration: we’re not under the law of the old testament, but we do still have one rule: love. (Ephesians 3 calls our time the dispensation of grace, basically an administration, or dispensation, is time period defined in Gods Word.)

I Corinthians, which does apply to us, tells us quite a bit about love in chapter 13. (The greek word translated “charity” is the same root word (agape) translated “love” in Jesus’s new commandment in John 13:34)

Love encompases and overrules all of the rules and commandments that were laid out before. So what, pray tell, is love?

Loving is giving

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Look at the first half of this verse: for God so loved that He gave. What a perfect example of loving.

John 15:13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

This verse has a double meaning: there’s the one that everyone sees: dying for someone, then the other part that gets overlooked: living for someone. When you give a person your time, you just gave them part of your life. That’s loving.

Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

A living sacrifice. Christ died for us so that we can Live for him. What a perfect example of loving!

We have God and Jesus Christ as perfect examples of how to love/give

John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

How did Jesus love us? Is spent his entire *living* ministry taking care of people. Lookup Jesus and compassion some time.

And then, when the time came, Jesus gave up his life for us. It was not something he wanted to do. He prayed twice “let this cup pass from me“, yet he had enough love for God and for us that he did it.

look at John 3:16 again:

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

What’s the one thing that could possibly be harder to give than your own life? Ask any parent and they could tell you it’s their children’s lives. And that’s what God gave for us so that we could have everlasting life.

What does he ask in return? That we love him. Jesus said “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (to avoid confusion, he also pointed out “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.“) So loving God is doing what he asks us to do.

I’ll leave it up to you and God to figure out the details

God bless you, I love you all,
-Nathan

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I learned something last weekend that just blessed my socks off! (Well, I learned a lot of things last weekend that blessed me, but anyways.) We were learning about how God is true to his promises and the great power that we can operate (yes, you and I). Elijah and Elisha both operated this power. We’ll see just how much in a minute here.

Before we get started though, some people (me) sometimes confuse these two men of God. Elijah came first in the bible, then Elisha. You can remember this because “j” comes before “s” in the alphabet.

(We’ll get to the whole list of which miracles they each preformed in a second here, but one of Elijah’s miracles we had read about leading up to this was that he had God light his burnt offering. The fire burned up the offering and the wood. And the dust around it. And the water around it. And the *stones* around it. It was pretty hot. You can read the whole story in 1 Kings 18.)

So when Elijah was getting was getting tired of being the only prophet of God, so he asked God for some help. And God gave him someone: Elisha.

Elijah and Elisha worked together for a while, and near the end of the records of Elijah, he asked Elisha if there was anything he could do for him:

2 Kings 2:9
And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

and then a few verses later it says

2 Kings 2:15
And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.

Note, that it doesn’t say anything about a double portion though. So did he get it? You bet he did! The bible records 8 different miracles that Elisha preformed:

1. Shutting heaven 1 Kings 17:1
2. Oil multiplied 1 Kings 17:14
3. Widow’s son raised 1 Kings 17:22-23
4. Fire from heaven 1 Kings 18:38
5. Rain 1 Kings 18:40
6. Fire on 50 2 Kings 1:10
7. Fire on 50 2 Kings 1:12
8. Jordan 2 Kings 2:8

And care to guess how many miracles it records for Elisha?

1. Jordan divided 2 Kings 2:14
2. Waters healed 2 Kings 2:21
3. Bears from wood 2 Kings 2:24
4. Water for kings 2 Kings 3:20
5. Oil for widow 2 Kings 4:1-6
6. Gift of son 2 Kings 4:16-17
7. Raising from dead 2 Kings 4:35
8. Healing of pottage 2 Kings 4:41
9. Bread multiplied 2 Kings 4:43
10. Naaman healed 2 Kings 5:10
11. Gehazi smitten 2 Kings 5:27
12. Iron to swim 2 Kings 6:6
13. Sight to blind 2 Kings 6:17
14. Smiting blindness 2 Kings 6:18
15. Restoring sight 2 Kings 6:20
16. One after death 2 Kings 13:21

From 8 to 16: a double portion. That very last miracle that Elisha preformed is pretty amazing too, because Elisha died about a year before it happened!

2 Kings 13:21
And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

They were burying a guy and they put him in the same sepulchre (tomb) as Elisha. And as soon as the dead man touched Elisha’s bones, he came back to life! How amazing is that!

Just look at how thorough God is to keep his promises. Even after the man died, God still kept his word! And God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), he is willing to do that for each and every one of his believers!

I might in a future post touch on how we are not limited to any number of miracles. That spirit that was “upon” them; that spirit is “in” us! The differenced is pretty big, but the punchline is that I don’t worry about “wasting one” when I fix my shower by speaking to it in the name of Jesus Christ! (Which I did this weekend - that was cool :)

(Major kudos to my Companion Bible - I had half a mind to go and look up all of those different miracles, but E.W. Bullinger had already done it for me! It was in the margin notes, laid out plain as day! :)

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Abba, Father , by Nathan James

  Did you ever ask yourself, “Why did God create the earth?” I have, and I’ve seen the answer in God’s Word. In Genesis, we see clearly that the world was made for mankind. Indeed, even the stars, so very far away, are there for us.

Genesis 1:14 and 15:
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons. and for days. and years:
¹⁵ And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

  The sun, moon, and stars were all made for mankind, to give us light, and seasons, and days, and years, and to be signs showing God’s master plan. The stars announced the birth of Jesus Christ. That’s how the wise men knew to come looking for “…he that is born King of the Jews….” (Matthew 2:2) It wasn’t because God lacked servants that He made the earth. He had the angels to serve Him, and to acknowledge Him as God. What was it, then, that God gained in mankind? It was the father-son relationship. That is something God did not have with the angels.

Hebrews 1:5:
For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

  God’s heart’s desire was fulfilled in mankind, but not in every man and woman. Although some teach that everyone is a child of God, this is not what God says in His Word. God has said that Jesus Christ is His firstborn. Christ, whose birth was foretold in the Scriptures, and heralded from the sky, was the first to truly be God’s Son. He is called the “only begotten” Son of God (John 3:16) because He is the only one who is God’s Son by physical birth. The Scriptures testify to the closeness of the Father and the Son.

John 11:42a; and 16:32:
And I knew that thou hearest me always: …
^16:32 Behold; the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

  Jesus Christ had great confidence in his relationship with his Father, and he and God looked forward to a whole family of sons,

Romans 8:29:
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he [His Son] might be the firstborn among many brethren.

  Who now makes up this family? Who are these “many brethren?” They are the men and women whom God knew would believe in Jesus Christ. These are the sons for whom God lovingly prepared the earth. When you and I believed and confessed Jesus as the Lord, we became born again. Now, we are brothers of Jesus Christ and, truly, sons of God.

There is only one place where abba is recorded in the Scriptures as being spoken by a man to God. That is in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus Christ prayed privately to His Father before His crucifixion.

Mark 14:36:
And he said; Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will. but what thou wilt.

  This is not flowery, poetic speech. This is not a lengthy and ornate prayer. This is God’s Son coming to his Father with a heavy heart, saying, “Father (Dad), if there is any other way….” If it were possible, Jesus didn’t want to be scourged and mocked; he didn’t want to be beaten and crucified; he didn’t W ANT to die. He went to God with the simplicity of a child to his father, his daddy. “Nevertheless” he said, “not what I will, but what Thou wilt.” He made his decision to follow God’s plan.

Although this is the only place in the Bible where Jesus is recorded as saying, “Abba, Father,” amazingly, this phrase occurs two more times in the Word. Upon whose lips has God put these words?

Galatians 4:6:
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. crying, Abba, Father.

  We, who have been saved according to Romans 10:9, and are born again of incorruptible seed (I Peter 1:23), are now sons of God (I John 3:2). The essential part of this is the holy spirit that God gave us at the moment we believed. It is a “sonship” spirit, and it is by this spirit that we can call God our abba, “daddy.”

The final occurrence of abba is in Romans 8. Here, again, we are told about the spirit we have received. In the King James Version, it is called a “…Spirit of adoption (huiothesia).” Adoption, however, is a poor translation of the Greek word huiothesia. The problem is that we don’t have an exact English word that matches it. It actually means, “the quality or state of being a son,” or “sonship.” The term was applied to adoptions during ancient Roman times, and that sense of the word has carried over into our English Bibles. According to Roman law, a man would give the huiothesia to another, thereby making him a son by adoption.

Romans 8:15:
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the [“a”] Spirit of adoption [or “sonship”], whereby we cry, Abba. Father.

  Interestingly, under the law of the times, a Roman citizen could legally disown a son by birth. If the son was a disappointment or a disgrace, the father could disown and disinherit him. If the man, however, picked out someone and made him his son by giving him the huiothesia, he could never disown him. The thinking may have been that he knew in advance what he was getting into.

Brothers and sisters, God knew what He was getting into when He made us His sons. He knew who we were, and who we would become. He foreknew us, as we have seen from Romans 8:29. He chose us, knowing what blessings we will be to Him in the ages to come. We can never disappoint God, and He will never disown us. He has written it in His Word, which He magnified above all His name (Psalms 138:2b). We are children of God, and no matter what, we can come to Him with open hearts and child-like simplicity. Just like our Lord and elder brother, Jesus Christ, by the spirit, we, too, can say, “Abba, Father.”

(Nathan James was brought up in a Christian home, and in 2001 he became active in ministry service. During 2005-2006, Nathan participated in “The Fellowlaborers” program offered by Christian Family Fellowship Ministry of Tipp City, Ohio. Presently, he serves as CFFM’s audio engineer.) [This article originally appeared in The Ryburn Christian Chronicle, Vol. IV No.2, Winter 2007]

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Things have been goin well for me lately. A new gf, lots of music, decent grades,
and rolling out my biggest project ever at wok.

Christina is prety damn cool. she’s absolutely georgeous and very fun to be around. We met at a graduation party and we’v been going out for just over two weeks. She’s a kinda sorta atheist, which isnt so cool, but oh well; at least shes got good taste in men ;P

as far as music goes, 75minutes is hardcore awesome! I just got 37 cd’s in the mail from them for winning a contest!
I might of mentioned them before, but its a weekly podcast thats about 1 cd’s worth if indy music. as in a full cd (an about-75-minutes-long cd). basicaly they find cool bands of all these different genre and mix em all u along with a bit of commentary about the bands and whats going on in the news that past week. new episodes every sunday.

As cool as 75 minutes is, Kitty Kat Dirt Nap is even cooler. they’re an independent rock band out of Phillidelphia, AND they’re comming to my area on Agust 5th! With any hopefuly they’l get into the R-Squared show on that day with devil wears prada.

Orange Willard is, of course, the coolest band ever. I’v made it to most of the shows they’v played lately and had a damn good time at each one. And I’m even gettin people to come with me all of the sudden! I got christina into one of em - that was cool but she was a touch uncomforterable with it. meh.. what can I do? (semi-obvious answer: wait till october)

From right to left: Nathan

Had a great time at the youth overnight last weekend - Nate Frank Took pictures sunday morning. As always, good friends and a lot of Gods word.

As for work, we rolled out a new backoffice that me and Josh have been working on hardcore! its at my.iboomerang.com (I’ll post a guest account after we get around to making one…)

now the back office is cool, because it has a solid log in system (those are a PITA to build) and because it can accept plugins (new or old tools) fairly easily, but the really cool part is the first big plugin:

the iBoomerang E-mail Template Tool version 2. this thing is so freaking cool because it makes sending long asses repetitive emails realy frickin easy. and its all AJAX’d up and slick and such. It might not seem that cool but some of our clients realy love it, and i took the things they asked for the most in version one and integrated them all into version two as well as countles other fixes and enhancements. I like it.

for my grades, see the next post below this one - i pulled off a 3.75 for the quarter ^_^

oh, and tomorrow I’m leaving to go camping with my dad, so i might just drop off the face of the internet for the rest of the week…

a penny for your thoughts?

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I was havin a heck of a time trying to close my hood. The latch just wouldnt catch. The latch is worn out and I dont think the hood’s exactly the right shape to boot. but usualy I can get it to shut with in one or two tries.

Not today.

I tried closing that thing for like 15 minutes. I tried gentle, i tried slaming it, i even tried jumping on it once all to no avail. whining at my mom didnt sseem to solve it either.

But then i got a good idea. I just took a minute or so to pray about it. The hood shut and stayed latched within 30 seconds.

Taco bell gave me a free Iced tea too! (unsweetened :-)

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