Medicine Hat Joe

Week 44  1 Corinthians 1

A couple of weeks ago I saw how Luke described the NT church: all the believers were together and had everything in common…Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. So there’s quite a bit of harmony. Oneness.
But in Corinth there’s disharmony. Divisiveness. The conflict was between what I’d call Baptism Coalitions (today it seems like a quirky & baffling dispute but there’s no rule says arguments have to be sensible). Paul’s advice was pretty straightforward: I appeal to you…that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. So three main goals are spelled out: a) agreement & b) no divisions & c) unity.
If I’m in a group with ten guys (who all believe in the Lord) then – according to Paul – there should be some evidence of concurrence & consensus & coherence.
But ten guys sitting around and we all agree? What are the chances?
One of the places to start is for the ten of us to have a bottom-line short list of fundamentals. A few essentials that don’t need to get rehashed. Meat-and-potatoes values that we agree on. No doubt our “Baptism Coalitions” remain in place. But we try not to take them too seriously.

Note: quotes from Acts 2:44-46 & 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NIV)

Week 43  Romans 6

Paul says that one of the invisible things that happens when I embrace the Lord is that I die. And once I’m dead I’m freed from sin:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin.
There’s obviously a different kind of dying going on here. Paul can’t be meaning that I die physically. So it has to be dying in a different-than-physical way. My death is still a really-and-truly dying…but it’s not a natural death.
And then there’s a second thing. A follow-up. When I die (in this non-physical way) then I’m free from sin. Being free from sin could mean one of two things. It could mean that I don’t sin anymore. On the surface that’s how it looks. But I don’t drill down too far before I realize that in practical and real-life terms it’s likely safer to say my freedom doesn’t mean that I quit sinning.
When I accept the Lord as my master & teacher I die a mysterious & non-natural death – death-to-sin. A death that frees me from my docile devotedness-to-sin. Free at last.
Being dead-to-sin is a huge benefit – it’s a Square One Freedom. Sure…it’s still a new & untested & abstract freedom. But it’s a huge hurdle to be over.

Note: quote from Romans 6:6-7 (CSB)

 

Week 43  Romans 1

Paul says that God’s invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. Which I take to mean that if I look at what someone has produced (in this case God) then I can learn something about the producer himself (God).
For Paul the material world (and maybe the sum-total of all of time & space & matter & energy) is a gigantic deposit of trackable things that serve two purposes.
Purpose #1 is that the world does whatever physical or mechanical functions it regularly does (for instance the sun comes up in the morning).
Purpose #2 is the added value objective of tipping people off about the maker who’s in-back-of the mechanics.
Paul realizes that there are people who’ve had no exposure at all to prophecy or miracles or the bible or any authorized religious inputs. But what they do have is the universe – a big and inescapable environment that’s accessible to everyone. When it comes to rudimentary ideas I don’t need the Westminster Cathedral if I’ve got the world.
There’s likely millions of people in the modern world who think of the universe exclusively in terms of Purpose #1 – a kind of functional mish-mash of biological & non-biological materials and interactions that have developed by happenstance. But Paul is pretty clear that there’s extra intelligence to be gleaned when I observe the material world.

Note: quote from Romans 1:20 (CSB)

Week 42  Acts 2

In Peter’s first sermon he said: and it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Since the Holy Spirit had just arrived in the chapter two that meant the-last-days were happening right then-and-there.
I checked a word book looking for the phrase the-last-days. It wasn’t used often so I checked a couple of (roughly) equivalent terms – the-last-times and the-last-hour:
In these last days, (God) has spoken to us by his Son
(Jesus) was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you
It is the last hour…You have heard that antichrist is coming…By this we know that it is the last hour.
From the look of it the-last-days (or last-times or last-hour) were current events when Acts & Hebrews & Peter & John were written. Meaning that a) the-last-days began at least 2000 years ago and b) I’m living in the-last-days (since the world is still chugging-along) and so c) the-last-days will continue until some (undetermined) future time.
I’ll try to keep that in mind when I see the phrase the-last-days. The expression covers a long time period. Maybe not as long as one of the ice ages. But long (personally I think I prefer The Last Epoch).
And another thing… I have no idea when The Last Epoch will end. But since it’s The Very Last One whenever it ends everything else does too.

Note: quotes from Acts 2:17 Hebrews 1:2 1 Peter 1:20 1 John 2:18 (CSB)

Week 41  Acts 1

When Jesus left earth for the last time he just disappeared into the sky and the disciples were left-hanging. So two angels came and told them: this same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.
So this means that Jesus’ (future) return to earth is going to be similar to his departure. Question: what’ll it be like when Jesus comes back? Answer: he’ll reverse the steps he took when he left. He’ll: a) appear in a cloud and b) descend to the surface of earth.
From other reading I know this is a real bare-bones description – other things will happen too. I do a cross-reference check of Paul. One of the verses he adds to the mix says: for the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Paul doesn’t mention a cloud but he confirms the descent from the sky…and he adds those couple of extra features:
a) an archangel will shout a loud command
b) there’ll be a trumpet blast
c) dead people who believed in Jesus will be resurrected.
So the angels’ promise to the disciples was adequate but incomplete. A more comprehensive list takes a bit more digging.

Note: quotes from Acts 1:11 & 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NIV)

Week 40  Acts 1

The book of Acts opens with the disciples re-connecting with the Lord. The very first question they asked him was: Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
This turns out to be one of those situations where a guy has a question that seems crucial to him but the reality is that – all other things considered – it isn’t really a very important question at all.
The Lord’s answer would have been deflating: it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
It’s a good reminder that there are things for me to know and there are things for me not to know. It’s like two rooms in a hallway. I can go to the Things-to-Know Room and walk in and get valuable information about certain things. But when I go to the Things-Not-to-Know Room I find the door locked.
Calendar dates are one of the things that it’d be interesting to know about. But Acts 1 reinforces the fact that there are some things – times or dates for instance – that are behind a locked door.
How many other things are locked away is hard to say. But when it comes to some questions it’s a waste of time trying to break down the door.

Note: quotes from Acts 1:6 7 (NIV). In recent news September 23 2025 was floated as a key religious date. But the day came & went without any key religious events happening.

Week 40  John 20

Near the end of his gospel John tells why he wrote it: Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John selected these events from Jesus’ life so that you may believe. The You in you may believe is referring to John’s audience (I don’t know if John figured an audience would still be reading his gospel two-thousand years later…but here we are. You includes me & whoever-all-else reads – or has ever read – John’s gospel).
Everyone who has ever read the gospel of John gets a chance to either a) believe it or b) not believe it.
For a reader who believes a kind of laddering takes place.
Step One is where I read a story – let’s say Jesus turning water into wine. Instead of dismissing it as a bit of first-century voodoo I choose a) – I believe it.
Now I’m in a position to take Step Two (another big belief): I believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. 
And finally Step Three – the outcome: by believing I get to have life in his name.
A few other finer points of detail could be added to these Three Steps. But they’re the gist-of-it.

Note: quote from John 20:30-31 (CSB)

 

 

Week 40  John 19

John says that at the moment when Jesus died he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Jesus is a special case but my sense is that this process might be generally true for everyone. The end of life comes. My physical body dies. I give-up my spirit.
If John is saying that – by design & constitution – people have both a) a body and b) a spirit then that’s a significant thing to know and it gives me something to think about.
First of all I need to decide whether I actually believe that I’m just my physical body or whether I have a spirit too.
Then if I do think I’m a body-spirit binary I have to decide what to do about my spirit. (I’m fully tuned-in to my physical humanness – body is pretty definitive and it’s impossible to disregard. But spirit is a trickier department to put-my-finger-on.)
Of course it’s possible that Jesus was absolutely unique. The only human being to ever have a spirit – and that when he gave up his spirit it was a one-off situation. If that’s the case I don’t need to be too concerned. But if – in a constitutional way – I’m made up of two-parts then I’ve got something to chew on because if I have a spirit that’ll get given-up when I die then the question is: what do I do with it in the meantime?

Note: quote from John 19:30 (ESV). September reading report: 86% completed.

Week 40  John 17

John 17 is a prayer – an audible prayer – prayed by Jesus. A lot of it was for or about the disciples.
One of the things Jesus asked was this: sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Sanctify is a rare word. It’s an uncommon and mostly religious word so it’s not used much in everyday conversation. If I were to sanctify something I’d be setting it apart – earmarking or designating it for a religious or sacred purpose. It’s not a contemporary word or idea.
I checked quite a few bible versions to see if they’d switch-it-up but the majority – about 3-dozen – used ‘sanctify’. There were a few alternates like:
make them holy
set them apart (or set them apart for holiness)
make them ready for your service
dedicate them
consecrate.
Jesus prayed that his disciples would be sanctified – which is pretty special. But what really jumped out was the rest of the verse. The driver that motivated & gave momentum to sanctification was the truth. And then John added: your word is truth.
So sanctification – whatever-all that might actually involve for a person – is driven along by truth.
That’s welcome news for a bible-reader. I spend a bunch of time & effort reading with a specific goal of searching out truth. And it looks like when I find it sanctity will be piggy-backing along with it.

Note: quote from John 17:17 (CSB & NIV). Alternate words are from CEB CJB  NTFE OJB ERV EXB ICB Mounce NABRE GNT NLV NLT & TLB.

Week 39  John 5

Miracles were (likely) the most spectacular feature of Jesus’ life.
With the miracles a couple of things were going on.
First of all a miracle was a huge benefit for a miracle-recipient (for instance a blind man sees). So that was one thing.
But according to Jesus the miracles also had a second feature to them and that was because the majority of miracles weren’t done covertly. Most were public events. Which meant people witnessed the spectacle and then were faced with trying to account for it.
Of course people could draw whatever conclusion they wanted. Some might be shocked…but then shrug it off. Or shocked and left perplexed. There’s one case where people explained miracles by saying Jesus was an agent of the devil. So people could say whatever. But Jesus himself explained it this way (quoted from a  couple of versions):
These very works I am doing testify about me that the Father has sent me
The very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me
The very works that I do testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me
The very works that I am doing testify that the Father has sent me.
So a person in Jesus’ audience – like a bible reader today – can conclude whatever he wants. But the miracle-worker himself said that his miracles confirmed the fact that his Father-in-heaven had sent him.

Note: quote from John 5:36 (CSB ESV NASB NIV)