Salt In Sodom

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I wrote some lyrics…

Salt here in Sodom is what we are needing,
Salt here in Sodom today, Oh my Lord I pray!
We don’t another pillar outside of town,
We need some Salt here in Sodom today.

“Sodom’s on the eve of destruction, Yes sir!”
That’s what the Angels say.
“Fire’s rolling in, better pack your bags boy!
There’s nothing standing in the way.”

So Abraham pleaded before the Lord,
“What if you find ten righteous men?”
God said, “If I can find Salt like that,
I’ll spare the city on account of them!”

Salt here in Sodom is what we are needing,
Salt here in Sodom today, Oh my God I pray!
We don’t need another pillar outside of town,
We need some Salt here in Sodom today.

Now Lot’s wife she didn’t want to go, you know,
Her heartbeat was begging to stay,
She heard the sound, turned around,
And from head to ground,
She became a briny little pillar that day

Preacher Polk, I heard he spoke,
“It ain’t no joke; Listen folk,
You’re the Salt of the Earth today
So turn about, stand up stout, and shake it out,
Cause a little Salt can go a long, long way!”

Salt here in Sodom is what we are needing,
Salt here in Sodom today, Oh my God I pray!
We don’t need another pillar outside of town,
We need some Salt here in Sodom today.

Hey, hey, hey now

Salt in our city is a what we are needing,
Salt in our city today, Oh my friend let’s pray!
We don’t a briny pillar outside of town,
We need some Salt in our city today!

Written after hearing a sermon from Gen. 18 (Abraham’s plea for Sodom), Gen. 19:26 (Lot’s wife turned to a pillar of Salt) , and Matt. 5: 13 (You are the Salt of the Earth). It’s copyrighted, does anyone want to make a record?

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Pulpitless Persuasions

Reblogged from Elmo Shangnaster's Blog:

Over many years of listening to various and sundry pulpiteers, it seems odd that some parts of scripture have never been so much as touched upon let alone used to make a main point in sermon fodder. Some scriptures are so oft used, even week after week in messages, wearing them out pressing at some significant point, that they hardly require effort at memorization.

Read more… 897 more words

My long-time friend Elmo wrote this today, and he makes a good point. I say, Put on the whole armor of God, and don't forget your shovel. Read on...

Kill The Infidels!–Is That The Bible?

Definition of Infidel: One who is unfaithful. One who strays and gets involved in an illicit relationship, or strays from a particular faith.

“If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. “But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people“.

Is this a passage from the Koran telling the Muslims to kill the infidels? Nope. This is not from the Koran. This is a command from Yahweh God written in the Scriptures telling the Israelites to kill their infidel friends and relatives. It is found in Deuteronomy 13: 6-9.

Yikes! What’s going on here? Tighten your seat belt, here we go…

Dealing With Misquotes And “Warts” In Scripture

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Who killed Goliath? Was it David or another guy named Elhanan? 2 Samuel 21:19 (NASB) (NIV) clearly states, “There was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam”. There are NOT two Goliaths in the Bible. Being a “Gittite” means that you came from Gath of Philistia. Whoa! This is the same Goliath! According to the Scriptures, David killed Goliath; and then later, Elhanan killed the same Goliath! That is not possible, and this is not a trick. Who really killed Goliath? We’ll find out shortly.

James 4:5 asks, Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? James is obviously quoting a scripture. The problem is, there is no such scripture! I’m not kidding. No matter what translation you use, no matter how hard you look, no matter what commentary or concordance you search, there really is no such passage. Perhaps what is most stunning about this verse is that you cannot easily attribute this as being a “copyist’s error”. Commentaries use words like “perplexing”, “dumbfounding” and “extremely obscure” to describe the difficulty with this passage. There is no scripture that is even close.

Now, let me ask you a personal question: How do these situations make you feel or think when you read them? Examine your thoughts and reaction. Do you think that the way you respond to these puzzles in the Scripture could reveal something about you, or your view of  God’s nature? The Bible is compared to a reflecting mirror. How do you react when the mirror “seems” to have cracks? As a believer, how do you deal with it?

Part 2: Lonely Noah! What’s In Your Carry-On Bag?

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What Did You See In The Previous Post?

In the previous post, We looked at the facts of Noah’s life. Then we aligned the pieces, and like a jigsaw puzzle, we looked at the picture that came together. We looked into what Noah may have seen, experienced, and felt. We concluded that all humans have a real need of knowing that someone can identify with them on some level. The kind of profound and isolated loneliness that he endured throughout his life would have likely caused him to deeply yearn for some form of attachment or reminder of someone who also loved God the way he did. We saw that Noah was very human and his need was intensely magnified. If you haven’t read Part 1 or if you have forgotten what you saw, then you really need to read Part 1 before going any further.

Noah’s Spiritual Hero

Who loved God like Noah? Who could have been an inspiration and example for Noah? The best candidate is the mysterious man we know as Enoch.

Enoch is the first one of only two men in the entire Bible who has the distinction of being named as someone who “walked with God”. That is a pretty exclusive club! Do you remember who was the only other person to hold that status? That’s right, it was Noah.  Righteous Enoch was Noah’s Great-Grandpa! Enoch was the 1st Biblical Prophet, and Noah was the 1st Biblical Preacher. They came from the same family and they both “walked with God”. Noah could certainly identify with his Paw-Paw Enoch. Do you think Enoch’s legacy influenced young Noah? Do you think that young Noah cherished hearing the testimony and stories about his Paw-Paw and how he walked with God and skipped death? I tend to believe that Noah spent a lot of time thinking about his Paw-Paw Enoch and the stories he heard. Although the timeline would indicate that they never met, I believe Noah latched on to those stories and determined to “walk with God” like his Paw-Paw did.

Tertullian (160-225 A.D.) “The Founder of Western Theology” had this to say about the bond Noah felt with Enoch: “Let them recall to their memory that Noah, the survivor of the deluge, was the great-grandson of Enoch himself; and he, of course, had heard and remembered, from domestic renown and hereditary tradition, concerning his own great-grandfather’s “grace in the sight of God,” and concerning all his preachings; since Enoch had given no other charge to Methuselah than that he should hand on the knowledge of them to his posterity. Noah therefore, no doubt, might have succeeded in the trusteeship of (his) preaching; or, had the case been otherwise, he would not have been silent alike concerning the disposition (of things) made by God, his Preserver, and concerning the particular glory of his own house.

What Did Noah Keep?

So, what did Noah take with him on the Ark? I agree with Tertullian; In some way, shape, form, or manner, I believe that Noah kept and preserved the words/prophecy of Enoch. You see, Noah was a planner. Do you think that Noah just listened to God’s design for the Ark and said, “Okey-dokey”, and just simply kept it in his head hoping that he would remember how to build the boat that would save his neck? Would you be that casual? I’m going to bet that Noah was very, very careful to do everything in his power to draw, inscribe, make pictures on stone, record every detail that God told him. Wouldn’t you do that? We don’t know if they had a written language in the Antediluvian world, but we do know that they were able to communicate measurements like a “cubit”. With that kind of urgent responsibility on his shoulders, I truly believe that Noah did everything in his power to make a record of things that were important to him. If he wasn’t that meticulous, I doubt that God would have entrusted the building of the Ark to his care. I personally believe Noah used that same diligence to preserve the words/prophecy of Enoch.

The Evidence

Watch this! The Bible says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Somehow we got it stuck in our minds that Noah just preached BEFORE the Flood…I believe he was just warming up! God’s callings don’t disappear, he was still a preacher. I wonder if his first post-flood sermon was titled, “I Told You So!” It used to be that the only people who would like to see Noah and would let him preach were the good folks down at Gopher Brothers Lumber Supply!! Unlike the unbelieving pre-flood crowd, I believe that Noah’s descendants were now properly motivated to carefully listen and heed every word that came from his lips! LOL. I believe that Noah’s post-flood preaching had an impact that was incredibly LONG-LASTING. Think about this. Enoch was one of the few examples that Noah could use in his messages of righteousness. Let’s be honest, the only examples he could use were primarily Abel and Enoch. That really narrows things down a lot, doesn’t it? I believe that Noah often declared the words of Paw-Paw Enoch.

This prophetic message was powerful; yet Moses and the Prophets didn’t feel the need to write it down. You cannot find Enoch’s prophecy anywhere in the Old Testament! It didn’t need the help of Moses and the boys in order for it to be included in the New Testament. You have to understand that God once again allowed Enoch to bypass the rules. Just like Enoch bypassed death, the Holy Spirit allowed Enoch’s words to bypass Moses and the boys and allowed Enoch’s words to stand on its own. Noah’s preaching wasn’t so futile after all, was it? The prophetic message of Enoch carried great weight and by the Spirit’s power it moved forward verbally and on other written pages without the aid of any Old Testament writers. Enoch was the first prophet of God, Enoch was the first of only two people who “walked with God”, Enoch was the first of only two people to escape death, Enoch didn’t need the confirmation of other writers for his words to stand because he was the first. Enoch’s name means “to begin, initiate, dedicate”. That sounds like being first.

Do you think that the Holy Spirit was going to let the words of the 1st Prophet fall to the ground and be forgotten? Nope. How long were the words of Enoch preserved? Well, sometime around 3,400 years later, The Penultimate Book of the Bible quotes the very words of Enoch saying, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him–Jude 1:14-15”. There is the evidence. It didn’t come through Moses or any O.T. writer. I believe the Spirit initially used Noah to do something to preserve the words of Enoch through the Flood and perpetuate them forward through others. Thirty-four centuries go by and Jude quotes this prophecy of Enoch, and he knows that his Jewish/Christian audience is very familiar with this passage, and that this information is publicly reliable. Jude didn’t have a dream or vision, Jude is quoting something that was familiar to his audience.

You might be asking, “How could Jude and his audience be so familiar with the inspired prophecy of Enoch when it wasn’t included in the Old Testament writings?” The reason is because the inspired prophecy of Enoch was eventually copied down in another “best-seller” that was written years before Jude. Jude pulled the inspired prophecy of Enoch from this book. Click on this passage for Jude 1:14-15 and look at the footnote to see where Jude got his information. Did you see that? Bible writers were often led by the Spirit to quote from outside sources. Paul quoted a pagan author named Epimenides (Titus 1:12). The BIG difference here is that Jude recognizes this passage as being true authentic prophecy from Enoch. This is a prophecy about the coming of the Lord and this passage is considered to be prophetic Scripture. That is not the only time that the N.T. uses this other book as a source of truth and information…Do you have any questions about the Book of Enoch?

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Lonely Noah! What’s In Your Carry-On Bag?

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Something Was Very Important To Noah

If the T.S.A. had searched Noah’s luggage, could they have found something of interest and value? We know about the major contents of the Ark. We know about the people on board the Ark. But does the Bible,  history, or legends give us even a hint or possible clue about anything that Noah may have personally carried with him long ago on his nautical voyage? What was important to Noah? If it was you today, what would you take? Photo Albums? Passed-down family heirlooms? Precious memories? Seriously, what would have been precious to Noah? I’ll tell you this, I believe something was very precious to Noah.

A Different Look: What Motivated Noah?

Let’s begin by getting inside Noah’s head for a moment as we look at his life. Although Noah had a wife and family, I tend to believe that Noah was a man who may have battled a deep sense of loneliness throughout his life. Have you ever known anyone like that? Think about this fact: Before the Flood, he was the ONLY righteous person left alive on the Earth! (Gen. 7:1).  Imagine living your life as the only one standing against the ways of the world. Imagine the increasing, alienating ridicule he may have endured and how it made him feel. How would you feel?

For years, he was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), and yet no one would listen, no one would heed. Did they scoff at him and walk away? It was isolating enough to be the only righteous man alive; But on top of that, he was also an against-the-grain preacher! He had to feel like an utter alien. I want you to think about the reality of the Bible naming him a “preacher of righteousness”. What does that mean? It probably means the following: 1) God called Noah to preach. 2) Given the situation, he was probably a very passionate preacher. 3) He probably had a true spiritual burden from the Lord accompanied with innumerable hours of knee-breaking powerful intercession. So, he had the calling; he had the truth; he had integrity; he had God’s empowering; he faithfully preached for decades; and had NO results…(crickets chirping). When I think of the preaching ministry of Noah, I can hear the lyrics of the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby when it says, “Father Mckenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear, no one comes near…Father Mckenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave, no one was saved. All the lonely people…”

The world would call Noah a failure. They would say he should quit preaching and do something else with his life. They would remind him of the world’s wisdom which says, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results”. The sheer loneliness combined with decades of the most complete futility that a minister could ever experience had to be crushing at times. According to the timeline, I believe that Noah holds the Biblical World Record for the lengthiest and most futile preaching ministry (100+ years, 0 converts). I hope he wasn’t a results-oriented person. He had zero results and yet he belongs to the Faith Hall of Fame. God is more interested in character than counting. (Some congregations need to read this before voting their preacher out, and some preachers need to read this before quitting).

Like any real human, Noah must have had times of being engulfed with feelings of despair and failure because of the continual, complete, and very personal rejection of both him and his message. All humans have a real need of knowing that someone can identify with them on some level. That kind of profound and isolated loneliness would cause a righteous man to deeply yearn for some form of attachment or reminder of someone who also loves God the way he does. Noah was very human and his need was intensely magnified.

The Final Farewell

When it came time to enter the Ark, I wonder if Noah and his family experienced tremendous mourning as God closed the door of the great ship? You might be asking, why would he cry at seeing God’s hand provide shelter and comfort by closing out the storm? In our hindsight that’s the way we view the closing of the Ark door. But from Noah’s real and immediate point of view, it probably felt like watching the lid of a coffin closing out the only world he ever knew. His loved ones were about to be buried alive in water! What? I thought that all of his loved ones were on the boat? No, not all of them. The Bible makes a clear point to tell us that Noah had plenty of YOUNGER brothers and sisters (Gen. 5:30). As the skies began to pour out their torrent, I wonder if the Ark was soundproof or if he could hear the traumatizing screams of his brothers, sisters, their families, and their babies  as they continuously pounded their adrenaline-filled fists against the Ark while the waters rose to their waists? After carefully contemplating the passage above, I believe that his younger brothers and sisters that he had helped raise and care for, were now dying outside. That is so incredibly sad. No doubt these were many of the people to whom he had preached and poured out his soul (A man who would preach and never give up is a man who I would guess had a deep intense love for those people). I wonder if he could hear them yelling in desperation, “Noah, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you! Please Noah, help me!!!” Have you ever stopped to think of the utter grief and deep emotional pain he suffered as he knew that his younger brothers and sisters were drowning outside? Picture your favorite sibling, nephew, niece, or dear cousin who doesn’t know the Lord. Can you feel it? It was real. I simply cannot grasp the full magnitude of Noah’s very real pain.

Now Noah had many, many years to think about what he would take with him on this voyage. Noah wasn’t stupid and I’m sure that he could see that no was listening to him. He could see that tragedy was coming. Was there anything from the pre-flood world that Noah would want to keep as a source of strength and comfort??? Most of us would be looking for our Bible. What did Noah have?

After the rains stopped, we tend to think about how wonderful it must have been to finally open that window and feel the sunshine; but we forget the dreadfulness of seeing the rotting, dead carcasses of both man and animal floating on the water. After the Flood, it must have been sheer terror for Noah to come to the full realization that his was now the ONLY family left alive on Earth as he walked among the carnage, stench, and destruction (Gen. 6:23). This was so much more than a Hurricane Katrina, or a Japanese tsunami…The whole world was dead. Do you think that Noah and his family suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, or do you think they just lived happily ever after? The circumstances of their post-flood trauma has no equal. How do you deal with that? God sustained them, but the grief was real. Having favor with God does not make you immune to pain.

In his lifetime, Noah went from being a rejected outcast before the flood, to being a lone father in a situation of dire isolation. From beginning to end, everything we read tells us that his life was a life of alienation followed by desolation. Everyone likes to talk about Job, but folks don’t realize the lengthy tragedy of Noah’s life. While it is true that Noah was a righteous man, let’s not forget that Noah was a fallen human being. The emotional pain must have felt overbearing at times. Why else do you think he got drunk (Gen. 9:21)? Commentators try to make this look like Noah had no idea that grapes would do that. Seriously, do you think Noah was that ignorant? Come on! Noah was drunk, naked, and passed out! This was no accident. This was human weakness. I’m not excusing his drunkenness. It made things worse! It led to further tragedy which caused a permanent wedge in this suffering family. (Let me stop for a moment to say that God doesn’t just work in pretty lives; He also works and brings glory into lives that are wrecked with pain. Just because you have favor with God doesn’t mean that things will be rosy with man. Favor doesn’t always = converts, care-free living, and comfort in this world. God is sometimes the only comfort in your life. When you fall, God knows your frame and He remembers that you are dust. But, if you draw nigh to God, He will draw nigh to you. He helped Noah pull through! Do not read the Bible in a deceitful manner thinking these people were above us and escaped real human emotion and weakness. These things are written as examples for us. When you read the bible without calculating human emotion, drama, weakness, and strength into it, then you run the risk of reading with a lying mind.  Pray in the Spirit! Noah was far from perfect. BUT, Noah took the comfort that God gave him, and he CONTINUED to worship God. Life busted his chops, but he kept going in God’s strength. Jesus is interceding for you. Perhaps Noah is among the heavenly cloud of witnesses that is cheering you on! Noah would tell you that the joy of the Lord was his strength. That’s real. You’ve got friends in High places! That’s where it counts the most.)

Let me repeat what I said earlier: That kind of profound loneliness would cause a righteous man to deeply yearn for some form of attachment or reminder with someone past or present who also loves God the way he does. Remember, Noah didn’t have a Bible filled with heroes. I personally believe that Noah found that kindred spirit and carried something with him. In the next post, we will take a look at that person and the evidence. In the meantime, I would like to  encourage you to do a few things. 1) Share this with others. Maybe it will encourage someone. 2) Read Genesis and start asking questions like: Who is this person? In what ways could Noah identify with this person? What could they pass on to Noah? 3) Feel free to subscribe/follow this blog, or e-mail me so that you don’t miss part 2 and the following segments.

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Giants Before & After The Flood

I’d like to take a shot at a question that keeps coming up about the Great Flood of Noah. This isn’t something that you will find inspiring, but it may help to defrost a window in our theology…Maybe.

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According to the Bible, Nephilim and giants were part of the population before the Flood. The Bible clearly states that except for Noah and his family, everyone was wiped off the planet in the Flood (Gen. 7:23). Yet, the Bible also clearly states that Nephilim survived the Flood (Num. 13:33). Also, both the NAS and NIV versions of Gen. 6:4 point forward to the fact that the Giants were in the land before & after the Flood. If the Bible states that all men were wiped off the planet, then how do we account for the re-appearance of the Nephilim in Numbers 13 and giants like Goliath, Gad, Og, the clan of the Rephaites, and others in the Bible AFTER the flood?

Some answers given by others:

1) The “Sons of God” from Genesis 6 re-infected the Human race again after the Flood.

2) According to the Hebrew Midrash Aggadah, the Jews believed that some giants rode on top of the Ark. They specifically refer to the giant Og in the Bible.

3) The spies in Numbers 13 were not only giving an evil report, they were lying. There weren’t any Nephilim in Canaan. The problem with this view is that Joshua and Caleb do not refute this statement. This view would also contradict Gen 6:4 which states the same race of Nephilim inhabited the earth before and after the flood. Also this doesn’t explain the other clans of giants in the Bible after the flood.

My two cents? Although I personally believe that Noah and his sons had no trace of Nephilim or giants in their ancestry, we cannot say the same thing for any of the sons’ wives. The Bible is silent on the son’s wives except to say that Noah was the ONLY person who was “perfect in his generations“. That leaves the option open that perhaps one of his daughter-in-law’s did not genetically come from an ancestry of “perfect generations” and had some “giant genes” in the mix. Giants after the flood came from the descendants of Ham, right???

Just a thought, not a conviction. Don’t burn me at a stake. It’s just a thought.

Now I have many, many more questions…Stay tuned.