Freeing Truths: 2010

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Get to Know the Word

Get to know the New Testament, its gospels and epistles (and prophecy), inside out. “Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.” Make it such a part of your life that you won’t have to wonder, “What would Jesus do?”—you’ll know.

Read the Old Testament too—not that Christians are to live according to the Law of Moses, but in order to see the context of the history, culture and prophecy into which, Father sent Jesus. This will bring astounding clarity since most of what Jesus said either directly quoted or referred to the Old Testament. Connecting the dots between the two covenants will save you from confusing, time-wasting, even oppressive rabbit trails!

My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body.
Proverbs 4:20-22

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Resist the Devil

The reason that we're not to resist an evil person (Matthew 5:39), I'm discovering, is that we're to resist the devil (James 4:7). Resisting a person would be like chopping the top off a weed--it will only come back. But if we pull up the root of the matter--the devil, we'll have lasting success. People are redeemable; the devil isn't.

Finishing Well

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." Matthew 12:36

Following Jesus is an Action Verb

“Don’t strive, just rest in the Lord.” “Just trust God, he’ll bring whatever is best for you.” “Ninety percent of life is just showing up.” “Life is a journey—enjoy the ride.” These are some of the things we’ve been taught over the last few decades—just lay back and everything will take care of itself, que sera sera. But this fatalism, these do-nothing attitudes, though they sound good aren’t supported by the Bible. Let me be clear, I am in no way suggesting that we can earn our salvation! However, following Jesus is intended to be active not passive!

The New Testament urges us to seek, pursue, ask, persist, press on, run the race, run to win, have enough faith to move mountains, bother, pester, train hard, wrestle in prayer, love the Lord with everything we’ve got! It gives us as examples, a woman who pressed through the crowd to touch Jesus’ clothes so that she could be healed, a Gentile woman who wouldn’t take no for an answer to healing for her daughter, friends of a paralyzed man who took a roof off a house to get him to Jesus and blind men who wouldn’t shut up until they got Jesus’ attention! Jesus gave us parables of a woman who searched relentlessly for her coin, a shepherd who wasn’t satisfied with just 99, a man who knocked and knocked--bugging the daylights out of his neighbor until he got the bread he needed and a widow who bothered an unrighteous judge so much that he gave in before she drove him crazy—can’t you just see his eyeballs rolling?

We’ve gotten confused along the way and thought we weren’t supposed to run after things in the Kingdom but what Jesus said don’t run after was food and drink and clothes because pagans run after those. But somehow we think we’re supposed to run after jobs, education, careers, money…

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. Matthew 11:12

About Me

I’m Joan C. Thomson, a writer, artist, and speaker but most of all, I’m a follower of Jesus and all that I am flows from there. I used to parrot what I heard in church and the American culture but the more I read the Bible, the more questions I had. I saw that a lot of what I heard didn’t add up with what I read (though some did). Somewhere along the way, God gave me the gift of knowing when something doesn’t add up—or when it does, along with a drive to find out what the Truth is. I’ve been studying the Bible personally and in many classes for over forty years but my understanding jumped into a higher gear when I took a Bible institute introductory Hebrew and Greek class. There I learned to use Biblical reference books to see what the Bible truly says.

I invest a lot of time and Biblical research into everything I believe, write—even in many of my art pieces. I put everything that comes my way through the filter of Jesus’ teachings (the New Testament of the Bible). Like an archaeologist, I dig into the Word and report what‘s there and sooner or later, I’ll probably step on everyone’s pet teaching. Why go to all that trouble? First, it’s what I do, it’s who I am as a follower of Jesus and I am utterly convinced that it’s crucial to believe the right thing (Biblically) and then live it. It can be a matter of life and death—spiritual or physical. And freedom from the unnecessary heavy weight of false teachings—well-meaning though they may be, gives freedom to take up Jesus’ teachings.

Though I’ve participated in quite a few denominations over the years I don’t identify with any denomination, nor with “conservatives” or “liberals”—I’m simply a follower of Jesus.

My hope for this blog is that you too, will want to know what the Bible truly says on a given subject and that you will read what I have written as a prompt to dig more deeply yourself, as a signpost of where to look. I encourage you to be like the Bereans, who “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11) Don’t take my word for it, look it up! Paul wasn’t threatened, nor am I—preachers shouldn’t be either. And talk to me about it if you still can’t agree—don’t just get mad and/or write me off. Come join me in the quest to follow Jesus more closely.