General

Who is Jesus?

John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

He is the light... and the life.. God manifest in human form...

look further with me...

from 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.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He came to save us, folks... gave up the glory of heaven to come down and live with humans so that we could come back to God.

and at the well in chapter 4.

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

He cared enough about a Samaritan woman.. to come and offer her eternal life.

forward again as He shows His mercy again.

John 8

1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.

But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

***think about the hypocracy they showed.. they brought the woman but there was a man involved somewhere.

7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

So here they are.. having been told to put up or shut up.... by the Lord of Glory...

I can just imagine what He is writing upon the ground... I suspect he was listing their sins for them...

as the next verse shows their conscience working on them.

9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

***they couldn't take the heat... and left her with Jesus and those he was teaching.

11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

**such mercy and Grace.

12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

here we have it again about walking in the light... hmmm maybe because thats where we should be?

Fast forward to John 10

11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.

13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

He gave His life for us... they didn't take it from Him... He gave it freely for us.

moving to john 11

33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.

34 And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!

37 And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?

38 Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Not only does Jesus care for us.. He holds the power of the universe in His hand.

And in John 13

we see the Lord of Glory.... washing the feet of the disciples...

3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;

4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

And in John 15

.... Wow!

9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

*Jesus loves us...

12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

* and we are to love one another...

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

*which He did for US

14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may

give it you.

**Get this.. as Christians we are His Friends.... friends of God...

17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

once again... the command to love one another.. sadly lacking in too many gatherings of His people... but His command to us all the same.

lets go on...

John 17

9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

that's us you know.. we have their word for our witness... then we have our walk with him.

In John 19

....after having been horribly beaten and nailed to a cross... which was then dropped into place.... we see this..

30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

The Lord of Glory... giving up life... that we should be able to live...

He is God the Son, folks.... Creator of the universe...

and He made payment for our sins... with His LIFE ...

All he asks is that we accept His payment...

Who is Jesus?

Who are the Pagans?

Author: Mark Bishop

You could almost as easily ask 'who are the christians?'

Pagans are in all walks of life from banker to baker. Most of them are nice upstanding people. Some are not, but then some who claim the name of Christ are not either.

So, basically, people are people; regardless of what their stated spiritual path.

The most important factor in who they are, from a christian perspective, is this:

They are not following Jesus.

Therefore, it is our job to tell them about Jesus and His offer of salvation.

Now, to be quite honest here, there is no need for a follower of Jesus to be afraid of them, or the beings that they worship.

Forget what you have seen from Hollywood, and forget the Shock Testimonies that have traveled the church rounds, because it is time for a little truth.

We are called to love these people too. Not what they are doing, but the people.

That is what Jesus wants, and what He enables us to do.

To cut it short, I guess what I am getting at is this;

Pagans and others on the magik paths are simply people - just like you and I. They are our neighbors, and we are to love them as ourselves.

There are many myths spoken among church folks about witches, pagans etc.

I will take the time to address One of them here.

In all my years on various magik paths, I never sacrificed any life:

Neither animal or human.

None of the people I knew did either.

To be quite blunt, the people that spread the rumors saying ~witches/satanists/pagans/martians sacrifice cats.." etc on the basis of "everyone knows" have gone beyond being annoying and have become quite hurtful to the witness of the church.

The pagans know it is wrong so they won't listen after that.

and I, for one, get really tired of being portrayed as some kind of monster just to tickle the fancy of someone's audience.

Please get it this time my brethren:

Pagans are just as far from God as you were, no further.

You could almost as easily ask 'who are the Christians?'

What draws people to magic?

Author: Mark Bishop

Unfortunately there is no easy answer to this question.

For some, it is the need for knowledge and/or power. For others, they are drawn towards them by various influences.

That list of influences just seems to keep growing, so I will take a look at some of the broad categories to start with.

Cultural influences are important here in drawing people towards this path.

Along those lines you have various movies and television shows which go to great lengths to portray magik as exciting and appealing. Then, of course, you have an assortment of books that have been written specifically to lead young people towards one magik path or another. With the most prolific authors along those lines being wiccan at the moment. It remains to be seen if those of another path will catch up or not.

Those movies and books fit in with various fiction works in print that also make magik seem to be an appealing form of empowerment.

What can be done about these from a christian perspective? As a parent you can and should be very aware of what your children are watching and reading. You should also pray for your children. Above and beyond that, there really is not much that you will be able to do about the various cultural influences, so lets look at the next item.

Peer pressure.

Think about it. Remember what it was like?

I thought you might.

When some of your friends seem to be involved in something 'special' or 'cool' and want you to join in. That can be hard to turn down at times. And it is natural for those who have found answers to spiritual questions to want to share them with their friends. So, people get introduced to the magik paths that way as well.

To be quite honest, there is really not much beyond prayer for you, as a christian, to do on that front either. Again, as a parent, be AWARE of what your children are doing. And don't be afraid to discuss things with them.

The list goes on.. but as there is only one area that I can see for Christians to really affect, I will skip over to that part now.

Over these last few years, I have come to the conclusion that the largest contributor to the rise of neo-paganism and other magik paths in the Western world is really..

The Church.

How can this be?

It has to do with the 'church' losing it's way.

Some of the issues that I have seen and heard of from others follow, in no particular order:

Extremely Liberal churches, Where the very power of God is shoved aside from thought and action, and God is thought of as not being interested in what is going on here on the earth. Where it almost seems as if they only exist as a social club that calls itself a church..

People there have a hard time finding answers to real spiritual issues. So when a seeker goes there looking for those answers.. and looking for God, they tend to leave again without finding either. So when they stumble across a magik path that has answers, they tend to follow it.

Word of Faith Churches, or, those churches that follow some form of those doctrines.

The farther they are from scripturally sound, the greater the damage potential. I have heard everything from ~you didn't get healed because your faith is weak~ to ~if you give 'x' amount of money, God will do 'y'~

and let me be real with y'all here....

If I wanted to do magik there are better ways than THAT to get it done.

People who escape from such places tend to view Christians as just out to part them from their money and time. To be avoided at all costs. So they go elsewhere looking for answers to spiritual issues, and if they land on one of the magik paths, they run with it.

Legalistic churches,

Sometimes hiding behind the name of 'fundamental', these churches tend to focus almost exclusively on the theological do's and dont's. You know the kind.. Christians behave thus and such... Christians don't do that... etc..

What they forget, is to introduce people to our Saviour, Jesus. It seems that they have fallen into the trap of being to busy being correct all the time, and forgetting that they are also supposed to be compassionate. This also leaves people with a skewed view of Christianity. I have found many that walk the magik paths that have attended, or even grew up in this type of church. It seems that the very harshness of this type of fellowship drives them away even if they actually got introduced to Jesus while they were there.

Please understand that in each of those situations you may very well find some sincere, wonderful believers who are trying to do what they feel Jesus wants them to do. And what those people should be doing is praying for God to restore the fellowship that they are attending to a right perspective, and relationship with Him.

Even in churches that do not fall to those extremes, you will find a lack of understanding at times, and an unwillingness to dig for answers to inconvenient questions. This tends to drive away those who are curious about various things. Any topic from spiritual issues to scientific ones... if they keep getting stepped on for asking questions they will wander off to find what answers they can elsewhere.

I am drawn back to this verse here:

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,

and will heal their land.

Christians,

My brethren...

I implore you to act on that verse, for the only part of the equation we can fix here, is ourselves.

Mark

Unfortunately there is no easy answer to this question.

Slow Roasted Christians

Author: Mark Bishop

After one has followed our Lord for a space of time, One will note that occasionally we are called to do something that requires more from us than just drifting through life. We also find at these times that God may not tell us 'Why' right then.

So, how does a Slow Roasted christian deal with these times? They tend to say 'yes Lord' even when they do not understand the reason yet.

After all, if you have accepted the Creator of the universe s Lord of your life, are you really going to question His every judgement? Does this mean you turn off your brain when you accept Jesus as your Saviour? God forbid.

Keeping this all in mind, how does the Slow-Roasted christian prepare for these times?

With various spiritual disciplines. The top two being:

Bible study- This one is hard for me with my schedule, usually leaving me to read and study before meetings and in waiting rooms. It is much more preferable to have a regular time set aside for Bible study and prayer.

Prayer- should happen often. And it needs to be said here that prayer is not merely a listing off of things that we want to happen. Instead prayer is a conversation with God. And for the Christian prayer-fullness should be an attitude for approaching life. As useful and necessary as these two things are, people are people and tend to want more recent examples of such faith. Fortunately there are many such examples available. I would suggest for your reading library, the life stories and writings of:

D.L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, Carl Hatch, Amy Carmichal, Elisabeth Elliot, etc. There are many others besides from the last 150 years or so. You can also find them in many churches today. In spite of my statements in the "Microwave Christians" article, there are still some wonderful servants of God here in the churches. I am fortunate enough to have quite a few of them in the church that God led me to. So I am hopeful of seeing a resurgance of Godly men and women in churches across the area. For this to happen we need the followers of Jesus to stand up and say "yes Lord" 'whenever, and where ever You wish'.

I stated earlier that we are not to turn off our brains when following Jesus. That is because we are to:

Matthew 22:37

37 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.

Hard to do that if you have turned off your mind.

Then there is this one...

2 Timothy 2:15

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

We can not use our full capacity in service of our Lord if we refuse to either think or study.

Basically, it takes time and effort to become a Slow-roasted christian. It is much easier to be a microwave christian, but it is nowhere near as fulfilling.

So, Christian, I ask you to study and pray. And yes, you are perfectly right to ask the hard questions, especially of God. But when you have a clear instruction from Him and His word, I ask you to obey Him while you ask.

realizing that He may not tell you 'why' right away. I have found though, that He may indeed tell you at a later time when it will be most helpful for you to know.

MAGIC - is it real?

For clarification; no, we are not discussing stage magic, or illusions.

What we are discussing is the effecting of one's surroundings by other than physical means.

From my own perspective and my own history, I will say that Yes, magic is real.

Let's face it though, most of you reading these words don't know me from Adam. So, rather than ask you to take my word for it, or telling you of things done when I was on the magic paths; Let us look to the Bible instead. We will start out in the book of Exodus. You will note that when Aaron cast down his rod as the Lord had instructed it became a serpent. At this juncture, the Egyptian magicians did likewise using magic.

Exodus 7

8 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.

10 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Looking at this passage, Christians, you should first realize that this did not take God by surprise that the magicians involved here had those enchantments. This was a direct power to power confrontation, and Aaron's rod overcame all the others. We see this theme played out in the plagues that were sent upon Egypt. Where the magicians were able to reproduce the effects that our Lord had caused as He kept increasing the difficulty and power required.

In Exodus 7

again;

19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said.

23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also. Eventually, it came to pass that the Magicians serving Pharaoh could no longer duplicate what God had done, and they then recognized what was going on, even though Pharaoh did not.

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

18 And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.

19 Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said. The Lord has spoken rather strongly about His people needing to avoid using magic.. example:

Deuteronomy 18

9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.

11Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Moving forwards in time to the Acts of the Apostles....

We see Simon, The Sorcerer.

Acts chapter 8

9 But there was a certain man, called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:

10 To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.

11 And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.

12 But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

13 Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.

So, from the Bible, the apparent verdict is in.... magic is real.

I grant you that it is a pale shadow compared to the power of God, as Simon came to realize,

but it is a real force.

For clarification; no, we are not discussing stage magic, or illusions.

What we are discussing is the effecting of one's surroundings by other than physical means.

Is Harry Potter really the problem?

Author: Mark Bishop

Is Harry Potter really the problem?

We all hear a lot about Harry Potter. Depending on who you talk to, Harry Potter books are either the best thing since sliced bread as well as being responsible for kids deciding that reading is cool again, OR these books are stepping stones to the occult and just plain evil. Both views cannot be correct, however, the question bears asking, "Which is right and which is wrong?"

Before I continue, let me comment that I really do not like anything that makes witchcraft appear to be attractive with no consequences. While Harry Potter does make witchcraft attractive, is it the reason that so many are drawn to Wicca? Or is it merely a symptom?

I would submit that Harry Potter is a symptom, just as movies such as The Craft, or TV shows such as "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," and "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" are symptoms of the problem. Having voiced this opinion, let me submit that too often we are so busy focusing on the symptom of the problem that we have lost sightof what the real problem is.

The problem is the same as it has always been since Eve ate the fruit that the serpent gave her, while Adam stood by. The problem is that we are separated from God by sin. The world is afraid that they will miss out on something fun if they turn to our God. Why shouldn't they have that attitude? Isn't that precisely what we convey many times? While we need to pursue holiness, too often we do so while looking miserable. The world already has misery, they do not need to give up anything in order to attain it. The people we try to reach on a daily basis are watching and waiting for us to be different. They are waiting to see something in our lives that they truly want. Until they see a clear difference in our lives, the fruits of the spirit to be precise, few will be attracted to our God.

The pagan community is growing by leaps and bounds, these precious people are searching for something greater than themselves. I submit that rather than blaming Harry Potter, we Christians need to take a hard look at ourselves and ask if we are contributing to the problem or are we willing to be used by God to communicate the solution. If we are not communicating the solution to a world that is searching, then we are far worse than the very books that we decry as leading people away from God. After all, it is we who have been given the Great Commission, not the world. The time to fulfill it is here.

We do not have the luxury of blaming non-Christians for our inability to accomplish what we have been commanded to do.

The question remains, is Harry Potter the problem?

Or are we in the body of Christ to blame by not following the command of our Savior?

We all hear a lot about Harry Potter.

Coming back to Jesus?

Author: Mark Bishop

Coming back to Jesus

Can you come back in light of Hebrews 6: 4

-6???? Yes. Allow me to explain.

I was going with the interpretation that, as we were in the book of Hebrews, we were looking at a passage concerning Jews who, although having been taught the way of salvation, chose to go back rather than accept Jesus' offer. Then opposing the church from that standpoint.

That would leave them between a rock and a hard place as the system of sacrifices they would be trusting in then had been negated by the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross.

Even in this interpretation, it is still possible for them to come back when taken with these passages in mind.

Luke 18:27

Where Jesus is speaking of how hard it is for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven He also says this; 27And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

So where we would not be able to bring them back to renewal, God can.

There is also the story of the Prodigal son. Who never stopped being the Father's son even when he was off going his own way.

I have since read a treatise on the subject that I found fascinating, from James at www.middletree.net.

Where he maintains that the passage in not talking about salvation at all. Rather, it is dealing with the tendency for the Hebrews to fall away from faith based salvation, to works based salvation. Hence the reference to crucifying Christ again.. They were trying to pay their own way for salvation again. The reference to burning was explained as their works would be burned up in day of judgment but they would still be saved.

1 Corinthians 3:12-15

12Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

14If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

15If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Also to be considered now is the Disciple, Peter.

While it is true that he did not leave to go into the occult, he did leave. Having travelled with Jesus for ~3 years, when it came to crunch time, Peter denied even knowing Jesus.

Jesus accepted Peter back, as well as the other disciples and followers who were in hiding while He was paying for our sins upon the cross.

Bottom line of it is thus.

If you were a christian, then left and went off into the occult paths; (for whatever reason)

You are permitted to come back to Jesus. He is awaiting for you with open arms my friend.

After all, He welcomed me back.

Can you come back in light of Hebrews 6: 4

-6???? Yes. Allow me to explain.

Christian Magician?

Author: Mark Bishop

So you think you want to be a Christian magician.

Let us explore the implications of this issue.

First, we will look at what it is to be a Christian.

Most importantly, Anyone can be a Christian.. Gospel of John chapter 3vs16: 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.

Whosoever is both plain and inclusive. It means whosoever snuck back in line for extra desert at the pot-luck.. It means whosoever just finished calling on dark powers..

Whosoever.

Next, as a follower of Jesus, we should do our best to live as He wishes for us to do.

On that note, we go to the instruction manual that was left for our use. In there we find many things about how we are to behave: Mark 12:29-31

29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is,

Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

1 Peter 5:7 7

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Philippians 4:12-13

12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

16 Rejoice evermore.

17 Pray without ceasing.

18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

There is a small sample of our instructions as Christians. Now I will point out at this time,that sometimes the answer to prayer is: No. If we are willing to trust Jesus, and understand that He knows more about the situations than we do, a No may certainly disappoint us but it will not be a crushing blow. For, as Christians, we are relying on Him.

To be a magician, one learns to use magic of some form or other, to alter the world around us by exercising our will. How this is accomplished depends upon the path of learning that the occultist is on.. (lets be honest enough to call it what it is). In some form or fashion the magician is seeking to impose his will on the world.

Taken in the context of many magic paths this is a perfectly reasonable and understandable thing to do. Looking at it from a christian perspective, however, shows a rather serious issue. Leaving aside all the prohibitions on Gods' people concerning the use of magic, we still find a basic incompatibility. For a follower of Jesus, whether in prayer or in use of one of the many Spiritual gifts, it is always a matter of "thy will be done, Lord".

Where as for the magician it is a matter of "my will be done". You can dress it up any way you wish, but that is what it comes down to. Now for those who wish to energize their rituals with God's power, they are in essence, attempting to make the Lord of Glory their servant. I realize that there are some who try to get around this issue by merely asking Him to bless their working. I realize also that some say it is just a tool for getting closer to God.

But if you do not trust Him enough to give the matter over to prayer, And are determined to work your own will instead of His....

Then are you really following Jesus? _________________

So you think you want to be a Christian magician.

Let us explore the implications of this issue.