A Knight's Blog

Christianity has evolved. It began as a sect of Judaism called The Way, then if became a separate religion in the world of Rome, became the state faith under Constantine The Great, and became an imperial religion with a priestly caste that was paid, when Scripture declares the priesthood of all Christians, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9). Then came The Reformation to restore the gospel and Scriptural access and subsequent movements to get closer to The New Testament Church. There have been many movements to try and return to that golden age of Christianity from 33-100 A.D. One stream was the discipleship movement, which claimed that people weren’t being truly discipled as Jesus said, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matthe

  The Jesus Revolution was a real phenomenon that happened between 1969-1972, when Hippies got the Holy Spirit, and went into the churches and changed Christianity in America and the World forever. The film tells the story of three men, three streams, that formed in the movement. One is Lonnie Frisebee played by Jonathan Roumie, who many know for his portrayal of Jesus in The Chosen, there is even a joke when one person says have you met Jesus and the person shakes Lonnie’s hand, which you know is a nod to that Jonathan plays Jesus in The Chosen. The other is Chuck Smith, played by Kelsey Grammer, who is head pastor    of Calvary Chapel, and finds his flock dwindling, and he not understanding these Hippies. Lonnie a traveling Jesus Freak and hippy preacher meets Chuck’s daughter, who introduces the two and what happens is a match that starts a revolution and revival. Caught in the middle is Greg Laurie, played by Joel Courtney, a young man running from pain and who fears people will le

  Most people get disillusioned with God when they feel He isn’t protecting them, healing them, and helping them have an Abundant Life. The disappointment in the divine can be deafening, because we are told “God wills all things.” That is wrong. The Lord in Eden willed his children obey and not eat of the Forbidden fruit, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17). It was their disobedience that brought fear, sin, sickness, pain, suffering, and death into our world. Jesus our Lord tells the Pharisees God willed things one way, and they taught another, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother,

  In the West we like answers. We like to get our spirituality down to algorithm or Mathematical equation that can be solved. Westerners love answers, so the eastern concept of mystery and God is not obligated to reveal     answers to you has little appeal. Our Lord Jesus gave lots of answers, about Who He is, salvation, and more. And yet there were some sayings of His that stump us like “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple,” (Luke 14:26) and “In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:25). These statements frustrate our western sensibilities, but remember Christ came in the flesh to the Middle East, and while we may prefer the Greco-Roman style of straightforward Q&A, in the east this is not always so, in the East they recognize God has the right to befuddle his creation, f

  Today is when The Eastern Churches celebrate Easter. I think it is something to cherish that there multiple easters and christmases, allowing the celebrating to carry on longer. As I contemplated Easter this year, I wanted to clear up a lie that has infected the church. Many, including myself believed that Easter was pagan, that the word came from Eoster, Esther, Ishtar, Ashteroth, the goddess of fertility. This idea was preached by Venerable Bede, claiming it is a pagan word since the 13th century. In truth modern scholarship consensus has discovered Easter comes from In Albis (Dawn),  eostarum , which probably refers to that the disciples went to Jesus tomb at dawn on the third day, “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came unto the tomb,” (Luke 24:1). In French the word is Paques for Easter derived its root from Pescha or Passover, which makes sense since Jesus Christ our Lord celebrated the Passover (Matthew 26:17), revealed The Holy Communion (Luke 22:19-20), a

  “Easter is a time when God turned the inevitability of death into the invincibility of life.” -Craig D. Lounsbrough Death. It haunts us. The Undiscovered Country, Hamlet called it. As Christians we are obligated to believe in life after death. We cling to the hope that there is a heaven and one day we shall be raised from death in new bodies as the apostle promises. And still death haunts us. We are reminded daily that time is short and no matter how prepared we think we are, the shadow of death frightens us because its unknown, we have not done it before and once you do die, you cannot come back, well usually.  The truth is death frightened Jesus too. Though He is God, our Lord felt the terror of death, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44). He knew he had to suffer, and face death, which in our mortal flesh man fears, “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and bloo

  The world is in chaos. France is in middle of protests, China and Taiwan are in potential build up, Russia and Ukraine are at war, Israel is battling in Gaza, and in America division is sown. In center of all the fear, pain, and anger there is a day that reminds us there is still something good. Good Friday looked a lot like our world today, sects at each others throats, protests, government overreach and a baying for blood. How it differs was it was God’a s blood and as the mania overtook the onlookers Jesus did not chide or chastise, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). That line could summarize humanity and its history, that from the Forbidden Fruit in Eden to Nuclear Proliferation mankind has    trod a path of self destruction that makes even the angels marvel. Why do we crave our “self demolition,”? (Pilate, Jesus Christ Superstar). Why do we heap abuse on our fellow man, even doing son on the Son of Man that Friday two thousand and twen

  Today celebrates our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem prior to His crucifixion. The text of this is very short,  “The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion;       behold, your king is coming,           sitting on a donkey’s colt!” (John 12:12-15).  Now there is debate over what the crowds said. The older Alexandrian (Egyptian) manuscripts say:  “Took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and  began  to cry out, “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel!” (John 12:13) The Textus Receptus and Byzantine Text (KJV) says, “Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed  is  the Ki