A Five Minute Explanation of The Bible

        The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by 40 authors over 1500 years. It was compiled in the 4th century in a complete form under the direction and leading of God and contains everything that God intended for us to know while on Earth. The authors were divinely inspired by God to write complete truth that agrees with all the other books and is outside of time - that is there are past and future events recorded and it speaks to believers through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the present in a timeless manner.

        The Bible starts with Genesis which explains that God created mankind to live in a perfect place and He walked among them and loved them and they loved Him. But for love to be genuine, there must be a choice. Therefore God put a tree in the garden and said don't eat from it if you love me and trust me. God warned them that the penalty for eating from this tree would be death. Satan, whom God created as the chief of the angels had prior to this time wanted to be equal with God and he and one third of the angels (now called demons) who followed him were thrown out of Heaven - enticed Adam and Eve to disobey God. Suddenly everything changed. Death, disease, disasters, pain, decay all resulted from sin. But worst of all, they could no longer come into God's presence. God is Holy and perfect and can't come into the presence of sin.

       The rest of the Bible, from then on, is God's plan to deal with the sin that separates mankind from God and reverse the curse of sin. God instituted a sacrificial system where an animal's death symbolized by its blood would be the substitute for their death. This had to be repeated on a regular basis and would cover over their sins so they could be in a relationship with God until the perfect sacrifice, God's son, Jesus would come to Earth and live a sinless life and not just cover over the sins but take them on Himself by dying in our place. Paul says that just as by one man's sin, Adam, sin came to all of us, by one Man's obedience, Jesus, it can be removed. The remainder of the Old Testament is about the preparation of His coming. God chooses a nation through which the Messiah would come and demonstrates His power through them and His righteousness and judgement. Unfortunately, they don't represent His righteousness well and they fall into sin continually. God demonstrates his forgiveness and mercy time after time as when they cry out to Him, primarily because God has turned them over to other nations to show them where sin leads, He forgives them and delivers them.

       This brings us to the New Testament where Jesus comes as a baby and when the time is right, John the Baptist introduces Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All those lamb sacrifices were like swiping a credit card. They temporarily paid for sin but the debt was building and Christ came to pay it. He lived the life we couldn't live and died the death we deserved to die, in our place. He proved He was God through His sinless life and miracles and finally by predicting He would rise from the dead in three days and did it declaring victory over sin and death. He picked twelve ordinary men called disciples and trained them so that when He returned to Heaven, shortly after He rose from the dead, they would take over the work of spending the good news of forgiveness of sins and a restored relationship with God to the whole world. They were still totally unfit for the task until shortly after Christ ascended to Heaven the culmination of God's plan surprised everyone. Yes, Christ had forgiven sins and defeated death but now He sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of all those who repented of their sins and by faith trusted in Jesus for forgiveness.

         The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and they could finally understand the scriptures and God's plan. They had supernaturally bold and effective witness and their lives changed to become more like Jesus. They penned the books of the New Testament and ended up dying horrific deaths because they couldn't deny the truth of what they were preaching. Not only did they write eyewitness accounts of Christ's life but they wrote letters to the newly formed fellowships of believers not only encouraging them during persecution and doubt and false teachings but also teaching them to let the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling their lives, conform them into the image of Christ. One of the disciples, John, was given prophetic visions of the end times and confirmed what Jesus had said and the Old Testament had prophesied that Jesus would come again a second time and this time it would be to put an end to sin and death and to judge Satan and all those who have followed his lie and had not accepted Christ's gracious gift of forgiveness. The curse of sin will be lifted from the Earth as a new Heaven and new Earth will descend and believers will live in a renewed restored forever relationship with God just like God had originally intended.

Top Brewers Prospects For 2019

     Every year I look through the stats only, no prospect ranking system, no scouting reports, nothing except the basic stats, and I try to make a 25 man roster from the guys that compiled the best stats. I generally don't include guys like Grisham , Hiura , Williams, Black because I feel like they have arrived. So here goes!

Pitchers  SP

          Oscar Castenada  DSL  18 y/o  RH
                  ERA 2.85    60 IP  55H   44K  record 6-2

          Ethan Small  Low A  22y/o LH  6'3"
                   ERA 0.86  21 IP  4BB  36K  Avg. .151  WHIP 0.71

           Max Lazar  Low A  20y/o  RH  6'3"
                   ERA  2.33  85IP  119K    Avg.  .224   WHIP 1.01

           Nick Bennett  Low A  22y/o LH  6'4"
                    ERA  1.91  33IP  H 28  BB 10  K 43  Avg. .220

            Noah Zavolas  High A  23y/o RH  6'1""
                     ERA 2.98  IP 133  H 128  BB 23  K 102

            Dylan File  AA  23y/o RH  6'1"
                      ERA 2.79  9-2  80IP  BB15  K 73

           Alec Bettinger  AA  24y/o  RH  6'2"
                      IP  146  H 121  W 35  K 157  WHIP 1.07  Avg. .223

                   RP

           Keegan McCarville  ROK  21y/o RH  6'1"
                     ERA  1.72  36IP  46K  Avg. .200  WHIP 0.95

            Jake Cousins Low A  25y/o RH  6'4"
                     ERA 1.91  IP 28  BB 2  K 35  Avg.163  WHIP  0.64

            Luis Contreras  Low A  23y/o RH  6'1"
                     ERA  2.86   50IP  K 73  Avg. 200

            Michael Mediavilla  Low A 24y/o LH  6'5"
                    ERA  .92  Avg. .146  WHIP 0.64

            Quintin Torres-Costa - recovering from surgery 25y/o LH
                     great 2018 season

            Luke Barker  AAA  27y/o RH  6'3"
                   ERA 1.34  IP 60 H 24  Avg. .122 WHIP 0.65

            Tyler Spurlin  AA  28y/o ( out since '16 ? surgery) RH 6'3"
                   ERA 1.82  Avg. .176  WHIP 0.98


Hitters

          Carlos Rodriguez  ROK  18y/o L/L  plays OF
                .327/.356/.415

           Felix Valerio   ROK   18y/o  R/R  plays  2B
               .306/.376/.389

           Danny Casals  ROK  22y/o  R/R  plays SS
                .333/.400/.500

           Andre NNebe   ROK  21y/o LL   plays OF
                  .302/.396/.496

            Eduardo Garcia  DSL  17y/o R/R  plays SS
                  .313/.450/.469  limited sample size

            Clayton Andrews  AA  22y/o  L/L plays P and OF
                   .333/.391/.381

             Patrick Leonard  AA  26y/o  R/R  plays 3B
                    .301/.375/.459

I could only come up with 21. This is why I felt we should have traded Grandal, Moose, Thames at the break and built up our prospects. Even if we make the playoffs, can we really contend with Anderson, Davies, Gio, Houser, Lyles, (woodruff if he returns) and a bullpen with Albers, Claudio, Peralta, Nelson, Pomeranz, Black, Guerra? Lets build up the team for the future. The other idea was to trade any and all of our top 4 prospects for a good starter or reliever or 2. You could have thrown in 20 of our top 30 in my opinion and not hurt our future.

        There is always one head scratcher every year and this year it is Luke Barker. We have tried Barnes, Burnes, Witt, Jackson, both Williams, Wilkerson, and everyone else in the bullpen - With the year he has had why have we not given him a shot and why isn't he with us now? I don't get it!!

 But anyway, I'll always be a Brewer fan. Go Brewers!

Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 34

                                           Hebrews 11:30-31

³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

     Rahab was not killed with the disobedient. Wait a second - what could be more sinful than being a madame? Did she not run a house of prostitution and was known as a prostitute which means she sold herself for sex? Is this not a capital offense in the Old Testament? Yet, she is not included among the disobedient. Why is this? First off, I would say that we have to remember that she wasn't under the law like the Israelites were. Like today, I can't expect unsaved people to follow a Christian/Biblical code of conduct. Sinners sin! It's their and our nature. We are all born with a sin nature and all sin whether it be prostitution, lying, stealing, cheating, greed, jealousy, anger, selfishness - all these things separate us from God and deserve judgement. So why is she not numbered among the disobedient? Let's look at her response in Joshua;

 “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. ¹¹ When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." 

    When she was faced with the facts about God, she believed and surrendered to the God of Gods while the others trembled yet continued to fight against Him. That's how her disobedience was washed away and her past gone. The other thought is from Deuteronomy 20;

  "When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. ¹¹ If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. ¹² If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. "

   We don't read about it in Joshua but according to the protocol given by Moses to the people in Israel, when they attacked a city they were to offer an opportunity to surrender. It could be that Rahab heard the offer and surrendered. We have recently been studying the unforgivable sin in Mark in Life Group, and the conclusion was that all sins, even running a house of prostitution, are forgivable but what isn't is the rejection of the offer to surrender your life to the completed work of God done to reconcile yourself with Him. In a sense, Rahab surrendered herself to the call of God and was removed in status from the "disobedient", so much so that she was included in the genealogy of Christ.

     Isn't it awesome to know that God no longer views you as "disobedient"? I know we don't feel like that always as we don't always act in obedience but that is how God sees you! What a merciful God He is!

     

Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 33

                                        Hebrews 11:27-29

27 By faith he (Moses) left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

      "I don't believe it anymore..." Three contemporary Christian voices have said this in the last year. Michael Gungor of the band Gungor  that wrote several worship songs embraced by the church started it off about a year ago. Then Josh Harris who wrote I Kissed Dating Goodbye announced that he was divorcing his wife and was leaving the faith. The latest defector is Marty Sampson of Hillsong who has collaborated on many songs that we sing in church. What is going on?

       As I look at this passage in Hebrews, I think it gives a few clues. Moses left Egypt, not for the Jewish faith, not for beliefs in the traditions, festivals, Sabbaths, Patriarchs, promised land prophecy, etc., but Moses left because he saw Him who is invisible. When the disciples heard some hard teaching in John 6 about eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His blood, Jesus asked them if they were going to defect like all the other followers. I love the disciples' response because they don't say "to what other faith shall we go?", or "Who else's teaching should we follow?", but they said "to who else shall we go?" You see, they saw Him who was invisible but now is visible. They had a relationship with a person not a doctrine. The Egyptians believed in 2 walls of water (in verse 29) with a path between it and trusted in that and were disappointed rather than believing in the Person who was parting the waters who was the invisible God. It is a lot easier leaving a set of teachings than a person.

      I've used this illustration before but I think it bears repeating. Let's say the police come to my house looking for my wife. I reply,"why are you looking for her?", and they respond, "She stole a package off the neighbor's porch.", to which I reply, "That wasn't my wife; I know her and she would never do that!" They say, "We have a witness that saw her", and I say, "They must be mistaken!" They then say, "They have video surveillance" and they show me the tape and I see that it actually is her! My response then is, "Well I'm sure she had a good reason!"  You see, Gungor started his defection because he didn't believe Genesis 1-11 could be true and it escalated from that. Harris had problems with the Bible's stance on marriage and homosexuality. Sampson had problems with billions going to hell. What I'm saying from my illustration is that if you know and love Jesus, when things don't add up you give Him the benefit of the doubt and say, "I don't understand this but I know Jesus and if it makes sense to Him then I will go with that until he explains it to me either here on this planet or in Heaven."

       These people who defected say that they have lost their faith. The writer of Hebrews would say that they never had faith because faith is knowing Him who is invisible. They never knew Him. Paul wrote in 2Timothy 1:12, as he approached his execution, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him" Paul, after all he had done in spreading the gospel, was rewarded with a dark, dank cell while he awaited beheading. Talk about something difficult to understand. Yet he didn't recant, denounce, defect but kept his faith because he knew Him who was invisible. Do you know Him or are you the next to go?

Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 32

                                              Hebrews 11:17-26

⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^{[c] 19} Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

²⁰ By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

²¹ By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

²² By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

²³ By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵ He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

"She (Zipporah) bore a son, and he (Moses) named him Gershom; for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”  Ex. 2:22

      We just went over the parable of the sower and 3 soils (Mark 4) in Sunday School and the most troublesome is the thorny soil. It seems clear that if you are choked out and unfruitful by the cares of this world that you wouldn't be a follower of Christ like the Rich Young Ruler or Demas. After all, growth and fruit is the sign of life. Jesus cursed the fig tree that had no fruit and we know that the branches of the vine that had no fruit were cut off and thrown into the fire. But then there is the time that Jesus said in a parable not to cut it down but dig around it and fertilize the fruitless tree and if it doesn't bear fruit in a year, cut it down. Wasn't the writer of Mark, John Mark, guilty of deserting the mission team of Paul and Barnabas because the cares and comfort of this world outweighed what the fruitful life had to offer? Yet he went on to do great things for the Kingdom of God. It seems to me that the thorny soil is a mixed bag - some are truly saved and are in a period of life where they have become unfruitful due to being caught up in the cares of this world, and some who are unsaved and have simply added Jesus to their life here on Earth. Even the angels can't tell the two apart as seen by the parables of the wheat and the tares but God can because he can see their heart. Maybe that's why He cursed one tree and said to fertilize the other one.

     Why am I discussing Mark 4 when the passage is Hebrews 11? Maybe it's because the thorny soil, unlike Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses. etc. is not living for the future but the present. In order to have the faith that pleases God, that He isn't ashamed of, and in the end - saving faith, one can't be living for this world but rather for their future in Heaven. For example, if you are living for pleasure, ease, and comfort, you won't go on a mission trip to 100 degree central America to share Christ. You won't want to use up 10 of your fifteen yearly vacation days to go to the Phillipines to give out sandals and eyeglasses. You won't spend $1800 to fly to Brazil to treat the sick in the fivellas because that money was going to redecorate my earthly home. You wouldn't risk your life to share Christ in the Middle East because you are afraid of death which takes you to your real home. You wouldn't share the gospel with your friends at school for fear they would shun you. You see, if you want to bear the 30, 60, 100 fold fruit, you have to live a life unencumbered by the thorns of this earth. If the cares of this world (the thorns) run your life you will be unfruitful and the writer of Hebrews would question if you truly have the faith that saves a person at all.

      If you are unfruitful, look at the cares of this world that are holding you back and start weeding those thorns with God's help and the help of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Get a faith lift!