Chris' Christian Blog

April 16, 2021

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Prompt: What is the meaning of Philippians 2:7?

This is a really tough question because even scholars are divided on it. The general consensus is that even though Christ knew He was God and the second in charge of the universe, He set aside the glories of heaven to become human and die for us. He did not set aside His divinity, but rather the luxuries of heaven. Scholars have been arguing over this passage of scripture for decades. Some believe that Paul is saying that just as Jesus gave up the luxuries of Heaven to save mankind, so Paul gave up the rights of being a Jew to become a Christian minister to Gentiles. Others say the passage does not imply this at all, but rather that Jesus set aside the rights and privileges of being God to become a human being and die the worst possible death. My personal belief coincides with the latter. I believe that although Jesus remained divine, He set aside the use of that privilege to suffer humanity.

The Greek word word ἁρπαγμός seems to be the word that hangs the scholars up as they can reach no clear consensus as to its meaning. Some say it is a certain type of verb referring to the actions of Paul. Others say it is another type of verb referring to the actions of Jesus. All agree however, that Jesus, being co-equal to God, set aside the rights and privileges of heaven to become a human being. The fact that He never quit being God is reiterated by John 2:4 where Jesus at first refuses to perform the wine miracle because it was not time to reveal His divinity. The arguments over ἁρπαγμός will likely continue for sometime. The fact remains that Jesus is Lord.

Today while cruising the galactic rim, we found a familiar star. amy-Finally writing a novel. writes about being misunderstood in

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Tell us about a time you were misunderstood.

One of the biggest misunderstandings of my lifetime happened when I was a child. I grew up in a very poor family and knew that my parents did not have a lot of money to treat us with. On the other hand, I also knew that they would try to meet us halfway. One night we were driving into town after having just sold a truckload of firewood. My brothers and I had worked hard to cut and split the wood, so I thought perhaps our parents would buy us some chocolate milk as a treat. There were three of us and I knew they would never buy three cartons as milk was expensive even then. So I asked mom if we could have two quarts to split between us.

My brothers of course took that to mean one for me and one for the two of them to share. To this day they swear by that and it was not my intention at all. I wanted the three of us to equally split two quarts because I knew we would never get one each. As it was we got none because my brothers made such a fuss over it.

Prompt: "What day of the week do you look forward to the most? Why?"

Sunday. I get to see my church family, attend Men's Club at church, and preach on Sunday nights.

Prompt: "if you could create a charity, what would it be called? What would be the cause and what celebrity would be your spokesperson?"

It's funny that this is the prompt because I am in the process of starting a charitable agency called "Rehab for Vets". It will be staffed 100% by veterans and my goal is that 3/4 of those will be combat veterans. I am doing the preliminary research for the facility now and still have a long way to go before I start looking for investors or grants. I want to improve on current treatment modalities so I am trying not to duplicate anything in existence locally. Recidivism rates among addicts, particularly those addicted to opioids are in excess of 70% within one year of treatment. Something is not working with existing agencies. I want to identify that problem and remedy it prior to starting an agency.