Conversations with Ray Martinez

The English word "apology" comes from a Greek word which basically means "to give a defense." Christian apologetics, then, is the science of giving a defense of the Christian faith. There are many skeptics who doubt the existence of God and/or attack belief in the God of the Bible. There are many critics who attack the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. There are many false teachers who promote false doctrines and deny the key truths of the Christian faith. THE MISSION of Christian apologetics is to combat these movements against the truth, and instead promote the Christian God and Christian truth. There is no excuse for a Christian to be completely unable to defend his or her faith. Every Christian should be able to give a reasonable presentation of his or her faith in Christ. Not every Christian needs to be an expert in apologetics. 

Several New Testament passages do give us important ingredients that should be part of a healthy local church. While some churches are labeled as "liturgical" because of their very formal and predetermined order and manner of worship, all churches to some degree have a format that they typically follow. What is the difference between worship and liturgy? According to Andrews University:  it is words, while “worship” names an internal state of human consciousness, “liturgy” designates objective forms and rituals, external to human consciousness. even in non-liturgical churches, certain songs and choruses are sung repeatedly over time and carry the same danger of being sung without sincerity rather than with reflection upon what is being said and sung. Whether a church is liturgical is not as important as the soundness of the doctrine of the church and the soundness of the pastor doctrinally and spiritually.  Listen in for more details. 

Our City Council wants Rank Choice Voting in the City of Fort Collins, CO.  Why?  What's the matter with the way they were voted into office?  This should be an initiative from the people, not the Council.  Almost 70% of Rank Choice Voting Elections did not produce a majority winner.  Many votes are tossed out because the voters chose not to rank any one in a specified order, and only wanted to vote for one.  The voters lose with this cleverly disguised technique.  It's a bag of tricks and will cost upwards to $1 million versus our current system that approximately $70,000.

The Bible gives the good news that Jesus paid the price for our sin (Ephesians 1:7), yet in many ways we still suffer the consequences of our sins. Coming to Christ does not erase the temporal effects of sin; rather, our salvation guarantees that we will not face the eternal consequences of sin. On the basis of Christ’s perfect sacrifice, those who believe are no longer under God’s condemnation (Romans 8:1). Sin is a serious enough problem for God to have sent His Son into the world to die. We dare not take sin lightly. We are all wayward at times. God’s purpose in allowing us to experience disciplinary consequences of sin, true to His nature, is perfect.  Listen in for more insight. You can also follow my blog here.

Have you ever read a portion of the Bible and felt absolutely captivated by it to the point where you can’t get it out of your head? At times words we read enthrall our every waking moment. That's the power of the gospel that we are experiencing. Jesus taught the religious, preached the good news of the kingdom to all who would hear, and healed people who had sicknesses and diseases on a regular basis. This was part of his everyday life. Everywhere He went he demonstrated the values of the kingdom in both speech and action.

Some propose that Jesus is speaking of financial poverty, that He is advocating being poor so that riches and possession don’t come between us and God. While it is true that Jesus elsewhere warned against seeking riches (Matthew 6:24), that wasn’t Jesus’ point in Matthew 5:3. Jesus is speaking of being “poor in spirit”; i.e., being “spiritually poor.”  In the beatitudes, Jesus is concerned with spiritual realities, not material possessions. Join me today and listen to more details of what it is like to be poor in spirit.

The concept of knowing whose word to pay attention to has precedent in Scripture. “False prophets” are still with us. “Experts” dispense advice while ignoring God altogether or twisting His words to suit their purposes. We have seen this occur on the pulpit, social media and many other electronic venues. I’ve Watched television evangelism or ministers that want to mail you a handkerchief that will heal your body for a donation of money. They have made hundreds of thousands of dollars with this kind of false teaching. Rather than speak the Word of the Lord, false prophets delivered messages that originated in their own hearts and minds. True prophets are motivated by loyalty to God above all else, whereas false prophets are motivated by self-interest and a desire to be popular among the people. Through God’s Word and Spirit, God has given us what we need to begin to discern the false from the true.

In India, animals are worth more than the human. In Hatti, people think they are cursed. Anyone can curse another with Voodoo. What do you do if you feel like you are cursed? Everyone who doesn’t trust Jesus is cursed. The Scripture says: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” If we only had faith in Christ, the curse is lifted. This is a clear message of unity, family, and community. Faith bounds us together like family and it makes us the family of God. All of us together as one community or family are Christ’s body, and each one of us is apart of it. Baptism represents death of an old life and birth into a new one. In the new life, the law’s curse no longer has any force. God didn’t intend for us to live in isolation. He specifically designed us to crave—and thrive in—relationship with others.  Tune in for more details...

The "blasphemy challenge" is an internet-based project that invites young people to submit videos to Youtube or other video internet hosts, in which they record themselves blaspheming or denying the existence of the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees said that the work of Jesus by the Holy Spirit was really the devil's work. Nobody should say that the work of God is Satan’s work. God will forgive anyone who is really sorry. But to say that God’s work is Satan’s work is a different kind of sin. It means that a person has decided to oppose God. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to attribute the work of God to an evil (literally unclean) spirit.  We will learn much more in today's podcast.  I encourage you to listen in.

The call of Jesus was straight forward….come and follow me. Another way to translate that is “come and be my disciple."  In the first century world, Discipleship was the apex of the Jewish education system.  There were three levels to Jewish education. The terminology, “Christian” is used 2 or 3 times in the new testament and only in a negative light. Whereas disciple is used 268 times in the NT, more than any other moniker to be the sons and daughters of God. Jesus’ followers were called “disciples” long before they were ever called “Christians.” Jesus used the term disciple but never Christian. 

The word disciple in Hebrew is “tal-ma-deen”. It can also be translated as “follower”,  or “student." The best descriptive word is “apprentice”. Jesus was known as Rabi, and he was telling them because he was a Rabi, he was going to make the disciples “great teachers”.  That’s the heart and soul of “apprenticeship”. Another Greek term for “disciple” in the New Testament is mathetes, which means more than just “student” or “learner.” A disciple is a “follower,” someone who adheres completely to the teachings of another, making them his rule of life and conduct. John Mark Comer has a great teaching about this topic.