In This WorldDavid Tatepassages israel, texas a&m, passages, israel, aggies, u of h, passages 2018, texas techComment

1 Passageonians

In This WorldDavid Tatepassages israel, texas a&m, passages, israel, aggies, u of h, passages 2018, texas techComment
1 Passageonians

From David, a follower of the Way and a disciple of the one true King,

To those brothers and sisters in Christ for whom, by the grace of God, I was permitted to shepherd during our time in the Holy Land:

Grace, peace, and understanding unto you from God our Father, Christ His Son, and the Spirit that grants discernment, alive in us right here and right now.

I want to begin by first thanking the Lord for my every moment shared with you, from the first encounters as strangers to the reluctant farewells by which we departed only a short time later. It is by His grace alone that we were brought together, and if I have come to know the character of the Lord at all, it would be left understood that He is not one who wastes any of the time He has allotted. For this reason, I believe that our short time together was a period instituted by God, and through that time I hope we found ourselves capable of bringing Him glory upon glory, living from faith to faith, from hope to hope, from joy to joy. Yes, He gave us this time that our spirits might be enriched and uplifted and our faiths strengthened all the more, but even more so, He gave us this time that we might return the glory back unto Him who provided us with our every breath. To Him be the praise for granting us such an opportunity, and even if such an opportunity had been lost, let us praise Him still more!

My time with you, though brief, has affected me deeply, and I find myself praying earnestly that the Lord will bring us back together that we might delight in one another’s company all the more. I pray that our time together was as beneficial for you as it was for me, and that through me the Lord might have provided you with a greater experience and a more fundamental and long-lasting enrichment by His Spirit as we encountered the places where He once walked and lay His head. If I failed you in any way – whether mighty or miniscule – or in some manner pointed you away from our Lord, I pray not only for yours but also for the Lord’s forgiveness, and hope that my contributions to your time in His land far outnumbered any detractions I might have provided.

Even as I urged you towards the conclusion of our time together, so now I urge you all the greater to cling to the faith, to run swiftly the race set before you, to take hold of your First Love – that is, Christ – and run with Him through the valleys of greatest intimacy, that your knowledge and love for Him might know no bounds. How many disciples have walked upon the same earth that you have now walked, have laid eyes upon the same things that you have now seen, have worshipped from the same hilltops from which you have now worshipped? And how many, upon returning to their homes, have returned to the lives of their former selves, have acted as those who look intently at their natural faces in a mirror, only to go away and at once forget what they were like? The things you have seen should ground you in the foundation of your faith and should bring you to certainty in your God, so why would you go home only to become but a shadow of your true self? Do not be a part of the statistic. Do not go home unchanged. No, but instead cling to the sights laid before you and the hopes now realized in your hearts, and use such experience to burn in zeal for the Lord our God. Fan the flame of Christ as you daily strive to love Him more, to desire – yes, desire – His statutes and call Him not only Savior, but also Lord. Fight the good fight; finish the race; keep the faith.

There are many of you that I took great delight in during our time together. Yes, many of you displayed the fruit promised us by our Savior and have begun to run with it into the distance, jogging until you ran and running until you sprinted. For some of the infants among you, I see you teething and longing for meat; for some of the mature, I see your enjoyment in the delicacies of holy communion with our Lord. It joys my heart to see your obedience and lifts my Spirit to think that perhaps I might have encouraged you down the narrow path, the forgotten Way. May the Lord God guide you by His will as you continue to grow and mature into the servants who tend to His calling.

But for some, I see infants who profess adulthood, the childish who profess to be childlike. Though you try to eat meat, you have not digested the milk; though you profess a deep hunger, you have never seen the profit of a fast. Though you should be light unto the world, you place that light under a bowl; though you should be salt, you have become stale. My brothers and sisters, this should not be! Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. The unbelievers in this world, they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light! So why do you long to blend in with the darkness? Why is your zeal not for the Lord’s temple but for the lusts of the flesh? If we of the faith are called saints and to be a saint is to be “set apart,” what I am to deduce when I see you blending in with the crowd? Where is your light? Where is your salt? Where is your faith?

My friends – my brothers and my sisters – do you not see that there is no greater delight than to rest in the shadow of the Lord’s commands? For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome! For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, so why do you strive to do that which He has called you not to do? Has it not become apparent to you that His declarations are righteous and His intentions laced with affection, and that by turning towards your own sinful desires you are actually doing yourself more harm than good? Has it not become apparent that the most truly selfish person would in fact surrender Himself over the Lord in all things, because in doing so He would guarantee Himself the most rewarding life? (By no means should this be your motivation; far from it, but strive for selflessness, as demonstrated by our Messiah.) Yet even in our short time together, there were some among you who proved yourselves incapable of abstaining from the desires of this world for even a short amount of time. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. Let us go on living as obedient children in humble submission to our Father, not living to the bare minimum of His commands, but striving to go above and beyond in doing all that we can to bring glory to His name. Should we take His grace for granted, and so pursue our sin as long as we can twist His Word to defend it? By no means! Shall we go on sinning, that grace may abound? Again, by no means! Instead, let us plant His Word in our hearts and delight in His decrees, demonstrating our love and our friendship with Him by obeying His commands and daily striving to walk in His footsteps.

Let Israel be nothing more than a voyage to the land of your First Love, a land that is special not because of a hill or a steeple or a sea or a people, but special to us because it is through that land that our Lord revealed Himself most clearly. As you go about your daily lives, do not leave the land behind you, but cling to it as a reminder of the Love who is always with you, the Love who will never leave you nor forsake you. Although you have left the land where Christ walked, you do not have to stop walking with Christ.

Finally, my brothers and sisters, find joy in all things. This world is too quick to steal the pleasure of life away through the desires that come from sin, hasty to seep away our energy by making us cling to the perishable. But our God is not so small, our Savior not so tiny. No, you have been called to be a light amongst the nations, and you can be such through joy and love. Peace He has left with us; His peace He has given to us. Not as the world gives did He give to us. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Our Lord is with us, and we do not need to conform to the emotions nor actions nor thoughts nor ways of this world. We have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. And the life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. We have been called to a higher calling; we are in the world, but not of it. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. In the moments when you do not feel these things, remember our Lord to be true and repent. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Run towards Him who is our finish line.

Go unto the Lord for all things. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith.

Cling to the words of our brothers Robert and Clint, who the Lord used to teach us during our time together. Their teachings are founded upon the truth and you should use their passion as the embers to stoke your own fire.

I will see you very soon, my friends, with some sooner than others. Until then, remain true to your faith, devote yourself to the Word, and maintain your determination to find your true meaning through Christ Jesus our Lord. You will stumble and you will fall, but our Lord, the God of grace and mercy and goodness and love, will be there to catch you before your feet leave the ground.

I, David, write this to you hoping that you know that if you ever need anything at all, I am here for you and always will be. My prayers will be with you, as I hope yours will be with me. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

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To Infinity and Beyond, In This WorldDavid Tategender roles, christianity, bible study, imago dei, masculine god, christ, bible, man and woman, complimentarianismComment

Resurrecting God the Father

It is essential to my argument that I begin today’s writing with a disclaimer:

** Before even beginning to address specific gender roles as they are outlined in the Bible – especially as it pertains to why God is consistently, throughout the biblical narrative, referred to with male pronouns – we must establish that we are discussing things from a strictly Christian perspective. It is easy to object to the biblical ideas of masculinity and femininity when considering the sinfulness of man and the oppression that submission might so easily espouse within power-hungry and demeaning individuals, but we must accept, going into the argument, that we are speaking from the ideal as established by God in His creation of man. In this, we must discuss matters such as submission, sacrifice, headship, and leadership not according to the negative connotations established by a prideful and lustful society, but rather according to the biblical standard to which we all must strive. When you give a man a gun, he may use it to either protect or to slay – we may guide him towards the former, but the option by which he uses it is up to him. All rules and roles in any governance or society stand the possibility of being abused; the Bible seeks to establish gender roles in a manner that is holy and set apart, glorifying to God for the betterment of mankind. A rational and concise conversation regarding such matters is impossible if we do not first establish a stable worldview which we can then extrapolate. Thus, for the purposes of this article, it is my request that we set aside secular ideologies and rather read the “He” of God the Father according to the Biblical context, that we might better understand Christian ideals and even more greatly come to grasp the beauty of God’s love towards us. **

I will begin my argument by stating this: God is spirit. Of course, He stepped into the flesh via the person of Jesus Christ and thus lived on the earth for approximately thirty-three and a half years as a Middle Eastern man, but from eternity past to eternity future God is, according to His divine nature, spirit. Thus, He is neither male nor female; however, the way in which God manifests Himself is masculine in nature, in that he designed man as an image meant to reflect Him. Therefore my thesis is that our use of the pronouns “He,” “Him,” “His,” etc. are essential in comprehending our own selves in relationship to God.

To Infinity and Beyond, In This WorldDavid Tategender roles, christianity, bible study, imago dei, masculine god, christ, bible, man and woman, complimentarianismComment
Resurrecting God the Father
In This WorldDavid Tatereckless love, is god reckless, love, bible, bible study, worship music, david lee tate sr1 Comment

My God Is Not Reckless

It is no secret that I'm not a huge fan of the song "Reckless Love." That's a soap box I could stand on for hours, defining terms and breaking down how we can't allow our preference for a catchy tune to allow us to embrace what is, at best, shaky theology. I could quote Scriptures and cite evidence after evidence demonstrating that God's love is anything but reckless, and I have done so to exhaustion many times in the past. (I have refrained from doing so on this website, mainly because people's defenses of the song are largely emotional in nature, and so I would prefer to have a face-to-face conversation with them.)

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the song, but it wasn't until my father passed away last week that I truly began to process the practical ramifications of such shaky theology. Prior to last week, my opposition to calling God "reckless" was more so a result of zeal for correct doctrine and sober worship; now, however, my opposition is from the stance of someone whose present hope and present joy is rooted firmly in the fact that God is not reckless. If I am wrong, my hope, my joy, and my peace is built on a house of cards, and my faith is in vain.

In This WorldDavid Tatereckless love, is god reckless, love, bible, bible study, worship music, david lee tate sr1 Comment
My God Is Not Reckless
In This WorldDavid Tatedon't let anybody steal your joy, joy, fruit of the spirit, david l tate sr1 Comment

The Greatest Lesson My Dad Ever Taught Me

Joy. It’s a funny word, isn’t it?

C.S. Lewis defined joy as “an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.” My personal definition of joy is “grace accepted.” When my dad would get up and head out to work, he would always look at me, smile, and say, “Be sure to keep a smile on your face and don’t let anybody steal your joy.” I always loved that, and I even passed that phrase on to my junior high, high school, and college students, so that every time they leave one of my Bible studies, I will say, “Keep a smile on your face,” to which they will respond, “And don’t let anybody steal your joy.”

All my life, my dad reminded me to find joy in all circumstances. When things are going easy, find joy. When times get tough, find joy. In the wake of my dad’s passing, I’ve been left pondering about joy and trying to figure out what it really, truly is. In the nine days since my dad was unexpectedly and quickly taken from me, I’ve realized that I no longer have him to remind me to find joy. In the time when I need his reminder the most, my dad is no longer here to encourage me towards joyfulness. In the time when there is nothing I desire more than to hear him say that phrase again, I recognize that his voice will become fainter and fainter to my memory with each passing day. In time, I won’t even remember how he said it.

In This WorldDavid Tatedon't let anybody steal your joy, joy, fruit of the spirit, david l tate sr1 Comment
The Greatest Lesson My Dad Ever Taught Me
In This WorldDavid Tatepeter pan, david lee tate sr, all children except one grow up2 Comments

All Children, Except One, Grow Up

It was a Thursday night.

Thursday the 7th, to be exact. Thursday, May 7, 2020. I was sitting next to my father on the new reclining sofas he and my mom had purchased only a few months prior, trying my best to focus on a book while the TV played and he scrolled rigorously on his iPad, helping me search for good deals on cheap, used stand-up paddleboards. After having finished my final exam for the Spring semester, I had spent the rest of the day with my dad: We went to Academy (where he bought two fishing poles—one for me, one for him), ate dinner at Cheddar’s (he got to try their croissants for the first time), and then worked out together at Clear Lake Park. He had asked me to make him two grilled cheese sandwiches the way his mom (my grandma) used to make them—a request he had never asked of me before, but one to which I happily obliged—and now we were watching Patrick Swayze and his rag-tag team of guerrilla-fighting 30-year old high schoolers single-handedly defeat the Soviet Union in 1984’s Red Dawn. The movie had started while I was still in the shower after my run (I had run back home from the park), but he had rewound it so that I could see the whole thing. Me being my typical multi-tasking self, I was trying to read J.M Barrier’s classic Peter Pan while watching Red Dawn. The book was about a child who never had to grow up; the movie was about children who were forced to grow up in extreme circumstances.

In This WorldDavid Tatepeter pan, david lee tate sr, all children except one grow up2 Comments
All Children, Except One, Grow Up
In This WorldDavid Tatedeath, grieving, death of a parent, mourning, jesus and joseph, jesus carpenter, carpentry, more than a carpenterComment

Jesus Lost His Dad Too

We don’t know much about Joseph.

Jesus’ dad, Joseph, that is. The earthly father of the Messiah. The one whose fiancé came up to him one day and said, “Hey, by the way, I’m pregnant. But don’t worry, I’m still a virgin.”

Joseph is probably one of the most significance characters in all of Scripture—God literally chose this man of all men to be the earthly up-bringer of His one and only Son—yet the information we have about him is fairly sparse: He was a descendant of King David and the son of a man named Jacob, and according to Matthew he was “a just man” (Mt 1:19a), a statement proven by the fact that he originally planned on merely divorcing Mary quietly when she announced her pregnancy despite the fact that virgin pregnancies are, by any natural means and purposes, physically impossible. Despite believing that his betrothed was blatantly lying to him, he was “unwilling to put her to shame” (Mt 1:19b), and such a righteous and kind man was he that he was simply going to separate from her without drawing any attention to her perceived iniquity. He could have had her punished in the courts of law for infidelity, but he had no interest in doing such a thing.

In This WorldDavid Tatedeath, grieving, death of a parent, mourning, jesus and joseph, jesus carpenter, carpentry, more than a carpenterComment
Jesus Lost His Dad Too