I really believe that what you are about to read will spark a new desire and passion in you that you have not yet witnessed before. If you have been in church for more than 10 years, then it’s probably safe to say that you’ve heard most of the popular stories in the Bible.

I’ll be honest, sometimes I hear the same stories over and over that it starts to get mundane. It’s not that the stories are any less important, but I’m left wanting something new and fresh.

Before I go any further, I must say that I’m not promoting Judaism at all. But, I believe that there are some key things that we can learn from Jewish Rabbis and Scholars that will allow us to grab a hold of this new revolutionary thinking.

For centuries, Jewish Scholars and Rabbis have taught that there are 4 Layers of the Bible. Meaning that, they believe that the Bible can be understood in 4 different ways. This is not taking scripture out of context, instead it is grasping a hold of something that may change how you read the scriptures.

So, we have these 4 layers of understanding the Bible. So, what are they? Glad you asked!

•Layer 1 = Primary
Layer one is defined as the primary layer. This is the first layer of understanding the Bible. This is where all new believers start out. You read the Bible as a story. Simple as that. So for example, we know the story of Noah. We know that God commanded Noah to build an ark. We know that he was scoffed at by the rest of the world for what he knew God was telling him to do. We know that God flooded the earth and that Noah and his family was safe. This is an example of the first layer. Basically, you are just reading the Bible as it is written.

•Layer 2 = Practical
Layer two is defined as the practical layer. It is taking scripture and somehow applying it to your life. So for example, we take the story of Noah again. We know that just like Noah, sometimes God asks us to do something that we know that we will be scoffed at. But like Noah, if we are steadfast in what God is calling us to do, God will keep His promises to us. Even in the midst of sarcasm and mockery, we must be steadfast in what God has asked us to do. This is an example of the second layer of the Bible. Taking scripture and applying it to your life.

•Layer 3 = Prophetic
Layer three is defined as the prophetic layer. It is being able to take multiple scriptures of the Bible and linking them to each other which will reveal an understanding of future events. For example, we take the story of Noah again. In Matthew 24:37, Jesus describes the Last Days as being like the days of Noah. So what were the days of Noah like? We know that God was going to bring destruction upon the earth. He warned Noah about the destruction (flood). He told Noah exactly what needed to be done to be saved. The rest of the world mocked Noah. “Where is this flood?”…”Where’s the evidence of this so called destruction?”…”You’re crazy!”.

We know that we live in a world right now where people are acting the very same way. There are many people who don’t believe that either God or Jesus existed in the first place, or they don’t believe that He will come again and bring destruction with him. They mock and ridicule all those who believe, by faith, just as Noah did, of what they believe to be true. That God will come again and will bring destruction to the earth. We can link these two scriptures together which reveal to us that the last days will be very similar to the days of Noah. When God comes back, it will be too late for those who mocked those who believed in God’s word, just like it was too late when the door to the ark was closed and it started to flood.

• Layer 4 = Mystical
Man! I almost hate writing that term down. Especially in the day and age we live in right now. I’m just giving you the term that Jewish Rabbis and Scholars have been teaching for centuries. We know that in today’s world, it’s very common for people to take words and give them new meanings. This is no exception. When we hear the word “mystical” we often interpret that to be of supernatural elements which are “not of God”. However, after thinking about it for a while, I really don’t know what else I would call it.

The fourth layer is something that will be completely new to you. It was to me, until I started understanding what it really entails. Jewish Rabbis and Scholars believe that there are certain understandings of the Bible that can only be given out supernaturally (spiritually) by the Holy Spirit. This is really interesting to me because I can instantly think of several scriptures that talk about how the Holy Spirit will pour out understanding to people in the last days.

I will give you an example, but it will be in my next writing. Let me end by saying that it’s imperative that you have a good foundation in the first two layers before you will even begin to understand the third and fourth layer. It’s like reading a book. You don’t skip to the end of the book, because it won’t make sense. You must start at the beginning and work your way. Familiarize yourself with the scriptures of the Bible. Pray that God will grant the Holy Spirit to pour upon you new understanding of the Bible, that your eyes of understanding will be opened.

Watch soon for my next note. I really believe now is the time when God is starting to unlock some of the best kept secrets and understandings of the Bible. Meant for us!

Are you experiencing a difficult time in your life right now? Is your job, family, finances, church (or lack thereof), friends, or your walk with God (again, lack thereof) under fire?

I want to share with you something really amazing that I believe will help you greatly (probably within 10 minutes of doing these two things).

Before I go any further, I need to use a couple verses to act as my foundation. Then, I can build on that to reveal some really interesting things.

Matthew 9:17
Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

Mark 2:22
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.

I don’t know if any of you have seen the kind of wineskins they use in the Middle East, but they are quite large and ugly! Ever seen the Princess Bride? Remember the large rodent of unusual size in the forest? Picture that – but dead. Yeah, pretty disgusting when you consider that they would drink the stuff coming out of it.

Now picture the same thing all dried up! When wineskins were not being used, they would toss them outside usually by the side of their houses (or tents). As the wineskin would sit outside in the weather, the sun beating down on it, it would dry up and would become hard. The material or outer shell of a good wineskin would be flexible, but if it sat outside in the hot sun and not being used, then it would dry up and get really hard.

The problem starts when they want to use this wineskin again. If they pour new wine in the wineskin, the new wine would start to ferment. And if the wineskin is dry and hard, then it won’t expand – it would only crack – thus damaging the wineskin and causing the new wine to pour out of it. Ruining both.

As some of you know, I like picking words out and looking up the original Hebrew & Greek meanings to the English words in our Bible. In this case, it was the Greek translation of the word “New” that was interesting.

When we look at the phrase “New Wine” – the Greek word actually means something that is “Brand New” (neos) – however when we look at the Greek word for “New Wineskin”, it is referring to something that has been renewed (kainos).

So how do you take an old wineskin and renew it? Simple…really it is. They would take the old dried up wineskin and submerge it under water for a while. They would bring the wineskin out of the water and they would start to rub olive oil on the wineskin. They would repeat this process until the wineskin was soft and flexible. This was their way of making a “new” or “renewed” wineskin.

So how can this help you where you are right now? When I’m battling issues in my life, whether it be in my job, finances, my family, or even my walk with God – I find that there seems to be one common factor in all of these things. A lack of “joy” in my life.

I’ll be honest, there are times when I go to church during worship time and I do not feel anything. I know that I should be feeling joy and happiness, but I don’t. It’s like the joy comes in and then goes right back out. I don’t retain it. I can’t retain it. And I leave church feeling just as worse or sometimes just plain worse than how I felt when I got there. It has nothing to do with the church, the preacher, the worship leader, the songs being sung, the atmosphere. It’s about my spiritual body being dried up and not used.

Let’s just say for example that our spiritual bodies are like the wineskin. If we are not using our spiritual lives, then we are like the unused wineskin. And over time we allow all of life’s troubles to beat down on us and dry up everything that was once joy.

The problem is, we go to church expecting the church to fix the problem. When sometimes, it simply can’t be done. It’s something that you alone have to do yourself.

So what’s the process? Simple….really it is.

Submerge yourself into the Word of God (Water). Refresh yourself. Just open up the Bible and start reading. You don’t have to find the perfect verse to read. Just begin to read.

The next thing to do is the oil. Now, don’t physically start rubbing oil all over your body (especially in public as this causes unnecessary embarrassment both for you and the viewer) instead use something that is commonly referred to as oil in the Bible – the Holy Spirit. You receive the Holy Spirit by how? Praying! Just start praying. You don’t have to come up with the perfect words to say. Just start asking God to allow the Spirit to move in you and to make you flexible and soft again. So that when joy does enter into you – you will be able to capture it and retain it.

Sometimes I have to do this several times during the day. If you only do it once, it won’t last forever because your physical and spiritual bodies are constantly under fire. Submerge in the Word of God and cover yourself in Prayer. It works – try it!

Earlier this week, I installed the new IE8 Beta. I was extremely dissapointed. I won't go in to all the details why I was dissapointed, as this is a Google Chrome thread.

Since Google has had a good reputation with their other lab projects, I decided without hesitation to install Google's new internet browser called "Chrome".

My first impression after running Google Chrome for the first time, was that it resembled other Google applications (i.e. Google Gmail) - which is good!

After messing around with it, Chrome seems to flow quite a bit like Firefox. It greatly supercedes IE. There were, however, a few things that I noticed that I seemed to like quite a bit.

• New Tab Function - Easy to Use
• URL Address Bar - also acts as a Keyword Search Bar which can be set to your choice of search provider. (MSN, Yahoo, Google, etc.)
• Thumbnail Page of Recent History - which surprisingly I have found very useful.
• Fast startup of the program.
• Faster page loading - much faster than IE - comparable to Firefox though.
• Clean, simple look.
• Color coded source code and new "Element Inspector" which I think will be useful.

Overall, I am pleased with Google Chrome. There are a few uknown plug-ins that I keep receiving when viewing some websites. I believe that most of them have to do with no Java Plugins. Hopefully, there is a workaround. I just haven't had time to look for one yet. I anticipate/expect that Google will fuse/streamline all of their useful applications into Chrome, which would make it top of the line!

Greg Jennings • WR - GB
Jennings apparantly had a knee injury early on in the pre-season. He was able to play against the Broncos last Friday with no apparant signs of any problems. I anticipate that he will remain solid throughout the season. He had 4 receptions with 42 yards receiving in his last game.

Tom Brady • QB - NE
Brady had a right foot injury before the pre-season opener causing him to miss all three pre-season games. This shouldn't really be a big concern as they more than likely kept him out of the pre-season to nurse his foot. Brady has said that he feels good and can't wait to start the season. This is good news!

Reggie Bush • RB - NO
Reggie had a recent injury last Sunday against the Bengals. During the first quarter of last Saturday's game, he suffered a contusion to his quadriceps. No news yet on if this is more than a day to day deal. Hopefully, he will be good to go when the season starts.

Ed Reed • DB - BAL
Reed's shoulder injury appears worst than originally thought. In his last game, it was apparant by his facial expressions that it was really bothering him. He's also been having trouble outstretching both arms. It's not certain that he will start the Sept. 7th opener. I may have to drop Reed if it looks like he will be out beyond the season opener.

Changing the Windows XP Start button to say something else, really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It took me at the most around 15 minutes to do it. I was going to put all the instructions here in my blog, but I decided against doing that. Instead, I'm posting the URL to an article that will do the same thing. Let me know if it works for you!

Here's the URL:
Click Here
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OLD VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.' Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs, and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2008

Most of us have heard the question at some point that if Eve (or Adam) had never sinned, would we, as humans, have ever sinned? Well, the quick answer is probably. If Satan couldn't get Adam or Eve to sin, then he probably would have worked on someone else until they sinned.

But what would happen if Satan never existed in the first place, or Lucifer had never sinned in the first place. What if Satan or his demons weren't in this world to tempt us. Would we still have sinned? Does it take an evil force to tempt? For some reason, I've been thinking about this a lot.

What really gets me wondering, is how is it that Satan could be filled with jealousy in a place that was so holy, in the presence of God. What was it that got to him? Was there a driving evil force that tempted him? Was there something that put those jealous thoughts in him?

So the question is where and when did it all start? Has "evil" always existed even before Satan? Was Satan a pawn of an evil force that lurked before he fell from heaven? Was there something already there?

Those who believe in God and understand that Satan is real, know that often times the battles we face are against some kind of spiritual force. Whether it be Satan or another evil force that has been lurking out there before Satan fell.

Maybe that's all too confusing to try to think about. But it's something I've been thinking about lately and just thought I'd throw it out there.