Introduction (Part 1)

Once someone asked what Jesus would do. It became a slogan. A catch phrase. The initials still occupy necklaces and bracelets.

The answer was always to look in the Bible and find out.

We gather the answers, the Jesus codex, if you will, in one place.

Google it.

Codex means a volume of ancient manuscript remade into a book volume, bound and sealed on one side as opposed to being in scrolls. The most interesting modern revision of the definition lies in the Hakujin gamer website. The Clan Wolf Counsel Hall shows two definitions that ring very true for Christians. Codex means a warrior's "individual identification" everything from his "Blood House" to his DNA codes. A "Master Codex" is the "master file for the Clan's breeding programs."

The Bible was really the first codex from a printing press. Today, they abound. THE bestseller of all time. Mostly an American export, translated into every available language, reaching millions.

The "Old Testament" of law, history and prophecy composed the scrolls of Jesus time. Paul tells us those scrolls predicted Christ's coming, that everything in them was a "shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ"(Col. 2:17). By his life, Christ took the Law, the prophecies and that history of His People and bound them into a volume of flesh. He sealed one side with love and opened the pages of the other with compassion. His every step "read" the reality of the scrolls to those around Him. His words revised, expanded and clarified everything previously recorded on dead skins, even as the atonement sacrifice had been recorded in dead animal flesh and he would revise and perfect it in his own body. A DNA code of holiness.

Like the video game codex, his bloodlines were recorded and repeated and came to fruition in him. His master spiritual bloodline was recorded that it might be imprinted on all those who would accept him as their master. A codex to be read into eternity.

But, as happens when humans handle things, truth sometimes gets lost or misfiled along the way.

In first grade, I struggled with math. It bothered me because everything else had come easily. Try as I might, I couldn't comprehend multiplication.

When I shared my complaint with my father, he said, "You got to learn the three R's."

I asked him what he meant and he explained: "Readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic."

Dad was a fairly illiterate man but, like most of his World War II generation, valued the basics. "Work, earn and save" formed their mantra. "You get the foundation right and everything else will come out okay." So his idea of education began with doing the basic things right and building from there.

He labored for hours making me go over my "times tables" again and again, memorizing by rote. He only shared more time with me on the baseball diamond and in the garage. All male basics to him.

If the basics are sound, everything else holds up. Since I can change the oil, rotate my tires, tune the engine and pump gas, my cars seldom needed major repairs. Over time, my knowledge of math grew to trigonometry. In Little League, I became an All-Star.

Like me, Christianity often struggles with the basics. Our ministers sometimes become so steeped in advanced teaching that someone walking in the door of a church doesn't grasp what's going on. They talk in code about "Born again." They call for "tithes." Our music directors become "worship leaders." (A stranger once asked me if that wasn't what the preacher's job.) Some of us talk in funny sounds and wander around the church. Others raise their hands and quip, "It's because we have the answer," forgetting that new comers have yet to learn the questions.

Most churches offer discipleship classes in one form or another for new Christians. As they should, they do well in presenting the belief system of the church or denomination that offers the classes, but sometimes fail in offering, simply, directly, the commands which Jesus himself gave us. Yet his commands form the core of living Christianity. Additions and subtractions dilute the message. The basics fortify and reconstitute the believer.

In this blog, we aim to turn the believer, no mater the denomination, back to basics.