FRIEND Week 10
It's a simple word, one we use often and yet in the NT it is used to mean so much. If Jesus were to speak about the ultimate idea of love, the ultimate sacrifice, if He were to speak of the greatest thing He could give from His Father, would you think of the word, 'Friend'?
I don't think I would. I might think of a tragic word to convey some ultimate truth, but not friend.
And yet Jesus uses that simple word in John 15.
First He says that the greatest expression of love is to lay down your life for a friend--You are My friend if you do what I command you, John 15.14. He does not say lay down your life for your parent, your spiritual guide or a famous person, but for your friend.
Then Jesus says what makes someone His friend is to obey His commandments. He does not limit that to the Jews, to the religious, to his close friends, or even His followers. Whoever obeys is one of His friends.
In Luke 14 Jesus tells a parable of a king who invited many to a feast, but they would not come, they would not obey the invitation. So he had his servants compel anyone--even the lame, the poor, the crippled, and the blind--who would come to come. Those who obeyed were the friends of the king.
Friendship in the Lord is a special thing.
Jesus says--Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father, who is in heaven, Matt. 7.21.
Once, His mother and brothers came wishing to speak to Jesus. He said--For whoever shall do the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother, Matt. 12.50.
While we might notice the exclusive tone here, we might also notice the family element. Whoever does the will of the Father is the family of Jesus, His mother, brother or sister. This means that anyone, of any tribe, kindred, nation, ethnic group, gender, anyone can be in the family of God.
When Paul wrote the Corinthians the second time, he thought of them as his family. He begins chapter 7 by calling them, 'beloved.' The Greek word is , loved ones. He asks them to make room for him in their hearts, almost as if he were saying, 'make room for me in your house.' He says the Corinthians are in his heart--to die together and to live together, 2 Cor. 7.3.
He says that toward the people at that church, he is filled with comfort and overflowing with joy. And when Titus came, Paul was comforted not only by Titus but also by how the Corinthians treated Titus. He is glad his first letter led the Corinthians from sorrow to repentance to the will of God (there's that obedience again) unto salvation, 2 Cor. 7.9,10.
They are friends.
We don't often think of the apostle Paul as so endearing. We might think of him as the doctrinal giant he was, but he had been brough through doctrine to love. He knew no one could relate to God except through love, which comes in a family.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
BEGENDINGS Week 9
I just made up that word, 'begendings' to relate beginnings with endings. Since I have been quite sick--and I'm nnot completely free of my sickness--I have been thinking of how life is more about beginnings and endings than the long middle years in between.
So I've been wondering what that means. The two famous beginnings in the Bible are of Adam and Paul. Adam was born of God's breadth, Paul was born again of Jesus' word.
Adam was brough down from the Garden by way of sin to a world into which he was not born. It must have been a frightening thought to have to livee where he was not born, to be an alien in a strange land because of what he did in another world
And Paul was jealous for the Lord within traditional Judaism, yet the God whom he thought he served asked him--Why are you persecuting Me, Acts 9.4. This upset Paul's thinking about God and Judaism. Paul had to start all over again, to begin again.
In the endings of our lives, Adam's life ended in the hope of a messiah who was promised. Paul's life ended after the messiah had come, in the summation of God's will. It was his death in Rome that culminated his life as the follower and preacher of Christ.
For Adam, he was given a great deal in the Garden, and had a great deal taken away in the Fall. So he lived in hope that one of his ancestors would be the messiah, the one who would bruise the serpent's head.
Paul living centuries later was misguided until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Then, having encountered Jesus, he lived the rest of his life on the basis and understanding of that moment. His preaching and teaching was the understanding of what Jesus did on the road to begin his life again. As the writer to the Hebrews said--in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son, Heb. 1.2.
In between the beginning and ending is the plateau each of us has for a few years or many more.
Paul is aware of this level time and place. In one of his famous phrases, he says--I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ, Philippians 3.14. Paul knows he's on a plateau, although he sees it as an upward call. He may have been thinking of the pilgrimmage to Jerusalem in which the last few miles are upward in altitude until the pilgrim reaches the city gates. Paul says we are headed to Zion, we are on our upward pilgrimmage to the heavenly Jerusalem.
We have had our salvation procured by Jesus; we are on the walk of sanctification which secures our safety from the enemy until we come to the consummation devoutly to be wished, our glorification.
The Holy Spirit is our protection along the way. Joel 2.28 had said the Spirit of the Lord would be upon all mankind. John said we would be baptized by the Spirit, John 3.5. David said Thy word is a lamp unto Thy feet, and a light unto Thy path, Ps. 109.105. David also said God would--make known to me the path of life, Ps. 16.11.
Along the way Paul tells Timothy to--Guard, through the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, the treasure which has been enturusted to you, 2 Tim. 1.14. Paul hopes the Colossians will--walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, Col. 1.10.
We persevere as we have been called to do so. In Mark 4.35 Jesus told the disciples to get into a boat--Let us go to the other side. A fierce gale had come up, but Jesus had said they were going to the other side. No matter what comes up, we are going to the other side. Jesus rebuked the winds, saying to the sea--Hush, be still, Mark 4.39. So Matt. 8.28 finishes it off by saying--He had come to the other side...
I just made up that word, 'begendings' to relate beginnings with endings. Since I have been quite sick--and I'm nnot completely free of my sickness--I have been thinking of how life is more about beginnings and endings than the long middle years in between.
So I've been wondering what that means. The two famous beginnings in the Bible are of Adam and Paul. Adam was born of God's breadth, Paul was born again of Jesus' word.
Adam was brough down from the Garden by way of sin to a world into which he was not born. It must have been a frightening thought to have to livee where he was not born, to be an alien in a strange land because of what he did in another world
And Paul was jealous for the Lord within traditional Judaism, yet the God whom he thought he served asked him--Why are you persecuting Me, Acts 9.4. This upset Paul's thinking about God and Judaism. Paul had to start all over again, to begin again.
In the endings of our lives, Adam's life ended in the hope of a messiah who was promised. Paul's life ended after the messiah had come, in the summation of God's will. It was his death in Rome that culminated his life as the follower and preacher of Christ.
For Adam, he was given a great deal in the Garden, and had a great deal taken away in the Fall. So he lived in hope that one of his ancestors would be the messiah, the one who would bruise the serpent's head.
Paul living centuries later was misguided until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Then, having encountered Jesus, he lived the rest of his life on the basis and understanding of that moment. His preaching and teaching was the understanding of what Jesus did on the road to begin his life again. As the writer to the Hebrews said--in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son, Heb. 1.2.
In between the beginning and ending is the plateau each of us has for a few years or many more.
Paul is aware of this level time and place. In one of his famous phrases, he says--I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ, Philippians 3.14. Paul knows he's on a plateau, although he sees it as an upward call. He may have been thinking of the pilgrimmage to Jerusalem in which the last few miles are upward in altitude until the pilgrim reaches the city gates. Paul says we are headed to Zion, we are on our upward pilgrimmage to the heavenly Jerusalem.
We have had our salvation procured by Jesus; we are on the walk of sanctification which secures our safety from the enemy until we come to the consummation devoutly to be wished, our glorification.
The Holy Spirit is our protection along the way. Joel 2.28 had said the Spirit of the Lord would be upon all mankind. John said we would be baptized by the Spirit, John 3.5. David said Thy word is a lamp unto Thy feet, and a light unto Thy path, Ps. 109.105. David also said God would--make known to me the path of life, Ps. 16.11.
Along the way Paul tells Timothy to--Guard, through the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, the treasure which has been enturusted to you, 2 Tim. 1.14. Paul hopes the Colossians will--walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, Col. 1.10.
We persevere as we have been called to do so. In Mark 4.35 Jesus told the disciples to get into a boat--Let us go to the other side. A fierce gale had come up, but Jesus had said they were going to the other side. No matter what comes up, we are going to the other side. Jesus rebuked the winds, saying to the sea--Hush, be still, Mark 4.39. So Matt. 8.28 finishes it off by saying--He had come to the other side...
Thursday, August 1, 2013
CHURCH Week 8
In the western culture we often think of the church as a building, an institution or a sort-of club to join.
David in Psalm 65.4 sung--
How blessed is the one in whom Thou does choose
and bring near to Thee,
to dwell in Thy courts;
we will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house,
thy holy temple.
In Isaiah 56.7 God says--
for My house shall be a house of prayer.
In Ephesians 2.21 Paul calls the church--
a holy temple in the Lord.
These quotes bring the church from a courtyard to a house to a temple. The building is there but it is a house for a family, that is, God and His children. And more than that, it is a temple in which He is worshiped, a place of reverence and awe and spirit. When you stand there and inhale, more than air enters you; it is the spirit of divinity of which you are aware; it is as if you'd rather not touch anything but you adore the place as it glows within you.
The church has a beautiful strangeness. It is not like learning about someone's life, it is entering into someone's life, that of Jesus Christ. Just think what it would be like to enter into Christ when He heals a leper, or raises Lazarus from the dead or touches children or speaks to a woman caught in adultery. What would it be like to enter into Jesus when He speaks to His Father, sees His Father, is with His Father?
To hear those whisperings, to feel that surge of power, to see that horizon.
That would be a complicated environment, would it not? And yet, that is Christ. That is the church.
It is the place in which we experience healing, wholeness, forgiveness, blessing and love.
It is the place where the knot of sin is untied so that our souls can relax.
We can lay ourselves down, to rest in Him. We rest because we are in Him. Have you ever sat on the banks of a leisurely stream, the glowing reflection of a momentary sun off the network of trickling water, easing by? That is rest.
But it is also the place in which we learn who God is.
The blessed man delights in the Law, meditates on the Law day and night in the assembly of the righteous, Psalm 1 We have the eyes of our heart enlightened to know the hope of our calling, the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints, Eph. 1.18. John Donne called church the college of God. The church is the pillar of the truth.
We hear the Scriptures read and expounded in the church. We hear and obey the Scriptures in the church. When Jesus read the scroll from Isaiah, He said--Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, Luke 4.21. It is in the church that proclaiming becomes hearing to be evangelizing.
Is there a NT church in which these things happened?
It may have been the church at Thessalonica. Paul uses the phrase in Ephesians 5.1--be imitators of God, as beloved children. But how do we do this?
In 1 Thessalonians 1. 3-10 Paul was always thanking God for the saints at Thessalonica because of the--word of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ...
He says they became--imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the Word in much tribulation and with the joy of the Holy Spirit.
He says they--became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
He says--the Word of the Lord sounded forth from you...in every place the word of your faith has gone forth.
That is the Word of God.
What did they have, to make all of that possible?
Paul says in 1 Thes. 5.11--encourage one another and build up one another, just as you are doing...appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instructions, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work.
The second time Paul wrote to this church, he completed his instructions to them by saying--stand firm and hold to the tradition which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us, 1 Thes. 2.15. Now we can only imagine what letters or what sermon or teaching came to the Thessalonians, but they believed it. They believed it as a church, as a group of believers with one mind, spirit, soul, so that they became one church under God.
In the western culture we often think of the church as a building, an institution or a sort-of club to join.
David in Psalm 65.4 sung--
How blessed is the one in whom Thou does choose
and bring near to Thee,
to dwell in Thy courts;
we will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house,
thy holy temple.
In Isaiah 56.7 God says--
for My house shall be a house of prayer.
In Ephesians 2.21 Paul calls the church--
a holy temple in the Lord.
These quotes bring the church from a courtyard to a house to a temple. The building is there but it is a house for a family, that is, God and His children. And more than that, it is a temple in which He is worshiped, a place of reverence and awe and spirit. When you stand there and inhale, more than air enters you; it is the spirit of divinity of which you are aware; it is as if you'd rather not touch anything but you adore the place as it glows within you.
The church has a beautiful strangeness. It is not like learning about someone's life, it is entering into someone's life, that of Jesus Christ. Just think what it would be like to enter into Christ when He heals a leper, or raises Lazarus from the dead or touches children or speaks to a woman caught in adultery. What would it be like to enter into Jesus when He speaks to His Father, sees His Father, is with His Father?
To hear those whisperings, to feel that surge of power, to see that horizon.
That would be a complicated environment, would it not? And yet, that is Christ. That is the church.
It is the place in which we experience healing, wholeness, forgiveness, blessing and love.
It is the place where the knot of sin is untied so that our souls can relax.
We can lay ourselves down, to rest in Him. We rest because we are in Him. Have you ever sat on the banks of a leisurely stream, the glowing reflection of a momentary sun off the network of trickling water, easing by? That is rest.
But it is also the place in which we learn who God is.
The blessed man delights in the Law, meditates on the Law day and night in the assembly of the righteous, Psalm 1 We have the eyes of our heart enlightened to know the hope of our calling, the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints, Eph. 1.18. John Donne called church the college of God. The church is the pillar of the truth.
We hear the Scriptures read and expounded in the church. We hear and obey the Scriptures in the church. When Jesus read the scroll from Isaiah, He said--Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, Luke 4.21. It is in the church that proclaiming becomes hearing to be evangelizing.
Is there a NT church in which these things happened?
It may have been the church at Thessalonica. Paul uses the phrase in Ephesians 5.1--be imitators of God, as beloved children. But how do we do this?
In 1 Thessalonians 1. 3-10 Paul was always thanking God for the saints at Thessalonica because of the--word of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ...
He says they became--imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the Word in much tribulation and with the joy of the Holy Spirit.
He says they--became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
He says--the Word of the Lord sounded forth from you...in every place the word of your faith has gone forth.
That is the Word of God.
What did they have, to make all of that possible?
Paul says in 1 Thes. 5.11--encourage one another and build up one another, just as you are doing...appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instructions, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work.
The second time Paul wrote to this church, he completed his instructions to them by saying--stand firm and hold to the tradition which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us, 1 Thes. 2.15. Now we can only imagine what letters or what sermon or teaching came to the Thessalonians, but they believed it. They believed it as a church, as a group of believers with one mind, spirit, soul, so that they became one church under God.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE Week 7
Often preachers like to say that people do not worship publicly like they should. That may mean we don't respond to public worship as generations in the past have. My father's generation had the same history through which to live--the Depression and World War II and the post-war boom. They had so much of the same experience and history.
However, my 1960s and 1970s generation didn't have that same history and culture and experiences to bind us together. We were not bound together, and that is one of the losses of the church. Without believing in the church as the center of our life and neighborhood, we no longer have a center. We have been slung out to the edges by our own introversion.
We have all seen this in the self-help books, the empowerment books, the motivational speakers selling tapes, the sale of cds and other things.
So at this point we might ask, what did Jesus do?
He went off by Himself to pray all night and then He went into the temple--But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And early in the morning He came again into the temple and all the people were coming to Hiim and He sat down to teach them, John 8. 1-2.
The Pharisees accuse Him being a lone wolf, a solitary rebel who only came to upset people. But if coming to the temple was His way of sharing His great faith, what was His time on the Mount like? He tells us something of this when He says--
But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and He who sent Me...I am He who bears witness of Myself and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me, John 8. 18.19.
His communion was with His Father. This communion did not leave Him on the Mount of Olives to hold onto what He had with the Father. The Father even sent Him. He came down from the Mount to the temple, to teach the people.
What did He teach them, which He had learned on the Mount? He said--He who sent Me is true and the things which I heard from Him, these things I speak to the world.
Those around Him didn't believe that. So He says--I speak these things as the Father has taught Me, John 8.28.
Jesus is taking what the Father taught Him in private, to teach it in public and in the temple. At this time the temple was the most public of arenas in Jerusalem. He had said in 8.26--I speak to the world. Certainly this meant the Jewish world and in the Roman empire as well as for all time through John's gospel. And John said that at that time--many came to believe in Him, John 8.30.
We don't often realize how many people did believe in Jesus. We are aware of the opposition of the traditional church leaders in the temple and the Sanhedrin, yet when Jesus spoke openly in the temple here in John 8 many did realize the truth of what He said.
We might imagine that a spiritual time has to be private. We think of quietness and contemplation and maybe even hymns or chants or canticles. And yet here He was in the temple in front of the religious leaders, in public, amid the crowd under the guidance of the process of teaching. His words probably echoed off the temple tiles, resounding through the columns and porticoes, for everyone to hear.
How could we respond to this, to have such privacy with the Father in church? One way is to create in our public order of worship a time and place for contemplation. Any service might benefit by silence, at least in small moments. We might think of worship as our coming to hear Him. This is our time with Him.
We prepare with His word, the Bible. We anticipate with prayer. We open our souls with forgiveness and love. And we receive Him in our worship.
In a way, not easy. And yet if we concentrate on this, God responds. As in so many things, to put God first is all.
To give God the place before us as we go is the place of blessing.
Often preachers like to say that people do not worship publicly like they should. That may mean we don't respond to public worship as generations in the past have. My father's generation had the same history through which to live--the Depression and World War II and the post-war boom. They had so much of the same experience and history.
However, my 1960s and 1970s generation didn't have that same history and culture and experiences to bind us together. We were not bound together, and that is one of the losses of the church. Without believing in the church as the center of our life and neighborhood, we no longer have a center. We have been slung out to the edges by our own introversion.
We have all seen this in the self-help books, the empowerment books, the motivational speakers selling tapes, the sale of cds and other things.
So at this point we might ask, what did Jesus do?
He went off by Himself to pray all night and then He went into the temple--But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And early in the morning He came again into the temple and all the people were coming to Hiim and He sat down to teach them, John 8. 1-2.
The Pharisees accuse Him being a lone wolf, a solitary rebel who only came to upset people. But if coming to the temple was His way of sharing His great faith, what was His time on the Mount like? He tells us something of this when He says--
But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and He who sent Me...I am He who bears witness of Myself and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me, John 8. 18.19.
His communion was with His Father. This communion did not leave Him on the Mount of Olives to hold onto what He had with the Father. The Father even sent Him. He came down from the Mount to the temple, to teach the people.
What did He teach them, which He had learned on the Mount? He said--He who sent Me is true and the things which I heard from Him, these things I speak to the world.
Those around Him didn't believe that. So He says--I speak these things as the Father has taught Me, John 8.28.
Jesus is taking what the Father taught Him in private, to teach it in public and in the temple. At this time the temple was the most public of arenas in Jerusalem. He had said in 8.26--I speak to the world. Certainly this meant the Jewish world and in the Roman empire as well as for all time through John's gospel. And John said that at that time--many came to believe in Him, John 8.30.
We don't often realize how many people did believe in Jesus. We are aware of the opposition of the traditional church leaders in the temple and the Sanhedrin, yet when Jesus spoke openly in the temple here in John 8 many did realize the truth of what He said.
We might imagine that a spiritual time has to be private. We think of quietness and contemplation and maybe even hymns or chants or canticles. And yet here He was in the temple in front of the religious leaders, in public, amid the crowd under the guidance of the process of teaching. His words probably echoed off the temple tiles, resounding through the columns and porticoes, for everyone to hear.
How could we respond to this, to have such privacy with the Father in church? One way is to create in our public order of worship a time and place for contemplation. Any service might benefit by silence, at least in small moments. We might think of worship as our coming to hear Him. This is our time with Him.
We prepare with His word, the Bible. We anticipate with prayer. We open our souls with forgiveness and love. And we receive Him in our worship.
In a way, not easy. And yet if we concentrate on this, God responds. As in so many things, to put God first is all.
To give God the place before us as we go is the place of blessing.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
CROSSROADS Week 6
When I think of what would be the one essential idea of Christianity, it is in the word, crossroads. Jesus as the crossroads of God and man, Christian marriage as the crossroads of man and woman, the church as the crossroads of heaven and earth.
I've read that Jerusalem is the crossroads of east and west, of north and south. It was never the economic center of the world, but the Jewish prophets always called the City of Peace as the heart of God's people and His footstool.
But to be a crossroads, a place or person has to be filled by opposites and contrasting qualities. The Pharisees often say Jesus is just a carpenter's son, yet the people say Jesus is the Son of God. He is both heaven sent and earthly bound. He was the Angel of the Lord from the OT and the Son of Man in the NT.
His life is the only one lived on this planet worth knowing. He shows us heaven and He shows us how heaven could be here on earth. When He heals someone, He shows us God's power, yet it is God's power in us. When He speaks the wisdom of God it comes from ages past, yet it is spoken to and for someone right there in front of Him.
Jesus is the far and the near, He is reach and circumstance. By that I mean He is God reaching us in our circumstance. He spent His ministry bringing God to earth, and when He was resurrected He took us to heaven. It is this crossroads which makes Him so fascinating.
What was it like for Jesus to see into your eyes?
I have searched this question for years. We certainly don't see ourselves or some better version of ourselves. We see God. But He was not a God of abstract concepts, He is more like the God who reveals His voice, He appears as an angel, He comes to a room, He takes upon Himself a human form.
As the God of creation, He intimates Himself in enclosed places like a garden, a stream disappearing into a forest, a cave within a cliff or the light glittered by dust in a vacant church.
We become aware of Him in bread, in still water at a well, in sheep, in light, in stars. He enters us so that we can become aware of His presence on His own. We see this when Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus asks for a drink. When the woman tells Him the truth about herself, He rewards her by saying--God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth, John 4.24. Truth results in revelation, confession results in worship, living water is God the Son.
So how did the woman see Him in her eyes? John provides no simple answer except to say that she dropped her water bucket, ran into her own city to tell the men about this man Jesus. This is her John 3.8 moment--the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but do not knowwhereit comes from and where it is going; so is every one who is born of the Spirit.
The men she spoke to must have seen Jesus in her eyes, as they--went out of the city and were coming to Him, John 4.30. He was more important than the well, or her bucket, or their day's duties. He was to them beyond their daily life, even to the point of being worth everything. What they seemed to see when we see Jesus is that He is all, He is the only One who matters.
When I think of what would be the one essential idea of Christianity, it is in the word, crossroads. Jesus as the crossroads of God and man, Christian marriage as the crossroads of man and woman, the church as the crossroads of heaven and earth.
I've read that Jerusalem is the crossroads of east and west, of north and south. It was never the economic center of the world, but the Jewish prophets always called the City of Peace as the heart of God's people and His footstool.
But to be a crossroads, a place or person has to be filled by opposites and contrasting qualities. The Pharisees often say Jesus is just a carpenter's son, yet the people say Jesus is the Son of God. He is both heaven sent and earthly bound. He was the Angel of the Lord from the OT and the Son of Man in the NT.
His life is the only one lived on this planet worth knowing. He shows us heaven and He shows us how heaven could be here on earth. When He heals someone, He shows us God's power, yet it is God's power in us. When He speaks the wisdom of God it comes from ages past, yet it is spoken to and for someone right there in front of Him.
Jesus is the far and the near, He is reach and circumstance. By that I mean He is God reaching us in our circumstance. He spent His ministry bringing God to earth, and when He was resurrected He took us to heaven. It is this crossroads which makes Him so fascinating.
What was it like for Jesus to see into your eyes?
I have searched this question for years. We certainly don't see ourselves or some better version of ourselves. We see God. But He was not a God of abstract concepts, He is more like the God who reveals His voice, He appears as an angel, He comes to a room, He takes upon Himself a human form.
As the God of creation, He intimates Himself in enclosed places like a garden, a stream disappearing into a forest, a cave within a cliff or the light glittered by dust in a vacant church.
We become aware of Him in bread, in still water at a well, in sheep, in light, in stars. He enters us so that we can become aware of His presence on His own. We see this when Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus asks for a drink. When the woman tells Him the truth about herself, He rewards her by saying--God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth, John 4.24. Truth results in revelation, confession results in worship, living water is God the Son.
So how did the woman see Him in her eyes? John provides no simple answer except to say that she dropped her water bucket, ran into her own city to tell the men about this man Jesus. This is her John 3.8 moment--the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but do not knowwhereit comes from and where it is going; so is every one who is born of the Spirit.
The men she spoke to must have seen Jesus in her eyes, as they--went out of the city and were coming to Him, John 4.30. He was more important than the well, or her bucket, or their day's duties. He was to them beyond their daily life, even to the point of being worth everything. What they seemed to see when we see Jesus is that He is all, He is the only One who matters.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
JOURNEY--2 Week 5
We have disagreed with Bonaventure about journeying toward God. Yet, his little book has remained with us all these years when other books have not been reprinted. Why would that be?
While we cannot journey into God as if He were a sea of mist into which an ancient sailing ship might travel, still He has come to us. This means, if we look at those saints in the Bible to whom Jesus came, we might see God in us. We might be able to see within ourselves the trace of God's approach and entrance, like the trail of bubbles when we drop a pebble into water.
First, let's look into the Scriptures to see what we can find.
Of all the men in the NT, there are more verses mentioning Peter than anyone. John the Baptist has been preaching about a coming king, words Peter easily could have heard. In Luke 4.33 when Jesus is in the synogogue He rebukes a demon, so a few verses later He rebukes the sickness of Peter's mother-in-law, Luke 4.41.
Jesus leaves for Judea and when He returns, Peter is in his boat, fishing. Jesus joins Peter saying--Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Peter begins to refuse in sarcasm, but he remembers Jesus healed his mother-in-law, so he backs down when he says--(refusal) we worked hard all night and caught nothing, (yielding) but at Your bidding I will let down the nets.
When the load of fish jump into Peter's net, his reaction is--Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Peter has gone from watching Jesus heal his mother-in-law to seeing himself as a sinful man. The holiness of Christ's presence has stung the sinfulness of Peter's flesh. But it has not transformed Peter. He knows, he sees, he is struck down but he is not poured out.
Jesus then realizing Peter is afraid, says--Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.'
Is fear what does not want to yield to Jesus?
Jesus has given Peter something to do. He has not verbally lacerated Peter for not having the kind of faith Mary had (Be it done unto me according to Your Word). He has drawn Peter from a place of only watching to a place of being sent. Has Peter come through fear? Well, not completely.
In Luke 6.14 Jesus names Peter as one of the apostles. Peter has left the boats and nets. Now Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount. We remember Peter calls Jesus, Lord, in Luke 5.18. Now in Luke 6.45 Jesus says a good man brings forth out of his good heart what is good, but then He says--why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? If Peter is right there, he might remember that he called Jesus, Lord. Then by what Jesus said, Peter must do what Jesus said to be His follower.
Now when the Pharisee accuses Jesus of touching a sinner in Luke 7.39, Jesus turns to Peter to say of two debtors, one who owes 500 denarii and one who owes 50, when the moneylender forgives both, who loves him more? Peter says--I supose the one whom he forgave more. Jesus then says--You have judged correctly. Notice that Jesus uses the word, judged. Peter has been brough from being a rude fisherman to being a follower, to calling Jesus his Lord, and now to being given the priviledge of judging.
But Jesus is not through with Peter. In this same conversation with Peter, Jesus says he entered Peter's house. Peter gave Him no water for His feet, he gave Jesus no kiss, he did not anoint Jesus with oil. Then Jesus says--he who is forgiven little, loves little.
Now this seems an understandable lesson as it is. But when we remember the last words of Jesus to Peter in John 21.15--
Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?
He said to Him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
He said to him, Tend My lambs.
But then Jesus repeats the same words two more times. What is He doing? He is taking Peter from merely knowing to being forgiven much to loving much.
This is the trail of God in a soul, from seeing to obeying to following, to believing to being forgiven much so that he could love much. Now this the journey into the soul by God.
We have disagreed with Bonaventure about journeying toward God. Yet, his little book has remained with us all these years when other books have not been reprinted. Why would that be?
While we cannot journey into God as if He were a sea of mist into which an ancient sailing ship might travel, still He has come to us. This means, if we look at those saints in the Bible to whom Jesus came, we might see God in us. We might be able to see within ourselves the trace of God's approach and entrance, like the trail of bubbles when we drop a pebble into water.
First, let's look into the Scriptures to see what we can find.
Of all the men in the NT, there are more verses mentioning Peter than anyone. John the Baptist has been preaching about a coming king, words Peter easily could have heard. In Luke 4.33 when Jesus is in the synogogue He rebukes a demon, so a few verses later He rebukes the sickness of Peter's mother-in-law, Luke 4.41.
Jesus leaves for Judea and when He returns, Peter is in his boat, fishing. Jesus joins Peter saying--Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Peter begins to refuse in sarcasm, but he remembers Jesus healed his mother-in-law, so he backs down when he says--(refusal) we worked hard all night and caught nothing, (yielding) but at Your bidding I will let down the nets.
When the load of fish jump into Peter's net, his reaction is--Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Peter has gone from watching Jesus heal his mother-in-law to seeing himself as a sinful man. The holiness of Christ's presence has stung the sinfulness of Peter's flesh. But it has not transformed Peter. He knows, he sees, he is struck down but he is not poured out.
Jesus then realizing Peter is afraid, says--Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.'
Is fear what does not want to yield to Jesus?
Jesus has given Peter something to do. He has not verbally lacerated Peter for not having the kind of faith Mary had (Be it done unto me according to Your Word). He has drawn Peter from a place of only watching to a place of being sent. Has Peter come through fear? Well, not completely.
In Luke 6.14 Jesus names Peter as one of the apostles. Peter has left the boats and nets. Now Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount. We remember Peter calls Jesus, Lord, in Luke 5.18. Now in Luke 6.45 Jesus says a good man brings forth out of his good heart what is good, but then He says--why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? If Peter is right there, he might remember that he called Jesus, Lord. Then by what Jesus said, Peter must do what Jesus said to be His follower.
Now when the Pharisee accuses Jesus of touching a sinner in Luke 7.39, Jesus turns to Peter to say of two debtors, one who owes 500 denarii and one who owes 50, when the moneylender forgives both, who loves him more? Peter says--I supose the one whom he forgave more. Jesus then says--You have judged correctly. Notice that Jesus uses the word, judged. Peter has been brough from being a rude fisherman to being a follower, to calling Jesus his Lord, and now to being given the priviledge of judging.
But Jesus is not through with Peter. In this same conversation with Peter, Jesus says he entered Peter's house. Peter gave Him no water for His feet, he gave Jesus no kiss, he did not anoint Jesus with oil. Then Jesus says--he who is forgiven little, loves little.
Now this seems an understandable lesson as it is. But when we remember the last words of Jesus to Peter in John 21.15--
Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?
He said to Him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
He said to him, Tend My lambs.
But then Jesus repeats the same words two more times. What is He doing? He is taking Peter from merely knowing to being forgiven much to loving much.
This is the trail of God in a soul, from seeing to obeying to following, to believing to being forgiven much so that he could love much. Now this the journey into the soul by God.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
JOURNEY--1 Week 4
Often when an era is ending, someone will come along to summarize that time and place in writing, as an act of holding on to what he knows is slipping away.
Before the 13th century, the great theologians were pastors and the great pastors were theologians. That would change as the universities became the feeding ground for the government, not the church. Governments and armies would rule, not the church and popes and the nobility. After the 13th century pastors went to the churches, theologians went to the universities.
The man in that time who tried to hold Christianity together was St. Bonaventure. He was born in a small town in central Italy, probably in 1217. Francis of Assisi had just founded his order. While Francis died in 1226, Bonaventure entered the Franciscan order in 1243. He wrote a great deal, mostly in response to controversies of his time.
In 1257 he wrote THE SOUL'S JOURNEY INTO GOD.
The title is misleading; it really is the soul's journey toward God. What Bonaventure wrote was a summary of thought up till his time concerning the development of our own faculties. The books consists of 7 chapters, each with several stanzas of poetry accompanied by comments. The poetry uses Scripture but it is not the result of Scripture. Rather it is the result of philosophical thought on the religious life.
An example is the very first statement in the prologue--
Since happiness is nothing other than
the enjoyment of the highest good,
and since the highest good is above,
no one can be made happy unless he rise above himself...
The writers of the Bible do not say happiness is the enjoyment of the highest good, rather they say of man--
He also is flesh...every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, Gen. 6.6.
Bonaventure says that, 'Whoever wishes to ascend to God must first avoid sin.' An obvious thing to say, but simply impossible. 1 John 1.8 says--
If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Bonaventure then says there are six stages in the ascent into God, represented in our soul by the senses, imagination, reason, understanding, intelligence and conscience. This order is from below to above, from lower to higher. But does God redeem by stages?
John says--For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace, John 1.16.
In chapter 4 Bonaventure says God must lift the soul to true contemplation.
We recall that Jesus had said,
I am the door; if anyone enters through Me,
he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture, John 10.9.
It is at this point that Bonaventure makes his contribution to religious thought. He says the soul which contemplates Christ is transformed. Now that is not such a radical statement. But how is the soul transformed?
Bonaventure says the soul resembles the heavenly Jerusalem, which is our mother, Galatians 4.26. When the soul which believes in Jesus is redeemed, it receives its spiritual sight and hearing. It can see the splendor of the light of God, it embraces the Word and delights in the love of Christ. When the inner senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell are restored the soul can love Christ in ecstasy.
+++
Let's step back and bring all of this together. Bonaventure is trying to tie medeival philosophy and the NT together. He is saying God is in nature, and that nature is to be respected as true. However, that is not enough for us to see God in Christ. We must be instructed by Sacred Scripture for the reception of the Holy Spirit for that to happen. When we are given the illumination of God in Christ, we see God in all things, that God may be all in all, 1 Cor. 15.28.
When we step back, we might not see 9 levels of movement by the soul. Jesus has this habit of bringing people directly into the presence of God.
He says to the criminal--
today you will be with Me in paradise, Luke 23.43.
He says to Philip--
If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father, John 14.9.
Any sort of fusion of the Bible with the ancient classical world cannot come about. One or both will be compromised, and the usual result is the loss of closeness to Jesus. He is not 'the good,' but the only One who was good. Fusion with anyone has never worked. God is separated, He is holy, there is no one like Him. Some of us have used this kind of fusion to hold God at a distance, to get away from Him.
We cannot swerve ourselves up into a vision of God, we can only receive God. But what about the Christian who does not always live up to the holiness of Christ? This is where Bonaventure might come in handy. We do grow in grace from light to light, from seeing darkly to being in the light. If we think of a good seed growing in bad soil, we might be closer to Bonaventure. We will take up the life of Peter in the gospels next week.
The great pilgrimmage is not the soul's graduation through any stages, rather it is the pilgrimmage of Christ from the heavenly courts to this life of dust and clay.
Often when an era is ending, someone will come along to summarize that time and place in writing, as an act of holding on to what he knows is slipping away.
Before the 13th century, the great theologians were pastors and the great pastors were theologians. That would change as the universities became the feeding ground for the government, not the church. Governments and armies would rule, not the church and popes and the nobility. After the 13th century pastors went to the churches, theologians went to the universities.
The man in that time who tried to hold Christianity together was St. Bonaventure. He was born in a small town in central Italy, probably in 1217. Francis of Assisi had just founded his order. While Francis died in 1226, Bonaventure entered the Franciscan order in 1243. He wrote a great deal, mostly in response to controversies of his time.
In 1257 he wrote THE SOUL'S JOURNEY INTO GOD.
The title is misleading; it really is the soul's journey toward God. What Bonaventure wrote was a summary of thought up till his time concerning the development of our own faculties. The books consists of 7 chapters, each with several stanzas of poetry accompanied by comments. The poetry uses Scripture but it is not the result of Scripture. Rather it is the result of philosophical thought on the religious life.
An example is the very first statement in the prologue--
Since happiness is nothing other than
the enjoyment of the highest good,
and since the highest good is above,
no one can be made happy unless he rise above himself...
The writers of the Bible do not say happiness is the enjoyment of the highest good, rather they say of man--
He also is flesh...every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, Gen. 6.6.
Bonaventure says that, 'Whoever wishes to ascend to God must first avoid sin.' An obvious thing to say, but simply impossible. 1 John 1.8 says--
If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Bonaventure then says there are six stages in the ascent into God, represented in our soul by the senses, imagination, reason, understanding, intelligence and conscience. This order is from below to above, from lower to higher. But does God redeem by stages?
John says--For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace, John 1.16.
In chapter 4 Bonaventure says God must lift the soul to true contemplation.
We recall that Jesus had said,
I am the door; if anyone enters through Me,
he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture, John 10.9.
It is at this point that Bonaventure makes his contribution to religious thought. He says the soul which contemplates Christ is transformed. Now that is not such a radical statement. But how is the soul transformed?
Bonaventure says the soul resembles the heavenly Jerusalem, which is our mother, Galatians 4.26. When the soul which believes in Jesus is redeemed, it receives its spiritual sight and hearing. It can see the splendor of the light of God, it embraces the Word and delights in the love of Christ. When the inner senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell are restored the soul can love Christ in ecstasy.
+++
Let's step back and bring all of this together. Bonaventure is trying to tie medeival philosophy and the NT together. He is saying God is in nature, and that nature is to be respected as true. However, that is not enough for us to see God in Christ. We must be instructed by Sacred Scripture for the reception of the Holy Spirit for that to happen. When we are given the illumination of God in Christ, we see God in all things, that God may be all in all, 1 Cor. 15.28.
When we step back, we might not see 9 levels of movement by the soul. Jesus has this habit of bringing people directly into the presence of God.
He says to the criminal--
today you will be with Me in paradise, Luke 23.43.
He says to Philip--
If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father, John 14.9.
Any sort of fusion of the Bible with the ancient classical world cannot come about. One or both will be compromised, and the usual result is the loss of closeness to Jesus. He is not 'the good,' but the only One who was good. Fusion with anyone has never worked. God is separated, He is holy, there is no one like Him. Some of us have used this kind of fusion to hold God at a distance, to get away from Him.
We cannot swerve ourselves up into a vision of God, we can only receive God. But what about the Christian who does not always live up to the holiness of Christ? This is where Bonaventure might come in handy. We do grow in grace from light to light, from seeing darkly to being in the light. If we think of a good seed growing in bad soil, we might be closer to Bonaventure. We will take up the life of Peter in the gospels next week.
The great pilgrimmage is not the soul's graduation through any stages, rather it is the pilgrimmage of Christ from the heavenly courts to this life of dust and clay.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
IMAGE OF GOD Week 3
We often think of the passage in Gensis which first mentions the phrase, 'image of God,' Genesis 1.26,7 which says--Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.
God breathed His breath into Adam, creating the image of God. It was God in Adam as a likeness of God. It was not God Himself in Adam but a likeness, an image. Genesis 2.7 explains this as--man became a living being. To be a living being is to be in the likeness of God, yet separated.
If we look at the word 'separated' we might be reminded of Genesis 3. There, Adam and Eve are the image of God, but the Lord is not mentioned when Satan comes with the invitation to eat of the wrong tree. They are His image but separated from Him. Will they chose to be separated from God forever, or will they act to be united with Him and separated from Satan? We all know the choice they made, we are what we are because of that choice.
However in Genesis 5.3 Adam--
became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image and named him Seth.
So we see that the image was not lost when Adam fell and left the garden. A magnificent nearness to God was lost, but not our likeness.
Can that nearness return? In the NT Jesus is at Jacob's well, John 4.
There He meets a woman. He says--Give Me a drink.
Her answer is an external one. Seeing He is a Jew she says--How is it that you being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?
Then Jesus takes her from an outward viewpoint to an inward one. He says--If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.'
I'd like to think that the image of God which was breathed into Adam was like that living water, from Jesus poured into her. Jesus does not breathe on her as God did Adam, He offers her living water so that she might drink.
Notice that Adam makes an excuse--the woman gave to me, Gen. 3.12. The woman tells Jesus the truth when she admits she's had husbands, John 4.16-18. As a result, Jesus sends the woman away from the well to her own people, to tell them about Jesus. With Adam, he is punished by being sent out of the garden, to a lower plain.
Because she told Jesus the truth, she receives living water, not pain in childbirth. This living water is not bread, which must be cut down and harvested. This is not the blood of goats and lambs and bulls. This is living water, which she can freely drink.
What this means is the image of God which we are can receive the living water. The body had to be covered with fig leaves and then animal skins, due to sin. With living water, the soul can go anywhere and still be with the Lord. Jesus say this in John 3.8 when He says--
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Living water is symbolic of our covenant freedom with God.
We often think of the passage in Gensis which first mentions the phrase, 'image of God,' Genesis 1.26,7 which says--Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.
God breathed His breath into Adam, creating the image of God. It was God in Adam as a likeness of God. It was not God Himself in Adam but a likeness, an image. Genesis 2.7 explains this as--man became a living being. To be a living being is to be in the likeness of God, yet separated.
If we look at the word 'separated' we might be reminded of Genesis 3. There, Adam and Eve are the image of God, but the Lord is not mentioned when Satan comes with the invitation to eat of the wrong tree. They are His image but separated from Him. Will they chose to be separated from God forever, or will they act to be united with Him and separated from Satan? We all know the choice they made, we are what we are because of that choice.
However in Genesis 5.3 Adam--
became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image and named him Seth.
So we see that the image was not lost when Adam fell and left the garden. A magnificent nearness to God was lost, but not our likeness.
Can that nearness return? In the NT Jesus is at Jacob's well, John 4.
There He meets a woman. He says--Give Me a drink.
Her answer is an external one. Seeing He is a Jew she says--How is it that you being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?
Then Jesus takes her from an outward viewpoint to an inward one. He says--If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.'
I'd like to think that the image of God which was breathed into Adam was like that living water, from Jesus poured into her. Jesus does not breathe on her as God did Adam, He offers her living water so that she might drink.
Notice that Adam makes an excuse--the woman gave to me, Gen. 3.12. The woman tells Jesus the truth when she admits she's had husbands, John 4.16-18. As a result, Jesus sends the woman away from the well to her own people, to tell them about Jesus. With Adam, he is punished by being sent out of the garden, to a lower plain.
Because she told Jesus the truth, she receives living water, not pain in childbirth. This living water is not bread, which must be cut down and harvested. This is not the blood of goats and lambs and bulls. This is living water, which she can freely drink.
What this means is the image of God which we are can receive the living water. The body had to be covered with fig leaves and then animal skins, due to sin. With living water, the soul can go anywhere and still be with the Lord. Jesus say this in John 3.8 when He says--
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Living water is symbolic of our covenant freedom with God.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
RELIGION Week 2
Religions are made of debt. The gods require a code of subservience because they are supposed to have some power we humans want. They require our possessions in the form of money or animals or even human sacrifices. We are to pay a debt we owe the gods to get their power or permission.
Of course this never works because the gods we make are wood or stone.
In the ancient Greek tales, the Greek king Agamemnon must sacrifice his 14 year old virgin daughter Iphigenia to the gods so that the Greek ships would get favorable winds to get to Troy. The gods had said the Greek will win the Trojan War but without this human sacrifice they can't get their ships there. The gods have to be paid.
However Christianity does not operate on the basis of debt. It operates by a gift.
We have been given the gift of God's presence in our lives and in our souls when we were made in His image. Ephesians 1 tells us we were chosen to be in God's family even before we were born. This is the gift of eternal life which we already have. This gift is called an unspeakable gift, 2 Corinthian 9.15. Grace is a gift, Eph. 4.7. James says every good gift is from above, James 1.17. Romans 5.17 says righteousness is a gift. Acts 2.38 says the Holy Spirit is a gift to the Gentiles.
All of this means Christianity is about the gift of God in His Son. We do not pay the gods debts, we receive the gifts He pours into our souls and then give those gifts away.
Some religions say when you earn an insight, you keep it to yourself. Go off into the mountain caves, wear ugly robes, don't brush your teeth, and contemplate yourself and your own achievements. Christianity says when you are blessed by God from above, you give that blessing away to someone else so that you may be filled to the fulness of Christ. And then you brush your teeth.
This is why Christianity is about abundant life, generosity, blessing. The key is to receive what God has given us, but not to earn or struggle or take something which is not ours. Freely you have received, freely give, Matthew 10.8.
The image in the OT is of a vessel. But our soul as a vessel is open top and bottom. God pours into us, we pour into others.
John the Baptist uses water as a symbol for God's blessing, that He has included us in His family, John 1.26-28. Jesus uses water as an image of eternal life to the woman at Jacob's well, John 4.10---If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.
When the woman realizes what Jesus is saying, does she keep this to herself? Decisively not.
She goes and tells the people of her city, Sychar, that the messiah has come. What she received she gave away.
Religions are made of debt. The gods require a code of subservience because they are supposed to have some power we humans want. They require our possessions in the form of money or animals or even human sacrifices. We are to pay a debt we owe the gods to get their power or permission.
Of course this never works because the gods we make are wood or stone.
In the ancient Greek tales, the Greek king Agamemnon must sacrifice his 14 year old virgin daughter Iphigenia to the gods so that the Greek ships would get favorable winds to get to Troy. The gods had said the Greek will win the Trojan War but without this human sacrifice they can't get their ships there. The gods have to be paid.
However Christianity does not operate on the basis of debt. It operates by a gift.
We have been given the gift of God's presence in our lives and in our souls when we were made in His image. Ephesians 1 tells us we were chosen to be in God's family even before we were born. This is the gift of eternal life which we already have. This gift is called an unspeakable gift, 2 Corinthian 9.15. Grace is a gift, Eph. 4.7. James says every good gift is from above, James 1.17. Romans 5.17 says righteousness is a gift. Acts 2.38 says the Holy Spirit is a gift to the Gentiles.
All of this means Christianity is about the gift of God in His Son. We do not pay the gods debts, we receive the gifts He pours into our souls and then give those gifts away.
Some religions say when you earn an insight, you keep it to yourself. Go off into the mountain caves, wear ugly robes, don't brush your teeth, and contemplate yourself and your own achievements. Christianity says when you are blessed by God from above, you give that blessing away to someone else so that you may be filled to the fulness of Christ. And then you brush your teeth.
This is why Christianity is about abundant life, generosity, blessing. The key is to receive what God has given us, but not to earn or struggle or take something which is not ours. Freely you have received, freely give, Matthew 10.8.
The image in the OT is of a vessel. But our soul as a vessel is open top and bottom. God pours into us, we pour into others.
John the Baptist uses water as a symbol for God's blessing, that He has included us in His family, John 1.26-28. Jesus uses water as an image of eternal life to the woman at Jacob's well, John 4.10---If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.
When the woman realizes what Jesus is saying, does she keep this to herself? Decisively not.
She goes and tells the people of her city, Sychar, that the messiah has come. What she received she gave away.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
THE LAW
Theologians have said for many years that the Law, the Torah of the Hebrew Bible, is to show Israel that it cannot be holy before the Lord, it cannot keep the Law to fulfill it. This is meant to show that only the doctrines of grace can enable a man or woman to stand before God.
The idea is that the Law would show Israel how it failed.
I have always found this to be a strange way to run a country. I don't think any people would be encouraged to come before the God who does this. Can you imagine telling a child everyday he has failed? How do people gather together as a nation under this sentence?
They can't.
So what would be the purpose of the Law?
The purpose might have been to show Israel how to bring sin to God for forgiveness. This cleansing from sin would enable Israel to be with God.
The Law begins with Passover. Notice who will come over Israel and Egypt that night---I will go through the land of Egypt that night...I will execute judgment---I am the Lord, Exodus 12.12. So we have the Law beginning with the appearing of God the Lord. The Passover lamb is for Israel's sin, the Lord's appearing of the Lord is for every Israelite to see Him.
When Israel leaves Egypt, they will build the tabernacle. The outer court is for Israel's sin, the inner court known as the Holy of Holies is for the Lord to reside and appear.
The same Lord had appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18.1, to Lot in Gen. 19.1, to Hagar in Gen. 21.17, to Isaac in Gen. 26.24. Now in Exodus the Lord takes up residence in their midst. John Calvin said the Law was to bestow God's presence among the people of Israel.
As the Lord is in Israel's midst from Exodus onward, He gives His word to the nation through Moses and Joshua and eventually the prophets in the OT. The Law will strike down sin among the people because they are to stand before the Lord. As the sacrifices are there for cleansing from sin, His presence is there for blessing and holiness.
This is the Law of God.
So why does Jesus say He fulfills the Law in Matt. 5.17? If I obey the civil law to not steal, I have obeyed the law but it would not be said that I fulfilled it. So how does Jesus fulfill the Law, the Torah?
He does so because the Law was always to reveal Him as Lord and God. The sacrifices prepared Israel to stand before Him by cleansing them of sin, as if they were all priests ministering to Him. Then they can see Him as He bestows Himself before them.
Joseph and Mary take Jesus to Egypt so that when Herod dies they can return. Matthew says this was so that---what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled saying・\out of Egypt did I call My Son, Matt. 3.15 quoting Hosea 1.11. This is the first indication that Jesus will not just keep the Law perfectly but fulfill it. We might think of the Law as a lens through which to see Jesus as the Lord.
In Romans 3.19 Paul makes some insightful comments about the Law. He makes a statement that due to the Law---all the world may become accountable to God. What this means is every created being is dependent on God, no one human or angel or devil can come before God on the basis of their own perfection. Even an angel of light such as Lucifer sinned.
The Law puts every created being in its place under God. When Lucifer tried to exceed that place, he was thrown out of heaven to await judgment.
But when Jesus came, His baptism fulfilled all righteousness, Matt. 3.15. Jesus could be said to fulfill the Law because it was given to show Israel who He was and is. What this means for us is that we do not relate to the Lord through the Law as Israel did. We relate to God through the acknowledgment that Jesus is the Lord who was revealed in the Law and the prophets.
Paul says this in Rom. 3.20---But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus.
We stand before God as the priesthood of believers through our faith in the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth.
Theologians have said for many years that the Law, the Torah of the Hebrew Bible, is to show Israel that it cannot be holy before the Lord, it cannot keep the Law to fulfill it. This is meant to show that only the doctrines of grace can enable a man or woman to stand before God.
The idea is that the Law would show Israel how it failed.
I have always found this to be a strange way to run a country. I don't think any people would be encouraged to come before the God who does this. Can you imagine telling a child everyday he has failed? How do people gather together as a nation under this sentence?
They can't.
So what would be the purpose of the Law?
The purpose might have been to show Israel how to bring sin to God for forgiveness. This cleansing from sin would enable Israel to be with God.
The Law begins with Passover. Notice who will come over Israel and Egypt that night---I will go through the land of Egypt that night...I will execute judgment---I am the Lord, Exodus 12.12. So we have the Law beginning with the appearing of God the Lord. The Passover lamb is for Israel's sin, the Lord's appearing of the Lord is for every Israelite to see Him.
When Israel leaves Egypt, they will build the tabernacle. The outer court is for Israel's sin, the inner court known as the Holy of Holies is for the Lord to reside and appear.
The same Lord had appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18.1, to Lot in Gen. 19.1, to Hagar in Gen. 21.17, to Isaac in Gen. 26.24. Now in Exodus the Lord takes up residence in their midst. John Calvin said the Law was to bestow God's presence among the people of Israel.
As the Lord is in Israel's midst from Exodus onward, He gives His word to the nation through Moses and Joshua and eventually the prophets in the OT. The Law will strike down sin among the people because they are to stand before the Lord. As the sacrifices are there for cleansing from sin, His presence is there for blessing and holiness.
This is the Law of God.
So why does Jesus say He fulfills the Law in Matt. 5.17? If I obey the civil law to not steal, I have obeyed the law but it would not be said that I fulfilled it. So how does Jesus fulfill the Law, the Torah?
He does so because the Law was always to reveal Him as Lord and God. The sacrifices prepared Israel to stand before Him by cleansing them of sin, as if they were all priests ministering to Him. Then they can see Him as He bestows Himself before them.
Joseph and Mary take Jesus to Egypt so that when Herod dies they can return. Matthew says this was so that---what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled saying・\out of Egypt did I call My Son, Matt. 3.15 quoting Hosea 1.11. This is the first indication that Jesus will not just keep the Law perfectly but fulfill it. We might think of the Law as a lens through which to see Jesus as the Lord.
In Romans 3.19 Paul makes some insightful comments about the Law. He makes a statement that due to the Law---all the world may become accountable to God. What this means is every created being is dependent on God, no one human or angel or devil can come before God on the basis of their own perfection. Even an angel of light such as Lucifer sinned.
The Law puts every created being in its place under God. When Lucifer tried to exceed that place, he was thrown out of heaven to await judgment.
But when Jesus came, His baptism fulfilled all righteousness, Matt. 3.15. Jesus could be said to fulfill the Law because it was given to show Israel who He was and is. What this means for us is that we do not relate to the Lord through the Law as Israel did. We relate to God through the acknowledgment that Jesus is the Lord who was revealed in the Law and the prophets.
Paul says this in Rom. 3.20---But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus.
We stand before God as the priesthood of believers through our faith in the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
GOD AND MAN Week 51
In Proverbs 3.1 Solomon writes--
Do not let kindness and truth leave you
bind them around your neck
Write them on the tablet of your hear
So you will find favor and good repute
in the sight of God and man.
We have seen the expression, God and man in Luke 2.52 when--
Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature
and in favor with God and man.
This was said about Jesus as a boy. It's one thing to grow in stature with God. We know that John the Baptist did. In Matt. 11.9 Jesus calls John a prophet, that no one born of woman is greater than he, 11.11. John was a desert dweller, a man of fasting and prayer, a Nazarene, a flaming preacher. But he did not dwell in the company of men.
Someone who did was Nicodemus. He has a conversation with Jesus in John 3.1, he meets with the Sanhedrin in John 7. 50, and he provides the spices for the burial of Christ's body when Joseph of Aramithea brings it down from the cross., John 19.39. Nicodemus seems to be accepted by men of high stature and reputation in the Sanhedrin and of low reputation at the cross. But he is not known for his relationship to God, the way the Baptist was.
These two men represent the two sides of God's covenant. Jesus says in that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor.
God and man, kindness to men and truth to God.
And yet Jesus as a boy is increasing in stature with God and men. How did He master kindness and truth at such an early age?
Could it be that His relationship with God was due to his father Joseph? And His kindness is what He saw in His mother Mary? If this is so, how did Joseph help His only son become the man He became?
Joseph and His son heard the Hebrew scrolls read in synogogue. They both could have noticed how Israel is God's son. This is first expressed as a saying in Exodus 12.27 when the Lord speaks to Moses about the first Passover--
It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the house of the sons of Israel...
Then in Deuteronomy 14.1 it becomes more than an expression. It is a description--
You are the sons of the Lord your God...
Joseph heard an angel tell him to take Mary and the baby Jesus out of Israel and into Egypt, thousands of miles away, Matt. 2.13. He simply did it. Joseph knew how to obey the leading of the Lord. So Jesus is led by that same Spirit out into the wilderness, He simply goes, Matt. 4.1.
Matthew gives us two quotes from the OT concerning the baby Jesus. One is Matt. 3.15—-
out of Egypt I called My Son,
and Matt. 2.18—
Rachel weeping for her children
and she refused to be comforted,
because they were no more.
Matthew associates the children of Rachel with the young boy babies who were killed by Herod when he was searching for the baby Jesus. Did Joseph know of these prophecies? He may have because the angel told Joseph to return from Egypt as--
those who sought the Child's life are no more.
This is some indication Joseph knew who his son was and would teach Him to enter into the life His heavenly Father had for him. Jesus expresses His unique relationships with His heavenly Father in John 17.4-8.
From Mary He may have learned of the kindnes of His heavenly Father. In Ephesians 2.7 Paul speaks of the kindness of God--in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Kindness in Chrsit Jesus. In 2 Cor. 6.6 Paul says he commends himself as a servant of God--in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love... And in Colossians 3.12 Paul says to--put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Such qualities were not promoted by the ancient classical world, but they are part of the foundation of the kingdom of God. He may have learned these qualities from Mary.
But now, is this growing in stature with God and man for us also?
The answer is yes.
When a lawyer came to Jesus, asking what is the greatest commandment, in Matt. 22.35, Jesus does not say which one—-He says two. The first is to love God and the second is to love one's neighbor. Jesus thrusts at the lawyer the significance of these two-—
upon all these hang the Law and Prophets, Matt. 22.40.
Paul summarizes our relationship with God and with man in Philippians For the God side, Paul says in Phil. 1.10--
so that you may approve the things which are excellent in order that you may be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ , having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God.
And for the man side, Paul says in Phil. 2.15--
that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.
This is great stuff.
In Proverbs 3.1 Solomon writes--
Do not let kindness and truth leave you
bind them around your neck
Write them on the tablet of your hear
So you will find favor and good repute
in the sight of God and man.
We have seen the expression, God and man in Luke 2.52 when--
Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature
and in favor with God and man.
This was said about Jesus as a boy. It's one thing to grow in stature with God. We know that John the Baptist did. In Matt. 11.9 Jesus calls John a prophet, that no one born of woman is greater than he, 11.11. John was a desert dweller, a man of fasting and prayer, a Nazarene, a flaming preacher. But he did not dwell in the company of men.
Someone who did was Nicodemus. He has a conversation with Jesus in John 3.1, he meets with the Sanhedrin in John 7. 50, and he provides the spices for the burial of Christ's body when Joseph of Aramithea brings it down from the cross., John 19.39. Nicodemus seems to be accepted by men of high stature and reputation in the Sanhedrin and of low reputation at the cross. But he is not known for his relationship to God, the way the Baptist was.
These two men represent the two sides of God's covenant. Jesus says in that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor.
God and man, kindness to men and truth to God.
And yet Jesus as a boy is increasing in stature with God and men. How did He master kindness and truth at such an early age?
Could it be that His relationship with God was due to his father Joseph? And His kindness is what He saw in His mother Mary? If this is so, how did Joseph help His only son become the man He became?
Joseph and His son heard the Hebrew scrolls read in synogogue. They both could have noticed how Israel is God's son. This is first expressed as a saying in Exodus 12.27 when the Lord speaks to Moses about the first Passover--
It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the house of the sons of Israel...
Then in Deuteronomy 14.1 it becomes more than an expression. It is a description--
You are the sons of the Lord your God...
Joseph heard an angel tell him to take Mary and the baby Jesus out of Israel and into Egypt, thousands of miles away, Matt. 2.13. He simply did it. Joseph knew how to obey the leading of the Lord. So Jesus is led by that same Spirit out into the wilderness, He simply goes, Matt. 4.1.
Matthew gives us two quotes from the OT concerning the baby Jesus. One is Matt. 3.15—-
out of Egypt I called My Son,
and Matt. 2.18—
Rachel weeping for her children
and she refused to be comforted,
because they were no more.
Matthew associates the children of Rachel with the young boy babies who were killed by Herod when he was searching for the baby Jesus. Did Joseph know of these prophecies? He may have because the angel told Joseph to return from Egypt as--
those who sought the Child's life are no more.
This is some indication Joseph knew who his son was and would teach Him to enter into the life His heavenly Father had for him. Jesus expresses His unique relationships with His heavenly Father in John 17.4-8.
From Mary He may have learned of the kindnes of His heavenly Father. In Ephesians 2.7 Paul speaks of the kindness of God--in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Kindness in Chrsit Jesus. In 2 Cor. 6.6 Paul says he commends himself as a servant of God--in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love... And in Colossians 3.12 Paul says to--put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Such qualities were not promoted by the ancient classical world, but they are part of the foundation of the kingdom of God. He may have learned these qualities from Mary.
But now, is this growing in stature with God and man for us also?
The answer is yes.
When a lawyer came to Jesus, asking what is the greatest commandment, in Matt. 22.35, Jesus does not say which one—-He says two. The first is to love God and the second is to love one's neighbor. Jesus thrusts at the lawyer the significance of these two-—
upon all these hang the Law and Prophets, Matt. 22.40.
Paul summarizes our relationship with God and with man in Philippians For the God side, Paul says in Phil. 1.10--
so that you may approve the things which are excellent in order that you may be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ , having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God.
And for the man side, Paul says in Phil. 2.15--
that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.
This is great stuff.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
MARKS OF RELIGION Week 50
Usually world religions have two trademarks. One is they require subservience through a code of conduct. The other is they require the individual give the gods something, usually money or sometimes animals.
The concept is the gods have something which we are supposed to need, since we lack it. So we come to the god to buy some sort of relationship to that god with money or a sacrifice.
However this is not the situation with Christianity. Paul says--He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1.4. When Paul says we are--in Him--he means we are in the likeness and image of God. We have Him within us, so that we are not lacking in anything we need. So, instead of coming to God to buy what we lack, we go out into the world to give away what God has given us.
This is why the Bible says we have an unspeakable gift, or freely you have been given, freely give. Paul says--you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise....Eph. 1.13.
We do not seek to acquire, we seek to give away. A perfect example is Matt. 8.2, 3. A leper came to Jesus. The leper bowed down, saying, Lord if You are willing, You can make me clean.'
Is Jesus willing? Will He hoard the power He has, running away to a desert community or to Miami Beach? What will He require of this soiled leper? What sacrifice must the leper make?
Jesus says, I am willing; be cleansed, Matt. 8.3.
What happens next? Is the leper to keep this miracle to himself, just not give it away? Jesus then says to him, present yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses prescribed, for a testimony to them. Not a testimony against the priest, but to him. Through the willingness of Jesus, two are blessed: the leper and the priest.
In Romans 4.15 Paul says—the Law brings about wrath. What he means is the Law reveals that we have fallen short of the glory of God. This results in wrath because we were meant to reveal God's glory beautifully. As we have sinned, so the glory of God has been darkened.
However, if we keep on reading Romans 5.8 says—while we were sinners Christ died for us. This released us from that wrath, to be free before God. Romans 6.6 says---we are no longer slaves to sin... We live the life of holiness which Christ lives, we are---alive to God in Christ Jesus.
We've been given the gift of eternal life. As a result, we are to give away. In Matt. 5 Jesus says to give away not just our shirt but our coat. He says in Matt. 5.42--Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. In Matt. 9.22 and 9.29 Jesus gives away His power. In Matt. 10.1 He gives the disciples authority over unclean spirits.
So we are not subservient to the Law but we are alive to the holiness of God in Christ Jesus. He even says in Matt. 10.39 that if we give our life away for His sake, we will find it. For all of the people in all centuries who have sought for a meaning to their life, this is where it is found.
This is how the Christian lives. It is unique.
Usually world religions have two trademarks. One is they require subservience through a code of conduct. The other is they require the individual give the gods something, usually money or sometimes animals.
The concept is the gods have something which we are supposed to need, since we lack it. So we come to the god to buy some sort of relationship to that god with money or a sacrifice.
However this is not the situation with Christianity. Paul says--He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1.4. When Paul says we are--in Him--he means we are in the likeness and image of God. We have Him within us, so that we are not lacking in anything we need. So, instead of coming to God to buy what we lack, we go out into the world to give away what God has given us.
This is why the Bible says we have an unspeakable gift, or freely you have been given, freely give. Paul says--you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise....Eph. 1.13.
We do not seek to acquire, we seek to give away. A perfect example is Matt. 8.2, 3. A leper came to Jesus. The leper bowed down, saying, Lord if You are willing, You can make me clean.'
Is Jesus willing? Will He hoard the power He has, running away to a desert community or to Miami Beach? What will He require of this soiled leper? What sacrifice must the leper make?
Jesus says, I am willing; be cleansed, Matt. 8.3.
What happens next? Is the leper to keep this miracle to himself, just not give it away? Jesus then says to him, present yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses prescribed, for a testimony to them. Not a testimony against the priest, but to him. Through the willingness of Jesus, two are blessed: the leper and the priest.
In Romans 4.15 Paul says—the Law brings about wrath. What he means is the Law reveals that we have fallen short of the glory of God. This results in wrath because we were meant to reveal God's glory beautifully. As we have sinned, so the glory of God has been darkened.
However, if we keep on reading Romans 5.8 says—while we were sinners Christ died for us. This released us from that wrath, to be free before God. Romans 6.6 says---we are no longer slaves to sin... We live the life of holiness which Christ lives, we are---alive to God in Christ Jesus.
We've been given the gift of eternal life. As a result, we are to give away. In Matt. 5 Jesus says to give away not just our shirt but our coat. He says in Matt. 5.42--Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. In Matt. 9.22 and 9.29 Jesus gives away His power. In Matt. 10.1 He gives the disciples authority over unclean spirits.
So we are not subservient to the Law but we are alive to the holiness of God in Christ Jesus. He even says in Matt. 10.39 that if we give our life away for His sake, we will find it. For all of the people in all centuries who have sought for a meaning to their life, this is where it is found.
This is how the Christian lives. It is unique.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
ALL I NEED--Part 2
In the NT we have been given encouragement and instructions by which to experience God in coming to Him.
When Jesus walked Israel many came to Him.
In John 2 Mary comes to her son Jesus, asking Him to provide wine. Then He came to the servants, changing water into wine.. In John 3 Nicodemus comes to Jesus asking about Him. So Jesus comes to Nicodemus when He says—You must be born again. In John 4 Jesus comes to Jacob's well. When He speaks the truth to the Samaritan woman, she returns to her city. Then John 4.40 says—When the Samaritans came to Him, they were asking Him to stay with them. He stayed with them two days.
In each instance, someone came to Him so that He might come to them.
We are told in John 4 that the Father is looking for true worshipers. He wants us to approach Him. Today we come to Him through the Spirit, through prayer and the Bible and through worship. In Revelation 22.9 the angel tells John, worship Him.
When we do these things, we can do what the Levitical priests did in the OT, we can approach God.
Jeremiah had said that we cannot go out of God's presence---
'Can a man hide himself in the hiding places, so I do not see Him?' declares the Lord. 'Do I not fill the heaven and the earth?' declares the Lord.
In Acts 17.28 Paul said to the Athenians---For in Him we live and move and have our being... So we see that God is all around us, like the air we breathe.
But God was not satisfied with His presence being all around us; He wishes to be in us. The Bible tells us that God not only fills heaven and earth, but He fills the souls of believers. In 1 Corinthians 3.16 Paul wrote--
you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Peter says in 2 Peter 1.4 that God has given us promises---that by them you might be come partakers of the divine nature...
Paul says in Ephesians 1.4 that---He chose us in Him...that we should be holy and blameless before Him. As Elijah was before Him, we are before Him so that we might be filled in Him.
Now all of this is quite spiritual, so we come to Him in quiet steps so that He would come to us in soft waves.
Some are far off, as the multitudes in John 6.2 where the crowd followed Him at a distance. So Jesus came to them through the disciples who fed them with fish and bread. When this happened, the crowd comes to Jesus as much as they can when they say—--This is of a truth the prophet who is to come into the world, John 6.14.
The centurion stands a bit off when he says in Matt. 8.8---if you just say the word, my servant will be healed. Jesus says to the centurion---Go your way; let it be done to you as you have believed, Matt. 8.13.
Some come closer, as the woman with the issue of blood who---came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak. Jesus says---take courage daughter, your faith has made you well, Matt. 9.22.
Children even sat on his lap in Matt. 19.14.
How these people came to Jesus was how He came to them so that they could enter into His presence.
Hebrews 10.22 says—let us drawn near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
In the NT we have been given encouragement and instructions by which to experience God in coming to Him.
When Jesus walked Israel many came to Him.
In John 2 Mary comes to her son Jesus, asking Him to provide wine. Then He came to the servants, changing water into wine.. In John 3 Nicodemus comes to Jesus asking about Him. So Jesus comes to Nicodemus when He says—You must be born again. In John 4 Jesus comes to Jacob's well. When He speaks the truth to the Samaritan woman, she returns to her city. Then John 4.40 says—When the Samaritans came to Him, they were asking Him to stay with them. He stayed with them two days.
In each instance, someone came to Him so that He might come to them.
We are told in John 4 that the Father is looking for true worshipers. He wants us to approach Him. Today we come to Him through the Spirit, through prayer and the Bible and through worship. In Revelation 22.9 the angel tells John, worship Him.
When we do these things, we can do what the Levitical priests did in the OT, we can approach God.
Jeremiah had said that we cannot go out of God's presence---
'Can a man hide himself in the hiding places, so I do not see Him?' declares the Lord. 'Do I not fill the heaven and the earth?' declares the Lord.
In Acts 17.28 Paul said to the Athenians---For in Him we live and move and have our being... So we see that God is all around us, like the air we breathe.
But God was not satisfied with His presence being all around us; He wishes to be in us. The Bible tells us that God not only fills heaven and earth, but He fills the souls of believers. In 1 Corinthians 3.16 Paul wrote--
you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Peter says in 2 Peter 1.4 that God has given us promises---that by them you might be come partakers of the divine nature...
Paul says in Ephesians 1.4 that---He chose us in Him...that we should be holy and blameless before Him. As Elijah was before Him, we are before Him so that we might be filled in Him.
Now all of this is quite spiritual, so we come to Him in quiet steps so that He would come to us in soft waves.
Some are far off, as the multitudes in John 6.2 where the crowd followed Him at a distance. So Jesus came to them through the disciples who fed them with fish and bread. When this happened, the crowd comes to Jesus as much as they can when they say—--This is of a truth the prophet who is to come into the world, John 6.14.
The centurion stands a bit off when he says in Matt. 8.8---if you just say the word, my servant will be healed. Jesus says to the centurion---Go your way; let it be done to you as you have believed, Matt. 8.13.
Some come closer, as the woman with the issue of blood who---came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak. Jesus says---take courage daughter, your faith has made you well, Matt. 9.22.
Children even sat on his lap in Matt. 19.14.
How these people came to Jesus was how He came to them so that they could enter into His presence.
Hebrews 10.22 says—let us drawn near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
ALL I NEED Week 49 Part 1
The two drives which have haunted nearly all Christians throughout the centuries have been:
--the drive to find certainty
--and the longing to experience God.
The more perceptive fiction writers say we live in an inconclusive world. So what is there which is certain, so the soul can know that it is in the hand of God? What really changes people?
In Matt. 6.14 Jesus is teaching about forgiveness when He mentions His Father. He says--if you forgive men for their transgressions your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Notice Jesus did not mention the individual sinner who sinned, but the Father who forgives. This makes forgiveness sure, as it comes from heaven and God. It come from eternity, in which God and heaven never change. If we are forgiven in heaven with God the Father, then it is sure upon the earth.
I have counted 13 times in Matthew's gospel Jesus says, God who is in heaven.
In Matt. 5.16 we are to let our light shine before men so that they may see our good works and--glorify your Father who is in heaven.
In Matt. 5.48 we are to be perfect--as our heavenly Father is perfect.
In Matt. 6.6 when we pray and--your Father who sees us in secret will repay you.
In Matt. 6.9 it is--Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name..
In 7.11 it is--how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him? In 7.21 it is--he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. And in 10.32 it is--everyone who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. In Matt. 7.15-21 Jesus speaks first about those who are false. Then he summarizes by saying--Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of My Father, who is in heaven. This is the same lesson as it is in 16.17, 18.10, 18.19, 19.32. Each of these passages uses, the Father who is in heaven. What comes down from heaven from God is sure on this earth. This has been said in a short form in Matt. 6.10--on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus makes this personal in Matt. 19.32 when He is speaking of confessing His name. He says--Everyone therefore who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
Bu what about experiencing God? If Jesus died for our sins, we might get the idea He experienced God but we did not. Since we can't work our way to heaven or ever be holy enough in our flesh to climb into heaven, how can we--ourselves--ever experience God?
In our own day many desire to experience God. The further away from Biblical times we are the more difficult it is to find our way back. So the desire to experience God has become intense.
Just as soon as Adam and Eve leave the Garden, immediately God begins to draw them back to Himself. To replace what was lost in Eden, God gives Adam and Eve a family who will eventually give birth to a savior.
God gives His family, Israel, a tabernacle so that He might dwell in their midst.
He gives them His Law, so that they might know Him.
He gives them psalms so that they might approach Him.
He gives them a temple so that they might praise Him.
And then He gives them Himself, so that where He is they might also be.
Being with God is being like God. So God gives His Holy Spirit to transform every believer, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female just as in the Garden--those who are far off and those who are near.
In Exodus 14 God shows Israel His majestic power at the Red Sea. Not only did they see columns of bursting water careen so that they might walk between them, they felt His fury, His grandeur in holiness.
And in 1 Kings 19.11 God tells Elijah to stand before Him on a mountain. In a certain cave, Elijah hears God is not in the whirlwind, the fire, or the earthquake but in a still small voice. As God tells Elijah to come before Him, so God comes to Elijah.
In Psalm 69.18 David says--O, draw near to my soul and redeem it,
Ransom me because of my enemies.
Jeremiah 31.3 says--I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
These are promises fulfilled in the NT. There in John 12.32 Jesus speaks of His death as the act of redeeming which David asked for--If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Me.
The author of Hebrews said in Hebrews 10.22 we can do this--Let us draw near with a sincere heart... And finally James summarizes it all when he says--Draw near to God and He will draw near to you, James 4.8.
The two drives which have haunted nearly all Christians throughout the centuries have been:
--the drive to find certainty
--and the longing to experience God.
The more perceptive fiction writers say we live in an inconclusive world. So what is there which is certain, so the soul can know that it is in the hand of God? What really changes people?
In Matt. 6.14 Jesus is teaching about forgiveness when He mentions His Father. He says--if you forgive men for their transgressions your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Notice Jesus did not mention the individual sinner who sinned, but the Father who forgives. This makes forgiveness sure, as it comes from heaven and God. It come from eternity, in which God and heaven never change. If we are forgiven in heaven with God the Father, then it is sure upon the earth.
I have counted 13 times in Matthew's gospel Jesus says, God who is in heaven.
In Matt. 5.16 we are to let our light shine before men so that they may see our good works and--glorify your Father who is in heaven.
In Matt. 5.48 we are to be perfect--as our heavenly Father is perfect.
In Matt. 6.6 when we pray and--your Father who sees us in secret will repay you.
In Matt. 6.9 it is--Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name..
In 7.11 it is--how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him? In 7.21 it is--he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. And in 10.32 it is--everyone who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. In Matt. 7.15-21 Jesus speaks first about those who are false. Then he summarizes by saying--Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of My Father, who is in heaven. This is the same lesson as it is in 16.17, 18.10, 18.19, 19.32. Each of these passages uses, the Father who is in heaven. What comes down from heaven from God is sure on this earth. This has been said in a short form in Matt. 6.10--on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus makes this personal in Matt. 19.32 when He is speaking of confessing His name. He says--Everyone therefore who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
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Bu what about experiencing God? If Jesus died for our sins, we might get the idea He experienced God but we did not. Since we can't work our way to heaven or ever be holy enough in our flesh to climb into heaven, how can we--ourselves--ever experience God?
In our own day many desire to experience God. The further away from Biblical times we are the more difficult it is to find our way back. So the desire to experience God has become intense.
Just as soon as Adam and Eve leave the Garden, immediately God begins to draw them back to Himself. To replace what was lost in Eden, God gives Adam and Eve a family who will eventually give birth to a savior.
God gives His family, Israel, a tabernacle so that He might dwell in their midst.
He gives them His Law, so that they might know Him.
He gives them psalms so that they might approach Him.
He gives them a temple so that they might praise Him.
And then He gives them Himself, so that where He is they might also be.
Being with God is being like God. So God gives His Holy Spirit to transform every believer, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female just as in the Garden--those who are far off and those who are near.
In Exodus 14 God shows Israel His majestic power at the Red Sea. Not only did they see columns of bursting water careen so that they might walk between them, they felt His fury, His grandeur in holiness.
And in 1 Kings 19.11 God tells Elijah to stand before Him on a mountain. In a certain cave, Elijah hears God is not in the whirlwind, the fire, or the earthquake but in a still small voice. As God tells Elijah to come before Him, so God comes to Elijah.
In Psalm 69.18 David says--O, draw near to my soul and redeem it,
Ransom me because of my enemies.
Jeremiah 31.3 says--I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
These are promises fulfilled in the NT. There in John 12.32 Jesus speaks of His death as the act of redeeming which David asked for--If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Me.
The author of Hebrews said in Hebrews 10.22 we can do this--Let us draw near with a sincere heart... And finally James summarizes it all when he says--Draw near to God and He will draw near to you, James 4.8.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
SERVING AND RULING Week 48
In 2 Corinthians 1.24 Paul says about taking spiritual authority over the believers in Corinth, Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy, for in your faith you are standing firm. The Greek word is kurieuw, to have possession of, or control. Paul is refusing to have possession or control over the saints at Corinth.
This recalls what Jesus said in Matthew 20.25, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authotity over them. It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. The Greek word for 'lord it over them,' is a long Greek word. It uses kata, meaning against, with kurieuw, to have authority over.
Peter uses the same Greek word in 1 Peter 5.3. He is speaking to the elders of a church about shepherding the flock. He tells them to shepherd the flock, not under compulsion but voluntarily, nor yet as lording it over those alloted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. Peter is so intent on serving, he doesn't even mention the names of those who will follow him in ministry.
To give you an idea of the force of this word, Acts 19.16 translates this word as, leaped on them...to subdue them and overpower them.
Jesus will not allow the church to be run as governments are run--the ruler must be a servant. Jesus said He came to seek and to serve. Jesus said in Matt. 20.27, whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. .
A wonderful example of serving one another is Matt. 21.2. Jesus tells two disciples to go into a village to find a donkey and colt tied up. He tells them to bring the donkey and colt to Him. What was the result of such a simple act? The Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem which led to His crucifixion which led to His resurrection and then ours.
When Jesus and his mother and disciples go to a wedding in John 2, the guests run out of wine. Mary expects Jesus to turn the water into wine before everyone, to great acclaim. However, Jesus is the servant of God--not a ruler. He waits, turns the water into wine by using pots reserved for purification. These pots would not be at the wedding itself, but where only the servants could get them. The servants pour water into these pots. When Jesus transforms the water into wine, the headwaiter did not know who did this because Jesus didn't broadcast it, but the servants did, John 2.9. Jesus was with the servants when He did the miracle.
He was among us all as one who serves, Matt. 20.28. Paul says, through love serve one another, Galatians 5.13. But the great word from God about serving is Joshua 22.5, serve Him with all of your heart all of your soul.
In Matt. 20.30 Jesus walks by two blind men on His way to Jericho. They call out to Him, 'Lord have mercy on us, Son of David'. Does Jesus tell them what they need to do? Does He tell them what He's going to do? No, He came to serve. So He asks them, 'What do you want me to do for you?' Jesus says 'Me' once; 'you' twice. When they say, 'We want our eyes to be opened,' Jesus opens their eyes.
In Matt. 5.39 Jesus tells of what might happen when we do not lord it over another. Jesus says, I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.... What would be the result in heaven if we did that? Jesus then says, in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven...
What would be the result here and now if we served rather than ruled? Paul tells the Romans to, serve in the newness of the Spirit, Rom. 7.6. He develops the thought with, Be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality, Rom. 7.10-13.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
TRUE OR FALSE Week 47
It's always interesting to see how others view you. An example of how Christianity is seen is from a well-known Jewish scholar Dr. Lawerence Shiffman. He has several things to say against Jesus and Christianity but they all seem to depend on one point.
He says Christian writers living 50 years after the death of Christ made up the gospels to appear to agree with OT prophecies.
Now if this is true, the epistles written before the gospels would not have any similiarity to them.. Since the historians say James was martyred in AD 62, his letter must have been written before then. Shiffman states that the gospels were written after that, to appear to make the life of Christ a fulfillment of OT prophecy. If this is true, James' epistle would have no relationship to Matthew's gospel.
So what do we find in James?
We know that when Jesus came, He came preaching the kingdom of God, not salvation or last things. Most of us recognize that the Sermon on the Mount is the Lord's great explanation of the kingdom which He brought and taught. But this kingdom is not just precepts but actions in the real world. Christianity according to Jesus is not just something you believe, but something you do.
Jesus uses some word pictures to say that. He says, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid...Let your light so shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven, Matt. 5.14-16. That is an obvious call to make the kingdom of God apparent and visible to anyone and everyone in society.
In the literature of the ancient classical world, when a poet uses an extended metaphor he means to put something deep into the soul. this extended metaphor is saying the same thing more than once, using different images. When Jesus wants to speak against anxiety in the Sermon on the Mount, He uses 9 consecutive verses to do so, Matt. 6.25-34. So when James does the same thing in James 1.22-27 we should sit up and hear. He begins with hearing and then doing the Word. He goes on to a man looking at himself in a mirror; then he goes on from looking in a mirror to looking at the perfect law of Jesus and abiding in it. Then he goes on to controlling the tongue; and finally he mentions taking care of the widows and orphans as pure religion. James has gone from hearing to looking to abiding to controlling the tongue to aiding the widows and orphans.
You see what James has done? He has taken us from the inner quality of believing the Word to the outward gesture of taking care of others. He has taken Matthew 5.14 as a principle to be applied in his own day and time.
But that is only one instance, without a real close phrase or word linking James with Matthew. So let's look on.
In Matthew 5 Jesus will then mention five famous points of the Law: adultery, divorce, vows, and revenge (an eye for an eye), and loving your neighbor. Jesus will address each of these as indicating the sin in the heart which must be brought out to be forgiven. The role of the Law is to bring these inner things out into the open.
Does James have anything similar to this? Let's look at Matthew 5 and James 2.
In Matthew 5.25, 26 Jesus says if a man has a dispute with an opponent Jesus says, Make friends quickly with your opponent...in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. This is what happened to people who did not have money for a legal defense.
James says in chapter 2 to show no favoritism to the rich because if you do, you have become a, judge with evil motives, James 2.4. Then James says, God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? And then James says what Jesus had said in Matthew 5, Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court, James 2.6.
Now let's look at Matt. 5.17-19 and James 2.10, 11.
In Matt. 5.17 Jesus says, Whoever annuls the least of these commandments and teaches others shall be the least in the kingdom of heaven...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven... Matthew 5.20.
James 2.10 says, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. James knows this brings up the question, How could someone be guilty of transgressing the whole law, yet have righteousness which surpasses the scribes and Pharisees? James says, by obeying the law of liberty, James 2.12. What is that law? Paul says in Romans 8.2 that it is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which has set us free from the law of sin and death. James then says in 2.25 that we abide by the law of liberty by being a doer of the word, not just hearer.
Our conclusion is that the gospels were not written later than James to fabricate a certain kind of Jesus, but that James knew what his brother Jesus taught, he knew what the gospel of God was, he understood the kingdom of God.
It's always interesting to see how others view you. An example of how Christianity is seen is from a well-known Jewish scholar Dr. Lawerence Shiffman. He has several things to say against Jesus and Christianity but they all seem to depend on one point.
He says Christian writers living 50 years after the death of Christ made up the gospels to appear to agree with OT prophecies.
Now if this is true, the epistles written before the gospels would not have any similiarity to them.. Since the historians say James was martyred in AD 62, his letter must have been written before then. Shiffman states that the gospels were written after that, to appear to make the life of Christ a fulfillment of OT prophecy. If this is true, James' epistle would have no relationship to Matthew's gospel.
So what do we find in James?
We know that when Jesus came, He came preaching the kingdom of God, not salvation or last things. Most of us recognize that the Sermon on the Mount is the Lord's great explanation of the kingdom which He brought and taught. But this kingdom is not just precepts but actions in the real world. Christianity according to Jesus is not just something you believe, but something you do.
Jesus uses some word pictures to say that. He says, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid...Let your light so shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven, Matt. 5.14-16. That is an obvious call to make the kingdom of God apparent and visible to anyone and everyone in society.
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When we go to James 1.22, James says the famous line, But prove yourselves doers of the word, 1.22. He has learned from Jesus that the kingdom must be seen, it must be in front of an unbelieving society. It is the be presence of God before the world. Peter Marshall, chaplain of the Senate in the 1940s, once said his task as preacher was to enable people to see Jesus. This means to make Christianity something you do, not just something you believe.In the literature of the ancient classical world, when a poet uses an extended metaphor he means to put something deep into the soul. this extended metaphor is saying the same thing more than once, using different images. When Jesus wants to speak against anxiety in the Sermon on the Mount, He uses 9 consecutive verses to do so, Matt. 6.25-34. So when James does the same thing in James 1.22-27 we should sit up and hear. He begins with hearing and then doing the Word. He goes on to a man looking at himself in a mirror; then he goes on from looking in a mirror to looking at the perfect law of Jesus and abiding in it. Then he goes on to controlling the tongue; and finally he mentions taking care of the widows and orphans as pure religion. James has gone from hearing to looking to abiding to controlling the tongue to aiding the widows and orphans.
You see what James has done? He has taken us from the inner quality of believing the Word to the outward gesture of taking care of others. He has taken Matthew 5.14 as a principle to be applied in his own day and time.
But that is only one instance, without a real close phrase or word linking James with Matthew. So let's look on.
In Matthew 5 Jesus will then mention five famous points of the Law: adultery, divorce, vows, and revenge (an eye for an eye), and loving your neighbor. Jesus will address each of these as indicating the sin in the heart which must be brought out to be forgiven. The role of the Law is to bring these inner things out into the open.
Does James have anything similar to this? Let's look at Matthew 5 and James 2.
In Matthew 5.25, 26 Jesus says if a man has a dispute with an opponent Jesus says, Make friends quickly with your opponent...in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. This is what happened to people who did not have money for a legal defense.
James says in chapter 2 to show no favoritism to the rich because if you do, you have become a, judge with evil motives, James 2.4. Then James says, God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? And then James says what Jesus had said in Matthew 5, Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court, James 2.6.
Now let's look at Matt. 5.17-19 and James 2.10, 11.
In Matt. 5.17 Jesus says, Whoever annuls the least of these commandments and teaches others shall be the least in the kingdom of heaven...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven... Matthew 5.20.
James 2.10 says, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. James knows this brings up the question, How could someone be guilty of transgressing the whole law, yet have righteousness which surpasses the scribes and Pharisees? James says, by obeying the law of liberty, James 2.12. What is that law? Paul says in Romans 8.2 that it is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which has set us free from the law of sin and death. James then says in 2.25 that we abide by the law of liberty by being a doer of the word, not just hearer.
Our conclusion is that the gospels were not written later than James to fabricate a certain kind of Jesus, but that James knew what his brother Jesus taught, he knew what the gospel of God was, he understood the kingdom of God.
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