All for King Jesus...

Last night Jenni and I were looking at the stars and talking about God's promise to Abraham. Rich Mullins always said that one of those stars was lit just for us. We talked about God's promise to Abraham, that through him many nations would come.

This morning I started thinking how that promise really did not come about through Abraham, nor through Isaac, but it came through Jacob. Each of them was promised that the covenant made with Abraham would be fulfilled in them.

We do not hear this type of covenant again from God until David comes onto the scene and then it is promised again a very similar type thing, that his kingdom shall pass down and never be removed.

God has been playing this game of chess with the end game in mind all along. The entirety of Israel's history was deliberate strategy on the part of God to bring the messiah Jesus into the world to deliver mankind from the bondage of sin. Understanding this we can see why it was Jacob's direct lineage and not Isaac or Abraham's (both had sons that were not part of the fullfillment of God's promise - Abe had Ishmael, Isaac had Esau but all of Jacob's children became the nation of Israel) was the lineage through whom God choose to bring forth the nation of Israel. David was chosen because the DNA he carried was the DNA of the savior.

It makes me wonder how God is directing the flow of humanity in our world in order for Christ to return again.

New Testament - Old doubts...

Last night I was thinking about the New Testament. I was thinking just how outlandish it all is. The idea that God would put on skin, that He would walk around, that He died and that through that our sins are forgiven and we are redeemed from an afterlife spent in hell. I thought about the idea that He was then raised back to life after being for 3 days, I mean, His heart had not beaten for three days, rigamortis had set in, he was , . It is all so unbelievable. What I started thinking about is how there are so many other documents that record events that are just as spectacular or at least similar in their miraculous nature, that we simply discount as frauds. The book of Mormon is one that comes to mind readily.
Here is what I realized. The New Testament is different from all other Manuscripts of this type. It is a set of documents that were all written in the same span of time that the events took place. Let me explain it this way. People live for 60-90 years. Jesus died in the early 30 AD's. The new Testament was all written before or up to about the 80's. This means that a maximum of 40 years had surfaced between the latest writings of the New Testament and the of Jesus. THIS MEANS: that the reports of the New Testament were testable. Individuals could have read the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, and simply gone and talked with Nicodemus or Zacchaeus and asked if they had really witnessed Jesus in the manner the gospels record. No other document that I can think of has this same kind of "testability" to it. Joseph Smith wrote about things that had supposedly happened in the past. There is no way we can go and ask someone, did this happen. But early observers of Christianity had this luxury. It is no wonder the church grew by leaps and bounds in those early days. People in Jerusalem had seen all that had happened, they had heard reports and they were asking themselves, "what does this all mean?" Along comes Peter, he does a bit of preaching and explains the "Good News" and THOUSANDS accept Christ. It is no wonder. They accepted because it filled in the blanks for what they had witnessed.

Ezekiel Ramblings

I have been reading Zeek lately.  Some of it fly's right past me, but other parts are really sticking.  Last night, I was really struggling, I didn't really want to read the Bible.  I just wanted to read the books I've been getting into.  I was just about to give in and leave the Bible on the night stand, when I thought, "why would I read Bill Gates or Andy Stanley, when I could read the God of the Universe?"  So, I opened up Zeek and started reading.  I read about how God was fed up with the shepherding that the Israelites leaders had been doing and how He Himself was going to come and be their shepherd.  I began thinking about Jesus being the "Good Shepherd", about how Matthew said that Jesus had compassion on people because they were helpless and like sheep without a shepherd, and how Jesus asked Peter to feed His Sheep.  I could see Jesus being the direct fullfillment of this prophecy spoken in Ez. 34.  How God Himself showed us how to lead, how to love, how to have compassion.  It was just super interesting and a really cool study.  When it was all done with, I realized that if I had given in and not read, I would have missed it.  I would have missed seeing my savior fulfill a prophecy that was way before His time. 

Boy, I know I have missed so many other things because my mind has been distracted or my heart was just in other places.  I want to be sold out.  I want to be a world changer through Jesus.  As a teen I thought all of those things, I desired them all, but it was in immaturity, not really knowing what it takes, how hard it is, how life can subtly turn you.  Now I think them and think, "the only way is through the strength of Jesus".  I am not much by myself...  Not much at all...

Salvation Stipulation...

I was recently asked, "at what point is a person saved?". It was one of those theoretical questions that you feel like you can only give a heretical answer to. The underlying question this person was asking was, "Does baptism really have anything to do with salvation?". We talked about it and came to no great conclusion. I told him I view salvation as a process, not a one time event. It is a matter of repenting, believing, confessing and baptism. All these things do not happen every time all at once. So, if someone dies before the process is complete, are they saved. I would probably say yes, but for those of us alive, does that mean we can neglect the process, I would say no.
What it got me thinking about, and the reason for this rant is the idea of the word "saved" we Christians like to throw about. The idea that we accept Christ and are, at once, presently translated into a new person - we are longer on the recieving end of God's punishment stick. Our talk about being saved is as though it is a present reality a current occurence. Our idea of the word is tha "I am saved" (meaning I am currently, presently saved from sin), the scripture, on the other hand, talks about salation in the idea of "those who are being saved" (2 Corinthians 2:15), as far as I can tell, and I certainly will leave room for me to be wrong, salvation is a future tense reality, not a present occurrence in our lives. Hebrews 9:28, speaking of Christ's sacrifice to take away sin says "and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." 1 Peter 1:9 says "for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (The emphasis in both verses is mine). It seems that salvation is a life long process that we are all rending ourselves through until the day of Christ or our final breath on this earth. Does this mean that as believers we are no different? That no change has actually taken place in us? I would say not. We have become the dwelling place of God on earth. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, those who are believers, He is our deposit until the day of that salvation (read 2 Corinthians or follow this search link). This means that God is freeing us from sin and yet we are bound by it. This means that we still hurt, still die, still cannot understand, and we still see as though we are looking into a foggy mirror. There is a day when salvation will come on a white horse and he will have his name tattooed on his thigh. His sword will protrude from his mouth and once and for all we will be healed.
So, when is a person saved? When they die...

Thoughts Spawned by a Rabbi

So I have been listening to this podcast by Rabbi Mintz in New York. They are very interesting. The class is a study in the history of Jewish and Rabbinic Law. I have learned a lot and been very interested. It has been interesting in the way an art gallery full of replica paintings would be interesting. It is like seeing an origional and yet not having the same depth or character as the origional. I mean no disrespect. It is after all a study of the history of Law not of Yahwey. What the Jewish law makers set out to do after the period of the judges, kings and prophets was to take the torah and explain it. They did this through the Talmud and the Mishnah. These documents set out general explanations of the law found in the pentatuch (the first five books of the Old Testament- their only testament or covenant). What happened was, they Jewish community, after returning from exile, no longer had prophets to tell them what God wanted. They had a temple where they could sacrifice to him, but all they had to live by was the previous prophetic message, the law of Moses, and the oral tradition (said to be handed to Moses on Sinai and passed on orally). The early pharisees, the predisesors to the Rabbi's, would take a law like "You should keep the Sabbath holy", and they would say, "Ok, we understand that we need to keep the Sabbath holy, and that we are not to work on the Sabbath, but what constitutes holy and work." The Talmud and the Mishnah are authoritative works that define these types of open ideas. The Mishnah was created in the early 200's ad and it is the written oral tradition, the Talmud came shortly after and it is a commentary of sorts on the Mishna, it not only contains the tradition, but seeks to define the tradition even more by presenting differing Rabbinical arguments. An example of a law in the Torah that needed this kind of definitive process in more recent years is that they were not allowed to start a fire on the Sabbath, this was considered work. So, in modern days the Rabbi's argued and debated whether or not you could flip a light switch or not on the Sabbath, because when you flipped the switch they were not sure whether you were starting a fire or not. These laws are the replicas I spoke of in my annalogy. We are quick to dismiss this kind of legalism, but it comes out of a deep respect for God, it comes out of trying not to overstep what God has commanded. But as Jesus would say, you uphold your traditions and forget the great things of God's law, love and mercy. At the time of Jesus these laws were still in an oral form and you would go to a Rabbi to get his take or argument, his "Talmudic" type saying. When Jesus comes he takes the oral tradition and the teachings of the Rabbi's and turns them of their heads. He says in Matthew 23 some harsh words concerning they way they handle the law of God, vs 23-24:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel."
You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. It is such beautiful imagery and such fierce words. Jesus is attacking a not just a tradition, but something they believe to come from God on Sinai with Moses. He might as well have spit in their eyes. But, that is not the point of what I am saying although I do like to watch a good fight. What I am saying, I guess what struck me about listening to this Jewish Rabbi talk. Was just how little any of it had to do with God himself. The whole enterprise became so focused on the law that it forgot the lawmaker. It became so rigid in principles it set out that it could not conceive of a God who went beyond their principles. The tradition was to be fluid, it was to change with it's context, but it was always about the tradition, never about God, not really. I mean, that is what most of the prophets are screaming out. That is what Jesus came to rail against. This is why we needed a new covenant, because in the old, the law that was to only be a school teacher became the stumbling block... Anyway. This was very interesting to me, hope it makes sense. It is very long, and probably needs editing to make sense seeing as how it is 7:14 in the morning, but alas, I am to lazy and I figure you can grasp my meaning without me fixing my mode... Hah, I hope so anyway...

Jesus does Hosea

Hosea 2:19-20
I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.

I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.

As I read Hosea today, I could not help but see the picture in Revelation 19 of the wedding of the Lamb!
In Christ this prophecy of Hosea's will be fulfilled.
It is quite a thing to be caught between these two passages, awaiting the day when to two will become one. New and Old mesh into a single thread of prophecy fulfillment!
The passage in Revelation says that the "bride has made herself ready." She is adorned in white, a white that claims its color from the righteousness of the saints of God. She is beautiful and he has come to sweep her off her feet. I love the idea that she has made herself ready. She is indeed, expecting his return. If Christ is the fulfillment of Hosea, the church should be the fulfillment of those words of readiness. We should be a beautiful bride dressed in white, a white that is not of a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which is by faith! So put off your jealousy, fits of rage, grumbling, gossip, back biting and all sorts of evil and dress again in the clothes given to you at the time of your death and resurrection in Christ!
Our suitor has gone to prepare a place for us, but mark His words, He will come back again!

It would be so nice, to grow old with you...

Last night I preached on the story surrounding the birth of John the Baptist. I realized shortly before I got up that the last time in the history of Israel when an elderly couple got pregnant was with good ol Abraham & Sarah. Through their child Issac and his child Jacob, would come the whole nation of Israel. The first covenant between God and man came from the birth announcements sent out by this old couple. We fast forward a couple thousand years and again we have a barren elderly couple who has faithfully followed the Lord. Except this time their child will usher in the new covenant not through his bloodline, but by his preaching and pointing people towards the messiah. I think it is as if God is saying, "this covenant I am now bringing will be similar in form to the old but will far surpass it in every way..."

Author's Intended Meaning?

I was reading a book for my greek tools class last night and the gentleman (Alan Black) was discussing doing good exegesis. One of the things that he was stressing, as all good bible college professors do, was the need to find the Author's Intended Meaning (AIM). I have always struggled with this idea. I struggle because there seems to be a dichotomy between our means of interpretation and our stance on the source of biblical literature. What I mean is this. When we talk about scripture, defend it, etc. we express the idea that these are not man made works but Spirit of God driven, divine masterpieces. Yet when we study them our goal is to find out what "Paul" or "Matthew" meant. We would argue that they are divine in origin and yet study them as though they were any other piece of literature. I guess the question I am struggling with, is if the Spirit of God is big enough to create within the scripture itself nuansces that even the hand that was writing them did not fully grasp. Is it possible that Paul was being carried along by the Spirit and wrote things that amazed him? If so, what would his intended meaning have to do with anything? I hope this makes sense.

Fwd: Luke 16:1-14 -- True Riches

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager (study these verses)

1Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'
3"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg— 4I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
5"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
6" 'Eight hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,' he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'
7"Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'
" 'A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,' he replied.
"He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'
8"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
13"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
14The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

Nice Bible Tools...

I found a cool website the other day that has some great bible study tools on it...  http://www.searchgodsword.org/ you can look up the greek, commentaries and a whole bunch more, it's pretty nice!