Presenting Every Person Mature in Christ

Colossians 1:28 (NIV)

²⁸ He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

The overwhelming goal of the church that I am currently attending is Colossians 1:28.  It has been repeated as the goal on a regular basis.  This would seem to be a really straight forward and simple goal for a church to have.  Come to think of it…shouldn’t this be the goal of all Christian churches?   I mean, after all, Jesus told his Disciples to go and teach others to follow him, to be like him, so that these new Christian Disciples can also go and teach other people to be like Jesus and follow the teachings and the example of Jesus, and then those new Disciples will also follow the same pattern of living out who Jesus is in front of others, and teaching them to do the same.  Seems pretty simple, right?

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Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)

¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So how do you think we as a church over the centuries have done with doing what Jesus told his Disciples to do?  Do you know that we now live in what is called a “Post Christian Society”?  You are probably thinking…”hmm…what does that mean?” Right?!!  I actually was not aware of this myself, until recently.  So this is what it means.  In the past we could pretty much (at least here in the U.S.A.) count on the fact that every one had at least heard of Jesus, and most people who would call themselves Christian would know at least a little bit about the Bible.  Now, in this modern age, we cannot say that this is true. 

We cannot even say that people want to be Christian.  In a lot of cases there are people who do not wish to be Christian because “Christians are mean hypocrites…they think they are perfect.”  This reputation comes about because in our efforts to be “good Christians” and help people to know God we are often very unloving and critical of others.  The truth is that we cannot expect Christian behavior from people who are not Christians and we cannot expect new Christians to change and know what they are to do overnight.  The changes that we experience as Christians in ourselves and our lives are not of our own doing.  They are changes wrought be the Holy Spirit residing within us as we spend time with him.

So you are probably wondering, how does a person come to really know God?  I  was one of those unchurched people for most of my life.

I learned about Jesus when I was about 4 years old, a neighbor girl who was about 8 told us about how she went to church and learned about Jesus.  She started talking about Jesus and how he sacrificed his life for us, and asked us did we want to know more about him and take him into our hearts.  About 4-5 of us said, “yeah, sounded like fun” and we all went to her house and sat in her bedroom and she read a little tract to us about taking Jesus into our hearts and how Jesus came to save us.  Then she asked us if we wanted Jesus to come and live in our hearts.  I remember thinking that it sounded like a good idea, so I said yes.  Then we all prayed a prayer together, and that was how we were saved by Jesus. Now, I had and still have no idea what denomination she was from, I cannot even remember her name, but that girl had a most profound impact on my life.

Okay, so as a 4 year old, I really did not understand much about Christianity overall, but I was really serious about my nightly prayers of blessing for myself and others, and I believed that God was up there watching out for me.  I moved a lot growing up so I did not have a lot of opportunity for church worship, but I took every chance I got to go.  That being said I probably only went about 20 times the whole time I was growing up. 

The thing is that Christianity is a journey that lasts a lifetime, yet we often treat all Christians the same…we have an expectation that they will have “Christian knowledge” and teaching beamed into their heads along with their salvation.  We think that a person who is 50 and is a Christian has 50 years of Christianity under their belt…this is almost never true.  Although I was saved when I was 4, I continued to “drink the milk” of the word until I was in my 20’s (that is a polite way of saying that I did not grow much in spiritual knowledge).  When I got into my 20’s things started happening in my life that made me want to draw closer to God and learn more about him.  This is known as “eating the meat” of the word….many Christians, as sincere as they are in their dearly held beliefs never get into the deep teachings of the Kingdom of God….largely because churches are failing to teach them how to grow and that growth is how you draw closer to God.  It is a truth that spiritual growth can only come from time spent with the spirit, but how does a person who is a newly minted Christian learn to spend time with the Spirit?  How do they learn how much God loves them?  How do they become so full of the Holy Spirit that people around them are drawn to them and want to know what they know about God?

Modern churches are teaching people about the after-life, but not about the life they are living here.  Sure they teach what to do and not to do, but it is not the same.  A person can spend many years in churches and be sincerely believing the wrong things about God because they have not spent personal time with the Holy Spirit.  They have not truly been discipled by a disciple who was discipled by a disciple.  

I have attended many churches over the years, and each one taught me something that helped me to grow.  Sometimes the things that they taught were more on the lines of my coming to understand the errors in their methods and doctrines…other times the growth has been more positive. 

The church I am in now is very small, I mean about 20 people on any given Sunday.  It doesn’t have a bunch of social programs, it is pretty simple, we go and worship, and learn about God, and then we go out and “do the stuff” that God directs us to do.  We draw close to God and he draws close to us, and so we listen to the Holy Spirit tell us what we should be doing in our service to him.

The thing that most churches seem to have lost is that most of the work of the Holy Spirit is not within the doors of the church …it is done after we leave the church during the course of our daily lives. 

Going to church should be about learning about and worshipping God, and giving and receiving love from other Christians, and connecting with people who are also following Christ.  We see this in the Bible also, the Disciples went out among the population and shared the good news of Jesus, and they wrote letters to continue to disciple the people that they had shown “the Way” to through letters, and messengers, and return visits….they also rejoined each other occasionally to discuss things, as in Acts 15 where there was a discussion about whether newly converted Gentile believers should be circumcised and had to become Jews or not.  (Take a look at Acts 15…it is an amazing debate, which is ended by James the brother of Jesus stating his opinion based on scripture that everyone who is saved is saved by grace.) 

Many modern churches have put so much “institution” and “structure” into their beliefs that people come away with a burden; much like the burden that Jesus criticized the Pharisees for putting on the Jewish people.  There is a lot of “don’t do this, and don’t do that” and “be sure to do this and be sure to do that” and “those who do this will be condemned”, you get the idea.  Most of what people are hearing in the church comes down to the thought that “God is mad at you, so you must make it up to God by saying this prayer and doing this or that thing.” 

Now, don’t get me wrong here, obedience to what Jesus taught is important, but it is not the source of salvation.  Jesus is the source of salvation…and only Jesus.

Jesus told us that his yoke (that is his teaching) is easy, and it is light for us…in more ways than one.

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Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

So what is the teaching of Jesus?  It is very simple, just as he said:

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself
3. Repent and believe in Jesus as savior

John 3:16-17 (NIV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus’ message was life changing to the Disciples, and it was life changing to the people who listened to the Disciples.  It was a “look the world sees things this way, but God sees the world completely differently” and “look the world sees you this way, but God sees you entirely differently”.

The world is full of judgment and strife and requirements and expectations…it is full of pain and unforgiveness.

God is full of love and forgiveness…God loves you like crazy and his way of seeing things is that you can relax and let God be in charge of your life….you don’t need to work so hard to feel good about yourself.  God already knows what you are going to choose to do, and he already knows what is happening in your life and what will happen in your life.  He is ready to forgive you anytime you turn to him and ask…you don’t have to jump through hoops to get his love and forgiveness, but you do have to follow Jesus’ teaching and allow Jesus to be the Lord of your life.  AND when Jesus is our Lord, that means that we are not Lord.

In a nutshell, if the message you are hearing from the pulpit is not full of God’s love and forgiveness…if it is not life changing…then how is that message “Good News?”  How is it different from the message of the world? 

Casting Pearls before Swine? Or Not?

Matthew 7:6

⁶ “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

I was reading Mark 5:1-20 the other day, and thinking about it a lot. I mean, it seems like a really straight forward story on the surface, but looking deeper into it and thinking about Matthew 7:6 took me by surprise. Here is a bit of background information on the region of the Gerasenes. It was part of the Decapolis, which were 10 cities that during the Roman Empire were under self rule…kind of like city-states. They were Hellenistic in nature and worship…you know Ancient Greek Gods. The Gerasenes were typically eaters of pigs, and used them a lot in Idol worship. Another thing about the Greek Hellenists is that when Alexander the Great conquered the Holy Land, many of the Jews were forced into pig sacrifice to Idols. So when reading about the Gerasenes and their pigs this thought ran through my mind. Jesus knew how they used the pigs, so when the demons called “Legion” that he called out of the demon possessed man in the tomb, wanted to go into the pigs he allowed it. After all, the pigs were going to be used for an evil thing anyway…

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Mark 5:1-20 (NIV)

Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man

5 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.^[a] 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. ⁷ He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

⁹ Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. ¹² The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” ¹³ He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

¹⁴ Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. ¹⁵ When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. ¹⁷ Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

¹⁸ As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. ¹⁹ Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis^[b] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

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So now another thought about the destruction of the pigs….Jesus was removing an obstacle from these people. An obstacle to their getting to know the one true God. Jesus demonstrated his power by casting the demons out of the man. He performed this miracle for this guy who had been so crazed that he was trying to destroy himself. He was wreaking havoc all over the place, screaming, yelling, cutting himself. Obviously, this demon possessed guy was very scary. Jesus healed him by removing the demons. He was sitting there all dressed and sane.

Were people paying attention to that miracle? No, they weren’t. All they thought about was how scary Jesus was that he was powerful enough to destroy their herd of 2000 pigs. They did not want any part of that at all! So they ask Jesus to leave their area, immediately!

Now, in their defense, they were probably in a considerable state of shock over the whole situation. Here comes this guy, who obliterates their main source of food and also sacrifice for worship. In other words, he showed them that their gods could not protect them at all! They completely ignore the miracle in their concern for themselves!

So, the Gerasene man who was healed from the demon possession wanted to go along with Jesus when he left. Jesus tells him, “No, stay here with your own people, and tell them what God has done for you…witness to them!”

Isn’t this amazing?!!! Jesus did not give up on the Gerasene people, even though they rejected him outright! He left them someone to witness to them. The Gerasenes were not Jews, in the eyes of the Jewish people of Jesus’ time these people were dirty, idol worshipping people, who had actually had a hand in tormenting the Jews and forcing some of them into idol worship. You could probably say that the majority of the people of Israel would have considered them to be the enemy of God.

They would have viewed these Gerasenes as “swine” who you don’t cast pearls to. However, we are told in John 12:47

⁴⁷ “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

Jesus came to save the world. He did not give up on these people, even though they were not Jews. He came for the whole world, not just the Jews. This entire story is an illustration of that fact to us! Jesus does not give up, and he came for everyone! We do not have the capacity to judge when a person is “beyond redemption or not”…only God knows what is in a person’s heart.

In this story, we are shown that we should never give up on a person! Now, this doesn’t mean we badger them to death either. (Jesus did not stick around and keep beating the Gerasenes over the head….he positioned someone in their midst to minister to them and left.) It just means that we need to be patient, and understand that for everyone, the journey to know who God is, and turn to him is different and individual. Some journey’s take longer than others.

Ultimately, we are shown in Mark 5:20

²⁰ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis^[b] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

They Devour Widows’ Houses…

Being Misled about God

Luke 20:45-21:4 New International Version (NIV)

Warning Against the Teachers of the Law

⁴⁵ While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, ⁴⁶ “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷ They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

The Widow’s Offering

21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³ “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

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Many times we see breaks in the Bible between verses or blocks of verses, such as the above heading “The Widow’s Offering”. We should be wary of these breaks as they can make us tend to ignore the verses before that heading and make us think that they have nothing to do with what follows. The headings in the Bible can be useful to us when it comes to quickly finding verses or areas of scripture that we are looking for, but we should not believe that the verses before or after the heading are separated in content and meaning from each other.

To put this in perspective, when we start in Luke 21, and just read until verse 4 we see and get an idea that the poor widow is being applauded because she “put in everything she had to live on” or “she gave it all to God”….I have heard many sermons on tithing and giving it all to God.

The thing is that God doesn’t need anything that we have! It was all and still is all, his to begin with…after all, he created everything! So, now that we have this thinking out of the way…let us go back to Luke 20:45 and read. It appears that Jesus was talking to his disciples, prior to getting to the temple, about how they “should beware of the teachers of the law” because those teachers are pretty much all working for the applause of man. Long public prayers to show that they are “holy”, lengthy robes to command respect, strolling around and putting on airs in the marketplace. In short they are full of self-importance. Jesus taught us to be humble, and in a “right” relationship with God. To love God and love each other.

Yet, these men, who are teachers of the law of God, do none of those things.

Jesus says that they “devour widows’ houses”, then in Luke 21 we see Jesus has been watching the people in the temple putting in their offerings to God. He sees the wealthy people putting in a bunch of money given from their wealth (as in, they won’t even miss what they are giving because they have so much wealth), and then he sees a poor widow (who will be missing every single coin she has put in because in order to live she is counting every coin…she has so little to begin with)…then following the previous conversation with his disciples about telling them to “beware of the teachers of the law”, Jesus says: Look at that widow…she is putting in everything she has to live on!

So is Jesus happy with the widow? Is he angry with her? No, he is not unhappy with the widow or angry with her….he is horrified, and saddened by the fact that these leaders, and teachers of the law, in their greed, had convinced the poor that to be in a “right” relationship with God they needed to give everything they had to live on. This woman was basically going to starve to death in order to meet the criteria she felt she needed to meet in order to be in good standing with God!

Now, then, this is really down right sad! This woman’s perspective of God is nothing like the God that Jesus was teaching his disciples and the people about! These teachers of the law were misleading people about who God was and what he wanted from them!

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God loves us, and he provides for us. We are told that he has good plans for us. The woman was giving up the provision that God gave her to live on, in an effort to appease a God whom she thought must be appeased this way! It is not her fault, but this was what she had been taught, and she was doing her best to be in good standing with God based on that teaching.

This kind of thinking still happens today…people are still mislead about what God wants from them! We still have many wrong headed ideas about what is right and how to be in “good” with God. There are still false teachers today, that is why it is so important to read your Bible and to learn to read in context. The context of this set of verses about the widow is given in the previous chapter of Luke. Many times this is the case in scripture, things are taken out of the context and the meaning is changed to suit what the teacher believes, but may not necessarily be what Jesus was actually intending to convey to his disciples or to us.

There is an excellent book about reading the Bible, which I wish to recommend to you. It is called How to Read the Bible for all its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. It really is very easy to read, and gives very good information on the different parts of the Bible and some pointers to remember when reading them.

Ownership of the field of treasure

Matthew 13:44 The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.  When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all that he had and bought the field. 

The standard Christian teaching on this is that this man found the treasure of Salvation and realized how important it was, so he hid it and then went and bought the field so that he could have it.  There is nothing inherently wrong about this teaching, but it has some moralistic problems to it.  After all, Jesus focus was about sharing the love of God with others.  In this parable we see a man who is not planning to share at all…if he was, then he would go running to town with the treasure in his arms and shout to all about it, wouldn’t he?!!  Instead he hides it again, then goes and we presume deceptively purchases the field.  We see this kind of thing happen in the world over and over again…some person will find out some facts about some land that makes it more valuable…maybe some plans for the surrounding area that is unknown to the landowner and so they go and offer an outrageous sum of money (in the land owner’s eyes), but still far less than it will actually be worth if the plans known only to the buyer happen.  We call that “land speculation”…totally acceptable from a worldly standpoint, but rather an unChristian way of acting, right?!!  Morally, as Christians we would have problems with this action…especially if we are the ones who get taken advantage of in the land selling process.

An interesting thing I have learned from Dave LeBlanc’s recent teaching on this parable is that the idea of ownership of something means that you have to work at it for 3 years before you have ownership.  Ownership isn’t something that comes about by accident, just because you bought it.  In Jewish terms, which means in the terms that Jewish Rabbi Jesus is teaching to his Jewish Disciples…ownership is acquired not just with money, but you have to actually do something with it, and do something with it consistently for 3 years.  So if we take that idea and look at this parable again we can learn a few things:

1.)  The man was walking on land that was not owned by a family..it was deserted land…fallow land.  After all, if he found a treasure hidden in a field, it was probably buried in the first place and he found it from working the field with the intent to get ownership.  (We know that the land of Israel did not have a lot of forests, it’s fields are good for olives and wine, and wheat.)  So he was working the field and accidentally dug up a treasure, so he goes and reburies it and then since it is so valuable he must focus all of his wealth on acquiring it immediately.  He does this.

Yet, under the law of Torah, he doesn’t actually own it until he has worked it for three years, now according to what Dave is telling us about Rabbinical Judaism  it is not good enough to just buy the land with money, but to have to invest your time and energy into using it and bringing in a harvest…repeatedly.  In other words, Land speculation is not allowed.  You don’t just buy the land and say, “Look at me, I am wealthy I have all this land, but do nothing with it!”  In our terms, we would say, “use it or lose it”…this makes a lot of sense for people of Jesus’ time.  Land that lays fallow is not producing food.  Israel was a land that occasionally had years of famine…so it was important to produce all that it could in the good years.  After all, refrigeration, and freezing and canning as storage methods were not really around.  The main methods of food storage were probably dehydration, pickling, or fermentation.  According to the Old Testament there was a requirement of fallowness for land every 7 years….this was probably more about maintaining the nutrients and not exhausting the land by repeated growing of the same crop that would sap the same nutrients from the soil, so that the land was not worn out.  Spiritually, it was about relying on the Lord for your well being in times of scarcity..every 7 years there was a reminder to Israel about this.

Also under the laws in Leviticus the selling of the land was not to be permanent…so you may say it was more of a renting out for the use of the land and its crop.

2.) So we also learn a deeper meaning if we apply this idea of having to work for something to our salvation and what Jesus was saying about the Kingdom of heaven being like this treasure found in a field.  It was such a valuable treasure that the man was willing to immediately devote his entire wealth and life to attaining the rights to that treasure.

If we apply this idea to our salvation, the we can and should be believing that as Christians we are not actually obtaining that salvation simply by “saying a prayer” and going on about our normal lives.  If we do not plow the field of our salvation, or dig into our Bibles and take the word of the Lord into our hearts on a daily basis and apply it to how we are living out our daily lives, then we are as lost as the person who has never asked Jesus to come into our hearts.  That takes us to another parable, the parable of the seeds:

Luke 8:4-15 New International Version (NIV)

⁴ While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ⁵ “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. ⁶ Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

⁹ His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰ He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

“‘though seeing, they may not see;
    though hearing, they may not understand.’^[a]

¹¹ “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹² Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³ Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴ The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵ But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Footnotes:

1. Luke 8:10 Isaiah 6:9

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The seed is the Word of God…there are many things that can happen to people who at first hear it, but do not focus on it and work at understanding it and drawing closer to God.  This links right in with the parable of the man who discovered the treasure in the field, except this man was someone who realized the value of God’s Word and was willing to give up everything else to obtain that value, which was greater than everything he owned already.  He completely gave himself to God heart and soul.  He trusted that God’s treasure was so great that no matter what he must not lose it because of allowing something else in his life to get in the way of it…in this man’s heart it is better to give up on everything else than to give up on God.

This goes along with Commandment #1:

Exodus 20:1-3 And God spoke all these words:

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

Does this mean that we are to have nothing in our lives except God?  No, it means that God is to be the center of our lives…every action we take in our lives should be in order to draw closer to God and glorify God.

God has given us possessions to use in order to glorify him and draw closer to him and serve him with our lives.  God has put people in our lives so that we may both learn more about God with them and from them, and also help them to learn more about God and draw closer to God through us and how we love them the way that God loves them.

The point here, is that God is to be the most important…we do not all run out on mission trips to far away nations, we do not all go into the formal ministry of a church..we are all, however, to be lay ministers to others in how we treat them and work with them on God’s behalf in sharing our knowledge of who God is with them.  That is how we work the field…and take ownership of our Salvation through Jesus Christ.  We each, can and should do this every single day in our every day lives.  Most of the time we do this, in the very same place that we are already in, and in the very same job that we are already doing.  It doesn’t matter in God’s eyes if you are a house cleaner, or an architect, or some really wealthy influential business man or world leader…if you are a person who is in Christ you have your mission field right where your are…unless God calls you to go somewhere else and or do something else.

Don’t be misunderstanding here….God will not love you any more or any less no matter what you do and don’t do in your life.  However, if you are going to follow Jesus, which is what must be done to be saved, then that requires action on your part!  Jesus journeyed all the while that he was doing his three year ministry…he took action to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth…he said his Kingdom is “within you” or “in your midst”.

Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say, ‘Lo, it is here!’ or ‘Lo, it is there!’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.”

It is up to each of us to follow Jesus on our journey to Christian maturity…following requires movement!
Here is the link for David LeBlanc’s teaching on the parable of the field of treasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrf8vZgWEDM

 

 

Experiencing God

^{Exodus 3:3-5} 

³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” ⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (NIV)

Genesis 32:30-31

³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” ³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. (NIV)

When we look at Moses and Jacob they both had personal experience in meeting God.  In the case of Moses he met with God and the first thing he was told was to take off his shoes…God announced himself by reminding Moses of his Holiness.  Holy ground…I think a lot of time we forget to recognize God’s Holiness.  We take it for granted that he is Holy, but we don’t really take the time to recognize it, to truly be awed by it!  In other words, I think sometimes we treat God much too lightly.  To truly know God, then we must first recognize his Holiness, his sovereignty and his power as our creator.  Then we must recognize his overwhelming love for us…his creation.

Jacob and Moses both recognized these things about God.  They didn’t just randomly believe that God existed on some cerebral level.  They experienced God and by experiencing God….learned to understand exactly who God was in their lives….that God was present in a very real and personal way…right there with them…walking with them each day…only a prayer away.

There are so many people who believe in God and believe that God exists, but do not actually know who God is…they have never actually experienced God’s presence for themselves.  I find that to be one of the saddest things to realize.  I imagine that God finds it even more distressing that I do.  So many people who don’t actually seek God out and actively search to find who he is in their own lives.  They are content to just listen to others tell them who God is, or to never even give God a moment’s thought.  Many of them are intimidated by the Word of God…and are so afraid of misunderstanding it that they don’t even want to open it up and try to read it….although there are so many translations these days which are so much easier to read and understand…and there are so many great studies that can be done to understand it.

So, how can a person experience God and not just know about him intellectually with head knowledge?

The answer is very simple….pray…talk to God…talk to God with reverence, but not distance…recognize that we were created in God’s own image to serve God…to be in companionship with God….

Genesis 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Isaiah 43:5-7 “Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, And gather you from the west. “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back ‘ Bring My sons from afar And My daughters from the ends of the earth, Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

Jesus tells us that all of us who accept who he is, as our Redeemer and King…all of us who chose to become Disciples and follow what Jesus taught are given the right to be called the sons and daughters of God…we are adopted in as God’s children.

John 1:12-14 

12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus also said that his Disciples are not his servants, but his friends.

John 15:13-15 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.

The most quoted verse from the Bible is John 3:16, but frequently it is only partially quoted…or partially understood…there is a very important part of that verse that is frequently over looked, or misunderstood.  The idea of “believes in him”…this is not a simple idea of just believing that Jesus exists and that he came to die in order to redeem us.  There is a more crucial deeper meaning….Meaning that believing that not only did Jesus the Christ exist, and come to die for people, but actually believing it to the point that you realize that you are counting on it being true to the depths of your soul.  You are not just believing because someone told you that it was a good idea and that you should believe it.  You are believe it because God has said that it is so and you believe God.  You are believing in God’s love for you.  The first part of that verse is “God so loved the world…”  

God loves us all so much that our continued separation from him is unthinkable…he went to such lengths as to send his dearly loved son to live a human life, and be tortured and abused…all for the purpose of redeeming us back to him…of showing us who God is and how strong God’s love for us is, in a personal, living and breathing way.

Redemption:  Where something is given in order to get something.  Jesus gave his life in every way…he devoted his living and breathing life to showing us who God is, and drew his last breath showing us who God is, then was resurrected to show us even more the power of God…who God is to us.

John 3:16-18 

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

So what did we learn from Jesus about who God is?  We learned that God is healing, loving, understanding, forgiving, holy and powerful.

We learned from Jesus that God wants us to be the same way toward our fellow man…loving, understanding, forgiving, holy and filled with the powerful, holy Spirit of God.

Jesus told his Disciples that every word he speaks and every action he does is only what God tells him to say and do.

John 12:48-50 ⁴⁸ There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. ⁴⁹ For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. ⁵⁰ I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

There are many places in the Bible which tell us about God, we can see all through it how God worked in the lives of every day average people.  Most of us today are just every day average people…God is still working in our lives…he is still there for us to experience his companionship and love…we just have to seek him out…pray and God will reveal himself to you..each person travels a personal and individual road in getting to know God.

Just as no two people can get to know another person in exactly the same way…every friendship is different between people.  I have many friends, and each of our relationships are very individual…some of my friends know each other, and their relationships are also very individual.  We didn’t all get to know each other the same way because we all bring different personalities and life experiences to the friendship.

 

This is the same when we are seeking to build a relationship with God…we all have different levels of knowledge about God and we all have different backgrounds and experiences.  God created us as unique individuals…so our relationship with him is also unique and individual.

I really love hearing from different people about their relationship with God and how they have come to know him, and experience him in their lives.  It is so awesome to hear about the various ways that God has revealed himself to them, and how they have grown in faith.

There are many sincere worshippers who have never taken the step to seek out God…I implore you…if you are one of those folks…please take a moment and say a prayer to God asking him to reveal himself to you.  You will not regret seeking to draw closer to God.  It will give you God’s peace and contentment if you do.  Man’s peace is just the absence of war, God’s peace is an internal peace…a true peace.

Prayer is simple….just start out: Dear God….and tell God what is in your heart.  God already knows, so you may as well say it out loud and be honest…you won’t regret it!  Bare your soul to God!

 

Embarrassing Worship…

Luke 9:25-26  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Have you ever been embarrassed by God? or by worship of God?  embarrassed to talk about God to someone?  Embarrassed by someone who wants to talk about God to you?

For most people, the answer to that question would probably be yes, that at some time in their lives they have been embarrassed regarding God.  It isn’t that they don’t like God, but most of the time it is that many people do not want to be considered “wacky, way out there, uncool, outside of the world’s norm”, or just really don’t know enough about who God is in their own life to be able to relay that to someone else comfortably.

I remember when I was a teenager in high school having an experience where I wanted to run away from this woman who was right up in my face saying “HAVE YOU BEEN BORN AGAIN?!!! BECAUSE IF YOU HAVEN’T BEEN BORN AGAIN..YOU CANNOT GET INTO HEAVEN!”  Here I was a normal, but very shy teenage girl, at a car wash fund raiser for the band trip and this woman who was having her car washed pretty much attacked me with those words out of the blue.  I found her to be down right scary!

Now, back then I very much believed in God and prayed and already had taken Jesus into my heart, but I really didn’t have the relationship with God that I have now, and I expect that my relationship with God will continue to deepen and grow the rest of my life.  However, I was largely unchurched at that point…didn’t really start going regularly until I was an adult…we moved a lot and neither of my parents were church goers then.  I had never at that point even heard about this “born again thing”…all I knew was that I was relying on God to get me through my life with prayer…I really only knew Bible stories from the Children’s Bible which I had read several times…it was very comforting.  The thing is,  a Bible written to Children is just that, and does not have the depth of the complete Word of God.  However, the Bible tells us to have the faith of a child and at that point I certainly did…it was very simple…God said it..I believed it.

That is still what God wants from us today…just like a child we are to believe him.  The thing is that as we get deeper into scripture our understanding of God grows and so does our relationship with him so that as we mature we go from this feeling of wanting to run away from people who talk about him…to the feeling of deep joy whenever we are with someone who loves God and wants to talk about God with us.

I will tell you that from my perspective now, I still feel that the “attack” method is the wrong method to approach and share your faith with someone.  It makes the person feel inadequate, embarrassed, and defensive…they are definitely not going to want to listen to anything that is said to them!

Usually, when you tell someone that if they don’t “do” something they cannot get into heaven, then the person you are talking to gets the mistaken impression that there is something they can “do” to get into heaven.  The truth is that we can only get there by the grace of God, through belief in the saving power of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  God is the one who “gets us there”…faith is what “gets us there”…as my Pastor is fond of reminding us, “there is nothing you can do that will make God love your more…or less.”

The “attack” method leaves people believing that God is mad at them…whether that is intended or not…that is usually the result.

I have been to a variety of churches over the course of my life, and the ones I dislike the most are when the minister is preaching in a very dogmatic, and loud, voice…it is in an “attack” mode…”you are a sinner” type of voice.  Now, for some people, that is what they are used to and they respond to this…for myself, I believe that if as the Bible says God talks to us in a “still, small voice” then why is it okay for ministers who are representing God to be yelling at his people?

1Kings 19:11-13  

¹¹ And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

¹² And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

¹³ And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

 

Now, when we look at this story of King David, he took 30,000 men with him to move the Ark of God back to Jerusalem..they were celebrating greatly…we have all seen that many people celebrating something…most sports stadiums hold about that number of people and we see people doing all sorts of strange things in celebration of their teams…embarrassing things…painting their bodies weirdly, jumping, yelling and screaming for their teams….so put that picture in your head and think about David and his 30,000 men doing that in celebration that God is going back to the “City of David” with them…in the form of the Ark of the Covenant.  They are almost there and then something happens…one of the oxen pulling the cart stumbles…someone unthinking of the rules for dealing with God reverently grabs the ark and it kills them.  Now, if you have ever seen the movie the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and watched the scene toward the end where the evil guy opened the ark and it killed everyone who looked at it…it may give you an idea of the power of the Ark of God…it had real power because God had designated it as the place he would reside when he was with the Israelites…keep in mind there was no temple built yet…so touching it was an irreverent thing to do!  God had laid out rules about who could approach him back in Leviticus and how they could approach him. Anyway, looking at this fellow dying from touching the Ark scared David a lot….it stopped the celebration in its tracks.  David decided that it was too risky to bring that Ark into the city, so he left it in the care of Obed-Edom the Gittite for 3 months.  When he heard how blessed this guy became and that he wasn’t killed, David decided to go and get the Ark after all.

Now, we come to some more extreme celebrating…it tells us that David was dancing in the streets as he came into the city…he was only wearing an ephod on the top half of his body…that is basically a vest….he is unashamedly celebrating the return of his God to the city.

Now, his wife, who was Saul’s daughter, Michal…was extremely embarrassed by the sight of her husband, the King of Israel, dancing  wildly and jumping about in the streets, half dressed.  She tells him so as soon as he gets home….in 2Samuel 6:21-22

David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

(Now we are told that Michal had no children to the day of her death…I am guessing that this is because David was no longer interested in someone who held him in disgust and disrespected his love of God like she did….I don’t read into that some “punishment from God that he closed her womb”…just that she didn’t have children before that and had no opportunity to become pregnant after that.)

 

 Read 2 Samuel Chapter 6 and John 13:1-17

Samuel Chapter 6   New International Version (NIV)

The Ark Brought to Jerusalem

6 David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. ² He and all his men went to Baalah^[a] in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name,^[b] the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. ³ They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart ⁴ with the ark of God on it,^[c] and Ahio was walking in front of it. ⁵ David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets,^[d] harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.

⁶ When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. ⁷ The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.

⁸ Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.^[e]

⁹ David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” ¹⁰ He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. ¹¹ The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household.

¹² Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. ¹³ When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.¹⁴ Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, ¹⁵ while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

¹⁶ As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

¹⁷ They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord.¹⁸ After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessedthe people in the name of the Lord Almighty. ¹⁹ Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

²⁰ When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

²¹ David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

²³ And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

Footnotes:

1. 2 Samuel 6:2 That is, Kiriath Jearim (see 1 Chron. 13:6)
2. 2 Samuel 6:2 Hebrew; Septuagint and Vulgate do not have the Name.
3. 2 Samuel 6:4 Dead Sea Scrolls and some Septuagint manuscripts; Masoretic Text cart ⁴ and they brought it with the ark of God from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill
4. 2 Samuel 6:5 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint (see also 1 Chron. 13:8) songs
5. 2 Samuel 6:8 Perez Uzzah means outbreak against Uzzah.

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

John 13 New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

² The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸ “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹ “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

 

I find Peter to be very endearing here…in this story, his behavior is one of childish enthusiasm toward Jesus….he doesn’t want to miss out on whatever Jesus is offering…so he responds in an “over the top” statement of  “don’t just wash my feet then, but wash all the other limbs as well…make sure I am all clean from head to toe – I don’t want to miss out on any part of whatever you are offering us…give me a double portion of it!” (Paraphrase of verse 9)  I really appreciate how enthusiastic Peter is toward receiving Jesus.  Jesus simply tells him that he only needs his feet to be cleaned in order to be completely clean.  (Now there are a lot of Jewish traditions and understandings regarding this that goes a lot deeper about the washing of the feet and the different traditional methods of ceremonial cleansing, but I am focused on Peter’s enthusiasm, not on the cleaning right now.)

The point here is that we need to be enthusiastic in expressing our love of God and our worship of God to others.  We need to Glorify God for what he does in our lives.  Whenever, we find ourselves excited we should express it, even if we may be embarrassed to do so.  I find it to be very peculiar that we have so many Christians who would go to a ball game, or a concert, and cheer loudly and scream and do all manner of things in that set of circumstances, but whenever they are faced with worshipping or praising God the same people would sit in the pews, or stand up like a stick and never make a sound.  Isn’t God much more exciting and worthy of screaming and yelling and cheering in excitement of worship than a sports team or a music group?  If you are a Christian and you don’t think so, then maybe a little re-examination of who God is in your life is in order…just who is God…to you? Ask yourself… “how do I glorify and worship God?  Is God embarrassing for me to talk about?”

 

 

The Devourer’s of Widow’s houses

Luke 20:45-47 ⁴⁵ Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, ⁴⁶ “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, ⁴⁷ who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”

Luke 21:1-4 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, ² and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. ³ So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; ⁴ for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

I was having a conversation with my Mother last week and she mentioned the widow’s mite and I felt compelled to go and reread it.  Many times I have heard people quote this story as if it were another of Jesus’ parables and say things like  “The Widow was more blessed than all the rest because she gave everything she had to God!”  I have heard this story used to say that we should give our all to God.

While it is true that we should give ourselves fully over to God I don’t believe that it is in God’s nature, nor is it in scripture that God would like people to starve in order to pay tithe.  In fact, if you look at Luke 20:45-47, it is pretty obvious that Jesus is condemning the scribes for “devouring the widow’s houses”.  Now, I look at that along with Luke 21:1-4 where Jesus is standing there and observing this woman put in all she had to live on and it seems that Jesus is saying that the scribes are actually at fault for making this poor woman believe that in order to be accepted by God she needs to give everything she has to live on…even if it means she must starve.

Now there are other places that we can go in scripture to back up the idea that God takes care of his people and he puts the people and their well being above following the law.

For instance:  Mark 2:23-27 

²³ And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.

²⁴ And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?

²⁵ And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him?

²⁶ How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?

²⁷ And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

(1Samuel 21:7 for the scripture about David and his men.)

When we look at Matthew 5:3 ³ Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Many times you will hear folks say, “Blessed are the Poor” and then leave it at that…the complete statement is Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Now that is a completely different idea…there is nothing in the Sermon on the Mount which is talking about wealth or poverty of material goods.  Everything is talking about attitude toward God and toward others in life.

When I read the idea of the Poor in Spirit…I think it is about being selfless in your attitude in life.  You are always looking toward the needs of others, and what God wants you to do…not always yelling about yourself and your rights in this world.  That is what it means to me when I read the “poor in spirit” statement.

God continually condemns self centered people who walk all over or manipulate others for their own gain!  There is a lot of misconception about wealth in the world of Christianity.  The reason misconception continues is that there are many Christians who do not read the Word of God for themselves and study it.  Relying solely on someone in the pulpit to tell you how to be a Christian is a huge error!  There are a lot of folks who take things out of context and support their beliefs instead of taking it in the context in which it was written and finding out what God is really like.

There are very sincere Christians in all walks of life..both wealthy and poor…God has no problem with the level of your pocket book….only if you love your wealth more than you love him and those around you is there a problem.  The Bible says, “Love of money is the root of all evil”, not: “money is the root of all evil.”

1Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

This is why the scribes were condemned…it was love of themselves and love of money to the point where they actually “devoured widow’s houses”.  They were hypocrites in the worst way, they gave “some” of their wealth, but made the widow feel that she had to give “all” of her goods in order to measure up.

Have you ever done that?  Seen that someone was giving a lot and so felt the need to put more in than you could really afford…more than you had previously decided on because the amount you were able to give seemed “insignificant” by comparison to what you knew the other person was giving?!! God says that he loves a cheerful giver…he wants you to give what you feel you can… to honor him.  He does not want you comparing yourself with the person next to you.  He wants your love and trust in him. That is why it is best if all giving is done quietly and personally.

I went to a large church as a visitor with someone once, and that person told me that whenever they went to their church they felt that they should always bring the “checkbook”; when I attended with them I understood why they felt that way…the buckets (literally) were passed about 5 times down the aisles during their worship!  Now some folks who are new or unsure of their Christianity would feel pressured to always put something in each time it was passed in order to not be “embarrassed”…I wonder what Jesus would think of his followers treating his sheep like that in his name?!!  Well, we don’t have far to look…looking again at the verses in Luke 20 and Luke 21 above it seems clear how Jesus would feel about these things.

The Bible is very clear on the status of widows and orphans from Old Testament through New Testament the attitude is the same.  Those who are most vulnerable in society should be protected and cared for either by their relatives or by the church if there are no relatives to care for them.

Exodus 22:22-23King James Version (KJV)

²² Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.

²³ If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;

King James Version (KJV)

For more from the apostle Paul on the care of widows and orphans look at 1Timothy 5.

I am The Alpha and the Omega…

Revelations: 22:13  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, The Beginning and the End

Read Genesis Chapter 1, and Revelation Chapter 22.  This is about both the beginning and the end of Man’s life on Earth as we know it.  God was there to create us, and as Chapter 22 in Revelations states He will be there to separate those who are to get into the Holy city of God, and those who don’t. 

The Alpha and the Omega…The First and the Last, The Beginning and the End…Those are very strong images.  They are images of an everlasting, timelessness that we as humans cannot really grasp.  Just like trying to grasp the mathematical number pi…3.1416 onward to infinity.  It is simply beyond my grasp to understand.  I sit and think to myself back when I first heard of such a number that I wonder who came up with it and how they discovered it and how they know that it is infinite.  Obviously, God would be the inventor of that number as well as all others as he is the creator of all things.  He simply revealed it to us humans as it became something that a few of us could almost grasp.  Funny thing is that mathematical pi has been known to have been in use in some form since the time of the Babylonians around 4000 B.C.  You might say that it is one of the remnants of the great Babylonian empire, though their number was a bit inaccurate.  Now for any who are reading this who don’t know what pi is…it is the relationship between the circumference of a circle (that is if you walked around the circle), and the diameter (if you walked across the circle).  I know it is used in formulas for this purpose, but don’t entirely understand it, not being a mathematician.  However, back to the topic at hand…

God, who is infinite (like walking around a circle..no beginning and no end) took a lot of trouble to present himself to us in a very linear, straight forward way.  He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to actually show us who God is in the flesh. Jesus has a whole lot of names listed in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

God knew that we were not capable of understanding all of who he is, so he decided to come and meet each and every one of us where we are on this earth.  Now, as with all meetings, you can make a friend of the one whom you meet with…or you can reject that friendship by either making an enemy, or by simply ignoring the hand of friendship.

When we read about what God created in Genesis chapter one…it is an awesome thing….he “spoke” the world into existence.  Most of us are really impressed that we can speak into a gps and tell it to plot a route, right?!!  The gps is already in existence and is programmed for  this purpose…God spoke the world into existence from absolutely nothing…We are told in Genesis 1 that The earth was formless and void, and there was darkness…

A God who can speak the world into existence from nothing can most certainly handle my problems, right?!!  God tells us that he will be there from beginning to end…to me that is a comforting statement.  Why?  Well, that is because I love God and I know that God loves me and the he considers me to be very precious to him.  God considers us all to be his very precious creations.  It is just that some people chose to accept God’s invitation to have a close and very personal relationship with him and others don’t.

When you choose to have a close relationship with God everything does not suddenly become perfect and rosy in your life.  Just look at the lives of the Disciples if you don’t understand what I am saying.  You are probably saying, “why not?”

Well, that is the thing, although we are precious to God, so are other people.  Once you have God’s saving grace, he wants to use you to glorify him by bringing other people into close relationship with him also.  Sometimes the process of being used by God for this purpose can be painful and hard to bear…sometimes you don’t even know when or how God is using you.  That is where faith comes in, you just follow God and know that he is with you where ever you go….from beginning to end….he has a purpose for everyone.  Our main purpose is to glorify God, and we are to love people first and foremost even when they are next to impossible to love.  I am sure we all have met some folks who are like that!

Just fill in the blank here….”I cannot love them because they are…or they did…”

Just remember that God is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End…he is there for your beginning and end and he is also there for their beginning and end…he knows exactly what it takes to love each and every one of us.

Matthew 5:44-46  

⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

 

He knows how to help us to love the folks who are unlovable…and we are all in some ways hard to love at different times in our lives.  The thing that I have found over the years is that if you can look at things from the other person’s perspective and try to understand why they are acting they way they are acting, then you are well on your way to being able to love them with the love of Christ.

Most of us have met people and thought…”I can never be friends with them…they are so….” (fill in the blank)…then something happens that is unforeseen and we find that we have a common interest, or that we actually believe something in the same way and suddenly we are best friends with that person.  I have learned that you can never write off a person because at first they are not someone you instantly bond with.  Each person has their own unique characteristics and gifts, and their own unique backgrounds and life experiences…their own pains and pleasures in life which make up who they are.

God knows all of it….the Bible says that God knew us before we were in the womb, though the verse is talking to Jeremiah, God knows all of us the same way.

Jeremiah 1:5 – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” NIV

If you read Revelation Chapter 22 then you see that God is expecting something from us all…it says he will reward each according to what they have done…this is not talking about how much money you have given, or how hard you have worked at work, or how many fund raisers you have done for your church…this is talking about how much you have loved others and how many people have come to know God because of your actions and your words.  Teaching people about who God is must be done with both words and actions…it must be an intentional act…to love that person enough to want them to truly understand the love of Christ.

Revelation 22 reminds us that people can be lost…because their focus is on themselves and their own pleasures and not on God.  This is a tragedy that God would like to avoid happening.

I read this verse in 2 Peter 3:9-12 about the type of people we should be as we wait for the Day of the Lord to come….we are to be conducting ourselves with godliness and holiness as we anticipate and “hasten” the day of the Lord.   

We are to “hasten” the day of the Lord by loving others and helping them to come to know who God is through knowledge and relationship with Jesus Christ.

As Peter tells us in verse 9, The Day of the Lord has not yet come because God does not wish anyone to be lost.  It isn’t because God doesn’t see the bad things that are happening, it’s because he wants to save as many as will turn to him.  God’s servants (that would be us) are those who can impact others to turn them toward God…that is what it means to hasten the coming Day of the Lord, or to move the Kingdom of God forward.

1Corinthians 1:18  ¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

God Judges all people equally

Psalm 96:10  Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”  The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.

Read Isaiah 56:1-8  This is a statement of God’s acceptance of everyone who is upright and keeps his ways.  That God answers their prayers and looks on them as equals in his sight.  All of God’s people are equals.  You are either God’s or satan’s.  It doesn’t matter what nationality or gender you are, or what your physical body looks like.

Read Genesis 11:1-9  This is the story of the Tower of Babel.  Note that these men suffered from pride, and they could all communicate well enough for building this tower.  God took them down, by making them all speak different languages so that they could not communicate and continue building the tower.  They were not acting in an upright manner, so God demonstrated his Godhood by forcing their plans to go awry in a very harsh way.

Isaiah 56:1-8

Salvation for Others

56 This is what the Lord says:

“Maintain justice
    and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
    and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
² Blessed is the one who does this—
    the person who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,
    and keeps their hands from doing any evil.”

³ Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
    “I am only a dry tree.”

⁴ For this is what the Lord says:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose what pleases me
    and hold fast to my covenant—
⁵ to them I will give within my temple and its walls
    a memorial and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that will endure forever.
⁶ And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
    to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
    and who hold fast to my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain
    and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
    a house of prayer for all nations.”
⁸ The Sovereign Lord declares—
    he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
    besides those already gathered.”

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. (via Bible Gateway.com)

Genesis 11:1-9

The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward,^[a] they found a plain in Shinar^[b] and settled there.

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel^[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 11:2 Or from the east; or in the east
2. Genesis 11:2 That is, Babylonia
3. Genesis 11:9 That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused.

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Our term for someone who is going on about nothing, or not making any sense is that they are babbling.  If someone tells you that God won’t accept you or forgive you because of something that has happened in your past even though you ask him for forgiveness and have moved forward away from that sin…then you can be sure that they are in fact babbling in the worst way!  God really doesn’t like it when people cause others to move away from him instead of closer to him.  That was in fact Jesus’ main contention with some of the Pharisees…they had added rules which made it harder for a person to follow God.  He challenged them in Matthew 15 about why they made their traditions more important than the following of God’s law.  Sometimes we are guilty of that too.  We tend to expand on God’s rules to the point where it is hard to remember them all.  Then we judge others when they don’t follow the expanded rules….

God is the only true judge of a person, and he judges all equally under his qualifications for them….faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and living in faithful obedience.  God doesn’t care where you came from, only where you are going now!

Worthless Prayer

Look at this picture of Jesus on the Cross and the people at the foot of his cross…they are being depicted with the dedication that the Bible shows us they had..suffering the sight of the death of their savior…unknowing that he would rise again. By Carl Heinrich Bloch

Proverbs 28:9  He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

Read Jeremiah 7, and Jeremiah 11 These chapters illustrate how God feels about people who turn away from Him, then God doesn’t like that person’s prayers. However, God still loves us, even when we are in sin…He will  love us straight to the gates of Hell and if you go through those gates, then God will still love you; but the separation is eternal. I think that permanent separation from God is what hell is actually all about.  (That’s just my personal opinion to be sure.)  

Just as a parent will allow their adult children to do the wrong things, and not approve, and also won’t stop them but still will love them. Even as you read these two chapters everything in them seems very harsh, doesn’t it?  This tells us how much God wants us to show our love to him through obedience to his word.  How much God hates the actions of those who say that they are his people, yet, don’t follow what he says to do.

Now, this is not about being legalistic in how you view God.  There is absolutely nothing that you can do to gain God’s approval besides accepting his son.  However, to accept his son, you also have to accept his son’s “yoke” or his son’s teachings. (Matthew 11:28-30) You cannot accept the blood sacrifice of Jesus and then go on about your merry way as you always have.  If a person has really and truly accepted Jesus as their savior then there will be changes in them.  Now, that does not mean that they are suddenly going to spring forth into perfection…no, but it does mean that they have a change of heart where they realize that they have been doing things that are (as my Pastor is fond of saying) “off the mark” of where they should be.  Another way of saying that they are not on target for what God wishes in their lives.  God is the one who changes the person by the Holy Spirit’s presence within them.

So, how does a person know what God wants of them?  Well, Jesus stated it clearly: (Matthew 22:36-40)

1.) Love God with all your heart, mind and soul.

2.) Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

If you follow those two commandments, then you don’t have to worry about all of the rest of God’s law because you cannot follow those two commandments and still break any of God’s law at all.  That is what Jesus’ taught.

Why is that?  Well, because if you love God, then you won’t disrespect him or any of his creation in any way. That includes yourself and others.

If you love yourself (most people love themselves the most if they are honest…we see it all of the time…), then you want the best for yourself.

The best marriage, best home, best children, best friends, best of everything, right?!!

So it follows that if you love your neighbor as you love yourself, then you will want the best for them also:  The best marriage, the best home, best children, best friends, best of everything, right?!!!

Now, in loving that person you also want them to have the most important thing…the best relationship with God that they could possibly have.  You wouldn’t want that person to have anything bad in their lives, right?!!

This means that in loving them you celebrate with them, and mourn with them as they go through life, and you help them whenever they need it to the best of your ability.

It also means that you recognize that your neighbor may have different needs than you do when it comes to home and family life.  After all, we are not clones of each other.  We have individual desires in many respects, but there is one thing we all have in common on this earth.  It is the desire to have the love and companionship of family and friends.  We all want to be loved, and to be able to tell that we are loved.

Sometimes when we are “loving” others in the Christian way, we end up not so much loving them as “judging” them. We end up telling them what they should and should not do.  Most people have enough people telling them how to live their lives…that is not what they need.  People need the chance to make their own decisions and to realize that they will still be loved.  That is the example that God gives us of loving.

God did not put us in charge of making the rest of the world behave.  He told us to follow him…follow his example of loving others.  God wants us to love people beyond their faults.  Jesus shows us that example time and time again.  He shows people that he recognizes that they have faults, but that he loves them anyway and that he cares about their needs.  God is the one who will work on that person’s faults and bad decisions with them.  We can help them with this, but we cannot condemn them..that is not our job or our responsibility.  We have different responsibilities when dealing with another Christian who we see going astray as we are to correct each other..but for those who do not know Christ we are responsible to simply show them the love of Christ by our love for them and how we live that love out in our lives. (Matthew 18:15-17)

There is one time that we see Jesus demonstrating some anger to us…the context of that anger is simple…there are people in God’s very house, his temple, who are taking advantage of other people who are coming to worship God.  They are giving them unfair exchanges for their money when they are coming from out of town, and they are charging them unreasonably high prices for the animals that they are buying for sacrifice in the temple.  Jesus actually quotes Jeremiah 7:11 while he is overturning the money changers tables.  Jesus is referring to the time when God proclaimed that empty worship is worthless worship, and telling those who are taking unfair advantage of others that God is watching them and sees what they do.  The people whom Jesus was talking to most likely fully understood the reference…it probably scared them spitless!  They knew that they were guilty in the eyes of God! (Matthew 21:12-13) (Now John 2 calls it a market place and focuses on the disrespect shown to God’s house by buying and selling in it.)

To put this in more blunt and modern terms…if you are just going to church and warming a pew so that you can tell the world how great you are that you go to church…that is worthless in God’s eyes.  If you do not include God in your every day life then your actions of worship are worthless.  God wants relationship with you, that is the way in which God will bless your life the most.  Relationship with God on a day to day basis can get you through anything that happens in your life.  It gives you an inexpressible strength.

Jeremiah Chapter 7 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message:

“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. ³ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” ⁵ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, ⁶ if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. ⁸ But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.

⁹ “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,^[a] burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

¹² “‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³ While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. ¹⁴ Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. ¹⁵ I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.’

¹⁶ “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger. ¹⁹ But am I the one they are provoking?declares the Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?

²⁰ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place—on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land—and it will burn and not be quenched.

²¹ “‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! ²² For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, ²³ but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. ²⁴ But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. ²⁵ From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. ²⁶ But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their ancestors.’

²⁷ “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. ²⁸ Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.

²⁹ “‘Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the Lordhas rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.

The Valley of Slaughter

³⁰ “‘The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. ³¹ They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. ³² So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. ³³ Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. ³⁴ I will bring an end to the soundsof joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate.

Footnotes:

1. Jeremiah 7:9 Or and swear by false gods

The Covenant Is Broken

Jeremiah chapter 11 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. ³ Tell them that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Cursed is the one who does not obey the terms of this covenant— ⁴ the terms I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.’ I said, ‘Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. ⁵ Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey’—the land you possess today.”

I answered, “Amen, Lord.”

⁶ The Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. ⁷ From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, “Obey me.” ⁸ But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.’”

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors. ¹¹ Therefore this is what the Lordsays: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. ¹² The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes.¹³ You, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’

¹⁴ “Do not pray for this people or offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.

¹⁵ “What is my beloved doing in my temple
    as she, with many others, works out her evil schemes?
    Can consecrated meat avert your punishment?
When you engage in your wickedness,
    then you rejoice.^[a]”

¹⁶ The Lord called you a thriving olive tree
    with fruit beautiful in form.
But with the roar of a mighty storm
    he will set it on fire,
    and its branches will be broken.

¹⁷ The Lord Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the people of both Israel and Judah have done evil and aroused my anger by burning incense to Baal.

Plot Against Jeremiah

¹⁸ Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. ¹⁹ I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying,

“Let us destroy the tree and its fruit;
    let us cut him off from the land of the living,
    that his name be remembered no more.”
²⁰ But you, Lord Almighty, who judge righteously
    and test the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
    for to you I have committed my cause.

²¹ Therefore this is what the Lord says about the people of Anathoth who are threatening to kill you, saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord or you will die by our hands”—²² therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. ²³ Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.” (NIV via Bible gateway.com)

Footnotes:

1. Jeremiah 11:15 Or Could consecrated meat avert your punishment? / Then you would rejoice