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.

King David

Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whomever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Read Luke 3:23 This is Mary’s ancestry same as Matt 1 until David, then splits and is in ascending order going from Mary back to Adam, and Matt 1 is in Descending order from Abraham to Joseph as it is Joseph’s line.  They touch in at Zerubbabel and Shealtiel for a generation, then separate again.

Read 2 Samuel 11  thru 2 Samuel 12:25.  This is the story of David and Bathsheba.  David sinned and murdered to cover up his sin. Then he recognized his sin, and God punished him for it, then forgave him, and still included David in Jesus’ family line.  God’s forgiveness is total.  However there are usually worldly repercussions or things that happen as a result of your sins.  For instance, if you rob a bank, you go to jail, even though God forgives you for your sin.  If you kill someone, and ask for forgiveness, although you are forgiven, they are still dead, and you have to live with the knowledge of your sin.

God considered David to be a “man after his own heart,” even after all the sins that David committed.  The reason for this assessment is that David really loved God and sought to be in relationship with God.  As soon as David understood that God knew about his sin, he turned from it and back to God.  That is true repentance. David agreed with God that what he had done was wrong.  His heart was with God. 

Doesn’t it seem weird that a person would try to hide something from God?  I mean one of the attributes of God is that he is outside of time.  This means that everything that is going to happen has already happened for God.  We live in a linear world where time flows from birth to death, but God is outside of all of that.  He has neither birth nor death.  God told Moses that he is “I AM.”  God is and has always been and always will be in existence.

Exodus 3:14 King James Version (KJV)

¹⁴ And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.

Yet David was not alone in trying to hide his sin from God.  Though it is probably more accurate to say that David tried to hide his sin from others, and was suffering from a separation from God because of this sin.  His mind was focused on his sins and not on God at all.

If we look back into the Garden of Eden we find that mankind’s first response to sin is to attempt to hide themselves away from God.  David was not very original in his thinking.

Genesis 3:8-10 ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

If we go and look at the sons of Jacob who sold their brother, Joseph, into slavery we see that they also thought to hide their sin by killing an animal and covering Joseph’s coat with animal blood then presenting it to their father and saying that an animal killed his son, Joseph.

Genesis 37:26-33

²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels^[b] of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

²⁹ When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. ³⁰ He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”

³¹ Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.³² They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

³³ He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”

In each of these instances the first response to sin was to try and hide it.  We still do this today.  Yet, nothing is hidden from the Lord.  He knows it before it is done.  God simply asks us to recognize and turn away from our sins.  He wishes for us to draw closer to him.  This is the peace and freedom we get from Christ…the freedom to repent and draw close….to unburden ourselves…to come out of our transparent hiding places and experience the love of God which surpasses all others.

Isaiah 29:15 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ Woe to those who go to great depths
    to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
    “Who sees us? Who will know?”

God is For You!

God’s forgiveness is total…God loves you.  He is not up there in heaven with a book of “today she did this bad thing…today she did this good thing…”  He is portrayed that way, but that is not correct.  The Bible tells us that those who are in Jesus are blameless in the sight of God.

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Colossians 1:21-23 (NIV)

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of  your evil behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

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There is nothing that we can do other than to accept the sacrifice of Jesus which will save us from our sin.  It is Jesus plus nothing for our salvation.  Faith in Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection from the dead are what saves us….

Another way to put this is: if you are in a restaurant and you go to pay the bill and you are told.  The bill has already been taken care of in full.  What are you going to do?  Are you going to reject that someone has already paid your bill and insist on paying it again yourself?!! Of course not!!  The thing is we do this all the time when it comes to Jesus.  He paid the bill for our sin, yet we are still running around in life trying to “be good enough” and “do enough good things” to make up for our bad things, our sins.

Why are we doing this?  Isn’t it rather insulting to both Jesus’ sacrifice, and to God, himself?  We are being awfully full of ourselves to be thinking that we are capable of paying our own bill, don’t you think?!  We don’t even fully understand what all is even on the bill, yet.  Much less have the capacity to take care of it.

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Romans 11:33

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

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There are so many things that we have done which, if we understood them, we would be so upset that we had done them.  We don’t even understand all of the harm we have caused to others in our lives…there are so many day to day things that God covers us from seeing about ourselves in order to protect us from the burden.  Basically, if we were to smell all of our sins…we would not be able to stand the smell of ourselves.  We could not handle knowing all that we have done wrong all at once.  God asks us to seek him and know him, and then, in love, reveals the things that we have done wrong as needed for our correction in drawing closer to him.

The worst of our sin is when we say to ourselves, “Well, at least I am not like that person over there…I am better than they are…at least I am not that bad!”  I tell you that is called judging and condemning.  We are not qualified to ring out judgement on other people or be condemning of them.

We do not have such a pure and clean nature that God does have…we cannot handle judging someone correctly and justly because we are not pure of heart…Mankind was not designed to judge. The job that Adam was given in the garden was “caretaker” not “judge”.  Yes, we are designed in the image of God, but we are not perfect….we are not God….we cannot read the person’s heart in front of us.  We are all looking at the person in front of us from our own perspective…not from God’s perspective.  God’s perspective will always be from the position of knowing the person’s heart and everything about them.  We can never know everything about a person.  Even if they tell us, we still don’t know everything.

I mean, come on, we even surprise ourselves at times, don’t we?!!  If we are capable of surprising ourselves, then that means we don’t even fully know ourselves…how can we not understand that this means we don’t fully know another person, either.

God knows each and every one of us, totally and completely.  He knows the pains and heartaches of each of us.  He knows what motivates us.  He knows when we are doing things in rebellion to him.  He knows when we are doing things that are self-centered.  He knows when we are doing the right things and the wrong things…he knows when we are doing things in innocence and in ignorance.  God knows us totally, and the great thing is that God also LOVES US TOTALLY!  Isn’t that amazing?!!

God always has the goal of having us be back in reconciliation with him and for us to after being reconciled be doing the work of bringing others to be reconciled to God through the work of Jesus the Christ.  God is FOR US!  God is NOT AGAINST US!

We need to stop acting like God is against us and that we have to do it all on our own.  He sent Jesus to die to atone for our sins and reconcile us to him because he is FOR US!  He sent Jesus to tell us how to be reconciled and to show us the way home to God.  Jesus did not simply come to make sure that you get into heaven….that is only part of it.  Jesus came “to show the way.”

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John 14:6 New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

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The way that Jesus has shown us is the way of “love” and “understanding”.

Read Ephesians chapter 4

Ephesians 4 New International Version (NIV)

Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ

4 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ² Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

⁷ But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸ This is why it^[a] says:

“When he ascended on high,
    he took many captives
    and gave gifts to his people.”^[b]

⁹ (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions^[c]? ¹⁰ He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) ¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Instructions for Christian Living

¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

²⁰ That, however, is not the way of life you learned ²¹ when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵ Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ²⁶ “In your anger do not sin”^[d]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷ and do not give the devil a foothold. ²⁸ Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work,doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Footnotes:

1. Ephesians 4:8 Or God
2. Ephesians 4:8 Psalm 68:18
3. Ephesians 4:9 Or the depths of the earth
4. Ephesians 4:26 Psalm 4:4 (see Septuagint)

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.

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Being unloving and judgmental, and condemning to others grieves the Holy Spirit.

 

Have you ever known a person to change their behavior and draw closer to God because someone came at them and started telling them about how bad their behavior is?

I mean, how effective do you think it is to go up to someone and say, “Are you born again? Do you know if you are not born again..you are going to hell!  God is going to send you to hell for the way you are living!”

How many people do you think turn their hearts toward God when someone says something like this to them?  Anyone?  Usually, the person saying this is not someone who actually knows the person they are talking to at all.  They are just bent on their own agenda of sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone!  They probably don’t even understand what is wrong with how they are sharing it….the intimidation that comes across to the person who has to hear this!  Usually, the person who is asked this question just wants to get as far away from the person saying it as possible, as quickly as possible!  I know this because I was put in this position as a high school student by some woman who was having her car washed at our band fund raiser!  It just felt like she was attacking me…there was no love in her tone at all!

We need to on all accounts share the gospel in a loving manner…we should not beat people over the head with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit!  The easiest thing in the world in sharing the gospel is to just share in regular conversation your experience.  You listen to the Holy Spirit and you will start over time to understand when there is an opening to share the “good news” of the gospel with someone who is receptive.  Simply seek to bring God into the room with you in the conversation…if the person cuts you off, then don’t stress out and get upset.  Simply change the subject and be loving and friendly toward them.  God is still working on them…God is outside of time, he does not have time constraints…he knows the plan he has for each one of us…to prosper us and not harm us.

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Jeremiah 29:11 New International Version (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.

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We just need to have faith in God’s plans for us and for others. We have no idea how many people will have to bring up the gospel to a person before that person will decide to accept that gospel…each of us may just be a sentence here and a sentence there, then one day the person brings all the sentences in their life together and realizes through the work of the Holy Spirit….”Aha!  So this is God calling me to repent and turn back into relationship with him!  I definitely want to do that!  I wish I had understood this a long time ago!  I wasted so much time that I could have been spending with the Good Lord!”

We will be celebrating with the heavenly beings when each person is saved…that is one of the most awesome things about being a Christian….we can participate in the reconciliation of others with God….through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Not through anything we, ourselves, are doing…no one is ever saved through the work of a person.  We are jars of clay that are fragile and thus because we are fragile…the work of the Holy Spirit can shine through the cracks into the darkness!

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2 Corinthians 4:7-10 English Standard Version (ESV)

Treasure in Jars of Clay

⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

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Judah

Genesis 38:26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

Genesis 29:35 New International Version (NIV)

³⁵ She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah.^[a] Then she stopped having children.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 29:35Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise.

 

Genesis 29:35 This is a recording of the birth of Judah, he was the 4th Son of Jacob by his first wife Leah.

Read Genesis 37:26-28 This is where Judah decides that instead of killing his brother, Joseph, they will sell him off to the Ishmaelites into slavery.  The Ishmaelites are actually Ishmael’s people.  Ishmael, if you recall from a few lessons back,  is their Grandfather, Isaac’s half brother.  Ishmael’s people are always in conflict with Isaac’s side of the family.

Genesis 37:26-28 New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels^[a] of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 37:28 That is, about 8 ounces or about 230 grams

Read Genesis 38  This is the story of Tamar who was Judah’s daughter in law.  Her first husband died because he was wicked in the Lord’s sight, and in keeping with tradition she is remarried to her first husband’s brother who is instructed by Judah to raise children in his brother’s name.  Onan dishonors God’s rule about this tradition and God kills him because of this.  After her second husband died, then Judah promised that she Shelah was old enough he would give Tamar his last son as her husband.  In the meantime she was to go live in her father’s house again. Judah did not honor his promise to Tamar, so Tamar took matters into her own hands, and dressed up as a prostitute and Judah chose to to lie with her.  Tamar became pregnant, but she had evidence that Judah was the father.  Judah did not recognize Tamar when he lay with her (perhaps her face was covered).  When Judah found out about her pregnancy he was ready to have her killed, but then he was humbled to find that he was the father.  He recognized that Tamar only did this because he didn’t keep his promise to her.   He did not have her killed, but did not take her to wife, he did support her.  She had twin boys named Perez and Zerah. 

Genesis 38 New International Version (NIV)

Judah and Tamar

38 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullamnamed Hirah. ² There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; ³ she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. ⁴ She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. ⁵ She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.

⁶ Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.

⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” ⁹ But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.

¹¹ Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.

¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

¹³ When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”¹⁴ she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.¹⁶ Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”

“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.

¹⁷ “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.

“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.

¹⁸ He said, “What pledge should I give you?”

“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹ After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.

²⁰ Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. ²¹ He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”

“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.

²² So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”

²³ Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”

²⁴ About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”

Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”

²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

²⁷ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁸ As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez.^[a] 30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.^[b]

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 38:29 Perez means breaking out.
2. Genesis 38:30 Zerah can mean scarlet or brightness.

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.

 

Note:  The important thing to notice here is that Judah when faced with his sin, recognized that he had done the wrong thing, and was sorry for it.  God was good to forgive him and Tamar for their sin and include them in the lineage of Jesus.   According to Unger’s Bible Dictionary, women were only listed in genealogy in the Jewish culture if there were property or any rights being transmitted through them, or if there was something remarkable about them.**  Tamar took a remarkable risk of her life to ensure her future.  Women without husbands or son’s were basically at the mercy of society to take care of them.  Most became beggars.  She was counting on Judah’s sense of justice to fix the problem and he didn’t disappoint her.  If Judah had not taken responsibility for his actions, then Tamar would likely have been stoned to death!

One of Jesus’ names is the Lion of Judah.

Revelation 5:5  Then one of the elders said to me, Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed.  He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

Read Genesis 49:8-10  This is where Judah is told he is a lion’s cub and that the scepter will not depart from him until it comes to whom it belongs.  This is a reference to Jesus. Judah was the 4th son, but Jacob gave leadership to Judah’s tribe over all of the others.

Genesis 49:8-10 New International Version (NIV)

⁸ “Judah,^[a] your brothers will praise you;
    your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹ You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
    you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
    like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,^[b]
until he to whom it belongs^[c] shall come
    and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 49:8 Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise.
2. Genesis 49:10 Or from his descendants
3. Genesis 49:10 Or to whom tribute belongs; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.

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.

 

**Ungers Bible Dictionary

Abraham – Blameless before God

Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless.”

Read Genesis 15:3-6, Gen. 16: 1-4, 15-16.

Genesis 15:3-6 New International Version (NIV)

³ And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring^[a] be.”

⁶ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 15:5 Or seed

Genesis 16:1-4 Hagar and Ishmael

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slavenamed Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years,Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.  When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

Genesis 16:15-16 

¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.(NIV)

 

God promises Abram a son, Sarah takes matters into her own hands by giving Abram her servant to get a child by, as Sarah doesn’t trust God to give Abram a son by her.  This causes them a lot of grief and stress in their lives, but God is faithful and does provide Sarah with the pregnancy of Isaac.

Read Gen. 17:16-22, and Gen. 18:10-15, Gen. 21. 

Genesis 17:16-22 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

¹⁷ Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

¹⁹ Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.^[a] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. ²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. ²¹ But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” ²² When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 17:19 Isaac means he laughs.

Genesis 18:10-15 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

¹³ Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

 

Genesis 21 New International Version (NIV)

The Birth of Isaac

21 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac^[a] to the son Sarah bore him. ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶ Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” ⁷ And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. ⁹ But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abrahamwas mocking, ¹⁰ and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

¹¹ The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. ¹² But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring^[b] will be reckoned. ¹³ I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she^[c] began to sob.

¹⁷ God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. ¹⁸ Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰ God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer.²¹ While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

The Treaty at Beersheba

²² At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. ²³ Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness I have shown to you.”

²⁴ Abraham said, “I swear it.”

²⁵ Then Abraham complained to Abimelek about a well of water that Abimelek’s servants had seized. ²⁶ But Abimelek said, “I don’t know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today.”

²⁷ So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelek, and the two men made a treaty. ²⁸ Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock, ²⁹ and Abimelek asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?”

³⁰ He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.”

³¹ So that place was called Beersheba,^[d] because the two men swore an oath there.

³² After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. ³³ Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Eternal God. ³⁴ And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 21:3 Isaac means he laughs.
2. Genesis 21:12 Or seed
3. Genesis 21:16 Hebrew; Septuagint the child
4. Genesis 21:31 Beersheba can mean well of seven and well of the oath.

Abraham was faithful to God, and had a feast after Isaac was weaned.  Note:  Abraham cared about Ishmael as his son, and did not want to send him away, but God promised to make Ishmael a father of many nations also, but said that his covenant was with Abraham through Isaac, not through Ishmael.  So, Isaac is the son of promise. 

It is important to note that God was faithful to Abraham and Sarah, even when they were not patiently trusting of him.  Sometimes we hear God, and we naturally want to make God’s words happen on our own and in our own way. 

 That is what happened with Sarah and Abraham.  This sometimes causes us to sin. Sometimes, there are actions that we can take that are okay in preparing ourselves for God’s promise to be fulfilled.  If that is the case we should take those actions,  but there is never a time, when sin is the answer to making God’s promise come true. 

We should always strive to remember that God’s timing isn’t always right away when he promises something.  Sometimes we are just not ready for that fulfillment to take place.  We may have some growing to do first on a spiritual level.  Ultimately, the reason Isaac was the chosen child was that God had already determined that mankind needed a savior and who his chosen people were, and that the savior was going to be a member of his chosen people, I am sure that Abraham’s feast when Isaac was weaned was a feast of Thanksgiving. 

Something to recognize is that God’s chosen people were chosen, not to Lord it over others, but in order to be developed into people who could show the world the character and love of God.  

Sometimes, in our world, we find ourselves falling into the sin of jealousy and resentment whenever we hear someone has been chosen for something instead of ourselves…that is because we have the idea that if they are being chosen, then we are not being chosen, so we are being rejected.  That is a worldly idea…God doesn’t reject people automatically, just because someone else is chosen for a particular task or mission. We each have our own task or mission to accomplish in our lives.  No one person’s task is more important or notable than the one that each of us has been given.  That is part of being in the body of Christ…we all have a task, and each task is important…if the foot is not there, then the body cannot move…the foot is not less important then the arm, or the head, or the body…each is important in its own right.  We cannot forget that, we are all to work together for the good of the kingdom of God.

We just need to follow God and be blameless due to our willingness to follow God, and be faithful in this journey we have…just like Abraham.  If you refer back to Matthew Chapter 1 you will see that Abraham was the first person listed in Jesus’ list of ancestors…yet Abraham was not a perfect person, he was a forgiven person!

 

Jesus’ Family Tree

John 5:24 I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

Read Matthew Chapter 1: 

Matthew 1 New International Version (NIV) (via Biblegateway.com)

The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah

1 This is the genealogy^[a] of Jesus the Messiah^[b] the son of David, the son of Abraham:

² Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

³ Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,

Perez the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram,

⁴ Ram the father of Amminadab,

Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

⁵ Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,

Obed the father of Jesse,

⁶ and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

⁷ Solomon the father of Rehoboam,

Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

Abijah the father of Asa,

⁸ Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,

Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,

Jehoram the father of Uzziah,

⁹ Uzziah the father of Jotham,

Jotham the father of Ahaz,

Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

¹⁰ Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,

Manasseh the father of Amon,

Amon the father of Josiah,

¹¹ and Josiah the father of Jeconiah^[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

¹² After the exile to Babylon:

Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,

Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

¹³ Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,

Abihud the father of Eliakim,

Eliakim the father of Azor,

¹⁴ Azor the father of Zadok,

Zadok the father of Akim,

Akim the father of Elihud,

¹⁵ Elihud the father of Eleazar,

Eleazar the father of Matthan,

Matthan the father of Jacob,

¹⁶ and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

¹⁷ Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about^[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet^[e]did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰ But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,^[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”^[g] (which means “God with us”).

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 1:1 Or is an account of the origin
2. Matthew 1:1 Or Jesus Christ. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean Anointed One; also in verse 18.
3. Matthew 1:11 That is, Jehoiachin; also in verse 12
4. Matthew 1:18 Or The origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this
5. Matthew 1:19 Or was a righteous man and
6. Matthew 1:21 Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves.
7. Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14

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.

 

This is the genealogy of Jesus, a genealogy is a listing of ancestors, or a family tree. Many many people in the World are very interested in researching their family trees and finding out as much as they can about who their ancestors are…being Christians we are adopted into the family of Jesus Christ, so isn’t it nice that his family tree is laid out for us so neatly in the Bible? Jesus had some very interesting ancestors…funny thing is that until you start digging into them it would be easy to believe that if someone was honored enough to be an ancestor of Jesus’ then they must really be next to perfect, huh?!!  Well, this is so far from the truth…they are, as it turns out like all of us…forgiven sinners. 

 In many of the next lessons we will be studying the people listed in Jesus’ family tree.  My goal is to show you that God’s forgiveness is absolute.  He does not hold your past against you in any way.  All of the people (like all of us) in Jesus’ family tree are sinners who have believed in God, and been forgiven.  Although John 5:24 is something that Jesus said, and all of his ancestors lived before him in John 5:24 Jesus states that those who believe in God (the one who sent Jesus) will have eternal life.  This is how the people before Jesus birth were judged, by their righteousness and faith in God, by their adherence to the law.  We are judged with grace, which means that we are judged by our faith in Jesus, and his ability as a sacrifice to cover our sins. 

Grace as we have studied before is the giving of forgiveness when it is not deserved.  Grace is not something that replaces God’s law.  We are still to do our best to follow God’s law.  However, neither before in the Old Testament, nor now, in the New Testament does the law offer salvation. 

Matthew 5:17-20 ¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

Jesus tells us that he did not come to replace or get rid of the law…he came to fulfill it, but not to remove or replace any part of it.  Fulfilling something does not end it, except in the case of prophecy….once a prophecy is given and is completely and entirely fulfilled it is pretty much done..its value is then in the fact that people who had believed the prophecy know its fulfillment and have stronger faith for having seen that fulfillment.  Laws are fulfilled every day, but we do not do away with them by fulfilling them.

God values faith, and is a forgiving God and this is demonstrated through Jesus’ family tree.

Info about your bible:  There are over 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament ends the era of God’s prophecy of Jesus’ coming. Matthew begins with Jesus is here, and spends much time proving that Jesus is the Messiah. The book of Matthew was written between 50 A.D. and 70 A.D. To be noted is that B.C. means the time period before Jesus’ birth, and A.D. means the time period from his birth onward. People get confused and think that A.D. means After Death, it does not.  It actually is a latin term that stands for the words “Year of our Lord”  or “Anno Domini” are the latin words.  This means that the book of Matthew was written down shortly after Jesus’ death because Jesus’ died about 33 A.D.  This is important so that you know that there were people around who lived during Jesus time and would say if Matthew wrote down things wrong or made any of the book of Matthew up.  The time it is written means we can trust it to be truthful. The newest part of the New Testament was written by John the Apostle and it was written between 85 A.D. and 96 A.D.  so still it was written with witnesses to the actual events still alive to say if any part of it was untrue.  Therefore, you can trust that the New Testament is true also as is the Old Testament.

I hope you enjoy our upcoming exploration of Jesus’ ancestors!

 

God Chastens those he loves

Read Hebrews 12

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

God Disciplines His Children

⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
⁶ because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”^[a]

⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? ⁸ If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. ⁹ Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! ¹⁰ They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹ No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

¹² Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ¹³ “Make level paths for your feet,”^[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Warning and Encouragement

¹⁴ Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. ¹⁶ See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.¹⁷ Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

The Mountain of Fear and the Mountain of Joy

¹⁸ You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; ¹⁹ to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, ²⁰ because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”^[c] 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”^[d]

²² But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³ to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”^[e] 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our “God is a consuming fire.”^[f]

Footnotes:

1. Hebrews 12:6 Prov. 3:11,12 (see Septuagint)
2. Hebrews 12:13 Prov. 4:26
3. Hebrews 12:20 Exodus 19:12,13
4. Hebrews 12:21 See Deut. 9:19.
5. Hebrews 12:26 Haggai 2:6
6. Hebrews 12:29 Deut. 4:24

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.

 

Recently I had an experience with my prayer life in that I was chastened by God about how I pray.

I have a list of people that I go through each night and pray for prior to falling asleep…though there are some nights that I fall asleep and wake up when my arms fall asleep too from leaning on them with my head!  I figure God knows how tired I am, so I just start over with my prayer and then finish up and go to sleep for real.  Sometimes we are tired and unable to focus or even comprehend all that we have to say to God.

Anyhow, one night I was prayer as usual, and when I got down to a certain person on my list..the Holy Spirit really pushed me to prayer intensely for this person.  I began to seriously pour out my heart about this person and how much I would like to see them drawn toward God and see them become a much more happy person in the way a person who truly knows that he/she is loved by God will be happy….contentment and peace.

The next day, I was doing my daily tasks and the Lord whispered to me, “Do you know that this person doesn’t have anyone in their life to show them the Love of Christ?”  “There is no person who loves them without expecting something in return….without wanting them to turn around and suit their needs, instead of just loving them as they are now.”  I suddenly realized that it was true.  This person whom we all love, but have not been loving toward because of their decisions in life.  I realized that I was guilty of being judgmental and condemning toward that person.

I suddenly realized that there was another guilt that I had…in my prayers I had been praying for that person to be “guide, guard and protected”, but had not been praying with any real expectation beyond preservation of their life.  I had been praying without expectation of any change in their life whatsoever.   This is a terrible thing to realize.

I had been looking down on that person as someone whom God could not do anything to help them.  Unconsciously, my prayers were tainted by my worldly opinion of the person.  So, of course, the prayer would have very little if any power in that person’s life.

I felt quite devastated to realize that, although Jesus gave his Disciples the authority over things in earth and in heaven as far as casting out….I had never actually accepted that authority….the authority of change through prayer.

I mean, in my own life, and whenever someone would ask me to pray about something I did.  I was really comfortable about that…I always through the years…have prayed that God would help me with this or that and then started looking for the help to happen and watching for how God would help me to deal with whatever issue I needed help with.

Unfortunately, in this particular person’s life I had no such expectation, so did not look.  This meant that I was not praying with expectation of an answer.  I was unconsciously saying, “God I don’t expect much because their life is really a mess!”  Even though, I have met many people whose testimony about their lives told me that their life had really been a mess also, but God helped them to do something about it.

Yet, here I was looking at this person with the condemning eyes of the world, instead of the loving eyes of Christ.  There is no where in the Bible which would uphold what I was doing.

Yes, there are people who chose to turn their backs on God, and yes they get condemned for it.  The thing is, we, humans, have no way of telling who these people are.  We do not know what God knows.  We can only see that the person appears to be making unGodly choices with their life, we cannot know for sure, if they will continue to make those kinds of choices, or if something will happen to turn their heart toward God, and make them a huge minister for others around them.

God looks at us with, “where there is life…there is hope, I am a God of the living, not the dead”…attitude.  “I love you, and I know the plans I have for you, to prosper you…” God is a good God always!

Satan looks at us with, “you are too bad to be saved, just rot in your guilt and sin…don’t expect anything else”

Our Pastor, in his sermons over the past 3 weeks, has been being used by God to help bring me to this knowledge of my own sin.

The thing is that the second I realized that I had been praying while looking down on someone, praying without expectation, I felt miserable, and really apologized to God for it, and promised never to pray in that manner again.  The second I made the realization and the apology…I felt this magnificent feeling of power run through my body from toes to head..rising up through me…it felt like a huge release of power from the Holy Spirit in a big giant “atta girl!  I am glad that you realize this!  Now we can accomplish things with your prayers that we have never been able to accomplish before!”

Incidentally, the person lives over 600 miles from me, so at first I was not sure what I could do other than pray to have someone come into their life who can show them the love of Christ…but I realized that I could send them a care package and a card occasionally to give them a small bit of the love of Christ..kind of hoping to chip away at the pain and ice and anger in the person’s heart that they have received from being constantly looked down upon and condemned.  It is not much, but I am hoping that it is a small start.  It should improve my relationship with them also over time.  I wrote to them and confessed my sin to them.  Hopefully, they will as God does, forgive me my faults.

I am now praying with expectation every night, and usually at least some during the day…soon it will be without ceasing.  I have a picture in my head of them living a wonderful life of joy….I am praying with expectation that this picture will become a fact!

Those whom God loves, God chastens….the thing is that the chastening is not the chastening of the world…the love in this chastening was evident immediately and it drove out the guilt.  It was like God telling me, “I am revealing this to you so that you can draw closer to me…not so that you can be brought down by your guilt…it is to refine you into the person I created you to be.  I love you.  Don’t be upset, rejoice in the fact that I love you enough to tell you when you are doing the wrong thing.”

God is specific when he tells you what you are doing wrong, and he is gentle.

Satan is vague and uses guilt continually to remove your joy.

That is how you can tell them apart when you are not sure of what is going on.

Read Proverbs 3:

Proverbs 3 New International Version (NIV)

Wisdom Bestows Well-Being

3 My son, do not forget my teaching,
    but keep my commands in your heart,
² for they will prolong your life many years
    and bring you peace and prosperity.

³ Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
    bind them around your neck,
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴ Then you will win favor and a good name
    in the sight of God and man.

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.^[a]

⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord and shun evil.
⁸ This will bring health to your body
    and nourishment to your bones.

⁹ Honor the Lord with your wealth,
    with the firstfruits of all your crops;
¹⁰ then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
    and your vats will brim over with new wine.

¹¹ My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,
    and do not resent his rebuke,
¹² because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
    as a father the son he delights in.^[b]

¹³ Blessed are those who find wisdom,
    those who gain understanding,
¹⁴ for she is more profitable than silver
    and yields better returns than gold.
¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies;
    nothing you desire can compare with her.
¹⁶ Long life is in her right hand;
    in her left hand are riches and honor.
¹⁷ Her ways are pleasant ways,
    and all her paths are peace.
¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;
    those who hold her fast will be blessed.

¹⁹ By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations,
    by understanding he set the heavens in place;
²⁰ by his knowledge the watery depths were divided,
    and the clouds let drop the dew.

²¹ My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight,
    preserve sound judgment and discretion;
²² they will be life for you,
    an ornament to grace your neck.
²³ Then you will go on your way in safety,
    and your foot will not stumble.
²⁴ When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
    when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
²⁵ Have no fear of sudden disaster
    or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
²⁶ for the Lord will be at your side
    and will keep your foot from being snared.

²⁷ Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
    when it is in your power to act.
²⁸ Do not say to your neighbor,
    “Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you”—
    when you already have it with you.
²⁹ Do not plot harm against your neighbor,
    who lives trustfully near you.
³⁰ Do not accuse anyone for no reason—
    when they have done you no harm.

³¹ Do not envy the violent
    or choose any of their ways.

³² For the Lord detests the perverse
    but takes the upright into his confidence.
³³ The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked,
    but he blesses the home of the righteous.
³⁴ He mocks proud mockers
    but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.
³⁵ The wise inherit honor,
    but fools get only shame.

Footnotes:

1. Proverbs 3:6 Or will direct your paths
2. Proverbs 3:12 Hebrew; Septuagint loves, / and he chastens everyone he accepts as his child

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 case has been thrown out…

1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Many times when we accept that Jesus is our Lord and we have prayed for forgiveness we forget to accept that we are really forgiven.

Another way of thinking is that if your sins are a case in God’s court then when you accept Jesus Christ as your redeemer, you have apologized to God for your sins and Jesus has taken the blame for you…if Jesus is your “lawyer” in God’s court, then Jesus Christ has gotten the case of your sins thrown out of court.  The thing is that Satan wants to stand in front of our house in his capacity as accuser and keep throwing the evidence up in front of us.  Or in other words, Satan wants us to dwell on the sins that we have already had forgiven by God.  If he can just keep us in bondage to our past sins then we cannot move forward in our lives and enjoy the peace of God.  We cannot be the best servant we can be for God.  Our lives do not reflect that freedom that God has given us.

Now, I know that all of this sounds really negative, but it isn’t.  I thought to discuss this because after hearing our Pastor speak on the subject this week, I realized that hanging onto forgiven sins just makes a person stay in bondage to their past.

This world loves it when we stay in bondage to our past because then “we know our place”…we cannot be effective in telling and showing people who God is in our lives if we cannot accept that forgiveness has really occurred.  People who don’t know God and have not accepted the redemption offered by Jesus Christ are in bondage to their sin…they have not been forgiven…so how can we show them the divine and freeing forgiveness of God if we cannot actually in our hearts and minds really accept that we are really truly forgiven and enter into the “rest” that Jesus has promised us?

I heard a really interesting example of this on Sunday when I was listening to my Pastor on this very idea.  Here it is picture this in your mind.  A man is in a dungeon prison cell.  He has been locked up for life, and all he sees day in and day out are the damp stone walls, and the iron bars.  A couple times a day a guard shows up with some kind of food for him, but other than that, he sees nothing but the walls, and the bars….and the hole in the corner for his waste.  So what does this man long for?  I think we would all answer that he wants his freedom more than anything else in the world, right?!!

So one day, the guard arrives and instead of food, the guard unlocks the door, and tells the man that he is free to leave anytime.  Now, one would think that the man would just up and leave as soon as possible, right?!!  The curious thing is that he does not…he turns his back toward the open door and looks the other way, and continues to dream of his freedom day after day.

When I heard this story, I thought how impossible!  No one would really do that, right?!!  That is the saddest idea I have ever heard.

Yet, millions of Christians do that very thing, every day!

We have the head knowledge that Jesus came to forgive our sins and draw us close to God, and we have accepted the head knowledge…but we fail to understand all of the ramifications of that head knowledge….we have to come to a “heart” knowledge understanding of this great freedom that has happened to us.  (I know that in the world there are consequences to sin, if you steal you can end up in jail…that is not the freedom we are talking about here!  Once a person serves their time in jail for that theft then they are freed from the condemnation for that item.)  Jesus came to free us from condemnation by God or more accurately by Jesus himself, since God has given Jesus the authority to judge the world in the time to come.

The thing is that when we are forgiven, many times we continue to beat ourselves up over our past.  I know that many of you have seen the Disney Movie called “The Lion King”….well, my favorite scene in that movie is where the baboon konks Simba on the head with his pole.  Simba had been feeling sorry for himself and wallowing in his responsibility for his father’s death, which happened when he was a young cub.  Anyway, he suddenly gets konked on the head with the pole and Simba says, “Ow!  What was that for!” (a bit of paraphrasing here, but that is the gist of it.)  The baboon’s response was amazing…I could just about hear God in the words…”Doesn’t matter…it’s in the past!”

When our sins are forgiven that is how God views it…”doesn’t matter”….or another way to say it….it is as if they never happened….they are not being held against us.  There are worldly consequences, but God is not condemning us for them.

Read Psalm 103…focus on verse 12.  It says that he has removed our sins from us as far as the East is from the West.  (If you take into account that many people prior to Christopher Columbus’ time believed that the Earth was flat and that you could fall off of it if you went too far in one direction…this really gives you the idea that the meaning behind this statement is that your sins cannot ever meet up with you again, once they are forgiven!  They are truly in the past and you are not to be looking into them as something you need to keep beating yourself up about.)

A psalm of David.

1Let all that I am praise the LORD;

with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

2Let all that I am praise the LORD;

may I never forget the good things he does for me.

3He forgives all my sins

and heals all my diseases.

4He redeems me from death

and crowns me with love and tender mercies.

5He fills my life with good things.

My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

6The LORD gives righteousness

and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

7He revealed his character to Moses

and his deeds to the people of Israel.

8The LORD is compassionate and merciful,

slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

9He will not constantly accuse us,

nor remain angry forever.

10He does not punish us for all our sins;

he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.

11For his unfailing love toward those who fear him

is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

12He has removed our sins as far from us

as the east is from the west.

13The LORD is like a father to his children,

tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

14For he knows how weak we are;

he remembers we are only dust.

15Our days on earth are like grass;

like wildflowers, we bloom and die.

16The wind blows, and we are gone—

as though we had never been here.

17But the love of the LORD remains forever

with those who fear him.

His salvation extends to the children’s children

18of those who are faithful to his covenant,

of those who obey his commandments!

19The LORD has made the heavens his throne;

from there he rules over everything.

20Praise the LORD, you angels,

you mighty ones who carry out his plans,

listening for each of his commands.

21Yes, praise the LORD, you armies of angels

who serve him and do his will!

22Praise the LORD, everything he has created,

everything in all his kingdom.

Let all that I am praise the LORD.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007.

This Psalm was written by King David when he had already sinned with Bathsheba in committing adultery, he had already had her husband put to death after trying to cover up the sin…then he had already married Bathsheba and had at last faced his own sin when God sent the prophet, Nathan, to tell him about it.  At this point, David was praising God with all that he had in him….every fiber of his being…in acknowledgement of God’s grace and forgiveness toward him, David…the sinner.  We know that God really did forgive King David because we learn that after all of this sin on David’s part, God called David “a man after his own heart.”  (Acts 13:22)  Why was David a man after God’s own heart?  It was because he was humble and gracious and he was quick to repent of his sin whenever he was confronted with it!  David believed God when God said that his sin was forgiven….he always loved God and recognized God’s sovereignty in his life.  God was his Lord in every respect.

2 Samuel 12:1-13 New King James Version (NKJV)

Nathan’s Parable and David’s Confession

12 Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. ³ But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴ And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

⁵ So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! ⁶ And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸ I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! ⁹ Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. ¹⁰ Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ¹¹ Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ¹² For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’”

¹³ So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

 

New King James Version (NKJV)Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

 

So the question I have for you is:  Are you a walking, talking, praising, joyous person of peace who spends your life praising God for the forgiveness and grace and peace of heart that he has given you….are you praising God with every fiber of your being?

OR

Are you a forgiven Christian who has not yet felt the joy of your forgiveness, realized the humbling grace of God (after all, forgiveness is unmerited isn’t it?  You did not do anything to deserve forgiveness, did you?) or have not yet felt the peace in your soul from being able to rest in the arms of God on a daily basis?  

Are you in prison, or have you accepted that Jesus who has set you free really means it, you are free indeed from condemnation in the eyes of God.

John 8:31-36 (New Living Translation)

31Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33“But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?”

34Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. 35A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. 

 

Go and Sin no More…

Genesis 4:7  7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Read John 8:1-11  The story of the sinful woman.

John 8 ¹ but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

² At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. ³ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴ and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” ⁶ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹ At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹ “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Read John 5:1-15

The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. * ⁵ One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

*verse 4 is in some versions that an angel of the Lord went down occasionally and stirred the waters.

If you look at these two stories in the Bible they both have something in common.  Jesus did not condemn the person, but the sin instead.  He showed love and understanding to the person, even while telling them the truth about their sin.  In both cases these people are apparently in a state of sin.  The woman is an adulterer, and we are not told what the man’s sin is, but it is apparent that he is in a state of sin from Jesus telling him to leave his life of sin before something worse happens to him. 

In both cases, these people are in a very lonely state.  We know this because, other than Jesus, there is no one to stand up for the woman who is about to be stoned…she has no friends.  In the case of the man who was paralyzed we know he also has no one who cares about him, as he tells Jesus that there is no one to help him into the pool to get healed.  In both of these cases, not only did their sin separate them from God, but also separated them from their fellow humans.  

So we can see that both in our heavenly relationship and our earthly relationships sin plays a big part.   That is why God laid out some rules for living in community with each other in the Old Testament.  Now, just because God laid out a rule addressing a situation doesn’t mean he is approving of the situation…sometimes the rules that God has laid down on a subject are there because he knows the situation is going to exist as long as mankind is separated from God.  Thus, God laid out rules about things like slavery, and divorce.  Even though, Jesus clearly tells us that divorce is not something that God wants to happen…God recognizes that such things will happen so he lays out a rule about it. 

Matthew 10:2-12

2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 

3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied. 

4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” 

5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 

6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’

7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 

8 and the two will become one flesh.’So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 

9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 

Now this does not mean that if you are divorced or your spouse is divorced that you are unable to be forgiven…though I have observed that frequently this issue is a big source of pain to Christians who have been divorced or are going through a divorce, or married to someone who has been divorced.  For some reason the issue of divorce is treated as some almost unforgivable sin among Christians.  Now, I can reckon that it is related to the idea that we connect Christ and the Church with the idea of marriage…but this is an analogy…that only works when you are dealing with good marriages.  Yes, in good marriages the two people are generally unified and like minded, but they are still individuals with individual thoughts and feelings and interests also.  If they were not individuals then there would be no need for a marriage…they would simply be like clones existing together.   The thing that Jesus wants us to know about marriage is that we are to treat each other as the most precious person who is like an extension of yourself…a person that you wouldn’t dream of ever hurting…either intentionally or unintentionally…someone to go through life with…a “help-mate”…who each helps the other to live a life which glorifies God.  Divorce is not an unforgivable sin…it simply happens to some people…for whatever reason…the person cannot go back and undo it, so as Christians we need to not hold it over their heads, or make them feel that it is being held over their heads….that is what Satan does…he holds forgiven sins over people’s heads and keeps them worrying and beating themselves up over it.

The same thing goes for slavery…God gave rules to govern it because at the time of Moses it existed every where! God did not approve of slavery…he just knew that it existed and so he laid out rules on the treatment of slaves.  Slaves had no rights at all prior to these rules….they had no hope for redemption…God’s rules were laid down to show that he recognized that the slaves were human beings who were his creations and they were to be treated a certain way with some dignity..and given hope for freedom from slavery.  God did not want or approve of bondage of any kind, just as he did not approve of divorce, theft, murder, sexual promiscuity, lying, or any of the other sins listed in the old testament. It would probably be more accurate to say that God was resigned to the fact that mankind, in general, is selfish and self centered and immature and without rules will govern things according to what most benefits himself…even if it is at the expense of others.  As long as man is separated from God, man needs rules to govern his relationship with others. These rules are a gift and should not be thought of as a punishment or a burden.

So, now, let us go back to how Jesus treated the people in the above two situations…the first thing to take note of again is that Jesus did not beat either one of these people over the head with their sins!  He didn’t ignore the sin either…after all Jesus said that he did not come to condemn the world, but to save it!  Beating someone who is in a state of sin over the head with their sin does not save them!  Jesus knew this very well…he helped them each in the way that they needed help, and then he said, “Go and sin no more!” 

The implication of this statement from Jesus is that we humans are capable of setting aside our sins…we are capable of self control…that God expects us to use self control in dealing with our sins!  God does not accept the excuse that “the devil made me do it!”

Now, this may be an idea that is hard to swallow, but Jesus is not a liar…so we have to accept that we are capable of living lives that are not full of daily continual sin.

Does this mean that we will never sin?  No, it means that once we know that something we are doing is a sin, then we have a responsibility before God to not continue to do that sin.  We all have sin in our lives that we are not even aware of…God is good to reveal our sins little by little as we go through life so that we are not overwhelmed by them all at once.  They are also revealed to us in such a manner and time that we are able to understand how that sin is hurting us, or hurting others around us.

Frequently,  our sin is revealed to us by our gaining more knowledge of the nature of God, and maturing more and more in our relationship with God by following Jesus.

For example:  A person who look at their horoscope in the paper each day, thinks to themselves that it doesn’t hurt anything to look at it and see how the “stars” say their day is going to go.  However, when that person starts getting to know God, they realize that God is clear about this kind of thing in the Bible:  Leviticus 19:31  31 “ ‘Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.

The person starts to understand from reading up on the subject in the Word that God does not want anyone or anything to stand in between them and Him.  So oops!  Suddenly, the person realizes that by looking to see how the “stars” say their day is going, they have fallen into a state of looking to an idol, looking toward someone or something that is not God.

Think about it, if the person finds that the horoscope is right, and on occasion it will be by the law of averages, and that they are actually written so vaguely that they can be interpreted to be able to impact anyone….suddenly, that person is not making a move without consulting their daily horoscope, or palm reader, or something like that!  That is a form of worship…God says not to worship anyone, but Him. (Commandment #1)

So here is this person who has been living in ignorance of their sin, thinking that it is harmless…who suddenly realizes as they seek after God, that this really is a sin, and it is a serious sin at that!  (Not that all sin is not serious…in God’s eyes sin is sin.)

Now, they have the option to continue in that sin with their new knowledge, or to do as Jesus tells the man and the woman in the stories above…”Go and Sin no more!”  Or another way to say it is, “now that you know what you have been doing wrong, stop doing that!”

Another two points to be made here:  1.) Temptation is not sin! (Jesus was tempted, yet he did not sin!), 2.)  We are not born already filled with sin because our parents were sinful-that idea of “original sin” was not introduced into the church until Augustine introduced it which was well after the time of Jesus and his Disciples!  Jesus and his Disciples believed in the idea of an “age of accountability” (Isaiah 7:14-16  14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.15“He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. 16 “For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.”)

We are not told what this exact age is, and from study, I have concluded that it is different for each person, it is dependent on the moment when a person realizes what is right from wrong…or what is good and what is evil…what is sin and what is not.  We all know that this is not an age set in concrete…even our court systems recognize this…that is why sometimes there are people who commit crimes, yet are found to not be responsible for their actions…we recognize that everyone is not the same in maturity…some folks may have mental disabilities that mean they can never be held responsible for what they do because they cannot understand right from wrong.

We can know that the idea of “original sin” is not a credible idea because if we were all born sinful because our parents were sinful, then Jesus would have been automatically been born filled with sin and he would not have been a good example to us, nor an acceptable sacrifice for us..simply because he was born of a human woman.  We know that Jesus was not guilty of any sin, therefore we have to reject the idea of original sin…we have to reject the idea of being helpless to stop sinning! That idea comes from the evil one’s desire to keep us in bondage to sin…after all if we cannot help our sin then we can simply claim we have no responsibility for ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong here, I am not saying that any person can get salvation for themselves without Jesus Christ…that is not the case…Salvation from sin comes through Jesus Christ and Christ alone…that is the forgiveness for sins…I am talking about the thought that we are helpless to keep from sinning on and on when we know something is a sin.  Jesus clearly tells us that we can stop sinning!

2Corinthians 5:21  ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

I will leave you with this thought:  God loves you…you are his precious child.  In response to the love God has for you…turn away from sin….go and sin no more…take salvation seriously…glorify God with the way you live your life. When you become aware of a sin…repent promptly…asking his forgiveness in the name of Christ…and return to your task of living a life which glorifies God.  Don’t let the evil one bind you with a lie about who you are based on what you have done.

Romans 8:38-39 

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 

39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Your Opinion or God’s Standard?

Proverbs 14:12  There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

Read Acts 8:9-25 ⁹ Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” ¹¹ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money ¹⁹ and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰ Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. ²³ For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

²⁴ Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

²⁵ After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

 

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.

 

This is the story of Simon the Sorcerer.  He thought that he could buy the gift of God with money.  Peter told him that he needed to get right with God and put aside his bitterness and become free from sin.  Simon was trying to have God by his own standards, and not live by God’s standards.  The thing about having God in your life, is that you cannot chose to accept some of his word, and reject the parts you don’t like.  Even when society wants you to believe that if you chose God’s way, then you are just being mean! 

We must do everything with love towards each other, and nothing in hatred.  However, do not get confused loving someone does not mean that you have to be okay with  everything they do and think that everything they do is good and correct.  That kind of thinking does not lead to a good relationship with anyone.  On the contrary, it will lead to bitterness and resentment toward the other person.  Bitterness and resentment eventually will lead to hatred. That is why God wants us to be forgiving toward others, but again, we do  not have to agree with their every action as being right, in order to love them.  Healthy relationships allow for a difference of opinion.

God allows us to follow our own way, our own opinion, but whenever we do this, we get further from God, instead of closer to him.  That is our choice…God gave us this free choice.  Just as we draw closer to the people we love whenever we are united with them in thoughts; we draw closer to God when we follow his way of doing things.

When dealing with people we have to have an “agree to disagree” ability on some issues.  Sometimes an issue needs to be set aside for a while and more information gathered then revisited.  The thing to remember in dealing with God is that God has all the information already and has already determined the best way for people to be in relationship with him and with each other.  We, here on earth, never have all the information.

People make mistakes and wrong choices through their lack of knowledge of God, or just willfully choosing to sin.  Jesus said, in Matthew 19:19 Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.  If you love yourself, then you need to be honest with yourself as to what your faults and sins are and confess them to God. 

We do not have to confess all of our faults to others; they may not understand and may be judgmental and condemning of our faults.  People are very frail, emotionally, and we tend to be unreasonably judgmental toward others in their wrong doings…even though we all have wrong doings of our own.  Many times the person being judgmental just doesn’t have the correct understanding of sin, forgiveness and love…another way to look at it is that they may not be spiritually mature yet.  Sin can be kept between ourselves and God and left at the altar of our confession and repentance.

We do not have to unburden and shout our specific sins from the roof tops and tell the world.

Though depending on the sin, some things may need to be addressed to another person who is involved by way of apology to them…that is making amends with them as far as possible.

Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

Remember, God’s forgiveness is complete and total…we can freely unburden ourselves to God and walk away from the altar knowing that he loves us and understands us… that he has all of the information about our guilt or innocence in every circumstance.  God is not forgiving us without understanding the totality of our sinfulness.

The thing is that in order to confess our sins we first have to realize in our hearts and minds what they are.  A peculiar thing that I have found as a growing Christian is that my realization as to what my sins are grows as I grow.  Some things that I have been sinful in doing either haven’t bothered me enough to address it, or I have not realized that it was a sin at all.

Psalm 19:12 Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.

That is kind of what the Bible verse means that talks about trying to get a splinter out of someone else’s eye when you have a big old fence post in your own eye. If you cannot clearly see your own sins to deal with them rightly, then how in the world are you going to be able to accurately figure out what someone else’s sin is and how to deal with it.  Another way to see that verse in more common terms would be like the “blind leading the blind”…it just doesn’t work…you both just bump into everything!

Luke 6:41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

God is wonderful to reveal our sins to us a bit at a time so that we are not overwhelmed with how awful some of our actions are, in God’s eyes.  That is one of the most wonderful things about God’s love and viewing God as a Father to us…he is not in a hurry with us.  God has a lifelong plan for each of us and wants to mold us into the very best person that we can be day after day, year after year…drawing us ever closer to him.

All we have to do is to act in faith and faithfully believe in God and that God knows what is right and wrong.  We have to trust that what God says is right is actually right, and what God says is wrong is actually wrong.  We also have to study God’s word and talk to God so that we can come to understand for ourselves exactly what is right and what is wrong in God’s eyes…and how we can best live out our faith.

We need to stop making other people’s sins our business…and focus on our own. Whether someone drinks, smokes, cusses, dresses scantily, lives with their boyfriend, or girlfriend…those things are not our business to tell them about…unless they are a person who is saying that they are within the body of Christ…then as a fellow Christian who loves them it may be that there comes a gentle way to introduce the subject to them and remind them of God’s way being the way they have decided to follow in their lives and that they are off the mark.

However, not every fellow Christian needs to butt into other Christian’s lives and discuss these things…you have to be in a relationship with that person that is close enough for your words to them to be considered loving and to be accepted.  You cannot just randomly walk up to someone in your church whom you don’t have a relationship with and start telling them what they are doing wrong in God’s eyes.  All you will do is alienate them from both you, your church, and possibly from God…you will be seen as a hateful and judgmental and condemning person…not as the loving person that you intended to be.  If someone is not calling themselves a Christian then you cannot hold them to God’s standard of living.

Romans 12:18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

A person’s sin is always between them and God, not between them and us!  It is possible that God has not yet revealed or convicted that person about their sin being something that needs to be taken care of yet.  So we cannot go around like a sledgehammer banging them over the head with it!

This is a huge problem in Christian circles…we all want to go and fix all the world’s problems by shouting out…”That’s wrong!  That’s a sin!  They shouldn’t be doing that!”  If we take a look at how Jesus handled things we can see that other than him booting the money changers out of the temple…he was always very gentle and kind in dealing with people’s sins.  We as Christians need to remember that!  There are no people in this world who have ever and I do mean ever, been hated, or harassed into loving God.  Hatred and condemnation only gain more hatred and condemnation.  

Proverbs 3:30 Do not contend with a man without cause, If he has done you no harm.

Sometimes when we represent what God says is right in dealing with others we do it in the most wrong way possible…making the person feel that they have committed an unpardonable sin by going on and on about a specific issue will not lead them to repentance and into relationship with God.  It is more likely that they will feel rejected by both man and God.  Haven’t you ever done something and felt that it could not be redeemed so you said, “To heck with it then!”  and just continued in the same path feeling that nothing could be done about it?

Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.

Our goal as Christians should be to bring others to genuine repentance and into a closer relationship with God, so that they can then bring others to genuine repentance and into a closer relationship with God…and so on and so forth!  Our goal is to become united in our relationship with each other and with God.

1Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Challenge: Get a jar, or some sort of container and make it a bank that every time you sin by trying to ignore God’s standard you must put a coin in the bank.  When the bank gets full, then you give the money to a Godly cause (not yourself!)…Remember God’s standard is a standard of love!  Sometimes the need for love in a person’s life actually trumps the letter of the law….that is what grace is about…loving someone and showing them love when they or we don’t deserve it at all!

1Corinthians 13:4-7 

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.