Shekinah

An interesting idea was proposed about the Shekinah Glory of God. We understand the Shekinah as a visible manifestation of God indicating that He was “dwelling” with His people. The Shekinah was pictured as resident in the Tabernacle and specifically above the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Two cherubim, one one each side of the mercy seat arched their wings toward each other producing an arch of sorts. The shining glory is said to shine out from that circle.

This was not God, Himself, but merely a representation to remind the people that He was indeed dwelling among them. Most of the time, the Ark was covered. When it was transported, a covering was over it, and when it was inside the tabernacle, only the priests would be able to see it.

The Ark was meticulously purified and sanctified to denote the absolute purity and holiness of God. This reminded the people that holiness was demanded to approach God. That, in and of itself, is interesting, but a new interpretation was suggested the other day. This began with Genesis 2:25
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

We often explain this as Adam and Eve, being pure, without sin, had no sinful attitudes or impulses that now accompany mutual nakedness. This innocence is reproduced in the marriage bond when couples are unashamed to appear before each other without clothes. Incidentally, this also appears in children as they cavort innocently in the nude.

The alternative interpretation referenced above to Adam and Eve, is that their bodies were cloaked or “clothed” in the Shekinah glory. As long as they remained pure, God’s presence was “with” and around them. But when they sinned, the Glory left. That would certainly explain their instinctive act at concealment, as they realized that God would know that they were no longer pure. (He knew anyhow, but they either were unaware of that, or ignored it.)

Genesis 3:10 reports that Adam answered God’s inquiry as to why he was hidden.
“I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Adam and Eve could not “see” their loss of purity, even though they knew it. But the absence of the visual evidence of the Spirit’s covering would definitely justify their “hiding,” and then crafting a fig leaf substitute in an attempt to conceal their condition.

Our analysis now shifts to Revelation 3:4
But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
The “walk with Me in white,” is a promise to the overcomers, those who believe in Jesus. Our “clothes” in heaven will consist of righteousness–His righteousness provided for us. Remember the parable of the wedding feast where one guest did not wear the provided garments? Matthew 22

The guest without proper clothing, provided by the host, was ejected from the assembly. Those invited to the “wedding supper of the Lamb” must appear in the proper attire–the righteousness of the Host, the Lamb. Hypothetically this could be the Shekinah Glory. What a thought.

And how does that apply to us, today? The Glory of God, dwelling in the midst of the people, was an indication that God was with them. Ezekiel saw a vision of the Glory of God leaving the temple through the eastern gate in Ezekiel 10. This represented the fact that God had “left” His people, as they had left Him. Then Ezekiel saw another vision of that gate being closed. (Ezekiel 44) The prophesy continued with the King, God’s glory, returning through that same gate.

Are you ready for this? The eastern gate, today, is bricked shut. Check it out on line by that name or by “Golden Gate.” But Ezekiel foresaw the Lord returning through that gate. So keep you eyes on that. It’s gonna get good. It will happen.

So what? Or as my sister said as a toddler, “What’s the i-big-dee-uh?” We do not have to wait until the Lord comes back to Jerusalem to resume dwelling with His people. Jesus promised that He would send Someone to live in us. The Paraclete, or Comforter is the Holy Spirit. He now does not just dwell with us, He dwells within us. (John 14:26, 1 Corinthians 6:19) In fact, Paul notes that we are now the temple in which the Holy Spirit lives. In that sense, we are now clothed in the Glory of God. Think of that. The Glory of God is living within us!

And the good news is that He will never leave us. The Holy Spirit was given as the non-refundable down payment, or earnest of our salvation. (Ephesians 1:14) The fact that God will never leave us nor forsake us was reiterated in Hebrews 13:5. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

So did the Church supplant Israel in God’s economy? As Paul said in Romans 11:2, God has not, nor will He forsake His people, the Jews. Add to that the prophesy in Ezekiel that He is coming back to His temple, through the eastern gate, to rule over His people, and you get an iron-clad promise. Better yet, it is a Spirit-clad promise. The Glory of God is dwelling in His Church and will be resident in His people, the Jews. What a promise for us to anticipate. The Millennium is coming.

During the Millennium, the Holy Spirit will indwell every person. No wonder it will be perfect. The Holy Spirit cannot lie to Himself; He cannot cheat Himself; in short, He cannot sin against Himself. The Garden of Eden, the presence of God, will cover the entire earth. That is what will make it so special. The physical environment will be flawless, but that will pale in the realization that God, Himself, is with us!

We can declare with my college pastor, who, instead of saying “amen” exclaimed, “Glory!” What a future for us with the Shekinah Glory of God leading and directing not only us personally, but the entire world. (Note: We are not differentiating between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are all one, but different manifestations of God’s essential nature. God did not reveal Himself like this to confuse us, but to help us, finitely limited beings, to glimpse infinity, Infinity.) Again, “Glory!”

I can’t wait. “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20)

Micah 5 Bethlehem

It was considerate of Mich, and some of the other prophets, to specify the time that he spoke. That helps to place them into a time frame and understand their message. Micah 1:1
The word of the Lord which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah....
Coupling the kings with the prophets gives us an idea of why the messages were specially given. Micah, for instance preached from 740 BC and about 700 BC. This encompassed the demise of the northern kingdom, (722 BC) so most of his prophesy was directed specifically to Judah.

I used to just skip over the names, until I realized that they added a big part to the story. For Micah, the trauma of watching Israel being deported to Assyria could have been a driving force to warn Judah to avoid the same fate. The first four chapters begin with a warning to both countries, and specifically predicted that Israel would be deported. He specifically targets the leaders and prophets for “malpractice” in serving the Lord and the people.

Chapter 3 verse 12 is specifically harsh, noting that Jerusalem will be “plowed like a field:" on account of the false prophets. The Lord exacts a harsher judgment on those who “know better” in failing to follow Him.

Then chapter 4 completely switches the focus to the future and specifically spotlights the reign of the Messiah. Micah 4:7
And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion From now on and forever.
Notice the promise and prediction that the Lord will rule in Jerusalem “forever.” That certainly does not sound like God will replace His people with another group. To paraphrase a country song, “What part of forever do you not understand?” But this is only the introduction.

Chapter 5 verse 2 is the famous verse that pinpoints the birthplace of the Messiah, Jesus. The Lord is speaking:
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
This points back to the Lord and His forever reign.

That is not all. The chapter has a tremendous amount of information about , the future. Micah jumps far into the future, to the prophesies of Revelation 12:2. V. 3-4
Therefore He will give them up until the time When she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren Will return to the sons of Israel.4 And He will arise and shepherd His flock In the strength of the Lord, In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they will remain, Because at that time He will be great To the ends of the earth.

Now Micah’s focus turns to the immediate threat of Assyria, who did invade Judah but did not succeed in overthrowing it. V. 5-6
5 This One will be our peace. When the Assyrian invades our land, When he tramples on our citadels, Then we will raise against him Seven shepherds and eight leaders of men. 6 They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, The land of Nimrod at its entrances; And He will deliver us from the Assyrian When he attacks our land And when  he tramples our territory. 

Micah, like most of the other prophets switches between “now” or the near future, to “then,” the far distant prophesy. V. 7-9
7 Then the remnant of Jacob Will be among many peoples Like dew from the Lord, Like showers on vegetation Which do not wait for man Or delay for the sons of men. 8 The remnant of Jacob Will be among the nations, Among many peoples Like a lion among the beasts of the forest, Like a young lion among flocks of sheep, Which, if he passes through, Tramples down and tears, And there is none to rescue. 9 Your hand will be lifted up against your adversaries, And all your enemies will be cut off. 

Verse 10-15 reverts back to the “now,” but not the Assyrian invasion. Micah, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, now looks to the future Babylonian invasion which occurred about 100 years later. (605 BC) This one had the singular purpose of excising the desire to worship idols from the nation. Once they were released by Cyrus to return to their land, the nation no longer tolerated idol worship. There is not evidence of idols in the ruins that have been excavated, from the Babylonian captivity forward. This is specific and detailed. No more idols.

10 “It will be in that day,” declares the Lord, “That I will cut off your horses from among  you And destroy your chariots. 11 “I will also cut off the cities of your land And tear down all your fortifications. 12 “I will cut off sorceries from your hand, And you will have fortune-tellers no more. 13 “I will cut off your carved images And your sacred pillars from among you, So that you will no longer bow down To the work of your hands. 14 “I will root out your Asherim from among you And destroy your cities. 15 “And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath On the nations which have not obeyed.”

As we meditate on 5:2 and the birth of the Messiah, we can look backward and forward to Micah’s other prophesies and marvel at their accuracy as well. Bethlehem was the name of two towns. The one in Judah was pinpointed, and the Jewish leaders understood the meaning and significance of it. When the wise men, from Babylon, I believe, asked about the King of the Jews, the leaders identified the Bethlehem that was about 5 or 6 miles from Jerusalem: Bethlehem Judah. (Matthew 2) And the Babylonian believers found Him there.

And, as Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of the story,” And the rest of the prophesy.

http://www.biblechronologytimeline.com/biblechronologytimeline7.html

Christmas

More thoughts on Christmas: Most commentators agree that Jesus was not born in December, on the traditional day that we celebrate.

Some suggest a September date and counting back would put December as the time of the conception. And, in actuality, the miracle of Christmas is in the conception, and not the birth. Despite a somewhat unusual setting, the birth itself was pretty standard. The aspect of the birth that is miraculous is that no human father was involved. Mary, and later Joseph, had this explained to them in Luke and Matthew.

If the conception did, indeed, occur in December, then our celebration of the date is not misplaced, but strongly reminds us of Jesus’ character and claim to deity. And He was and is God. As such, when He died, He paid the penalty for sin for all mankind.

We dare not leave it there. He died, was buried, and was in the grave for three days. And then...HE ROSE!

The Message of Christmas is that He rose and is coming again. And even if the shepherds did not comprehend all of this, we can. The angels certainly were clued in and the celebration was not just of the long promised Messiah, but the Substitute Who would take away the sins of the world.

I think that the angels also foresaw the resurrection. Abraham had taken his son on a three day journey to sacrifice him–and returned with him alive. Isaac was not resurrected physically, but he was as good as dead for three days, then was returned to his mother and family alive.

God’s Son was returned to His mother and family–the church–alive after three days. And that is certainly cause for celebration. Hallelujah! He is risen! He is coming again.

Have a blessed Christmas. God has blessed us. Redemption is accomplished. Amen.

Atheists and Agnostics

I have been considering atheism a lot lately. Not to become one, but to understand why and how anyone could profess such a belief. This is quite puzzling, because the basic tenant of atheism is that there is no God. Any good scientist knows that it is impossible to prove a negative. Follow this.

In order to definitively proclaim that there are no purple people eaters, I have to examine every portion of the universe, known and unknown. (This is not a new argument, by the way. It is just modified.) Since it is physically impossible to explore everywhere, it is impossible to positively state that no purple people eaters exist anywhere. Let’s take a different approach

Draw a circle of any dimension. That circle represents the totality of all knowledge. Now draw a circle inside of it depicting the amount of known knowledge. Now draw a final circle inside the “known” circle to represent your personal knowledge. We know that the total knowledge circle is increasing, and hopefully our personal circle is also getting larger.

As a teacher, I spent about 20 minutes every year demonstrating to my chemistry students in both high school and college that total chemistry knowledge was increasing faster than they would learn it in the class. That meant that at the end of 18 or 36 weeks in class, they would be farther behind in their total knowledge of chemistry than they were when they started. That is why we were not aiming to learn “all of chemistry.” My goal was to teach them how to teach themselves how to learn new things for themselves.

Likewise, our consideration of God is necessarily limited to learning how to learn about Him. He is not increasing, but we can never understand or comprehend infinity. But we can learn more about what it means. So let’s turn to God.

As we explored briefly above, God cannot be disproved, because we have not explored the totality of the circle of knowledge. All we can declare is that either we cannot know that there is a God, or we do not know that there is a God. Either way, the “atheist” option is precluded. “There is no God,” is a non-starter both logically and encyclopedically. A convinced but honest atheist must modify his declaration to, “I do not believe that there is a God that I can know, or that I do know,” which seems to me to be a statement of agnosticism. They cannot categorically declare that, “There is no God.”

One more idea will sum up this part of the discussion. This is the scientific portion of our consideration. Heat travels from areas of high concentration to areas of low or lower concentration. We all know this. Touch a hot light bulb. The “higher” concentration of heat, energy, travels to the lower concentration of your finger. Now turn it around. Place your “hot” finger on an ice cube. The heat from your finger will migrate to the ice, a lower concentration and remove energy from your finger. This is thermodynamics: thermo–heat and dynamic–movement.

The universe is composed of “hot” spots and “cold” spots. Energy is flowing from high concentrations to lower concentrations. The sun and stars radiate energy, dissipating their reserves and will continue to do so until the entire universe is the same temperature (level of energy). Then they will be effectively “burned out.”

Scientists have estimated that when the entire universe has “leveled out” in energy content, the temperature will be about 3 degrees Kelvin. That is about 270 degrees below zero in centigrade or minus 454 degrees Fahrenheit.

Since the universe is not a uniform temperature, we know that it had to have a beginning or genesis, if you please, at some time in the finite past. No thinking scientist ever claims that the universe is infinitely old. So how did it begin? Where did the energy and the separation of energy begin?

Someone or something had to “start” it. Some suppositions appeal to a “big bang” but never address the who or what “banged.” A “point singularity” is the best answer I have heard. But what is a PS, where did it come from, and what exploded it? Science is unable to answer that because those items preceded “observation.” We can only “observe” the Big Bang and thus anything preceding it cannot be observed and is beyond the purview of science.

That is a convenient “waffle” answer, but it does not satisfy curiosity, let alone the need to know. The natural universe began at some point and that is as far back as our observations can extend. We are asking questions about something outside of “natural,” thus it is “super”natural. (Above or outside) And our only recourse is to posit a supernatural being or something outside nature which acted to begin the existence of the  universe and time. Meet God.

And we cannot know anything about this “outside of nature” entity because we are limited to the natural realm. The only way we can know anything about God is if He reveals Himself to us. It turns out, He did.

Romans 1:19 and 20 explain:
...since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made.
Notice immediately the word, “known.” “What can be known,” is our theme. An agnostic says that either he CANNOT know or DOES NOT know. But something CAN be known. An atheist/agnostic is left with the option of not knowing what can be known, ignorance, or deliberately refusing to know what can be known–you choose the label.

Which brings us to the point with which I began. To save you the trouble of scrolling back to the top, why and how can anyone could profess a belief in atheism or agnosticism? The crux of the problem is summarized in Romans 1. “What can be known is evident.” To continue the quotation from Romans 1, “...people suppress the truth.” The illustration of “the truth” was the intent of the earlier explanation of energy transfer. So why not just believe the Big Bang and go on...without a god or God? God did not intend for us to merely stop at knowing that there is a God. He wanted us to know Him personally. We find that in the first chapter of Hebrews. (1:1-3)
Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. 2 In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

God did not confine Himself to revealing Himself in nature as Romans 1 explains. He wanted to be known by the people He created. He went farther and spoke to men through the prophets. Now He has gone even farther, and “spoken” through His Son. He sent Him to earth to live here. That is what we celebrate in Christmas. (Aside: What do atheists celebrate at Christmas?)

But the Son did more than just live here. He “made purification for sins.” We explored that in “Christmas in Hebrews.” (https://reflectionsfromjim.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-in-hebrews.html)

Look again at the description of the Son. “He made the universe.” That is the Someone or something that we referenced in the energy discussion. Isn’t it nice when ideas come together? Let’s follow this train of thought.

Jesus is the ultimate witness. In fact, in Matthew 11:27 He explains:
...no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him.
We cannot know God, unless The Son, Jesus, reveals Him to us. This does not contradict Romans 1. It enhances it. We can know ABOUT God, that He exists and that He created everything, but we cannot know Him personally without Jesus. And Jesus does reveal God. As it says, Jesus is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature....” But God and Jesus’ intent is not just for us to have the information that God exists. He wants us to “know” Him, to believe in Him.

Hebrews 11:6 explains this.
...he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

And how can we know that this is not an elaborate fable, concocted over about 1500 years? (1400 BC to AD 90) Well, begin with the question: A 1500 year conspiracy of subterfuge and deception? That is a petty daunting task.

But to simplify it, refer back to the Hebrews 1 text. Jesus revealed God. So our ultimate witness is Jesus. If one could discredit His testimony, then one could logically and reasonably reject God. Jesus is the ultimate witness and confirmation. He came back from the dead. That is the basis of His claim. To impeach His testimony, a person would have to kill him. But Jesus has already demonstrated that death has no power over Him, it could not hold Him...if the resurrection is true.

And the evidence for that is abundant, and summarized in a post from Josh McDowell, once a doubter who examined the evidence. Here is his post and I will summarize the sources he quoted.

E. M. Blaiklock Professor of Classics Auckland University
I claim to be an historian. My approach to Classics is historical. And I tell you that the evidence for the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history....

Clark Pinnock Mcmaster University
There exists no document from the ancient world, witnessed by so excellent a set of textual and historical testimonies . . . Skepticism regarding the historical credentials of Christianity is based upon an irrational bias.

F. F. Bruce Manchester University
If the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.

My conclusion is that it is very hard work to believe in nothing. If there is no God, then there is nothing to deny. There is nothing not to believe in. In actuality the concept of atheism is to deny what others believe.

Finally Jesus promises eternal life. That is to know God. John 17:3
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
As noted before, belief that there is a God of some sort is a “no brainer.” Everyone knows about God, whether they admit it or not. Even demons believe that there is a God. James 2:19 
You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
But to believe IN God; that Jesus came, and died, and rose again, is to know true life–Eternal life.

The ultimate question is not whether there is a God, but whether one will choose to believe it. At the risk of oversimplifying a complex topic, the discussion/controversy is not whether there is a Supreme Being, a Creator, but whether one will acknowledge, i.e. believe that there is a God. That is theism. To believe that God exists merely acknowledges the obvious. And the next step is believing IN God, for eternal life.

Choose life.

Christmas in Hebrews

(This is a modification and addition to a post of 12/27/16.)

There are many Christmas stories in the Gospels and the Old Testament. There is also a Christmas story in Hebrews. Look at the first two verses: (Hebrews 1:1, 2)
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

Do you see Christmas there? Certainly. God had spoken through the prophets, long ago, in many portions or perhaps books, and many ways. He sent Moses with the Ten Commandments and law. He sent judges to lead and point the way. He sent Many (to continue the theme) prophets to correct and instruct the people. Now He has gone the ultimate distance in sending His Son. We saw the joy in the heavenly forces as they announced this miraculous event.

The angels knew the import of this coming. They rejoiced and shouted the news to (excuse the pun) to the high heavens. But there is more. Turn to chapter 2:9 through 18. First we identify the main protagonist.
“But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus,”

The author did not want anyone to be confused as to the identity of the Son. Psalm 8:4, 5 described man as “a little lower than the angels,” and we might get mixed up. (Unclear antecedent to the preposition, “Him.” Thank you Mrs. Cheney.) So that is cleared up It is Jesus. He became a man, just like you and me.

And next comes a catalog of Many reasons why Jesus came. This is the Why of Christmas. The Gospels told us Who, and Where, and When. But to make sure we understood “the reason for the season,” our passage today spells out ten specific reasons why He came.

Reason number one: “He might taste death for everyone.” Back up in the text and we see Him crowned with glory and honor. Since this was after His time on earth, He had been successful. He had to die for everyone. Why? Because all had sinned (Romans 3:23) and the penalty for that sin was death. (Romans 6:23) Recall our Substitute in Genesis 3:15 and we can see Why He came.

Somebody had to die. The Law concerning sin demanded it. It would be either your and me, or a substitute who was sinless. This substitute must have no sins for which to die or he could only die for his own sins. As much as I like you, I could not have paid for you because I had a debt to pay myself. But the Substitute came. And died. Since He was without sin, He could pay for me. And since He was infinite, His death was sufficient for me, and for you–and for the whole world.

Reason number two: To bring  "many sons to glory." There is our “Many” again. The sacrifice was sufficient for all, but not all would accept it. So “to those who received Him,” (John 1:12) He gave us the right to become His brothers, and sons of God. (There is more about that in chapter 2 of Hebrews.) God sent Him, but gave us the option of accepting him or not. Why would we not?

He died for all. (See Number one.) John 3:16 said that God loved the whole world. The whole stinking, rotten thing. But, as we contemplate 3:16 we encounter, “that whosoever believes in Him.” Not everyone will believe. Jesus said that He was the only way to God. John said “He who has the Son has life and he who does not have the Son does not have life.” (John 3:36) There is only one way to God. John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
We have to have Jesus (believe in Him) to come to the Father and have life.

Everyone is on a way. Some are going the right way: those who believe. And some are going the wrong way: those who do not believe.

“Not believing” does not need to be a violent, virulent rejection, just a failure to believe. This is the ultimate “pass-fail” test. Believe–pass with one hundred percent. Do not believe–fail with a zero. Be one of the “many sons.”

Reason number three: “To perfect the Author of their salvation.” The “perfecting” is not to complete or fill up. Sometimes we hear that God will be disappointed and incomplete if all people do not believe in Him. This is totally wrong on two levels. First, it is impossible for anyone whom God has chosen to be left out. Part of the “completion” is the final accounting of all those who are called by God.

And second, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are in perfect community and communion with each other and are, always have been, and always well be complete within themselves. There is no deficiency and they need nothing. But, God has chosen to give humans an opportunity to join in this perfection. All we have to do is believe, accept Jesus’ sacrifice for us, and claim His righteousness as our own. We do not fill up the Savior. We join Him in His family. (See Number four)

A jeweler who examines a flawless diamond or a pure gold object does not add anything to the object when he pronounces it pure and flawless. He merely demonstrates or provides evidence of  the perfection that is already there. The Savior was proven to be perfect, complete, and sufficient, beginning with the Christmas encounter.

Reason number four: We are brought into the family. Verses 11-13 explain that the believers are included in the fatherhood of God. Jesus calls us brothers after we have been sanctified, or set apart for God, and finally he calls us brothers (and sisters).

Then it gets personal in Reason number five: “Since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same.” A rich man could pay the bills of a homeless family and not even miss the money. But if he were to join the family and live with them, on their terms for a while, he would have an appreciation for what his gift would mean. Jesus could have just come, died, and gone back to heaven, and thus saving everyone, as discussed above. But He did not.

He became a man and suffered the same things that man does. More on this later. But He had to become flesh and live in that restricted venue–for Him, anyway–to appreciate what mankind is suffering and to be able to minister to them. He was fully man, as Christmas proves.

Reason number six: “He might render powerless him who had the power of death.” This is a critical point. Mankind has been subject to a cruel taskmaster. One who has seemingly infinite power, here on earth. The Christmas story proves that his power is not just limited, it is erased. He is powerless. Impotent. Hallelujah! And that leads to number seven.

Reason number seven: “Free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Our oppressor is not just neutralized, we are freed from the sentence of death that has literally held us captive all of our lives. We are no longer slaves to fear, but are free. The “Fear not” of the angels was not just to the shepherds who were recoiling from a terrifying, yet wonderful apparition, (Luke 2:10) It was a message of freedom proclaimed to the whole human race! You are free from fear! From the fear of death.

And that brings us to Reason number eight. He could have left us with the first seven and we would have been eternally praising and thanking Him for all that He has done. But number eight puts a human face on it.

Reason number eight: “He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest.” He was made “a little lower than the angels.” He became a man who was described as “a little lower than the angels.” 2:7 (Psalm 8:4, 5)

He did not leave us as free, and saved to face life as best we could. He became our merciful and faithful high priest. In the Tabernacle economy, the priests represented the people to God, and in turn brought “God” to the people. Jesus is the perfect high priest. He totally understands our nature and can convey that to the Father. And He brought God to man. Charles Wesley got it right in his carol, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

Hark! The herald-angels sing "Glory to the newborn king;
Peace on earth and mercy mild,  God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim "Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald-angels sing Glory to the new-born king"

Christ, by highest heaven adored Christ, the everlasting Lord,
  Late in time behold Him come Offspring of a Virgin's womb:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell Jesus, our Emmanuel
(Hear that? God with us!) Go on.

Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings;
Mild He lays His glory by Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth Born to give them second birth
Hark! Listen, the Angels sing, “Glory to the new born King.” God came to man.


(Sorry, got carried away there.) He not only pleads for us, but He brings a complete and perfect answer back to the penitent sinner who has come to Him. “Forgiven, adopted.”

And He can do this, because, possibly this should be Reason number nine, He is the propitiation for us. “Make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

That big word simply means to make us acceptable to God. When a mother sheep lost her own lamb, the shepherd would take another lamb whose mother had died and place the skin of the dead lamb around it. The mother was then “propitiated” by the skin of her dead baby, and would accept the orphan. She would ordinarily reject the orphan, but now she sees it as her own. In the same way, God views us through the “lens” of Jesus and accepts us as His own.

The next phrase could be Reason number ten. V 18:
“For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” 
We are back to the concept that He partook in humanity so that He is not insulated from the feelings and fears that we all suffer. He became a man. He not only understands, but He comes to the rescue. He comes to our aid.

The God-man, made a little lower than the angels is our compassionate and caring Shepherd in all things. This includes paying for our failures, sins, and enabling us to live in harmony with the Three-in-One.

The Christmas story is thus “complete.” “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.”

New Preacher

This account will be of special interest to my LeTourneau friends. And it will probably be doubly  interesting those who were counselors at Word of Life camp. The particulars of this story are a little fuzzy, with respect to accuracy, but the overall account is accurate. How is that for a teaser?

A veteran preacher was scheduled to preach at a Youth For Christ rally and was unable to fulfill his commitment. So he asked a “rookie” to replace him. (The details of how experienced this new preacher was are unclear, but this was an early sermon in his career.)

After completing the speaking engagement, he met with his mentor. “How did it go?” the older pastor inquired.

“Not too well. Only one young man got saved,” was the reply.

“Did you get his name?” the older man asked.

“Yes,” came the reply, “it was Warren Wiersbe.”

And the young pastor went on to become the world famous preacher we all know as Billy Graham. This ties into LeTourneau College in a couple of senses. First, Billy Graham’s son was a student at LeTourneau. Second, some of us students were counselors at Word of Life Camp during the summer of 1968, and the featured Bible teacher for the counseling corps was Warren Wiersbe. As I recall, after an intensive first week of orientation, he had daily Bible studies for the remainder of the summer. I still have some notes of those Bible lessons–if I can find them.

The application for us is that there is no “small service” or accomplishment for the Lord. I had not known of Dr. Wiersbe before camp, but have learned a lot from his radio, printed sermons, and books. In fact, he is still on the radio every Sunday morning in our area. We should never discount small victories. The Lord will multiply our labors like He did the five loaves and two fishes. He used those to feed between 15 and 20 thousand hungry visitors. Dr. Wiersbe “feeds” more than that every week.

To borrow a phrase from Dr. Wiersbe, “Be Faithful.”

Hall of Shame

We all know about the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. It is a spiritual Hall of Fame that challenges and inspires us. But there is also a hall of shame in the Scripture. This will also challenge and inspire us. Let’s read it. Before we go on, this was inspired by Pastor Nick.

Matthew 1:1-16
The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. 4 Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. 5 Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. 6 Jesse was the father of David the king.

David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. 7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. 8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. 9 Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah. 11 Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel was the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. 14 Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. 15 Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob. 16 Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

What are you saying? How is that a Hall of Shame? (HoS) Are you saying that Jesus came from a shameful bunch? That is the fact. And, hang on here, it will be a source of comfort and elation for us. And, to continue our fascination with genealogies, let’s follow this one.

Begin with Abraham. Oh, yes, he was the man of faith. (Genesis 15:6) He will be a blessing to all of the earth. Genesis 12:3
And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who [c]curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

What a great guy to have in the line of the Messiah, right? Recall that he “stumbled.” First, we can note his trip to Egypt to escape the famine in Genesis 12. Right after the promise of blessing earlier. But his claim to a place in the HoS (Hall of Shame) is found later in chapter 12. To make a long and terrible story short, Abram claimed that his wife was his sister and Pharaoh intended to marry her. God intervened and thwarted any contamination to the godly line. And, we can conclude that Abram learned his lesson, right? Wrong! In chapter 20 he repeated the same mistake with Abimelech, the king of Gerar. Again, God had to “bail him out” to prevent interference in the godly line.

Yet, this guy was the designated carrier of the “seed” from Genesis 3:15. Well, we got through the first link in the chain. It has to get better after that, right? “Abraham was the father of Isaac....” Now turn to Genesis 26. Again, a famine had sent him south, out of the land God had promised to Abraham, and...you guessed it. The king again was enamored with Isaac’s wife whom he had introduced as his sister. This time God’s intervention was less direct. No vision or plague, but He led the king to “happen to catch” Isaac “sporting” (KJV) with Rachel and knew in a flash that they were married. (Remember the article on Sovereignty. God was at work even in the window out of which the king glanced.) But I digress.

Number two has shown his unworthiness of being in the line of the Messiah. How about number three? ... Isaac the father of Jacob. Don’t get me started. He tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright (Genesis 25), and later conspired with his mother to claim the blessing. (Genesis 27) In fact as we follow his adventures in Haran in search of a wife and interactions with his father-in-law we are convinced that he was indeed living up to his name of “tripper up by the heel.” (Rough translation. Genesis 25) Yep, he made it. (Hebrews 11:9, 27)

So after three clunkers, the line cleaned up, right? Next is... "Jacob the father of Judah." What about Judah? We won’t go through his life with a fine toothed comb, except to note that he married a daughter of a Canaanite. (Genesis 38) Read the next phrase, in our line of descent (no pun intended): “Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” Tamar, you recall was the wife of Judah’s first two sons. We will not trot out their tragic story, except to note that they sinned so grievously that God disciplined them by death.

Instead of giving the widow his third son, Judah broke with the tradition of Leverite marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) and left the widow husbandless. (Just made that up, according to spell checker.) So she disguised herself as a prostitute and lured Judah into a liaison that resulted in the birth of twins, Perez and Zerah. We will leave them there, except to note that the godly line was put on hold for ten generations. (Ruth 4:19-22)

Surely now, the godly line will clean up its act. Right? “... Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab....” Was this the Rahab, the harlot that we met in Joshua 2? Either the gentlemen listed between Perez and Boaz were very old when they fathered children, or Matthew and the other writers omitted a few guys. (This is called a “telescoped genealogy.”) We will not pursue that here, but it would seem to be reasonable to believe that this is indeed, THE Rahab of Joshua. Why else would that detail be included it it were merely another woman coincidentally named Rahab?

And for the purposes of our thoughts, Rahab was a prostitute, making her and her offspring eligible for our HoS. Good news is coming, hold on. Oh wait, Ruth, the grandmother of our next actor was a Moabitess. Yes the ones prohibited from entering the Sanctuary. (Deuteronomy 23:3) We will not explore that except to note that she abandoned and forsook her old nationality and religion and became a Jew. (Ruth 2:16) “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”

However you interpret the details, we get to David. No more problems, right? You already know where I am going. “David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. We do not need to say anything else. And Solomon failed for a while, but seems to have regained his faith footing in the end.

I am almost afraid to go farther. “Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.” Yes, that is the Rehoboam who split the kingdom and precipitated the years’ long war between the tribes of Judah and Israel. There were some “good guys” in the line that follows, but there were some really bad guys too. The list is extensive and depressing. (Kings and Chronicles) One notable one is Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, a really good king. (2 Chronicles 32:33) This is not the Manasseh, son of Joseph, but merely named for his “uncle.”

Manasseh led the people of Judah into such debauched idol worship that God eventually had them deported from the land of Israel to Babylon. Jeremiah 15:4 “I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”

After that, the list continues, but mercifully leaves out any “incriminating” details. It finally culminates with Joseph, the son of Matthan. Joseph “s introduced as "the husband of Mary." Jesus is described, “as was supposed, the son of Joseph." (Luke 3:23) Another study is required to explore that particular designation, but suffice it to say, Joseph “adopted” Jesus by naming Him. Recall Zechariah was asked what the name of his son would be in Luke 1:63. When it says he “took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus,”  Joseph essentially claimed or adopted Jesus by naming Him. (Matthew 1:25)

But, as promised, this is good news. If Jesus came from such a “line of losers,” that means that there is hope for me–and for you. Not that our lineage is flawed, but that we are a part of that lineage that came from Jesus. His “precursors” were not perfect people, far from it, in fact. But God redeemed and used them. And He will do the same for us, the flawed “descendants” who make up the Church.

He has chosen us to be part of His bride, the church and is purifying us to present to Himself. Revelation 19:7, 8 “His bride has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Just as the line leading to Jesus was not perfect, but was perfected in Him, so the line leading from Him has not been perfect. But we are being prepared for that day. And we get to participate. We work on producing “righteous acts,” to present to Him as our adornment. And we will be perfected by Him.

The lineage from Christ is no better, nor worse than the one that led to Him. But the culmination will be wonderful. That comfort and excitement both challenges and inspires us. We are not too far gone that God cannot recover and redeem us. And we are not disqualified from being a tool He can use. Keep reading the “old stories” and use that guide to writing “new stories,”  our new stories.

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas. He came, He is coming again.

“Blessed Are You...”

The Beatitudes and other Scriptures contain this intriguing phrase, “Blessed are you....” Some translations modify that to say “Happy are you.” Thanks to R. C. Sproul, I have a new appreciation for bless, blessed, and blessing.. If you haven’t read the Beatitudes lately, here is a link. It will bless you. (Pun intended.) Matthew 5:3-11. For the technology challenged, or terminally lazy, I have printed them below. Don’t miss this opportunity to read them. Revelation promises a blessing when we read the book. It begins the narrative, Revelation 1:3, and concludes the book in 22:7. This is a shorter trip to the land of blessing.  Beatitudes
I have been privileged to hear several pastors who took one beatitude at a time and preached a sermon on each one. We will not repeat that here. You can study that for yourself.

Back to “blessing.” “Happy” is a poor interpretation of what this means, and if I ever read a passage that substitutes happy, I will say “blessed” instead. But why?

The term “blessed” first occurs in Genesis 1, but Moses is writing from a later perspective. God blessed the living animals (1:22) and He blessed man. (1:28; 5:2) In chapter 2 He blessed the Sabbath day. (2:3) Going forward He blessed Noah (9:1) and Noah “blessed” God in 9:26 but this was more of a prayer of thanks.

The first use of “bless” in relation to God communicating with  a man was chapter 12 , verses 2 and 3. God promised to bless Abram and to make him a blessing. From Abram all of the earth would receive a blessing.

So what, exactly does “bless” mean? In the Hebrew language it is “hesed” and from our earlier study we discovered that it meant God’s protection, His provision, and His presence. That, in and of itself, is an impressive list of components for blessing. So when we receive “blessing” we are literally participating in the blessing that God poured out on Abraham. What a blessing!

But there is more. Melchizedek blessed Abram in chapter 14. The concepts included in hesed were reiterated to him. We will not follow the blessing trail throughout the Old Testament, but it is interesting and exciting, with over 486 instances.

There is one aspect of blessing that we need to pursue. Numbers 6:24-26 is the benediction that the Lord commanded Aaron to pronounce over the people.
The Lord bless you, and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26 The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.
Notice the three aspects of blessing: Protection (keep, peace), provision (be gracious), and presence (face to shine on you, lift up countenance on you). This is the blessing that Aaron gave whenever the assembly was dismissed and they went back to their tents. Many pastors use that today to send out their assembly.

This blessing shows up again in Deuteronomy as Moses repeats the law to the people and gives them a charge before they enter the promised land. A significant point is in Deuteronomy 11:26, 27.
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today;” 
The commandments are reprised in v. 1-25 for your reference. Notice what he pronounces in juxtaposition to blessing; a curse. And for the astute, or Bible searchers, this is reminiscent of Revelation 22:7 that was referenced above and was the closing benediction of the Book. (Revelation and the Bible.). We examined the concept of blessing in the Aaronic prayer. Let’s return to that for a minute.

“The Lord make His face to shine upon you.” This previews the note in Revelation 21:23
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it.
We turn to 1 John 1:5 for further clarification:
God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

So when God’s face shines on us, it is a foretaste of heaven and the New Jerusalem. Notice the verse again. “...there is no darkness” in God. We can extend that to the analysis that where there is no God, there is no light. Only darkness remains. The concept of hell being an absence of God is not one of freedom from concern about “pleasing” or displeasing Him. It is the concept of ultimate, complete, and eternal darkness.

Now look at the second half of Moses’ charge: (v. 28)
...and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today,
So if blessing includes the light of God’s face, His countenance, the cursing would imply the absence of light. Moses “set before them” a choice: light or darkness.

When we “bless” someone, we are giving them hesed, light; the Light of God’s countenance and presence. Now you can see why I hesitate to substitute “happy” for blessed, or bless-ed. It is like trading a steak dinner for a snack bar. Or maybe trading a magnificently crafted dessert of dark chocolate, caramel, whipped cream, and rich cake for a “Goodbar.” No thanks.

And may you have a Blessed Christmas and a Glorious New Year.


3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

Sovereignty

God is sovereign. He is in control of everything. Just today I was reminded of how God uses every event that happens to bring us to a place to glorify Himself. Listen to the “first person” account of someone that we have often read about, but very seldom considered.

"Hi, I am so happy to get the chance to visit with you today and tell you my story. I grew up in a dysfunctional home but at least I learned a craft. Unfortunately, it was the skill of larceny. I was a professor and practitioner of the art, par excellence. I very seldom was caught, and was always able to talk my way out of it or play on peoples’ sympathy and escape.

"Then one day I heard this itinerant preacher from up north. He had some very interesting things to say, but my partner quickly debunked everything this guy said. He reminded me that this guy was just like all the rest. He was probably just trying to make a shekel, and preaching was as good a way as any other. It might even have been easier than stealing, but we surely had bigger scores than he did.

"Well, one day we slipped up and the guy we accosted was actually a soldier in civvies. He took exception to our attempting to lift his wallet. Before you could say ‘Mazel Tov,’ which it was not, we thought, he had us on the ground and surrounded by his comrades. We were carted off to jail, and after a perfunctory hearing, we were sentenced to death. Death! It wasn’t like we were trying to lift a talent or more. Just a few shekels.

"Well, they marched us out to the execution hill and wouldn’t you know it, that Preacher was there too. He was being nailed to a cross just like the one we were. My partner commented, between whacks of the hammer, ‘What did I tell you? He was ripping people off too and he got caught too. We’ll see how well his yammering serves him now.’

"I ignored him and just watched. Just after we had been hoisted up and begun our hours or even days' long ordeal, this ‘faker,’ according to my partner, Jud, forgave the guys who were crucifying Him. My head nearly split with the realization that He was innocent. He had done nothing wrong, and here He was dying just as we were.

"Then Jud mocked Him and finished with, ‘If you are really some SuperGuy, save yourself and us with you.’ Good old Jud. Always thinking of me, too.

"‘You idiot!’ I shouted. ‘Don’t you understand what is happening? He is innocent. You are mocking God, Not a good plan, Buddy.’

"Then I rested my eyes on this Guy’s face. ‘Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’

"And then the most powerful, wonderful words I have ever heard passed His lips. 'Today you will be with Me in paradise!'

"You know, Jud and I had been lamenting at the 'bad luck' that led us into that soldier’s path. Now I know that it was not bad, but good. If we had escaped, I would have missed this Jesus guy and died unrepentant. What a propitious break–not! Now I know that my steps that day were guided by the God in Heaven and He took me to the cross to meet His Son. What a wonderful thing. And now I am in heaven with Him, just as He promised.

"God was in control of every step that we took down there, and I can assure you that He is guiding you as well, my friend. How great a God is He! ‘Thank You for bringing me to Your kingdom.’"

God guided that thief to the encounter that we fantasized here for a purpose. God had a special place for him in heaven and in history. We will have to wait until we get to heaven to discover how many people have accepted Christ “at the last minute” based on this guy’s testimony. No one is too bad or too far gone to be reached by God’s love.

Our lives, likewise, are guided and controlled by a loving Heavenly Father. He has a purpose for everything that happens to us–excuse me, everything that He brings to us–and it is for His glory. He will use it to bring glory to Himself and bring us a closer relationship with Him. What a wonderful and comforting truth to take into tomorrow.

Thank You, Jesus, for all that You do. Amen.

Witness

Many people declare that they will not believe something unless they have seen it with their own eyes. I could offer electricity as something that they cannot see, but the logical counter is that the effects of electricity are both seen and felt. Just stick your finger into a socket and do both simultaneously!

An alternative that is more appropriate is radiation. You cannot see nor feel radiation. And even if you contract “radiation poisoning,” or cancer, or some other malady, you can argue that they are merely coincident events. They may not be caused by the radiation.

All I can say to that argument is that this person can never serve as a juror in court, as they will not “see” the defendant actually commit the crime, so they will never be able to vote to convict. Conversely, a more reasonable approach will concur that eye witness testimony is equivalent to “seeing for myself.” This is despite the “problems” with eye witness testimony and false identifications. Even when I see something for myself, I can misinterpret it, as evidenced on the TV and other shows depicting “slight of hand” tricks and illusions.

But normally, under typical circumstances, multiple witnesses give us a large degree of confidence that we are getting the real story of what happened. And increasing the number of witnesses increases the level of confidence in veracity of the overall account.

It is not surprising that the Bible gives us direction for the use of eye witnesses. Some of the verses are: Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6ff; 19:15. Jesus confirmed and quoted this concept in Matthew 18:16.

In fact, Jesus appealed to this in His defense of His deity. John 5 is the base of our study. Verse 31 begins with the agreement that if He alone claimed that, the argument could be discounted.
“If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true.

John 5:33, and 34 cite John the Baptist as a witness.
You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. 34 But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
But Jesus does not rely on John’s testimony. He follows with three independent witnesses.

In verse 36 Jesus appeals to the witness of His deeds.
But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.

Then He turns to the Ultimate Witness. V. 37
And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.
Anyone who claims to follow and obey God the Father is “nailed” by this statement. God the Father, Yahweh, (or Jehovah in some translations) has declared that Jesus is God. (Check Hebrews 1 if you have questions. Especially verses 6 and 8, but the whole chapter resonates with this testimony.)

But wait, Jesus goes us one better. He adds a fourth witness in John 5:39.
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
This was the ultimate challenge and indictment to the Jewish skeptics who were disputing with Him. I didn’t say debate, because there was only one side. A debate requires two equally plausible propositions. But I digress.

Now, let’s turn back to our skeptics. How can we know this stuff about Jesus? Two eyewitnesses have given their testimony. First is Peter, in 2 Peter 1:16-18
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— 18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
Peter articulates that he is an eyewitness of both the details of Jesus’ life, and the proclamation of God, the Father, about Jesus. He goes on to say it would be wise to pay attention to what was said. Good advise, Peter, thanks.

Our second eyewitness is John in 1 John 1:1-3. He begins his series as Pastor to the churches with this statement.
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Notice the six repetitions of his declaration. “What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes...” v. 1, “looked at and touched with our hands...” v. 1b, “manifested...” v. 2, “have seen and testify...” v. 2b, “was manifested to us–” v. 2c, "we have seen and heard...” v. 3.

And they both refer to the works that He did. And they invite us into the fellowship of belief in Him. Not believing that He actually lived on earth, but that He died, came back from the dead, and is alive preparing a place for us to be with Him forever. Hallelujah!

So what do we say to the skeptics? Again, we turn to what Jesus said. First, turn to Luke 9. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem and a city in Samaria refused to allow Him to spend the night on His way to Jerusalem. James and John offered to “call down fire from heaven and consume them. This is an interesting evangelism technique. Sometimes we are tempted to mirror that. But in v. 55 He offered a different approach.
But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.

How do we respond to stubborn skeptics? Go on the “another village,” or seeker. The world is filled with them.

In Matthew 7:6 Jesus gave further guidance. (Thank you to Mike Fabarez for this insight.)
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
Now He is not insulting unbelievers, but merely comparing the presentation of unwanted truth to these two instances. “Holy” referred to temple garments, and even to the food that the priests ate. Don’t give that to “unclean” people or to animals. Likewise, we are wasting our time in preaching to dogs or other animals. Ever try to convince a wall of anything? And He went farther to point out that the unbelievers may even turn and attack when provoked.

Solomon, in Proverbs also provided guidance for someone who is not seeking. Proverbs 9:8 
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, Reprove a wise man and he will love you.
So the soil that we spread the seed on will determine the size of the crop.

One last thing. Paul cited over 500 witnesses to the resurrection of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. Notice again that he, himself, was an eyewitness. Our “multiple corroborations” should convince any open minded juror. Jesus said, two or three should confirm it for any reasonable questioner. Proverbs 23:9 is our final comment from Solomon. If someone does not want to know, it is like someone who has cancer and only wants to talk about the last ball game. Interesting, no doubt, but not very therapeutic.
Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
For clarification, a fool is defined in Psalm 14:1.
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
With great restraint, I will resist quoting Forest Gump. Solomon and David did it well enough. Witnesses abound to respond to our skeptical friends and acquaintances. It is our duty to point to the Truth. How people respond is their choice. And it defines both their character and their destiny.

Creation Evolution and Christmas

Something just occurred to me as I hummed/sang Christmas carols and hymns. If you do not believe the Bible account of creation, the fall, and redemption, many of the hymns and carols are pretty much meaningless verbiage. Let’s look at some examples.

Of course, any reference to the coming Messiah and Savior would hinge on the foundation of the fall and redemption, but let’s just stick to creation and that aspect. We may look at other aspects later.

“Joy to the World,” verse 3. “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground...far as the curse is found.” No Adam, no Eve, no Genesis 3:15, no curse, no Joy.

“The First Noel,” verse 6. (One other thought. When singing many hymns and carols and skipping verses misses a significant part of the message.) “The let us all with one accord, sing praises to our heavenly Lord, that hath made heaven and earth of naught, and with His blood mankind hath bought.” (And you can sing it with one Camry or one Impala.) Sorry, could not resist.

Another thought: If evolution is true, there would be no angels. All of the carols that mention angels would also be nonsense. You can figure out your own angel list to discard. :>) Not me.

And our friend Travis’masterpiece, “O Holy Night.” “...Long lay the world, in sin and error pining....” To eliminate that song would elicit a cry from my Mom. “Oh Horrors!” Probably with two exclamation points.

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” v.4. “...God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.” Sounds like a good movie.

“Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee,” V. 2 “All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays, Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, chanting bird and flowing fountain, Call us to rejoice in Thee.” That about covers it all.

“The Spacious Firmament,” by Joseph Addison based on Psalm 19 (music by Hayden) is three verses devoted to praising God for Creation. (Page 62 in the Baptist Hymnal) Link to lyrics. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/spacious-firmament-high
This is a new hymn to me, and I wish I had know about it earlier. What a message. Gets a glory. Look up some other arrangements and performances. It is worth your while.

“All Things Bright and Beautiful,”
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all. Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colours, He made their tiny wings. The purple-headed mountain, The river running by, The sunset and the morning,  That brightens up the sky. The cold wind in the winter,  The pleasant summer sun, The ripe fruits in the garden, He made them every one. The tall trees in the greenwood, The meadows for our play, The rushes by the water,  To gather every day. He gave us eyes to see them, And lips that we might tell How great is God Almighty, Who has made all things well.
This is another lesser known hymn. We are wasting a veritable treasure of theology and inspiration by ignoring our hymn books. (Editorial comment.)

 Not Christmas, but still gets the message.

“Great is Thy Faithfulness.” v. 2 “Summer and winter, spring time and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above, Join with all nature in manifold witness....”Join right in there with me.

“Fairest Lord Jesus,” V. 1 “Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature.” Pretty self explanatory.

“He’s Everything To Me,” “In the stars His handiwork I see, on the wind He speaks with majesty, Tho He ruleth over land and sea....” This is one of the “new” songs that came out in the 60's. And there is a lot of theology mixed with this catchy tune.

“How Great Thou Art,” V. 1 “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds “Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed.” That calls for a “How great Thou Art!” Glory.
Dr. Dunn, our Pastor in Peoria loved this song. I do too.

“I Sing the Mighty Power of God,” whole song. Isaac Watts did himself proud with this. Sing it.
I sing the mighty pow’r of God, that made the mountains rise, That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies. I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day; The moon shines full at His command, and all the stars obey.  I sing the goodness of the Lord, who filled the earth with food, Who formed the creatures through the Word, and then pronounced them good. Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, where’er I turn my eye, If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky. There’s not a plant or flow’r below, but makes Thy glories known, And clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne; While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care; And everywhere  that we can be, Thou, God, art present there. Source: The Cyber Hymnal (http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/s/i/isingthe.htm)
You gotta hear and sing with this one.
Just log onto this link and let the songs proceed one after another. Bet you can’t keep your hands down! ww.bing.com/videos/search?q=i+sing+the+mighty+power+of+god+lyrics&&view=detail&mid=981B99A427E60E51AE09981B99A427E60E51AE09&rvsmid=38ADEAC33A3766EB670C38ADEAC33A3766EB670C&FORM=VDQVAP

Psalm 136 (Baptist Hymnal 63) Abridged. Read the whole Psalm.
Give thanks to the Lord, Give thanks to the God of gods, Give thanks to the Lord of lords, To Him who made the heavens with skill, To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, To Him who made the great lights, The sun to rule [c]by day, The moon and stars to rule by night.
This is another one that is new to me. But when it comes out of the Scripture, how can it be bad? It cannot.

“This Is My Father’s World,” v. 1 “...of rocks and trees and skies and seas, His hand the wonders wrought.” No need for additional comment.

“Thou Art Worthy,” (Baptist Hymnal 73) “For Thou has created, hast all things created; thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are created, For Thou are worthy, O Lord.” Revelation 4:11
Accompaniment with lyrics. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=thou+art+worthy+lyrics&view=detail&mid=9FE525344E9F72D613A49FE525344E9F72D613A4&FORM=VIRE
Choir and words. Glory.

What a great way to finish our devotion. He is worthy. And just for a final send off, go to the Messiah and get the arrangement there for this verse. You can wear new shoes for a week after hearing that, and take them back as new, as they will not have touched pavement. Glory.

Well, that is just an introduction to the importance of Creation in our faith and in our celebrations of God’s works. Just in case you wondered, the creation, either explicitly or implicitly stated occurs over 100 times in the Bible. Not only would Christmas be diminished without the creation, so would the Bible. God seems to have built His story on the foundation of creation. If you have more examples of creation in songs, please, by all means, contribute them to the conversation in the comments. I will append them to the blog.

Thank you and worship Him.

Epilogue: We will not look at this right now, but as you sing songs, watch for the Trinity. If that is outside one’s understanding or belief, an overwhelming amount of music is “off limits.” Just a thought.

Why the Jews?

In Sunday School class this week we stumbled onto a question that often occurs when considering the Old Testament covenants and the New Testament. “Why did God choose the Jews and reject the Gentiles?” That is a good question. Let’s take a look at it.

Before we start, a definition is in order. By “rejecting” the Gentiles, God did not abandon nor condemn them. He merely did not choose them. When you choose a certain brand of car or computer or any other item, you are not condemning or even demeaning the competitors. You are merely choosing one and not picking the other.

We are considering the fact that the Jews were “God’s chosen people.” That should not evoke envy or pride on the part of anyone. This is not an envious position, as we will discover as we go forward nor is it a source of pride, for some of the same reasons. Follow this.

Deuteronomy 7 is Moses repeating the law to his charges, the Children of Israel, after the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Listen to his recapitulation. V. 6
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
That is their role in history. We will find out more about that later. But just to keep them humble, Moses continued. V. 7
7 “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 

They had “nothing” going for them to elicit the choice, except the fact that they were a small, almost helpless people. It was not like choosing a TV with a better picture or features. In fact, this might have been the worst one on the shelf and damaged to boot. Some recommendation on a resume, huh? So there is no pride producing rationale for God’s choice. He just chose them. We will discuss why in a minute, but, just for the record, let’s follow the “remuneration” that the Lord promised through Moses. V. 9 ff
Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His loving-kindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. 11 Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

This is a two edged sword. It is a warning to the Israelites to obey and keep the “commandment and the statutes and the judgments.” But it is also a warning to anyone who would harm or threaten this people that He has chosen. For those who “love and keep commandments,” lovingkindness is extended for a thousand generations. (Aside. I am not sure that one thousand generations have passed since then, so His favor is still “in effect” for His faithful followers.)

But to those who “hate” Him, and by extension, His people, He will destroy. One of our pastors often comments that he wants to stand close to those whom God is blessing, and stay away from those who are resisting Him. Me too.

So God chose them. Why? To quote one of my sisters, as she was learning to talk, “What’s the i-big-dea?” (Don’t fret, I won’t tell on you, Pam.) God’s original intention was for Israel to be witnesses to two things: First, that He is a loving God and offered forgiveness and redemption. Second, they were to highlight God’s absolute holiness. (This is discussed in more detail at: https://www.gotquestions.org/why-God-choose-Israel.html) We will begin with the second purpose.

Are they still in God’s plan, today? In-duub-it-ub-bly! Do you remember the TV show, “Little Rascals?” Some iterations of the program were called “Our Gang,” but our one TV channel out in southwestern Nebraska ran Little Rascals at about 3:00 every weekday afternoon. We went to Aunt Ila’s house as often as we were able to watch. (She was the only one of our family with a TV set. We watched with Gary and Dennis, our cousins.) That has little to do with our story but it sets up the point.

One of the characters on the program, when asked a question requiring an affirmative answer, responded with a hearty, “In-duub-it-ub-bly!” stretching out the syllables for effect. The Jews are definitely in God’s plan. Recall the 1000 generation thing. That has not yet expired, and probably has been incremented by later faithful generations.

So why the Jews? The message of forgiveness and redemption is meaningless without a justification as to why we would need forgiveness and redemption. Israel had the dubious distinction of illustrating God’s holiness in all aspects of life. God is infinitely, absolutely, and eternally holy. Nothing that is unholy can approach Him and is the object of His judgment. So we need to know whether we are “holy enough” to please God.

Read through the book of Leviticus and you will be struck with the extreme detail that was taken with every aspect of life. The key phrase of differentiation was “clean and unclean.” Nothing unclean was to be associated with the people.

The concept of clean was extended to foods; clothes; housing; cooking utensils; relationships with family, neighbors, and even enemies; and of course, their worship. It was as if God knew some cults or offshoots would isolate on one thing, like food, or certain days, or even names, and claim that by avoiding all defilement regarding that aspect of life they would please God. They don’t.

God was so meticulous in defining the clean and unclean that it took the entire book. Reading it as a description of God’s holiness makes it much less tedious. Just for comparison, would you invite an honored guest into your life or home that was defiled with the “unclean” items or attitudes described here? That makes the strictures about mold and mildew, of all things, more understandable. We are inviting the Holy God of the Universe into our lives. They had better be without “mold;” clean.

And the nation of Israel was chosen to be the picture book of cleanliness. The Ten Commandments began with relationships. The relationship with God: No other God, No Images, No Taking His Name in Vain, and Honor the Sabbath, was first. Family relationships come next. They could include the Sabbath rest for the family and of course Honor Father and Mother. Next are the interpersonal relationships of Do Not Murder, Do Not Commit Adultery (both family and others are affected here), Do Not Steal, Do Not Lie, and Do Not Covet. How do you measure up?

Then Exodus and Leviticus continue with a detailed proscription of things that displease God, mixed with aspects of life that will honor Him. This extends to the construction of the Tabernacle and later the Temple for worship. And, measuring progress, how did the Jews  do? How do we do?

The answer to the question is, “No, neither they, nor we are holy or good enough to please God.” So we need forgiveness and redemption. We need a Redeemer, the Messiah. And that is the second role of the Jewish nation. Check Romans 3:1, 2
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

The “oracles” include the rules and regulations, but they also include the promise of the Messiah. He was the Sacrifice, promised in Genesis 3:15 and defined in the Law as what was required to please God. Did any of the sacrifices offered throughout the history of the Tabernacle or the Temple satisfy or propitiate God? No. Hebrews 10:4
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

So why did they go through all of that rigamarole? The sacrifices were a picture of the Sinless One Who would be the perfect, efficacious sacrifice that would take away sin. The Old Testament believers had faith in the promise of the Sacrifice to come. And we, the New Testament believers, have faith in the Sacrifice that we see when we look back. Both groups look to the Cross and see the Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world. John 1:29 (John the Baptist speaking)
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

The Apostle John further expands and explains Him  in Revelation 13:8 as...
... the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Both Johns got it! And so do we. The picture God gave to and through the Jews of His absolute holiness was satisfied IN US, when we accept the sacrifice of His Son. (Don’t that make you wanna shout? It does me.)

So the Jews’ failure to show God’s perfection was not a justification for rejecting or ejecting them. It is an opportunity for us to participate, with them, in the reception of the Perfect Lamb that was also mirrored in their Law. We are condemned by the Law and the One projected in the Law redeems and forgives us.

The Jews were, if you please, the giant video screen on which the failures of all men were projected, leading to the revelation of the Savior Who can both forgive and cleanse this fallen race. They are honored by God’s choice and they are debased by their failure to perfectly portray Him. The secret we all must bear, is that we, like them, would have been failures also. Their humiliation is the path to their, and our exaltation with Jesus when He comes.

Even so, come Lord Jesus. Aren’t you glad He chose the Jews?