tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12547984195820103232024-03-13T16:28:28.232-04:00Slash the EditorEssays on religion and societyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.comBlogger285125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-46610729076336280912014-06-27T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-06T21:39:39.799-05:00*Simple Faith<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two curly-haired children stood in front of their father as he knelt down to hug them. They were dressed in their best clothes: Jimmy in dark pants, white shirt, suspenders, and bowtie, and Jenny in a pink dress, white shoes, and ribbons in her golden hair. It was not every day that they went down to the train station to see their father off on a long trip.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Daddy was talking. "I'm going to be gone for a while—I don't know how long, but I'll be back before you know it. I have to take care of some business out of the country, and once that's done, I'm coming home to stay. So, mind your Momma and do your chores to help her out. You'll both probably be a foot taller when I get back, but I <em>will </em>be back, I promise."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He gave their mother a kiss and a long hug, and then he was gone. The train pulled out of the station, and they waved like mad as they watched it chug away. Soon, there was nothing else to see, so they sadly returned home, changed clothes, and went about their daily routine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Days passed, then weeks, then months. Daddy's business overseas seemed to be taking longer than he had thought. Momma told them not to worry, that he would be back with them before they knew it. If they just kept themselves busy, the time would go faster, she said. So Jimmy and Jenny plunged into their school work, did all their chores, read long books, played with the neighbor kids, and grew like beansprouts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yet, Daddy still had not come home. As they often did, the children sat on the porch swing in the cool of the evening just before bedtime, watching the fireflies come out. Jenny suspected that Jimmy was down, and he proved it a few minutes later. "I don't think Daddy's coming back," he said. "If he was, he'd be here already. He's forgotten about us."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"That's not true!" said Jenny fiercely, almost shouting. "Daddy said he would come back, so he is coming back!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jimmy just shook his head, saying, "How do you know? You're just a little girl."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"So what if I'm a little girl!" she yelled. "Daddy promised! He'll be back soon, just you wait!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They had similar arguments over the next weeks, Jimmy always doubting, Jenny always certain that their father would arrive home soon. She looked for him everywhere, expecting him to be walking up the drive when she peeked out the front window or be at the train station when they went into town. Jimmy mocked her for a silly goose, but she never wavered in her certainty that their Daddy would come back just as he had said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then, suddenly, he was home. They woke up one morning and stumbled out to the kitchen for breakfast, and Daddy was there, kneeling in front of them, giving them the biggest, longest hug that they had ever had! He told them how much he had missed them and how he had wanted to come home sooner, but things had just not worked out until the last few weeks. Then he had hurried back to be with them again for good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jenny shed tears of pure joy, refusing to let her father go, but Jimmy was bawling like a baby, choking out, "I'm sorry, Daddy! I'm sorry!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"What do you mean?" Daddy asked, concerned. "There's nothing to be sorry about."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wiping away tears, Jimmy said, "I didn't believe you were coming back. Jenny said you would, but it had been so long, and you weren't here, so I thought you would never come back to us."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Well, here I am!" Daddy said. "Now you know you can trust my word."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">*****</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While this may be just a story about a little girl's simple faith, it captures the essence of the biblical concept of faith. Sometimes, we tend to make things a bit too theological and difficult, wanting to know all the facets and permutations of a doctrine, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of faith, it is trusting Him, taking God at His word and believing it. In its most basic form, faith can be expressed in the sentiment, "If God said it, that's good enough for me!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We grapple with the definition that the author of Hebrews pens in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30174/eVerseID/30174" name="3017430174"></a><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30174/eVerseID/30174" name="3017430174">Hebrews 11:1</a>: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." We look in various Bible translations for one that will make it plain, something like "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see" (<em>New English Translation</em>). We delve into the Greek words for a clearer picture of the author's intent. We pore through commentaries for learned opinions about the verse—and we may still come away scratching our heads.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We know from verses like <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30174/eVerseID/30174" name="3017430174">Hebrews 11:1</a> that faith is not simple in all its theological ramifications, but in its everyday use, it is not difficult. While He does not use the word "faith" on this occasion, it is what Jesus alludes to in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/25434/eVerseID/25434" name="2543425434">Luke 11:28</a>, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" His declaration is reminiscent of the times when people—usually Gentiles—came to Him for healing and simply believed that, in saying the sick person would be healed, all was well. That was the case when the centurion asked Him to heal his servant, and Jesus "marveled, and said to those who followed, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel'" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23356/eVerseID/23356" name="2335623356">Matthew 8:10</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The apostle Paul, speaking of the faith of Abraham, calls him "the father of us all" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28039/eVerseID/28039" name="2803928039">Romans 4:16</a>). What marked the greatness of Abraham's faith? Paul answers for us in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28026/eVerseID/28026" name="2802628026">Romans 4:3</a>, quoting <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/367/eVerseID/367" name="367367">Genesis 15:6:</a> "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." The patriarch trusted God's promise that his descendants from the then-unborn Isaac would be as the number of stars in the heavens (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/364/eVerseID/366" name="364366">Genesis 15:3-5</a>). God's promise was good enough for him. It would happen just as God had said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">His faith in God's Word sustained him when, years later, God tested him: "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and . . . offer him . . . as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/550/eVerseID/550" name="550550">Genesis 22:2</a>). How could his offspring be as numerous as the stars if Isaac died before having children? So, when Isaac asked where the lamb for the offering was, Abraham answered in faith, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering" (verses 7-8). He went so far as to bind his son and raise the knife, knowing, in faith, that God would intervene or perform a resurrection so that His promise would not be broken.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Such is the simple faith God desires us to display in the course of our daily lives. Paul teaches that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28206/eVerseID/28206" name="2820628206">Romans 10:17</a>). Faith comes and grows when we hear God's Word and believe it, trusting God to do as He has said. So David writes in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/14456/eVerseID/14456" name="1445614456">Psalm 37:5:</a> "Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." That is a promise we can count on!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-47248484913118312342014-06-20T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-06T21:40:15.900-05:00*Christian Obedience<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is commonly thought—if not commonly taught—that obedience plays little part in New Testament Christianity. People are urged, "Believe in Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." They are told to love the Lord and have faith. But obey? If the law of God has been done away, what need is there of obedience? If God's grace covers all sin and works avail us nothing, then what place does obedience fill? Did not Jesus remove lawkeeping from the salvation equation?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many professing Christians reveal the deficiency of their theological knowledge by believing that such things are the end-all of Christianity. They have been hoodwinked by preachers who adhere to the "once saved, always saved" line of Protestant teaching, a false doctrine easily refuted (see, for example, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23333/eVerseID/23337" name="2333323337">Matthew 7:16-20</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/26706/eVerseID/26706" target="_blank">John 15:6</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30049/eVerseID/30053" name="3004930053">Hebrews 6:4-8</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30160/eVerseID/30165" name="3016030165">10:26-31</a>; etc.). The lure of "easy grace" has filled the pews of many a church with people eager for life after death but unwilling to change their present lives by living according to the teachings of God's Word.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is true that the word "obey" is found just a few times in the gospels and never in a command such as "obey the law" or "obey God's commandments." But that does not mean that Jesus does not command us to obey—He just uses other words. For instance, He tells the rich young ruler, "But if you want to enter into life [eternal life], keep the commandments" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23780/eVerseID/23780" name="2378023780">Matthew 19:17</a>). It does not get much clearer than that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, this instance is not the only time He says such a thing. In <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/25434/eVerseID/25434" name="2543425434">Luke 11:28</a>, He tells a crowd gathered to hear Him, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" In His final instructions to His disciples before His arrest, He appeals to their affection for Him, saying, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26684/eVerseID/26684" name="2668426684">John 14:15</a>), and a little later, He restates this, taking it beyond them to Christians of all times:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me. (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26692/eVerseID/26693" name="2669226693">John 14:23-24</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Finally, in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26710/eVerseID/26710" name="2671026710">John 15:10</a>, Jesus reveals that we have to be just as diligent in obeying Him as He was in obeying His Father in heaven: "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From the mouth of our Savior Himself, obedience is plainly a very New Testament, very Christian, teaching.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this handful of statements, He was quite pointed about what we must obey: the commandments, the word of God, His words (which are the Father's words), and His and His Father's commandments. Plus, He gives us incentive to do this! We should obey His teaching if we want to have eternal life, if we want to demonstrate our love for Christ, if we want to be blessed, if we want God and Christ to make their home with us by the Holy Spirit, and if we want to have and abide in the love of the Father and the Son. That is some healthy motivation!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is worth looking at these from the negative side, just to see how disastrous it is to refuse to obey God and His Word. Thus, if we do not obey Him and His commands, we will not enter into life, we will not be blessed, we will not show love toward Christ, we will not have the Father and Son living in us by the Spirit of God, and we will not have the love of God in us. For a Christian to lack these things is utterly devastating! In fact, it would mean that he is not really a Christian! (Consider, for instance, Paul's statement in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28131/eVerseID/28131" name="2813128131">Romans 8:14</a>, defining a true Christian.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Even when people realize that they should obey God and His commands, they may still scratch their heads over <em>why</em> obedience is necessary to the salvation process. If we are saved by grace through faith—as <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29238/eVerseID/29238" name="2923829238">Ephesians 2:8</a> makes obvious—and not justified by works of lawkeeping (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29098/eVerseID/29098" name="2909829098">Galatians 2:16</a>), what good do they do? Is not obedience to God's law useless or at the best, merely dutiful or ceremonial?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Those who ask these kinds of questions have a limited understanding of what God is doing with humanity. In essence, they believe that God's sole purpose is to "save" people from their sins, for that is what Christ's sacrifice accomplishes—the shedding of His precious blood pays the penalty for sin, redeeming us from eternal death, and with His righteousness covering our corruption, provides us access to a relationship with the Father (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28054/eVerseID/28059" name="2805428059">Romans 5:6-11</a>). This is a wonderful divine act of grace because we do not deserve such merciful treatment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The truth is, however, that salvation does not end there. One of the apostle Paul's comments in Romans 5 hints broadly at this: "Much more, having been reconciled [to the Father], we shall be saved by His life" (verse 10). Christ's death does not save us, but His resurrection to eternal life does! Not only does it make possible our future resurrection to eternal life (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28739/eVerseID/28742" name="2873928742">I Corinthians 15:20-23</a>), but it also gives Him the opportunity to work with those whom God calls to bring them to spiritual maturity. Notice how Paul describes Christ's ongoing work with the church:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29284/eVerseID/29286" name="2928429286">Ephesians 4:11-13</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As Head of the church (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29229/eVerseID/29230" name="2922929230">Ephesians 1:22-23</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29484/eVerseID/29484" name="2948429484">Colossians 1:18</a>), Christ now works to bring us "to a perfect man," that is, He is completing a spiritual process to fashion us in His own image. Paul calls this "the new man" in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29295/eVerseID/29297" name="2929529297">Ephesians 4:22-24:</a> "Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." Theologically, this process is called "sanctification."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is where our obedience comes into play. Paul writes in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30040/eVerseID/30040" name="3004030040">Hebrews 5:9</a>, "Having been perfected, [Christ] became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." Keeping God's commandments—His instructions—will guide us in learning what God requires of us and in impressing His character image upon us. God's laws do not save us, but they provide a pattern of behavior that pleases Him because such behavior is a reflection of His own. Obedience, then, becomes a tool that we use in conjunction with Christ to grow in righteousness and prepare for the Kingdom of God.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-63550639790497398222014-06-13T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-06T16:14:54.090-05:00*Called to Follow<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If there is one great principle of Christian living, it is walking in Christ's footsteps (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30557/eVerseID/30557" name="3055730557">I John 2:6</a>). Sounds easy, but putting it into practice is one of the most difficult tasks of a Christian's life. If we succeed, however, we will be one of those to whom He says in the resurrection, "Well done, good and faithful servant." We will have not only lived as He did, we will have put on His character image, the great goal of the Christian life (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28146/eVerseID/28146" name="2814628146">Romans 8:29</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23228/eVerseID/23232" name="2322823232">Matthew 4:18-22</a>, Jesus begins to call His disciples, particularly the pairs of brothers, Peter and Andrew and James and John:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately, they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The sparse prose of the gospel account makes it seem as if the four of them just dropped their nets, jumped off the boats, and never looked back!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Evidently, this was Jesus' first command to each of His disciples. Maybe He did not say these exact words to each one, but it seems that Matthew gives this account as an example of Jesus' pattern in calling them: He commanded them, "Follow Me." And they immediately left what they were doing and followed Him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On the surface, "Follow Me" may appear to mean simply, "Go where I go," but there is far more to it. The disciples would learn over the next three and a half years that "Follow Me" meant a great deal more than just "Walk behind Me." It also means "Do what I do," "Live as I do," and "Experience what I experience." Ultimately, it also means "Suffer and die like Me." Yet, on the other hand, it also means "Share eternal life and My rewards, too." That simple command runs the entire gamut of Christian life and potential.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From a negative perspective, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/25359/eVerseID/25364" name="2535925364">Luke 9:57-62</a> considers the costs of being a follower of Christ:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Clearly, following Jesus is neither easy nor risk-free. Its sacrifices and hardships are sometimes severe. It involves a commitment that most people are just not willing to make because true discipleship involves absolute devotion and dedication to Christ Himself. Thus, Jesus said these things, testing these men, finding out what was really in their hearts—if they were willing to commit themselves to Him, to His way of life, and to His purposes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the final verse, He lets us know the bottom line of what is required: One who is fit for God's Kingdom is willing to give all. German clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lived under the Nazi regime, wrote a book called <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Cost-Discipleship-Dietrich-Bonhoeffer/dp/0684815001/" target="_blank">The Cost of Discipleship</a>.</em> In it, he sums up the Christian calling with a now well-known quotation, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this passage, Luke records three instances in which someone gives an excuse to refuse Christ's calling to follow Him, illustrating three general areas in which people fail. The first reason is that the Christian life is one of discomfort. Jesus tells the man that He did not have a place to lay His head. In God's Word, Christians are often called "strangers" and "sojourners." We are travelers going through a land or residing only temporarily. In a spiritual sense, we are not citizens of the lands in which we live (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29442/eVerseID/29442" name="2944229442">Philippians 3:20</a>). So, as travelers along the road of life toward the Kingdom of God, we cannot expect to have all the comforts of home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We cannot allow the accoutrements of this world and of this life to hold us back in our devotion to Christ. Our homes, jobs, vacations, clothes, pastimes—none of these things compare to the importance of this Christian life. We must be willing to forsake all of these things if they inhibit our relationship with God. It may make life uncomfortable, but the rewards are wonderful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The second reason some fail is because the Christian life is sacrificial. The man asks Jesus if he could first bury his father, but He answers, "No. You go and preach the Kingdom of God." We, because of our calling, must often forsake the customary duties, privileges, associations, and activities of normal life. The Christian's focus, Jesus says, is on the living, those whom God has called and given the truth, whose focus is also on God's work (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26287/eVerseID/26287" name="2628726287">John 6:29</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When God calls a person, His will comes first. We may end up "missing out" on many of this world's activities. Some people miss them so much that they feel short-changed by God. Whether we pass or fail on this point depends on our priorities. If our ties to the world and its ways are too strong, we will be unwilling to sacrifice them to follow Christ. To be a true disciple, He says, we have to cut many or most of those ties.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The third reason people refuse Christ's call follows from the second: The Christian life demands new loyalties. The third man wanted to say farewell to his close friends and family. Jesus' reply is that once we commit to God's way, we cannot turn back, or we will be considered unfit. Many Christians are the only ones called from their particular families. They often find that, over time, they must forsake their own blood to a degree because they discover that they have little in common with them. Their ways of life are so dramatically divergent that separation becomes natural. In the church under a new and better way of life, they find a new identity, a new family, and a new purpose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is said that blood is thicker than water, but Jesus warns that our devotion to Him and God's way of life must be stronger. It requires an act of will to make our devotion to Him stronger than our blood ties. The Holy Spirit will not just infuse us to be totally committed to God. We have to set our wills to believe and follow through with making God our first priority in life, to go where He says to go. This is the new loyalty that Christ's calling demands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this way, we begin to live the life of Christ.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-36245914338922387702014-06-06T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-18T13:10:45.938-05:00*Our Awesome Calling<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Hello, sir! This is Jane Doe from XYZ Vacations! How are you today? I'm calling to let you know that you've won a free three-day, two-night vacation at one of our gorgeous new condominiums on the fabulous Florida coast! Isn't that fantastic? We know you'll love these two-bedroom, two-bath condos with all the amenities that you've come to expect of luxury vacation homes. And, of course, our property is centrally located among all the area's exciting venues for shopping, eating, entertainment, and sports! When can we expect you here?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Most adults have received such a call. Even more likely, we have received an invitation like this in the mail, printed on glossy paper and adorned with rich, full-color images of beautiful beach scenes. We are told, in fine print, that we are on the hook for all other expenses, including travel costs and food, and that we will be required to endure a two- or three-hour "presentation" (read: sales pitch), during which all manner of inducements will be used to get us to buy a couple of weeks of annual rentals. It is a classic advertising gimmick.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Christianity includes a much nobler invitation to a good deal: God calls each person to a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ, and thus to Him through Christ. Jesus speaks of this in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26302/eVerseID/26302" name="2630226302">John 6:44:</a> "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day." He essentially repeats this in verse 65: "Therefore I said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When we parse what He says in these verses, we learn some amazing things. First is the remarkable fact that the Father Himself initiates the relationship. The great, almighty, and omniscient God, Ruler of the universe, decides to invite or summon a particular human being into fellowship with His Son. He does not consider such a task to be beneath Him, but He takes a personal interest in each individual called into His church. He knows each of them long before they ever thought of Him (consider <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/16253/eVerseID/16253" name="1625316253">Psalm 139:13</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/18952/eVerseID/18952" name="1895218952">Jeremiah 1:5</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28146/eVerseID/28146" name="2814628146"></a><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28146/eVerseID/28146" name="2814628146">Romans 8:29</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Second, Jesus explicitly asserts that <em>no one</em> can come to Him except through the Father's calling. While most people, even nominal Christians, believe that they can find God if they seek Him long and hard enough, the Bible disagrees. David tells us in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/14083/eVerseID/14084" name="1408314084">Psalm 14:2-3:</a> "The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one." The apostle Paul repeats this in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28003/eVerseID/28003" name="2800328003">Romans 3:11</a>, "There is none who seeks after God." Human beings are milling about in a world of profound religious confusion—worshipping thousands of gods of their own making, seeking gods to please themselves—but to know and worship the true God, they must be granted access by the Father.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Third, our Savior uses an interesting word to picture what God does to summon us: The Father "draws" us. "Draws" is translated from the Greek word<em>helkúö</em>, which in its most literal sense can also mean "to drag" (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27503/eVerseID/27503" name="2750327503">Acts 16:19</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27695/eVerseID/27695" name="2769527695">21:30</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30300/eVerseID/30300" name="3030030300">James 2:6</a>)—and with some of us, it may well have happened with us kicking and screaming! <em>A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament,</em><em>Third Edition (BDAG)</em> provides a helpful nuance of this word's meaning:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To move an object from one area to another in a pulling motion, </span><em style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">draw, </em><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">with implication that the object being moved is incapable of propelling itself or in the case of pers. [sic] is unwilling to do so voluntarily, in either case with implication of exertion on the part of the mover. . . .</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This explanation reinforces the points we have already seen. When the Father initiates His calling, the individual does not have the capability to move himself into a relationship with Him, nor would he do so voluntarily, being at enmity with God (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28124/eVerseID/28124" name="2812428124">Romans 8:7</a>). God, therefore, must make the effort to reach out to the individual and open the way for fellowship with Him and His Son. But how does He do this?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/22244/eVerseID/22245" name="2224422245">Hosea 11:3-4</a>, God speaks of His treatment of Israel, "I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck." In a similar vein, Paul writes in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28215/eVerseID/28215" name="2821528215">Romans 11:5</a>, "Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Here, the apostle uses the term "election" in a similar sense as Jesus speaks of few being chosen (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23809/eVerseID/23809" name="2380923809">Matthew 20:16</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23887/eVerseID/23887" name="2388723887">22:14</a>), an idea parallel to being drawn to Christ. The Father elects or selects only a few to understand the truth and have a relationship with Him and His Son, and He does this out of love by His grace. That is, His calling is a freely given gift; nothing that we are or have done compels God to draw us to Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God's calling, then, is by grace, but <em>what does He do</em> to call a person? <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26425/eVerseID/26425" name="2642526425">John 8:43</a>, where Jesus is arguing with some Jews, provides a clue: "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word." They were physically hearing His words, but they were incapable of spiritually comprehending His meaning. Yet, converted Christians can understand Him. Thus, part of the miracle of God's calling is that, through His Spirit (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28405/eVerseID/28411" name="2840528411">I Corinthians 2:10-16</a>), the Father opens the mind to spiritual understanding, and as Paul explains it, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28206/eVerseID/28206" name="2820628206">Romans 10:17</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this way, He gives us the gift of faith (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29238/eVerseID/29238" name="2923829238">Ephesians 2:8</a>), by which we can truly believe and then act upon what He says. We can see this in the calling of Lydia, whom Paul met in Philippi: "The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27498/eVerseID/27498" name="2749827498">Acts 16:14</a>), and she was baptized soon thereafter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Bible tells us that God usually chooses the salt of the earth—the foolish, the weak, the base, and the despised of the world (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28391/eVerseID/28392" name="2839128392">I Corinthians 1:27-28</a>), but our goal is to become "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30409/eVerseID/30409" name="3040930409">I Peter 2:9</a>). In other words, we have not been called to remain "just as we are." We have a "heavenly" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29997/eVerseID/29997" name="2999729997">Hebrews 3:1</a>) and "a holy calling" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29819/eVerseID/29819" name="2981929819">II Timothy 1:9</a>), one that we must "walk worthy of" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29274/eVerseID/29274" name="2927429274">Ephesians 4:1</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our calling is no gimmick. The Father has summoned, invited, us to the greatest purpose any human being can be asked to participate in: "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28146/eVerseID/28146" name="2814628146"></a><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28146/eVerseID/28146" name="2814628146">Romans 8:29</a>), to prepare to be firstfruits of His spiritual harvest (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30285/eVerseID/30285" name="3028530285">James 1:18</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30931/eVerseID/30931" name="3093130931">Revelation 14:4</a>), to be kings and priests in His Kingdom (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30704/eVerseID/30704" name="3070430704">Revelation 1:6</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30790/eVerseID/30790" name="3079030790">5:10</a>), and to be the Bride of Christ (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/31025/eVerseID/31027" name="3102531027">Revelation 19:7-9</a>). As the author of Hebrews urges us, "See that you do not refuse Him who speaks" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30238/eVerseID/30238" name="3023830238">Hebrews 12:25</a>).</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-7271312271872195102014-05-30T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-06T21:41:02.424-05:00*The Bible's Claims About Itself<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is almost impossible for a Christian to have a meeting of minds with an atheist on any subject anywhere in the neighborhood of religion. As soon as the "conversation" moves to the source of the Christian's belief, the Bible, the atheist summarily rejects what the Christian says. In an incredulous voice, he will say something like, "You're telling me that you believe what you read in a book that is thousands of years old over the findings of modern science?" When the Christian answers, "Of course!" the atheist will ask, "Why?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The only proper response is, "Because it is the Word of God," and the conversation can logically go no further. The determined atheist will accept no argument based on Scripture, and the faithful Christian will accept nothing that contradicts it. The conversation must end unresolved and unsatisfying—unless God Himself intervenes to open the atheist's mind or the unprepared Christian withers under the other's arguments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In one sense, Christianity begins and ends with the Bible. All we truly know about God is found in its pages, as it is the only permanent record of God's revelation of Himself to mankind. In it, we find all of our instruction on doctrine, law, and morality. It reveals the standards by which human beings can live in harmony. It shows the miserable depths of man's depravity and the incomparable heights of his potential—and how God can take him from the former to the latter. In reality, a converted Christian bases every aspect of life on the words written in it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Billions have seen the need to own this book we call the Holy Bible. It continues year after year to be the world's bestselling book, and millions of free copies are distributed around the globe. One would think that, with the Bible so accessible, humanity's moral fiber would be strong, but just the opposite is true. What a paradox! A major key to successful and abundant life lies in our hands, yet most reject it as quaint, outdated, and invalid for our times! The fact is, few people really study it, much less believe it. When polled, many give it lip-service, but increasingly, people do not consider it authoritative—it is just another possibility among many.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Accepting the Bible on faith may be noble, but God instructs us through the apostle Paul, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29643/eVerseID/29643" name="2964329643">I Thessalonians 5:21</a>). We must challenge the Bible to verify its claims, and conversely, we must take up the challenge to put its instructions to the test in our lives. We must make proving God's Word a personal matter that will forever erase all doubts about its validity. This takes time and work. It also takes the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit to open our minds to its richness and truth (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28401/eVerseID/28411" name="2840128411">I Corinthians 2:6-16</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26685/eVerseID/26686" name="2668526686">John 14:16-17</a>, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/26695/eVerseID/26695" target="_blank">26</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/26740/eVerseID/26741" target="_blank">16:13-14</a>). Only then can we really understand and believe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">New Bible students are struck by the Bible's authoritative claims about itself. For instance, Paul writes in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29870/eVerseID/29870" name="2987029870">II Timothy 3:16</a>, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." The phrase "inspiration of God" is in Greek <em>theopneustos</em>, literally "God-breathed." Scripture, then, is a direct product of God's mind and being. The words "all Scripture" (<em>pasa graphe</em>) can be rendered "every text," "every scripture," "the whole scripture," "all the writings," etc., meaning the whole canon of Scripture. In other words, nothing crept into the Bible that God did not want there, and conversely, nothing He wanted to be in it has been left out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is backed up by <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30501/eVerseID/30501" name="3050130501">II Peter 1:21:</a> ". . . for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." God employed His Spirit to inspire His servants, the prophets and apostles. At some point, they wrote down what God had revealed through them, passing His Word on to successive generations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29965/eVerseID/29966" name="2996529966">Hebrews 1:1-2</a> informs us that God's inspiration occurred in a number of ways: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son." God is not limited to revealing Himself in any one manner. Sometimes, He spoke directly (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/306/eVerseID/306" name="306306">Genesis 12:7</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/389/eVerseID/389" name="389389">16:7</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/1582/eVerseID/1582" name="15821582">Exodus 3:2</a>; etc.). At other times, He spoke in visions and dreams (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/17656/eVerseID/17656" name="1765617656">Isaiah 1:1</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/20466/eVerseID/20466" name="2046620466">Ezekiel 1:1</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/21760/eVerseID/21760" name="2176021760">Daniel 2:1</a>, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/21778/eVerseID/21778" target="_blank">19</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27270/eVerseID/27270" name="2727027270">Acts 10:10;</a> <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30708/eVerseID/30708" name="3070830708">Revelation 1:10</a>; etc.). He once even spoke through a donkey (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/4404/eVerseID/4404" name="44044404">Numbers 22:28</a>)! On one occasion, He spoke through the casting of lots (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26947/eVerseID/26950" name="2694726950">Acts 1:23-26</a>), much as He did through the Urim and Thummim to Israel (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/4576/eVerseID/4576" name="45764576">Numbers 27:21</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Most importantly, He spoke through His Son, Jesus Christ, who came to reveal the Father (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26063/eVerseID/26063" name="2606326063">John 1:18</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26676/eVerseID/26680" name="2667626680">14:7-11</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26785/eVerseID/26786" name="2678526786">17:25-26</a>). He is uniquely qualified to speak for God because, as the apostle John describes Him in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26046/eVerseID/26047" name="2604626047">John 1:1-2</a>, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/26059/eVerseID/26059" target="_blank">14</a>, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/26062/eVerseID/26062" target="_blank">17</a>, He is God! As the Word (Greek <em>logos</em>), He is the Spokesman for God, communicating to humanity, and specifically to His people, the will of God and the way to live in a relationship with Him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Since He came to reveal the Father, Jesus must have been the God Being that the Israelites worshipped in Old Testament times, who spoke to them and led them. In this vein, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26048/eVerseID/26048" name="2604826048">John 1:3</a> specifically claims that the Word is also the Creator (see also <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29482/eVerseID/29482" name="2948229482">Colossians 1:16</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29261/eVerseID/29261" name="2926129261">Ephesians 3:9</a>). The Being, then, who made all that exists is the same One who inspired the words of Scripture! Since we owe our existence to Him, we also owe obedience to His Word in our Bibles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As for its content, the Bible claims that it provides truth to humanity. Jesus Himself says in His great prayer to His Father on the night He was arrested, "Your word is truth" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26777/eVerseID/26777" name="2677726777">John 17:17</a>). This an echo of <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/16059/eVerseID/16059" name="1605916059">Psalm 119:160:</a> "The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever." God considers every word He speaks or inspires to be true. It is His guarantee that we receive only the best instruction from Him. In fact, He would not be God if He spoke anything other than the truth (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/4436/eVerseID/4436" name="44364436">Numbers 23:19</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29895/eVerseID/29895" name="2989529895">Titus 1:2</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30063/eVerseID/30063" name="3006330063">Hebrews 6:18</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Bible also claims, "Every word of God is pure" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/17257/eVerseID/17257" name="1725717257">Proverbs 30:5</a>). David writes in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/14073/eVerseID/14073" name="1407314073">Psalm 12:6</a>, "The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times" (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/14177/eVerseID/14177" name="1417714177">Psalm 19:8</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16039/eVerseID/16039" target="_blank">119:140</a>). The Hebrew word behind "pure" means "tested," "refined," or "proven of the highest quality." Our God has given us only the best information to propel us along the path to His Kingdom. We can take great confidence in that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus comments on the authority of Scripture in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23253/eVerseID/23253" name="2325323253">Matthew 5:18:</a> "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." The jot (<em>iota</em>) and the tittle (<em>keraia</em>, "little horn" or "point") are the smallest parts of written Hebrew. Christ was so sure of Scripture that He claimed that all of it would be fulfilled—down to the minutest parts. He affirms in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26517/eVerseID/26517" name="2651726517">John 10:35</a> that "the Scripture cannot be broken," which means its authority cannot be "loosened," "unbound," "destroyed," "annulled," or "taken away." Our Lord and Savior says that no one can diminish the authority of God's Word!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Bible presents many proofs of its validity and authority; what we have seen so far only scratches the surface. The most convincing and most lasting proof, however, resides in the relationship we build and foster with God. In a way, we can say that our proving of Scripture extends throughout our Christian lives as we see God in action, working in and through us to bring us into His Kingdom. The real proof is in the doing.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-20428911250861643052014-05-23T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-23T16:56:02.659-05:00*How Human Nature Came to Be<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just this month, a longtime California politician, State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), who is charged with gun trafficking and corruption for allegedly accepting bribes, suggested that money for political campaigns should come from state coffers because "money just simply corrupts." He went on to explain: "I think there's that old adage, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It's just human nature. After a while, you kind of feel that you deserve, you know, all the perks of office, because you've suffered so much, you've given up so much. You should have all of those kinds of trappings." So much for ethics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In one sense, he is correct: Human nature—the fundamental dispositions and characteristics of human beings—is highly susceptible to corruption. We tend to be selfish, self-centered, and self-aggrandizing. We habitually follow behaviors and opportunities that promote or benefit us without thought to how they may affect others. Everyone covets what others have. Most will lie to deflect hurt or blame. Some will steal to line their pockets. A few will take another person's life to protect their self-interests. As David writes in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/14084/eVerseID/14084" name="1408414084">Psalm 14:3</a>, speaking of "the children of men," humanity, "They have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why is human nature so corrupt? Why is it so widespread? How did it come to be? Did God create it this way?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God did indeed create mankind, forming Adam "of the dust of the ground, and breath[ing] into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/38/eVerseID/38" name="3838">Genesis 2:7</a>). <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/13637/eVerseID/13637" name="1363713637">Job 32:8</a> informs us that "the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding," meaning that, not only did God give us life, but He also gave us intellect and faculties for language, logic, creativity, forethought, and many other cognitive abilities. However, the Creation account also records, "God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/31/eVerseID/31" name="3131">Genesis 1:31</a>). The nature God created in man was originally, not just "good," but "very good." It was not corrupt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When they were created, then, Adam and his wife Eve had pure minds. Certainly, as fleshly beings, they had physical drives that tend to pull in a selfish direction—drives to feed themselves, protect themselves, etc. They were innocent, however, in their pursuit to satisfy these drives. While in this state, God gave them a couple of very specific commands: to tend and keep the Garden of Eden (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/46/eVerseID/46" name="4646">Genesis 2:15</a>), but not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil upon pain of death (verse 17).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Their idyllic, innocent life ended with the temptation of Eve by the cunning serpent (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/57/eVerseID/61" name="5761">Genesis 3:1-5</a>), who was God's—and now humanity's—great adversary, Satan the Devil, in disguise (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30901/eVerseID/30901" name="3090130901">Revelation 12:9</a>). God reveals the Devil's origin in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/17941/eVerseID/17944" name="1794117944">Isaiah 14:12-15</a> and <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/21170/eVerseID/21175" name="2117021175">Ezekiel 28:12-17:</a> He was created as a marvelous and powerful angel, a cherub who covered God's throne with his wings, yet whose ambition and pride "corrupted his wisdom" and led him to attempt to attack God's throne and usurp His authority over all creation. As mighty as this archangel was, no mere creature can defeat God, so the Almighty cast this now-fallen angel down to earth in ruin, along with one-third of his fellows whom he had persuaded to his cause (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30896/eVerseID/30896" name="3089630896">Revelation 12:4</a>). It was this being, speaking through a serpent, who was "in Eden, the garden of God" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/21171/eVerseID/21171" name="2117121171">Ezekiel 28:13</a>), intent on corrupting God's newest creatures before they could even begin following God‘s way of life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The serpent immediately sowed doubt and confusion in Eve's mind by questioning God's command. As she fumbled through her reply, he accused God of deceit, saying, "You will not surely die" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/60/eVerseID/60" name="6060">Genesis 3:4</a>), if she ate the forbidden fruit. Then he threw his ace, as it were, contradicting God, urging her that just the opposite would happen: ". . . in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (verse 5).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Satan played the oldest trick in the book, stroking her vanity to desire to be equal with God through disobedience, and she ate of the fruit. Though not deceived (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29731/eVerseID/29731" name="2973129731">I Timothy 2:14</a>), Adam weakly followed his wife's lead into sin. In this moment, carnal human nature—what all human beings now possess—was created.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Human nature generally follows the course that it took with Eve, as explained in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/63/eVerseID/63" name="6363">Genesis 3:7:</a> The fruit of the forbidden tree looked good, she desired to eat it, and she saw how it could benefit her, so she partook of it despite God's command. The apostle John calls this "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30567/eVerseID/30567" name="3056730567">I John 2:16</a>, commenting that it is "not of the Father but is of the world." The apostle Paul reminds us of sin's penalty: "The wages of sin is death" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28092/eVerseID/28092" name="2809228092">Romans 6:23</a>), just as God had warned them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The deed was done; they could not "unbite" the fruit. They had chosen to follow the lies of Satan rather than the commands of God, and the course of this world was set. God sent them out of Eden, blocking their way back should they ever desire to return to take of the Tree of Life and live eternally in sin (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/78/eVerseID/80" name="7880">Genesis 3:22-24</a>). Because of their rebellion, God let humanity go its own way, as Paul explains in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27959/eVerseID/27959" name="2795927959">Romans 1:28:</a> "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now all of humanity, except for those few whom God calls to redeem (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26302/eVerseID/26302" name="2630226302">John 6:44</a>), are open to the selfish and rebellious attitudes of Satan the Devil, "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29232/eVerseID/29233" name="2923229233">Ephesians 2:2-3</a>). Because human beings have a spirit, they are able to "tune in" to the spirit broadcast by the Adversary, and without the resistance that only God's Holy Spirit can offer, all fall under its influence without exception. As they continue to listen to it as they grow up, it becomes their nature, a miniature copy of Satan's.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, if we have been called, accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, and pledged ourselves to Him for His use through <a href="http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.topic/ID/380/Baptism.htm">baptism</a>, Paul writes, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28407/eVerseID/28407" name="2840728407">I Corinthians 2:12</a>). Redemption through Christ is the only cure for corrupt human nature, and even then it takes a lifetime to learn to resist the pulls of that nature and instead do God's will (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29179/eVerseID/29188" name="2917929188">Galatians 5:16-25</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30345/eVerseID/30348" name="3034530348">James 4:7-10</a>). It can be done, for Jesus Himself said, "With God all things are possible" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23789/eVerseID/23789" name="2378923789">Matthew 19:26</a>).</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-84453970911818132802014-03-31T21:56:00.004-04:002014-03-31T22:02:08.825-04:00RBV: II Kings 10:26<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>And they brought the sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them.</i></span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—II Kings 10:26</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The burning of the sacred pillars of Baal occurred during the coup and subsequent reforms of Jehu, who overthrew the House of Ahab and destroyed Baal worship in Israel. It was a violent, bloody era in both the northern and southern kingdoms' histories. After Jehu personally slew Joram, Ahab's son and heir (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9781/eVerseID/9781" target="_blank">II Kings 9:24</a>), he sent pursuers to kill the King of Judah, Ahaziah</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, who had married a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9784/eVerseID/9784" target="_blank">verse 27</a>), and later, ordered Jezebel to be thrown from an upper-story window and trampled her body under his chariot (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9787/eVerseID/9790" target="_blank">verses 30-33</a>). He incited the inhabitants of Samaria to kill the seventy sons of Ahab living in the city (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9795/eVerseID/9802" target="_blank">II Kings 10:1-7</a>). "So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his close acquaintances and his priests, until he left him none remaining" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9805/eVerseID/9805" target="_blank">verse 11</a>). For good measure, he killed all the sons of King Ahaziah (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9806/eVerseID/9808" target="_blank">verses 12-14</a>), "and when he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed them, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to Elijah" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9811/eVerseID/9811" target="_blank">verse 17</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once he was firmly established as king, Jehu went after the worshippers of Baal, using deception to lure them into the temple of Baal, where he had them all killed (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9812/eVerseID/9819" target="_blank">verses 18-25</a>). Evidently, the entire temple had been packed with Baalists ("the temple of Baal was full from one end to the other"; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9815/eVerseID/9815" target="_blank">verse 21</a>)</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, and eighty of his most loyal guards and captains slaughtered them without mercy. Thus, Jehu brutally purged Baal-worship in Israel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was at this point that his men brought out the sacred pillars from the temple and burned them. The previous verse indicates that these pillars were in the inner sanctum, the "most holy place" of the temple. The Hebrew word for "pillars" is </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">mashshebot</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, which can describe both wooden and stone pillars that can be either functional (like doorposts) or monumental and religious. These pillars stood for the presence of Baal in his temple, much as the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat stood for the true God's presence in the Tabernacle/Temple. If the pillars were of wood, they were burned to ash, and if they were of stone, they were fragmented by heating them in a bonfire and then pouring water on them. Sometimes, depending on the level of abhorrence, they were pulverized.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not to leave anything undone, Jehu "tore down the temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump" (</span><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9821/eVerseID/9821" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">verse 27</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">). Modern commentators believe that he actually redeveloped the area and made the site a public latrine. So he showed his contempt for Baal and his adherents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sadly, Jehu did not take the next step and renounce all paganism. Instead, he upheld the national religion represented by the golden calves that Jeroboam I had installed at Bethel and Dan during the tenth century (</span><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9823/eVerseID/9823" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">verse 29</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">). For this, God limited his reward to rule over Israel for four generations (</span><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9824/eVerseID/9824" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">verse 30</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">). While he did what God had asked of him in ridding the nation of Ahab and Jezebel's influence, he did not completely embrace God's way (</span><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/9825/eVerseID/9825" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">verse 31</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There lies the lesson. If God tells us to overthrow what is evil in our lives, those things that cause us to sin</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and He does command us to do so</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">then we had better do what we can to rid ourselves of those things <i>completely</i>. We cannot afford to leave any vestiges of evil lying around because they will return to haunt us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thankfully, we can do this through the sacrifice of Christ and the power of God's Spirit. God wants us to "go on to perfection" (</span><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/30046/eVerseID/30046" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Hebrews 6:1</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">), or as James writes in terms of overcoming trials, ". . . that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (</span><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/30271/eVerseID/30271" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">James 1:4</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">). Our Father does not want a bunch of half-finished, partially loyal Jehus as children; He wants completely perfected sons and daughters who are wholly committed to His way of life.</span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-57233496362557367662014-03-28T22:18:00.000-04:002014-03-28T22:25:25.063-04:00RBV: I Chronicles 14:11<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, "God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water." Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—I Chronicles 14:11</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This chapter records the brief accounts of two encounters in the Valley of Rephaim, probably near Bethlehem, that King David had with the Philistines. Our verse is part of the concluding comments on the first battle (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/10783/eVerseID/10787" target="_blank">verses 8-12</a>), while the second encounter is narrated in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/10788/eVerseID/10791" target="_blank">verses 13-16</a>. Both clashes occurred just after David became king over all Israel, having united Judah and the northern tribes, and the Philistines were probing into Israelite territory to test his strength and perhaps divide and thus weaken the nation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David's forces win both battles decisively, a severe setback for the Philistines, who had been consistently victorious over Saul's armies in the recent past. The stark contrast with Saul is deliberate, showing that the new king had God's support, unlike the old king. One of the clear differences is that, when David inquires of God whether he should meet the Philistines in battle, the Lord answers him: “Go up, for I will deliver them into your hand” (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/10785/eVerseID/10785" target="_blank">verse 10</a>). Recall that in the last years of his reign, "when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/7949/eVerseID/7949" target="_blank">I Samuel 28:6</a>). And in desperation, facing the armies of Philistia in the Valley of Jezreel, Saul seeks a medium instead—leading to disastrous results. The chronicler is illustrating the good things that happen when the leader of the nation truly fears God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The chief emphasis, however, is that God Himself is the main cause of the Israelites' victories; He fights their battles for them (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/1904/eVerseID/1904" target="_blank">Exodus 14:14</a>). David is humble before God, not presuming to take the armies of Israel to war unless the true Ruler of Israel permits it (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/10785/eVerseID/10785" target="_blank">I Chronicles 14:10</a>). Nor does he presume that just because he has God's permission that it will result in victory: David asks Him if He will allow him to conquer his adversaries. Both questions receive affirmative answers, giving the king and his soldiers great confidence—certainty—that they will emerge triumphant. All the credit goes to God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the picturesque way of the Hebrews, David depicts his first victory in Rephaim as a divine breakthrough of water, something like onrush of a flash-flood. He may have been thinking of the results of heavy rainfall in hilly country, when the water pours down the hillsides and the gullies cannot contain it but spill over, eroding under the torrent. In a similar way, armies can rush down upon their foes, who are unable to defend against the onslaught and break.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thus, David calls the place <i>Baal Perazim</i> or "Lord of Outbursts." We do not normally think of God in this way, but we are instructed by this passage in Scripture to consider it. Our God has a multifaceted personality. He is not always calm and patient, treading softly and ruffling no feathers. Sometimes, He suddenly breaks out with an ear-splitting shout and an onrush of overwhelming power that nothing and no one can stand against! Fortunately, He does this against His and His people's enemies, sweeping them away with a stroke of His arm.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do we wish for Him to act this way in our behalf? Perhaps He will not come to our aid as dramatically as He did for Israel in I Chronicles 14, but if we follow David's example of humble inquiry and faithful service, He will fight our battles for us. Our task will be to follow His lead and glorify Him for His wondrous intervention.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-31634000676479518402014-02-07T16:30:00.000-05:002017-01-27T21:10:59.738-05:00*Witness and Warning to the Powerful<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Bible contains an interesting phenomenon, one found especially in the Old Testament, in which God coordinates events to place one of His servants in a position of high visibility and sometimes great power at the center of world events. In this way, He sounds a warning and makes a witness of His will and His way among the "greats" of the time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Bible hints that such placements happened more often than we generally realize. A few of His servants may have held such positions or at least been highly visible to the powers that were then in control, but we are not given any Scriptural details. For instance, Noah, "a preacher of righteousness" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30506/eVerseID/30506" target="_blank">II Peter 2:5</a>), may have done something of the sort before the Flood, warning the rulers of the pre-Flood world of their imminent doom. Early myth/history drops clues that his son, Shem, proved a thorn in the side of early Mesopotamian and Egyptian kings post-Flood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nevertheless, the Bible explicitly ties several of God's servants to rulers of kingdoms and great empires:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Abram </b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">hears that Lot and his family have been taken captive by a host out of Mesopotamia, he gathers his 318 trained servants and goes in pursuit. He not only recovers his relatives, but he also brings back to Sodom all of the city's captives and their plundered goods. This earns him the boundless gratitude of the king of Sodom, but Abram and Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, give all the credit to the Almighty (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/351/eVerseID/361" target="_blank">Genesis 14:14-24</a>). His rescue of Lot and his refusal of reward make a witness to all of Sodom, which would soon be destroyed by God for its sins (Genesis 19).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Though his brothers cruelly sell young </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Joseph </b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">into slavery, he is eventually promoted to second-in-command over Egypt, the world's superpower of the day. The Pharaoh tells him in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/1236/eVerseID/1236" target="_blank">Genesis 41:40</a>, "You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you." When the prophesied great famine comes, he garners even more power as the one to whom all have to come if they want to buy grain. Significantly, Joseph gives God all the credit for his wisdom, telling Pharaoh, "It is not in me [to interpret your dream]; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/1212/eVerseID/1212" target="_blank">Genesis 41:16</a>). Through Joseph, God saves Egypt and provides for Israel throughout the famine, as well as arranging for Israel's astounding growth in Goshen while "the iniquity of the Amorites" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/377/eVerseID/377" target="_blank">Genesis 15:16</a>) ran its course in Canaan.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A few generations later, God again manipulates events to allow </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Moses </b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">to be brought up by the crown princess in the very house of Pharaoh, giving him the title "son of Pharaoh's daughter" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30197/eVerseID/30197" target="_blank">Hebrews 11:24</a>) and putting him in line for the throne of Egypt. He also has access to "all the wisdom of the Egyptians" so that he becomes "mighty in words and deeds" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27139/eVerseID/27139" target="_blank">Acts 7:22</a>). When God later brings him out of the wilderness to confront Pharaoh and bring His people out of Egyptian slavery, Moses has both the access and stature to bring God's message directly to the king. Through ten terrible plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea, he delivers a tremendous warning and witness to Egypt.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We may not consider the prophet </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonah </b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">in this light, but his prophecy finds its way into a palace. Once the prophet finally arrives in Nineveh, the capital city of the mighty Assyrian empire, his preaching reaches the king's ears: "Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/22565/eVerseID/22565" target="_blank">Jonah 3:6</a>). It is the king who decrees that everyone in the city—even all the animals!—are to fast, cry out to God, and repent of their evils. A great tragedy is delayed by their repentance and a great witness made of the power and mercy of the God of Israel.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the story of </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Daniel</b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, God takes a youth from among the captives of the Jews in Babylon, and by interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream, raises him to prominence in his court. "Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts; and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/21807/eVerseID/21807" target="_blank">Daniel 2:48</a>). Later, Belshazzar makes Daniel third ruler in the kingdom (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/21904/eVerseID/21904" target="_blank">Daniel 5:29</a>), behind only himself and his father. Darius, the first ruler of Babylon under the Medes and Persians, appoints Daniel to be one of three governors over the entire empire (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/21907/eVerseID/21908" target="_blank">Daniel 6:1-2</a>), a position he holds under Cyrus when he takes up the reins of power not long thereafter. For six or seven decades, the prophet witnesses constantly before the rulers of these powerful empires, giving all the credit to God (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/21787/eVerseID/21787" target="_blank">Daniel 2:28</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/21893/eVerseID/21893" target="_blank">5:18</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/21928/eVerseID/21928" target="_blank">6:22</a>).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Less than a century later, another Persian king, Ahasuerus (most likely Xerxes I), appoints another Jew, </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mordecai</b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, to great power in the empire: "For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/12870/eVerseID/12870" target="_blank">Esther 10:3</a>). The good service he gives to the king probably paves the way for both Ezra and Nehemiah to do their work in Jerusalem not long thereafter.</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nehemiah</b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, as cupbearer to the Persian king, is a highly trusted confidant of Artaxerxes (successor to Xerxes I). The cupbearer is with the king at all meals, ensuring that the king's drink is not poisoned (and perhaps his food as well). As soon as Nehemiah asks permission to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, the king immediately appoints him governor of the region and sends forces with him to make sure he arrives safely. His every action shows him to be a trustworthy and godly servant.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Finally, among these examples should be included the apostle </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Paul</b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, who appeals to Caesar while imprisoned in Caesarea on charges trumped up by the Jews (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27807/eVerseID/27809" target="_blank">Acts 25:10-12</a>). Through many trials, Paul is eventually delivered to Rome, where he spends two whole years "preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27931/eVerseID/27931" target="_blank">Acts 28:31</a>). Although we have no biblical record of it, he must have come to trial before Caesar and been acquitted of all charges, as he is released to continue his ministry after the two years are up. So, Paul witnesses before the greatest ruler of his day, the Roman emperor!</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the not-too-distant future, Christ will raise His Two Witnesses to preach and warn the whole world that He is coming to bring His Kingdom to this earth (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/30874/eVerseID/30874" target="_blank">Revelation 11</a>). God always ensures that no one—and especially those with real power in the world—can claim ignorance before Him in the Day of Judgment.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-24868176631079599862014-01-04T13:10:00.001-05:002014-01-05T11:41:49.155-05:00RBV: Zephaniah 1:8<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; position: relative;"><i>And it shall be,</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; position: relative;"><i>In the day of the L<span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">ord’s</span> sacrifice,</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; position: relative;"><i>That I will punish the princes and the king’s children,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; position: relative;"><i>And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; position: relative;">—Zephaniah 1:8</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; position: relative;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Zephaniah makes no bones about the fact that his prophecy deals with the Day of the Lord and His anger at humanity for its hostility to Him: "'I will utterly consume everything fro</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">m the face of the land,' says the L<span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">ord</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/22790/eVerseID/22790" target="_blank">Zephaniah 1:2</a>). It is clear that He is most disappointed with His chosen people, who should have known better because He had worked with them for many generations (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/22397/eVerseID/22398" target="_blank">Amos 3:1-2</a>). Yet, even they had become idolaters, worshipping Baal and Milcom and "the whole host of heaven," turning away from God and no longer seeking Him (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/22792/eVerseID/22794" target="_blank">Zephaniah 1:4-6</a>).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/22795/eVerseID/22795" target="_blank">verse 7</a>, God calls for silence; He wants no more protests or excuses. He has decided to prepare a sacrifice and invited guests to partake of it. The modern Westerner has little notion of what this entails. Under the Levitical system, not all sacrifices were completely consumed in the altar's fire. Some burnt sacrifices, as they were called, were annihilated, but others were strictly divided: Certain parts went on the fire, another part was given to the priest to eat, and the remainder</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the majority of the animal</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">returned to the offerer. Usually, with such a large amount of meat to consume in a short time, the offerer would call a feast for his family and close friends.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From this comes a major principle of the sacrificial system. The altar symbolized a table and the giving of an offering represented the sharing of a meal among God, the priest, and the offerer. The three were united in fellowship, solidifying and strengthening a relationship. For Christians, this three-way relationship exists among the Father, the Son (who is our High Priest), and the Christian. As the apostle Paul enjoins us in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28247/eVerseID/28247" target="_blank">Romans 12:1</a>, rather than giving our lives in death to Him, we are to be "living sacrifices," holy and acceptable to God, continuing the relationship in service to Him.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, Zephaniah reveals that God has something different in mind for the Day of the Lord. For His sacrifice</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—or sacrificial meal</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—He has invited guests from afar, and the sacrifice of which they will partake is His people, Judah! In <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/22796/eVerseID/22796" target="_blank">verse 8</a>, He is particularly incensed against Judah's rulers, the corrupt descendants of David, who have led the nation further into sin. He expected the royal house to follow the examples of David and Josiah, but they had instead pursued carnal habits and political expediencies, bringing Judah to the brink of war, captivity, exile, and destruction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">As the verse closes, He highlights the particular failing of listening to foreign influence, seen in the wearing of "foreign apparel." It likely refers to a trend among the aristocrats of the time of wearing the clothing style of the foreign nation he supported in the power-struggle over the strategic land-bridge that was the Kingdom of Judah. (The conflict over that bit of territory is still ongoing today.) At the time, it was probably the distinctive styles of Egypt and Babylon, both of which were quite different from that of the Israelites. The verse suggests that the nation's leaders had stopped wearing Israelite-style clothing altogether</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—symbolizing their departure from God and what He had commanded (for instance, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/4192/eVerseID/4194" target="_blank">Numbers 15:38-40</a>)</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—and by donning the clothing of these powerful, competing empires, they were pledging their loyalties to the nations rather than to God. It could also mean that these aristocrats were worshipping the idols of these nations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Behind the NKJV's translation of "punish," the Hebrew literally reads that God will "visit" the royal sons of Judah, which, in its negative sense, is a common metaphor for coming in judgment. It should come as no surprise that, when Judah finally fell to the Babylonians, Zedekiah's sons were killed before the eyes of their father, just before he was blinded and taken off to Babylon (</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/10225/eVerseID/10230" target="_blank">II Kings 25:2-7</a>). In addition, many of the aristocrats were killed and their children were dragged off to Babylon as slaves, as was the case with Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/21739/eVerseID/21742" target="_blank">Daniel 1:1-4</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Judah's destruction in the early-sixth century BC is just a type of the Day of the Lord that will be visited upon the world just before the return of Jesus Christ. God will be just as jealous for the loyalty of His people, true Christians, at that time as He was 2,600 years ago. We need to be asking ourselves if we have allowed ourselves to be "clothed with foreign apparel."</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-85545411606806923392013-12-28T13:02:00.000-05:002013-12-29T09:42:07.829-05:00RBV: Psalm 35:18<br />
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<i>I will give You thanks in the great assembly;</i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will praise You among many people.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—Psalm 35:18</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Psalm 35 is a plea to God from David to weigh in on his side against those who were troubling him without a cause (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/14418/eVerseID/14418" target="_blank">verse 7</a>). He had no idea where the animosity had come from, and for his part, he had behaved toward them like a friend:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But as for me, when they were sick,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My clothing was sackcloth;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I humbled myself with fasting;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And my prayer would return to my own heart.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I paced about as though he were my friend or brother;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/14424/eVerseID/14425" target="_blank">Psalm 35:13–14</a>)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, when he was down, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. . . they rejoiced</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And gathered together;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Attackers gathered against me,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And I did not know it;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They tore at me and did not cease;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With ungodly mockers at feasts</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They gnashed at me with their teeth. (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/14426/eVerseID/14427" target="_blank">Psalm 35:15–16</a>)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To grasp the reason for David's statement in verse 18, it must be read in context with the previous verse:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lord, how long will You look on?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rescue me from their destructions,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My precious life from the lions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will give You thanks in the great assembly;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will praise You among many people.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David felt alone and persecuted unjustly, and worst of all, he felt that God was merely sitting as a spectator in the stands of the arena, idly watching the spectacle of his being torn to pieces by the teeth and claws of ravenous lions, his enemies. Knowing how undeserved his trouble was, David cannot understand why God has not acted to save him before this. Verse 18 is a promise, along with the plea of verse 17, to praise God publicly and give Him all the glory for his deliverance (compare <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/14227/eVerseID/14227" target="_blank">Psalm 22:22</a>, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/14230/eVerseID/14230" target="_blank">25</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/14535/eVerseID/14536" target="_blank">40:9–10</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Specifically, he promises to praise God in the public worship at the Tabernacle, as this occurred before the building of the Temple, accomplished by David's son, Solomon. The phrase "many people" is elsewhere translated as "the throng" (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/14560/eVerseID/14560" target="_blank">Psalm 42:4</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/15786/eVerseID/15786" target="_blank">109:30</a>), and in this case, the psalmist speaks of it, not just as a great number of people, but as a "mighty throng," implying great strength as well. It is doubtful, but there may be a suggestion here that the people of the assembly would be strengthened if they only knew the mighty works that God had performed on David's behalf.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The more cynical may see David's promise as a bribe of sorts, trying to finagle a miracle from God and vowing to repay Him with praise. Others may equate it with the desperate prayer of a soldier in the foxhole, promising to go to church every week if God will just preserve him through the battle. However, that is certainly not the case here. David is already fully committed to God, which he has proved over many years of service to Him, and in this particular psalm, by loving his enemies and waiting on Him for salvation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The simple fact is that praise (through continued thanks, worship, and proclamation of God's goodness) is the only way a human being can "pay back" the great God of the universe for His blessings and aid. What can a man give to God? We have nothing that God needs; He owns everything already. David's promise, then, should be read as a pledge of joy (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/14420/eVerseID/14420" target="_blank">verse 9</a>) to praise his Lord and proclaim his faith in God to the widest audience possible as a witness (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/14438/eVerseID/14439" target="_blank">verses 27b-28</a>). He will do his part to show the world that his God is the God of salvation, one who comes to the aid of His people. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-11782985532978941372013-12-27T16:30:00.000-05:002017-01-06T21:42:34.853-05:00*Dating Christ's Birth<div style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
Despite the continuing secularization of our society, people remain fascinated and curious about the historical basis for the life of Jesus Christ. This curiosity becomes apparent especially around the traditional holidays of Christmas and Easter, when Jesus is supposed to be "the reason for the season." The Internet provides a wide-open window into the things people are thinking about, and questions about Jesus' birth and death are frequently asked on search engines and answers are posted on social media sites. For instance, a quick inquiry on Google or Bing about the date of Jesus' birth returns literally millions of pages of material.</div>
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As the world just experienced, the vast majority of mainstream Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25 or January 6 (Eastern Orthodox), depending on their denominational allegiance. While a minority of these Christians insist that December 25 is the correct date of the Nativity, most people realize that proof for this early winter date is quite scanty, which we will see presently. Even so, very few of them think that the date is significant as long as one is celebrating the advent of the Son of God into the world for the salvation of mankind—and one experiences good cheer with family and friends and receives the expected number of presents under the tree. I know, my cynicism is showing.</div>
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In the run-up to Christmas, it is not uncommon for newspapers, magazines, and online news sites to publish articles revealing the errors and inconsistencies in the supposedly Christian holiday. A person would be ignorant indeed if he did not know that erecting Christmas trees, burning yule logs, hanging mistletoe, and putting up twinkling house lights have no biblical foundation, and in fact, hail from paganism. Santa Claus blends the fourth-century Saint Nicolas with old Germanic and Scandinavian traditions that probably have their roots in Odin worship, and his eight reindeer likely derive from Odin's eight-footed horse, Sleipnir. (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the ninth reindeer, was added in 1939, thanks to the poem of that name by Robert L. May written for the Montgomery Ward department store chain.) Santa's modern look comes courtesy of a Coca-Cola advertising campaign in the 1930s.</div>
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The more serious-minded publications, however, tend to focus on the date, the place, and the biblical and historical sources of Jesus' birth. In 2012, "Bible History Daily," an online publication of the Biblical Archaeology Society, published "<a href="http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/?mqsc=E3707957&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=BHDDailyNewsletter&utm_campaign=E3BD25">How December 25 Became Christmas</a>," written by Andrew McGowan, Warden and President of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Writing for the general public, McGowan collates the findings of numerous scholars who have looked into the issue, concluding that, frankly, no one can really be sure how Christmas came to fall on December 25.</div>
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In typical scholarly fashion, McGowan brushes over the biblical information, mentioning only the detail of the shepherds being out with their flocks at night (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/24982/eVerseID/24982" name="2498224982">Luke 2:8</a>). He snootily dismisses it, writing, "Yet most scholars would urge caution about extracting such a precise but incidental detail from a narrative whose focus is theological rather than calendrical." He quickly hurries on to extra-biblical findings, clearly believing them to be more credible.</div>
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In spite of his less-than-comforting dismissal of what the Bible says on the subject, McGowan rounds up the historical facts with rigor. He shows that Christian leaders well into the late-third century did not celebrate Christ's birth, citing the well-known "Early Church Father," Origen: "Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as 'pagan' practices—a strong indication that Jesus' birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time." Note that Origen lived into the latter half of the third century.</div>
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Earlier, around the year 200, Clement of Alexandria had written that Christian teachers had proposed various dates for the Nativity, but December 25 was not among them. In fact, most of them fall in the spring. But by the fourth century, December 25 in the Roman West and January 6 in Egypt and the East had become widely recognized as competing dates for that unique day in Bethlehem. How had the people of that time come to decide on these dates?</div>
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McGowan posits two theories—and that is all they are. The first is the one most members of God's church are familiar with: that December 25 is borrowed from Roman paganism, particularly the Saturnalia festival kept in late December. As the author notes in support of the idea, "To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25."</div>
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While collecting the facts assiduously, he stumbles in interpreting them. Finding no historical proof that the Roman church in the late-third or early-fourth century <em>intentionally</em> syncretized the pagan holiday into Christianity, McGowan fails to see any plausibility in this theory. However, he later contradicts himself: "From the mid-fourth century on, we do find Christians deliberately adapting and Christianizing pagan festivals." For this, he blames Constantine, who "converted" in AD 312. We can only conclude that he is being either naïve or purposely disingenuous about the Roman church's penchant to ignore God's Word in its quest for converts.</div>
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The second theory makes a great to-do about the date of Passover (Nisan 14) when Christ died, which at the time was believed to have occurred on March 25, exactly nine months prior to December 25. The ancients apparently considered such symmetry to be divinely ordained. "Thus," McGowan writes:</div>
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Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. Exactly nine months later, Jesus was born, on December 25. . . . Connecting Jesus' conception and death in this way will certainly seem odd to modern readers, but it reflects ancient and medieval understandings of the whole of salvation being bound up together.</div>
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Despite this theory being based on supposition and "divine symmetry," McGowan considers it more likely than deliberate syncretism—before the mid-fourth century, of course.</div>
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Belief in the general historicity of God's Word would solve his dilemma, but trusting the Bible is rare among critical scholars these days. Our article, "<a href="http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/ARTB/k/568/When-Was-Jesus-Born.htm">When Was Jesus Born?</a>" uses the biblical details to narrow the possible dates to a two-week period in the early autumn, aligning well with the fall holy days, particularly the Feast of Trumpets. It is far more likely that the divine symmetry would align Christ's birth with God's feasts than with the short days of early winter.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-45560088845529859692013-12-07T12:49:00.001-05:002013-12-07T13:02:17.462-05:00RBV: II Timothy 2:26<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>. . . and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—II Timothy 2:26</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is important to realize who the apostle Paul is writing about in this verse. The antecedent of "they" appears in the <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29853/eVerseID/29853" target="_blank">previous verse</a>: "those who are in opposition." The entire epistle is instruction for the evangelist Timothy, and in this passage in particular, Paul is giving the younger man advice on how to handle those who dispute the gospel message he taught.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He instructs Timothy, as "a servant of the Lord," to correct his opponents with humility and in the hope of two positive outcomes should God grant repentance to them. First, his correct explanation of the matter in contention would bring them out of their ignorance, liberating them from the bondage of error (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/26414/eVerseID/26414" target="_blank">John 8:32</a>) and opening the potentialities of the truth to them. Paul was very aware that false teachers and anti-Christian foes functioned with a veil over their minds (see, for instance, how he explains it regarding the Jews in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28856/eVerseID/28858" target="_blank">II Corinthians 3:14-16</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/23648/eVerseID/23648" target="_blank">Matthew 15:14</a>), a blindness that could only be lifted by the direct intervention of God revealing Himself and His truth by the Holy Spirit (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28405/eVerseID/28409" target="_blank">I Corinthians 2:10-14</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/26302/eVerseID/26302" target="_blank">John 6:44</a>). A minister of God should always answer naysayers plainly with the revealed truth of God to give them the knowledge that may lead to their repentance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second positive outcome is the subject of <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29854/eVerseID/29854" target="_blank">II Timothy 2:26</a>. He hopes that exposure to the truth will bring opponents "to their senses" and free them from their captivity to Satan. The apostle realizes that even the most cunning argument of one of God's servants is not enough to accomplish this; a person's repentance and acceptance of the truth will happen only if God "flips a switch" in his mind by the Holy Spirit to become receptive to Him. So a minister must present the truth in the event that God will use his explanation to call him into a relationship with Him. It is only at this point that an individual truly comes to his senses (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/25606/eVerseID/25606" target="_blank">Luke 15:17</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/27220/eVerseID/27237" target="_blank">Acts 9:3-20</a>). Only then does he begin to see without the blinders (or in Paul's own case, when the scales fell from his eyes).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once one accepts the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and acknowledges Him as personal Savior and Lord, the walls of Satan's prison fall away and crumble to dust (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28085/eVerseID/28091" target="_blank">Romans 6:16-22</a>). His power over us disappears because his claim on us has been removed; our sins have been forgiven and we are no longer in rebellion against God. We have gone over to the other side in the great spiritual war that the Devil has always been destined to lose. The Captain of our salvation has already crushed the head of the serpent (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/71/eVerseID/71" target="_blank">Genesis 3:15</a>), and all that remains is the perfection of the saints for their roles in the Kingdom of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, there are yet billions of people who are still "captive . . . to do his will." <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/30901/eVerseID/30901" target="_blank">Revelation 12:9</a> states that the great dragon, who is the Devil and Satan, has deceived the whole world. Despite his ignominious defeat at Calvary, Satan is determined to turn it into victory. In his pride, he still thinks he can win! So he will continue to oppose God and His people wherever and whenever he can, using his captives all over the world to trouble, persecute, and kill God's saints. This reality means that Christians must remain on their guard at all times, prepared to "fight the good fight" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29878/eVerseID/29878" target="_blank">II Timothy 4:7</a>) to wear the crown of victory in the Kingdom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, we must remember that our fight is really not against the men and women still enslaved to Satan, although they are the faces and voices that oppose us. Paul writes:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29350/eVerseID/29351" target="_blank">Ephesians 6:12-13</a>)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We need to look beyond our physical opponents to the evil spirits behind them, realizing that our human foes have not yet come to their senses and seen the light of the truth that only God can reveal. Thus, we can contend with them in humility and gentleness, grateful for the grace God has extended to us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-78787293376640713742013-11-17T22:31:00.000-05:002013-11-17T22:31:14.188-05:00RBV: Psalm 139:21<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><i>Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">—Psalm 139:21</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The psalmist, King David, makes a claim that the modern Westerner, steeped in the feel-goodism of political correctness and postmodern aversion to judgmentalism, flinches from, questioning whether it is even properly Christian. Such people would cite the words of Jesus in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/23279/eVerseID/23280" target="_blank">Matthew 5:44-45</a>, saying that we are to love our enemies and do good for them despite their insults and persecutions because our Father in heaven does good to both the evil and the good. While these verses may seem to be in direct contradiction to each other, they are, in fact, complementary, deepening our understanding of God's way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Critics commonly make the mistake of "proof-texting," that is, considering a text as "proof" of a biblical truth without taking context and other passages into consideration. Plucking this verse alone out of Psalm 139 and giving it ultimate credence would be proof-texting at its worst. In this case, as in many cases of supposed contradictions, context is key to understanding David's thought, expressed in such absolute, impassioned terms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16261/eVerseID/16261" target="_blank">Verse 21</a> falls near the end of a long prayer to God in which David relates in various ways that he realizes how well God knows him. That is how he opens the psalm, giving us a very broad hint at its subject: "O LORD, You have searched me and known me" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16241/eVerseID/16241" target="_blank">verse 1</a>). God knew everything there was to know about the king of Israel, including his every thought and word, and in fact, He had made him, designed him, to be that way (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16253/eVerseID/16256" target="_blank">verses 13-16</a>)! Moreover, God was always with him, and if David had even tried to flee from Him, there is no way that he could have escaped (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16247/eVerseID/16252" target="_blank">verses 7-12</a>)!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16257/eVerseID/16257" target="_blank">verse 17</a>, he begins to bring his thoughts around to the idea he expresses in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16261/eVerseID/16262" target="_blank">verses 21-22</a> about hating those who hate God. He opens this section of the psalm with an exclamation about how valuable he considers God's thoughts—His revelation of Himself and His way of life—to be. Thinking about how precious God's truth is leads him to react strongly against those who oppose God and all the good that His Word can do. He asks God to "slay the wicked</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16259/eVerseID/16259" target="_blank">verse 19</a>) for their bloodthirsty fight against Him</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and God's people, whose blood is being shed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David's words in verses 21-22, then, expressing his perfect or complete hatred against God's enemies, are a declaration of loyalty and devotion to God's cause. If they opposed God, he would oppose them. He was all in. So he says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16263/eVerseID/16263" target="_blank">verse 23</a>). He had no reservations about his commitment to God's side, knowing that such devotion would lead to "the way everlasting" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16264/eVerseID/16264" target="_blank">verse 24</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We also need to understand the Hebrew word behind "hate"; it is not as absolute as we tend to consider it. The word is <i>sânê</i>, and its meanings range from real hatred</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the intense, visceral emotion of antagonism against another</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to be set against or intolerant of another. In this case, David's uncompromising loyalty to God excludes any kind of tolerance of those who have proclaimed themselves as God's enemies. So, in this case, David's hatred of those who hate God is an implacable rejection of them; he has set himself against them because they are actively hostile to God. Thus, his "hatred" is, not malevolence, but in actuality zeal for God, a righteous, vehement devotion to his sovereign Lord.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-49473253873456086212013-10-26T19:58:00.000-04:002013-10-26T20:17:58.318-04:00RBV: I Corinthians 2:12<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—I Corinthians 2:12</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the apostle Paul begins his first letter to the Corinthians, knowing that he is writing to a congregation divided among various factions, he patiently explains to them what makes them different from those in the world yet at the same time unites the members of the church. He, of course, refers to God's Holy Spirit, given to all Christians at conversion by the laying on of hands. The apostle John calls it "the anointing which you have received from Him" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/30578/eVerseID/30578" target="_blank">I John 2:27</a>), implying that Christians have been ordained, and thus set apart or sanctified, to a task or office that others have not been given.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This sets up a dichotomy. On the one side are Christians who have freely received God's Spirit, and on the other are all other human beings who, Paul says, have received "the spirit of the world" (see also <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29232/eVerseID/29232" target="_blank">Ephesians 2:2</a>). Thus, there is a clash of spirits, a collision of motivating forces, at work between the Christian and the world. The apostle writes in Galatians 5 that the two spirits are diametrically opposed, one producing "the works of the flesh," while the other bears "the fruit of the Spirit" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29179/eVerseID/29188" target="_blank">verses 16-25</a>). In fact, he declares in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28124/eVerseID/28124" target="_blank">Romans 8:7</a>, "The carnal mind is enmity against God"; the worldly person, imbibing of the spirit of this world, lives in hostility to God and cannot do what God commands.</span><br />
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The Spirit from God, though, removes the human hostility and allows the Christian to know</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that is, realize, understand, and use</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the gracious gifts of God. These gifts are predominantly spiritual blessings rather than physical ones. Jesus advises His disciples not to worry about food, drink, and clothing because God knows that physical human beings need such things to live (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/23308/eVerseID/23315" target="_blank">Matthew 6:25-32</a>). Instead, He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/23316/eVerseID/23316" target="_blank">verse 33</a>). The Christian's mind is to be focused on God's goal and godly things that will propel him along the way there, and he can do this only by the many gifts bestowed through God's Spirit.</span><br />
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Paul's focus in this passage seems to be on knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Earlier, he had mentioned that God has chosen to spread the gospel message through preaching, which the worldly Greeks considered "foolishness" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28387/eVerseID/28387" target="_blank">I Corinthians 1:23</a>). Yet, this only exposes the fact that the Greeks did not have the ability to understand spiritual matters, and God would ultimately confound them in their "wisdom" through weak and foolish people preaching a "foolish" message of a crucified Savior. The difference is that those weak and foolish people possess a Spirit that comes directly from the Creator God that allows them to know the truth in all its divine splendor.</span><br />
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Thus, in terms of the apostle's overall goal in persuading the Corinthians that they should "be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28374/eVerseID/28374" target="_blank">I Corinthians 1:10</a>), he emphasizes that they have this one commonality, God's Holy Spirit, that makes all the difference to them as individuals and as a congregation. So, as he goes on to say, there is no reason for them to be so judgmental one against the other, for they all "have the mind of Christ" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28411/eVerseID/28411" target="_blank">I Corinthians 2:16</a>). Having one mind and being all in one Body of Christ, as he later discusses (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28647/eVerseID/28662" target="_blank">I Corinthians 12:12-27</a>), </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> dividing themselves into cliques is both counterproductive and contrary to God's purpose</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-66316940261503728202013-10-25T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-06T21:45:58.283-05:00*How Jesus Reacts to Sin<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The episode in John 8 of the women caught in adultery offers a stark contrast between the scribes and Pharisees and Jesus Christ in terms of their reactions to sin. The gospels contain several examples of Jesus having to deal with a sinner—a harlot, a tax collector, even whole crowds who only wanted to get something for themselves from Him. Jesus, however, almost always treats such sinners the same way, unlike the scribes and Pharisees. We know the story:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26384/eVerseID/26387" name="2638426387">John 8:2-5</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We can imagine that, despite the early hour, quite a crowd had already gathered there in the Temple precincts, and this is precisely what the Pharisees wanted, an audience to witness what was about to take place. The Pharisees had probably been watching the woman for quite some time, planning to use her to discredit Jesus before the multitudes. When she stole away to her tryst with the unmentioned man, they were ready. Barging into the room, the Pharisee's drag her out—leaving the man—and haul her to the Temple to display before Jesus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then they ask a leading question, testing Him, as verse 6 plainly states, to frame Him when He spoke against God's law. It was a "gotcha" situation. They knew that He "consorted" with sinners, and having questioned Him or criticized Him about it at other times (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/24277/eVerseID/24277" name="2427724277">Mark 2:16</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/25230/eVerseID/25230" name="2523025230">Luke 7:34</a>, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/25233/eVerseID/25235" target="_blank">37-39</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/25590/eVerseID/25591" target="_blank">15:1-2</a>; etc.), they expected to use His compassion for them against Him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus, though, does not react as they planned: "But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26388/eVerseID/26388" name="2638826388">John 8:6</a>). He ignores them and their question, treating the latter with the disdain it deserves. What He wrote on the ground matters little. His action says that their silly attempt to entrap Him is hardly worth His notice, that He is not going to jump at their bidding, that He would not be baited into error. They were, in effect, playing "the accuser of our brethren," one of Satan's roles (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30902/eVerseID/30902" name="3090230902">Revelation 12:10</a>), and we can imagine that this is often Christ's reaction to him when he accuses one of the saints.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Pharisees, not liking or accustomed to being ignored and disdained, nag him for an answer. After letting them stew for a while, He answers in a way that totally disarms them of their "righteous" indignation: "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26389/eVerseID/26389" name="2638926389">John 8:7</a>). Their consciences' pricked, the Pharisees from oldest to youngest, slip away, melting into the crowd, overcome once again by the Teacher from Galilee.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yet, Jesus' reaction to the situation is not finished. What He does next is even more astounding:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Consider that she is an obviously sinful woman; she had a reputation as a loose woman. The Pharisees had caught her in the act of adultery, and that was probably only one of many sins. We would likely not be wrong in calling her a wicked woman.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In every way opposite to her is Jesus Christ, sinless and perfect. The Pharisees, themselves sinful, attempted to force Him, a Man of unimpeachable character, to condemn a sinner—to them, a foregone conclusion. However, Jesus' approach to the situation is poles apart; His reaction and attitude throughout this vignette is completely contrary to that of the Pharisees.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To them, reading the Old Testament law concerning the punishment for adultery (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/3329/eVerseID/3330" name="33293330">Leviticus 20:10-11</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/5493/eVerseID/5493" name="54935493">Deuteronomy 22:22</a>), this was an open-and-shut case: The woman had been caught in the act, they had two or three witnesses, the law was clear, so there should be a stoning! This appears to be unequivocal. The law does indeed proscribe the death sentence by stoning. What more proof does Jesus need?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Despite everything weighing against the woman, Jesus approaches the matter differently. He clearly understands that the woman had sinned. He realizes there were witnesses to that effect. He knows the law and the penalty, but He does not leap to a verdict of condemnation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Recall that, for some time, He does nothing but write on the ground. He lets the matter simmer. While the carnal Pharisees agitate for answers and demand action, Jesus patiently waits. God works with us in the same way. We can become infuriated when God fails to answer us immediately after we say, "Amen," but giving us time for things to work out is a consistent pattern with Him. We can be certain that He does this when we are accused before Him, even when we are guilty as charged, as the remainder of the passage in John 8 shows.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Because we are so familiar with the character of Jesus, we do appreciate how shocking His statement in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26393/eVerseID/26393" name="2639326393">John 8:11</a> is: "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." One would expect a righteous God to say, "This is the law. This is your infraction, so this is your punishment." But we understand that God is love and that He is gracious and merciful, so when He does not say, "I condemn you to be stoned," we tend to pass over it without thinking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, first-century Jews would have been astounded to hear such a thing! They may have been the most judgmental people who have ever lived on the face of the earth. One little infraction of the law was enough to condemn a person. Excommunication was so common a practice that people stood in great fear of the Pharisees (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26463/eVerseID/26463" name="2646326463">John 9:22</a>). What Jesus says was a radical concept, one that contradicted everything they had been taught.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Moreover, Jesus had every right—as God in the flesh, to whom the Father had committed all judgment (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26233/eVerseID/26233" name="2623326233">John 5:22</a>)—to condemn her to death, but He shows mercy. He does not react in anger to reinforce how bad her sin was. He does not even preach at her. He simply commands her not to sin like this anymore, and He lets her go to work it out for herself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, He does not pass up an opportunity to teach the crowd: "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26394/eVerseID/26394" name="2639426394">John 8:12</a>). He teaches that He, being that Light, has given us an example to follow in situations like this. A sinner condemned to die produces nothing. Only with further life and light will he or she have the chance to repent and grow in character.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That is how God works with us, and are we not happy that He reacts to our sins with patience and mercy? So we should forbear with our brethren (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29530/eVerseID/29531" name="2953029531">Colossians 3:12-13</a>).</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-1574064624091849922013-10-05T13:20:00.000-04:002013-10-05T13:23:40.729-04:00RBV: Proverbs 29:12<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his servants become wicked.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—Proverbs 29:12</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This proverb is the first of a set of three that runs through verse 14. The general theme concerns the integrity of government, while the middle proverb, verse 13, deals with the obvious fact that both ruler and ruled are equal in the sight of God. There is also a progression among the three verses from negative to positive, passing through the neutrality of verse 13. One can also see that wicked officials who become oppressors of the poor meet their match in a ruler who leads with integrity and truth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our concern, however, is with verse 12 specifically. A little understanding of the way a royal court works—in fact, any seat of leadership—will help explain how this happens. If the ruler bends an ear to gossip, insinuations, misrepresentations, unfounded assertions, manufactured "facts," or any other kind of falsehood, his administration will be founded on sand. His advisors and officials will soon learn that the easiest way to influence and power in the government is by telling the ruler what he wants to hear rather than what is actually true. That is how the game is played. In a very short time, the whole government will be corrupt. In other words, the underlings adjust themselves to their leader, and thus the Roman saying, <i>Qualis rex, talis grex</i> (“like king, like people”).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The New King James translates this verse as a conditional statement: "<i>If</i> ... [then]." However, the Hebrew makes a plain statement of fact, as the <i>Contemporary English Version</i> renders it: “A ruler who listens to lies will have corrupt officials.” Wherever they are found, hierarchies have this property: The whole governmental structure reflects that character—or lack thereof—of the leader at the top. As American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it, "Every institution is but the lengthened shadow of some great man." This can be a wonderful asset when the man at the top possesses sterling character—and a terrible liability when he is corrupt, out of his depth, or a fool.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Parents need to be especially careful because of this fact of human nature. The children will not only reflect that attitudes, speech, and behaviors of their parents, but they will actively learn how to function under their parents leadership and </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">manipulate</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> them to get what they want. And this happens much earlier in the children's lives than most parents realize; toddlers may not be able to articulate what they are doing, but they know when tears or smiles or some other trick will make mom or dad do their bidding. Many a mother has told a friend about an incident with her child, "The baby was just so cute that I </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">had</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to give in!" The baby had won and learned how to make the mother dance to his/her tune.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The overall lesson is that a person in authority must lead by seeking the truth in all matters that come before him. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is foolish to decide a matter based on initial reports or only one side of a dispute, even if it sounds right.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He should not act before taking the time and the effort to discover independently whether matters are as they have been presented. If a leader takes this prudent path, those under him will soon learn that it does not pay to tell falsehoods that will be found out, leading to their ouster. In an atmosphere of truth, corruption finds it much harder to gain a foothold, and everyone under such an administration of integrity has a greater opportunity to be satisfied.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-7863691046128948672013-09-13T16:30:00.000-04:002013-10-25T20:47:04.239-04:00No Meeting of the Minds<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever done something and almost immediately regretted doing it? It is easy to do such things from our computers, whether it is sending an email critical of the boss or a coworker to the whole company instead of just one colleague or making an off-the-cuff Facebook comment that seems innocent until you realize it contains an embarrassing double-entendre. My mistake among many this week involved neither of those things, yet even so, what I did opened a can of worms that I would have avoided if I had known what a minor tempest it would cause.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My Facebook and Twitter accounts are linked, so what I post on the former—mostly items in the news or religious or archeological articles that I think are significant or helpful—simultaneously appears on the latter. Usually, this feature causes no problems. My Facebook friends are predominantly family, church members, and school friends who know me and my beliefs to a certain extent. Comments are usually supportive and understanding, but if they disagree, they are more often restrained and respectful than not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If Facebook can be compared to a barbeque with friends, Twitter is a food fight in a college cafeteria. I signed on to Twitter mostly to stay on top of news and commentary on the events of the day, as a kind of raw feed of what is occurring in the world. I make only a few comments directly to Twitter, but my Facebook page makes many more for me. One of these stirred up a hornet's nest among a group of feminists and atheists that troll Twitterdom. (<em>Trolling</em>, for those not up on Internet lingo, is "deliberately posting derogatory or inflammatory comments to bait other users into responding" or simply to stir up trouble.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My sin—in their eyes—was to link to an article on Christian marriage and make this comment: "If husbands loved as they are supposed to, wives would have no problem submitting to them." To us, this is a true, benign statement in accord with <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29327/eVerseID/29327" name="2932729327">Ephesians 5:22</a>, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29330/eVerseID/29330" target="_blank">25</a>. But to feminists and to atheists who support them, I may as well have slapped their faces with a gauntlet and challenged them to duels! The first reply, from a person with "secular" in her Twitter handle, reads, "why [sic] would I ever want to submit to someone who should consider me an equal, and why would he want me to??" The second, from a young man who describes himself as "20-year old Uni. student, atheist, secular humanist," simply says, "That doesn't make any sense." From there, the tweets became far worse and <em>a lot</em> more profane.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After just a few back-and-forth exchanges, it became frustratingly obvious that there was no meeting of the minds. None. We could not even agree on simple definitions of words like "submit," "equality," "love," and "instruction"! For instance, my interlocutors simply refused to consider that submission in a relationship of equals is even possible. To them, submission <em>always</em> indicates a superior-inferior relationship, thus a wife submitting to her husband is admitting a lower status—and feminists will never take a back seat to a man. Once this kind of thinking became plain to me, any idea of explaining humility went right out the window!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From what I could tell from the scant amount of information that is available about a person on Twitter, almost all of them were young adults, militantly and proudly atheist and thoroughly steeped in secular humanism, the guiding philosophy of progressives the world over. They had been educated solely in the ideas and aspirations of men in "this present evil age" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29062/eVerseID/29062" name="2906229062">Galatians 1:4</a>). My only point of contact with them was being of the same species.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our minds, our thinking, could not have been more different. As atheists, they would not accept any argument based on Scripture, and my every argument on this subject came out of God's Word. For my part, I could not comprehend a relationship in which both partners refused to allow the other to lead. Such a relationship of stubborn insistence of superiority (which they called "equality") is bound to fail. As Herbert Armstrong often said, in any relationship of two people, one of them must be the leader—even the relationship of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Jesus says, "My Father is greater than I" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26697/eVerseID/26697" name="2669726697">John 14:28</a>). He voluntarily submits.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To my Twitter opponents, though, voluntary submission was unacceptable and self-contradictory. How can there be any hope of even mild understanding, much less agreement, when the two sides of a conversation have no common foundation, language, or objectives? Seeing how ultimately futile it was, trying to explain physics to a fungus may have been easier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My experience highlights a few spiritual realities. The first spiritual reality is that, because mankind has continually rejected God and every proof, not only of His existence, but also of His power and involvement in the affairs of humanity, God has allowed most people in this world to continue along the path of their own godless thinking and reap the consequences. As Paul phrases it in his revealing explanation of this truth, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27959/eVerseID/27959" name="2795927959">Romans 1:28</a>). He tells the Ephesians that "the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29290/eVerseID/29291" name="2929029291">Ephesians 4:17-18</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second spiritual reality is the flipside of the first: Those whom God calls are a new creation (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28073/eVerseID/28073" name="2807328073">Romans 6:4</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29293/eVerseID/29297" name="2929329297">Ephesians 4:20-24</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29527/eVerseID/29528" name="2952729528">Colossians 3:9-10</a>), and with the gift of the Holy Spirit, their minds have been enlightened with the understanding of divine things. Jesus tells His disciples:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. . . . I will come to you. . . . However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26685/eVerseID/26687" name="2668526687">John 14:16-18</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26740/eVerseID/26741" name="2674026741">16:13-14</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Paul summarizes this in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28405/eVerseID/28405" name="2840528405">I Corinthians 2:10</a>, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28411/eVerseID/28411" target="_blank">16</a>: "But God has revealed [His truth and plan] to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. . . . [W]e have the mind of Christ."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These two realities are why there is no meeting of the minds. People in the world are functioning and reasoning on one wavelength and Christians on another, and the two are diametrically opposed (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29180/eVerseID/29180" name="2918029180">Galatians 5:17</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28122/eVerseID/28126" name="2812228126">Romans 8:5-9</a>). Paul warns us in II Timothy 3 that this widening difference will make "the last days perilous times" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29855/eVerseID/29855" target="_blank">verse 1</a>), and "evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29867/eVerseID/29867" target="_blank">verse 13</a>). Giving a reasoned defense of the hope within us (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30440/eVerseID/30440" name="3044030440">I Peter 3:15</a>) will only become more difficult in the days ahead.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-48694846078978818122013-08-16T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-11T15:33:18.747-05:00*Truth Revealed to Babes<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Bible has been the world's bestselling book for many years; billions of people have ready access to God's Word—as close as their own bookshelf or computer. Yet, while the words of God's Book can be read, and frequently are, what it truly means remains a mystery to most people. The sheer number of Christian denominations shouts the fact that even those who profess to follow Christ do not agree on the Bible's message to humanity. Jesus Himself quotes Isaiah, saying, "Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23554/eVerseID/23554" name="2355423554">Matthew 13:14</a>; see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/17779/eVerseID/17779" name="1777917779">Isaiah 6:9</a>). The "mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" have not been opened to them (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23551/eVerseID/23551" name="2355123551">Matthew 13:11</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Earlier, He had said something similar in a prayer:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight." (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23485/eVerseID/23486" name="2348523486">Matthew 11:25-26</a>)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus found something praiseworthy in God the Father denying understanding to those who are thought to be "wise and prudent" but revealing His truth to "babes," average people who are yet unlearned. Those who think that they are smart—who believe they already know how the world works—reject the truths of God as "simple," "pie-in-the-sky," "naïve," "unscientific," "regressive," etc. In contrast, the unlearned possess an open, unspoiled mind that is willing to listen to what God has to say.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28390/eVerseID/28393" name="2839028393">I Corinthians 1:26-29</a>, Paul says that God has called the foolish and the weak to confound the wise and the mighty. Most church members look at Paul's words as if they are a prophecy—that someday, the wise and mighty will look at the glorified saints and say, "If God could do that with them. . . ." But the apostle is also giving us something to do right now. If we are living by God's Word, what we do every day of our Christian lives are the things that will confound those who are the smart and powerful in this present world. When they rise in the resurrection, they will be ashamed that their pride caused them to reject God's revelation when it was being lived right in front of them so plainly. By this, God will humble them and lead them to conversion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Notice the paragraph leading up to Paul's conclusion that the foolish would confound the wise:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28382/eVerseID/28388" name="2838228388">I Corinthians 1:18-24</a>)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The truth is so easy to understand, so shockingly simple: Christ crucified. The Creator God died on a tree, giving His blood to cover human sin. It is quite simple—yet confoundingly profound! From that "simple" idea of Christ crucified, countless books have been written. At its root, the idea is simple, something that we can all understand, but the depth of knowledge and understanding that can be derived from it is limitless!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, to the so-called wise and prudent, who cannot perceive that truth, whose eyes have not been opened, it is just sheer foolishness, even offensive. But we know that the gospel of Christ crucified—which does not leave Him dead on a tree but proclaims Him alive at God's right hand—is the dynamic power and wisdom of God, which leads no less than to salvation and eternal life. The people of Athens were ready to name Paul a fool for the idea of resurrection (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/27556/eVerseID/27556" name="2755627556">Acts 17:32</a>) because, as the wise of this world, that is how they saw the message: "God dies then comes back to life again, and because of that, we can have eternal life too?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Greeks, the ones whom intellectuals hold up as emblems of wisdom and philosophy, thought they were wise to scoff at the truth. To their heirs in the world, the message of the Bible and its simple truths do not measure up to their erudition. For example, they find the nature of God as revealed in Scripture to be lacking. God's Word shows that there is God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son. They have a spirit, the essence of their minds, by which they act. How plain! Nevertheless, the "wise" reject this in favor of a convoluted and ultimately illogical Trinity that cannot be found in the pages of the Book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Paul also mentions that "Jews request a sign"; they want some supernatural occurrence—fire from heaven or a miracle of healing or the like—to confirm the preaching of God's revelation to men. Yet even Christ—God in the flesh—refused to do that. His only sign of His Messiahship would be one He had no control over, to rise from the dead after three days and nights (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23530/eVerseID/23530" name="2353023530">Matthew 12:40</a>). The Jews would not accept that, wanting to see a miracle. Thus, when the teaching of the truth, unaccompanied by a sign, does not conform to their traditions, they, too, scoff and return to their comfortable rituals. As <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/15155/eVerseID/15155" name="1515515155">Psalm 78:41</a> asserts, Israel limits God. They do not have the capacity to see Him as He is or in His multifaceted works.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jesus says to His disciples, "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/23556/eVerseID/23557" name="2355623557">Matthew 13:16-17</a>). Though speaking specifically to the Twelve, it applies also to us; our eyes and ears have been opened to marvelous things from His Word (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/15917/eVerseID/15917" name="1591715917">Psalm 119:18</a>). As the saying goes, with great privilege comes great responsibility. We have an obligation to respond to what God has revealed to us and with its power carry out its implications to their eternal ends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Peter tells the church, "the pilgrims of the Dispersion [the scattering]" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30376/eVerseID/30376" name="3037630376">I Peter 1:1</a>), ". . . as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30402/eVerseID/30402" name="3040230402">I Peter 2:2</a>). He ends his second epistle with an exhortation to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30541/eVerseID/30541" name="3054130541">II Peter 3:18</a>). Our present duty is to soak up God's amazing revelation and to convert it into a righteous way of living that pleases Him. We must leave babyhood, foolishness, and weakness behind, and become mature, wise, and strong in Christ.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-79927827179807465182013-08-09T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-09T14:52:53.636-05:00*How Revelation Enters the Church<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many years ago, during Herbert W. Armstrong's ministry, we read the passage beginning in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29064/eVerseID/29064" name="2906429064">Galatians 1:6</a> quite often. He would tell us that the apostle Paul had written this epistle less than thirty years after Christ's death and resurrection, making it one of the earliest-written books in the New Testament. He pointed out as amazing and alarming what was already beginning to happen within the church:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. . . . For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29064/eVerseID/29066" name="2906429066"></a><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29064/eVerseID/29066" name="2906429064" target="_blank">Galatians 1:6-8</a>, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29068/eVerseID/29070" target="_blank">10-12</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Only a little more than a generation had passed since the founding of the church, yet false gospels, perversions of the truth, were making serious trouble for those early Christians. Paul was warning those in Galatia not to listen to those who are trying to persuade them away from the true doctrines of God, which they had learned when the apostles had preached the true gospel to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After warning them, Paul defends himself against the unwritten question, "How do we know that you preached us the truth?" He asks in return, "From what you've seen of me, do I try to seek the favor of men or God? Do I seem to be a men-pleaser?" Clearly, he always put the truth of God before pleasing people, and he had had to pay the price for it in persecution and peril (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29013/eVerseID/29023" name="2901329023">II Corinthians 11:23-33</a>). He considered these sacrifices proof that he was a true servant of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then, in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29069/eVerseID/29070" name="2906929070">Galatians 1:11-12</a>, he lets them know where the message he had taught them came from. He was taught, he said, not by any man (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29074/eVerseID/29074" target="_blank">verse 16</a>), but by Jesus Christ Himself. Once God had called him on the road to Damascus, and after he was baptized, he went down to Arabia (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29075/eVerseID/29075" target="_blank">verse 17</a>), and stayed there for three years (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/29076/eVerseID/29076" target="_blank">verse 18</a>). It was there that Christ taught him the truth as an apostle "born out of due time" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28727/eVerseID/28727" name="2872728727">I Corinthians 15:8</a>). Christ had a special job for Paul and wanted to give Him the same kind of instruction that He had given the Twelve.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No one knows if Christ came down and appeared to him, teaching him directly, or whether He opened Paul's mind and revealed the truth out of Scripture. However, when he went up to Jerusalem three years later and talked with Peter, James, and John, he found out that they agreed completely on the gospel of God (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29091/eVerseID/29091" name="2909129091">Galatians 2:9</a>). These apostles understood that Paul was a fellow apostle with them and that he would preach primarily to the Gentiles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">By his personal history, Paul shows that he had received the same revelation from God that the original disciples had been given. Thus, the gospel that Paul preached was the same gospel that Peter, John, and the other apostles were also preaching. They all preached from the same Source: Jesus Christ. Our beliefs should rest on that same foundation, which is now printed in our Bibles. Notice <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29249/eVerseID/29252" name="2924929252">Ephesians 2:19-22:</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In terms of revelation from God, this passage informs us that a true understanding is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. In the past, God revealed certain things to the prophets in Old Testament times and to the apostles in New Testament times, and they wrote those things down for our learning (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29965/eVerseID/29965" name="2996529965">Hebrews 1:1</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28308/eVerseID/28308" name="2830828308">Romans 15:4</a>; <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28579/eVerseID/28579" name="2857928579">I Corinthians 10:11</a>). Jesus Christ is called "the chief cornerstone" because He is the true Foundation and Source of all revelation. He is the One who joins all the revelation together and makes it work. We, then, having this sure foundation, not only learn the truth, but also grow by it into the image of Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The apostle continues in Ephesians 3:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets. (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29253/eVerseID/29257" name="2925329257">Ephesians 3:1-5</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Paul uses the subject of God's grace toward the Gentiles as a way to get across, not only that he preached the true gospel, but also how truth comes into the church of God. It is very simple: God revealed something to him, and he, then, wrote it down in a few words, so that we could read and comprehend his understanding of this mystery of God's way. That is how it works. God inspired a prophet or an apostle, and he wrote it down. Over time, it became Scripture, and now we read it, using the Holy Spirit that God has given us, to understand the truth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At the end of the Bible, in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/31099/eVerseID/31100" name="3109931100">Revelation 22:18-19</a>, John warns the reader not to add to or take away from the words written in the Book. Essentially, he is telling us that revelation from God to man is closed; the canon of Scripture is complete. What we need to know for salvation is in the finished work of the Bible. Anyone who claims to have a new revelation, that he has some "new truth" beyond Scripture, is a false teacher, one of those who "pervert the gospel of Christ."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So the Bible is the collected writings of the apostles and prophets to whom God gave His precious revelation for all of us to learn and use. God's converted children do not need any advanced degrees, courses in higher thinking and logic, or any kind of worldly help to understand God's truth. All they need is the Word of God and a humble mind that can reason normally, and God, by the gifts of His Spirit, provides the understanding.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-44133228930516675742013-08-03T13:08:00.000-04:002013-08-03T13:08:00.040-04:00RBV: James 2:4<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>". . . have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?" </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—James 2:4</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The apostle James begins chapter 2 of his epistle by confronting a problem that frequently rears its head in the church, that of respect of persons, also called partiality and discrimination. His entire thought in introducing the subject runs as follows:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or, "Sit here at my footstool," have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? (</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/30295/eVerseID/30298" target="_blank">James 2:1-4</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">The example he gives is a common one. Human nature tends to be partial to the rich, the well-groomed, the finely appareled—those who make a good outward show of respectability. It is rather selfish of us to pay them so much attention and provide them with favors and upgrades that we would not normally lavish on others. We do these things because we want something from them, whether it be some future benefit we might receive as gratitude for our obsequious solicitation or merely to be seen with them, ratcheting up our status as a result. Respect of persons is, at its base, all about us.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Of course, it also diminishes those we pass over, essentially telling them, "You are not worthy of my time or favor. Take care of yourself . . . over there . . . where you'll be out of the way." Such partiality actually turns the godly order on its head. Those who are wealthy or powerful or good-looking or talented need no help; they are successful and prove by their success that they can take care of themselves. The poor and downtrodden, however, are the ones who need our help to give them a hand as they start up the ladder of recovery and eventual success. Human nature perversely offers help and advantage to those who need it least and denies it to those who desperately seek it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Even so, James' central thrust in this long paragraph (which stretches all the way to <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/30307/eVerseID/30307" target="_blank">verse 13</a>) is that favoritism is wrongful judgment: "have you not . . . become judges with evil thoughts?" His argument against partiality obviously derives from his half-brother's comments on judging in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/23318/eVerseID/23318" target="_blank">Matthew 7:1</a>, "Judge not, that you be not judged," where Jesus goes on to speak about a person's method of judgment of others being used by God to judge him. Jesus calls the one who judges his brother a hypocrite because he condemns his brother for a minor fault (a </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">"</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">speck") while he himself has much a larger sin (a </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">"</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">beam") to overcome. Thus, practicing partiality makes us judge, jury, and executioner of a fellow Christian</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—not to mention that we poach on one of God's prerogatives, sitting on His throne as judge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">James is speaking about <i>unjustified</i> discrimination. The distinction made between the rich man and the poor man in his example had its basis in purely outward and superficial reasons, and thus the judgment was unsound</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">or as he puts it, "evil." As the apostle points out in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/30299/eVerseID/30299" target="_blank">verse 5</a>, God more often calls the weak of the world to righteousness (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28390/eVerseID/28393" target="_blank">I Corinthians 1:26-29</a>), so the poor man is just as likely</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">or perhaps even more likely</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">to be the more converted of the two. This is not always the case, but it does make James' point that we need to be more thorough in our discernment of people lest we judge them by sight rather than by faith (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28885/eVerseID/28885" target="_blank">II Corinthians 5:7</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Our example of this is God Himself. When the prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem to anoint the next king of Israel, he saw the strapping older sons of Jesse, thinking, "Surely it must be one of these!" But God saw things differently: "</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/7603/eVerseID/7603" target="_blank">I Samuel 16:7</a>). The "poorest" of the family was chosen, as David was the youngest and smallest, the one that everyone seems to have forgotten about to the point that no one had thought to tell him that Samuel was in town!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Being quite limited in our spiritual perception,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">we have a hard time doing that, so our best course is to treat everyone with humility and kindness, preferring them in our interactions with them.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-55576854987835286912013-08-02T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-06T22:51:15.757-05:00*Hold Tightly to Revelation<div style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: left;">
The Bible is not against what we might call scholarship or intellectual pursuit. From all that history can tell us, the apostle Paul may have been one of the most intellectual men who have ever lived. <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/30538/eVerseID/30539" name="3053830539">II Peter 3:15-16</a> warns believers that Paul's epistles contain instruction so hard to understand that false teachers can easily twist them to say wrong and harmful things. Members of the church, made up of the weak of the world (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/28390/eVerseID/28393" name="2839028393">I Corinthians 1:26-29</a>), can be especially gullible when it comes to intellectualism, and some stumble.</div>
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Even so, Scripture displays no animosity toward the use of the intellect, nor is it against rational arguments and dispassionate reasoning. When used properly, these things are good. God Himself gave us these skills, and we must use these tools to understand God's way of life. In fact, He wants us to use them in our ongoing pursuit of the truth of God. The true teachings of God that we understand and believe have all undergone deep scrutiny by these means and methods—scholarship, rational arguments, and dispassionate reasoning—and they pass muster on all counts. The doctrines that we in the churches of God agree on are sound and biblically based.</div>
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While not condemned by any means, human reason, scholarship, logic, and abundant research must take a back seat to two important elements, both of which are given directly by God: divine revelation and the Holy Spirit. These two pieces must be present before the rest of the puzzle will fall into place. Revelation is God's gift to us of His truth through His Word, and the Holy Spirit must be used to understand it properly. Once we have this initial understanding, we can apply scholarship, rational arguments, and dispassionate reasoning to glean further understanding. The important thing is that divine revelation and God's Spirit must come first.</div>
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We tend to forget about divine revelation because it is right in our Bibles, right under our noses, and we take it for granted. Of course, we study it frequently, but we rarely think about how the words and the truths they form got there in the first place. They are there because God revealed them, they were recorded by willing minds, and transmitted down through the centuries, guided and protected by God Himself. That is an awesome thing to consider.</div>
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We need to be careful to understand that the revelation we interact with in our Bibles is not direct revelation, as experienced by the apostles and prophets in visions, dreams, and the actual appearance by angels or even God Himself from time to time (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29965/eVerseID/29965" name="2996529965">Hebrews 1:1</a>). Direct revelation is exceedingly rare. What we have in reading God's Word can be called "general revelation." It is what is available to everyone generally.</div>
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Scripture contains all that we need to know about our salvation, about God's Plan, and about our parts in it. If it is not in the Book, we can be sure that whatever it may be is not necessary for us to know in terms of salvation. If a fact does not appear in Scripture, it probably does not have much bearing on our calling and our future in the Kingdom of God. Extra-biblical knowledge may be occasionally helpful, and it may even add depth to our understanding. However, when it comes to a conclusion about whether something is spiritually true or not, the words of the Bible itself must be the final arbiter short of a direct appearance from God.</div>
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Another way of putting it is that general revelation—what is contained in God's Word—trumps <em>every</em> other source of information available—even church of God publications. Many people have taken Herbert W. Armstrong's booklets and made them into the equivalent of the Epistles of Herbert, metaphorically stapling them at the backs of their Bibles. We should understand that, though inspired by God's Spirit, his writings are not Scripture (see <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/17824/eVerseID/17824" name="1782417824">Isaiah 8:16</a>; the canon of Scripture was finished with the death of Christ's disciples, the original twelve apostles). While his works contain quotations from Scripture, they also contain a great deal of material that was simply his explanations of various topics. They should be accorded respect but not veneration.</div>
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The only real source of divine revelation that we have access to, then, is the Bible. Certainly, it is more conclusive a source than any Bible resource help, such as concordances, lexicons, commentaries, and Bible dictionaries. Those books can be helpful, adding information and perspective, but they are not the final word on a given topic or doctrine. That is the Bible's job.<br />
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In the same way, the Bible is more authoritative than Jewish sources like the Talmud, the Mishna, the Targums, or any Jewish tradition. It is far more trustworthy than any opinion from a sage, rabbi, priest, or historian. The Bible is simply the last word on any matter of true Christian doctrine or practice.</div>
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The Bible itself claims this position. Jesus, for instance, in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/26777/eVerseID/26777" name="2677726777">John 17:17</a>, while praying to His Father just before His arrest, says plainly, "Sanctify them [His disciples, including us] by Your truth. Your word is truth." In reality, we need to look no further for the truth—those truths that have to do with our salvation and future in the Kingdom are in God's Word. Our Savior said so.</div>
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In <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29868/eVerseID/29871" name="2986829871">II Timothy 3:14-17</a>, Paul instructs the younger Timothy on what is to be the basis for his ministry and preaching:</div>
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But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.</div>
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Timothy had learned the truth from Paul, who had learned them from Christ. There was a direct line of descent of truth from the Source. That same truth has been preserved and made available to us in our Bibles. In a larger respect, Paul tells us that the Bible—the instruction that we have received from the prophets, apostles, and Jesus Christ Himself—is all that we need to equip us completely for the Kingdom of God.</div>
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So, beyond learning and applying these things, what is our responsibility to the revelation given to us? In <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/29675/eVerseID/29677" name="2967529677">II Thessalonians 2:13-15</a>, Paul answers this question:</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth . . . for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.</span></blockquote>
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The apostle warns that difficult times are coming, times of apostasy, so we must hang on to the revealed truths we have been taught, including the godly traditions we have learned. The revelation of God is precious and should not be sold for a bowl of soup. Do not let cunning arguments or even rational discussions, which may be completely bogus, take us off track. Stick to the pure words of the Book.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-61118027922969581922013-07-26T16:30:00.000-04:002017-01-28T11:39:13.026-05:00*Are Our Daily Habits Productive?<div style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: left;">
The economic woes the world has experienced over the past half-decade or so have exacerbated the perceived—and often real—gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement focused on the super-rich, the top one percent of Americans by income, complaining that these ultra-wealthy people should "pay their fair share" of taxes to support the poor. This disaffection with the rich was no doubt encouraged by the rhetoric of the current President and his supporters, who promised fundamental change in America and a progressive (read "socialist" or even "Marxist") redistribution of wealth under the guise of fairness.</div>
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The OWS movement, never truly coherent or successful in its aims, has fizzled, but its underlying spirit of dissatisfaction with the wealthy lingers. Just yesterday, while waiting for my truck to be serviced, I heard the cashier complain to another customer that the salary and benefits package promised to a local top bank executive was ridiculous. "No one," she said, "needs that much money, and there is no way we [bank customers] can make up for it." In other words, the executive was so overpaid that the bank would fail trying to pay it!</div>
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The OWS crowd assumes two foundational beliefs about the rich that are not necessarily true. First, they believe that the wealthy are born with silver spoons in their mouths, and having inherited their money from their parents—who are fixtures in a permanent upper class—thus did nothing to earn their mansions, luxury yachts and automobiles, and hefty portfolios. While this is true for a small percentage of the super-rich, the people who inhabit the top tier of the wealthy come and go with regularity as fortunes are made and lost in the volatility of the markets and the business world. The names on the <em>Forbes</em> list of wealthiest Americans are different or in different places every year. America is still the land of opportunity—both to rise and to fall.</div>
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Second, OWS supporters believe that, if they did not inherit their money, the wealthy acquired their riches through underhanded means. By hook or by crook, by defrauding the poor or knifing their coworkers or competitors in the back, the wealthiest among us clawed their way up the ladder of success, leaving the ruined lives of others behind them. While a tiny minority of wealthy people may have taken this sordid route, the vast majority of top income-earners simply rolled up their sleeves and outworked everyone else. The Pareto Principle, also known as the "80-20 Rule" or the "Law of the Vital Few," essentially posits that 80% of the effects derive from 20% of the causes. In this case, it means that 20% of the people do 80% of the work—and the wealthy among us usually fall into that productive top quintile.</div>
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Earlier this week, a friend recommended an article to me on the website of financial guru Dave Ramsey, whose main goal is to help people get out of debt and establish a solid financial footing. The article, "<a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/20-things-the-rich-do-every-day">20 Things The Rich Do Every Day</a>," was a blog entry by a man named Tom Corley, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Habits-Success-Wealthy-Individuals/dp/1934938939/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374856663&sr=1-1&keywords=corley+rich+habits"><em>Rich Habits</em></a>, "the groundbreaking financial self-help book that shares the secrets of financial success by exposing the daily habits of wealthy individuals," according to his website, <a href="http://blog.richhabits.net/">RichHabits.net</a>. In short, Corley has found that wealthy people generally share certain habits that enhance productivity and thus prosperity.</div>
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Doing one or more of the habits on the list will not by any means guarantee a six-figure salary, but they are generally commonsense practices that can help a person do more and better with their time, energy, and skills. Here is a sample of the list:</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>1</strong>. 70% of wealthy eat less than 300 junk food calories per day. 97% of poor people eat more than 300 junk food calories per day. . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>3</strong>. 76% of wealthy exercise aerobically 4 days a week. 23% of poor do this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>4</strong>. 63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5% for poor people. . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>10</strong>. 88% of wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs. 2% for poor. . . .</span><br />
<strong style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">13</strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. 67% of wealthy watch 1 hour or less of TV every day vs. 23% for poor. . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>19</strong>. 86% of wealthy believe in life-long educational self-improvement vs. 5% for poor.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.1875px;">The underlying premise behind Corley's list is that some people, by virtue of their daily habits, set themselves up for success and the money that invariably follows, while others doom themselves to being poor and staying poor by their unproductive everyday lifestyles. As the sample from the list shows, a good diet and frequent exercise can lead to productivity because the body will likely be healthy, allowing it to work better, longer, and harder. Cultivating the mind through education, creative listening, and reading keeps a person informed, engaged, and expanding his skillset. Finally, productive people do not waste much time on vapid entertainment.</span><br />
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In summary, a reason why the wealthy are wealthy is because they work at doing advantageous things while avoiding detriments and distractions. They do what is helpful and shun what is useless. As the old song goes, they accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. These are things anyone can do—and from a spiritual point of view, should do.</div>
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The book of Proverbs is teeming with advice on being productive and prosperous, such as these few: "Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/16547/eVerseID/16547" name="1654716547">Proverbs 6:6</a>). "Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/16991/eVerseID/16991" name="1699116991">Proverbs 21:6</a>). "Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/17045/eVerseID/17045" name="1704517045">Proverbs 22:29</a>). "By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/17084/eVerseID/17084" name="1708417084">Proverbs 24:4</a>). "Prepare your outside work, . . . and afterward build your house" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/17107/eVerseID/17107" name="1710717107">Proverbs 24:27</a>).</div>
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In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus heaps praise on those who wisely and energetically profit from His gifts and condemns the one who squanders them (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/24023/eVerseID/24039" name="2402324039">Matthew 25:14-30</a>). Many of His teachings use illustrations lifted from situations involving money, wealth, debt, wages, work, and stewardship. He even speaks of making "friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/bible.show/sVerseID/25630/eVerseID/25630" name="2563025630">Luke 16:9</a>), just before warning, "If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" (verse 11).</div>
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So, do our daily routines set us up for success—financially, relationally, spiritually—or do they doom us to failure? Are they productive or unproductive? It is well worth our time to evaluate our lives for ways to improve them by adopting more profitable habits.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-61318042955487157232013-07-13T12:40:00.000-04:002013-07-13T12:40:42.667-04:00RBV: Proverbs 12:7<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">—Proverbs 12:7</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This proverb stands at the end of a short section, beginning in <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16725/eVerseID/16725" target="_blank">verse 5</a>, illustrating the progression of the sinful person in contrast to those who fear God. The opening verse describes both of these types of people making plans: The upright have good goals and mark out an ethical route to reach them, whereas the wicked devise devious ways to get what they want. The middle proverb, <a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/16726/eVerseID/16726" target="_blank">verse 6</a>, describes the thinking and speech of each type: Evil people use and abuse others</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—often the good people, who seem to be easy pickings</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to get their way, while the righteous trust in their integrity, which they have learned from following God's ways, to get them out of troubles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Solomon concludes his short character sketch with a confident announcement of the fates of these two types of people. In fact, the sense of the verse is that these ends are sure and inescapable. While we realize that God could intervene and turn the evil person to him, and that the good person could be derailed and fall from his godly integrity, Solomon is speaking in terms of the general human condition. The percentages are high that matters will run their course along the lines he draws in this proverb.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He sees the end of the sinful person as "overthrown and no more," a rendering that most of the major translations follow exactly or nearly so. The illustration behind their being overthrown is of a "turning of the hand," that is, an indefinite catastrophe will take them away in a moment. They will be here today and gone tomorrow, swept away in a vicious flash-flood of ruin, whether physical, financial, or otherwise. In other words, the wicked are setting themselves up for spectacular failure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That they are "no more" implies that they will vanish from the scene. They may seem so formidable and permanent, but the catastrophe reveals just how powerless they really are, and they disappear as if they were never there. Underlying this assertion is a sense of the long-term, that the family line wicked person will not last, that no dynasty will be built. Their evil will consume them in short while, as sinfulness is really a kind of slow-suicide.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The more positive side of the proverb is that those who stand fast in God's way will have long life and perpetuity in their family. Again, this is not always the case</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">—certainly, some righteous people never marry, and other righteous people, though married, never have children. However, the general truth is that right living produces conditions that encourage health, long life, and good habits and traits that are passed down from one generation to another.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">The thought in this verse is expressed in several places in Scripture, perhaps best in the second commandment:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/2057/eVerseID/2058" target="_blank">Exodus 20:5-6</a>)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The effects of a person's sins reach down the next few generations and cause untold harm, yet the righteousness of a godly person can produce blessings in the lives of his descendants hundreds or thousands of years in the future (consider the example of Abraham and his faithfulness). If we want good things for ourselves and our children, the clear choice is to "fear God and keep His commandments" (<a href="http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/17537/eVerseID/17537" target="_blank">Ecclesiastes 12:13</a>).</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Charlotte, NC, USA35.2270869 -80.84312669999997134.8118989 -81.488573699999975 35.642274900000004 -80.197679699999966tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254798419582010323.post-14283466656590421512013-06-19T12:05:00.000-04:002013-08-05T15:30:45.464-04:00Old Pope, New Pope<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">From the January-February 2013 issue of <i>Forerunner.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation from the papacy, very few had seen it coming. The Bavarian pope cited his declining health as the main reason for leaving his office, stating, "I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry." Many knew that the 85-year-old pontiff's health had deteriorated of late, but no Vatican observer ever thought that he would step down—especially because no pope had resigned from office since 1415, when Gregory XII ended his nine-year papacy. Benedict XVI's voluntary resignation is only the third such resignation in the nearly 2,000 years since Roman bishops have ruled the Catholic Church. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite few anticipating such a move, <i>The Economist </i>reports in a February 16, 2013, article, "The Pope's Resignation: See You Later":</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Benedict had been toying with resignation for almost four years. Visiting the earthquake-stricken Italian city of L'Aquila in 2009, he left his <i>pallium</i>, the woollen band that is a symbol of the papal office, at the tomb of Celestine V, a reluctant pope who resigned [in 1294] to pray. In 2010 he said that a pope who became unable to do his job properly "has the right, and in some circumstances even the duty, to resign."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And so he did, retiring initially to the Papal Palace in Castel Gandolfo, and later, once its renovations are completed, to the newly refurbished <i>Mater Ecclesiae</i> monastery in the Vatican.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Considered by many in the media as far too conservative and boring, Benedict's papacy has been reported as having been a failure. The truth is that, overall, his pontificate was quite successful. He steadfastly defended Catholic doctrine, as would be expected from the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (known historically as the Inquisition), the Church's doctrinal enforcement agency. He preserved his office and Church against the relativistic and progressive attitudes and ideas that so dominate today's world. Though the Vatican suffered a handful of scandals during his administration, Benedict did not allow them to soften his beliefs or approach. His holding the line against such staunch opposition obviously took its toll on his health and strength.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He has been succeeded by 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the son of Italian immigrants. The new pope, the first Jesuit to wear the papal mitre, chose the name "Francis" in honor of Francis of Assisi because, he said, he is especially concerned for the welfare of the poor. Of Francis of Assisi, Bergoglio once expressed, "He brought to Christianity an idea of poverty against the luxury, pride, vanity of the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the time. He changed history." His admiration for the founder of the Franciscan Order may portend how he will frame his papacy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By all accounts, Pope Francis is a mild-mannered, soft-spoken man of the people who is known for his sense of humor. He has "a well-earned reputation for holiness and humility," as one writer for <i>Maclean'</i>s put it. In the dozen years that he was head of the Catholic Church in Argentina, he never lived in the ecclesiastical mansion but shared an apartment in downtown Buenos Aires with an elderly priest, heating the place with a small stove. He took public transportation and cooked his own meals. He regularly visited the city's slums and washed the feet of the poor, the sick, the elderly, or the imprisoned every Maundy Thursday. In 2011, he did this for newborns and pregnant women.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As his papacy begins, he has not changed his habits in this regard. He has a "no frills" style that endears him to the public yet exasperates his Vatican handlers. Just after being elected, he chose to take the bus with his fellow cardinals back to his hotel rather than the papal car, and the next day, he picked up his own luggage and paid the bill himself. He has refused to take up residence in the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, preferring to live in the Vatican guest house, though he has conceded to an "upgrade," a suite of rooms where he can conduct meetings and receive visitors. On his first Maundy Thursday as pope, he continued his practice of footwashing, washing and kissing the feet of twelve juvenile offenders in Rome.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His easy, gentle manner could make some underestimate him. Underneath his plain white cassock and iron cross is a forceful personality that brooks no argument on the tenets of his heartfelt positions. He is solidly in the conservative wing of Roman Catholic theologians, as a disciple of John Paul II and fellow of Benedict XVI. Though holding traditional views on most doctrines, he cannot be said to be a hardliner in the sense that his predecessor was thought to be. His sermons and writings often contain language that makes fine distinctions between theological dogma and measured, merciful responses in light of living in a sinful world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of his heartfelt positions—one that could bring him into conflict with certain parts of the Western world—is his left-leaning criticism of global capitalism, calling it a "tyranny" that values human beings solely by the goods they consume and a "cult of money" that makes people miserable. Believing that unbridled capitalism has exacerbated poverty and led to the disregard of ethics, he advocates more stringent controls over financial markets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What his papacy accomplishes only time will tell. Despite rumors of its decline, the Catholic Church, 1.2 billion strong, is still a force to be reckoned with, especially in Europe, Africa, and particularly in Latin America, where more than two-fifths of its adherents live. There are already a few signs that this new pope may flex the Vatican's political muscles more than the old pope did—if only in his insistence that Catholics need to live out their faith in the world—and that could make for some interesting times ahead.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01749759242159731358noreply@blogger.com0Fort Mill, SC, USA35.0073697 -80.945075934.9033107 -81.1064374 35.1114287 -80.783714400000008