William Bode: Recent Episodes
William Kenneth Bode van Don H Bode
Consider the following. http://williambode.blogspot.com/ Daily thoughts on the world's most profound insights of the human condition as discovered in the Bible by William Bode. The Bible is about Jesus from Genesis to Revelation and everything in between. When I read the Bible I see the most honest view of my heart and human condition. Be careful--after you get past the poor grammar, bad spelling and punctuation there is some life changing truth I'm uncovering every day! 'the following' are people of The Way, those who claim to be following Jesus.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Meditation doesn't have to be taught. The art of slow thinking is natural. I can remember each of my children at some point in their very early life 'coming out with something unexpected'. These statements or questions could arise in any situation or at anytime. These gems of cognitive connection may bear no discernable link to the current circumstances but they always evidence meditation. It very likely that meditation performed properly, slowly and naturally will produce a crystal clear concise and relevant question. This question will reveal more about the heart and motive than the casual inattentive listener might ever realise. Suppose your child overhears a conversation about whether or not grandparents will be able to come for the child's birthday party. It seems grandma and grandpa may not make it because thier car had to go into the shop to have the transmission replaced and so they would not have a car for a week. The plan couldn't be changed because the garage was very busy and they were doing the job for grandpa for half price. Grandma and grandpa live three hours away so it was unlikely they'd make it to the party in two weeks. Days later you are in the check out line at the store buying wiper blades for your car. And your child blurts out, 'Couldn't they barrow aunt Sharon's car?'
Now here is the unknown chain of thought behind the statement. The news of grandpa's absence from the birthday party means your child thinks they won't get the money grandpa always gives at birthdays. This is a real disappointment to the child. A few days later your car's wipers cause a lot of stress on a trip home from school Now it is raining hard again so you borrow the neighbour's car to quickly get some wiper blades. You need to do this before you drive to get the older kids from camp. It's pretty urgent since the weather forecast is for heavy rain. While waiting for the checkout your youngest child sees a snickers and remembered that aunt Sharon bought a snickers for grandma last time we visited. 'Then the light comes on', aunt Sharon lives near grandma and grandpa's house, aunt Sharon has a car, we just borrowed the neighbour's car......
... 'Couldn't they barrow aunt Sharon's car?'
One form of meditation is driven by the recognition of a need and the patient search for a solution to your dilemma. A lot of good meditation happens because of an acute awareness of need or desire.
The child's active but relaxed mind accepts they can't solve the issues that are out of thier league. But they looking for an answer. They are listening to all the new information and sifting through the old information. Snickers, the lack of money, grandpa's gift, aunt Sharon's proximity, wiper blades, and borrowing the neighbour's car all converged on a solution.
As you consider meditation and the reading of God's word this week, let me encourage you to identify your needs or the needs of the world.
I've often noticed in my children a period of relative quiet during the mediation process. It is easy to miss this because you are busy and the quiet is a welcome break from nonstop requests and questions. But this quiet is the evidence of mediation. It doesn't mean that all of life stops, it does mean at times we need to concentrate. But we can concentrate in chunks while doing the washing up or standing in a queue.
Meditation sees the complexity of life and draws on it all no matter how seemingly unrelated to find formerly unrecognised connections. I say unrecognised but often meditation isn't comparative between people. It is usually a personal journey. It is possible Grandpa would send the money, it's reasonable to think that grandpa had already considered Aunt Sharon's car and probably no one except the child realised the severity of the need. But meditation isn't about what others may have already considered, often it is highly personal and so it takes responsibility to weigh all the data themselves. Some where in the arena of family, cars, needs, and the wonderful world of possibilities there lies a solution and the ever attentive mind of the child is trying each block in every shaped hole until they find a match.
Will you meditate on God's word? Will you find the solutions you seek for your most pressing needs?
Message on Psalm 23 translated live while spoken at Vrije Evangelische Gemeente Paulus Genk 29th September
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Mind the Gap So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. Hebrews 2:1 Daarom moeten wij al onze aandacht richten op wat we gehoord hebben, dan zullen we niet uit de koers raken. (Hebrews 2:1)
Every single day we have to believe the truth again. This is not to earn favour with God. Nor is it because God isn't capable of saving us. Jesus' work on the cross is enough. The gift is complete. Nothing needs to be added or topped up. Yet we stray. We forget.
We jump to attention when sin calls us to action as if we are still under Sin's command. We are free, but we have developed a habit of obeying sin rather than God. We are easily deceived and we need to regularly remind our hearts of the truth. Jesus must be our focus. Jesus must captivate our hearts.
Do you have a daily spiritual check list? When life gets difficult do you have a truth list you tell yourself? Here are some of the items on my check list:
God is good! God loves me. God is in control. Nothing happens by chance and nothing is out of God's control. God knows best. ( God knows better than me!) Jesus died for me. Jesus loves my enemies. Jesus forgives all my sin, past present and future. I need to do nothing to earn God's favour. I am not a slave to sin; Jesus has set me free. Jesus rose from the dead to give me an abundant life. An abundant life does not consist of things! Jesus will meet my needs, not leave me alone, cares for my soul and has shown me the way in his Word and will guide me through the church and the Holy Spirit speaking truth from His Word. To follow Jesus requires suffering and persecution. (and more depending on what my heart must hear.) What is your list?
Can you find some of the truths I tell my self in Hebrews Chapter 2?
Why not have a look for yourself. http://bible.com/116/heb.2.1.nlt
Friday, September 27, 2013
Fatalism Revised 1JN 2:1 NLT My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.
Jesus advocacy warms our hearts! The person who knows Jesus can make real choices. Before we are received into God's family by grace through faith we are slaves to sin, Paul says. We have no choice. Everyone who isn't a believer in Jesus can't help but sin. Sin is their master and they are not free agents. If sin says jump, they must jump. And the deception of sin is powerful. We know nothing else. What is sin? Sin is disobedience to God. Sin is disbelief in his promises. Sin is an inextricable headlong run toward death. Sin is self destruction. Sin is selfishness. Sin is loveless. Sin takes and destroys. Sin murders when it cannot have what it wants. Sin leads to death. So sin requires judgement. God is just. He will not allow sin to ruin everything. God will save some from sin. He has set some free. He has released some from the slavery of sin and the fear of death. But we who are free to choose life, the ones able to obey, may still fall prey to sin. Although we are free from the hideous, cruel master that wants our destruction and uses us to lash out in rebellion against God, we sometimes still sin. We should hate sin. We should find sin repulsive. We should see past the moment of selfish pleasure and we should loathe the harmful, hateful former master of our torture and destruction. We should feel the sting of being a pawn in the full on assault against life. We should feel the shame of being a treacherous traitor who has deceived the vulnerable and harmed the neediest of this world. We don't have to sin, but we do. We sin against God. Even more, we sin against Jesus who died for our sin. We add to his suffering. And what does he do? He defends us. The Father and the Son must execute justice against our sin. This sin we cling to in many ways is a greater offence, for it is the sin we chose. We were washed, we were saved. We had a choice. We knew better. And the one we keep hurting the most is the one who defends us. Jesus stands up for us. He says, I died for them. Jesus is the only one who is right. We are wrong. And yet he makes us right even when we are a traitor.
Choose not to sin! You can. You are not a slave. You are free.
But if you do sin, Jesus defends you, Jesus protects you, Jesus is your advocate. Jesus loves you. He has chosen you to be his. Jesus knows you are a sinner. Jesus knows your heart, your motives, your fears and he knows your selfish heart. Jesus knows your disbelief and your stubborn selfish pride. And still he defends you, still he protects you from his coming wrath. Jesus sees you sin and try to hide it and, even so, he will treat you as righteous because of his own righteousness. So stop sinning. You don't have to; you are free. But if you do sin, repent without fear. Return with no reservation. You are safe. Oh sinner, you are safe
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
The gift of Satan 2CO 12:7-10 NLT
even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
We've all heard it before but why didn't we recognise it for what it says.
God gave Paul an extraordinary vision of heaven. It was so miraculous he's not even allowed to talk about it.
2CO 12:4 NLT
that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.
Seems that Paul has had an off the chart, earth shattering spiritual experience. This is so special that apparently it doesn't put you into a humble contemplative nigh onto vegetative state of near nirvana but rather being given a glimpse into heaven could make you a bit sinful. In fact the whole experience might lead to pride the ole chestnut that kicked it all off I the garden with Eve and her hubby Adam. So here Paul is again a bit like Adam in Paradise and the upshot is that he might get a big head (again). So what do you do to deal with that? Send in Satan. Well maybe not actually Satan, but a messenger for him. And what is the role of this gift of Satan's messenger? Torment. And the purpose of the torment is to keep Paul humble to sort of counteract the trip to heaven.
Now this torment thing is no cake walk. It must hurt, for it has been a topic of conversation on a few occasions between God and Paul. And what's the answer? God says,
2CO 12:9 NLT
Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
So let me sum up so far.
God gives Paul the opportunity to see paradise and some things that are unspeakable. This experience makes Paul more prone to pride (sin). God gives Paul a tormenting messenger from Satan to keep him humble. Paul finds this rather difficult and repeatedly requests that the torment stop. God says, his grace is all Paul needs and God's power works best in weakness.
Now we all want God's power to work real good now. So weaknesses should be the order of the day. God's power doesn't work in your strength. When was the last time you prayed for torment, torment from Satan no less? When was the last time you prayed for weakness?
Do you want God's power? Do you want God's power to work real good?
Well.
How about a bit of weakness anyone?
You not only should want the grace of God, but in fact you desperately need the grace of God.
To get more grace, to get God's power you need weakness.
Hope this made you rethink, visions, grace, suffering, power and strength.
It did me.
Now then, I thought I was done but this little revelation about Paul's torment made me ask a few fundamental questions.
Snakes in the garden kind of questions. And for that matter Satan in the wilderness tempting Jesus because God led him there questions. And lest we forget, Jesus praying three times for the cup of torment on the cross to be removed too might fit into this group of questions.
See God, from Adam to Jesus and even through to Paul (possibly aka us), put people in a position to really really need him. Knock out all the props so that there is no where else to turn seems to be the plan. This isn't an oddity, an aberration, or a one off.
And we are talking God here, so it's not like it's negotiable, or even up for discussion. I mean, like Jesus and Paul, you can raise your concern, but in the end it is going to be there staring you in the face day after day. You can protest, fight, ignore or give in. But in the end you only have one option to submit now, or submit later.
So what's it going to be?
Saturday, August 31, 2013
When little is a lot. 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 NLT Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.
Albanian Abundance "Help if you can," is a common refrain you hear from people raising funds. But maybe it should be rephrased, "help if you want joy." It's obvious from Paul's description of the Macedonians that they had a full plate. He says they are being tested by many troubles. Turning to Jesus had a huge impact on people then, it effected their employment, their relationship to the city leaders, their relationships with their families, and if the new anti-Christian witchhunters (like Paul himself had been) were in town then life could be very difficult indeed. Presumably the Macedonians were being stonewalled, hunted and taken advantage of. Imagine not being able to get work and the local real estate agents all colluding to keep you from getting a fair price for your property. Increasingly your whole church community is needy, jobless ostracised, and afraid. Into this pitiful situation the news that others you've never met are suffering moves your church to have a whip around. They are poor, and their immediate future prospects are grim and yet they find joy in giving. And although the needy in question are in a very tight spot they in fact may have actually been people who had previously been well off. The Macedonians probably had been poor at best all along and before they became followers of Jesus, where as the Jewish Christians now suffering in Jerusalem by in large could most likely have been comfortable or better off back before the persecution and the huge influx of new believers. The Macedonians in spite of their circumstances are filled with joy. And this joy manifested itself in generous giving. I've always thought (maybe influenced by loony toons) that if we only had one bean between the members of our family we'd make the bean slices a little smaller so we could get one more person at the table. The slice might be smaller but the joy would be greater. It is obvious that generosity is a by-product of joy. Joy was a by-product of faith. It is true that this new faith had landed them all in rather troubling a spot of bother. But that was only temporary (even if it lasted for years). The Macedonian believers were so confident that God would care for them that their problems didn't dash their absolute confidence in God's wonderful gift of salvation. Having received this ultimate gift they felt rich. So they had plenty to share. The giving was cathartic and addictive and spread like a virus until the whole church was giving spontaneously and sacrificially. We live now in time where every one wants to get not give. Today the answer of the educated powerful is to throw money at poverty. The failure of every project is lack of funds. The solution of every need is better funding. But the Macedonians should have been the recipients not the funders. And today most people would say that it was 'foolish' to endanger the church, and the family by short-changing yourself to help others. Paul commends them. He recognises that their generosity with stuff and money was not really the root of their generosity. Rather they had already given themselves to the Lord and to Paul. The Macedonians didn't own themselves so they didn't have to worry about taking care of themselves. They were God's. It was God's responsibility to take care of them. And they knew in Jesus they were secure so they are free to give everything away. Wouldn't you like to be so free?
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
A New Goal for a New Person 2 Corinthians 5:1-21 NLT
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Here is your chance for a clean slate. Time for a reality check.
What are you living for? What is your goal? What is your purpose?
Why are you living, breathing, and getting up each day?
Paul recognises the wearisome need of a new body. And as each and every one of us age, suffer with sickness, battle brokenness or deformities we long for new bodies. And a new body you shall receive if you are in Christ. So what to do with this news, what is the proper response to being given a new body? It is to use the one we got in faith to proclaim our hope. We don't have to hold back, we don't have to be miserly with our energy. We've got a job to do and a promise to sustain us. So life is for living! We can swallow the weary pain of dying bodies by living up life as we live toward our new bodies. We can begin to erase the brokenness and sorrow of death, disease and destruction by living for life, by living for Christ.
We can choose to believe our future is secure and our purpose is clear. This will fill us with the life giving Spirit of God.
We can reject the shortsighted living for now earth perspective and choose to believe the life giving God's new home, new body point of view.
So your new goal is to please God. Live for Jesus. Live to persuade others.
Who are you telling? Come on. Answer that question. Who have you told? How is your life persuading people to trust Jesus?
There is a clear task here in this passage. Are you a secretary in an office? Well then you are the office ambassador for Jesus. Are you a factory worker on an assembly line? Then you are the factories representative for Jesus.
What do you stand for?
You stand for life! You stand for the promises of God. You stand for judgement on sin. But you stand for grace, the gift of life, the promise of a new body, the purpose of God's glory, and the message of Jesus' glory.
Sounds like you've got your hands full, but it sounds like you've got all the resources you'll every need and instead of dying you are actually getting closer and closer to life. Real life is inching its way towards you and is taking over this dying life. A lasting and solid life is hurtling into your wearisome decent towards death and atom by atom replacing every bit of you with a new, improved living breathing, loving gracious representative of Life, the life giver and an eternal life.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Shiny Happy People 2 Corinthians 3:3-18 NLT Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever! Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
The REM song Shiny Happy People is meant to be an ironic take on Chinese propaganda following Tiananmen Square uprising. The uprising happened when the Chinese government clamped down on student demonstrators, killing hundreds of them. The government attempted to tell the world and maybe it's own people that it was not a repressive and cruel regime with posters declaring the Chinese are shiny happy people. But possibly it was true that China was indeed peopled with 'shiny happy people.' The irony is that although we in the West have freedom and democracy we are not shiny or happy. We are some of the most depressed, cynical, malcontented dependants bent on pessimism inhabiting the planet. Now the biting irony comes when you look at the church in the West. They genuinely have every reason to be shiny happy people. If you read the passage above from 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and know a little bit about your Bible, you'd recognise that people following Jesus should shine more than Moses did after being in the very physical presence of God. One of the ironies is that in the hotbed of communist persecution it is reported that the church in China has grown from 14 million official followers of Jesus to 70 million in unofficial underground house churches. Possibly the real Shiny Happy People are the Chinese after all, for in the face of great difficult they had sought freedom within by letting the Spirit of God set them free. Unfortunately, the oppression of the past had not been the enemy of faith as much as the economic freedom of the current China. For whether you are in the East or the West the real oppressive force is not the government. What dulls the soul is rather the greed and materialism that lulls the soul into falsely thinking they are free. For it is not religion that is the opium of the people. It is unbridled power and unchecked greed. It is true violence to continue ignoring poverty, to look the other way while we are amusing ourselves with films like the Hunger Games when in fact we are as those entertained by the wars of this world. We are even entertained by watch the news and seeing the man in front of the tank. Because it makes us feel superior! Karl Marx was quoting a much older similar saying when he said, "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people". But he didn't say this because of real Christianity or the real Jesus. He saw all to often the leaders of privilege and money, who are equally found in churches and governments both oppressive and democratic, telling the people to fall in line and quietly look the other way when they see the poor. They don't want us to be like the rebel lowlife upstart, the good Samaritan. The platform plank of the capitalist and the communist alike is to deny the fallen, hurting and damaged. Both show by their lies and denials that their ideologies don't have room for the needy. This is a façade of fake shiny happy people, which is why they end up so easily becoming dull, grumpy people attempting to be what they are not. But true followers of Jesus, according to Paul, will have a glow. They will have a longer view. Unlike Marx they see that salvation from oppressive regimes, capitalist or communist, is of greater importance than freedom now. Our oppression does not actually come from the system, it comes from our rejection of Jesus. But in trusting him, we have a greater more hopeful perspective. In him, that is Jesus, we are set free. We are the most soulful and we who follow Jesus are the most heartful. For our champion didn't stand in front of a tank. Our champion didn't simply die for us. He rose to give light, and love and life. So be free and be the Shiny Happy People God has made you to be. But realise it only comes from Jesus. It does not come from your ideology your system or explanations. It comes from having the veil of unbelief removed by God's Spirit. (to be continued, in your face, no really the real story will be seen in your face. )
Monday, August 26, 2013
When do plan to be free of all your stuff? Ecclesiastes 5:15New Living Translation (NLT)15 We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us. _____________________
I'm moving from one country to another. Moving house with a very limited removals vehicle has forced some hard decisions. Do you keep the children's school art (they've all grown up). You read that book years ago, why do you need to keep carrying it? Possessions own us! We desire them. They weigh us down. Quite literally they weigh a lot! I was looking on web sites that estimate the weight of a person's household to make sure the hired 3.5 ton Luton van with 15.5 cubic meters can safely carry the sum of my worldly possessions.
My mind is loaded with thoughts on this subject.
A few years ago I decided I need a new rucksack (sm day backpack) to carry my stuff for work, as well as the all important pack up (lunch), and maybe a laptop too. I decided a large-ish one made by Victorinox (the Swiss Army Knife People) weighed in as the winner. Firstly, it seems other middle aged guys had the same idea, since I started seeing them around town. Second, I noticed they were really too big, unfortunately after I bought it (You look like a pregnant mule is strapped to your back). Third, I should have known the first rule of bags (and life for that matter), You tend to fill all the space available.
The bigger your bag the more you carry. Just in case! The bag owns you, you are just the willing pack horse for stuff that wants to move around!
The Daughter of Davis are an inspirational band made up of two sisters (Fern and Adrienne) who sold everything they had to buy a camper van to tour for two years around the United Kingdom. In a real sort of way, they lightened their load so they could follow their dreams. Well they sing a song called Butterfly. I must confess even when I am an ardent fan, I struggle to catch and sing along with all the lyrics. This leads to alternate lyrics.
So when I heard the line, 'I could get into this living life ' I was sure they were singing, 'I could get into this living light' and further it made perfect sense to me as they sold everything and a butterfly is so light. The point is living light feels so good. We love to travel light but we don't. We clutter our life all up with junk. And if it is not actual physical junk it is emotional 'baggage'.
Bethany, my daughter did her gold Duke of Edinburgh award this year. One of the requirements is a group orienteering camping exercise for six days in the countryside. One of the binding principles is that you can only use what you can carry! No stopping off at the corner store or some outdoor shop along the way to get supplies. So the common schoolgirl error is to carry too much stuff, just in case. So the trick is to carry just the right amount of stuff. Enough to survive but not so much as to be burdened down.
I'm sure that's why the author of Hebrews encourages his readers to strip off the weight that slows us down. Hebrews 12:1-2New Living Translation (NLT)12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.[a] Because of the joy[b] awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.
(I can't find the original artist to give credit or ask permission.)
Pictured above is a classic woodcut rendering of the character, Christian in John Bunyan's epic tale Pilgrim's Progress. In the following passage Christian is freed from the burden that weighs him down. Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Isaiah 26:1. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.” Then he stood still a while, to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bunyan/pilgrim.iv.iii.html
Sooner or later you will lose all the stuff you are carrying. The choice is up to you whether you loose it like Christian at the foot of the cross or if you'll lose it when you get to your grave. Did you know if it isn't in Christ it isn't going to make it to the otherside. Some good things, even gifts from God, are for this life only and many only for a time. All things should be held with lose hands. For naked and alone you came into the world with nothing and naked and alone you shall leave.
Mark 8:36 (KJ21)36 For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
"Loosen your grip," I heard one night in a prayerful vision more than 13 years ago. For some reason I find this a hard thing to do. But by degrees God is graciously prying my stone cold grip off the weights and encumbrances.
Jesus has more than filled my hands with blessings. But there is no blessing greater than the blessing giver himself. I can embrace him best if my hands aren't full.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
How far will it take you? We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 2 Corinthians 1.8.NLT (Paul the Apostle)
http://bible.com/116/2CO1.8.NLT Bible.com/app
There's a lot of people handing out 'encouragement' and advice that don't know what they are talking about. Some people are being told that God won't let them suffer.
1 Corinthians 10:13 NASB
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
But its obvious enough if you read what the Bible says that people who suffer (that's supposed to be everyone who follows Jesus) will sometimes feel like its too much. They'll think that the suffering is going to kill them. They're not immediately, easily, or peacefully finding 'the way of escape.'
The Apostle Paul is not some kind of sissy drama queen. He's seen his share of tough situations.
2 Corinthians 11:23-28 NASB
... in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.
That's a list that puts Jason Bourne to shame.
Paul's story is real life and far more exciting than anything Hollywood can dream up. But all that adventure doesn't make you into a rock. Paul wasn't transformed into a fearless, emotionless, 'never cry'- kind-of-action-hero.
Paul thought sometimes it was too much. He thought it was going to kill him.
Go back to the top and read what super Apostle was saying.
CRUSHED OVERWHELMED BEYOND our ability to endure Thought we'd NEVER LIVE THROUGH IT
Today I'm writing to give you permission to feel crushed. Don't let your brother's and sisters tell you you are wrong for feeling crushed. I can already hear the hard nosed super Christians with the stiff upper lip and the faith to move mountains start to object and say this is Paul and it isn't an example. And in fact Paul's 'lack of faith' may have been sin!
I don't buy that.
Let's look at Jesus. Jesus never sinned. So this account in Mark must not be sinful.
Mark 14:33-36 NLT
He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he became deeply troubled and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Faith has a long view. The view of faith extends beyond the grave. The view of faith trusts the plan of God. The view of faith says this life is only a short time at best. Faith can wait till thier wife is 99 before she has her first baby. Faith can willingly sacrifice thier son, because it believes in the resurrection of the dead. Faith feels pain but believes in heaven. Faith thinks things may be unbearable but believes God will make it come good even after death.
2CO 1:8-11 NLT
We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Another Take Philippians 2:3-4 NLT
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
Another Take
When people get seriously difficult news from the doctor often friends will encourage them to "get another opinion." In life we all recognise the value of a "fresh set of eyes." So when someone comes along and offers a new perspective based on some lateral thinking we're inclined to take notice. That's what I think Paul is offering the people of Philippi.
In most cultures of the world things haven't changed much, in fact even in the animal kingdom the tenancy is to look out for number one. It's a "dog eat dog" kind of a world. In fact just yesterday a quite selfless colleague of mine repeated that very motto. "You've got to look out for yourself because no one else is going to do it."
Self promotion is the heart of competition, grades, ranking, management levels, pay scales and dibs on "riding shotgun".
Here in Britain the culture highly values the "no queue jumping" sentiment but it is not humility that protects your position in the queue, its self preservation. We don't want some one at the front to begin letting a long string of late-comers into the queue ahead of them because that will put them all ahead of us.
So Paul's perspective is fresh because it counts on God's justice. The person who subscribes to the point of view found in today's verse-of-the-day can let everyone take his place because they are confident of God's advocacy on thier behalf.
Do you trust God to have your back? Can you prefer others over yourself? Are you willing to humble yourself and prefer others because God will promote you if you need to be promoted.
God will feed you, clothe you, save you, give you a home and a place at his table. Jesus humbled himself and his Father exalted him to position number one. Satan will tempt you to grasp it. Look where that got him. Jesus didn't travel the easy path of queue jumping when Satan tempted him to, instead Jesus trusted his Father's plan.
The way up is down
Death is not the grand finale! 1 Corinthians 15:54-58 NLT
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? ” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
It's so easy to think of death as the end. And as it is a formidable enemy we may find death the winner in our epic struggle to live. But the Apostle Paul uses all of Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians to assure us that death is not the end. And in fact death is not the winner. Jesus is the winner. Life and it's author triumph over death. And so can we. We may still feel the slap in the face but we will not be taken down forever by death. Death is defeated. Death will lose and has lost.
We look at life and fear the worst. We fear the finality of death. We talk about a life or death situation and raise death as the ultimate spector and unavoidable grand champion. But death is down for the count and life triumphs. In the end life wins. Jesus has been resurrected and so will all those who are in him. So you can be confident. You can be enthusiastic. You can look death in the eye and smile because for you and those you know in Christ death doesn't have a chance. So go to the bookie of life's race and put all your money down on life. Bet it all. Because in the two horse race of life and death, life wins ever time if the rider of life's white horse is Jesus.
Friday, July 26, 2013
There is only one Acts 4:7-13 NLT They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.
I don't know about you but I'm plagued by a terrible recurring case of wanderlust. This malady I must confess has led to me temporarily getting lost or at least going well out of my way. Maybe that is why I grew quite fond of the saying, "All roads lead to Rome." Or my favourite misquoting version of the famous phrase, "All roads lead to Home." My wife and children have often fallen victim to my propensity to discover a new way or my inclination to drag everyone up one more hill to see an imagined amazing vista. To others it can be very wearisome to follow an often failed but doggedly optimistic explorer. Breathe a sigh of relief! Unlike Rome and home, salvation, according to God's Word, has only one way. There is no debate. Our guide has been all of the ways and can conclusively report that, to be saved, only one name will work. Jesus alone can save you. You can turn to no other. You will only get lost and terribly disappointed to go any other way. All other roads lead to destruction. All other saviours are false, incapable frauds. To add to my list of sins, I'm a lazy trekkie. I like Star Trek. But right from the very get go they lie to you and say they are boldly going where no man had gone before. Jesus has been every where. Jesus created it all. Jesus is present in all places. He also suffered all our anguish, evil, aloneness, rejection and torment on the cross and in death. So he had been there.
Call on Jesus name! Jesus can categorically tell you that there is only one way and it is through faith in his name.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Written to Shock You! Deuteronomy 28:56-57
The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot—will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter. She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.
http://bible.us/116/deu.28.56-57.nlt
__________
Deuteronomy chapter 28 is written as a warning and it is written to shock you!This passage is written to set you up! It is written to lead you into the utter revolting shocking horrific end of our selfishness, disobedience, and sinfulness. We may think someone is good, graceful, and full of poise and culture the very picture of beauty and sophistication, when in fact inside lies the avarice of a cannibal! And it is revolting! Still this was not fiction. God's people did disobey his commands and they did literally end up in this hideous situation of starvation, mental collapse and cannibalism. Sin is serious. We really don't believe God. We can't accept the warnings on cigarette containers how can we see the reality of where our path is taking us. Drug addiction can steal our mind and turn our young and promising capable bodies into complete walking corpses.I've seen young people with the bodies and minds of septuagenarians due to alcohol and drug abuse. And who hasn't seen families torn apart by people hell bent on greed, pleasure, lies, deceit and hatred. SIN LEADS TO DEATH! God wants to bless his people but he wants them to know that they will suffer unimaginably if they turn from the source of life. If they seek life from the source of death they will shrivel to less than an animal. We should thank God for painting the picture so clearly of a heart that has run from Him. We may turn from God and have the outward beauty and grace of a movie star but our selfishness will lead us to devour our own young. We need to be rescued from the consequences of abandoning the creator of love and life. We need to cling to the fountain of selflessness and sensibility. We need to bask in the safety of HIs Words and clarity of his ways. Only in rejecting our own way and in embracing HIs will we avoid the horrific rock bottom gutter existence of our sinful self. Be warned!
Sunday, July 21, 2013
True Justice Deuteronomy 24:17-22 NLT “True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans, and you must never accept a widow’s garment as security for her debt. Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from your slavery. That is why I have given you this command. “When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do. When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice. Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I am giving you this command.
Cruise Road is a real welcoming community! (Cruise Road, Sheffield, England UK S11)
_____________________________
The movement of people is inevitable. Famine, wars, crime, ethnic tensions and many other factors combine to cause people to move. Economic migrants are a constant story in the news. And refugees and asylum seekers never cease to pour across the worlds borders. Then there is the constant expansion and never satisfied commerce that lures people out into unknown worlds and far reaching places only to go bust and become trapped. The poor, the foreigner, the orphan (of which worldwide there are estimated between 120 and 200 million) and the widow will be on your doorstep.
God has brought them to you! God wants you to take care of them. How can you turn them away? How can you think they are dirty, untrustworthy, or criminal? How can you protect your own jobs, land, privilege and position? Do you think you blessed yourself? Do you think you have it good because you are clever or hard working and they are lazy and stupid? Do you really think your men died defending your country to buy you the right to mistreat the needy? Do you think you can put yourself first? You have no good thing unless God has given it to you! You would have nothing if it were not for God's grace. And grace by the way isn't making you a favorite because you are better! Grace is a gift! Over and Over God reminds his people they were slaves! Over and over you need to remember your country is a country of poor immigrants. Or worse yet your forefathers came and took by brutal and uncaring force the land you call your own.
Your life must take into account a caring humble attitude for the needy!
If it does not, God says the foreigner, the orphan and the widow have a case before him against you! Do you really want to pick a fight with God? Do you really disbelieve God? Do you know better than God?
How are you taking care of the poor, the needy, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow? In what practical ways are you helping them?
Deuteronomy calls this true justice and James calls it pure and genuine religion.
So are you just in your attitudes, pure in your trust of God, and genuine in your humility? _____________________________
27Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. James 1:27
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Ego Busting Grace Deuteronomy 9:4-6 New American Standard Bible
"Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,' but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. "Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people. ___________ God is good. He is leading his people into the Promised Land. The promised land was a good place. Proverbially a land flowing with milk and honey but also a land filled with big bad giants. Giants that had come to the end of their grace period. Giants who would soon be facing the wrath of God. Deuteronomy chapter nine says, "...it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them."
So it wasn't because God's people were more deserving. It wasn't because they were more liked by God or because they were on a better spiritual trajectory due to their deep and unwavering love of God their rescuer.
I've meet lots of nice Christians who would not like to bring up the past sins of another person. And to avoid the unpleasantness of past sin they spiritualize their reasons for politely refraining from looking back. "You know forgiveness remembers our sins no more. they are removed as far as the east is from the west." In the name of Christian love we treat people as if they are righteous, have been righteous, and will continue to be righteous. We all feel much better in this very righteous environment. I suppose many churches today would take issue with the Apostle Paul's, little list in first Corinthians and then the blunt and rather rude statement, "such were some of you."
For the most part God is not like that! God is plain talk'n! " God says here in Deuteronomy chapter nine, "Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people." And it is not left just there. Then God rehearses for them the highpoints of their low points and his anger with their rebellious stubborn hearts.
It isn't just to rub their noses in their sin either that God says these things. It is God's good grace that warns them.
Nice Christians in nice churches might very generally acknowledge we were sinners in the past. But it is a major faux pas to use the past to predict the trajectory of the future. Isn't it judgemental to suggest that because you have a track record of stubbornness and rebelliousness that you might be stubborn or rebellious in the future. I mean let by gones be by gone , keep no record of wrongs and emphasis who we are as God's chosen people. We live in the greatest country in the world. God blesses us. We were chosen! We're special!
That's not the way God plays it with his people here in Deuteronomy nine, nor in most of the bible. God calls a spade a spade. God graciously warns his people that they are not getting into the promised land on merit! They are not more righteous than the other nations. They do not have a good track record and they are most likely prone to pride and sin. There I've said it! I have suggested as God does that you are likely to sin! You are likely to think too highly of yourself. You are prone to thinking you've earn the grace of God! God's good grace gives and warns.
Don't go thinking you have been saved because you are clever, obedient, pretty good, not a murderer, or a child molester. There is every chance that God will save them.
As God give you a great gift he reminds you that it is just that a gift and he is not being mean spirited or hurtful as he warns you to not get the wrong idea and think you deserve it.
That is not what grace is about. Promised lands are about God's promises, not good behaviour.
___________ DEU 9:1-24 NASB "Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, great cities fortified to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?' Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you. "Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,' but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. "Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people. Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord . Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, 'Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.' The Lord spoke further to me, saying, 'I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people. Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.' "So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. I fell down before the Lord , as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain. "Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. When the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and possess the land which I have given you,' then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Be Careful Blessings Ahead
DEU 8:1-20 NLT “Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord . For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good. “So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills. It is a land of wheat and barley; of grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates; of olive oil and honey. It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath. “But I assure you of this: If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed. Just as the Lord has destroyed other nations in your path, you also will be destroyed if you refuse to obey the Lord your God.
Everyone wants a blessing. We want a good life. We want more yield and just a bit better return. We want enough to share. We want to be comfortable. Who doesn't? We pray for blessing, we ask for protection. We hope for good crops, better wages, longer holidays, sunnier days and plenty of rain, but not when we need to be outside. We love fresh fruit, rich cakes, hearty beer, fine wine, choice tender meats and tasty pastries. We hope we don't get sick, we pray for healing and we long for a good night's sleep. On our best days we pray that even our enemies share in the blessings of peace, prosperity and economic growth. We applaud job creation, advances in technology and miracle cures.
Endcliffe Park, Sheffield
But be careful! Blessing can blind you! Abundance can bind you. Opulence breeds obesity.
And people forget God.
James 1:17 KJV Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Got a raise? It was from God. Did you give him credit? Healthy? That was from God? Have you thanked him? Have a good meal? Travel safely? Get a return on your investment? Have a comfortable life? Enjoying the sunshine? Get a choice? Live in peace? Be careful not to take it for granted. Your freedom wasn't won simply by your clever economics, your superior intellect, or your rigorous education. And you're not blessed because you deserve it. If you got it GOOD, it was from God! Be careful to not forget him. Give him credit. Be careful, blessing can be your undoing. Don't become proud. Don't forget God!
Hunter's Bar, Sheffield
Monday, July 15, 2013
Unyielding DEU 3:21-29 NLT “At that time I gave Joshua this charge: ‘You have seen for yourself everything the Lord your God has done to these two kings. He will do the same to all the kingdoms on the west side of the Jordan. Do not be afraid of the nations there, for the Lord your God will fight for you.’ “At that time I pleaded with the Lord and said, ‘O Sovereign Lord, you have only begun to show your greatness and the strength of your hand to me, your servant. Is there any god in heaven or on earth who can perform such great and mighty deeds as you do? Please let me cross the Jordan to see the wonderful land on the other side, the beautiful hill country and the Lebanon mountains.’ “But the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. ‘That’s enough!’ he declared. ‘Speak of it no more. But go up to Pisgah Peak, and look over the land in every direction. Take a good look, but you may not cross the Jordan River. Instead, commission Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead the people across the Jordan. He will give them all the land you now see before you as their possession.’ So we stayed in the valley near Beth-peor.
I've been waiting for more than 13 years for something quite important to happen and 24 years for another thing to happen. Neither thing is trivial and both very much have seemed God's plan. Moses had been waiting for about 80 years to see God's promise. And for the last 40 years Moses' whole goal was to lead these People into God's promised land. Now he can't go. Furthermore, his new goal is to prepare his assistant, Joshua, for the job. This is a hard pill to swallow and Moses begs God to reconsider. I'm not sure how many times Moses had mentioned it. It could be that it is only those few times recorded in Numbers and Deuteronomy or it could have become a repeated refrain of Moses' prayer life. However many times Moses had asked, God has had enough and tells Moses, "‘Speak of it no more." What must Moses have felt? It seems to me there a only a few things that make this news bearable. And I'm still left with a few questions Moses was old and was going to die soon so he'd not have to face this disappointment for long and he'd then be in a much better place. Moses was confident that God's plan was going forward under Joshua leadership so the people would realise the goal Moses at least knew the final word on the matter and could at least not be in any doubt as to God's feelings on the matter. But why is it that Moses seems to be able to pass the blame for his not being able to enter the Promised Land on to the Children of Israel rather than on his and his brother's disobedience. Numbers 20:12-13 NLT But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them!” This place was known as the waters of Meribah (which means “arguing”) because there the people of Israel argued with the Lord , and there he demonstrated his holiness among them.
Sometimes we get all worked up and begin to identify with someone like Moses in the bible. But this is not Moses story. this is God's story. We are meant to be hearing and identifying with the one who deserves and demands our uncompromising love. This is a story about a compassionate, holy, promise keeping God. A story of hope and redemption a story that leads us to Jesus. Moses is not a saviour. Moses could not finish what he set out to do. Every attempt by man to live up to the standard will fall short. Only Jesus is righteous enough, ultimately only Jesus saves. In the end Joshua begins the next step but he too will be incomplete. But we are promised with Jesus he can finish the work! He can succeed where all other have failed.
Moses in the end is just like you. Just a person who will ultimately fail on their own and not make it to the goal. Only in Christ can you make it to the end!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Remind God? Numbers 31:54 NLT So Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gifts from the generals and captains and brought the gold to the Tabernacle as a reminder to the Lord that the people of Israel belong to him. Numbers 10:10 NLT Blow the trumpets in times of gladness, too, sounding them at your annual festivals and at the beginning of each month. And blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and peace offerings. The trumpets will remind the Lord your God of his covenant with you. I am the Lord your God.”
God knows everything. God made the covenant promises to Abraham and then repeated these to, Jacob, and on then to His People through Moses.
So why is it that these two passages tell God's people to remind God?
Can you think of other places in the Bible that God asks people to remind him?
I've had a look at these passages in two passages in a number of other versions of the English Bible. (NASB, ESV, AMP, MSG, NCV, NIV, )
New Living Translation seems to be the only one with this nuance. Making God the one to be reminded.
But even if it is a fluke of a less than accurate translation. What caused the translators to make this change?
Does God need reminding?
Didn't effectively Moses remind God of his reputation in Exodus 32 when God was going to destroy his people and Moses pleads with God to save them.
"So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people," (Exodus 32:14, NASB).
Victoria quay, Sheffield UK
In this passage not only does God get a reminder but it appears as if he changes his mind.
And then there is Korah's rebellion in Numbers 16, where it sounds as if God is going to wipe them all out and again Moses pleads with God and God seems to change his declared course.
20Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,21“Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them instantly.”22But they fell on their faces and said, “O God, God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the entire congregation?”
Are our prayers a reminder to God?
What do you think?
Write me and tell me: wkbode@gmail.com or reply here and make a comment.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Perfection or nothing. Numbers 27:12-19 NLT One day the Lord said to Moses, “Climb one of the mountains east of the river, and look out over the land I have given the people of Israel. After you have seen it, you will die like your brother, Aaron, for you both rebelled against my instructions in the wilderness of Zin. When the people of Israel rebelled, you failed to demonstrate my holiness to them at the waters.” (These are the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) Then Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, you are the God who gives breath to all creatures. Please appoint a new man as leader for the community. Give them someone who will guide them wherever they go and will lead them into battle, so the community of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” The Lord replied, “Take Joshua son of Nun, who has the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him. Present him to Eleazar the priest before the whole community, and publicly commission him to lead the people.
Moses is trusted by God. If Numbers chapter 12 is to be trusted, Moses " was very humble—more humble than any other person on earth." (Num 12) So you might think Moses was safe from judgment. You might think Moses had the inside track. Seeing that Moses knew people in high places so to speak you'd think he'd get a pass. Of course Moses would get to enter the promised land. I used to say that the most important thing about a person is what they think about God. And in God's description of Moses that seems to be worthy of a mention, "he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the Lord as he is." But that didn't get him in. Moses was humble. Moses knew the Bible. (He did write pretty much all of it up to this point.) Moses trusted God, Moses was very obedient, Moses prayed a lot, Moses experienced an unprecedented outpouring of God's blessing and gifting. Moses loved his enemies. Moses loved God and his neighbour. But in the end this doesn't secure his entrance into the promised land. You and I are not going to get one up on Moses. You and I are not going to queue jump Moses based on our performance record. Moses' life and death cry out for grace and a Saviour. Moses wasn't enough on his own.
God and Moses' relationship, as good as it was, was not enough.
We need Jesus. We need a perfect Saviour.
You are not good enough. You can't count on your relationship with God. You can't count on you bible reading or writing for that matter. You can't count on your humility but it is a nice touch and by all means keep it up. You can't count on a love for your enemies. You will not get into God's kingdom based on you! I will not get into God's promised land based on my merit.
Be careful what you put your trust in!
Flowers on Graham road wall, S11 Sheffield UK
It is only by the mediation of Jesus, it is only by his perfect life and sinless death you will cross over into God's reward. You can not earn it yourself. Riches and blessing will not secure your place. Your obedience will not earn it.
It is only by Grace!
Numbers 12:2-4, 7-9 NLT They said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he spoken through us, too?” But the Lord heard them. (Now Moses was very humble—more humble than any other person on earth.) So immediately the Lord called to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam and said, “Go out to the Tabernacle, all three of you!” So the three of them went to the Tabernacle. But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the Lord as he is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?” The Lord was very angry with them, and he departed.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Last Enemy 1 Corinthians 15:26 NLT And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
I got news this morning that a friend died. He was only 51. Premature death came to my life early with the death of my grandfather. And then the life changing, gut wrenching, loss of my best friend and only brother (and only sibling) visited my life when on the 4th of June 1987, Daniel Allen Bode suddenly and unexpectedly died. I was irrevocably changed by these deaths. Death is inevitable. Death is our enemy. But death is not the end. I've pasted in at the end of this note the whole passage from 1 Corinthians 15 about Jesus power over death and his ultimate victory over death. Another passage that really helped me face death and make sense of it, is found in Hebrews chapter 2.
Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
Death and even more the fear of death has a great power over us. Jesus has a greater power. I can not make sense of mortality and the ticking clock without lastly hearing Jesus. The night my father called to tell me my little brother had died, I was stunned. I had been up most of the night studying and was deeply in academic mode and weary. Because of university and work I missed my brother's high school graduation. Luckily, my brother came to visit me in Chicago just before he died. I told my dad, I'd be right there, a five hour drive. I called back to make sure it wasn't a bad dream or I'd misunderstood. No, it was true. (Thinking about it now makes me feel young, nearly a child again, and very vulnerable.) I sat at the kitchen table and cried out to God. I had no idea where to turn. My Bible fell open to this passage and these were the words I read :
John 11:21-26 NLT Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
I answered, "I believe!"
1 Corinthians 15:12-28 NLT But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.
Thursday, July 04, 2013
Silver Trumpets Numbers 10:1-10 NLT Now the Lord said to Moses, “Make two trumpets of hammered silver for calling the community to assemble and for signaling the breaking of camp. When both trumpets are blown, everyone must gather before you at the entrance of the Tabernacle. But if only one trumpet is blown, then only the leaders—the heads of the clans of Israel—must present themselves to you. “When you sound the signal to move on, the tribes camped on the east side of the Tabernacle must break camp and move forward. When you sound the signal a second time, the tribes camped on the south will follow. You must sound short blasts as the signal for moving on. But when you call the people to an assembly, blow the trumpets with a different signal. Only the priests, Aaron’s descendants, are allowed to blow the trumpets. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation. “When you arrive in your own land and go to war against your enemies who attack you, sound the alarm with the trumpets. Then the Lord your God will remember you and rescue you from your enemies. Blow the trumpets in times of gladness, too, sounding them at your annual festivals and at the beginning of each month. And blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and peace offerings. The trumpets will remind the Lord your God of his covenant with you. I am the Lord your God.”
About ten hours ago, when I read Numbers 10 I was excited to read about the silver trumpets. Hearing the trumpets through the camp was to be a regular reminder of God's promise. Sounds of trumpets, sights of the cloud and pillar of fire, and the smells of sacrifice and incense all served to constantly remind the people of God's promises. That coupled with the taste of manna and quail made the life of the Israelites unique and blessed. But the hearts of men are hard and easily distracted. You'd think they'd not be able to forget God's blessings. But they grumble, they complain, and they imagine a couple of years on from the Exodus that slavery in Egypt was better than living in the presence of God. But when their mind is going down the negative path of return to Egypt the Silver Trumpets call out and draw their attention in the direction of the Tabernacle. With their gaze now fixed towards the dwelling place of God, they see the pillar of cloud and smell the smoke of sacrifice. The heart is cheered and promise of God the rescuer is remembered. The same Silver Trumpets that announce a peace offering, is the sound that declares war, and says in the same way, I'll take care of you my children. When the Silver Trumpets welcome the first of the month or when the joy of celebration is echoing through the camp, the Trumpeter is hoping a new event of gladness would call on his services for God encouraged the trumpets to be used at nearly any excuse. We can't be reminded enough that God keeps his promises. What sound serves as a Silver Trumpet call for your heart? We all need a call to prayer. We need reminders every glad time. Listen. Listen and make the sound of birds, hear the call of the shift change at the local factory, hear the bells on Sunday or even the sirens of the city and let these sounds remind you of God's good grace. What sound will call you to remember and trust your God' your provider and rescuer?
Monday, July 08, 2013
I'm what you need Numbers 18:20 NLT
And the Lord said to Aaron, “You priests will receive no allotment of land or share of property among the people of Israel. I am your share and your allotment.
Numbers 27:5-7 NLT
So Moses brought their case before the Lord . And the Lord replied to Moses, “The claim of the daughters of Zelophehad is legitimate. You must give them a grant of land along with their father’s relatives. Assign them the property that would have been given to their father.
Different people different lessons. God's word isn't monochrome. The priests taught us the promise land was first and foremost about the promise giver and His presence with God people. We ultimately don't have to be trapped by the greed of the name and claim it culture often invading Christianity. To be sure the priests were not going without, but thier self sufficiency - live off the land - American dream was severely limited by God. If the people obeyed God then the Tabernacle, sacrifices, and "taxes" would supply an abundance. The people would also have to trust God through the years of Jubilee and even the weekly Sabbath.
But don't think that God is unconcerned with justice in the distribution of land. In Numbers 27 we have a unique and just precident. Women had the same right as men to the ownership of property and this was for the insurance of carrying on the rights of the family. The purpose isn't too reinforce the rights of the individual but rather to insure the rights of the family were protected and that women had the right to claim the property continuance for the family.
This checks and balance system shows God's love for his people. A love that sets the focus of the people on trusting God and that recognised the importance of property but only in the context of family and trusting in God as our ultimate Father and provider.
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Early Retirement (Today I read Numbers chapters 5-8 in the Bible from the New Living Translation, why don't you join me?)
Numbers 8:23-26 NLT
The Lord also instructed Moses, “This is the rule the Levites must follow: They must begin serving in the Tabernacle at the age of twenty-five, and they must retire at the age of fifty. After retirement they may assist their fellow Levites by serving as guards at the Tabernacle, but they may not officiate in the service. This is how you must assign duties to the Levites.”
I'm getting a bit older. I've been saying that for years. But since I'm nearly 50 myself and since I'm a priest, maybe I should be considering retirement.
1 Peter 2:9 NLT
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
But before you get to liking the idea too much let's consider a few other relevant facts. Moses and Aaron and maybe even Aaron's sons were much older and they were working very hard indeed. In fact at this point Moses is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 85 years old and He had lots of work ahead of him yet and he served in the tabernacle. In fact Moses visits with God in the Holiest place in the Tabernacle and hears his voice.
Numbers 7:89 NLT
Whenever Moses went into the Tabernacle to speak with the Lord , he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—that rests on the Ark of the Covenant. The Lord spoke to him from there.
Further we get no indication that I know of that in any other area of life and ministry we are to retire. Here in Numbers the Levites still have the possibility of guard duty and this job doesn't seen to come with a retirement age.
So why this specific age range for Levites serving in the Tabernacle?
Numbers 8:7 NLT
Do this by sprinkling them with the water of purification, and have them shave their entire body and wash their clothing. Then they will be ceremonially clean.
The whole regime is meant to differentiate between God and the people. The people are sinful, dirty, flawed, blemished, rebellious, and tainted with stench of death. God is pure, holy, perfect, the very source of life and in all ways righteous.
God wanted reliable men. He wanted men in their prime, capable, clear, and without an outward sign of impurity.
And maybe the most important thing is that God wanted to remind his people that he was not to be taken lightly. Not just anyone could fulfill the role.
That is until Jesus, comes and makes all his people in his kingdom a kingdom of priests.
Revelation 1:4-7 NLT
This letter is from John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come; from the sevenfold Spirit before his throne; and from Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the world. All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him— even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for him. Yes! Amen!
So a day is coming when none will be mothballed. There will be no differentiation because we'll all be like Jesus. And old, young, men, women and child alike will be part of the royal priesthood of Jesus.
We are always looking to Jesus and his kingdom. Are you?
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Smiled on Numbers 6:22-27
The Priestly Blessing
22 Then the Lord said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing: 24 ‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. 25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’ 27 Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them.”
___________________
Smiles really do make a difference. A smile is a mark of happiness, a sign of joy, a seal of approval. When God smiles on us he is saying he loves us. He will give us what we need, that indeed he loves us!
We need this blessing. And God knows it. Don't forget it is God who tells Moses that this should be the blessing from God's representatives, Aaron, his sons and the priests to his people!
Look at what God is saying to his people.
Protected Fern
Bless - God intends to do good to his people! Protect - God is committed to their well being and standing between them and harm! Smile - God offers approval and joy in them. God is happy with his people. He loves them. Gracious - God knows the failings, and waywardness of his people but he will provide for them just the same. This blessing is not conditional on the people, but on God's character, which never changes. Favor - God sees everything but is predisposed to do good to his people. He will conquer their enemies, cause their crops to grow, and give them plenty. Peace - God rests from conflict with these rebellious people and extends peace. So in a world of fighting and war, God's people will know peace! and the promise of fulfilling this whenever the priest extends the blessing to God's people!
Maybe it is the promise tacked on the end of this blessing that makes it so powerful! The priest in pronouncing this blessing knowing full well that God is going to fulfil it! That is God's promise. It is as if God is saying listen, when Aaron, his sons, or the priests say these words to you, listen it is my voice. You are hearing the voice of God spoken from the heart of God.
And although this was specific to the Israelites so long ago and Aaron is no longer walking this earth, a better priest by far has come and he still speaks these words of blessing over you. And His Father has promised even greater bounty, and blessing. Jesus is our great high priest and He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing imaginable and far more than you can imagine.
Trust Him and listen to his blessing spoken here through Aaron and now through Jesus!
Hear me friend as I am a priest in God's kingdom and I speak these words of Blessing on you today!
Friday, June 28, 2013
Schedule it Today I read Leviticus chapters 21-23, why not read them today with me? ________________ Leviticus 23:2-4 NLT
“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly. “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the Lord’s Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live. “In addition to the Sabbath, these are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the official days for holy assembly that are to be celebrated at their proper times each year.
_______________
I'm a big one for putting it on the calendar. I like a plan. Oh to be sure I like spontinaity but I think being flexible works best in a framework or a structure. Along side the details of plans, diaries and expectations I love to see the big picture. I like a good overview.
Life benefits from both a healthy analysis as well as a synthesis. Look at the parts and how each part works individually and from very limited perspectives. Then look at the whole, the trends the big picture and see the parts with in the whole.
Leviticus contains instructions about the details of seven national annual festivals or holidays (Holy Days). These days were in addition to the weekly Sabbath days.
So a Jewish community calendar would have a lot to look forward to. But also there was the expectation that like western Christmas lots of money went into these festivals. Nearly each one required specific sacrifices. Since the real daily commodity of life is food and nearly all the required festival sacrifices were food a family would have to plan.
No holiday is complete without a big meal so it was more than a double consideration that a portion of the best food would be taken to the tabernacle /temple as a sacrifice and then there were the hungry families to feed.
These regular frequent privileges and equally obligations required planning.
But ultimately God was teaching his people to be careful and regular about recognising him as thier provider, protector, defender and rescuer.
I can see how the whole system might become rather expensive and difficult to keep up with. But God said he'd provide.
By giving up a portion of the best regularly and then celebrating lavishly God's people had inbuilt systems to keep them dependant on God.
Do you see God's provision? Are you completely dependant on him? Do you have in your life specific times to celebrate? Are you preparing to honour God with your first fruits and remembering his rescues?
How about putting it on a calendar?
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Controversial and of another time? Leviticus 18:1-5 NLT Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the Lord your God. So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord your God. If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.
"I am the Lord, " and" for I am the Lord your God. " are two constantly repeated phrases throughout what maybe arguably some of the most distasteful verses in the Bible. I say that it is distasteful for many reasons but to the uninitiated these three chapters of Leviticus refer to the actual sacrifice of humans. And not just any human sacrifice but the sacrifice of children by burning to death. Historical records from sources other than the Bible describe events where hundreds of children were killed at one time. But to be fair, child sacrifice may be the most detestable reference in Leviticus chapters 18,19 and 20 but they are currently not the most controversial. I want to really encourage you to read these chapters for yourself. But mostly to see the context and associations. Ultimately my purpose today is to draw your attention to the overriding theme that underlines and punctuates these detestable and controversial behaviours. Over and over God simply reminds his people that he is the Lord. He is adamant that as he lays out these prohibitions his people are clear He is God. There is not a lot of explanation, as to why particular behaviour is forbidden. What is crystal clear is that God is large and in charge. This world is run by the Lord's agenda. He is God. God is making sure everyone knows the rules come from him. God needs no other reason than he is. Are we God? No! Who is God? The Lord is. So whatever has become of these commands for today and if you've not read them carefully you'll not be able to easily pick and choose what is still detestable out, from what is not currently relevant. These three chapters are part of a whole. And the overriding and inescapable fact is that God is the author of these words. You've got to ask yourself," What does God expect of me today?" How do I emphasis that I get He is Lord and God?
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Forsaken Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" _________________
York Minister
Why would God the Father forsake Jesus, the Son of God?
I find it interesting that today I published a blog consisting of a passage that's been sitting in my drafts from reading Exodus. The interesting thing is the contrast with this passage in Mark. Many have noted over the years that in every way Jesus is the perfect Israel. Jesus is the obedient son. Jesus kept the law fully as no man or woman had ever done and he did this without stumbling once. He is faultless in all ways.
Yet here on the cross he is forsaken by the Father. Here on the cross Jesus assumes the position of the guilty. Jesus is suffering the full wrath of God. He faces death, mocking, torture rejection. But further, where we can not observe, Jesus is carrying the weight of our sin. All the evil of humanity past, present, and future is crushing Jesus. All the guilt, all the fear, all the pain is rending God's soul.
Somehow Jesus the God man is actually suffering so that we can be made free. He is punished so we can be accepted and more than accepted we are imputed, attributed and blessed with the merit of his righteousness.
Till the moment he dies it seems all humanity is hurling upon Jesus scorn, mocking, and abuse because he had made himself vulnerable.
When in fact he is the all powerful, all knowing, compassionate, merciful, gracious, exacting, just judge of all mankind.
And after he dies there on the cross people say he must be the Son of God.
Why this change?
Maybe we see it partially in Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph it says was looking for the Kingdom of God. This small commentary on the man who buries Jesus I believe is meant to say he found what he was looking for in Jesus. Joseph wasn't running away like the disciples earlier, nor standing at a distance like the women. Joseph found courage on Jesus' death. We too can find courage in the obedient son's ultimate act of courage. We can identify and let Jesus' death in fact be our own. When Joseph places Jesus in his tomb could it be he is saying this man died in my place so I have nothing to fear and no need to further prepare for my own death.
Jesus had done it all.
Mark 15 The Crucifixion
21And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. 22And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull).23And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25And it was the third hour when they crucified him. 26And the inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." 27And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. 29And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30save yourself, and come down from the cross!" 31So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we maysee and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
The Death of Jesus
33And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 35And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Elijah." 36And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." 37And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" 40There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. Jesus Is Buried 42And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.44Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. Posted by William Bode at 6/26/2013 07:49:00 am
Labels: cross, crucifixion, death, Jesus, Joseph, Kingdom of God, sin Location: 4 Cruise Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S11 7EF, UK Lavish Love Exodus 20:1-6 NLT Then God gave the people all these instructions : “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me. “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.
____________________ Jesus was obedient Israel but on the cross he was forsaken.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Life or death in God's presence!
Leviticus 16:1-2 NLT
1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died after they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him. 2 The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.
________________________
See why I worry about my children? Emily Bode, Amy Westlake, Gwendolyn Bode, and Bethany Bode
I can't imagine How Aaron must have felt at the death of his two sons. We read in chapter 10 of Leviticus that Aaron remained silent when Moses explained God's reason for his two sons being consumed with fire from God's presence. I'm not sure you caught it but although the rest of the Israelites were allowed to mourn officially for the death of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and the rest of his family and the Levites were not allowed to mourn.
The death of a child must be devastating. I worry nearly every day for the last 24 years about my children! And I've seen the grief parents have at the loss of their child up close and personal. Grief is important. Aaron was denied the normal outward signs involved in this process.
Now his brother, Moses is asked by God to speak to Aaron and warn him about his own vulnerability in the presence of God.
Leviticus is all about being able to have God's presence in the midst of his people! The presence of God is special. It is not ordinary. And for sinful people to be allowed to be in God's presence they have to be reminded they are sinful! They have to know all the ways in which they offend God. The people have to see that being close to God is a matter of life and death.
Ever since the garden of Eden, all men have been under a death sentence. And every sin confirms that they can not live in the presence of God. Something has to be done to turn around the reign of death over each and every person.
In the next chapter, God says that the only way that anyone can be made clean enough to be with him is to have someone or something give it's life in their place.
Leviticus 17:11 NLT ...for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.
Blood given in exchange for a life, All the dead animals in the sacrificial system, and all the barbecues for God alone, were meant to demonstrate the serious life or death situation between God and man!
Your sin offends God. It stinks to him. It amounts to treason. Your rebellion is an affront to him. Your willful cocky disobedience deserves death! But God wants to be close to you. He wants you in his family. He made you to know him. He is worthy of being known. There is nothing other than you being in his presence and worshiping him that matters. And for God sake, get over yourself. He is holy. He is pure. He is righteous in everything he does. He is the all knowing one. He is the all seeing one. He is the all powerful one. He created you. How for a millisecond can you even think you know better? What makes you imagine for a moment that you are more righteous? How can you judge God? What makes you think you have all the information? Really you know very little. You are weak. You are not very clever. You are easily deceived and you need help.
So God has a plan to bring you into his presence eternally. And his plan involved Jesus blood, given in exchange for your life.
So he warns you as Moses warned Aaron; Don't come into God's presence without an invitation, don't come at the wrong time and don't come without being made pure by the sacrifice of someone's blood or you will loose your life.
But you can come, safely and boldly because of Jesus.
Look at what Jude says more than a thousand years later:
Jude 1:24-25 New Living Translation (NLT) A Prayer of Praise 24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.
And we can further see that although Aaron, the high priest had to be very careful and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu lost their lives for their carelessness, We can come into god's presence boldly because of Jesus.
Hebrews 4:14-16 NLT Christ Is Our High Priest 14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Mildew from God Leviticus 14:33-34 NLT (with a more complete passage below) Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew.
A problem with the bathroom plaster. Leviticus has a lot of instructions in it. I've been reading through the book and finished chapter 14 this morning. So far there have been been rules about sacrifices, rules about blood, rules about sex, rules about eating and rules about skin diseases. In each case there are two considerations. One, how does this effect my me and others practically? What do I need to do to do the right thing or remedy the situation? Two, how does this affect my relationship with God? What do I need to do to make sure ceremonially I can participate among God's people so I can be close to God and right before him. As I was reading along it really stuck out to me, that God said he would give some people's houses mildew. Now from experience, I can tell you mildew is not nice and I've pasted below more of God's instructions concerning mildew. But suffice it to say mildew can wreck your home. So, I was a bit surprised that God so clearly took credit for this unexpected 'gift' of mildew. I think it is important to note this in no way appears to be a curse for sin. It is not connected with other commands or disobedience. Mildew isn't a reminder of an event in the people’s history. Mildew may or may not be easily recoverable from, but since you always have to remove all your belongings from your house it is always going to be an imposition. Strangely there is no clever explanation, there isn't any lesson to be learned on the subtext. Simply, some people will have mildew of varying degrees and it comes from God. It will always be an imposition and it could result in having to tear down the house and build a new one. I want you to understand this is a rule that for the most part won't come into play for at least another 40 years since they'll wander living in tents for four more decades. So, this is a rule for the Promised Land. In the animated classic film, An American Tale, Fival Mousekawitz's family and whole European Jewish 'cat' ghetto sings that 'there are no cats in America'. But after many trials along the way the promised land of America turns out to have cats. Promised lands on this earth and in this time still have problems. God sends mildew on people. We're not ever going to be completely comfortable in this world. We are meant to look forward to another home, another city whose builder and maker is God.
A problem with the bathroom plaster. Then we'll live mildew free. Hebrews 11:9-10 NLT And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
Leviticus 14:33-48 NLT Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When you arrive in Canaan, the land I am giving you as your own possession, I may contaminate some of the houses in your land with mildew. The owner of such a house must then go to the priest and say, ‘It appears that my house has some kind of mildew.’ Before the priest goes in to inspect the house, he must have the house emptied so nothing inside will be pronounced ceremonially unclean. Then the priest will go in and examine the mildew on the walls. If he finds greenish or reddish streaks and the contamination appears to go deeper than the wall’s surface, the priest will step outside the door and put the house in quarantine for seven days. On the seventh day the priest must return for another inspection. If he finds that the mildew on the walls of the house has spread, the priest must order that the stones from those areas be removed. The contaminated material will then be taken outside the town to an area designated as ceremonially unclean. Next the inside walls of the entire house must be scraped thoroughly and the scrapings dumped in the unclean place outside the town. Other stones will be brought in to replace the ones that were removed, and the walls will be replastered. “But if the mildew reappears after all the stones have been replaced and the house has been scraped and replastered, the priest must return and inspect the house again. If he finds that the mildew has spread, the walls are clearly contaminated with a serious mildew, and the house is defiled. It must be torn down, and all its stones, timbers, and plaster must be carried out of town to the place designated as ceremonially unclean. Those who enter the house during the period of quarantine will be ceremonially unclean until evening, and all who sleep or eat in the house must wash their clothing. “But if the priest returns for his inspection and finds that the mildew has not reappeared in the house after the fresh plastering, he will pronounce it clean because the mildew is clearly gone.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Two Sons Lost in Silence Leviticus 10:1-3 ESV
Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the Lord has said, "Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified." And Aaron held his peace. _____________________
Are you ready for yours? (Picture taken at University of Sheffield Student Union)
Nadab and Abihu were consumed by fire that came out from the presence of the Lord. Two men died in the brand new tabernacle. Aaron's two oldest sons were chosen by God to work in a privileged position near to the very presence of God. But along with the highly exalted position came a life and death seriousness. We all far too readily dismiss death. Nadab and his brother had witnessed God's rescue of his people from the Egyptians. They escaped the death angel in Egypt because of their obedience. They walked through the Red Sea on dry land. Nadab and Abihu drank the water of gold dust from the ground golden calf. Nadab and his brother were among the Levites who killed 3,000 Israelites at the Lord's command because of wrath at the golden calf incident. These two men had participated in the preparations of the tabernacle all according to God's plan, and they had been purified for seven days previous. We need to see that these two men would have been considered good men up until this event. In fact they were really leaders numbers three and four, right under Moses and Aaron. Also considering the age of Moses and Aaron and the number of children they had and the fact these guys were Aaron's oldest, we can guess they were mature adult men well along in life. Are you seeing the picture? Nadab and Abihu are two respected important older men with a track record of doing serious good and seeing God's amazing acts and exacting holiness. Furthermore they were very near the presence of God. And on the surface it appears as though they are at least trying to do something to honour God. But the passage had some clues as to why they were struck down dead. Firstly, Leviticus outlines for us the sacrificial system that God had laid out for the people to be holy. Animals died in great numbers to remind the people that death is the result of sin. And every time another step in the new system was revealed to Moses and carried out by Moses, Aaron, the priests and the people, it is punctuated by the phrase, 'as the Lord commanded.' God had a plan, and it was important, deathly imperative, that things were done God's way. Any other way was sin. Nadab and Abihu did something that was not according to God's instructions. They were in the presence of God and they were presuming to somehow add to God's plan. Or they possibly had too much to drink and their judgment had been impaired. That's possibly implied by the following verses a little later,
Leviticus 10:8-11 ESV And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, "Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses."
All too often I'm afraid we are guilty of making it up! We've not been very careful about keeping our desires and opinion clear from God's command. Interestingly there is a pattern of God's severity when setting things up. Later when the spies return from Canaan and ten of them give a bad report, all ten die. During David's kingship when they are setting up the temple again by moving the ark of God's covenant, Uzzah reaches out to steady the ark while being transported on a cart, and he is struck dead. Much later as the church is just getting started and we become a living temple, Ananias and Sapphira lie about their gift and God strikes them down dead. Every day God wants to do a new thing in you. Your Father in heaven chooses to dwell in you, and together with other Christians, you are the temple of God. But unlike the first tabernacle, we have the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. But this is the only way to be safe in the presence of God. Oh friends, do not be lax in trusting Jesus alone. Don't invent your own way.
Don't come under the under the influence of any spirit but God's Holy Spirit. We must see God as holy. He is wholly other. He is pure. Only His ways are acceptable. This is a life or death issue.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Recentred (selected verses from Psalm 119) Psalm119:72-74, 81-84, 89-92, 96 NLT Your instructions are more valuable to me than millions in gold and silver. You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands. May all who fear you find in me a cause for joy, for I have put my hope in your word. I am worn out waiting for your rescue, but I have put my hope in your word. My eyes are straining to see your promises come true. When will you comfort me? I am shriveled like a wineskin in the smoke, but I have not forgotten to obey your decrees. How long must I wait? When will you punish those who persecute me? Your eternal word, O Lord, stands firm in heaven. Your faithfulness extends to every generation, as enduring as the earth you created. Your regulations remain true to this day, for everything serves your plans. If your instructions hadn’t sustained me with joy, I would have died in my misery. Even perfection has its limits, but your commands have no limit.
_____________ In G. K. Chesterton's brief but pithy book, Orthodoxy I've often found sanity. Chesterton illustrates the rationality of common faith in God. Through stories or elaborate senerios the book convinced me to centre my reason outside myself. Ultimately I am a poor starting point for my reality. The author of Psalm 119 is convinced of many things. Primarily the Psalmist is sure of the absolute necessity of God's word but he quite rightly doubts himself. As I read this passage I'm reminded of the rock solid things and caused to doubt the insecure. For instance God is the creator isn't up for grabs. It is a given! Or the shakiness of our own personal faith is set against the clarity of God's unmoveable word. Psalm 119 really casts into question nearly all the supposed givens of this world. Money isn't as valuable as God's word. There is no debate or lack of clarity on this point. But the writer's own faith is expressed as needing assistance. People of 'faith' are often offended if you question thier faith and even respond with strong emotion when they are questioned. We don't need to defend ourselves, especially when the truth is we are the least sure thing there is. But that isn't too say we don't have a role as people who are convinced of God's word and it's absolute surety. The penman of Psalm 119 knew he could bring others joy through his faith in God's word. We all to often are prone to protecting the indefeasible and then throwing the baby out with the bath water. Just because we see the frailties of our self and our own faith we don't have to assume God is not there nor that we have no role. We can both view ourselves with healthy scepticism and be at once confident of God's ability. We can be sure of His ability to rescue and still cry out in anguish intensely in need of the rescue. According to Psalm 119 the pain of life does not negate the sovereignty of God's plan. And the complexity of need did not unseat God as creator and sustainer. I really resonate with this portion of the Bible. I highly recommend that you read the whole of this Psalm. I'd be very encouraged to hear from you what you make of it. I wonder if you too find the logic of this author refreshing and surprisingly lucid but markedly different from what we hear so readily from the world around us. It can be very reassuring to be different. Are you ready to remove yourself from the centre of your logic.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
The greatest hidden miracle? Exodus 39:32-43 NIV So all the work on the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses. Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses: the tent and all its furnishings, its clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases; the covering of ram skins dyed red and the covering of another durable leather and the shielding curtain; the ark of the covenant law with its poles and the atonement cover; the table with all its articles and the bread of the Presence; the pure gold lampstand with its row of lamps and all its accessories, and the olive oil for the light; the gold altar, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense, and the curtain for the entrance to the tent; the bronze altar with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils; the basin with its stand; the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard; the ropes and tent pegs for the courtyard; all the furnishings for the tabernacle, the tent of meeting; and the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when serving as priests. The Israelites had done all the work just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.
People prize things. Crossing the Red Sea was quite the miracle. But I'm inclined to see the building of the tabernacle as an even greater miracle. To be sure there were a lot of people (maybe more than a million) and since they were facing a wet wide deep sea they had their proverbial backs against the wall. There were ducks, cows, sheep, horses, chickens, and all manner of livestock. Then there was the large load of swag. Everybody had a looters paradise of booty. Wonderful to possess but a pig to transport. And lastly there was an army with horses and chariots in hot pursuit intent on getting back the contents of the of their mattresses, closets and safety deposit boxes. So the Israelites had a big motivation to exit stage left and make like a tree and leave. The rest of the story is well known rehearsed and sung about for many millenia. Dry crossing was provided by God for the Israelites as a trap to bury Pharaoh's army, horses, chariots and at the bottom of the sea in Davy Jones' locker. But think about it everyone was highly motivated by survival and treasure! A combination that has kept the laziest focused and active. Now consider the tabernacle. First miracle is that God's people give so much by way of building materials the workers have to ask Moses to stop the people. Unbridled generosity is rare in an individual and then to see a band of refugees give up more than a ton of gold, and absolutely train loads of other materials willingly is unprecedented and unparalleled. Take for instance the bronze basin recorded for us and paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in the Message (Exodus 38:8 MSG) He made the Bronze Washbasin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women's work group who were assigned to serve at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Thier mirrors would have been highly valued items, often used and greatly desirable. Then there's the fact the tabernacle was finished exactly according to plan, on time and with a budget surplus. There were no overruns, nothing over budget, all the required skill was procured in house nothing had to be subbed out to another nation. With so many people working on a project in the middle of no where makes the US Navy sea bees look like complete armatures. And everything fit. And worked together. Neither the function nor the artistry was compromised. Every detail was finely crafted. And why? These people complained about food, water, wandering, Moses' extended quiet time and they made the golden calf idol to worship thereby breaking the first simple rule they were given. The tabernacle didn't feed them, it didn't increase their wealth. Most of them would never see the pretty parts of the tabernacle. On every level this tabernacle project defies logic and human nature. Truly this was one of the most extraordinary miracles ever recorded in human history. Oh and it wasn't completed by taxing the people nor by commanding or coercion. Exodus 35:29 NLT So the people of Israel—every man and woman who was eager to help in the work the Lord had given them through Moses—brought their gifts and gave them freely to the Lord . This could be the greatest miracle in all of Exodus. Has God done anything like this in your heart, or in your church?
Monday, June 17, 2013
Hate bribes Exodus 18:20-22 NLT Teach them God’s decrees, and give them his instructions. Show them how to conduct their lives. But select from all the people some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes. Appoint them as leaders over groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten. They should always be available to solve the people’s common disputes, but have them bring the major cases to you. Let the leaders decide the smaller matters themselves. They will help you carry the load, making the task easier for you. _________________
Disputes come with the territory. People, even God's people, maybe especially God's people, have a keen sense of injustice. Everyone knows when they have been wronged. Well at least everyone knows when they feel like fairness hasn't been observed in their behalf. Seems one of the first phrases a child declares with passion is, 'that's not fair'. And who do we imagine will right the wrong? At first it is our parents. But then it is innate that we appeal to leaders for justice. "Billy took my toy!, " we cry expecting our toy to be returned and maybe Billy will get a good thrashing so he'll not take my toy again. We long for mediators who will dispense fair, considered, impartial, wise justice. I think one of the first interesting things in this passage is that this was not a particularly democratic process. Moses chooses these intermediaries. Next I've observed that as Moses chooses he determines the level of responsibility each leader will have from a handful of people to a thousand. But what stands out most to me is the relativity short list of relevant criteria. Capable Honest Fear God Hate bribes
Dispensing justice requires capability. There is a skill or talent that enables some persons as capable. Then next in the list is a character trait, possibly a reputation of honesty. A person in leadership whose role it is to dispense justice has to love the truth, they must be without a practice of lying. It is interesting that the primary character trait of arguably one of the greatest presidents in American history was honesty. It has been passed down through the years that he was even known for the practice of honesty so much that he was nicknamed, 'Honest Abe.' I wonder could it be that actually there are only two requirements on this list stated first positively and then reiterated negatively. Cable = fear God Honest = hate bribes It was not an uncommon literary device of Moses' people or time to emphasis by restating the points in opposite ways, or by building the point. We'd do well to consider the possibly that real capability in leadership, particularly in dispensing justice, comes from the humility of knowing your place before God. The Fear of God the Bible says is the starting blocks of wisdom. And valuing the truth over personal gain is foundational. I've once heard it said that leadership requires an insight into the trajectory of truth. I'd heartily agree, that a person that sees the tangled web that is woven through deception will at all cost avoid the peril of entrapment and the demise of entanglements with bribes and lies. For ultimately God knows exactly what has happened. God has seen both the action and the intent of your heart. Nothing has escaped God's view and God will ultimately dispense justice. The capable leader will be acutely aware that justice is not some subjective abstract concept but rather is deeply rooted in the person of God. And further that it has been imprinted on the human heart with the image of God given at creation. First trust God to give you justice. Secondly, pray for mercy!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
No Danger for the Stranger Exodus 22:21-28 NASB "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. "If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets, for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious. "You shall not curse God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
Exodus 23:3, 6, 9 NASB nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute. "You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. "You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 23:10-11 NASB "You shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.
Banner says, "PKK is not a terrorist organisation"
Immigration is a hot issue. Some people prize their national identity pretty highly. There's no shame in seeing the benefits of your nationality; in the Bible it is recorded that the apostle Paul used his Roman citizenship to protect himself at least a couple of times. But God is concerned for the vulnerable, and along with orphans and widows, he instructed his people not to wrong or oppress the stranger. A few Bible translators translate the word 'stranger' as 'foreigner', as in Exodus 22:21 NCV (New Century Version): “Do not cheat or hurt a foreigner, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt."
Here in verse 21 it is clear that God was talking about people not considered local. Interestingly, God's people the Israelites had been living in Egypt for nearly 450 years. You'd have thought that would make your family local enough. It doesn't. The people in power get to decide who is local and who is a stranger in God's own land. Today there are people groups all over the world who have spent as much as a millenia living, working, building and contributing in one location and are still not considered local. God does not want his people to perpetuate that mindset. In fact, it seems God is more concerned about fair treatment of the foreigner that the abolition of slavery. What is your opinion of the immigrant? Jesus was an immigrant of sorts here on earth. And if you make it to heaven you'll be one in God's kingdom. Makes the golden rule hit home.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Serious business Hebrews 10:26-39 NLT Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. For we know the one who said, “I will take revenge. I will pay them back.” He also said, “The ord will judge his own people.” It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.
Sometimes people think of Jesus as a placebo for the conscience. Many view the church as having some social benefits for society now but they don't really believe that God will judge the world. Everyone wants a heaven in the future for their dead loved ones and themselves eventually but nobody seems to want to believe in hell.
But Jesus is real. God's judgement is sure. And nothing is worth facing the wrath of God for. I can honestly say that no other passage in the Bible is more disturbing to me than this one. When I was young I used to hear a lot about the debate surrounding assurance of salvation. It's one of the oldest concerns in the church. It really is no more complicated than, 'what must I do to be saved.' And actually Jesus didn't make it easy. I should rephrase that. Salvation is through grace alone! There are no works that buy your way into the Kingdom. You can't purchase it, or walk on your bloody knees praying to prove your devotion. For by grace are you saved through faith and faith is a gift from God, there are no works of man involved so that man can't boast that he saved himself. Jesus is the only way.
Acts 4:12 NLT There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
I've always said that when you are born again and are a child of God then nothing can change that fact. I was born a Bode. No matter what happens in my life the fact that Don and Bunny are my parents will not change. So as salvation is a gift from God based on God's grace, secured by the work done by Jesus on the cross, nothing I can do will change what God has done freely for me.
I'm not a universalist.
But I've also known that to enjoy any real benefits of knowing I'm a Bode, I need to be on speaking terms with mum and dad. To really bask in the joy of their love and acceptance, I need to seek them out, invite them around and ask for all their wisdom and knowledge on so many of the areas of life they know so much more than me. To feel the assurance of the salvation given freely by God I need to be in relationship with him. Hugs are best in close proximity. Laughs are best shared spontaneously in normal living.
God isn't about you just gold digging without the love relationship. Heaven isn't heaven at all without God. Jesus isn't the genie of the lamp. And you aren't going to pull a fast one over on God.
He isn't going to allow the very very serious death of Jesus on the cross be mocked by those saying they are family when in fact they are not. You either love the Father and therefore his Son and all they stand for or you are not actually part of the family. Don't think you can say you know and love your Father because of what Jesus did for you and then completely ignore what Jesus did for you.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Egyptian Slave or Slave of God? Exodus 20:1-6 NLT
Then God gave the people all these instructions : “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me. “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.
__________
Are we ever free? Does obligation cease to exist? Can we flout the laws of nature and live? Or are we slaves to pain or passion? Are we always possessed by another? Carefully answer, for do you not desire the commitment and companionship of another? Would you not willingly give your heart to the one you love?
The Israelites were slaves of the Egyptians but God had set them free. And still it seems in chapter 21 of Exodus that the Hebrews themselves had imbibed the elixir of ownership and possession of another human.
We should not wonder at this social structure. I believe that it is too simple to expect that since they've been freed they extend freedom. Far from our human nature, prison populations nearly always develop a strict structured hierarchy that includes servitude. Countries formerly under tyranny are some of the worst offenders when it comes to civil war, unrest and the ruthless struggle for power. It appears that freedom does not beget freedom!
So if we are going to fall prey to a regime, why not willingly serve God. As he set his people free he demonstrated his unparalleled power. But in his protection of his people he demonstrated his unparalleled love.
At this time, in this world, the idea that everyone will be good and can be trusted if they are left to thier own devices is not born out by reality. We love slavery!
So be a slave of God.
This is not just an idea of the age of law. Paul also persuades us to see ourselves as slaves. He evokes the picture of the indentured servant seen in Exodus 21. And like the challenge issued by Joshua 40 years later to God's people, Moses here in Exodus 20 is saying "Choose you this day whom you will serve"
Quit fooling yourself with lies of inate goodness flourishing in the nurture of "complete 'freedom'"!
You will serve a master. Of that you can be sure.
The question is whether your master is as good as God?
Serve the Lord God and live to the fullest!
Sunday, June 09, 2013
The gift of a song. Exodus 15:2 The Lord gives me strength and makes me sing; he has saved me. He is my God, and I will praise him.
Daughters of Davis DVD It all starts with a gift. God has been giving since the beginning when he gave Adam the breath of life. Then God gave him purpose, a job, a place and woman as a companion. God had given fruit to eat, a garden to care for, animals to name, a command to obey, sons to raise, and a warning with hope for the future. Here after a long, difficult process of trusting God and seeing his miraculous deliverance, Moses and God's rescued people rejoice because God gave them strength. And God gives them a song too. I love how a relationship with God includes the gift of a song. Moses' song shared with the people and led by his sister says that God makes them sing. I'm confident this isn't a one off. The Psalms are replete with people moved to song as a proper response to being rescued. Mary the mother of Jesus celebrates her saviour the baby she carried with a song. And Elisabeth the mother of John the Baptist also rejoices in God's salvation with a song. Songs are an appropriate response to God's nearness. When God comes into our lives and hears our cries for help, often he gives us a song to accompany our Exodus from captivity. Has the Lord of heaven and earth saved you? Has the creator of the universe given you strength? Do you sense his presence? Have you been set free from slavery? Are you wealthy beyond all imagination with a confidence that heaven is your real home and God's is your Father? Then Sing! Praise him. Write your own song. Tell how God has saved you.
Exodus 15:1-19 NCV Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, because he is worthy of great honor. He has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea. The Lord gives me strength and makes me sing; he has saved me. He is my God, and I will praise him. He is the God of my ancestors, and I will honor him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. The chariots and soldiers of the king of Egypt he has thrown into the sea. The king’s best officers are drowned in the Red Sea. The deep waters covered them, and they sank to the bottom like a rock. Your right hand, Lord, is amazingly strong. Lord, your right hand broke the enemy to pieces. In your great victory you destroyed those who were against you. Your anger destroyed them, like fire burning straw. Just a blast of your breath, and the waters piled up. The moving water stood like a wall; the deep waters became solid in the middle of the sea. “The enemy bragged, ‘I’ll chase them and catch them. I’ll take all their riches; I’ll take all I want. I’ll pull out my sword, and my hand will destroy them.’ But you blew on them with your breath and covered them with the sea. They sank like lead in the raging water. “Are there any gods like you, Lord ? There are no gods like you. You are wonderfully holy, amazingly powerful, a worker of miracles. You reached out with your right hand, and the earth swallowed our enemies. You keep your loving promise and lead the people you have saved. With your strength you will guide them to your holy place. “The other nations will hear this and tremble with fear; terror will take hold of the Philistines. The leaders of the tribes of Edom will be very frightened; the powerful men of Moab will shake with fear; the people of Canaan will lose all their courage. Terror and horror will fall on them. When they see your strength, they will be as still as a rock. They will be still until your people pass by, Lord. They will be still until the people you have taken as your own pass by. You will lead your people and place them on your very own mountain, the place that you, Lord, made for yourself to live, the temple, Lord, that your hands have made. The Lord will be king forever!” The horses, chariot drivers, and chariots of the king of Egypt went into the sea, and the Lord covered them with water from the sea. But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry land.
Friday, June 07, 2013
Behind the scenes, His purpose. Exodus 9 :12 "But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh," _______________________ (a more complete sampling of these passages is included below my notes.)
Sheffield seen from Heeley Two things you need to know about how God sometimes works.
In the short term he may ask you to do something and then he might work 'against you' while you try to do what he said. God may be doing something 'odd' in someone else's heart; You have no idea how he works. God asks Moses to talk to Pharaoh and ask Pharaoh to let his people go.
Then God makes sure Pharaoh says no a lot!
For a while this makes Moses very unpopular with God's people and with Pharaoh. I'm sure the Egyptians weren't very impressed either. From our perspective God sets Moses up to fail. Sure in the end it works out for the most part but along the way Moses has a lot to deal with. If you were given a job by God how long will you accept what looks and feels like failure. Many modern day followers of God give up on a lot of things pretty quickly. Pharaoh's heart was hardened. I find this incredible. And God gives a reason too. " so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth." " But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." God being seeing as God is the highest goal and greatest reason for all that God does. It is all for the glory of God. From my and your limited point of view we can not always see how God could get glory out of the situation. But God can. It's all part of God's plan. We should not be so quick to judge. We don't have all the information. Moses and Pharaoh are both quite unlikely characters to accomplish God's purposes and bring him glory. Maybe you are too. But the story of the Exodus is epic in God's plan. This incident is repeated over and over. These events are key to understanding what God is doing through Jesus. Jesus himself retells the story the night before he is crucified as did every faithful Jews at every passover celebration for over a thousand years and a couple thousand since Jesus. I suppose I just think we need to be reminded that God doesn't always ask us to do things he's going to make easy. I can imagine God's people praying, 'Lord please soften Pharaoh's heart so he let's us go.' All the while God is hardening his heart.
Are you sure you know what God is doing? What brings him glory? Do you really know how you'd be best partnering with him? Do what you're told! Leave the results up to God. Don't give up. Don't think you know what's going on. Have faith that God does. ______________
Exodus 9:12-21, 27-28, 34-35 ESV But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, "Thus says the Lord , the God of the Hebrews, "Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them."" Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, "This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the Lord , for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. EXO 10:1-2 ESV Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord ."
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
Big Tax Refund Exodus 3:21-22 NLT And I will cause the Egyptians to look favorably on you. They will give you gifts when you go so you will not leave empty-handed. Every Israelite woman will ask for articles of silver and gold and fine clothing from her Egyptian neighbors and from the foreign women in their houses. You will dress your sons and daughters with these, stripping the Egyptians of their wealth.” __________________
Another reversal jumps from the pages of the Bible. And this time it's wealth that is redistributed. Throughout Genesis I saw a lot of position, prestige and status reversals. There were some plot spoilers where riches were caused by God to multiply for the person being mistreated. The spotted, stripped, and speckled sheep and goats scenario between Jacob and Laban was a situation where God saw to it that his people weren't swindled. And that's what this is all about. God isn't arbitrarily shuffling the money deck and then dealing a bad hand to the Egyptians while dealing off the bottom of the deck for his people. No, not at all. God is righting a wrong. That's what a God of justice does. So before you get your gimme hands ta grasping consider if you've been doing right by others with what God's given you! Far too often people in the church start naming and claiming blessings, promises, riches, happiness and botox from their personal God genie. But they fail to see how long the injustice period had gone on. They choose to ignore the fact that literally days after one of the greatest wealth redistributions in history the lotto winners were full of fear and complaints. Riches will not make you happy. More will not solve your problems.
But God is keeping score.
Bingham Park at 20:30 03/06/13 And he loves to make things right. So if you've been done wrong God has a plan to give you justice. Consider it a heavenly savings plan. There are plenty of God's people who have been taken advantage of. You may be one of the people suffering in silence, groaning to God as your hard earned cash is clothing the rich in Versace and Prada. But rest assured God will hear you. And someday and in some way the wrong will be righted. Can you trust God? Can you let him provide for you? Moses here gets the Exodus master plan from God. And as a reminder he's Abraham's God. He's Isaacs God. He's Jacob's God. That's an impressive list. God made sure each of them had plenty. Each started out with meager beginnings and each faced an obstacle of significant portion. But in each case God provided. God is faithful. He always provides what you need. And far more than riches you need a heart change. Remember that all though these former slaves turned into the wealthy making a stunning exit left rich they quickly and repeatedly were unsatisfied. So make sure you desire the right riches. God does want to right the financial wrongs but more than your bank balance it's your heart that needs to be rescued. Posted by William Bode at 6/04/2013 07:48:00 am
Saturday, June 01, 2013
God tried to kill you! Genesis 45:4-9, 24 ESV
So Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." And they came near. And he said, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.
So it was not you who sent me here, but God.
He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, "Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry.
Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, "Do not quarrel on the way." ___________________
Joseph has not had an easy life. But even though he could be full of bitterness and desire revenge against his brothers, he reassures them. There is no question that Joseph's brothers did a despicable thing throwing him into the well and selling him into slavery. And then lying to their father about Joseph's death really was evil. The brothers could have looked for Joseph since they saw the pain it caused their father. Truly Joseph and his brothers were like enemies. But Joseph became a powerful ruler of Egypt for nine years. And he held his brother in prison for one year. During that time his father could have died. Joseph for more than eight or nine years did not seem to have urgency about seeing his father. And that does not include the many more years in the house of Potiphar or in jail. Surely Joseph could have got word to his family that he was still alive. As I've said the brothers don't go looking for Joseph and he doesn't try to contact them. So I'm not sure what Joseph was trying to do with the elaborate plan to put the money back in the grain sacks. I don't think we can assume that holding his brother in prison for a year wasn't Joseph planning revenge. But seeing his brother may have changed his mind. Now he wants to see his brother and his father. Could it be that during the meal, while Joseph sees his younger brother, God reveals to him the whole picture. It could be that Joseph knew all this all along and it was necessary that God establish Joseph as a crucial person of importance in Egypt as the famine rolls along for the second year. I don't know how or when Joseph came to it but ultimately he hits upon the idea that God was in his brother's betrayal. In fact God used all his hardship to save him and his family.
Could it be that like Joseph, God is the one saving you by making family members your enemies? Could it be that you were given that promotion and the boss's wife came on to you only to put you in jail? Could it be God's plan that you have suffered slander? Could that sex-crazed liar be God's way of getting you closer to a position of salvation? Did you ever think that being forgotten by the people you have helped is God's way of making sure you are in the right place at the right time? Could this crisis facing the world right now God's way of saving his people? Could it be that god tried to kill you via your brothers just to save all of you?
As the flood of emotion breaks loose with this odd family reunion, Joseph declares the purposes of God are found in the most hurtful of life situations. In the disappointments, in the betrayals and moments of being forgotten, God is working out his plan to save!
In my life I look back to these moments and I fail to see God! I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. And I'm not even sure Joseph always saw it. But here and now he does see it. He has compassion on his brothers. He loads them down with a windfall of gifts to convince his father that he is still alive!
Put yourself in Jacob's shoes. Sooner or later you'd think he's going to know the whole real story, and who is going to blamed for the many years of deep grief. In the end he has no one to point the finger more than God.
Yet it was for his salvation. This was all God's plan. God was rescuing his people. But far more than the famine (which also came from God's hand) could it be that we can see even further? Can we see God is working out the plan to save mankind from the one thing that is of their own making? All this has been worked out by God to save you from sin! To save you and to save me from our own sin. The one thing we get a choice in, the one thing we can control is our love and recognition of God and we fail at this miserably, even when we know better. So God is going to use our sin to ultimately save us. Our murderous intentions will kill the one innocent man who will die in our place. And as Jesus dies he will say Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
Joseph's brothers have won the lotto! They are getting to move to the best land in the richest country in the world. They are loaded with royal gifts. They are riding in style. They have a royal invitation from the very people who wouldn't before sit and eat with them. They have a royal pardon for treason, treachery, and the murderous intentions they've harbored these many years. During this time of famine they have a harvest of goods unbelievable even in the best of times. And why? Because the one they intended to harm, the one they condemned to death, the one they mocked and maligned has forgiven them and blessed them beyond their wildest dreams.
We don't take to salvation very readily. We look the gift horse of grace in the mouth and we still find a way to argue with our brothers. So the man who has suffered to save us, has to still tell us to not quarrel along the way.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Fruitful in the Land of my Affliction GEN 41:51-52 ESV Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house." The name of the second he called Ephraim, "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."
Joseph has had it hard. He was singled out by his father as the most loved of 12 boys. That's gotta hurt! The whole robe thing is embarrassing. He's sent by his Father to effectively be a nark and check up on his brothers. That's not going to make you popular. Then God gives Joseph these dreams that no one wants to hear, not even his father. He's tossed in a deep hole and then sold to his cousins as a slave and in turn sold in Egypt. Joseph does well though until a sex crazed woman lies about him. And He's tossed into another pit, jail. And again he does well and even gets a big break with the cupbearer to Pharaoh, only to be forgotten for another two years. So when Joseph is 30 he has a huge life change and comes into fame and fortune! And he is railroaded into marrying the daughter of a false religion's leader.
But Joseph makes the best of the situation and gets busy! Now he has two sons. Joseph's son's names are significant. In fact when the twelve tribes of Israel are named throughout all history you will not hear Joseph himself named. Instead you hear of Joseph's sons! Have you ever thought about the fact that built into the twelve tribes of Israel are two half Egyptian grandson's to the high priest of an Egyptian god?
Sometimes we need another perspective. And nothing can quite give us a new vantage point like a newborn baby. All that a newborn encapsulates fills us with hope. They are needy, vulnerable, and full of possibility and still they are resilient and demanding.
Joseph sees a new future when God blesses him with sons. And the blessing erases the past and provides for the future.
Now I'd like to encourage each one of you to have sons! But I mean spiritual sons! You are not too old, too single, too afflicted to ask God to make your faith fruitful. What your church needs are new believers. What your family needs is someone who has newly come to trust Jesus. We need in the church today the hope that comes with people being born again. Wherever you are, whatever your state in life, I'm asking you to pray that God makes you fruitful! I'm asking that you hope for newborns in the kingdom of God. And I pray as they come you give them names, may be new names. In addition to brother or sister call them Hope! Name them Ephraim!
As time goes on and God speaks of his people, he uses different tribes to refer to the whole or called them all Israel after Jacob's name change. When heartbroken over his people God's term of endearment in the book of Hosea is Ephraim. So an Egyptian boy whose grandfather was a very important religious leader for an Egyptian god and his other grandfather was a man who actually wrestled with the one true God of promise. Ephraim, the son of Joseph is a sign of fruitfulness that comes from affliction.
Posted by William Bode at 5/31/2013 07:41:00 am
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Go in, listen to , lie beside, be with Genesis 38:7-10 ESV But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord , and the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother." But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord , and he put him to death also.
Genesis 39:5-10 ESV From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me." But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. _________________________________________
I won't pretend to have all the answers when it comes to understanding these chapters in Genesis (38-39). However there are hints and themes that point us towards God's intent. May I remind you that proliferation of the human race has been job one since man's creation. And although the blessing of offspring has been particularly promised to Abraham's family that promise has required a lot of faith. And proliferation when it does happen seems to be mired in family conflict, deceit, and immorality. But the key to gaining clarity in this mottled ancestry is to look for God, and God's promise. Who is trusting God even when it appears to be counter productive in realising the promise. See God comes before even the promise. Hearken back to Abraham and Isaac with the lamb. Our experience of blessing should never need to be at the cost of God's glory. We can be faithful to God without forcing our self interest at the cost of regard for God's word. To be honest I don't have all the answers about these two chapters. But I know that we are meant to notice the contrast. Two of Judah's sons are killed by God. Joseph is blessed. But it's not quite that simple. Joseph is a slave. Joseph is in Egypt. Joseph has no children. Judah's sons Er and Onan are wicked and they are not blessed. Judah, Er, Onan, and Joseph all have to make a choice about sex. Only Joseph's abstinence policy is blessed. But again blessing includes prison, slander, and loss. In Joseph's life the way up is very much down. The Lord blessed Joseph's regard for God's way. Judah, Er, and Onan did not consider God's plan. Do you? Are you willing to be blessed while in prison, slandered for doing right, or sold into slavery because you are relating God's plan revealed to you? Ultimately this is a story about Jesus. Can you see Jesus? How would Jesus explain his Father's plan to rescue the world through his humiliation and death in these few chapters of Genesis?
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
a silent tsunami crashing the shore without warning. Psalms 34:18 (NLT)
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. ______________________________________________
There is a heaviness. It fills the breast and presses in like a weight. It takes your breath away but sometimes slowly crushing and other times coming like a silent tsunami crashing the shore without warning. While trying to shift it you feel guilt for a thing you can not put your finger on and everything you've ever done wrong. The burden of failures not your own coupled with inadequacies long felt and denied rush in to fill the black hole that is sucking your life away.
I pray.
The weight does not shift.
Fear invades.
Cold analysis seems painful and facts unable to change the feeling.
Keep telling myself the truth.
What is physical? What is mental? What is from outside myself and what is from deep within?
I am not a slave to this feeling. I will not be defeated by it; it will not overwhelm me! Tell my chest that. Tell my laboured breathing. Tell my tense muscles and tell my weary soul, that years of trying, and happy times have not erased that past. The future looms.
The future is sure. The past is erased. You are free. Even if you don't feel free you are free. Today, Now begins anew. Newness is a promise. You know newness and freedom. You will not be robbed.
You need sleep. You need to pray. You need to reach out. In reaching out you feel help. Make a list. Point your finger. Dismiss the Accuser! The debt is paid. The burden is shared. The burden is light. There is a lightness.
Let your worries for others go. Take them to the Father. Lay them down. He can raise the dead. I meant it for evil but he can use it for good. They mean it for evil but He can use it for good. Evil does not win!
The head hurts from the battle. The neck aches. But I surrender not to darkness but to light.
Darkness can not defeat the light.
Wait for his rescue. It will come!
Saturday, May 25, 2013
A few things you may have missed about Abraham
Genesis 25:1-18 ESV
1Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.2She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. 4The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. 6But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country. 7These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, 175 years. 8Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 9Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife. 11After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi. 12These are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son,whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's servant, bore to Abraham.13These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14Mishma, Dumah, Massa,15Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes. 17(These are the years of the life of Ishmael: 137 years. He breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.) 18They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his kinsmen. _________________ Did you know that Abraham had at least two wives and concubines and the liaison with Hagar?
Did you know Abraham sent all his concubines and sons away to the East with gifts?
Did you know Ishmael and Isaac together buried thier Father Abraham? __ God is not endorsing Abraham's choices. Have we forgot already that this is a story about God?
A Sheffield Working Man's Hero But let's learn some things through a little review. God spent a lot of time on the Abraham project. (How long has God been on your radar?) Abraham lived 175 years. God didn't even ask Abram to start the journey of the covenant till he was 75 years old! So all the story we know spans the last 100 years of God's life. Of that bit, Isaac is the centre piece of the promise and he doesn't show up for 25 years! Lots of stuff happens but until Isaac is born were all wondering if God might have forgot. Well not really forgot but not sure what's going on. Then there is the sacrifice incident about 37 years after the call and initial promise. And although Genesis 25 puts a pretty good light on Abraham's life, the facts and a bit of reality sure look like a different story. Abram is a foreigner with designs on other people's land. This would not make you immediately popular. Delayed by his dad's plans in Haran. Then he's moved out by famine to Egypt (this becomes a theme right through to Jesus). He had a run in with Egyptian authority's over a woman and convenient truth. Then he has a full scale war and had to rescue Lot. They have more encounters with God along the way, a city destroyed by fire from heaven , a pillar of salt for a niece-in-law, and the Hagar situation which becomes a major domestic scene. Things look like they might be turning around, over the years business had been good, Sarah had Isaac, God provided a lamb in the faith test. And then Sarah dies. So although once a foreigner always a foreigner, when faced with funeral negotiations for his wife Sarah's resting place the locals appear to be cordial enough. Then we read about more wives, concubines and family schisms. And after all this time, waiting, trusting, and often doing the wrong thing Abraham's two sons Isaac and Ishmael who represent the biggest family feud many times worse and longer than the Hatfields and the McCoys, come together and bury their Father.
Abraham is not the star, nor the villain.
We are not to read the bible story making our own saints of men who have exemplary faith or moral character. We are to marvel at what God is doing through and in spite of mankind. What God is doing is on their behalf to glorify himself through his promise. A promise always pointing to Jesus. Whether we look back or forward with an expectation of his return or we were Abraham wondering why I'm sending away Ishmael or binding Isaac we are trusting God to write the story for his glory. and that is the way it should be.
This should help you get past yourself, your timetables, your judgemental attitudes and ask yourself, "What does God want me to believe about himself?" What promise fulfilled in Jesus am I trusting in? How can I quit trying to get my name on the marquee of my life's story. Most Christians these days would be too embarrassed to have the things written about Abraham written in their biography. Abraham could never have been a church leader in the contemporary Christian church. We think we are better than Abraham. And come to think of it we'd not have done ministry like Jesus did either. We know better. Don't we?
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Mistaken identity Genesis 21:1-7 ESV The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me." And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age." _________________
How many times have you heard this story? I know I've heard it many times. And it seems to me every time I've ever heard it before I've left thinking of Abraham and even more so of Sarah. And to be sure both of them are key characters. We should empathise with them. It is an exciting miracle. A very old couple have become first time parents. Sarah is ninety! Ninety year old women don't have babies! But this is not first and foremost a story about Abraham, Sarah, or Isaac. This is a story about God! If you take a moment to thumb through your Bible around these chapters in Genesis. Look for the number of times the narration punctuates the action with God or the Lord. God said. The Lord said. The Lord went. God came. God caused. And crucially in these seven verses above, God has made. Listen to how Paul puts God the focus of Abraham's sorry in Romans, Romans 4:19-22 ESV He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead ( since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness." Romans 9:8-11 ESV This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: "About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son." And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— Later the author of the book of Hebrews sheds this light on these events, Hebrews 11:11-19 ESV By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. In every case the story is about God. Is your life story about God? Are you putting your faith in the promise of God to you? When you review your past or contemplate your future is it seen though the lens of God's plan and God's promise? Don't try to be the star of this epic saga. Trust God who, keeps giving. Expect God to enable you to fulfil his promise to you. Do you even know God's promise to you? Here's a clue it is a promise about Jesus. Jesus is the son of promise, born out of time. Born into impossible circumstances. Born to declare God's intention to save. Born to show God to you. Jesus is ultimately the one who in every way fulfils the many promises of God. Do you know him? Do you trust him? Are you expecting him to work out the promise of God to you? Are you making sure the story of your life is a story about God fulfilling his promise through Jesus?
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
A Catch-Up Day Promise I'm currently on day seven of a ten week plan to read through the first five books of the Bible written by Moses. Every week the plan has built in a catch-up day. Here's a bit about the reading plan and an invitation to join me. For today's Bible thought skip to the passage from 2 Timothy. On this catch-up day I decided to add in another reading plan and I have included information about it and have written today's note in response to it. I'll plan to read this plan once a week on the catch-up days if I'm not behind.
Info and invite Old Testament – The Books of Moses 10 Weeks This simple plan will lead you through the first five books of the Old Testament. With just a few chapters to read each day, this is a great plan for individual or group study. This plan was created by YouVersion. For more information, visit: www.youversion.com bible.us/r/3a Join me in reading Old Testament – The Books of Moses:
2TI 4:16-18 ESV At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Pray: God, connect with me here, as I seek you in your Word. Begin with focus and openness to see what God has for you. Read: the selected section of Scripture slowly. Take note of intriguing words and phrases and read them a second time. Reflect: on what strikes you as you read. Think through what God is communicating to you at this point in your life. Respond: to the passage. Speak to God directly about what's on your mind and heart. Look for ways to live out what you've uncovered.
Info about the 7 Days of God's Promises plan below God's Promises 7 Days Friends and loved ones will occasionally let us down; nobody's perfect. But when others disappoint us, we can take comfort in knowing God never fails. We would like to thank American Bible Society for their generosity in providing this Uncover the Word reading plan.
William's thoughts on today's passage. Paul is writing to encourage his young coworker in the gospel work, Timothy. Both Timothy and Paul faced opposition from evil men who opposed the message about Jesus being talked about. Any one who makes it thier aim to spread the good news about Jesus will have opposition from people like the ones opposing Paul and Timothy. So you too should read these promises and find encouragement because it will happen to you.
Share it if it's good! If you are a believer, you will be compelled by the Holy Spirit of God to tell others. It only makes sense. Who could keep it to themselves? Once I heard it is like one beggar telling the other beggars where he found free bread. I'm sure you are aware of the terrible wrath of God coming to this world and you can not let your friends, family members, neighbours and colleagues race headlong into such a hideous end if in fact you know how they can be saved. You wouldn't let a group of children walk around the corner and plunge into a fresh sinkhole leading to a volcanic pit of fire? You'd warn them. You'd offer to lead them to safety. So the christian must tell about Jesus' being the way the truth and the life. But evil people will oppose you. Paul says to Timothy here in the passage above, When you face opposition although people may fail you, Jesus will strengthen you. God will come to your aid. You will be able to keep proclaiming the good news that Jesus saves us from the coming wrath of God. Jesus will stand by you strengthen you and rescue you so that you can keep telling others even when you are opposed or abandoned. Jesus will save you too! So keep telling unbelievers, keep telling each other, keep telling yourself, Jesus saves!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Is God not more just and merciful than you? Genesis 18:32 ESV Then he said, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there." He answered, "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it." _____________________ Here in Genesis 18 God debates within himself the appropriateness of telling Abraham his plan to judge Sodom. (v.17) Abraham, most likely thinking of Lot, his nephew, begins to consider the consequences of judgement on Sodom.
Abraham like us knew Lot was wealthy and he had many employees, and some married daughters as well as sons in laws, so from this considerable family and business surely there'd be 50 people who did not deserve to be judged.
But Abraham reconsidered his original negotiation with God. He thought about things in Lot's town being pretty bad. So with determination and a bit of fear Abraham haggles with God down to a mere ten. Could this number represent just Lot and his immediate family? Whatever it was Abraham had hoped there were ten! There were not ten. But God let's Lot warn family that doesn't take heed and then let's Lot escape to a very small near by village. I hope you read the Bible everyday and that you read it honestly. Maybe you've followed along reading some of the passages I've been reading. If you have, you should be seeing a trend in Genesis so far. People are given everything they need to do right and they choose to do wrong. It starts with the curse and being driven out of Eden. Then there is Cain the murderer being driven to wander. And people go so far from God's way that during the time of Noah the whole of creation is judged for the wickedness of all the people. And Noah and his family are saved alone. Now Lot and his daughters are saved alone as fire and brimstone rain from heaven. You should ask yourself, 'Will any one take God seriously?' It is not like God had not displayed his power and intention. But what do we do with our free will? What do we do to our Eden? What do we do to our brother? What do we do to our neighbour or the weary travellers? Who is faithful and who is corrupt? And even now today you have a choice as do I. Who will I believe? Who will I serve? Who will I fear and worship? ______________ Genesis 18:25 ESV Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" ______________ God's promise to you today is a resounding yes. He will indeed do what is just. And yet he will also be merciful. And for your sake his mercy is your salvation. Romans 5:17 ESV For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Annie Alligator ate Albert Ape’s apples.
Billy Beaver broke Bernie Buffaloes’ bat.
Charlie Chipmunk chewed Cathy Cat’s cloth.
Danny Dog dented Daisy Deer’s door.
Eddie Elephant eats Edith Eagle’s egg.
Freddie Fish fans Faye Flounder’s fin.
Gilbert Gorilla gave Gordon Goat gold.
Harry Horse helped Henry Hare hoe.
Ingrid Impala installed Irene Ibis’s ipad.
Jerry Jackal jumped Joan Jaguar’s jaws.
Kim Kangaroo kissed Kevin Koala’s kids.
Larry Leopard lost Lucy Lion’s lunch.
Mary Mole made Mike Meerkat’s mittens.
Nancy Narwhal nursed Nicky Newt’s nose.
Otis Ostrich opened Ollie Owl’s oven.
Polly Parrot picked Percy Pig’s pears.
Queen Quail quoted Quinton Quilfish’s quip.
Randy Rabbit ran Ralf Raccoon’s race.
Steve Skunk sang Sarah Shark’s song.
Terry Turtle tickled Tommy Tiger’s toe.
Uncle Unicorn untied Ugly Urchin’s underwear.
Victor Vulture viewed Vinny Viper’s van.
Walter Worm wore Wanda Wolf’s watch.
Xavier Xerus x-rayed Xenos Xiphias’ xylophone.
Yanny Yak yanked Young Yapok’s yarn.
Ziggy Zebra zipped Zachary Zebu’s zipper.
Sunday, May 05, 2013
Trickle Down Systemic Sin Ezekiel 22:23-31 NLT
Again a message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, give the people of Israel this message: In the day of my indignation, you will be like a polluted land, a land without rain. Your princes plot conspiracies just as lions stalk their prey. They devour innocent people, seizing treasures and extorting wealth. They make many widows in the land. Your priests have violated my instructions and defiled my holy things. They make no distinction between what is holy and what is not. And they do not teach my people the difference between what is ceremonially clean and unclean. They disregard my Sabbath days so that I am dishonored among them. Your leaders are like wolves who tear apart their victims. They actually destroy people’s lives for money! And your prophets cover up for them by announcing false visions and making lying predictions. They say, ‘My message is from the Sovereign Lord,’ when the Lord hasn’t spoken a single word to them. Even common people oppress the poor, rob the needy, and deprive foreigners of justice. “
I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one. So now I will pour out my fury on them, consuming them with the fire of my anger. I will heap on their heads the full penalty for all their sins. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
One of the economic policies of the past 30 years was termed "trickle down" but it's not new. And the policy falls over in the same way that communism did. Both systems assume people are good. The conservatives think the rich will be kind and benevolent and the liberals think people will be honest and fair. But just like this indictment from God through Ezekiel to God's people nearly three thousand years ago shows people haven't changed. Enlightened, educated, informed people at all levels of society take advantage of those under them. What does seem to trickle down is corruption. So the result is oppression and suffering at every level. And everyone is in on it. The aristocracy harms the weak and their good position is not used for justice. The religious elite fail to fulfil their duty and don't set an upright example. The leaders of the people abuse their position and so destroy others for their own financial gain. The Prophets collude with the leaders. And the common person is abusive to the vulnerable too.
The result is the wrath of God!
Even with all the evil corruption God sought out people who would help rebuild a society of protection. God looked for individuals that would be a voice for the poor, the weak and the oppressed. But no one took seriously God's word. None were willing to 'stand in the gap.'
Although we should aspire to be better and although we should want leaders without corruption, men are never going to be truly trustworthy.
We must trust God who is the only one not corrupt. We must trust God who stands in the gap. We must trust Jesus who was a voice for the poor and oppressed. Our only hope is to hide behind the very one who can judge us. The only safe place is by the judge.
If you want a society that is right don't look to men, look to God.
(written while playing with my nearly three year old grandson .)
Saturday, May 04, 2013
Not a fairy tale. Not a fairy tale. real people, real places,
Ezekiel 20:1-3 NLT
On August 14, during the seventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, some of the leaders of Israel came to request a message from the Lord. They sat down in front of me to wait for his reply. Then this message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, tell the leaders of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: How dare you come to ask me for a message? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord , I will tell you nothing!’
The Bible is littered with times, places and people.
The Bible isn't self-congratulatory of God's people nor does it paint the picture of a man-made God. The gods of men usually are all sop or all bluster. Sugarcoated gods of self aggrandisement fill the pages of fiction in cultures around the world.
The one true God works in time and space although he exists beyond them.
So six days and nearly three thousand years before my birthday during the reign of an exiled Jewish king plotting a coup against the powerful Babylonians with Egypt, God's prophet spoke on God's behalf to His rebellious people.
See? Time, place, people are all represented. Although God is unknowable far beyond a mystery, He works within time and history!
And what does he say? This God says some unexpected things. And firstly this time he says he'll say nothing.
Real people, real places, hurt feelings and downcast faces The Bible records a tale of woe And God's own people become his foe Travel in time and you'd find them there Plotting schemers God will not spare Trusting, humble hearts He does require If they are to avoid the judgment fire
Friday, May 03, 2013
A costly defeat! (First published on 12/19/11, edited and republished 03/05/13) {Middle of the last book of the Bible} Revelation 12:9 This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
The Devil is real! Here in Revelation chapter 12 you get a great correlation of information, Dragon, Serpent, Devil, Satan, "fallen" Angel all referring to the same entity or being. Satan is described as this great enemy of God and accuser of us who believe in God. If you read on in the passage (included below) you'll see those people that Satan accuses are the same who defeat him by the Blood of the Lamb. You with Jesus defeat Satan! Not only is there a great enemy but He is defeated. But at a cost? We win but blood is shed. And it is the blood of Jesus and his followers' blood that is shed. The defeat of Satan is sure, but it is also sure that it is costly to defeat him. Jesus blood was a great cost. You too must suffer and some of the followers of Jesus will suffer to death to be involved in the defeat of Satan. Have you thought about the serious and important role you have in the fight against evil? God's salvation involves his people's participation. Please follower of Jesus don't ignore the fact that, Satan is a real and powerful enemy. But also don't despair, because we are confident that the Devil's defeat is sure! But recognise this defeat comes at a great cost and you will suffer. Although this suffering now is nothing compared with Jesus' suffering and your suffering is guaranteed a victorious outcome.
The book of Revelation is full of picture language, simile, metaphor, analogy and symbolism. But although it is full of figures of speech, Revelation is also plain and clear. Because the pictures aren't as familiar as the ones we use today the meaning seems a bit more obscure. If you don't understand then email me and I'll write you a paragraph of current modern picture language /slang that you'll understand but won't mean exactly what it says but will mean exactly what you'll understand. Here's are some guidelines for understanding the Bible: Always ask what this passage contributed to God's revelation of Jesus. Genesis to Revelation the Bible is about Jesus. That's what Jesus said. Look for Jesus. What does this part of the Bible tell me about God's character, promise, will or expectations? Compare the Bible with the Bible. Jesus referred to the Bible nearly in everything he said. It not only reinforced the truth but further explained it. What did this mean for the original audience? Try to understand the words firstly in the whole Jesus /Biblical context and then secondly what did the immediate context of the first intended audience understand by it? Lastly, how can this move you to trust Jesus today?
Revelation 12:1-18 NLT Then I witnessed in heaven an event of great significance. I saw a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant, and she cried out because of her labor pains and the agony of giving birth. Then I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to the earth. He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born. She gave birth to a son who was to rule all nations with an iron rod. And her child was snatched away from the dragon and was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place to care for her for 1,260 days. Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last— salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth— the one who accuses them before our God day and night. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.” When the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But she was given two wings like those of a great eagle so she could fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness. There she would be cared for and protected from the dragon for a time, times, and half a time. Then the dragon tried to drown the woman with a flood of water that flowed from his mouth. But the earth helped her by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that gushed out from the mouth of the dragon. And the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children—all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus. Then the dragon took his stand on the shore beside the sea.
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Thursday, May 02, 2013
Excessive Sin Given Excessive Forgiveness
Ezekiel 16:23-25, 42-43, 48-52, 62-63 NLT “What sorrow awaits you, says the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness, you built a pagan shrine and put altars to idols in every town square. On every street corner you defiled your beauty, offering your body to every passerby in an endless stream of prostitution.
“Then at last my fury against you will be spent, and my jealous anger will subside. I will be calm and will not be angry with you anymore. But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all of your sins, says the Sovereign Lord. For you have added lewd acts to all your detestable sins.
As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters. Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen. “Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more detestable things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you. Shame on you! Your sins are so terrible that you make your sisters seem righteous, even virtuous.
And I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. You will remember your sins and cover your mouth in silent shame when I forgive you of all that you have done. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
_________________
Having grown up hearing people preach and teach the Bible and continuing to hear it for the better part of these past 47 years I have heard of Sodom. Who hasn't? Famous for their sin and maybe even more famous for their destruction by fire and brimstone rained down from heaven because of their terrible evil. If a person wants to say that someone or some place is really perverted and evil then they compare them to Sodom!
Ezekiel puts things in perspective. First, the really detestable thing about Sodom contrary to common misconception isn't apparently their lewd sexual practices particularly homosexual gang rape of strangers. But rather Sodom is rebuked by God in Ezekiel for their economic unfairness! The people of Sodom apparently fostered an economic apathy towards the poor and this was the pinnacle of their sinful practice. Before you point that finger look in the mirror!
But secondly it turns out according to God we have the wrong iconic sinners! If you want to feel smug and point the finger at the real detestable sinners you'd have to point at God's people. Apparently, the all time evil lewd crude dudes were the Jews! Nobody was as evil , sexually promiscuous, or economically unfair than God's chosen people.
The Sun finds a way through! And God isn't messing around either he has judgements planned for them that are far worse than Sodom experienced. And it is a bit embarrassing when you think the Israelites themselves used to always point the finger at bad old Sodom or the dolt Samaria only to look in the mirror and see they were the really bad guys! Remember Abraham pleaded with God to save Sodom if only a handful of people were not completely against God. But it turns out no one was good so they all had to die a terrible death as did their children, babies animals, and culture. If Abraham could not save Sodom, he will not be able to save the worst sinners of all time, Israel.
But hold on! What is God ending this passage with now? He has exposed his people as completely off the chart sinners of a magnitude unheard of and then he says the whole lot will be restored. Sodom, Samaria, and the all time gross sad filthy disgusting people of God too will be forgiven!
Watch out who you think you are better than!
Watch out who God can forgive and restore!
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Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Look for Unity.
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Ezekiel 9:4-10 NASB
The Lord said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst." But to the others He said in my hearing, "Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary." So they started with the elders who were before the temple. And He said to them, "Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!" Thus they went out and struck down the people in the city. As they were striking the people and I alone was left, I fell on my face and cried out saying, "Alas, Lord God ! Are You destroying the whole remnant of Israel by pouring out Your wrath on Jerusalem?" Then He said to me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood and the city is full of perversion; for they say, 'The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see!' But as for Me, My eye will have no pity nor will I spare, but I will bring their conduct upon their heads."
Ezekiel 11:19-20 NASB
And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God. __________________________________
Three Sisters in Unity! Transformation of the human heart may be the greatest miracle ever planned and performed by God. Listen to the promise of restoration: Unity characterises the first move of God in bringing restoration. Do you want to know if you are in a revival? Ask yourself if God is creating unity in worship and obedience. Have people begun to act in obedience to God's word in unison? Are they obedient soft hearted and identifying themselves as God's people? Unity, soft-heartedness, obedience to God and a strong identity with God are the characteristics of real restoration.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
A Word Study in Abomination
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Ezekiel 7:1-9 NASB Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, "And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel, 'An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land. Now the end is upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and bring all your abominations upon you. For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will know that I am the Lord!' "Thus says the Lord God , 'A disaster, unique disaster, behold it is coming! An end is coming; the end has come! It has awakened against you; behold, it has come! Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come, the day is near-tumult rather than joyful shouting on the mountains. Now I will shortly pour out My wrath on you and spend My anger against you; judge you according to your ways and bring on you all your abominations. My eye will show no pity nor will I spare. I will repay you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know that I, the Lord, do the smiting.
Today I read Ezekiel through chapter 8. I started seeing some trends. Have you ever heard of a' wordle' or a 'word cloud'? There is a software program that analyses the frequency of words used in text, a speech, or some other literature and then creates an image made of the words and depicts emphasis by bolder larger fonts. So frequently used words are bigger and more prominent while less frequently repeated words are smaller. Someday I'd like to create this kind of a picture for the book of Ezekiel. But instead I've looked at various words I noticed today and searched their use in the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Most of the words in the list below appear many times more in Ezekiel than they do in any other part of the Bible. I'm sure you'll begin to get the picture God intended for his people. He's not happy with what their doing. He doesn't like it one bit. God finds their behaviour very unpleasant. God is planning some harsh punishment because of the actions of his people. If I was you, I'd figure out what had gotten God so upset and then I try to see what can be done about it.
Here the list and what I found. Abomination (42) Iniquity (42) Idol (42) Profane (30) Ways (48) Commit (42) Judge (21) Wrath (33) Detestable (10) Not a pretty or admirable description. May be it can be summed up this way, If your everyday life isn't about loving God, then God is disgusted with your ways and is planning to judge you in wrath. Something to think about.
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Labels: Abomination, Commit, Detestable, Idol, Iniquity, judge, Profane, Ways, wrath Location: Sheffield, Sheffield
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Monday, April 29, 2013
The role of a prophet of God. Ezekiel 2:1-10 NLT “Stand up, son of man,” said the voice. “I want to speak with you.” The Spirit came into me as he spoke, and he set me on my feet. I listened carefully to his words. “Son of man,” he said, “I am sending you to the nation of Israel, a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been rebelling against me to this very day. They are a stubborn and hard-hearted people. But I am sending you to say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’ And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for remember, they are rebels—at least they will know they have had a prophet among them. “Son of man, do not fear them or their words. Don’t be afraid even though their threats surround you like nettles and briers and stinging scorpions. Do not be dismayed by their dark scowls, even though they are rebels. You must give them my messages whether they listen or not. But they won’t listen, for they are completely rebellious! Son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not join them in their rebellion. Open your mouth, and eat what I give you.” Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me. It held a scroll, which he unrolled. And I saw that both sides were covered with funeral songs, words of sorrow, and pronouncements of doom.
The work of a prophet is fraught with hardships. The messenger of God nearly always confronts unwelcoming audiences. Israel is not alone in its rebellion although it is particularly hard hearted and it should know better since God had revealed the right way to them. Every one you meet today will be or has been a rebell against God. Some people have only had their consciences to guide them. These people were born with a moral compass. This compass can be ignored or even altered but both internally through their conscience or externally through the created order everyone understands there is a God! But no one welcomes God or his rule over them. So the prophet is up against the hard hearts of humanity on one side and the eternal God and his royal rule on the other. Even today a Christian's role in the world is not too unlike that of Ezekiel. God plans to reveal more of his character and plan to the world but the world wants to ignore the message and harm the messenger. So the prophet of God faces these two formidable forces The Word of God compels him to go out and speak but the hard hearts of man rebel against that word and threaten and mock the messenger. Yet there is still another threat! The prophet's own heart is vulnerable. We too are rebels at heart and we are prone to join the rebels. Although we know the truth of God's clear and righteous message we tend towards joining the rebels. The prophet of God is telling people who do not want to hear a message that they find offensive, all the while concerned he'll become a traitor to God himself. But you dear christian like Ezekiel the prophet have some powerful and compelling aids in the prophetic office. First, you have been called by God himself. You have not dreamed this up, it is not about you and it is not your plan. You have been given the task by the ruler of the universe. Second, you've been filled by the Spirit of the living God. God is in you, and he protects and empowers you. God has not sent you alone. God is with you. Thirdly, God has told you what you are up against. God has made it clear that you are to be opposed and that the people you will speak to are rebellious and they will try the get you to come to their way of thinking. You are warned. Fourthly, God says, "Don't be afraid!" Remember when you tell people God's news, whether it is welcomed as a life giving warning or more likely rejected God is with you, instructing you, indwelling you, and sending you. You and Ezekiel both are seeing a bit of the glory of the everlasting God.
https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/the-role-of-a-prophet-at
Originally wrttien 12/23/11
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Psalm 144:3-4
3 O LORD, what are human beings that you should notice them, mere mortals that you should think about them?4 For they are like a breath of air; their days are like a passing shadow. Psalm 144 http://www.youversion.com/bible/nlt/ps/144/3-4
The impact of this passage depends to some extent on your theology. Simply, Do you correctly understand who and what God is? God is eternal! That is, God has always been and will always be. God is above and outside of time and space. He can enter time and space as we know but unlike us God exists equally beyond past, present, and future. God is life. All that is life comes from God and is sustained by God. There is no life without God. God is described with some accuracy by three uncommon words, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. We say God is omnipotent and by that we mean God has all power. No person, being, or circumstance is beyond the power of God. God or particular members of the God head (Father, Son, or Holy Spirit) do at times choose to work within certain relationships and rules that voluntarily appear to limit his power. God is everywhere. That is not to say that everything is a God. That is to say that you can be nowhere in heaven or earth that God is absent. You can not escape the presence of God. God's presence is experienced by his grace in greater or lesser ways. But be assured God is there. Rejoice when you are blessed with a greater sense of his presence or if and when he chooses to display his presence in a more physical way. The fact that we know God is everywhere is described as God's omnipresence. Lastly, God knows everything! Not only is God everywhere but he is aware of everything all at once. Not only all that can be observed by us but in every sense. God knows the thoughts and intents of every heart. All movements and motives of all things are within his knowledge. God not only knows the fact but he also understands everything. God is all wise. His knowledge exists perfectly within his perfect wisdom. We say sometimes that God is other. What we mean by this is that God is beyond us. Unlike us. God is perfect. He is so different from us as to invoke the Psalmist to say, "O LORD, what are human beings that you should notice them.." Do you regard God as awesome? For he is! Do you think sometimes that you know better than God how to rule this world, run the show, fix the situation, treat the just or unjust? You do not know better than God! God has done no wrong and you have. He saw you. He knows your heart. He was there. So it is even more compelling to read the last verse of this Psalm, "15 Yes, joyful are those who live like this! Joyful indeed are those whose God is the LORD." So this verse says you will have a joy in life if you live like you understand that God is in charge! The verse says, God is the Lord! By all definitions God is indeed the Lord. But do you live as if God is the Lord? Do you see him as the source of all life? Your judge and provider. Do you humble yourself and respond like verses 3 and 4 with a humility of recognition that God is greater and God is good? Isn't this all the more amazing when you then read that God becomes a babe and comes to live and die among us? How much greater is the overwhelming "otherness" of God when you grasp he entered into this world as a man. Lived as a helpless child. Suffered humiliation. And he did all this to rescue a rebellious people. Who are you that GOD would have done that for you?
Psalm 144 A psalm of David. 1 Praise the LORD, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle.2 He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him. He makes the nations submit to me.3 O LORD, what are human beings that you should notice them, mere mortals that you should think about them?4 For they are like a breath of air; their days are like a passing shadow.5 Open the heavens, LORD, and come down. Touch the mountains so they billow smoke.6 Hurl your lightning bolts and scatter your enemies! Shoot your arrows and confuse them!7 Reach down from heaven and rescue me; rescue me from deep waters, from the power of my enemies.8 Their mouths are full of lies; they swear to tell the truth, but they lie instead.9 I will sing a new song to you, O God! I will sing your praises with a ten-stringed harp.10 For you grant victory to kings! You rescued your servant David from the fatal sword.11 Save me! Rescue me from the power of my enemies. Their mouths are full of lies; they swear to tell the truth, but they lie instead.12 May our sons flourish in their youth like well-nurtured plants. May our daughters be like graceful pillars, carved to beautify a palace.13 May our barns be filled with crops of every kind. May the flocks in our fields multiply by the thousands, even tens of thousands,14 and may our oxen be loaded down with produce. May there be no enemy breaking through our walls, no going into captivity, no cries of alarm in our town squares.15 Yes, joyful are those who live like this! Joyful indeed are those whose God is the LORD.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
The compatibility of bringing grief and showing compassion. Lamentations 3:31-33 NLT For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.
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I've finished reading Jeremiah and Lamentations this week. I've also been preparing a Bible study on Joshua chapter 11. I'm very concerned for you and for me. I think we have deliberately misrepresented God.
We think we know what's best. We are quite sure we know right from wrong. So we think we know how God should act. We stand in judgement over God. We gather others who hold the same opinion as us and feel smug. We feel self - righteous. We're confident we know how God behaves.
God is a nice God.
Or we dream up an evolved God, a new God, a changed God of the New Testament.
BUT God is the same yesterday, today, and forever! God does not change. What God does is right. We are not better than God nor do we know better than him. We can not take from God what he has claimed. We can not attribute to another what God has attributed to himself.
When I read these passages I have to reevaluate my opinion of God. I must fear God. I must trust him. I must follow him because he demands it. I must not think I am better than God. I must not think I know better than God.
I must not make God in my puny image.
I must also not use God as my sword! God is not my tool for my twisted sense of vengeance or my bigger gun brought to the shoot out! I do not choose what is just. God is not up for the highest bidder.
I've seen both these approaches to God's more uncomfortable accounts of judgment. From the first chapters of Genesis to the last chapters of Revelation, God has held out death and all its horrors as a judgement for disobedience. And God does demand love. We showers us with blessings and he scares us with terrors! But all this is to the end that we would know him, fear him, and love him! Far too often we have glossed over the overwhelming inescapable wretched judgements brought about by God against his people for their hard hearted spiteful rebellion. But then we also have ignored his self sacrificing, compassion, grace and love! In fact we have ignored God altogether unless it is to use him as a genie in a lamp, a scapegoat for evil and trouble or a weapon against our enemies. We can not make God for our own purposes! We did not invent right and wrong. We are not trustworthy sources of ethics, morals or reality. We are flawed and selfish. We should stop making idols that bear the name of Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. We must cease reading the Bible to accomplish our own ends.
We are not God. We actually misunderstand who God is or what he is like. A proper view of God should be our goal. And to that end we must challenge our preconceptions. We must not avoid the unavoidable. We must force our minds to wrestle with the truth. Our world is full of apparent paradoxes. We don't know everything. In fact we actually really know very little. Whether we are people of faith or people of reason, whether we are say we follow science or the Bible or feel we have reconciled them both. We will have to trust other sources, we will have to accept we can't explain all the apparent paradoxes.
But we still need to grapple with them.
We need to be humbled.
We need to resist making God in our own image.
God the bear
Lamentations 3:10 (NLT) 10He has hidden like a bear or a lion,waiting to attack me. Lamentations 3:11 (NLT) 11He has dragged me off the path and torn me in pieces,leaving me helpless and devastated. Lamentations 3:12 (NLT) 12He has drawn his bowand made me the target for his arrows. Lamentations 3:13 (NLT) 13He shot his arrowsdeep into my heart. Lamentations 3:14 (NLT) 14My own people laugh at me.All day long they sing their mocking songs. Lamentations 3:15 (NLT) 15He has filled me with bitternessand given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink. Lamentations 3:16 (NLT) 16He has made me chew on gravel.He has rolled me in the dust. Labels: arrows gravel joshua 11 Dead in the streets
Lamentations 2:20 (NLT) 20“O Lord, think about this!Should you treat your own people this way?Should mothers eat their own children,those they once bounced on their knees?Should priests and prophets be killedwithin the Lord’s Temple? Lamentations 2:21 (NLT) 21“See them lying in the streets—young and old,boys and girls,killed by the swords of the enemy.You have killed them in your anger,slaughtering them without mercy. Labels: cannibals joshua 11 lying in the streets Utter horror
Isaiah 66:24 (NLT) 24And as they go out, they will seethe dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me.For the worms that devour them will never die,and the fire that burns them will never go out.All who pass bywill view them with utter horror.” Labels: joshua 11 Eaten by worms
Acts 12:23 (NLT) 23Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died. Labels: joshua 11 judgement Destroyed by your only helper
Hosea 13:9 (NLT) 9“You are about to be destroyed, O Israel—yes, by me, your only helper. Labels: 11 by god destroyed Mangled like a wild animal
Hosea 13:2 (NLT) 2Now they continue to sin by making silver idols,images shaped skillfully with human hands.“Sacrifice to these,” they cry,“and kiss the calf idols!” Hosea 13:3 (NLT) 3Therefore, they will disappear like the morning mist,like dew in the morning sun,like chaff blown by the wind,like smoke from a chimney. Hosea 13:4 (NLT) 4“I have been the Lord your Godever since I brought you out of Egypt.You must acknowledge no God but me,for there is no other savior. Hosea 13:5 (NLT) 5I took care of you in the wilderness,in that dry and thirsty land. Hosea 13:6 (NLT) 6But when you had eaten and were satisfied,you became proud and forgot me. Hosea 13:7 (NLT) 7So now I will attack you like a lion,like a leopard that lurks along the road. Hosea 13:8 (NLT) 8Like a bear whose cubs have been taken away,I will tear out your heart.I will devour you like a hungry lionessand mangle you like a wild animal. Labels: joshua 11 judgement mangled tear out your heart Babies dashed, pregnant women ripped
Hosea 13:16 (NLT) 16The people of Samariamust bear the consequences of their guiltbecause they rebelled against their God.They will be killed by an invading army,their little ones dashed to death against the ground,their pregnant women ripped open by swords.” Labels: because joshua 11 judgement killed rebellion terrible Bowel trouble painful death judgment
2 Chronicles 21:13 (NLT) 13Instead, you have been as evil as the kings of Israel. You have led the people of Jerusalem and Judah to worship idols, just as King Ahab did in Israel. And you have even killed your own brothers, men who were better than you. 2 Chronicles 21:14 (NLT) 14So now the Lord is about to strike you, your people, your children, your wives, and all that is yours with a heavy blow. 2 Chronicles 21:15 (NLT) 15You yourself will suffer with a severe intestinal disease that will get worse each day until your bowels come out.” 2 Chronicles 21:16 (NLT) 16Then the Lord stirred up the Philistines and the Arabs, who lived near the Ethiopians, to attack Jehoram. 2 Chronicles 21:17 (NLT) 17They marched against Judah, broke down its defenses, and carried away everything of value in the royal palace, including the king’s sons and his wives. Only his youngest son, Ahaziah, was spared. 2 Chronicles 21:18 (NLT) 18After all this, the Lord struck Jehoram with the severe intestinal disease. 2 Chronicles 21:19 (NLT) 19The disease grew worse and worse, and at the end of two years it caused his bowels to come out, and he died in agony. His people did not build a great funeral fire to honor him as they had done for his ancestors. Labels: bowel death idolatry joshua 11 judgement painful trouble Manure on your face
Malachi 2:3 (NLT) 3I will punish your descendants and splatter your faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I will throw you on the manure pile. Labels: joshua 11 Ripe for judgment, scattered dead bodies
Amos 8:2 (NLT) 2“What do you see, Amos?” he asked.I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.”Then the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. Amos 8:3 (NLT) 3In that day the singing in the Temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!” Labels: joshua 11 Harsh day of the Lord
Amos 5:18 (NLT) 18What sorrow awaits you who say,“If only the day of the Lord were here!”You have no idea what you are wishing for.That day will bring darkness, not light. Amos 5:19 (NLT) 19In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—only to meet a bear.Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—and he’s bitten by a snake. Amos 5:20 (NLT) 20Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless,without a ray of joy or hope. Amos 5:21 (NLT) 21“I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. Labels: joshua 11 I will slaughter
Amos 1:8 (NLT) 8I will slaughter the people of Ashdodand destroy the king of Ashkelon.Then I will turn to attack Ekron,and the few Philistines still left will be killed,”says the Sovereign Lord. Labels: joshua 11 Day of the Lord, horrible
Zechariah 14:6 (NLT) 6On that day the sources of light will no longer shine, Zechariah 14:12 (NLT) 12And the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. Labels: joshua 11 Disaster comes from God
Job 12:9 (NLT) 9For they all knowthat my disaster has come from the hand of the Lord. Job 12:10 (NLT) 10For the life of every living thing is in his hand,and the breath of every human being. Labels: joshua 11 God as a fighter
Jeremiah 48:10 (NLT) 10Cursed are those who refuse to do the Lord’s work,who hold back their swords from shedding blood! Labels: joshua 11 God as a fighter
Zechariah 14:1 (NLT) 1Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you! Zechariah 14:2 (NLT) 2I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city. Zechariah 14:3 (NLT) 3Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. Labels: joshua 11 King caught
Lamentations 4:20 (NLT) 20Our king—the Lord’s anointed, the very life of our nation—was caught in their snares.We had thought that his shadowwould protect us against any nation on earth! Labels: jesus messiah Tenderhearted cannibals
Lamentations 4:10 (NLT) 10Tenderhearted womenhave cooked their own children.They have eaten themto survive the siege. Labels: cannibals jerusalem siege survival women No one abandoned forever
Lamentations 3:31 (NLT) 31For no one is abandonedby the Lord forever. Lamentations 3:32 (NLT) 32Though he brings grief, he also shows compassionbecause of the greatness of his unfailing love. Lamentations 3:33 (NLT) 33For he does not enjoy hurting peopleor causing them sorrow. Labels: abandoned compassion crushed grief unfailing love Mercies never cease
Lamentations 3:16 (NLT) 16He has made me chew on gravel.He has rolled me in the dust. Lamentations 3:21 (NLT) 21Yet I still dare to hopewhen I remember this: Lamentations 3:22 (NLT) 22The faithful love of the Lord never ends!His mercies never cease. Lamentations 3:23 (NLT) 23Great is his faithfulness;his mercies begin afresh each morning. Labels: bitter cup gravel hope judgement
Friday, April 26, 2013
The tables have turned.
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Jeremiah 50:4-5, 20, 31 NLT “In those coming days,” says the Lord, “the people of Israel will return home together with the people of Judah. They will come weeping and seeking the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Jerusalem and will start back home again. They will bind themselves to the Lord with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten. In those days,” says the Lord, “no sin will be found in Israel or in Judah, for I will forgive the remnant I preserve. [to Babylon] “See, I am your enemy, you arrogant people,” says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Your day of reckoning has arrived— the day when I will punish you.
Jeremiah 50:34 NLT But the one who redeems them is strong. His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He will defend them and give them rest again in Israel. But for the people of Babylon there will be no rest!
Go? Stay? Flee? Settle? Return? If you have read Jeremiah with me then you might be asking yourself what is consistent with God. It seems like his instructions keep changing. And in one chapter it appears Babylon is God's servant doing his will, bringing judgment on the idolatrous and unfaithful people called by His name. Then at the end of the story God is judging Babylon for destroying Jerusalem even though it seems like God told them to do it and made them powerful enough to do it. Here is what hasn't changed. Don't serve idols! Do listen to God. Don't be stubborn and set in what you think is right or what you want. Do seek God and be willing to trust him instead of 'best practice.' If best practice and received wisdom lead you to trust something more than you trust God you are setting yourself up for judgment. Get ready to change. Be prepared to live without sin. In one way or another everyone in the known world was going to be judged by God for thier sin, idolatry, and proud unwillingness to obey God. God raised the nations up and God tears them down. God uses their warmongering ways to accomplish his judgment and then judges then for their warmongering ways. But God promises a time when his people will not sin and will rest. When Jesus came he offered this clean heart and rest to us as well. Don't be hard hearted like the nations. Serve God. Trust him. Obey his word. And live in anticipation of restoration, sinlessness, and the promised rest.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
A dark skinned man brings light to darkest days. Audio Blog iTunes
Jeremiah 38:7-13 NLT But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, an important court official, heard that Jeremiah was in the cistern. At that time the king was holding court at the Benjamin Gate, so Ebed-melech rushed from the palace to speak with him. “My lord the king,” he said, “these men have done a very evil thing in putting Jeremiah the prophet into the cistern. He will soon die of hunger, for almost all the bread in the city is gone.” So the king told Ebed-melech, “Take thirty of my men with you, and pull Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.” So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to a room in the palace beneath the treasury, where he found some old rags and discarded clothing. He carried these to the cistern and lowered them to Jeremiah on a rope. Ebed-melech called down to Jeremiah, “Put these rags under your armpits to protect you from the ropes.” Then when Jeremiah was ready, they pulled him out. So Jeremiah was returned to the courtyard of the guard—the palace prison—where he remained.
Jeremiah 39:15-18 NLT The Lord had given the following message to Jeremiah while he was still in prison: “Say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will do to this city everything I have threatened. I will send disaster, not prosperity. You will see its destruction, but I will rescue you from those you fear so much. Because you trusted me, I will give you your life as a reward. I will rescue you and keep you safe. I, the Lord, have spoken!’”
The siege of Jerusalem, as Jeremiah had said was nearing its end. The Babylonians were going to take the city and the most of the inhabitants would be taken captive and forcibly exiled from their beloved country.
There was nearly no bread left at all for the people to eat. Jeremiah was seen as a negative influence and a real threat to the morale in the city. What he was suggesting in giving up and surrendering was completely rejected. They'd die first.
And God even in this scene is keeping his promises. He is protecting Jeremiah, he is judging his people and he is involving the nations in his master plan and using them to bless his people and through his people he is blessing them. You might wonder, what is an African (Ethiopian) doing in Jerusalem during the siege? How did Ebed-melech end up serving in the court of the Hebraic King? And of all the people who could be concerned for Jeremiah, the word of God and the rightness of the situation, it is this foreigner from a cursed people who makes it right.
God is bringing the nations into His kingdom. His sovereignty extends over the Ethiopians, Jews and the Babylonians alike. And in these accounts it is the people not born of Abraham who appear to be more in tune with the will of God.
And when it is all said and done and the judgement is complete God blesses Ebed-melech this foreigner. Who is listening to God? Who is responding with compassion? Who appears to be the servant of God and more godly?
Ebed-melech represents us, the grafted in gentile (Romans 11).
Who protects the prophet of God? Ebed-melech the foreigner. Even today in world politics Africa seems to all to often play second fiddle. But in God's kingdom they are there at significant moments and part of God's plan. Whether it is Simon of Cyrene, the Ethiopian Eunuch of Acts, or Ebed-melech here, God has the African playing very important roles in carrying out his plans. And this pattern continues through the beginning of the church where with Barnabas a believer in the Syrian church in Antioch is named among the prophets in the church with two African's Simeon and Lucius.
God's family and those who listen to God have always been from a diverse representation of the nations.
In fact, as can be seen here in Jeremiah these "outsiders" are found on the inside listening to God. Will you be one of the outsiders on the inside listening to God and being blessed by God?
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Come and learn a lesson
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/william-bode/id635644278
Jeremiah 35:1-19 NLT This is the message the Lord gave Jeremiah when Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah: “Go to the settlement where the families of the Recabites live, and invite them to the Lord’s Temple. Take them into one of the inner rooms, and offer them some wine.” So I went to see Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah and grandson of Habazziniah and all his brothers and sons—representing all the Recabite families. I took them to the Temple, and we went into the room assigned to the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God. This room was located next to the one used by the Temple officials, directly above the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum, the Temple gatekeeper. I set cups and jugs of wine before them and invited them to have a drink, but they refused. “No,” they said, “we don’t drink wine, because our ancestor Jehonadab son of Recab gave us this command: ‘You and your descendants must never drink wine. And do not build houses or plant crops or vineyards, but always live in tents. If you follow these commands, you will live long, good lives in the land.’ So we have obeyed him in all these things. We have never had a drink of wine to this day, nor have our wives, our sons, or our daughters. We haven’t built houses or owned vineyards or farms or planted crops. We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed all the commands of Jehonadab, our ancestor. But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked this country, we were afraid of the Babylonian and Syrian armies. So we decided to move to Jerusalem. That is why we are here.” Then the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Go and say to the people in Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Come and learn a lesson about how to obey me. The Recabites do not drink wine to this day because their ancestor Jehonadab told them not to. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you refuse to obey me. Time after time I sent you prophets, who told you, “Turn from your wicked ways, and start doing things right. Stop worshiping other gods so that you might live in peace here in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” But you would not listen to me or obey me. The descendants of Jehonadab son of Recab have obeyed their ancestor completely, but you have refused to listen to me.’ “Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you refuse to listen or answer when I call, I will send upon Judah and Jerusalem all the disasters I have threatened.’” Then Jeremiah turned to the Recabites and said, “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have obeyed your ancestor Jehonadab in every respect, following all his instructions.’ Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jehonadab son of Recab will always have descendants who serve me.’”
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Fiddler on the Roof is one of my favourite films! And in that film is a song entitled, Tradition that just about scratches the surface of this bible passage.
In summary of the passage above, there was a clan of Jews that was faithful to keep the traditions of their ancestors even when it made them seem completely out of step with the rest of society. The Recabites were the Amish of their day. It wasn't that they thought that they had a special mission from God or any special revelation. It was that they honoured their fathers' teaching. And as a whole group they had taught all their families to follow this teaching.
God had told his people how to live but his people had disregarded him. God wanted his people to be ashamed of their disobedience and their refusal to listen to the prophets he had sent them.
Who do you listen to? Whose advice are you freely disseminating? Are you happy to propagate the latest diet or financial plan? Do you swear by a particular type of technology and feel quite proud that you chose it and stick with it. Do your choices make you superior and a little smug? Whether it is money, holidays, cars, mobiles or computers, people listen to some "authority" and then then make their choices accordingly. When I was in the states, I remember people who were really proud they pretty much only bought American made products. And here in England, there are many people who feel like they are really doing a good thing by supporting faithfully the Fair Trade movement or only buying free range animals and eggs.
Do you listen to God? Are you proud that you do? Are you willing to tell others that you follow God's Word?
God wants a following. More to the point only God deserves a following. Far more than your football team, the X-Factor or I'm a Celebrity, God demands you plan your life around his Word! You might record your favourite show so you don't miss it. And you may proudly wear the accessories of your favourite star, fad, company or team. But are you willing to follow God? Are you willing to make it known. Are you willing to plan your life around God?
Why not? Is God not worth it? Do you find God boring? Does God not help you create the image you want to have?
God is asking you to follow him. God is telling you to listen to him. There is nothing greater you can dedicate yourself to. Why are you not proud to say you follow God? Someday you'll get tell God face to face. ___________________________________________________________________
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/william-bode/id635644278
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Rebellion, gone Listen to the audio blog on SoundCloud or iTunes
I will cleanse them of their sins against me and forgive all their sins of rebellion. Jeremiah 33:8
We are all prone to giving up. It is so easy to be a quitter. And we have good reason to feel despair We have offended God. In our rebellion, we have broke his every law. We have treated his kindness with disregard and we have flaunted our hard hearts and sin. We think that we will change but we fail. We put our foot in it and hurt people with our words. We lack the discipline to exercise properly or to eat sensibly. We fail to do the good we know we should. We procrastinate. We are lazy. Or we are full of pride at our hard work and accomplishments but fail to realise the full potential of the good we could do for others and satisfy only ourselves. We see our neighbor in need and pass him by. We know of the pain and suffering of so many but think only of how to better our own situation and choose to forget the hardship of others. We are easily corrupted by power, we think more of everything will solve our problems so we we strive for wealth and ease.We lust, we complain, we compare ourselves with others and feel smug.We ought to compare ourselves to God and be humbled. And like the Israelites, when we are warned by God to repent, we harden our hearts instead.
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" Saint Bernard of Clairvaux So it is a wonder that we could somehow get out of the rut we have dove headlong into. In fact we can not. But God sees us in this pitiful state and promises to change us. First, the muck that we have smeared all over us and only succeed in spreading further is cleaned away. We are put right. We are going to be sorted out. We are going to be lifted up. We are going to be dressed a new, gone will be the ragged clothes of rebellion and coming are the clothes of righteousness. And the stains of before are gone too. We are free of the debts and the burdens of our past behaviour. We are not going to be held responsible for our insurrection. We are unfettered by the debts of our treason and adultery.
How is this done? What must I do to be saved? It is done by God. And I can do nothing to merit it! It is a gift! It is the will of God that although we deserve punishment we get forgiveness.
Jeremiah, was getting a glimpse into the future and he was seeing Jesus.
Listen to Jesus claim the power and right of forgiveness!
The Gospel of Mark Chapter 2
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man
1 When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. 2 Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, 3 four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. 4 They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
6 But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, 7“What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
8 Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 9Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’?10 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, 11“Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
12 And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”
Jesus can forgive your sins!
http://bible.us/116/JER33.8.NLT Bible.com/app Listen to the audio blog iTunes
Monday, April 22, 2013
endless galaxies of your unknown Jeremiah 31:33-34 NLT “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” __________________________
How your heart? I don't mean the health of your blood pumping organ. I'm asking how's your heart? This isn't a question of your love life (although I'm sure it's related). I'm not asking if you've found that special someone to spend the rest of your days with in blissful matrimonial union. No I'm asking about how you are within yourself? When no one is looking and your guard is down. When your are all alone. When you gaze into the endless galaxies of your unknown and unknowable inner self, what do you see? Do you fear your own character? Do you see a great emptiness? Or do you see the lies you've told, the hate you've fostered and nurtured. Do you see the conflicting and conflicted mingled self love and loathing that cripples your life? Can you be honest with yourself? Do you peer into your heart and see deep seated selfishness? Are you afraid that you'd kill given the chance just to get your own way? Have you plotted your big heist, so you can runaway and live the life of ease? God knows the condition of the human heart. God knows that we are evil. Genesis 8:21 NIV The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. There in Genesis God is describing the trajectory of the heart. Your heart. It leads you to lust, to be selfish, to hate, to envy, or to discontent. Your heart is never satisfied. Your heart is a relentless evil. Jesus was well acquainted with the ugly state of the human heart not because of his own but because of everyone he came in contact with. This is what he says about the heart : Matthew. 15:8,18-20 " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' " So how does the Psalmist come to say this, I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your law is written on my heart Psalm 40:8 NLT ." What had changed his heart? It seems the Psalmist and a select few others are a foretaste of the sweeping core changing alteration God had planned. God through Jeremiah declares that he's going to perform the most amazing heart surgery. He's going to change the inclination of the human heart. He's going to make the heart respond to God's word. His people will obey because it is in their heart to do so. Breath a sigh of relief. Let this news sink in. The enemy that keeps you awake at night, your own heart, can be changed! God plans to rewrite the heart. There will be a day when a people have God's word written on their hearts. And that day has begun with Jesus. And that heart change had begun with his followers. 2 Corinthians 3:3 NLT Clearly, you are a letter from Christ prepared by us. It is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on stone, but on human hearts. Hebrews 8:10, (10:16) NLT But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds so they will understand them, and I will write them on their hearts so they will obey them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Are you longing for a change of heart?
Jesus can write a new ending to the book of your heart. As you trust Jesus and his work on the cross and you repent of your sins you are evidencing that God is writing a new Word on your heart.
You will not find it within yourself to change, but if you turn to Jesus he will write you a new word on your heart.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
God isn't playing God, He is God Audio Blog Now on iTunes as a podcast
Awaiting His return! God isn't playing God, He is God Originally posted on Google Groups 1/10/12 ____________________ For the LORD hardened their hearts and caused them to fight the Israelites. So they were completely destroyed without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses. Joshua 11:20 _____________________ Joshua 11 is an uncomfortable chapter to read, especially if you do not want to accept God as good and right. We want to make God in our own image, but not even a true image of ourselves but a made up false God. God fights for his people. God utterly destroys the enemies of his people. God does not want his people to trust in the might of military technology. God required his people to disable it all the horses and the chariots. God controls the hearts of the enemies. God demands obedience from his people. A couple little footnotes, Joshua and Caleb were the two spies who forty years previous said God would give them the land but the other ten spies said the land was too hard to conquer because of the walled cities and the giants. Chapter eleven here is telling us that the giants are no more in the conquered areas of the land. The descendants of Anak were the giants and now they are gone except in the surrounding areas. We hear more of the giants later, when a boy slays the last of them. But this chapter here (Joshua 11) is full of war, slaughter, genocide, animal crippling, looting, destruction of cultures, men, woman, and children, killed, and Kings killed. This was all done as God had instructed. This was God's plan. This plan was God's plan for over 40 years, in fact for nearly 500 years since Abraham. Can you trust this God? Can you accept that this is the way God works? Can you praise God for doing this? God's wrath is not a thing of the past. There is coming wrath; It is being stored up and these are the ways God unleashes his wrath. We must see God for who he is and fear him, love him and trust Him. God has not changed. He is the same now as he was then. EN Joshua Chapter 11 Israel Defeats the Northern Armies 1 When King Jabin of Hazor heard what had happened, he sent messages to the following kings: King Jobab of Madon; the king of Shimron; the king of Acshaph;2 all the kings of the northern hill country; the kings in the Jordan Valley south of Galileet; the kings in the Galilean foothillst; the kings of Naphoth-dor on the west; 3 the kings of Canaan, both east and west; the kings of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites in the towns on the slopes of Mount Hermon in the land of Mizpah. 4 All these kings came out to fight. Their combined armies formed a vast horde. And with all their horses and chariots, they covered the landscape like the sand on the seashore. 5 The kings joined forces and established their camp around the water near Merom to fight against Israel. 6 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them. By this time tomorrow I will hand all of them over to Israel as dead men. Then you must cripple their horses and burn their chariots.” 7 So Joshua and all his fighting men traveled to the water near Merom and attacked suddenly.8 And the LORD gave them victory over their enemies. The Israelites chased them as far as Greater Sidon and Misrephoth-maim, and eastward into the valley of Mizpah, until not one enemy warrior was left alive. 9 Then Joshua crippled the horses and burned all the chariots, as the LORD had instructed. 10 Joshua then turned back and captured Hazor and killed its king. (Hazor had at one time been the capital of all these kingdoms.) 11 The Israelites completely destroyedt every living thing in the city, leaving no survivors. Not a single person was spared. And then Joshua burned the city. 12 Joshua slaughtered all the other kings and their people, completely destroying them, just as Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded.13 But the Israelites did not burn any of the towns built on mounds except Hazor, which Joshua burned.14 And the Israelites took all the plunder and livestock of the ravaged towns for themselves. But they killed all the people, leaving no survivors. 15 As the LORD had commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua. And Joshua did as he was told, carefully obeying all the commands that the LORD had given to Moses. 16 So Joshua conquered the entire region—the hill country, the entire Negev, the whole area around the town of Goshen, the western foothills, the Jordan Valley,t the mountains of Israel, and the Galilean foothills.17 The Israelite territory now extended all the way from Mount Halak, which leads up to Seir in the south, as far north as Baal-gad at the foot of Mount Hermon in the valley of Lebanon. Joshua killed all the kings of those territories,18 waging war for a long time to accomplish this.19 No one in this region made peace with the Israelites except the Hivites of Gibeon. All the others were defeated. 20 For the LORD hardened their hearts and caused them to fight the Israelites. So they were completely destroyed without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses. 21 During this period Joshua destroyed all the descendants of Anak, who lived in the hill country of Hebron, Debir, Anab, and the entire hill country of Judah and Israel. He killed them all and completely destroyed their towns. 22 None of the descendants of Anak were left in all the land of Israel, though some still remained in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. 23 So Joshua took control of the entire land, just as the LORD had instructed Moses. He gave it to the people of Israel as their special possession, dividing the land among the tribes. So the land finally had rest from war. NL Jozua 11 Israël overwint vele volken 1 Toen koning Jabin van Hazor hoorde wat er allemaal was gebeurd, stuurde hij een dringende boodschap naar koning Jobab van Madon, de koning van Simron, de koning van Achsaf,2 alle koningen van het noordelijke bergland, de koningen van de Vlakte, ten zuiden van Kinneroth, de koningen van de laaggelegen gebieden, de koningen van het bergachtige gebied van Dor in het westen,3 de koningen van Kanaän, zowel uit het oosten als uit het westen, de koningen van de Amorieten, Hethieten en Perizzieten, de koningen van het Jebusitische bergland en de koningen van de Chiwwitische steden op de hellingen van de berg Hermon in het land Mispa. 4-5 Al deze koningen reageerden op de boodschap door hun legers te mobiliseren en zich te verenigen om Israël te vernietigen. Hun gezamenlijke legers, met heel veel paarden en strijdwagens, kwamen bijeen en sloegen hun kamp op bij de bronnen van Merom. 6 Maar de HERE zei tegen Jozua: ‘Wees niet bang voor hen, want morgen om deze tijd zal Ik hen allen in de macht van Israël overgeven. Dan moet u de pezen van hun paarden doorsnijden en hun strijdwagens verbranden.’7 Jozua en zijn troepen verrasten het vijandelijke leger bij de bronnen van Merom en vielen aan.8 De HERE gaf dat enorme leger in de macht van de Israëlieten, die het achtervolgden tot aan Groot-Sidon en een plaats die Brandend Water werd genoemd en in oostelijke richting tot aan het dal van Mispa. Geen enkele vijand overleefde deze veldslag. 9 Jozua en zijn mannen volgden de aanwijzingen van de HERE op. Zij sneden de pezen van de paarden door en verbrandden alle strijdwagens. 10 Op de terugweg veroverde Jozua de stad Hazor en doodde haar koning. Hazor was eens de hoofdstad geweest van een verbond van al die koninkrijken.11 Alle inwoners werden gedood, waarna de stad werd verbrand.12 Daarna bond hij de strijd aan met de andere steden van de verslagen koningen en maakte ze met de grond gelijk. Alle inwoners werden gedood, zoals Mozes had bevolen.13 Behalve Hazor stak Jozua echter verder geen enkele hooggelegen stad in brand.14 Alle buit en het vee van de verwoeste steden hielden de Israëlieten voor zichzelf, maar de inwoners doodden zij. 15 Want dat had de HERE zijn dienaar Mozes opgedragen. Mozes had die opdracht op zijn beurt aan Jozua doorgegeven, die deze dan ook uitvoerde. Alle aanwijzingen die de HERE Mozes had gegeven, voerde Jozua nauwgezet uit. 16 Zo veroverde Jozua het hele land: het bergland, de Negev, het land Gosen, de laaggelegen gebieden, de vlakte van de Jordaan en de heuvels en laagvlakten van Israël.17 Het gebied van de Israëlieten strekte zich nu uit van de Kale Berg dicht bij Seïr, tot Baäl-Gad in het dal van de Libanon, aan de voet van de Hermon. Jozua doodde alle koningen die in dat gebied heersten.18 Er was een lange oorlog voor nodig om dit resultaat te bereiken.19 Geen enkele stad kreeg de kans met Israël vrede te sluiten, uitgezonderd de Chiwwieten uit Gibeon, alle anderen werden met geweld veroverd.20 Want de HERE zorgde ervoor dat de vijandelijke koningen de strijd aanbonden met de Israëlieten in plaats van om vrede te vragen, zo werden zij genadeloos gedood, zoals de HERE Mozes had opgedragen.21 Gedurende deze periode roeide Jozua ook alle reuzen uit. Dit waren afstammelingen van Enak en zij woonden in het bergland in Hebron, Debir, Anab, Juda en Israël. Hij doodde hen tot de laatste man en maakte hun steden met de grond gelijk.22 In het land Israël werd er niet één in leven gelaten, maar in Gaza, Gath en Asdod zijn enkelen overgebleven. 23 Jozua nam het hele land in bezit, precies zoals de HERE Mozes had opgedragen. Hij gaf het aan de Israëlieten als hun erfdeel en verdeelde het onder de stammen. Toen kon het land zich eindelijk van het oorlogsgeweld herstellen. AR يشوع 11 هَزِيمَةُ المُدُنُ الشَّمالِيَّة 1 وَحِينَ سَمِعَ يابِينُ مَلِكُ حاصُورَ بِهَذا، أرسَلَ رَسائِلَ إلَى يُوبابَ مَلِكِ مادُونَ، وَإلَى مَلِكِ شِمْرُونَ وَمَلِكِ أكشافَ، 2 وَإلَى مُلُوكِ المِنطَقَةِ الجَبَلِيَّةِ الشَّمالِيَّةِ وَالصَحْراءِ، وَإلَى مُلُوكِ كِنَّرُوتَt وَالنَّقَبِt وَالمُرْتَفَعاتِ الغَرْبيَّةِ، وَإلَى مَلِكِ دُورَ غَرْباً. 3 وَإلَى الكَنعانِيِّينَ فِي الشَّرْقِ وَالغَربِ، وَالأمُورِيِّينَ وَالحِثِّيِّينَ وَالفِرِزِّيِّينَ وَاليَبُوسِيِّينَ الَّذِينَ فِي المِنطَقَةِ الجَبَلِيَّةِ، وَإلَى الحِوِّيِّينَ السّاكِنِينَ جَنُوبَ جَبَلِ حَرْمُونَ فِي مِنْطَقَةِ المِصْفاةِ. 4 وَخَرَجُوا بِكُلِّ جُيُوشِهِمْ، جَيشاً عَظِيماً جِدّاً، كَعَدَدِ حُبَيباتِ الرَّملِ عَلَى شاطِئِ البَحْرِ، وَمَعَهُمْ خُيُولٌ وَعَرَباتٌ كَثِيرَةٌ. 5 وَاجتَمَعَ هَؤُلاءِ المُلُوكُ فِي مَكانٍ اتَّفَقُوا عَلَيهِ، وَجاءُوا وَخَيَّمُوا مَعاً عِنْدَ جَدْوَلِ مَيرُومَ لِيُحارِبُوا إسْرائِيلَ. 6 وَقالَ اللهُ لِيَشُوعَ: «لا تَخَفْ مِنْهُمْ. فَغَداً فِي مِثلِ هَذا الوَقْتِ، سَأُسَلِّمُهُمْ جَمِيعاً لإسْرائِيلَ لِتَذْبَحُوهُمْ. فَشُلُّوا خُيُولَهُمْ، وَأحْرِقُوا مَرْكَباتِهِمْ بِالنّارِ.» 7 فَأتَى يَشُوعُ عَلَيهِمْ مَعَ كُلِّ جَيشِهِ فَجأةً عِنْدَ جَدْوَلِ مَيرُومَ وَهاجَمُوهُمْ. 8 وَنَصَرَ اللهُ إسْرائِيلَ عَلَيهِمْ، فَهاجَمُوهُمْ وَطارَدُوهُمْ إلَى صَيدُونَ العَظِيمَةَ وَمِسْرَفُوتَ مايِمَ، وَإلَى وادِي المِصْفاةِ فِي الشَّرقِ. وَاستَمَرُّوا فِي مُهاجَمَتِهِمْ حَتَّى لَمْ يَبْقَ أحَدٌ مِنْهُمْ حَيّاً. 9 وَعَمِلَ يَشُوعُ بِهِمْ كَما قالَ اللهُ لَهُ، فَشَلَّ خُيُولَهُمْ وَأحْرَقَ مَركَباتِهِمْ بِالنّارِ. 10 فِي ذَلِكَ اليَومِ، التَفَّ يَشُوعُ وَهاجَمَ حاصُورَ وَسَيطَرَ عَلَيها، وَقَتَلَ مَلِكَها بِالسَّيفِ. وَكانَتْ حاصُورُ رأسَ هَذِهِ المَمالِكِ. 11 وَقَتَلُوا بِالسَّيفِ كُلَّ حَيٍّ فِيها، وَقَضَوْا عَلَيهِمْ تَماماً. حَتَّى لَمْ يَبْقَ كَائِنٌ يَتَنَفَّسُ. وَأحرَقَ يَشُوعُ حاصُورَ بِالنّارِ. 12 وَسَيطَرَ يَشُوعُ عَلَى كُلِّ هَذِهِ المُدُنِ المَلَكِيَّةِ، وَأمسَكَ بِمُلُوكِها وَقَتَلَهُمْ قَتلاً بِالسَّيفِ، كَما أمَرَ مُوسَى خادِمُ اللهِ. 13 لَكِنَّ جَيشَ إسْرائِيلَ لَمْ يُحرِقْ أيَّةَ مَدِينَةٍ مِنَ المُدُنِ المَبنِيَّةِ عَلَى تِلالٍ، إلّا حاصُورَ الَّتِي أحرَقَها يَشُوعُ. 14 وَأخَذَ بَنُو إسْرائِيلَ غَنائِمَ هَذِهِ المُدُنِ وَحَيواناتِها، وَأمّا النّاسُ فَقَتَلُوهُمْ بِالسَّيفِ حَتَّى أفنَوْهُمْ، وَلَمْ يَترُكُوا كَائِناً يَتَنَفَّسُ. 15 كَما أمَرَ اللهُ خادِمَهُ مُوسَى هَكَذا أمَرَ مُوسَى يَشُوعَ، وَهَكَذا عَمِلَ يَشُوعُ، فَلَمْ يَترُكْ شَيئاً أمَرَ اللهُ مُوسَى بِهِ إلّا وَعَمِلَهُ. 16 فَسَيطَرَ يَشُوعُ عَلَى كُلِّ المِنطَقَةِ الجَبَلِيَّةِ وَالنَّقَبِ وَأرْضِ جُوشِنَ وَالتِّلالِ الغَربِيَّةِ وَوادِي الأُردُنِّ وَمِنطَقَةِ التِّلالِ فِي إسْرائِيلَ وَمُنخَفَضاتِها، 17 مِنْ جَبَلِ حالَقَ المُمتَدِّ نَحْوَ سَعِيرَ إلَى بَعلَ جادَ فِي وادِي لُبنانَ إلَى الجَنُوبِ مِنْ جَبَلِ حَرْمُونَ. وَأسَرَ جَمِيعَ مُلُوكِهِمْ وَقَتَلَهُمْ. 18 وَكانَ يَشُوعُ فِي حَربٍ مَعَ هَؤُلاءِ المُلُوكِ لِفَترَةٍ طَوِيلَةٍ. 19 وَلَمْ تَعمَلْ مَدِينَةٌ مُعاهَدَةَ سَلامٍ مَعَ بَنِي إسْرائِيلَ إلّا الحِوِّيُّونَ السّاكِنُونَ فِي جِبعُونَ. فَقَدْ هَزَمَ بَنُو إسْرائِيلَ كُلَّ تِلْكَ المُدُنِ فِي الحَرْبِ. 20 لِأنَّ اللهَ ذاتَهُ قَسَّى قُلُوبَهُمْ لِمُحارَبَةِ إسْرائِيلَ، لِيُهلِكُوهُمْ تَماماً بِلا رَحمَةٍ، فَيَقْضُوا عَلَيهِمْ كَما أمَرَ اللهُ مُوسَى. 21 فِي ذَلِكَ اليَومِ، ذَهَبَ يَشُوعُ وَأهلَكَ العَناقِيِّينَt مِنَ المِنطَقَةِ الجَبَلِيَّةِ، مِنْ حَبْرُونَt وَدَبِيرَ وَعَنابَ، وَمِنْ كُلِّ المِنطَقَةِ الجَبَلِيَّةِ فِي يَهُوذا، وَمِنَ المِنطَقَةِ الجَبَلِيَّةِ فِي إسْرائِيلَ. فَقَدْ أهلَكَهُمْ يَشُوعُ مَعَ مُدُنِهِمْ تَماماً. 22 وَلَمْ يَبْقَ مِنَ العَناقِيِّينَ أحَدٌ فِي أرْضِ بَنِي إسْرائِيلَ، سِوَى بَعْضِهِمْ فِي غَزَّةَ وَجَتَّ وَأشدُودَ. 23 فَسَيطَرَ يَشُوعُ عَلَى كُلِّ الأرْضِ بِحَسَبِ كُلِّ ما أمَرَ اللهُ بِهِ مُوسَى، وَأعطاها يَشُوعُ لإسْرائِيلَ مُلكاً لَهُمْ حَسَبَ حِصَصِ قَبائِلِهِمْ. حِينَئِذٍ، اسْتَراحَتِ الأرْضُ مِنَ الحَرْبِ. 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Saturday, April 20, 2013
A heart to know me.-- A Tale of Two Figs. Audio Blog https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following-a-heart Now on iTunes as a podcast : https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/william-bode/id635644278
Jeremiah 24:6-8 NIV My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord . They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
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Lost Baby Boot on Rustlings Road, Sheffield. The prophet Jeremiah had a difficult job. God wanted him to deliver a lot of bad news. Thankfully for us, and God's people then God's message of judgement always has little moments of hope. (Just as an aside today's daily Bible reading, for me, includes the famous 70 years passage that gets Daniel all worked up, but that's for another time.) God uses a couple baskets of figs to make a point. And for me today I've chosen to focus on the hopeful message pictured in the tasty figs. This basket is a variable cornucopia of promises. Anybody reading this would be a bit confused but would want the good fig deal offered in basket number 1. The confusion comes in having to leave the land and go into exile to be blessed. But there it is, the exiles are the ones God is going to do the good to. We'll not explore the bad fig basket's scenario today but suffice it to say it stinks! So let's look at the promises for the exiles. God's eyes will watch over them for their good. So not just a negative big brother but a benevolent Father. God will bring them back. Sometimes it seems you've got to leave a good thing to get it. Grasping does but result in anything positive. Don't try and force God's hand in promise fulfilment. There is a promise to build them up! There is a promise to plant them! And maybe the biggest promise of all, God will give them new hearts! And the new heart is expressly so they can know God! These promises might seem remote and unrelated to us, but they are not. From Genesis to Revelation some form of these promised is repeated and expanded upon. And so we are definitely inheritors of the promise of a new heart that knows God.
Read how Paul says it to the believers in Rome, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. (NLTse) Now that is a fulfilment of a new heart that can know God! _______________________ Jeremiah 24:1-10 NIV After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord . One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten. Then the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.” Then the word of the Lord came to me: “This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord . They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. “ ‘But like the bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the Lord , ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt. I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule, wherever I banish them. I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.’ ”
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Friday, April 19, 2013
Social welfare is the strongest defence. Jeremiah 22:3, 13, 16-17 NIV This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord. “But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion.” _________________
Leeds City Hall
When they march it feels like the ground actually shakes. Hanging sweet in the air is the smell of oiled leather and sweaty horses. The din of soldiers speaking a foreign language echos in the valleys outside the city. Had Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians left one man at home? Surrounding the city in every direction as far as the eye can see are these invaders. You think God would be concerned with foreign affairs. But no, Jeremiah, the prophet everyone hates, and the only one to warn us of this siege, says, God is concerned with the needy and poor. Jeremiah has the audacity to go on and on about petty domestic issues. We're all going to die and as it gets worse and worse! Jeremiah says God wants us to be socially aware and to alleviate the situation for the most vulnerable. Can he be serious? Why is God harping on about people who've supposedly been cheated? A King and his court have to make a good impression if I'm going to negotiate with Nebuchadnezzar! Those unproductive wasters will be glad to give up their food if I save their worthless lives. If we're going to make it out of this, I'm going to have to commandeer a lot more as well. I'll need to make sure the strong good looking and the healthy are making the best impression so some of the less important will have to contribute to the war effort to bolster our campaign to impress those foreign dignitaries. Maybe I'll secure our release? I've got no time at all to be settling the ridiculous complaints of a few street urchins and unfortunate old women. Priorities man! _____________ Possibly an attitude like the one I've fictionalised above is being used by you or your friends. May be you think times are hard, terrorism is on the rise, the economy is plummeting, and crazy foreign governments are plotting nuclear holocaust. So of course now is not the time to extend a free lunch to the needy. You think of ways stimulate the economy by helping the rich create jobs and if we have a strong nuclear deterrent then in better times we'll maybe be able to help the poor help themselves. That is not God's way. Need protection? Go God's way. Need to help the economy? Go God's way. Take care of the poor and God will take care of you because you are just as poor and needy. The rich and the mighty will not be able to rescue you!
Jeremiah 22:25 NIV I will deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those you fear—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Dirtbags? Jeremiah 18:1-10 NIV This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord : “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord . “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
unknown metal item found in Derbyshire near Stanage Edge.
unknown metal item found in Derbyshire near Stanage Edge.
The first book of the Bible, Genesis, tells us God made man. It says God took a bit of the dirt and made man. Sounds a bit like a potter making a bit of pottery. So Jeremiah's illustration is more reality than analogy. God as our creator has all the creative copyrights reserved. And can not God match us to our purpose and his need. Who are we to talk back to our maker? Before the final firing potter’s clay is able to be reworked, and completely repurposed. So isn't God saying that he's still not finished with us. Here are some thoughts about the implications of God as our maker.
God has complete say over our purpose. God has the right to judge our performance in light of his purpose for us. God has no obligation to the one he created. There is no higher law, rule, say or purpose than God's. God is not working for someone, he had made us for himself. No other thing made by God is in a position to judge God's purposes for something he made for himself. Usefulness, beauty, functionality, durability are some of the possible values that God may have for his creation but ultimately it is for God alone to determine. Works in progress before the firing can be remade. God is Sovereign.
God is the first and final word over his own creation. We are God's creation. Therefore God is the first and final word over us.
Our role is to do what we were made for.
Do you know what you were made for? Do you know why God has made you? Does he look at you and see a product he'd be happy to fire in the kiln? Are you going around in circles? Spinning around? Let God mold you to his will. Recognise his superior position. _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ Isaiah 29:16 NIV You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”? Isaiah 45:9 NIV “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? Isaiah 64:8 NIV Yet you, Lord , are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Romans 9:21 NIV Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
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Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Do you really want to be a fisherman? Jeremiah 16:14-18 NLT “But the time is coming,” says the Lord , “when people who are taking an oath will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who rescued the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.’ Instead, they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the people of Israel back to their own land from the land of the north and from all the countries to which he had exiled them.’ For I will bring them back to this land that I gave their ancestors. “But now I am sending for many fishermen who will catch them,” says the Lord. “I am sending for hunters who will hunt them down in the mountains, hills, and caves. I am watching them closely, and I see every sin. They cannot hope to hide from me. I will double their punishment for all their sins, because they have defiled my land with lifeless images of their detestable gods and have filled my territory with their evil deeds.” __________________
Okay folks get your thinking caps on. Are you ready to dig in a bit and not just get your ears tickled?
Jeremiah has been asked by God to reveal a terrible judgment God had in store for his wretchedly wayward people. This judgement was so hideously harsh it is difficult to read. In fact, if you understand your sinfulness, (oh I do hope you properly see your sinfulness) then you will rightly fear God. I would suppose reading about the prophesied judgment God was declaring and knowing a bit of history of the Jewish nation will make you sit up and take notice. You'll take God a bit more seriously. This kind of stuff should make you question your views about God. So God says due to thier sin, his people would be judged very very harshly. Then he says as he always does someday he'll restore his people and rescue them from thier own sinful hearts, from the surrounding nations, and from God's own judgement. They needed God to rescue them from God, himself.
You too more than anything else, need God to rescue you from God himself.
So up to the point that Jeremiah records God saying he'll put them back in the land he gave to their ancestors we're on a restoration theme (Jeremiah 16:14-15). But the next bit is not part of this welcomed restoration message. God says, "I see every sin" (v. 17) and "I will double their punishment" (v. 18).
God's point is you will not escape judgement.
So how will God make sure he judges every last one of the sinners among his people?
(Just, a reminder if you are reading through Jeremiah with me you already know that God had said every single one of his people were sinners worthy of harsh heinous judgement)
God will have helpers. These helpers will make sure that judgment comes to everyone. God says he sees every sin and no matter where you hide, he'll find you. So God's judgment bailiffs, his subpoena servers, would be fishermen and hunters! Yep you heard right. Fishermen are the messengers of judgement. Now you should read these verses in a new light.
Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” Matthew 4:19 NLT
Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” Mark 1:17 NLT
His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed. Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” Luke 5:10 NLT
So just before the good news of restoration there will be a wrapping up of judgement. There will be a transition between the end of exile and judgment and the beginning of restoration and promise. The transition will be fishermen. This happened then at the time of Jesus with his disciples.
But if today in any way we are in a microcosm living the bigger story,it is that before people can be saved they must face judgment. Now for me as a fisherman it means telling people why Jesus died on the cross for them. You see you can't have the good news till you've had the bad. You are a sinner worthy of judgement. When I say that, I'm a fisher of men. Now let me tell you that Jesus took your judgment for you. That's what this passage of Scripture is about.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
The nature of sin. Audio Blog Jeremiah 14:20-22 NLT Lord, we confess our wickedness and that of our ancestors, too. We all have sinned against you. For the sake of your reputation, Lord, do not abandon us. Do not disgrace your own glorious throne. Please remember us, and do not break your covenant with us. Can any of the worthless foreign gods send us rain? Does it fall from the sky by itself? No, you are the one, O Lord our God! Only you can do such things. So we will wait for you to help us. _______________________________
Sin by definition is an offence against God.
God is the source of good. So evil is the absence from a situation of God's character, rule or word. Evil is man's suppression of God from thier lives. If you or I continue down our path of sin and wickedness we are trying to get as far away from God as possible. But as we abandon God, we leave behind light, forgiveness, mercy, grace, hope, love, life, and righteousness. Every selfish act, every unthankful act of independence and unbelief is an abominable act deserving death. In fact if the offender is left to himself and it was possible his head long run away from God is a run away from life itself. Every act of greed, envy, or lust plunges us further into darkness. Each lie, harsh word, or worst of all, every act of ignoring God makes us a condemned sinner. Truly, we have all sinned. But God has made promises. God intends to save the world from sin. And it is for the sake of his reputation not our worthiness that we should ask for his help. God deserves to be worshiped. God is worthy of praise. God should be on everyone's lips. God should be seen for who he is, good, holy, full of power, compassionate, loving, and graciously able to forgive. It is our concern for the record to be set straight concerning God that will motivate our repentance. He tells the truth. So he should be believed. He created everything so we are answerable to him for our purpose. He is gracious and good, so he should be praised. Our only hope is God. We must follow Jeremiah's example and pray a prayer of repentance and praise. God is the only one that can help us.
https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following-sins
Recorded outside in the Leeds City Centre Monday, April 15, 2013
Spock versus Kirk? Jeremiah 4:3-4, 14, 18-19 NLT
This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: “Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns. O people of Judah and Jerusalem, surrender your pride and power. Change your hearts before the Lord, or my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire because of all your sins.
O Jerusalem, cleanse your heart that you may be saved. How long will you harbor your evil thoughts?
“Your own actions have brought this upon you. This punishment is bitter, piercing you to the heart!” My heart, my heart—I writhe in pain! My heart pounds within me! I cannot be still. For I have heard the blast of enemy trumpets and the roar of their battle cries.
We say we live in a an age of reason. And yet our science fiction still sees a need for the heart. Passion versus proof, gut verses intellect, these are the arguments of our day just as they have been since the dawn of time.
Constantly Kirk on Star Trek is going with his gut (Interestingly the gut was the seat of emotions in antiquity in some cultures rather than the heart). And whether its David of Prometheus or Data of Star Trek the desire to be more human always involves possessing a heart that feels but it is held in check by logic.
So many times I and my Christian friends know the truth, we can recite the answer but our hearts are far from God.
To be sure if we had all the information and the proper perspective our intellect would still not always choose God. Why? Passion! The heart and its desires often overrule the mind.
God is asking us to do something about our hearts.
God's people would not stray from thier collision course with God's judgment.
Their hearts were hard.
God and Jeremiah have broken hearts over the impeding doom.
Whatever side of the passion versus logic divide you find yourself you will need to turn both over to God. God wants your mind and heart.
Nothing less will suffice.
Will you heed this warning and soften your heart towards God?
"And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5 NLT
Sunday, April 14, 2013
An Invitation Jeremiah 3:12-15 NLT Therefore, go and give this message to Israel. This is what the Lord says: “O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to listen to my voice. I, the Lord, have spoken! “Return home, you wayward children,” says the Lord, “for I am your master. I will bring you back to the land of Israel — one from this town and two from that family— from wherever you are scattered. And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will guide you with knowledge and understanding. _____________________
Stephen Lawhead writes novels of historical fantasy fiction that move me. In his series The Celtic Crusades he describes a character named Padraig, who is a Welsh Monk on a journey to the Crusades in Jerusalem. During that journey he explains two powerful related but nearly opposite Welsh words or ideas.
" taithchwant as the affliction of wanderlust — “that gnawing discontent which drives a man beyond the walls of paradise to see what lies over the next hill, or to discover where the river ends, or to follow the road to its furthest destination.” It is only equaled by the hiraeth; “the home-yearning — an aching desire for the green hills of your native land…for the sound of a kinsman’s voice…for the food first eaten at your mother’s hearth…and therefore,” he concludes, “We are forever pinched between the two most formidable cravings men can know...”~ pp. 217-220, Iron Lance
In 1757 when the non-conformist Pastor Robert Robinson was only 22 years old he penned these words found in the loved hymn Come Thou Fount,
Let that grace now like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.
Lawhead, Robinson, and the prophet Jeremiah all possessed an understanding of our profound propensity to leave home and wander.
The wanderer, more like runaway, more like treacherous traitor is forgiven and welcomed home by God.
God is calling you home! And you don't have to worry because of all the debt you owe ; everything has been forgiven. Jeremiah writes that God says he is merciful!
Come home, where there is love, forgiveness, and a welcome!
Come home to God your Father!
Come home to where you belong!
Leave the burdens, entanglements, fears and the sin that has weighed you down and come home.
God says you are welcome at home.
Come home.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Why reward the rebel? Isaiah 65:1-2, 12b NLT The Lord says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name. All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes... ... For when I called, you did not answer. When I spoke, you did not listen. You deliberately sinned—before my very eyes— and chose to do what you know I despise.” ____________________________________________
Is your face turning red? I suppose you are like me and you read those lines penned by Isaiah so long ago and you can't help but feel like a person in family court but all alone. There is your Dad explaining to the judge how all his Fatherly love and overtures of help were ignored. It's not like you didn't need any help either, so you feel like slinking into your seat until you are absorbed by the oak bench. Oak would suit us because were as deaf as a stick when it comes to hearing God's still, small voice We'd make a fine pair there, you and I, hearing how we'd stubbornly tried to make it on our own, spurning the vital assistance offered. We both know it would not be so bad for us two insubordinate siblings if it were not so many other people we have hurt by turning our backs on our Dad in heaven. And really it isn't even the oppressed and people racked with pain that we snubbed--it's Dad. How could we ignore our own Father? And not just any run-of-the-mill papa either. We'd been hand-picked for adoption into the most royal family the world has ever known and then spent most of our life trying to run away. We wanted our own street cred, we wanted to make it on our own. But we are utter failures. When I look in the mirror with you I'm ashamed of us. You know we knew better. You know our Father expressly warned us how we'd hurt him and so many others if we were to disobey him. So we turned around and blatantly publicly went our own way and we were proud to tell and show everyone we were our own person and we weren't fettered by Dad's ideas. Shame, embarrassment, self-loathing and the hot salty tears of repentance well up in our eyes. We love Dad. We have hurt him so often, but here he is again coming after us. And furthermore, he endangered our older brother by having him face our enemies. Our brother has had to trawl through all our filth to make it possible for us to be here. We've dragged the whole family into it, and they have the scars to prove it.
So what is going on?! Wasn't this a funeral? Weren't we dying on the inside? So where did all this good news come from?
Hallelujah!!! This is freaking amazing! You won't believe what your Dad and brother are saying now! Somehow they've worked it out at their great expense to make it right again. We are saved! Listen to what's being said now!
Isaiah 65:17-25 NLT “Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore. Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more. “No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred! Only the cursed will die that young! In those days people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards. Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains. They will not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune. For they are people blessed by the Lord, and their children, too, will be blessed. I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers! The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. But the snakes will eat dust. In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Friday, April 12, 2013
Plea for a forgetful God? Isaiah 63:17, 19; 64:5-9 NLT Lord , why have you allowed us to turn from your path? Why have you given us stubborn hearts so we no longer fear you? Return and help us, for we are your servants, the tribes that are your special possession... Sometimes it seems as though we never belonged to you, as though we had never been known as your people. You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways. But you have been very angry with us, for we are not godly. We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved? We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind. Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins. And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand. Don’t be so angry with us, Lord . Please don’t remember our sins forever. Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people. __________________________ Runaways, Returnable? , repent, reflection, related? Righteous? Ridiculous! Rescue required. Rage. Rut. Rags. Regret. Reason. Repentance Remembrance removed. Received? Reunited! ____ On behalf of God's people Isaiah pleads for God to rescue them. I picked out these verses in chapters 63 and 64 of Isaiah because they serve as a model. You and I can look at this plea as a pattern for our own repentance. Recognising our need for God to rescue us from ourselves will lead to change. The restoration that God has planned for you and me is begun in us by repentance. Repentance is a recognition that we're on the wrong road. We're going the wrong way. We look at the horizon and we admit we're lost. We notice an increasing loneliness, we recoil at the repugnant odor of our rebellion. Repentance is seeing what we're missing. Repentance is longing to be home. Repentance is the prodigal ready to serve. Rehearsing apologies. Readying the heart for welcome. Run to Jesus.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
What's the problem?
Isaiah 59:1-16 NLT Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. Your hands are the hands of murderers, and your fingers are filthy with sin. Your lips are full of lies, and your mouth spews corruption. No one cares about being fair and honest. The people’s lawsuits are based on lies. They conceive evil deeds and then give birth to sin. They hatch deadly snakes and weave spiders’ webs. Whoever falls into their webs will die, and there’s danger even in getting near them. Their webs can’t be made into clothing, and nothing they do is productive. All their activity is filled with sin, and violence is their trademark. Their feet run to do evil, and they rush to commit murder. They think only about sinning. Misery and destruction always follow them. They don’t know where to find peace or what it means to be just and good. They have mapped out crooked roads, and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace. So there is no justice among us, and we know nothing about right living. We look for light but find only darkness. We look for bright skies but walk in gloom. We grope like the blind along a wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. Even at brightest noontime, we stumble as though it were dark. Among the living, we are like the dead. We growl like hungry bears; we moan like mournful doves. We look for justice, but it never comes. We look for rescue, but it is far away from us. For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us. Yes, we know what sinners we are. We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord. We have turned our backs on our God. We know how unfair and oppressive we have been, carefully planning our deceitful lies. Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed. Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked. The Lord looked and was displeased to find there was no justice. He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm, and his justice sustained him. ___________________________ The problem is sin. From time to time you'll run into a person who looks at the world around them and concludes, there must be no God. They'll say they've come to that conclusion because of all the pain and suffering in the world. They have wrongly assumed a number of things. First they might say if there was a God, he'd stop all the evil in the world. God would not let all the children die of hunger that do everyday. God wouldn’t allow evil men to rape and kill innocent women and children in war torn countries around the globe. If there was a God, he'd put an end to the painful evil diseases that devastate lovely people, even Christians suffer with. Strangely, I've actually had a person tell me this while shoveling thier third plate of food into thier mouth at a meal someone else had paid for. So let's just assume for a moment there is no God. And let's also assume this sentiment to save the world from suffering is right. So we'll call this person who decries the evil of the world for a moment God, because they are good and can see evil. What have they done to relieve suffering? Most of us in the wealthy west live a life that creates the very pain and evil that had been indicted. The argument is a smoke screen. Interestingly one of the most profound and enduring stories told by Jesus was that of the good Samaritan. And even without the far more powerful cultural context of the story than many people will understand or feel it still makes a lasting statement. God says in the passage above through Isaiah, I can save. But what really needs to happen is I need to save the world from you! Have you ever taken ownership of the problem of evil in the world. The problem of pain and suffering is You! You are greedy, self indulgent, indifferent. Your life, history and desires have caused the pain you rail at God against. And what have you done to alleviate it? Have you fed the starving? Clothed the naked, housed the homeless, visited the sick, or paid for thier medical care? Really? Has your contribution to the cure actually even amounted to anything compared to your contribution to the problem? And who was Isaiah talking to? He was talking to the people who should have known better. He was talking to the actual 'children of God', the religious people. The message of anti-oppression to the oppressors was preached to the supposed goody two shoes. Before you go pointing the pious finger, look in the mirror. God is saying, "If I wipe out the problem, I have to wipe out you!"
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
700 years before Isaiah the prophet wrote prophecies concerning Jesus 700 years before he was born in Bethlehem. Listen to the prophet foretell of Jesus' suffering. All passages quoted today are from the New Living Translation. Isaiah 49:15-16 NLT “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins. Isaiah 50:5-7 NLT The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I have not rebelled or turned away. I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting. Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will not be put to shame. Isaiah 52:13-14 NLT See, my servant will prosper; he will be highly exalted. But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man. Isaiah 53:2-12 NLT My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. ____________________________________
1 Peter 1:20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.
Ephesians 1:4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
Luke 24:25-27 NLT Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. ____________________________________
Isaiah describes in detail the events around the crucifixion of Jesus. We should not be surprised at this because the Bible is clear that all along it has been God's plan for Jesus to die for our sins. Jesus himself repeatedly tells his disciples he must suffer and die.
(Matthew 16:21, 17:12, 20:22, Luke 9:22, 12:50, 17:25, 22:15,42, Mark 8:31, 9:12, 10:38, John 18:11)
Conclusions - -
God keeps his promises. God's plan for Jesus is plan "A" not a plan "B". God wants his people to know what his plans are in advance. Jesus claimed to be the Messiah foretold by Isaiah's prophecies. Jesus is the focus of the Bible, the events of human history, and God's plans. Jesus asks us to follow him in being obedient to God's plans even in suffering. Jesus set the example to follow. Salvation and forgiveness for sin are found in Jesus. You can trust God's plans. You should read the Bible to understand God's plans.
Questions --
Do you believe the Bible? Do you trust God to work out his sovereign plan in your life? Do you believe Jesus is the suffering servant foretold 700 years before by the prophet Isaiah? Do you trust Jesus as your saviour and the only one who can forgive your sin? How are you following Jesus? What about your life shows you are suffering in obedience to the Father? Why would anyone think you are following Jesus?
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
One single choice Isaiah 43:10-13, 25 NLT “But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord. “You are my servant. You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God— there never has been, and there never will be. I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world. No foreign god has ever done this. You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the Lord. “From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done.” “I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again. __________________________________ Often imitated but never duplicated, there is only one God. People have been inventing God's since the Garden of Eden, when the serpent created a god that lied. Eve imagined a god that jealousy withheld good from her. But maybe the coup d'etat of God making is when man himself claims to be God. One of my favourite bands, Audio Adrenaline(AA) sings about it in thier song, 'My God', --"There's a man over there standing on the street He says I'm a god! but I think he's a freak Many different men aren't just what they claim A moonie a morman a man from Mars A little off track but have nice cars--" Still for all the supposed divine confusion, there is only one God. There is only one God and you must answer to Him. But this single Supreme Being has always had a plan to save His people. Jesus is God! Jesus is the saviour Isaiah wrote about in chapter 43. Let's go back to those song lyrics of AA, " My God is the only God He's the only God that lives He loves, He cares, He makes, He shares And eternal life he gives He took the pain and shook the chains And rattled all of Hell Now you may think I'm crazy But only time will tell. " It seems a lot of people in the world are investing a lot of time, money and emotion making false gods. Competing and contradictory imaginary universe rulers have been made to control the masses and placate guilty consciouses. But there will only ever be one God. Over and over God has proven he alone is God, but never more so than when he died on the cross and rose from the dead. Let me be indulgent one more time and share one last bit of lyrics from Audio Adrenaline's song 'My God': " There's one important thing that you should know Jesus Christ paid the price We all think it's nice Spread His arms and died for man But we're not doing all we can We need to go to our work and our school And tell all the people that Hey! God rules!" So there is one God. And as you read this you are faced with one choice. How will you respond to God's exclusive claim? Will you keep making and following false Gods or will you worship the one true one?
Monday, April 08, 2013
He never grows weak or weary. https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following
Isaiah 40:28-31 NLT
Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. ................................................................................................................................................................... Isn't a good nap a wonderful luxury? Isn't it wonderful to sleep peacefully and to rest your weary body and wake refreshed? I often find myself at the end of my energy. Even this morning in reading the Bible and writing this blog I've felt exhausted and that was after a restful weekend. But I know where to turn to be refreshed!
God in heaven is never weary. God in heaven never grows tired or needs a rest because he is weak. He never wears out.
Don't you just love to learn a new morsel of truth? Aren't you thrilled to gain a bit of understanding? Have you ever had one of those eureka moments when you've discovered something you didn't know before and it all fits together so much better now that you understand?
God already knows everything. Nothing can be added to his knowledge. No new truth will enlighten God. God can not be taught something he does not already know.
God is the creator of all that is, all that has ever been, and all they will ever be! Goodness, love, wisdom, understanding, light and life all find their source in God. He lacks nothing and nothing is without him.
God does not need you to inform him of anything. God knows the deepest secrets of your heart.
God's immense vastness is infinite and unfathomable.
You are no match for God. God is eternal. God is outside of the confines of time and space. God is not hampered by a lack of time.
Oh small person in a vast universe, you need God's strength. And rejoice, for God has promised his limitless strength will lift you up. When you grow weary, God will give you help.
Don't trust in your own strength. Teach yourself to humble yourself before God who knows all. He can enlighten you. You will not find the ability to carry on in yourself. You will fail in your own strength. You will run out of resources. But those who rest in God will never run out of resources.
Give up what little you have to gain what can not be measured!
_________________________________________________________________________________ Isaiah 40:12-31 NLT
Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale? Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him? Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice? Does he need instruction about what is good? Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice? No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand. All the wood in Lebanon’s forests and all Lebanon’s animals would not be enough to make a burnt offering worthy of our God. The nations of the world are worth nothing to him. In his eyes they count for less than nothing— mere emptiness and froth. To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him? Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold, overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains? Or if people are too poor for that, they might at least choose wood that won’t decay and a skilled craftsman to carve an image that won’t fall down!
Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand? Are you deaf to the words of God— the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant? God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing. They hardly get started, barely taking root, when he blows on them and they wither. The wind carries them off like chaff. “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Tell us lies. Isaiah 30:8-15, 18 NLT
Now go and write down these words. Write them in a book. They will stand until the end of time as a witness that these people are stubborn rebels who refuse to pay attention to the Lord’s instructions. They tell the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” They tell the prophets, “Don’t tell us what is right. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies. Forget all this gloom. Get off your narrow path. Stop telling us about your ‘Holy One of Israel.’” This is the reply of the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise what I tell you and trust instead in oppression and lies, calamity will come upon you suddenly— like a bulging wall that bursts and falls. In an instant it will collapse and come crashing down. You will be smashed like a piece of pottery— shattered so completely that there won’t be a piece big enough to carry coals from a fireplace or a little water from the well.” This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it. So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help.
_______________________________________
Could Isaiah be writing about you?
I like a bit of Sci-Fi and one of my favourite little series is the short lived but much loved Firefly programme. And the film Serenity that followed. In episode 4 Jaynestown, River Tam attempts to 'correct' the character Shepherd Book's Bible. River Tam, a genius though mentally disturbed girl due to government experimentation, is caught rewriting the Bible. River had removed pages, cut bits out, reordered parts and rewritten lots of the Bible. She couldn't accept the bits that didn't match her understanding and vision for the world. And neither could God's people in Isaiah's time. Nor can most people today I dare say.
We can't accept hell, judgment, or God creating everything for himself. We want to ignore the difficult bits. We can't compute the cross being God's plan since before the creation. We don't like being told we have to love our enemies, and we'd rather ignore the implications of loving our neighbour as ourselves.
Truth be told, the majority of God's word little fits with our world view and we've busily set about to reconstruct it according to our own liking.
2 Timothy 4:3 " For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear."
It seems the time foretold by Paul has been before and will be no stranger to the future. Apparently Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac) wasn't the first to ask to be told lies. God's people didn't want to be told the truth either.
Neither God nor Isaiah his spokesman are the puppets of the people's whim. The truth would be told and the people would have to decide. Hiding behind their candy coated world view wouldn't suspend the coming judgment.
So can you handle the truth? Jack Nicholson, as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup in the film A Few Good Men, tries to paint a picture of honor, trust and strength. But under the guise of national security, murder had taken place.
Isaiah and Jesus both were threatened,scoffed and abused for telling the truth.
But with the terrible truth of our rebellion and its deserved judgment is the invitation to find safety from the judgment by getting close to the judge.
And so grace is the scandal most people are unwilling to accept. How can God condemn the treacherous, lie-propagating people in one verse and offer them protection in the next?
He can because of Jesus. He can because of the cross.
I believe that the most difficult thing for people to hear from God today is not the exacting holiness of a perfect sinless Saviour, but rather the right of judgment and the extravagance of grace.
Quick, escape the coming wrath of God and be safe in his expansive grace.
God will judge. God does save.
Will you be saved?
Saturday, April 06, 2013
He is certainly greater than you! Isaiah 29:13-16 NLT And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites with amazing wonders. The wisdom of the wise will pass away, and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.” What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their evil deeds in the dark! “The Lord can’t see us,” they say. “He doesn’t know what’s going on!” How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid”? ________________________________ God made you! He knows what you're made of. Indictment is one of the main works of the old testament prophet. God points his finger at people through the prophet. With the job of indictment comes the warnings of judgement and ultimately the plans of restoration. God's people had flouted the purposes of God in the guise of following. We'd say they were talking out of both sides of their mouths. In the name of God they oppressed the poor. In the name of God they promised people everything was alright, but everything wasn't alright at all. It was a bit like the Catholic church's selling of indulgences during Martin Luther's time. People claiming to represent God, saying for a little bit of money you can offend God and break any rule you'd like. "And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote." I grew up in a time and place where supposedly knowing God could be summed up with this not so humorous little saying, "I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't dance, I don't chew and I don't go out with the girls that do." (chew = as in tobacco) It really had nearly nothing at all to do with knowing God. God says through Isaiah, people think God can't see them. It's like a little child covering his eyes and declaring, "You can't see me!" But God can see you. John in the gospel bearing his name says, "Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil." The darkness cannot hide our hearts from God. Paul writes to the Christians in Galatia, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap." But let's be honest. We've all sown wild oats. We've all planted seeds of lust, greed, pride, self righteousness, and worst of all, indifference to God. Are God's purposes your highest purposes? Or do you, like the people in Isaiah's day, think you can go your own way, do your own thing and God won't be bothered. Who do we think we are fooling? _____________________________________ For some reason this passage reminded me of a poem I once heard by C.T. Studd. I've copied the poem for you to read below. “Two little lines I heard one day, Traveling along life’s busy way; Bringing conviction to my heart, And from my mind would not depart; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. Only one life, yes only one, Soon will its fleeting hours be done; Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet, And stand before His Judgement seat; Only one life,’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. Only one life, the still small voice, Gently pleads for a better choice Bidding me selfish aims to leave, And to God’s holy will to cleave; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. Only one life, a few brief years, Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears; Each with its clays I must fulfill, living for self or in His will; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. When this bright world would tempt me sore, When Satan would a victory score; When self would seek to have its way, Then help me Lord with joy to say; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. Give me Father, a purpose deep, In joy or sorrow Thy word to keep; Faithful and true what e’er the strife, Pleasing Thee in my daily life; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. Oh let my love with fervor burn, And from the world now let me turn; Living for Thee, and Thee alone, Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne; Only one life, “twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. Only one life, yes only one, Now let me say,”Thy will be done”; And when at last I’ll hear the call, I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”; Only one life,’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. ” — extra stanza — Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be, If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.” C.T Studd
Friday, April 05, 2013
He will remove the cloud of gloom Isaiah 25:3-9 NLT Therefore, strong nations will declare your glory; ruthless nations will fear you. But you are a tower of refuge to the poor, O Lord, a tower of refuge to the needy in distress. You are a refuge from the storm and a shelter from the heat. For the oppressive acts of ruthless people are like a storm beating against a wall, or like the relentless heat of the desert. But you silence the roar of foreign nations. As the shade of a cloud cools relentless heat, so the boastful songs of ruthless people are stilled. In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat. There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears. He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken! In that day the people will proclaim, “This is our God! We trusted in him, and he saved us! This is the Lord, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!” ______________________________________ It's not always going to be this way? What way you may ask. I mean that oppression and pain will not always be the order of the day. Some day sorrow and pain will be abolished. In that day the Lord will bring salvation! God promises that there is coming a day when there will be plenty and no one will be hungry. Some day God is going to throw a party. He's going to invite people from everywhere. All the enemies and oppressors will be silenced. God promises a day of salvation. A day that will end all the years of tears. God will be a refuge and a sanctuary for all those who have been bullied. He'll comfort those who have been harassed. God will make a wonderful place of safety for all the poor and needy. And there will be joy! Gloom will be banished! All shame will be removed. And death will be defeated once and for all. Jesus will bring this day! On the cross he set this all in motion. He had victory over sin and the grave in those three horrible yet glorious days. When he burst forth from the tomb with power, he declared that the promise of God through Isaiah is a sure thing. Through his life and ministry we see a glimpse into the new world promised by Isaiah. We see the hungry fed and the oppressed protected. We see the pain of brokenness and disease healed. We see the dead raised to life. See Jesus is bringing the great and terrible day of the Lord, but then with joy everlasting he is bringing the forever of peace, life and salvation. Are you ready? Are you waiting in expectation? Are you living in faith? Are you facing the troubles of today in the assurance that God wins? Are you getting ready for God's great victory party? Live in anticipation and you'll live in joy.
Thursday, April 04, 2013
The Day of the Lord, probably not what you thought. Audio Blog
Isaiah 13:11, 15-16, 18 NLT “I, the Lord, will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty. Anyone who is captured will be cut down— run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked, and their wives will be raped. The attacking armies will shoot down the young men with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for children.” _____________________________________
You are not going to like this one bit! But it's true and is serious. The Day of the Lord is coming. It is a terrible day. The Day of the Lord is a day of judgement. It is a day of handing out sentences. You need to think from the view point of the victim. You need to feel the injustice of the oppressed, the pain of the wronged. Now you must accept that God is the victim. But also, God is judge. Far, far worse than some supposed innocent child being violently harmed is the gross injustice of mocking the kindness of God. You really must understand that God has every right to get back at humankind for the terrible atrocities they've committed against God's holy name. The rapist or the paedophile is really no worse than a joking fibber in comparison. Crimes against humanity such as genocide, sound heinous to our ear. In reality crimes against God are the most abominable. So then you may have some insight when you read the verse below and hear God take credit for the atrocities you've read about above. Isaiah 13:3 NLT I, the Lord, have dedicated these soldiers for this task. Yes, I have called mighty warriors to express my anger, and they will rejoice when I am exalted.”
I don't think you'll like what I am about to suggest. But could it be that in the terrible Day of the Lord, people like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Hussain are claimed by God as his instruments of judgment on sin? Recently a friend of mine was taking with her neighbour about believing in God. My friend's neighbour said they could not believe in God because of the problems of evil and suffering in the world. My friend said that only leaves you with the world and the problem without God. It seems that you are worse off. Surely we are not better off in our world of suffering and evil alone and with only ourselves to blame and only ourselves for help. Consider for a moment there is a God. Now consider that offences against Him are really the most terrible injustice ever committed. Doesn't he have every right to get revenge? He will. You may not like it but the only alternatives are that we act like there is no God or you are God. But no matter what we act like or think the facts remain. There is a God and he says here he is going to judge sinners. And he says it will be terrible. Are you ready? Do you feel sorry for God the victim? You should! You really want to be on his side. _____________________________________ Isaiah 13:1-22 NLT Isaiah son of Amoz received this message concerning the destruction of Babylon: “Raise a signal flag on a bare hilltop. Call up an army against Babylon. Wave your hand to encourage them as they march into the palaces of the high and mighty. I, the Lord, have dedicated these soldiers for this task. Yes, I have called mighty warriors to express my anger, and they will rejoice when I am exalted.” Hear the noise on the mountains! Listen, as the vast armies march! It is the noise and shouting of many nations. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has called this army together. They come from distant countries, from beyond the farthest horizons. They are the Lord’s weapons to carry out his anger. With them he will destroy the whole land. Scream in terror, for the day of the Lord has arrived— the time for the Almighty to destroy. Every arm is paralyzed with fear. Every heart melts, and people are terrified. Pangs of anguish grip them, like those of a woman in labor. They look helplessly at one another, their faces aflame with fear. For see, the day of the Lord is coming— the terrible day of his fury and fierce anger. The land will be made desolate, and all the sinners destroyed with it. The heavens will be black above them; the stars will give no light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will provide no light. “I, the Lord , will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty. I will make people scarcer than gold— more rare than the fine gold of Ophir. For I will shake the heavens. The earth will move from its place when the Lord of Heaven’s Armies displays his wrath in the day of his fierce anger.” Everyone in Babylon will run about like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd. They will try to find their own people and flee to their own land. Anyone who is captured will be cut down— run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked, and their wives will be raped. “Look, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon. They cannot be tempted by silver or bribed with gold. The attacking armies will shoot down the young men with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for children.” Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms, the flower of Chaldean pride, will be devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed them. Babylon will never be inhabited again. It will remain empty for generation after generation. Nomads will refuse to camp there, and shepherds will not bed down their sheep. Desert animals will move into the ruined city, and the houses will be haunted by howling creatures. Owls will live among the ruins, and wild goats will go there to dance. Hyenas will howl in its fortresses, and jackals will make dens in its luxurious palaces. Babylon’s days are numbered; its time of destruction will soon arrive.
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Finally, justice! Isaiah 11:4 NLT He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited. The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked. ____________________________________
The promise God made to King David had always seemed too good to be true. Dynasties don't last forever. David's experience of the promise was seriously threatened before he ever reached the throne. And when the land of Abraham's promise was finally united under David's good rule it is divided by fights among his sons and generals. Does this throw God's promise into doubt. Solomon appears to be a just king, but he is deeply flawed and wavers.
God's people are waiting for a prophet who will declare his people free of exile and oppression. They are longing for a promised king who will rule with justice and peace. God's people are looking for a Messiah like Isaiah has foretold. Who would be this 'Sent One', whose very words would bring healing and peace? Surely, someone could see this person would have to be fulfilled by no one short of God himself. Thus it is Jesus Christ the God/Man-Messiah who alone can fulfil this grandiose and outrageous promise from God. We clearly see in Jesus' words he is the one that Isaiah is speaking of here (read further below).
Do you long for justice? Did your heart crave the peace promised by Isaiah? Does your mind desperately need this safety and salvation?
All this and more is found in Jesus.
Rest assured Jesus rules a kingdom you can be part of that is all this and more. ____________________________________
Isaiah 11:1-10 NLT Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot— yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He will delight in obeying the Lord. He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay. He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited. The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked. He will wear righteousness like a belt and truth like an undergarment. In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all. The cow will graze near the bear. The cub and the calf will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm. Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord. In that day the heir to David’s throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to him, and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.
http://williambode.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/there-will-be-no-end.html
Tuesday, April 02, 2013
There will be no end... ISA 9:6-7 ESV
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Isaiah starts right out with 8 chapters that have for the most part amounted to a litany of more than disappointing behaviour and an understandably harsh judgement. But things have taken a major turn in chapter 9.
God is beside himself with excitement. God can hardly contain the sense of purpose and accomplishment that comes with seeing through his promise to David. And this plan is far far better than anyone previously expected. Oh to be sure the first 8 chapters of this word from God through Isaiah has been a bit grim. So far the majority of God's revealed plans have been scary. Not the kind of news that warmed the cockles of one's heart. But truth and hope of a sort nonetheless.
But this news is colossal and a whole new order of magnitude in the unfolding love story of God's intentions for humankind.
The promise of God to David was going to be fulfilled by God himself, not simply a representative. And this time it was going to be final, fair, and forever.
With the aid of hindsight we can see this is all about the birth, life and rule of the God /Man Christ/Messiah Jesus of Nazareth born in Bethlehem.
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace are magnificently hope giving names rich with meaning and impossibly achievable in anyone short of a divine person.
So God himself would come and fulfill God's promise to David.
Now, let me direct you a bit closer to home. Have a thought to your own life. What is the status of your hopes, and your dreams?
Just think the promise to David had grown in every conceivable way. So the extent of this everlasting rule of God had no end.
The zeal of the rule of God's Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace had expanded to cover you. This hope of God in the midst of great disappointment and harsh judgement orchestrates justice and righteousness over your hopes and dreams.
Can you put your trust in the plan of God? Can you recognise the tickled pink excitement of God's love of a plan that's come together?
The 'no-end' nature of God's expansive and extensive kingdom rule covers you with peace.
Get excited with God over his plan to take over for you.