Tag Archives: Bible

Back to Square One

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Israel is surrounded by hostile nations, several of whom have pledged to wipe her from the face of the earth.  Pray for her.  But don’t be surprised.  God’s plan to rescue the earth from the grip of evil began there and it will end there – at Israel.

When God called Abraham, pledging that all nations would be blessed through him, He relocated Abraham to the land now known as Israel.

” The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1)

When Abraham’s descendants had later become enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, God sent Moses to take them back to the land, the land of Israel.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’” (Exodus 33:1)

When God sent His Son as the Savior, He was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, began His ministry in Galilee and was crucified and raised in Jerusalem – all located in the land of Israel.

Jesus’ second coming is prophesied to be associated with a gathering of hostile nations, led by evil forces, who will surround His people and attack, at Armageddon, “the mountain of Megiddo,” – in Israel.

“…They [demonic spirits] go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.” Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.” (Revelation 16:14-16)

Is the rocket attack by Hamas and the ongoing ground war the beginning of those prophesied hostilities?  I don’t know.  I do know, when it comes, it will happen in Israel.  And I know Jesus warned us to “stay awake,” clothed (with His salvation) and ready.  There have been many times when it seemed as though His coming, and the final battle, would occur soon.  Since 1948, they have been literally centered on Israel.  This was all foretold with astonishing accuracy, beginning roughly 4000 years ago.  God’s plan began and will end in Israel.

Get ready.  If you have not made a decision about Jesus, please do not put it off.  For more information on that, see “Accepting the Gift.”

And please pray: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth…”

Flunking Jesus

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Jesus would have flunked freshman creative writing; He mixed metaphors – a serious no-no. Beseiged by great crowds, Jesus compassionately said they seemed like “sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).  But then He switched metaphors:

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.   Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” – Matthew 9:37-38

Why do you suppose He switched from the image of leading sheep to harvesting wheat?  The sheep metaphor “works” because of how helpless sheep are without a good shepherd to show them the way.  But what does a wheat harvest illustrate?  Here’s some things He may have had in mind:

  • The wheat belongs to the Farmer, the “Lord of the Harvest.”
  • Wheat cannot harvest itself.
  • There is a very limited window of opportunity during which wheat can be harvested.
  • Wheat is grown for the purpose of being harvested.  Until it is harvested and transformed into bread, wheat has not reached its full potential, has not accomplished its purpose. We have not become “complete” until we have the Holy Spirit living in us.
  • (This is my favorite…)  When you harvest wheat, you cut it loose from its attachment to the earth, gather it together and give it to the “Farmer.”  When we recognize that Jesus is God and trust Him fully, we are “harvested.” We are “cut loose” from our earthly attachments and given a new citizenship in Heaven.  Jesus gives us to the Father, Who transforms us by the leavening of His Holy Spirit.

Maybe you can think of other parallels between a harvest of wheat and our need for salvation.  In any case, probably Jesus shouldn’t flunk.

Beware the Crusty

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Nobody told Marlene (not her real name) you’re not supposed to yell in church.  Even if she had been told I’m not sure it would have made any difference.  Right in the middle of a sermon, the pastor said something about how the Holy Spirit lives and grows in the souls of those who place their faith in Jesus.  And she couldn’t sit still.  Marlene jumped to her feet, with her arms waving wildly above her head, and yelled out, “Whoo Hoo!”  Needless to say, the rest of the congregation was a bit startled.  Some of them woke right up, blinking and bewildered.  No doubt, others were thinking, “That’s not the way we do it here…”

But I think Jesus loved it!  Whoo Hoo!  He knew that woman had come to faith and been reborn a few days earlier, that she just couldn’t contain her joy.  I’ll bet Jesus was wondering why nobody else was jumping and shouting.

A bunch of long-faced, crusty, religious types once asked Jesus why He and His disciples were not fasting, why they were not acting with appropriate religious sorrow.

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:15-17)

New wine is alive.  It’s growing and bubbling inside.  So is new birth in the Spirit of God, when someone surrenders to Jesus.  It bubbles with joy and new life.  Paul called it “walking in the newness of life.” (Romans 6:4 NASB)  Old, crusty rituals cannot contain new life.  How can the guests fast while the “Bridegroom” is with them?  Jesus told believers that He would never leave them (Matthew 28:20), that He would come and make His home with them (John 14:23).  He said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14;19).  Whoo Hoo!

The chances are good that Marlene is more subdued in church these days.  She probably got the memo.  She’s more crusty.  But don’t you fall prey to that!  The wine is still new.  The Spirit of God is still growing and bubbling inside.  Let that joy loose!  Whoo Hoo!

What Really Matters

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Eric Wallace threw himself out of an airplane and parachuted into the middle of the Air Force Academy football stadium, just before the game.  But when he landed, he knelt down before his girlfriend, Melanie and asked her to be his wife.  The parachute part was sensational.  The proposal was more important.  The day will come when what really matters to Eric and Melanie is that they agreed to be husband and wife, “’til death do us part.”  On days like that, how he showed up to ask her won’t be so important.

Matthew focused in on what really mattered when he told about the paralyzed guy and Jesus. The way Mark and Luke tell the story, his friends smash a hole in the roof and lower him down on ropes, to get him to Jesus.  But Matthew leaves that part of the story out, skipping ahead to what really matters.  He wrote:

“Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2)

Being lowered through the roof was the sensational part.  Being healed of paralysis must have been what the man was hoping for.  But Jesus jumped right to the part that really mattered: “Your sins are forgiven.”  I realize that some priests and clergy presume to pronounce sins forgiven, but in truth, only God has the authority to forgive sins.  That is why…

“At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” (Matthew 9:3)

The blasphemy they accused Jesus of was taking on the role of God.  In Luke’s account, they asked, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21)

“Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.” (Matthew 9:4-8)

The startling part of this story was when they tore open the roof.  The sensational part was when the man stood up and walked home, healed.  That part wowed the crowd!  But the healing was only a sign, a sign to prove the part that really matters.  What really matters for you and me is that Jesus has the authority on earth to forgive sins.

When you go to Jesus, seeking forgiveness, it makes no difference what you had to do to get there.  If He heals your body when you come, that is a bonus, of only temporary significance.  But what really matters to you eternally, is that your sins have been completely and eternally forgiven.  When your mind wonders and doubts if it is really true, you can be sure it really is, because Jesus has the authority on earth to forgive sins.  That’s what really matters.

The Path to Freedom

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When he pushed a 2×4 into the bear trap, the huge, rusty, steel jaws of that thing snapped shut, breaking that piece of lumber like a toothpick.   Everyone in that football stadium, attending Promise Keepers, flinched from the violent sound of it.  Then a father and his son were invited up onto the stage.  The son was blindfolded while a few bear traps were placed in the middle of the stage.  The father then called to his son, telling him to listen to his instructions as he walked across the stage.  At one point, as the kid was heading right toward a trap, the father shouted, “STOP!”   He did stop.  He followed his father’s spoken instructions, eventually winding up safely in his father’s embrace.  As you can imagine, this object lesson was indelibly pressed upon us that day.

Jesus said,

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

We are blindfolded from the truth in this earthly life, deceived by our limited understanding and false assumptions.  We stumble through life, unknowingly and inevitably heading toward peril.  That is, unless we “hold to” the teaching of Jesus.  It’s not enough to hear Him say, “STOP!”  Holding to His teaching means also responding to what He says.  If we do, Jesus says, we will “know the truth and the truth will set [us] free.”   Real freedom comes to us when we carefully follow the instructions spoken to us by the One Who knows where the traps are.  Real freedom is the path that leads to the full embrace of our Father.

July 4th is the day we celebrate freedom in this country.  According to our Declaration of Independence, we believe all people have been “endowed by their Creator” with the “unalienable right”  to liberty or freedom.  Such freedom may be our right but it is not guaranteed to those who refuse to listen and respond to the Creator.  It is those who “hold to [His] teaching” who “know the truth” and are thereby set free.

Even You

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How would you feel if China called in its debts from the US, foreclosed on us and took over our country?  What if China invaded, abolished our government and put Chinese troops in every community to keep order?  If that happened, everywhere you went you would have to deal with soldiers from a foreign culture who would tightly regulate what you could do.  Can you imagine how resentful you would be, what simmering anger would fill your heart?  Put yourself in that frame of mind, and you have some idea of what it was like for the Israeli people, as they lived under the dominion of Rome in the first century.  But they had one hope: God had promised to send a Messiah, a Savior.  They assumed that when He came, He would overthrow Rome and re-establish their independence.

Imagine, in that situation, how it must have felt as people began to sense that Jesus might be the One.  Many signs seemed to confirm that He was the Savior.  Excitement was building and crowds were gathering around Him.  But then He started smashing the preconceived notions of the religious leaders.  He taught a radically different interpretation of God’s laws.  He called simple people to follow Him and argued with the scholars and priests.  He dared to touch a leper and healed him.  But then Jesus agreed to heal the servant of a hated Roman centurion!  Can you see how shocking this would have been?  How could the Jewish Savior consent to help one of their enemy oppressors?  Worse yet, Jesus praised this soldier’s faith, said it was better than the faith of any of the Israelites!  When the soldier said,

“Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” (Matthew 8:8b)

Jesus said,

 “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” (Matthew 8:10b)

As the leaders’ indignation was building, Jesus offended them even more, by suggesting that this Roman centurion was closer to the Kingdom of Heaven than they were!  He said:

“I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:11-12)

God’s promise to Abraham was that “…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3b).  The religious leaders had forgotten God’s plan and assumed that God cared more about His Chosen People than He did about everyone else.  What’s more, they had forgotten that this whole plan was set into motion by Abraham’s response of faith in God.

God’s Kingdom exists for anybody who will enter it by faith.  Jesus came for you.  It makes no difference what nation or culture you were born into.  What matters is whether or not you trust Him.  Like the Chinese… I mean, Roman soldier did.

Lessons from a Leper

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If you had been there, you would have ridden an emotional roller coaster.  The Sermon on the Mount was over.  The large crowds were so blown away by  the authority of Jesus’ teaching that, when He walked down off the mountain, they just had to follow Him.  They could sense it; they were in on something big.  Jesus was going to be really famous and popular. But then:

A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (Matthew 8:2-4)

It’s hard for us to appreciate how jolting it would have been for the people following Jesus, to suddenly discover a leper in their midst.  People with leprosy were so horribly disfigured that they were severely ostracized and shunned.  They were considered unclean, spiritually dangerous to be near.  And here comes a leper, right up to Jesus.  It was shocking and revolting.  But then Jesus touched him, making Himself  unclean by the rules of their day, and risking catching the disease.  Jesus went from being the grand winner of “Galilee’s Got Talent” to making Himself unfit to be near.  You can imagine how the crowd’s emotions were tossed back and forth.

Before anyone could recover from the shock of those two things, the leprous man was instantly healed!  Fear and revulsion would have suddenly turned into amazement and awe!  Let’s sound the trumpets!  Jesus can stand up now and loudly proclaim His Divinity.  He can bask in the glory of His great power.  The crowd would have gone wild…

But that’s not what He did.  Jesus told the man not to tell anyone.  Instead, He said, he should follow the customary procedure for someone who was healed – get checked out by a priest and bring an offering.  Why would Jesus tell this man to keep it a secret?  Why would He set it up for the priests to get the credit?   Confused?  So were all the people in the crowd.  Jesus didn’t say why and Matthew doesn’t tell us.  He just let them ride the roller coaster.

Maybe you have felt a little like the leper – too much like damaged goods to be able to get near Jesus.  Maybe you see all those Christians crowding around Jesus and think, “I’m not like those people; they wouldn’t want me to come in and ruin the celebration.”  Maybe you are wondering if Jesus would reach out and touch you, if He would heal you from whatever kind of moral, spiritual or physical “leprosy” that afflicts you.  If so, carefully consider three things about how he brought his request:

1.   First,  he kneeled before Jesus and called Him “Lord.”   Mathew used a word for prostrating oneself as an act of wholehearted worship.  The leper approached Jesus with humility and reverence, with a deep sense of how needy he was and how Holy Jesus was.

2.   Secondly, he acknowledged Jesus’ power and authority.  He said “… you can make me clean.”  This was a profound statement of faith.  “You can do it.”  Trusting Jesus means believing He is able.

3.   Finally, the leper accepted that Jesus would only heal him if He was willing.  He left the decision up to Jesus.

We would do well to remember these three attitudes whenever we bring a request to Jesus.  Remember his attitude of humble reverence before the “Lord,” His faith in Jesus’ great power, and how he submitted himself to what Jesus willed.   Jesus, Himself modeled these 3 attitudes in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

When you approach Jesus, don’t come with the crowd.  They can be easily confused.  Instead, come with the leper.  He knew what to do.

The God of Jesus

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The pictures of my dad as a boy and as a young man do not look exactly like the guy I remember who rode me around our back yard on his shoulders.  They don’t look exactly like Dad did as an old man, either.  But I am sure that those pictures are of the same man.  There is a basic identity revealed in those pictures – the set of the eyes, the shape of the hands – and there is no doubt about who they are.  If someone asked me to prove it, I could go on and on.

It seems like I’ve been “going on and on,” showing how the identity of the Old Testament God is the same as the God revealed in the New Testament.  Once you look for evidence of that, there are many ways to prove it.  But, before we leave this topic, let’s reflect on how Jesus saw the God of the Old Testament.  Did He recognize Him as the same God He called His Father?   Even in answering this question we could “go on and on.”  But consider how Jesus answered the angry accusations and questions of the Jewish leaders of His day.  When they asked Him:

“Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.” (John 8:53-55, NIV)

There it is, in Jesus’ words.  The God of the Jewish people in the 1st century, the God Who called Abraham, back in Genesis 12, is the same God. Jesus refers to as His Father.

Wanting a Better God

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“I don’t want that kind of a dollhouse; I want the one like on TV!”  That scene in the movie, Babe, ripped my heart out.  The old man had spent hours in his shop, lovingly crafting a dollhouse for his granddaughter, his snot-nosed, spoiled-rotten, twisted-by-TV granddaughter.  But she didn’t want that kind of dollhouse.  I still get mad and frustrated, just thinking about it!

That scene reminds me of the many times I have heard people say something like, “If God is so good, how come there are starving children?”  Or, “I can’t believe in a God who would allow wars to happen.”  Although I understand those thoughts, have had them and expressed them myself, what they really amount to, is, “I don’t want that kind of God; I want the one like in my imagination.”  “I want the right to say what God should be like, what He should do and say.”   Does that sound a bit spoiled or presumptuous?

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2)

‘Nuf said…

Ancient Wisdom

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I found a 110 year-old book, “The New Idea,” that summarizes everything known in 1904.  It’s a fun read.  We’ve learned a bit more since that book was published.

What is the oldest book you have ever seen? The most ancient book in the Bible may well be Job not Genesis.  Genesis, the first book in the Bible, was written by Moses.  The folks that study these things tend to believe Job came before Moses, probably even before God called Abraham.  If so, then Job’s understanding of Who God is, and what God is like, is as early as it gets.  Was Job’s God the same as the God of Jesus?

Consider what Job said:

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27)

Whoa…   When I grapple with these words and ideas, the small hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention!  Not only did Job know God, but He knew God’s future plan:

–  He would send a Redeemer (One Who would purchase us from slavery)

–  This Redeemer was already alive in Job’s time and would still be alive “in the end.”

–  Job’s Redeemer is God.

–  Job knows that, after he has died, after his body has decayed, he will see his Redeemer.

–  Job knows his “seeing” will be a physical reality – that he will see him with the eyes a restored body.

– In the midst of his worldly trials, he yearns for this future certainty.

All those assertions, convictions of this most ancient witness, are truths taught by Jesus in the New Testament.  Ponder how long-lasting and unchanged those ancient concepts of God have been!  Job must have had a sense, when he uttered those words, that he had tapped into a deep, eternal truth.  Because he preceded them with this urgent appeal:

““Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!” (Job 19:23-24)

He got that right, too…