Hurricane Sandy, Limited Menus, and a No Substitutions Please Gospel....

 

   Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4 NKJV)  
   
         I prefer restaurants that have limited menus. If you give me six items to choose from, I can easily choose. If you give me a six page menu with great color photos, I am never certain what I am going to order until I hear myself say it....and then I still wonder if I should have enjoyed my second or third choice instead (or also). Often those expansive menus explicitly instruct -- No Substitutions!  Life often provides circumstances where we have few choices. When Hurricane Sandy came by yesterday, I had no choices. The government ordered us to stay inside our home until the storm passed. Others were ordered from their homes into shelters. The government provided orders. No Substitutions! 

 

   In John chapter six, Jesus taught at the synagogue at Capernaum -- I am the bread of life...... and ......This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever. When we hear the Gospel of Jesus, we are left with a limited menu. We can ignore the Gospel and live our lives as we please, letting our flesh or the world dominate our decisions. We can even choose to submit to the forces of evil and intentionally worship Satan. Some do. Most don't make such a blatant choice, but are seduced by flesh attractions that don't bear the name of Satan but are derived by his plans and spirit. Of course we can and should choose to live by faith and yield our hearts to the Lord and be saved from the consequence of our sin. What makes God's limited but saving Truth so hard to accept? Maybe it's the attraction of our other options...

 

   The world's menu and Satan's menu are very flexible. They allow any choice and any substitution -- even partial faith in Jesus. Satan preaches daily that we can have Jesus and our second and third choices too. He loves leading Christians back to the law of Moses because in so doing he enacts today's verse -- ...you have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 
 
       The Lord's menu is limited to one choice -- being saved by faith alone -- No Substitutions! None are available because none are necessary. It's a limited menu with unlimited benefits. Eat the Bread of Life and drink the Living Water and you'll never be thirsty or hungry again. God wrote -- For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
 

   We are complex beings, and we often try to choose Jesus and then substitute many things which are not on the Lord's menu instead of simply  receiving our righteousness from Christ by faith alone. Paul is emphatically exhorting us here that if we look to any other menu for any substitution as a part of our hope for salvation, we have abandoned the righteousness we have received by faith in and through the death of Jesus on the cross. We cannot have both. No Substitutions! John Calvin wrote -- The legalists among the Galatians wanted them to think that they could have both Jesus and a law-relationship with God. Paul tells them that this is not an option open to them - the system of grace and the system of law are incompatible. Whoever wants to have a half-Christ loses the whole.

 

    Have you come fully to Christ by faith alone? Have you added anything to the Gospel? Are there efforts you make in the name of Jesus which you think help secure your salvation? Are you working for or are you resting in your salvation in Jesus?
 
     Throw off every heavy yoke. Throw off sin and receive by faith alone by the gift of God -- the righteousness of Christ. Throw off Satan and look to Jesus. Throw off the burden of self righteousness and receive the Lord by faith. Throw off accomplishment and accumulation and pick up the Lord's peace. Throw off work (less Martha) and pick up worship (more Mary). Trust Jesus and be saved. Find rest for your soul.

 

   Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Copyright 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. Maybe quoted in whole or in part if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com

Hebrew Roots, the iPad Mini, Lance Armstrong, and an "I will" God...

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:26-28  NKJV)

 

Behind the Word – and cause – (Hebrew) – ‘asha (pronounced aw-saw’) – to produce, to make, to accomplish with effect, to ordain, to bring about. 

 

   I went back and read what God told Moses in Exodus as He dictated the ten commandments. God prefaced His commands with – if you… Mankind saw that if you... and said sure, I will. The statement was not a lie repeated with no intention of following through, but rather a hope with no ability to be carried out. Lance Armstrong didn't set out to win with an illegal advantage, but was so obsessed with winning that he was willing to cheat to win. Christians should not judge him. We have all tried to win with God but found ourselves unwilling to carry out our plan without sinning. Our attempts to live within God's rules always fail until we receive God's Spirit who begins to cause us to be sanctified.

 

   God sent these commands knowing the predicament in which I would find myself – willing to obey, wanting to obey yet unable to fully obey. Was this a flawed strategy on the part of a flawless God? Hardly! It was a strategy designed to get the precise effect God intended. Paul wrote to the Galatians -- Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (3:24) God knew He had to first prove beyond all doubt to me that I was incapable of willing myself to live a sinless life.

 

      Christ came and died and I found Him (really He found me) and so found relief from the weight of my sin. Then God sent His Holy Ghost to my heart that had received Him by faith in Jesus, and His language changed. The Old Covenant, The Law, The Commandments came with the – if you language, but through Ezekiel and Jeremiah, my loving Father changed His New Covenant mood and tense saying -

 

I will give you a new heart…

I will put a new Spirit within you…

I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh…

I will give you a heart of flesh…

I will put My Spirit within you…

I will cause you to walk in my statutes…

 

    When I became a Christian, I had a well tuned swearing tongue. I tried everything I could to quit swearing and failed. Abruptly one day the Holy Spirit confronted me. I confessed immediately that I had proven myself incapable to stop swearing. I had tried many times but I had failed. The Lord said to me, You are right. Now release all that effort and receive the power of My Spirit. Immediately and effortlessly, my thirty year career as a high level cursor was over. Unlike the iPad, I didn't receive help from a new improved Holy Spirit Mini. I received help from the original full sized Holy Spirit. He's not new and improved. He can't be improved. He's perfect. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Fully capable of causing sanctification where we have failed to cause it.

 

    The fullness of the New Covenant arrived with sufficient power to accomplish what God intended. The Holy Spirit resides in my inner being. He is continuously coaching, counseling, witnessing, and generously empowering.

 

I will put My Spirit within you…

I will cause you to walk in my statutes…

 

   God does not leave us as unarmed and unprotected warriors in our battle with sin. He will cause us to be sanctified once we are His children. Righteousness is an imputed blood bought gift.

But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.  (1 Corinthians 6:11 NKJV)
   I cannot commit the sanctification of my life, but I can submit to it as I submit each day to the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart.

   The spirit is willing.....

 

 

 

Copyright 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be quoted in whole or in part without prior written permission if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com

  

 

The Big Bang Theory, The Yankees vs the Tigers, and How can 3=1?

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! (Deut 6:4 NKJV)

    When I was first exposed to physics in the 1960’s, science ridiculed the idea of an initial point of creation by a Creator. Science now settles solidly on the “Big Bang Theory” which actually aligns itself with the biblical account (but still ridicules it). In an interesting choice of words, physicists had to define the "infinite energy source" they say had to exist to explode into all matter that exists in the universe at the moment of the Big Bang. They call this infinite source a singularity. I agree. I call the Infinite Source of Energy that created everything a singularity named God. Today’s verse reminds me –The Lord our God, the Lord is One.

  Is it possible for 3=1? Not in math, and not in last nights MLB playoff game where the Yankees learned that 2 is greater then 1 as they lost to the Tigers 2-1, but maybe in Hebrew. In Genesis 22:2, God instructed Abram to take his only son to the mountain and sacrifice him. The one son spoken of is described by the Hebrew word yacheed, meaning absolutely the only one (a singularity).  Abram had one son given by God, and the Hebrew is screaming, Isaac is the only son. From the singularity of Abram’s one son God has kept and continues to keep His promises that (the now renamed by God) Abraham would be the father of many nations and his progeny would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Of course his son Isaac was a type for Jesus, Gods (1=1) only son. Oops…. if Jesus(1) is God and the Father(1) is God and Holy Spirit(1)is God too, how can the scripture be true – the Lord is one?

   These verses appear alike in English, but they are not at all alike in Hebrew. Many Christians have struggled trying to understand the mystery of the Trinity. How can we avoid confusion with typical explanations telling us – one God in three persons….. What?....  Who really understands that explanation? Today’s verse, in its original Hebrew, brings perfect clarity. This verse does not say the Lord is yacheed, (an absolute singularity), but says the Lord is echad  In Hebrew this word describes a compound unity, one thing comprised of more than one thing that still results in one thing.  Trinity = a compound Unity - The Lord your God is One (3=1, echad). In Genesis 1:5 we read – God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the (echad) first day, a single day made up of multiple parts.

   The word used as God in today’s verse is Elohim. It always speaks to a singular God, yet it is written in Hebrew in a plural form and all adverbs and verbs which attend it are also plural.  One God, multiple parts.   

  God didn’t leave us searching the Old Testament alone for this explanation. It is clearly declared in 1 Corinthians 8 -- ⁴Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. ⁵For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), ⁶yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

  The Lord our God (Elohim, plural), the Lord is One (echad - one compound God made of multiple parts –Father, Son and Holy Spirit).


Copywrite 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc.  May be quoted in whole or in part as long as a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com .
 

 

 

Are You Stuck Spiritual Puberty?

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (1 Peter 2:2 NKJV)

    When we’ve submitted our hearts to Christ, it seems at first like a final step, but we soon

find we are confronted with an astonishing array of new biblical information. Peter here speaks of this time metaphorically, comparing the recently born again to – new born babes…. Who need the pure milk of the word… Strong’s defines the Greek word translated as milk as a metaphor for the less difficult Christian truths. I recalled today when I read this verse how difficult it seemed when I was a new Christian to even identify those less difficult truths on my own.

    I also can recall taking Peter’s metaphor as an insult, insinuating that I was a baby Christian. I asked, but the mature Christians around me seemed quite unsure how long my Christian infancy would last. Eventually I realized that I had been totally focused on the wrong thing. Babies have parents. My spiritual rebirth was from above (John 3, You must be born again) and that meant that I had a new Father. I had become a child of God. Even children have a sense of place. Children of the slums have less opportunity than the children of billionaires. Born again baby Christians are children of the Most High Creator of the Universe. The spiritual inheritance and opportunity of God’s babies is limitless.

 

    Babies know instinctively that they need to cry out for their needs, (ask and it will be given to you… Matthew 7:7) and every need will be addressed by their parents. They learn quickly the reliability of those who care for them. Our  heavenly Father is unfailingly reliable  when we cry out to Him. Young Christians must make a habit of prayer. 

 

    Babies get hungry and must be fed. If a newborn cries and we respond by placing a bottle near them, we’ve done nothing. As Christians we often do this by simply handing a bible to a new believer. Providing the Word is good, but there are many spiritually starving people holding bibles. Feed young Christians the Word. If you are a young Christian, find someone who will feed you God’s Word. Everything a baby needs to grow and prosper is contained in breast milk. Everything a baby Christian needs to grow and prosper is contained in the Word. We often settle for spiritual supplements, authored by human hands when the precise formula necessary is available in the bible.

 

    Finally, babies choke on meat. New born Christians who dive into Revelation or explore deep theologies usually choke and whither. We are all at different points along the path of Christian growth. Once we’ve ingested the less difficult Christian truths, we need to feed them to God’s hungry babies. Once they understand the more basic principles, we need to feed them the increasingly solid Bread of Life, and when they are ready, the solid meat of solid scripture. Spiritual growth relies on proper spiritual nutrition. It would be ridiculous to feed a baby steak, and equally ridiculous to feed an adult a baby bottle.

 

 

 

 Does your small group sometimes feel like this?

  

   Our faith walk is a process of continuous improvement, always moving toward a deeper relationship with Jesus. William Bryan wrote --

 

"Christian civilization is the greatest that the world has ever known because it rests on a conception of life that makes life one unending progress toward higher things, with no limit to advancement or development."

 

   Don’t allow yourself to remain stuck in spiritual infancy or puberty. Find a spiritual mentor. Find a small group that challenges you. Take an online bible study course. If you are not attending a biblical church, find one. If you choose to remain in the spiritual nursery, don't expect to be fed meat.

 

Copywrite 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be quoted or used without prior written consent if a link is provided to www.wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com

Honey Boo Boo, iPhone5, Competing Ideas and the Thoughts of a Galilean Fisherman

    ...His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (most of 2 Peter 1:2-4 NKJV)

    My high school English teacher would have told Peter that this verse was a run-on sentence, and I'll admit it includes a lot of words (108). It also includes multiple ideas. Several of them are very important. Every day I find competing new ideas vying for my attention. Some come attended by massive advertisement or intense buzz. Either of these can delude me into thinking they are important when they really aren't. The yeast of digital noise in all its many forms has often made the the unimportant swell into my view, inflated by nothing more than its own hot air. The words and ideas in this verse come to us by the inspiration of God and although we often have to slog trough a swampland of unimportant secular noise to get to them, its worth the effort. Some days I feel like I've received so much information that I've got ideas growing out of my head. How can I prioritize all of this information?

   (Oh yeah, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts...)

   His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him...  If I already have all things that pertain to life and godliness, what can an IPhone5 gain me?  Or a half an hour watching Honey Boo Boo? Siri is cool, but she can't give me anything that pertains to life. If these aren't included in the all things that pertain to life and godliness, I can be assured I don't need them (no matter how long the line is at the Apple Store). In the past I've been willing to try anything except knowing Him. I've been willing to follow every new trend instead of following Him, I've been willing to worship at every alter except His. In all that willingness I was pursuing an illusion. It all left me empty. I found not one single thing that pertained to life.

 

   ...having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The Greek word translated here as lust is epithumia. It means desire, longing, wanting the forbidden. If the corruption is found in the world through desiring what is forbidden, what can set me free from those desires? How can I be lifted above my most base nature? Or in Paul's questioning words, -- O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Followed by his answer -- I thank God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Romans 7:24,25 NKJV

   When corrupt ideas try to penetrate my  spiritual defenses how can I sort them out, mark them as useless and delete them from my memoric hard drive? God's mercy is fresh every morning. So also must be my submission to Him. My daily submission will lead to daily reconnection through prayer. My daily prayer will refresh my hunger for His Word. Consumption of His Word will stoke my spirit. Submitted, reconnected, refreshed, and stoked by His Word, I'll be a partaker of the (His) divine nature and I'll have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust for one more day. 

    And if I fail today and am captivated by useless noise into following the corruption that is in the world through lust, tomorrow the sun will rise and so will heaven's fresh mercy. So will forgiveness. So  will Holy Spirit, speaking in my heart, offering again exceedingly great and precious promises....

   Its a new day. Will you follow Siri? Honey Boo Boo? Whose ideas will captivate your attention today?