God's Mighty Right Hand (part II)

Yesterday I spent some timing discussing God’s Mighty Right Hand; this is the conclusion of that discussion.

In the 16th Psalm, we are told that, at God’s Right Hand are pleasures forevermore. The 48th Psalm says that God’s Right Hand is full of righteousness. . In the 78th Psalm, the writer talks about a mountain that God’s Right Hand has purchased. In the 80th Psalm, the writer talks about a vineyard that God’s Right Hand has planted. In Ecclesiastes, it says that a wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s is at his left.

In First Kings, King Solomon had a placed prepared for his mother to sit on his right hand. In First Chronicles, there is a mention of a man named Asaph who was a Levite and stood at his brother’s right hand. Clearly, in these usages, the right hand is a place of honor. In Matthew 20, the mother of James and John tried to persuade Jesus into granting her sons the right to sit at His right hand and His left hand, again, clearly places of honor.

In Judges 5, the Prophetess Deborah is singing a song of praise about a victory that God has just given Israel, but she isn’t singing about God’s right hand, she is singing about Jael’s. It seems that Sisera, an enemy of Israel, seeing his forces getting obliterated by Israel’s, went and hid himself in the home of a friend. His friend’s wife, Jael, though, was sympathetic to the Jews. She didn’t tell him her feelings, though. He asked her for some water, and she gave him milk. I doubt if she knew that milk contains tryptophan, which is an amino acid, but has been known to act as a mild sedative, but I suspect that it was fairly common knowledge that drinking milk makes one sleepy. He drank the milk, not suspecting anything, and was soon fast asleep. Jael managed to get to a tentstake and a hammer without waking him up, and removed a potential threat from Israel in a very permanent (although somewhat gruesome) manner. Clearly, this was a strong woman, both emotionally and physically. I don’t know too many women who could find it their hearts to kill a man in his sleep unless they were afraid that he was going to kill him when he woke up, and, as far as that goes, there have been a few women that honestly thought that their significant other was eventually going to kill them and still couldn’t bring themselves to do anything about it. Here we have a woman who, although not threatened by Sisera directly, found it within her heart to take him out. I have to believe that God laid that on her heart. She also had to have been physically strong, too, though, because of the way she killed him. She must have given it all she had, and maybe God gave her a little bit more, besides. My point is that the power was in her right hand that held the hammer.

I am given to understand that the British tradition of driving on the left side of the road has to do with the fact that, in medieval times, riders preferred to keep approaching enemies on their right, so that their right hand—the one that held their weapon—was free to deal with said enemy. To be honest, I find that mildly amusing, because in every movie jousting match I’ve ever seen the jousters both rode to their right, keeping their enemy on the left, and forcing them to hold their lances over their horses’ necks. I suspect that has to do with the fact that the movies I’ve seen were filmed in the United States, where people drive on the right, although, there may be some advantage to resting the lance on the horse’s neck (but I’m leaning towards Hollywood got the details wrong).

In any case, the Old Testament references certainly qualify as Messianic prophecy, but, in most cases, it is also clear that they are talking about God’s power, or honor. Generally, there is no indication that the writers were at all aware that they were writing prophecy—they were writing about God’s power in present tense; they wrote about God’s power in their own lives. We sometimes call on the power of Christ in our prayers; is that not because the power of Christ IS the power of God?

God's mighty Right Hand (part I)

There’s an old story about a pre-schooler watching a sunset with her grandfather, and talking about how beautifully God has painted the sky. The little girl tells her grandfather, “And He did it with His left hand, too.” The grandfather is a little surprised by this comment, and asks her, “Why do you say that, sweetie?” “Well, they taught is Sunday School that Jesus sits on God’s Right Hand.” There are a lot of Scriptural references to the “Right Hand of God.” As Christians, we understand that to be a reference to Jesus, but some of these references are Messianic prophecies. I wonder what the Old Testament writers thought that they were writing about?

I mentioned yesterday Psalms 110:1. That’s an interesting passage, when you stop to consider that David is clearly making reference to two separate Lords, and yet, David believed in only one God. Still, the important thing right now is the right hand reference. This has long been accepted as a Messianic prophecy (even the Pharisees acknowledged that, if only by not arguing the point when Jesus asked them why David referred to the Christ [David’s son] as Lord), so David apparently knew that there was a Christ coming that would be known as Lord.
In Genesis 48, Joseph takes his two sons, Ephraim and Manassas to Jacob (Israel) to ask that his father bless them. Joseph placed his right hand upon the younger son’s head, which displeased Joseph; Joseph felt that the older son should get the greater blessing. Why do you suppose that Joseph would think that Ephraim would get a greater blessing because Jacob’s right hand was on his head? Apparently he was right, because Jacob said as much afterwards.

In Exodus 15, Moses and the Children of Israel sang a praise unto God, after He drowned Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. They sang that God’s Right Hand had “dashed in pieces the enemy,” and that God stretched out His Right Hand and the earth swallowed them. Why specifically the Right Hand of God? Somehow I doubt that they were giving credit to a Messiah which was to come; as far as they were concerned, Moses was their messiah. Later on, before his death, Moses said that from God’s Right Hand came a fiery law for Israel. In the 17th Psalm, we are told that God saves by His Right Hand those that put their trust in Him. In the 18th Psalm, the writer attests that God’s Right Hand has held him up and protected him from harm, as does the 63rd Psalm. The 20th Psalm makes reference to the saving strength of God’s Right Hand, as does the 138th Psalm. The 21st Psalm talks about God’s Right Hand finding out those that hate Him. The 44th Psalm gives credit to God’s Right Hand for driving the Canaanites out of the Promised Land. In the 60th Psalm, the writer calls out for God’s Right Hand to save him, as does the writer of the 108th Psalm. In the 98th Psalm, we are told that God’s Right Hand has gotten Him the victory. I think it’s pretty clear that all of these are instances that the term “right hand” simply refers to the power.

I’m right-handed, myself, so I tend to think of my right hand as my power. That’s the hand that I do the things that require more strength, or more agility. I can do a lot of things with my left hand, but generally more clumsily, and less powerfully. It’s not really surprising that, since the majority of the human race is right-handed, whenever God does something powerful, people talk about it as God’s Right Hand. Whether it be drowning Pharaoh’s army (saving Israel from Egypt), or giving us a Messiah, these demonstrations of God’s power are His Right Hand at work.

Now, I have posted before that God is a Spirit, and that King David knew that God was a Spirit, yet many of these references about God’s Right Hand came from the writings of David. So, what exactly was David referring to, if not simply the Power of God?
More to come…

The Son of David

There’s an interesting thing about Jesus’ lineage: Matthew lists one lineage, Luke lists a very different lineage. It is generally believed that Matthew lists Jesus’ lineage as the adopted son of Joseph, and Luke His lineage as the son of Mary. Both list Jesus as a descendent of David (Matthew 1:1, Luke 3:31). So, regardless of why there are two different lineages listed for Jesus in Scripture, He was definitely a descendent of David.

Still, once Jesus asked the Pharisees, about the prophecy concerning Christ, whose son is He? They replied that the Christ would be David’s son (or descendent). Jesus then asked why is it that David referred to the Christ as Lord, if Christ was his son (The reference is the 110th Psalm, verse 1, by the way). They had no answer for that. Of course, this was not evidence that Christ wasn’t the son of David, only that the Pharisees understanding of Messianic prophecy was, at best, incomplete.

A wise friend of mine once told me that he couldn’t teach me what I already knew. I told him that, if I already know, then I don’t need him to teach me. Therein lies the problem. If I already know, then I think I don’t need to learn, so I won’t. It’s entirely possible that what I might be able to come to a better understanding if I am willing to set aside what I already know and learn something new. I am honest enough to admit that there have been more than a few times when someone has shared with me a Bible verse that I had heard and/or read many times before, but what that person had to say about it gave me a better understanding.

So, here we have the Pharisees, trying to prove Jesus wrong, and Jesus, at least in this instance, just trying to get them to at least question their own beliefs. If they think they understand who the Messiah is to be, but their understanding excludes Jesus as the Christ, then there is something wrong with their understanding. Until He can get them to at least question their own beliefs, there is not a snowball’s chance that they can ever actually understand what they mistakenly believe they already understand.
There were exceptions, of course. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, because he wanted to know. He had seen enough of Jesus’ ministry with his own eyes to realize that a lot of what he had been brought up to believe was in error. He came by night, because he didn’t want the other Pharisees to know that he disagreed with them. Jesus seemed to understand that, because He didn’t ostracize Nicodemus for his cowardice, but he didn’t exactly spell out for Nicodemus what he should believe, either. I don’t think that Nicodemus was the only exception, although I must admit that I don’t know of any others mentioned in Scripture. Perhaps the reason that Jesus didn’t scold him for his lack of courage was because he was the only Pharisee brave enough to actually talk to Jesus, and to try to learn from Him.

But, to go back to the original question of the lineage of Christ; it isn’t really important who Christ descended from (particularly on Joseph’s side), although his lineage does show that He was part of a royal bloodline, on Mary’s side as well as Joseph’s. Of course, if Judea had been self-governing at the time of Christ, then, by all rights, He should have been king (his adoptive status notwithstanding). The important thing was that He was sent by God to be the propitiation of our sins.

What Is Your Calling?

Yesterday I posted on the subject of making sure that you are abiding in your calling, but, to be honest, I really only scratched the surface. There is a lot involved in making sure that you are doing what God would have you to do. I talked about praying for guidance, and I talked about laying a fleece before the Lord; today I am going to get deeper into it than that.

It has been said that the greatest ability is availability. If you really want to do something for God, you need to be ready at all times. The most important thing for a Christian to do is to be ready to share the Gospel with someone else. If someone wakes you up at o-dark-thirty in the morning and wants you to tell them about Jesus, would you be ready? I understand that sometimes waking up out of a sound sleep just being able to function is a chore, so, under those circumstances, would you be able to pull yourself together? Keep in mind, that they probably wouldn’t wake you up like that unless they felt an urgent need, and if God has given them a sense of urgency, there may be a very good reason for that. Let’s be honest about this, your natural reaction would be to tell them to go away and come back in the morning, but they may not have until morning. Much as you would like to roll over and go back to sleep, there is a soul hanging in the balance, and if you can’t show compassion to that lost soul in the middle of the night, then how can you say that you have the love of God in you?

So, how do you know what is God’s will for your life? Well, I’ll be perfectly honest with you, I can only give you a part of God’s will for your life, and this is something that I know because it is God’s will for everyone: Get saved, stay saved, and see others saved. Any more details, you’re going to have to ask God about. While you’re at it, you may as well ask Him if I’m right about those three things (I am, but I don’t mind you checking up on me; if I were you, I would).

One thing that you should know: When God speaks, He has a small, still voice. A lot of people expect God to have this thunderous, attention-getting, deep voice. He doesn’t. He speaks in more of a whisper, in the back of your head. In the Old Testament there was a time when Elijah was dealing with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, and they were not godly people. Jezebel sent a message to Elijah telling him that he was going to die. I’m quite sure that she meant it. I’m not sure why Elijah didn’t believe that God could protect him, but he went and hid himself in a cave. While he was hiding in the cave, God spoke to him in His small, still voice, and Elijah went to the mouth of the cave to talk to God. There was a great wind, but God wasn’t in the wind; the wind was there to distract Elijah, to try to keep him from hearing what God had to say. Then there was an earthquake and a fire, but God wasn’t in those, either, they were just distractions. Elijah, though, was attentive to the still, small voice, and God asked him why he was hiding (as if God didn’t know). Elijah started explaining to God what had happened. It’s funny, isn’t it? Elijah knew God, He knew that God was all-knowing and all-powerful, and that Jezebel couldn’t take Elijah’s life unless God allowed it, and Jezebel couldn’t even threaten Elijah’s life without God knowing about it, and yet, here he is, trying to explain to God how much trouble he’s in because he followed after God instead of the queen, and it never even seems to occur to him that God doesn’t need his explanation, God just wants Elijah to think about what he’s doing there. And finally God tells Elijah what to do. My point, though, is that God’s voice is a small, still voice, but he can make Himself heard, as long as you are willing to put forth the effort to listen.

Answering the Call

How do I know if I am truly doing what God wants me to do? That’s an interesting question, and an important one. We could say that Jonah learned the hard way that he was definitely not doing what God wanted him to do; he got a free ride in an organic submarine. Still, I tend to believe that Jonah was kind of a special case. Lots of other people disobeyed God and didn’t get that kind of treatment.

Of course, there are a lot of other people that disobeyed God and got a number of warnings. King Saul was corrected by the prophet Samuel several times (1 Samuel 13:13, 1 Samuel 15:19) before God took his Spirit from Saul, and sent Saul an evil spirit to trouble him. Even then, Saul had opportunity to repent. In the Book of Acts, there was a young Christian named Simon that offered Peter cash for the ability to lay hands on people and have them receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Peter told Simon, “Thy money perish with thee, for thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” Simon immediately asked Peter to pray for him, that it not turn out like that. Also in the Book of Acts, a couple named Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of land, and Ananias brought most of the money to the church, but told Peter that it was all of the money. Peter questioned him about it, and Ananias died. Now Ananias may not have had a very long time to repent of what he had done, but he did have some time. Sapphira got worried about her husband and came to the church looking for him. Now, the fact that Ananias hadn’t come home should have let her know that something was wrong, but, apparently, she didn’t have the first idea what was wrong. Peter asked her if the money that Ananias had brought was the whole amount from the sale of the land, giving her a chance to confess. She replied that it was, and she fell down dead. She had an opportunity to repent; she could have said, “No, I’ll go home and get the rest of it.” Or, “No, we had planned to give the whole amount, but we had some unexpected bills, so we kept some of the money to pay them.” Something like that would have kept her alive.

Still, most of the time that people disobey God, it isn’t nearly that dramatic. Sometimes we aren’t even aware that we are doing it. Hmmm, I could get a job working for the church, or I could get a job somewhere else making a lot more money so that I could give more to the church. Believe it or not, working for the church may not be the right answer; God may have someone else in mind for that position who wouldn’t get it if you took it. Just because something seems like what God would want you to do, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it really is what He wants you to do.

So, how do you know? Spend a lot of time in prayer; if you don’t feel that you have a clear answer, then lay a fleece before the Lord. Now, when I say to lay a fleece before the Lord, I don’t mean put a cloth out in the rain and tell God to keep it dry if He wants you to go on a mission trip to Africa. I mean, for example, there are several job openings that you feel that you are qualified for and so, you put in applications at each place, but then you pray, and you set aside an hour for listening to God and for listening for the phone. Whichever employer God wants you to work for, ask that He would have them call during that hour. If nobody calls, then maybe none of those jobs are right for you. On the other hand, if all of them call during that hour, then maybe God is less concerned with where you work, although He is certainly concerned about how you work, and what kind of example you set while you’re at work. You know you don’t have to go to Africa to be missionary; there is at least one person in every city, town, or village on every continent that needs to hear the Gospel. Christianity may have spread around the world, but we still haven’t reached all of the world.

The Spirit of God

In John 4:24, Jesus told the woman at the well that, “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” In First Timothy we are told that God is invisible, that meshes nicely with what Jesus said about God being a Spirit. Romans also warns us against making images of God, which, of course, makes very little sense since God is invisible. Part of the problem here is that we, as human beings, are generally very visually-oriented. We make a lot of choices based more on what we find esthetically pleasing, as opposed to being practical. We are told not to judge by the outward appearance, and yet, it is one of our oldest prejudices.

All through the Old Testament, there are references to the Spirit of God, starting in Genesis 1:2. When God was planning the flood, he referred to His own Spirit; Pharaoh proclaimed that the Spirit of God was in Joseph…God told Moses that He had filled Bezaleel with His Spirit, to devise cunning works for the tabernacle. In Numbers, when Balaam was hired with the intent of prophesying against Israel, it says that the Spirit of God came upon him. In Judges, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew the trumpet, and people began to follow Gideon. Also in Judges, Samson met up with a lion, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he rent the lion. In First Samuel chapter 10, in verse 6, Samuel the prophet prophesied that the Spirit of the Lord would come over Saul, and then, in verse 10, it happened. When Elijah was taken up, the sons of the prophets persuaded Elisha to let them go look for Elijah, saying that perhaps the Spirit of God has taken him up into a mountain. In Psalms 51, David even cries out for God to not take His Holy Spirit from him; that’s rather surprising, because most people think that the Holy Spirit is kind of a New Testament thing.

Sometimes people try to make God into a physical being, usually an old man with a long white beard, even though the passage in Romans referenced above talks about changing the glory of the uncorruptible God into the image of corruptible man. When you stop to think about it in those terms, it’s pretty obvious how wrong that is. Sometimes they even use Scripture to try to show why they believe that; for example, He appeared as a man to Abraham, His finger wrote on the wall in the Book of Daniel. Of course, it Psalms there is a reference to God’s feathers and wings; that doesn’t exactly fit the standard image of God. I think that we have to understand that what little God has chosen to show us, He showed us for a reason, and it doesn’t represent His actual image, because His image cannot be seen by human eyes.

Small wonder that God didn’t want us to make any graven images (Exodus 20:4, Leviticus 26:1, Deuteronomy 4:16, Deuteronomy 4:23, Deuteronomy 4:25, Deuteronomy 5:8, Deuteronomy 27:15). It’s kind of like making a diagram of the air. Oh, sure, we could make up a chart showing how much nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon and other trace elements are in the air, but it wouldn’t really communicate the essence of the air. An actual drawing of air, or of God, would be a lot like the infamous drawing of a ghost shoveling snow in a snowstorm with a white shovel. God is beyond our comprehension. No picture could do Him justice, and He’s invisible anyway; the closest we have is what we imagine Jesus Christ looked like, because He was God’s image.

The Great I Am

Last week, I mentioned that the idea of referring to God as “I Exist” dates back to Moses. God told Moses, “I AM that I AM” and went on to instruct Moses to tell Pharaoh and the Israelites that “I Am” had sent him. Of course, grammatically, referring to God as “I Am” offered up some interesting linguistic challenges: If, for example, someone were to ask me who is responsible for something, and my answer is, “I am,” am I taking responsibility or am I blaming God? So, a better term was conceived.

Four times in the Old Testament, God is referred to as Jehovah. The term Jehovah actually comes from a Hebrew term, YHWH (early written Hebrew was written from right to left, had no vowels, which occasionally makes translation difficult). In any case, the Hebrew word simply means, I exist. I suppose that at one time, that was uniquely true of God: He existed, nothing else did. Later on, of course, He created the universe, and He was no longer the only form of existence.
I’m not entirely certain why God was so secretive about His name in the Old Testament. In many cases, even angels were not allowed to reveal their names to human beings. God refers to Himself by many different titles (Lord, God, Almighty, Holy One of Israel, Saviour, Jealous, etc.) in the Old Testament, but Jehovah seems to be the only actual name, but, as I said, even that is derived from the phrase He used to answer Moses. Even then, Jehovah is not the actual response that God gave Moses.

Interestingly enough, though, the phrase “I am” shows up again in the New Testament. When Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, He told them Abraham rejoiced to see His day. The Pharisees thought that was ridiculous; Jesus was clearly less than fifty years old (closer to thirty, actually, but they apparently allowed themselves a significant margin of error—or maybe Jesus just looked a good bit older than He was), yet He claimed to have met Abraham. Abraham had been dead a long time, so they didn’t understand how Jesus could say that He knew Abraham with a straight face. They challenged Him, and Jesus replied, still straight-faced, “Before Abraham was, I am.”

Grammatically, that statement doesn’t really make a whole heck of a lot of sense. Any English major will tell you that it would have been more proper for Jesus to say, “I existed before Abraham’s time.” Even allowing for a little dramatic license, the sentence still should have been more along the lines of, “Before Abraham was, I was.” Why did Jesus use the present tense when talking about something in the far distant past? Clearly, it was a reminder of the words that God had spoken to Moses, all those generations ago. Perhaps He was trying to make the point that, to Him, past, present, or future, it really doesn’t make much difference. In any given period of time, Jesus existed, the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I really think that He was just trying to get them to understand who He was. I also think that they understood what He was trying to say, but they had already decided that He was not Who He said He was, and that His claims were simply blasphemyIt apparently never occurred to them that they might be the blasphemers. . Jesus wasn’t making anything of Himself. Perhaps if they had better understood Zechariah 14:9, particularly with regards to John 10:30.

Moses and Me

When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, He told Moses some things that Moses didn’t want to hear. A lot of that may simply have been the fact that, after many years of living in the land of Midian, he had grown comfortable with his life as it was. Granted, it was a far cry from living in Pharaoh’s palace as he had when he was known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, but he had a young. loving wife and the satisfaction of being able to feed himself and his family with his own labor. On the other hand, he had left Egypt under threat of death, so that may be another reason that he didn’t want to return.

In some ways, we can see that Moses was uniquely qualified to be the man to deliver God’s judgment to Pharaoh. To be honest, I don’t know exactly what relationship Moses had with the Pharaoh that ruled Egypt at that time; This was not the Pharaoh that Moses had grown up calling grandfather. He may have been an uncle, or a cousin (Moses was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, who, although of royal blood, is not likely to have succeeded her father upon his death. More likely she would have had a brother that would have been the heir, although it’s possible that, in the absence of any brothers, her son might have become Pharaoh…So, whoever was sitting on the throne at the time of Moses’ return almost certainly was someone that he knew; someone that would have felt a familial bond with Moses—someone that would have been more reluctant to kill Moses than any other Hebrew that tried to make demands. Perhaps that bond was another barrier to Moses as well, making him reluctant to confront someone that helped raise him, or that was raised alongside him.

Moses tried to convince God that there must be someone better qualified for the job. He had, after all been raised as an Egyptian. He felt a kinship to the Israelites, knowing that they were his people (that’s what got him in trouble the first time), but there’s nothing to indicate that he had ever lived among them. It probably would have been very easy for Moses to sacrifice the freedom of Israel for his comfortable little life with his Midianite wife and their son. I almost have to wonder if God wasn’t preparing a whale for Moses as they spoke.
Moses tried to tell God that nobody would believe that God had sent Moses if Moses couldn’t tell them God’s name. In a way, that make sense, after all, what would you think if somebody brought you a message, and when you asked who the message was from, the messenger replied, “I didn’t catch his name…”? How much attention would you pay to that message? Even if Moses had gone to Pharaoh and explained that God had sent him, Pharaoh might very well have wanted to know what god had sent Moses: Ra? Horus? The Egyptians had many gods, and sometimes felt that they could ignore the wishes of one, if they were in the good graces of a more powerful god. Now the God of the Old Testament seemed to be at least somewhat secretive about his name—he had never told Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob his name, after all—but he told Moses to tell Pharaoh that “I Am” had sent him.

Then Moses told God that he had a slow tongue. I’m not entirely sure what that means: The prevailing logic seems to be that Moses stuttered. I suppose that’s possible, but I don’t think so, but maybe I’m biased. I have a problem in that, sometimes I will see something or hear something, and I want to respond to it, but by the time I have processed the information, formed a coherent thought, formulated a response and opened my mouth to actually give voice to that response, either someone else has already said what I was going to say (or, worse, made an even wittier or more appropriate comment), or they have changed the subject. That, to me, is having a slow tongue. I must admit, I don’t know for sure that is what Moses meant, but it makes sense to me.

In any case, examining the Scriptures in regard to what they say about Moses, and trying to understand the man himself; not just what he did, but why he did it. To be honest, it makes me feel better about myself to think that he and I may share some faults (I just wish I had his strengths); in addition to being slow-tongued, I am also really good at making excuses, and, it occurs to me that if I were carrying some stone tablets down off of a mountain, they would probably start to feel pretty heavy well before I reached the bottom, so it wouldn’t take much to set me off and get me to throw those things down…

Just Do It

Some years ago, when Michael Jordan was playing for the Chicago Bulls, he did a commercial for a company that makes athletic equipment (most notably shoes) that showed him practicing free throws. He did a voice-over in which he asked if we ever wondered what it would be like if he didn’t play the way he did. To be honest, I don’t think too many of us really wondered that. He was phenomenal, after all; he made playing basketball look easy, as if it were something he was born to do. At the end of the commercial, there was a close up of him saying, “I do.” And then it went back to showing him practicing free throws.
Many people now know that Jordan was once cut from his high school basketball team. Looking at the way he played in the NBA, that seems incredible. The commercial seems to give a look inside the man. He had a reputation, even before the commercial, of being the first of the Bulls to show up for practice, and the last one to leave. Many other players didn’t feel that they needed to practice any more that whatever Coach Phil Jackson required. Some people wondered why a phenomenal player like Jordan felt that he had to practice so much. Perhaps they simply were looking at the situation from the wrong angle; perhaps Jordan was a phenomenal player precisely because he practiced so much. Perhaps even, at the height of his career, he thought back to his high school days, and didn’t want to be considered ‘not good enough’ ever again.
I mentioned the other day that Apostle Paul strove to be more than he was, closer to God, and more able to do the things that God would have him to do. The big difference between Paul’s striving and Jordan’s practicing may very well have been the fact that Paul didn’t worry about being considered not good enough; he knew he wasn’t good enough. It was only by grace that he was even allowed to attain salvation, much less become a leader in the church. Paul knew that, as long as he strived, then grace would pick up where he left off. He didn’t take the attitude that, “I can never be good enough, so I just won’t try, and God’s grace will be sufficient.” He knew that just wasn’t going to do. I’m not sure if Paul knew the parable of the talents; I would assume that one of the other apostles would have told him, but there is no mention of it in any of Paul’s writings. Jesus taught that there were three men whose master was going on a far journey, and the master gave each of them some silver to deal with while he was away (a talent was a measure of silver before it ever became an ability). He gave one man five talents, and he gave one two talents, and he gave one only one talent. When the master returned, the first servant had gained five more talents, the second two more, and the third just had the one. He didn’t lose what the master had given him; he just didn’t do anything with it. The master called him wicked and slothful and had him delivered into outer darkness. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think that’s a good thing. Now the master didn’t expect him to do as much with the one as the other man did with the five, or even as much as the other servant did with the two, but he did expect him to do something with it. Again, maybe it’s just me, but I wonder if the master might not have been more merciful if the third servant had invested the talent of silver and lost it entirely because at least it would have shown that he had chosen to do something. I know that most bosses would get upset if you invested their money foolishly, but this master was clearly irate at the idea that this servant had simply chosen to do nothing.
In any case, we need to be about our Father’s business. He didn’t give us this glorious gospel to hide it under a bushel, or to just do what we want to do. It’s not God’s will that any should perish, and yet, so often, we seem unwilling to let people around us know that they don’t need to perish; eternal life is within their reach. It’s so simple, and yet, so many times we sit on the seat of do-nothing. I would encourage you to do something, even if it’s wrong.

My Prayer List

I just wanted to post my prayer list and ask that you would pray with me.

Jon, who is very close to me (I have known him for 28 years) recently had surgery to remove a testicle that was cancerous. During the medical procedures leading up to the surgery, the determination was made that he also has lung cancer. So, although he is now cancer-free from the waist down, he is undergoing chemotherapy for his lungs.

My friend Lyn, whose car became the center of a car sandwich a few weeks ago, is suffering whiplash, also a hurt knee, and a hurt shoulder. Her doctor has given her medication for the pain, but, she is in the unenviable position of having a choice whether to not be able to concentrate because of the pain, or being unable to concentrate due to her pain medication. She doesn't like her medication, or the mental fog that comes with it; I can't say that I blame her. Lyn also lost her maternal grandfather last year, and her paternal grandfather this year.

Lyn's friend Susie, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Susie is undergoing chemotherapy, like Jon, but, other than that, I know very little about Susie's condition or treatment, but I take cancer very seriously.

My friend Amanda has had some problems with conception. An infection did some severe damage to her tubes. Her ovaries seem to be okay, and her uterus, but there is a problem with the tubes to carry eggs from one place to another. She has undergone an IVF procedure with the man that she refers to as "DH" (to her, that's Darling Husband, to me, that's Designated Hitter), but was still unable to conceive. Now some of her in-laws don't know how to talk to her, which just makes things worse. This is nobody's fault, it just is. I know that Amanda and DH had to save up for awhile to be able to afford IVF, now, I presume that they are saving up again. After all, this was only the first strike; the DH gets 2 more swings at this, doesn't he?

My friends Lisa and Keona, who each had gall bladder surgery last year. They both seem to be doing fine but I don't see either one very often, so I can't be sure, so I still worry.

My nephew's wife's parents (my niece-in-law's parents? My nephew's parents-in-law? I'm not sure what to call the actual relationship) are having serious marital problems, which of course has their daughter upset.

My other nephew is getting married next month. His fiancé is very nice, and I don't expect any problems, but prayer shouldn't only come after the problems start...

I have another friend, whose name I won't mention, who hasn't spoken to me for a while. She wanted to tell me what her pastor thought, and I showed her what the Bible says. I didn't mean to make her angry, but I don't feel that I can take opinion over Scripture, even when the opinion is that of a person that I care for or respect very much.

The economy. Right now there are a lot of problems with the economy, and I think that a lot of us are tightening our belts (I know I am). I know that it will swing back eventually, but...

And me. I don't mean to seem selfish, but I have problems of my own and desires that I would like to see fulfilled. I don't want to get into what they are here. I am reminded of something that Bush 41 said during the first Gulf War: he was talking about a letter he had gotten from a family that sat down with their pre-schooler and explained that they were going to pray that God would help Bush free the people that were stuck in Iraq, and their son said, "How did people get stuck in a rock, and how is a bush going to get them out?" They concluded that it was a good thing that God knew what their son was praying for, because he sure didn't. So, I would appreciate it if you would pray for me, even if you don't understand what it is that you are praying for. Thank you.

The Philippian Jailer

When I blogged about the life of Paul last week, for some reason it did not even occur to me to include the incident with the Philippian jailer. Paul and Silas went to Thessalonica to preach the gospel, and some people stirred up trouble for them, had them beaten and thrown in jail. Not exactly good hospitality, but that sort of thing happened often to the members of the early church.

So these two men of God are in jail; not just the jail, but the inner part of the prison. I suppose that they could have thrown a pity party, after all, they knew that they didn’t belong there; they knew that what they were doing was right, and that the people of Philippi should be thanking them for bringing the gospel. From what I can tell, nobody even dressed their wounds (they were beaten pretty badly).

They could have gotten mad at God. What kind of God would send his servants to another country, only to be beaten, humiliated, and thrown into jail? Why would He do that to them? Weren’t they faithful men of God? Shouldn’t He have protected them from harm? Shouldn’t He have rewarded them for their faithfulness?

They could have done a lot of things, and most of those things wouldn’t have really mattered, being stuck in jail as they were. What they actually did, though, was to praise God. They were in the inner part of the prison, singing worship songs, and, sometime after midnight, there was an earthquake, and the chains fell off their wrists and ankles, and the cell doors opened, and the outer prison doors opened… It was almost as if God was giving them an engraved invitation, or perhaps the world’s first “get out of jail free” card, but then, the jailer awoke. He, having been asleep, had no idea what had happened, or even, how long ago it had happened. His first immediate thought was that the prisoners had escaped. He was responsible, and would be held accountable if he were still alive in the morning. He drew his sword and would have run himself through with it, but Paul stopped him. “Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.” The jailer grabbed a torch, and walked into the cell, and, sure enough, all of the prisoners were still there.

Now our jailer has to consider. Even if they didn’t have time to escape before he woke up, they could have simply let him kill himself and then walk away, but they didn’t. The jailer’s life meant more to these men than their own freedom, even knowing that they could end up being executed. These are not the sort of criminals that he was used to dealing with. He knew that they had been brought in on charges that they were teaching some new religion, that a lot of Philippians considered heresy, and yet, the gods, or more correctly, their God, had opened the doors and loosed the chains. The jailer knew at this point that he was in the presence of greatness.

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul and Silas preached unto him Jesus. The jailer took them to his own home, washed their stripes, bandaged their wounds, and he and his family sat and listened to what Paul and Silas had to say. Everyone in the jailer’s household was baptized that very night. And then they went back to the jail, and he locked the prisoners up again. In the morning, the powers that be decided that they had overreacted, and that Paul and Silas shouldn’t have been beaten or imprisoned. Because of their faithfulness, a family was brought into the church. Who knows how many others were saved as a result of the faithfulness of that one family? I spoke before of God rewarding Paul and Silas for their faithfulness; I hope you can see know that is exactly what God did.

Apostle Paul (part III)

It occurs to me that many people aren’t really familiar with the life of Apostle Paul. I think that it’s important to be familiar with his life; he wrote a sizable chunk of the New Testament—possibly more than half. I am going to attempt to cover his life here, but it’s going to take more than one post. This is the conclusion of this series.

I mentioned in my last post that Paul suffered a lot of things just as an example to the rest of us, but he also talked about having a thorn in his flesh. We are never actually told what this thorn was. Many theories have been floated, but they are just ideas; when we get to Heaven, we can ask him, but until then, it’s all speculation. In any case, he prayed three times that God would remove it from him, and God finally communicated to him that he needed that problem to keep him humble. When Paul realized that this thorn ultimately meant that he would do more for God with it than he could ever do without it, he accepted it.

Paul also talked about being chief of sinners. The argument could be made that he was talking about his life before he came to know Christ, when he persecuted the church, but it’s also possible that he was very much aware of his faults and failures in day-to-day life as a Christian. It certainly seems that Paul felt that he had a lot to make up for, and that may have made him that much more sensitive to his shortcomings as a Christian, and as a leader in the church.

Most of us will never do anything like the kinds of things that Paul did, either for the sake of the gospel or against it. Some of us will never have the kind of motivation that he had, because we’ve never done the kinds of things that he did prior to. Still, there are learning points in Paul’s life that may make our own journey more fruitful:

First, keep in mind that Paul was raised religious. He was one of God’s chosen people; he adhered strictly to the Law of Moses. Being religious didn’t make him right. In fact, his religious upbringing, if anything, made it harder for him to accept the truth. How were you raised? Were you raised in a “Christian home” or in some other religion, or by a family of atheists? However you were raised, it is important that you be willing to put aside your background, and be willing to accept that much, or even all, of what you were taught was in error. “How can you say that? You don’t know how I was raised!” You’re right; I don’t know how you were raised. You may have been raised completely correctly. I’m not saying this as an accusation. I’m only trying to point out that, even if you were raised by good Christian parents in a good Christian church, there are probably beliefs that you have picked up along the way that don’t align with Scripture. Prayerfully examine what you believe. Ask God, as David did, to create in you a clean heart. And, if you think I’m wrong, then I would ask that you would pray that God would show me the error of my ways. But, if there is an error in my ways or your ways, I hope that neither of us would be stubborn enough that God would need to strike us with blindness in order for us to truly see.

Second, although Paul learned to be content in whatever situation he found himself in, he also strived to be closer to God, and to be able to do more for God. There is not one among us that would not benefit from that attitude. The important thing in life is not our own comfort, but that the will of God be done. God may very well want us to go through some stuff so that we can be more fruitful.

Third, just as Paul suffered a thorn in his flesh, that ultimately kept him humble, and better able to do God’s will, so, too, we must accept that into each life, some rain must fall. There will be things that don’t seem convenient, or even reasonable, that are very necessary. There will be times when you think God is just being terribly unfair. If you feel that way, talk to God about it. I would encourage you to try very hard to not take an accusatory tone when you tell God how unfair He is. The real irony of that is that, generally when we think God is being unfair, those are the times when God is allowing us to experience the rewards of our own actions. When you stop and think about it, grace is terribly unfair. None of deserve grace, but without it, there could have never been a Paul, and none of the rest of us could even have any hope.

Apostle Paul (part II)

It occurs to me that many people aren’t really familiar with the life of Apostle Paul. I think that it’s important to be familiar with his life; he wrote a sizable chunk of the New Testament—possibly more than half. I am going to attempt to cover his life here, but it’s going to take more than one post. This is a continuation of Monday's post.

Saul spent a number of years learning about Christianity, and comparing the teachings of Christ to the teachings of the Old Testament. Armed, now, with the knowledge that Jesus was not teaching blasphemy, he began to see that the gospels were a continuation, or an extension, of the ways that had been taught previously. Paul also began to see that much of what he had been taught was in error, that people were reading into, or adding to, or taking from, the Word of God. Jesus asked the Pharisees once, why it was that they used tradition to negate the commandments of God: One of the commandments is Honor thy father and thy mother, but the Pharisees had been teaching that if the offspring made a statement that any means by which his parents benefitted by him, that was simply a gift, then he would be free from that obligation. This would have been one of the things that Paul would have been raised believing, because he was raised a Pharisee. To be honest, I think that Saul always suspected that there was something wrong with that.

So Paul goes on, and he teaches, and he shares his testimony, and his former colleagues get very upset. I guess it’s one thing to sit in the seat of judgment and look down on all of the poor, uneducated people who haven’t had the advantage of all of your education, and patiently try to explain to them why they are wrong, but when it is someone who has been your colleague, who has had the best education, who has been one of the most zealous among your sect, suddenly saying, no, you’re wrong… At one point, a group of Pharisees took a vow that they would neither eat nor drink until Paul was dead. I sometimes wonder if they broke their cow or starve to death? Another time they stoned Paul and left him for dead. These guys seriously wanted Paul to stop.

Paul, as a prisoner, was able to give his testimony, that is, to explain his conversion, to some very prominent people while being tried at various levels of the government of Rome. At one point, he appealed to Caesar, and he was put on a ship to be sent to Rome. The ship ran into a storm, but, by that time, Paul had established himself with the guards as being an upright man, and when he told them that they could all be saved, if they followed his instructions, they obeyed him (imagine that for a minute—a bunch of Roman soldiers taking orders from the prisoner that they are supposed to be escorting). Paul was right, though, the ship was destroyed, but passengers and crew were able to get to the island of Melita safely. On the island, the natives were hospitable to them. At one point, Paul was adding wood to a fire, and a viper bit him on the hand. Paul shook the viper into the fire, and went on about his business. Now the Melitans decided that Paul must be some kind of evil person, and the gods were going to take care of him with the snake. When Paul didn’t suffer any ill effects from the snake bite, though, they changed their opinion of him.

Paul was imprisoned for awhile, in fact, a lot of his writing he did from prison. He wrote that he had learned, in whatsoever state he was in, therein to be content. At least, as far as his physical being; he also talked about striving. I think that he believed in trying to improve himself, especially when there was little he could do to improve his situation. He accepted the fact that sometimes God was going to let him get into bad situations, to set an example for others. Remember Job? Why exactly was it that he went through all the things that he went through? Just because God wanted to show off what a truly faithful man of God was capable of withstanding. There was some of that in Paul’s story, too.

More to come...

Apostle Paul (part I)

It occurs to me that many people aren’t really familiar with the life of Apostle Paul. I think that it’s important to be familiar with his life; he wrote a sizable chunk of the New Testament—possibly more than half. I am going to attempt to cover his life here, but it’s going to take more than one post.

In the first part of the Book of Acts, the man that was to become Apostle Paul was known as Saul. Evidently, Saul was named for the first King of Israel. In some ways, this was appropriate, because both men set out to do something great for God, but both men wound up falling very short. King Saul was noted for being a goodly man, even when he was young. When the prophet first told Saul that he was to be king, Saul showed proper humility. Saul even went on to prophecy. In 1 Samuel 11, Saul fights his first battle as king, and the spirit of God is with him, and the army of Israel demolishes the enemy. Later on, though, when it becomes apparent that God intends for David to succeed Saul, instead of one of Saul’s sons, Saul sets out to kill David, and even one of his own sons who supports David. There were times that Saul and his army pursued after David and his men, even though David himself posed no threat to Saul. This pursuit of God’s chosen people clearly foreshadows the persecution of God’s people by Saul the Pharisee.

The Saul of the New Testament was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were an order of Judaism that was very strict in its teaching; Pharisees were fundamentalists, and did not allow much leeway from the letter of the law. Saul studied the Scriptures, and he also studied the teachings of the Pharisees. He is noted for having studied under a teacher of the Pharisees named Gamaliel. Interestingly enough, in one of the first conflicts between the early church and the Pharisees after the death of Christ, Gamaliel commanded that Apostles Peter and John be left alone; expressing his belief that, with Jesus dead, the followers of Christ would disperse—unless, of course, Christianity actually was of God.

Apparently Saul had already decided that he had learned all he could from Gamaliel—or perhaps he just didn’t get the memo. When Stephen was stoned, the crowd laid articles of clothing at Saul’s feet, an indication that he was their leader, implying that he instigated the stoning. As Stephen died, he prayed for those that were stoning him. I wonder if God would have chosen Saul later, if it were not for Stephen’s prayer? Still, the prayer apparently had little effect on Saul, he went and obtained papers form the elders giving him authority to go and arrest more Christians. He continued to pursue and to persecute for some time to come.

Eventually, though, on the road to Damascus, God struck down Saul and spoke to him directly. Saul, dumbfounded by the idea that the God that he was serving so zealously should strike him down, cried out, “Who art thou, Lord?” God answered, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.” This gave Saul something to think about. God took Saul’s eyesight from him; other people led Saul into Damascus. A disciple named Ananias was sent by God to share the truth with Saul. Ananias healed Saul’s eyes, and baptized him. Saul’s life would never be the same. For quite some time after, Saul was feared by the church. They knew what Saul had done as a Pharisee, and they weren’t sure that he had really changed. To be honest, that’s somewhat understandable. With Saul’s stated goal of destroying Christianity, what better way to find out who the Christians were than by infiltrating the organization? For that matter, what better way to infiltrate the church than with an inspiring story wherein God speaks directly to the persecutor, and convinces him to change his ways?

More to come...

Questions

It occurs to me that a lot of people have questions about religion in general and Christianity in particular. I will attempt to answer some of the more commonly asked questions here.

Q. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
A. All of them.

Q. Can God make a rock so big that even He can’t lift it?
A. Of course He can, but He won’t, because then there would be something He couldn’t do.

Q. Where did God come from?
A. God came from Teman. Oh, wait, you mean where did God come from originally? God is eternal, He always was. I guess I should explain the Teman response, though. In Habakkuk 3:3, it says that God came from Teman. A little research shows that Teman was an Edomite city; it’s referred to in Jeremiah and Amos. I think it’s fairly clear that the God who created the earth was not a native of Edom. The problem is that sometimes people find this passage and think that they have found something earth-shaking—“Why the Bible tells us where God came from!” and, of course, those people consider anyone who doesn’t know where god came from as being ignorant and unlearned (of course, the apostles were unlearned men, so I guess we’re in good company).

Q. How can Jesus be considered co-eternal with the Father, when Jesus had a definite beginning in Mary’s womb?
A. Jesus’ beginning in Mary’s womb may not be as definite as you think it was. If Jesus did not exist prior to His conception in Mary’s womb, how was He able to meet Abraham? In fact Jesus said that He preceded Abraham. Who do you think Nebuchadnezzar saw in the fiery furnace? John 1:1 says that in the beginning was the Word. John 1:14 says that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, as the only begotten of the Father. So, Jesus was in the beginning, and, in fact, was with God in the beginning.

Q. Where is the word “gospel” defined in the Bible?
A. Romans 16:25. Although, to be honest, the verse never says that it is defining the term “gospel.” In fact, Apostle Paul uses the term “and” between the word “gospel” and what would seem to be the definition, implying that “the gospel” and “the preaching of Jesus Christ” re actually two different things. Not entirely separate things, I will grant you, because the gospel would be the good news, or the narrative of Jesus Christ’s birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection. So, the preaching of Jesus Christ would actually be the preaching of the Gospel… God wouldn’t have given us four gospels if all He wanted us to know was John 3:16.

Q. How long is the Lord’s day?
A. One thousand years. Sort of. In Second Peter, Peter tells us that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day. I think that it’s important to understand that, while we are on this earth, in these temporal bodies, the passage of time can be very important to us. Once we leave this earth though, to spend eternity with the Lord, then, suddenly time will become considerably less important. One day, one thousand years, as a fraction of eternity, comes down to basically the same thing, an infinitesimal passage of time.

Okay, just for the record, I suspect that most of the time that you hear these questions, it will be from people that don’t want answers, they just want to try to convince you that you are wrong. You may run into one or two people that have heard the questions and aren’t sure what to think of them and may ask in all sincerity, but the questions themselves were formulated to be contentious. Be careful in dealing with people that ask such questions, you don’t want to cast your pearls before swine, but you should be patient with anyone who legitimately wants to know. Just for the record, yes, I have actually been asked every one of the questions listed above—at least one of them by a seminary school student.