Dealing with Urges

I recently heard from someone who has written a great many Christian songs, with powerful lyrics, and, if I understand him correctly, has chosen to give up the fight. His logic comes down to, God made me what I am, but what I am doesn’t conform to Scripture, therefore, the Scripture must be wrong. Surely God created me as He wanted me to be.

That’s a strong argument, and, to be honest, one that I have fallen for myself, in the past. I will admit that I get urges that don’t conform to the dictates of scripture. It would be nice if, once one has dedicated one’s life to Christ, all the negative influences just went away. Some of the thoughts that pop into my head are just incomprehensible, yet they keep coming. As I spend more time studying Scripture, and praying, they come less frequently, and less powerfully, but they still come. Scripture tells us that the creation has no right to ask the creator, “Why hast thou made me thus?” Yet, we, as human beings, can’t seem to help but wonder why it is that God created us as we are. I think that it is significant that we are not just slaves to our DNA, but we are affected by environment, as well.

Still, Apostle Paul once wrote that he was aware that in his flesh was no good thing. David wrote that he was conceived in sin, even though his parents were married at the time. None of us are strangers to temptation. Even Jesus was tempted, but He withstood the temptation, and set an example for the rest of us. It is important that we be prepared to fight ourselves. It is not by accident that scripture says that the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent taketh it by force. It isn’t Heaven that we are fighting, though, it is ourselves, our sins, our transgressions, and our temptations.

We have been commanded to walk in the Spirit, so that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It is important that we strive. The Bible also says that the righteous are scarcely saved. It is important to remember the difference between being “good” and being “righteous.” There are a lot of good people; there are not so many righteous. We have to remember that we are not worthy of the gift of salvation, but we shouldn’t use that as an excuse to sit back and do nothing. We have a duty and a responsibility to do what is right, even when we don’t feel like it, and when it isn’t convenient. God didn’t call us to watch. It’s easy to say that if it’s truly God’s will, it will come to pass, but it’s much more convicting to say that if it is to be, it’s truly up to me.

Jonah ran from God, and God had to persuade him to do God’s will. I’m not sure of Jonah’s motivation; it’s been suggested that Jonah didn’t like the Ninevites, and was afraid that if he preached to them, they would repent, and God wouldn’t destroy them. He seemed to understand that God wanted to save them. We can’t count on God holding off on judgment until we get ready to preach, though. The Bible talks about people being in the valley of decision; what if there is someone ready to receive while I am busy with my own concerns, but it is their last chance? That person may not make it, because I wasn’t focused on following the leading of the Holy Ghost. What can I say to that person?

The bottom line is, there will always be distractions, urges, temptations; anything to keep us from doing what God has called us to do. We need to remain focused, allow ourselves to be led of God, and do whatever it is that needs to be done. How do we grow closer to God so that we can hear His voice more clearly? I would recommend prayer and fasting.

Tithing

It occurs to me that there seems to be some confusion concerning tithing in the New Testament.

Really, not a lot is said about tithing in the New Testament. Jesus once got onto the Pharisees about paying tithes of mint, cumin, and anise. He didn’t say that they were wrong for tithing, but he did tell them that they had neglected the weightier (or more important) parts of the law. I had someone tell me once that the Pharisees were so legalistic that they were counting the leaves on the plants in their gardens and cutting off one-tenth of the new leaves to give to the temple. I have two problems with that: One, Jesus didn’t even suggest that they were wrong for doing what they did, in fact, he said, “These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Two, these plants are not known for their blossoms. All three are known for their aroma; they are sometimes used in perfumes, and in cooking. Even today, in many countries where rainfall is scarce, spices such as these are used to mask the unpleasant smells that result from infrequent bathing. It may occur to you that Ancient Israel didn’t get a lot of rain. My point is that the Pharisees were probably not growing these plants as a hobby, they were probably making a living by selling these spices. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Pharisees didn’t start out growing these plants specifically to be used in the Temple, but then were allowed to sell the excess to pay their living expenses. If that were the case, though, wouldn’t they be expected to tithe of the money they received by selling the excess, rather than to simply tithe of what they were ostensibly growing for the Temple? I don’t know for sure, that’s really just supposition on my part.

In any case, a lot of people seem to think that tithing was part of the law, and, since we are not under the law, but under Grace, then tithing is no longer required. I would have to argue that. Very little is actually said about tithing in the New Testament. There is the passage mentioned above, and a similar passage in Luke (although this one mentions rue—also known for being very aromatic—and “other herbs” rather than cumin and anise); there is also a passage in Luke where Jesus compared a proud Pharisee to a humble sinner who were praying in the Temple at the same time; and then there is a passage in Hebrews where Apostle Paul reminds us of the Priest Melchisedec, to whom Abraham paid tithes after the slaughter of the kings. Now Abraham lived long before Moses the Lawgiver, so clearly he did not do what he did because of any requirement of the Law. We, of course, claim to be led of the Spirit. Are we not led by the same Spirit that led Abraham to pay tithes to Melchisedec? If the spirit that’s leading you isn’t directing you to pay tithes, then I would strongly suggest that you carefully examine yourself, and see what spirit it is that you are following.

Another argument that has been made is that, “God doesn’t need my money.” You’re right, He doesn’t. He didn’t need Esther to approach King Ahasuerus, either, but it was His will that she do that. By giving you an opportunity to pay tithes, God is offering you the chance to reap a blessing. I would advice caution, though; there are a lot of people out there that claim to be ministers of the Gospel that are no different than the money-changers in the Temple… Before you pay a tithe to a man, an organization, or even a church, spend some time in prayer asking God’s direction that you can pay your tithes in such a way that your offering will be used for the glory of God. I’m sure that there are more than a few theologians out there that will rush to tell me that an offering is not the same thing as a tithe; technically that’s true: a tithe is one-tenth of one’s income, and an offering is anything above that. Still, if one’s tithe is not offered freely, then there is no reward from God for that. In other words, if you pay a tithe only because you feel you have to, then you may as well keep your money. How’s that for a conundrum? But, if the tithe is offered freely, then, to my mind, it is an offering. Besides, grammarians will no doubt understand why I chose not to use the word tithe twice in one sentence (although they will object to my starting a sentence with a conjunction. Sigh. You can’t please everybody, but if you can please God…).

Forgiveness

This past weekend I watched the movie In My Country (also known as The Country of My Skull) starring Samuel L. Jackson (A Time to Kill as well as many other movies) and Juliette Binoche (The English Patient and Chocolat). In this movie, she plays an Afrikaner writer, and he, a writer for the Washington Post. Both have been asked to cover the Reconciliation talks after the collapse of Apartheid. Obviously, they go into it with very different attitudes. She feels that it is important to find out exactly what abuses occurred under Apartheid, but he feels that it is important to bring the Afrikaners to justice, and feels that every Afrikaner has a share of the blame for what happened. She, and some other locals, try to explain to him the concept of Ubuntu. I thought Ubuntu was a Linux operating system, but I digress (okay, I knew the word Ubuntu meant something before anybody ever named an OS after it, but I wasn’t clear on the meaning). Eventually he came to understand that we are all connected, and, if you do something that hurts me, it also hurts those around me, and, eventually will hurt you, too, even if you do what you do because of something I did to you. That, in a nutshell, is Ubuntu.

It occurred to me that the people who practiced Ubuntu are better at forgiveness than I am. By the way, I could be mistaken, but I got the feeling that the two main characters in the movie were either fictional or composite characters; at the beginning of the movie, though, they showed a disclaimer that basically said that the Reconciliation talks were faithfully recreated, that the script-writers did not write any of that dialog. In many cases, those who testified wanted only to have the bodies (or body parts) of loved ones returned to them for proper burial. It’s hard for me to imagine what those people must have been feeling, but clearly they had accepted the fact that killing or imprisoning those who had abused their power would not bring back their loved ones; it would only make the healing of their country more difficult.

We are, of course, commanded to forgive. In fact, we have been told to pray for those that despitefully use us. I have to admit, I haven’t had to deal with too much “despiteful use” myself. Perhaps if I lived in another part of the world I would get a chance to really test my faith (not planning on doing that any time soon, though). I have certainly been lied about, but then, I guess all of us have had to deal with that at one time or another.

I just got an E-mail from a good friend who just found out that her family has been embezzled from. They don’t know how much was taken, but it could be a considerable amount. The embezzler is someone who has been very close to the family for quite some time, and was never even suspected. She understands that she has to forgive this person; she wants to feel love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, but right now, it’s hard. She is in prayer, and she has asked me for prayer, and I am asking for prayer on her behalf, as well.

Perhaps the best known Scriptural reference is the Lord’s Prayer, in Matthew 6:9-15. You notice that, in the prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for forgiveness, but also for God to help us to forgive others. At the end of the prayer, He points out that our forgiveness from God is dependent upon our ability to forgive others. Has anyone ever wronged us as much as we have wronged Him? Remember also that Peter once asked Christ how many times was he required to forgive, and Jesus surprised him with how much forgiveness Peter was responsible for. That applies to us, too.

The Transfiguration

This week I’ve been posting from Mark chapter 9. Up until now, I’ve been going off of the middle part of the chapter (a man brought his son to Jesus’ disciples, and they were unable to help, but Jesus healed the son). The first part of the chapter talks about the Transfiguration.

Jesus took three of His closest disciples, Peter, James and John, up to the mountaintop. While they were there, Jesus was transfigured, and Moses and Elijah appeared. Now, the disciples didn’t quite know what to make of this. Peter suggested building three tabernacles, one for each of the three, but Jesus thought differently. If those three men hadn’t already known that they were in the presence of greatness, they definitely knew it then. You would almost think that they had seen so much by then that nothing could surprise them, but this particular incident not only surprised them, I would say it stunned them.

In any case, I think that we should spend a little time discussing the significance of the Transfiguration. I don’t think that there is any real controversy over the idea that Moses appeared because he was the Lawgiver, and Jesus had come to fulfill the Law (and yet instill Grace). Some have said that Elijah was the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, so it makes sense that he would appear with the greatest prophet of the New Testament (not to suggest that Jesus was only a prophet, as some have said, He was much more than that). I have to question, though, whether Elijah was the greatest prophet of the Old Testament. Certainly, one of the greatest, but, I don’t think he has clear claim to the title of greatest prophet. I would be willing to entertain the notion that perhaps Elijah was there because he had ascended into Heaven, therefore foreshadowing the end of Jesus’ ministry, except that Enoch did that first.

The day that Elijah was taken up, his protégé Elisha made a point of staying with him all the way up until Elijah was taken from him. Several times Elijah told Elisha to wait for him at one place or another, and each time, Elisha insisted on going with his master. At one point, Elijah broached the subject that neither one of them wanted to talk about, and he asked Elisha what he wanted after his mentor was gone. Elisha responded that he wanted a double portion of the spirit that he knew rested on Elijah. Elijah said that he had asked a hard thing, but, if he saw Elijah after he was taken up, then he would get it. If you read up, Elisha did some amazing things after that (see also here, and here, and here). I would think that Elisha should be considered a greater prophet than Elijah.

To be honest, I think this may be the point that Jesus was trying to make. Elijah was the master, and Elisha followed him. Even after Elijah was taken, Elisha never departed from the ways that Elijah had taught him. It was clear that the same spirit was on him that was on Elijah. At another point, Jesus said that if His disciples remained faithful than they would do greater works than He Himself had done (not that any of them would ever be greater than Him, but that they would do greater works). This promise extends also to us, if we allow the spirit that was in Jesus to flow through us. Of course, that would require us to walk in the Spirit, and allow God’s spirit to guide us, and direct us, and to remember that it isn’t us that’s actually doing the work, it’s God.

All In the Family

Yesterday I posted about the man in Mark 9 whose son was demon-possessed. Today I would like to look at another aspect of that incident. At one point, the man asked Jesus to “have compassion on us.” He could have asked Jesus to have compassion on the young man who was possessed, but he made a point of asking for compassion for both of them. I think that it’s important to note that when a family member isn’t right, then it affects the entire family.

King David had a son named Absalom that he loved very much. Absalom was very self-willed, and at one point, tried to overthrow the kingdom, and make himself king of Israel. David sent his men out with orders to defeat Absalom, but not to kill him. The general over David’s army, Joab, had opportunity to take Absalom alive, but chose not to, in direct conflict with the king’s wishes. There is a certain wisdom in Joab’s actions, although I would not condone killing a man unnecessarily, I can understand that if Absalom had lived, he would have only continued to cause problems. Joab rebuked David (imagine that, being in position to disobey the king, kill one of the royal family, and then rebuke the king!) and reminded him that Absalom would have been only too happy to kill the king and every Israelite that was loyal to David. Joab, in effect, asked the king what he would have had Joab do, let Absalom run roughshod over everything else that the king held dear, just as long as Absalom lived?

In 1 Samuel, the priest Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, that he was supposed to bringing up to take over his job when he got too old to do it (or died), but they were rebellious and used their positions in the Temple to fill their own bellies. Granted, they were supposed to eat of the offerings that people brought, but they got tired of eating boiled meat, and started demanding meat that hadn’t been prepared in accordance with Temple Law. Eli knew what was going on, and he made some attempt to correct his sons, but they did what they wanted to do anyway. Eli took in Samuel, and raised him better than he had raised his own sons, and at one point, God told Samuel that He was displeased with Eli because of his sons. Eventually, God took Hophni and Phinehas, and, when Eli heard about it, he fell down, and broke his neck.

At the same time, in the gospels, we are told that when Jesus called Simon, Andrew, James, and John, that they left their fathers with the fishing boats and just walked away and followed Jesus. I would imagine that they at least said good-bye, although the Bible doesn’t say that they did. These were men that knew the call of God, and were not about to let their families interfere with what they had to do (later on, we find out that Simon Peter was even married—presumably had kids; what do you suppose his wife thought about her husband wandering all around the country with Jesus for three years?). I’m sure it wasn’t easy for these men to live the lives that they did, and I suppose that their families understood; even the non-believers recognized that Jesus was very influential.

We are more fortunate. Most of us will never have to abandon our families for the Gospel, but all of us need to remember that family must always take second to God. Jesus said that he who loves father or mother or son or daughter more than Jesus, is not worthy (which is not to suggest that any of us is truly worthy anyway), and it is clear that He takes precedence over all else. If it helps, understand that He wants the absolute best for every one of us, so, by putting Him first, you are making things better for your family, as well.

Who Is Your Faith In?

In Mark chapter 9, we are told that Jesus, having separated from most of His disciples for a time, returned and found the scribes disputing with them, and a man with a demon-possessed son. For many years, in reading this, I assumed that the son was a child, however it never says that, in fact, Jesus asked the man how long his son had been tormented, and the man said, “Of a child,” which would imply that the son was no longer a child. In other words, because the son was possessed by a demon while he was a child, the father has attempted to take care of him even after the son was old enough that he should have been able to take care of himself, if he had not been afflicted.

It occurs to me that there is a lesson here in the fact that the disciples had unsuccessfully attempted to cast the demon out before Jesus returned. I seriously doubt that this was the man’s first attempt to have his son healed; we are told that his son had suffered for a long time, but Jesus’ ministry only lasted about three years, total. I would think that he would have tried anything he could think of before Jesus was even tempted in the wilderness.

It’s hard for me not to consider that many people with problems will go to great lengths to try to solve their problems. Doctors and psychiatrists can help with many things, but there are some things that only God can fix. I wonder how many people go from this to that, hoping for a cure, and not finding it, and then start trying different religions, and still not getting out from under, and finally going to a Christian minister, and still not getting satisfaction, because they are looking to the man for answers, instead of to God. One would hope that a minister of the Gospel would be able to call down power from on high, but, if Jesus’ own disciples were not able to cast out the demon from this young man, and had to wait on Jesus to do the work, then we have to understand that every minister has his limitations. God, however, does not.

It’s interesting, too, that at the beginning of the chapter, Mark describes an event that has become known as “The Transfiguration.” Peter, James and John went up the mountain with Jesus, and He was transfigured; His raiment became shining white, and Moses and Elijah appeared with Him. Now, Elijah’s protégé was named Elisha, and in Elisha’s time, there was a man named Naaman that came from Syria to try to buy a healing from his leprosy. Elisha wouldn’t even talk to him. He sent a messenger to talk to Naaman, and told him what to do to be healed. Apparently, Elisha didn’t want there to be any confusion about who was doing the healing. Naaman went and dipped himself in the Jordan River seven times, and came out of the water completely healed. Now, he knew that it wasn’t the water that healed him, and he hadn’t even seen Elisha, so he can’t have thought that the prophet healed him; he would have known that the God of Israel healed him.

I don’t mean to suggest that you shouldn’t talk to your pastor about your problems; you should. I do mean to say that if your pastor’s advice helps you, then that’s of God; if it doesn’t, then maybe you should prayerfully consider who it was that you were putting your faith in: Your pastor, or God?

The Draught (not to be confused with the drought)

In Luke Chapter 5, it says that Jesus was teaching the multitude by the shore, and there were some fishing boats there, and He stepped into one of the boats and asked Simon to take Him out a little way from the shore. When He finished His teaching, He told Simon to let down his nets for a draught. Simon protested that they had just spent all night fishing and hadn’t caught anything, but, since Jesus said so, he let down the nets. They ended up catching lots of fish. Now I personally am not a fisherman, but they tell me that, generally, the night is the best time to fish. There are other factors, of course: tides, currents, water temperature, and such things, but, in general, if you can’t catch anything at night, you aren’t going to catch much during the day either.

It goes on to say that they caught a draught of fishes. Now, I have to admit, that confused me for a while. As I said, I’m not a fisherman, but I have done some sailing in my time, and I know that the draught (or draft, as we spell it here in the U.S.) of a ship is how deep it sits in the water, that is, the depth of its keel. I had always assumed that Jesus was simply telling Simon not to let the nets down any deeper than the keel of his boat. Of course, that didn’t explain the second use of the word. I finally looked up the word “draught” and discovered that the British use that word (among other things) to refer to a quantity of fish (as in, more than a few). So Jesus was telling Peter that if he would lets down his nets, he would catch a quantity of fish. This, of course, was not guesswork; Jesus knew how many fish were down there, and that they were ready to be caught, and even knew how they had avoided the nets during the night. He may very well have been responsible for all of that.

This revelation, as it were, led me to wonder about the other uses of the word “draught” in scripture. It is used only once in the Old Testament: In 2 Kings 10:27, Jehu broke down the house of Baal in Israel, and made it a draft house. I have been unable to ascertain exactly what that means: It could mean a place set aside for drawing (a place for draftsmen, if such a thing even existed then), or a place where casks of liquid were stored (although I know of no Biblical references to draft beer), or, perhaps a gaming parlor (what we call “checkers,” the British call “draughts”). I think it’s a little more likely that it was a place for writing (as in different drafts of a given document), perhaps even for copying over existing texts, but I’m not sure. The point is, though, that it was no longer used as a house of worship. There is an interesting point, in and of itself: Does it matter what house of worship one attends service in, as long as one knows in one heart that they are worshipping the one true God?

Both of the other places that the term is used in the New Testament, it is used to refer to something somewhat less mentionable. Jesus said that what goes into a man doesn’t defile the man, because it goes into the belly, and ends up in the draft. Again, I know what that sounds like, but, to be honest, I can’t be sure. I haven’t been able to find a definition (for draft or draught) that fits what it seems to me that Jesus was talking about. The first definition that my dictionary lists for draught is the drawing of a liquid from its receptacle, which is sort of close, but it doesn’t really sound like He was talking about stuff leaving the body in the form of a liquid to me… Maybe He was, the people He was talking to didn’t have the anatomical knowledge that we have, but it seems pretty obvious that whatever the body takes in that it can’t digest goes right back out again pretty much as solid as it went in. Maybe this is one instance where it’s really better not to know exactly what Jesus was talking about.

Um, I just did a little more research: It occurred to me to check the ancient languages that the Bible was translated from, and it seems that the Ancient Hebrew word that was translated as “draught house” in Second Kings and the Ancient Greek word translated as “draught” in Matthew 15 and Mark 7 both essentially mean latrine. I imagine that the ultimate rejection of a religion would be to turn its house of worship into a latrine. Apparently that’s a usage of the term draught that hasn’t survived the almost-400-years since the Bible was translated.