Month: February 2018

Raining Down Vomit and Excreta at the Dinner Table

eejoseph, ,

Watching the circus across the United States I get a jolt of pride that my mother, Africa, is not an imperial serial rapist. My smile is not without a twinge of pity for the deceived millions, who have bought the idea that capitalism and democracy are the essential paths to greatness.

The GOP and its heartless talking heads are temporarily incapable of repenting of following a broken foundation. At least there is hope that a remnant -preferably young people – will call the the attempt to make a beast a person what it is: silly rebellion. The U.S. was born out of rebellion. Remember?

Maintaining
America’s
Greedy
Aspirations

Idiotic isn’t it? Any fool with a gun becomes a patriot, defending stolen land, and denying people the very cradle that bore the nation.
By the way, any nation built by bloody hands is, to speak kindly, an abomination.

People are gobbling up what ever is on the table: at church, work or school. The enduring foundations of family life and secular society did not begin in the middle ages or in the 19th century. If the leaders who got us into the Middle East mess or the abominable support for Nazism, violence against women, and misogyny or sold our future to China, had glanced at Abraham, father of the Jewish people, we would be light years ahead of the current devastation that makes even a civilized conversation implausible.

Let us watch the game until the next revolution comes around. It will not be on TV or YouTube.

Hey Preacher! Decree This!

eejoseph

I’m sure you’ve seen some guy (usually male, young and of African descent) on TV abusing a perfectly incontrovertible fact.
Christ came to save from sin,
not to heal and terrorise people with the love of ease and the world.
You may have also seen the demeaning boot camp environment of military training that colours the so-called teaching sessions or Bible studies. It is distressing when young children are being taught to decree and declare instead of praying to a caring heavenly Father. Hopefully, there is not one in your church.

No pride

Parents ought to be ashamed of children who, for example, not knowing what the Bible says about life,
eternal or human, dare to teach others, and by children who rise no higher than following the crowd. Typically, this ambassador of humanity most likely skipped Bible school at Yeshua’s feet to learn to decree and declare (squat). This preacher-healer-apostle-bishop no doubt went to Baalist and hypocrite-trumpeting university to learn to pray.

Test the facts

So in the interest of genuine prayer and facts let’s see a quick end to harassment in the guise of blessing, prayer, and prophecy.

How many times can one decree all demons to flee (or go back to hell. Were they ever there?) How many people need to agree for God to approve and deliver our requests? I have felt like jumping in the fray with something like …

Hey preacher! Decree this!

Decree away the darkness that covers the mind. Please.

Decree away corrupt governments.

Decree away the ignorance that makes Christ saviour from everything but sin.

Decree away the influence of Islam and neo-Babylon from from our communities.

Decree away the African exodus to Europe

Oh yeah! While you are decreeing and declaring, decree a few dollars into the pockets of the poor you pass every day on your way to the set…

Not only can we do better than putting out trashy entertainment, our duty to feed and guard Christ’s flock comes with the equipment for producing excellence.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9

Thank you for following YeshuaSpeaks

eejoseph

I am trying to position myself near the cross knowing that all hell breaks loose when believers get distracted.
These days I study and live with eyes only for the Crucified.

Contending for the faith by grace!

Humbly grateful
Elbert E. Joseph, PhD
February 14, 2018

Pinning Down Clean Hands

eejoseph

When David asked “Who shall go up to your holy hill?” his reply did not include homicide as disqualifying. His zeal for the Ark of the Covenant and his plan to build a palace for it ran into Yahweh’s objection to bloodshed, of which David was guilty. As a result he was not allowed to supervise the building of the temple for Yahweh.

How could David have missed that is unknown, and his terms for who has access to the holy hill were indeed definitive.

he who lives uprightly, he who does righteousness, he who speaks the truth in (with) his heart, who keeps his word whatever the cost, despising the one rejected by the LORD, honoring those who fear the LORD

Some indication of who is refused access comes with the identification of certain behaviours.

  1. slander
  2. doing no harm to one’s friend
  3. discrediting one’s neighbor, (Ps 15:3)
  4. lending money at interest
  5. taking a bribe against the innocent

David caps off his reply with a signature label. Unmoveable! — the one who does these things will never be moved. (Ps 15:5)

Since God rejects murderers as builders of monuments to his dignity one has to assume that the vast majority of today’s secular leaders today do not qualify. Extrajudicial killings, discriminatory residency regulations, travel bans, demolition of homes, deportations, and mistreatment of citizens are all manifestations of hate. They constitute murder.

God disqualifies the hawks in Israeli politics, the 45 republicans, the despotic leadership of Turkey, the Philippines, and state-sponsored religion everywhere. Bloody hands have no place in any nation-building process.

David could not build a palace. There is no way for 21st century murderers to be a legitimate part of building civic society.

Each day when we set out to partake of our community’s privileges and foster its goals we had better clear our heads of despite for the poor, of impatience with those who are different from us, and of hate for people who seem incorrigible. A heart tainted with hate is corroborated by unloving deeds, filthy hands. Clean hands begin with purified hearts. We get pure hearts from the Lord by grace through faith. Bad people can do good things and bad deeds show that no humans are eligible for holy hill admission apart from repentance and rebirth.

Glimpses of Early Myopia in Psalm 119

eejoseph

The writer is so artistically wrapped up in his poem-writing in praise of the law that he never mentions forgiveness. We cannot have law without condemnation and the necessary remedy, forgiveness.

Incredibly – this is probably not David – he does not have the counterparts to those terms that he uses for the law (precepts, statutes, judgments, laws, testimonies, commands, etc.).

If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Psalms 130:3-4

Why is there no pardoned iniquity since that is what brings us to reverence?
Real happiness comes through atonement.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Psalm 32:1-2. Of David, A Maschil.

So let’s see.
The opposite of command: freedom
The opposite of statute: despotism
The opposite of judgment: indecision
The opposite of witness: obstruction
The opposite of word: darkness

Perhaps the one redeeming feature of this psalm is that the writer posts the way (absolutely) on the 1st verse and the only known way to be undefiled is to be forgiven. For followers of Christ that is to be born from above exclusively.
We have our eyes trained on the cross all the way back to eternity past. No shortsightedness!

NO RIGHT TO EAT

eejoseph

Did you know you can give up your right to eat?

We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Hebrews 13:10

Food and drink and carnal ordinances do not cut it.

[The tent symbolizes the present age]. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. Hebrews 9:9-10

The difference is graphic.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17

Tabernacle is a fancy word for tent. Yes, that place that moved with the ancient Israelites and provided them with the point of access to God and atonement was a tent.
No matter how dazzling the beauty or splendour, the Tent of Meeting (and the later temple) was a far cry from the Word made flesh. Jewish attempts to rebuild a temple are probably just the kind of thing one thinks one sees at a funeral parlour viewing. Which part of “desolate” do they not understand?

  • He was full of grace and truth and brought the same to all.
  • The Tent of Meeting was limited to Israelites.
  • It had no grace for the guilty.
  • It was the place where the last murder of an innocent took place

The children of Israel called it MISHKAN because God resided there. שכן. shakan, he dwells. (Shekinah is from this word.)
The children of Israel called it MIQDASH because God’s devoted or holy things were there. קדש qadash, he devotes (he makes holy). Sanctuary and sanctify are from this word.
The tent is defunct because a better and eternal covenant is now in place. Hebrews 13:20 and Matthew 26:27-29

The long and short of our interest in the tabernacle is that no-one can serve God and the tabernacle (or what it stood for). People can seem to be hugging Yeshua but once they start talking about tent, holy place, commandments, regulations about food and drink it is a foregone conclusion that they are lost in the woods.
If you are trying to be the new Jew or if you have been convinced that there is justice and morality in the old covenant it is no surprise to God. When Moses brought the Israelites the covenant they were telling themselves that a golden calf had rescued them from Egyptian bondage. When Christ gave the Israelites the only sign of who He was – dead for 3 days then back to life – they told themselves that the disciples had stolen the body.
The new covenant does not contain the old covenant. The new covenant is not the old covenant.
Following Moses, the Old Covenant and its housing puts you in the wrong place. You have no right to talk about the Saviour as if you know him.