Month: June 2019

Getting to the Core

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An introduction to Jesus is not an introduction to Judaism. If that sticks in our throat we cannot be expected to always pick a winner. Not even a radically transformed Mosaic economy does any justice to Abraham’s historic faith and justification without law and works.

Our centre stage is the cross

We have no law, prophets and writings. All we have is gospel whose beginning and end is Christ. The law, through the thousands of years it was Israel’s pride, produced no children of God, but the gospel, on the first day in the life of the church, made 3000 persons heirs of the kingdom, complete with a downpayment.

Let’s get the main objection to the Cross out of the way. James (see 1:25 and 2:8), an avowed Pharisee and disciple of Moses calls the decalogue royal and liberating, turns out to be the only witness in the New Testament who lends lip service to Christ as Saviour, and is out on a limb as surely as Esau was hated (not chosen). He is silent on the saving grace of God to which John, Peter, and Paul have consistently pointed us.

James would be the kind of person one would eexpect in modern times to insist that one learns everything about the law before one can become a disciple of Jesus. That is a pathway that the church soundly rejected.

If someone is saying that he wants to introduce you to Christ why would that person try to teach you everything about the Christ (and God in the Bible!) when in fact you are safer when you are in Jesus’ care and have the Holy Spirit as Helper who alone is able to guide us into all truth?

Maybe the rationale is that there is nothing to learn after one meets Jesus. That falls through the cracks. Could it be that one is complete and mature upon meeting Christ and there is no growth possible neither in grace nor knowledge? Of course not! These two scenarios are classic brainwashing techniques.

Beware of the Pharisee. His convert-making has one result: more kids for hell-fire. Hear Yeshua in Matthew 23:15 making it clear what pretenders do to their disciples.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Daily Verse Recitation Dilemma

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This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua 1:8

Hmm. I dunno about the nutritional value of this verse. Maybe daily verses are just random selections. What does one do with a verse that seems to have nothing but recitational value. Mouths recite and minds rehash (meditate, Heb. הגה, hagah). The reciting and meditating seem to have worked, but the doing is hard to find.

One has to be bewitched to get excited about Israel’s failure and her reputation as an faithless and covenant-breaking woman, who after being warned repeatedly about the path of the just[ified] rejected the Prophet.

Do you have the book of the Law in your mouth? How did it get there? If you say “I dunno ” I know you are an honest person. If what’s in the heart (inside) is law, what is it doing in the mouth? What is it doing stuck in the mouth? Could people be condemned to talk and not walk the law?

Awww yeah!

Law is not for recitation. Unless one is reciting to remind people about the disaster of Sinai. Moses had said that the Law was to be an accusation against the people (Deuteronomy 31:26), not the source of divine righteousness.

Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

The Law is for performance. Talk is cheap. Let’s just forgive those who talk about doing the whole law and nothing but.

And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. Joshua 24:19

In the gospels we found that lipservice was the fashion and substance.

Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Isaiah 29:13

The witness of the later years show that nothing had changed. At the end of Paul’s life the same vanity dominated Israelite life. They revered God in the way men said they should. God’s voice was a distant rumble.

Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Acts 28:26-27

Every word in the Bible has value but a relationship with God comes only from one word: the Incarnate Word. It is not through a command but through a gift that God saves humans. Neither works nor performance brings anyone to a right standing with God, much less does the mere recitation, orally or mentally, of the Law heal or save.

Escape from Empty jangling

1 Timothy 1:5-11 is a gem of clarity about the law and its proponents.

Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;

Its purpose is not debatable. The gospel is not in the same class. Moses and Christ are not equals. Grace and truth stand opposite law and condemnation. What have we chosen?

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

End of a seance

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Lying, amoral, Sarah leaves without ever facing the truth. There are no alternative routes for the corrupt Huckabee. Straight to ignominy.

Her boss is a vile, high priest of neo-nazis and CEO of a criminal enterprise

I’d love to hear that demoniac’s comments in Sunday school and relish throwing her to the dogs.

Her kids will one day ask “Mommy, how could you?” and her eyes will twitch and her lip curl as she hauls another whopper into the chamber of her poisonous gullet.

Marksmen we could use

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What would we say if we found out that the people from whom we expect deadly accuracy were repeatedly missing the mark? Perhaps nothing, due to shock.

The 700 stone-slinging men in the army of the tribe of Benjamin were probably also the kind of guys you want to have at a stoning. Ideally, when it came to war with neighbours, Israel needed only march and praise God with the covenant tokens out front.

I say, we need to call on the marksmen with a solid reputation.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

It would be great if we who are marksmen can stand in our place and say “I present you with the certainty, free from my opinion, of what is written”

Must get home

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Heaven, tent, temple, Holy Land(s), churches, altars, sanctuaries and dedicated buildings have all been thought to be God’s residences. We know that things, especially those made with human hands, are poor dwellings. They are inadequate and unnecessary for a great family life.

Shekinah – God’s residence with humanity- is a matter of loving care. Often we get terror and insularity, barriers and partiality, cruelty and false pride where we should find FATHER-LOVE.

Finding home – where God lives – should be everyone’s quest

Into God’s Business

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SINCE believers overcome by the blood of the Lamb (the Word, the Logos, Rev. 12:11, John 1:1, 2,14) and the sayings (logos) related to their testimony SHOULD we not say that the two combine to complete GOD’s businesss?

Christ is WAY without Creature Contributions

Why do we prefer the way of torment and condemnation, trying to plug a square peg into a round hole?

Hebrews 9:26 tells us that he was all alone in his atoning work as priest and sacrifice.

for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Or maybe we really do not subscribe to the idea that

1. Faith is the victory

2. Faith is the indispensable Godpleaser

3. Faith is grace’s channel for saving us

The joke about believers overcoming sin should end before God strips you down Luke he did the well-dressed Judea and showed private parts to the world.

Or maybe we really do subscribe to the idea

  • That the gift of life is really a conditional loan
  • That man is saved by law and grace
  • That our kids, following us in observing holy times and bowing down to food and drink, need a Saviour
  • the law is not a tool of condemnation and a prison from which only Christ can release humanity

God’s business results in victory without me having to contort myself into a White Anglo-Saxon cartoon with tons of Mosaic cosmetics and accessories, or a magician or a shaman authorized to undo God’s work. Let us look at Temple mount in Israel, America’s shameful religious and political slide to the rubbish heap and think: maybe a wakeup is coming our way.

Why would God’s business be something added to the Anointed and Only-Begotten?