In a world dulled by nepotism and xenophobia it may seem to be a wonder that no one died like Ananias and Saphira when discrimination appeared in the early church.
We have no record of investigation or culprits – it would have shrunk the membership to zero. Peter was caught up in the hypocrisy and he was the rallying point for the disciples. We should not terrify church members- people who believe – with the thought that they die when they sin.
Month: September 2019
Freed by truth
Honesty and candour are lasting character treasures but it is necessary to evaluate the quality of the resulting freedom. It is necessary because many things are called truth: only one of them is a candidate as saving truth. One reviewing every collection of commands, decrees, and judgments, one thing is certain: it takes more than any created thing to liberate humanity. There is not even a hnt of liberation in the Ten Commandments, and there is no record of anyone being ushered into the glorious liberty of God’s elect because they have kept any covenant. The business of setting people free has never happened on account of compliance with regulations. Something unique has to be brought to bear on our bondage.
He shall send from heaven, and save me [from] the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
Psalm 57:3
The doublespeak about human performance, accountability, and identity is under the miscroscope. Animals, gold and silver are not liberating elements. For an ancient Israelite there was the lasting impression that money answers to everything. Even the ancient activity of returning (shub) to covenant or Yahweh is not a lifegiving activity. Coming back to worship Yahweh after an idolatrous excursion is not the same as changing one’s mind about the status quo and believing in God for finality. The blood of animals does not affect the source of poor human judgment and behaviour. The consciences of people who were occupied with gold, silver, grain, and animal blood sacrifices remained tainted with destructive desires and rebellion. Truth that liberates does not bring one under the yokes of the past. Christ has a new yoke that does not include any anxiety such as the law introduces with its hundreds of demands. Coming to the Truth, to Christ, brings rest, liberty from death’s terror and from the owners of death’s power, guaranteed.
When the eyes are dim
One remembers sights like this
Word to the Warriors
Take a stand
Do not bother saying Amen
When we cannot believe the things we hear in prayer we encourage foolishness when we say amen. God will only answer the requests that match His will anyway. Even when no one else agrees God gives, on request, good gifts. I am personally cautious about being an amen-for-amen’s-sake kind of guy.
Junky prayers show up when we ignore God’s will
- We ask for a touch on someone’s “everything”, head to toe
- We ask for God to heal a person’s everything
- Then we ask God to remove every “stumblingblock”
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
Matthew 18:7
Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
Luke 17:1
No amen when prayer turns to junk
People who pray in public often show off their private practices, the theological concern of the moment, and a confusing mix of insults to a caring God and a desire dressed up like faith. Asking for a miraculous and instantaneous loss of weight may sound like a great faith venture but may also be as unlikely as a wanting to swallow a camel. We can never pray away things Christ says MUST happen, such as affliction, adversity, or stumbling blocks. Perhaps people make poor word choices when they are praying, instead of getting their words from the Holy Spirit. Offences or stumbling blocks are necessary from God’s perspective.
Hope that settles
The people who sit in the darkness can be blissfully unaware of the light that may be about to dawn, so when it does come they were not prepared for that light to be a person. They and we hoped but were not sufficiently convinced to drop everything so that their expectations can be realized.
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
1 Thessalonians 2:19
There is a nakedness that attends every expectation. Our hoping is an admission of poverty in some respect. We hope for things we do not have and the lack is a condition we know will end. Hope must be allowed to settle us and be treated as part of Christ’s saving equipment.
1 John 2:28
And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
Finding rest in the text – B
Continuing our conviction that coming to God’s written word is a deal that brings rest, we venture to propose that our coming and arrival includes guarding the
Protecting the mysteries
Our defence of the faith is an important part of our rest. This will ultimately call for us to walk in the other person’s shoes. This is a primary contributor to spiritual health. It is more than having thoughts and prayers and even having an emotional expression or deliverance insights about our neighbours in their adversity. Theology that brings us to law, Moses, Jewish types and fables as the ultimate expressionn9fnthr kin hd9mjru4dis suspect because the texts are designed to bring us to Christ, to discoveries of the substance of what the earlier witnesses saw or spoke about as yet future, not understanding but yet saved by the faith they possessed.
Real Rest
The aim of God’s intervention is to deposit divine love in human hearts.
The yoke – easy and educational – that we are invited to take on gives us real rest in the place of annual cycles of sin and death. Even when our love does not provide the relief needed for life’s situations rest is assured. We rejoice with those rejoicing, and we mourn with the mourners. Our rest takes Messianic shape with our dynamic connection to our neighbours. Our rest is not from our hostile neighbours but from the anointed work of God.
Guarding the word and the treasure the word brings
We do theology only to the extent that we have been equipped by our pastors to do so. Instead of holding people captive to our pastoral acuity and expertise we ought to take the greatest pleasure in seeing our members advance along the lines of our own empowerment and outfitting. Currently we keep looking for problems to solve, the miracle relief, but both the written word and the personal Word of God give rest without revolving yawning.
The snare of legalism
The definitions of legalism have not always been helpful. There is always a “but” in the explanation usually to fill the perceived void that liberation from death, sin, and law seemed to create. The pressure towards law is immense and wicked. Jews who decided to follow the were rightly assumed to have discarded the Law. Theologians, fully displaying their cowardice and laziness, have applied the term antinomian to anyone who dared to cling to life and not death. When we say we are Christians we do not need to confess anything about Moses, prophets, law, or Judaism, If you feel guilty about receiving Yeshua as God’s Anointed you are a fly in the spider’s web of legalism, snared and probably still dead.
Paul had said so much that puts the law into a unattractive framework that he asks the question that his readers were bound to ask.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
Rom. 7:7
Law is a hypocrite’s tool
- they believe in monogamy, but a man can yabam his way to as many wives as he has brothers who predecease their spouses
- the priests do the same work Sunday to Saturday and are guiltless
- people put patriarchal above the sabbath by performing circumcision
- they believe that gold and silver are currency for atonement
- they equate commandment keeping with righteousness even when it is clear that no-one gets saved by doing so
- they insist that saved people must commit adultery – remarrying the husband – the law – from whom they were set free by Christ
- they enrich themselves by devouring the money and property of God’s priestly people often by robbery and murder
We are pretty sure that law does not figure in Messianic lordship. He did not need it to save us and he does not need it to keep us safe and to enable our growth. By the time Yeshua is into his first tour of Israel the law and the prophets had been certified as weak, ineffective, and without authority.
What did Paul say? He said (ii) Jews were unfaithful/unbelieving even though God entrusted the oracles to them (ii) Jews were convicted of sin – did not keep the law (iii) Abraham was not in any position to brag about his performance of duty but rather his faith (iv) People (Romans or Jews) are not under law but under grace and (v) there was no fruit but death from the things they cherished.
Liberated
To be sure about what our behaviour should be the place to look is the Cross. To be sure about who is our authority the person to look to is Yeshua. To be sure about our identity we must believe and confess Yeshua’s death and resurrection.
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 