Author: eejoseph

Real people power

eejoseph,

What are you most excited about for the future?

The meek inherit the earth again, eat, drink and enjoy

A lot of future scenarios are purely pie in the sky, and the show we have endured of empires and mega commerce will come to an abrupt end. No light, no business, literally. When the power systems of our times – the solar, the fossil fuel, the nuclear, become ineffective, the meek will truly inherit the earth. No one will be waiting for courts to rule on access to nourishment and recreation. Big business will flicker and dangle on the cliffs of silence. Angels, who neither marry nor procreate are said to personify human destiny, so it is not a stretch to have expectations about humans being like birds and the lillies of the field, astonishingly adorned with individual splendour. Governments, both large and small, will have no levers to pull, no bottom line, no profit margin, and no corrupt law enforcement. Do not ask me when. Maybe after the next great earthquake? Maybe after the waves cover the machinery of the generals and the mighty? Maybe after the sun scorched the delicate instruments of oppression? Maybe the meek will, without shame, inherit the earth “… in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will have abundance.” (Psalms 37:19, NASB)

But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

Psalms 37:11

Coins to collect

eejoseph


Paul’s first coin to the Romans comes immediately after the salutation ends. Thus, verse eight is to be understood as his selling of himself, the main verb being eucharistô, I am giving thanks. Paul signals the coin by placing men (μεν) before “I give thanks”, and we find the de (δε) in verse 12.

Flip sides in literature

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.” (Romans 1:8, NASB)

“that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.” (Romans 1:12, NASB)

By his coins the writer may confront the reader with flip sides of his views or experience, etc. The head and the tail of Paul ‘s coin are his thanksgiving and his joint comfort regarding the Roman believers.

Head and tail

  • THANKS that their faith in Christ is a witness to the whole world (verse 8)
  • Joint COMFORT that the faith is common (verse 12)

This type of sentence relationship is often the source of profound insight. We can forget the idea that faith has national and cultural character. The reluctance of Peter, for example, to have fellowship with Gentiles (Acts 10 and 11:1-2) is the furthest thing from Paul’s mind. He says he had been always prayng to visit the Roman believers (verse 10), and there is no mistaking his earnest desire (epipotheô) to see them (verse 11).
We can see that men and de are not always purely opposite in contrast. To be jointly comforted – sumparaklēthēnai – and giving thanks are both positive experiences. The second is received, the first is given. Taking this coin to the bank I discover that my thanksgiving over other believers’ value can play out in a fellowship of Holy Spirit’s help. Let’s put our thanksgiving out there!

The king and the Galilean fisherman

eejoseph

The Judean king, Herod Agrippa I, had James, the brother of Jesus, killed, then thought he would impress the people by attacking Peter. Boy! What a catastrophe! If you can imagine a king in a Roman jurisdiction dying a miserable and public death and the world’s most powerful leader not being apprised, go ahead. Many kings have pursued people in God’s spotlight but God has not always put his response in the spotlight. After all, what have kings to do with fishermen?

The king and the fisherman in contrast

Arrest, Chains, and Worms

Chains may not always fall off by direct supernatural intervention nor do wicked rulers always meet an ignominious and painful death, but believers are not poorly served when their lives include persecution and death. The greatest man who ever was born (Luke 7:28) had his head taken off at the request of a girl dancing to please a drunken party (Matthew 14:6-12). The things a king can do to enlightened people pale in comparison to what has happened to them as a result of God’s grace to all people.

Worried but not despairing

eejoseph,

What are you most worried about for the future?

The resources of information and entertainment are being marshalled for a campaign of deception. Security, justice, and the common good are already being manipulated and diverted from the known courses. For example, civilization used to be measured by literacy, namely, writing and documentation, as compared to oral traditions. Today literacy is disappearing as cheap political and religious slogans multiply and dominate the market place, helped along by algorithms designed to sustain the supposed priorities.

Irresistible deception

Stop following the crowd blindly! Check the sources of information. Believe what your ears hear and your eyes see. The truth is more likely to be in the sights and sounds than in the spin. Deception is too easy these days, and even manifest falsehoods become treasured truths once they are repeated regularly and by trusted public officials. Be very worried, but arm yourself with unchanging truth and facts.

Decree and Declare, Prayer and Prosperity

eejoseph

Stick a pin in your decree and declare

It is a popular routine for people who, instead of talking to God in prayer, adopt the position of a preacher, announcing what is sure to be the result of prayer.  You are in a fortunate class if you have not heard someone decreeing and declaring things that every child of God possesses and declaring others to which no one has any right. Prosperity is the believer’s nickname because he stands totally and spiritually blessed, with no guarantee of gold, silver, employment, perfect physical health or exemption from common human troubles.  If believers choose to decree and declare instead of praying and believing we should not be surprised at the sound of balloons popping like clockwork.

It is telling that people asked to pray end up decreeing and declaring things for which the public has neither microscope nor telescope  to see and verify as granted. No Apostle of Jesus Christ or prophet of Yahweh ever ended a prayer with a decree and declare. Prayer is perfectly defined in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, so no one needs to redraft what effective prayer looks like. Back to the drawing board, please.

God did not authorize any eavesdropping on prayers by any agency for prayers to be fulfilled

We do not need anyone listening to our prayers and inventing the wheel by pretending to have insight into what God wants to accomplish in our lives.  The Lord Christ himself has assured us that our attitudes in prayer should include faith – assurance – that God hears us and confidence that God will not give us scorpions when we ask him for eggs.  In our current global distress with corona virus it is unimaginable that God has not heard the millions of people who have requested a specific end to the pandemic.  We should also be certain that speaking things into existence is a rare ability even among the royal priesthood.  Things we and our neighbours need and want should all be appearing day after day because God grants power and authority to his children to act as His Son does.

Decree’s terminology spaces

“Decree” in Job 22:28 (NASB, King James Version) means to cut, not speak.  The first time the term  appears in the Bible it means just that, cut or divide, and had nothing to do with talk.  “The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”  (1 Kings 3:25, NASB).  It comes again in verse 26 “Divide him”.  Aramaicic gazar in Daniel’s prophecy is also  CUT but 5 times refers to the activity of soothsayers.

The chances that Eliphaz is roasting Job with a soothsaying charge are high indeed.  The term from which the translators get decree, gazar, is prominently related to speaking in Daniel’s prophecy as soothsaying.  Otherwise gazar means cut, and an emer is clearly related to talking, but what does cutting (off) a saying have to do with establishing something? We can be sure that no-one in the Job speech cycles embraced the idea that human sayings make a thing happen.  This, however, is not what the DECREE AND DECLARE CREW is doing.  Man!  We would have no hospitals, no need for grocers and bankers, men and women to procreate.  We would all be single having miracle babies, and unemployed making tons of money.  Can believers also grow in grace and knowledge apart from due diligence? It is obvious that our prayer and work experience are the critical contributors to our growth.

Is “decree and declare” to be taken as God’s standard answer?

Perhaps few of us are recognizing that prayer involves listening as well.  Prayer is not monologue but dialogue.   If we know anything about God it should include his treasury of things to say to us.  I cannot imagine any child of God approaching his throne and not expecting timely help in the areas God has promised, and just plain love talk.  It is next to Impossible to speak with God and not hear his loving reassurance that everything we need is in place.  Impatience is as oil to water in the prayer exchange.  Timely ( eukairon )  help is an essential part of the Lord’s prayer service, and we surely cannot think that timely means anything beside God’s timing (Hebrews 4:16). If the declarers and decreers are on a power trip then we should expect to see things happen by fiat such as when God said in the beginning “let there be”. Is it sufficient to imagine that everything they decree and declare is happening just as spoken, despite evidence to the contrary week after week, month after month, and year after year? Do we not know how many seasons of prosperity, how many deliverances from bondage, how many triumphs over evil spirits, how many demons have been sent back to hell by decree and declaration? Of course we don’t!

Everything we need for life and godliness affirmed by promises

2) Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3) seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”

2 Peter 1:2-3, NASB

Expectations from divine words, written or otherwise, do not stray from the following.

  • teaching
  • reproof
  • correction
  • training in righteousness
  • adequate (complete)
  • equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NASB)

For getting the gospel banner

There seems to be no lack of space for reinventing the wheel in handling God’s word.  What happens when people pray is not rocket science. People should expect answers in word and deed.  Maybe it is our public prayer model that is baldly broken,   Even when we pile up promises around specific prayer requests we more often than not have no evidence of the answer.  it seems more likely that we have forgotten that all things that flow from Christ’s intervention are shaped by the gospel, not by the law, and not through creation models of speaking things into existence. How much time does a church service have to invest in the kind of waiting for the answer that goes with private (the essential quality!) prayer?  We should be leaving the answers to prayer in God’s capable hands.  Our hurry to see the answer to prayer is inconsistent with confidence, faith, and familiarity with God’s intervening mercy and grace. Perhaps a new translation of Hebrews 4:16b, NASB will help “… so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need”, lest we keep thinking that decreeing and declaring is a thing to take to prayer meeting.

… receive mercy and find grace towards (εις) timely help

We receive mercy and we receive grace in the direction of God’s timely help, because God controls the timing of the help.

Staying ahead of one’s students

eejoseph,

What makes a teacher great?

I like to give my students opportunities to discover, tasks they can complete with pride in their accomplishments, dazzle them with the beauty of applied knowledge, and help them find their wings.

A great teacher sizes up every student, anticipates the range of questions that can arise, and is willing to say “Let me get back to you on that”. Great teachers pave the way for success, by exposure and testing. A great teacher beams with pride when students learn and explodes with gold medal thanksgiving when students learn to use the knowledge imparted.

I suppose the ultimately great teacher is the one who finds genuine joy in being eclipsed by a student.