Author: eejoseph

QOTD

eejoseph

Question of the day

How could God fix the problem his son Adam unleashed with just another son?

“…Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God…”

Luke 3:34b-38, NASB

“therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Genesis 3:23-24, NASB

The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

Romans 5:16ķ

“For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

Romans 5:17

So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:45-47, NASB)

The Beloved

Shout everybody!

eejoseph

“Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;” (Psalms 66:1, NASB)

God is so powerful that his enemies and his works so awesome that his enemies turn to deception (Psalms 66:3).  They lie about their thoughts and allegiance.  At some point everyone will worship Yahweh, will sing praises (play music) to him; they will sing praises (play music) to his name.”  (Psalms 66:4)  One might think that this global view might be the beginning of a new mindset in Israel, but not even Solomon’s  father,  the monarch of sacred music, was ready to put some distance between real life and fantasy.  Shout everybody but wring your hands in despair because the Levitical system is still front and centre.

Still important to the king

  • coming into Yahweh’s house with burnt offerings
  • paying vows
  • offering burnt offerings of fat beasts
  • sending up rams in smoke
  • offering bulls with male goats (Psalms 66:13-15, NASB)

Did David not know that he can sing and play anywhere with God’s eyes, ears and heart focused on him? Of course he did.  These wishes regarding the levitical forms of worship are that part of his psyche that wants to demonstrate his utmost in a regal and megalithic way.  Remember when he said he would not sleep until he found a place where he can build a place for Yahweh’s worship to be front and centre.  Have you not wondered why this monumental worship is not happening any where in the world?

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed…

Psalms 2:2, NASB

Changed lives or just another scam?

eejoseph

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3:18, NASB

This single verse  from Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church (2:3:18) is a stiff rebuke to the narratives produced by people who want to take credit for the progress of believers.  What gives them away is the fact that they are repeatedly roadblocks to what Christ wants to do in believers’ lives.  We can try to show how we have “outchanged” other believers but we consistently fail.  It is Christ who pardons sin, gives life to the repentant, gives the Holy Spirit to his elect, and brings them to glory.  A changed life has everything it needs and it needs no standard bedside the Lord Christ.  It is his absence from the human agenda that brings people to the fully changed scam.

See here what the true disciple contrasts

  • a veiled Moses with all the saints
  • an unchanged people with a changing people

This tower of seismic contrasts goes further than veiled Moses and an unchanged people. If a person choses moonlight over the sun so they will never see. Reading Moses a certain way amounts to treachery. “But to this day”, said Paul, a cream of the Jewish crop, “whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;” (2 Corinthians 3:15, NASB).  It comes down to discerning the apostle’s intentions when he talks about:

The face: analogy and reality

The attempt to subvert the gospel with lies about being “fully changed” on account of a claim to be commandments-keepers is a miserable failure.  The apostle is unequivocal: we are being changed.  If anyone want to say that Christ has finished changing us we know that a demon is involved, and hypocrisy is the outfit and jewelry of that crew.

Faded temple and law talk kills

Any comparison of the faces of Christ and Moses has to conclude with a resolute contrast.   Furthermore and without a doubt, face to face with the Lord Christ is not an end of the age business. A changed life has eternal rationales, gracious departures and arrivals, and God does not admit claims by human to be those things that God cannot transfer to us. Moses is a partial picture of success. Even though he had a unique kind of burial it is obvious that I recall having a tough time convincing students that repentance is neither a behavioural u-turn nor a river of tears of sorrow. It seems that the popular view of repentance is a mock up of John the Baptist’s “make the fruit that speak repentance’s language” (Matthew 3:8). Within three years of John’s call for repentance fruit there were thousands of witnesses in Jerusalem to the fact that only a handful of his contemporaries had sincerely changed their minds about what God was doing in the interest of all human beings. John did not live to see it, thanks to faded temple and law talk.

Effective face-time

Careful analysis of the priorities of credentialed operatives in the religions of both east and west shows that leaders and those aspiring to lead only need to make outlandish claims that no-one can prove or disprove. It is perfectly fine to believe anything at all. The goals that we say we have achieved are not the ones that reflect the growth everyone who is on a journey of infinite dimensions should expect. The conquest of land and the provision of immense wealth are poor signs of face-time with divinity. Did not Gautama renounce life’s comforts and traditional rights so he could focus on spiritual values? So did Moses, John the Baptist. It seems that people are convinced that they can achieve more with anything less than a moment by moment mindfulness of the vast gap between themselves and the God of the universe, then we can fully explain the shallow pits we have dug for ourselves with our religio-political constructs. How little we have learned about real face-time with God!

For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6

So let us continue to paint the picture of contrasts, bearing in mind that one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. My glory might be my neighbour’s shame. Take the use of bacon (with eggs) as a staple for breakfast and its use practically everywhere to add flavour (and God knows what else) and compare that to the near outright ban on swine in some lands. Glory, hope, permanent values are going to make sense only in the light of shame, despair and fads.

  • glory  (2 Corinthians 3:7,8,9,10)
  • great hope (2 Cor. 3:12)
  • The transitory and the permanent (2 Corinthians 3:7)
  • The glory in the face of God’s agent  (2 Cor 3:8)

This saying pins light transmission to the Incarnate Word, the world’s light.  Perhaps when we actually love our sinful neighbours as God the Father does we can say we have been fully changed.  That is not happening anywhere most human pride in achievement rises and quenches the Spirit’s work.

The face of Christ is specific and exclusive.  People cannot just turn it into a wisdom of the prophets thing or a faith is obedience thing, and especially not a love God priority with xenophobic food, drink and festival things.

Wake, sleepyhead, raze

eejoseph,

Finding a criminal label for so many behaviours that one begins to suspect that societies will not hesitate to criminalize the very foundations of human survival affirms the junkie factor among many religious people; Christians included.  The superficiality of achievements without honourable and reasonable efforts, the shameful audacity of public leadership without service, and religious of religious We do not exaggerate putting out the headline: the watchmen and architects sleep and rase.

Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain.

Psalms 127:1, NASB

Now that everything around us is crumbling we have to begin to see those facts in the light of what was said before they happened. That will prove that honest people are not rare by accident. Foxes in the henhouse, polices services oppressing the people they are supposed to serve, and spiritual leaders desperately trying to insert their “faith” into the secular power-grid are all one tribe. No sane person will accept the intrusion of any faith into their community. None of the populous faiths have a record of either genuine humanity or genuine divinity and none have improved the welfare of their people, and I have to tell you, the truth of the Christian message is that if you treat people outside your faith as less that deserving of their food, drink, play, clothing and housing, you have forgeited the respect of most people as a genuine associate of a God who, among other things, created the world and all our processes on this planet.

When the watchmen and builders are scorched earth experts?

Someone is sleeping where we need a watchmen, and the architects of the USA, the UK, the PRC, the many socialist rebublics are workers of vanity. They have all thought that their ideas, to which they have a “sacred” right, can replace those things that God have kept under his own power and authority. Pure vanity meets pure confusion and despair. They wrote their constitutions, set up defence systems, and built their nations apart from God. Now they want to play God, calling earth a washed up mansion, looking for a new planet home in those places where only death prevails. The PRC, the UK, and the USA have not only soiled their garments they are fairly satisfied that they can walk around naked thinking that they can sufficiently manipulate the media to keep the illusion of their thriving business and economy policies front and centre, and eventually demand allegiance at the point of their swords. My recommendation to the city builders and defenders: go with your 30% or 3%, because the die is cast, most people know that governments of any stripe are vanity, puffs of smoke, that do not transform into rain clouds. Any other eventuality is sure to be a media and social media concoction. Wakey, sleepyhead.

The watchmen and the builder

Rapid and resolute denials of facts are the symptoms of a city whose watchmen are busy handing the keys to the city’s enemies. The builders think they can fool society by trying to maintain and repair the broken down structures of society all the while ignoring the blueprints that apply. None of the nations in the Americas or Europe are levitical systems, neither are they monarchies that are built on the pattern of David. People are not that blind. Despite the bravado about God’s law, commandment-keeping as righteousness and God’s future government underpinned by a law for bad actors. I suppose that God’s kingdom is going to be no different from the world described in Genesis. How many persons in God’s kingdom are going to be lawless, rebellious, ungodly, sinful, unholy and profane? I cannot imagine how intelligent persons can pretend to make a case for God’s kingdom needing regulations for and threats against those who kill their fathers or mothers, against murderers, immoral men, homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching…” (1 Timothy 1:9-10, NASB)

The kingdom of God is never likened to prophets and the law.  One has to decide whether the kingdom being described is destination or God’s rule. The undisputed king stated what the kingdom is like.

  • A mustard seed
  • A fisherman’s net cast into the sea
  • Yeast hidden in dough
  • Treasure hidden in a fiekd
  • A merchant making seeking pearls
  • A landowner hire (and pay) his labourers
  • A seedsower scattering seeds on various “soils”

How simple it would be for the king to say that his kingdom is like people doing what he says without fail. He never did and we know who dares try to put those words in the king’s mouth. Sleepy watchmen who wake only to give the keys to the enemies breaking in and only builders who see their duty as razing the only authorized foundation: cross, Spirit, service, and suffering in preparation for glory.

No blip

eejoseph

“About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the Way.” (Acts 19:23, NASB)

Previously in Acts

  • Bogus exorcists (Acts 19:16)
  • Decision to see Rome
  • Two ministers dispatched to Macedonia, Timothy and Erastus
  • The name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified (Acts 19:17)
  • The word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing (Acts 19:20)
  • Stayed in Asia for a while. (Acts 19:22)

Disturbance breaks out

It was obvious that someone wanted to stir up the business world and use the courts to cripple the disciples’ effect on the whole of Asia. In the 21st century we have seen a lot of religious posturing by governments to the point where many are beginning to think that there may be crediblity to various examples of religion-dominated societies. Take three or four Asian examples, a couple more from the Midde East, a dozen from Europe and the Americas and the case closes. There is nothing more than a muffled whimper from religious governement. God will never consent to humans (especially exclusively males) being the arbiters of what people should think. The difference between God and humanity is too stark for thoughtful people to tolerate even the smell of thieves, robbers, blasphemers and religious artifacts and rituals.

Another day in court

For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. (Acts 19:37, NASB)

As it happened

  • BIG BUSINESS … a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen;
  • FORMING A LOBBY. these he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business.
  • MAKING THE LINK BETWEEN GOD AND BUSINESS. “You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made with hands are no gods at all.
  • LOSS OF MARKET RANKINGS. “Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.”
  • ANGRY MOB SLOGANISM. When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
  • CITY-WIDE MOB CHAOS. The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.
  • PAUL PROTECTED. And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. Also some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater.
  • OFFICIAL DISTURBANCE AND VACUUM. So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together.
  • ANTI-JEWISH SENTIMENT. Some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having motioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly.
  • LOUD DEMONSTRATION. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
  • DEFENDING EPHESIAN TRADITION. After quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, “Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven?
  • APPEALING FOR CALM. “So, since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash.” (Acts 19:24-36, NASB)

Lawful process vs kangaroo court

But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly. For indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today’s events, since there is no real cause for it, and in this connection we will be unable to account for this disorderly gathering.

Acts 19:39-40, NASB

Civic society has not learned how to appreciate the difference between God’s domain and human government. We can see this in the attempts to solve problems with religous laws and practice. The histories of Judaism and Islsm have taught us nothing. Along with a full embrace of the message from the Bible people remain slow to save themselves from their crooked and adulterous generations. It is no wonder that people find church, even the African thievery, Joel Osteen delusionary, and John Hagee shallow pool type sideshow, wholly unappealing and no blip.

Another unhinged conclusion

eejoseph,

When the lights around us dim we can get direction, certainty,  and life, all in one place. That is what Moses predicted: a dire situation in which Israelites recognize Yahweh. The later prophets saw a day coming when circumstances will help Israel acknowledge the Lord.

God in a box?

When he returned to the man of God with all his company, and came and stood before him, he said, “Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; so please take a present from your servant now.”

2 Kings 5:15

It must be rare that coming face to face with Jerusalem’s unique dignity among places of note does not diminish national pride and raise confidence in God’s personal embrace of people from everywhere (every family, to be precise), and bring relief that God does not live in a box or country.

You probably recall the Elijah showdown with the prophets of Baal and the prophet’s concern that faith in Israel’s God was on the brink of extinction.  How can a prophet be wrong? When they say before they hear.

Well, Elijah’s successor had an awakening to the facts attending Elijah’s concern.  

God in ancient Israel? Exactly where?

Where is Yahweh,  and why do Israelites keep running into the arms of Baal and the ashtaroth?

Of course there is one nation whose God offers access to himself only in designated spaces.  The sacred tent was not home for God.  It was more of a guest room.  God actually expressed his preference for keeping the people alive by not being in their midst.  At no time before New Testament times can it be said that God lived in human bodies.

Having eyes for the neighbours’ gods and having one place where sacrifice for sin could only mean one thing: God was there,  but really wasn’t.  His presence depended on what the people wanted.  There were no lepers cleansed, and both Israel and Judah were evicted from the only place where God promised to be – to put his name. Shouldn’t the songbook reflect what is happening in people’s lives?

You judge. You decide. You delay. You strike. You grow. You wither.

Morning, day, night

eejoseph,

Torn from its roots a tree will not survive. A way of life separated from its source cannot be an example for others. The difference between morning, day and night illustrates the seasons of human activity, the last being a period of inactivity.

In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see.

Deuteronomy 28:67

This dire warning from Moses to his people in anticipation of their continued rebellion against the covenant is extremely relevant in our times as we notice the decay that eats away at our society. Especially where you have people who are claiming to have the light of divine wisdom and to be in the right we can say that the 2022 environment is demonstrably excessively evil and corrupt. We have to give thanks for the divine wisdom which sees that a severe chastisement can manifest itself in a people not knowing what time it is. How true is that of the trees of today’s forest!

Knowing the facts in light of the ttuth

Christ is a light and a lightning rod, but he did not use speech to insult or misinform. For a guy who called himself the Truth the bar was high. He had to speak true things and perform the things that were undeniable. The use of force by God or Christ’s disciples to prevent the passion was unthinkable and frankly was not allowed.

God’s eternal edict is not kill ’em all

God’s word gets fulfilled in his Word incarnate. All the notions about human compliance are a lot of hot and haughty airs. Not knowing whether we are hot or cold is not responsible behaviour. God’s righteous judgment – I love them I redeemed them – is the last thing even Moses would expect.

Redemption is an accomplished fact. People can talk about all the phases of our experience of God’s great gift but it does not change the fact that 2000 years ago the Redeemer said “It is finished”. He’s done and therefore that tree planted by the rivers of water is going to produce its fruit in its season, its leaves will not wither and whatsoever it does will prosper because God loves his planted tree and keeps it.

But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

Matthew 26:54

Identity dictates activity

If one believes that a person is like a tree (Psalm 1:3) then it makes no sense not to believe the following about this tree. This person

  • is firmly planted by streams of water
  • yields its fruit in its season
  • has leaves that do not wither
  • prospers in all he does

You may not realize that leaders and many brainwashed believers are engaged in a desperate attempt to coax believers to perform and produce. – the trees of God’s planting – barely need that. Sharp on the heels of that exhortation are devaluation and condemnation for not performing; guaranteed!

Our Destiny

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

  1 Thessalonians 5:4-9, NASB

An unlikely clique

eejoseph

Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

Deuteronomy 7:9, NASB

A thousand generations, huh? What kind of clique-making is this?  The unlikely.  Those who love God and keep his commandments are also the people who know him and must tell him what he wants to hear.  Making rivers of blood and retelling the fable about covenant-keeping are way off from the contrition and confession that brings fulfillment.

This description of God loving his lovers is responsible for a truckload of anguish.  It is no longer shocking to me how this picture of God becomes a personal challenge and a corporate figleaf.  The description is designed to invite a successful relationship with God’s instructions.  Compliance has not been responsible for divine satisfaction in any terminal fashion. This description is a push in the direction of things you’re going to need to do.

Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Deuteronomy 7:11

Sour grapes are not supposed to affect the children, according to a late proverb, but here we have God keeping covenant and loving kindness for a thousand generations.  All those succeeding generations have no credit for themselves, but are the beneficiaries because of something an ancestor did.  Confused? Let me help.

What goes around comes around

Did we not suspect that keeping lovingkindness and keeping commands are the same kind of activity?  No one has developed the idea that God is tied to a list of things he needs to do, if that is what keeping means. Some people  have dared to say that Yeshua came to the world armed with a law designed for bad guys (1 Timothy 1:5-11). God’s freedom cannot be less than absolute and perfect.  We say we are free but that freedom has undeniable limits (handrails?).

The facts and fantasy

If it were true that a person can, through his commandment-keeping, assure a thousand generations of God’s goodness it has not sufficed to end the incompetent reign of prophets, priests,  and kings, and it is obvious that reliable records of commandment-keeping for four thousand years are more likely to be a fossil record or a cave walk drawing.   It is utterly opposite to the kingdom of grace and even to the operation of the Sinai covenant, with its Tabernacle services and atonement, that one man’s obedience to the law brings practically unbroken goodness.

Unlikely and never did happen. 

My mom was a commandment-keeper so God’s lovingkindness is assured me and the next 999 generations.

No-one Ever

How do I know?  The Tabernacle stood for thousands of years until the temple was destroyed (2600 and 1950 years ago). If there is a fast food version of God’s gifts to undeserving people operation why should that be a secret at all?  If there is a temple service in operation today in 2021 that supports a 1000-generation jackpot it is the best kept secret of all time.  Unlikely.