Author: eejoseph

Shekinah and Dabar

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Residence and Communications are the stated purposes for building the Tent of Meeting and this Tent turns out to be so full of detailed revelations about the divine order that one can easily go astray in assigning value to its many details. Paul’s contention in 1 Timothy 1:5ff shows how successful the deceiver of souls has become in having people rejoice in elevating the moon above the sun. The contention is sobering because it comes as the first thing on the apostles mind.
Paul was concerned about people swerving off the highway of truth.

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, (1 Timothy 1:7)

The simple stories of the Mosaic Economy have become the pillars of those who wander away but Paul was onto them. Their purpose was clear to Paul and is to us now.

are desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

The tent narrative is hard for all of us but it is not mysterious. Two things are stated explicitly.

God wants to live in his people

Exodus 25:8. Dwell is from shaken (shawKANE שכן)

And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.

God wants to communicate with his people.

Exodus 25:21-22. Speak is from dabar דבר

And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. Exodus 25:21-22

Tent and temple without a Christian centre crumbles and distracts from the facts, of which the temple is but a mere shadow. The temple/tent/sanctuary is not a building in heaven, it is a symbol of God at work in us.

Christ is above the heavens, from whence he ministers the spirit to those who come to God the Father through him, making us a fit dwelling place for the Holy Spirit so that it may said even now

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Revelation of John 21:3b

There is no greater Shekinah than Christ dwelling in the hearts of those who come to God and there is no greater communication than the Holy Spirit who speaks the word of Christ to us and guides us into all truth.

Straight to the top

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Few lives stay the course as did George H.W. Bush’s.

Great dad and public servant.

There is no age limit to the trauma of becoming an orphan and the excellence that belongs to genuine service in any sphere of human life will only be missed by the cold and heartless.

The passing of the 41st president of the United States is, for the vast majority, another day to be distracted from the murders and bribery that dominates. The example and experience of a public servant does not get shinier.

An appropriate footnote to a majestic moment would have to include the awareness that American ears are waxy.

For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. Matthew 13:15

Total Loyalty to God is a Shameful Lie

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One of the signs of the modern hypocrite plague is the affirmation of total loyalty to God. We hear a lot of talk about discipleship and learning, but all the talkers can offer the world is the insane treadmill of death, sin, and law.
The world – with the Jewish people in particular as the example – was held behind bars until faith came. There was no gift of the Holy Spirit until Christ died. Faith is said to have busted open the prison that held us. In this sense the word faith takes on a personality. That prison is also described as the age of minority; the juvenile stage of human life. It is the stage of immaturity, no authority as family member, and subjection to appointed guardians and custodians. Faith brings us to freedom from this juvenile stage.

  1. It is Christ who came
  2. It is Christ who died
  3. It is Christ who freed us

We need to tell James to stay home: faith can never be dead because faith is the means of getting life into us and faith is the road on which we walk. How can it ever be dead?
That perversion of the sacred narrative is an example of the ongoing error of the human effort to ingratiate oneself to God. Salvation and grace are not of human origin.

Now the only people who will claim that achievement are those who are resistant to the need for a change and the one-sided (divine) responsibility for salvation. It is an abomination that people want credit for God’s work.

It is also shameful because the mark of good interpretation of Scripture is the division of saving truth from childish and useless fables. The only people who resisted God, for the record, are Jews. It was to them that God turned his attention and no one can tell the story of Abraham’s descendants without recognizing the predicament of the human race. A dismal failure is the best way to illustrate the winning plan these loyalists are selling us in the 21st century.

Scripture is convincing that a temple and its laws have no relevance when the salvation of the world is confessedly the exclusively work of the Son of God. Christ did not come to impose the teachings of Moses.

The Lord Yeshua the Messiah is sacrifice, priest, holy place (as residence), mercy seat and the satisfaction for all who come to God by him. Animal blood does not cut it.

We love because he first loved us.

Watch out Jerusalem

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Here comes the king of the north – Russia – with his valued southern ally just as predicted. I am not looking fur any credit for tagging the Saudi-Russian handshake in Buenos Aires as an omen of the truth famine, but it reveals the absence of American vision and backbone, and the irrelevance of America’s most treasured friend on the global scene.
The difference between the great and wannabe will appear in the interactions of European and Russian heads with the oligarchs and monarchs.
The sparks will fly over human rights and international law and America has no flint.
Jerusalem is never again going to be a toy for bigoted Jew or Gentile, and most assuredly not for the global oppressors of the poor and freedom-loving people.

God’s holiness on display when Israel attacked
You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. Ezekiel 38:16

MILITARY INTRIGUE
Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord God: On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not know it? You will come from your place OUT OF THE UTTERMOST PARTS OF THE NORTH, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army. Ezekiel 38:14-15

Second-hand Secretaries

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The specter of US officials choosing not to examine the evidence regarding the murder of Saudi journalist Khashoggi is disturbing to the popular expectation that government has a vital interest in facts for everyone’s welfare. The conundrum is also a familiar one. There are many gatekeepers who have neither expertise nor experience in the business – electric power generation, supporting people’s personal needs, elder care – they are charged with supervising.

The familiar is also deadly. I know preachers who repeat a sentence or clause 70 times in 30 minutes and what they do not know is that people who have a habit (and immense privilege) of returning to look at the evidence know that there is not a lot of familiarity with the evidence behind such performances. The loud and repetitious presentations are a lot of hot air.

There are enough nurses and caregivers who have far too little compassion for needy and dependent persons. There are far too many people in positions of accountability who have little grasp of the material that they are charged with interpreting.

The world does not run on secondhand information despite the millions who, in 2018, have no firsthand relationship with the evidence. They read the translations of others like the US officials read the transcripts. They prefer to eat beef than to eat grain. They prefer 17th century English to 21st century Canadian-English and that only helps shatters the facade of the miraculous second-hand secretaries.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:14-15

Those Weeping Stones

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An interesting confluence takes place when we put the Tables of the Covenant alongside the concept of stones crying out and the fact of hearts that were incapable of receiving the covenant. Claims of being Abraham’s children without a makeover is a fantasy. Abe would have loved Yeshua!

The stones we throw

The people who escaped bondage in the first Passover would be the prime witnesses to the success of the covenant but they died of unbelief. Before we accuse and execute others – by subjecting them to the ministry of condemnation engraved in stony tables – we ought to check our hands for absolute purity.

The stones that condemn us

The tables of stone are not an accident nor are they a token of permanence. They are the evidence that people talk a good game but need supernatural help to take the first step towards adoption. They are evidence that God has a greater idea.

Verified by Blood

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A covenant reminder can be a refreshing exercise.  When we revel in the New Covenant we are not to be charged with inventing some new fad. The Lord himself introduces it distinct fashion. The partaking of bread and wine in memory of our Lord’s death resurrection should be held in strict reverence. The covenant in his blood is the only candidate for the progress of the people of God. Jeremiah’s new covenant prediction can only be realized (a) with the shedding of efficacious blood, and (b) the terms of the covenant cannot include anything from the testimony (Jeremiah. 31:31-34).

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jer 31:34
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. Jer 31:32;

The homogeneity between the Sinai Covenant and the covenant of grace may be something more than a childish delusion, a refusal to grow up. It comes from ground that wants to take credit for the rain and the farmer’s work. It comes from a mind that wants to sit on the fence. When our Lord cautioned about loving God or Mammon, the elephants in the room were Himself and the rest of the world. His disciple could not embrace both Moses and the God who had appeared in human flesh. The difference is stark. The difference is demands and death through unbelief versus grace and life through faith.
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On top of this, bread and wine, the very staples of Palestinian life, are the signs of the Lord’s mediation as priest-king.  Our life in Christ is sustained, dynamically, by High-priestly generosity, the milk and honey of our times in fellowship with the Father. These proverbial queens of baby food give way to the blood that pays our debt and is our life.

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) Gen 14:18;

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest,
one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, Heb 8:1;

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost
those who draw near to God through him,
since he always lives to make intercession for them. Heb 7:25;

Finally! No Death Sting

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Here are a few of the summary statements by New Testament witnesses. There are at least another 5 or so with the same feature. No writer urges obedience to the law or reliance on prophets.

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Philippians 3:1

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 1 Thessalonians 4:1

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 1 Peter 3:8

How could the guardians of God’s saving revelation not proclaim the whole duty of man?