Hope that settles

eejosephLeave a comment

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.


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.

1 John 2:28

Finding rest in the text – B

eejosephLeave a comment

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

eejosephLeave a comment

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

  1. they believe in monogamy, but a man can yabam his way to as many wives as he has brothers who predecease their spouses
  2. the priests do the same work Sunday to Saturday and are guiltless
  3. people put patriarchal above the sabbath by performing circumcision
  4. they believe that gold and silver are currency for atonement
  5. they equate commandment keeping with righteousness even when it is clear that no-one gets saved by doing so
  6. they insist that saved people must commit adultery – remarrying the husband – the law – from whom they were set free by Christ
  7. 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.

Finding Rest in the Text – Alpha

eejosephLeave a comment

We have found that the task of doing theology is an essential post in the fence we continue to build for the mysteries of our faith. It is for everyone’s benefit that we know why we do the searching, the proper handling and the accurate exposition.  There are many treasures that we discover from the Scriptures and they may become mere symbols, but coming to the sacred texts in the same manner as one comes to the Living Word can be expected to result in rest.


Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

There is room enough in the final exposition for diversity of emphasis, but there is no fit for more than one interpretation. The discovery is either of faith or it misses the mark. The interpretation is married to the Living God who was crucified or it is not kingdom-helpful.

Next…

Protecting the mysteries

A day to remember, eh?

eejosephLeave a comment

One day long ago a Philistine capital was rocked to its foundation. A Jewish official, appointed by God and given superhuman powers, pulled down a Philistine government building killing 3000 persons. That day changed nothing in Canaan. In 2004 a tsunami took the lives of 225,000 in the Indian Ocean. That day changed nothing in the Asian world. Eighteen years ago the American people suffered the loss of 3000 persons in a suicide attack that also brought down a building. That day changed nothing even though the mantra would have people believe that there is a new era and a new world order emerging.

The one lesson that does way more than any kind of memorialization is the elemtary collective security and unity that nations love to name and fail to claim.

Appeal of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, June 1936

I ask the fifty-two nations, who have given the Ethiopian people a promise to help them in their resistance to the aggressor, what are they willing to do for Ethiopia? And the great Powers who have promised the guarantee of collective security to small States on whom weighs the threat that they may one day suffer the fate of Ethiopia, I ask what measures do you intend to take?

Representatives of the World I have come to Geneva to discharge in your midst the most painful of the duties of the head of a State. What reply shall I have to take back to my people?”

Whatsiz name

Status eejosephLeave a comment


To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David.

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Psalms 8:1

Prop and narrative

This is a song with a sobering proposition that stays from start to finish. The excellent name is perfectly clear to all observers. It cannot be that name that no one says. It cannot be that name that lives in a house without walls. It cannot be that name that condemns the innocent. It cannot be that name that is blasphemed in all the world by religious fanatics.

If you do not know what whatsiz name yet you will.

Grace and glory not earned

Quote eejosephLeave a comment

Psalm 84:11-12 seems to give assurances of divine generosity but the precise pervasiveness of God’s giving needs to be held up to the light.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

The components of this verse are very different. On first glance we see:
A. What is. God is…
B. What happens or will happen
C. What will/might happen

For clarity we recognize that there is no path to worshipping the sun (the star at the centre of our galaxy or any other star) or a shield or any other defensive military equipment.

  • God is not a star or a piece of armour.
  • He does what the sun does.
  • He provides what a shield does.

We can misplace the generosity of the Lord by treating the gift as (1) merely likely, or as (2) if it never happened. What are the chances of the grace and glory gift being all future? Neither Jew nor Christian can say that favour and significance, grace and glory have been withheld. Both grace and glory have been given repeatedly, which is precisely the point of YITTEN, יתן, translated as “He will give”. Natan נתן would have meant the gift giving is over. He gives so much of this that there was no doubt of the activity. The straight line to the 3rd part is justified.

Life without grace or glory

We know most certainly that if God withheld grace and glory no one would survive. Of the good things we have two samples right here in the sentence: grace and glory.

The person who walks in integrity is a graced person. He or she can be in no other category. Someone who walks perfectly is a familiar image: Abraham, Noah, and David (Gen. 15:2, 6:1, 1 Kings 9:4). Each of these stands in company with sacrificial animals: blemish free. But we must notice that animals chosen as offerings need no work-up to their condition. Humans become flawless only when God accepts the sacrifice of His Son.

Those lovely apartments

“Will give grace and glory” is not the best translation. How else could any one claim to recognize God’s lovable residences?

Sparrows in the sacred tent, where only the priests could go?
Birds nesting in the holy places and in places where even the priests dared not?

Grace and glory he keeps giving
חן וכבוד יתן