Service

Building on straw and stubble

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The erection of buildings occupies a primary place in God’s revelation in both the Old and  New Testaments.  Personal responsibility and diligence get roped into the construction ventures.  The followers of the Lord Yeshua the Anointed can never skirt around their function as builders, as surely as Adam could not avoid gardening.  Witness the Lord’s parable of the house built on sand or rock (Matthew 7:24-27) and Paul’s exhortation to focus on edification (1 Corinthians 14:26).  Rest assured that building is just one of many hubs of Messianic realities. It is a pretty careless practice to pick a topic and offer lessons about practice without a Messianic foundation. Praise, worship and service can only deteriorate into cute sound bytes without the unmovable centre of the cross.

For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. (1 Corinthians 14:17)

Glossolalia’s premium devalued

People can say a lot, be convinced of their veracity, but help no one.

Let everything be tethered to building up

We may find ourselves surrounded by buildings, some entirely new forms, and others look like attempted  renovations, and upgrades.  There is however no escaping the fact that in the Christian realm there is no new form and no new buildings. All of our construction work must build on the foundation.

What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. (1 Corinthians 14:26)

The apostolic foundation is fourfold

The essentials of church realities are evident in the devotion of early believers.  The absence of certain elements calls into question the conversion of the people in the membership.  Even with a discovery of a majority who have departed the faith the church is not a victim of satanic assault.  Her foundation on the Rock has enduring results.

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

  • Prayer
  • Common meals
  • Fellowship
  • Doctrine

At its core Christian process is not like the Levitical economy with its dominating sacrifices (things slaughtered), offerings (gifts) and burnt offerings.  These find no parallel in the New Covenant process. The church is not a temple like the Solomonic temple, which even Solomon himselself acknowledged was incapable of containing the divine majesty.

“But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!

2 Chronicles 6:18

The consensus in the New Testament is also in, both for the processes and the place or location.  The levitical economy is done.

After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), (Hebrews 10:8)

The holy city, the holy tent or house are irrelevant.

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. John 4:21 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. John 4:22 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. John 4:23 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24

A new framework

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)

Praise, worship and service can only deteriorate into cute sound bytes without the unmovable centre of the cross.

How can Christian praise not be set apart from the defunct traditions and processess of Levitical interest? Sacrifice no longer has cakes, drink offering or the flesh or blood of animals. We must set our praise apart based on the the clause “fruit of our lips”.  Christ is the “Him” in verse 15 of Hebrew 13. He saturates the sacrifice of praise that goes up to God, and who can deny that Christ is also the “Him” who receives thanks along with the God the Father? If peace (Hebrews 13:20 ) was a thing that money or any other corruptible could buy the rich would live and the poor would die.
This praise is our confessing –  homologountôn – at the very least  the wonders of redeeming grace.  Praise, worship, and service are often conflated in a simplistic way, but each stands on its own and is acceptable to God.  I would rather say few words about either of these interactions with God than make unsubstantiated claims.

One cannot praise God without saying something great about him, and one does not serve God without doing something that affects others.  Worship is the only one of the trio that does not need words.

Worship in the Psalms is always the verb BOW DOWN, שָׁחָה, shachah. This word in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament with which the vast majority of both Jews and Gentiles were familiar) and the New Testament is proskune’ô, προσκυνεω, and it means BOW DOWN, (literally “kiss toward”). So let us not try bend a biblical word like worship to match our popular idea of song, poem, or dance in praise and thanks to God. To prostrate himself to Yahweh, literally and figuratively in offering his son, was what Abraham planned to do when he left his servant and took Isaac to the designated place on Moriah.

18) Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19) For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”; (1 Corinthians 3:18-19)

To avoid building on flammable straw and stubble building up others in the faith should have (a) the requisite certainty of self-care, (b) the gravitas of the full counsel of the written word (even if a vision from the Lord is involved), and (c) the resolute intention to elevate or magnify God’s Son.

The cruelty of official violence

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If one member of the church, club, or service organization of which you are the leader became the victim of violence from an agency tasked with protecting and serving citizens your silence on the matter would make your leadership suspect. While no informed person would jump to conclusions or condemnation, our communities (the commonwealth, the United Nations) expect an expression of solidarity with the victim first as the gold standard of public service. The agency that is responsible for the violent incident also deserves a statement that recognizes the damage done to its reputation and an unambiguous reiteration of the community’s abhorrence of the behaviour. Telling us “never again” does not work because we have seen the repitition of glorification of violence against people in police custody by the chief executive of the United States.

We expect an expression of solidarity with the victim out front first as the gold standard of public service.

Most of us know that statistically the rogue cop is not “one bad apple”. The label is highly inappropriate and misleading. The other apples on the scene where deadly force is used seem to have no power to apprehend the bad apple who violates the law and his solemn vow.

To approve or to disapprove

The 21st. century is not a good time to trot out the barbarism of the 1st century AD or the 13th to 10th centuries BC. The legitimizing of every person does not extend to their views of life, love, and liberty. Are we that stupid. When Canada’s constitution embraces immigrants from the Syrian or German communities there is no embrace of misogyny or nazism. Even in the privacy of one’s home misogny and nazism are crimes. Violence as the final recourse seems to be a thing happening more as the opening moves when police interact with citizens. But, they say, people should not worry: it was violence that paid for our freedoms, and our kids can walk right up to the line of assaulting their parents and be called the good generation. Are you going to wait until your friendly neighbourhood cop abuses you or you child punches you in the face? The abuse of one citizen is an abuse of all citizens.

America’s Grating Again Like Sodom

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Birds of a feather flock together: racists, terrorists, patriots, genocidal maniacs, suicidal murderers, guntoting loose mouths and idolaters.  That is how nations are made.  It is the pattern that explains tribal and religious beliefs and fantasies.  Demonic forces are at work in the phenomenal growth in idleness,  wealth, cold hearts, and political mayhem.

Magically making the grade

The truth about my country and the United States which we are slow to recognize and wrestle with is that skeletons emerging from the closets and multiplying through illegitimate alliances.  Church and state, God and country, law (debt) and grace, are great talking points that cannot be spun into greatness.

National greatness promised to Abraham

We do not consent to theft, bigotry, nationalism, extrajudicial killings, oppression of resident foreigners, or xenophobia because the practices secure jobs for our loved ones. The bigots in government – in Canada and the United States – may not be statistically the majority but the media silence should not blind us to the fact that every fourth person will lie and steal, peek into your business without a cause.

The bigot in the White House is a semi-literate charlatan who thinks that greatness comes with winning elections. If we wanted proof that politics will never be spiritually alligned look no further than our own nations. Then we all have the Bible with uncontroverted evidence of the greatest collection of laws and promises ending in catastrophe.

Keep prioritizing and serving yourself and wither like grass

When was America great?

Many people in North America have trouble separating reality from virtualization. A nation is not great because of the goals it sets. People are not Christian because they go to church, and leaders who do not read the instruction manual are useless scarecrows. The church has a different standard of greatness. Service!

Ezekiel 16:49

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.