Thursday, February 26, 2015
Sunday, February 15, 2015
What is the Primary Instrument of God?
If giving two choices is, someone saved by:
1-Someone persuading someone to choose God or
2-by God opening one up to a right understanding of how He saves.
Or consider it this way is someone born again by
1-Choosing to do what God wants them to do or
2-by being created into something new by the work of God, so that they desire to do what God desires, because their nature has become more like Him.
When Jesus spoke about being born again, in John 3, was the reality of it important? Did born again mean (1) in of yourself getting really committed to long term change and discipline of yourself or (2) did it mean that your desires would be changed by God's Spirit bringing forth new life that drives you to acts according to God's precepts, not contrary to them?
If we care about people an we want to be persuasive because we do not want them to perish, how do we do that? How does the bible direct us here? Does it tell us to sell Jesus or share Him? If we don't share Him, what does the scripture teach us that God thinks about that? If we do share and the person doesn't respond positively to God, what do we do? Do we choose to become more persuasive and share more often, pray? Can we save others or is that something God alone is able to do?
Finally in the beginning, I asked is someone's salvation based more on their persuasion of them self, our persuasion of others or God's persuasion. As I consider the big picture of what I know of the bible, I conclude that scripture does not direct us to sell Jesus, but to share who He is and what He has done and can do for us.
I personally love lead pencils. It is my preferred hands on writing device over pens, markers or chalk. But my favorite pencil is of no good to write, if it runs out of lead. I have more and more come to conclude that God saves people by writing on their heart a love letter that radically changes who they are forever. He over and over again does this through the spiritual led pencil of His word and the Church. He also, uses in the same way His Son and the blood.
Going to church (the lead pencil) without the word of God (the lead), is not eternally helpful. It just serves as a social instrument for temporal benefits.
In the same way, knowing about Jesus (the lead pencil) is not the same as being covered by His purest, redeeming, precious blood, (the permanent lead) that writes God's love story on all that we are.
By what instrument do you see that God primarily used to rescue His people?
I think for many of us that have found our way into the safe harbor of Christ, we fail to realize the primary instrument God used to rescue us. You may ask why do we need to remember it? Well, I am glad you asked that question. We need to remember it because it is how God removed the veil so you could come to Him. It is how He made peace with you a wicked sinner who was His enemy literally hating His ways. The devil would do all he can to get you to forget where the door of rescue was so that you can not point any one else to it. The reason we need to remember the instrumental door God used to rescue us is because it is the only door of hope for others.
1-Someone persuading someone to choose God or
2-by God opening one up to a right understanding of how He saves.
Or consider it this way is someone born again by
1-Choosing to do what God wants them to do or
2-by being created into something new by the work of God, so that they desire to do what God desires, because their nature has become more like Him.
When Jesus spoke about being born again, in John 3, was the reality of it important? Did born again mean (1) in of yourself getting really committed to long term change and discipline of yourself or (2) did it mean that your desires would be changed by God's Spirit bringing forth new life that drives you to acts according to God's precepts, not contrary to them?
If we care about people an we want to be persuasive because we do not want them to perish, how do we do that? How does the bible direct us here? Does it tell us to sell Jesus or share Him? If we don't share Him, what does the scripture teach us that God thinks about that? If we do share and the person doesn't respond positively to God, what do we do? Do we choose to become more persuasive and share more often, pray? Can we save others or is that something God alone is able to do?
Finally in the beginning, I asked is someone's salvation based more on their persuasion of them self, our persuasion of others or God's persuasion. As I consider the big picture of what I know of the bible, I conclude that scripture does not direct us to sell Jesus, but to share who He is and what He has done and can do for us.
I personally love lead pencils. It is my preferred hands on writing device over pens, markers or chalk. But my favorite pencil is of no good to write, if it runs out of lead. I have more and more come to conclude that God saves people by writing on their heart a love letter that radically changes who they are forever. He over and over again does this through the spiritual led pencil of His word and the Church. He also, uses in the same way His Son and the blood.
Going to church (the lead pencil) without the word of God (the lead), is not eternally helpful. It just serves as a social instrument for temporal benefits.
In the same way, knowing about Jesus (the lead pencil) is not the same as being covered by His purest, redeeming, precious blood, (the permanent lead) that writes God's love story on all that we are.
By what instrument do you see that God primarily used to rescue His people?
I think for many of us that have found our way into the safe harbor of Christ, we fail to realize the primary instrument God used to rescue us. You may ask why do we need to remember it? Well, I am glad you asked that question. We need to remember it because it is how God removed the veil so you could come to Him. It is how He made peace with you a wicked sinner who was His enemy literally hating His ways. The devil would do all he can to get you to forget where the door of rescue was so that you can not point any one else to it. The reason we need to remember the instrumental door God used to rescue us is because it is the only door of hope for others.
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Called
1-Do not be ashamed of the Gospel and share in its suffering.
Rely on God's power through it all.
2-No one will serve in something they are ashamed of.
God does the saving not us, we are just sometimes the conduit.
3-Submit to sound teaching and guard the freedom to do that for others.
Favorite Question:
How will you respond when you struggle with submission to the pattern of sound teaching found in God's word?
(my answer-call for an emergency quiet time)
In reality the gospel is foolish to those, who are perishing. It is an offensive thing to submit to. When it is proclaimed in simple terms people either make fun of it and run from it or they are exposed by it and run to it for healing. God never called us to persuasively convince others to come to Him. He commissioned us to spread His message. What they do with it is between them and God, but our job is to be faithful to making the message available in clear and simple terms for as many as possible.
As believers, we can come to places in our life where, we are ashamed of the Gospel. We can begin to wonder if it has the power to save others like it did us. We can become lazy in renewing our mind in the gospel and His word, opening the door for us to personally devalue the power of the Gospel. We can fail to fully realize that the power of the Gospel far exceeds the power to save us from hell, but also the power to save us from anything. It is not just an admission to be a part of the family of God, but the power to bring Glory to the family of God through our lives.
Guarding what God has entrusted us with is preserving a glorious foundation for generations to come after you and I. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who were found faithful before us to pass down the purity of the gospel to us. When the history books of God in Heaven or written about you and I, what will it have to say about how we guarded that which was given to us to steward? Will it say that we were men who like Caleb and Joshua rose up to defend the the great ability of God to save among our peers? When everyone else has turned away from the Gospel, what will we do?
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Reformation Bible Notes
Lev. 13:1–14:57 These chapters contain God's laws concerning unclean skin diseases referred to as "leprous disease" (13:2, 8). Modern physicians recognize here the symptoms of various modern complaints, but we should remember that the biblical classification is based primarily on spiritual rather than hygienic or medical considerations. The key principle in identifying a skin disease as "unclean" was whether the skin seemed to be rotting away, suggesting the spiritual principle of death. Patchy complaints amounted to uncleanness (vv. 9, 10), but a complaint affecting the whole body did not (vv. 12, 13). Stable conditions were clean, but deteriorating ones were unclean (vv. 5–8, 18–37). Similar principles applied to the diagnosis of uncleanness in clothing: progressive mildews were unclean (vv. 47–52), but stable ones were clean (vv. 53–58). The close association of uncleanness with death is shown in 13:45. The person afflicted with a serious skin disease behaved as a mourner (21:10). He was excluded from the camp, not to protect the health of Israel, but because God was in the camp and uncleanness (death) had to be separated from the presence of God (life). See Num. 5:1–4; 12:14–15.
14:2 cleansing. These ceremonies conducted by the priest did not cure skin disease. A diseased person came to the priest after he had been healed (Luke 5:14). The task of the priest was to make the person who had been excluded from the camp, from his people, and from God, ceremonially clean. Through these ceremonial cleansings, which took place in two stages a week apart, the diseased individual was restored to fellowship with God and with His people.
14:3–8 The first stage of cleansing took place outside the camp. The man washed himself and his clothes, and shaved. Two birds were taken. The blood of one was used to purify the man. The death of that bird portrayed the end of the man's old life outside the camp, and the flight to freedom of the other pictured his liberation from the effects of the disease. Then the man might enter the camp again.
14:9–20 In the second cleansing stage, the Israelite was brought back into full communion with God. The ceremonies here resemble the consecration of the priest (ch. 8). The Israelite was daubed with blood and anointed with oil, being linked to the altar, the symbol of God's presence. A variation on this restoration procedure is prescribed for the poor in vv. 21–31.
14:2 cleansing. These ceremonies conducted by the priest did not cure skin disease. A diseased person came to the priest after he had been healed (Luke 5:14). The task of the priest was to make the person who had been excluded from the camp, from his people, and from God, ceremonially clean. Through these ceremonial cleansings, which took place in two stages a week apart, the diseased individual was restored to fellowship with God and with His people.
14:3–8 The first stage of cleansing took place outside the camp. The man washed himself and his clothes, and shaved. Two birds were taken. The blood of one was used to purify the man. The death of that bird portrayed the end of the man's old life outside the camp, and the flight to freedom of the other pictured his liberation from the effects of the disease. Then the man might enter the camp again.
14:9–20 In the second cleansing stage, the Israelite was brought back into full communion with God. The ceremonies here resemble the consecration of the priest (ch. 8). The Israelite was daubed with blood and anointed with oil, being linked to the altar, the symbol of God's presence. A variation on this restoration procedure is prescribed for the poor in vv. 21–31.
Clean and Unclean
Unclean, clean, holy. Leviticus also often uses the language of "unclean," "clean," and "holy" differently than today. With "unclean" and "clean," for example, most modern readers are tempted to think of that which is "nonhygienic" or "hygienic." In Leviticus, however, these words do not refer to hygiene at all. Rather, they refer to "ritual states." (The word "holy" is also used in many contexts to describe a ritual state.) Understanding the concept of ritual states is very important to understanding Leviticus as a whole.
Leviticus sets forth three basic ritual states: the unclean, the clean, and the holy. On the one hand, these categories guide the community with reference to the types of actions a person may (or may not) engage in, or the places that a person may (or may not) go. Those who are unclean, e.g., may not partake of a peace offering (), while those who are clean may (). (A modern analogy might be that of registering to vote: a person who is "registered" may vote, whereas a person who is "unregistered" may not.) There is a distinction to be made between "ritual states" and "moral states." One who is in the ritual state of holiness is not necessarily more personally righteous than a person who is simply clean or unclean (just as a person who is "registered" to vote is not necessarily more righteous than a person who is not).
Friday, February 6, 2015
The Holy of Holies
Ark of the Covenant
Function and Significance:
A golden rectangular box that contained the Ten Commandments
Symbolized God's covenant with Israel's people
Located in the Most Holy Place
Mercy Seat
Function and Significance:
The lid to the ark of the covenant
Symbolized the presence of God among his people
Exodus Alter of Incense and Veil
Altar of Incense
Function and Significance:
An altar in the holy place in front of the veil
Used for burning God's special incense and symbolic of acceptable prayer
Veil
Function and Significance:
The curtain that divided the two sacred rooms of the tabernacle—the holy place and the Most Holy Place
Symbolized how the people were separated from God because of sin
The Holy Place
Lampstands and Lamps
Function and Significance:
A golden lampstand located in the holy place, which held seven burning oil lamps
The lampstand lit the holy place for the priests
Table of Showbread
Function and Significance:
A wooden table located in the holy place of the tabernacle. The showbread and various utensils were kept on this table
Showbread
Function and Significance:
Twelve loaves of baked bread, one for each tribe of Israel
Symbolized the spiritual nourishment God offers his people
Exodus Lavar and Anointing Oil
Laver
Function and Significance:
A large bronze laver outside the tabernacle used by the priests to cleanse themselves before performing their duties
Symbolized the need for spiritual cleansing
Anointing Oil
Function and Significance:
A special oil used to anoint the priests and all the pieces in the tabernacle
A sign of being set apart for God
The Exodus Altar of Sacrifice
Altar of Burnt Offering
Function and Significance:
The bronze altar outside the tabernacle used for the sacrifices
Symbolized how sacrifice restored one's relationship with God
Thursday, February 5, 2015
KEY TABERNACLE PIECES
KEY TABERNACLE PIECES
Exodus 37:1-29
Ark of the Covenant
Function and Significance:
A golden rectangular box that contained the Ten Commandments
Symbolized God's covenant with Israel's people
Located in the Most Holy Place
Mercy Seat
Function and Significance:
The lid to the ark of the covenant
Symbolized the presence of God among his people
Veil
Function and Significance:
The curtain that divided the two sacred rooms of the tabernacle—the holy place and the Most Holy Place
Symbolized how the people were separated from God because of sin
Table of Showbread
Function and Significance:
A wooden table located in the holy place of the tabernacle. The showbread and various utensils were kept on this table
Showbread
Function and Significance:
Twelve loaves of baked bread, one for each tribe of Israel
Symbolized the spiritual nourishment God offers his people
Lampstands and Lamps
Function and Significance:
A golden lampstand located in the holy place, which held seven burning oil lamps
The lampstand lit the holy place for the priests
Altar of Incense
Function and Significance:
An altar in the holy place in front of the veil
Used for burning God's special incense and symbolic of acceptable prayer
Anointing Oil
Function and Significance:
A special oil used to anoint the priests and all the pieces in the tabernacle
A sign of being set apart for God
Altar of Burnt Offering
Function and Significance:
The bronze altar outside the tabernacle used for the sacrifices
Symbolized how sacrifice restored one's relationship with God
Laver
Function and Significance:
A large bronze laver outside the tabernacle used by the priests to cleanse themselves before performing their duties
Symbolized the need for spiritual cleansing