Luke 11:2

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

I was reflecting on the second point of the Lord's Prayer, "hallowed by Thy Name", and spent some time thinking about the nature of holiness.  What does it mean that our Lord is holy?  I think this passage in Exodus, in which Moses encounters the Lord in the burning bush, give me some things to think about.

Exodus 3:5-7

Then He said, "Do not draw near this place.  Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."  Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."  And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God.  And the Lord said; "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows." 

Note:  We approach the Lord His way and in His timing.  He chose to wait until Moses was 80, and told him to stand at a distance and to be vulnerable, removing the sandals from his feet.  Moses was afraid, and if we understand the holiness of the Lord we should be in awe as well.  God is the God of his ancestors, and ours.  We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us and they should be remembered.  Our Lord is also the Lord who knows, intimately the sorrows people feel today.  He knows them as if He experiences them Himself.  Even in glory He is a "man of sorrows, acquainted with grief."  He is authoritative, august, yet intimate and well aware of our challenges and difficulties.  We need to grasp both sides of this to understand His holiness. 

Wednesday, November 9, 2016-

Luke 9:27  "But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God."  (New King James Version of the Bible)

And now for a blog entry that has nothing to do with politics. 

Jesus, shortly after He said this, took Peter, James and John to the top of a mountain to pray and there was transfigured before them.  His appearance was altered, made bright and the disciples saw Elijah (representing the Prophets) and Moses (representing the Law) in consultation with Jesus.  Their presence affirmed that that the mission of Jesus supported the Law and the Prophets, and vice versa.  I have wondered, however, how the disciples were able to recognize Elijah and Moses?  Still, this episode strikes a nerve with me because I want, in both my private devotions and in the public worship of the church I serve, to experience the Kingdom of God. 

If the assertion that some would not taste death before they saw the kingdom of God was fulfilled in the Transfiguration, then could we consider that the kingdom of God involved the Presence of God with power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including visions?  If we experienced the Kingdom of God in some fashion in our lives, would it not also possibly involve the same power and gifts involved with the Presence of God, if not an actual vision just like the one the disciples encountered on that fateful day?  I don't want to overstate my desire here and be overly enamored with "experiences" but I yearn to meet with God when I pray, and when we worship on Sunday.  I want people to walk away from worship feeling like they have, in a profound way, truly met with God.  But then I noticed the subject of the conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

It's interesting to note that the topic of discussion between Jesus, Elijah and Moses was Jesus' death in Jerusalem, literally His "exodus".  The vision, power and Presence sounds wonderful, but the topic was death.  Am I ready to face death for the Presence of God in the here and now?  How far have I gone in dying to self?  In an attempt to gauge "death to selfishness" I considered the places where my mind will wander.  All those times I dreamt of "what if I had done this with my life?"  I've wondered what would have happened if I had made one or more different choices?  Are they not all self serving?  Are they not all attempts to glorify self?  

Imagination can be a good thing, but I need to face life as it is right now and die to self-serving wishful thinking.  That is one small part of dying to self.  Perhaps my next step to a deeper spiritual life, a deeper experience of the Kingdom of God, is to meditate and pray about death to self.  How far have I gone with this?  I suspect that I have a long way to go.   

Luke 6:35 (NIV)

³⁵But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

Note:  "kind" is translated "easy" in Matthew 11:30:  "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Compare this passage with the Old Testament precedent for it in Leviticus 25:35-38:  "If one of your brethren become poor, and falls in to poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger of a sojourner, that he may live with you.  Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you.  You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit.  I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God."

I find that loving my enemies does not come naturally, in fact I have a hard time even thinking about how I would do this.  I would greatly prefer to simply avoid such people and have nothing to do with them.   Considering the context, we know that the Empire of Rome ruled over Israel at the time, so people probably couldn't avoid people who were troublesome, which makes this even worse for me.  While I know that the words of our Lord do not mean to be a "doormat" or never stand up for your rights, I understand Him to mean that when justice is denied us, such as those who are persecuted, we are not allowed to stoop to vengeance.  We are to demonstrate love to all whether they deserve it or not, but I struggle with that.  

Perhaps my first step in responding to this passage is to meditate on the last phrase of verse 35, "for He is kind to the unthankful and evil."  Our heavenly Father is kind to people who show no gratitude in return.  I don't think I've ever really pondered that before.  What does it mean to serve a God who kindly provides for people who hate Him and take Him for granted?  

Luke 4:19  "...to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord"

Part of what Jesus read from Isaiah in His hometown of Nazareth.  Luke 4:18-19

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Wednesday, July 20, 2016-The phrase "acceptable year of the Lord" is a reference to the Year of Jubilee, the background of which is in Leviticus 25.  It speaks of restoration of property to families and tribes every fifty years.  How it works is that every seventh year the fields are to be left alone and the people are to trust God to provide enough food to survive.  That would be a sabbath year for the fields.  After the seventh sabbath year (the fiftieth year), all property returns to the original owners.  God instructed the people to keep the Year of Jubilee in mind when transacting business, and I think the point is that the poor need a way out of misfortune and poverty, and it probably worked better than some bankruptcy laws do today.

   How does this apply today?  There are the obvious agricultural applications, that I think are applied in some form among farms today in the form of crop rotation.  In the rotation process one field yearly is left fallow.  I do not know of a farmer, however, who plants no crops on the seventh year and trusts that the harvest from the sixth year will carry him over through the seventh and until the harvest of the eighth year.  It does give me pause to think, do I consider my food supply beyond the grocery store shelves?  The answer is "no".  Perhaps I would do well to give more thought about the food that I buy and how it gets to market? Also, I find that the Law of Jubilee is a wise law to protect against reckless riches and against poverty.  One that we could use in some version today. 
How does this affect my politics?

Saturday, July 23, 2016

I've been left with the feeling that I've not reflected enough on the Year of Jubilee and the fact that Jesus refers to it when reading the "mission statement" for Him left by the Prophet Isaiah.  I know that Old Testament instructions about agriculture have meaning that goes beyond the obvious applications.  The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:9, wrote "For it is written in the law of Moses, 'You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.'  Is it oxen that God is concerned about?" His point, I surmise, is that there is much more to this verse than allowing oxen to eat when farming.  In fact, Paul used this verse to point out that he would be within his rights if he made a living off of itinerant preaching, as did Peter.  By the same token, I suspect that the Year of Jubilee has more to do than farming and giving suffering families another chance every fifty years.  Those are good applications, but I suspect there is something in this that applies to us, today, especially since it find its way into such an important passage of Scripture.

     Jesus makes this a part of His mission statement.  How does He fulfill this?  Does such restoration involve the Kingdom of God at the end of the age, or is there anything applicable to this age?  How does this affect my prayers for people who need life to be restored in some fashion?   
 

Monday, July 11, 2016

Luke 4:14 (NKJV)

¹⁴Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.

Note:  The word for "power" is the root word for "dynamite", but I don't think that the power of the Holy Spirit is always demonstrated in an explosive manner.  Also, note that it remains the "power of the Holy Spirit".  We can yearn for power, but it is not our power to control.  That is to seek witchcraft.  The Holy Spirit controls the power.  According to 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, we should be glad when we are weak.  That is when we are strong.  Consider also Colossian 1:11, in which we are told that we are strengthened with power in order to patiently endure longsuffering with joy.  I suspect the joy is when the power can be discerned by others.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NKJV)
⁹  And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
¹⁰  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Colossians 1:9-12 (NKJV)
⁹  For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
¹⁰  that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
¹¹  strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
¹²  giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

Jesus and the Fall from the Pinnacle of the Temple

June 29, 2016

What's my default response to situations in which I'm feeling the pressure and it seems that the Lord is nowhere near?

Luke 4:9-12 (NKJV)

⁹Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.

¹⁰For it is written:

     ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you, and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

¹²And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”

Note:  This temptation, notable because Satan quotes Scripture, is an appeal to the pride of life.  I think I'm still working on what "pride of life" as a sin actually means, but I think it has something to do with the idea that "I want to live the Christian life, but I want to do it on my terms, my way."  When Satan quotes Scripture to Jesus, he speaks of Psalm 91:11-12.  It involves the promise of God to those who make the Lord their refuge, and I guess that holds true especially for the Messiah.  The implication seems to be that Jesus could leap off the temple, and survive without injury to the fall to the pavement below.  The resulting spectacle would add tremendous credence to His claim that His is Messiah.  It probably would have worked, but Jesus will not go for it.  He responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16.

Deuteronomy 6:16 "You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah.  This refers to a specific place and event.  Exodus 17:1-7 records a water crisis in Horeb, near Mount Sinai deep in the Negev in which the people threatened to stone Moses for leading them out into the desert to die.  Moses called out to the Lord, who instructed him to strike the rock (which rock?) in Horeb in the presence of the elders in Israel and water would flow out and keep the people from dying of  thirst.  Moses interpreted their contention and complaints (verse 2) as "tempting the Lord", and, indeed, the event has a bad reputation.  On one side, the people apparently complained a lot, and seemed to ignore that their refusal to go to battle for the promised land is what put them into the Negev in the first place.  On the other side, how long would I be able to refrain from complaining if I was out in the desert and I didn't know how to get any water?  That's a recurring theme when I read the Scripture, I read of the people of God acting badly and I try to imagine myself in their situation and I don't see myself acting better.  If I was out in the desert with no water, I think I would complain as well, and not do any better than the children of Israel in that situation.  God wouldn't be any happier with my lack of faith than He was with theirs.  What am I to do?    

Psalm 95:6-11 gives commentary and a corrective to this failure.

Psalm 95:6-11 (NKJV) ⁶  Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. ⁷  For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: ⁸  "Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹  When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. ¹⁰  For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, 'It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.' ¹¹  So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.' "

My take on this is that praise and worship prepares one to stand strong in the "day of trial", which I imagine comes for us all in one form or another.  Can I train myself to enter into prayer as worship-prayer that honors the Lord for who He is rather than asking for anything-instead of bitterness and complaining when it appears that God has abandoned me?   

Here's some more notes and some reflections about the temptation of Jesus.  Hope they are helpful.

Luke 4:6 (NKJV)

⁶And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

και ειπεν αυτω ο διαβολος σοι δωσω την εξουσιαν ταυτην απασαν και την δοξαν αυτων οτι εμοι παραδεδοται και ω εαν θελω διδωμι αυτην

Luke 4:7 (NKJV)

⁷Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”

συ ουν εαν προσκυνησης ενωπιον μου εσται σου παντα

προσκυνέω  From G4314 (these notations are from Strong's Concordance) and probably a derivative of G2965 (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand); to fawn or crouch to, that is, (literally or figuratively) -prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore): - worship.

G4314 is the prefix the means "before", G2965 is the Greek word for "dog."

We find in this word a rather unflattering view of ourselves as worshippers.  We lower and humble ourselves before the one who is worshipped as a dog who licks the hand of his master.  It's an affront to my pride and self-respect.  Satan dares to ask this of Jesus who is infinitely his master, but what of us when we worship God in the name of Jesus Christ?  The only other time this particular word for "worship" is used is in a parallel account if the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4:9, so apparently it is not used to describe Christians worshipping God.  But while I suspect the Father has no interest in debasing or humiliating worshippers the point is probably still that it is appropriate that we humble ourselves in worship; that we recognize how infinitely superior our God is compared to us, that is, if we consider ourselves at all.

Luke 4:8 (NKJV)

⁸And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”

A quote of Deuteronomy 6:13

Tuesday, May 31, 2016-I find the audacity of this amazing.  Satan offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world if He will worship Satan.  Satan gained these kingdoms from Adam and Eve by means of temptation.  That dominion was delegated to them by the Lord in the first place.   (Genesis 1-2, particularly 1:28-29)

            There's was a movie that made me curious because it involved a family of devout pilgrims in New England of 1630.  I didn't want to pay for it so I looked up the synopsis on wikipedia.org and then watched some film clips as I could find on youtube.  I do not recommend this film.  While instructive as I reflected on this passage, about worship and temptation, it is not edifying or encouraging. but rather very dark and disturbing.  It apparently has been endorsed by the Church of Satan, though I doubt the film's producers sought that endorsement.  If you didn't like "Rosemary's Baby" you're going to hate this film.  The family leaves the village to start a new farm near the edge of a forest, not knowing that a witch is nearby.  The witch is as vicious a creature as the early New Englanders envisioned her to be, and the family suffers one terrible disaster after another, the last one being the worst of all.  The only value I found from looking  at this was that it showed me that all temptation is dangerous, for even the seemingly innocuous ones lead eventually to the same terrible result.  It shows how dark and terrible is this temptation that Satan dares to present to Jesus. 

It also shows me that worship is a far more serious business that we humans consider it to be, though that is something people have known for a long time.

Here's some more thoughts about Luke 4-the temptations of Jesus

Luke 4:5 (NKJV)

⁵Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

Question-How many kingdoms were around at that time? 

Pulpit Commentary-This temptation was something more than "offering to One who had lived as a village carpenter the throne of the world." It appealed to his ambition certainly, but in Jesus’ case it was a high, pure, sinless ambition. This much he certainly knew already, that he was destined to rule over men from pole to pole. It was for him a righteous longing, this desire to have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as his possession. No false ambition was this in Jesus, this desire to realize the glorious Messianic hope. Again, how typical a temptation! All ranks and orders are often soon tempted here. A noble end as they think, and in the beauty of the goal they forget that the road leading to it is paved with evil and wrong.

Cf. the destiny of the Christian, 1 Corinthians 2:9 & 6:2-3

Does Satan try to sell Christians their destiny after he has stolen it from them?  We are, obviously, not the Lord Jesus but I suspect the enemy uses the same tactics over and again. 

1 Corinthians 2:9 (quoting Isaiah 64:4 & 65:17)  But as it is written; "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered in to the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."  Though Paul continues that the Spirit reveals these things, having searched the deep things of God. 

1 Corinthians 6:2-3  Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?  And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?  Do you not know that we shall judge angels?  How much more, things that pertain to this life?

            Note:  Both these verses, that mention the amazing destiny in store for the follower of Christ, are set in the context of a call for humility and a call against strife and "one-upsmanship".  Are we always trying to get what Mark Twain called "mean little advantages over one another" and selling out for much less than what was offered Jesus?  I could live and act and speak as an inheritor of the earth (the meek shall inherit the earth), but instead are there not times when I sell that out for some "mean advantage" over another person and make myself look at the expense of another?

Mark Twain’s Thoughts On Man

Mark Twain shortly before his death wrote, “A myriad of men are born; they labor and sweat and struggle;…they squabble and scold and fight; they scramble for little mean advantages over each other; age creeps upon them; infirmities follow; …those they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is turned to aching grief. It (the release) comes at last—the only unpoisoned gift earth ever had for them—and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence,…a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever.”

Source Unknown  https://bible.org/illustration/mark-twain%E2%80%99s-thoughts-man

Hi, everyone.  It's been a long time since I've written on this blog.  I hope all of you have been well in the meantime.  I'm still slowly working my way through the Gospel of Luke and am now in chapter four.  The Lord Jesus has been baptized and at this juncture is tempted by Satan during(?) or after an extended fast in the desert.  From what I understand, the traditional site of this is the top of a barren mountain overlooking the city of Jericho, with the Jordan River in the distance.  Jerusalem is several miles west and much higher in elevation.  On the side of the traditional Mount of Temptation is a Greek Orthodox Monastery,  which has been there for many centuries.  Here are some thoughts from my Bible study notes: 

Luke 4:4 (NKJV)

⁴But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”  A quote from Deuteronomy 8.

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NKJV)
³  So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

Question:  Do I hunger after God more than I hunger for my daily food?  Do I realize the extent of my dependency upon the Lord?  The dependency of the children of Israel out in the wilderness was obvious to them.  They had never seen manna.  A large group should not be able to survive in someplace as inhospitable as the Sinai Peninsula.  The lesson in Deuteronomy 8 is that once they have established homes, and farms, and a means of living and they have a life, they can fool themselves into believing that they are no longer dependent.  It was a lie.  It still is a lie.  I am just as dependent upon the Lord sitting comfortably on the back deck of my house, with air conditioning, a full refrigerator and two cars in the driveway with plenty of gas as they were out in that miserable desert.  I'm just more comfortable.  I must not forget that we are just a dependent upon the Lord now as they were then. 

I've finished with the Book of Ezekiel and its detailed vision of a new temple and a new nation.  Sadly, it was a vision that I would imagine was precious to the prophet, since he was a priest himself and this was a hope presented to him that would not be fulfilled in his lifetime.  As far as I know, Ezekiel remained in exile for the rest of his life.  Some maintain that the vision at the end of this book is symbolic, through detailed.  Others maintain that it is for a time yet to come.  We shall see.  Perhaps one think I can take away from this is that there should be elements of Scripture that are "not yet" and "for a time yet to come".  We are an incomplete work and our world is fallen and not yet what it shall be.  Perhaps that should be reflected in Scripture.

I've just started working on the Book of Luke, a wonderful Gospel prepared, so I'm taught, by a level-headed Greek physician.  I stopped short after reading just the first two verses...

1  Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us,

2  just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us,

Note:  Luke seems here to claim that he has eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus among his sources.  That seems different from the theory that Luke had a variety of traditions that he had modified to fit together into a good story.

The Apostle Paul, in his brief recitation of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-6, mentions those who were eye-witnesses to the risen Christ.  

Could both of these books be examples of fiction pretending to be researched presentations of actual events?  

If so, what does mean to the value of the Gospel?  

What if they, as I suspect, were actually based on interviews with eye witnesses?