A CONFLICT REMAINS

It is foolish to think coming to Christ, entering into covenant relationship... salvation, will somehow assuage the difficulties of life. Misplaced expectations will disappoint: Our Lord commanded our perfection, spiritual transformation... godliness in thought, word and deed, the way of the Cross is accompanied by adversity. (Matt. 5:48; 1Thess. 3:3) Through regeneration we have embarked on a life-journey through the narrow gate onto the difficult way that leads to eternal life... a conflict remains. We can see this so clearly in Romans 5:1-3: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Justification sheds the oil of joy upon the believer’s heart... rejoicing in hope eternal... but a conflict remains. “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance.” (vs. 3) The Amplified Bible has it, “Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] Let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.” Paul is not referring here to the “Great Tribulation”, that specific end time event described by Jesus and John and qualified by the adjective “Great”, but normal everyday life... the speed-bumps on The Way... a conflict remains.

Tribulation is from the Greek word “thlipsis”, whose etymology is to crush as in a wine press, variously translated in scripture as trouble, affliction, difficulty, suffering, anguish, tribulation, adversity, in short... pressure, the word the Holy Spirit selected to describe The Way to eternal life, as spoken by our Lord: “Narrow is the gate and “difficult” The Way which leads to life.” Tribulation is the potholes, flat tires, blown engines, crashes, detours, and washed out bridges on the road into eternity with God. Justification ensures trouble, difficulty, adversity, hardship... choose your own word... the bad times of life... the speed bumps on the threshing floor of life that are meant to derail our journey into God, but are turned into God encounters that produce unswerving endurance, mature godly character, and joyful confident hope of eternal salvation. All this and the love of God lavishly poured to overflowing in our hearts by the Holy Spirit... flooding us with the assurance of God’s love for us (verses 4, 5), as God takes what the enemy meant for evil and turns it into good... His good according to His purposes.  Tribulation is the pink slip at work, the bad report from the doctor, the phone call in the middle of the night... the conflict that remains.

Yes, the covenant is ours, with the Cross behind us and eternity with our risen Lord ahead, but we must carry our cross before we wear our crown... we must endure. Justification does not free us from life’s troubles. Our sins were laid on Christ, but His cross was laid on us. We are exempt from the curse of the Law, but not from the chastisement... the scourging of sonship... not from the conforming pressure that produces Christlikeness... not from the trials and tests that purify our faith... not from reaping what we sow... not from the “light affliction” that produces an eternal weight of glory... not from partaking and sharing in the sufferings of Christ... not from the conflict that remains...                                                                                         

“I WILL MAKE THEM MY JEWELS”

STRIKINGLY UNUSUAL SAINTS

Peter, the one-legged apostle, who went about with one foot in his mouth, was instantaneously transformed when tongues of fire settled on his head. He immediately preached his first sermon, without teleprompter or crib-notes, to the multitude drawn to God’s first Spirit Flow-Down Party, followed by a sermon in Solomon’s Portico and an address to the Sanhedrin... all in a matter of days. This explains the use of the Greek present participle, denoting repeated action, in Acts 4:13: “Now when they (continuously) saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled...” A pattern of unexplainable behavior was emerging every time these Jesus Freaks came to town. Side-Bar: The word "Freak" is used here in its current common usage to refer to a person with something strikingly unusual about their behavior, exhibiting a strong obsession with a particular activity. When the rulers, elders, and scribes perceived... grasp and seized upon the fact, that Peter and John were rank bottom-feeders of their social order, with no marketable education or skill sets... literally illiterate and ignorant, they marveled at their bold confident articulate unfettered eloquence of speech...  “And they realized that they had been with Jesus.” The Greek here paints the picture of a divine epiphany: These “spiritual leaders” were astonished without explanation... literally dumbfounded by Peter’s powerful comprehensive fearless presentation of the gospel with accompanying signs and wonders, when it suddenly occurred to them that Peter and John had been with Jesus: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you... and you shall be witnesses...” The “promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4, 5, 8) is supernatural enabling power to witness, to re-present Christ, to a lost and dying world. There is an urgency... a singularity of focus... a compelling determination... an obsession accompanying this promise that is strikingly unusual, producing people of “One Thing.” Now... let’s go see what a little quiet time in the presence of the Lord will do for our “Freakiness”, and then let’s let the Holy Spirit manifest Christ in us... in our home... our neighborhood... our workplace... the Mall... the highways and byways of our life... 24/7... this is our only hope of Glory!

PEOPLE OF “ONE THING”

HAVE BEEN WITH JESUS

FOR GOD SO LOVED...

 “For God so loved”: Paul prayed that saint’s, being rooted and grounded in love, would be able to comprehend the width and length and depth and height of the love of God which far surpasses mere knowledge.(Eph. 3:17-19) To understand these four parameters that “size” God’s love we need look no further then John 3:16... God’s love yardstick... WIDTH: “For God so loved the world... He loves everyone, the breadth of His love is all inclusive... the good, the bad, and the ugly, and without prejudice to race, gender, religious preferences, social status, cultural bias... and the like. God’s love is totally inclusive totally integrated love. LENGTH: “That He gave His only begotten Son”: While we were yet in bondage, enslaved to sin... powerless to help ourselves, Christ died for the ungodly... us. The test of love is how far it will go. God demonstrated the length He will go to bestow His unrequited love on a stubborn, uncaring thoroughly repulsive hoard of misfits. The length of God’s love is infinite... as is the sacrifice He made in demonstration. DEPTH: “That whosoever believes in Him should not perish”: Life is not a test. We are born lost, foreordained to dead in our slavery to sin... but we have a choice. Whosoever believes in... trusts in... clings to... relies on Him, will not perish.  This is the depth of God’s love... believers will not perish! HEIGHT: “But have everlasting life.” Eternal, never ending, forever life... does anyone know how long forever is? And not just life... but LIFE... with the eternal God in the place He has prepared: “In My Father’s house are many mansions ...  I go to prepare a place for you ... No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”  The God whose love surpasses knowledge has prepared a forever place for us that surpasses our comprehension... our brain isn’t big enough. Love doesn’t get any higher then this!

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

LIFE-QUOTES: SHORT MEANDERINGS #5

* Walking worthy of the Kingdom is a life of worship... more of a dance than a walk... strengthened by the joy of the Lord.

* God casts the needs of others upon our love, thereby refining it and us in the process.

* Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences...

* God is our Sabbath – the day of rest is but a picture of Him.

* Truth is an arrow and the gate is narrow that it passes through.  (Bob Dylan)

* Sometimes truth causes love to hurt.

* God is a paradox and we can’t resolve a paradox, we simply must let it be what it is.

* God bids us to come take a ride with Him. The vehicle is His will, and we will want to drive so bad it hurts, but... we don’t know the way.

* The goal of discipleship is Lordship, and the cost is everything! If one called it enslavement... one would be right. Love-slaves of the Most High God...

* When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. (Bonheoffer)

* Seldom will we fully understand God’s purposes for our life. Purpose unfolds in the living of it, understanding comes with retrospection, if at all.

* The same strong hands that twisted the crown of thorns, transformed it into a crown of glory. Struggle has a divine purpose on the difficult road God carves into our future.

* We need to hold all things of this life loosely, except Jesus. Hold tight to Him.

* We are so easily satisfied with lovers less wild.

* We become what we desire by allowing Christ to be formed in us... the Holy Spirit manifesting The Son in the Father’s children.

* God's recipe for Love: Be like Jesus in thought, word, and action!

* A vision without a plan is just wishful thinking; discipline is the commitment-bridge between plans and reality.

* He that gives to the poor lends to God... our Daddy said that...

* Life is not simply this time on earth before we die; it continues on... and what we do then is connected to how we live now.

* The prayers of the brethren who huddle around us during times of adversity are but an echo of the Father’s heart, a small indication of His great love for us.

* The “may” of our freedom in God is still framed by the “must not” that limits it... as it was in the Garden of Eden, so it is now...

* If people aren’t holding their noses around you... you’re not stinking enough. (2 Corth. 2:14-16)

THE COMING PRINCE

An amazing prophecy was recorded in 600 B.C. in the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapter 9 verse 25: “know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until the Messiah, The Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks....” (NKJV).  This is a mathematical prophecy with a start and end point!

FROM THE GOING FORTH OF THE COMMAND TO RESTORE AND BUILD JERUSALEM...

King Artaxerxes who ruled the Persian empire from 464 to 424 B.C. issued a signed decree to restore and build Jerusalem on March 14, 445 B. C.  This was the only decree to rebuild Jerusalem that appears in recorded history. 

UNTIL THE MESSIAH, THE PRINCE...

The Hebrew word “mashiach”, here translated “Messiah”, means anointed of God and set apart for service to God.   The Hebrew word “naghidh”, here translated “Prince”, means contextually a leader, ruler, overseer or King. The unique phrase “mashiach naghidh”, only used in this passage, literally means The Messiah, The King. 

The only public proclamation where Jesus presents Himself as and is received as the Messiah and King, the “mashiach naghidh” of Daniel 9:25, occurred on Palm Sunday April 6, 32 A.D.  This event is well documented in Luke 19:28-38, Matt. 21:1-9, Mark 11:1-10 and John 12:12-19, where Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey and the crowds lay their clothes and tree branches on the road, hailing Him as “The King who comes in the name of the Lord!” and “He who comes in the name of the Lord!”, The King of Israel!”(Ref. Also Ps. 118:22-26).  Notice the awesome comparison between these passages and the Prophet Zechariah’s description of this event 532 years before the fact: “... shout, O daughters of Jerusalem!  Behold, your King is coming to you;... riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech. 9:9).

THERE SHALL BE SEVEN WEEKS AND SIXTY-TWO WEEKS...

The Hebrew word “shauva”, translated “weeks” here, means a “period of seven” and can denote seven days or seven years depending on Hebrew construction and usage.  In this passage shauva means seven years and denotes a period of 49 years (i.e., seven weeks or 7 x 7) and 434 years (i.e., sixty-two weeks or 62 x 7).  Added together these 483 years define the time period from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until the proclamation of the “mashiach naghidh”, the Messiah King.  Since the Hebrews used a 360 day calendar year these 483 years are made up of 360 day “years” or 173,880 days (i.e., 483 x 360).

Start point:   March 14, 445 B.C.        King Artaxerxes’ decree

Plus:        173,880 days             Intervening time interval

Equals:      April 6, 32 A.D.            Jesus proclaimed as King

This passage, 600 years before the fact, exactly, not approximately, but exactly predicted the proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah King.  But there’s more! 

Daniel 9:26 (the very next verse): “and after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off (i.e., destroyed) ... shall destroy the city (i.e., Jerusalem) and the sanctuary” (i.e., Herrod’s temple).  Jesus was crucified five days later on April 11, 32 A.D.  In 70 A.D., 38 years later, the Roman General Titus used the 5^th, 10^th, 12^th and 15^th Roman legions to lay siege of Jerusalem for two years, ultimately destroying the city and killing 1.6 million Jews.  During the fall of Jerusalem the temple was gutted with fire and all the gold utensils and ornamentation melted and flowed between the large stones forming the buildings’ outer wall.  These stones, measuring up to 12' x 12' x 40' and stacked 60 ft. high, were removed by General Titus to retrieve the gold.  This was a fulfillment of the prophecy Jesus gave (Matt. 24:2, Mark 13:2 and Luke 21:6) in relation to the temple, that “not one stone shall be left upon another.”

There are over 300 Old Testament prophecies, written between 1,000 B.C. and 400 B.C., which predict with amazing accuracy the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  The statistical odds of any other man in history, other than Jesus, fulfilling these prophecies are 10 to 157^th power.  That is 10, followed by 157 zeros.  To put this in perspective, there are only 10 to the 80^th power electrons in the whole universe, and any statistical odds greater than 10 to the 50^th power are absolutely impossible, per Dr. Emil Borel, the inventor of the Law of Probability.  (Ref. Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince

JESUS, THE MESSIAH,

THE SON OF GOD

THE OTHERNESS OF GOD

The Otherness of God: God is self-dependent. As the creator and sustainer of life and the entire physical/material realm, all beings and all that exists... everything that is, is dependent on Him. But God, He is self-dependent... He depends on no one or nothing... depending for Himself on Himself. This God who has no beginning or end of days is self-sufficient in His own sufficiency. And God is unique in this Otherness: Not the mosquito launching into dinner provided by your arm, not the subatomic particle held in check by external invisible forces, not planet earth swinging through space on a predetermined course as if tethered to the hand of God like a Yoyo, and certainly not man who is dependent for everything that constitutes life... even his very breath. No, God is quite unique in His Otherness. It is this Otherness of God, that He is unlike anything... totally and uniquely unique... lacking nothing and needing nothing, that stirs rebellion in the heart of man... rebellion fueled by pride and coveting... rebellion that demands equality with God. This is the fundamental, primal nature of sin, this unwillingness to let God be God, acknowledging His Otherness, and acknowledging our dependence on Him for everything that constitutes life itself. We seen this in Lucifer’s fall from the mountain of God, in Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, in the dispersion at the Tower of Babel, and we see it today in the use of technology... modern man’s Tower of Babel. There is a huge difference in being “Like God”, which we are in our rational, moral, social and spiritual capacities... in every way God intended, and “God Like”, independent and equal to God. Sin... all sin, is a revolt against God’s Otherness, His unique authority, and an attempt at Self-deification. Man’s attempts at becoming God Like can be dangerous... try breathing without air... God will not strive with man forever...

GOD IS SELF-SUFFICIENT

IN HIS OWN SUFFICIENCY