The original title of this post which I wrote in November 2013 was  Christians Can’t Meet in the Middle …As I was going through the archives this past week I came across it and I read it two or three times and I’ve decided to repost it. The original title Christians Can’t Meet in the Middle, is as  true today as it was when I wrote it. This road that the Pew is on this year looking for the good way is one in which we can’t stop in the middle. We have to go all the way to the very end to find The Good Way. Soooo…Looking Back…

We often hear these days the importance of finding the “middle ground”, a place where our differences can be resolved in a manner that includes people of all thoughts and beliefs. Actually the words thoughts and beliefs mean the same thing. Today in the words of some, these words don’t fully convey the scope of the church’s mission; here then is the new way of expressing the church’s mission. “Inclusive”, which demands a whole new direction for the church; wide-ranging, broad, general and all-encompassing that in many of the issues it faces today leaves the church in a position of compromise and weakens its mission.

You will find none of the above (wide-ranging, broad, general and all-encompassing) in the Book of Leviticus. I like to say “there is no wiggle room in scripture.” Most often if you mention Leviticus the immediate response is…. oh no, not Leviticus! The content of Leviticus is almost entirely laws from God concerning sacrifices, worship, and holy living. Chapters 17-26 contain laws for holy living. Central to the regulations in this section is the command from God, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy” (19:2). Israel is to live according to the revealed character of God (Mt 5:48). I have always heard critics of Christianity say that we as Christians are quick to pull from the Bible those scriptures that work to our advantage in making a point concerning our beliefs. Well…where would you have me go? I do agree that there is some truth to that statement. Most are quick to pull Leviticus Chapter 18 when the discussion or debate is centered on same-sex practices. There are many Laws in this section and Verse 22 has caused more squandering and waste of time and resources on something which God decided long ago. You find this law in section 3.

The regulations in this section forbid the practice of incest. When Leviticus was written, large extended families formed the core of Israelite society. The laws presented here forbid sexual intercourse with any family member except one’s spouse. The chapter is divided into four basic units: (1) admonition to keep Yahweh’s commandments (vv. 1-5), (2) laws forbidding incest (vv. 6-18), (3) laws forbidding defiling sexual practices (vv. 19-23), and (4) exhortation (vv. 24-30).

Today I see this debate in my denomination moving from God’s word to the arena of public opinion. Those who favor such relationships have moved from the religious theater to the civil rights theater. To Christians who follow God’s Law and will, this is not an area they can prevail in. Gods’ law was never intended to be debated or modified to fit the morality of the day. Christians miss the point when they allow this to become a social issue. What do we do? We do as Jesus said long ago.

Luke 20:25
“And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.”

We have been called out, set apart not to condemn others but to live a Holy Life that will reflect the mercy and grace of the God we serve. There are many laws in these chapters of Leviticus and they all serve one purpose; they are God’s commandments and are necessary to live a Holy Life. God’s laws do not belong to the Caesars of today and the Church should not allow its desire to be all-inclusive to make them anything other than that which God has commanded of his people.
“Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy”

Life is Good

jk

This week as we continue to travel down this road of the Good Way. thank you for joining us. When I started writing this week or was beginning to look at things to write about and to share with you, the word covenant continues to come up in my mind. So I decided let’s take a look at covenant in the Bible and their importance in our scriptural journey. When you walk the good way, there will always be something that’ll come along to challenge your efforts to live as God would have us live so there’s something very important that we need to remember at all times. When the road gets rocky when there’s some potholes that are really causing us some hard times and loss of direction, we need to remember that God always keeps his promises and he is a God of promise and hope and will never ever let us down. With that having been said let’s pause a minute and give thought to what it means to serve a God of promise.

First of all, we need to understand exactly what a covenant is. And to keep it simple, which in truth, it really is is nothing more than a promise between two parties to perform certain actions. A covenant is very similar to a promise. When we get into our scriptures and study those we find that they are a very significant   part of the Scriptures. Consider this…the word testament is just another word for covenant. We can learn a lot about God, his plans, purposes for mankind, and part of that learning comes from understanding and knowing the history of Israel. There are several major covenants in the Old Testament in which God promises to do something. Again, I repeat a covenant is really nothing more than promising to do something. They were old Testament covenants, and there are New Testament covenants. In an ancient times, covenants were a well-known and accepted concept and they could be made between two equal parties or between a king and a subject. A covenant could be conditional or it could be unconditional.

Bible scholars recognized several major covenants in the Old Testament in which God promises to do something. One of the first unconditional covenants that was made can be found in Genesis it occurred right after the great flood, and God promised that he would never again destroy the world by a flood, and he also passed on basic principles for humanity to live by. We all know what happens through Bible scripture that the people descended into rampant disobedience. God kept that covenant made in Genesis, even though the people had rebelled there was not another flood. God made a covenant with Abraham promising him if you follow me and do as I’ve asked of you I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. The covenant is in Genesis 12:1–3. The covenant is reiterated again in Genesis 15 and 17. This also was an unconditional covenant. In Exodus 19 chapters 19 through 24 speak of the covenant made with Israel about the use of the promised land. This was the land that had been given to Abraham’s descendants unconditionally but the use of the land by any specific generation of Israelites was dependent upon their obedience to God. There were times that the people fell away from their obedience to God and because of that they were unable to fully enjoy the benefits of that land. You can read some of the trials of that time for the Israelites in the book of Judges. There came a time that the Israelites were exiled from the land due to their disobedience and idolatry, but God still made the promise to bring back a later generation to the land. We find that in Isaiah 11:11–12. We also read that he kept his word. 2 Samuel 7 recounts David’s desire to build a temple for God and God’s promise to establish David’s dynasty forever. This covenant is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Son of David.

God promised a new covenant with Israel. You find that in Jeremiah 31. The fact was that Israel had repeatedly violated the terms of all the previous covenants of God but this one would be a little bit different because the hearts of the people would be changed and they would want to be faithful. This fulfillment, that of the hearts and minds of people being more receptive and faithful will take place in the New Testament through the coming of Jesus Christ and the dwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit. It would be through the Spirit that people learn how to obey God, but there’s a little surprise in all of this, and it is that the Gentiles were also included in this covenant.

And wrapping up our blog for this week, we know that the concept of covenant has been lost in modern society. People don’t keep their word like they used to, when circumstances change so do their promises. Contracts are broken, and the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman for life does not hold the strength today that its had in the past. The one thing we can take from all of this is regardless of how unfaithful people may be, God will never be unfaithful to His covenant promises.

Life is Good

jk

Source: gotquestions.org/what-is-a-covenant 

This week’s pew is one that was quite frankly, not even planned. My wife mentioned to me this morning a Bible reading that she had been doing, and it rang a bell. Matthew 27 details the trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. If you’ve been following us for the past few weeks, you know that we haven’t really been following, so to speak, the church calendar. After discussing with my wife, what she had read, I was so impressed by what she had to say that I am going to pause here on the good way for just a few and read Matthew 27 and share my thoughts with you this week. 

Matthew 27 shares the details of the trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. I occasionally refer to those little biblical gems that we sometimes overlook, and this is one of them. The chapter includes Judas suicide, Pilate sentencing Jesus to death while releasing Barabbas, followed by the intense mockery by soldiers, and Jesus’s death on Golgotha, accompanied by an earthquake and we don’t want to forget the tearing of the veil in the temple and tombs open all at the moment that Jesus took his last breath.It was Joseph of Arimathea who asked for and got the body of Jesus and buried him in a garden tomb. As most writers would say, there’s a lot here. So let’s get started by first acknowledging the fact that we all do what I call surface reading. If you’ve been in church any length of time many of these scriptures you’ve heard read many times and you’ve heard many sermons about them so you tend to simply read the words, so let’s go beyond the words.

There’s betrayal and regret, there’s a trial before Pilate, then  soldiers mocking Christ, calling him king of the Jews, and then whipping him with a bone tipped whip. Then Christ was made to carry his cross to his crucifixion at Golgotha. What follows of course is crucifixion and the death of Jesus Christ. He dies on the cross between two convicted criminals, one of which acknowledges his ministry, and he is saved by Jesus. We read that Christ was on that cross from about noon till 3 PM, during that time there was a darkness that covered the land. We read  that upon his death, the temple veil tears in two and an earthquake occurs and all the tombs open. 

Now, what about those little gems. We read in the Bible concerning Judas’ regret for what he had done and that he returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests, admitting his sin and then he goes out and hangs himself. We pass over at least I always have, although I’ve read it many times but I haven’t let it register with me that the chief priests had a discussion about that 30 pieces of silver and decided that it would not be proper to place it in the offering box because it had been used as and I underline this…“payment for murder.”  (NLT Matthew 27:6-8) the trial that in itself is of course another one of those little gems. Barabbas was a Jewish criminal and common thief. Pilate recognized the fact that Jesus had been brought before him because of the Jews jealousy of him. Pilate’s wife asked him to please reconsider and let the man go for he was innocent. But the crowd insisted and continued to demand something be done about this Jesus. Pilate while he still had his mind intact, decided that one way out was to offer a courtesy that had been extended by the Roman government every year at this time. He would release one of these prisoners to the crowd. Pilate was looking for a way to absolve himself of the responsibility of the death of this man. The crowd would have none of it and of course, as we’ve said above, they picked Barabbas to be set free. Jesus was then given up to the soldiers who, of course mocked him, and then Pilate ordered the scourging of Jesus. Here’s what we miss. It wasn’t a whip. It was a lash. I hope I got this right, but my understanding is the lash was a group of leather strips brought together at one end and tied off to a wooden handle. At the end of those lashes were sharpened bones, which cut the skin, slashed it with every swing.  The Mel Gibson movie “The Passion” got it right. They crucified Christ between two thieves, and of course we all know about what happened between Christ and one of those thieves, but I believe a little gem that we miss is that this punishment was reserved mostly for the most despicable, lowlife, criminals, and characters at that time. The crucifixion in itself was a humiliation and as people would walk by and they would mock Christ. They would be soldiers and even religious leaders that would come by and make fun of him. That other little gem would be that many commentaries, study guides often refer to the tearing of the veil in the temple during the earthquake, the opening of tombs the darkness of day all of these things at the time of the death of Christ were supernatural events. They use the word supernatural. Now the meaning of that word is simply something that cannot be explained something out of the ordinary, there’s something for which there is no scientific explanation. I preferred to believe that it was all from the hand of God.

Now these are just a collection of perhaps little things that we sometimes overlook, but here’s the connection that my wife made, and I believe she hit the nail on the head…

After All This Time we are still choosing evil over good. Just as a crowd that day chose the evil of Barabbas over the good of Jesus Christ we in this very day to do the same. Evil may have another name, but it is evil and we choose it over the good way. May God have mercy on us. Come back and join us in next week as we begin a short series on covenants, thanks for being here today.

Life is Good

jk