Deuteronomy 6:4-9…

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (NLT)

We have written in the past that there will always be some rough spots in the road to the Good Way. With that in mind this week we’re going to look at a few things that will help us in our journey when we encounter some difficult times. We will take a look at some of the components that will make our journey a little easier. Gospel Knowledge, Gospel Logic, and that refers to a part of our study regimen that is very difficult for many of us… that is the theological framework of Christian salvation. Our opening scripture above begins with the word  “hear” the Jewish word would be Shema and it begins the most important prayer in Judaism buy most accounts. Like all the roads, we will travel in this life there will always be certain landmarks or signs that keep us on the right path going in the right direction. So one of the first signs that you will find necessary traveling on this road is Gospel Knowledge which is the understanding of Jesus Christ death and resurrection. We’ll find much of that anchored in the biblical narrative of creation, human rebellion, and redemption. This type of understanding can only be achieved by having a deeper, intimate relationship with God and we do that through spiritual study and prayer. We will increase our gospel knowledge by reading the Bible regularly, which is an essential for increasing our knowledge, attending Bible studies, Sunday school, listening to sermons, all of this helps to deepen our understanding, and we must have a reachable, teachable and submissive spirit. It is not our goal to simply gain knowledge, it is our goal to become more Christlike in our behavior and thoughts. We must have a spiritual growth that enhances our spiritual maturity. While it may be a bit hard for us to understand, the truth is, repeated instruction of the core truth of the gospel is frequently repeated in scripture. Our knowledge needs to be balanced with all scripture passages interpreted in the context of the whole, we must remember that the Lord’s teachings are consistent and consistency is crucial for building a solid foundation of knowledge. Again, while it may be a bit hard for us to understand, growing in knowledge is a process that involves a lifelong pattern of learning and applying those things which we have studied and learned, and sometimes they will take us beyond our comfort zones.

Gospel Logic… I struggled with this one simply because the Pew likes to keep things simple  and one of the more common explanations that you run across is that it refers to the theological framework of Christian salvation. To me the short form is best expressed by simply putting together scripture themes like faith repentance and baptism in an effort to try and understand God’s plan. God has a plan. It is a rational, biblically grounded, worldview that were seeking in order to understand the logic of God’s plan. The simplest way that I can probably sum it up would be to say that it’s simply a way of reasoning that assumes the Bible is the foundation for understanding reality. Thank you for being with us this week in the Pew and please come back next week and join us as we continue our journey on the Good Way. 

Life is Good

jk

We continue our trip to the Good Way by going back to that time centuries ago to Pentecost.. after the crucifixion, the apostles and many of the followers as possible in a upper room hiding from local authorities. We’re not going to go into a lot of detail, but on that day of Pentecost, the spirit came upon them and a whole new ministry was opened before them. After Pentecost, the apostles dispersed throughout the ancient world, traveling from Jerusalem to Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and as far as India, Ethiopia, and Spain. They traveled mainly in pairs, preaching, in Jewish synagogues and to the Gentiles, to spread the gospel, the of The New Way. We’ll just look at a few of them for a quick idea of the area that they actually covered. Andrew travel to Scythia and Greece. John spent time in Ephesus and was exiled to the island of Patmos. Thomas went on to preach in Persia and India, and Matthew spread the gospel in Ethiopia. Bartholomew, he reached Armenia and India. James the greater preached in Spain and was murdered in Jerusalem. Many of these apostles traveled from Judea and Samaria towards the “ends of the Earth,” establishing churches along the Mediterranean coast, and in areas, like Babylon and Asia Minor.

We’re gonna open this road trip so to speak with the apostle Paul. Paul was already a rising star and likely active in Jerusalem shortly after Jesus’s crucifixion, which would’ve occurred in a AD 30 to 33 somewhere in that area. He was an active persecutor of the early church with a few years of the crucifixion witnessing the Martin of Stephen, which is in act 7:58 before his conversion which is typically dated between AD 33–36. Paul trained under Gamaliel in Jerusalem and he was already a zealous Pharisee aligned with the Shammaite school before and during the early Christian movement. (The School of Shammai was founded by Rabbi Shammai, who lived around the time of Herod’s reign and was known for his strict adherence to Jewish laws.)

Paul’s active role in persecuting Christians likely begin immediately following the crucifixion and continued his conversion on the road to Damascus. The best timelines that are available that agree with each other about the conversion probably happened roughly 2–7 years after the crucifixion. Even though there may be a little bit of repetition here, we should make note of the fact that Paul was likely around 30 years old during this time with some estimates putting his conversion at again AD 33–36. The new church young and struggling had many enemies in this time. We are picking up with Paul in the book of Acts simply because he wrote at least 13 of the books of the New Testament. The very first mention of Paul in the New Testament occurs in acts 7:58. He’s introduced as a young man named Saul. This was the Saul present at the execution of Steven. He approved of it, Stephen being the first Christian martyr and Paul held the garments of those doing the stoning. Paul is described as a zealous Pharisee and a prosecutor of the early church going as far as traveling to Damascus to arrest the Christians there. That could is found in Acts 8:3, 9:1–2. It is in the book of Acts 9 that we read of a dramatic encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road, turning him from the persecutor to an apostle. We can also read in Acts 13:9 that the switch to the Roman named Paul occurs during his ministry to Gentiles on Cyprus. So Saul was his Hebrew name that he used exclusively until act 13:9. He was referred to by Ananias in Acts 9:17 as brother Saul. Paul actually was known at times by both names. He was a Roman citizen who was known as Saul which was Hebrew and Paul, which was Latin Roman, and he used them based on his audience.

The development of the early church was an extremely uncertain time for these new Christians. They would encounter many many difficulties along the road to the Good Way.

Thank you for joining us the week in “The Pew”….Our goal is to bring to you the gospel in a manner that teaches not preaches. God Bless…

Life is Good 

jk

He has Risen…  indeed, now we settle down into the routine of obeying the Great Commission and going forth and telling everyone that He is alive and salvation could be theirs through acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, let’s take just a short time to go back to that courtyard a few centuries ago. Pilate had done everything he could to rid himself of this problem. We all know how the situation ended. Jesus was turned over to the soldiers to be beaten and then crucified and a thief, Barabbas was turned loose because the crowd demanded it to be that way. It is here in this moment that one of those little gems that I’m always talking about in the scriptures raises its head. The crowd became a mob incited by the the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. That gem…that mob mentality is still with us today. When we break this situation down, we find that the Sanhedrin, which is a Greek word that means assembly or council with the aid of the Pharisees actively transformed the crowd into a mob, that would accept nothing less that the death of Jesus on the cross.

We’ll not spend a lot of time going into a great deal of details about the Sanhedrin other than expressing, they were the ones to whom all questions of law were finally put. In the New Testament readings, the Sanhedrin began with an informal examination of Jesus before Annas, the acting high priest. The account of that situation can be found in John chapters 18 and 19. There was a formal session before the entire Sanhedrin, Matthew chapter 26. There the decision was made to turn Jesus over to the Roman authorities to be tried and crucified. Now we do not wish to confuse you, but the other group was an influential religious one  within Judaism in the time of Christ and the early church. That group was known as the Pharisees, the word coming from a Hebrew word meaning separated. They boast of their acceptance of oral tradition in addition to the written law and they had a teaching that all Jews should observe the 600+ laws in the Torah, including the rituals concerning ceremonial purification. What’s interesting about the Pharisees is that they were mostly middle-class businessman and leaders of the synagogues. They were a minority in the Sanhedrin but held a majority number of positions and they were able to control the decision-making of the Sanhedrin because they had popular support of the people. We make note of this, the Pharisees, because Paul was a member and it was Paul who wrote 13 of the books that we know of in the New Testament. I am going to take time here to list a few of the things, the doctrines that the Pharisees taught and lived by.

-They believe that God controls all things

-There will be a resurrection of the dead

-There is an afterlife which will have an appropriate reward and punishment on an individual basis

-They also believed in the spiritual realm, including the existence of angels and demons

We know that Paul spent quite a bit of time persecuting Jews, and even bringing them back to Rome for trial. But of course, not every Pharisee was opposed to Jesus. Nicodemus was a Pharisees, who rightly considered Jesus a “teacher who has come from God.” There was a time when Nicodemus later defended Jesus before the Sanhedrin, one of the things that is noted about Nicodemus is that he was at the cross and helped bury the Lord’s body. Some of the early Christians were Pharisees as well. As we travel down the good way, we will encounter Paul on many different occasions for many different reasons. The apostle Paul was trained as a Pharisee and his credentials in that group were Stirling. Paul regarded himself as a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the law, he had a zeal for persecuting those in the church who strayed so to speak as for righteousness based on the law. Paul will come to a point when   in time when he is confronted by Christ for his actions against the Jews and people of faith and his encounter with Jesus Christ  shows us, that no person not even the strictest Pharisees is justified by just keeping the law we can find that in Galatians 3:11.

Let’s go back to that crowd that became a mob centuries ago in that courtyard. We do not know because we weren’t there exactly what went on in Pilates mind but it is written that he had moments of doubt about doing this thing. He really wanted nothing to do with crucifixion or Jesus, he probably really just intended to give him a good lashing and turn him  loose, but the crowd wouldn’t have it. The picture that comes into my mind is that scattered among the crowd in different places where groups of Sadducees and Pharisees, whose main objective for being there was to make certain that Jesus died on the cross. At their urgings a crowd of curious, boisterous folks from all walks of life in the city at that time became a mob. A mob is a large, disorderly, righteous crowd who possess intense emotions, are susceptible to suggestions, and do have a potential for violence, so if it becomes more than just a mere gathering. It is the”Pews”opinion that is what drives a lot of of our problems in today’s society. There seems to be no tolerance anymore for civil discourse, or trying to understand another person’s opinion. We have become a mob driven by those with certain agendas, political ambitions, and what can only be described really as a general disrespect for others around us. I do not believe that it would be inaccurate, perhaps a bit dramatic, but not inaccurate that Jesus was a victim of a political agenda, and overly zealous, religious customs, and agendas. I believe today that those very things are very much present with us in the current state of our society.

Life is Good

jk

Like many of us that write a blog every year at this time it’s a struggle maybe to find something new to write about, but that’s really the story. You just can’t find something greater than Easter Sunday. This is the first year and I will not bore you with the number of years involved, but this is the first year that the wife and I have not been able to attend the Maundy Thursday or if you prefer Holy Thursday. It is the Christian way of commemorating the last supper in the washing of the disciples feet and the institution of the Eucharist. When I sat down and started to work on this this afternoon on Good Friday, I didn’t really know what I was going to write. I know it appears that this particular time that the wife and I won’t be able to physically attend Good Friday services. Going back to last night it was approximately 1993 years ago at least that’s what the scholars are dating it to Thursday evening that Jesus celebrated the final meal with his apostles before his crucifixion. Now they’re a lot of different thoughts about the exact date. We don’t really know most people think, by people I mean scholars, biblical scholars, believe it was 1993 to 1996 years. That would’ve placed it in about a AD 30 or AD 33. Luke 22:7–38 is widely considered the most detailed account of the Last Supper. It focuses heavily on the institution of what most of us today referred to as communion and something that is overlooked when we speak about this time of the year, the inauguration of a new covenant. Now I’ve written several blogs about covenants, but this strangely enough is the first time that I’ve ever thought about the covenant within this Easter story. I have a lot more details, but that’s exactly what they are details. The sign to remember here is that the last supper is a foundational presenting the final Passover meal which Jesus connected to his impending sacrificed of the Passover lamb, bringing old traditions to fulfill it.

Jesus Christ was known by a number of names and titles in the Bible and Christian tradition highlights different aspects of his role in divinity and humanity. What we have come to think of Jesus reflects his mission as Savior,Teacher, and Divine figure. Some of those were interesting biblical titles that we are all familiar with. Christ, Messiah, meaning the anointed one, Christ is the Greek translation while Messiah is a Hebrew translation. He was referred to at times as Lord originally a title of respect it became an assertion of divine status overtime. Son of God says all that needs to be said and emphasizes a unique relationship with the Father and his Divinity. The Son of Man is sometimes referred to as Jesus’s favorite designation, it highlights both his humanity and his role as a divine figure. Then there’s a word we don’t really use too much logos. When we turned to the descriptive roles and metaphors that were used for Jesus, we read about the savior redeemer, the one who rescues humanity from sin. The good Shepherd, focuses on his care, protection and guidance of his followers. Lamb of God, symbolizes his role as a sacrificial offering to remove sin. And of course, thread of life he is the source of spiritual substance. And it goes on. We’ve also referred to Jesus as the light of the world. He provides spiritual illumination in the darkness. He is known as the way the truth and the life, Jesus defines himself as the only path to God, and of course, the true vine, he is a source of spiritual life and growth. There are many more additional titles, Rabbi,Teacher, Lion of the tribe of Judah, root of David. The first born, last Adam second Adam, theological titles, focusing on his role in the new creation. He had authority over death, the resurrection and the life. And he was the Mediator or the one who reconciles God and humanity.

Well, I’m back at the keyboard again after taking time away in order to watch the Good Friday services from our church. Here again I along with my wife find ourselves in a new situation. This is one of the first years in a long, long time that we haven’t been at the Good Friday services. The service traditionally includes scriptures and hymns that tell the story of those final hours leading up to the crucifixion itself. Like I wrote earlier there’s not really a whole lot more you can write about this event in our Christian history. I wrote a blog some years ago about the people closest to the cross when Jesus died so I thought I might share that with you this year. There was his mother Mary, her sister Mary of Clopas, Mary Magdalene, and the disciple who Jesus loved which scripture identifies as John. Jesus had a lot of followers and sometimes we don’t really realize that, but I have often used the term that when he was traveling in his ministry, there was a time it would probably have looked like a a caravan. So we know that those I have listed were there, but there were also so many other women who followed him from Galilee and watched from a distance along with Roman soldiers and there was always as usual, a crowd of taunting bystanders. So wrap it up one more time Mary the mother of Jesus, remained close to the cross until the very end. The apostle John was the only male disciple recorded to be present at the scene. It was Mary Magdalene, a devoted follower present in all gospel accounts. And John 19:25 is where Marry the wife of Clopas is identified. There are also records of Mary, the mother of James and Joses, Salome, and Joanna. There were the Roman soldiers who were in charge of the crucifixion, including a centurion who later recognized Jesus’s divine status and the two thieves, each crucified on either side of Christ. There was a crowd of Chief Priests, Scribes, Elders, and onlookers, passing by the crucifixion site.

I’ve tried my best to be as accurate as possible, going out and getting as much information as I possibly good from as many reliable sources as I possibly could. That being said there is one thing about the crucifixion that I find not unsettling, but rather what we don’t always talk about. You know how people are always saying they want to have closure…well with the crucifixion, there is no finality. Because three days later, Jesus Christ rose from the dead and and so began our journey to salvation. They, the disciples had shared their Last Supper with Christ, and yet they had not been able to grasp fully what he was trying to tell them. That covenant of the bread and the wine, for 1999 years the people and followers of Christ have kept that promise and that covenant. You may read all the commentaries and blogs that you wish but if you want the story straight, then do this…go to scripture…read God’s word, read the Bible.

Life is Good

jk

For the Christian Holy Week is a very busy time of reflection. It was a time of great stress and sacrifice for Jesus Christ. During the final two weeks of his life, Jesus traveled from the Jordan region through Jericho to Bethany. It was here in Bethany that he raised Lazarus from the dead before beginning his final week with entry into Jerusalem. He spent those final days traveling between Bethany and Jerusalem. He had already caused quite a stir when the story of the resurrection of Lazarus got to Jerusalem and while he was in Jerusalem, there was  the cleansing of theTemple  and a short time later the Last Supper. Jesus had made himself a target through his actions in the Temple as well as the raising of Lazarus from the dead and the Jewish leadership or hierarchy and the Romans also wanted to be rid of him. The Roman government did not like disturbances and wherever Jesus went, there was some kind of a disturbance. It is written that there are estimates that suggest Jesus walked approximately 3,125 miles during his three year public ministry. He  journeyed throughout Galilee, Judea and the surrounding regions and surprisingly enough made quite a few multiple trips to Jerusalem. I don’t know how many steps that 3,125 miles would have required, but as it is written the next two weeks of his life would be a lot fewer steps and a lot shorter distances as Jesus completed his father’s mission. In our minds, let us follow in those last few steps as closely as we possibly can.

When we read of Jesus traveling through the Jordan region and then through Jericho, which was a strategically important heavily fortified city in the Jordan Valley about 6 to 8 miles north of the dead Sea and 17 miles east of Jerusalem, let’s spend the next few paragraphs together, looking at the locations in the final days that Jesus traveled to and from. In Bethany Jesus stayed with Lazarus Mary and Martha particularly resting and preparing for Passover. The town is located 2 miles from Jerusalem. In the bible Bethany in Hebrew means house of figs or house of misery and affliction, it was a village as we’ve stated before near Jerusalem, it’s important to us because it’s the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and a place of refuge for Jesus and the site where he raised Lazarus from the dead and later, it was the sight of the Ascension. Because of what Jesus did here in the case of resurrecting Lazarus from the dead the news traveled fast to Jerusalem, which wasn’t that far away and only increased the agitation of the Jewish leaders and some in the Roman government. When we speak of Jerusalem, we want to focus on the temple area. The temple area is where Jesus taught preached and overturn tables in the temple leading to plots against him. The court of the Gentiles was an outer public area accessible to everyone which doubles as a busy marketplace and of teaching. It is here that Jesus painted that target just a little bit bigger on his back when he overturned the tables of the money changers and ran the people out of there for desiccating the house of his father.

We then follow Jesus to the upper room, which was the location of the Passover the last supper with his disciples. The room is traditionally located in the second floor of a two-story building on Mount Zion in Jerusalem just outside the gate of the old city and near Pontius Pilate’s palace where Jesus had his trials and interrogation. We take note next of Golgotha, also known as Calvary, the site of his crucifixion just outside of the city walls. Then we find ourselves walking the way of sorrows, the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, which is the traditional path from the Antonia Fortress  to Golgotha, the place of the crucifixion. From the Antonia Fortress where Jesus was beaten, he began his journey carrying the cross. It’s just under a half a mile. Jesus started carrying that cross alone, but his exhaustion and the beating he had taken, required that Simon of Serene assist him for a significant distance. So again the distance is quite short, probably about half a mile the path leads from the former Antonio Fortress to the place of the crucifixion. Jesus carried a tremendous burden. It was a cross beam, which was roughly 80 to 110 pounds. He carried that rather than the entire structure because that was already in place. It was a difficult route, it was uphill through narrow streets and likely covered over an hour given his weak state. Now the last place that we’re going to stop on this walk would be the tomb. There’s always two locations that are mentioned, both outside the city walls of Jerusalem because at that time of Jesus’s death it was required by Roman and Jewish law. I’m just going to speak of the traditional site of Jesus’s tomb, which is located in the northwest corner of Jerusalem’s old city which means it was traditionally just steps, roughly 150 feet from the site of the crucifixion itself. And I guess I should in all fairness mention that the garden tomb is another site that people are looking at and it was near the skull shaped Hill outside the Damascus gate and was discovered in 1867. It’s in John 19:41–42 says that the tomb was in close proximity of both sides within the church of the holy Sepulcher.

These are just a few of rather small details, it’s my hope they will help you to understand that this is about real people, real places and things that actually happened. 

Life is Good

jk

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

Welcome to the Pew, this week we continue on this road of the good way we look at humility and you can’t think about humility without remembering John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a Jewish prophet, Jesus’ cousin, who preached repentance and baptized people in the Jordan River, famously baptizing Jesus and proclaiming Him the Messiah before being imprisoned and beheaded by King Herod Antipas at the request of Herodias and her daughter Salome, fulfilling prophecies as the forerunner of Christ. Jesus honored the prophet with these words truly, I tell you among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. As we read on through Matthew, we read in Matthew 3:13–14 where John acknowledges that he did not see himself as worthy enough to baptize Jesus and in Matthew 3:11 to even carry his sandals. He being a reference to John the Baptist. John has one job to do, announce the coming of the Messiah. John had one other distinction that we will mention here before moving along. God chose him to break that 430 years of divine silence that had existed since the prophet Malachi and it has been written that John built the bridge from the old to the New Testament. John was Spirit anointed, Spirit driven, and Spirit, faithful.

Now let’s take the time to share Biblical Humility. Humility in the Bible is defined as a heart attitude of loneliness, weakness, and   selfishness, characterized by a dependence on God rather than self exaltation. There are key scriptures like Philippians 2:3–8 that highlighted Jesus as the ultimate example, it’s commanding believers to value others above themselves and to act without selfish ambition. That’s examined for characteristics or keys or however, you want to put it for things about humility. There are key Bible verses on humanity. We find them in Philippians 2:3–4 about selfish ambition or conceit. Put those aside but help people with humility, count others more significant than yourself. In James 4:6 God does not look with approving eyes upon the proud, but he’s always willing to give grace to the humble. In proverbs 22:4, we read of the reward of humility and the fear of the Lord they are the riches of honor and life. First Peter 5:5–6 reminds us to clothe ourselves with humility towards one another we all remember, blessed are the meek for they will inherit the Earth, that’s from Matthew 5:5. Micah 6:8 encourages walking humbly with God and doing justice and loving mercy. God wants us to show humility, and he has specific ways in which he wishes for us to do just that. By submitting to God, recognizing our limitations and relying on God’s grace to get us through rather than just human strength. God requires obedience, absolute unquestioning obedience to the word of God. And of course there’s always arrogance not thinking of oneself more highly than necessary. There are certain characteristics of biblical humility, maintenance, honesty, gratitude, and poor in spirit, recognizing one’s total spiritual bankruptcy and need for salvation. First and foremost, God, promises to give grace to the humble and the Bible tells us that those who humble themselves will be exalted in due time. The path of humility leads to riches, honor, and life. Within humility, we will find wisdom and guidance. God teaches and guides the humble to what is right. Humility is presented as a crucial voluntary and daily practice for followers of Christ leading to a deeper connection with God.

Life is Good

jk

 Most readers of the back porch by now realize that the big thing here is we ponder a lot. And yes, we do have opinions, but we’ve agreed that we’re just going to ponder about these things and everybody has a chance to say what they want to say when they wanna say it. One of the things I laugh about on the porch is the fact that we’re not really too much interested in facts, we have arrived at that decision because it doesn’t seem anybody else is. The ponder today is a very appropriate one. So please, Ponder if you will…how is a sandlot football game like government today?

There was an old field, not far from most of our houses some years ago and we would gather there, we being the young kids, and get up a good old-fashioned sandlot football game. You know one of those games where everybody’s an official and everybody’s in charge. I remember one particular fella, I kind of nicknamed him Big Billy. Now there was plenty of kids in the neighborhood there and we could always pretty much manage two teams of 12, sometimes there wouldn’t be 12 on each team, but we tried to keep the teams even numbers. Now Big Billy he was the neighborhood darling. All the mamas loved him and all the guys looked up to him, to be on Billy’s team, well, that was a big deal. I was never on Billy’s team, in fact, my athletic ability at that particular time in my life was just pass the laughing stage to one of total disbelief. I was too small to be a running back and I was too fat to be a wide receiver, so always ended up somewhere on the line. Usually the spot that I settled in was a middle linebacker. Not because of talent, but because I was dumb enough to stand there, take the hit and get in somebody’s way. Anyway, without drawing this thing out the whole point of this particular ponder today is to use it as an example of government today. You see, we had some pretty spirited games and big Billy’s team always won. Then one day a new kid moved in we didn’t know much about him and neither did Billy. Well by the luck of the draw we got the new kid and he was what they called a sleeper. This kid could do it all, run, tackle, pass, catch, you name it. He was really very good natured, but he had one trait that Billy didn’t like. This kid liked winning and he’d not accept anything less than a full effort. Well, anyway, on this particular day we were winning and that was not supposed to happen. It was an afternoon game and all of us were well, pretty decent kids and when moms called kids went. Not only because it was time for supper, but it was also an act of respect for your mom. We held onto our lead and was doing real well, but time was running out as both teams were being drained of players by mamas calling the kids home. Remember now I told you we were all officials we were all referees. We all knew everything. It was decided and agreed upon by all that we would just simply play one more set of downs for each team and the score at the end of that would be final. I don’t know what Billy was thinking. We were ahead by one touchdown so if they could score on their set of downs and we couldn’t score on ours at least it’d be a tie. Well that’s what everybody thought except for that new kid on the block and we got in the huddle. The first thing he said was we ain’t gonna take no tie and promptly broke huddle and threw a pass to one of the other guys who scored! But now, who in the world would of  thought that was gonna happen, certainly wasn’t Billy. Now to make the game official Billy’s team had to have a set of four downs to end the game. Now, remember if they don’t score we win. Well, Billy had an answer for that, you see the football belonged to Billy. It was his, so he just took it and went home, I guess you might say the game was never finished and nobody won.

If you’re paying attention, you might be wondering how is a sandlot football game like government? Well, a few days ago up there in Washington DC in the hallowed halls of our government no decision could be reached or finalized on a particular funding Bill, so you might say the players after cussing, pushing and many speeches simply  decided they would  just go home. No decision was made.  Our nation and its people have been left unfunded  and certain government agencies that need to protect us and our borders can’t. Folks, the only comment I can make about this whole mess is simply… Ponder That!