Worship without Music

One of things I try to do each day here is make sure that any guest post (or ‘borrowed post’) we use contains scripture. Depending on your perspective, today’s either does not, or it contains over a hundred! But I couldn’t not run this as today’s featured reading here at C201.

I should also say that the writer of this devotional probably didn’t intend this, but it occurred to me that simply reading the list of 70 aspects of Jesus out loud would be a powerful worship moment. (I wish I’d seen this in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, when local health units were advising churches not to have singing!) If you’re in a room by yourself, consider doing just that, or reading it aloud as part of your family devotional time today or tomorrow. It can be a powerful declaration.

The author is Tom Smith who writes at the blog, “Holding to Truth in Love.” Click the title below to read this at source. Also, if you click through, each one of the many scriptures listed below is linked to the full text in the author’s preferred version, the King James.

70 Aspects of Christ as Everything for Your Enjoyment

Here are 70 aspects of Christ as everything for your appreciation, experience and enjoyment!

I found them while singing and musing on this hymn by Witness Lee entitled: “I’ve found the One of peerless worth.”

This hymn expresses God’s desire for us! He wants us to experience and enjoy Christ as everything.

However, to adequately experience Christ in a certain aspect, we first need to see Him, to appreciate Him in that aspect from God’s word.

Once we see an aspect of Christ we should lay hold of it by praying and musing on those Scripture verses that reveal  Him as such a One.

A Hymn on The Experience of Christ as Everything: “I’ve Found the One of Peerless Worth”

Stanza one of the hymn I enjoyed says:

I’ve found the One of peerless worth,
My heart doth sing for joy;
And sing I must, for Christ I have:
Oh, what a Christ have I!

May we all make such a discovery! May we find “the One of peerless worth.”

Since this hymn has fifteen stanzas, I won’t attempt to cover each stanza individually. I will simply list the seventy wonderful items of Christ I discovered with related Bible verses that reveal such an aspect.

I encourage you to follow the Scripture links for each aspect of Christ. Pause to pray and muse over them a little at a time until your appreciation for Christ grows and you experience Christ in that particular aspect.

70 Aspects of Christ as Everything for Your Experience

Christ is…

1. The Lamb of God—John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:19; Exo. 12:3-4
2. The Sun of Righteousness—Mal. 4:2; Psa. 84:11; Luke 1:78
3. The Tree of Life (also the Bread of life)—John 15:1; 1:4; 6:35, 57; Rev. 22:14
4. The smitten Rock, whence living waters burst—1 Cor. 10:4; Exo. 17:6
5. The fountain in my heart—John 7:37-39
6. My life—Col. 3:4; John 1:4a;
7. My light—John 1:4b; 8:12
8. My way—John 14:6
9. My comfort—Psa. 23:4; Matt. 5:4; 2 Cor. 1:5
10. My health—Luke 5:31-32
11. My peace—Eph. 1:2; 2:15
12. My rest—Matt. 11:28
13. My joy—John 15:11
14. My hope—Col. 1:27
15. My glory—Col. 1:27; 3:4; 2 Thes. 1:10
16. My wealth—Eph. 3:8; Col. 2:3 6
17. My wisdom—1 Cor. 1:24b, 30
18. My power—1 Cor. 1:24a
19. My boast—Rom. 5:2, 11; 15:17; 1 Cor. 1:31
20. My righteousness—1 Cor. 1:30
21. My victory—1 Cor. 15:57
22. My redemption—1 Cor. 1:30
23. My truth—2 Cor. 11:10
24. My holiness—1 Thes. 3:13
25. My Savior—John 4:42; Acts 13:23; Tit. 2:13
26. My Shepherd—Psa.23:1; John 10:11; Rev. 7:17
27. My Lord—John 20:28; Phil. 2:11
28. My Advocate above—1 John 2:1
29. My Counsellor—Isa. 9:6
30. My Father—Isa. 9:6
31. My God—Isa. 9:6
32. My Brother—Matt. 12:49; Luke 8:21; John 20:17; Rom. 8:29
33. My Friend—John 15:14-15
34. My Love—S.S. 2:9-10
35. My Captain—Heb. 2:10 (alternate translation for “Author”)
36. My Guard—Phil. 4:7
37. My Teacher—Matt. 10:24
38. My Guide—Exo. 15:13; Psa. 23:3; Luke 1:79; Rev. 7:17
39. My Bridegroom—Matt. 9:15; John 3:29
40. My Master—Matt. 10:25; 24:45
41. My Head—1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 1:22
42. Who “In me doth He reside”— Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Col. 1:27
43. My Prophet—Matt. 21:11, 46; Luke 7:16; John 6:14; Deut. 18: 18
44. My Priest—Heb. 7:26; 8:1
45. My King—Luke 19:38; Matt. 25:34; Rev. 17:14; 19:16
46. The Author of my faith—Heb. 12:2
47. The Perfecter of my faith—Heb. 12:2
48. My Mediator—1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 8:6
49. My Guarantee (surety)—Heb. 7:22
50. My faithful Witness—Rev. 1:5; 3:14
51. My everlasting home—John 14:23; 15:4-5
52. My all-sufficient land—Col. 2:6-7; Deut. 8:7-8
53. My fortress—2 Sam. 22:2; Psa. 18:2
54. My tower—Psa. 61:3; 94:22; Prov. 18:10
55. My hiding-place—Psa. 32:7; 119:114
56. My eternal stand—Eph. 6:11, 13; Rom. 5:2; Gal. 5:1
57. My sabbath—Col. 2:16-17
58. My new moon—Col. 2:16-17
59. My morning—Lam. 3:22-24
60. My day—2 Pet. 3:8; 2 Cor. 4:16
61. My age—2 Pet. 3:8; 2 Cor. 5:17
62. My eternity—John 3:15-16
63. My trust—Psa. 28:7; 40:3; Isa. 12:2; Jer. 17:7
64. My desire—Psa. 73:25
65. My satisfaction—Isa. 58:11
66. My delight— Matt. 3:17; 17:5
67. The all-inclusive One—Col. 1:14-19
68. The first—Rev. 22:13
69. The last—Rev. 22:13
70. All in all—Col. 3:11

Make these 70 items of Christ as everything your subjective reality

In the final stanza (s. 15) the author exclaims:

Since such a treasure I possess,
My heart doth sing for joy;
And I must sing, and sing again;
Oh, what a Christ have I!

God desires that we make His unsearchably rich Christ, “my Christ!” Make such a Christ your Christ by calling on His name to partake of all His riches bit by bit, even bite by bite.

Romans 10:13 says, that the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call on Him. As you muse on this list of aspects of Christ, call on His name, “Lord Jesus!” Then thank and praise Him for being these items to you and ask Him to make these aspects of Christ as everything your personal experience.

The Son of God Incarnate: Jesus or Yeshua?

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” – Luke 1:31 NIV

For behold, you shall conceive and you shall give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua. – Luke 1:31 Aramaic Bible in Plain English

And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:21 NLT

She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves,’] because he will save his people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:21 Complete Jewish Bible

For our reading today, I found something which on the surface appeared rather lighthearted, but the more I considered it, the more I realized there was an underlying significant observation, even it goes down the complicated rabbit hole of the Anglicizing of the Greek and Hebrew that make up our scripture texts.

Today we’re introducing you to a new writer, Christine Gabriélle who lives in Florida. Clicking her name in that last sentence will take you to her blog, and clicking the title which follows will take you where this article first appeared.

On Names

I’ve been struggling with names for the past couple of days.

How it started: Christmas Eve I was on Google doing Googley things and somehow found myself in the middle of an article about the transliteration of “Yeshua” and how it changed from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to Swedish (I think) to English and became “Jesus” when a more literal Hebrew-to-English translation of “Yeshua” should be “Joshua.”

So, here I am—on Christmas Day—watching movies with my brother and falling down a spiral of “Dear Josh” jokes and telling him I hope his future wife has a sense of humor because my future niece(s) and/or nephew(s) will be taught by their auntie that the Son of God’s name is Joshua and not Jesus and we start our prayers with “Dear Josh” because He’s kind of like our heavenly brother and we don’t need to call Him by His full name.

Today, I’m sitting in the bathroom—where I tend to dig out my most intelligent (or rebellious) thoughts—and I say out loud to myself, “we shouldn’t even be translating names!” I understand translating the Bible into languages more people can understand, but names are names and don’t need translation.

Like, my name is “Christine” no matter what language you speak.

And then this thought spun me around to a memory of middle school when we would have Asian foreign exchange students come hang out with us for part of the school year, and instead of us being taught their actual names, they were given ridiculous English names like “Cutie” and “Sweety” (though some had less ridiculous English names like “Mary”).

Imagine being eleven, going to a new country, and instead of people calling you by your name, you get stuck with “Strawberry” or “Purple” for your entire stay because it’s easier for the locals to pronounce. Now, we’re not talking about nicknames or shortening a name (Christine > Chris, Michael > Mike, etc.), we’re talking about completely different names here.

It’s stupid. And I’m angry about it.

A person’s name should not be translated into something that isn’t their name just to make it easier for someone else to say.

Calling me “Christina” because it’s easier for you or because you like the way it sounds better (yes, I have actually been told that as an adult by an adult) is a sure-fire way to make me hate you just a little.

So, I swing back to the Yeshua/Jesus/Joshua thing and I’m sitting there like, “Yeshua” doesn’t need to be “Joshua” either. Yeshua is Yeshua. Period.

Now, full disclosure, I was one of those people who thought Christians who called Jesus “Yeshua” were being pretentious and annoying, but I get it now and I’m a little piffed it took me this long.

So, no, we will not be calling the Son of God “Josh”, nor will we be calling Him “Jesus”. His name is Yeshua. My name is Christine.

The point is, call people by their actual name (the one they give you) and not some version of their name that makes more sense to you.

 

Synoptic Gospels Ask the Questions; John Lists the Answers

Today’s devotional first appeared four years ago as part of our Sunday Worship series.

by Ruth Wilkinson

In the gospel of Matthew, we read of Jesus asking his followers, “Who do you say that I am?”

In the gospel of Mark, we read of Jesus asking his followers, “Who do you say that I am?”

In the gospel of Luke, we read of Jesus asking his followers, “Who do you say that I am?”

In the gospel of John, we read of Jesus giving us vocabulary to help us answer this question. To understand who he is.

✞ ✞ ✞

Jesus told them, “I am the bread of life.
Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry, and anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty again.”

Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world.
Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

Jesus said again, “I assure you: I am the door.
Anyone who enters by me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture.”

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth and the life.
Anyone who comes to the Father comes through me.”

Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.
Anyone who abides in Me, and I in him, produces much fruit.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers.”

Jesus told them, “I am the good shepherd.
Anyone who knows me knows my voice. I know My own sheep, and they know Me. I lay down My life for the sheep.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
Anyone who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die — ever.
Do you believe this?”

✞ ✞ ✞

He tells us to see him:

As the good bread, and the living water: the one who satisfies the most fundamental needs of our souls;
As the light of life: the one who makes our path visible, who gives us understanding, who kills our fear;
As the door: the only way in – to shelter – and the only way out – to freedom;
As the way, the truth, the life: the one who gives us access to the Father;
As the vine: the one who gives us roots and certainty, identity and provision, growth and fruit;
As the shepherd: the one who provides protection and gives guidance;
As the resurrection: the one who gives us hope, not only in the forever, but today and next Monday and right now.

✞ ✞ ✞

But as with all of God’s promises, there’s a flip-side.

His promises come with the expectation, the demand, that we choose to receive. That we choose to say yes.

Yes, I will hear your voice.
Yes, I will come.
Yes, I will enter.
Yes, I will abide.
Yes, I will produce your fruit.
Yes, I will live.
Yes, I will die.
Yes, I will live again.
Yes, I will believe.

---

Update for regular readers:

Our regular Thursday columnist, Clarke Dixon is a few weeks into a 14-week sabbatical, but just days in he announced the completion of a book. You can read more about what’s inside Beautiful and Believable: The Reason for My Hope, by clicking this link.

The Three Identities of Christ

I want to say at the outset that this is not about “the names of Jesus,” or “the names of Christ,” though it certainly overlaps that discussion greatly. Furthermore, it’s not so much about specific titles or names at all, as two of the three categories here offers multiple options.

The two times I attended Young Life meetings, the speaker said it’s quite important when looking at the Jesus narrative to see the different people taking place in each scene; even to imagine yourself as part of the action. In one story, there’s a blind man, his parents, the Pharisees, Jesus, the disciples, the crowd, etc. You can read the story through the eyes of the crowd, and then go back to the beginning reading the story through the eyes (no pun intended) of the blind man.

We see that even generalizations about ‘the crowd’ are difficult. In one scene they are throwing down palm branches to welcome his unusual entrance into Jerusalem; in the next scene they are shouting, “Crucify, Crucify.” But is the ‘they’ the same in both cases? Many a sermon has been preached about how fickle the masses can be, and how when the tide of opinion about Jesus shifted after his arrest, they turned against him. However, this is important: Were those the same people?

There’s a lot more going on in that story. Why did the people just happen to be lined up along the road? Why did they just happen to be carrying palm branches? Do you see the problem? The complexities in the Jesus narrative are huge and this is what makes his life so captivating, and why, if you’re willing to put some effort into it, you can never stop studying him without learning something new each time.

So what are the identities referred to in today’s title?

Last night I watched a short education video about how the 50 American states got their names. There, I learned two new terms: endonym and exonym. The first term is the insider name that a particular place, group, or linguistic community uses as their self-designated name for themselves, their homeland, or their language. Insider terminology. The second is the designation that everyone outside the group or place uses. Wikipedia’s example is that “Deutschland is the endonym for the country that is also known by the exonym Germany in English and Allemagne in French.” The differences aren’t always simply translation. In these racially sensitive times, one would be advised to carefully consider the terms their using for people of a specific ethnicity. In reference to one term, I once heard someone say, “We can say that to each other, but you can’t say that about us.” That’s the endonym/exonym distinction.

I mentioned this to my youngest son in an email last night, and he quickly came back with the terms emic and etic. The former refers to research done on a particular group (their norms, folklore, opinions) from the perspective of someone within the group, or a behaviorist or social scientist who has embedded themself within the group. The latter term is a perspective or conclusions based on research conducted among people outside the group as to how they perceive the group or the group’s involvement in a particular situation.

So naturally, I couldn’t help think of this exchange.

^{NLT.Matt.16.13} When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴ “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

¹⁵ Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

So first, Jesus asks his closest followers, ‘What’s the word on the street about me?’

Next he gets a rather diplomatic answer. “Some say…” (italics added). Were the Pharisees and Saducees included in that opinion poll? Or were they out when the pollster called? What about those who had been followers in the past, but left after the “hard sayings” or were earlier part of the “he is out of his mind” persuasion? (John 6:60 and Mark 3:31 respectively.) Verse 14b, if it existed might say something like, ‘…and others say your teaching is too stringent, your standards are impossible; and some think you’re either deceived or plain nuts; and the Pharisees are writing blog posts about how they are sure you’re a false teacher.’

So if we look at the crowd identity that Jesus has, there are multiple answers.

Then he asks them, ‘So what about you guys?’

I would expect there might have been some silence between verse 15 and verse 16. They’d seen the miracles, they’d heard the teaching. If the timeline in Matthew is correct, none of them had witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus. That happens one chapter and six days later. But we know from the fuller story that Judas isn’t all in and Thomas has a bent to skepticism.

Peter’s response reminds me of the kid in Sunday School who always knows the right answer. In the days that follow, Peter’s declaration will be put to the ultimate stress test. If Peter really believes Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, then what does that mean when the heat is on him personally and the opportunity to distance himself from that messiah presents itself?

So with the crowd and with the disciples we see the potential for a variety of answers.

But what’s the third identity, if we’re saying there are three?

Well, we’ve already covered it. It’s the identity that Jesus has when he speaks of himself. “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

The dichotomy of endonym and exonym or emic and etic breaks down here because there is another party to this analysis, Jesus himself; the one who is so “other;” which leads to a discussion of how he is so holy; what he knows about himself, who he is, how he was with God and was God, how he is before all things and in him all things hold together, and how he is about to show three of them some of his glory in the mountain transfiguration which follows in the next chapter.

But instead of titles and names that might terrify those first century followers, he chooses a less threatening-sounding and prophetically significant reference to the Book of Daniel, the Son of Man.

For more on that, you need to check out this 5½ minute video from The Bible Project. (See below.)

So who do you say Jesus is?

The Son of Man

---

Make it personal: About an hour after creating this, I realized its similarity to another teaching I heard when I was younger. Each of us also has three identities. There is how we see ourselves; how others sees us; and how God sees us. What God thinks of us is singular, but our self-analysis and that of our friends may include a multiple of adjectives depending on how we present ourselves in different situations to different people.

 

I Am

A worship liturgy by Ruth Wilkinson

In the gospel of Matthew, we read of Jesus asking his followers, “Who do you say that I am?”

In the gospel of Mark, we read of Jesus asking his followers, “Who do you say that I am?”

In the gospel of Luke, we read of Jesus asking his followers, “Who do you say that I am?”

In the gospel of John, we read of Jesus giving us vocabulary to help us answer this question. To understand who he is.

✞ ✞ ✞

Jesus told them, “I am the bread of life.
Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry, and anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty again.”

Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world.
Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

Jesus said again, “I assure you: I am the door.
Anyone who enters by me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture.”

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth and the life.
Anyone who comes to the Father comes through me.”

Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.
Anyone who abides in Me, and I in him, produces much fruit.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers.”

Jesus told them, “I am the good shepherd.
Anyone who knows me knows my voice. I know My own sheep, and they know Me. I lay down My life for the sheep.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
Anyone who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die — ever.
Do you believe this?”

✞ ✞ ✞

He tells us to see him:

As the good bread, and the living water: the one who satisfies the most fundamental needs of our souls;
As the light of life: the one who makes our path visible, who gives us understanding, who kills our fear;
As the door: the only way in – to shelter – and the only way out – to freedom;
As the way, the truth, the life: the one who gives us access to the Father;
As the vine: the one who gives us roots and certainty, identity and provision, growth and fruit;
As the shepherd: the one who provides protection and gives guidance;
As the resurrection: the one who gives us hope, not only in the forever, but today and next Monday and right now.

✞ ✞ ✞

But as with all of God’s promises, there’s a flip-side.

His promises come with the expectation, the demand, that we choose to receive. That we choose to say yes.

Yes, I will hear your voice.
Yes, I will come.
Yes, I will enter.
Yes, I will abide.
Yes, I will produce your fruit.
Yes, I will live.
Yes, I will die.
Yes, I will live again.
Yes, I will believe.