Delivered from the Guilt of Sin

Today we’re thrilled to introduce another new writer to you. Rebecca L. Johnson has returned to her blog — tag line: Notes About Faith and Encouragement — with three posts this month after a nearly four year break. Her education includes Criminology with a dose of Theater, and she has one published book. I hope you find today’s devotional as interesting as we did. Click the title which follows and read this where it first appeared.

Context Matters

Case in Point: Psalm 32:7

Since the advent of commercializing Scripture into bite sized quotables, believers in Jesus have become more and more anesthetized to caring about the context of said Scriptures. I could point to a hundred or more examples, but this is one that I was guilty of extrapolating many years ago. The Lord has recently reminded me that in order to appreciate the sweet, we must often have to endure the ultra-sour. In order to understand the depth of His grace, we sometimes have to face the depths of despair and confront our own desperate need for His rescue.

This was highlighted for me in Psalm 32. My oldest daughter was born into a tempest as her biological father decided that he didn’t want the responsibility of being a father and so I found myself in the midst of a divorce during my pregnancy. I vowed that God would be the Father of my children and that earthly relationships of any intimate nature were a thing of the past. I got on my knees the night that he left us and handed the keys of my life and everything in it back to the Lord – You see I had been trying to control and manage my responses to external events in my own strength for about six years at that time without consulting the Lord, and my life felt like the tail end of a hurricane – I was done fighting. I had no strength left.

I searched the Scriptures for a Word that would bring comfort to myself and to my daughter specifically. I came across Psalm 32:7 “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” This sounds, and is, poetic, beautiful and hopeful. However, we don’t stop to ask ourselves what we are being delivered from. This is the entire text of Psalm 32 from the New International Version of Scripture (the spacing is owing to its poetic form):

Blessed is the one

Whose transgressions are forgiven,

Whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the one

Whose sin the LORD does not count against them

And in whose spirit is no deceit.

When I kept silent,

My bones wasted away

Through my groaning all day long.

For day and night

Your hand was heavy on me;

My strength was sapped

As in the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you

And did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, “I will confess

My transgressions to the LORD.”

And you forgave

The guilt of my sin.

Therefore let all the faithful pray to you

While you may be found;

Surely the rising of the mighty waters

Will not reach them.

You are my hiding place;

You will protect me from trouble

And surround me with songs of deliverance.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

Do not be like the horse or the mule,

Which have no understanding

But must be controlled by bit and bridle

Or they will not come to you.

Many are the woes of the wicked,

But the LORD’s unfailing love

Surrounds the one who trusts in him.

Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous;

Sing, all you who are upright in heart!

The introduction to this poem sets the stage for blessing then reveals the story. This person was weighed down by sin and struggles and had no strength left. THEN! Don’t you just love those transitional words?! It signals a turning point. “THEN I acknowledged my sin to you…” I came clean. I brought into the light what had been shrouded in darkness. I handed over all my broken pieces and confessed my shame. “AND You forgave…” Wow. The weight is lifted. The relationship is restored. You forgave…Me. I didn’t deserve it. I had nothing to bargain with. There was no good excuse for my waywardness, but You forgave me anyway! THEREFORE!

I have been remarried to an amazing man for over eighteen years now because God knew that I needed a running mate in this crazy life race, and my husband (the preacher and professor) likes to say “Always see what the ‘therefore’ is there for.” “THEREFORE” – in light of this information, because of what comes before this word – “Let the faithful pray to you while you may be found…”

The rising waters will not reach them – the faithful, those who have turned from their sin, confessed, and are no longer following their own desolate path. Those who are faithful to the LORD…They will be protected from drowning and surrounded with songs of deliverance. They will find the strength in God to fill their lungs with the breath supplied by the LORD and join Him in song!

To those of you who feel like you are being led around like cattle, or blown and tossed by the wind…To those who are still trying to go your own way, follow your own heart, or find your own path…The Bible doesn’t teach you that those things will lead to life or deliverance or truth or rest for your weary soul! The Bible teaches you to turn from all those cultural cliches and to obey what the LORD is telling you to do because He loves you and knows what is best for you… what will make you thrive and excel…what will bring you joy and peace…what will protect you and preserve you when everything else around you is falling apart.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NIV). Believe in the One who saves – His name is Jesus. Confess where you have tried to do things your own way instead of His way. Be forgiven. Then you are protected. Then you can sing!

Evil People Bearing the Image of God

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:27 NIV

“Does that mean that Hitler was made in the image of God?”

It’s a question everyone, from Sunday School children to theologians, have asked in some form. What about patently evil people. They can’t be part of God’s original design template, can they?

What got me thinking about this was the verse where Jesus is talking about prayer and encouraging his disciples to ask; to seek; to knock. He then says,

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him. – Matthew 7:11 CSB

All of the major translations, with the exception of the NLT (which uses “sinful”) retain this idea of the evil parent still being generous. We could chop the verse in half and still be left with:

If you then, who are evil, know how to give

The verse is echoed in Luke and the NASB (italics are theirs) makes a small clarification:

So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” – Luke 11:23 NASB

Giving, charity, grace, generosity are all marks of God the Father.

The phrase used in discussions of this nature is imago dei and the translation is somewhat obvious. But if you were paying attention a few days ago, we noted that God is not like us at all. He is wholly distinct, wholly set apart, wholly other. You might prefer to say that we were made after God’s image, in the sense that an impressionist painting is reflective of the location it wishes to convey, but in no way is a full representation of that scene.

So we all — including the evil person who still remembers their childrens’ birthdays — possess elements of the divine nature and character of God, but certainly not in full measure.

It’s the previous paragraph that might cause disagreement.

Some would argue that the reflection of God’s image can only be seen in those who have experienced the transformation of salvation, the regeneration of their spirit by His Spirit, the declaration of Christ’s Lordship over their lives, and are now a new creation in Jesus.

I would contend that the already-present image of the Creator is being perfected in the life of the believer.

[Y]ou have put off the old self with its practices and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. – Colossians 3:9b-10 NET

So yes, Hitler, Judas, Putin, and anyone else you want to name.

Ruth Wilkinson writes here occasionally, and I asked her about this subject and her first reaction was to look at Cain, who she said is “ground zero” for evil.

I interrupted her at that point and said, “Isn’t ‘ground zero’ the fall through the disobedience of Eve and Adam?”

She responded that while their actions revealed their sin nature, it was the Bible’s first murder which shows the fruit of human sin and disobedience. It was also the first time someone sinned against another person.

^{NIV.Genesis.4.6} Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” ⁸ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field. While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

God orders Cain to leave the agricultural plot that has been his subsistence and go to a far location. Cain is concerned that as a foreigner there — obviously some time has passed at this point and there are other people — they would try to kill him.

¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Not so, anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

As Ruth explained this to me, it was evident that this mark, whatever it was, represents a kind of image of God stamped on Cain. It reminds me of those seals people would place in the inside cover of books in their personal library, “This book is property of…” Despite the sin (the evil) which was “crouching at the door” in Cain’s life, he was still God’s child, even though the text contains no presentation of confession and forgiveness per se.

We brought our son Aaron into the discussion, and he noted that we are to see the worth of our greatest enemies as people who are, nonetheless created in God’s image. Jesus says,

“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.” – Luke 6: 27-28 NKJV

In other words, even those who make your life miserable ought to be the recipients of your prayers and good works. That’s hard.

I looked up several discussions on this topic, and concluded that just like we are a people who live in two worlds, so we are a people who reflect conflicting images. We are created in God’s image, but we bear the marks of sin.

However, as we draw near to God through Christ, the image of God is restored — I think of a classic painting that undergoes restoration by a skilled artisan — we are made anew.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!– 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Temptation to Rest on Data

I once heard a comedian say, “I have no problem with temptation. I just give in.”  I laughed, but it also resonated with me. Sometimes, temptation isn’t a “problem” because we have no intention of offering resistance.

Ten years ago, while only 18 and on a track to become a youth pastor, our youngest son was asked to speak to his youth group on an assigned topic, the story of David taking the census. At first it seems somewhat straightforward — David did something that was wrong and there were consequences — but as you dig deeper the passage becomes more complex.

II Samuel 24 (NLT)

David Takes a Census

Once again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a census. “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah,” the Lord told him.

² So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Take a census of all the tribes of Israel—from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south—so I may know how many people there are.”

³ But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God let you live to see a hundred times as many people as there are now! But why, my lord the king, do you want to do this?”

⁴ But the king insisted that they take the census, so Joab and the commanders of the army went out to count the people of Israel. ⁵ First they crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, south of the town in the valley, in the direction of Gad. Then they went on to Jazer, ⁶ then to Gilead in the land of Tahtim-hodshi and to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon. ⁷ Then they came to the fortress of Tyre, and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went south to Judah as far as Beersheba.

⁸ Having gone through the entire land for nine months and twenty days, they returned to Jerusalem. ⁹ Joab reported the number of people to the king. There were 800,000 capable warriors in Israel who could handle a sword, and 500,000 in Judah.

Judgment for David’s Sin

¹⁰ But after he had taken the census, David’s conscience began to bother him. And he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt, Lord, for doing this foolish thing.”

¹¹ The next morning the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David’s seer. This was the message: ¹² “Go and say to David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will give you three choices. Choose one of these punishments, and I will inflict it on you.’”

¹³ So Gad came to David and asked him, “Will you choose three years of famine throughout your land, three months of fleeing from your enemies, or three days of severe plague throughout your land? Think this over and decide what answer I should give the Lord who sent me.”

¹⁴ “I’m in a desperate situation!” David replied to Gad. “But let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great. Do not let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel that morning, and it lasted for three days. A total of 70,000 people died throughout the nation, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south. ¹⁶ But as the angel was preparing to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented and said to the death angel, “Stop! That is enough!” At that moment the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷ When David saw the angel, he said to the Lord, “I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are as innocent as sheep—what have they done? Let your anger fall against me and my family.”

(the story continues further into the chapter)

There is so much about this passage that Bible commentators agree we don’t know. Why was God angry with Israel? What it pride that caused David to want the numbers. Was his purpose to derive military confidence which the data (the numbers) would provide? (Quickly now, without looking it up, how many Facebook friends do you have? How invested are you that number?)

We do know that there were specific instructions on census-taking which we find first in Exodus 30. It was part of “cash offering” collection associated with a “blood offering” by Aaron annually for the purpose of atoning for sin. Then, in Numbers 4, there are instructions on counting the men able to work in the temple. Next, in Numbers 26, we see an example of an actual military census.

Personally, I think there is a parallel here between David counting his men and Gideon eliminating a significant portion of his soldiers from his army. God was trying to show Gideon that he could win on the basis of God’s help and guidance, and not on mere numbers.

Did the punishment fit the transgression? I think it’s interesting that an aspect of the punishment also involves numbers.

But one of the most difficult aspects of this passage is the source of David’s desire to count his men, especially when you consider the parallel passage in I Chronicles 21.  Because there the  first verse there reads:

Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.

So was it Satan or the Lord who caused David to do the thing David later called ‘sin’ and ‘foolish’?  What is the source of temptation?

^{NLT -Genesis 2:15} The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. ¹⁶ But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— ¹⁷ except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

Let me introduce another image from another passage. I think the point is that today, each of us has “trees” in our “garden” that are the source of spiritual testing. Adam and Eve “walked with God in the cool of the evening,” so they were intimate friends; but God was clearly God, so the temptation to ignore his warning not to eat the fruit — especially when offered the opportunity that“your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil”(Gen.3:5 NLT) — was easily rationalized away.

Sometimes these “trees” are simply there, but I believe sometimes God says, ‘It’s exam time. So what about that, or those, or him, or her?  Aren’t you just a little bit interested?’  Sometimes the answers are obvious, but sometimes the details are more complicated. A thing that is generally a good thing — there are many times a census takes place in scripture, including the time at the birth of Jesus where Joseph and Mary are both registered and taxed — can at other times be a bad thing if it’s being done from the motivation of pride.

A good thing done at the wrong time is a bad thing.

I Corinthians 10:13 tells us,

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (NLT)

So what do we do with James 1:13?

And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.

I think the key to this story is that God didn’t cause David’s pride or disobedience, but rather that God exposed the pride that was already resident within him. This is probably key to understanding why the first verse of the two accounts (2 Samuel vs. 1 Chronicles) appear to disagree.  And it surfaces in the very next verses in James:

¹⁴ Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. ¹⁵ These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

A parallel study would involve the trials that are sent to Job. Satan — at God’s suggestion — is allowed to wreak havoc on Job’s life, but within limits. Satan is the agency of calamity, but only as God permitted that unique test to happen.

^{Job 1:8} Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”

^{Job 2:3} Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me to harm him without cause.”

If David’s issue was pride, that’s serious. If David’s issue was a lack of confidence in God, such that he needed the backup of census data, that’s serious.

We have to recognize that the source of temptation isn’t nearly as important as our response to it.

~PW

 

 

 

 

Accusation and Conviction Arrive on Parallel Tracks

^{NLT Ps. 51:3} For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunts me day and night.

^{KJV Ps. 51:3} For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

^{ESV Revelation 12:10} And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

^{NIV I Thess. 1:4} For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, ⁵ because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.

^{NIV I Tim. 3:16} All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…

Sometimes you just know when you’ve messed up.  You need neither the devil’s accusation nor the Holy Spirit’s conviction. It’s black and white. You missed the mark. You weren’t even aiming for the target. You recognize that the border between the righteousness and holiness that people in your church think you live out, and the propensity to sin of weaker brothers is a border only micro-millimeters thick.

How did I think that? What made me say that? Why did I look at her/him the way I did? Why did I charge that customer for two hours’ labor when I did the job in one? Why did I click on that website? Where did that anger come from when they mentioned that person’s name? Why did I say I’d be there when I have no intention of attending?

Yikes! I’m no different than anyone else! Here I thought — and everybody else thought — that I was super spiritual, when in fact I’m … human.

That’s the moment to confess.

This is often referred to as “keeping short accounts with God.” 

The blog Amazing Grace Bible Studies explains:

…let’s consider the phrase as it is used in accounting acumen. To keep your accounts payable on a “short basis” simply means to keep them “paid up”, or rather, not to let them become extended. An example of this would be to pay off your credit card balance every month.

In the spiritual sense, when looking at the theology that prescribes this practice, it always refers to confession of sin(s) (the equivalent of a liability or debt in accounting terms), and requesting to be forgiven of sins on a daily basis.1 When you hear believers say that they are “prayed up” this invariably means that they’ve got all their sins “confessed up.”

Rick Warren adds,

“Clean hands” simply means a clear conscious. Does that mean we’re perfect? No. None of us is perfect. But we can keep short accounts with God. 1 John 1:9 (TLB) says, “But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.” So when we sin, we just say, “God, I was wrong. I confess it.” There is no power without a clear conscience.

Classic writer A. B. Simpson wrote:

It is a good thing to keep short accounts with God. I was very much struck some years ago with an interpretation of the verse: So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God (Romans 14:12). The thought it conveys is that of accounting to God daily. For us judgment is passed as we lay down on our pillows each night. This is surely the true way to live. It is the secret of great peace. It will be a delightful comfort when life is closing or at the Master’s coming, to know that our account is settled and our judgment over. For us, then, there is only the waiting to hear the glad Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Matthew 25:21).

But sometimes we feel a sense of a nagging in our heads and hearts either because (a) we haven’t confessed yet, or (b) we have but something about our sin is such that our brain won’t let go of it — or at least that would be a superficial explanation to what is going on.

But what’s really going one?  In either case above, it has to be either:

• the conviction of the Holy Spirit (or you might read the I Thess. passage above as ‘the conviction of the gospel’ or in I Tim., the rebuke of God’s Word); or,
• the accusation of Satan who is described (in the Rev. passage above) as the accuser of the brethren (and, as some translations add, the sistren.) (Yes, I know that’s not a word.)

Conviction or accusation?

So when you find yourself in the situation of unconfessed sin, or of sin you feel you did indeed confess, then is what you are experiencing conviction or accusation?

Does it really matter?

No, I mean that question. We looked at a tough passage a few days ago where David took the census, and the two Old Testaments account differed in terms of whether the idea for David to do this came from Satan or from God.  Theologians still aren’t sure; the jury is still out on how to interpret this passage.

So here’s what I think. And remember this is just one guy’s opinion.

I believe that, to use a train analogy, sometimes conviction and accusation arrive on parallel tracks. Both will lead you in the same direction. One is very negative: “So I guess we’re not so spiritual after all, are we?” But the other comes from a heart of love, “Let’s get that confessed, so that we can spend the rest of the day walking in grace and forgiveness.”

One will beat you over the head. Actually, you don’t need to be a Christ-follower to have that experience. All humans have some degree of guilt-reflex.

But the other will free you, provided you act on that conviction, confess and move on.

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If you’re keeping score, this is post #4,700 at Christianity 201.

“Just Tell Us What We Want to Hear”

Today’s title is from the NCV rendering of Isaiah 30:10

They tell the seers,
    “Don’t see any more visions!”
They say to the prophets,
    “Don’t tell us the truth!
Say things that will make us feel good;
    see only good things for us.

The pastor in the church we visited on New Year’s Day 2017 started with a message on sin. Although he used literally dozens of scripture references — many from Romans — this passage in Isaiah 30 (12-14 in particular) was the only verse for which he prepared a slide for us to read. Many people just want to hear things that will make them feel good. Skipping the truth. Avoiding confrontation.  Elsewhere, we read about people having “itching ears.”

Today, we’re going to contrast the contemporary language of The Message translation with the more formal commentary of Matthew Henry. However, where you see italics, I’ve used more modern expressions. Everything from this point that’s not scripture text is Matthew Henry.

So, go now and write all this down.
    Put it in a book
So that the record will be there
    to instruct the coming generations,
Because this is a rebel generation,
    a people who lie,
A people unwilling to listen
    to anything God tells them.
They tell their spiritual leaders,
    “Don’t bother us with irrelevancies.”
They tell their preachers,
    “Don’t waste our time on impracticalities.
Tell us what makes us feel better.
    Don’t bore us with obsolete religion.
That stuff means nothing to us.
    Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel.”  – Isaiah 30: 8-11 (MSG)

They forbade the prophets to speak to them in God’s name, and to deal faithfully with them.

They set themselves so violently against the prophets to hinder them from preaching, or at least from dealing plainly with them in their preaching, did so banter them and browbeat them, that they did in effect say to the seers, See not. They had the light, but they loved darkness rather. It was their privilege that they had seers among them, but they did what they could to put out their eyes — that they had prophets among them, but they did what they could to stop their mouths; for they tormented them in their wicked ways, Rev. 11:10.

Those that silence good ministers, and discountenance good preaching, are justly counted, and called, rebels against God. See what it was in the prophets’ preaching with which they found themselves aggrieved.

1.  The prophets told them of their faults, and warned them of their misery and danger by reason of sin, and they couldn’t take it. They must speak to them warm and fuzzy things, must flatter them in their sins, and say that they did well, and there was no harm, no danger, in the course of life they lived in. No matter how true something is, if it be not easy to listen to, they will not hear it. But if it be agrees with the good opinion they have of themselves, and will confirm them in that, even though it be very false and ever so undeserved, they will have it prophesied to them. Those deserve to be deceived that desire to be so.
2.  The prophets stopped them in their sinful pursuits, and stood in their way like the angel in Balaam’s road, with the sword of God’s wrath drawn in their hand; so that they could not proceed without terror. And this they took as a great insult. When they continued to desire the opposite of what the prophets were saying they in effect said to the prophets, “Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the paths. What do you do in our way? Cannot you leave us alone to do as we please?” Those have their hearts fully set in them to do evil that bid these accountability monitors to get out of their way. Be quiet now before I have you killed! 2 Chron. 25:16.
3.  The prophets were continually telling them of the Holy One of Israel, what an enemy he is to sin ad how severely he will judge sinners; and this they couldn’t listen to. Both the thing itself and the expression of it were too serious for them; and therefore, if the prophets will speak to them, they will determine that they will not call God the Holy One of Israel; for God’s holiness is that attribute which wicked people most of all dread.

Now what is the doom passed upon them for this?

Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this:
    “Because you scorn this Message,
Preferring to live by injustice
    and shape your lives on lies,
This perverse way of life
    will be like a towering, badly built wall
That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts,
    and then one day, without warning, collapses—
Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery,
    smashed beyond recognition or repair,
Useless, a pile of debris
    to be swept up and thrown in the trash.”

Observe,

1. Who it is that gives judgment upon them? This is what the Holy One of Israel says. The prophet uses the very title they find so objectionable. Faithful ministers will not be driven from using such expressions as are needed to awaken sinners, though they be displeasing. We must tell men that God is the Holy One of Israel, and so they will find him, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear.
2.  What is the basis of the judgment? Because they despise this word—whether, in general, every word that the prophets said to them, or this word in particular, which declares God to be the Holy One of Israel: “they despise this, and will neither make it their fear, to respect it, nor make it their hope, to put any confidence in it; but, rather than they will submit to the Holy One of Israel, they will continue in oppression and perverseness, in the wealth they have collected and the interest they have made by fraud and violence, or in the sinful methods they have taken for their own security, in contradiction to God and his will. On these they depend, and therefore it is just that they should fall.”
3.  What is the judgment is that is passed on them? “This sinfulness will be to you as a wall ready to fall. This confidence of yours will be like a house built upon the sand, which will fall in the storm and bury the builder in the ruins of it. Your contempt of that word of God which you might build upon will make every thing else you trust like a wall that bulges out, which, if any weight be laid upon it, comes down, nay, which often sinks with its own weight.”

The ruin they are bringing upon themselves is,

1. Surprising: The breaking shall come suddenly, at an instant, when they do not expect it, which will make it the more frightful, and when they are not prepared or provided for it, which will make it the more fatal.
2. Total and irreversible: “Your and all you hold dear shall be not only weak as the potter’s clay (Isa. 29:16), but broken to pieces as the potter’s vessel. He that has the rod of iron shall break it (Ps. 2:9) and he will not spare, will not have any regard to it, nor be in care to preserve or keep whole any part of it. But, when once it is broken so as to be unfit for use, let it be destroyed, let it be crushed, all to pieces, so that there may not remain one shred big enough to take up a little fire or water”—two things we have daily need of, and which poor people commonly get in a piece of a broken pitcher. They shall not only be as a leaning fence (Ps. 62:3), but as a broken mug or glass, which is good for nothing, nor can ever be made whole again.

A Gift Which Wasn’t Received

No one likes to obtain and present a gift only to find it has been roundly rejected. And yet, this is exactly what happens to a member of the Bible’s “first family” in a passage that is the subject of much discussion. The gift is offered to God, and it is God who spurns it.

^{Gen 4 (NLT) : 3} When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. ⁴ Abel also brought a gift—the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, ⁵ but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

⁶ “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? ⁷ You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

⁸ One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.

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^{Hebrews 11 (ESV) : 4} By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

A few years ago our pastor referenced Genesis chapter 4, and as I considered the story of Cain and Abel, I thought it interesting that the first recorded act of worship in scripture ends in murder. It is easy to get caught up in tertiary interpretations of the text, and I don’t for a minute want to suggest that this ‘meat versus vegetables’ distinction is in any way related to our modern ‘hymns versus choruses’ worship wars; I only want to note in passing that the one of mankind’s darkest moments — that murder should enter the story so early on — was preceded by an attempted act of worship.

I thought it best to bring in the heavy artillery here to look at what this passage does say, so I consulted several of my print commentaries.

The Evangelical Commentary on the Bible observes:

“Abel is a shepherd and Cain is a farmer. Both brothers bring offerings to the Lord suitable to their vocations. There is no indication in the text that one offering is inferior to the other.” (p. 15)

The Wycliffe Bible Commentary notes:

“No reason is given here for the rejection [by the Lord]. And the scripture does not tell us how God indicated his disapproval. It may be that fire fell from heaven and consumed the accepted offering but left the other untouched. Some have thought that Can’s offering was rejected because Cain failed to perform the proper ritual. Others have advanced the idea that the nature of the gifts made the difference — the one being flesh and involving death and bloodshed. (See Heb 9:22) …Because Abel was a man of faith, he came in the right spirit and presented worship that pleased God. We have reason to believe that Abel had some realization of his need for substitutionary atonement. To all appearances both offerings expressed gratitude, thanksgiving and devotion to God. But the man who lacked genuine faith in his heart could not please God even though the material gift was spotless. God did not look upon Cain because He had already looked at him and seen what was in his heart. Abel came to God in the right attitude of heart for worship and in the only way sinful men can approach a Holy God. Cain did not.” (p..9)

The International Bible Commentary states:

“We are now introduced to a series of events showing us how quickly the results of The Fall were revealed. As was said in [chapter] 3 [verse] 7, the first effects of sin were seen in the family and it is entirely consistent with this that the first murder is fratricide… No suggestion of previous tension between the brothers is mentioned… [Both sacrifices] were the recognition of Yahweh’s lordship. Both gave of what they had, and so Leupold is certainly correct in saying, ‘Those who see the merit of Abel’s sacrifice in the fact that it was bloody certain do so without the least warrant from the text.'” (pp. 118-119)

The Evangelical Commentary on the Bible continues:

“Cain is very angry and his face is downcast. Cain is the first angry and depressed man in the Bible. He should be able, however, to overcome those feelings before they overcome him…” Cain kills Abel in the field… First man fell out of relationship with God. Now he falls out of relationship with his brother. How can Cain love god whom he cannot see, when he cannot love Abel whom he can see?” (p. 15)

Without getting lost in secondary interpretations,  I hope the worship wars in your church never proceed to this level. I hope that what we bring and have to offer to God is brought with right attitudes, right motivation, and according to the standards God has set.

The point is, we simply don’t understand all of the nuances of this narrative. “We understand in part;” (1 Cor. 13:9) “we see in part;” (1 Cor. 13:12). Human nature being what it is, we can only project on Cain the hurt he felt when his gift was not received; but was he fully aware of God’s underlying reasons for saying, ‘No thank you’ to him?

What we are left with is where this leads and to that end verse 7 is perhaps the centerpiece of the story. Remember, “Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

This narrative also begs the question, ‘Are we caught up in the mechanism of presenting our gift to God, that we have neglected consideration of its acceptability?‘

Psalm 15:16-17 is central to this:

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. (NIV)

Our aim should be nothing less than both choosing the right gifts and presenting our gifts in the right spirit.

^{Ps. 19 (CEB) : 14} Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you,
Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

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This narrative was also covered in August, 2020. Click to read The Perplexing Problem of Cain’s Sacrifice. Another writer we’ve shared here looked at this passage over a period of three days, and in May this year we presented the third article — looking at the “Sin is crouching at the door” verse — with links to the earlier two. Check out Sin is Waiting for You.

Redeeming Even the Worst

Today we’re back again with Bible teacher Gordon Rumford whose writing you’ll find at his devotional website. Click the header below to read this where it first appeared and then take some time to look around at other articles.

Even Who?

“All the people, even the tax collectors,
when they heard Jesus’ words,
acknowledged that God’s way was right…”
Luke 7:29 (NIV)

There is a remarkable shift in society as you pass from the last book of the Old Testament to the first of the New Testament.

When you finish reading the Old Testament you see a nation fairly well united in its mix of people. When you come to the New Testament you are suddenly confronted with many different groups in Judaism. There are Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Publicans and other groups all interacting with the common people—and with Jesus. The Bible does not explain where they all came from. But it seems they came into existence during the 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

One of the classes of Jews in Jesus’ time were the Publicans, or tax collectors. These people were Jews who had sold out to the Roman occupational forces in Palestine, and whose job it was to collect taxes from ordinary Jews on behalf of the Roman government.

You can imagine how unpopular they were with their fellow Jews! Everyone hated them not only because they had betrayed their countrymen but because they often used the Roman soldiers to extract more tax money that necessary. They were regarded as cheaters and thought to be disgusting people by the common Jews of the time.

In Luke 7 there seemed to be a mass movement of people to embrace the message of our Lord. Jesus had won the hearts of many citizens of the country. So completely did Jesus appeal to the Jewish nation that, “even the tax collectors” were believing on Him and walking in God’s way.

We are convinced that Jesus is the universal Savior of humanity. No class is above His teaching and no one is so low, so depraved, so disgusting in the minds of others, that they are unfit to come to Jesus and receive eternal life from Him.

However, Luke writes in our verse for today that even the most despised and rejected of people—the tax collectors—were coming and accepting the teaching and witness of Jesus. Many Jews of the time would think that tax collectors were quite beyond hope when it came to developing a relationship with God. Hence the shock and surprise in the comment about tax collectors.

Today Jesus is the same, and no one has sinned so much, no one has sinned so horribly that they are beyond the reach of this gracious and meek Savior. Perhaps you can look back on a very evil past. You may have spent many years in prison for your crimes against humanity. You may be rejected by everyone who comes near you.

Jesus is in the business of reclaiming the worst and the most despised of people, “even the tax collectors” are welcomed by Him. There is simply no one so evil that Jesus cannot rescue him or her from their lifestyle and put them into the way of the Lord. Come today to the One Who is the universal Savior.

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Second Helping: In this second article, Gordon Rumford shares an encounter he had with someone who recognized that she was, in a very different way, like the tax collectors in the teaching above. Check out When Does God Quit?

Don’t Let Your Mind Go There!

Nearly a decade ago I was speaking with someone who was heading off to a small Bible college in Eastern Canada. I asked him if he needed help with textbooks, and he said that the school tends to write their own curriculum as they have a unique take on how they approach some Bible subjects.

Sometimes this can be a red-flag, so I asked him to give me an example, but it turned out to be something I found challenging and in fact, if you’re a longtime C201 reader, you’re seeing it here today for the third time.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says,

^{NIV Matt. 5:27} “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. ²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Not all the teaching in this section specifically references the Decalogue, but what if we applied that “Don’t even think about it” standard to all of the other Ten Commandments? He told me that’s exactly what they did in their discussion of this passage.

That got me thinking. Instead of “Thou shalt nots” and I took some liberties with the text here, but at the time, I thought it might look like this:

1. Don’t even think about putting any other interest, hobby, passion, person, pet, or other god-to-be-worshiped ahead of me (or even on an equal place).
2. Don’t even think about giving special place to any physical representation of something (existing or in fantasy) that then occupies a central place in your life.
3. Don’t even think about using God’s name casually or disrespectfully.
4. Don’t even think about doing some chores or work for pay during the time you know should be set aside for God and for the rest He commands. If it is within your power, don’t compel others to work during this time, either.
5. Don’t even think about how, given other circumstances, you’d love to kill someone if you thought you’d get away with; or harbor the anger that rises to that level.
6. Don’t even think about going against the values your parents taught you, or doing something against their wishes. Their values and wishes and the proverbs they taught you will lead to long life.
7. Don’t even think about having sex with someone who is not your wife; those thoughts will consume you and furthermore, it’s not likely to ever happen, you’re just driving yourself crazy!
8. Don’t even think about taking something that isn’t yours.
9. Don’t even think about misrepresenting someone else or putting spin on a story so it makes them look bad.
10. Don’t even think about comparing yourself to what your neighbor, or co-worker, or extended family member has, or to his or her spouse, and wishing you could have that life or lifestyle.

I realize we’ve spent quite a few days over the past month looking at “God’s Big Ten,” and before we move to the section below, I want to invite you take some paper, or sit at our keyboard and refine what I’ve written, or better yet, start with the list in Exodus 20, and rewrite it in your own personal style or adding things you feel conform to the intention of the text when combined with the application of Matthew 5.

Before we conclude, another thing that struck me as I studied this was how The Voice Bible rendered the “You have heard it said” sections of Matthew 5. These are in italics in this version to indicate that yes, the translators have taken a liberty with the original text in order to provide clarity. What is especially worth noting here is that we generally read these with the inference that Jesus is now introducing something new, but these readings imply that the wider implications of what Jesus taught have been implicit in the text all along, if only we could see it that way.

• ²² But here is the even harder truth…
• ²⁸ You may think you have abided by this Commandment, walked the straight and narrow…
• ³⁴ But I tell you this: do not ever swear an oath. What is an oath? You cannot say, “I swear by heaven”—for heaven is not yours to swear by; it is God’s throne. ³⁵ And you cannot say, “I swear by this good earth,” for the earth is not yours to swear by; it is God’s footstool. And you cannot say, “I swear by the holy city Jerusalem,” for it is not yours to swear by; it is the city of God, the capital of the King of kings.

The Voice Bible also breaks down specifically the origin of “You have heard it said…”

• ²¹ As you know, long ago God instructed Moses to tell…
• ²⁷ As you know, long ago God forbade His people…
• ³¹ And here is something else: you have read in Deuteronomy that…
• ³³ You know that…
• ³⁸ You know that Hebrew Scripture sets this standard…
• ⁴³ You have been taught…

Jesus’ teaching is clear: Don’t even consider wandering from the path, from God’s default settings, even for a moment!

^{NIV II Tim. 3:14} But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵ and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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Click this link for a devotional from last month which, at the bottom, links to other Ten Commandments-related posts here at C201.

Our Faithfulness vs. God’s Faithfulness

When I ramble on about how we’ve been producing fresh devotional content here every day since April 1st, 2010, it’s humbling to realize that Elsie Montgomery has us beat by over four years! She started in January, 2006. It’s no surprise then that she is one of the longest-running and most-quoted devotional writers here at C201. Her website is Practical Faith.

Speaking of faithfulness, God is faithful to “forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness;” which is her theme today. Click the title which follows to read this at source.

God’s faithfulness

READ Psalm 51–55

Yesterday I discovered a forgotten file while purging my computer. It lists the contrasting behavior of a person filled with the Holy Spirit and a person filled with himself. Anyone who seriously follows the Lord Jesus Christ realizes this is not an either/or but a both/and description. Christians still sin. We are growing in grace and more able to overcome our bad attitudes and actions, but the learning curve remains — and that list was convicting.

King David knew this. He was called “a man after God’s own heart” yet one day stayed home instead of going to war with his army. He was up on his rooftop and saw a beautiful woman bathing on her rooftop. Most of us know the story. He not only took her, made her pregnant, but had her husband killed to cover what he had done. I could say that most Christians would not go that far, but I’d likely be wrong. Besides, sin is sin, regardless of its extent or who it harms.

David was confronted by a prophet and deeply convicted. He pleaded with God for mercy, forgiveness and cleansing:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart . . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me . . . . Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. (Psalm 51:1–13)

Last Sunday our pastor said that one thing that keeps people from fellowship with other Christians is holding the standards higher than the reality. In other words, don’t expect perfection from others when the Bible clearly says God’s people need to keep confessing our sin. Sinless perfection belongs to Jesus Christ and while we are being transformed into His likeness, none of us will get there this side of heaven. In other words, don’t be disappointed at anyone’s imperfections!

As I read that list, whoever wrote it knew another truth and included this in the ‘good’ list: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (51:17)

The contrast on other side of the page said this, condensed yet plainly the opposite:

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. (53:1–3)

That is, being a person devoted to God, I must be able to see and confess sin in humility and repentance. The following verse from the psalms is another way of saying the same truth in the next verse from the NT. Both are vital to spiritual growth and well-being, and both honor God and His grace and goodness:

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. (55:22)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Sometimes I pop into the selfish side of the list, yet God is faithful. It might take me awhile to ‘get it’ but when that sin is confessed, He is faithful to do His saving work and sustain me as His child. This promise is the wonder of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Laser Beam Eyes

Matthew 6:19-24 NIV:

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Today we have a writer we first featured in June of last year. We again happened upon Jamin Bradley a few days ago, and his writing led us to the excerpt we did from CommonPrayer.net although we made a note to circle back to his own writing. A Free Methodist pastor, he has written eight books, recorded a number of albums, and started three alternative churches. His blog features AI-generated images. Clicking the header which follows will let you read this where we found it.

Guard Your Eyeball Lightbeams

Up until the 1500s, it was thought that eyes actually emitted or projected something like light or energy. This energy wasn’t as extravagant as an X-Men superpower, but ancient people certainly believed there was a power of sorts in the eyes. Indeed, they believed that you could basically curse someone by casting an “Evil Eye” on them—a glance to which pregnant mothers, newborn babies, and children were especially susceptible. This kind of look was thought to be widespread enough that some Jewish teachers in the early first centuries claimed that, “Out of one hundred persons, ninety-nine die of an Evil Eye.”

Throughout the Bible, there are at least 24 references to the evil eye, with a few of those references coming from Jesus himself. In his famous Sermon on the Mount, he says something that often confuses us: “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

Many modern readers are taken aback by this teaching. How is the eye a lamp? How can eyes be evil? The answer is found in the ancient conception of the eyes, as they were thought to emanate what’s inside of us and project it out, kind of like a lamp or a lighthouse. I know it sounds odd to us, but just as your tongue exclaims the good or evil and blessings or curses that live inside of you, so would ancient people say that your eyes emit the light or darkness inside of you.

While we know that this is not scientifically how eyes work, maybe you can still admit that you’ve fallen under the good or evil glances of another person (or even given such glances yourself). We’ve all noticed throughout the pandemic that we don’t need to see the bottom half of someone’s face to know how they feel about us. We can feel all kinds of good and evil expressions through the eyes of others: kindness, enjoyment, judgment, sensitivity, seduction, rage, and much more. How little we would be able to comprehend someone’s full feelings without their eyes. Though our eyes may only scientifically be receptacles, we must admit that we’ve felt their spiritual-like emissions one way or another.

I’ve had one friend strangely mention several times that I have “kind-Jesus-eyes,” which they sometimes struggle to look at when kindness is not what they think they should receive. But the eyes of Jesus are the exact kind of eyes we Christians are to strive for. For if Jesus was the light of the world, then the kind of light that emanated from his glance is the same kind of light we should pour out on other people—and that’s a teaching that our angry and judgmental world could probably use more of.

So in conclusion: In ancient thinking, your eye is a lamp, so it should naturally pour out the light that is within you, blessing those around you. But if you instead are filled with evil, you will emit darkness instead. Erase the darkness and be like Jesus—be light. You already know that as a Christian you are to guard your tongue—now guard what you say with your eyes as well.

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*This devotional was created out of the themes of Matthew 6:19-24 found in today’s reading at CommonPrayer.net. My research on the “Evil Eye” here is taken from John H. Elliot’s book, Beware the Evil Eye: The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World. Volume 1. “Introduction, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.”

Turning (Completely) To God

Today we’re back at the blog By Leaps and Bounds which is an outreach of Arise Ministries, which is based in West Virginia. The author of today’s thoughts is Adrianna Lindsey.

Repentance

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30.

This scripture is often discussed in sermons when pastors describe a relationship with Jesus. How do we forfeit our burdens? We repent of our sins, we stop trying to do it all in our own will power.

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” -II Corinthians 6:14

How is a believer and an unbeliever unequally yoked? An unbeliever is yoked to the world, to idolatry, to sin and unrighteousness. The yoke of sin is heavy. This scripture is referring to a marriage between a believer and an unbeliever but it is also a great way to compare what a life as a believer weighs compared to a life of an unbeliever.

Repentance relieves a heavy yoke. Taking on the yoke of Jesus can only happen if we repent of our old sinful lives. Many times throughout the epistles the disciples describe when people and their households come to believe The Good News they repented of their sins, got water baptized, then received the Holy Spirit. Same with Jesus, minus he was a man with no sin and fulfilled the law, a Yoke that no man could fulfill (Acts 15:10), in its entirety so he did not need to repent of sin. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and responded to this command that he was doing what was required by the father (Matthew 3:15).

We can’t walk in righteousness and holiness with Jesus without repenting. Jesus literally tells people they will suffer a gruesome way to perish like the Galileans whose blood was mingled with their sacrifices (Luke 13:2-3). He specifically says that their sins were not worse than the sins of other Galileans but they still perished an awful death. When we hold on to unforgiveness, anger, malice, bitterness and so many other sinful ways we are choosing to perish. Jesus says not everyone who says to Me “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom…”and I will declare to them depart from me I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness!” (Luke 7:21-23)

But there is good news! When we repent and turn from our sin, we take upon the Yoke of the Lord! The Lord’s grace is abundant, yes, but that is not an excuse to continue living in sin. Romans 6 specifically says, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” (Romans 6:1-2). We make that decision to repent and be baptized into Christ Jesus and into His death so we can also be raised from the dead and share that with our King and walk in the newness of life! (Romans 6:1-4). How powerful it is to be united together in the likeness of His death and the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5)!

Don’t be a slave to your sin. Jesus tells his disciples that whoever commits sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34). He also says a slave does not abide in the house forever but a son abides forever and if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:35-36) This statement is used often with ministers in deliverance ministry because many times we believe lies that keep us bound in our sin causing us to be a slave to our sin or bound to a demonic stronghold. So repent, let go of that stronghold, because the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

We Fall Short; Everyone Falls Short

Today is our first time at the blog Anthem Seed, written by J.A. Bowens. I encourage you to click that blog link or the one in the title below, and then explore other articles.

What is the Glory of God That Makes us Fall Short?

I was praying when I heard “all have fallen short to the glory of God.” It is an excerpt from Romans 3:23 that preachers use in sermons, but I guess I never really knew what it meant. So after being on my knees for a little while, I researched the Glory of God. The Christian explanation said its hard to define . It can mean beauty however, beauty is hard to describe. Since Paul wrote Romans and Paul was a Jew. I went to the Hebrew explanation.

Shekhina is the first word for the Glory of God. Shekhina means dwell or settle. The glory of God that filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34) was as a bright radiance, and the Shekhina is sometimes similarly conceived.

There is also an affinity between the Shekhina and the Holy Spirit, though the two are not identical. Both signify some forms of divine immanence, both are associated with prophecy, and both are connected with the study of the Torah.

Moses had a breathtaking encounter with God. There he met El Hakkavod, the God of Glory. Moses asked God to remain with his people Israel. When God promised to do so, Moses, seeking further reassurance, boldly asked, “now show me your glory.”

The Hebrew word kavod is the 2nd word for glory. The word originally meant “heavy, weighty,” like in reference to armor used in battle. Over time the word be-came linked with wealth, honor, dignity, and power, then eventually came to mean “glory.” All these attributes combine to describe God as El Hakkavod, “the God of Glory.”

Our righteous wallet is always inferior to God’s righteous wealth!

So in Romans 3:23 the passage Paul is saying no matter Jew or Gentile. Whether a person believes in Jesus as the Messiah or not. No one can stand in the presence of God and conclude they are equal because of how vast God’s honor and righteous wealth are compared to humans!! Our righteous wallet is always inferior to God’s righteous wealth! In worship or praise, a person can potentially feel Shekhina or the Holy Spirit. A person’s immediate conviction is how unworthy they are! No matter the habit of practicing steps towards holiness, a person can’t compare to the worthy or the honor of God. They are still in the suit of sin.

A person might ask “do we willfully sin since we can not measure to God’s love” (Romans 6:1-2; 1 John 3:4-10)? That can be answered by the original structure of parental love designed by God. A mother is an example of endless love while a father should be an example of tenacity love. A father’s actions express tenacity love in situations like “I’m coming to save you no matter the condition.” “I’m coming to provide for you no matter the circumstance family.” “I’m going to remain committed to our family no matter the temptation wife.” He can only be an example of tenacity love to his family if he has a relationship with the Creator. Then he is getting endless and tenacious love from God so he can be an example of tenacious love to his family. What does this have to do with sinning despite never measuring to God?

God’s agape love. You are committed to God because God gives you both perseverance and endless love. They work together to spark a believer’s ambition for divine fellowship with the Creator. A person might say “let me read my daily scripture for the renewing of my mind because God’s agape love is inspiring me to do better.” Or “let me fix my eating to respect my body” or “let me change how I’m parenting out of respect for God.” Therefore God’s agape love (which is endless tenacious love) promotes our desire to improve our spiritual consciousness.

God said, “be Holy as your God is Holy” (Leviticus 19:1-2). The Hebrew word for this means one. Be the same at all times as your God is the same. Yet even some occasions being the same is a struggle that takes us back to the awareness we’re not on the same level as God. Since our mark is God, we don’t need to lower the goal to be our neighbor’s performance for self-gratification or gloating. Don’t look to say “I am more holy than that person.” That is not the goal.

Our awareness of how short we always fall to God should make us more humble about our neighbor’s weaknesses.

“Hey man, I don’t measure up to God’s glory either. Don’t be hard on yourself.” Since there is no difference in one person’s sin nature from another, any progress over sin is not praise for the person but praise to the Glory of God. Only the Glory of God can give victory over a sinful habit, lifestyle, or nature.

So if the Glory of God is how we have victory over sin, do we stop learning how to improve our lifestyle? No, because learning promotes thinking. Thinking promotes application. The application of what we learn creates new habits. The body is still mechanical and human willpower is still immaculate! Yet the willpower is from God. And no matter how great a person’s willpower – when they come to Shekhina, they realize the determined will that astonished thousands on earth- is a reflection of God’s power in all of us. The fact any of us has mastered our infinite willpower is a testament to God, whom is perfect. No matter how great a person’s willpower- in the presence of God, they will become convicted in some areas of their life they fall short. At that moment, when they realize despite their greatness amongst humans- they aren’t perfect. God will lift their head and say “I still love you.”

The fact that any of us has mastered our infinite willpower is a testament to the creation of God which is perfect because God is perfect

The endless tenacious love of God (agape) should always inspire us to practice better lifestyles. When we feel the Shekhina of God, we learn we are never on the same level as God’s kavod simply because we can never be completely perfect like God. Yet despite that, God chooses to still Shekhina (dwell) with us.

Knowing Christ Intimately

Once gain we’re featuring the writing of Art Toombs at Art Toombs Ministries. Art is ” apermanent member of Theta Kappa Alpha, the National Honor Society for Religious Studies/Theology.”Clicking the title which follows lets you read this where it first appeared and can be encouraging to their ministry.

Truly Knowing Christ

Colossians 2:1-5 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. (NKJV)

The Apostle Paul continues his letter to the Christians at the church in Colosse. Here he also includes those at the nearby church in Laodicia. He is under house arrest in Rome and has not met any of these believers, since the churches in the area were started by Epaphras.

Paul begins this passage by telling them of his struggle for them. He writes “For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh” (v.1).

The nature of his struggle refers back to the previous two verses in chapter one which is so that they will be presented “perfect in Christ.” He can not be with them and so he worries that they will be misled into false teaching, specifically Gnosticism, which was present in the area.

He continues “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,” (v. 2). The literal interpretation of the Greek in verse two is: “that may be comforted the hearts of them, being joined together in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of the understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God and of Father and of Christ.”

Paul wants their hearts to be comforted, joined together in love, and rich in the understanding and knowledge of “the mystery of God.” This mystery was revealed previously (Col. 1:27) as “Christ in you” applies to all who believe, Jews and Gentiles alike.

In other words, he wants them to have the strength and joy that comes from truly knowing Christ. He wants them to know that they have the power of Christ living within them, so that they can draw on His power for discernment.

This power is the Holy Spirit. Paul continues “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (v. 3). The Holy Spirit reveals all wisdom and knowledge to Christians.

Paul writes “Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.” (v. 4). Christians have the wisdom and knowledge of Christ to keep them from being deceived by “persuasive words”.

Paul completes this passage with a word of encouragement, He writes “For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” (v. 5).

Paul is “rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness” they are in the faith. Order and steadfastness are military terms. He is commending them in their fight against false teaching.

False teaching has always existed in the church and always will. It is a matter of degree.

As Christians, though, we are given the Holy Spirit who gives us discernment. The Holy Spirit interprets the Bible for us as we read it. He helps us to truly know God, so that we are not misled by false teaching. As we read and study the Bible our ability to discern becomes greater as we understand more of who God is.

For example, if we know the Bible we know that certain behaviors are sin and that God punishes sin. So, we know that if we partake of certain sins we can expect punishment, most often the consequences that we bring upon ourselves.

We also know that sins are chosen behaviors, otherwise a Holy God could not punish us for them. God is not a killjoy. He just knows that certain behaviors will result in unwanted results and so He tries to save us from ourselves.

The Bible also tells us what sin is not. False teachers will come along and try to convince us that certain behaviors are sins that are not.

If we know the Bible and we are tuned into the Holy Spirit we will, again, be able to discern the truth. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin in our lives. If a certain behavior is not listed in the Bible as a sin and if we are not under the conviction of the Holy Spirit., it is not a sin.

Christians should always be discerning of any teaching. Some teaching is too liberal and some teaching is legalistic. We see both in the world today.

We have everything we need if we have a Bible and the Holy Spirit. All we need to do is to spend time in reading that Bible. Then we will truly know Christ.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

I often wonder, when the New Testament uses the word mirror how sophisticated the manufacturing process was in Bible times. Did those mirrors create a high resolution picture or were their pigments, irregular surfaces, or curvatures which forced a distorted image? We might be surprised at how clear the image was.

What verse comes to mind for you? Perhaps it’s from James:

^NIV.Jas.1.23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Could a person look into a mirror and honestly forget what they look like? It’s hard to imagine in a selfie-infatuated world, but remember that in Bible times people didn’t have photo albums. Even a few centuries ago, if you were wealthy, you might have an artist do your portrait, but the degree to which it looked like you would depend on the skill of the painter.

James compares looking in a mirror to looking into the law and forgetting what you’ve heard. It’s part of his overall theme in this section which begins earlier in verse 22: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 

But a more creative preacher might argue that the law itself is a mirror. We hold ourselves up to the law to see how we compare. 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (ESV) Romans 5:13 explains that, “Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break.“ (NLT) The law sets the standard, we see ourselves as we look into it.

Another type of mirror in scripture is found in 1 Corinthians 3:12

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. (CSB)

This is the passage which, in the KJV talks about ‘seeing through a glass darkly.’ When teaching this years ago, I compared it to waking up in the morning and discovering someone has rubbed something greasy all over your glasses. But again, we have to think about the quality of mirrors they might have had when Paul wrote this verse. The CEV speaks of a “cloudy reflection in a mirror,” which suggests a mirror of inferior quality.  (The ISB uses “indistinct image.”) But other renderings of this verse leave me thinking the contrast is between “reflection” and ‘reality.’ That even the best mirror is not the real thing. (If you’ve studied it, Plato’s “Analogy of the Cave” might come to mind.)

Our best representation is really a shadow of what awaits us in the future. 2 Corinthians 2:9 reminds us that

9 But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (NKJV)

Before we move on, let me reiterate the verse from the NLT:

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

A third use of mirror is also from Corinthians, this time from 2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (NASB)

There’s a lot going on in this verse, so let’s get Eugene Peterson to flesh it out for us a bit more:

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

Just as Moses reflected (a mirror-word if ever there was one) God’s glory, we all, looking at God indirectly, cannot help but be changed, and cannot help but copy or duplicate (or mirror!) his glory.

Think about these three mirrors next time you look at one. Allow it to serve as a reminder.

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What about that last phrase, “changed from glory to glory?” We looked at that here in this September devotional.

I Am the Lost Child Who Needs to Come Home

Today, a beautifully written devotional from a writer appearing here for the second time, Victoria Moll who writes at Notes About Glory. On her “about” page she states that,

“I think the most exciting thing that could ever happen to a person is feeling the rush of the Holy Spirit. Its my favorite thing and I cant help but talk about it.”

Clicking the header below takes you to where this first appeared.

The Prodigal Son

I Am The Prodigal Son, weighed with the burden of a sinful heart and a rebellious nature. In the words of Paul,

“For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” (Romans 7:20-21).

This is the burden of the believer, one that hurts the soul, yet the same burden that Christ died to kill in us. I am the prodigal son. I want to go crazy and leave everything I’ve ever known behind, not believing that there are consequences to my actions. I want to be wild because my sinful nature tells me that although I know it will tear me apart, it will be fun. That I can get away with it because I can, with my dying breaths, ask for forgiveness from the Lord and let that be good enough.

But then I remember that my soul’s only purpose is to serve the Lord. That without Him and His glory, I am nothing. I remember the call from Romans 6:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. (V 1-7)

Its passages like this that remind me that I’m the prodigal child that has to come home every day, actually. As I sit here and write about my sinful nature, the Holy Spirit in me is walking me home. He is walking me home, reminding me of the grace and mercy of my God; about the fact that there is nothing that He can’t heal.

He’s asking me to have more faith, to lean in and listen, and to sit with Him. He’s telling me that He can kill the devil in me, but I have to let Him. He’s telling me that he can sanctify me, but that I have to start doing the work, that I have to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. It’s two-way street.

He wants my obedience for the sake of His glory in my transformation. He’s asking for more because there is more, and He would know because He set it before me. He wants to put me in my limits so that I can experience a true freedom that doesn’t choke the life out of me, but rather allows me to flourish as He designed me. He wants me to grow good fruit, I just have to remain on the vine.

He loves me. 

He invites me to wrestle, but He compiles me to bow. He is my friend, but He is also my Lord, and His name WILL be honored at the end of the day. He’s in the business of conforming me, making me into the likeness of his son, who is called Holy above all things.

Its times like these when I understand the Psalms. A steady stream of lament from the flesh, then a push from the Holy Spirit, gentle like a whisper, moving me in the direction of the cross- pushing me down to the feet of the Father, compelling me to give Him glory because it’s the only thing that I know to do.

I didn’t mean for this to end up being a glorifying prose, but more of an expression of the rebellion in my heart. But in this process, I see that I, who am in union with Christ, am eternally entangled with Him for the purposes of His Glory. I can never be removed from Him, and that there is no distance that I put between me and my God that He won’t cross to steal the affections of my heart.