Blazing

When you are living through your life, you don't recognize that you are part of making history.  Or, at least, most of us don't.  Only later do you "wake up" to discover your life and your choices were part of a documented "movement".

The 1960s, which I only remember through the eyes of a child, were nationally a very turbulent time.  The birth control pill had emerged on the scene and changed the social fabric of our society completely.  The generation just ahead of mine began to throw off the "chains" that kept them bound to sexual purity, before marriage and after.  As the Bible predicts, calamity followed.  In reaction to this, the Christian church took one of two positions: either to remain entrenched in traditions or to reach out and win the damaged souls of those who had fallen victim to the sins of the age.  It was an earth-shattering, ground-breaking era, one in which even the "experts" were unsure how to respond.

Today's passage is Ephesians 4:17-24 (The Message) - - -

^17-19 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.

^20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

It was in the 1970s that I became a teenager and realized the gravity of the situation.  Although I had accepted Jesus Christ as Lord at age 9, I saw as a teen the spiritual poverty surrounding me and understood that I was living on a battlefield.  I could either retreat and withdraw, leaving the culture to rot on its own; or, I could engage it with more relevant methods.

In the scripture passage, the Gentiles were the pagan people groups who were not of Jewish descent.  However, as more non-Jewish people (such as the Ephesians) came to know Jesus Christ, "the Gentiles" began to mean any people who reject Jesus Christ and His ways, regardless of ethnic background.  The same is true today.

At first, I chose to adopt a separatist position, in an attempt to preserve the purity of the theology, fearing that in those perilous times, truth would become lost.  Holiness "preserved" by separatism.  Was that the correct response?  I was not "going along with the crowd", for sure.

When Paul was writing, as it is today, sexual obsession and perversion - - the consequences of lives lived in opposition to God and His way of life - - - were (and are) rampant.  Then, as today, Christians are surrounded by people from all walks of life who think that we who adhere to the truths of scripture are wingnuts and whack-jobs.  It is only "natural" to want to withdraw and refuse to engage a rotting culture.

However, that is not what Paul is advocating here.  I'm so glad that, as a teenager, the Jesus Movement1 began as a reaction to the ever-increasing disintegration of Judeo-Christian values in American culture.  I am a product of that movement, which advocated
---standing firm on the Word of God,
---having a personal encounter with Jesus Christ (that is, making a personal decision to follow Him),
---reaching out to serve and evangelize damaged, lost souls
---while maintaining a pure and faithful Christian walk.

We need, desperately need, some "Jesus freaks" today.  By and large, the traditional church, with its "walled off" protectionism has failed to reach the lost.  Church attendance is down, as church members are more concerned with protecting their modes of worship and evangelism than they are with reaching those sin has destroyed.  Watering down the truth message has been another tactic of "the politically-correct church".  Likewise, this has failed miserably.  While this approach does attract more "followers", they merely put on Christianity like a new garment.  Then, as soon as they come to see the emptiness of the message, a gospel that has been eunuched, and the perfidy of those who "claim the name" of Jesus Christ, these new converts throw off the trappings of Christian faith to live lives indistinguishable from the rest of the world.

The pressure on the church of Jesus Christ is nearly intolerable.  The world screams,  "Conform!  Conform!  Conform!"  It's why so many of us, and so many of our churches, ... have.  Yet, I ask - - - "Has this worked?  Have the Gentiles been converted?  Do we see our churches growing?"  No, we see just the opposite, in fact.  The average size of a Southern Baptist church today is about 35 people.  That is the case in my childhood church which, in my small community, ran between 100 and 200 on a weekly basis in the 1970s.

What, then, IS the answer?  Paul expounds on the first part of the answer and then alludes to the second, in this passage.

The first component is what I call "blazing holiness", a way of life that is in sharp contrast to the way the Gentiles live.  This way of living is produced from the regenerated, reborn, entirely new human heart, the heart of one who has become a new creation in Christ Jesus.  It can't be produced any other way.  It absolutely must begin with a "Jesus encounter", a personal decision to adopt Jesus Christ as Lord and master, as King of Kings, to turn from that former way of living and invite Him to reproduce His character in the individual heart/life.

"Blazing holiness" is courageous, with biblical truth as its core and foundation.  It does not cave to worldly philosophies, does not conform to the culture's decadent fashions.  It draws life-sustaining oxygen from Heaven, where Christ Jesus reigns as Mediator between God and mankind.  It is not dependent on the fetid air that surrounds it here for its fuel.

The second equally necessary component is "blazing love" for others.  Holiness divorced from God's amazing love is legalism, which does nothing to win the world for Christ.  Unbelievers see it for the fraud it is.  No, "blazing love" is a fearless love which is stronger than the strongest material found on Earth.  It is a love which can withstand the sharpest examinations and produce the most brilliant sacrifices.  The world cannot comprehend such love, because it is not merely "counterintuitive"; it is incomprehensible.

Paul is not calling us to be a flicker of candlelight in the darkness.  God's Word insists upon this: We are called to blaze!

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for those fearless, loving, blazing Jesus people of a generation ago.  Most of us are so seduced and lulled into conformity through pressure from the godless world around us.  Please set us on fire, Lord, and give us through Your Holy Spirit the courage to blaze!  In Jesus' name, amen.

Source:

http://shilohworshipmusic.com/ShilohWorshipMusic/The_Jesus_Movement_of_the_70s.html 

Killing the Hostility

Consider this curious creature, cartoonish though it be.  It seems to have two heads, with one eye in each head.  But, would you say that, despite this, it is all part of the same being, the same life form?  I would say so.

Today's post, part 1 of a 2-part series, will offend, unintentionally, some sincere, practicing Jews and probably even some Christians.  Honestly, I doubt that any Jews (other than Messianic Jews) read this blog anyhow; but, well, there you go.  If you are courageous, please read on.

I've said elsewhere in this blog that I have a great love for Jewish people, firmly believing the Old Testament writings, which record how God chose the Jews to be His very own race of people.  Few things would make me happier than to go onto ancestry.com and discover that I have Jewish heritage, though this is "unicorn talk" for the most part.  (In other words, there's about as much chance of that happening as there is of seeing a unicorn....)

The scripture passage for today is Ephesians 2:11-16.  Paul was writing to Gentile Christians, those who lived in Ephesus.  He was not writing to Jews.

1Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body by human hands – 12that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, 15when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, 16and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.

The rest of this post will deal with establishing background, reviewing history, which is a necessary context to this scripture passage.

Paul was already seeing the schism between orthodox Jews and orthodox Christians play out in the first century.  It was easy to see the beginnings of this in Jesus' ministry.  Although He declared that He had not come to abolish the Law of Moses, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17-20), Jesus was perceived a threat to the established, entrenched Jewish traditions and culture of His day. Accordingly, the Jewish religious leaders riled up a segment of the Jewish people to force the Roman government to put Jesus to death.  Paul, himself, persecuted Christians, whom he perceived to be a cancer on the Jewish religion.

Unfortunately, misguided people have, over the ensuing centuries, blamed and punished the Jews for this "crime" of "killing Jesus", as well as for other "crimes", such as being successful, prosperous citizens.  In particular, the Christian Church has, like an unruly child, persecuted its parent, the Jewish faith. Here are just a few of the atrocities committed against the Jews since the first century.
1.  Jesus as Messiah
Obviously, this was viewed by Jews as an extreme persecution and perversion of their faith. Although there were sincere attempts to reconcile, recruit, proselytize Jews to Christianity during the first century, this attempt was hampered by misinformation spread by the Jewish leadership as well as the Roman diaspora, that destroyed the Temple and ran Jews out of Jerusalem in large numbers.  Still many Jews converted to Christianity, as did many Gentiles.
2.  Early Christian Church Fathers
Satan continued to foster enmity between Jews and Christians through some early church fathers, such as Augustine, who advocated leaving Jews to stew in their suffering, due to their "murder of Christ".  Not all held this view.  (Eusebius was a notable exception.)  But, still, many did.
3. Constantine (300s A.D.)
Widely considered the first Christian monarch, Constantine's love for Christianity was tempered by his revulsion for Jews.  He, along with Hadrian, issued edicts making it very difficult for Jews to practice their faith.
4.  I could go on and on, to talk about the Crusades, Hitler, etc.  But, I'm sure you get my point.

It is heartbreaking for me personally to know that I have sprung from a beautiful faith which has at times been co-opted, besmirched and soiled by heinous actions toward Jews.  I say "co-opted", because such actions are not of God, nor were they advocated by Jesus Christ.  Such actions were, at best, misguided and, at worst, demon-driven.

As Jesus said in Matthew 5, Christianity can no more become divorced from Judaism as our Christian Bible can expel the Old Testament.  Christianity is "Judaism 2.0".  It sprang from Judaism.

As a result of this Satanic persecution (and one can understand why!) most Jewish people find the name of Jesus Christ highly repugnant and offensive.  To even try to talk to a Jew about Jesus is extremely difficult because walls immediately go up.  And, to the opposite, Jews do not try to convert Gentiles to Judaism, as that is generally considered patently ridiculous.

So, what is the solution to this schism?  Can it ever be healed?  What does the Bible (not just the New Testament) say?

We'll resume there in tomorrow's post, beginning with the Old Testament.  Who knows?  We may see a unicorn yet!

Father, I hate this enmity that exists between some Christians and some Jews.  I also hate the fact that even when no such enmity exists, we are so far apart theologically.  This is a schism only You can heal, Father.  I may not see it in my lifetime, but I do trust Your promises, revealed in Your holy Word.  Teach us Truth, O great Supreme Truth!  Open our eyes to see and worship You as You truly are!  In Jesus' name, amen.

Grafted In

I hope you all had a great Christmas.  These days between now and New Years are some of my very favorite.  Not exactly "downtime", they are nonetheless much less hectic than my usual pace.  Ahhhh!
So, the picture above is of a branch of an olive tree.  Why I chose this photo will become clear later on.

Ezra 8 is today's central text.  It begins by listing the names of the families who left Babylon with Ezra in this wave of dispersed exiles, to return to Jerusalem.  To Ezra's surprise, he found no Levites among the group. So, he sent a group of trusted men to a place called Casiphia, where some Levites were living.  It was important to take Levites (a branch of the Jewish "family"), because they were the only ones specified by God to be the ministers in the temple.

I've had a bit of confusion about the difference between priests and Levites; so, I looked it up.  In short, all priests were from the tribe of Levi (thus being Levites).  However, not all from the tribe of Levi were priests.  Levitical priests were charged with the most "holy" tasks of the Temple. They were allowed to handle sacred objects and perform sacred rituals.  Other Levites served in the Temple, doing non-priestly duties, assisting the priests.  They were still highly esteemed because of their service in the temple, but not as highly esteemed as priests.

After gathering together from Casiphia (which no one seems to know the exact location of) 38 Levites and 220 temple-helpers (adopted Levites, you might say).  This latter group was called the Nethinims, a group I'd never heard of.  So, I did a little digging around.

The name "nithinim" is a derivative of the verb "nathan", which means to "set apart" or "consecrate". It is believed that these people were descendants of slave people, captured as the Jews conquered the promised land.  See Numbers 31:47.   We find in Ezra 8:20 that, during David's reign, he had commissioned a number of these foreign people to assist the Levitical priests in the service of the temple.  Since Ezra could only come up with 38 "true Levites by birth" for the priesthood, his advisors also invited along 220 from the group with the general title of Nithinim.  Ezra was perpetuating the example set by David.

Bible scholars agree that King David was a picture (a "type") of the coming Messiah.  I've mentioned before in this blog how it is recorded in the New Testament that David was "a man after God's own heart".  It is interesting to me how these pagan slaves were more or less "adopted" in to the Levitical class and "grafted in" to serve in the temple.  When we find them in Ezra 8, there is no indication that they are now slaves, but rather, treated as family members.

All this is a picture of the gentiles in the Church of Jesus Christ.  The Nithinim are a foreshadowing of the gentile peoples who were invited in to the early Church.  You may recall that it was a rocky road to get the Jewish believers of the early Church to accept that God wanted to include gentiles (non-Jews). This was a radical change.  But, God, in His mercy and holiness, made a way of salvation for ALL people through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

Paul explains this in Romans 9:33 - - -

"They are Israelites, and to them belong the glory, the adoption, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen."

But, he goes on to talk about grafting in of gentiles in Romans 11:16-24.  He refers to the whole Church as an olive tree, and to the gentile members as "wild olive branches" who were grafted in.
In Romans 1:16, Paul affirms that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been made available "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (the Greeks being a prominent group of gentile people).

Peter affirms this in his first book, 1 Peter 2:10 - -
"Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

There is a passage I love - - John 15.  Here, Jesus is talking about His Church, with Himself being the "true vine" (or you might say, the tree trunk) and we are the "branches".

I'm a wild olive branch, how about you?  As someone with gentile blood, I am so glad that Jesus' redeeming sacrifice was not only for the Jews. Hallelujah!

Father, thank you for extending your offer of salvation and peace to all people.  As a "Greek", I am so grateful!  And, I thank you for this picture you paint in the book of Ezra to show that your mercy has been abundant from generation to generation, as evidenced not only here in Ezra 8 but also in the example of Ruth, Rahab and others.  When we come to you for salvation, we leave our pedigrees at the door, because we all come to you on an even footing - - - dirty sinners, in need of washing in Jesus' blood.  We praise you today for your marvelous foreknowledge, mercy and grace!  In Jesus' name, amen.