Days of Introspection

One of these days I will return to my exposition of Genesis.  However, I've concluded that this is not the time for me to continue with that project here in the blog.  God's biggest "clue" was that my frequency of posting began to slow down (as if you had not noticed).  I must be hard-headed, because it took me a while to get the message that Genesis is a message for me to share at another time.  I'm going to leave off the more linear (going through a book) approach to exposition and adhere to more of a topical approach for a while.  Some of you may resonate more with that anyway.

My recent absence in blogging does not indicate in actual fact an absence from the Scriptures.  I've been studying - - just not writing.

Recently, I have been studying in the Old Testament, particularly the book of Ezekiel.  Today's focus is Ezekiel 18:30-32 (TLV - - Tree of Life version).

30 “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways.” It is a declaration of Adonai. “Return, and turn away from all your transgressions, so they would not be a stumbling block of iniquity for you. 31 Cast off from you all your transgressions that you have committed. Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“so return, and live!”

Today is 7 Elul, 5779, on the Jewish calendar.  First a word about the Jewish lunar-driven calendars.  Yes, there are two main ones; they differ mainly in when the year begins.  The first is generally referred to as the religious calendar.  Its "new year" begins in the spring, with the months of Aviv or Nisan (March/April on the Roman solar calendar).  This is the calendar that God instituted in Leviticus 23.  You might call it "the younger" of the two.  Prior to Leviticus 23, Abraham and his people used what we today call the civil calendar.  Its new year begins in the fall, with Tishri (September/October - Roman calendar).  I mention this, because this information will be very important to future blog posts on related topics.

On the civil calendar, Elul is the last month of the calendar year.  In 2019, the first day of the month was August 31st.  The first day of the next month will be Tishri 1, Rosh HaShanah, New Year's Day, this year at sundown on September 29th.

I realize that, at this point, my fellow evangelical Christians are going "so what"?  What does this have to do with me or with introspection or with Ezekiel 18:30-32?!

As a child, we used to have "revivals" in the late summer/early fall every year, usually before school started up.  Remember those?  For the non-Christian, these meetings provided an opportunity to meet God and to get right with Him. If you were a Christian already, what was your attitude toward the annual revival at your church or in your community?  For me, it was a time of introspection, of self-examination, of re-dedication and of repentance.

Observant Jews (which means Jews who actively practice the Jewish faith) self-examine, repent and rededicate for an entire month - - the month of Elul, because it is the last month of the year.  This period is called the season of Teshuvah, which means "repentance".  They reflect back on their lives over the past year, over whether or not God is pleased with how they have lived.  Jews are still waiting on their Messiah, and so their hope of salvation lies in their own personal holiness.  They hope to attain to eternal life.

Ezekiel tells us that each one of is personally responsible for our own sins, and that is true.  Your mother can't go get eternal life for you, nor your father, nor anyone else.

As Baptists (and some other Protestant denominations), we know that Messiah has already come and, if we have accepted Him as Savior, we are forever right with Him.  "Once saved, always saved", as the expression goes.  However, the truth of that statement also leads to a good deal of laxity in the lives of the redeemed.  Most Protestants don't spend much time reflecting on how we are living our lives or on repentance.

Listen carefully.  Repentance is not merely an event.  Yes, once you have committed your life to the Savior, you are eternally secure.  However, God is not tolerant of sin in the lives of His own dear children.  Repentance is an ongoing process which, at least in my case, is needed often.

Adonai is the name for God which means King.  What can I do to more closely align my heart with the heart of my King?  What transgressions do I need to turn away from, and cast off?

The Jews have a saying for the month of Elul - - "The king is in the field".  It comes from Ecclesiastes 5:9, which references that the king has a vested interest in seeing that the fields produce because he profits from them as do the common people.  By saying, "the king is in the field" there is the element of inspection.  The king is inspecting his fields.  What will he find in my field?  Good crops?  Or, and abundance of weeds?  Have I been a good steward of my "land"?  Have I trusted in my own ways, or have I pursued the Lord's?

Hosea speaks to this when he admonishes us through the words he spoke so many centuries ago to the Israelites:

Sow for yourselves righteousness.
Reap in accord with covenant love.
Break up your unplowed ground.
For it is time to seek Adonai,
    until He comes
    and showers righteousness on you.

Hosea 10:12 (TLV)

One final note about Elul.  The four letters in Hebrew are aleph, lamed, vav lamed.  It is a Hebrew acronym for Ani l'dodi v'dodi li.  Translation?  "I am to( or for) my beloved and my beloved in to(or for) me." (Song of Solomon 6:3)
Our King Jesus considers His own dear children as His Beloved!
How can I not return?!
I pray you will join me through the remainder of this Hebrew month in a time of spiritual reflection and, as the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) leads, repentance and correction.

https://youtu.be/VN4N7hOMvTk

The Grandsons Who Re-populated the Earth

How many grandsons did Noah have?  Do you know?  I didn't. 
But, I thought it would be interesting to look at them briefly and see which part of the world they settled.  We can find a lot of information in the so-called "Table of Nations", in Genesis 10, our text for today, and also in other scriptures and sources.

First, let's consider domesticated dogs.  (Well, that seems like a real tangent, doesn't it?)
A couple, friends of ours, gave us a tabletop book recently called, The Spirit of the Dog.  It describes several breeds and how they came to be, their countries of origin and so forth.  It is staggering to look at the variety of dog breeds existing in the world today, and to realize that one single pair of the "dog kind" entered the Ark.  From that "kind" came the wolves and the domesticated dogs, the dingos - - all canines.  How much more so could three pairs of humans re-populate the Earth?

Most scholars agree that the Ark settled somewhere in the "mountains of Arafat", which are in modern-day Turkey.  Each of Noah's 3 sons had sons and daughters.  Of necessity, similar to how Adam and Eve's children intermarried to populate the Earth originally, Noah's children intermarried, cousin to cousin, to repopulate the Earth in the years following the Great Flood.  So, let's dig in.  For the sake of brevity, I'm just going to more-or-less list these with brief notes.1

Japheth's Sons: (of the three sons, he was the most prolific)

Gomer - Ezekiel 38:6 - to Galatia/Turkey/Armenia and to France and Spain, Germany and Wales

Magog - Ezekiel 38:15 and 39:2 - the Sythians - Romania and Ukraine

Madai - Daniel 6:8, 12, 15 - (along with Elam, Seth's son...) - the Medes/Persians - ancestor of the Iranians and people of India

Javan - Daniel 8:21 and Genesis 10:4 - the Elysians, the Greeks, the Cypriots (Cyprus)

Tubal - Ezekiel 39:1 - Soviet state of Georgia

Meschech - Russian - Meschech is the ancient form of the modern city named Moscow.

Tiras - the ancient Thirasians, the people of Thrace, an area later known as Yugoslavia.

Shem's Sons:

Elam - Acts 2:9 - as mentioned earlier, the Elamites settled Persia (modern Iran).  In fact, Iran was formerly called Persia (in my lifetime - - I am old, lol!)

Asshur - Asshur is the Hebrew word for Assyria.  It was said that the rulers of Assyria ruled only with the express permission of Asshur's deified ghost.  Ain't that some apples....smh

Arphaxad - Genesis 10 and 11 - settled Chaldea/Mesopotamia (modern Southern Iraq) and also Arabia (the Arabian Peninsula). Arphaxad was the progenitor of Abraham, and therefore, the Jewish people.

Lud - Revelation 3:1 - settled western Turkey

Aram - 2 Kings 18:26 - Arameans settled Syria

Ham's Sons:

Misraim/Mizraim - Psalm 106:22 - Egypt, (Mizraim is the Hebrew word for Egypt)

Cush - Psalm 106:22 - Northern Africa, Ethiopia

Put (Phut) - Daniel 11:43 - Libya

Canaan - Genesis 10:14-18 - modern day Israel and Jordan - descendants were Canaanites, Philistines, Jebusites, Amorites

Can you determine from which grandson you are most-likely descended? 

The next question becomes, "How did some of these people groups get to the Western Hemisphere?"
Keep in mind a couple of probabilities:

1.  The Tower of Babel incident was the driving factor in dispersing various people groups all over the globe.
2.  The advanced knowledge that existed before the Great Flood carried over to some extent into the early world afterwards.  These people had the knowledge to build ships.
3.  The climate of the Earth was continuing to go through metamorphoses. The Flood took place around 2348 BC.  Almost immediately, the Earth began to have a "mini-Ice Age", and it lasted for 700-800 years.  So, for example, the Arctic Circle was likely much warmer than it is now and much more navigable2.


Sources:

1     https://creation.com/the-sixteen-grandsons-of-noah

2     https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j19_1/j19_1_65-72.pdf

Another Strange Bible Tale

Image: Jill Wellington, via Pixabay

After The Great Flood, which preserved the continuity of mankind through the family of Noah, one might expect that these paragons of humanity would live sterling lives and proceed to, well, "live happily ever after".  They were, after all, THE family God chose to preserve through the cataclysm that killed off every other human on the face of the Earth.
Instead, the very first story recorded in the Scriptures after Noah and family had disembarked from the Ark, is a debacle of drunkenness, nudity, ridicule, humiliation, cursing and perhaps things more diabolical.
Human Nature, that carnal, sin-sick inheritance from our forefather, Adam, is a real beaut.

The story is found in Genesis 9:18-29.

What would you first do when you came off the Ark, after nearly a year of watery captivity?
Well, you'd probably do what you believe you do best.  In verse 20, we are told Noah was "a man of the soil" (Berean Study Bible).  In other words, he was, at heart, a farmer.  Of course, after you've lived 600 years, you would have probably learned lots of skills.  But, he loved to farm, apparently.  So, he planted a vineyard of luscious, juicy grapes.  And, when they were ripe, he made wine.

Perhaps he had not had wine in over a year.  Who knows?  For whatever the reason, he enjoyed his new wine so very much that he passed out drunk, totally naked, in his tent.

That's when his youngest son, Ham, comes on the scene.  "Wait a minute," you might say, "wasn't Ham the middle son?  They are usually listed as 'Shem, Ham and Japeth'!"  Yes, they are, but many translators and commentators believe Ham was the youngest.  Even though Genesis jumps around a lot on this topic, consider the following scriptures:

After Noah was 500 years old he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.  

Genesis 5:32

{This means all three were born, grew up and got married, during the several decades Noah was building the Ark.)

Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the Earth. 

Genesis 7:6

Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth....

Genesis 10:21*

Genesis 9:24 tells us flat-out, plain as day, that Ham was Noah's youngest son.  So, at least that's settled...

Therefore, the birth order was as follows?  Japheth, Shem and Ham.

A point of concern is that they are usually, though not always mentioned in this order:  Shem, Ham and Japheth.  But, the Bible will often list people in order of importance, as opposed to (in this case) chronological age.

*At the risk of perseverating on this point, go and read several different translations of Genesis 10:21.  In some translations, Shem is called the oldest; in others, Japheth was deemed the oldest.  For that matter, look at the Sources listed below.  Then....refer back to the title of this blog post.

Allright, moving further on into the strangeness ....
So, Ham wanders into his father's tent and finds him drunk and naked.  What would you do?  I would hope I would cover up my parent, leave, and say nothing of the incident.
That's not what Ham did.  The Hebrew word root used in 9:24 is "ra'ah", which means to "see keenly".  We find the same root used in Deuteronomy 14:13, in noun form this time, to denote birds of prey that use their eyesight to hunt.  Some scholars theorize Ham even went and got his son, Canaan, and showed the sight to him, which is why Canaan was cursed by name in Genesis 9:24.
Other scholars believe some sort of incest or rape took place, involving Canaan in some way, and that the incident was so awful that Scripture is deliberately curt and vague about it, out of piety.
However, all of these are just conjecture.  We must be careful what we "read into" the scripture.

What IS explicitly stated is that Ham did NOT cover his father up.  Instead, he went and told his brothers about the humiliating situation.  In contrast, the two older brothers, went and got a covering, walked backwards into the tent, and covered their father.  Huge difference in behavior.

Let's go back to Canaan a minute.  Why did Noah specifically curse him?  Ham had four sons, with Canaan being the fourth, the youngest (Genesis 10:6).  (In addition to Canaan, he had Put, Cush and Misraim.)  Why Canaan?  Well, again, we honestly do not know.  Anything else would be guessing.  I've mentioned possible explanations above, but that is just it - - they are merely possibilities.

Another curious thing about the end of chapter is that, sometime after cursing the line of Ham via Canaan, Noah goes on to bless his other two sons, but did not ordain the birthright to flow through the eldest, Japheth.  Instead, he blessed them both, but decreed that Japheth and his descendants would serve the descendants of Shem.  (Jesus Christ was born from the ancestral line of Shem.)  In a future  post, we will examine Noah's 16 grandsons and what we can determine from Scripture about where they settled in the big, wide world.

Sources:

https://www.gotquestions.org/sons-of-Noah.html

https://answersingenesis.org/contradictions-in-the-bible/my-three-sons/

https://thetorah.com/noah-ham-and-the-curse-of-canaan-who-did-what-to-whom-in-the-tent/

Revival and High-Powered Rifles

I am fond of engaging in public discourse on Twitter.  Since August 4th, 2019, a day of infamy in the history of our country, the public discourse in the media has been dominated by calls to address the root causes of what led to the two mass shootings that occurred within a 24-hour period.  The problem is - - few are getting down to the root cause.

Today's reading is from 2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35, the story of King Josiah.  You may have studied King Josiah in Sunday School when you were young, as did I.  This Bible story has long been a favorite of Sunday School curriculum developers for children, because King Josiah was a young child when he inherited the throne of the kingdom of Judah.  He was a mere 8 years old.

By this time, in 640 BC, King David had been dead for 330 years.  His glorious kingdom had been perpetuated by one of his sons, King Solomon, during whose reign the magnificent Temple had been built.  The heirs of Solomon and their descendants however, had been pagan kings, who had led Israel to split into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom, called Israel, and the southern kingdom, called Judah.  This was largely due to the pagan religious practices of the many wives and concubines King Solomon brought into Israel during his reign as king.  For such a wise king, as the Scriptures say, this was not a wise move.

When Josiah took over the throne at age 8, obviously the kingdom was ruled by his senior advisors for 18 years.  However, when he was in his mid-20s, Josiah began to be bothered by the state of disrepair of the Temple.  The people were being taxed to maintain it; yet, the silver they paid was not going to its intended purpose.  Josiah gave a command to reverse that, and in the refurbishment, the book of the Law, that is the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah) was found.  AND, it was Moses' original copy; it was "written in his own hand".  Imagine that!  When it was found, the high priest ordered it taken to the king, who commanded it be read in his presence.

When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes.

2 Chronicles 34:19 (CSB)

What a revelation!  There was a lot of eye-opening information in that scroll!
"Rending the garments" was, in those days, a sign of extreme sorrow, anguish and repentance.  The words of the Law revealed to Josiah just how enmeshed in sin the people were, how far they had strayed from God's commands in The Torah.  The disarray of the Temple was merely a symbol.  So, Josiah went on to cleanse the land of the pagan worship, which was extensive.  Many false gods were being worshipped, including those who burned babies on fiery altars and practiced male prostitution in their houses of "worship".  (2 Kings 23:4-14)

In the vacuum this purging created, Josiah re-instituted the Levitical practices that the Lord, through Moses, commanded.  Now, here is where I learned something, reading this account yesterday.  There is little mention of King David celebrating Passover. The same is true of King Solomon.  According to 2 Kings 23:22-23, in the first Passover of Josiah, the Passover had not been celebrated in such an original fashion since the days of the prophet/judge Samuel, (also see 2 Chronicles 35:18) whose leadership brought forth a revival of keeping the sacred festivals God had commanded for His chosen people.

Isn't that fascinating?!  See, I had just thought that, after God commanded Passover in Exodus 12, it had been "kept" or celebrated consistently down through the centuries.  But, this is not so. Through the years, the Hebrews waxed hot and cold in their worship of Yahweh.  When they were enmeshed in pagan worship, the true "holy convocations" of Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, etc. became lost.  It is believed that the priests had even forgotten about them.  After the days of Samuel, the next time Passover is recorded in scripture having been celebrated is in the days of King Hezekiah.  And, then a few years later - - Josiah. 

There was a great revival during the reign of King Josiah.  We are told that the people covenanted with the king, who made a covenant before the Lord, to keep His commandments and His Law.  And, for the remaining 13 years of his reign, the Lord God was worshipped supremely in Judah.

What relevance does this have to us today?  All the talk today about preventing further incidences of mass murder focus on restricting access to guns, or increasing services to those with mental illness.  Mental illness is certainly present in the men who perpetrate these acts.  However, evil is also present.  Evil is not born out of a mental disorder.  Evil is a cancer of the soul.  It grows out of a heart, dark and devoid of God.

If you are old enough, think back with me.  30 or more years go, did you fear going to shop at your local grocery store or worship at your local church, afraid you'd be mowed down by a demon-possessed lunatic?  No, you did not.  This type of behavior grows out of a culture that has banished God from "the public square", a society that has relegated God to Saturdays or Sundays, if even on those days.  Our youth are taught in public school that if you are a person of faith you are "dumb", that being bright and intellectual is antithetical to being a Christian.  Instead of making the Savior central to our lives, we fill our minds and spirits with filth and our bodies with the dietary equivalent of the same.  We are forced to look at the people who worshipped Chemosh, the demonic false god of the ancient Moabites, by throwing live babies into a fiery pit, and confront our society's scourge of abortion, which is basically the same.

And, we wonder why we have mass murders?  Our laws condone the devaluing of human life to the extent it is legal to murder our own babies in the womb.  Thousands are murdered every, single day.
It's not the guns, People.  
Those possessed by evil will always find a way.  Pray for Nigerian Christians, who are being slaughtered for their faith daily, by machete and fire.
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/world/hundreds-of-christians-killed-in-nigeria-attacks

If you are truly concerned about the state of our nation, get on your knees with me and beg God for an honest-to-goodness, Holy Ghost revival to sweep over our land and for it to start with us, the Body of Christ.

Those Packed Boxes

I'm not ordinarily a weepy girl.  However, pulling into the garage this morning, from an errand, the presence of our youngest's packed-for-grad-school boxes just slammed me in the heart.  Previously, I had been ignoring them, and what they represent.

My great-grandmother, Mollie Boling, had 10 children, over a period of 22 years.  The timespan from when the oldest was born, to when the youngest left home, was 40+ years.  Not having followed in her prodigious maternal footsteps, Hubster and I had two sons, 23 months apart.  I won't go into the whys and wherefores of that decision, but I think Grandma Mollie might have possessed some wisdom that somehow eluded me.

Our older son left home for college at 18, stayed either on campus or rental property and never returned.  His younger brother chose frugality, lived at home and saved his money until college graduation.  Then, he was more or less "in and out" in the 7 months following.  He was, still, not totally gone.  But, tomorrow he moves onto a college campus for graduate school . . .  and I know he will not return "home" again.  This situation leaves us with only one "son" at home; he is covered in fur. 

I told the Hubster yesterday, "This is going to be like when we were first married!"  But, my heart was not in it.  Then, the two of us were our intact family; now, the two of us are only part.

Last Sunday, I went to pay my respects to a sweet, sweet Christian family who had lost a much beloved member.  Along with many others I had prayed and prayed for them and will continue to do so.  No matter how you sugarcoat it, loss sucks.  Whether it's loss of a loved one, loss of one's health, loss of financial security - - you name it, much of the time this type of loss seems out of our control. It feels like God's betrayal; it hurts.  We feel lost and defenseless, as the path ahead seems dark.

Even "positive loss" (what a term!) - - those milestones in life that signify growth and development - - can be hard on the heart.

Is God able?  Is He sufficient to comfort us during times of change, transition, loss?  Yes.  Yes, He is!

28For You, O LORD, light my lamp;

my God enlightens my darkness.

29For in You I can charge an army,

and with my God I can scale a wall.

30As for God, His way is perfect;

the word of the LORD is flawless.

He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

Psalm 18:28-30 (BSB)

I posted this passage because it reminds me of God's "chesed", that Hebrew word meaning "loving devotion", to His children in difficult times.  In our darkness and sadness, He lights our lamp.  He empowers us to meet life's greatest challenges.  He reminds us that His ways are always right, whether we understand them or not. 

Later on in Psalm 18, the Berean Study Bible speaks of how God's "gentleness exalts me".  When we hurt, He hurts along with us. and in loving devotion gently cradles us close to His heart, if we will draw near.  While He won't remove all hurt and loss from our earthly lives, He will shield us as a loving Father deals in mercy toward His children. 

Earlier today I sat down at the piano and played a little, as I often do when encouragement seems absent.  You may recognize these lyrics from the hymn.  They meant so much today!

"Summer and winter and springtime and harvest . . . 
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, and 10,000 beside.
Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
ALL I have needed Thy hand has provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me."1

Amen.

Source:

1      Hymn - - "Great Is Thy Faithfulness", copyright 1923. 
Lyrics:  Thomas O. Chisholm, Tune:  William M. Runyan

Natal Day Ruminations

Image by Heidelbergerin from Pixabay

Waking early, the biblical concept of firstfruits was on my mind.  So, I did a word search on the term in my online bible program, to see what popped up.  Probably, the main reason behind this was today is my natal day, and I had been thinking about giving the Lord the "firstfruits" of it, after I rose from the bed and sat down with a cup of coffee.

Have you ever made pancakes?  You make the batter, heat the griddle and then, after pouring out the first one make decisions about the thickness of the batter, perhaps adjusting the heat on the griddle...I had a friend, the baby in his family, who used to say, "The oldest child is like the first pancake, usually a flop, and you just throw it out!"  I always thought that was funny, as I am "the first pancake" in my birth family's line-up.

However, the Bible gives special emphasis to "firstfruits".  The concept is tied in closely with the first born, as the firstborn child is, in God's perfect design for families, the firstfruits of the mother's body.

We have this blueberry bush that yields early in the season, apparently, as I was getting berries off it in mid-June.  However, after I picked the first two cups of berries, it seemed to stop bearing, for the most part.  Not sure what happened there, but I looked in the days following and there was little there to harvest.  Maybe the birds beat me to it....
Farmers will tell you that the first crops from the field are the ones they save for seeds for the following year, because the first ones contain the most potent seeds.  They are, supposedly, the best of the best, of that crop yield.

In keeping with that line of thought, it makes sense that God would require His chosen people, the Hebrews, to bring to him a grain offering of the first crops of the season each spring.

14“Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 15You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. 16You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 17Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD.

Exodus 23:14-17 (ESV)

So, you see from this command of God that His people were to offer to Him on the altar the firstfruits of the harvest as well as some of the produce from the end of the harvest season, in the fall.  This was done, in part to teach the people thankfulness, as it is God who provides, who is Jehovah-Jireh.  This scripture passage above is the first time the term "firstfruits" is mentioned in the Bible.  Note that God felt these times of harvest offering were so important, the offering had to be brought to either the Tent of Meeting (Temple predecessor) or, after it was built, the Temple in Jerusalem by each male head of household.  Wow, pretty important, wouldn't you say?

Later, in Psalms 78:51 and 105:36, we see the psalmist referring to the firstborn children of the Egyptians, the descendants of Ham (Noah's son) as "firstfruits".  The psalmist was hearkening back to when, at Passover that year, the angel of the Lord took the firstborn child of every household that was not "under the blood".  Not time or space to fully explore that here, but many of you are familiar with that story.

In the New Testament, the apostles Paul (Romans 8:23, 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23), James (James 1:18) and John (Revelation 14:4) refer to firstfruits.  Except for John's, the other references refer to Jesus being a type of firstfruits, as God raised Him from the dead on the first day of the Feast of First Fruits that year.1  And, Paul and James likened the early church members to being the firstfruits of the new Church, following right after Jesus Christ, who gave spiritual birth to His followers, through His message of truth, of salvation.

It has been the practice of Christians to gather in their churches on the first day of the week, giving the Savior the "firstfruits" of each week, and to commune with their Lord over the Word in the morning, giving Him the "firstfruits" of each day, the latter being an ongoing challenge for me.2

So, as I reflect back on these many years this morning (let's not say how many, please and thank you!), I am so grateful to be part of His "firstfruits of the Spirit" (Romans 8:23).  Unlike that weird blueberry bush in our front yard, I pray to never "stop bearing."

I hope all of you have a blessed day.  I may just go make some pancakes.....

Sources:
 
1     https://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2018/03/first-fruits.html

2     https://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2017/11/making-jesus-beggar.html

True Freedom

Image by Wynn Pointaux, from Pixabay

Happy Independence Day 2019!

Today, in America, we celebrate the political freedom we have as Americans, to live out the guaranteed freedoms granted to us by the founding documents of our country, the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution (pictured above).  America is, no doubt, a wonderful country.  It is a joy to celebrate her today, on her 243rd birthday!  And, my family and I plan to!  YAY!

However, being an American, as wonderful as that is, is not TRUE freedom, the subject of this post.

As I sat down to blog this morning, I searched the 915 posts in my blog archives to see what I had previously said about freedom.  Turns out, not much - - - which is a shame.  Why?  Because freedom is at the heart of the Christian faith.  True freedom in only found in the God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ.

To most of the world, this sounds counterintuitive, even offensive, because people who do follow a religion generally see it as an added drudgery, an enslavement that prevents them from doing what they want to do.  Additionally, the name of Jesus is highly divisive.  This is because the Evil One, whom the Bible calls "the god of this age",  has veiled people's eyes about the nature of true freedom, what it is, where it comes from, the joy it brings.  The apostle Paul tells us this in 2 Cor. 4:3-5.

3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.

One way that the gospel is veiled by the evil one (Satan) is that people are deceived into believing that they can live "good enough" lives to be reconciled with God.  This prideful deception is at the root of legalistic religions.  Although there are legalists who claim the name of Christ, the root of Christianity is the concept of "grace" - - - that is, "man is utterly sinful and completely incapable of, by his own actions or will, reconciling himself to God."  There was a powerful, little book written a few years ago entitled, How Good is Good Enough?  Answer: there is no one good enough (Rom. 3:23).

Another way that the gospel is hidden is Satan's deception that either
a) God does not exist.
or
b) There is no Heaven or Hell.
or
c) The Bible is just an ancient book.
This is what I call the "fairytale deception", and it is promulgated by academics in America today. The line goes like this:  "Only stupid people believe in Christianity.  You can't be intelligent and believe that." This is an extension of the philosophy of "rationalism".
For the past several years, Hillsdale College has offered to the public a free course on the life of C.S. Lewis, an English professor from Oxford University, England, who was moved to belief in Christ after doing an honest investigation.  No sane person would argue that this man was unintelligent.  99.9% of people who proclaim this lie from the devil have not done an honest investigation of the claims of Jesus Christ, as did Lewis, McDowell, Yuan, Butterfield, Strobel, Limbaugh and many, many others.  It is much more easy and convenient to flow along with certain segments of popular society, even the world of academia, and just .... be carried along with the other lemmings.
Paul, himself, was extremely well-educated.

A third way the gospel is hidden is that other people prevent sinners from coming to salvation in Jesus Christ.  Those who claim the name of Christ (whether that claim is genuine or not) are viewed as representatives of Christ.  Therefore, when one of them offends an unbeliever, their actions often "turn unbelievers off" to the message of the gospel.  Whether the offender is truly saved, a true, sincere follower of Jesus Christ, or not, is not the point.  Even true believers struggle with sin, although they don't practice it.  The point is that unbelievers let their impressions of and experiences with other people define (distort) their view of Jesus Christ.

These veils can be removed, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Paul never says that those whose understandings are veiled can never come to a saving knowledge of the truth.  On the contrary, he states the opposite, later on in this chapter: (2 Cor. 3:16-17)

6 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom. 

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

John 8:32

This is true freedom, a liberation we can celebrate every day, not just on July 4th!

Christ followers, Believers, see things differently.  The reason we do is because we are possessed by Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit.  Accordingly, the Holy Spirit continues to "unveil" to us the beauty and majesty of God.  More and more, we focus on the spiritual, the "unseen".  The reason we do this is because the things easiest to see are only temporary, while spiritual victories (and losses) are forever.  We define "success" in a radically different way from how unbelievers define it.  We collect different "trophies", for different reasons.  The world focuses on how much a person can accumulate, for his or her own glory.  These include: wealth, fame, prestige, pleasure.  The Christian focuses on how much more he or she can know and become like Jesus Christ.  Accordingly, any "trophies" accumulated are for His glory and His alone.  It's a radically different outlook, producing a radically different life.  While the world chases sand, we share the liberating message that frees and feeds the soul.  The late English evangelist, Charles H. Spurgeon, understood this and preached about it nearly 133 years ago.

Let me give you a parable. In the days of Nero there was great shortness of food in the city of Rome, although there was abundance of corn to be purchased at Alexandria. A certain man who owned a vessel went down to the sea coast, and there he noticed many hungry people straining their eyes toward the sea, watching for the vessels that were to come from Egypt with corn. When these vessels came to the shore, one by one, the poor people wrung their hands in bitter disappointment, for on board the galleys there was nothing but sand which the tyrant emperor had compelled them to bring for use in the arena. It was infamous cruelty, when men were dying of hunger to command trading vessels to go to and fro, and bring nothing else but sand for gladiatorial shows, when wheat was so greatly needed. Then the merchant whose vessel was moored by the quay said to his shipmaster, "Take thou good heed that thou bring nothing back with thee from Alexandria but corn; and whereas, aforetime thou hast brought in the vessel a measure or two of sand, bring thou not so much as would lie upon a penny this time. Bring thou nothing else, I say, but wheat: for these people are dying, and now we must keep our vessels for this one business of bringing food for them." Alas! I have seen certain mighty galleys of late loaded with nothing but mere sand of philosophy and speculation, and I have said within myself, "Nay, but I will bear nothing in my ship but the revealed truth of God, the bread of life so greatly needed by the people." God grant us this day that our ship may have nothing on board it that may merely gratify the curiosity, or please the taste; but that there may be necessary truths for the salvation of souls. I would have each one of you say: "Well, it was just the old, old story of Jesus and his love, and nothing else." I have no desire to be famous for anything but preaching of the gospel. There are plenty who can fiddle to you the new music; it is for me to have no music at any time but that which is heard in heaven, -- "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory for ever and ever!"
from A Sermon, (No.1910), Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, July 18th, 1886, by

C. H. SPURGEON, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, England

Are you burdened for someone today who does not know Jesus?   Perhaps, like me, there are those acquaintances, co-workers, friends, loved ones whom you pray for every day.  Preaching to them may be not only ineffective, but actually detrimental.  It depends on where their hearts are at the moment and, frankly, the example you are living before their eyes.  However, a 100%-effective "wheat" that can be sown into their lives is constant persistent prayer.  How should we pray for them, though?  We need to pray that God will open their eyes to the truth of Who Jesus is, and that past experiences don't hinder them to the fact that Jesus is all-sufficient.  We need to pray that our prayer targets' eyes will be opened to the deception of false intellectualism, that the veil will be lifted and that they will see the true freedom that is in Jesus Christ alone.

Happy Independence Day!

Father, to You, the Godhead Three-in-One, be glory, forever and ever!  Open our eyes, whether we are Yours or yet-to-be Yours, so that we can know the Truth, and so that the Truth may set us free!  In Jesus' name, amen.

Sources:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_23?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=how+good+is+good+enough+by+andy+stanley&sprefix=How+good+is+good+enough%2Caps%2C319

http://redeeminggod.com/gospel-is-veiled-2-corinthians_4_3-4/

http://biblehub.com/library/spurgeon/spurgeons_sermons_volume_32_1886/the_heart_of_the_gospel.htm