Thursday, November 23, 2006

Hebrews 2:1-4

Having grown up in the church, it surprises me when I think that Jesus never "attended church" as we know it. He was a regular attendant and a leader of the Jewish synagogues, which was right and proper for a Jewish man. But did you ever stop to think that Jesus didn't set up the church?

It's a lot like the American president, actually. You know, of course, that the American people don't elect the president. Their votes elect the electoral college, which, in theory, votes on their behalf for the president. In reality, the electoral college has the power to vote however they see fit.
Jesus was the same way. He didn't set up His church; He appointed the men that would set it up, and those men had the power to set up whatever they wanted.

We saw the DaVinci Code the other night. I've never read the book, but I really liked the movie--it was a great story! It amuses me, however, that new stories with new promotion can stir up the oldest of ideas...
It's nothing new that men are disclaiming the deity of Jesus. The writers John, Jude, Peter, even Paul were dealing with this same issue within one century of Jesus' birth. The men Jesus had appointed, His closest friends, fought those that claimed He was not the son of God. Isn't that interesting?

Anyway. Jesus did not set up the first church, and I just have to guess that He knew what He was doing.
Case in point: take Martin Luther. The man Luther was a devout disciple of Christ, a brilliant theologian, a gifted scholar, an able (and persistent!) translator, and a believer in the ability (and responsibility) of people to read the bible for themselves. This man Luther did set up a church, and his efforts innovated some of the modern worship practices we in the modern church take for granted: the hymnbook, for example.
When Luther died, the group of Christians that held and followed his interpretations of the scriptures became known as the Lutherans, and that's what they've come to call themselves in the current era.
Do you know that some Lutheran churches keep the name of Martin Luther on their church and not the name of Jesus Christ, the man Luther led them to follow? That's simply absurd! It's exactly what Paul was talking about in I Corinthians 3--it's what happened to the church within the first generation of its existence!
Do you think that a church set up by Jesus Himself would have been any different?
Consider Jesus' answer to Pilate in John 18:36. "My kingdom is not of this world," He says. What does that mean?

Jesus from Nazareth, the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah, came bearing truth from God above, Who sent Him and Who claimed Him as His own Son, Who Jesus Himself claimed to be. (If you doubt that He claimed to be the son of God, read John 7-10: http://bibleresources.bible.com/passagesearchresults.php?passage1=John+7-10&version1=31 and decide for yourself.) He appointed men to share in His message, and to bear it to the ends of the earth. He instituted a rite of communion, by which they might remember His life and His death, (Matt 26:17-29) and He sanctified and commissioned a rite of cleansing by which men could enter into the fellowship of His brethren. (Matthew 3:15, 28:19) Neither of these rites was new, I might point out--both were Jewish rites that had existed long before Jesus partook in either. He simply took them and tailored them to His own purposes.
He left church-building to the frailty and faithfulness of mortals.

If Jesus trusted in the faithfulness of mortal men, is it not right for us to do the same? We get so hateful over our own interpretations of the scriptures when they don't agree with someone else's! We lament the atrocities that were carried out in God's name during the Crusades, and then we carry out our own wars of defamation against our own brothers and call it the word of God...
Such things should not be.

Look at Hebrews 2:1-4. The writer of Hebrews says, "We must pay especial attention to the things we have heard, lest we pass them by." (what I've translated 'pass them by' is pararreo or, spelled alternately, pararrhueo in the Greek, Strong's 3901, a hapax legomena peculiar to this passage. You can look it up in any Greek lexicon or here: http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/Greek/grk.cgi?number=3901&version=kjv.) He goes on: "For if the word that angels spoke became steadfast, and every trangsression and disobedience received a just payment, how shall we escape, neglecting such a great salvation; which, at the beginning having been spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those that heard, these things of God together bearing witness: signs, and wonders, and various miracles, distributed by the Holy Spirit according to His will." (verse 4 is a little tough to translate because there's a participle but no verb. Check a text study and you might find a better analysis of this verse.)

The authority of God is proclaimed with power, in powerful signs and miracles. It's this power that God uses to prove the words of prophets and angels. The Word we're to heed was proclaimed with signs and wonders to prove it as the acceptable word of God; and, I will submit to you, still has such miraculous power today.
Read the bible for yourself! Does it not have the miraculous power, though it is but words on a page--and words thousands of years old at that!--to change your life? If it doesn't, then don't believe it!
The truly wonderful thing about our God is that He is, above all, a God of proof. He doesn't expect you to believe anything that He's not willing to prove to you. And why should He? He made you to be the kind of person that demanded proof for a thing!

At any rate. If a man claims to know the teachings of God but despises you for any reason, don't pay him heed. (I Corinthians 13) If a man claims to know the teachings of God but has an arrogant manner towards you, don't pay him heed. (I Corinthians 2, 4) If a man claims to know the teachings of God but wants your money, don't pay him heed. (I Timothy 6) If a man claims to know the teachings of God but lives a life of deceit, hatred, jealousy, promiscuity, selfish ambition, or drunkenness, don't pay him heed. (Galatians 5:16-26)
The same applies for churches.

Read the bible. Pay attention to it. Think about it and strive to apply it to your life. This is the command we have from the Lord: that we love Him, and do His will--and that will is contained in the bible. It's a testimony of love and hope and joy and assurance, and it has the power from God to make your life better, and the lives of those you love. It's not a testament to hatred or fear or damnation, and it won't take away the fun in your life. It teaches you to love knowledge and to study the world around you, to love the world you're in and to protect it from harm, to love the people around you and to forgive them and tolerate their shortcomings and to genuinely strive to make their lives better.
It's a message from the Transcendant One, the Highest Life Form, the Giver of Wisdom, the Perfect Being, the Impetus of Creation, on how to live your life and mine in harmony with your psyche and with the kosmos.
And it's there for us. All we have to do is read it and pay attention.
As the writer of Hebrews says, what help can there be for us if we pass up such a huge opportunity for salvation?


Above all else, praise to God and thanks for the blessings of the day. May He continue to be gracious to us and to show us mercy in His eternal lovingkindness and richly bestowed favor. May He bless all those today that love life and truth, and may He fulfill their desires within His wise and loving will to their good and to His glory.
May His name be praised forever and ever in the power of the Son and the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and throughout creation.

*A disclaimer -- I don't have any affiliation with Crosswalk.com or Bible.com, and my links to them do not infer any kind of connection, legal or otherwise. I offer them to you as they are to me: useful web tools. I thank them for their wonderful service and acknolwedge all their rights and authority and such, and don't mean to contest it or them in any way.
And I don't hold stocks or gain link-based revenue in or from either of the corporations listed above...

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Hebrews 1:13-14

The truth about angels? ...
Do you ever feel like you need a ministering spirit, like you're not entirely there and you can't figure out how to fix it?
I read on a new age site the other day (sorry, don't remember where) that the moon cycle influences our creativity. You feel a lot of creative energy during the phase of the new moon: get new ideas, get a lot of energy to put into those ideas. During the waxing crescent phase you begin to experience hardships and have trouble carrying momentum. In the waning crescent phase, you typically begin to see results from your efforts; and in the new moon phase, you feel quiet and reflective.
If that's true, the moon's waxing me ragged...

Think about Daniel's interviews in light of this verse, though.
Check out the conversation Daniel has in 9:20ff. Gabriel tells him "As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed." Again in Daniel 10:12, a man (that is, a messenger of uncertain identity from heaven) said to him, "Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them." These two angels were serving as messengers to Daniel.
I don't know about you, but it's easy for me to think of angels as beings that serve God. I don't think about angels as beings that serve Christians, but that's what the author of Hebrews says: "ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation". (1:14) The author of Hebrews is using it in reference to Jesus' authority; he says, "Wouldn't it defeat the whole purpose of angels for God to say to one of them, 'Sit at My right hand and I'll subdue your enemies for you'? Jesus can't be an angel, because all angels were sent to serve the saints, not to sit at God's right hand."
But that means that angels are made to serve men that are saved, as men were made to worship and honor God. It's not to say that the only face of an angel's life is serving mankind, any more than the only aspect of humanity is worship--there's a lot more to it than that. That's just the underlying purpose, the core around which everything else is built.

Sometimes I pray for help, when I feel that I don't have the strength to carry on. If an angel is a spirit that ministers to the saved, then maybe it's an angel that God sends me in response to my prayer, just as He sent them to Daniel...

But if angels have the ability to impart strength as one did to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, (Lk. 22:43) then do fallen angels have the ability to weaken it? In Daniel 10, the messenger spoke of the prince of Persia that resisted him and kept him from coming to see Daniel, and that the prince Michael came to assist him.
If an angel's given purpose is to serve and minster to the saved, then would it not be the intention of a fallen angel to hinder and persecute the saved?
They persecuted men physically in the time of Jesus: taking over their bodies, driving them mad, throwing them into spasms and into fires and all kinds of danger. That seems to have stopped, but has their mission changed?
There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. (Hamlet, I.v) Be watchful, be mindful. Don't be afraid to ask help from the Lord, for He gives freely from the riches of eternity. He may allow His helpers to be detained, but He won't let them be defeated; He will save you! Bear patiently your sorrows and troubles, and He will reward you for your faithfulness.
We have more allies working for us than sometimes we think or feel; so don't become discouraged! As Elisha reassured his servant, the number of those with us are more than those who are with them. (II Kings 6:16) Or at least, the greater number--for God is the greater number, is He not?
Later in Hebrews, the author talks about the 'great cloud of witnesses' that surrounds us. (12:1) Even when I'm alone at night, I'm not really alone. Even when I'm standing alone against the wrong, I'm not alone. And even when I'm facing persecution and nobody seems to be there for me, I'm not alone.
Let God minister to you. Think of the angels He sends to protect you, to uphold you. Think of the ones that went before you, who want you to succeed in your life. Think of Jesus, who gave up being with God because He wanted a relationship with you. Think of God.
Don't let your troubles overcome you. Put your hope in God, and He will see you through.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Hebrews 1:10-12

Yesterday I was in a public restroom and saw a Gay-Lesbian edition of the Yellow Pages for Austin; apparently, the publication was in its third edition. There were letters in the front from the mayor, several directors of something or other and other public-service types.
It was interesting, maybe enlightening. Maybe a little anticlimactic. The ads looked the same as ads in the standard yellow pages. The companies looked the same--there were a few I recognized. One ad for a real estate agent announced "Straight answers for gay people." They were cute, upbeat, mainstream. It was all very tasteful, very... normal.

People in the Christian community have demonized homosexuals, I think because it's been socially unacceptable for the past few hundred years. Sometimes our Christian culture acts like the world is turning into a depraved and crooked generation... Sometimes we seem to think that the pagans are at our doorstop, invading our culture and threatening our values on our home turf.
It's just not true.
Homosexuals were around before Christians. Pagans dominated the culture long before Christianity came on the scene. Child sacrifice and temple orgies were cultural staples long before the Cross was built or even dreamt of.
In short, I mean to say, it's a pagan world we're living in.
We're the invaders. For a Christian to treat a homosexual like he's an outsider, like he's a freak or like he doesn't belong, is like a tourist going into a local establishment and telling the owner that he should just pack up and go home because nobody wants him there. Not only is it insane, it's laughable.
When did we ever get the notion that it was our world to judge people in? When did we ever get the feeling that we had the right to say who belongs in this world and who doesn't?

We proclaim that the Bible is pertinent to all generations, and it's true. We say that God doesn't change or fade away, and that's also true. But a lot of churches are in danger of becoming irrelevant, meaningless in a society that's changed in ways they refuse to accept.
We can't sit in our holes and lament that the world is turning against Christianity; the world was never for Christianity. Society took on the guise of Christian values for a time to lull us into complacence and into pride over our achievements, to give us the feeling that we had accomplished a cultural revolution that the people of God before us could not.
Now that we see society turning against us openly, are we going to sit and weep for our lost utopia? But we should realize that a utopia within our current frame of refence is an illusion. It didn't materialize for the communists, and it won't materialize for Christians, either.
Paul and his fellow messengers brought the Bible into a world that didn't know the true God. God blessed and prospered the church, even when the whole world was trying to kill it and to stamp it out with lions and spears.
God has not changed. His power has not changed, and God is not losing His grasp on this world. If this world is revealed to us more now as a crooked and depraved generation than perhaps it was ten years ago, then we're only seeing the same truth as our Master, some two thousand years ago.
The nature of the world has not changed. Its intentions toward the word of God and His people are the same now as they were at the gates of Jericho, the same as they were in the destruction of the temple, the same as they were in the valley of Megiddo. If we see its intention the more clearly, then we should not take it as a bad thing; disillusionment is not a bad thing--it is only an opportunity to recognize the truth. The instructions of Jesus, even two thousand years later, are still the same today as they were then.

We must not judge the people of this world. We must love the people of this world. We must accept the people of this world, sinful as they are--just as God accepted us in our depravity. We must show the people of this world the love of a God Who does accept them as they are, Who died for them as they are, Who offers to give them His own righteousness now, as they are.

This is the example our Master has set for us.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Hebrews 1:7-9

For the love of righteousness and the hatred of wickedness the Son deserved to be given worth above his companions.
Do I love righteousness? Do I hate sin?
It's easy to love sin, isn't it? Sin is like a cheap friend that's fun to be around but leaves you with the bill. He makes you popular, gets you high, gives you all kinds of fun--but after the ride, you're stuck alone with a bill you'd rather not pay.

Still, I find myself seduced by it.

May the Holy Spirit's work in my heart be not stunted by my hardness of heart. May God have his way in my will!
Wretched man that I am, who shall save me from this body of death? I thank the Lord Jesus Christ!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Hebrews 1:5-6

Jesus is more worthy than the angels because of His birth, because of the life He led.
God made the angels to worship Him. Jesus is the first, best glory of all creation, just as Adam was the centerpiece of seven days of creating. He became flesh and came down and dwelt among men (the greek word in verse 6 for 'world' is oikoumene, which means the inhabited world or, sometimes, the Roman Empire. See Luke 2:1, 4:5, Acts 17:6, 19:7, Romans 10:18.) and we beheld His glory, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus' birth was according to the will of God because of one act of faith by the humble Mary: "I am the Lord's servant. Let it be unto me as thou hast said!" (Luke 1:38) and the work of the Holy Spirit. You know, it seems funny at first that God should entrust one of the most important events in the history of creation to a young girl.
Gabriel comes to her, an angel of light, who reduced Daniel to a quivering puddle by his very appearance, and it's the angel's greeting that troubles Mary. She is remarkable, without doubt. And the faith she shows is immense: this thing the angel proposes, beyond being completely incomprehensible, will almost certainly get her stoned and will certainly end her chances with her betrothed. Gabriel is proposing a completely different life than the one she had planned, just as God had to Abraham of Haran so many centuries ago. (Genesis 12) And given this choice, she says, "I'll do whatever God asks." From that humble obedience, God brought forth the best miracle of them all.
Jesus wants to work in my life, just as surely as God did in Mary's--it's why He created me. (Ephesians 2:10) What chances does He give me to say, "Let it be just as You say"? How in my life do I need to follow My Lord's words: "Not my will, but Thine be done." May I be so discerning! Far too easy it seems to simply plow through life, working my own choices, making my own decisions, taking accountability for my own actions--when isn't that Christ's job? If He is my Lord and my Captain, then how often must I accept His leadership in my life, both to choose the right way and to take care of my mistakes. He guides me, He leads me, He disciplines me, He loves me--but do I let Him control me? Do I let Him master me? Do I let Him shepherd me? Do I let Him atone for me? Do I let Him cover my sins?
He does... and He must.

I want to see the angel in my life today, that choice God presents to me: trust Him, or not. Do His works, or not. I want to be Mary today: faithful, humble, true. I want to be like that.
With the strength of Christ in my life, I can.