Tables Added to the Blog...!

Here's a new bit of formatting that promises to make this blog even better. Things that are directly related to the blog topic will go over here.	With notes and other things in the middle.	Over here can go unrelated comments and thoughts.

Why didnt I think of this sooner???

Power and Offence

Paul gloried in the Cross, not the Resurrection. He talked about the offence of the Cross, not of the risen Christ. Of course, it is understood that there could be no Resurrection without the Cross. But what is the offence of the Cross?

A Barnes Explanation-In-A-Nutshell is the it erased any ability of man to paticipate in his own redemption. In fact, it amplified humanity's lack of spiritual perception and inability to live in the Spirit.

Point: God came to earth as an act of grace, taught His ways to those who would listen, placed Himself into the hands of the people He had created and let events proceed. Those people did not perceive the truth and became jealous. They falsely accused, tried and convicted Him of crimes against Himself and killed Him.

The Cross simultaneously convicted humanity and redeemed it. Those who reject its power are immeasureably offended by this truth. To them, it is foolishness or blasphemy. Paul's glory in the Cross came as a result of the revelation of these things.

Remember that Paul was a systematic mass murderer before he met Jesus. We only fall short of calling him genocidal because most of the people he killed were of his own people. He was intent on wiping the name of Jesus from history and squelching His teachings. No number has ever been recorded regarding how many lives he was responsible for ending. What we know is that his heart was different after Damascus Road. He realized his sin and let it go under the blood of Christ. Is it any wonder that he would glory in the Cross? Where else could all those murders be erased?

Dont you mean covered? No. I mean  E-R-A-S-E-D !

THAT  is the power and the offence of the Cross of Christ.

Turning

Galatians 1:6 - Paul was amazed that these believers were turning away from the truth of Christ. Since that time, we have learned not to be amazed. In this New Millennium, we are more amazed when they dont. Why is that?

I think it's that Paul worked hard to instill the basics of Christianity deep into the collective conciousness of the 1st Century believers. Years were spent teaching and living an example before them. When Paul moved on, he was confident that these were able to walk godly in communion with one another. He fought the infiltration of worldly philosophies into the churches like fire in a library.

Today, though, we dont fight it. We advise against it. We encourage people to stay away from things that might be harmful to their spiritual lives, but we stop short of standing in their way. Do we understand the cost of such passivity?

Pardon me while I process this for my own life...

The Cross

I used to feel guilty about the Cross. The fact that my redemption required it made me feel responsible, but I'm not. The Cross was planned before creation. Without delving into the debate about predestination, scripture is clear that God knew we would fall and made His plan before He began the work.

The fact is that God recognized our sin before He made us and made a way for us to be reconciled. Before He said "Let there be light", the plan was in effect. Before He set Adam and Eve in the garden, or the serpent brought its convincing lie, the Cross was already on the horizon. I was only involved by implication.

If we need to place blame on a person, we have to lay it on Adam. He was the one who passed Sin to all of us. In Galatians 4, Paul discusses God's promise to Abraham, that "in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed". He makes the point that Abraham believed God and God counted it as righteousness. The implicit point is that Abraham was guilty before God, even though his previous actions had been reflective of deep faith. The righteousness only came after God made a promise and Abraham believed it.

Did Abraham know that a cross was in the future? Did Adam? Job lived about the same time as Abraham, and he knew something (Job 19:23-27). That whole book is about his claim to integrity. He wanted his friends to understand that he hadnt done anything wrong. Still, he voiced his need for redemption.

To take his point literally, he didnt believe he had done anything worthy of punishment, yet he knew he was condemned. Where would that condemnation have come from? For that, we have to go back to Adam.  Before that, though, we must go back to eternity before creation. God knew what would transpire in the garden, but He created us anyway, triggering the chain of events that would lead to our condemnation. Is God responsible for our sin? No. He knew it would happen, though, and had a plan in place to circumvent the consequences.

The plan? The Cross.

So, should I feel guilty for the Cross? I dont think so. What I should feel is gratitude.

Gideon

Okay, the holidays are over. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day. I've had a lot of fun with family and friends. There was a lot of food, football and hockey...but now it's time to get back to other things.

Deliverance and duty. What a can of worms this can be. For the lesson series, this took us to Gideon (Judges 6-7). In his day, all of Israel had been brought into the bondage of Baal worship. They also lived in fear of outsiders who constantly raided their villages and fields, leaving nothing for the the people to eat.

As we looked at this man, we discovered that he was actually quite fearful. Several times in the narrative about his first battle, God had to reassure him with signs and dreams. In the end, though, Gideon pursued the enemy without mercy. This was his duty as a judge in Israel. He was called, supernaturally empowered and given victory by the hand of God.

Today, most of this applies to us. While we are not judges, we do have duties. We are to live godly and call the unsaved to repentence.

This begins much like it did with Gideon. We turn to God and accept His promise by faith. At that moment, we are freed from the rules of this world. Does that mean I can defy its laws? Not unless they are in conflict with His written word. In Gideon's case, they were.

As we examine this moment in history, we see a relationship between faith and action, which results a balance of deliverance and duty.

The first thing God told Gideon to do was to destroy the idols and set up a new altar in their place. Metaphorically, that's what we have to do. When we begin to trust God, He expects to stand alone in our affections. There can be no other objects of devotion or worship. This goes for alcohol, drug use, religious practices, rituals, etc. The very first thing we must do is to place Him first in our hearts.

Wow. That's legalism! No, it's a reflection of the deliverance that's already taken place. In my own life, I was able to lay those things down because they no longer had any hold on me. The drugs I'd enjoyed became a burden. In fact, my whole lifestyle became a burden. I didnt enjoy the things I was doing and things very quickly changed.

At the time, I was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Within a month, God impressed me to stop. I tried and cut back to about a pack and a half. One night I had to admit to him that I couldnt quit. I simply told Him that, if He wanted me to quit, He'd have to take the addiction away from me. Sometime in the middle of the next day, my dad mentioned that I hadnt smoked a cigarette all day. It's the first I'd noticed. The difference: I tried on my own and failed. When God did the work, it was immediate and noticeable.

Lesson: If you are a believer and have been frustrated because your life, or that of another believer, isnt what you think it ought to be, stop trying to do it. Let God work.

Thanks?

Well, Thanksgiving is over, here in el Estados Unidos. We have slain our turkeys, hogs and cattle in annual celebration of our gratitude. It is no longer acceptable, in this country, to verbalize the object of our thanks, so we simply say that we are "thankful".

Interestingly, I was looking for a tie-in to Galatians and discovered that the apostle doesnt address thankfulness in this book. It isnt even listed among the fruit of the Spirit. Paul does talk about it, though, in Romans.

There, he discusses the depravity and decadence of mankind- "when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened".

So, here I am in 21st century America. We have this annual holiday named "Thanksgiving Day". It's origins lie in a time when people were glad to simply have harvested enough to get them through the winter. They gathered together in communal gratitude to their God, sharing the harvest with their neighbors, including unbelievers.

In our time, though, we struggle to give meaning to such a day. Like the people of Paul's day, we dont want to acknowledge a particular God, if we acknowledge one at all.

So, what then?

We still gather our families and spread the board with as much bounty as we can. We cling to the idea that things are better than they could be and that they might get better still. I believe there is something in us that wants to be thankful.

I know. We are inately selfish and unrighteous. Our desires are to please ourselves, but deep down, I believe has built into us a need to recognize what we are - We are creatures made in the image of the One Holy and True God, by whom all things are created.

Longsuffering

Of all the fruit of The Spirit, this may be the most difficult and perplexing. We in the 21st Century church have very little to do with it. Because of the cultural changes over the past hundred years or so, we have come to expect things to happen quickly. We expect people to respond quickly. When they dont, we get irritable and unstable.

So it was a little surprising to me a few weeks ago, that one of my students would bring it up as something she was struggling with. I wasnt surprised that she might struggle with it. The surprise was that she would even think about it.

What is longsuffering? It's very similar to patience, only with a bit of discomfort involved. It is most applicable to situations we'd like to get out of. At this moment, Beth and I are suffering through a time of trial with her knee surgery. I cant speak from her perspective, but from mine, it's a time of anxiety and anticipation. Anxiety, because I hate when she hurts and wish I could help. Anticipation, because I know that she'll be much better when it's over.

When dealing with people, we may have a particularly slow student, or contrary co-worker, whom we would prefer not to deal with. We may or may not see progress, but we are responsible to deal with the situation in a Christlike way. I imagine Jesus, when James and John said,"Let's call down fire from heaven and grill these dudes!" Longsuffering wasnt on their agenda.

Jesus, on the other hand, exhibited it toward the disciples for three years. He put up with their lack of faith, their shallowness of character, their inability to comprehend his teachings. How difficult must it have been for Him to dispute with the scribes and Pharisees? He knew they were wrong and could easily have taken them completely out of the picture. If He had, though, where would we be?

Longsuffering is to stay under the pressure, knowing that it will not crush us. We bear up, because we know that God's outcome will be better than anything we could do on our own. Sometimes it's for the good of another, but we must bear up for their sake.

Clarification

To all of you pet people, I apologize if my previous post seemed a little heartless. I am not a pet person. Never have been. It eludes me why people want to bring animals into their homes. It isnt that I dont like animals. They're fine, in their place, which I find to be outdoors among the other animals living as they were created. Excluded from this are farm animals such as cattle, horses, etc. These are not pets. They're partners, after a fashion- tools, if you must. Either way, I just cant get my emotions all worked up over a dog or a cat. (As a kid, I did get a little choked up when they shot Old Yeller.)

About the best I can do is set up an aquarium and get disappointed when my favorite fish goes belly up. It isnt an emotional thing, though. I like to look at fish. I also like to look at horses, elk, deer, various birds, and the like. It happens, though, that fish are easy to care for and dont require much monetary investment. For a little bit of nothing, I can get a good sized tank off Craigslist and stock it with a nice blend of little fresh water tropicals. I dont have to walk them. They dont need to go outside to do their business. Fish food is cheap. When my favorite one dies, I flush it and get a new one, a little sad that I wont get to enjoy that one anymore.

I was a vegetarian in my teens. It had to do with how inhumane it seemed to raise an animal with no other purpose than to kill and eat it. I imagined someone pressing my leg down into a sausage grinder, just to make a pizza. I dont want to get into that discussion, other than to say that God made very clear in His word that it's okay to eat meat. What kinds of meat remain up to your personal preference or interpretation of the Bible. I dont personally think it's a moral issue whether I include or exclude certain things from my diet. I will say, however, that I cant think of anything that I wouldnt try at least once. This is reflective of my liberty in Christ.

What? Let me rephrase: Because of Christ's sacrifice, I am now free to eat anything- snails to sea urchins, caviar to calves brains- without condemnation. What I am not free to do is condemn others who cant exercise this freedom. I dont believe there's any New Testament reason to abstain from this or that, but my brother may believe differently. If my liberty will impede my ability to minister, then I must sacrifice it. What matters most isnt my freedom, but my brother's. God is very clear- I must confine my own liberty in order to help others grow in Christ.

Jax the Dog and Divine Providence

First off, Beth is fine. She's home and able to get around a bit with her new walker. Thanks to you all for prayers and inquiries.

Now, about Jax- He's a little some kind of hairy terrier. He's hyperactive, mischievous, unruly and I just dont like him. Although he isnt mine, he lives in my house. Since he belongs to my daughter and her three, I'm sort of attached to him, as one might be to a large mole or tumor. Sadly, he thinks I'm his friend. In his world, I am the alpha dog.

This weekend, we received a generous outpouring of snow. Overall, probably 8-10 inches fell. Yesterday, I looked all over for the snow shovel, but couldnt find it anywhere. In the meantime, Jax was feeling rebellious. I tried twice to make him go out, but he was having none of it. While I was on the phone with Beth, just before I planned to walk out the door, he ran out into the snow and across the patio to the far end. I called and whistled. Offered treats, but it was no good. Finally, I went to the other door in hopes that he would either come in there, or run to the first one. Neither. He ran to the middle and stood in the chest deep snow, wagging his tail as though I might want to play. Stepping out onto the deck after him, I felt something under the snow. You'll never guess what it was...I'll bet you already have...yup...It was the missing snow shovel.

Once again, it could have been a coincidence, but I'm accustomed to them by now. Who am I to argue or question if God chooses to use a skinny little dog to do His work? I still dont like the dog, but I was grateful for him yesterday.

Peace

At this moment, my wife is in a local hospital recovering from yesterday's knee replacement surgery. When I walked in this morning, she was crying. A catch basin was under her chin and she was throwing up. Her eyes looked up at me with an expression I'd seen a thousand times on our children's faces - "Please, help me." I was helpless.


She'd been up all night. The pain medication attached to her I.V. was the culprit. Whenever she pressed that button for pain relief, her stomach would empty a few minutes later. She was in pain, because she didnt want to use that button. When the pain became unbearable, she would give in and press it, beginning the cycle again. This morning the staff is working to stop both. They brought her some oral pain meds and injected a nausea reliever into her I.V.

There are few moments in my life when I've felt so weak.

During a break between fits and visits, we prayed. "Dear Father, here is your little girl, and she is hurting. We cant fix this situation, but we know that you can, and that you love her. Please, Father, help."

The pain is under control and she hasnt thrown up again today. Her Father loves her and took care of it for her. Praise Him.

This is a source of peace that the world cannot give. When things in life are beyond my control, I know that I can go to my heavenly Father. He cares about us and is concerned with every little thing.

When we prayed for my wife's immediate help, did we surprise God? If he was aware of the situation, why didnt He do something without our asking? In fact, why didnt he just fix her knee before it needed replacement? Maybe He doesnt love her so much after all?

These questions are not so difficult to answer, but I wont go into them now. All I want to focus on is that He does listen and move. In this one instance, I might be able to attribute chance or coincidence. After more than thirty years in Christ, and countless situations like this, I'm convinced that God is constantly involved in my life. I can find no greater peace than that knowledge.