Daily Archives: March 7, 2013

Don’t Be Slovenly – Part 1

Bible Study, ,

DON’T BE SLOVENLY – PART 1

“‘You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect Him, the Son of Man will show up.'” Luke 12:39, 40 (The Message).

This ‘thief in the night’ imagery has captured the imagination of Christian authors and fathered many a story about the coming of Jesus. But, if we don’t tie the expression to its religious and cultural background, we will also be fooled into wild and woolly interpretations. This is not about sitting up all night, every night, waiting for the ‘thief’ to come. This is about being aware of the season and being faithful to respond to the preparation God has prescribed in His word for the season.

“Now, brothers, about times and dates, we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, like labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of light.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5a (NIV).

In this letter written to the believers in Thessalonica, Paul indicated that he had thoroughly instructed them about the return of the Lord Jesus while he was with them. False teachers had subsequently confused them by saying that Jesus had returned secretly and that they had missed Him. Paul explains how this was impossible because the coming of Jesus would fulfil ‘Yom Teruah’, the Feast of Trumpets, a noisy and visible affair.

In Leviticus 23, God gave instruction regarding seven feasts which were to be celebrated during the course the year; one, the Sabbath, a weekly celebration, three during the spring and three seven months later during the autumn. These ‘appointed feasts’ are translated, in the Hebrew, ‘rehearsal feasts’. For what were they rehearsing? Since the whole Bible is the story of God’s choice and preparation of His bride, and ends with a wedding, obviously the feasts would be rehearsing the process of His courtship of His people and the wedding ceremony.

Let’s examine them and see how this works.

1. The Sabbath is a picture of the divine rest into which God calls His people. Jesus fulfilled this feast according the Hebrews 3, 4. This not annual but weekly to show us that faith in Him sets us free from our ‘labour’ to satisfy God’s demand for perfection and allows us to rest perpetually in the perfection of Jesus who earned it for us through His perfect life and atoning sacrifice.

2. The first of the three spring feasts, Passover, was fulfilled at Calvary. Jesus was sacrificed for us as God’s spotless Passover lamb. Because of that, we have been delivered from God’s judgment on sin and freed to live in the ‘Promised Land’ of His favour.

3. Jesus fulfilled the second spring feast, First fruits, when He rose from the dead. He became a ‘terumah’, a ‘first fruits’ offering, when He was lifted up and His spirit placed into the hands of His Father. God raised Him from the dead as the guarantee that all who believe in Him will share in His resurrection. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20 (NIV).

4. The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost was celebrated fifty days after the Feast of First fruits. Every family was to bring an offering of bread baked with yeast and given to God as a ‘terumah’ or first fruits offering. First fruits became terumah (an offering) when it was lifted up or ‘waved’ before the Lord and then placed in the hands of the high priest. Jesus fulfilled this feast on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on the church which is the Bride of Christ!

(To be continued)

A Bank You Can Bank On

Christian Life, , ,

A BANK YOU CAN BANK ON

 

“Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bank robbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. The place where your treasure is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” Luke 12:33, 34 (The Message).

God’s economic system hits at the core of our fallen nature. As long as we are ensnared in the dominion of darkness, our disposition will be one of greed driven by selfishness. However, Jesus’ work on the cross sets us free from the one thing that will destroy us as surely as night follows day.

The Apostle Paul has given us another principle that appears to be a paradox. He said,“…Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12b, 13. You work out…God works in. Once again Paul declares that God works through our choices to perfect His work of grace in us.

The potential to be generous is the spontaneous outcome of salvation but we have to turn that potential into action. Both Jesus and Paul tell us, “Now work it out.” That is the miracle of what Jesus has done for us. Sin shackled us to a nature that has endless potential for greed and wickedness but, when we were transferred from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of light, we were freed from that potential and released into a new potential. “Be imitators of God as dearly loved children…” Ephesians 4:1(NIV). There it is again, the family environment in which we are freed to develop our new nature in God.

Jesus urges us, “Now get on and become what you are.” Developing our generous nature has huge potential – firstly of imitating our Father and secondly, of growing our assets in an infallible banking system.

This has far greater significance that we can imagine. According to Jesus, eternal life is ‘knowing’ God and ‘knowing’ Him, Jesus, (John 17:3), but what does it mean to ‘know’ God? Strangely enough, we find the clue to knowing God in the Old Testament. Jeremiah was talking about Shallum, Josiah’s son, who succeeded him as king of Judah. He had been taken captive to Babylon. What was his crime?

“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labour…does it make you a king to have more and more cedar?  Did not your father (Josiah) have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord?  Jeremiah 22:13, 15, 16 (NIV).

We will develop an intimate knowledge of God by doing what He does. Growing our potential, then, means using every opportunity we can to be generous givers. The more generous we are, the more revelation we will have of who God really is, and the more we will experience intimacy with Him. And, after all, that’s where He is heading – leading us into oneness with Him – the essence of our marriage with Him at the end of time!