Daily Archives: December 5, 2013

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Four

Devotion, , ,

DAY TWENTY FOUR

 “For He Himself is our peace,

who has made the two one

and has destroyed the barrier,

the dividing wall of hostility,

by abolishing in His flesh the law

with its commandments and regulations.

His purpose was to create in Himself one new man

out of the two, thus making peace,

and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God

through the cross,

by which He put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away

and peace to those who were near.

For through Him we both have access

to the Father by one Spirit.”

  Ephesians 2:14-18

Just imagine that!  Because of the cross of Jesus we can now not only get along with people we would having nothing to do with before, but now we are actually one new family made up of every ethnic group, language and culture on earth.  This is a miracle of what Jesus’ death has done for us.  If Jesus can bring peace between Jew and Gentile and create a new family out of enemies, just imagine what He can do between all the people of South Africa if we give our lives over to Him and allow Him to be our peace.

 

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty Three

Devotion, , ,

DAY TWENTY THREE

                                 “He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation.

For by Him all things were created:

things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;

all things were created by Him and for Him.

He is before all things,

and in Him all things hold together.

And He is the head of the body, the church;

He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead

so that in everything His might have the supremacy.

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,

and through Him to reconcile all things,

whether things on earth or things in heaven,

making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.”

Colossians 1:15-20

It’s almost as though the apostle Paul cannot find the right words to describe how amazing Jesus is and great His role is in the whole of creation.  He made everything, He owns everything, He controls everything and He is everything and God holds Him up for us to admire, to honour and to worship!  Through the pen of the apostle, God is showing off His Son to all creation, human and spirit beings, to be admired, adored and honoured, and boasting about Him because of what He did.  That should give us great encouragement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sandwich Man

Bible Study, , , ,

THE SANDWICH MAN

 “‘Doom, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had been given half the chances given you, they’d have been on their knees long ago, repenting and crying for mercy. Tyre and Sidon will have it easy on Judgment Day, compared to you.

‘And you, Capernaum! Do you think you’re about to be promoted to heaven? Think again. You’re on a mudslide to hell!

‘The one who listens to you, listens to me. The one who rejects you, rejects me. And rejecting me is the same as rejecting God, who sent me.'” Luke 10:13-16 (The Message).

It’s funny how people shrug off warnings like these as the raving of a religious fanatic!

Some 500 odd years before Jesus spoke these words, the prophet Ezekiel warned that the Phoenician city of Tyre, built on an island in the Mediterranean Sea, would disappear into the sea because of its wickedness. Alexander the Great did the unthinkable. When Tyre, thinking it was unconquerable, resisted his armies, he built a causeway from the mainland to the island and took the city, reducing it to rubble.

Although Tyre and Sidon were pagan cities, they had many links with Israel in the Old Testament era. Jesus visited the area and healed a persistent woman’s daughter who was plagued by demons. These cities did not have the opportunities to repent as did the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida did who were visited by the very Son of God Himself.

Jesus was not sandwich man, wearing a board that said, “Prepare to meet thy doom!” He expressed His concern over their hardness of heart. Had Tyre and Sidon received the same opportunity as they had been given, they would have grabbed it and turned away from their wickedness. How tough it would be for the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum which Jesus frequented, healing the sick and preaching the good news of God’s kingdom on many occasions, when they stood in the blinding light of God’s holiness to realise that they has wasted their opportunity to receive Jesus and live God’s way!

Even as you read these words, there is a reaction in your own heart as there is in mine. We can either read them as history or literature, or we can take seriously what the people of these towns did not do. Why did Jesus spend time with them? He had a passionate desire to reintroduce them to the God they had either forgotten or missed in the rubble of their religion. He wanted them to know and love His Father and return to a life of submission to Him in order to experience real life.

We are so conditioned by the persistent bombardment of the entertainment world to be spectators that we are inclined to take nothing seriously. We can watch the most evil and perverse programmes and feel nothing. Every form of wickedness is portrayed on the screen to entertain us so that we become so hardened by crime, violence, and sexual perversion that we are no longer horrified and outraged by them. Even so-called Christian television has become a form of spiritual entertainment.

Jesus’ words of warning should alert us to the reality of the most pernicious disease that afflicts people both inside and outside of the church — no fear of God! What does that mean? Put in very simplistic terms, we have the same attitude as the cities and towns Jesus warned — we don’t take Him seriously.

Let’s make a resolve today, if we consider ourselves to be His disciples, that we will read what Jesus said as though He really meant it and respond with faith and obedience to His Word. What difference would it make, what changes would happen to our lives, to our homes, to our work places and to our communities if we did that?

If we really love Him, we cannot afford not to.

The Rabbi’s Blessing

Bible Study, , , ,

THE RABBI’S BLESSING

“‘When you enter a town and are not received, go out in the street and say, ‘The only thing we got from you is the dirt on out feet, and we’re giving it back. Did you have any idea that God’s kingdom was right on your doorstep?’ Sodom will have it better on Judgment Day than the town that rejects you.'” Luke 10:10-12 (The Message).

This is a bit vindictive, isn’t it? Does it sound like Jesus? What is He getting at?

“The rabbi’s dust” is a euphemism for the rabbi’s blessing. It was the disciples’ duty to walk behind Him; to follow Him, literally and figuratively. The one who walked close behind Him picked up dust thrown up by His sandals. It was an honour for a disciple to “wear” his rabbi’s dust because it indicated that he walked closest to Him.

To shake off his rabbi’s dust was to scatter the blessing of his rabbi on others. Would Jesus really have advocated that His disciples thumb their noses at people who refused to receive them? He always had an attitude of compassion towards everyone, even those who rejected Him. He knew that they would be the losers. He wept over Jerusalem for not recognising the time of His visit to them.

It would be out of character for Jesus to instruct His disciples to call down curses on a family or community that rejected Him. He had stopped James and John from wanting to incinerate a Samaritan village for refusing Him hospitality. Why would His attitude to any other community be different? If we read this story through the spectacles of Jesus’ redemptive mission, what He was instructing His disciples was not to retaliate but to leave behind the rabbi’s blessing, even if the people did not receive them.

Another lesson His followers had to learn was that they were representatives of their Master. Whatever they said or did was on His behalf. He would not want them to act out of character with Him or His Father. However people treated them was what they thought of Him but that did not deter Him from wanting to bless them. After all, did He not say that His Father pours out rain on the just and the unjust?

What is God’s wrath all about then? Is He not angry with wicked people, and does He not plan to take vengeance on those who refuse to believe the gospel? God’s punishment always takes the form of the consequences people call down on their own heads when they refuse to heed His Word. Jesus said that it was not He but His Word that would judge them in the end (John 12:47, 48).

God’s wrath, rightly understood is His passionate grief over wasted potential. He has a good plan for every person and, when they choose their own way and make a mess of their lives it causes Him sorrow because of what they could have been. His plan is that every one of us should be a member of His forever family, to live with Him and to share all the benefits of a perfect world in fellowship with a living and generous Father.

He wants us to be like Him so that we can mirror His splendour (Isaiah 61:3), enjoy the freedom of the children of God and live in the safety and provision of His love. Why should we want to run away from that and set up a life of our own which can only bring us disappointment and emptiness?

God has proved His love for us by giving His own Son as a sacrifice of atonement for our sin, so that we can be reconciled to Him and return to the family as beloved sons and daughters. Jesus paid the debt of sin for the whole world and He is not mad with anyone any more. Can you get hold of that?

It is never His intention to take vengeance on anyone for not receiving the good news of His kingdom. The consequences of our choices are enough to contend with. His passion is that we respond to His invitation and enjoy the blessing and benefit of being members of His family.

With arms wide open He says, ‘Come home.’