Monthly Archives: February 2015

Today Is The Day

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TODAY IS THE DAY

As has just been said, ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.’

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter His rest if not those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief. (Heb. 3:15-19)

These are serious words written about people who lived and died long ago, but applicable to us today. Today! We have no other time but today.

God’s people, the children of Israel, must have been excited at the thought that, through Moses they would finally be free of the hated Egyptians and their cruel whips. With what expectation they gathered on that fateful night when the angel of death passed over the land of Egypt and left at least one dead in every household! They were untouched by the simple act of smearing blood on the doorposts of their houses. That was a miracle! It had to be because blood in and of itself could do nothing for them.

Then there was the unforgettable moment when the uncrossable Red Sea gave way and became a pathway through which they could walk on dry land. They saw it! They walked across it, and when they were through, the water collapsed back on itself and swallowed up the Egyptian army because it was not under God’s protection as they were.

So many miracles in the wilderness! Every day a vast cloud covered the camp and sheltered them from the searing desert heat. At night the same cloud glowed with warmth and kept them comfortable in the freezing cold. Every morning they gathered the mysterious manna which was there six days out of seven. On the seventh day the ground was just ground, sandy, rocky and barren – no sign of the manna. It was heavenly bread, packed with all the goodness of all their food put together which nourished them and kept their bodies healthy and strong for their journey.

Where would they find water in a desert where is rained only every ten years? God did it again. He split a huge granite rock and so much water gushed out that it eroded the surrounding rocks and filled the plain below it with enough water to satisfy the needs of millions of people and animals for a whole year. How is that for a miracle!

When fiery snakes bit them because of their complaining against God, a brass snake on a pole was all it took to save them from the venom. In fact, God’s promise was a built-in medical service which guaranteed their preservation from sickness as long as they trusted Him.

They needed no shops or clothing boutiques. Their clothes and shoes miraculously lasted for the duration of their journey. How did that happen? God, again! For forty years God was an all-inclusive supply store of everything they needed. All they needed to do was ask and trust Him; but they didn’t.

They constantly revealed their unbelief and suspicion of Him by their complaining and threats. Worse still, they refused to obey Him. If He told them to do this, they did that! How is that for insult! They insulted God time and again by their in-you-face disobedience. It’s no wonder they provoked God to such an extent that even Moses’s intervention could not save them. One by one they died in the desert and their bodies were left to rot there instead of moving boldly and confidently into their inheritance.

For forty years, forty years! they went around in circles, just a few weeks journey from their destination but never reaching it because they would not listen in spite of all the miracles! How is that for wicked unbelief!

But lest we judge them, what about us? We may not be crossing a real desert somewhere but life is often like a desert – barren and empty. Instead of trusting God and following His instructions, we complain, we murmur, we rebel and we disobey. We are no different from those who perished in the desert. We decide what to do and how to do it and we act like people in the world who don’t have a Father who loves them.

What’s the purpose of having to traverse the barren times in life? It’s about trust! Trust! That means listening, following, obeying, holding on and keeping on because the wilderness will come to an end. There is the abundance of God’s promises for those who are determined to go His way. When do we start? Today!

For those who trust God today, and today, and today, there is a reward, today! Rest! Trust leads to rest, the rest of leaning on the Father for the supply of every need without a murmur and without a qualm. In the desert? Is this really possible? Yes! God is full – full of everything, and He delights to fill those who know they are empty and come to Him to be filled.

All we need to do is to ask, and trust. After all, God is a perfect Father. And it can begin for you today.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Do Not Harden Your Hearts

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DO NOT HARDEN YOU HEARTS

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the end. Just as it has been said, ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion. (Heb. 3: 12-14)

The writer may have been speaking to a group of people who lived over 2000 years ago, but his message is just as relevant today as it was then. His readers then may have been tempted to pull back because of the severity of persecution to save their skin, but the temptation to resist or ignore the Holy Spirit is just as strong today.

When we consider the state of the church today, we must admit that, over the centuries it has surrounded itself with so many protective measures that Jesus’s message and instructions about the kingdom of God are hardly recognisable among the traditions, additions and rituals that have been collected.

Jesus issued one simple command, ‘Follow me.’ In that instruction lies the secret of true discipleship. Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher of torah – God’s teaching and God’s way – whose authority was recognised by both common people and religious leaders, although they would not admit it. He spoke with the understanding and authority of one who knew God intimately.

It was the role of a rabbi with sh’mikah – authority, to train talmidim – disciples – to replicate him. He would call them with two simple words, ‘Follow me,’ which indicated that he considered them able to learn from and imitate him, and to exceed him in what he did.

Why would Jesus want them to do that? Because it was His goal for them to teach and bind His yoke – His teaching and lifestyle – onto others so that He could be replicated and perpetuated down the generations. In this way the good news of the kingdom of God would be published to the whole world.

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John 12: 24)

He would guarantee the success of their mission by the gift of the Holy Spirit who would teach and direct them from within. When the issue of sin was dealt with once and for all through His death on the cross, Jesus was free to reconcile sinners to Himself and then to send them in the power of His Spirit to do what He did and much more because He accompanied them everywhere they went. (Matt. 28: 19, 20)

So what was the problem here? They were afraid to obey the Holy Spirit because it cost too much. They would rather go back to a religion that was acceptable in the Roman Empire and dodge the persecution that the followers of a radical rabbi brought.

What is the problem with the church today? The church has surrounded itself with a covering of respectability by creating a religion of do’s and don’ts which obscures the real Jesus and takes away the reproach of the cross.

Instead of the cross being an instrument of death, the symbol of Jesus’s victory over the devil and the reason for our obedience to our Rabbi, it is now an inoffensive decoration around our necks or on our buildings. It means nothing to the world any more. Anyone can wear a cross and no one thinks anything of it. Imagine if we wore gallows or an electric chair on a gold chain around our necks!

Sin does not have to be the big stuff in order to harden us. Every time we refuse to take Jesus seriously, we have a sinful heart of unbelief. ‘Follow me,’ means three things.  ‘Teach what I taught; do what I did and live like I Iived. Add nothing and take away nothing otherwise you are disqualified from being my disciple.’

‘Believe’ can be spelt in four letters, r-i-s-k. Taking risks means being in partnership with the Holy Spirit, hearing His voice and doing what He says. It’s simple but not easy because we constantly hear voices inside – our own thoughts, the subtle voice of the enemy and the voice of the Holy Spirit. How do we know who is speaking? There is no simple formula to know. We must learn by doing and making mistakes.

The enemy is a liar. He speaks the language of lies. He always contradicts the word and ways of God. We can distinguish his voice by comparing what he says with the truth. The Holy Spirit will never contradict His word. His role is always to glorify Jesus. We learn to distinguish His voice from our own thoughts by risking obedience to Him and examining the outcome. We learn obedience by obeying as Jesus did.

The life of taking risks is an adventure. If we are willing to make mistakes and even make fools of ourselves, we will become real disciples who ‘follow’ Jesus into a life of adventure.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

A Time Of Testing

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A TIME OF TESTING

So, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me through the forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ (Heb. 3:7-11).

The period in the wilderness was, for the Israelites, a time of testing, but who was being tested? Both! God was testing His people to see what was in their hearts, and they were testing God’s love and patience by their rebellion and unbelief.

God often deliberately led His people into seeming cul-de-sacs because He wanted to know what was in their hearts. Of course He knew what was in them. He knew them better than they knew themselves. But that was exactly the point. Until they were in a situation where what was in them could come out, it was of no value to them. So what did He do? He tested them,

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Deut. 8:2, 3)

And how did they fare in this test? Their unbelief spilled out in a torrent of abuse and complaint against Moses and against God. Gone was the remembrance of God’s covenant and His promises. Their circumstances blotted out everything except the awareness of what was happening to them right then. They whined; they threatened Moses; they complained against God, and they got it from Him!

How did they test God? They spoke against Him; they failed to understand what He was doing; they negated His promises through their words of unbelief, and they brought His wrath down upon them by their murmuring. Instead of being encouraged by His miraculous intervention time and again, they tried His patience by conveniently forgetting both what He had done for them and what it was really like back in Egypt. They were quite willing to go back there and suffer under a cruel and ruthless Pharaoh rather than trust the God who was doing everything to make their journey as comfortable as possible for them.

Since it was Jesus with whom the writer was comparing Moses and the ‘house’ over which he was a faithful servant, how did He react to His testing in the wilderness? He trusted the Father in those horrific forty days when He had no access to food, water, shelter and protection from the heat of the sun, the cold of the night and the venomous creatures that lived there.

He had to face all this alone without wavering in His confidence in the Father. He made no plans to go it alone. He would not capitulate to the enemy’s insinuations and suggested solutions. He would not break His unity with the Father. He chose to die rather than betray the Father, and because of that He lived.

He taught His disciples to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’ Those words were loaded with meaning for Him because He had been there. He knew the strength of Satan’s tests and the pull of His human desires. This is not so much about what the devil can do; this is about what we can do when under pressure from the devil. We are not victims. If we were, God could not hold us responsible for falling into temptation.

There is no such thing as ‘The devil made me do it.’ We alone are responsible for the choices we make. Neither God nor the devil can decide for us. All the devil can do is to plant lies into our minds. What we do with them is our choice. If we, like Jesus, are fortified with God’s word and empowered by His Spirit, we will do as He did, ‘live by every word that comes from the mouth of God’.

Jesus, our high priest, is qualified to intercede for us because He was faithful over God’s house as an obedient and trusting Son. When our faith in God is put to the test through hardship and suffering, we have both His example and His Spirit to see us through if we are willing to trust Him instead of, like His ‘house’ over which Moses was a servant, revealing rebellion and unbelief by our bitter murmuring.

When God tests us, let us not test Him. His tests always have a miracle and a blessing in store if we trust Him and live in the gratitude of His presence and His provision. If we endure with faith and patience, we shall inherit the promises (Heb. 6: 12).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

The Son Over God’s House

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THE SON OVER GOD’S HOUSE

‘Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,’ bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. (Heb. 3: 5-6)

The origin of Paul’s thought lies deep in the language and culture of God’s ancient people. For forty years they were nomadic shepherds, on a migration from Egypt to the Promised Land. They lived in tents and had to adapt their lifestyle to the uncertainties of their precarious existence, being totally dependent on God for their protection and provision. Their pictographic script and language reflected this period of their history.

The concept of a son and his role in the family pictures this time in their lives. The Hebrew word for son is ben, hence, for example, Jacob named Rachel’s second son, Ben-jamin, son of my right hand. Written in Hebrew, the word ben is made up of two letters, b and n, the vowel being understood. The letter b – beth – is a picture of the floor plan of a tent meaning ‘house’, and the n – nun – is a picture of a seed, which means ‘to multiply’ or ‘to continue’.

A son, then, is one who ‘continues the house’. It is the son’s role not only to continue the family line in natural descendants but also to perpetuate the beliefs and values of the family to the next generation so that the heritage of the family will not die out. This concept is captured in God’s instruction to Israel in Deuteronomy 6.

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments thatI give you today are to be on your hearts, Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deut. 6: 4-9)

In a real sense, Moses’s house was limited to his wife and family although he was a ‘father’ to the nation. He was not God’s appointed son, but a servant in God’s ‘house’ – His people Israel. Jesus was appointed by God’s decree to be a Son at a specific moment in time, called ‘today.’

I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ (Psa. 2: 7)

As God’s Son, therefore, it is Jesus’s role to ‘continue the house.’ Through supernatural birth by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in those who receive Him, who believe in His name, He restores to the family of God every wayward and alienated son or daughter who returns to the Father.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit who is His counterpart on earth, He leads them back into His truth and teaches them the values and practices of the kingdom. Moses could do no more, as a servant, than give God’s people His instructions. He could not internalise them by writing them on their hearts. He could not remove their stony hearts or give them a heart after God.

Only the Son, through His perfect obedience to the Father even to death, could be the atoning sacrifice which paid sin’s debt and satisfied the Father’s justice.

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Heb. 2: 10, 11)

Through HIs work, Jesus both taught and demonstrated the way of life God intended for His family and He provides the power for returning children to be true sons and daughters of the Father through the Holy Spirit who lives in them.

How, then, could anyone think of going back to the old religious system which did nothing for them but bring them into bondage again to a system which told them what to do but could not provide the power to obey? Only Jesus, God’s Son, can enable His brothers and sisters to become like Him. Only He can actually ‘continue’ God’s house. We have the evidence of His power to deliver on His promises by the family He has brought home over 2000 years.

Is He faithful over God’s house? Has He continued the house? Has He reproduced Himself in His spiritual descendants? Has He passed on the values of the family? In spite of the many who, down the centuries have twisted and distorted the values and teachings of the kingdom until they are unrecognisable as reflecting God’s character and His ways, there is still the remnant who are faithful, and are true sons who  ‘continue the house.’

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Greater Than Moses

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GREATER THAN MOSES

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. He was faithful to the one who appointed Him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. (Heb. 3: 1-4)

Of all the great characters of the Old Testament, Moses is the most revered by God’s ancient people. Jesus’s opponents constantly flung Moses in His face. ‘Moses this’ and ‘Moses that’ was their argument against Him and they would not accept that He was greater than Moses. ‘But,’ said this writer, ‘Jesus is greater than Moses just as the builder of a house is greater than the house itself.’

These Jewish believers were obviously still not convinced at this point that Jesus was greater that all the things they revered the most in their historical role of honour. He is greater than angels because He is the Son while angels are servants. He is greater that Moses because He is the builder of the house while Moses was part of the house.

The writer has already presented Jesus to his readers as the exact replica of the Father with the same honour as He and the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He occupies the place of authority at the right hand of the Father. He lived on earth as a perfect son and qualified to be both high priest and atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. No angel was worshipped as He was worshipped at His birth, and no angel was appointed to be the Son as He was appointed by the Father.

It behoves us, therefore to give Him all the attention He deserves rather that debate about whether to keep on being loyal to Him rather than to go back to the old ways when the pressure is on. To these tentative believers it was a matter of life and death because, to be a part of the population who refused to bow to Caesar as Lord, and to offer sacrifices to him in order to qualify for the right to buy at the local market, meant a very precarious existence, to say the least.

No one would be fool enough to choose a life that could be snuffed out, and very painfully through the evil imagination of the emperor, at the drop of a hat unless one were thoroughly convinced that it was worth risking one’s life for one’s faith. That was exactly what the writer was trying to do. To go back, though, was worse than dying for one’s conviction because it affected one’s eternal destiny. It was up to the author of this letter to prove to his readers that Jesus was worth trusting because of the eternal benefits of holding on to Him.

There are five little words in his presentation that hold the key to this life he was urging them not to abandon. ‘Fix your thoughts on Jesus.’ Our lives always go in the direction of our thoughts. Everything we are and do begins in the mind. ‘As a man thinks, so is he,’ said the writer of many of the proverbs. How true this is! James explained how the process of sin begins in the mind. Desire stirs, and the more one dwells on the desire, the stronger the pull is towards it.

How then, does one overcome the temptation to draw back when life gets tough and Jesus doesn’t seem to feature in our topsy-turvy circumstances? Where is He when we need Him? Is it worth the struggle to keep Him in mind and to trust Him when He appears to be MIA – missing in action? Why is He so silent when I scream for help and He does not appear?

Jesus is not about magically lifting us out of trouble. He assured us that trouble is an integral part of this life (John 16: 33). He doesn’t always appear to do miracles when we call just to bring us back onto even keel. But He promised that He has overcome the world and that He will never forsake us in our troubles. He is always there to accompany us and to see that trouble does not overwhelm or destroy us.

Trouble is not always a bad thing. It helps to strengthen our confidence in God; it teaches us patience and perseverance and gives us an opportunity to see what God can do when we run out of options. ‘So,’ said this writer, ‘fix your thoughts on Jesus, not on the rough seas around you.’ Jesus put it like this: ‘Remain in me, and I will remain in you.’ (John 15: 5). Be so anchored in Jesus in your thoughts and in your confidence that there will be no temptation to quit when the going gets tough.

Cling to Jesus and He will cling on to you. When the storm subsides and everything around you is in chaos, you will still be safe with Him because He is indestructible. Moses can’t help you, but Jesus can!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.