Daily Archives: April 28, 2015

Obey Your Leaders

April 28, 2015Bible Studygive an account, Joy, leaders, obey, prayLuella Campbell

OBEY YOUR LEADERS

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clean conscience and desire to live honourably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon (Heb. 13: 17-19).

What is the church and who are their leaders? We have to look at the nature of the church in order to understand who and what its leaders are. The church and the kingdom of God are not synonymous but they are interconnected. The church is the visible representative of God’s kingdom on earth. Whatever the church is and does on earth is supposed to be the way God’s invisible kingdom works and the way He rules.

First of all, the church on earth today, in practical terms, is subdivided into innumerable denominations, so, which one accurately represents the kingdom? Is it the ones who set up strict rules and practise their religion through religious rituals? Is that how God relates to people? Is it the ones who focus on gifts and miracles and money and wealth and live for spiritual “goose bumps” with not much emphasis on anything else? Is that what the kingdom is all about?

What about those who are all about social justice – the “do good-ers” who are constantly trying to put the world right with this, that or the other project? Is that the evidence that God’s kingdom has come? And those who are sticklers for right doctrine? What they believe is the truth and everyone else is wrong. They will have nothing to do with anyone who does not subscribe to their belief system. Is that the true expression of who God is?

When we read the New Testament, we see a very different picture. We see the beginnings of the return to God’s original intention – to have a family of sons and daughters who were created in His image to be one with Him and with one another. His plan was for them to live in harmony with Him, their fellow men and the world as a loving family, caring for one another in a perfect environment with God in the midst of them.

Sin messed up His plan because Adam and Eve opted for independence. Jesus came to earth to show us the Father, who He is and how He rules, and died to rescue the human race from self-destruction and to restore us to union and fellowship with the Father. God’s plan is back on track now but, unfortunately, the church in the main has messed up again by turning family life into a religion in one way or another.

Jesus called twelve men to follow Him and gave them authority, once they had spent time with Him and thoroughly learned who He was and how God’s kingdom worked, to interpret His teaching in keeping with His disposition. He sent the Holy Spirit to be in them to help them continue to bring the kingdom of God into the world wherever the church is.

That same authority was passed on to every leader who has the responsibility of teaching people the Word of God in dependence on the Holy Spirit. True spiritual leaders are not those who have been voted in by the people, based on their charisma or popularity but those who have been chosen and set apart by the Holy Spirit for the task of accurately interpreting, teaching and living all the aspects of the kingdom according to Jesus’ “yoke” – His way of life in keeping with His interpretation of the Torah. (Of course we must remember that He is God and He wrote it, so He should know)!

It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4: 11-13).

Leaders in the church, then, are not to be a hierarchy to rule the lives of the people, but fathers in a family, responsible for leading the family and bringing them to maturity as they would their own children. The family is to live together in harmony with the Father and with each other as brothers and sisters, doing life together as a witness to the world that God is restoring justice and peace to a broken world and will complete what He started when Jesus returns.

Those who return to the family through what Jesus did on the cross, and submit to Him, are part of that family and are called to live in harmony with the nature of God – merciful, compassionate and generous. Those who refuse to return to God’s authority in the family will be excluded forever when they die. Our leaders in the church are Jesus’ representatives, authorised by Him to lead.

Our responsibility is to obey them because they, not we, are accountable to God for the way they lead us. What will those do when they stand before Him who have led God’s people astray? Our writer urges, “Pray for us. We are the ones who will take the rap for what we do.”

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

No Enduring City

April 28, 2015Bible Studydo good, enduring city, praise, sacrifice, share, to comeLuella Campbell

NO ENDURING CITY

For we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that openly profess His name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased (Heb. 13: 14-16).

There are some pretty bad things happening in the world around us. Apart from the things that irk us in our own country, what about what goes on in the rest of the world? It is easy for us to become despondent, to complain and to criticise, to judge and condemn and, worse still, to blame God for not doing anything about it.

Our writer says, “Don’t do that. You don’t belong here anyway. This present world with its greed, selfishness and injustice, is not your permanent home. This is your apprenticeship for the real life which is to come.” We forget that our citizenship is in heaven when life is tough and uncomfortable down here. When we keep our sights on where we belong – in the realm of God’s presence and rule, we can be optimistic and full of joy because what lies ahead for us is beyond our imagination.

This gives us reason to be a thankful people. It is not sacrifice in the sense of doing something painful when we offer God praise. It is an act of worship, continually remembering what He has done for us and raising our hearts to Him in gratitude and love for His mercy and goodness. This is the reason for our generosity towards others – God has been infinitely generous to us.

We no longer need to offer the sacrifices of animal flesh and blood to cover sin and to worship God since the blood of Jesus is sufficient for the forgiveness of our sin, once for all. However, that does not mean that we no longer need to offer sacrifices – tokens of our worship and gratitude to God. There are at least five different ways to express our love to Him which constitute our “spiritual” worship.

The writer to the Hebrews mentions two here:

Praise as an act of worship is an expression of our love to God, not only for who He is and what He has already done, but also as our way of trusting Him with our lives for the future. When we focus on God instead of on all the bad things that happen around us and in the world, we take our eyes off this world and fill our vision with the hope towards which we are moving.

Our gratitude to God spills over into acts of kindness towards others. It may not necessarily mean giving away material things. What about people’s need for acceptance and affirmation; expressions of gratitude and appreciation; support and comfort; or kind words instead of criticism? There are a thousand ways in which we can spread love and blessing in a heartless world. This is our way of showing our love to God.

Paul gives us at least two other ways in which we can worship God. In Romans 12:1 he urges us to respond to God’s mercy by giving Him our bodies. He is not talking about being literal sacrifices but “living sacrifices”, allowing Jesus to have complete ownership of everything we think, say and do. As he said elsewhere, “No I but Christ lives in me.”

Being generous with our money and possessions is another way of worshipping the Lord. Paul acknowledge the generosity of the Philippian church towards him for sending him money when he needed it. What was more important, however, was that they were worshipping the Lord by their giving.

I am amply supplied now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God (Phil. 4: 18).

Jesus spoke more about money and things than He did about anything else. Why? Because He knew how big a part money plays in our lives. It either rules us or we rule it. Generosity is the way to break the power money has over us. We are to be generous with our money because God has been generous to us in every way. When He has control of what we own, we are truly free from the crippling love of money.

Above everything else, however, there is a gift God longs for us to give Him. David understood that God was not interested in animal blood. He wanted something far more valuable from us – our submissive and contrite hearts. In the midst of his guilt because of the terrible things he had done when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, he said this:

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise (Psa. 51: 16-17).

What is the best offering of all? A heart that is submissive and obedient to God. Without it, all our worship is worthless.

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

He Suffered Outside

April 28, 2015Bible Studyaltar, disgrace, outside, suffered, tabernacleLuella Campbell

HE SUFFERED OUTSIDE

We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood. Let us, then, go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore (Heb. 13: 10-13).

What a vivid picture of God’s redemption!

Every time an animal was slaughtered and its blood sprinkled on the Atonement Cover on the Ark of the Covenant on the Day of Atonement, it pointed to and spoke of another Lamb whose blood would provide atonement for the sin of the whole world. Daily, the smoke of the burnt offering would rise to God as a reminder of sin and of the price that had to be paid to atone for sin. The priests who ministered in the tabernacle, were permitted to eat their portion of the meat of the daily sacrifices.

Like them, we have a sacrifice of which we are permitted to partake because we have acknowledged the price of our sin and the value of the blood that atoned for it. We partake of a different altar, not literally eating the flesh of the Son of God and drinking His blood, as some would have us believe but, through faith in Him, acknowledging His sacrifice, participating in the benefits of His death and identifying with Him in His death and resurrection.

Those who ministered in the tabernacle and ate the flesh of the sacrifices, did not have an automatic right to partake of the sacrifice of Jesus unless they, too, were part of the believing community. Being a priest in the Levitical order did not qualify them to participate in the “altar” of Jesus’ sacrifice. There is only one criterion for anyone to share in His sacrifice – repentance from dead works and faith in Him as the true Lamb of God – turning from sin and turning to God. Jesus said:

Very truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him (John 6: 53-55).

If we were to take these words literally, we would be in real trouble. How is it possible to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus without inventing some kind of crazy doctrine about God doing magic? No, that is not what Jesus meant. In keeping with the Hebrew mind-set, they would have asked, “What does the flesh and blood of Jesus do?” Just as we take in food nourish our physical bodies and provide energy to live, so by faith we take in the death of Jesus to nourish our spirits and enable us to live godly lives in a sinful world.

Animal blood, offered by Levitical priests, cannot do that. Only faith in the death of Jesus can atone for sin and provide life for our spirits.

Since we are part of a citizenship that is not of this world, we must stand with Jesus in spite of the hatred and persecution that loyalty to Him brings. Like the bodies of animals that were burned outside the camp, Jesus suffered outside the city. Symbolically it reminds us that He was rejected by His own people. They would have no part of the forgiveness and reconciliation He provided through His death. They threw Him out and killed Him.

When we take our stand with Him, we become outcasts like Him. It may seem like a disgrace in the eyes of the world, just like His death was a disgrace in the eyes of His people, but we wear that disgrace like a badge of honour because it is His death that gives us acceptance and access to the very throne of God, just as the blood of the sacrificial goat gave the high priest access to the presence of God in the Holy of Holies.

Since we are invited to share in His salvation, we are also urged to share in His disgrace. He did not consider the shame of His suffering enough reason to turn away from it.

Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12: 1b-2).

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

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Daily Archives: April 28, 2015

Obey Your Leaders

He Suffered Outside

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