Tag Archives: Scriptures

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – ALL OUR ECSTASIES AND INTIMACIES

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ALL OUR ECSTASIES AND INTIMACIES

8 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. (“All their ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.”  – The Message). 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” Mark 12:18-27

“All their ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.”  If only we could catch and lock that thought in our spirits forever! That about sums up the entire purpose for our existence! In the final phase, when God has completed His restoration of everything to its original purpose, the entire universe will be ECHAD and eternally worshipping God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in the purity and perfection of their original creation.

But there will be an element to complete, the revelation of the nature of God which was unseen before the fall – His mercy. In spite of man’s tortuous journey from the sixth day of creation to the Day of the Lord when He will execute judgment on all who have refused to embrace His plan, God’s full-orbed character will be clearly visible to the entire universe, and His wisdom clearly recognised.

Everything will be revealed, including the subtleties of Satan’s deception and the folly of our ways. Will an aspect of hell be the eternal regret of lost potential? What of all the opportunities unbelievers had to embrace the truth but they refused and chose to pursue the lies Satan sold them for the passing pleasures of this world? What of the wasted opportunities we as believers will clearly remember?

According to Jesus, in spite of our fumbling and failing, we will be embraced by the Father with no accusation or condemnation. All our sin has been swallowed up by the cross. Perfect love receives all His sons with perfect acceptance. All our suspicion and misgivings will melt away in an instant. Mercy triumphs over judgment. John wrote, with awakening assurance, “If anyone does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence, Jesus Christ the Righteous One…”

Will not our worship forever be that much richer because of the revelation of God’s mercy! Gratitude will enhance our capacity to lose ourselves in the ecstasies and intimacies of loving God.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – EVERYTHING IN THE SCRIPTURES

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EVERYTHING IN THE SCRIPTURES

“Then He said to them, ‘So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets said? Don’t you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into His glory?’ Then He started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to Him.” Luke 24:25-27 (The Message).

What a Bible study! No one ever has, and no one ever will explain the Scriptures as Jesus did to those two that day! All the learned Jewish rabbis from ancient times could not have understood the Word of God as He did because He was both author and subject of the book.

Perhaps the message of these verses is the same for us today as it was for them then – we are thick-headed and slow-hearted because of our ignorance of the Scriptures. God has not only given us His Word but He has given us His Spirit to explain and interpret His Word. And yet we have so many teachings and practices that have “evolved” from the Bible that are not true to the Bible because, unlike the noble Bereans who “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11b NIV, we have not gone back to the Bible to verify the things we believe and practise.

Everything about Himself was there for them to discover if they had only taken the trouble to search. In fact, had they listened to Him with faith, they would have understood because He was the living Word right there with them for three years. John testified that “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have enough room for all the books that would be written.” John 21:25 (NIV). That is quite a statement!

Firstly, Jesus gave one simple instruction to His disciples out of which flows everything else He taught and demonstrated. He said to them, and to us, “Remain in me” And yet, if one considers the variety of superstructures that have been built on Him, the picture of true discipleship has been horribly distorted. All the rituals and paraphernalia that have been piled on Him have buried Him and replaced Him with nothing but another man-made religion.

Where do robes, incense, chanting, processions, hierarchy, priesthood and laity, rituals and every other belief and practice added to the simplicity of His call, fit into His purpose for coming? Do these things help us to live in harmony together as brothers and sisters in the family of God so that we can be witnesses to Him in the world?

Jesus calls us into close fellowship with Him with no trappings and requirements other than to believe, love and obey Him. Out of that flows our fellowship with each other. “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3 (NIV). Where does all this other stuff fit into that?

Secondly, we have built a world-wide prayer movement called “spiritual warfare” that in fact functions as though the death of Jesus were inadequate to deal with the devil. We are taught to “pull down”, “take authority over”, “break through”, “cast out”, “identify principalities”, “bind and loose” and even do “prayer walks” with no regard to the truth that Jesus accomplished the total defeat of Satan at the cross.

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code with its regulations which were against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV).

If we have doubts about the efficacy of Jesus’ death, then we must add all these other things to try to subdue the devil. There is no evidence in the book of Acts that the Early Church was taught to do any of these things. By sharing their lives and their resources with one another and preaching Jesus as Lord, they turned the world upside down and brought down powerful religions like Diana-worship and eventually even the worship of Caesar.

The Bible sounds a serious warning to those who add anything to the sufficiency of the person and work of Jesus. “But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.” Galatians 1:8 (NIV).

How important it was for those disciples then, and for us today, to know that Jesus had to suffer, to die and to be raised from the dead so that we can be living witnesses of who He is. Our transformed lives show the world that Jesus, and not the devil, is Lord, and expose his deception.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – A COSTLY COMMISSION

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CHAPTER 17

A COSTLY COMMISSION

“They took the road south through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica, where there was a community of Jews. Paul went to their meeting place, as he usually did when he came to a town and for three Sabbaths running he preached to them from the Scriptures. He opened up the texts so they understood what they’d been reading all their lives: that the Messiah absolutely had to be put to death and raised from the dead — there were no other options — and that ‘this Jesus I’m introducing you to is the Messiah.'” Acts 17:1-3 (The Message).

Day two after their release from jail! How could these men, who had just been severely beaten and were covered in welts and raw wounds, travel such long distances on foot without painkillers, antibiotics or anti-inflammatories? What was it that produced such determination in them to proclaim this message all over the empire regardless of the hostility they encountered from their fellow Jews and from the Roman government?

God had called them to press into Europe and to Europe they would go, regardless of the cost, because they knew that He had commissioned them and He would accompany and support them no matter how people responded. He had never promised them immunity from trouble and suffering. He promised them His own presence, with all His resources, so that they would fulfil their mission, no matter what.

Why could they be so sure of what they were doing? They had at least three reasons for sticking to their ministry, no matter how high the price:

  1. They had the Scriptures. Centuries before, Hebrew prophets had recorded, in detail, prophecies about the Messiah. Every one of those prophecies had been fulfilled in Jesus, the Christ. As Paul preached, he matched prophecies with Jesus and the people recognised the truth that Jesus was their Messiah, just as the Scriptures had predicted.
  1. They had personal contact with those who had lived with Jesus for three years, those who had watched and listened to Him; who had been present at His crucifixion and talked with Him after His resurrection over a period of forty days. Paul had had an encounter with Him on his way to Damascus that changed the course of his life.
  1. Through the miracle of faith, their own lives had been changed, giving them an inner peace and joy that not even the experience of the past days could erase. How could they pray and sing instead of cursing and complaining when they were treated so cruelly and unfairly by civil authorities? They had a Master who had suffered for them. His grace was enough to see them through adversity until they had completed their assignment.

All these experiences added to Paul’s CV, giving him all the testimony he needed to pen the letters that became part of the Scriptures of the New Testament. Paul could never have written words of encouragement and hope to the believers in so many churches had he not had personal experience to which he could testify. Every word he wrote about living the life was first hammered out on the anvil of his own experience. It had to be so otherwise his words would have been nothing but untested theory and useless for his readers.

This life Jesus came to give us is free but costly. Paul found it so, and so shall we if it is our purpose to follow the Master closely and faithfully. It will cost our plans and desires. The Master’s way may take us along rough and even dangerous paths but the rewards will far outweigh any price we are called to pay.

Paul could say, at the end of his journey, that there was a crown of righteousness awaiting him and all those who are looking forward to the Master’s return.

Are you?

A Costly Commission

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A COSTLY COMMISSION

“They took the road south through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica, where there was a community of Jews. Paul went to their meeting place, as he usually did when he came to a town, and for three Sabbaths running he preached to them from the Scriptures. He opened up the texts so they understood what they’d been reading all their lives: that the Messiah absolutely had to be put to death and raised from the dead — there were no other options — and that ‘this Jesus I’m introducing you to is the Messiah.'” Acts 17:1-3 (The Message).

Day two after their release from jail! How could these men, who had just been severely beaten and were covered in welts and raw wounds, travel such long distances on foot without painkillers, antibiotics or anti-inflammatories? What was it that produced such determination in them to proclaim this message all over the empire regardless of the hostility they encountered from their fellow Jews and from the Roman government?

God had called them to press into Europe and to Europe they would go, regardless of the cost, because they knew that He had commissioned them and He would accompany and support them no matter how people responded. He had never promised them immunity from trouble and suffering. He promised them His own presence, with all His resources, so that they would fulfil their mission, no matter what.

Why could they be so sure of what they were doing? They had at least three reasons for sticking to their ministry, no matter how high the price:

1. They had the Scriptures. Centuries before, Hebrew prophets had recorded, in detail, prophecies about the Messiah. Every one of those prophecies had been fulfilled in Jesus, the Christ. As Paul preached, he matched prophecies with Jesus and the people recognised the truth that Jesus was their Messiah, just as the Scriptures had predicted.

2. They had personal contact with those who had lived with Jesus for three years, those who had watched and listened to Him; who had been present at His crucifixion and talked with Him after His resurrection over a period of forty days. Paul had had an encounter with Him on his way to Damascus that changed the course of his life.

3. Through the miracle of faith, their own lives had been changed, giving them an inner peace and joy that not even the experience of the past days could erase. How could they pray and sing instead of cursing and complaining when they were treated so cruelly and unfairly by civil authorities? They had a Master who had suffered for them. His grace was enough to see them through adversity until they had completed their assignment.

All these experiences added to Paul’s CV, giving him all the testimony he needed to pen the letters that became part of the Scriptures of the New Testament. Paul could never have written words of encouragement and hope to the believers in so many churches had he not had personal experience to which he could testify. Every word he wrote about living the life was first hammered out on the anvil of his own experience. It had to be so otherwise his words would have been nothing but untested theory and useless for his readers.

This life Jesus came to give us is free but costly. Paul found it so, and so shall we if it is our purpose to follow the Master closely and faithfully. It will cost our plans and desires. The Master’s way may take us along rough and even dangerous paths but the rewards will far outweigh any price we are called to pay.

Paul could say, at the end of his journey, that there was a crown of righteousness awaiting him and all those who are looking forward to the Master’s return.

Are you?

Good For You Bereans

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GOOD FOR YOU BEREANS

“The city fathers and the crowd of people were totally alarmed by what they what they heard. They made Jason and his friends post heavy bail and let them go while they investigated the charges.

“That night, under cover of darkness, their friends got Paul and Silas out of town as fast as they could. They sent them to Berea, where they again met with the Jewish community. They were treated a lot better there than in Thessalonica. The Jews received Paul’s message with enthusiasm, and met with him daily, examining the Scriptures to see if they supported what he said. A lot of them became believers, including many Greeks who were prominent in the community, men and women of influence.” Acts 17:8-12 (The Message).

Now that’s what they were supposed to do, check the evidence!

What a contrast between the people of Thessalonica and Berea! For the most part, the citizens of Thessalonica were an unruly mob, egged on by ruthless Jews who stopped at nothing to hinder Paul from doing his work. Refusing to believe his message was no excuse for creating havoc in the city.

Two issues emerge from this passage. Firstly, no one has the right to intrude on another’s God-given gift of choice. God gave man dominion over the earth, including all the creatures but excluding each other. To use any form of force — intimidation, manipulation or domination — to impose one’s will on someone else is a violation of that basic right. It is the exercise of illegitimate authority and is called, in Scripture, witchcraft. Any form of witchcraft is an abomination to God and He will hold the one accountable who practises it.

Why do so many people insist on controlling others? A control freak is an insecure person and covers up his insecurity by forcing others to conform to his whims. The bully and the abuser expose their inner pain by using their superior strength to dominate others. Others manipulate or threaten to get their own way.

A truly secure person, one who knows who he is and has no need to force others to respect him, honours them by accepting their decisions and choices without begging or cajoling. This kind of interaction can only take place between people who have an inner freedom that demands nothing from other people.

The second issue is one that is, sadly, very common in the church. In the main, people are gullible. They tend to believe what they are told without checking the facts. An honourable preacher or teacher will encourage their hearers to go back to the sources. That’s what the Bereans did. There would be far fewer cults and heresies if believers were more like them.

People trust the “authorities” instead of doing their homework. If we are believers, we have the Bible and we have the Holy Spirit, the author of God’s Word. We have no excuse for not checking the facts. The Bible interprets itself. If we want to know the truth and take the trouble to study the Bible, the Holy Spirit will reveal the truth to us through the Word.

Let’s allow the lesson of the Bereans to encourage us to be honest and diligent to understand and walk in the truth. David’s prayer can be our prayer, one that God will faithfully answer:

“Teach me your way, O Lord.
And I will walk in your truth.
Give me an undivided heart
That I may fear your name.”
Psalm 86:11