A Special People

In Exodus 19, God was speaking to Moses, his spokesman:  "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself.  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.  And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

There two points from this passage that we will consider in this blog entry.  The first is that the people of God are very special to Him.  For sure He loves everybody.  But it is different for those who are followers and believers. 

In the New Testament, Titus 2:14 speaks of Jesus, "who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people...."  God knows His people, and they/we are special to Him. 

Then there is 1 Peter 2:9 where the scripture says, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."

And Revelation 1:5, "To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen."  To God we are kings and priests....pretty great stuff. 

But there is the second point in the initial passage: We must obey.  He will make us greater than we can even understand....but we must be true followers of Jesus, true to His covenant and His will.  We must do it His way.  We do that by reading and understanding His Word, the Bible....and then by following it, by following Jesus.  Let's do it!  Just do it!

And there it is....one more time.  Thanks for reading.  All the best to you!

Judah

I was reading the 78th Psalm where the poet is recounting the sins of the Jewish people down through history but especially during the time after God had led the people out of Egyptian captivity.  Speaking of God, it says towards the end of the Psalm, "Moreover He rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved." 

There is a lot of significance to this statement.  It is noteworthy that much of the Old Testament follows the history of the tribe of Judah.  Remember that Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons.  One of the sons was Judah.  And the key significance of Judah is that he is in the lineage of Jesus.

We remember that Jesus was born a Jew.  His true father was God Himself, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.  But Jesus had an earthly father, Joseph, and a mother, a virgin, Mary, both of whom were of the tribe of Judah.  And all through the OT we see the centering of focus on the tribe of Judah.

It is interesting that the NT opens with these words, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham; Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers."  There were 11 other brothers but not one of them is named here....because the emphasis is on the lineage of Jesus.

And going back to the psalm first quoted, it mentions the tribe of Judah, "Mount Zion which He loved."  We read in OT history that when the 12 tribes finally located in the land of Israel, each tribe picked out the land that they wanted for their tribe.  Judah went to the South where Mount Zion is located and the city of Jerusalem was built.  So much Bible history is located in the area of Mount Zion and the city Jerusalem built upon it.  And in this psalm it is described as "which He loved."  God had and has a special love for this place.  And for what it is worth, today there stands a Muslim temple, the Dome of the Rock, right in the middle, right where the Jewish temple once stood.  But that is another subject for perhaps another day. 

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

Disappointed

If we pause to look back at the death of Christ, if we take ourselves back to the cross and imagine what it must have been like to view the dead body of Jesus on the cross, what a horrible sight it would have been.  Of course, it was horrible for Him to have to endure the suffering and shame of all the events leading up to His crucifixion.  But beyond that, it had to be terribly disappointing to the followers to have to view their Savior, their hope, there on the cross.  And what a gory sight.  He is dead, His body limp, draped, bloody, torn and tortured.  The followers have left, as have the crowds.  He is all alone.  It is Friday...and oh, what a sad Friday it is.

But a new day awaits, for on Sunday everything will change.  Jesus will arise from the dead and prove once and for all that our God has power over the grave.  And just as Jesus had that power, He extends it to us.  What a blessing!

But on this Friday, the followers were down, sad, disappointed.  We see this attitude in the two guys walking on the road in Luke 24.  Jesus joined them in walking and asked why they were so sad.  They said: "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.  Indeed, besides all this, today is third day since these things happened."

They said, "We were hoping...."  A lot of people were hoping that Jesus would be their king.  The people of Israel had been oppressed for generations, and now they wanted to be free.  What a disappointment this Friday turned out to be; their Lord was crucified.  What a bummer!

But the wonderful Sunday was coming!  They couldn't see it then.  They didn't understand the power that Jesus had over death itself.  What a great God we have.  He was great then....and He is great today, always and forever.

Praise God every day for His wonderful grace.  Thanks for reading....once again.

Seek Bible Answers

It is interesting to note that when Jesus was pressed about matters, He went to the Scriptures to make a point.  He began this practice in the earliest of His ministry when He was tempted by the Devil.  Three times He was tempted and three times He quoted from the Old Scriptures. 

At the first temptation, Jesus answered:  "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' " 

As He was tempted the second time, "Jesus said to him, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' "

And finally, after the third temptation,  "Jesus said to him, 'Away with you, Satan!  For it is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve." ' "

It was important to Jesus to go directly to the Old Testament Scriptures to quote the Word of God in His defense of truth.  We find the later writers of New Testament Scripture doing the same thing.  They often quoted OT scripture and sometimes the very words of Jesus.  An example of this is found in 1 Corinthians 11 where Paul is teaching about the practice of taking the communion, the Lord's Supper:

Jesus took bread and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."  Then He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood.  This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

Paul, in writing this account, wanted to be sure that the words of Jesus were never forgotten in this important practice.  Over and over throughout the Bible the words of God and Jesus are quoted in providing true answers.  This is a practice that we are able to follow.  We need to give Bible answers to important questions of life, to questions about how to worship, how to live, how to please God. 

The way to be what God wants us to be is to go to His Word, the Bible, and just do it.  Thanks for reading.  Feel the love.....

Marriage

Discussing the definition of marriage would seem to be a complicated matter, one that is controversial in today's world.  But as with all things, we do best if we go to the source of all wisdom and knowledge for our answers, i.e., the Bible.  God has the answers to all questions, and in fact, gives us clear definition, clear answers to what marriage is all about.

We should note that God us supremely qualified to provide the answers to this question for a number of reasons.  But for purposes here, I will mention that God created marriage.  This point is made clear when we go to the beginnings of the Bible and the beginnings of man and read from Genesis 2.

"And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.'........And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.  Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.  And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.'  Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

We see that Jesus took up this discussion in Matthew 19 when He was asked about the matter of divorce.  He pointed out that God hates divorce.  But in doing so, He quoted from Genesis and said, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?' " 

It is not my intention here to get into politics and discuss who should be allowed rights.  But for definition of marriage there is no question that marriage is a relationship designed by God to be between a man and a woman.  We should always go to the Bible for our true answers...and to see what God says about a matter.  We don't see a dependence on the Bible in our world today.

May we seek to do things in the way our God wants.  Have a great week!

David the Prophet

I have written about King David before, but this article is more about David the prophet.  They are one and the same, but the perspective is different. 

For purposes here, we will be looking at the passage in Acts 2 where Peter stands up along with the rest of the apostles and makes a speech.  He is establishing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that He rose from the dead.  He quotes David where David is recorded in Psalms 16 prophesying about the coming Christ.  Realize that when David spoke about Jesus, he was doing so many centuries before Jesus would be born.  Here are some of Peter's comments quoting David:

"Because You will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence."

Without explanation, this writing would be difficult to understand.  But Peter in his speech explains that David is not speaking of himself...but of the Christ to come.  Here is Peter's explanation:

"Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.  Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.  This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses."

David testified of Jesus, perhaps not even knowing what he was saying.  He made it clear that the Christ would not see corruption, decay, from the death process.  Peter in his speech is pointing out that David died and his grave was still in existence (still is today).  But Jesus has no grave because He rose from the dead and proved that He had the power over death.  And this is important to us, of course, because by proving that He could overcome death, He can carry us beyond the grave....to a heavenly reward.  How great that is!  Praise God!

Thanks for reading.  Praise God for His wonderful grace.

Authority

Authority is a subject that I do not like....on many levels.  It is like "rules."  Who wants rules, or restrictions, or authority?  But a realistic look at the reasons for all of this brings us to the realization that these are important....and necessary.  Our society would not work, and we personally could not properly function without rules and authority.  So let's take a brief look at what the Bible is teaching us about the subject.

Jesus speaks to us about this.  I think one of the best passages to see Jesus as our authority is at the end of Matthew.  In talking about the apostles, "Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on the earth has been given to Me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.' "  Notice that All Authority in heaven and earth was given to Jesus.  That is truly a broad statement, but certainly a true one.

Jesus did not soften His words when He spoke of His role.  In John 14:6, He told them, "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."  This powerful statement did not leave any room for exceptions or loopholes.  Jesus meant what He said.  He is the only way.

These statements are quite direct and final.  There is no way to find salvation...heaven...without doing so through Jesus.  Those who believe that He was a good man, maybe a prophet, but not the Son of God, not God Himself, will not find salvation.

Jesus is the authority.  And we need an authority to give us guidance and direction and purpose and ultimately, eternal life.  Jesus is the Way.  He is the truth.  And for sure He is life, real life, eternal life.  Let us follow Him, serve Him, love Him.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!