Through a Glass Darkly

Maybe It’s Time We Methodists Grew Up, by Pastor Ed Evans

2019-03-10T16:23:00.002-07:00

Perhaps you read the news from several days ago, where the delegates of the United Methodist Church at their annual meeting voted down an attempt by a lesser number of members to ordain practicing homosexuals as clergy. The vote was close: 449-374.

This is a reflection of America’s, and most of the world’s, polyglot society that wants to make up its own rules and ethos as it suits various groups of people, at the time.

We have all been in the kitchen, arguing over a pot of stew that didn’t really suit any of us, with very different approaches to whom and to what we wanted God and a religious life to be. Maybe a dash of that, a snifter of this, a spoonful, a half a cup, and we keep trying to change what God has already ordained.

The result is a spoonful of dissoluble soup. It favors no one, suitable for a neutral society of no males, no females, no blacks, whites, red, brown, shades of grey with no opinions and ultimately, no ethos, no rules. And, the race slumps toward its time of extinction.

Almighty God knows us so well, and loves us so much He has given us a technicolor picture of what lies ahead. Just read the prophets. Read Revelations. He already knew this was coming.

We know what God has said. We know what the Christ has done.

Isn’t it time we grew up and took hold of, took responsibility for, the tools and the platforms He has provided for us to lead into the time of peace, the time of Christ’s return? Isn’t it time we grew up and left behind the childish desires that please each one of us differently, demanding all others like what we like, hate what we hate, love what we love? Isn’t it time?

Our patient, loving God has a plan. He’s shown it to us, so why do we keep trying to rewrite it into a childish version of “Me First!” What is at the bottom of this disastrous church behavioral controversy? I want my way in the church. You want your way in the church, every mother’s son and daughter wants their own way in the church. Whatever happened to seeking God’s way. He has had His say on homosexuality. It doesn’t half-step, it strides out pure and clear. Why do some of us keep trying to find ways to bring it into line with our personal desires?

First, we need to recognize that God is unchangeable. He doesn’t change. What He has said doesn’t change. So if we are set in our ways, and those ways don’t meet God’s ways, then go off and start your own church. Follow another god. There are plenty out there who would gladly take you in. I personally would not advise that, because there is really only one God, one Yahweh, one El Shaddai, one who is all things to us, one who has provided His son as the sacrifice for our sins, one who created us and has made a way for us to spend eternity with Him. One.

So what is the controversy really all about?

We do want to make room in God’s house for all of God’s children, right? No matter what their background, their upbringing, how they look or how they sound, or even how they think. And the church in this world is God’s church, so He has certain requirements, certain do’s and don’ts.

When I was growing up my mother had her own set of rules, and it meant she jumped from husband to husband, and I was left to grow up in different families. When I landed at my Grandmother’s house, about age six, she let me know she loved me very much, I would be staying with her and Grandpa, but that she had her own set of rules, and they would be followed. Disobeying her rules wasn’t the first time I got my britches warmed, but it meant the most because I didn’t like disappointing her. I coveted her love and her favor.

Our God has His own set of rules, and being our God and our Creator, He has known just how to make them clear to us. In this current set-to, about homosexuality, He has been abundantly clear. Don’t do it. He has been crystal clear, beginning with Genesis 19, Leviticus 18 and 20, Romans 1:18-32, 1^st Cor. 6:9-10, and in 1^st Timothy 1:8-10. Other verses in scripture hark back to these warning signs and back up God’s word about such practices.

So what shall we do with those who insist that our God should let them have their own way? Do we shut the church door in their face? Refuse to recognize them? Shower them with hatred and abuse? No. Never. That was never God’s way, but we continue to love them and show them, through how we live our own lives, what God’s love leads to. But at the same time we don’t put them in positions of leadership where they can teach contrary to God’s will. They are not ready to be teachers of adults and mentors of children. First, they must sort out their own salvation with the Living God.

We are called to show them the road to salvation, not encourage them to wander about in the swamps and bogs and never find their way home. Accompanying them on their journey that goes in the wrong direction will not get them to Christ. We must tell them, “the bridge is out in that direction.” The only fulfilling bridge to God Almighty is Jesus Christ, and they must be told that truth even if they don’t wish to hear it. That’s the gospel, and the whole world needs to hear it.

Once the whole world knows that Jesus is the Christ, that God is the One God of the universe, then we can all grow up together, in peace and understanding. Don’t you think it’s time we all grew up?

Devote All to Christ

2019-01-27T17:11:00.002-08:00

Devote All to Christ
Pastor Ed Evans
January 27, 2019

Philippians 2:1-11
2 Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, any sharing in the Spirit, any sympathy, 2 complete my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, being united, and agreeing with each other. 3 Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. 4 Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others. 5 Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus:
6 Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
7 But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore, God highly honored him
and gave him a name above all names,
10 so that at the name of Jesus everyone
in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow
11 and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Key Verse: “Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves.”

Prayer:
Father, guide us as we seek to do Your will. Sometimes we have felt like we’ve been unfocused. The days go by and it seems like we haven’t done enough of what is important and have spent too much time on frivolous things. Father, remove us from the thorns and weeds that have been distracting us from what is truly important. Remove from us those things that have been robbing us of the time and energy that You give us to accomplish Your will, not our own will.
We really do want to do what You created each of us to do. Through this lesson, write Your will for each of us in our hearts. We ask this because we do delight to do Your will, Father. Take those bits of our will and change them into Your will, and place it in our heart, that it may be our will, Father, each one of us. For we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Sometimes when my computer doesn’t seem to be working correctly, I back out, restart it, and let it default to the manufacturer’s specifications. And things seem to go smoothly after that. So the stated purpose of our lesson really hit home with me: “To learn to reset our mind-defaults to the way Jesus views things.” I can understand what the author of our lesson meant by that.
Now, in the passages we are studying, what I’m referring to as mind-default comes across as the Greek word “phroneo”. And your student book suggests such synonyms as mindset, attitude, outlook, perspective, or a way of thinking. What about you? What sort of thoughts came to you as you read the phrase “mind-default”? The idea of resetting our minds to the way Jesus views things.
# # #
It might be helpful to know that in its original language, “phroneo” is more nuanced than simply a mental process.
The Greek term phroneo is related to a word referring to the human diaphragm, a muscle that holds in or restrains. This area of the body was believed to be the seat of all intellectual and emotional activities. Consequently, Paul’s use of it in his letter is meant to connote not only brain-thinking and heart-thinking, but also reasoning and affections, implying more than simply having a thought about something.
I think it’s interesting that when you go looking for commentary on these 11 verses Paul writes, you find entire chapters and books written to unpack the insights contained herein. And especially pages and pages just on verses 5-11, sometimes referred to as the Christ Hymn, dealing with the nature, person, and deeds of Jesus Christ.
But Bible scholars tell us that oddly enough, Paul didn’t intend to focus just on that, but instead his purpose was to persuade you and I that we must give up our own preferences for the sake of others. To guide us into unity is Paul’s purpose, and as we consider resetting the mind-default to that of Jesus, Paul wants us to know that crucial to having the mind of Christ is being one in Christ.
As Paul is exhorting or advice-giving, Bible scholar Fred Craddock breaks down for us Paul’s three-prong approach. He says that part of this lesson must include verses 27-30 from Chapter one, which concerns the Christian's conduct within a hostile world, but which is not part of our lesson. Then within our lesson, Chapter 2, verses 1-11 concern conduct within the believing community. And thirdly, Chapter 2, verses 12-16 concern conduct in relation to Paul. So since our lesson in Chapter 2 is actually within the context of the preceding chapter, let’s start there, with being a Christian in a hostile world.
As it turns out, the four verses that appear in your Bible in Chapter 1, verses 27 through 30, are in the original Greek text just one long sentence, with multiple clauses connected by words that function like the English words “and, which, but, and because. Our English translation obscures this by inserting a few strategically placed periods.
But, in making the original text more readable for us, our English translations also obscure the fact that all the clauses in what are now verses 27-30 are dependent on one main verb, translated “Conduct yourselves” or, as the NRSV puts it, “live your life.”
It really means to live as citizens, to exercise your citizen’s rights, to conduct yourself in a manner worthy of citizenship.” In other words, Paul’s advice was for the Philippian Christians to live out their faith like they lived out their duty as Ro9man citizens. They should see their faith in Christ as a privilege, a civic duty in a way, a right to be maintained even in the face of social or political opposition.
Paul wanted us to know that the church is not to hide nor apologize for its existence. It is possible, in fact, it is incumbent upon them, to live among the people and institutions of Philippi in a way that is informed and disciplined by the gospel of Christ.
Let me repeat that, changing just one word: Paul wanted us to know that the church is not to hide nor apologize for its existence. It is possible, in fact, is incumbent upon them, to live among the people and the institutions of America in a way that is informed and disciplined by the gospel of Christ.
The question raises itself – do the Christians of this nation have as much impact on society, on everyday living, on how people act, as they did when we were growing up? Are the people around us really as full of themselves as they seem on the news reports and the TV shows? What do you think?
# # #
The Philippians were to live, like good citizens, with honor and, like accomplished athletes, to strive “side by side” on behalf of the gospel. Just as citizenship is a privilege, so athletic co0mpeition is also a privilege.
Paul’s second point – Being Christian in the Church – begins his second chapter. Now, this passage begins with a series of “ifs” which most English Bibles do not repeat, but Paul does that to set the tone, to give his hearers a brief reality check. In the original Greek, this verse is a clause that contains no verbs, being understand by their context. Perhaps Paul’s intent was to emphasize the concrete traits that already characterized the Philippian church: such as encouragement, consolation, Koinoinia of spirit, compassion, and sympathy. All things he saw in that church.
One way that first verse might read is this: “Since in you there is encouragement, since in you there is consolation, since in you there is a fellowship of the Spirit, since in you there is compassion and sympathy.” Paul didn’t doubt the genuineness of the Philippians’ faith and life. On the contrary, he is not only affirming them but is building his call for progress and maturity upon those very faith and life experiences.
Paul is wisely rejecting the guilt trip approach, and is able to nourish his exhortation with what is typically the most unused resource in the church: who the members are, and what they already know.
In verse 2 – 4, we find what may be clues that the church at Philippi was, like any church, dealing with some measure of internal conflict, perhaps even divisiveness. If so, Paul was clearly trying to appeal to the church’s better nature.
Why get bogged down in pettiness and disagreements with one another, Paul asks? Why not manage your difficulties out of the gifts you know you possess and express as a believing community. Give me something celebrate, he says, confirm the joy I already have as a fellow follower in Christ; come together, all of you, in attitude and action.
But Paul isn’t talking about some sort of group-think. It was General George Patton who said, “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”
No, Paul has something higher in mind, and this is where we hark back to that phrase we began talking about, a phrase your student book mentions: mind-default.
Bible scholar Stanley P. Saunders puts it this way: “It is pure, single-minded devotion to the gospel proclaimed and embodied by Christ … Paul’s call to have one mind does not mean, however, that there is no room for diversity of thought or opinion within the community, nor that Christians will agree on every topic.”
This is a crucial concept for the Philippians to grasp – especially now, as he is about to elaborate on its meaning in just a few verses.
Before Paul launches into what has been called his hymn to Christ, Paul went into a bit more description of this mind-default, or attitude, as it involved a mutual humility. The phrase in verse 3, here translated as “think of others as better than yourselves,” or as The Message Bible puts it -- “Don’t push your way to th4e front”, might be better grasped by picturing ourselves in a long checkout line at Krogers or Publix, and deciding to invite those standing behind us to take a place in front of us.
Now, if we can understand this sense of Paul’s statement, we should realize he is not advocating the loss of self-esteem or self-respect, but on the contrary, he is offering this behavior as evidence of the dignity they have in Christ.”
You and I should already realize the dignity we have in Christ, but do they? Show them.
Noteworthy here in verse 4 is that looking out first for the interests of others, this was not a particularly unique idea in Paul’s day. It would ha been considered a component of good citizenship, challenging for certain but not new. Was WAS new was Paul’s use of Jesus Christ as the model for this kind of radical humility.
In verse 5, Paul begins his segue into his hymn to Christ. Our lesson book translation reads simply, “Adopt the attitude that was in Jesus Christ.” This is one reason I still love the King James Version, and we are blessed to have different versions to compare. The KJV reads “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:”
Once again, Paul reiterate one of the great themes of this part of his letter: the importance of having the mind-default, or attitude, of Christ. But how do you interpret what Paul says here? And I ask that because how we interpret what Paul says in this verse affects how we understand what we make of it.
If this mindset we need is the mindset belonging to Christ, then our response is imitation, to live it out as close to Christ’s example as possible. If this mindset is already ours by the gift of being in Christ, then our response is participation – to live it out as a community formed in and by Christ.
Actually, whichever translation you prefer, that’s fine, because scholar David Bartlett suggests that in all likelihood, Paul is telling the Philippians to be the kind of community they already are in Christ Jesus.
As to what is often referred to in verses 6-11 as Paul’s hymn to Christ, there seems to be little agreement among scholars whether it constitutes and early Christian hymn, whether it came from Greek or Jewish sources, and how Paul came to use it, either specific to the Philippian church, or perhaps taken from another context.
Fred Craddock offers that “the majority opinion is that Paul is quoting a hymn which arose in another context to address another problem, perhaps a Christological one.
The hymn imagines two Christological moments: the first emphasizing Christ’s giving of self; the second emphasizing Christ’s receiving divine glory. In the first movement, Jesus acts. In the second movement, God acts.
First we learn that Christ “made Himself nothing”, often rendered “emptied Himself”, emphasizing Christ doing this to Himself. Then we learn how He made Himself nothing, by taking on the form of a slave, accepting the inferior status of being human. The description is of Christ coming under all the conditions of the human lot … to all the forces and powers that determine human life. The reader of the New Testament encounters these forces, variously termed principalities, powers, angels, thrones dominions, elemental spirits. In the cosmology of Paul’s time, these spirit forces were regarded as the rulers over human affairs, determining issues of life and death. For this reasons, a Christ who was fully human would come under the influence of these hostile powers, even to His death.
Jesus’ actions was to become humiliated. The book “Interpretation Bible Studies” tells us “The word Paul uses here really signifies the act of placing oneself in solidarity with the humiliated … that is, complete identification of oneself with those who huddle together on the broken, bottom rung of the human ladder … When Jesus comes into the world as a slave, He embodies God’s complete identification with the humiliated, precisely what Paul wants the Philippians to practice in their life together.”
In verses 7-11 now, we see Paul choosing to speak in the superlative. God’s act of honoring Christ is a highest exaltation; and God’s name of Christ is a bestowing of a hyper name, a name above all names.
The scene Paul sets is of every creature gathered around the heavenly throne, in which Jesus, given the name “Lord”, becomes the channel through which God is glorified. Paul knew full well that in Philippi to declare anything other than “Caesar is Lord” would be heard as a direct challenge to the social and political order of the day. But Paul the prisoner, in his government-issued chains, envisioned here in Christ the fulfilment of God’s promise to all Israel and all Rome alike.
No one is beyond the redemptive power of God’s act of love made known in the willing relinquishment of all power by Christ’s act of obedient service. Paul is begging them, “Get that in your head, people!” In today’s common act of success, this is where Paul “drops the mic” – that gesture of intentionally dropping the microphone at the end of a speech or performance as a signal act of triumph and success.
……………………………………………………………………………………….
I want to end by reading aloud this excerpt from a letter written by Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor under King Henry VIII. You may recall Sir Thomas More was against Protestantism, supporting the Catholic Church, and declared the King could not be the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Sir Thomas More was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, but at the last minute the King commuted his sentence to decapitation. Atop the scaffold his executioner begged his pardon; Sir Thomas More rose, kissed the man on the cheek, smiled and forgave him. His last words were “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” He died July 6, 1535.
The scholar, statesman, and devout Catholic sent this letter from his cell in the Tower of London, in the year 1534.
Compare in your mind Paul’s exhortation not to “do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourself”, and More’s intent to “take it patiently, and peradventure somewhat gladly.”
“[Dear] Margret, … I know myself well worthy that God should let me slip, yet can I not but trust in His merciful goodness, that as His grace hath strengthened me hi8therto, and made me content in my heart, to lose goods, lands and life too, rather than to sear against my conscience, and hath also put in the King toward me that good and gracious mind, that as yet he hath taken from me nothing but my liberty … I cannot, I say, therefore mistrust the grace of God, but that either He shall conserve and keep the King in that gracious mind still to do me none hurt, or else … His grace shall give me the strength to take it patiently, and peradventure somewhat gladly too …
“And therefore mine own good daughter, never trouble they mind for anything that ever shall hap me in this world. Nothing can come but that that God will. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best. And with this, my good child, I pray you heartily, be you and all your sisters and my sons too, comfortable and serviceable to your good mother my wife. Commend me to them all.”
You may recall Sir Thomas More was against Protestantism, supporting the Catholic Church, and declared the King could not be the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Sir Thomas More was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, but at the last minute the King commuted his sentence to decapitation. Atop the scaffold his executioner begged his pardon; Sir Thomas More rose, kissed the man on the cheek, smiled and forgave him. His last words were “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”
Any questions or thoughts as we close?
If not, let us close by reciting together the prayer in your student book on page 67:
“O God, help us to perceive the mind of Christ in the situations of our lives and to use that perception to guide our conduct; in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”

Submit to God in Christ

2019-01-20T09:53:00.002-08:00

Submit to God in Christ

Pastor Ed Evans

January 20, 2019

Philippians 1:12-21

¹²Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the things that have happened to me have actually advanced the gospel. ¹³The whole Praetorian Guard and everyone else knows that I’m in prison for Christ.¹⁴Most of the brothers and sisters have had more confidence through the Lord to speak the word boldly and bravely because of my jail time.¹⁵Some certainly preach Christ with jealous and competitive motives, but others preach with good motives. ¹⁶They are motivated by love, because they know that I’m put here to give a defense of the gospel;¹⁷the others preach Christ because of their selfish ambition. They are insincere, hoping to cause me more pain while I’m in prison.

¹⁸What do I think about this? Just this: since Christ is proclaimed in every possible way, whether from dishonest or true motives, I’m glad and I’ll continue to be glad. ¹⁹I’m glad because I know that this will result in my release through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. ²⁰It is my expectation and hope that I won’t be put to shame in anything. Rather, I hope with daring courage that Christ’s greatness will be seen in my body, now as always, whether I live or die.²¹Because for me, living serves Christ and dying is even better.

Key Verse: “Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the things that have happened to me have actually advanced the gospel.” – Philippians 1:12

Let us Pray – “Father, we thank You for this opportunity to look closely at the life and times of Paul, and his dedication to You. May we look closely at our own lives and study our dedication to You even as You are dedicated to us. We may not be in danger of imprisonment for our faith as Paul was, but there are things in this life that would lock us up and away from You, Lord. Help us, even as we study this morning, to step closer to You, that You might strengthen our faith and our ability to have a positive impact on others for Your sake. Lead us and guide us, Father, that we might more closely follow Jesus. Amen.”

Above all else, this lesson demonstrates the priority of the gospel, for Paul, above everything else in his life. The gospel of Jesus Christ had priority ever since he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.

What we are looking at today are letters Paul wrote from prison. He spent some four or five years in the custody of the Roman Empire, serving time Caesarea and in Rome. Some think he was even in custody in Ephesus.

Then there was the brief stay in the Philippian jail by he and Silas, before an angel shook things up. That makes Paul the first follower of Christ to write letters from prison.

In this letter Paul is writing from a gold mining town midway along an East-West trade route, the Via Egnatia, near the coastal town of Neapolis.

The way in which Paul happened to plant a church there, according to Acts 16, has to do with a chance meeting with a woman named “Lydia, a gentle God worshipper.” She was also a dealer in purple cloth, and she led Paul to remain in Philippi long enough to preach, exorcize and ungodly spirit, get flogged and thrown into prison, escape from prison, baptize and entire family of new Gentile believers, and then get kicked out of town, all in Christ’s name.

According to Luke, it was Paul’s highly conspicuous stay in Philippi that contributed to the establishment of a community of Christians there. Yet oddly enough, nowhere in his letter to the Philippians does he mentioned Lydia, a fact that continues to puzzle scholars.

So where was Paul when he wrote this letter to the Philippians? The conventional answer is Rome, in prison there. Paul had appealed to Caesar and had b4een taken as a prisoner to Rome. That entailed a wait, in prison, of two years, according to Acts. 28:30.

Since Paul was apparently martyred in Rome, at some stage of that imprisonment he found himself under a capital charge, a situation reflected in Philippians 1, by his mention of the “Praetorian Guard.” This is supported by Paul’s writing in his letter that he is waiting for a trial date to be set, and perhaps even a death sentence to be handed down.

Now I want to pause right here, and share with you some verses not in your lesson, verses 1-11 from Philippians, Chapter 1: (This is from the Common English Bible.) My question to you is this, what effect do you think hearing these words as a call to worship during a Sunday morning service, what effect would they have on our congregation? These are Paul’s words:

From Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus.

To all those in Philippi who are God’s people in Christ Jesus, along with your supervisors and servants.

²May the grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

³I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers. ⁴I’m thankful for all of you every time I pray, and it’s always a prayer full of joy. ⁵I’m glad because of the way you have been my partners in the ministry of the gospel from the time you first believed it until now. ⁶I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus. ⁷I have good reason to think this way about all of you because I keep you in my heart. You are all my partners in God’s grace, both during my time in prison and in the defense and support of the gospel. ⁸God is my witness that I feel affection for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.

⁹This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight. ¹⁰I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters and so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ. ¹¹I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.

What do you think? Some of it is pretty personal. Any effect at all?

# # #

Paul, as a prisoner but also a preacher, writes not private but public letters, writing “to all the saints.” He was probably aware his words would be read in a worship setting, and so he filled his epistles with confessions, hymns, doxologies, eulogies, prayers, and benedictions. Yet, Paul wrot4e to congregations, not to the church universal. His ministry was to particular groups trying to live out the gospel in concrete ways. His messages are as if from one of our own pastors whose Christ-focused friendship has helped form us into a Christ-filled fellowship; information, support and encouragement from one who knows us best.

It’s worth pointing out that Paul’s letters still highlight the singular theme of joy, even as he is in prison awaiting an unknown outcome, that he would so thoroughly express joy in Christ and encourage joy in others is actually remarkable. That attitude of joy underscores the theme of this lesson’s Purpose statement: “To practice our devotion to Christ daily in the ordinary things of life and to do our best at it.” How do you do your best at anything without a certain amount of joy in your heart?

So let’s take a closer look at what Paul has written here, probably cooped up in a small, stone room, with steel bars between him and the rays of sunshine from outside.

His opening words in verses 1-11 of the first Chapter are acclamation, assurance, and thanksgiving. He wants his readers to be assured that they were claimed by God, namely, “saints,” and called by God to be on display, to be conspicuous as they lived as Christ-followers even as they lived as Philippians even as they lived along this popular trade route with all its temptations and problems.

In verse 3, Paul launches into an extended thanksgiving and right away we read the word “joy”! 14 times Paul works the word “joy” into this letter. Paul rejoiced in all that the congregation at Philippi had shared with him: the gospel, certainly, but also the prayers and financial support they had shared with him. In those days, if you had no contact outside the prison, you did not eat. If your clothes wore out or ripped, you made do with what you had. But the Philippian Christians didn’t forget Paul, and foremost in Paul’s mind and in his writings was celebrating God’s grace in his relationship with fellow believers.

Even when Paul refers in 1:7 to his own imprisonment, Paul describes the Philippians as those “share in God’s grace.” Maybe we would expect him to say they shared in his suffering, but Paul regards every circumstance as an experience of grace. And his attitude of celebrative confidence leads Paul directly into the subject of our focal test for this lesson.

His opening phrase “I want you to know” translates a standard Greek phrase, a “disclosure formula” that signals the writer is about to provide the reader with information. We might say, “Listen to this,” or “Let me tell you what happened,” because this is something he really needs you to know and understand.

Paul was indicating he was about to share important information with the “brothers and sisters”, the “beloved”, indicating a relationship of equality rather than superiority. The Philippians were more like siblings, family, to Paul and he wanted them to know that.

So the crucial information Paul was about to impart to his Philippian family was essentially a message about God’s providence. Mentioning his imprisonment by the Romans, twice in as many verses, yet Paul’s concern was how the gospel had been made known in his situation – how his captivity had afforded him the opportunity to be a witness for Christ.

First, his witness had “penetrated the whole Roman establishment.” The Praetorian Guards around him and everyone else in his vicinity had been hearing him preach Christ.

Secondly, Paul’s fellow prisoners were there for crimes against the community or the Emperor; robbery, murder, crimes of selfishness and desire. But to everyone there is became clear that Paul’s bonds were for Christ; that is, for nothing illicit was he being held, but because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul’s imprisonment, the danger to his life, had become an encouragement to fellow believers. They had gained more confidence through the Lord thanks to their being inspired by his predicament.

Paul’s boldness inside the prison had resulted in a boldness outside the prison. Perhaps that shot in the arm was just what the Philippian church may well have need; a shot of encouragement.

As we move into verses 15 through 18, we find Paul still celebrating such a remarkable witness among his supporters, but Paul also recognizes that his imprisonment had inspired some of his rival preachers. It should come as no surprise that Paul was not everyone’s favorite pastor.

We know from reading Acts and his other letters that Paul was not the only strong pastor/preacher of his day. Others stepped up to preach the gospel out of love and fill the void cause by Paul’s absence. But it sounds as though for Paul’s rivals, their motivation was self-centered rather than Christ-centered.

The language of verses 15-18 picks up the accusations of persuasive rhetoric: envy, self-ambition, sharply contrasting with those whose motivation was love.

Now, the fact is we know nothing about these alternate Christian preachers except what we learn from Paul’s critique of them. They may have been well-intentioned missionaries whose strategy or way of operating was in disagreement with that of Paul and his companions.

Some scholars have suggested Paul’s rivals might have been suspicious of Paul and felt his approach was bringing the Christian community into conflict with the Roman authorities, and therefore into physical danger. They might have been relieved that Paul was out of the way, in prison, unable to cause trouble by disputing with his fellow Jews.

Obviously, we do not know all that Paul knew when writing this letter. What we do know is that Paul was keenly aware that the gospel proclaimed is always more important, more noble, than the gospel proclaimer. That was the source of Paul’s joy.

In verses 18 through 21, Paul goes on toe celebrate the proclamation of Christ by any mouth and by any motive, expressing continued joy in what he believes will be his deliverance, and his salvation. Even so, scholars don’t believe Paul envisioned his imminent release from prison here, for in the next verses he seems to express his hope in speaking as a prisoner on behalf of Christ.

Paul then draws on his knowledge of the Psalms to express that he would gladly accept shame in bondage or in death, in exchange for the exaltation of Christ. His purpose is that the person of Paul in whatever state, living or dying, bound or free, would reveal the glorified person of Christ. However they looked at Paul, they would see Christ.

Then comes Paul’s summary in verse 21: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Paul wrote something similar to the Galatians: “I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20). Here, though, Paul’s Greek phrasing is succinct and deep. He may well have been speaking in the language of the ancient philosophers, whose maxims celebrated the noble death as nobler gain, as a release from the burdens of mortality. But Paul’s aim was higher.

He explains that living IS Christ. Living is the same as Christ. Christ IS life. The only greater gain than Christ-living is Christ-dying; that is, dying so that the living Christ is glorified.

Paul was anxious that that his readers saw what he saw, felt what he felt, knew what he knew. When Paul writes “for me to live is Christ,” he doesn’t want us just to read, see, understand that, but to believe and live what that means: “for me to live is Christ.”

Maybe if we rephrased it, such as “For me, living serves Christ and dying is even better.” Or maybe that just doesn’t touch us in the right places. Does it mean anything more just because it uses more words?

Each of our lives, even at this age, remains a work in progress. We still would like to imbed more completely our living in the living Christ. But it will take more practice. Maybe if I just say it simply, “For me to live is Christ.” No comma, no hurry. One breath. Every day.

But I would be even more truthful with you. I mentioned earlier Galatians 2:20. And that has been my favorite verse, my life verse, from the moment I found Christ on Dec. 28^th, 1958.

Those words come alive within me when I repeat them: “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

That’s what I strive for. And I fail a lot. But I never stop trying. For He loved me first, before I ever knew Him. He loved me first, He knows everything about me, past, present, and even future, He knows how many times I’m going to fail, and He still came to me.

Now, the writer of the student book notes many Christians may have difficult seeing Paul’s zeal as a model of faith: “Most of us want our Christian faith to be part of our lives but not the entire story. We seek balanced lives.”

So I ask you to consider and discuss these two questions from the student book: First, when is a balance a good thing, and when does it interfere with your commitment to follow Jesus?

And second: What do you need to change or reshape in your daily life so as to better reflect your commitment to follow Jesus?

# # #

Remember, as it says in your student book: “God hasn’t called us to be effective but to be faithful.”

Last question: What personal call do you hear from Paul’s words to the Philippians? Anyone?

# # #

Any final thoughts or questions about today’s lesson?

If not, let close with the prayer in your student book on page 60:

O God, help us to be faithful, doing our best for Christ. Where possible, let us also be effective, but let not an absence of visible results dampen our commitment to be Jesus’ disciple; in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Submit to God in Love by Pastor Ed Evans

2019-01-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

January 13, 2019

James 4:1-10

4 What is the source of conflict among you? What is the source of your disputes? Don’t they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives? ²You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have because you don’t ask. ³You ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions, to waste it on your own cravings.

⁴You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world's friend becomes God's enemy. ⁵Or do you suppose that scripture is meaningless? Doesn’t God long for our faithfulness in the life he has given to us? ⁶But he gives us more grace. This is why it says, God stands against the proud, but favors the humble. ⁷Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. ⁸Come near to God, and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹Cry out in sorrow, mourn, and weep! Let your laughter become mourning and your joy become sadness.¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

PRAYER:

Father, no matter how long we have been Christians, there are times when we recognize we have a need to go back to basics, to reaffirm in our own minds and hearts what we have committed to You, and what You have committed to us. So we thank You this morning for this lesson. May we search our own situations, being honest with You, and re-commit where we stand, and whom we worship. Thank You, Father, for each one here, we ask Your blessings on our studies, and we pray for those unable to be with us this morning, asking that You lift them up in strength and in their faith. For we ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So let’s jump right into the book of James this morning. First, we want to know who wrote this, and second, to whom was he writing?

The author identifies himself as “James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t claim anywhere to be the brother of Jesus Christ, but he shows a knowledge of Judaism and Christianity. His writing reflects Jesus’ teaching, especially the Sermon on the Mount. The content of his letter reflects no church structure of offices or titles, which suggests that it was written before such things developed, while the Christian community was still a messianic movement within Judaism in the early days.

The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that James, “brother of the Lord,” died in AD 62, so his lifetime fits the timeframe suggested by the letter. There was another James in proximity to Jesus – an apostle, brother of John – but he was martyred early on (we find that in Acts 12:2), and so he probably didn’t survive long enough into the church era to author this letter.

So to whom was James writing? James 1:1 indicates the audience consisted of “the twelve tribes who are scattered outside the land of Israel.” That scattering had begun some seven centuries earlier w hen the northern Hebrew kingdom, Israel, had been overrun by the Assyri8ans and its citizens were forcibly moved into other lands under Assyrian control.

That scattering continue into the sixth century BC when the southern Hebrew kingdom, Judah, was conquered by the Babylonians, who marched many of the Judahites into exile in Babylon. Although some of that latter group was eventually allowed to return to their homeland, many did not.

These dispersed Jews were collectively referred to as the “diaspora.” That term usually refers to the scattered members of a religious community separated from their homeland, often but not always due to circumstances not of their own choosing.

Since James was clearly writing from a Christian perspective, however, he was addressing not all Jews in general, but those throughout the Jewish world who had accepted Christ. And there were likely quite a few of such persons during the Disaspora.

You may recall that on the day of Pentecost, those who heard the gospel message included Jews of whom Acts 2:9-11 identifies as Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; as well as residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya bordering Cyrene; and visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans and Arabs”. Remember, that day, 3,000 Jews accepted Christ, according to Acts 2:41, and many, no doubt, took the gospel message home with them and spread it to others.

So brother James had the possibility of having a vast audience across the then-known world.

From the beginning, the church taught that the doorway to salvation is labeled “Faith,” and, of course, that is correct; but here James is concerned with how Christians live after they walk through that door. Faith alone, James insists, is dead if it does not spur us to positive actio9ns for the good of others and for our own spiritual well-being.

The pairing together of faith and works, James insists, is the dynamic that drives a living and involved faith, one that seeks to change the world. In shorthand, we might describe the Book of James as teaching the practical wisdom of right behavior.

So as we take a look at James’ writing, verses one through five, and eight, imagine for a moment you come to church, you walk in, smile at friends, you set down, and the pastor begins calling out members of the congregation, pronouncing them murderers, adulterers, coveters, you contentious people “you’re worldly enemies of God, and two-faced!”

And notice how James uses these terms: In verse 2 he says “You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder…” Also in verse 2, “You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight.”

In verse 3 he writes, “You ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions, to waste it on your own cravings.” The Greek word rendered here as “cravings” can also be translated as “lusts.”

In verse 4, our Common English Bible translation in this lesson uses the phrase “You unfaithful people!”, but the underlying Greek actually says “adulterers.”

In fact, Bible scholars tell us James was actually using these uncomplimentary labels metaphorically. He was talking about areas of life where Christians need to grow up into Christ; and he used strong words to make his point, which, as the student lesson says, is that “receiving Christ doesn’t automatically instill in Christians attitudes from above.”

Take “murderers” for example, James employed that word with much the same intention Jesus did in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, “You have heard that it was said to those who lived long ago, “Don’t commit murder,” and all who commit murder will be in danger of judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with their brother or sister will be in danger of judgment. We find that in Matthew 5:21-22.

The upshot of all this is not that James’ readers were terrible people, but that their religious conversions were not complete.

Your student book section “Many Conversions” quotes theologian Luke Timothy Johnson who said that James was “addressing members of the Christian community who gather in the name of Jesus and profess the faith of the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, but whose attitudes and actions are not yet fully in friendship with God.

Which is to say, receiving Christ is not the end of the spiritual journey, but the beginning. As Johnson wrote, “James sees that conversion is never complete. There is always doublemindedness, even among those w ho truly want to be friends of God.”

Even with you, even with me.

In James last four verses, six through 10, we see that James did not toss these disparaging labels at his readers to put them down, but to call them to “submit to God”, and “resist the devil”, as he says in verse seven. James wanted them to press on in the way of Christ, to grow in faith and righteousness.

“Come near to God,” James said in verse 8, “and He will come near to you.” And then in verse 10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

A friend recounted an incident when he was first assigned to pastor a church. It seems an evangelist came to their county to hold a crusade. There was an effective organization that plastered the county with advertisements, and met with pastors of the county churches to enlist their involvement. He says when the week of the crusade came, many hundreds of people from the area flocked to hear the evangelist. Since many from his church were attending, he went also so as to be familiar with what was said.

He enjoyed the enthusiastic music and the rousing preaching, all aimed at a point of decision. After spelling out the need for salvation, the evangelist gave an invitation to “receive Christ.” He says a lot of people, many from his own church, accepted by going forward, moving to the front where prayer teams waited to counsel and pray with them.

Well, the crusade ended and the evangelist and his team moved on to another area. And a couple of weeks later, the participating pastors each received in the mail the names and addresses of people from their churches and the surrounding area who had responded to the invitation. Those lists were sent so the pastors could follow up with these people who had, in the language of the crusade, “made a decision for Christ,” and, it was to be hoped, get them involved in the local churches.

The author’s list primarily contained people he already knew, most of whom already attended his church. There were a couple who did not attend but lived nearby. In any case, he took the list seriously and made an effort to contact each person on the list to follow up.

What he discovered, however, was that in most cases, these people were now embarrassed by the whole business. In the cold light of day, their trip down front at the crusade now seem to them as an emotional over-reaction to the mood of the crowd. His showing up to talk with them about it brought back their embarrassment. Some were now backpedaling as to any commitments made at the crusade.

He recalls that he wasn’t surprised, for decisions made under heavy emotional pressure sometimes don’t fare well in the face of everyday life.

Even so, what the crusade was trying to do by sending pastors those lists was right. For the evangelistic team knew that what they were doing was focusing on one entry point into the Christian life – dramatic conversion. That’s not the only entry point by any means; and in any case, it is only a beginning in the Christian life, not the whole story.

Like life itself, Christianity is a journey, not merely a destination. And people who gather in church on a Sunday morning are likely to be at different points along the way. Some may not even have begun. Others may be flush with the excitement of a newly found faith. Others may be some distance along the road but stuck in one place. Still others may be moving well on the spiritual journey.

It’s the work of the evangelist to introduce people to that journey. Pastors must look at how to help people travel the Christian road, no matter how they got started.

Our acceptance of the faith doesn’t mean we have “arrived,” it means we are on the right road. For a pattern of what the Christian journey can look like, consider the spiritual odyssey of Jesus’ 12 disciples.

Before they met Jesus, the Twelve were part of the mass of Jewish humanity for whom faith meant going to the synagogue and keep the commandments. But when they encountered Jesus, they were called to follow Him, and they did. In doing so, they came apart from the crowd and, in a beginning act of newfound faith, went with Him. We could say with some justification that their positive response to Jesus’ call was the equivalent of people at an evangelistic rally “going down front” to receive Jesus.

But notice at the beginning of their journey together, Jesus did not cross-examine the Twelve about their beliefs. He simply said, “Follow me.”

Their misunderstandings of Jesus’ mission soon became plain enough. In Luke 9 we read that on one occasion, when a Samaritan village refused hospitality to Jesus and the Twelve, some of them asked Jesus if He wanted them to call fire down from heaven to consume the villagers. They had no doubt He could do it, just whether or not He wanted to do it. They were committed to following Jesus, but at that point they still didn’t “get it.”

Perhaps you recall in Mark 10 when James and John asked Jesus to seat them at His right and left when He came into His glory.

And when Jesus spoke in parables, the disciples sometimes had to come to Him afterward and say, “Uh, Rabbi, what did that parable mean?; such as happened in Matthew 13. And when Jesus told them of His impending death, they tried to shush him up, for in Mark 8 we read, they still did not understand.

But even in this beginning stage of their Christian journey, Jesus was able to use t hem. He sent them out on healing and preaching missions, and they were able to spread the gospel and help people, as we read in Mark 6.

And yet there were some remarkable failures. For example, Peter’s heart-rending denial of Jesus, Judas’s betrayal, and the desertion of most of the disciples following Jesus’ arrest. They hid out.

The Twelve, in responding to Jesus’ call, had begun traveling the spiritual road, but they had not gotten far along it.

Fortunately, God was not through with them. After Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the disciples, following Jesus’ instructions, gathered in a room in Jerusalem. There, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came upon them in a mighty way. And after that, there was – as far as we know – no repeat of their old failures. At Pentecost, they took a spiritual giant step forward in the life of faith. They were men transformed.

For you and I, spiritual growth is likely to happen gradually, but we can look at the disciples’ pattern and ask ourselves how we are progressing on the journey of faith.

Hopefully you don’t see yourself at this point in your life as being like the disciples before meeting Jesus. Or do we think that being a Christian means only trying to keep some moral rules and going to church?

Perhaps we are like the disciples after responding to Jesus’ call, but before Pentecost? We may be able to recall a specific time when we actually committed ourselves to Christ, or we may have pretty well accepted Christianity as it was presented to us as we grew up. That’s great, but has our faith stalled at that stage? Have we continue to grow up in Christ, or do our prayers still sound like a wish list? Is our faith real but immature? God is still able to use us, but are we missing out on the power and peace of a more mature faith?

Or are we, like the disciples after Pentecost, where we have confidence in God despite the difficulties of our lives, where we have room in our faith to let our questions survive without destroying our spiritual peace.

The Greek mathematician Archimedes, in speaking of the important of the lever, said, “Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.”

I tell you God often gives men and women a place to stand that will allow them to move pillars and mountains of society, but they mistake what happens to them for a bad thing and allow it to knock them out of the saddle. But God is forever good, and in such instances He will take our hand and lead us back into His love.

The witness of Scripture from James 4 and elsewhere should teach us that we can grow in faith. We can grow beyond the beginning stage of commitment to Christ to a vital faith that is more adequate for the bumps and potholes on the road of life.

And you don’t need this old Pastor to convince you that in growing older there are more bumps and potholes on that road of life than ever before. Hold tight to His hand. It’s there for you.

So as we wind down here, let me ask you, did any of you find you needed additional “conversions” after your initial commitment to Christ? And if you did, did it come from within, or from someone else?

I want to end by sharing a quote from C. S. Lewis’ book, “Mere Christianity” that begins, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on….. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” …..I hope you will think about that.

James 10 tells us, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Perhaps after reading the entire passage, we understand the need to continue to say yes as God reveals new things to us that need to be converted to maintain that friendship.

Let us close with prayer … O God, help us to repent of and change the attitudes and behaviors that keep us mired in conflicts and disputes, so that we may be in friendship with You; in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

In closing I would want you to know that in my house, there is a large red fence board, tacked up to the door leading to the garage. In big yellow, fading letters, it reads: “You’re pretty much my most favorite of all time in the history of forever.”

My re-conversions have been many, and my wife Merilyn’s love was at the center of those. Over 54 years this coming February, she never left me, God never left me, and they both taught me a love beyond what I can understand or explain. I just needed to share with you how undeservedly blessed I am. Thank you.

Jacob Forms a Relationship With God

2018-11-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

Jacob Forms a Relationship With God

Pastor Ed Evans

November 18, 2018

Genesis 28:10-22 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁰Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. ¹²And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder^[^a^] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! ¹³And behold, the Lord stood above it^[^b^] and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. ¹⁴Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. ¹⁵Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”¹⁶Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹He called the name of that place Bethel,^[c] but the name of the city was Luz at the first. ²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, ²²and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

Let us pray:

Father, we t hank You for the time and place, and ask for Your blessing on each one here, and upon those mentioned here this morning, and those unable to be with us.

Father, the challenges of this life can be overwhelming and we often don't know the way out. In the face of heartbreak and disappointment, we turn to you even as we study Jacob’s relationship with You and how he was dealt with. We want to look beyond our situation to the One from whom our help comes, searching the Scriptures, finding Your promises that relate to our situation, praying them, trusting You to bring them to pass in our lives. Help us, Father, to learn how to pray Your promises, for we have experienced that human contracts fall short when compared to Your covenants.

Lead us, Lord God, to believe in Your promises, and to confess them, even as the scriptures in 2^nd Corinthians 1:20 testify: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through Him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” Amen.

To quickly recap last week’s lesson, Rebekah and Jacob have schemed to steal his twin, Esau’s, blessing from the blind and ailing Isaac. Esau’s reaction is to threaten to kill Jacob, so Jacob is sent off to find a wife, hiding him from Esau’s wrath. But Esau does show some restraint. He vows he will wait until after the period of mourning for the deceased Isaac, before he rips Jacob’s head off.

Where Jacob has been sent is to Rebekah’s brother, Laban, taking Jacob about a month in travel. One of the places Jacob stops overnight is just outside of the small town of Luz. There Jacob uses a rock for his pillow, or maybe for his protection, it’s not clear, and there he has a dream that changes his life.

In this dream he sees angels going up and down a ladder, and atop the ladder Jacob sees God. Remember the only time previously that Jacob has mentioned God it was to use His name disrespectfully, and even then, speaking to his father, Isaac, Jacob referred to God as “your God.”

But God has a plan that involves Jacob, and God’s plan is going to move forward in spite of Jacob’s disrespect and sinful scheming.

Now, the more you know about Jacob and his scheming, the more you will wonder, why does God bother with his guy? But God now gets Jacob’s attention by making seven unconditional promises to Jacob.

The first one is an extension of a promises made to Abraham and Isaac about the land. Second has to do with a long line of descendants. Third, that Jacob and his descendants would become a means of blessing to “every family of earth.”

By the way, can you think of some of Jacob’s descendants who blessed the world? What did they do to bless “every family of earth”?

o From within scripture we could point to Joseph, who foresaw a seven-year famine and convinced Egypt to prepare accordingly (Genesis 41:53-57).

o There were Paul and Barnabas, who proclaimed the gospel (Acts 15:12).

o And of course, Jesus, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s lifelines.

o In history generally, we had the scientist Albert Einstein; the musician, Felix Mendelssohn; the person who helped develop antibiotics , Selman Waksman, and many more.

In the fourth promise, God said He would always be with Jacob; fifth, that God would protect Jacob wherever he went; sixth, that God would bring Jacob back to this land; and seventh, God told him “I will not leave you.”

In verse 16, Jacob awakens with a start, realizing he has had a direct and personal encounter with Yahweh, with the Lord. Next, he realizes that encounter has happened “here”, which was really nowhere. What Jacob apparently did not know was that this was the same general area in which Abraham in years previous to this had a direct and personal encounter with God.

As the reality of the dream sinks in, Jacob is initially terrified. We today might protest that a proper response to an unplanned encounter with God should not be fearful, but scriptural history would say differently. In Genesis and Exodus, such encounters are wrapped in human fear of the Godly.

In the song, “Asleep on Holy Ground,” Michael Card captures the precise moment when Jacob, “the deceitful seer”, was “confronted by the friend that we most fear.”

Well, Jacob now determines this site was “none other than God’s house … the entrance to heaven.” So Jacob anoints with oil the rock that was by his head through the night, and names the place “Bethel”, which means “house of God.” In later times, while in trials, Jacob will return to Bethel to renew his vows, and perhaps renew the memory of his encounter with God.

It’s always good to have a point in time, and in geography, to which we can return, a time when we felt closest to God, a place and time we can renew ourselves and draw nearer to Him.

Finally, Jacob responds by making a solemn promise, which in your lesson begins with “IF God is with me and protects me on this trip I am taking, and gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God.” If, if, if … doesn’t sound like Jacob is yet convinced, does it? Or maybe he’s bargaining with God? But, the Hebrew word translated “if” can also mean “because” or “since.” That would put a more solemn light on Jacob’s promise. But, we’re going to see that even though God has promised to always be with Jacob, care for him, and protect him, Jacob loses sight of that time and time again.

But I think we’ve got the picture by now that Jacob was not exactly a paragon of virtue. Crafty, yes, a master of deceit, and even willing to throw his own family members under the bus if it would gain him an advantage … yep. Not a particularly likable fellow.

And yet, God honored Isaac’s blessing of Jacob, even though that blessing was illicitly obtained. And God even established a seven part covenant with him.

Think about this, now. God’s willingness to bless Jacob forces us to come to grips with the fact that God’s salvation has little to do with our morality and everything to do with God’s mercy. That doesn’t mean that morality doesn’t matter, but it acknowledges that our morality will never be good enough to place God in our debt. So, instead of depending on our goodness, we had better just cling to God’s grace and be grateful for God’s mercy.

About now, perhaps, we begin to see that this lesson is not about a conniving Jacob who eventually got even God to bless him. It’s about a God who is big enough to be able to love even someone as unlovely as Jacob, coming to him, undeservedly, in a dream.

There are times when our dreams appear meaningless to us.
There are other times when our dreams could get us into trouble. There are still other times when our dreams offer us a way beyond our troubles. Jacob’s dream offered him hope at a moment when he must have thought he was out of options, on the run, separated from family, with no future.

Has that happened to anyone here? Anyone recall a dream that deeply influenced you? Did the dream seem to convey some sort of divine message? And if so, what led you to think that? Did you feel alone, or comforted by the dream?

Let’s go back for a moment to Jacob on the road, traveling for weeks, forging ahead on this 500-mile trek from Beersheba to Haran.

Were any of you ever off by yourself, like that? Maybe you were on your way to college, or to take a job in another state, or maybe you had decided you just needed to get away. Have you ever been in Jacob’s shoes, leaving home with little understanding of what waited for you at the end of your journey?

If so, do you recall the emotions you felt when you first left home? What were you feeling? Suddenly orphaned? Afraid? Maybe empowered? Can you understand how Jacob must have been feeling?

And although Jacob left behind family and familiar places, some of what he was running away from stayed with him. You own brother has announced he’s going to murder you. How do you put that behind you?

Your student book mentions several phrases, such as “Forget it!”, “Put it behind you,” “It’s over and done. Let it go.” Many phrases capture the advice we’re given by well-meaning friends, but they and we know it is not that easy. So we, like Jacob, keep on running, even if that running takes place within our own minds.

Have you ever had conflicts that caused you to run away, literally or figuratively? Why did it seem preferable to you to avoid the conflict and those involved, rather than stand and try to resolve the issue?

The 19^th-century German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher said that John 1:14 is the most significant verse in the Bible because of all the world’s religions, only Christianity believes and claims triumphantly that God – not a spokesperson, not an angel, not a messenger – came to earth to live with us and among us. And even the frightened liar, cheat, and coward named Jacob discovered and experienced this fully during that night in the wilderness.

So we come to the question: Have you ever experienced the presence of God in your life? How have you felt God’s closeness challenging, lifting, loving, and calling you?

- - - - - - - -

Well, you and I have probably never had an experience quite as dramatic as Jacob’s. Yet God is with us in a variety of ways and speaks to us through a variety of means. We belong to almighty God, and we are called and equipped just as the renegade Jacob.

There is a chorus from a song, “Holy Ground”, that’s one of my favorites, and I sing it and hum it often to remind me. The lines go: “We are standing on holy ground. And I know that there are angels all around. Let us praise Jesus now. We are standing in His presence on holy ground.”

Wherever you go, whatever you do, whatever you are up against, always remember as a child of God you are standing on holy ground.

Oswald Chambers, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest,” writes, “It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, “What a wonderful man of prayer he is!” or, “What a great woman of devotion she is!” If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.”

Even as you are standing on holy ground.

Any comments or questions about today’s lesson?

Let us close with prayer.....

Ever present and ever grace-filled Lord and God, let us sense and know Your presence with us as You were with Jacob. Let us know Your nearness and love, despite our failure to live according to Your will. Give us the courage and the tenacity to live by Your way of love, even in the midst of a world that seems to trust power, wealth, and status instead of trusting in Your presence. We ask this in the name of the Word made flesh, Christ Jesus. Amen.

Why I Write, by Ed Evans

2018-11-12T15:37:00.003-08:00

By observation, dying is something best not done alone, and yet, it is lonely walk. When that moment arrives for me I can only hope to have a flesh and blood hand to hold onto as I slip away. In the Ridley Scott movie “Blade Runner,” actor Rutger Hauer, playing the robot replicant Roy Batty, has his opponent dead to rights atop a building in the year 2019, in the falling rain, and as his own measured life span runs out, he sits down in front of this cornered opponent. Hauer’s last lines as the dying robot are spoken here, in the rain: “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” And he dies. The most meaningful part of all of this, for me, is that Ridley Scott’s original script had other words for Hauer to say. Hauer rewrote his script. When that scene was filmed, as it ended, it is recorded that the crew applauded. Some cried.

Those words, “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain,” those sentiments touch every human being, melting right into the core of who we are. We have all seen things we wish we could preserve and share. We have seen things, heard things, thought things gone in the wisp of a moment that no one else will ever see, hear, think, but still carry the scent of eternity with them, and yet they die with us, lost in time, like tears in rain. More’s the pity.

My Political Meme Under Fire, by Ed Evans

2018-10-29T05:38:00.002-07:00

Perhaps you, like me, have been appalled at the anti-American behavior advocated and taken up by liberals and political members of the Democratic Party as the mid-term election approaches. Apparently, having lost an “managed” election for President, and a steaming, riotous, lying effort to keep a President’s nominated judge from taking his place on the Supreme Court, the Democratic Party has further blackened its reputation by riot, upset and thoroughly uncivil behavior toward those of opposing political opinions.

To make it worse, the leadership of the Democratic Party has publicly urged that Americans be mistreated, that Democratic supporters “get in their face,” be thrown out of restaurants, and declared “civil behavior” on their part will only be restored when they win.

This is a story of one man’s efforts to stand up to that, to refuse to knuckle under to bullies and demagogues. It’s a story with a good ending, even though not thoroughly understood by its author.

You see, I spent 30 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, then upon retirement 17 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a federal civilian. That got me to four battlefields. I then was called into the ministry as a Pastor. Besides my own service to the nation in uniform, there is that of my father, grandfathers, uncles, aunts, lifelong friends that constitute a solid investment in the freedoms and liberties of this grand experiment we call the United States of America. Some of those investments still lie in foreign soil around the world, gone but not forgotten.

Although every American has the right to be appalled and angry at this decidedly un-American activity taking place in our society, and being egged on by the Democratic leadership, I feel a special commitment to my nation to stand tall and declare “not on my watch!” Perhaps some of you feel the same. If so, surely you are aware you have every God-given right to express yourself in a legal and civil response to this travesty being advocated by liberals and the Democratic Party. This is not the America we fought for. Our citizens, our duly elected politicians, and our police men and women should not be put in harms way by this over-the-top behavior. That is NOT the American way.

Liberals and Democrats, masked and as individuals, have made a mockery of America, to us and to our enemies around the world. They have talked about blowing up the White House, been photographed carrying a mock severed head of President Trump. A Broadway Play depicted the assassination of President Trump that asked publicly, “How long has been since an actor assassinated a President?” Music videos have been released about assassinating President Trump. Conservatives and Republicans have been attacked as individuals and shot to death at a music concert, and seriously wounded at a baseball game. A Hollywood actor goes on television and announces “somebody needs to take out Trump”. They ask "Where's John Wilkes Booth when you need him?" A Republican Party Office was set on fire. The Trump family members received suspicious packages depicting poison in the mail, along with death threats to Secretary of Defense James Mattis. No less than Democratic Senator Maxine Waters said “you get up in their face at the mall, in restaurants, at gas stations and you tell them Republicans they’re not welcomed anywhere”. Republican spokesperson Sarah Sanders and her family were harassed at a restaurant, instructed to leave and chased down the street. Republican Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was harassed and chased out of a Mexican restaurant. Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s life was threatened and he was chased out of a restaurant. Attorney General Pam Bondi was harassed and chased out of a theatre. Republican Senator Rand Paul was attacked and beaten up in his own yard. Two Republican senators, Rob Portman of Ohio and John Boozman of Arkansas, were harassed in their own yards and on their own doorsteps. A 71-year-old female staffer for California Representative Dana Rohrbacher was knocked unconscious by an angry group of liberal protesters.

Is this the America we fought for, the America my friends and family members died for?

My response, and the reason for this missive, was a fairly quiet and determined one. Besides “liking” in support every post I saw on Facebook that took issue with this behavior, I wrote a short meme that I began to share everywhere. As one with nearly the cap of 5,000 “friends”, I have access to many, many pages, as do they. And so I shared, liberally.

The meme said simply: “Violence, verbal and physical, has long been the hallmark of the Democratic Party. Reject such un-American behavior.” I began to post it far and wide. But then a funny thing happened. As I pasted it as a response to the like posts of others, I would get a red exclamation point and the message “This could not be posted. Try again.” Trying again was a joke. It could not be posted. Okay, I went on, posting in other pages. Same red exclamation point. Unable to post. Try again. It went on and on like that.

Now, many probably know the Marine Corps’ official motto is “Semper Fidelis”; Always Faithful. And we are, to our God, to our nation, its Constitution, our Corps and to ourselves. But there is another motto among Marines, a grittier motto, a “git’er done” saying that carries us forward despite ambush and treachery: “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.”

And so I continued on. In an ambush Marines don’t stop, lay down a base of fire and stay there until the enemy is gone. We fire and maneuver through that ambush. I continued page by page, red exclamation point after red exclamation point. Until suddenly, it stuck. It published. What happened?

Now, I know that Facebook hires a vast array of minions who operate by constructed algorithms to “police” the conversations and posts. (And I’ve already told you more than I know about that.) I’ve had some of them send me a message now and then that I was “taking advantage of the system.” Of course I was, that’s what it is there for, whether they agree with my opinion or not. I would not want you to think I am attacking Facebook, because in a democracy, the voluntary airing of free speech is vital to our continuance, just as a free press is vital, although I think the current incestuous news media is endangering that. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Actually, I much rather believe that somewhere “out there” in the vastness of Facebook there remain those minions still true to the principles of the original creator of Facebook, dedicated to providing a free platform for opposing ideas and conversation, a growing electronic discussion that allows people to blow off steam and yet remain a cohesive family of Americans. And that, perhaps, is why the red exclamation points stopped. There may well be a much more complicated, and perhaps truer explanation, but if so I’m not aware of it. All I know is that I was given back my “right” to free speech.

So to end I simply want to encourage each of you to exercise your American rights to speak up, to improvise, adapt, and overcome efforts to make you sit down and shut up.

I’m not advocating embarrassing people in restaurants, or disrupting peaceful meetings, or any of the treachery-laden activities the Democratic leadership has been advocating. I don’t believe fighting fire with fire gets you anywhere but burnt. The current ashen status of the Democratic Party is a fair example.

My Lord Jesus Christ tells us to love our enemies, those who oppose us, for thereby we heap coals on their heads. And I do believe the Democratic Party is on fire. I pray for them. Without prayer, without my Lord I’d have a hard time loving such hate-filled people.

March on. Make yourself heard. America is worth it.

God Created the Heavens and the Earth

2018-08-31T17:27:00.003-07:00

God Created the Heavens and the Earth

Pastor Ed Evans

Genesis 1:1-13

1 When God began to create the heavens and the earth — ²the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters— ³God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. ⁴God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God named the light Day and the darkness Night.

There was evening and there was morning: the first day.

⁶God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate the waters from each other.” ⁷God made the dome and separated the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome. And it happened in that way. ⁸God named the dome Sky.

There was evening and there was morning: the second day.

⁹God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that’s what happened. ¹⁰God named the dry land Earth, and he named the gathered waters Seas. God saw how good it was. ¹¹God said, “Let the earth grow plant life: plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind throughout the earth.” And that’s what happened.¹²The earth produced plant life: plants yielding seeds, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was.

¹³There was evening and there was morning: the third day.

Prayer

Father, we enjoy Your presence, and we look forward to shining the light of knowledge on the Scriptures You have kept alive for us. We offer prayers and concerns for those unable to be with us this day, and thank You for the time and the place to come together in Your presence. We know Father that for You a thousand years is as a day, while we struggle to understand the how and why of that which You are capable. So in faith we put our trust in You, and thank You for Your patience and Your love, and the opportunities to share them with others. We thank You, Father, and ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Introduction

Some of you may be wondering why we are starting back at the beginning, and this is because the tradition here is to go through the Bible every six years. So as our banner says, “We Are Going Back Home”, we’re starting over In Genesis.

I do think that regardless of what we believe about Genesis, or what we have been told, that we will benefit from a fresh reflection on these Scripture passages.

We get a close-up picture here of what the hymn-writer calls the “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”, in action. Especially in this first Chapter, it is only us and God, and we can focus directly on Him.

For example, have you ever wondered about the fact that God created a day and a night before he created the Sun and the moon and the stars? Where did that light come from? We’ll find the answer to that next Sunday.

And how wild is it that God speaks things into being? And we will see this goes beyond being limited to light or plants or human beings.

Genesis is the first book of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). Genesis means beginning. Moses, who lived 120 years, was the one called by God to write this book for a four-fold purpose:

1. To teach Israel that there was only one living and true God, the One who had created and purposed all.

2. To teach Israel its roots, that they had actually been chosen by God Himself through Abraham appointed to be the chosen line of God’s people.

3. To teach Israel that the promised seed, the Savior was to be sent into the world through them. Salvation—the Promised Seed—was to come through Israel.

4. To teach Israel that they were to receive the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, and that God would be faithful to His Word and give them the Promised Land. Hebrews 11:3 "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

Now, often we read Scripture to learn about God’s nature or to hear our Savior speak. As we meditate on a passage, we listen expectantly for a word of counsel, we seek insight into the purpose of life, or we try to fathom the fickleness of the human character.

How curious is it, then, that often when we open our Bibles to the early chapters of Genesis, especially to the account of Creation in Genesis 1, we lay aside our normal reasons for reading Scripture. Instead of listening for a word about God, we regard Genesis as if it were a modern scientific treatise.

What might we learn about God and His Creation if we once again tried to read Genesis 1 as a religious – rather than scientific – text?

In Genesis 1:1, the beginning of the beginning, we find there are eight actions attributed to God – create, say, see, separate, make, name, put and bless. God does all those things. But perhaps the most intriguing is the first. In the Old Testament, only God is able to create. Human beings can make, we can produce, shape, cast, form, prepare, craft, and so forth. But we cannot create.

Still there in Genesis 1:1, we find that the term “Heavens and earth” refers to more than just the divine and human abodes. Just as we pair together a couple of contrasting nouns (night and day, east and west, north and south, Republicans and Democrats) to imply everything or everyone, so did the Hebrews. So we find that “Heavens and earth refers to the entirety of creation; the universe; all that is; the spiritual and the physical – literally everything.

The Nicene Creed puts it this way, God is the “maker of heaven and earth (in other words), of all that is, seen and unseen.”

Now, the translators of the Common English Bible – as used in these lessons – made significant changes to the traditions King James Version rendition of the first two verses. First, they replaced the tradition “In the beginning” with the pedestrian-sounding word “When.” Then they changed the verbe from the simple past tense (“created”) to the continuous past tense (“began to create”). These two changes are grammatically defensible, but signify a changed theological stance that will become apparent in the translation of verse 2.

In the second verse the two words “without shape or form (shapeless and formless) also appear in tandem in Jeremiah 4:23. They describe an inhospitable, trackless, featureless expanse, similar to what one would experience at sea, in a desert or wilderness, in a howling blizzard, or,( to use a more contemporary metaphor) in the aftermath of a devastating bombardment.

If we take it at face value, the phrase “it was dark” describes a landscape devoid of light. Yet when linked to the preceding an succeeding phrases, “dark” evokes a sense of perilous foreboding and heart-stopping dread. When in Exodus 10:21 the ninth plague is introduced, a similar use of the word “darkness” names something more tangible than a mere absence of light, “a darkness that you can feel.” Is something out there?

The phrase “the deep sea” refers to the fathomless ocean depths. Since God had not yet separated water from land, the waters covered everything.

Still in verse 2 we have Hebrew and Greek words such as “ruach” and “pneuma” for wind, breath, and spirit. And only the context helps one determine which word to use. The fact that God’s wind “swept over,” “was hovering over”, or “moved upon” the waters suggests God was keeping attentive watch on it.

We see that what happens in verse 2 follows the actions of verse 1. That is, since God existed prior to Creation, God created the universe “out of nothing,” And yet we have dashes at the beginning and end of verse 2 suggesting that it is describing the situation God happened upon “when God began to create … that is, God fashioned the universe out of already-existing matter. But what?

In verse 3, we have included all the events in verses 1 – 5 as Day One. The more common understanding of other translations has viewed the events of verses 1-2 as occurring sometime prior to verse 3, with Day One including only the events in verses 3 – 5.

Which is correct? Since we weren’t there, we don’t know. Another question to ask Him when we see Him.

Here in verse 3 God the Creator is revealed to be also God the Speaker. Most of the acts of Creation in Genesis 1 were commands spoken into existence by the word of God. Isaiah 55:11 suggests that God has never stopped speaking things into existence. Into a world that was ominously, dreadfully dark, with no sign yet of life, God spoke light into being. It provided a glimpse, literally, of things to come.

The simple correspondence between God’s words and the resulting act – “God said … And so light appeared” – is easily to overlook. Yet it offers a stark difference between God and us. How rarely to our actions correspond to our words!

If I tell my wife I’m going to feed the dog, I’ve got to get up, open the dog food bag, fill the bowl, give it water, etc. I can’t just say it and sit there. And of course, later I’m going to have to take that mutt outside, too.

In verse 4, we have the action of “God saw.” The notion of God standing back and taking appropriate pride in a job well done is one we can appreciate, and one that should bring a knowing smile to our face.

The only one whom Jesus said can justifiably be called “good” evaluated the creation of light and judged it to be like its Creator: “good.” God acknowledged the otherness of the newly-created light when He “separated” it from the darkness. Whether this separation was a mental classification or a physical act, its full import becomes apparent in the next verse.

Verse 5, having completed the first Creation project, God identified the work of light by giving it the name “Day.” That which was not light (or darkness) God named “Night”. Still today, the ability to name an item correctly requires wisdom and implies authority.

So now we have our first “day”, an evening and a morning, and we are led to believe other acts of creation will follow.

But there is an unspoken mystery here associated with this first day.

Anyone know what it is? For thousands of years people have wondered ….. how can you have a “day” before you have created the sun and stars? And we’ll get to that in Lesson 2 next Sunday.

In verses 6 and 7, God speaks a second creative act into being. Having separated light and darkness, God now addresses the water covering the earth. God calls into creation a dome which He names “sky” to separate the upper and lower waters.

In verse 8 now having a second morning and evening, God labels this one the second day.

Verse 9, God sets boundaries for the land and water. The waters are called into one place in order that the land may appear.

Verse 10, God names the dry land earth, and the lower waters the seas.

Verse 11, God focuses His attention on the newly formed dry land, called Earth, and spoke into being “plant life”; vegetation and grass. These included two types of self-sustaining plant life. The first that God instructed to grow were plants yielding seeds. The second were fruit trees, with each type capable of reproducing “according to its kind”.

Verse 12, as God had commanded, two kinds of plant life began to spring from the earth. And these plants, herbs, and fruit trees were replete with seeds that would guarantee their continued existence.

Martin Luther suggested that God’s good work should cause us to marvel at the results. Said Luther, speaking to us from the 14^th Century, “The first creation without seed was brought about … as a result of the power of the Word. However, the fact that seeds now grow is also a work of creation full of wonderment.”

Verse 13, once again God has brought about an evening and a morning, when He immediately labeled it “the third day.”

Well, what about it, have you heard anything yet that surprised you? Something you didn’t know or hadn’t thought about? Your Study book asks the question, “What questions or concerns have always puzzled you about Creation?”

When I was a child, my favorite book was Hurlbut’s Book of the Bible, with lots of color pictures of the stories of the Bible. And the story of Genesis was filled with the wonder of green plants and new animals, and Adam and Eve sitting around naming the animals.

What about you? Did any of you attend Sunday Schools that captured your imagination with the stories from Genesis and God’s creation?

You may remember that at the beginning of this class, I that God demonstrated this ability to speak things into action, and yet it went beyond being limited to plants and animals.

God sometimes speaks truths into us that make us new. Have you ever had a set belief about someone or something and suddenly – you don’t know where it came from – but you are aware of a truth you had not considered. You mind is changed. Something new has happened to you. It’s like a new day! It’s happened to me so many times I’m just not surprised at what He can and will do within a life. Has that happened to any of you?

. . . . .

Throughout the Bible, the writers of Holy Scripture are consistent regarding their use of the word “create.” Only God can create. You and I, we can craft, we can manufacture, reproduce, but not create.

You and I can smear colors on a white canvas and have it approximate boats in an blue ocean dock, or green vines climbing up a white fence, blossoming with multicolored flowers. But that’s just reproducing.

What does the distinction mean to you that God has the ability to create, even with His spoken voice, and you and I, His creation, do not have that ability? Is there a reason for that distinction, do you think?

. . . . .

In the handout I gave you from the Sunday School Lesson Editor, Jan Turrentine, she talks about light and dark, and she makes the statement, “New life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.”

She goes on to say, “I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.”

What about you? How do you feel about light and darkness?

Good or scary?

Any other questions, comments, discussion?

Lord God, we understand so little and speculate about so much. Forgive our arrogance in believing that we can have all the answers. Help us instead to trust You completely. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Practicing Justice

2018-08-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

Practicing Justice

Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Colossians 3:5-17

⁵Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶On account of these the wrath of God is coming. ⁷In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. ⁸But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.⁹Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old selfwith its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. ¹¹Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

¹²Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

In verses 1 – 4, prior to our lesson today, Paul is telling the Colossians, if you have been raised with Christ, then seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.

In Colossians 2, he had been telling them that man-made religion appears to be wise, but has no value against fleshly indulgence. Their dependence should be on a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The believer’s life is a life risen with Christ.

Our modern world has as strange an idea about heavenly deities as did the early men and women. I’m reminded of the woman who claimed the world rested on the back of a gigantic turtle, which then stood on the back of an elephant. When asked what the elephant was standing on, she replied, “Oh no you don’t, it’s turtles and elephants, all the way down.”

Well, if those of us who believe the world is still where God created it, are then risen with Christ, we are a product of dual citizenship. The things on earth will fade away, but the things above are eternal. Now is the time to seek, pursue, search for, and desire those things which are not earthly, but are above. Christ sits in the seat of authority on the right hand of God, so being raised from the dead, in Him then we conquer death, and are raised to new life because of being in Him.

Then in verse 4, Paul tells them that Christ is now our life, and He gives us power to help us live; and He gives us hope for the future. This is where our real lives are lived—through Him. And one day, Christ will be returning to earth. And if you are a Christian, whether your body died or was "raptured", you will return with Him. You will be revealed in glory, even as He is.

So that lays the groundwork for today’s lesson…..

3:5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

We’re talking here about sins of the body and its members:

· Put them to death quickly.

· Fornication: illicit sexual intercourse between unmarried partners; similar to, but not identical with adultery.

· Uncleanness: impurity in thought and speech, dirty mindedness, indecency.

· Inordinate affection: depraved passion, uncontrolled lust, an evil desire.

· Evil desires, strong sexual desires; wicked craving and sensualness beyond natural expression.

· Covetousness: greedy desire to have more; entire disregard for the rights of others.

· Idolatry: the worship of false gods, putting things in place of God.

Since we have died with Christ, we need to consider our bodies as unresponsive and dead to the idolatrous pursuit of evil (the things I’ve just listed). The flesh must be kept in the place of death. It must be kept nailed to the cross. This is never easy, so we must make a conscious, daily decision to live according to God’s values and to rely on the Holy Spirit’s power.

Therefore consider the members as alive to God and dead to sin. The point is: There is the fleshly nature, and there is the spiritual nature. The contrast is easy to understand. The fleshly nature causes sin to rise. God does not regard sin with indifference. Sin is sin whether we call it "little" or "big" sin.

The spiritual nature is where the Spirit urges us to put to death, "sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry."

3:6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. — Paul is talking about those things described in verse 5 that are not to just be looked over. They are to take notice that the wrath of God is coming upon those unbelieving disobedient children (unbelievers) that don’t want to listen; giving way to wrong passions. It is because of these things that come from the old flesh nature that the wrath of God will come upon the children of disobedience (unbelievers). The Greek word for “wrath” means anger associated with punishment. The verse is clear that God will punish the children of disobedience.

3:7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. -- Yes, they once walked in and practiced being immoral and greedy, lustful and impure. But now as Christians, they are not to be present in their lives. Does this mean that you are not tempted? That your body doesn't have immoral desires? That your mind isn't tempted by money? Not at all! However, your response to those temptations should be very different than they used to be. Choose to put them to death (cut them away).

They are to be destroyed and do not entertain them!

3:8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth

Now we’re talking about sins of emotions and the tongue:

· Anger: uncontrolled temper, a deep seated emotion of ill-will, a settled feeling of habitual hate, revengeful resentment.

· Wrath: boiling agitation, fiery outburst of temper, violent fit of rage, passionate outbreak of exasperation.

· Then there is malice: vicious disposition, depraved spite, willful desire to injure, cruel malignity which rejoices in evil to others.

· Blasphemy: slanderous talk, reviling, evil speaking, railing insults, reckless and bitter abuse.

· Filthy communication: obscene speech, shameful speaking, foul-mouthed abuse, dirty epithets, unclean stories.

Whoo! I feel like I need a shower after all that!

The sins we had to put to death in verse 5 were of the body. Now, we have the sins that are done with spiteful actions toward others. Paul urges them to "put off, lay aside, and rid themselves of" the sins that they now practice and he lists these sins as follows: temper, angry outbursts, ill-will toward fellow Christians, malicious gossip, and vulgar speech coming out of their mouths.

If you just refuse to watch the nightly TV news you shouldn’t have any problem.

This list is a bit different from the one Paul gave directly before it. Paul was appealing to the commitment the believers had made in their baptism and urging them to remain true to their confession of faith. The point is: these Christians had already put away many sins in their lives, but they still had many sins in their lives that they still needed to give up.

The picture is that of putting off or stripping off clothes; taking off dirty clothes and throwing them aside. Paul's point is that we are in the new man of the last Adam, which is Christ. We have already put off the old man, which of course is the old self, which represents the body of the first fallen Adam. In salvation, we are in the one new man which is the body of Christ, that Christ established in Himself.

3:9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old selfwith its practices — Now, some of us might be tempted to say Paul has left off preaching, and he’s gone to meddling. One temptation that we find so easy to give into is to lie to one another. We lie for many reasons: to protect our reputation, to make things easier for ourselves, or to stay out of trouble. Paul is calling this to the attention of the Colossians, telling these Christians to stop lying to each other, since they had put off the old man or the old nature.

The Colossian Christians were to tell the truth in every situation. If we slip and tell a lie, we are convicted by it; we are to repent and get cleansed by the Holy Spirit. Some Christians today will tell a lie without the slightest feeling of guilt. Many Christians do not even comprehend that lying is a grave sin. “Oh, it’s okay, he knew I was lying to him.” Or,”well, I didn’t want to tell her truth and hurt her feelings!” But, the truth of the matter is, when we lie to one another, we're really lying to God. There is no difference in a little lie or big lie, a lie is a lie. We have to put on the new man. In Christ, there is no lie.

3:10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. — In addition to "putting off the old man", the Colossians had also "put on the new man", which is a reference to the new life in Christ. The new man is the person you are, after being saved. The new man is received from Christ, at the time of the second birth, and is the regenerated man, the new nature. The new man is the nature of Christ and must be renewed in knowledge in the believers who have decided to follow Christ.

"Renewed" speaks of a continuous action. Salvation leads to the process of sanctification. It affects both character and conduct to be fashioned after the image of Jesus Christ. It requires perseverance and tenacity to realize the salvation of the soul, and it is not complete until the point of death or rapture. This battle of the new man occurs in our minds.

That is why your mind must be renewed in the full knowledge of the New Covenant in Christ. When we renew our minds with God's revealed knowledge, we hold our heads up high and dwell on heavenly things; we practice, review over and over His Word; and we learn and obey His Will.

The “new man” does not lie but speak the truth. It is the old man or the old flesh nature that causes us to lie. The new man that is being conformed to the image of Christ is trustworthy. You can count on Him to speak the truth. Becoming more like Christ will take a lifetime. No Distinctions: We Are All One Body in Christ

3:11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

As a Christian becomes conformed to the image of Christ, all distinctions or differences disappear.

· Race and birth (neither Greek nor Jew) — No National distinctions.

· Religion and ritual (circumcised or uncircumcised) — No Religious distinctions.

· Education and culture, neither one (neither Barbarian nor Scythian) — No Culture distinctions.

· Social class and wealth and property (bond servant or free) — No Economic or social distinctions.

Jews referred to all people outside the nation of Israel as Greeks. We are all one when we walk in Christ. National, religious, cultures, economic and social distinctions disappear when Christians become conformed to the image of Christ. It is important to understand that Christ is absolutely everything.

3:12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, These are the attire; the garments of the new man.

· Bowels of mercies refers to a heart of compassion, mercy in action, and heartfelt sympathy for the less fortunate.

· Kindness: thoughtfulness of others, unselfishness, sweetness of disposition, gentleness, and graciousness. This is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and refers to the inner attitude.

· Humbleness of mind: This refers to the outward expression of that inner attitude. Humbleness is modesty, it places self last, and regards self as least (Eph.2:8).

· Meekness: not weakness, but lowliness; delicate consideration for others. It is the opposite of arrogance and self-assertion. Pride has no place in the Christian life.

· Long-suffering: patient under provocation. This denotes the restraint which enables one to bear injury and insult without resorting to retaliation. It accepts the wrong without complaint. Long-suffering is an attribute of God (Rom.2:4) and a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal.5:22). The new man must not be left naked; he must be clothed, so, he puts on his spiritual wardrobe of practical righteousness. There were eight commands in verses 12-13: mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love. These garments are now true of all who come to faith in Christ under the New Covenant.

Notice that the same way we're to put off those negative things, we are to put on the positive ones. Paul urges the Colossians as born-again believers who have been set apart and loved by God, to “put on” the “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.” The “bowels” spoken of here are, of course, the intestines, the heart, the lungs and the liver, and the Hebrews considered the “bowels” as the seat of the more tender affections of kindness, benevolence and compassion. These affections are not automatic upon spiritual rebirth, but they must be “put on” as a Christian would put on new clothes that are fresh and clean.

3:13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

· Forbearing one another is to put up with things we dislike and get along with those who disagree. Christians can disagree without being disagreeable.

· Forgiving one another: the word forgiving is built on the same Greek root as the word grace and means to bestow favor unconditionally. The Christian not only forgives, he forgets.

· When the verse speaks of disagreements, we’re talking about a cause of blame, a ground for complaint. He thinks himself angry. The key to forbearing, forgiving others is remembering how much God has forgiven you. With these two garments of love and forgiveness upon us, there would be no room for quarreling, instead we hold back under His control, imitating Christ’s merciful, forgiving spirit.

3:14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. If these are merely things that we are trying to follow without being saved, then they are just outward expressions of a written commandment, and so Colossians 3:12-14 just becomes another law list to follow in the lost flesh. “No Parking – No Speeding – No Bad Language.” They appear like the real clothing, but they are fakes. But, for us who have put on the new man in the Spirit, to put these things on in Christ is to put on Him, and so the key to what Paul is saying is that which ties all this together as the main outer robe, that is, like the layers of clothing that people would wear in the time of Paul. On top of these things, like an outer garment, put on charity, love. Love is the basis and cloak of all the graces. Love is the bond that binds the others together; the bond of completeness; full grown and mature. The love of Christ is that beautiful outer robe that covers all the other manifestations, and brings it all together. This kind of love is not an emotion. This is action love, of commitment, and caring, stronger than any emotion. It keeps on going even when emotions die or change.

To often we think of love as some magical emotion. Like the little girl playing in Mommy’s make-up, and Mommy walks in on her. Mommy says “What are you doing!?” And the child whirls around with a face full of lipstick and eye shadow and says, “I love you, Mommy.” No, the love of Christ is no emotion.

3:15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked….desperately wicked. But now we’re going to consider three things about a heart when the peace of God rules in it.

First, it is a choice that the heart is ruled by love. And the reason is because we are one body. The body does not war against itself. And finally the response to this is that we are to be thankful.

The Christian who has the love of God ruling in his life also has the peace of God ruling in his heart. The choice of peace is up to the believer whether he lets the peace of Christ rule or not. He has to be willing to lay aside all the differences and circumstances, and let Christ handle them through the rule of His peace. For again, we are one body.

3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The heart where the peace of God rules is rich with the Word of Christ. Again, it’s a choice—let the Word of Christ dwell, to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, evidencing in us a singing spirit.

The Word of Christ is to feel at home in believers. We are to allow it, make room within the heart by making that choice. "Let" the Word of Christ saturate us and remain in us as a rich treasure, and by doing so, we teach and admonish one another not in man-made traditions, but in songs from the book of Psalms, hymns and other songs of praise, and in spiritual songs that affect your spirit by faith.

We can’t teach what we don’t know. That’s why we have to dwell richly in all wisdom. Together, we give praise and thanks to our great and glorious God. We do all of this as the one body, operating the way we should--connected—in unity—and focused.

And finally, verse 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

The point is that a heart ruled by the peace of God does all in the name of Christ, and again, it’s a choice—do all, giving thanks.

Paul sums up the point by telling the Colossians that whatever they speak or do, they should do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. This means that every word and act of a Christian should be said or done in the power and authority of Jesus Christ. This Christian does not speak and act in accordance with his flesh nature, but he speaks and acts in accordance with the Holy Spirit and the nature of Christ.

Our example to follow would be in the footsteps of Christ. Our new nature reaches toward God’s Spirit. If we find there’s no love, no peace, we still have some growing to do, until its right.

Questions? Comments? Do Paul’s words make sense to you?

If no questions, let us close by reciting together the prayer in your lesson book on page 96.

O God, what a vision You offer for our life with You! Grant us the grace and the strength to give ourselves away and to be filled and clothed with Your gifts and grace. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

God's Justice

2018-08-08T16:44:00.001-07:00

Scripture: Romans 2:1-12

2 So every single one of you who judge others is without any excuse. You condemn yourself when you judge another person because the one who is judging is doing the same things. ²We know that God’s judgment agrees with the truth, and his judgment is against those who do these kinds of things. ³If you judge those who do these kinds of things while you do the same things yourself, think about this: Do you believe that you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴Or do you have contempt for the riches of God’s generosity, tolerance, and patience? Don’t you realize that God’s kindness is supposed to lead you to change your heart and life? ⁵You are storing up wrath for yourself because of your stubbornness and your heart that refuses to change. God’s just judgment will be revealed on the day of wrath. ⁶God will repay everyone based on their works. ⁷On the one hand, he will give eternal life to those who look for glory, honor, and immortality based on their patient good work. ⁸But on the other hand, there will be wrath and anger for those who obey wickedness instead of the truth because they are acting out of selfishness and disobedience. ⁹There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. ¹⁰But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. ¹¹God does not have favorites.

¹²Those who have sinned outside the Law will also die outside the Law, and those who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.

I hope everyone has read these verses in advance. I would hate to spring any of this on you. Romans is a very hard chapter to read for some people, and I put myself in that number. Romans is Paul’s longest and most complex chapter, as he lays out his doctrinal understanding of the gospel, and includes how Christians might live out the ethics of the faith. It contains things we probably thought we knew about the Almighty God, but no one spells them out the way Paul does. And he opens our eyes to the reality of God’s judgement.

By way of introduction, the previous Chapter talks about how false religious systems enslave people both sensually and spiritually. Paul describes the sensual enslavement when he says, “God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves” (1:24). Paul then moves on from describing sensual enslavement to describing spiritual enslavement which results from idolatry when he says that God gave up those “who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator” (1:25). In other words, a man becomes a slave to his idols. Paul describes the wicked behavior of the heathen (1:26-32) in this way:

1. They become morally perverted - Widespread Homosexuality (1:26-27). He describes how those who turn away from God give themselves over to shameful and unnatural vices. This was true then, and is still true today as we see this becoming more blatant, more aggressive, and more evident all the time.

2. They become mentally perverted - Total Moral Depravity (1:28-32). Three times in this chapter we are told that God gives up those who give Him up (1:24, 26, 28). This clearly shows what happens to a man when he leaves God out of his life.

LESSON

In our lesson today we will be discussing God’s judgment, His goodness, His wrath, and His impartiality.

Well, how do we determine our position in life? We often compare ourselves to others, don’t we? I’m not doing as well as that one, but I’m doing okay. I’m surely doing better than that one, he’s going straight to hell! We just judged a couple of people. And I want to point out that there is a great difference between judging, and discerning. If we deal honestly with our own hearts, then we have the responsibility to help others. Correction is not judgment. But we have a warning in Matthew 7:6 not to give what is holy to dogs, not to throw your pearls before swine. How can we know that someone, in their spiritual condition, is incapable of appreciating the truth—apathetic, cold, indifferent, unless you discern their character or their spiritual condition? And having discerned, help them.

So into our first verse…..

2:1 So every single one of you who judge others is without any excuse. You condemn yourself when you judge another person because the one who is judging is doing the same things. This verse begins with the word "So" because the heathen were fully aware of God’s death penalty for the crimes they committed, yet they went right ahead and did them anyway, and even encouraged others to do the same (1:32).

Paul is saying this now to the self-righteous moralists who would gladly agree and say amen that what was said about the heathen was right. But, now Paul flips this around to say O man (meaning every man), whoever it is that judges, that this is inexcusable (without excuse), because when you judge another, you are really judging and condemning yourself. The one who judges practices the same thing as the heathen. These self-righteous or moralists:

1. They judge others meaning criticize, find fault, or condemn. Anytime we judge another person, we are declaring that we…

· are living by some rule that another person is not living by.

· are better than someone else.

· I am right and he is wrong, therefore, "look at me, but ignore him." Very simply, judging others raises self and lowers others, exalts self and debases others; and in the eyes of God this is wrong, prideful, thereby being a sin.

2. They are inexcusable; without excuse because they condemn themselves, being guilty of the same. Very simply, he fails just as the man he judges. Paul could not call him a moral man. But he was inwardly living in an identical manner as the heathen was living outwardly. Perhaps he did not commit adultery, but did he lust? Maybe he did not steal, but did he covet? Perchance he did not commit murder, but did he hate? In God’s eyes, sin is the matter of the heart and mind, not just the act!

2:2 We know that God’s judgment agrees with the truth, and His judgment is against those who do these kinds of things. Paul’s letter continues to express the surety that God’s judgment is according to truth against those who commit such things, meaning they will be punished for such things. The point is God’s the One who knows truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

2:3 If you judge those who do these kinds of things while you do the same things yourself, think about this: Do you believe that you will escape God’s judgment? The self-righteous or moralists—

1. They think they will escape. However, he forgets that God sees the inner recesses of the human heart, and that God will judge men not only for their deeds, but for their thoughts: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. In 1^st John 2:15-16, we find a strong warning about the world: “¹⁵Don’t love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. ¹⁶Everything that is in the world—the craving for whatever the body feels, the craving for whatever the eyes see and the arrogant pride in one’s possessions—is not of the Father but is of the world. ¹⁷And the world and its cravings are passing away, but the person who does the will of God remains forever.” They fail to see that God’s goodness is not a blank check to sin. He does not condone sin, and He does not overlook sin. And we will not escape the judgment of God!

2:4 Or do you have contempt for the riches of God’s generosity, tolerance, and patience? Don’t you realize that God’s kindness is supposed to lead you to change your heart and life? ¾ The self-righteous or moralists: They think God is too good to punish. They perverted and abused the riches of God’s goodness (His kindness, grace, and love), forbearance (Him holding back punishment), and longsuffering (His patient and slowness in judging sin). But because God hadn’t come forth in judgment and cut them off, they thought that He didn’t regard them as sinners. They thought God’s goodness was too good to punish them, not knowing that the goodness of God is to lead one to repentance. They think that man is basically good. They thought that man can be good enough for God to accept…. for instance....

· good works

· good thoughts

· good behavior

· good feelings

What the self-righteous or moralists fail to understand is that God’s goodness is perfect, and God can only accept perfection. No man is perfect in nature, thought, or behavior. That’s why man has to go through Jesus Christ to receive salvation. He only looks at His Son Jesus Christ who is the only Perfect One! So, we need to get any thoughts out of our heads of thinking the good we’ve done or good behavior has made us right with God. The goodness of God made a way for us to get back to Him through the Grace of His Son Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit who causes us to see the riches of God’s goodness, and forbearance and longsuffering that would lead us to repent.

2:5 You are storing up wrath for yourself because of your stubbornness and your heart that refuses to change. God’s just judgment will be revealed on the day of wrath. This halts all their thoughts of self-goodness. The self-righteous or moralists:

They will harden their heart against the judgment of God. The reason is because they refused to repent. They cannot accept the fact that (1) they are not good enough for God to accept them and (2) they didn’t think that God’s goodness and love would ever condemn them.

Paul says that their hardness (their rigid stiffness) and their impenitent (unrepentant; unremorseful) heart, is storing up wrath (anger and rage). The man who hardens his heart, and refuses to repent is storing up more and more wrath against himself in the Day of Judgment (Day of Wrath). We’re still talking about the self-righteous or moralists. They failed to understand that there is a righteous judgment of God, which means it is just, fair, impartial, correct, and exact. He will reveal to the sight of men the righteousness of His judgment against their wrath in the Day of Wrath.

2:6 God will repay everyone based on their works:¾ God will render to every man according to his deeds. What are deeds? They are acts or works in which God will pay to every man what his actions deserve. Everyone will be either rewarded or punished according to his works; according to what he has done with and for God.

2:7 On the one hand, He will give eternal life to those who look for glory, honor, and immortality based on their patient good work:¾ There shall be the well-doer’s wonderful reward. Note how the well doer seeks: by patiently continuing, meaning to be steadfast and constant; to endure, persevere, stick to, and continue. The well-doer is faithful in doing good works.

· He does not just start, he finishes.

· He does not live an inconsistent, up and down life. He continues and keeps on doing good deeds.

· He does not give in to hardships, difficulties, or opposition. He endures and perseveres always doing good. Notice that he seeks for glory and honor and immortality.

· Glory means to possess and to be full of perfect light.

· Honor means to be acknowledged, recognized, approved, accepted, esteemed, and exalted by God.

· Immortality means living forever with God. His reward is Eternal Life!

2:8 But on the other hand, there will be wrath and anger for those who obey wickedness instead of the truth because they are acting out of selfishness and disobedience. There shall be the evil-doer’s terrible and severe judgment. The reasons¾

a. They are contentious against God; doesn’t like what God says, therefore, he strives against it.

b. They do not obey the truth; sees and hears and knows the truth is to be done, but he refuses to do it. He simply goes about his own life, running and controlling it as he wills.

c. They obey unrighteousness, (wickedness) indignation, (resentment), and wrath (fury).

2:9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, for the Jew first and also for the Greek;¾ Just as the Jews were given the first opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel, they will be the first to receive God’s judgment if they refuse. Israel will receive severe punishment because she was given greater light and blessing. Suffering and affliction will be upon every soul who works and persists on the side of doing evil—of the Jew first, and also of the Greek (Gentile).

2:10 But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, for the Jew first and also for the Greek:¾ The emphasis is heavily on "But!" To the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Gentile) that work and do good, glory, honor, and peace comes. Eternal life is said to be the inheritance of a world of glory, honor, and peace.

2:11 But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. God treats everyone the same. God does not prefer one person or nation to another. He judges everyone in the same way. This verse is often used as an encouragement for good, but in this context it replies to the great Day of Judgment where all will be judged by the same rule and by the same principle.

2:12 Those who have sinned outside the Law will also die outside the Law, and those who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.

Verse 12 wraps it all up. There will be no excuses, no exceptions.

a. The man who sins without law (without knowing what you’re doing) will also perish without law.

b. The man who sins in the law (knowing full well what you’re doing) will be judged by the law. The man who sins without the law will perish, and the man who sins in the law will both be judged. Whether you didn’t have the law and tried to obey, or whether you had the law and didn’t obey it, both came short of the glory of God. God’s judgment is impartial (fail) to both.

SUMMARY: It is inexcusable (without excuse), for the man who judges another, for he is really judging and condemning himself. The one who judges practices the same thing as the heathen. The surety is that God’s judgment is according to truth against those who commit such things, meaning they will be punished for such things. Therefore, the question comes to the self-righteous: "So do you think you will escape?" for those who judge, commit such things and are guilty themselves. Very simply, he fails just as the man he judges. God is the only judge! (2:1-3). The self-righteous or moralists fail to understand God’s goodness. Paul asks them if they are despising the riches of God’s goodness, misinterpreting God’s generosity, seeing God’s patient mercy toward them as weakness on His part; and are they not realizing that His kindness is meant to lead them to repentance? God’s goodness should attract us and lead us to repent (2:4). Those hearts that are hardened and unremorseful, storing up anger, against themselves in the Day of Judgment. They failed to understand that there is a righteous judgment of God, which means it is just, fair, impartial, correct, and exact. God will render to every man according to his deeds. To them who continue patiently in well doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality. He rewards Eternal Life. But those that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath will receive God’s wrath (2:5-8). Suffering and affliction will be upon every soul who works and persists on the side of doing evil. But, on the other hand, glory, honor, and peace will be to every man who does the work of good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. God treats everyone the same. God does not prefer one person or nation to another. He judges everyone in the same way. The man who sins without the law will perish, and the man who sins in the law will be judged (2:9-12).

You will remember that the purpose of this lesson was to commit to leading a nonjudgmental and repentant life.

So with that thought in mind, I’ll share with you the following story:

This story comes from a David Letterman show about prejudice from about 20 years ago:

One weekend in Atlantic City, a woman won a bucketful of quarters at a slot machine. As she was about to enter the elevator to take her winnings to her room, she noticed two men already aboard. One of them was a tall, intimidating figure. The woman froze. Her first thought was, “These two are going to rob me.” Then, she decided that they might be perfectly nice men, so she chided herself, although she was still anxious.

Her hesitation about joining them in the elevator was obvious. Her face was flushed. She couldn’t just stand there, so with a mighty effort of will she stepped forward and boarded the elevator.

Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator doors as they closed. As time passed, her fear increased. The elevator didn’t move. Panic ensured, and she thought, “I’m trapped and about to be robbed.” Then one of the men said, “Hit the floor.” Instinct told her to do exactly what the man said. The bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her arms and collapsed on the elevator floor. A shower of coins rained down on her. “Take my money and spare,” she prayed. More seconds passed.

She heard one of the men say politely, “Ma’am, if you’ll just tell us what floor you’re going to, we’ll push the button.” The who said it had a little trouble getting the words out. He was trying mightily to hold in a belly laugh. The woman lifted her head and looked up at the two men. They reached down to help her up.

Confused, she struggled to her feet. “When I told my friend here to hit the floor,” said the average sized man, “I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our floor. I didn’t mean for you to hit the floor, ma’am.” He spoke genially. He bit his lip. It was obvious he was having a hard time not laughing.

The woman was too humiliated to speak. She wanted to blurt out an apology, but words failed her. The three of them gathered up the strewn quarters and refilled her bucket.

When the elevator arrived at her floor, the men then insisted on walking her to her room. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and they were afraid she might not make it down the corridor. At her door, they bid her a good evening. As she slipped into her room, she could hear them roaring with laughter as they walked back to the elevator.

The next morning, a courier delivered flowers to her room, a dozen roses. Attached to each rose was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. The card said, “Thanks for the best laugh we’ve had in years.” It was signed, Eddie Murphy and Michael Jordan.

Let us pray:

Holy God, forgive us for living apart from You in our acts. Claim our hearts once again, and give us the courage and the grace to live as you would have us to live; in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Unjust Judge and the Widow Who Wouldn't Accept 'No"

2018-07-15T21:37:00.001-07:00

Scripture: Luke 18:1-8

And He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ²He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. ³And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to Him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” ⁶And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? ⁸I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

Once spinach was a delicious green leaf and eating it made Popeye strong. Now through the wonders of modern science, spinach can be a white leaf and Popeye’s already too fat.

But time teaches us that change is inevitable.

Pastor Charles Swindoll said, “We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

Jimmy Dean said, “I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

From C.S. Lewis, we get “Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.” He is unchangeable in His love for us.

Today’s lesson, based on a short parable about a widow and an unjust judge, urges us to persevere before God, for His love for us never changes. In our difficulties and even in our blessings, perhaps we give up too soon, and God is waiting to hear from us. The purpose of today’s lesson is to teach that God honors patience, persistence, and persevering prayer. In this lesson, persistence is both required and rewarded.

18:1 And He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ;¾ This means that prayer should be persistent; we should persevere in prayer. We are not to faint, meaning not to lose heart or give up. Why? Because there are great rewards, for God always answers with the right answer at the right time!

18:2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. ¾ Jesus tells them there was a judge in a city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t care what others thought of him.

18:3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, “Avenge me of mine adversary.” This widow lady came to him asking for justice with her of her adversary (her enemy). But he would not for a while. This was the time for persistent prayer to come in.

18:4-5 ⁴For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” This widow had become such a trial and trouble to this judge, that for his own reasons he decided to give her what she demanded.

Now, this judge thought he had truly made up his mind before, yet, there was another force at work! He said, Yet because this widow’s persistence troubled him he would act on her behalf. This meant that the judge honored her request because she continued to come and come, plead and plead, and would not let him rest. She would not be silent!

18:6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.” But on the other hand, Jesus calls him an "unjust judge." Why? Because he had no fear of God, and cared even less of what other men said. He took bribes and gave favors to persons who held position and authority. He didn’t care for conscience or law, even though he was a judge. Jesus told them to hear what the unjust judge said. Let this sink in of what he said of himself.

18:7 And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? ¾ So if he was an evil, unjust judge who was able to be worn down, "Don’t you think that God will surely give justice to His people who plead with Him day and night?"

The point is: God avenges His own elect which means when an enemy is coming against the elect, and the elect perseveres in prayer, crying out day and night, Jesus wants His disciples to know that if a widow goes and receives justice from a wicked unjust judge, how much the loving heavenly Father is there to avenge her adversary.

God is known for being longsuffering with unbelievers coming to Him for salvation, He also bears long with His elect.

18:8 I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

God will avenge His elect speedily, meaning in His time He will act suddenly, quickly, and without hesitation. But then Jesus asks "will He find faith on the earth" when He returns? We have building in our society a great tragedy, that few men of faith and prayer will be found when He returns to earth. He’s looking for faith; faithful men and women who persevere in prayer.

Now let’s look at a quick summary here:

You will notice that the Parable starts off with "Men ought always to pray and not faint." Persistent prayer is required from the saints; we should persevere in prayer. We are not to be faint, meaning not to lose heart or give up. Why? Because there are great rewards, for God always answers with the right answer at the right time! (18:1).

Jesus goes on to discuss this "judge in a city who didn’t fear God, and neither regarded man" (18:2).

A widow kept coming, wanting justice against her adversary (18:1-3).

The judge didn’t want to. But even though he didn’t fear God nor man (18:4), yet this judge who thought he had truly made up his mind before, now, there was another force at work! He said "Yet because this widow troubles me (her persistence troubled him), I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me" (18:5).

This judge honored her request because she continued to come and come; plead and plead, and would not let him rest. She would not be silent! It doesn’t matter how long before the answer. Saints have to be persistent to receive the answer from the One who can give the answer. His reward is great! (18:4-5).

But on the other hand, Jesus calls him an "unjust judge." He had no fear of God, and cared even less of what men said. He took bribes and gave favors to persons who held position and authority. He didn’t care for conscience or law, but even an evil unjust judge was able to be worn down.

Haven’t you run into people like this? From the context this judge seems to be arrogant, proud and condescending. Although he probably saw himself as superior to others in every way, there is the chance that others experienced this judge as a kind of knucklehead.

Right here in Nashville, the past year or so, we’ve had a couple of judges removed from office because they overplayed their hand with their devious ethical behavior. It became evident that in truth they lacked wisdom. But we should not be surprised at that, because we read in Proverbs 1:7 that “wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord.” And again in Job 28:28, “Look, the fear of the Lord is wisdom.”

So if an unjust judge can be turned, Jesus asks, "Don’t you think that God will surely give justice to His people who plead with Him day and night?" The point is: God avenges His elect who persevere in prayer; crying out day and night when an enemy comes against them (18:7).

His retaliation will be speedily for His elect, meaning in His time He will act suddenly, quickly, and without hesitation. The question Jesus asks "will He find faith on the earth" when He returns? He’s looking for faith, faith that perseveres in prayer (18:8). (18:6-8).

Perhaps another way to put this is that in Christ we are all brothers and sisters, all equal, all deserving of the same love and the same justice. In Christ, we are all one, so if you mess with one, you mess with us all. And don’t think the enemy doesn’t understand that. He does, which is why he is so intent on dividing us, separating us, finding ways to split us up. But so long as we remain in Christ, he can’t. We are all one in Jesus Christ, and it is Jesus Christ who tells us that fervent, persistent prayer is important.

There is a story about former President Ulysses S. Grant, fighting his last campaign with cancer at Mount McGregor, and meeting with General O.O. Howard, who had earned the nickname of “The Christian Soldier”. Howard spoke for a time with Grant about some of the battles and campaigns of the American Civil War, in which both men had played so well-known a part.

It is said that Grant listened for a time and then, interrupting him, said, “Howard, tell me what you know about prayer.” Face to face with death and the mysterious, the question of prayer was of greater interest to the dying former President and General than the reminiscences of his battles.

Some folks think of prayer as sweet, well-spoken words addressed to God to do our will, a time to present to God our petitions of what we want. When Jesus spoke of prayer, He suggested what Fred Craddock describes in a sermon titled “Praying Through Clenched Teeth.”

Prayer is not so much prayer retreats, meditation, or having proper words or posture. No, according to Jesus, prayer is more like beating on heaven’s door until someone answers. It is prayer that is so persistent that even the most reluctant finally surrenders because he or she knows the one knocking is certainly not going to give up or give in. Prayer is the persistent widow!

Our need with respect to prayer is to see prayer from all angles. In order for us to understand prayer, we need to remove it from a strictly stained-glass light. Prayer is us putting on the working clothes of love and mercy in Jesus’ name.

In the movie “Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid,” Bob Dylan sings the theme song called “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” Part of the lyrics go,

“Mama, take this badge off of me

I can’t use it anymore

It’s getting’ dark, too dark to see

I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door.

Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door.”

But laying on your deathbed is almost too late to think about knocking on heaven’s door.

The easiest thing we will ever do is pray, and depending on the context, the hardest thing we will ever do is pray. Sometimes we just don’t know where to start. Even one of Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Many people simply give up before they try to pursue some worthy goal. Prayer takes discipline and persistence. Too many quit before they get started. But prayer is one of many Christian disciplines, such as worship, Scripture reading, meditation, service, self-denial, reflection, and fasting. It is prayer that helps condition or train our inner life so that we can best engage the world as disciples of Jesus.

It is often prayer that will keep us from being too timid or shy about doing what Jesus has said we must do. From prayer we get the boldness to reach out and share the love He shares with us from the Father.

Jesus knows about our human tendency to give up. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, surrender was one of His own temptations. In Matthew 26:39 we read, “Then He went a short distance farther and fell on His face and prayed, ‘My Father, if it’s possible take this cup of suffering away from Me. However – not what I want but what You want.’”

It is when we are ready to quit, when we are ready to give up, when we are ready to surrender, earnest prayer to God takes the focus off of us and our circumstances and places it squarely on God where it belongs.

Persistence is the key to so many areas of life. Whether we are learning to play the piano, taking on school as an adult, trying to overcome an addiction, or digging out of a financial quagmire, persistence is the key.

I was Jesus who “in His anguish He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground”, it says in Luke 22:44. Jesus knows about prayer, as do many of you, I believe.

Remember that the point of Jesus’ parable here is not that persistent prayer guarantees you anything you desire, but rather the parable unmistakably teaches that believers’ prayers are to offset timidity and cowardly resignation in the face of life’s hazards. But remember the persistent widow, she would not take no for an answer.

I’m going to ask us to consider once again these verses from Luke 18:1-8, in the light of of these questions:

1. What does this text say about God?

2. What does this text say about people?

3. And what does this text say about the relationship between God and people.

And He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

²He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

³And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to Him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

⁴For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man,

⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”

⁶And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

⁷And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them?

⁸I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

What are your thoughts God, people, and our relationship?

Let us close then by reciting this prayer I’ve passed out. Our lesson begins with prayer and ends in justice. So let us close by reciting this prayer from Steven W. Manskar, director of Wesleyan Leadership at Discipleship Ministries, joins these two important concepts.

“God of compassion, You suffer in the grief of Your people, and You are present to heal and forgive. May the sun of Your justice rise on every night of oppression, and may the warm rays of Your healing love renew each troubled mind; for You are the God of salvation and new life, made known to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Circumcision

2017-09-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday's Sermon:  Circumcision

September 10, 2017

Pastor Ed Evans

Prayer: 

“Father, we bring You praise for the time and place to come before You with open minds and open hearts for what You have for us this morning. For we would learn what it means to be trustworthy, to be committed to a promise. In the world around us today such social frameworks and business practices such as a man’s word, a woman’s word, seems to have lost the bond it once had. May that not be the case in our commitments to You, O Lord. 

We would learn from history this morning of Your promises, liberation, of Your God-given power to so love You and others with everything of our heart, mind and soul. We ask these things in the name of Him who loved us first, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen.”

Scripture:

Genesis 17:1-14

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make My covenant between Me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall My covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

Now, since we’re dealing with circumcision this morning, I was tempted to suggest to you ladies we wouldn’t be needing your attention for the next half hour, but the Lord in His wisdom corrected that when He brought to my attention certain verses in Colossians. So, you’ll just have to pay attention, after all. Be patient, we’ll get there.

Now, this Old Testament covenant in Genesis is pretty specific, so let’s begin by talking about its impact on Christians today. 

Circumcision is the surgical removal of the male foreskin. The word “circumcise” literally means “to cut around.” It was a religious rite, required of all of Abraham’s descendants as a sign of the covenant God made with him. Mosaic Law repeated that requirement, and Jews throughout the centuries have continued to practice circumcision. 

But New Testament Christians are no longer under the Old Testament Law, and circumcision is no longer required. We find this in a number of New Testament passages (Acts 15; Galatians 2:1–3; 5:1–11; 6:11–16; 1st Corinthians 7:17–20; Colossians 2:8–12; and Philippians 3:1–3). Our deliverance from sin is the result of faith in Christ; it is Christ’s finished work on the cross that saves, not the observance of an external religious rite. In salvation, Galatians 2:16 tell us the works of the flesh accomplish nothing.

You may often hear it said that Jesus did away with the Old Testament laws of Moses and the prophets. But He didn’t. Jesus came to fulfill the law and what was prophesied. Some will claim our problems with God today are because we don’t keep the old laws, but I don’t see them wearing phylacteries or blue threads in tassels on their garments, nor do they advocate the destruction of a home when mildew is discovered.

It isn’t the old laws that are important. It was never about the laws, but about our commitment to worship the one God. 

Hebrews, Chapter 10 is a golden chapter for explaining what is going on here, how, and why. I want to read you here just verses 10 through 14, but I encourage you to go back and read that entire chapter on your own. For some it may be a life-changing chapter.

Hebrews 10:10-14 reads: “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body have you prepared for Me;

6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings

You have taken no pleasure.

7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,

as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book.’”

8 When He said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then He added, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” So ends the reading from Hebrews 10.

When the Israelites came out of captivity, and back to the ruins of Jerusalem, with its broken walls, the old temple where not one stone rested on another, it was necessary to remind them who they were, and whose they were. So Nehemiah had the people listen to the readings from Moses’ Torah, for seven days. On the eighth day, Nehemiah gathered them together, had them stand up and read together the following prayer, from the book of Nehemiah, Chapter 9, verses 5-8:

5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

6 “You are the LORD, You alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and You preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships You. 7 You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful before You, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And You have kept Your promise, for You are righteous.” So ends the reading.

Notice the prayer begins with the admonition, “Stand Up!” The footnote in the Common English Bible says, “Their devotion to God was expressed physically. The people felt so moved that they couldn’t worship God by sitting still.” The reference to Abraham and God’s covenant with him in the prayer recall one of the reasons for their hope and enthusiasm.

This 17th Chapter of Genesis we are studying is organized around five divine speeches. We find those speeches in verses 1-2, 4-8, 9-14, 15-16, and 19-21. This is where God tells Abraham what He, God, is about to do, and what is expected of Abraham.

Haven’t you ever wished God would just get with you and give you a heads-up on what He’s about to do? C’mon, God, let’s huddle-up here, You tell me what’s coming and I can be ready to do what You want me to do. Right?

But it didn’t make any difference with Abraham, did it? Here was a very holy man, in God’s eyes, and yet as time goes by and God acts in Abraham’s behalf – in behalf of mankind, actually – Abraham still steps sideways and messes up what God’s doing. He has a child out of wedlock, embarrassing his wife, Sarah; he goes into foreign lands and claims Sarah is his sister, not his wife, and almost gets his head lopped off when other royalty wants to take Sarah for a wife.

Doesn’t really do us much good to know what God’s up to, then, does it? Maybe that’s why God and His angels keep their own council.

I was always puzzled as to why God changed Abram’s name from Abram to Abraham, until I learned that Abram means “exalted father”, and he was, and Abraham means “father of many” or “of multitudes”, which he was about to become; a patriarch of millions.

The name “Sarah” means “princess”, already appropriate as the future mother of royalty. But the Bible notes many other name changes: Jacob was renamed Israel; Simon became Cephas; Saul became better known as Paul (which was both a Latin and Greek variation of the Hebrew Saul); and of course, Jesus of Nazareth became known as Jesus Christ.

What about some of your names? Were you named for a favorite family member? Does your name have a linguistic significance? In my case, I’m of English, Irish, Scot and Welsh ancestry, and the name Edward means “Guardian”. I’m told I was named after a rich uncle who left us nothing.

Here in the south it’s a tradition to use your middle name instead of your first name. Mine is “Marshall”. As a child we moved a lot so at one school I decided to use Marshall instead of Edward. I heard every Marshall joke there was: Marshall, where’s your horse; Marshall, where’s your badge; Marshall, where’s your gun. And then from the girls, “Marshall, are you going to arrest me?” But I was just too young for that nonsense. At the next school I was Edward again. Nobody knew me and that was fine with me.

But as with Abram and Abraham, do you see how your name can be a reflection of who you are? What about you? Does your name reflect who you see yourself to be? [Are you really a Mavis? You are definitely a Kay, I think. I think Oscar fits. Are you sure you are Dorothy? Donna?]

God’s covenant with Abraham involved not only a name change, but it bound Abraham and his descendants to God in an intimate way; that they were chosen could never be forgotten.

The name change also suggested that Abraham would have the responsibility not only of reproduction and physical molding, but also the responsibility of transmitting to his descendants that faith was the sacred obligation that undergirded everything in God’s covenant. It was about faith.

And were we to make a personal application here, it would be to ask the question, what is the spiritual legacy you are leaving to your children, or to the grandchildren or others who you influence? Do they see Christ in you? In your actions? In your words?

The intentions and applications of God’s covenant with Abraham are pretty clear to us. That covenant covered all of Abraham’s extended family and all of his household servants and slaves. But what about those outside that covenant. The intent of that covenant has guided Jews, and today continues to guide the Jewish nation, down through the ages. On the eighth day after birth, a Jewish boy child is both circumcised and named.

But unlike Adam and Noah, Abraham was not the sole patriarch on the earth at that time. And there are millions today outside the requirements of that covenant. Does it have any impact on them?

Just as circumcision signified initiation into God’s covenant with Abraham, his household, and his descendants, in the same way baptism in the Christian tradition represents the Christian’s initiation into the church. In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Chapter 2, verses 9-11, he used the concept of circumcision to explain how the Christian is united with Christ in baptism.

Let’s take a look at the Colossians verses: “9 For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ…”

“Made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh…” Isn’t that interesting? And at this point I rush to dip just my toe into one of my favorite verses of scripture, Galatians 5:28, which reminds us, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

I just want to do a little dance down the street like King David did, when I read that verse, for it rises Christ up into the heavens far above any other religion or belief!

I know I don’t need to tell you, for you already know it, but the followers of Jesus Christ are the ONLY ONES guided by the love and forgiveness of their sacrificing savior, Jesus Christ, who loved us even before we knew Him.

He paid our debt on that cross for every sin we have ever committed, or have yet to commit, long before we ever knew who He was.

The covenant of circumcision reminded Abraham and his heirs that they had been drawn into a covenant relationship with God Almighty. The sign of the rainbow reminded God of God’s promise to the earth. The sabbath reminded the people of Israel that God had made them holy. And their history reminds you and I of the commitment, the love, the forgiveness of our God, El Shaddai, God Almighty; Adonai, Master and Lord.

Let us close by reading in unison the prayer found on page 607 of the United Methodist Hymnal, “A Covenant Prayer in the Weslyan Tradition.”

“I am no longer my own, but Thine. 

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom Thou wilt. 

Put me to doing, put me to suffering. 

Let me be employed by Thee or laid aside for Thee, 

exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee. 

Let me be full, let me be empty. 

Let me have all things, let me have nothing. 

I freely and heartily yield all things to Thy pleasure and disposal. 

And now, O Glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 

Thou art mine, and I am Thine. 

So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, 

Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”

Called to Break Down Barriers

2017-08-13T10:12:00.002-07:00

Called to Break Down Barriers 

August 13, 2017

Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Acts 8:26-39

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter

    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

    so he opens not his mouth.

33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.

    Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.”

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.  

PRAYER

 Dear God, by Your grace You have brought us together for fellowship and study.  Grant us Your wisdom to recognize Your voice and understand Your Word.  Teach us Your ways and empower us with Your Spirit.  Help us to open our hearts to Your love, mercy, and grace, and give us the compassion to share these gifts with others; in Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen

 Let me state at the outset that I hope you have read today’s lesson, a very interesting and informative one, but I’m not going to delve much into the lesson itself, because the lesson lends itself to a much wider discussion.

 Now, one of the most difficult things for you and I to do is often to step outside our safety zone.  We prefer – that is, we feel at ease – when we are interacting with people who look like us, talk like us, and think like us.

 Anything else and we’re just not all that comfortable.  Our subject today, Philip found himself in that situation, led there by God.

 Philip was one of the seven Greek-speaking deacons selected by the church in Jerusalem about 35 AD.  And he is led to strike out on a deserted desert road on the way to Samaria.  On that lonely journey he meets an Ethiopian official reading scripture and needing someone to interpret it for him so he can understand.

 In explaining it to him, Philip marks a major turning point in the history of the church of Jesus Christ.  For this marks the unhindered spread of the gospel throughout the world.  

 Back in Jerusalem the Chief Priests and Roman officials are desperately attempting to throttle any attempt to spread the gospel.  But it has never mattered what men intended, outside of the plans of God, nothing is going to stop what God has ordained to happen.  So we see new Christian Deacon Philip, and a Christian Ethiopian eunuch, on their way to building a Christian church here in Hermitage, Tennessee; just part of the worldwide spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It took them a while to get here, but time means nothing to God.  

 A. W. Tozer, in one of my favorite quotes, pointed out, “For those outside of Christ, time is a ravenous beast.  But for the sons of the new creation, time crouches and purrs and licks their hands.”

 Notice Philip found this fellow on a desert, wilderness road.  Philip probably would not have been out there except that an angel directed him out there.

 Ever found yourself in a kind of wilderness situation?  Somewhere you didn’t really want to be?  Wondering why you were there?  We just need to remember, if God sent you into it, He will bring you out of it.

 In Saturday’s The Tennessean newspaper, in the first section on page 17A, there was an article written by a young man pursuing a B.S. degree in business administration and minor in philosophy at UT.  The headline read: “We must have honest religion.”  The young man’s name is Hancen A. Sale, a staff columnist at The Daily Beacon, which is the university’s editorial independent newspaper.

 In part, he wrote, “Often when someone divorces themselves from a way of life, it is the start of a critical and reflective journey.

 “I had meddled in the study of theology for a couple of years until it became very apparent to me no theology could corroborate my human experience.  Thus, I left my church, my faith and my ideological safety net.”

 “Religion was a dying breed in my mind, yet there still seemed to be much reverence surrounding it: religion has undoubtedly driven so many people to do so many things.”

 He went on to talk about how much violence had been created in the world by religion; the Crusades, the twin towers during 911, the Jewish genocide, etc.  Yet even though such tremendous evil lives on, religion persists, he wrote.  He noted that “religion drove Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to proclaim his dream from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial; that religion inspired Mahatma Gandhi to lead the greatest human rights campaign; and that religious foundations continue to do so much good.”

 He asks, “is ardently engaging and defending such a doctrine – within any religion – worth our time?  For all the good religion has provoked, it has produced equal parts bad – perhaps, more.”

 “Did the early pages of the Torah not demonstrate the dangers of violence?  Did a Jewish prophet – Jesus – not proclaim from the Mount that the earth belongs to the meek?  Did the Noble Eightfold path not command work for the good of others and opposition to evil?  It is certainly evident: religion is the single greatest indication of how division and violence remain the most potent danger humanity will ever face.”

 “Thus,” the writer says, “from the religious world to the secular world, we must all ask the question: is our participation – or non-participation – in religion contributing to the violence and division which currently plagues our world.”

 “We must divorce ourselves – from our religion, our lifestyle, or our way of life – just long enough to face that question with a profound, resounding honesty.

 “Hopefully, that candor will behold a light strong enough to bind all of humanity.”  That’s the end of his article.

 Now, before I open it up for discussion, I would make several points.

 First, it is evident from his passages that like so many this young man knows of Jesus who is the Christ, but he has no relationship with Jesus.

 Second, his understanding of history is incomplete.  Referring to the Crusades – they were Christian crusades – ignores the 300 years of Muslim ravages across parts of Asia, the Middle East and Europe.  The Crusades were called for by the Catholic Popes, who depended upon the European kings for the money and manpower to rescue sacred Christian lands, and free people from brutal and vicious Islamic rule.

 And third, he speaks solely about religion, almost as if it were a force of nature.  You might say, but God invented religion.  Sorry, but God invented mankind, mankind invented religion.  

• Before I continue, any thoughts or comments on this article?

 Nowhere in the Bible can you find a relationship with God through religion.  Religion is a works theology, man thinking he can please God with his works; “if I can do enough, say enough, pray enough, give enough, sacrifice enough perhaps God will show me favor”.  Religion is a roadblock to a relationship with God.  The writer’s entire approach is based on false assumptions and a misunderstanding of what God wants from us.

 In Isaiah 1, Amos 5 and Micah 6, again and again God has told His people what He didn’t want from them in the way of worship, and we have ignored Him.  And He doesn’t make it that difficult.  In Micah 6:8 we find the words, “…what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  Where is the division and violence in that?

 The stated purpose of this lesson is, quote, to grasp the importance of and commit to ministering to the marginalized.  

 This writer is part of that marginalized.  Many of the people around you in your daily life are the marginalized.  They don’t have to be poor, or homeless or disabled, they simply have to be outside of God, maybe even strapped down with false religion.  You can be that bright and shining light of God to them, allowing Jesus Christ to work through you with a kind word, a smile, a refusal to condemn them.

 Personally, I’ve often found many people are not outside of God because they want to be, they simply don’t understand.  God doesn’t hate them.  God isn’t against them.  Listen to these words from God in Isaiah 54 to those who had turned their backs on Him, but now come out of Babylonian slavery:

 “For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you.  In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer.

 For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My steadfast love shall not depart from you, and My covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”

 Perhaps the problem for most of us is, how do we tell them that God has not forgotten them without offending them?  Sometimes you have to just follow God’s leading.

 In recruit training our Marine Corps drill instructors would shout at us: “Do something even if it’s wrong!”  They would later explain that they could fix mistakes, but they could not fix it if we were not willing to at least risk a mistake.

 Now, understanding that “wrong” here does not mean “sinful,” do you agree there are times when you need to “do something, even if it’s wrong”?

 Have there been situations in your life when this was true?  How often as parents do we have to apply doing something, even if it’s wrong?  What do you think?

#          #          #

 In 1920, Robert Frost published his wonderful poem, “The Road Not Taken,” which ends: 

 I shall be telling this with a sigh

 Somewhere ages and ages hence;

 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

 I took the one less traveled by,

 And that has made all the difference.”

 What about you?  Have you ever come to an important fork in the road where you had a great deal of difficulty deciding which road to take or you had trouble getting up the courage to take the right road?  How did you decide?  How did you find the courage for your decision?  What do you think?

 Perhaps you recall from a previous lesson that Philip was among those selected as a deacon to parcel out available resources and ensure the widows were treated fairly.  It seems by this time Philip no longer needed to fulfill that role, but he seemed ready and willing to take that desert road less traveled by.  Any thoughts on why he was so willing to do that?  

 [He had a great deal of faith in God.  Philip trusted God to take care of him as long as he faithfully did what God asked him to do.  Moreover, each time he was obedient, he found that God faithfully kept His promises, which increased his faith even more.]

• The Ethiopian seemed to have no problem asking Philip for help, and Philip had no problem responding.  But might there not have been social barriers between these two?   

• Has anyone here worked with people of different cultural backgrounds, with social barriers?  How did you overcome them, and how did that experience enrich you?

• Are there any barriers that exist between us in this church and those in our community, those we would lie to reach for Christ?

 [Racial, cultural, economic, educational, generational barriers?]

• If so, how do we go about breaking down these barriers?

 [Personal relationships.]

• Are there actions we can take to make strangers feel more welcome when they visit our church, or even our class?

 [Freshly microwaved banana bread, at one church.]

 [Experience at Presbyterian Church after one visit, and a follow-up visit; during illness, brought dinner.]

 [Other experiences?]

 Are there any other comments or questions about today’s lesson?

 If not, let us close with prayer.

 Gracious God, make us sensitive to those around us who may feel as though they cannot approach You.  Give us the right words to say so that they understand all You have done for them through Jesus Christ to build a bridge to You.  Use us to overcome barriers so that the message of Jesus Christ reaches everyone; in Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen

My Morning in Court

2017-08-03T19:27:00.003-07:00

On Thursday, August 3, 2017, I answered a subpoena to appear in General Sessions Court, in the Birch Building in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Back in June there was a one-driver, two-car collision in front of our home, and I was a witness to it.

As it turned out, the morning was pretty much wasted, had to pay for parking, and the case was continued until November.

The time spent was interesting, however, sitting amongst a large group of people who had made stupid mistakes and now praying to God they don't go to jail. You slice through the tension. That was in the observers’ gallery. While up front the DA, various legal official and lawyers came and went, everyone smile, slapping each other on the back, punch their should, laughing, smiling, getting on with another day at work.

Judge Dianne Turner began by saying, "We're going to call your name, stand up. If you don't stand and tell us who your lawyer is we'll assume you aren't here and issue a warrant for your arrest.” One young man came in late, was told by the judge, "You were supposed to be here at 8:30 a.m., it's now 9:20, go through that door to your left and see the Sheriff; he's looking for you."

Throughout the morning the judge did a lot of pre-trial diversion, with fines and community service, and if you stayed out of trouble for x-number of months you don't go to jail. These were the "stupid mistake" type arrests.

It was also interesting to note the look of most of those who came before the judge. Pants that had to be pulled up constantly -- there was a big sign on the entry door to the courtroom stating what attire was not permissible in her courtroom -- colorful threads and streaks tied throughout the hair, bizarre tattoos everywhere, rings and things in the ears, nose and lips. One young lady almost had a very short, tight, colorful dress on, bare from just above her nipples up, sleeveless, so short you did not want to see her sit down. Her attorney brought her up while the judge was looking down signing pages, and positioned her directly behind a tall podium so the judge saw her only from the neck up. Her case was continued until later in the year. I wondered if her lawyer was buying time to share a “court room attire” lecture with her.

Just seemed like a lot of folks who wanted to be noticed, who wanted to be seen as "bucking the system," but someone crossed that line a little too far and slipped into the "illegal" pool. But their “look” set them apart from others in the court room and left no surprise that they were there before the judge.

There were also several cases of people without driver's licenses who were sent away to get a license and return later in the year or go to jail. One young woman was there for a traffic accident, case continued, but the accident caused no injuries, only property damage, so the fact she had seven previous accidents on her driving record (I saw this, the court did not) would not be brought up in court. Well, whatever. We have to leave room in our jails for the crime-wave thieves, rapists, child molesters and murderers. And the jails across the nation are full up. Makes you wonder what goes on at the family level that so many people have no empathy for others, and seek only to serve themselves. Reminds me of a brief conversation from my Marine Corps days: "But sir...! " "But sir hell, get in that cell!"

There was one humorous aspect to the morning’s adventure. I was there only as a witness, and had mercy on my mind. But I showed up in shirt and tie, suit coat and trousers, with my pastor's cross around my neck. Normal attire for a court room appearance … for me. This garnered a quizzical look at one time or another from just about everyone in the courtroom (even the lady judge kept looking my way), and you could see the question on their faces: "Holy crap! What did he do?!"

It’s been said that all the world’s a stage, but it occurred to me that while all the good actors may be on that stage, all the clowns are in General Sessions Court.

Biblical Sexual Ethics are Confusing Many

2017-06-11T00:26:00.002-07:00

Sunday Sermon: Biblical Sexual Ethics are Confusing Many

By Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Romans 8:28

”And we know that God works all things together for those who love God, for those who are called according to His purposes.”

Charles Spurgeon is quoted as saying, “This present age is so flippant that if a man loves the Savior he is a fanatic and if he hates the powers of evil, he is a bigot.”

No doubt about it, there are many things in this present age that are confusing.  But it has been that way in every age.  Yet men and women of God need not be confused, for they are given explicit and direct guidance in the word of God regarding how to conduct themselves.

Nevertheless, the number of professing Christians who reject the traditional Biblical sexual ethic has been steadily increasing over the last few years as men and women succumb to the societal pressures of “political correctness.”  Except that such deliberate ignorance of God’s word is neither politic nor correct.  

Many of those once submitting to the Bible’s clear condemnation of homosexual behavior now propose that theologians have long been off base in their interpretation of the texts addressing this issue. They don’t believe the Scriptures speak ill of loving, monogamous same-sex relationships, but only homosexual activity in the context of rape, child molestation, and idol worship.  They may believe that all they wish, but none of it is supported by scripture.  

The word of God is very clear – “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." (Lev. 18:22 & Lev. 20:13).  And since this is neither a civil nor a ceremonial law but a moral law in Leviticus, there is no expiration date.  It still stands today.  God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Now, no one should misunderstand this as a demand that we judge and ostracize those who disagree with God.  The Almighty gives each of us free will, and we are free to hate God if we so choose.  And some of us do exactly that in order to serve ourselves, and not God.  God will do the judging, although some of us think that’s our job.

However, there is a big difference between judging someone, and discerning evil. The two are not the same at all. In the Bible, the word "judge" is often a poor translation of the Greek word "katakrino."  This word literally means "to judge against."  In other words, it really means "to condemn."  But there is another Greek word, "krino," which is often translated "to discern."  "Krino" literally means "to separate." Or, to put it more clearly, it means "to separate the good from the bad."

The word of God calls for us to have a fine balance between head and heart.  Biblical Christianity means loving God and others fervently, from the heart; but also, such love is in line with God’s truth as revealed in His Word.  Exercising such love is what leads us to Christian maturity.  Love for God or others that is not based on truth is just deluded emotionalism.  But truth devoid of love leads to arrogance.

The signpost we are looking for leading to the true love of God is true knowledge.  Since God cannot be known except as He has revealed Himself, such true knowledge of God can only be obtained through His Word.  Since God Himself is love, to grow in the true knowledge of God is to grow to understand what true love is.

Now, this true knowledge of God as revealed in His Word is essential if you want to grow in love. We can’t know love by looking at our society, our culture.  We can only know what love looks like by studying the character of God, especially as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, God in human flesh.  And as we study Him, we see in Matthew 23 where He lashed into the Pharisees, we may even be a bit shocked as He takes whip in hand to clear the filth from His Father’s temple.  And yet our Jesus is the epitome of love.  Not a clay mask that one puts on to please others, or to get what our free will desires, but a love that loves even the unlovely, that wades into the mud to pull a sinner free, or empties his own pockets so an unregenerate shyster can eat this day.  The love of Christ applies itself to the person, to the situation.  The need does not twist itself around to fit the requirements of our version of tough love.  That’s the short-sighted love of political correctness.

It seems as though today if you criticize someone else’s doctrine or personal life, no matter how unbiblical either might be, you are not loving, you are a “hater”, and you are arrogant to be judging that person.  The well-known words of Jesus, “Judge not, lest you be judged” from Matthew 7:1 are twisted out of context and misapplied. But if you keep reading, Jesus goes on to say, in Matthew 7:6, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine”.  And yet, how do you determine if someone is that dog or that swine if you don’t make discerning judgments?  Later on in Matthew 7:15 Jesus warns us to beware of false prophets who come as wolves in sheep’s clothing.  If we are discerning we see this isn’t a fellow-sheep before us whom we need to embrace, but a ravenous wolf we need to avoid!

So we see that Biblical love cannot be divorced from the true knowledge of God and from the discernment between truth and error, between right and wrong that comes from a careful knowledge of Scripture, that Biblical love is inextricably bound up with discernment, not with the judgment of men, but with God-given discernment.

I leave you with the wisdom of Philippians 1:9-11: “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we find strength and boldness in the knowledge that You have not abandoned us to the machinations of this world, but continue to teach us through the presence of the Holy Spirit, ensuring we have the knowledge of scripture available to us with which to employ the wisdom of discernment in dealing with others, and through our knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ.  Thank You, Father, that as Your own we are able to draw others to You, by the blessed and incomparable love of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

History Is Happening Right Before Our Eyes

2016-09-23T07:55:00.003-07:00

by Pastor Ed Evans

With all we see going on in America today, those of my generation decry the college crowd with buttercup brains and butterfly hearts, and wonder about the future of America as they come of age. 

I submit we are watching, in our own time, the disintegration akin to that of the Roman Empire. Same criminal graft, same selfish guilt, same meltdown of male and female roles, same paucity of discipline in the military armed forces. Our enemies simply bide their time. If you read Revelations in your Bible, you will see that America is not there when Christ returns. We are watching the reason.

Of course, for those who already have a relationship with Jesus Christ, this is all the more reason to constantly share the Good News of Jesus Christ at every opportunity, For 2nd Timothy 4:3 tells us, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions..." Oh wait, it's here and once again we see it happening right now, don't we.   History continues to ramble on right before our eyes.  Ethical and moral walls fall, "understood" rules of behavior crumble before social depravity and ravenous hungers of strange types.  

Everything of which the prophets of old warned us is coming into being as mankind reveres and fawns before the fleshly creation, rather than the Creator.  Right before our eyes.  With all the modern advances and such industrial wisdom and intelligence being displayed for the betterment of mankind, who would have thought the moral and ethical ground upon which society stands would begin to disintegrate so easily, and so soon.  Who would have thought it.  God did.  And He told us so.

There is a remedy, an answer, and we've known it all along.  But then, the truth of 2nd Tiothy 4:3 is in motion, and the axe is falling.

The Peaceful Kingdom

2016-09-04T18:47:00.001-07:00

by Pastor Ed Evans

TEXT: Isaiah 11:1-9  

1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,

    and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,

    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

    the Spirit of counsel and might,

    the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

    or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,

    and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;

    and a little child shall lead them.

7 The cow and the bear shall graze;

    their young shall lie down together;

    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD

    as the waters cover the sea.

This text from the book of Isaiah is so amazing, maybe we should get to know the Prophet Isaiah better – that is, all three of him.  Bible scholars tell us there were three Isaiahs.

The book of Isaiah is named for Isaiah ben Amoz, who prophesied in the middle of the eighth century, B.C., about the time of the Assyrian invasion of Israel and Judah.  Scholars tell us that Isaiah ben Amoz wrote Chapters 1 – 39, but the book of Isaiah contains two more collections of prophecy after his death.

The anonymous author of Chapters 40-55 lived nearly 200 years later, during the Babylonian Exile.  He was prophesying an end to the Exile, and a marvelous homecoming of the exiles to Jerusalem.  This author is called “Second Isaiah”.

Chapters 55-66 are attributed to another source, known as “Third Isaiah”.  This author wrote about the end of the Exile and looked forward to the restoration of Jerusalem. 

You will note that the title of our Study Book is “The Sovereignty of God”.  When you hear the word “sovereignty”, what images come to mind?  Maybe a ruling authority figure, like a president or prime minister?  A monarch or a dictator?

The word “sovereignty” implies power.  Someone who is sovereign over us has the authority and power to rule over us.  If you go looking for synonyms in your Thesaurus, you’ll find supreme, dominant, absolute, superior.  These all indicate that a sovereign has great power to demand compliance if not obedience to his or her will.  Now, we know that earthly sovereigns vary a great deal in how they exercise their power.  Some are dictatorial and demand absolute obedience from those they rule.  Others, like an elected president or a prime minister, have checks and balances on their power.

So if we are going to talk about God’s sovereignty, a related question is what kind of subjects are we called to be?  In today’s text, we see a hoped-for sovereign who will usher in a peaceful kingdom in which harmony and security reign.  Traditional enemies in the animal kingdom will coexist in peace according to this vision.  Even the most vulnerable of human beings – babies and toddlers – will not need to fear danger in this kingdom.  Our challenge will be – how do we live into this vision?

So let’s start at the first verse of Chapter 11 and see what we can learn.

You see the start of those first verses are very different from most of what you will find in Isaiah.  While most of the prophetic writings of Isaiah ben Amoz concern God’s judgment on Israel and other nations, these first passages are one of hope for the future.

The image here is of a tree stump, likely connected to the previous verses in Chapter 10 that describe God’s judgment against Assyria, where the Assyrians are about to be “cut down and laid low.”  Out of the stump of Jessie will come a “shoot,” a future ruler who will restore Israel’s fortunes and establish God’s reign.

Any gardeners here?  If so, you know that if you cut down a tree or a large bush, after some time you get a “green shoot”.  The roots are still alive and growing.

In this case the Jessie that is the stump was King David’s father, and the “shoot” would be a Davidic monarchy.

In verse 2 we find out that the hoped-for monarch is described as endowed with the Lord’s Spirit.  The characteristics of this ruler are listed as: wisdom, understanding, planning or counsel, strength or might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord.

As a young Christian it used to bother me when I read about “fear of the Lord.”  How did God’s love for me fit with me being afraid of Him.  But the “fear of the Lord” as used here does not mean to be afraid of God, but rather to live with a deep and profound respect toward God.  The words “reverence” and “awe” are good synonyms for “fear of the Lord.”

The “fear of the Lord” theme continues into the third verse and expands upon it.  This coming ruler’s fear of the Lord will not be mere duty but will be his “delight.”  The word “delight” as used here can be translated “to take pleasure in.”  The fear of the Lord will be at the heart of this ruler’s relationship with God and will be a joy rather than a burden.  This ruler will not judge by superficial appearances or by words alone.

As a matter of fact, this ruler will issue judgments based on righteousness and equity.  The poor and the meek will receive justice based not on their status or their bank account but on their relationship with God.  Wouldn’t that be a different type of legal system?

As we read on, graphic verses of prophesy, metaphors and poetry describe the differences in justice, contrasting the treatment of the poor and meek with that of the wicked.

By verse 6 through verse 8, Isaiah begins describing the “peaceful kingdom”, where traditional enemies actually dwell in harmony.  These verses read like the restoration of God’s divine purpose for creation; the Garden of Eden.  

You remember the Garden of Eden, that’s where God introduced Adam to Eve.  And after Adam and Eve had talked, Adam was almost overcome.  He said, “God, she’s beautiful!  Why did you make her so beautiful?”  God said, “So you would like her, Adam.”  And Adam said, “Yeah, but she ain’t exactly a genius, God.”  And God said, “That’s so she would like you, Adam.”  

One more Garden of Eden story ….. It seems Eve and their first son were standing outside the Garden one day.  The little boy was looking at the gate across the Garden entrance, and the angels guarding it.  And he asked his mother, Eve, “What is that, Mommy?”  Eve replied that they used to live there.  “Why don’t we live there now, Mommy, it looks beautiful.”  Eve said, “Oh, it is beautiful, my son, but your Father ate us out of house and home.”  (But you won't find either of those two stories in the Bible.)

Okay now, two words that highlight this narrative of the kingdom of peace are “harmony” and “security.  We’ve all seen images on TV of the cheetah or the lion chasing down an antelope or a gazelle.  Natural enemies.  If it’s an antelope at the watering hole when the big cat appears, you’ll see that antelope break and run for all its worth.

After I retired from the Marine Corps and joined the Woodmen of the World life insurance sales team in Indiana, they used to tell a story about lions and gazelles.  The story was that somewhere on the Serengeti Plain a lion woke up each morning knowing that if it was going to eat that day, it had to be faster than the fastest gazelle out there.  And somewhere on that Plain a gazelle awoke knowing that if it was going to stay alive that day it had to be faster than the fastest lion out there.  But the moral of that story was that whether you were a lion or a gazelle, you better wake up running.  No pressure, right?

We do live in a violent society.  Each evening the TV newscast right here in Nashville is evidence of that.  But by verse 9, the peaceable kingdom our lesson talks about has begun to take hold.  No harm or destruction will exist in the reign of this new monarch.  The “holy mountain” is not a specific mountain such as Mount Sinai, but it is a metaphorical mountain where God is fully present, such as the Jewish Temple.

Isaiah 2:2 mentions this “holy mountain,” where it is called “the mountain of the Lord’s house.”  Isaiah uses the image of the Lord’s mountain throughout his prophecies to refer to the Temple in Jerusalem where God’s people believed God’s presence dwelt.

Now, this transformed kingdom of peace can occur because everyone will have “full knowledge of the Lord.”  This knowledge is not simply knowing the laws of the Mosaic covenant but it’s more along the lines of Jeremiah 31:33, which described God’s law, or “Instructions,” being written “within” humans and engraved “on their hearts.”  What we are referring to as “knowledge of the Lord” is a relationship of knowing and being known by God.

As I mentioned at the beginning, when we focus on the question of what kind of sovereignty does God exercise, related to that question is what kind of subjects are we called to be?

Because you see, we are not on the outside looking in – as if we were watching some TV program, or like the ancient Romans sitting safely outside the arena watching the combatants, down in the arena.  We ARE the combatants in the arena, you and I.  We ARE participants in the divine life of the Holy Trinity.  Life is going on all around us, and we are God’s part of it.  But what part do we play in God’s peaceful kingdom?

Well, let us lay the groundwork for that answer by considering the qualities WE would look for in an ideal ruler.  What traits would you want to see?  We have an election coming up, so without naming names, what traits are important in a candidate for President?  (Honesty, responsibility, intelligence, compassion, skill, and knowledge?)  In today’s scripture, verses 2 – 5, we find the prophet Isaiah has listed the qualities of the hoped-for ruler: wisdom, understanding, planning, strength, knowledge, fear of the Lord, true discernment, righteousness and equity.

It’s no wonder the writers of the New Testament Gospels saw this description of the ideal ruler fulfilled in Jesus Christ; seeing Isaiah 11:2-9 as a messianic prophesy describing the coming Messiah and the kingdom He would usher in. 

 As we’ve noted before, the human propensity for violence is well-documented.  Our human history is filled with wars, conflicts, and disputes of all kinds.  Job, chapter 5, verse 7 tells us that “…man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.”  However, since no one person can control history, we need to focus on our daily lives and ask, “How can I live less violently?”  What if we were to teach students in school about the merits of ethics and morals, about the sources of violence, such as fear, anger, power, and stereotyping, and how to respond positively with communication, understanding, affirmation, and forgiveness, putting emphasis on creative conflict transformation.

You see, violence is not always physical conflict.  Myself and others met with Congressman Jim Cooper last week about other issues, and he shared his own concerns.  He talked about conflict at the Federal, State and local level in politics; said he had never seen such polarization.

Many people today still believe that our nation was founded upon the principle of separation of church and state, even though there is nothing in either the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights about it.  But they give the church little credit for problem solving.  But in fact the Church, Christianity is an “alternatives to violence program” in its own way.  It holds up this vision of Isaiah 11:1-9 as how the world should and could be with God’s presence.  This is a vision toward which we are called to live.  But how do we translate this ideal vision of a peaceful kingdom into everyday life?

Well, I have three suggestions for you to consider.

First, we can become aware of how we overtly and indirectly use or encourage violence in our own lives.  Self-awareness is always the first step to change.  We should look carefully at ourselves and ask, “When am I tempted to use violent actions or words to resolve a conflict?”  Think about it.

Second, we can become aware of the feelings that might lead to aggressive words or action.  Feelings such as “fear of the other”, anger, inadequacy, powerlessness, or jealousy can lead to violence.  But they don’t have to.  We don’t have to act on our feelings.  Someone has pointed out that we don’t have to attend every fight to which we’re invited.  If we can’t control our feelings, we can release our anger on an inanimate object such as a pillow or a mattress rather than on another person.

And third, we can overcome our tendency to violence with forgiveness and love.  As 1st John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.”  Since fear is at the heart of many violent urges, love can show us a different way to deal with conflict.  The way of love leads to a desire for peace, harmony and security.

Here in Nashville, Tennessee, Dodson Chapel United Methodist Church has had on their sign for the past month the message: “Hate cannot drive out hate.  Only love can drive out hate.”

When guided by the love we see revealed in Jesus Christ, we no longer need to use violent means to achieve who we want to be, where we want to be, and what we want to be.  

Singer Todd Rundgren released a song in 1997 titled “Love is the Answer,” and part of the lyrics cried out: “Light of the world, shine on me.  Love is the answer.  Shine on us all, set us free.  Love is the answer.”

I submit that people like you and I know that love is the answer, and someone needs to tell the rest of the world, so we can live into that peaceful kingdom.  Tell the world.  Love is the answer.  Amen?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

“Holy God, You have drawn us into the divine family through Your Son.  May Your peaceful kingdom be expressed in our lives, made eloquent by the love of Christ; in Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen."

Born in a Barn? Close the Door to Evil!

2016-09-02T23:27:00.001-07:00

By Pastor Ed Evans

As America draws closer to the November 8^th Presidential election, many forces for and against the two leading candidates are becoming more active, more accusatory, more divisive.

Among the voting population there are those who say they will vote for Hillary Clinton, those who say they will vote for Donald Trump, and those who say they cannot vote for either so they will vote for one of the several lesser known candidates.

You, as an American voter, have every right to vote for whom you wish. I and many others have and most probably would again, fight to guarantee you that right. In the same spirit that it has been said that the U.S. Constitution is fit only for governing a God-fearing people -- yes, I am aware not all Americans are going to be God-fearing people – the action of performing as a responsible voter rests only with those concerned, as I am at this critical juncture in our nation's history, with the future of our nation.

Any due diligence applied, any critical thinking, will reveal that only Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump have a reasonable chance at becoming President. I am not nearly as concerned about what Trump says as I am about what Clinton has not only done, but promises to do once imbued with the power of the Oval Office. There can be no compromise, there is no alternative choice. The nation-saving choice rests in keeping evil out of the Oval Office, away from the power of the Presidency, completely away from the nuclear football, or codes. Evil must also not be allowed to pack the Supreme Court over the next eight years; must be kept from continuing to strip the U.S. military of not only new weaponry but also necessary maintenance programs (F-18s are "falling out of the air" due to lack of required maintenance); cease coming up with more PC social experiments in our military that merely degrade the most effective military in the world; stop teaching the next generation that how to make more money is better than learning productive ethics and morals.

As with the rest of life that I have lived and observed in my 75 years on this earth, I have no doubt about the sovereignty of Almighty God; God will do what God intends to do. And while His Son's Sermon on the Mount provides excellent guidance for how we should live into His vision, at no time does God instruct us to open the doors for evil. But as with most everything else, opening those doors or closing them is an individual choice. Choose well. The future of your children and my grandchildren depend upon keeping evil out. I urge you not to allow them to be caught on the wrong side of evil.

Strangeness in a Strange World

2016-08-31T22:24:00.002-07:00

Seems to be a strange wave of anti-voting going on. I keep running into posts by people who claim they are not voting for Hillary, and by not voting at all, they claim that will be a vote for Trump. It's nonsense, of course. Doesn't work that way. But that is their story and they are sticking to it, along with the claims Hillary will never be convicted of anything. Like they thought she was royalty.
I have to believe this is all coming from the Democrat's traditional bag of dirty tricks. Otherwise, why the sudden surge of "not voting is a vote for Trump"?
One poster brushed aside all logical arguments ending with a graphic which declared: "The only people I owe my loyalty to are those who never made me question their's." This was my response:
"...owe loyalty...? That would include all those wonderful young men who paid with their lives and futures for your freedom and mine. I know many of their names firsthand, some who died on the four battlefields on which I served, while I survived. And I owe them and their surviving families a better America, which is why I will not roll over and go along to get along. Trump has been helping and assisting military veterans long before he began running for President. Hillary has consistently disrespected and demeaned military members, not to mention the now available email evidence of her deadly involvement in the death of the Benghazi four. If you are free, if you are in this nation speaking English, having access to all the hopes and dreams of any other American, then you owe posterity the same diligence of purpose in protecting freedom that those who came before you sacrificed to provide to you and your family. "Opting out", like the bended knee before royalty, is not the American way.

Life is a Contest

2016-08-12T21:14:00.003-07:00

By Pastor Ed Evans

Life is a contest; sink or swim, succeed or fail, be rewarded or lose out.

If you are not aborted, you have a chance. If you are born in America, you have a chance. If you are born to loving, supportive parents, you have a chance. Not everyone is.

At least in our day and age we no longer have to be on the lookout for saber-toothed tigers, deadly raptors and other dinosaurs. Today most of our dangers come instead from mankind and its machinations. So yes, sometimes staying alive is a contest that requires focus and concentration.

The world has been watching the 31^st Olympics this past week, and rarely has focus and concentration been more on display. 31-year-old Michael Phelps winning 22 Olympic medals; Simone Manuel celebrated as the first black person to win an Olympic swimming gold medal, followed by a host of exciting stories of Olympic medal wins.

Unlike the other competition that has dominated the world-wide news media this past year – no, not the American political campaigns – the war against terrorism, we have witnessed many poignant moments where battling teams switched in an instant from intense competitors to hugging, hand-shaking congratulatory fans of the winners.

Maybe it’s just the sports environment that encourages such clean, healthy competition without the base, go-for-the-jugular attacks. No revenge, no vengeance. As veteran volleyball champ Kerry Walsh Jennings and her partner battled the Italians for the gold medal, the TV cameras zoomed in on Walsh Jennings left hand, where she had written the word “JOY” to remind her why she played so hard to win. Competition, yes, but not for blood. And winners were congratulated and celebrated, not plotted against sniped at.

Sports does seem to bring out the best in human beings.

A Little League baseball game comes to mind, where the boys from Warner Robbins, Ga., defeated a team of young boys from Japan. Even as the winners jumped about with back-slapping congratulations, they noticed that the Japanese boys had broken down in tears. Without a word the victory celebration stopped and the winning team moved to console the losers.

Said pitcher Kendall Scott, “I just hated to see them cry, and I just wanted to let them know that I care. Youthful sportsmanship at its best.

Some may remember a similar moment that was caught on video at a Special Olympics race a few years ago. As the mentally and physically challenged children raced down their lanes, one boy stumbled and went down. One girl stopped, turned around and went back to help him. The others, as they approached the finish line, stopped, turned and went back to boy being helped to his feet. All together, they crossed the finished line, winners all.

Heartwarming moments all, but pointing out that sports – even at its best – is an imperfect metaphor for Christianity. For in sports, someone always loses. But when someone is won to Christ, the only loser is Satan.

The difference is that for Christians, true teamwork is not about defeating someone, it’s about making them part of the team, God’s own team.

Hope Is A Thing With Feathers -- That Keeps Us Afloat

2016-08-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

Pastor Ed Evans

Romans 5:1-11
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Emily Dickinson’s collection of poems includes one titled “Hope is the Thing With Feathers”:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest sea -
Yet - never - in extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

If you read that alongside Paul’s words in Romans 5:1-8 – where he mentions “hope” three times – You might be struck by the irony.
On the one hand the image of the unwavering resilience and startling strength of a fragile, feathery creature, and on the other hand, we might see ourselves, so easily undermined and weakened by the realities of suffering and sin.
With your experience in life, you might have noticed that remarkably, humankind, for all its outward show of self-assurance, strength, and superiority, is a terribly fragile thing, prone to shatter under the weight of even the slightest burden – much more like that we might expect of a tiny bird.
However, the poet’s bird – hope – is nothing like it looks. Though it appears to the observer but a “thing with feathers,” hope, says Emily Dickinson, is never thwarted and requires not even a “crumb” to endure. It is strong and self-assured. It never stops singing, no matter what.

Does anyone still watch the news, anymore? I almost hate to watch the local and network news. When I was a boy the news media was the watchdog of government; now they are the lapdog. When I was a boy the news media gave you news, not gossip; gave you news of how people were building up their communities, taking care one another; not statistics and lurid videos of murder, rape and robbery. Watching the news, you would think that is all that goes on.
And if it isn’t happening here, they’ll find a ghastly murder or rape in Bombay or Timbuktu, and share that. If it bleeds it leads, that seems to be their motto.
When someone calls them on this practice, they answer in defense that people today are scared, they are concerned, and they need to know what is going on.
Well, it is true, sin abounds. But does it abound more than in Noah’s time, or Jeremiah’s time? Is sin and evil and Satan’s activity any worse than it ever was?
You see, I contend that the abundance of sin, of evil and of Satan in the world isn’t the problem. They have always been here. I believe the real problem isn’t that we are in the midst of this storm of evil, the problem is we have forgotten whose we are.
Let me share with you three verses from the back end of Romans, Chapter 5. The scripture for today is at the front end of Romans, and doesn’t get into how Christ’s sacrificial love overcomes the reign of sin and death, how yes there is universal condemnation, but it is overcome by universal grace.
Romans 5:19-21 reads: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Let me tell you a story from my childhood right here. If I’ve told it before, I apologize, but it fits so well here. I grew up with my grandparents in a little town in California called Mariposa. It’s right at the mouth of Yosemite National Park. Mariposa was an old gold-mining town full of played-out placer miners and old cowboys. My grandfather worked for the U.S. Forestry Service and my idea of fun at age five was going to forest fires, feeding the chickens, collecting the eggs, and throwing the ball back and forth with Wally, the teen-age son of my grandfather’s boss.
Now in Mariposa, they had a brand new high school built right next to the elementary school where I was in the first grade. And one day they announced that a magician was going to put on a show at the high school’s new auditorium. We had to bring to school a quarter, 25 cents, to attend that show.
When you’re in first grade in those days you’re sort of floating through life, so I’m not sure if we couldn’t afford that 25 cents, which was very likely, or I just forgot to ask for it. But came the show day, everybody else in class marched to the auditorium and I was told I had to go home. Home was a five mile hike out of town.
Well, I was heart-broken at this rejection. And as I walked past the high school toward the forestry camp, tears streamed down my little face. And who should see me but Wally. He ran over and asked me what was wrong. Between sobs I told him. Wally took me by the arm, walked me down to the auditorium and paid my 25 cents to his buddy who was taking money at the door. Can you even imagine how happy and redeemed I felt?!
And every time I read about the sacrificial love of Christ, about the grace of God that saves me, I feel just as full of joy as I felt that day when Wally paid my way. I just want to jump up and click my heels and shout “HALLELUJAH!”
In our text, verse 10 says, “If we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son while we were still enemies, now that we have been reconciled, how much more certain is it that we will be saved by His life?”
Friends, He loved us before we even knew Him.
As I mentioned before, our real problem is often that we forget to whom we belong. As children of the King, we often have unopened gifts – gifts of peace, grace and hope. We stand about and wring our hands, we worry when instead we should be praying, and the gifts that will be the answer to our difficulties – peace, grace, and hope – are waiting right there for us.
Ever watch one of those scary movies where the hero is about to go go down into the basement, or open that garage door, and in your heart you are saying “Don’t go in the basement! Don’t open that door!”
In my imagination, I can see us moping about in anger and frustration over issues we are not equipped to solve, and off-stage the angels are watching us saying, “Open the gifts! Open the gifts! Open the gifts!” – because peace, grace, and hope are waiting for you there.
So let’s talk about peace, grace, and hope for a minute.
Swiss theologian Karl Barth wrote, “Peace with God is … effected by a God-given transformation … through which the proper relation between the Creator and the creature is re-established, and by means of which also the only true and proper love towards God is brought into being … Peace is declared when imprisoned truth is set at liberty and when the righteousness of God is made manifest.”
Augustine is credited with saying, “The truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.”
But too often, we whom God has blessed with liberty and freedom don’t turn truth loose, and we invite the wrath of God when we do that. In Paul’s first chapter to the Romans, verse 1:18, we read “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” Instead of setting the truth of God free, we hold it in unrighteousness. That means we know the truth, but we don’t care. We know what goes on in Las Vegas, but we don’t care and they brag that the city’s nickname is “Sin City.”
People know that alcohol degrades our driving ability with the first drink, but we don’t care. We drink it, we drive, and so far this year Tennessee has 542 dead people from highway accidents; 61 more than this time last year; 151 of those killed, torn from their families, were alcohol-related.
We know what sin is, but too many of us don’t care. We hold the truth in unrighteousness.
God is a just God. We are without excuse. We hold the truth in unrighteousness and invite the wrath of God.
But this lesson is about hope, isn’t it; about peace, grace, and hope. In a word the peace Paul is talking about is reconciliation. Not just the reconciling of the individual to God, but the complete and permanent reconciliation of the whole world to its sovereign Lord.
Where Paul speaks of grace, imagine a great hall, into which we have all been invited and made welcome. It is as we stand together in this great hall that Jesus grants us unrestricted access to the presence of Almighty God. We have not earned or deserved this special privilege, but we receive it, nonetheless. Just as Wally bought my way in, Jesus has bought our way in with his sacrificial love.
What Paul seems to have in mind here is a relocation of humanity’s relationship to God. This relocation happens here and now, making whatever human experience is in the present (even if it is suffering) capable of standing firm.
As regards hope, a good way to understand the content of the hope Paul i8s talking about here is to recall descriptions of God’s glory in the Hebrew scriptures. For example, in Exodus 40, verse 35, it reads, “Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
When Isaiah describes his great vision in Isaiah 6, verse 3, and sees the Lord on His throne, he hears the two winged creatures shouting to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; / the whole earth is full of His glory.”
And then the prophet Ezekiel, in one of his visions, saw “the Lord’s glory” as it “rose from above the winged creatures and moved toward the temple’s threshold. The temple was filled with the cloud, and the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the Lord’s glory.” (Ezekiel 10:4)
With these in mind, then, we are now able to hope in the all-encompassing, fully indwelling presence of Almighty God, the kind that left Moses with a glow on his face. That is the hope that is ours, made possible by Jesus, Moreover, we should be so confident in that hope, so overwhelmed with joy that we actually want to boast about it. The boasting Paul refers to here is more akin to what the prophet Jeremiah said in his ninth chapter, verses 23-24: “Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know Me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.”
I might note that the NIV uses the word “rejoice” instead of “boast”, perhaps since that word as we use it and understand it today reeks of self-advertisement; something we generally find distasteful.
And while we’re talking about individual words, what about the word translated “enemies” in verse 10? “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son…” Do you think it is too strong to call us “enemies” before we knew Christ?
If you do think “enemies” is too strong a word, let me share with you two other instances of the use of that word –
From Psalm 58:3 – “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.”
And from Ephesians 2:12 – “That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world…”
Let me ask you some questions to consider in the hope of drawing out some of your experiences with peace, grace, and hope. For example, what words would you use to describe how you have experienced the “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” that Paul talks about in verse one?
[Peace for most people in Paul’s day would have meant “pax Romana”, a tenuous civil order secured by imperial rule. But for Paul “peace” would have meant an inward assurance of our worth and God’s love. It doesn’t always mean the absence of trouble or hardship.]
Secondly, is it possible you have seen evidence of God’s grace in your life? How did it manifest itself? What did it mean to you? Think about that for a moment.
[God’s glory is grounded in God’s faithful love for all things and has always existed. It is this all-encompassing, never-failing character of divine glory that invites our certain hope that God will bring to pass the divine purpose for all creation.]
Now, as we read in today’s scripture, Paul’s perspective on suffering and the hardships of life is that they are part of the human condition; but through Jesus own suffering and death, human suffering is transformed into a channel through which God’s love flows to redeem that very suffering. Paul recommends rejoicing in our suffering and hardships, and expressing utter confidence in God’s love.
Has Paul’s chain – of trouble followed by endurance followed by character-building followed by hope -- shown to be true in your experience? What do you think?
In closing I would note that Paul is emphasizing to his Roman readers, and down through the centuries to you and I, that the death of Jesus establishes that God has a radical love that is given before we know to ask for it – while we were still weak – and in spite of the fact that we do not deserve it – while we were still sinners. Amazing -- that is what John Newton calls it in his famous song from 1st Chronicles 17, “Amazing Grace.”
We close with prayer: “God of peace, grace, and hope, grant us what we need to endure our problems and trouble with faith. Let our character be in tune with Yours. Let us never lose hope of Your glory; in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”

The Darker, Sterner Days of America's Tomorrows

2016-07-20T19:32:00.001-07:00

The Darker, Sterner Days of America's Tomorrows

by Pastor Ed Evans

Many of us, whether supporters of Donald Trump, cautious admirers, or die-hard non-supporters, have been watching the TV coverage of the Republican National Convention. As one who has spent more than 50 years dealing with the American and international news media, I have perhaps paid attention to different aspects of that coverage than have others, and I find great disappointment.

CBS in particular has done a wretched, deliberately I suspect, wretched job. At a high point in the early convention CBS broke for a several days old interview with Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton. Here they are promoting gavel-to-gavel coverage of a Republican convention and they switch to a Democratic opponent who is castigating and savaging her opponent, Republican Donald Trump.

I was so disgusted I switched to C-Span and there I stayed. Even-handed coverage.

But it was when I switched that I believe I discovered the reason CBS went to a Hillary Clinton interview. For at the convention, at that very point, conventioneers were hearing from the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, former LtGen. Michael Flynn, on the disastrous amount of damage Hillary Clinton had done with her injudicious handling of her email and classified documents on an unofficial email system she had set up for herself. And it is disastrous. For not only are our classified secrets now in the hands of our enemies and detractors, but so are her private emails. This sets her up for a monumental amount of blackmail, if our enemies wish. How can one operate in the Oval Office on behalf of America under those circumstances?

So much of the past four years under the Obama administration needs to be corrected. Operating outside the bounds of Constitutional authority, without Congress holding his feet to the fire, President Obama and his administration have created racial, economic, and national security havoc. Even the social assistance program dubbed “Obamacare”, intended to meet the needs of so many people, is coming apart and leaving those who need it most in economic and medical jeopardy. There is so much that needs to be corrected.

And so it is with a cautiously hopeful heart that many Americans, politically affiliated or not, are watching the events play out at the Republican National Convention, placing Donald Trump and Governor Pence in the spotlight of history. All the while the CBS reporters go on camera discussing the size of the hall, the empty seats, seeking out delegates who will have a targeted bad word to say about Trump. CBS has studiously abandoned their responsibility to the American people to provide all the facts unfettered with personal agendas. The CBS reportage team embarrassed themselves when they went onto the Convention floor seeking the Convientioneers’ comments about the similarities between Melania Trump’s speech and an old one of First Lady Michelle Obama. Responded the delegates on the floor: “We don’t care.”

All of this sadness has sent my mind reeling back to another era, when world leaders were world leaders and the rest of us were glad of it. And Winston Churchill, he who once termed himself merely the lion given the gift of being the British nation’s roar in victory over World War II, Churchill appeared at the Harrow boys’ school in England to give a speech. The words still ring out with the bronze bell sound of freedom and dedication to that freedom, today.

A sermon illustration from Pastor Lee Eclov of Vernon Hills, Illinois, best recalls the event, as follows.

There is a widespread myth about a famous short speech supposedly delivered by Winston Churchill. Most versions go something like the one I found in a Christian book:

There's this famous story about Sir Winston Churchill, who near the end of his distinguished career was asked to return and speak at his old school, Harrow (where as a boy he'd almost flunked out)…

The great day finally arrived, and after the school's fanfare and acclamation Sir Winston stood to his feet, acknowledged the introduction, and gave the following address, which is quoted in full: 'Young men, never give up. Never give up! Never give up!! Never, never, never-never-never-never!'"

According to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, the speech was not delivered near the end of Churchill's career (he died in 1965), but on October 29, 1941. And he wasn't Sir Winston till 1953. And what he really said was, "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense."

In addition, this familiar speech was not 29 words long, but rather two pages. The famous quote was neither at the beginning nor the end, but hidden away in a long paragraph recounting Great Britain's progress during the first 10 months of World War II. The full speech reads:

Almost a year has passed since I came down here at your Head Master's kind invitation in order to cheer myself and cheer the hearts of a few of my friends by singing some of our own songs. The 10 months that have passed have seen very terrible catastrophic events in the world—ups and downs, misfortunes—but can anyone sitting here this afternoon, this October afternoon, not feel deeply thankful for what has happened in the time that has passed and for the very great improvement in the position of our country and of our home? Why, when I was here last time we were quite alone, desperately alone, and we had been so for five or six months. We were poorly armed. We are not so poorly armed today; but then we were very poorly armed. We had the unmeasured menace of the enemy and their air attack still beating upon us, and you yourselves had had experience of this attack; and I expect you are beginning to feel impatient that there has been this long lull with nothing particular turning up!

But we must learn to be equally good at what is short and sharp and what is long and tough. It is generally said that the British are often better at the last. They do not expect to move from crisis to crisis; they do not always expect that each day will bring up some noble chance of war; but when they very slowly make up their minds that the thing has to be done and the job put through and finished, then, even if it takes months—if it takes years—they do it.

Eclov, in his remembrance of the event, goes on to say, “Another lesson I think we may take ….. is that appearances are often very deceptive, and as Kipling well says, we must "…meet with Triumph and Disaster. And treat those two impostors just the same."

God alone knows how the November election will turn out. Many of us hope Trump will be the victor and he will keep his promises to America to lead this nation back to greatness, out of a mire of ethical, moral, economic and legal bad decisions. Out of the darkness, into the sunlight, without failure or obfuscation. Against that we must never give in. Never, never, never.

Behind Every Blade of Grass -- An American

2016-07-11T21:53:00.001-07:00

By Pastor Ed Evans

Righteous anger and indignation has its limits, and at some point caring people must speak up -- or explode. We’ve seen some explosions recently, AKA violence.

I just watched the CBS Evening news for July 11^th, 2016, and the limit has been reached in this quarter.

This essay will probably lose me friends, but what I am about to say cries out to be said, and I see no one else saying it. If you need to defriend me, cross me off your Christmas card list, tell others “I told you so,” go for it. In the greater scheme of things I, and my opinions, are of little importance. I would wish that those with more importance, greater audiences, and more power to impact American society and our cultural ethics would speak up about these issues. But I’m not seeing it, so while I am only one, I am one American. I am one proud to be an American, honored that I had the opportunity, on four battlefields, to defend the freedoms of this nation; honored that my wife and I have launched four adult sons and one adult daughter into the American nation who have no desire to do harm to others, who believe in integrity and personal responsibility.

The righteous anger and indignation of which I speak has been building for some time. It is partly borne of watching elected officials fawn like schoolchildren seeking favors, avoiding responsible action, indulging in petulant finger-pointing when they should be leading the way to seeking and supporting real answers to real problems affecting real people. That is why they were elected. Instead they chain dance behind their chosen political party, engage in smearing the efforts and candidates from opposing political parties, merely muddying the water and driving away creative solutions.

What finally drove me to set down in black and white the indignation I am feeling was the CBS Evening news coverage showing testimony by the Director of the FBI and “explanations” by Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton about the FBI Director’s decision not to recommend prosecution regarding her use of unprotected, unofficial emails while Secretary of State. It does not seem to matter that people of lesser social rank, who also mishandled classified information, regardless of intent, have lost their jobs, been fined, and have been jailed.

It should not be lost on us that Hillary Clinton initially claimed her emails had not included any classified information. This was proven to be a lie when the FBI Director disclosed her emails included 23,035 pieces of classified information, data which we can safely assume is now in the hands of other nations to America’s disadvantage. And if that were not bad enough, the same people now have access to all those emails between Hillary Clinton and others, which should provide a rich field for blackmail on a national and international scale of the candidate should she become President.

But my real question is why are we even still discussing this?

We know from Congressional hearings the part this woman, and others, played in the horrible abandonment and deaths of four Americans in Benghazi. Beyond that, the Internet has been alive with a long list of deaths, legal infractions, and scandalous peccadillos that makes the Clinton family look like a ripe target for RICO charges of organized gang activity.

As an American, as a military veteran and patriot, as a father, a husband, and an ordained minister of Jesus Christ, I strenuously object to being played for a fool, object to the supposition I cannot discern good and evil, truth and lie for what they are; object beyond measure to the criminal treatment besieging my beloved country.

Nevertheless, the offensive political atmosphere is only a portion of my complaint about the current attempt to dumb down this nation and malign the integrity of its citizens. Alphabetically, my complaints would run the gamut from abortion as the murder of disenfranchised infants – if Black Lives truly Matter, they need to begin at the abortion clinics! – to blatant lies by America’s political elite, to foolhardy economics being approved at the highest levels of government to support nations foreign to our interests, build Islam mosques, and purchase weapons for other nations which will one day be turned on us, as history has shown.

This is what I want:

All those who consider yourselves a member of a race before you consider yourselves Americans -- stand down. The equality spoken of in the U.S. Constitution (14^th Amendment) and all ten amendments of the Bill of Rights means everyone has the opportunity to be equal. No one is more equal than anyone else. If you don’t feel you have equal opportunities, then work to change that. Violence is not the answer. Stomping your food and demanding others give you what you will not work for to attain for yourself, won’t work.

If you have immigrated to this nation illegally, go home. Go home and work to change your home country into what you want it to be, as Americans have done, shedding their blood, committing their lives, their fortunes and their futures to achieve what we have. We did not do it so those not familiar with how we got here can come in and change America back to a third world banana republic. “Illegal” means you committed a crime in sneaking in here. You are welcome to come in legally, work for a season, and then return home. If you want to stay here, go home and immigrate legally, as many others have done.

If you have immigrated to this nation legally, something about this nation must have impressed you. With all respect to your prior experiences, learn what it means to be an American, and be an American, not some hyphenated halfway American. If you are not happy with America as your home, go home. To all others, welcome aboard. Glad you are here.

Presidents, Congressmen, Senators, you need to re-read your oath of office, and note that you are accepting responsibility for the protection and betterment of the nation and its people. There is nothing in the oath of office about your elected office being a career choice, about feathering your own nest and building a war chest for the next election, about decision-making being based upon the precepts of your political party, or about being re-elected. We the People come first. If that makes no sense to you, offends you, doesn’t work for you, turn the lights out and go home. Demonstrate some self respect.

Integrity, dedication, truthfulness must be restored to those in federal service, whether elected, appointed, or just hired. The ship of state is continually running aground because of underhanded dealings, scams, chicanery, illegal and personal deals by those in public office. When wrong-doing is uncovered, responsible people take action, and there are consequences, not cover-ups.

The world remains an unsafe and often ugly place, and the state of a nation’s security forces is critical. Using those armed forces as replacements for hard-fought diplomacy, as bargaining chips at budget time, and as social experiments to check-off political points is not only unbelievably foolish, but sets the nation at a risk level which may not be restored. The world changes, opportunities change, the nature and power and intent of once-allies change. The U.S. Military has a purpose. Fund it properly, leave it alone, and get out of its way.

Finally, while there is a coterie of those who would argue America’s Christian beginnings, nevertheless, our history and the intents of our forefathers rest upon the search for liberty to worship in freedom, and the early predominance was for the Christian religion. Over our 240 years, Americans have learned to share that freedom perhaps beyond even what our forefathers envisioned. As a people we make room for those who wish to worship within the framework of their upbringing, and according to their conscience. That said, the unparalleled violence associated with the Islamic religion requires a closer look at what it is. Islam, historically, is not a pure religion, but a religious oligarchy, that is, an organization forever seeking conquest through religion. Under this organizational definition, borne out by the growth and conquest of Islam itself, Islam does not qualify as a “religion” meriting the protection of religion through the U.S. Constitution. For acceptance of Islam within the United States means protection of a force seeking the overthrow of the government of the United States. The adherents to Islam need to step back from their support of jihad, renounce violence and their religion’s stated purpose of conquest. If that is not acceptable, Islam must be banned, as it was originally by the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.. H.R.13342; Pub.L. 414;182 Stat.66, which in Section 212, Chapter 2, prohibits entry into America any immigrants belonging to an organization seeking the unlawful overthrow of the federal government of the United States by force, violence and other unconstitutional means. Islam has already been banned in Japan, Angola, and China, and declared a non-religion in Italy.

So the message is that if you come to America to live, whatever your skin color, original nationality or religion, come to be an American, not to change us to your ways. Or, if you can’t or won’t do this, stay home. Choice is yours.

For the rest of you involved in un-American activities, knock it off, or leave. If you don’t know what it means to be an American, find out and adjust. Or leave.

Face it, for those of us who were born here, grew up here, studied American history and civics, and have grandchildren and great-grandchildren to whom we want to bequeath this great country, we have nothing to lose and a nation to gain; a nation we love.

I close this with the words of two of America’s presidents. First, George W. Bush: “"There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom."

And secondly, John F. Kennedy: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge--and more.”

Behind every blade of beautiful American grass, an American.

-eme-

We Are All Under Sin's Power

2016-07-09T21:46:00.003-07:00

We're talking today about sin, and I’ve got so much to say about that, we may not get through it all today. I don’t claim to be like the visiting Pastor who was invited to give a talk on sin. The senior elder introduced him, giving him glowing bona fides, and brought the Pastor forward with the question, “Pastor, what do you have to tell us about sin?” The Pastor approached the pulpit and replied, “I’m agin’ it!” and sat down.

Well, I have just a little more than that to say about sin.

Scripture: Romans 3:9-20 - English Standard Version (ESV)

⁹What then? Are we Jews^[^a^] any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, ¹⁰as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹    no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
¹²All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
¹³“Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
¹⁴    “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
¹⁵“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶    in their paths are ruin and misery,
¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸    “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So before we go any further, we need to turn inward, to ourselves, and answer an important question. Do we believe what the Bible tells us, about sin and salvation? It’s like the story about Jack, who was a little too clumsy for his own good.

A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day, when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet.
He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff. So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him, maybe lower a rope or something.
HELP! HELP! Is anyone up there? "HELP!"
He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. He was about to give up when he heard a voice: “Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"
"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!"
"I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"
"Yes, but who are you, and where are you?
"I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere."
"The Lord? You mean, GOD?"
"That's Me."
"God, please help me! I promise if, you'll get me down from here, I'll stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the rest of my life."
"Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's get you off from there; then we can talk."
"Now, here's what I want you to do. Listen carefully."
"I'll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do."
"Okay. Let go of the branch."

"What?"

"I said, let go of the branch. Just trust Me. Let go."
There was a long silence.
Finally Jack yelled, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?"

Of course we trust God ….. until we don’t.

Many years ago there was a famous Letter to the Editor in New York Times under the subject “What is wrong with the world today?” The best letter of all was also the shortest. It read — “Dear Sir, I am. Yours faithfully, G. K. Chesterton.”

That devastating declaration showed a profound insight into man’s universal problem, and understanding it can teach us a deeply challenging lesson. Experience tells me that throughout the Christian church there are problems, difficulties and frustrations that would begin to dissolve immediately if only some Christians would be honest enough to answer the question—“What’s wrong?” with the words “I am!”

This is precisely Paul’s point in Romans 3:9-20. In this passage we are faced with the reality of our sin against God and other people. In short, we are the problem; I am the problem. Something I cannot escape; the apostle makes it clear—with a litany of Old Testament citations carrying the full authority of “thus says the Lord.” The passage as a whole stands as a fitting climax to this entire section which began in Chapter 1, verse 18. Paul says that human beings are sinners—all of us—and held accountable to God. Here we stand, guilty and convicted. The somber weight of this passage should not be missed.

But do not run to the peace and forgiveness of the gospel too quickly, lest you cheapen its message. First, take a good and prayerful look in the mirror of scripture and see if you are not in there. Then, look to God for mercy. Perhaps God will see fit to give us the same attitude we see in Copernicus, who wrote: “I do not ask for the grace thou didst give to St. Paul; nor can I dare ask for the grace which thou didst grant to St. Peter; but, the mercy which thou didst show to the Dying Robber, that mercy, show to me.”

If you and I, then, can come to see ourselves against the infinite holiness of God and His immutable law, then next week we may be eager to welcome the message of that week’s lesson of grace preached in Chapter 3:21-31. This week, admitting ourselves drenched in the drek of sin, we will be so much happier next week to walk in the light of His forgiveness.

How many of you have visited a cavern, like the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, or the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico? That’s “cavern”, not “tavern”, now.

As I prepared this lesson regarding the natural sinfulness of the human race, I felt as though I were descending deeper and deeper into the darkness of those underground caverns. So before we get any deeper or darker into this lesson, let me put a bright candle into your hand. And that would be Ephesians the second chapter, verses 4, 8 and 9: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

And allow me to further put today’s lesson in context by reminding you of Hebrews 10, verses 4-6 which tells us, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.”

The Law of Moses required that they make a good faith offering for their sins, but God took no pleasure in their offerings. Those ritual offerings were for their benefit, not God’s. It was to get them ready for God’s plan of salvation that involved the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

Paul is making the point that while all are under the power of sin, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that drives God’s salvation of all human beings.

So let us light that candle, hold it high, and continue onward as we get inside these verses and seek understanding.

In Romans 3:9, Paul juxtaposes the Jew and the Gentile and asks the question, “So what then?” Or in some translations it comes out “Are we better off?” The Jew has the Law and the covenant with God, the Gentile has only his new knowledge of a God who loved him first. But standing before God, Paul makes the point that neither is superior to the other. The great equalizer, he says, is simply sin.

Now the Greek word Paul uses for “sin” here is the noun “hamartia”; uses it 50 times, seven times as a verb. Paul uses it for an individual act, for sin as a state and quality, and for sin as an almost personified malignant power. The origin of the word “hamartia”, and the reason I bring it up, comes from the language of hunting. Specifically, to shoot an arrow, or to throw a spear or javelin, and miss the mark. Sin is missing the mark of what it means to be human, to be created in God’s image.

Like a soccer player who can’t make a goal.

The quarterback who can’t hit his receivers.

It’s like what you call a chicken at the North Pole – lost!

But sin is no laughing matter. Sin is a failure to reach the high mark God has established for creation. And for Paul, this failure is equally the condition of Jew and Gentile before a holy God.

Next we have a series of passages from the Old Testament strung together like links in a chain in support of Paul’s position on sin. Some Bible commentators call this section in Romans a “catena”, the Latin word for “chain.” Each of these links supports Paul’s teaching points.

What Paul is doing here – remember Paul is a learned Pharisee and very familiar with the Pharisaical obsession with keeping the Law – Paul is building what he believes to be an ironclad case against Jewish presumption, and in support of, the claim that Jew and Gentile are both under the power of sin.

Now, I want to note that Steve in a previous class made a point of our Lesson book giving us background text, which I had not used. And his point is a valid one. The background text will help us put the lesson into context. And in today’s lesson that is especially true, because you see, Paul got all his scripture quotes in the form of a previously compiled chain of excerpts from the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint. The reason this matters is because it allowed Paul to emphasize the way a Greek version translated Hebrew text, or if he wanted to paraphrase or edit certain phrases himself for effect.

For example, Anthony Benton’s 1851 English translation shows that in Romans 3:10, Paul used a paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 7:21: “For there is not a righteous man in the earth, who will do good, and not sin.”

In Romans 31-12, Paul uses Psalm 14:2-3 – “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there were any that understood, or sought after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become good for nothing, there is none that des good, no not one. Their throat is an open se3pulchre; with their tones they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.”

And from Psalm 53:1-3 – “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God…. All the way down to …there is none that does good, there is not even one.”

From Psalm 10:7 – “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness and fraud….”

From Isaiah 59:7-8 – “And their feet run to wickedness, swift to shed blood….”

And finally we find in Romans 3:18 the gist of Psalm 36:1 – “The transgressor, that he may sin, says within himself, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.” This is Paul using proven passages to make his point.

Now Paul, all through these excerpts uses an array of body parts: looks of the eyes, the throat, tongues, lips, mouth, feet, to show that sin is insidious, taking over the whole body, all human speech and action. Paul’s use of body parts seems to make explicit the ways in which human beings express their powerlessness to resist sin in our speech and actions.

We’ve all seen people saying things and doing things that are wrong, and cruel, and even inhuman, just like Paul did. He was clearly speaking out of his experience, just like our own. Highlighting some of the most “human” of scriptural voices, voices and experiences that Paul’s audience would have recognized and valued. The difference between being trapped in sin and living in the freedom of God’s grace would have been clear to them.

Now, I’m not going to ask for any personal confessions of wrongdoing,

but let me ask you, how do we prove what Paul is saying about sin in our world? In what ways have you seen evidence of sin’s power in our world today?

What evidence do you have that we are held in sin’s power? Or has the Law – especially in terms of Biblical Law, like the Ten Commandments, for example – have they brought about the knowledge of sin for you?

The reason for asking these questions is to bring about some level of self-awareness. For if we cannot recognize ourselves in Paul’s indictment, then we cannot be ready to receive Paul’s invitation, coming in just a few verses? In the last paragraph of your study book, the writer says, “Yes, we live in a world where the power of sin is present and active. Yet we do not have to live under that power.” Then the question becomes, how are we to live, as Christians, in a world of those two affirmations – sin and salvation?

“Loving God, help us resist the power of sin. Let us grow in our knowledge of You. Let us reflect the love of Christ in all that we do; in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Sheepdog Thoughts - July 9, 2016

2016-07-08T01:56:00.003-07:00

Seems the GOP has come out with a 100-day plan to stop Donald Trump. But Rush Limbaugh has asked a very embarrassing question: “Where’s your 100-day plan to stop Hillary Clinton?” For that matter, what happened to a 100-day plan to stop Obama??!!

Might as well face it, boys and girls. The GOP has already lost. They don't seem to understand their viability rests on voter support. This week, next week, next year, two years from now, it doesn't matter. It's all downhill from here slicker 'n snot and twice as nasty. Tell it to them real slow, Rush, so they understand.

--:-- Sheepdog Thoughts --:--

In New York City this past month, Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson met with a large gathering of evangelical leaders. The meeting was closed, as in doors closed, security in place, and the news media outside cooling their heels. Now the gossipy news media hollered bloody murder about that, but I would point out that the way they twist everything Trump does and says, it looks like it would be better to do and say what must be done and said, and just give the news media a press release. They have forfeited their right to any assumption they will deliver honest and unbiased reportage of political activities on either side of the aisle. Besides, the last time the news media asked Trump what his favorite Bible verse was, he told them it was “2 Corinthians 3:17.” They ate him alive with “who says ‘2 Corinthians’, it is “2^nd Corinthians, so he must not know his Bible. There was a reasonable explanation involving Evangelist Tony Perkins, which Perkins affirmed, but they were not interested. I would also point out that if you punch in “2 Corinthians” and Google it, you will find all kinds of such references. But they couldn’t be bothered to do that. They latched on to it to make a point they knew nothing about. Give it to them in writing. They are less likely to play fast and loose with something they know you have a verifiable copy of to refute lies and innuendos.

What a shame America’s real news media is lost to us. Where once the American news media was the watchdog of government, run by patriots and gifted purveyors of news, today they are the lapdog of government and being today run by bean counters.

--:-- Sheepdog Thoughts --:--

Former FBI assistant director James Kallstrom recently went on Fox News to discuss the aftermath of the deadly Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris and how the Bureau can't go sniffing around anything to do with Muslims on orders from the top. You can read more at http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/former-fbi-official-risking-his-life-just-exposed-obama-in-a-huge-way/

--:-- Sheepdog Thoughts --:--

What a spectacle in the U.S. House of Representatives – Democrats holding a mass “sit-in” on the House floor instead of abiding by the House rules. Yep, what great role models for our youth they are. If you don't get your way throw a tantrum, ignore the rules. It's called anarchy, kids; A-N-A-R-C-H-Y, anarchy. Except, it is not the American way. But, it did give them a great opportunity send out more fund-raising letters.

--:-- Sheepdog Thoughts --:--

Much of what we see today, which our own minor human wisdom tells us is wrong and outside of God, is the result of humanist thought placing itself above God. We place our own thoughts on the throne and call them God. But God is not amused. If we cannot believe the Word of God, and we pay no attention to what Jesus tells us through scripture – “You can’t believe everything in the Bible…” -- or to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, then we have not surrendered our will to the will of God, and we should call ourselves anything but Christian. Because we can already see around us God separating the sheep from the goats, and when Jesus returns, those who have formed their own religions outside of the will of Almighty God, are not going to be known to Him anyway. No excuses. No explanations. No arguments. Only the damning words, "I never knew you." Make the best of it, then, for our eternal life, or death, has already begun.

--:-- Sheepdog Thoughts --:--

Every time the liberals crow about a survey that shows Hillary ahead of Donald Trump, and the rest of the media comes back to correct their "oversampling of Democrats", I begin to see a wave of angry voters building into a tidal wave of resentment against what the Democrats have done to this nation of good people. C'mon November!!!

--:-- Sheepdog Thoughts --:--

Newt Gingrich recently declared publicly that the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are in open warfare against the Republican Party’s presumptive candidate for President, Donald Trump. He’s not wrong. Their actions show they have been.

The major American news media has betrayed the faith put in them on behalf of the American people. Today's news media is run by bean counters, not newsmen, and they are as frightened as the political mafia that a non-politician, a businessman who knows how to read a financial ledger, is going to upset the sweet deals they have made for their own futures. Donald Trump has made it plain he intends to set the federal government aright once more, and that scares the behind-the-door deal makers. It doesn't scare the American people. We see the news media and the political mafia for what they are.

--:-- Sheepdog Thoughts --:--

Eleven police officers were shot ambush-style, including four fatally, in Dallas this past Thursday night by at least two snipers, amid a protest against the recent police shootings of two black men.

The growing lack of respect for law and order is an encroaching demon that will eventually open the gates to the barbarians who would overcome America and its freedoms. We don't obey the law because we like it, we obey laws because we agree there must be laws -- for everyone.

Our nation is rapidly coming undone. Those who are ignorant of how Hitler took power, and how Germany welcomed his heavy handed actions to stop the violence, should educate themselves. This is how tyranny begins. Next step, martial law, which we cannot allow.

I firmly believe the flaw in their arrogant plans will be the millions of military veterans who have a life and death investment in this nation, who are trained and fully armed, and will not stand by and watch tyranny take over. What Japanese Admiral Yamamoto feared during WWII, what kept them from invading America, remains true, that there is a gun behind every blade of grass in America. This we will defend.