It may come as a surprise to many who think prejudice is simply one race against another, particularly whites against blacks. That's untrue. Many blacks are as prejudiced against whites.
It's more amazing to find people of the same origin prejudiced towards each other. This writer remembers Professor Paul Benjamin talking to one of his church members. He complained about Germans coming to America. When reminded that he was a German who had come to America, he replied, "I know, but I was here first." He thought priority has its privileges, even in immigration. The arrival in America of huge numbers of Irish in the 1840's proved that prejudice within race was nothing new. It ignited wholesale opposition—from Irish settlers in America who had come earlier, in smaller numbers. They had become assimilated into American life and resented seeing MORE of their nationals. It hit the newcomers hard that their own people treated them with the disrespect often shown by native-born Americans. As Hebrews 11 delineates, Christian believers in every generation have enjoyed an immense circle of Old Testament heroes cheering for us. Even though they lived under Law, and we under Grace; they with an honored Moses as their leaders, we with the I AM God Almighty Jesus Christ as ours. They don't begrudge us our spiritual benefits; they instead rejoiced that their faith in lesser privileges would encourage our faithfulness to God with greater. Understand...they don't sit in Paradise now in a gigantic amphitheater cheering. No, THEIR LIFE with lesser light encourages us with greater. For, however different the temptations today, all temptation is conquered by resisting to overcoming the devil, James 4:7, with spiritual dominance the Holy Spirit provides. In a symbolic sense, the ancient heroes would never slam the door in our faces. Having emerged through their time to victory, they assure us of success in ours through Christ's overwhelming, can't-be-denied, must-be-acknowledged victory over all of God's enemies I Corinthians 15:20-26.
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GOOD NEWS for every CHRISTIAN ZEALOUS TO SERVE JESUS! However far from complete our intention in service remains, to that point our life equals our doctrine. In addition, Christ's Grace brings to completion before God the service rendered in Christ's name. That wonderful truth is the reason Christians don't live under the curse of so many gifted people in secular life. Who put the BEST of themselves into their work, leaving only the BEGGARLY for personal behavior.
Frederick Chopin had incomparable piano skills by nature. He performed in elegant salons at age 8; by age 16 wrote piano compositions in different styles; at age 20 had his debut in Vienna. But when he died at age 39 he still hadn't found peace within himself. His thoughts poisoned his happiness, he wrote. He could only pour out his despair at the piano. Internet 10/30/19 Peter Tchaikovsky defined happiness as what one pursued, but never accrued. Fate prevented him from achieving it, he said. He obviously didn't believe Jesus, who left both peace and joy with his believers John 15:11, 16:33. Space limitations prevents more such illustrations. The point of the assurance listed above is:
The Biblical doctrine of Grace sees life's circumstance as:
It sees them as the means of:
Grace assures us that:
...even though we're content with lesser To be firm in faith under adversity, we must understand that we are:
And he has the right to subject us to the circumstances that make us:
Observing that principle will:
Whatever we experience, Christians have the assurance of:
Part III offers encouragement not to let discouragements weaken our faith in God. In ancient Rome an owner could burn his name—brand—into a slave's flesh. Paul may have had that practice in mind when writing that his body bore the marks—brand—of Jesus Galatians 6:17. II Corinthians 11:22-27 lists some:
While suggesting those could have been the marks of Jesus, we know what they were NOT: the tattoos so popular today. What those marks DO suggest to us is:
First, the Need of Doctrine Which receives far less attention than it deserves today. The oversight comes from the misguided belief that what one believes doesn't influence one's behavior. We couldn't tell that to the Moslems who destroyed the Twin Towers. They died willingly because they believed killing non-Moslems pleased God. Remember that Jesus said the time would come when "anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God" John 16:2. More importantly, if BELIEF doesn't matter, why has God taken such CARE to REVEAL his WILL in written form—and has so perseveringly KEPT it intact through the centuries? Second, the Need of Life Equal to Doctrine To express it in show-business terms: doctrine should build in us:
Translated into discipleship...between us and Jesus...exchanging ECSTASY—he giving, we receiving. End Part I President Warren Harding admitted he couldn't decide an issue, after listening to both sides—because they both made sense. He wished for a "book" that gave him truth, but bewailed his inability to read the book. Life History of U.S., Vol. 10, p 66
In most centuries an embedded belief in God existed. The nations may have worshipped him in ignorance. They may have misunderstood him completely, but Faith in Deity couldn't be denied. The 21st century, with its doctorates of everything, its self-appointed experts in every field, its assurance of human KNOWLEDGE, has rejected God. He—if he exists; she—if she exists—can comfort the poor, the simple, the uneducated, but those who KNOW have science, medicine, space and communication under control. What hubris! It's acceptable, teachable ignorance to say, with Helen Keller, she knew there was Someone, but she didn't know who or the name. It's unacceptable to be so arrogantly unteachable to say, "Someone isn't there, and since he ISN'T, how can he have a name"? In measured defiance God laughs at, mocks, derides, scoffs and rebukes such fools Psalm 21:1-12. Another example of the mystery of godliness is the kind of person in whom it grows. For example, some reared in the Faith, learning its language and meaning, throw it aside at the first chance. Others, with no religious education from their youth come to Jesus on their own. We have no way of understanding or explaining the mystery. However, we can learn lessons from it. Note: I abbreviate the points made.
First, the point in the parable is how God's kingdom grows in individuals, not how farmers reap a crop. Second, the end of agriculture is the Harvest, the end of General Motors is Cars, the end of T-Mobile is Cell Phones and the end of Christ's Church on earth is his Return from Heaven to incorporate the church into God's eternal kingdom. History won't go on interminably. As it had a beginning in Eden, it will have its end in Christ's Glorious Return at the maturation called HARVEST. Third, the kingdom's inherent capacity to reproduce itself means humans have a minimum role in its reproduction. See I Corinthians 3:5-7. Therefore, any role we have is insignificant compared to the Holy Spirit's. Therefore, don't boast of our role; and don't refuse to accept it, fearing incompetence. Fourth, that Harvest involves the Personal, First-Hand, Face to Face Authority of Jesus Christ. General Stonewall Jackson established as a military maxim in the Civil War, "Always mystify, mislead and surprise the enemy" Chronicles of the Civil War, 308. Which is true of earthly battles, which the lack of space prevents me from illustrating. However, when Jesus returns, he shall come with sheer, spiritual brute force, eliminating all of God's enemies. Fifth, any word from God that we understand needs our immediate attention and full compliance. Any word from God we don't understand needs our immediate and full compliance. The issue is always TRUST God whatever he says, and obey it! Fini This past week an understandable blue at La Jolla Shores beach could be seen glowing at night in the surf line. Higher concentrations of phytoplankton L polyedra created the bioluminescence. Its only mystery being its arrival cannot be predicted.
The parables of the Sower and The Seed Growing By Itself offer a spiritual mystery not explicable to this day: the difference of production in the Good Seed in the Good Soil. Jesus said even good seed produces at different levels: some 100 fold, some 60 fold, some 30 fold. Why wouldn't it be 100 fold for all good seed, or 60 or 30 since the same Spirit gives birth to all production? We may have conjectures, but since Jesus offered no explanation no one knows WHY. Isaiah 61:11 wrote 2800 years ago, "...the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes harvest seeds to grow," but he didn't try to explain the why and how of different levels of production. The most skilled agronomists today don't know either. We know what happens. We can't explain why it happens that way. That ignorance doesn't keep farmers in every age from planting, watering and fertilizing. The proof to them is in the results, not in wondering how or why it happens. And, repeated annual experience convinces them that it occurs. Another mystery remains unsolved. Why does great spiritual growth occur in some, but not in others, and not at all in some? For example, women usually more positively respond to the Gospel—like those in Ravensbruck concentration camp in WWII. Corrie and Betsy ten Boom led a spiritual renewal. Yet, Allied women interned by the Japanese in North Borneo 1942-1945, accompanied by Catholic sisters, had no spiritual revival. While at Chungkai, Thailand, male allied POW's, with no minister present, laymen read the Gospels and witnessed wholesale conversion to Christ. The seed has in itself the life GOD programmed into it at creation—an evidence of special creation, since every seed bears fruit after itself. It doesn't morph into different forms each time it dies. Its genetic code determines its fruit at each stage. That's the mystery of all life. The seed in the soil; the seed in a woman's womb; and God's word in a human's mind. End Part I Based on Isaiah 9:6-7. Since the Master is WONDERFUL, his believers can't have a wonder-less life of faith. Since he is COUNSELOR, we never lack someone to care and offer direction and purpose in life. Since he is MIGHTY GOD, we always have faith in the I AM. Since he's the EVERLASTING FATHER, we have security in his care. Since he's PRINCE of PEACE we have God's forgiveness of sin leading to personal peace with God.
Since no end exists to the increase of his government, we inherit an everlasting kingdom. Since he is David's HEIR, and the perfection of David's RULE, we receive grace to uphold justice and righteousness on earth and forever. Since he is the zealous LORD ALMIGHTY, we have no fear of life, of death, of the after-life. All of this is the reason why all problems have solutions; all anxieties have consolation; all disagreements have mediation; all arguments have pacification; all wars have an end; all sins have removal and all our temporary lives have eternal life beginning with acceptance of Jesus Christ and ending NEVER. Is it any wonder that "Jesus is all the world" to us? Or why "we praise him?" Or "Why he's the fairest of ten thousand" to us? Who would not WANT ALL THIS? The 1993 Mississippi river floods brought a Colonel with boys from a prison work camp to bolster levees in danger of collapsing. He marched them in. They went to work. They worked hard. Their work failed in the end because the levee wouldn't hold and began leaking and threatened to break and drown them all.
Nevertheless, he refused to let them run away. He instead ordered them into formation and marched them out, unafraid. He marched them in to work. And when their work failed he marched them out prepared to work elsewhere. A sobering truth faces Christians: we sometimes lose, fail, experience a sound beating. As we have in America, with its galloping immorality presently demanding freedom of anti-Biblical behavior. It's enough to make us question our role in society. Nevertheless, TAKE COURAGE Christians, to save what remains Revelation 3:2. And what remains is God's day of salvation in Christ; God's offer of grace to all who accept his Son; thus our opportunity to witness to those without hope Isaiah 55:6-7. Therefore, if we witness, with opposition, or without result, WE have succeeded. For our role is to witness, God's is to WIN the unsaved. We can trust him to faithfully mature his Word in human minds Isaiah 55:10-13. Can he trust us to seize opportunities to tell the unsaved Jesus loves them, Jesus died for them, Jesus will forgive their sins if they accept him? Whatever happens, particularly when we fail to see results when sharing the Gospel—and it will occasionally or often happen...Jesus orders us to march out, leaving as defiantly and confidently as we arrived. He won't have us slinking away dispirited. For the spiritual war between God and Satan has been decided John 16:33: God in Christ has Overcome! Maybe we think we can't serve Jesus because we haven't served him yet. Then we have the exciting experience of learning we can by trying. Maybe we've tired but failed. Then we have the delightful experience of trying again, knowing success or failure isn't the point. The point is making the effort for Jesus, who decides each contest we wage for him. And if our effort fails, we have discharged our responsibility and can trust Jesus to finalize it to his glory. Children test parents. Criminals test law-enforcement. Teachers test students. Manufacturers test products. Nations test each other. Sports teams test other sports teams. And so on.
Why shouldn't Christians expect God to test the strength of our discipleship? Whatever we think, God will test our faith, our commitment, our knowledge, our perseverance. Yesterday's blog focused on Joseph, son of Jacob's test by Adversity. Consider now Daniels's test by prosperity, taken to Babylon in Nebuchadnezzar's first exile of young high-class Hebrew adults from Jerusalem, Daniel 1:3-5. He faced the decision many confront when removed from their former to another state of existence, even one better than the former but an alien society that challenged one's former convictions, offering great privileges under new permissiveness. Daniel determined that his parallel Babylonian prosperity didn't mean equal values between Hebrew monotheism and Babylonian polytheism. Wherever he found himself in royalty, he remained a devoted Mosaic disciple. The first of other tests settled the issue. Living for ten days on vegetables and water began a lifetime of observing and celebrating the requirements of Moses. Living in luxury in Israel could have brought a crisis of faith when carried away to Babylon's version of the same. Was THAT any way to treat a faithful disciple? Instead, Daniel continued the belief and behavior begun in Israel, as a bark-to-core Hebrew, wherever he found himself, even in a society encouraging surrender of old values too strict for his new life. Daniel's choice proved the reality of God's warning to the Israelites in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 6:10-12. Read it to see: God foresaw his people forgetting him when prospering physically, financially and agriculturally. That's interesting: no such warning came from God, questioning him in poverty, though our society sees a direct correlation between poverty and crime, the depth of the former leading to growth in the latter. In his infinite wisdom God understood the deceitfulness of prosperity. That it encouraged egotism in humanity, self-congratulation in achievements, independence from spiritual values, growth of soul-satisfying goals at the expense of spirit-energizing faith. All of which characterize America today. None of which will survive the fires of judgment. For whatever burns in the Great Incineration to come MOCKS all who trust what pacifies the soul while starving God's spirit within each person. Fini |
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