Theodor Herzl’s writings appealed broadly to European Jews. A devoted Zionist, he repeatedly called for, and demanded, a homeland in Palestine. Promised Uganda, Africa, if they would accept it, his devotees rejected the very idea. Palestine alone would satisfy their expectation—the land God gave Abraham and promised to his descendants. In 1948 it became a reality. The Light of Days, 22
Heaven has the same attraction for Bible Christians. We accept Paul’s sentiments in Philippians 3:20-21 as our continual hope. We live now in a fallen body, with a renewed spirit, forgiven by Christ. Even in our fallen bodies and minds, however, we won’t look to an earthy commonwealth for our life-values. Every time we hear Gospel music, or listen to a Gospel message, the Holy Spirit reminds us of our true home with a reverberating longing: “I’m not home yet but I soon will be”. As an elderly preacher said when told, “I see you’re still among the living.” “No,” he replied, “I’m still among the dying, but one day soon I’ll be among the living.” Until Then…that great day, when Jesus returns, or calls us home, we’ll willingly serve him as we eagerly await our first, long look at his resplendent Glory. Then…THEN…we’ll know, we’re home at last!
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By its eternal nature, the Gospel of Christ calls us forward to its advanced position:
If we understand dunamis – dynamite – Romans 1:16, as spiritual energy, the ability to:
First, Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work, I John 3:8, of which we have examples in healings, exorcisms, resurrections and conversions. Second, once forgiving sinners, he fashions them into new lives out of their old John 2:7-10, II Corinthians 5:17. Third, he fills each new believer with the Holy Spirit, the ONE exactly like the Father and the Son:
Fourth, he seeks transformation of our minds as we welcome the Spirit and remain obedient to his direction Romans 12:1-2. Fifth, he aims to change us from one beggar telling another beggar where spiritual food is: to
- corporately as congregations I Corinthians 3:16 - dramatizing Christ’s glory in our lives II Corinthians 3:18 - that serve as the reason why unsaved people should also accept Christ I Peter 3:15, II Corinthians 4:5-6 - in a sentence, while it’s easier to hide Christ’s glory from sinners than to reveal his glory in Christians, WE ARE HIS BIBLE to BE READ and EMULATED BY THE UNSAVED. We have no choice but to Grow Up into Christ-likeness and out into society as his witnesses. In summary, the Holy Spirit inspires preachers to be “deep pit” miners when studying God’s Word. Holes here and there in each Gospel text appear, meaning someone’s down there digging for spiritual gold! That leads to believers being empowered to BE Living Epistles of the Eternal Christ. Fini Note: for the purpose of this blog, see Gospel and Bible as synonymous terms. The Gospel is the logical and only possible end of all God’s revelation. V
Every story has spiritual lessons. The Jessop Clock story reveals at least three lessons. First, the craftsmanship creating may NOT exist to reproduce the clock. Or it MAY, but be too expensive to do so. No mortal mind or skill, whatever the genre, has, can, or ever will exist to reproduce Bible truth. The Bible, as source, has often been author of economic, political, social and spiritual truth. But never equaled in style, content or result! It can never be. Second, the clock, like anything else mortals build, always wears down or out and needs to be replenished, re-fitted or replaced, whether with cosmetic or substantial corrections. The Second law of Thermodynamics continues its relentless assault on people and things. The Gospel defies the tests of time that weaken and destroy all human creations. It’s the:
Third, the great-grandson of Joseph Jessop leads the family and recruits the donors making the Clock’s gift possible. But any first—or succeeding—generation preacher can have the privilege of being a Gospel herald. And owes obedience only to the ONE who called him to preach. However, so far from being capable of THINKING the Gospel needs to be up-dated by us, we are hardly capable of preaching at any depth the truth it holds at every depth. Unable to be worthy of preaching it, how can we be egotistical enough to think we can improve it by amending it? This writer remembers preachers in Florida wondering what to preach to space scientists. On asking, they were told, “Preach the Gospel!” Karl Menninger, author of Whatever Became of Sin?, challenged preachers to Preach the Word. Tell it like it is! He reminded preachers of the privilege they enjoy by preaching God’s WORD every Sunday! End Part II In Part III, suggested, but hardly exhausted, results Bible preaching has. V Note: medical issues prevented blogging last week. Issues resolved now, back to the task. V
The historic Jessop Clock—a 22 foot tall hand-made time-piece of 300 moving parts, 17 faces and jewels, with accompanying parts—had its maturity in 1908 outside Joseph Jessop’s jewelry store at Broadway and Fifth Avenue, San Diego. It moved in 1927 with the store south of Broadway. Then to the new Horton Plaza shopping center in 1985. With the dissolution of that once-innovative center, the family chose, from several options, to house it with the San Diego History Center In Balboa Park. It will soon be moved from its present storage in Kearny Mesa to the History Center to begin necessary cosmetic restoration. That finished, the Clock will be installed within “a three story exhibit around a new winding staircase.” Presently insured for a million dollars, it’s essentially priceless since the family doubts that knowledge and craftsmanship exists to build a replica. San Diego U-T, 5/18/23 This story not only reveals pleasant history but teaches valuable spiritual lessons. End Part I The influence of Bible women is more widespread than we may think. Take Mother Eve as the prime example, the most influential female in human history. All the generations, of every kind, have lived, and continue to live till Jesus returns, in the result of her sin against God’s word.
However, Adam in her name established a useful model for all mankind to follow when things go bad in life, and nothing can change it. It’s found in Genesis 3:20. “Adam named his wife Eve—meaning Living—because she would become the mother of all the living.” In other words, what to do when problems rise with no solution, death occurs to those we love, disagreements occur between friends, people trusted with our secrets seem to betray us, etc., etc.? Get on with what is left…disregarding what is gone. Don’t become a victim of a mistake, a sin, a failure, an argument. As the old song said, “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again.” Take Paul’s advice if you feel wronged: accept the wrong without brooding over it and turning it into vengeance I Corinthians 6:7-8. Do not take refuge in the old canard, “If he apologizes, I’ll forgive”. Take rather the scriptural approach Jesus taught in Matthew 18:15-20: the offended party, not the offender, takes the initiative in resolving the issue. Then, if not resolvable, repeat the process with widening authority involved. Remember the spiritual truth Paul taught in Ephesians 4:32….”forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you”. And how did God forgive? Romans 5:10-11 emphasizes that God expressed his love to us while we were sinners; again, God took the initiative. In summary, first don’t let anger tear you to pieces Job 18:4; second, remember what we experience in failed relationships and goals is a common possession of all people; third, forget what happened and get on with life; fourth, do not spend energy on regret or revenge that is better spent devoted to rebuilding life; fifth, accept more of the blame for what happened than you have coming; and give more credit to the other person than he deserves; sixth, and last, always let the Holy Spirit in us surface our better, and diminish our lesser, nature. Increase our deeper and decrease our shallow nature. Trust Christ’s ability to make us VICTORS, not our native willingness to be VICTIMS. He made us more than conquerors; don’t let yourself be the OVERCOME! Thanks, Father Adam for keeping what hadn’t been lost by your sin. Thanks, Mother Eve; for all the damage you caused, you left us a positive model for responding to the bad things in life. The titanic, face-to-face, knock-down, drag-out winner-take-all, loser-get-nothing-conflict between Jesus and Satan didn’t end at the end of the 40 day and night wilderness testing.
Luke 4:13 perceptively viewed that TRIUMPH by Jesus only one of several times he faced Satan, sometimes in surprising people (not in any particular order). For example, the times demons proclaimed Jesus, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God” Mark 2:24. What more treacherous way could Satan weaken Christ’s authority than to claim he shared in it—the very compromise Jesus stoutly rejected in the third temptation. Matthew 16:22 revealed Satan’s presence in Simon Peter’s refusal to have Jesus die—the very future the Lord himself foretold. “Get behind me, Satan!” came the Teacher’s withering blast. Mark 3:20-21, 31-34 records Christ’s family as an instrument of Satan. Counting on the authority of family members to influence Jesus, Satan deceived Mary and the children by thinking him mentally unsound. They soon found themselves devastated by his reply—only believers in his message constituted his family. Mark 3:22 says Satan used willing Jewish leaders to accuse Jesus of “driving out demons” by the prince of demons. Again, the devil tried to insinuate himself as an ally of Jesus. Christ’s withering reply surfaced the inconsistency of thinking Satan would oppose himself. Abraham Lincoln used Christ’s very words in a political context in the Illinois State House in 1858 with his “House Divided” speech. His friends urged his silence since the truth seemed too divisive in a divided country. As friends of President Reagan implored him not to order Premier Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin wall. He did urging, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Mark 10:17-31 records the Rich Young Ruler’s effort to find eternal life. The disciples couldn’t believe it when the Master taught the great difficulty of rich people missing heaven because their wealth blinded them to spiritual poverty. Numerous examples exist of the spiritual dullness of his Twelve. Mark 10:35-45, Luke 9:43-44, 46-50 are but three of other examples. Passing over other evidences, consider Acts 1. To the 11 disciples, the Kingdom of God meant restoration of the Davidic dynasty. Only to hear Jesus order them to TARGET the world with the message of his forgiveness. Thanks to the Holy Spirit’s presence on Pentecost, and his tutelage afterwards, they never again spoke of Israel’s dominance, but always of Christ’s authority over the nations as Savior and Lord! NOTE: Blog back on Friday. This blog considers that Abraham’s Moriah experience exists when we face whatever poses the stiffest challenge to our discipleship. It reveals:
… even if we must surrender relationships, possessions, career or ambitions we consider too essential to lose. … Levi symbolized that person Luke 5:27-39. He not only resigned his lucrative tax position, but immediately hosted a party celebrating the Nazarene prophet who prompted his decision. He symbolized the effect of the burnt offering. … the Rich Young Ruler symbolized the other person Mark 10:17-27. … he nodded his head as Jesus listed person to person requirements in the Law … then shook his head when Jesus demanded surrender of his wealth for exchange of spiritual blessings. He wouldn’t symbolize the burnt offering. What excepts do we place on our discipleship—as in, everything except…. _______________ you fill in the blank.
Whenever we say, “I won’t surrender that”, we fail our Moriah experience. Whenever we say, “I’ll surrender EVEN THAT to God’s will,” we pass its test. We symbolize the effect of the burnt offering, giving to God ALL, keeping nothing under our supervision. Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking we’ve achieved such maturity in discipleship that we need no more testing. Abraham may have thought he had done it all before God ordered the SUPREME test. Only passing it at 115-120 or so years did he prove a disciple who never again needed to prove obedience to God. Only then he proved faith equal to the greatest test of his discipleship. Just as Jesus, perfectly obeying his Father’s will, passed it in Gethsemane, the Moriah test that led to Calvary. A post-blog encouragement. We can make excuses why we fail as Christians, but we have God-given reasons to succeed. Commitment to Christ calls us to what we haven’t yet achieved for him, however much we have. It calls us to TRY AGAIN when we FAIL. But it never allows us to STOP TRYING! If we hang up that commitment in our mind like a horseshoe on a wall, it will bring us MUCH MORE than good luck. Abraham failed God three times. But he kept trying and pleased God on the fourth. For like Abraham, while facing and overcoming it by trusting God, we’ll never have another trial like it. Fini Instead of re-creating the sacrificial scene on Moriah, consider the essential words that embody the spiritual principles still in place. Those words are a burnt offering Genesis 22:2. The NIV Study Bible lists three possible purposes for that offering, page 150, the third of which related to Abraham.
It’s important to remember that God called Abraham, not Isaac, to make the offering; as a test of Abraham’s commitment to him, not to Isaac’s personal faith. Though his personal faith in God may have begun in this experience, if not before. It certainly created anxiety for him as father told him to climb on the altar; as father tied him down; as father raised the knife to SLAY him. That stress, relieved by God’s call to STAY the knife, would either make or break a person’s trust in his parent and faith in God. Isaac gives every indication of a robust faith in God only weakened after twin sons came to Rebekah. However, and the point under discussion, any meaning we see in Isaac as a type of Christ may not be as necessary as understanding a basic difference between Abraham and Jesus. Abraham had only once to offer a burnt sacrifice. While Christ’s entire life proved a burnt offering to God, John 8:39, 46 and Hebrews 10:5-10, but three of the many scriptural references. Jesus lived perfectly in the self-denial he demanded every disciple to follow. End Part IV Fourth, the ALL-IMPORTANT crisis to which Abraham rose as a great spiritual warrior. You may read it in Genesis 22:1-19.
Just when everything seemed complete in Abraham’s obedience: (all the scriptures in Genesis)
One more TEST! Take the son:
The most intense of all crises for this man of faith. After God had for centuries used animals as burnt offerings, Genesis 3:21 the model, he now demanded human sacrifice. Nothing could have been more difficult for Abraham to hear; the most demanding instructions ever received from ON HIGH. Yet, early the next morning, taking:
Abraham and his party began the trek to Moriah. Seen in the distance haze on the third day:
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