. . . . . . . . . Just like God, Jesus never altered, edited, removed or added as an addendum to any teaching or claim made. . . . . . . . . . Never believe the satanic lie that cultural change means that old rules don’t apply. Cultures do change, but OLD BIBLE truth still applies, whatever change occurs. Every single thought of God recorded remains in place and carried to completion by the Holy Spirit. No decision ratified in Heaven will ever be abrogated by any law, decision or culture on earth. Jesus is the Stone the prophet Daniel saw cut from the mountain and filling the earth Daniel 2:1-45. That continues to be a warning to humanity. Get in its WAY and it will crush you to dust. . . . . . . . . . Christ is the Mystery of God, and the church his instrument. A Bible mystery is something or someone hidden until God wanted it or him revealed. For example, Revelation 4 has no mention of Jesus. While Revelation 5 has Christ as its entire focus. Meaning: he was THERE ALL THE TIME, Genesis 1:1, John 1:1, waiting the optimum time to be revealed. Indeed, Ephesians 2:1-3:13 declared Christ as God’s Mystery-Person, revealing him as head of the Church, God’s Mystery Organism, to unite all mankind by his Grace. . . . . . . . . . We sometimes say, if “such and such happens,” or “if such and such doesn’t happen”, we can succeed. Romans 8:28-39 issues a “Neither/Nor” promise. As in “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons”, etc., etc. “Neither, neither nor”…. Believers are perfectly secure in Christ’s love so long as we seek security in God’s love in Christ.
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A San Diego U-T story, 7/22/23, reported that the Mayor of Minneapolis has instructed the Police Department to “look the other way” when drug addicts buy certain “illegal psychedelic drugs”. How happy Timothy O’Leary would be! Mayors of Denver, Detroit and Washington, D.C., all hotbeds of liberalism, have similar rules.
It’s more of the “they’re going to use them anyway, so let’s make it legal”. By telling addicts their cities give them permission to do what they want makes their politicians complicit in sin. The reasoning given is: using the drugs can “improve their mental health”. Amazing stupidity! How can such drugs decrease depression when they automatically create artificial highs in the mind that become deeper depression when wearing down? And the only way to continue the “high” is to increase the strength of the dose taken, since it’s the natural result of introducing drugs: the addict never desires and demands less. Indeed, how can psychedelic drugs “increase mental health” when they’re designed to have a destabilizing effect? A person’s brain being the most important organ in thinking, we should AVOID, not IMBIBE, whatever disturbs the normal electrical rhythms needed to maintain humanity in the human, not introduce elements that degrade the human into something less. Politicians…some can’t stop proving they’re the enemy of the very people they should champion! Those in Chicago have been doing it for decades! A 3/2/23 San Diego U-T story related the account of a Colorado woman who celebrated her birthday by injecting herself with black tar heroin. She awakened to desperate efforts seeking to administer naloxone—which reversed the overdose.
The response of liberal lawmakers happened as expected: establish overdose centers where drug users could actually take drugs overseen by specialists in reversing overdoses. Conservatives in law enforcement, ministry and legislatures criticized the practice since it tolerated a deadly plague on humans who voluntarily harmed themselves but sought freedom from responsibility of its consequences. The spiritual issue in the discussion eluded all but those who always investigate human behavior to determine the Biblical principles upheld or ignored. For example, in 2022 the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) confiscated 6542 guns at airport checkpoints. U-T, 2/21/23. When anyone capable of buying an airline ticket KNOWS the RULE: no guns allowed aboard planes. What is there about NO that humanity doesn’t understand? It’s an inherited trait from mother Eve, who arrogantly refused to believe that GOD MEANT NO when he SAID NO—do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For example, liberal governments at all levels are willing to help us not kill ourselves by making bad decisions. Though that effort eliminates personal responsibility for behavior. That logic defies the argument that they’re going to take drugs anyway, and it’s better to keep them alive from a deadly habit than let them die by making bad choices, no questions asked, no demands made. That specious reasoning denies government the power to keep people from being irresponsibly reckless, but assumes care for them when they fail to be responsible. That is why so many people love government and so few love Jesus. He always stands ready to fill life full of the Holy Spirit, thereby preventing the attraction to bad habits, bad companionship and bad decisions that put us in jeopardy. Indeed, the Holy Spirit’s presence prevents the attraction of those evil influences. AND, when we make such choices, the conscience God enlightens won’t let us rest until we have repented. The Spirit empowers us to BE ALL Jesus intends by getting SELF out of the way to let him. Jesus always stands ready to forgive any sin we commit and admit. However, we must admit we have sinned, are responsible for it and deserve to be sent to Hell as a result, and only God’s Grace has saves us from that fate. Leafing through ideas for blogs I have in manila folders, I accessed a note scribbled about Christ’s relationship with Moses. To appreciate Jesus as the Person Moses predicted, read Deuteronomy 18:15. To see its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, see John 5:45-47, Acts 3:17-26, Acts 13:16-43, as examples. When the apostles found Jewish audiences hostile to Christ’s supremacy over Moses, they didn’t alter their message. They DID predict Gentile inclusion in Christ’s victory Acts 13:44-52. And, of course, we have God’s final word after Moses and Elijah had first appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, then departed, leaving Jesus alone, God saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” Matthew 17:5. The last three words a repetition of the last four words of Deuteronomy 18:15.
We’re not surprised that both Mark and Luke opened their Gospels with quotes from Malachi 4:5-6—based on allegiance to Moses. Or that John, seeing Jesus as a continuation of his own ministry of cleansing and judgment would be disturbed by his pacific, pastoral presence Luke 7:18-23. Or that John the Baptist called Israel alive to Moses from dead ceremonialism. In his personal ministry Jesus both broke with Moses and counseled submission to Moses from his audience. See Matthew 5:17-20 as a sample of the latter and Matthew 5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43, and their following teaching as samples of the former. Jesus would personally touch a leper, cleansing him, then send him to a priest for verification. The cleansing, apart from Moses offered Christ’s superiority; while sending the cleansed man to a priest kept him submitted to Moses. When Jesus sent out the Twelve in pairs, he forbade them entering towns of any Gentile Matthew 10:6. Because they were completely ignorant of Christianity’s later spread. Hebrews is the book of Christianity’s superiority, chapter after chapter. The conflict Jesus experienced when healing on the Sabbath—a transgression of Tradition, not Moses—encapsulated the fierce, unrelenting and finally final reason the leaders wanted him dead. Acts 13:38-41 summarizes the conflict, decided by Christianity’s progress in being and Judaism’s failure in continuing to be God’s final revelation to humanity. Moses and Jesus the Jews could tolerate. But never JESUS alone. The latter GOD’s determination, the former Judaism’s forlorn wish. However gifted, all human leaders remain limited, as President Lincoln’s reply to the Civil War Colonel revealed. That Point also remains true in spiritual leadership, as both Testaments illustrate. However true the Point, Jesus Christ proves the Spiritual Counterpoint.
Multiple examples exist, but using his answer to the man in Luke 12:13-21 as proof, Jesus refused any effort to get involved in issues where God appointed others to rule. The man wanted Jesus to settle a family dispute over inheritance. Note that Jesus didn’t say he couldn’t make such decisions. He did say he wouldn’t. Understand what that meant. While he had command of all human issues, he alone could resolve the root cause of all the problems then, and still, afflicting humanity. He wouldn’t be sidetracked into lesser causes when God sent him ALONE with sovereign power to regain humanity’s lost estate by forgiving the sin that lost it. That’s why Jesus resisted and rebuked whatever way Satan returned to divert him:
And so transparently spiritual did his claim to be a Jewish King impress Pilate, that the Governor knew he posed no threat to Rome. Shamefully, a heathen Roman had a better insight into Christ’s character than religious Jewish leaders. Every question or statement Satan made to divert Jesus in ministry found the same answer Jesus gave in the Wilderness Temptations:
May those who preach the Christ:
A letter President Lincoln wrote in 1861 to a Colonel of Engineers in the Union Army recently sold for $85,000. He wanted the President to create an Engineering Corps to serve the Federal army’s needs. Admitting his own lack of expertise in the subject, Lincoln agreed to create the Corps should qualified military leaders see the need. San Diego U-T, 7/16/23
The President’s response reflected Jethro’s response when seeing Moses exhaust himself trying to personally resolve Israel’s problems Exodus 18:1 ff. And Robert Schuller’s response to problems: when needing an expert, hire one, don’t try to be one. It also proved Lincoln a true leader. For he admitted limitations in his leadership. By instinct a political genius, Lincoln could foresee and outflank positions his opponents took. But when military issues arose, he deferred to his military. Only when he had Sherman, Farragut and Grant making those decisions did he rest secure in his lack. But…the President’s response is at its best when its spiritual counterpoint is at stake in the hands of JESUS the Christ! End Part I Consider a few examples of MORE where Scripture painstakingly demonstrates Christ’s Godhood in human form. John 3:13, 5:16-23, 8:58, Philippians 2:6-11, Colossians 2:9 and Hebrews 1:3.
However, while Scripture remains the essence of apologetics, NOTHING so powerfully supports, reinforces and substantiates Scripture’s proof of Jesus as his Lifestyle perfectly Consistent with his Teaching, claims and evidences. To make this blog short, THINK of three quick references. First, Jesus always clamed he came from God to perform in history what he personally saw God do in eternity John 5:16 ff—the very reason he came to earth, as Hebrews 10:5-7 underscored. Second, he always depended on God for his overcoming life, as his dependance on Scripture and Prayer demonstrated—not in any order: Luke 4:1-12, 4:42, 5:16, 6:12. Third, like his Father in Heaven, Jesus took extreme spiritual positions, John 3:13, Luke 4:14-30 and Mark 14:55-64 as examples, and never:
In summary, just like His Father, Jesus clearly taught that acceptance of him as God’s Son meant we live forever, John 3:16, Matthew 13:43. Rejecting him meant spiritual condemnation John 3:36, 5:29, Matthew 13:40-42. There’s lots more to be said, but that’s it for this blog and this week. V Wherever God speaks, whether:
He demands that we:
Whenever Jesus or his apostles spoke, he and they:
That expectation should inspire preachers to deep-pit mining of God’s WORD:
For even the least-educated Christian:
And no Christian:
Preachers…never:
Instead, preachers…always have as your goal the object of:
Remember, preachers…Jesus aims to:
With irresistible military force Japan invaded the Philippines in early 1942. Appointed Commander when General MacArthur left for Australia, General Wainwright led a hopeless resistance. He continually, but vainly, pleaded for military reinforcement from Washington. In turn, the:
Easy for him to say, sitting in his cushy office chair, guarded by armed personnel. Knowing full well the Japanese assault faced outnumbered, outgunned and un-reinforced Filipino and American soldiers. General MacArthur received the Medal of Honor for being defeated. His army received merciless brutality. Leadership can fail the people it leads, while excusing themselves and seeing the led expendable. Jesus never asked or demanded of his people what he wouldn’t first model. A few of many more examples:
Jesus, the perfect leader, never failed his people. A claim his people can’t make vis à vis Jesus. On May 21, 2023, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported the sale of a:
That story raises an interesting question. Why does increasing age exaggerate the value of Things, but diminish the value of People? A 27-year-old tourist from Britain visited the Colosseum in Rome. He frivolously scratched a love note on a wall. Arrested for defacing a UNESCO World Heritage site, he pleaded ignorance of the structure’s antiquity. SD U-T, 7/9/23. That’s hard to believe. What’s easier is his arrogance to think he could escape responsibility. However, it’s a GIVEN in church administration today: older ministers can’t reach young people, but young ministers CAN reach seniors. Where did such baseless juvenile rationale originate? For it poses embarrassing questions to church planners:
Golda Meir once said that it’s easy to make people cry and easy to make them laugh, but much harder to make them THINK. Everyone hearing Christ teach had to THINK! What rationale, then, inspires Christian leaders to encourage pulpit messages that seek to entertain than instruct the audience:
When, if not in the Church Growth Movement, did it become more important to KEEP listeners happy than to CONVICT them? When, adopting that strategy has led to smaller audiences for preaching and vast throngs for Gospel Sings. |
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