Practical applications of this four-part blog. Remember the theme: appearances can deceive and things aren’t always what they seem.
We have world driven by glitz, gold and greed...AKA education, money, ambition. They are illusions. Don’t pursue them. Don’t even flirt with them. They will trickle through your life like grains of sand through your fingers. Then, too, we have the environmentalists, with their siren call of preserving the environment/nature. But things aren’t always what they seem. For creation wants to be destroyed, not preserved—Romans 8:22—and looks with “outstretched neck” for Christ’s return. It knows that his return brings its renewal as the New Heaven and Earth of God’s people. Still another deceptively appealing mantra is “communing with nature” as an advertised way to personal peace. Creation/Nature is God’s possession, not our equal. Watching moon rises and sunsets may temporarily titillate the senses but they’ll never bring forgiveness of sin or peace of mind. Furthermore, remember that nature is our friend only as we keep our distance from it—looking at it, admiring it. Out in the wilderness, away from “civilization”—where we think nature is at its best and our compatriot—if we break a leg or suffer snakebite, nature is uncaring, deadly and won’t CARE! Things aren’t always what they seem. But one day Jesus will return from Heaven. And when he does...on that day, and ever-after, everything will be exactly as it seems. For God’s Reality will eliminate all the illusions that now deceive and introduce his COMPLETE TRUTH that enlightens, uplifts and inspires his people forever! Let us be sure to say, “Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for you.” Indeed, let us declare, “Lord Jesus, I make a throne room of my heart from which YOU can rule over me in your truth.” Fini
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The preceding blogs illustrate the truth of the Master’s birth in Bethlehem: things aren’t always what they seem; or, appearances can deceive.
If we didn’t know scripture, would we expect a virgin’s womb to produce a child? When it had never happened before, and wouldn’t ever again? Proving that God will always do the Impossible where we think even the usual isn’t expected. If we didn’t know scripture...would we expect the Jewish Messiah to be born in non-descript-Bethlehem; not Jerusalem the Golden? Proving that God often chooses humble places and unknown people because HE is History’s Ruling Royal! If we didn’t know scripture, would we choose Galileans, not Judeans, and peasants, not aristocrats, as caregivers of the greatest person ever to live? But appearances deceive. For, so far from needing the advantages of social standing, Jesus from the first possessed Princely Quality. So far from needing an education, he from fountains of wisdom and knowledge in himself would be EDUCATOR of all. If we didn’t know scripture, would we have the Savior’s birth in a stable, among animals, with maybe a mid-wife helping, not in a palatial bedroom, with royal physicians attending? Proving that it didn’t take a crown to make Jesus a King: not at birth, not two years later when Wise Men came; not as a man wearing peasant clothes. Jesus Christ alone: the only Reverend of all persons ever to live and teach and heal and love as only God in the Flesh would! End Part III As the Corps of Discovery, captained by Lewis and Clark, toiled up the Missouri River in 1804, they anchored at many Indian villages. In the councils that followed they harangued the natives to behave; gave medals to men they considered influential; and spoke of the new Father in Washington who would provide for his red children. They then boarded their keelboat and sailed away—while the Indians returned to their centuries’ old way of life, as if nothing had happened. But appearances deceived. For in those lonely meetings, with those numerous natives, a new nation began developing awareness of what four decades later would be known as Manifest Destiny—that the nation, then but a handful of states east of the Mississippi, was destined to become a coast to coast empire of many states. Early morning, 1 July, 1863, Confederate infantry under General Hill collided with Union cavalry under General Buford. Their conflict catapulted the two armies into the full-scale battle neither Generals Lee nor Meade wanted at that place, at that time. The result favored the North and doomed the South. Things aren’t always what they seem. Small events can have exponential results. We know that the Dionne identical quintuplets were born two months premature 28 May, 1935—at the time the only known quints to survive infancy. The five together weighed 13 pounds, 6 ounces—an average of 2.7 pounds each—but not evenly distributed. The attending physician had them wrapped in cotton sheets and old napkins at birth. And for the critical 24 hours after kept their flickering bodies alive by keeping them in a borrowed wicker basket, placed by the open door of the kitchen stove. By removing them one by one every two hours to massage them with olive oil; and by feeding them a spoonful of water sweetened with corn syrup, later strengthened by a drop of rum. Who was the famous city doctor with advanced medical credentials to respond to the greatest challenge of his career, knowing exactly how to save quints who really had no chance to survive? Well, it was no famous city doctor from a famous city hospital. It was a country doctor who had spent 25 years in the backwoods of Ontario, Canada, ministering to mill workers and lumberjacks: a shy man, who stood barely 5 feet tall, with a large head that wore a 8 ½ sized hat. The day preceding his burst into fame he hit the wall in a personal crisis, realizing that 25 years of medicine, in primitive conditions, had left him unknown, financially bereft and in poor health. Only to find himself, 36 hours later, famous Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, renowned for his superhuman effort in keeping five premature infants alive in the first critical 48 hours so they would all live to adulthood. Reader’s Digest, 70 Most Unforgettable, 288-295 Things aren’t always as they seem. Dr. Dafoe proved: you can be significant without being famous or popular; you can be highly-skilled though only modestly educated; and your life-experiences can often grant the equivalent of a Post-Doctorate in crisis management. End Part II More than 1500 died when the “unsinkable” Titanic sank in some two hours after hitting the iceberg, April 14, 1912. If all 20 lifeboats aboard could have been filled to capacity, nearly 1200 instead of the 700 would have survived. Unfortunately, many of the boats dropped into the sea early in the evacuation held few people. Significant criticism has been made of crewmen, who weren’t altogether to blame. The terms dockside and at the rail may help explain.
Lowering filled lifeboats 70 feet above the water at the rail—proved perilous as the ship sank ever deeper at the bow. The strain on block and tackle proved so great the crewmen feared to subject them to unbearable stress. To prevent THAT failure—which would have instantly killed hapless passengers—the crewmen chose what, at the time, seemed a safer solution. As events proved, it only multiplied the number of casualties! Appearances deceived. Things weren’t always what they seemed. Which is the theme of this blog, as seen in a series of illustrations. In 1934, Ralph Lankler began a ministry in Pawling, New York. A marked increase in Sunday attendance soon followed. He naturally thought his sermons had been one of the reasons. Preachers like to think that, usually mistakenly so. Only later did he learn that one of his members had been responsible. Famed radio personality Lowell Thomas had his secretary phone people each week, saying, “Lowell Thomas would like to meet you at the church on Sunday.” Appearances can deceive. Henry Kissinger wrote a book titled The Troubled Partnership, a study of the NATO alliance. His authorship prompted modest sales in most cities, but one bookstore manager had a bright idea that prompted outstanding sales in his store. For he placed Kissinger’s The Troubled Partnership on the shelf under Marriage Manuals. That effective, if deceptive, marketing proved that things aren’t always what they seem. We might be surprised to learn that, because its frigid air contains little water vapor, very little snow falls in the heart of Antarctica. The heart of the continent is not unlike the Sahara in terms of precipitation. Which means that most of the thousands of feet of ice over Antarctica occurred almost instantly with the end of Noah’s Flood. Which is logical; the earth’s poles, with their colossal frigid waters, would be the first to freeze. Contrary to evolutionary dogma, it didn’t take millions of years. End Part I French Duke Jean de Berry had a pug nose. He decided to glory in it by embossing it on every possible object. He celebrated it by inviting to his home as honored guests those with...pug noses. We also know that Cyrano de Bergerac populated a mythical kingdom with people of LONG NOSES.
The spiritual point is: God’s Heaven will be FULL, but only of people who presently commit to being as much like Jesus as possible. Only they! Which challenges us to live now as if we’re already in heaven since we won’t otherwise be there when we die. Any other goal in life leaves us short of entering God’s Presence. One man who survived the Titanic disaster sent a one-word telegram to his mother: SAVED! Christians must now commit to make growth in discipleship their life-purpose. That effort alone, coupled with GRACE, completes our best effort and qualifies us, when the angel finds our name on our page in “the book” and shouts SAVED! Revelation 20:12 In conclusion, as a full human, Jesus knew temptation, without surrendering to it. He knew suffering, without being defeated by it. He knew death, without decaying. Because...he was by his very nature GOD: the whole man human, the whole man Deity. Owing only his humanity to his earthly mother; for his eternal Nature came when his eternal Father declared, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father” Hebrews 1:5. Fini Mary’s genes gave the Holy Spirit-conceived child his humanity. Consider a simple illustration. When we take a trip, a suitcase carries all we’ll need for the experience. O.K., a suitcase for a man. Two or three for a woman.
The point is, all that Mary contributed to Christ’s birth were the genes in her suitcase—the humanity that made him entirely human—with every characteristic of a male. While the Holy Spirit gave him the CHARACTER of GOD Almighty, GOD the Eternally-begotten SON, possessing the NATURE of God as the PERSON of God. Which is why we, as redeemed mortals, worship Jesus, the God-Man, fully God, fully human. For... only as a human could he identify with mortals; and only as DEITY could he qualify as God’s Perfect Sacrifice. Which is why Mary could never have any role in Redemption. While fully human, and identifying with us, she had the need of forgiveness and therefore, lacking deity, couldn’t add anything to Christ’s complete sacrifice for sin. The visit of the Wise Men, recorded in Matthew 2:9-12, established the model followed faithfully in Christ’s life: he alone important, noticed, followed, obeyed, worshipped! They saw the child and his mother...but “bowed down and worshiped him.” Then opened “their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and myrrh”. The perfect chance for God to exalt Mary’s place in her child’s life. Which God refused to do because she had none. On at least three occasions recorded in the Gospels, Mary proved her human inadequacy vis á vis Christ’s Deity. In Luke 2:41ff she and Joseph had to search for 12 year old Jesus. They didn’t know he would be in the Temple. She had no better understanding of his nature, his time and his glory at Cana at age 30, John 2:1ff. She wanted to determine how he would express himself—and he pointedly rejected her interference. She and her children learned nothing more of Christ’s authority when two years after he had been preaching, they tried to interrupt his ministry and “take him home” Mark 3:31-35. The Lord’s response detonated smoking rebuke in their faces. End Part IV Though fully HUMAN in every way, yet without sin, Hebrews 4:15. Jesus was also fully DEITY. Consider scriptures that stress his NATURE. Prior to his conception, and before being “born of a woman” Galatians 4:4, Jesus “was God...and was with God” John 1:1. And, “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man” John 3:13. Jesus: “being in very nature God” Philippians 2:6; “the image of the invisible God” Colossians 1:15; “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” Hebrews 1:3; the one “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” Colossians 1:19; “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” Colossians 2:9.
The outcome would be: “found in appearance a man”, Philippians 2:8, he could be “seen with our eyes”, looked at and touched with our hands I John 1:1. (Adam and Eve would understand all the above.) He who IS God’s WORD “made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the Only Begotten Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” John 1:14. End Part III Next: What was Mary’s role? The dual Gospel genealogies raise an intellectually-challenging question: how could a sinful woman conceive and carry a sinless child? And Mary admitted to being a sinner. In her song, Luke 1:46-47, she exulted, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
“My Savior” means she needed forgiveness of sin. Do not let the adoration of later ages ascribe to Mary what she never claimed, wanted or possessed. Trust God’s unchanging Word, not an always-evolving church tradition, to tell the truth. Indeed, every person ever to live, who reaches the age of accountability, needs a Savior. And Jesus alone, all by himself, IS the Savior all humanity needs. The question is valid; the answer equally valid. Consider that it’s as uncomplicated as the Holy Spirit coming upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowing her...“So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” Luke 1:35. In a wholly spiritual process, God’s wholly spiritual power, minus sexual passion, produced a wholly spiritual child.” That accounts for his complete Deity in human form. However, since he came as a human to save humans, a human mother must be involved. He came as one of us, however much unlike us he would always be. Which was exactly the message Paul preached to the Areopagites in Athens, Acts 17. God didn’t send himself as a SPIRIT, meaning the ancient mystery religions had it all wrong. And he didn’t send himself as a STONE, which corrected the Athenians obsession with IDOLS! He sent himself as a MAN, whom he raised from the dead! And when the philosophers heard about the resurrection, most lost interest because they had no concept, interest or use for a resurrected BODY! “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm....” II Timothy 2:19a. End Part I A future message will detail scriptural reasons the Old Testament is best interpreted by the New. This blog employs the Principle involved to explain why the Godhead/Trinity is active in both Testaments, but clearly understood only in the New.
For example, Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness....’” John 1:1-3 explains that the US in 1:26 is none other than God the Son, the Word of God, who Was God, Is God and with God from the beginning. For Jesus created all that exists in the heavens and on the earth. Colossians 1:16 also stated that truth. Isaiah 6:1 has another example. The prophet had a powerful vision revealed in the temple. “In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple”. John 12:41 posited Jesus as the Glory Isaiah saw. Which John’s vision in Revelation 1:12-13 underscored: “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest....” Just so, as Genesis 3:8-9 states, Jesus came in a visible form to visit Adam and Eve. While his presence uplifted them in innocence, and offered a remarkable forecast of our eternal fellowship with the Son of God in perfection, their sin severed the relationship. Instead of anticipating his visit, they FEARED hearing his footsteps. The sound terrified them in their guilt, and they hid! These few examples, of MORE, help us understand: whenever God communicated with humanity in any age, he always SPOKE through his Eternal WORD, the Eternal SON, whether through Moses, or the prophets, Hebrews 1:1—whatever form his pre-incarnate presence assumed. End Part I The American sailor got revenge and, possibly, by having bones in his hands broken, problems with them in daily life. The Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor read a tract written about de Shazer in 1950. He became a Christian and they became good friends, preaching together as Christian missionaries to Japan.
If the sailor had permanent, crippling damage to his hands from beating the Japanese guard, they kept him a prisoner of his hate. Where de Shazer’s forgiveness freed him to leave past issues to focus on future pleasures. What kind of person will we be? The one remembering slights or offenses and looking for the chance to repay? Or the one who so luxuriates in the pleasure of Christ’s forgiveness he instinctively offers forgiveness he has received? Will we let past mistakes and sins shackle us inside them, or let Christ’s grace free us to be witnesses of his unlimited mercy? Indeed, the message of Jesus from the cross embodies the forgiveness that keeps us from stooping to revenge. The choice is ours. But...the effectiveness of our Christian witness is determined by our decision to either hang on to what limits us or leave it for what liberates us. And...remember ...the forgiveness of sin others seek from Christ may well be determined by our willingness to forgive them their offenses against us. Fini |
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