STRENGTH THROUGH EXPOSURE

STRENGTH THROUGH EXPOSURE (Why does God allow problems?)

  “If the Lord is with us . . . why has all this happened to us? (Judges 6:11-16)

  Gideon’s question to the angel expresses precisely how we feel at times. If God is love as declared in 1John 4:8, 16, why does he allow so many bad things?

  Central to the answer is God’s love. He loves us so much that beginning with Adam and Eve He did not make people puppets with Him manipulating the strings. It’s called free will. Or would you rather be an android or robot remotely controlled?

  Exercising free will I make good and bad decisions and commit good and bad deeds: Decisions and deeds that complicate or even adversely affect the lives of others and my own.

  Others being no different than me in the free will scene . . . some even exercising thoughtful godly love less than I do, we live in chaotic olio.

  To help understand consider parenthood biological or as matter of heart. How protective are you, to the point of fostering a fragile person in adult body? If you truly love, the answer is “No”, you allow reasonable exposure to life in desire for their maturation.

  God is love. His love includes freedom. Isolation is not love. Indeed free will is problematic. True love always is.  EBB4

REALLY BIG

REALLY BIG

Friday, May 06, 2016

Matthew [GW] 22:32-39  [Jesus proclaimed] 'I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' He's not the God of the dead but of the living." He amazed the crowds who heard his teaching. When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. One of them, an expert in Moses' Teachings, tested Jesus by asking, "Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in Moses' Teachings?" Jesus answered him, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.'

  What does the question “The next big thing?” bring to mind? Listening in on or stirring conversations I by and large hear phones, apps, software, playstations, free tuition, healthcare, environmental changes, politics, transportation changes, et al from Christian and non-believer alike.

  What of transgender? No, wait, the USA is already there and slipping quickly into post-transgender.

  Which brings us to the “What is the next big thing on the LGBT agenda?” question.

  LGBT does have an agenda for the future that may very much will involve our future!

  Once again, I am not a prophet nor do I pretend to be one. I do however read and listen, therefore I make educated guesses:

·         Polygamy definitely, and I think we’ll be surprised who is hoping for legalization. (Like vinyl siding, coming soon to your neighborhood?)

·         Same-sex marriage proponents and practitioners against polygamy.

·         Lowering the legal age for consensual sex. Likely to puberty, possibly lower.

·         Legalizing incest but with bloodline restrictions. (They wouldn’t want a bunch of imbeciles walking around.) France and several other countries already allow it. And wasn’t there something on some back pages about Rhode Island considering repealing its prohibition?

  People say “NEVER!!” when I broach the topics, but then think about it. While an uninterested multitude stared at their cellphones and monitors, what has already come to pass?

  And I predict all and more will come to pass in these United Stated of America unless we honor God as really the biggest person in our lives.

EBB4 

STRENGTH FROM THE CHANGELESS ONE

STRENGTH FROM THE CHANGELESS ONE              Malachi 3:6a; Hebrews 6:16-20; 7:23-28

               

  One of the great experiences in life is having a person of influence look out for you. The best scenario is when they are mature in holding to interest in building you and company. Thankfully I have benefited several times working under the wise authority of such high caliber men and women.

  Jesus, as the High Priest of those trusting Him, is the epitome (i.e. Person of utmost quality.) as example, mentor, and intercessor. He is not limited to redeeming us from “condemned already” (Jn.3:18) unto eternal heaven. His redemption is presently actively enlivening . . . if we are agreeable. If we are contrary to His influence we not only don’t have His strength, we experience God’s resistance.

  James explained “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Aren't they caused by the selfish desires that fight to control you? You want what you don't have, so you commit murder. You're determined to have things, but you can't get what you want. You quarrel and fight. You don't have the things you want, because you don't pray for them. When you pray for things, you don't get them because you want them for the wrong reason-for your own pleasure. You unfaithful people! Don't you know that love for this evil world is hatred toward God? Whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God. Do you think this passage means nothing? It says, "The Spirit that lives in us wants us to be his own." But God shows us even more kindness. Scripture says, "God opposes arrogant people, but he is kind to humble people." So place yourselves under God's authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners, and clear your minds, you doubters. Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom. Humble yourselves in the Lord's presence. Then he will give you a high position.” (GW Jam.4:1-10)

  Jesus is not fickle, acting out various moods as we too often may. He is consistent, period. Totally unlike mere humans or mythical gods, He is predictable in manifestation of His love, and He need not beg audience with the Father, He is at the Father’s right hand making intercession for those trusting Him as Lord Jesus Christ! (Rom.8:34)

  Remember the strong spring in your step . . . the purposeful stride . . . when you knew you had a supportive trusted human mentor? (Admittedly sometimes slipping into egotistical swaggering.) Did you experience increase in emotional ease and creativity in thought? Weren’t you more courageous? Wasn’t life richer and fuller? To all questions, yes indeed!

  Jesus is not Apollyon, the Destroyer. He is the changeless abundant provider of light and life with strength for those receptive. (Jn.10:10) 

EBB4

IT'S GREEK TO ME!

6:12 IS GREEK TO ME!

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

  I still hear the old explanation of not comprehending, “It’s Greek to me!” This for me being a truth about calculus, jazz, and more. Once upon a time true about Scripture, but that changed when I believed God’s Word. Then increased when I was introduced to Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries and Thayer’s Greek Definitions in hard copy volumes. Then a few years ago friend and brother in Christ Mark Welch introduced me to free wonderful e-Sword software (http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html ), it containing Strong’s and Thayer’s to use with quick ease of cursor.

  A bit of prudent advice: If you’ve been using regular dictionaries to define words in Scripture, please stop doing so. Such definitions may be strictly English and have little or nothing in common with true meaning. Also consider that English word meanings change over time. Have some not done so in your lifetime? (For you KJV fellows, consider the “gay” of James 2:3.)

  We elders well know of this issue as we speak English to English and at times due to vocabulary changes or lacks we are not understood by those younger or culturally different.

  Why am I writing on this topic? I’ve discovered individuals misinterpreting or confused about some Scripture, the underlying reason being they used current English dictionaries to define words in verses.

  For those interested I share several words from recent study of Ephesians 6:12.

“For^G3754 we^G2254 wrestle^{G2076 G3823} not^G3756 against^G4314 flesh^G4561 and^G2532 blood,^G129 but^G235 against^G4314 principalities,^G746 against^G4314 powers,^G1849 against^G4314 the^G3588 rulers^G2888 of the^G3588 darkness^G4655 of this^G5127 world,^G165 against^G4314 spiritual^G4152 wickedness^G4189 in^G1722 high^G2032 places.”

wrestle: G2076 ἐστί; esti; es-tee'   Third person singular present indicative of G1510; he (she or it) is; also (with neuter plural) they are: - are, be (-long), call, X can [-not], come, consisteth, X dure for awhile, + follow, X have, (that) is (to say), make, meaneth, X must needs, + profit, + remaineth, + wrestle.

principalities: G746 ἀρχή; archē; ar-khay'  From G756; (properly abstract) a commencement, or (concrete) chief (in various applications of order, time, place or rank): - beginning, corner, (at the, the) first (estate), magistrate, power, principality, principle, rule. 

powers: G1849 ἐξουσία; exousia; ex-oo-see'-ah  From G1832 (in the sense of ability); privilege, that is, (subjectively) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (objectively) mastery (concretely magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence: - authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength.

rulers: G2888 κοσμοκράτωρ; kosmokratōr; kos-mok-rat'-ore  From G2889 and G2902; a world ruler, an epithet of Satan: - ruler.

  Okay, no great surprises on “principalities” or “powers”, but aha! on “rulers” as Greek soubriquet for Satan. Also liked seeing that to “wrestle” is constant in this life, and can be profitable instead of weakening and destructive.

  Hopefully my English today is not Greek to you. Sometimes notes in response to DTs assert I speak a different language.

EBB4

For further study on topic, go to: http://www.gotquestions.org/Greek-Hebrew-Bible.html  

SOJOURNERS REST

SOJOURNERS REST

Tuesday, May 03, 2016

  “rest” is emphasized 10 times in 11 verses in The Letter to the Hebrews:

3:11, 18 So I [God] sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. … And to whom sware he [God] that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?

4:1, 3-5, 8-1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his [God’s] rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. … For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he [God] said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he [God] spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my [God’s] rest. … For if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his [God’s] rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour [strive] therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

  Please begin by reading the above Bible references in context in version of your choosing.

  Then read of the accounting of “the day of provocation” in Numbers chapters 13 and 14. See how a multitude of people that had experienced God’s miraculous care then refused to trust Him further. The result being a 40 year desert trek all the while knowing the rest they had rejected and finally dying outside of its borders.

  Now consider the literary breadth and depth of God’s Word. English versions and translations are limited in vocabulary “rest”. The Greek is much more revealing.

·         Hebrews 3:11,18; 4:1,3,5,10,11 “rest” is κατάπαυσις;’ katapausis; kat-ap'-ow-sis; reposing down, that is, (by Hebraism) abode: - rest.

·         Hebrews 4:4 & 8 “rest is καταπαύω; katapauō; kat-ap-ow'-o; to settle down, that is, (literally) to colonize, or (figuratively) to (cause to) desist: - cease, (give) rest (-rain).

·         Hebrews 4:9 “rest” is σαββατισμός; sabbatismos; sab-bat-is-mos'; a “sabbatism”, that is, (figuratively) the repose of Christianity (as a type of heaven): - rest.

  “reposing down”, relaxed position, and to “colonize”, occupy, we readily understand. “sabbatism” however is not common to our vocabulary, though it definitely should be our everyday Christian walk.

  In the OT there was a set-aside Sabbath day. In the NT we find no such calendar; godly living in all ways to be an everyday affair. It is the distinctly different practice of viewing and exercising all things every day before and unto the Lord as concisely stated in Colossians [MKJV] 3:16-17 “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And everything, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.”

  Now, shall we rest?

EBB4

STRENGTH WHEN MEETING MOUNTAINS

STRENGTH WHEN MEETING THE MOUNTAIN        Zechariah 4:7-14 Who are you, O great mountain? …

  In Zechariah’s time some 2500 years ago Rabbis were sometimes deemed “mountain removers”.

  One not need be a person of titled leadership to be a mountain mover. God promises courage to meet life’s mountains. Study history and see the uncredentialed that removed mountains. Think of those you’ve known or presently know that shovel in hand quietly stand then labor when confronted with life’s mountains.

  My coming from a childhood of making “A mountain out of a molehill.” (Grandmother McGee’s often warning words.), trusting God to develop me into a 2Timothy 2:1-2 mountain man continues to be quite an experience. One difficult part of which was maturing not largely by mountaintop experiences, but seeing most of my mountains as what they truly were: molehills. The first big step was realizing His vision of life topography eliminating most of the fruitless climbing in my life.

  This process was greatly aided by dear Ann, she already possessing godly view. (Another essay that should be added to HOW TO PICK A SPOUSE series?)

  Consider that few of life’s mountains are rock and soil, but constructed of our and others’ life-view; including often standing low looking up molehill as though it an alp. But all are not molehill exaggerated, are they? There be mountains! My greatest mountain as yet having faced being the loss of my beloved helpmeet.

  A notation in an old file states “Great things happen when godly people and mountains meet. The rest go jostling through the streets amid the maddening crowds. Magnificent things happen when people and mountains meet while trusting Christ.”

  I leave you this morning with a verse for our day, yea for our life. It is from Zechariah to Zerubbabel when he faced range of alps to climb and molehills to stumble over. I encourage carrying it with you, reading often until your view of mountains and molehills becomes level in His manner.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”

ALTITUDE

ALTITUDE

Sunday, May 01, 2016

Proverbs 4:23

  According to my manual, flying at spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically healthy altitude is determined by attitude, proven factual by experience and observation. And as with plane flight, it’s what is over the wing that matters most of all.

  Quoting a friend, “There be indicators!”

  Here’s a simple attitude indicator given to me many years ago compliments of elder friend Bill Harrington: Do we see the 10 Commandments as restrictive, or as a fence to protect us?

EBB4