Down To Earth

From his lofty cosmic-view in John 1:1-5, the Apostle John brings his Christology down to earth, that the eternal Word, very-God of very-God, the Creator and Sustainer of all there is, took upon Himself not only our human-flesh, but our very humanity. He became one of us. He is, at the same time, BOTH God and Man, and while each nature remains distinct from the other, they are perfectly-united in one Person, Jesus Christ. Jesus’ humanity did not reduce His deity, nor did His deity reduce His humanity. He was 100% God and 100% Man.

The Word Made Flesh
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” 16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. (John 1:14-18)

Up to this point, we know that the Word was with God and that the Word was God; the “Word-God” We have also seen John refer to this Word-God as “He”. Now, for the first time, John identifies “him” as the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Yes, for it was none other than Jesus who became flesh and made His dwelling among us at the incarnation, it is of Jesus that the Hebrews author asserts, “and through whom also he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:2) which is parallel to John 1:3; there can be no doubt about whom it is that John is referring to here. It is Jesus who is the Son, having come to us from the Father.

Now that we are certain of just who John has been talking about, we can look at the attributes John mentions about Him, He was full of “grace and truth.” Notice the balance between those two; how many of us maintain that kind of balance between grace and truth when we are interacting with others? Some of us have a great deal of grace, so much so in fact, that we can overlook almost anything; we might even make the truth hard to find. Others are so strong on truth that we find ourselves pointing fingers at those around us, seldom displaying love or compassion or understanding.

The core of the Apostle John’s Christology is that Jesus Christ is both the Eternal Word, who he affirms as being our Creator, and a man, displaying all the hallmarks of being human. No one was closer to Jesus than John. John had spent over three years with Jesus. They were cousins, and Mary lived with John and his family after the crucifixion. While none of the stories of Jesus’ childhood made it into the Gospels, nobody knew more about Him, in His humanity, than His mother, Mary. John will go on to defend Jesus’ humanity against the heresies that were already raising their ugly-heads in the church by the time he wrote his first Epistle, 1st John. Notice his wording in 1st John 1:1-3:

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Heard”, “seen”, “touched”, the three pillars of evidence which would have been decisive in a Court of Law. The Old Testament required that there be three witness in order to convict a person of murder. If John were testifying today of the humanity of Jesus, he would bring pictures, audio-recordings, and even video taken during His earthly ministry.

What is the significance of the Word becoming flesh?

What does it mean by “dwelt among us“? Why is this important?

How did Jesus reveal God’s glory?

Did grace exist before the Incarnation? Did truth exist before the Incarnation?

How could John the Baptist say “He existed before me” when he was older than Jesus?

How did Jesus model grace? How can we model grace?

What does “only begotten” mean?

“Only begotten” is one of the great mysteries in the Bible, because it would imply, to us, that the Word had a beginning, however He could not have been Eternal if He had a beginning. It is our language and word-usage which trips us up, because, while the Old Testament is chock-full on genealogies, and Matthew’s Gospel begins with Jesus’ human genealogy, that cannot be the sense of how “begotten” is used in this passage. It would make more sense to us if “only begotten” had been rendered “unique“, because Jesus IS “unique“. Nobody before or since has had His “uniqueness“.

How did Jesus reveal God in His person and work?

How could John the Baptist say “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’”?

Let’s not forget that John the Baptist was of the priestly-line of Aaron, so he was very-well versed in the Old Testament, and particularly in the prophesies concerning the coming Messiah. We see that in John 1:23, where he said “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” (from Isaiah 40:3) God had also revealed to him that he was the “prophet who was to come”, the forerunner of the Messiah, as revealed in Malachi 4:5-6.

John’s text continues as he mentions that John the Baptist testified concerning Jesus in verse 15, and then in 16-18 gives his own testimony about Him.

Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:16-18)

John’s first statement is about the abundance of grace that we have received through relationship with Christ. Then, John expands on his statement, pointing out that while the Law was “given” grace and truth “came.” I think that’s worthy of a little thought, for as John has structured this, the Law is a rather top-down thing. The Law was handed down by God to Moses, and then from Moses to the people; the people could take it or leave it. They took it, and then for the most part, they left it; there was no relationship with Law, for Law just is. The result was that that very Law became their condemnation, not their salvation.

The author then contrasts Law and Grace by contrasting its authors. Moses was the great law-giver, but keeping the law never brought-about a righteous life. We have all experienced religious-legalism, and the Scribes, Pharisees and teachers of the law had raised religious-legalism to a fine art. The problem was that even if a person kept 99% of the law perfectly, they were still condemned by that 1% they didn’t get quite right. Another problem was that the law only exacted penalties for failure to keep it but it didn’t have any rewards for compliance. A person may have a perfect driving-record for twenty years, but when they finally get a speeding-ticket, their otherwise-perfect driving-record doesn’t diminish the penalties for that ticket. Even though my only speeding-ticket was over thirty years ago, that ticket, and that I paid it, is still on record somewhere in Illinois. I would never get inducted into the “Safe-driver Hall of Fame” because I don’t have a perfect driving-record.

That is where Grace comes in. God gives us what we don’t deserve, a right-relationship with Him, rather than what we DO deserve, eternal-punishment. Christ has the perfect record we could never attain, and through His perfect life, shed-blood and finished-work, God gives us what He earned for us. Grace goes far-beyond just keeping us out of Hell. Grace also gives us a place in God’s eternal kingdom, with all the rewards that go with that blessed state. I would get inducted into the “Safe-drive Hall of Fame” based on His perfect-record, not kept out based on my flawed-record.

And then, grace and truth came to them…

Grace and truth came to them in a person; they could talk and laugh and cry and walk together; there is relationship with grace and truth, for grace and truth become a part of who we are as human beings; there is no fear in grace and truth.

In the remainder of this text, John reveals to us that through Jesus, God can be known to Man, for Jesus is Himself God. Through Jesus, therefore, we can have relationship with God, the Creator of everything: Grace and Truth.

Would you like to know God?

Get to know Jesus. Would you like to know Jesus?

Get to know the Word who “became flesh and dwelt among us“.

You may wonder why I am relentless in my emphasis on Jesus’ humanity, which wasn’t doubted during His sojourn on earth. If fact, it wasn’t His humanity that was challenged, it was His claim to deity. He was crucified because He, obviously a man, claimed to be God. It wasn’t until after His ascension that the first challenges of His humanity came along. Greek Docetic and Gnostic philosophy, which demeaned the body and emphasized the spirit or soul, began to infiltrate the church. Debunking that heresy was the purpose of the opening verses of 1st John, which we looked at earlier. Even the church today is infested with “Docetism-lite”.

Why does it matter?
The penalty for rebellion against God was death (Genesis 2:17), so while Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God didn’t bring immediate physical-death, it DID bring spiritual-death, and physical-death would become a part of the human-experience. The only atonement for sin was a blood-sacrifice, death, so it took a perfect human-being’s death to atone for the sins of His people. It took a perfect “seed of the woman” to “crush the serpent’s head” (Genesis 3:15). That perfect “seed of the woman” was Jesus.

That is why it matters that Jesus is fully-human, and why I have written and taught about it so much. His humanity is the basis for our salvation.

Beloved, this is really too simple for us to miss! Out of all of the knowledge that has come to humanity over the ages, this is all we need to know to receive forgiveness and eternal life; grab onto it and hold on tight, never let it go…

Sola Deo Gloria!

The “Otherization” Of Jesus

I read an article recently in a well-respected publication that was trying to explain why Mary and some of Jesus’ other disciples didn’t recognize Him immediately after His resurrection. Aside from the obvious fact that they still didn’t understand the Old Testament prophesies concerning His death and resurrection quite yet, that author attributed their lack of recognition to some kind of “physical changes” in His body, as if He had suddenly become some kind of “other“. Did that mean He was no longer “completely-human“? WHAT???

“Docetism“, the belief that Jesus was not truly and fully-human, has been around for almost two millenniums, and our churches are frequently infected with “docetism-lite“, such that, while not outrightly-denying His true and full humanity, they have trouble handling the “details” of His humanity. While Docetics would prefer a body-less resurrection, they will accept a bodily-resurrection, as long as God leaves the parts they don’t like behind. SO, what parts would they “leave-behind“? The parts they like to cover with “fig-leaves“?

This insidious “otherization” of Jesus even shows up in our Christmas carols where we don’t even give it a second-thought. Do you recognize these lyrics?

The cattle are lowing the baby awakes

But little lord Jesus no crying he makes.

I love you lord Jesus; look down from the sky

And stay by my side until morning is nigh.

That is the second stanza of “Away In A Manger“. Am I being overly-picky, or not? What our kids hear and learn growing-up becomes part of the building-blocks of their theology later in life, so if they grow up accepting this “otherization” of Jesus, that there might have been some “changes” to His body when He was resurrected doesn’t raise any red-flags, but it does for me, because I have been studying Christology and realize how important it is.

Maybe Barbie and Ken are their ideal-prototypes…

I have found the Heidelberg Catechism quite helpful in its concise explanation. In question 16, we read:

Q: Why must he be a true and righteous man?

A: He must be a true man because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin. He must be a righteous man because one who himself is a sinner he cannot pay for others.

The answer here is focusing on the need for a real human nature. Why? Because the penalty for sin requires suffering in body and soul. And only a human can do this (cf. Heb. 2:14; John 12:27). Jesus did not only share in our nature, but also he had to identify with us in the experiences of the fall (Heb. 2:17-18). But it was essential that Christ himself did not sin in this identification with us. Otherwise, how could he pay for our sin? Berkhof writes, “Only such a truly human Mediator, who had experimental knowledge of the woes of mankind and rose superior to all temptations, could enter sympathetically into all the experiences, the trials, and the temptations of man (Heb. 2:17, 18; 4:15-5:2) and be a perfect human example for his followers (Matt. 11:29; Mark 10:39; John 13:13-15; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb. 12:2-4; 1 Pet. 2:21). L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p. 319.

In short, the answer is Jesus had to be a man so that he could identify with us, suffering in our place and sympathizing with us in our weakness.

We don’t need for Jesus to have undergone some kind of “changes” during His resurrection to be able to explain why Mary and some of His disciples didn’t recognize Him immediately. When Mary went to the tomb, she was looking for a BODY, a DEAD-BODY, not her living Lord. She had seen Him die and be buried, so she was still convinced that He was as dead as a stone. People didn’t survive crucifixion. Period! The same was true of His other disciples. They knew that He was DEAD. STONE-COLD-DEAD! John and four women, including His mother and Mary, were at the foot of the cross when He breathed His last, so when He appeared to them, that He could possibly be alive was a TOTALLY-LUDICROUS.

Shortly before Jesus’ own death, burial and resurrection, John, in John 11:1-44, recorded the death, burial and resurrection of Lazarus. Why does this matter? There were two people present at all three events, Mary and Martha. They had nursed him while he was sick, they had prepared his body for burial, and they had buried him, so if there was something “different” about after his resurrection, they would have been the first to notice it, but there wasn’t. The Lazarus who was raised from the dead was the same Lazarus they had buried just a few days earlier. Why would Jesus’ resurrection have been any different? Jesus’ disciples knew Him as intimately as Mary and Martha knew Lazarus, so they would have been the first to notice that there was something “different” about Him, but they didn’t record anything.

It isn’t until later in the New Testament that we read about “glorified-bodies“…

When I lost my first wife in 1997, I did NOT know unequivocally whose body was in that casket. I did not witness her death, even though I saw evidence that something had happened in our home, and I never saw her dead-body because it was a closed-casket funeral, for which I had no hand in making the arrangements. All I had was a piece of paper, a “Death Certificate“, which already had fraudulent-information on it that I had to have corrected. I lived with the nagging question of whether her “death” was a cruel-hoax for many years, particularly since I continued to receive mail addressed to her for several years even after I had moved over a thousand miles away. That was NOT the case with Jesus. His death was witnessed by many people, including the Roman soldiers who crucified Him. Joseph and Nicodemus had prepared His body for burial and buried Him, events that were witnessed by others.

We DO affirm that there WAS a certain “otherness” about Jesus, because He IS the incarnate Son of God, the “Word made flesh” (John 1:14), very God of very God, Creator-God, but that did NOT diminish His humanity. No other person in all of history has been BOTH God and Man, but His favorite title for Himself was “Son of man“.

We also know, from the Gospels, that Jesus, after His resurrection, exhibited capabilities He had not displayed before, such as the ability to appear and disappear at-will. Did that make Him any less human. Absolutely-not! He still ate and drank…

Does it REALLY mater?

In a word, YES, because His resurrection body was His ascension body, and the rest of the New Testament makes it very clear that we have our own flesh-and-blood in Heaven, with all His parts intact. making intercession for us. SO, we either do our own flesh-and-blood, with all His parts intact, or we don’t. If part of that “change” was that He no longer has all His parts intact, then Jesus is no longer HUMAN. He is an “other“, a “changeling“, and is a worthless mediator, and our “salvation” is worthless.

What we believe concerning Jesus Christ DOES matter, because, unless we have a fully-qualified Savior, we have no Savior at all, which required that His humanity be genuine.

Sola Deo Gloria,

Steve

It Is Not Good For The Man To Be Alone…

I listened recently to a TEDx talk by a well-known neuro-scientist about why loneliness is dangerous. He spent about twenty minutes talking, showing pictures, charts, graphs and scans of people’s brains, and even though he approached it from a different framework – evolution, he could have summed up his whole talk with the words God spoke thousands of years ago, “It is not good for the man to be alone“.

God has created us for community because God IS a community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and He began revealing His community in the opening verses of Genesis 1:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), to:

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2b), to:

The God said, “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness. Let THEM have dominion… (Genesis 1:26)

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created THEM. (Genesis 1:27)

We see community throughout God’s entire work of creation, and we see that God created mankind to BE a community.

When God, in Genesis 2, fills us in on some of the details of His creative-work, He reveals the basis of this human-community. After God created Adam, God was Adam’s only companion in the world, and for those who believe that “God is all we need“, it was God who revealed what was unfinished in His design for humanity, not Adam. Adam had God’s undivided-attention, so other than for Jesus Christ, no other human-being has had a closer-connection to God, but at this point, God revealed Adam’s “need“; “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

This wasn’t Adam’s idea: It was God’s declaration.

Even though Adam hadn’t realized it yet, God had created a “wife-shaped-hole” in his heart that only a wife, a spouse, could fill. God’s solution; “I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

When we think of “helper suitable“, we need to understand that God said He was going to make a MATE, for Adam, not just a “helper“, as we think of a “helper“. While we may be tempted to think that Adam only needed Eve for reproduction, God created Eve for far more than just reproduction. That was certainly part of the equation, but Eve was to be Adam’s companion, his “co-regent“, his “other-half“, as they carried out the mission that God had given them. Together, they would be greater than “the sum of their parts“.

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman (Ishah),
Because she was taken out of Man (Ish).”

24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:18-25)

After Adam picked his jaw up off of the ground when God presented the woman to him, notice what he said:
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman (Ishah),
Because she was taken out of Man (Ish).”

WOW!!! I AM NOW COMPLETE!!!

I found an interesting article about how “Ish” and “Ishah” complete humanity;

Ish & Ishah – Together Fully Human
(Adam) said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman (ishah), Because she was taken out of Man (ish).” For this reason a man (ish) shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife (ishah); and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:23-24)

The creation story has many profound things to say about God’s intention for our lives. We can be enriched just by looking closely at the Hebrew words that are used to describe the first human Adam, and then the creation of man and woman.

It may surprise English readers that the word adam is a neutral term meaning “human,” not specifically a man. In the original Hebrew text, all references to Adam are neutral until God takes a rib and some of Adam’s flesh and makes a woman – ishah, in Hebrew. Only at that point is Adam called ish, a man. The Hebrew word ishah hints at her origins from within the ish, something that we can mimic in English, with the words “man” and “woman.” But interestingly, Adam is never called an ish until the ishah has been separated from him. It is as if the text is implying that male and female cannot define themselves fully as human without the other.

We may not realize that this logic is part of the next verse that says that for this reason, when a man and woman marry, they become “one.” They are returning to God’s first design before the ish and ishah were separated. The complementarity between man and woman is inherent in the way they were taken apart from each other, as the first ishah provides what the ish lacks. In God’s design, it is the the two together who ultimately reflect the image of God.
by Lois Tverberg PhD.

Now, for a little test:

If you actually look at what is between your legs, would it truly make sense if there was no complementary gender? Of course not, because, if you are a man, basic-function would only require an outlet to urinate through. The same holds true for women. There used to be a man in the UK who was born without any visible genitals – visibly “genderless“, even though he was genetically-male. He had everything necessary for basic-functions even though he had no obvious genitals. We all have “excess-equipment” if there was no complementary-gender, and some of those parts can be real trouble-makers.

What about that “hole” in our hearts, because, after all, this is really about relationships?
Have you ever heard a spouse call their spouse their “other-half“, or maybe, their “better-half“? That is no misnomer, because, as we see from Scripture, we are not “complete” without our spouse, our mate.

Is it any wonder that widows and widowers are very lonely without their “other-half“? The longer they were together, the more the survivor will feel their loneliness. An irreplaceable-part of them died when their beloved passed away, just as Connie took a part of me when she pulled the trigger. We are missing something – our “other-half“.

Is it any wonder that many widows and widowers try to “replace” their missing lover? Of course not, because an imperfect-match may be better than no match at all. Yes, I tried too, but those were poor matches from the get-go. None of them even came close…

What about singles? I’m glad you asked, because God grand design for humanity doesn’t exclude them, just because they don’t have a spouse (mate) – yet. What about those seemingly “happy-singles“? Are they REALLY “happy” being single? Maybe not as much as they like to let-on…

I know a single lady, who is in her early 50’s, who has been single for most of her adult life, after being briefly-married. Is she really “happy“? She may appear to be “happy“, but those of us who really know her know that she really is miserable. She is constantly looking for someone to “go somewhere with her“, and even when she barely had two nickels to rub together, she HAD to renew her Disney annual-pass, because that, along with several other things, is her “escape” from life as a lonely-single. She doesn’t want a room-mate and she doesn’t want a husband, but she is desperate for intimate-connection, which all the entertainment in the world will never provide. I’m sure her story is repeated countless times by those who are desperate for the kind of intimate-connection we were created for, but won’t find anywhere else than as God intended, as couples.

I know another lady who says she LOVES being single, except when she doesn’t – when she craves male companionship. She isn’t willing to make the sacrifices necessary for marriage, and she can’t have it both ways. Yes, marriage takes work, because two people are trying to live together amicably even when they try each other’s patience. Marriage also takes a full-time commitment, and can’t be “on-again, off-again“, at least not Biblically.

What about that “gift-of-singleness“, as some hyper-spiritual people like to call it? Notice that most of the people who talk about the “gift of singleness” are married. How ironic! They like to parade Jesus and Paul around as examples of men who had the “gift-of-singleness“, as if they are to be our examples, our consolation, when we are lonely.

Again, take a close look at their lives:

Jesus hadn’t much more than freshened-up after He tangled with Satan in the wilderness when He started calling disciples, men, who, from a human-relationship-aspect, were to be His buddies and traveling-companions. Jesus had a special-affinity for John (the disciple whom Jesus loved). Paul likewise, nearly-always had one or more traveling-companions. Paul called Luke the “beloved physician“.

Jesus, when asked about marriage and divorce, reiterated both the importance and permanence of marriage:
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:3-9)

Marriage is intended to be for keeps – “til death do us part“, and anything else violates God’s intended design. Divorce is an anomaly, NOT part of God’s original-intention for marriage.

Are there any REAL “contented-singles“? Yes, and no, depending on how they define being “contented“. I’ll dare say, that if there are REAL “contented-singles“, they are “married” to their work. Oh, but what about the Apostle Paul? Wasn’t he “contented“?, Yes, and he was clearly “married” to his work, the job of being an Apostle and a tentmaker.

Paul wrote during the first-century when it was commonly-assumed that Christ’s return was imminent, within their lifetime, so there could be nothing more important than spreading the Gospel. Thus, believers shouldn’t “waste” their time with marriage if it would take away from their ability to spread the Gospel.

8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I. 9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. (1 Corinthians 7:8-9)

“Better to marry than to burn with passion”? As if sex is the only reason for marriage…

Sex IS important in marriage, but it is NOT all-important. God created us as sexual-beings, and marriage is the only legitimate-outlet for our sexual needs and desires, but marriage is more than sex. Marriage is meant to fill that void, that hole in our hearts which only an intimate-partner can fill. Marriage makes us complete, and in sex, we truly become “one-flesh“, as those parts which are “different” about us are intimately-united. Sex isn’t just a utilitarian good; it’s a gift to be enjoyed by a married couple that images nothing less than the relationship between Christ and his church (Eph. 5:22–33).

There STILL is nothing more important than spreading the Gospel, yet in God’s grand plan, being married is one of the primary qualification for church officers, Elders and Deacons (1 Timothy 3:1-13).

Do you ever wonder why officers in the church are supposed to be married? Marriage, from Genesis to Revelation, is the very picture of God and His people, of Christ and His church. Revelation closes with the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We will live in community in Heaven.

Christian marriage is a picture of Heaven!

What about people who are same-sex-attracted (SSA)? They seem to be looking for the same kind of intimate-connection, just in a different way. I know a SSA man who calls his partner his “husband“. He travels a lot, but when he gets back home, he wants to go home to a loving-welcome. Many SSA female couples use similar language. ‘Nuf-said.

Are there “advantages” to being single? Yes, but “sleeping-single-in-a-double-bed” isn’t one of them. Neither is “eating alone at a table-for-two“. Neither is coming home to a quiet-house. Neither is sitting-alone in church. Do you get the point?

Maybe God knew what He was talking about when He said “It is not good for the man to be alone“…

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

 

 

Tired Of Being “Tough”…

I “cracked” last week. No, I didn’t have a total-breakdown, but I was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted, so I “cracked“. I hadn’t slept much in almost a week. It seemed that my world has come crashing down around my ears, and I couldn’t handle it any more, so I “cracked” – at the VA, in a nurse’s office. I’m grateful that I had SOMEONE to talk to who cared, because the doctor I was there to see only cares about NUMBERS – LAB NUMBERS. He couldn’t care less that I hadn’t slept much in almost a week. Taking care of me otherwise is “not-his-job“, “not his department“… That is what I have “other doctors” for….

It wasn’t “fun” sitting there admitting that I was “at the end of my rope“. I am supposed to be “tough” because I am a MAN, and men are “tough“. We don’t “feel” because we are not ALLOWED to “feel“. Our emotions and emotional-needs don’t matter, because we are MEN, and that is what we have been taught from the time we were wee toddlers: “Big-boys don’t cry“, “Suck it up buttercup!“, “Be a MAN!“… What if I am tired of being “tough“?

As I think back a few days, I did the right thing, because I AM tired of being “tough“. This year has been one emotional-onslaught after another. Now, my brother in is Intensive Care in the hospital having had surgery to remove a significant part of his foot, all because his foot hadn’t been properly cared-for when he was in a Rehab center. Oh, and I am only a month away from the twentieth “anniversary” of Connie’s tragic-suicide. When will it end?

If I could, I would gladly take the place of my brother, because he has a beautiful young daughter who badly needs her dad. I don’t WANT to have to be there in his place when she graduates from High School, but I will, if I have to. I don’t WANT to have to be there to walk her down the aisle when she gets married, but I will, if I have to. I am no “replacement” for her dad. I can only be a “stand-in“, but I can’t “replace” him. I would much rather be there beside her mom and dad enjoying those times with them. Yes, I love her, but I am not her dad.

Yes, I have people who “care” about me, or so they say, but where are they when I need them? I can’t burden my poor sister with my struggles because she has a more-than-full plate dealing with my brother’s problems AND trying to care for and raise a soon-to-be “young-lady“(tweenager). Everyone I know has their own struggles, so they don’t have the time or energy to help me with mine. On top of everything else, a hurricane went through Florida less than two weeks ago (Irma). So, I am “stuck“, “stuck” dealing with my own problems as best I can, while trying to appear as “normal” (whatever that is) as possible, so I write, or try to write, hoping that this doesn’t sound to inane.

BTW, I still haven’t had a “good” night’s sleep in almost two weeks…

Blessings,
Steve

A Creational-Approach to Missions

Has the church been doing missions “wrong” for almost two-thousand years? No, but I believe that we can deepen our passion for missions by going back and asking “Why did God make man?” This also relates-directly to the greatest philosophical and theological question of all time, “Why am I here?”

As I have worked on my message for the Sunday morning service during the 2017 CNA Spring Conference, I have been drawn to ponder more deeply what the foundation of that message should be. I believe that this must be rooted in what God has revealed about Himself in His Word, the Bible. Lest you think that I have finally lost my mind, bare with me and it should all start making sense.

Creation…
The first four words of the Bible are “In the beginning, God…” Our Creator-God pre-existed all of creation, so He decreed the “beginning“. The first two chapters of Genesis are the story of creation, what God did, and how He did it. As great as the cosmos is, they weren’t God’s ultimate-acts of creation. God simply spoke the cosmos into being, ex nihilo, out of nothing, but when He was ready to create man, He attended to that project personally.

Scientists love to talk about the “big-bang“, as if all matter coalesced into one place and exploded. Where did THAT matter come from? Matter isn’t self-generating. I also believe in a “big-bang“, a God-ordained “big-bang“, because when God said “let there be light“, and the nuclear-fires of a gazillion stars lit as one, releasing an enormous burst of light and energy, that WAS an unimaginably BIG BANG.

We pick up the story of man’s creation from Genesis 1:
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:26-31)

What jumps out at you in Genesis 1?

From Genesis 1:
Man is created in God’s image.

That “image” is both male and female. We are neither one a “greater-image-bearer‘ than the other.

God gave two commands, “be fruitful and multiply“, and “subdue and rule over the earth“. God gave us the reasons for our existence from the very beginning, our “why’s“.

God created mankind to co-create more bearers of His image, and to continue His work in the world.

7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:7, 15-25)

What jumps out at you in Genesis 2?

From Genesis 2:
God got His hands dirty, because He hand-formed the man from the dust of the ground.

God performed the first “artificial-respiration“. God didn’t “snap His fingers” to bring His creature to life, He breathed His OWN breathe into the man.

There was only one restriction; do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Man needed companionship.

God performed the first “anesthesia” and the first “surgery“, making God the first Doctor.

The “companion” God created was NOT another man; it was a woman, the perfect-complement to the man. 22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

“Naked and not ashamed“: Adam and Eve had perfect-fellowship with God, just as God intended.

Why did God make man?
We often have trouble separating our “needs” from our “wants“, but God doesn’t have that problem. People have lived for thousands of years, and still do, in “improvised-shelters“, “shelters” that do what “shelters” are intended to do, “shelter” them from the elements. “Shelter” is a basic “need“, and yet, particularly here in the US, most of us aren’t content with “basic-shelter“. WE WANT MORE! We WANT homes with all the “amenities“, even when we could get by with much less. That is only one example of how we have inflated our “needs” into often-overblown WANTS.

Does God “need” anything? God has been totally self-sufficient and self-sustaining for all eternity. To put it more succinctly, God didn’t “need” to make man. The Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit ARE the PERFECT-FAMILY. There is no tension, strife or discord within the Trinity. As God told Moses from the burning-bush, He is the great I AM. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

What if God “wanted” something He didn’t have? What if God wanted a larger family, a “forever-family“? One of the few things God CAN’T do is procreate or replicate Himself. There always have been three persons in the Godhead, and there will always be three persons in the Godhead, because God is unchangeable.

If we want a larger family, we have two options, procreation and adoption. Many couples don’t have the option of procreation for a variety of reasons, one being endometriosis. Endometriosis runs in my first wife’s family, and even though Connie didn’t have that problem, our oldest daughter does, and has had since she was about thirteen. After trying for several years, she and her husband adopted a baby boy. She got pregnant shortly thereafter. They have two boys, and a “blended-family“, including ethnically-blended, because the boy they adopted is black, and she and her husband are white. I am button-popping proud of them as parents, and of both boys as my grandsons. A couple in my church has three children naturally, and they adopted three siblings. The youngest, a boy, is autistic.

For God to have a larger family, His ONLY “option” was “adoption“, which is why the theme of “adoption” comes up frequently in the New Testament. That, my friends, I believe, is why God created mankind, so He could have the larger family He desires.

What happened?
We have seen God’s plan to create and adopt a larger family, but something got in the way.

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall crush your head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:1-15)

Something happened, and it wasn’t good. Satan attempted to usurp God’s place to build his OWN “family“. While it appears that Satan succeeded in the short-run, God wasn’t having any part of it.

Did this turn of events catch God off-guard? If it did, God isn’t God. The reality is that God knew this was going to happen before He even began creation. God’s “plan of redemption” was NOT some “Plan-B“, and the rest of the Old Testament is the unfolding-story leading up the coming of the promised “the seed of the woman“.

Redemption…
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (and daughters). 6 Because you are sons (and daughters), God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son (or daughter); and if a son (or daughter), then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7)

Notice that glorious word “ADOPTION“. “Adoption” means that we are part of God’s “forever-family“, furthermore, we can call Him “daddy (Abba)“, and we have become “heirs” of God’s kingdom.

Jesus Christ was that long-promised “seed of the woman” who “crushed the serpent’s head” at Calvary, so that we could become part of God’s “forever-family“.

Why am I here?
For most of us, it is quite easy for us to determine “why” we are doing what we are doing at a particular moment in time, but when we get to the overarching question of “Why am I here?”, we are stumped. We don’t have a clue, UNLESS we have developed a Biblical view of our meaning in life.

About 350 years ago, a group of Bible scholars and theologians met in Westminster Abbey to scour the Scriptures for the most important doctrines of our faith. They summarized those doctrines in short, concise statements, in what became the Westminster Confession of Faith. Many churches and denominations still subscribe to that Confession, including my home church, Cypress Ridge Pres. I also subscribe to that Confession.

From that Confession of Faith, they set out to formulate teaching-tools so that those great doctrines could be taught to the masses. They produced two Catechisms, a Larger, more detailed Catechism, and a Shorter, or more simplified Catechism, which is suitable for even young children.

The very first question they asked was “Why am I here?” Thus, question and answer one is:
Q – What is the chief end of man?

A – Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.

If you are thinking that this question sounds suspiciously like “Why am I here?”, you are right, because the Bible should inform our understanding of “why” we are here, the “meaning of life“. If it doesn’t, we are looking for “meaning” in all the wrong places.

Why am I here? To be part of God’s “forever-family“.

Family rules…
For a family to function smoothly, there have to be rules, rules about how the children are to interact with their parents, and rules for now the children are to interact with each other. God’s family is no different; hence God gave us the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments tell us how we are to interact with God. The other six commandments tell us how we are to interact with one another.

20 Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who [e]stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:1-17)

By the time Jesus came to earth, the number of rules and regulations in the Torah had blossomed to over six-hundred, covering virtually every aspect of life. If the Pharisees thought that God hadn’t been “detailed-enough“, they added even more rules and regulations. They were always trying to pick a fight with Jesus, but they ALWAYS lost. Not surprisingly, they kept trying, because He made them look like the idiots they were. Anything to save-face…

34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40)

We will now focus on that second Great Commandment:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself…

We can certainly think of many ways we can show love for our neighbor, and all of them are valid, however, what is our neighbor’s GREATEST “need“? Think about that “need” for a few moments before we go on.

God gave me a “love-project” for over three years, a sickly, injury-prone neighbor. She needed MANY things, many of which I was able to help her with, but since she thought that she had gotten her “ticket punched” when she was a young girl, she thought that she “had it made“, and had no interest in the things of the Lord. Her lifestyle reflects that belief. She ONLY goes to church when she thinks it will be “advantageous” to her. She has a great “need“, even though she thinks she doesn’t.

There are MANY like her in this world, for whom God may only be a “useful-accessory“, it at all. We see them everywhere we turn.

Every person belongs to one of two families, either God’s family, or Satan’s family. There is NO “middle-ground“. They are also going to either Heaven, or Hell. Again, there is NO “middle-ground“.

What is MANKIND’S GREATEST “NEED”?

Mankind’s greatest “need” is to be restored to a right-relationship with God, and to become part of God’s “forever-family“. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ IS the GOOD NEWS that we can be restored to a right-relationship with God, and join His “forever-family”

God has given US the awesome-privilege of being part of His “adoption-agency“, so doesn’t it make sense for us to share the Good News of the Gospel so that others can become part of His “forever-family“, and participate in His ultimate-plan for mankind? I sure think so.

That, my friends, is how we can “love our neighbor” in the very-best-way possible.

Sola Deo Gloria!

Bible Study – Healing A Blind Man

This scene takes place downhill from the Temple, in the old part of Jerusalem which was called “The City of David“. Jerusalem had been expanded many times throughout the centuries as its population grew and it became the capitol city of Israel. Built over seven-hundred years earlier, the Pool of Siloam was the principle source of water for that part of the city, and also served as an appropriate place where the Jews could take their ritual purification baths. It was fed by a spring over a third of a mile away through a tunnel or aqueduct. Jesus encounters a blind man, and heals him on the Sabbath.

Healing the Man Born Blind
9 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” 6 When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. 8 Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” 9 Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” 10 So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”

9 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Many Jews, Like Job’s friends, believed that every temporal misfortune was God’s punishment for a specific sin. With a congenital affliction, the explanation could be that the sin had been committed in the womb, or by parents whose sinful act victimized their child.

3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him”. Jesus dismisses these as improper explanations, but this is not to say that certain trials are not God-ordained punishment for certain sins (e.g., getting an STD from having sex with someone other than one’s spouse). Neither does Jesus here dismiss the doctrine of original sin, which teaches that all suffering is the consequence of our corporate sin and rebellion in Adam. It is unwise and uncharitable to judge that the sufferings of others are specifically punitive. The question put to Jesus presents a false dilemma. Only two possibilities were given as reasons for the man’s affliction, his own sin or the sin of his parents. Jesus offered a third option, that God will be glorified through his healing.

As tempting as it is to judge or point fingers at someone who has a catastrophic-defect or has a life-threatening illness or injury, we don’t know everything, so it is not our place to judge them. We DO have the responsibility to treat them with respect, kindness and compassion. One of the families in my church has adopted a young boy who is autistic, a problem which is still baffling doctors and scientists. He is one of three siblings which were adopted by the family, and the other two are normal. My oldest daughter started showing symptoms of endometriosis when she was about thirteen years old. Our responsibility, as her parents, was to get her the best care, and do what we could to mitigate her symptoms so that she could live a normal life. Endometriosis runs in her mother’s family, and has popped up randomly in the women of the family. She also has asthma, which runs in my side of the family. Likewise, a college buddy of mine died of MS before he turned thirty-five. MS had also claimed his mother’s life before she turned thirty-five.

4 “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” As we will see, John will use day and night, light and dark, to illustrate Jesus’ presence. As we continue to move closer and closer to the time of His arrest, Jesus will continue to say things like “while it is still day” and “the night is approaching.” In fact, as we will see later in the book, Jesus describes the period from His arrest up until His resurrection as “night” or “darkness”. So, at the point of this story, it is still day and there is work to be done to glorify God.

6 When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.

There is some very interesting imagery in this account, there must be since spit and dirt are seldom known as a restorative for sight; if they were I’d have tried them myself! When Jesus spit into the dirt, that saliva came from His mouth, as does His Word. Recall the Word in the beginning that was with God, and which was God, and then which became flesh and made its dwelling among us? That is what is being pictured here. As for the dirt, do you recall what God made Adam from? Ah yes, it was dirt! So the Word comes from the mouth of Jesus and is combined with the soil which represents humanity and is applied directly to the part of the man that isn’t whole. Then the man, who has never seen Jesus, does what Jesus has commanded him in perfect obedience and is made whole again, in this instance receiving his sight for the first time. In fact, we wouldn’t be far off track if we said here that the man had seen the light.

Did you notice verse 7? The Pool of Siloam “which means sent.” Think about this for just a moment: Jesus combined His Word with humanity and then they are sent out on a mission. What happens when we receive Christ? His Word combines with our humanity and we are sent to make disciples, and when we respond in obedience, we are made whole. Now in saying this, I don’t mean just that our sins have been forgiven, for that is only the first step in life’s adventure with Christ. For it is within the adventure of following Him, over time you might say, that we are made entirely whole, as we see the light of His Truth at work within us… and so it was with this man. What an amazing little story this is!

8 Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” 9 Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” 10 So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.” The man’s neighbors had lots of questions, and so do our neighbors when they see Jesus at work in us, but unfortunately, the Pharisees are about to weigh in on this, and that is a whole different story, just as it is for us when the modern-day Pharisees get involved…

Controversy over the Man
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they *said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.”

18 The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, 19 and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” 28 They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out.

Jesus healed a man who had been born blind with a curious mixture of dirt and spit in John 9:1-12, and now we reach the time when this has come to the attention of the Pharisees; an official investigation of this lawlessness has been opened.

What’s that you say- what’s lawless about healing a blind man?

Oh sorry, didn’t I mention it? Jesus healed the guy on the Sabbath, and we know how they feel about that don’t we?

Look at this text; can’t you just see these Pharisees who have already decided the outcome, trying to get the answers they needed to justify what they have already decided they are going to do? Those Pharisees might even make a Congressman blush!

They question the man, but not satisfied, they question his parents, after all how can they be sure he was ever really blind? The parents say he was blind and he is their son; they should know. Yet when asked who had healed their son, they are afraid to be associated with Jesus, for the corruption of their leaders is well known; they throw the question back to their son. The Pharisees question him a second time.

They ask him again to tell them who did this, only this time, they want the truth: He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?” (v. 27)

This is one of those times I wish I could see their faces; “would you like to become his disciples too?”

You can almost see their noses in the air and hear the smugness in the voice of their spokesman as: Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” (vv. 28-29)

If you have been following along, then you will remember that it was only a couple of chapters back that the Pharisees were sure Jesus wasn’t the Messiah because they knew where He came from; a tangled web indeed!

The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (vv. 30-33)

The parents might have been afraid of the Pharisees, but this guy is on fire! If I were advising the Pharisees, I would tell them to end this interview in a hurry before they screw it up even further… and they did: To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

Like any other group of mediocre politicians, they avoided the truth by calling the guy some names and having him tossed out. After all, isn’t that what you do when the issue becomes too hot to handle?

We’ve already seen the way that the issue of healing on the Sabbath plays out between the Pharisees and Jesus, yet the Pharisees just know they can trip Jesus up so they will have an excuse to murder Him. Their minds are closed, their hearts are hardened and their backs are turned on God, now it’s just the small matter of doing away with the inconvenient truth. Does this remind you of anything today?

Jesus Affirms His Deity
35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” 38 And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” 40 Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. (John 9)

Jesus heard that the Pharisees had thrown the man out who was blind from birth because he wasn’t going along with what the Pharisees wanted. When He caught up with the man, the man came to believe in Him and worshipped Him. This brings us to verse 39; why doesn’t anyone ever quote it?

Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” John 9:39

I would expect that if my next post was titled “Jesus Came to Judge the World” many, probably most, of you would object, but there you are in His own words! Of course He also said that He had not come to judge, as the atheists like to point out as they search for something to claim is a contradiction.

What shall we say then?

This is an unusual context, isn’t it? Jesus is playing on these words to show that the Pharisees have condemned themselves by their ruthless arrogance, for they claim to know all and see all, and yet when confronted with an amazing manifestation of the power and glory of God, as they were when this poor man received his sight, all they can think of is how to downplay the whole thing so they can keep their influence. So they conjure up their little investigation into the facts of the case, but not before they have already determined its outcome, and in the end, they have kicked the once blind man out of the assembly because he had the audacity to tell the truth.

There were some Pharisees present who overheard this exchange; look at their condescension: Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” (v. 40)

Can you imagine having that much attitude at that precise moment? Jesus explained: Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (v. 41)

In a simple one-liner Jesus smashes any hope they might have of saving the situation. Have you ever noticed that often it is the very person or persons who should know best, who refuse to accept the obvious if it proves a threat to their position and influence? Since they admit they have the knowledge, that they should know better, they cannot claim innocence, no, not ever.

Do we behave like the Pharisees? Do we have our minds made up before we even hear the evidence?

In Christ,
Steve

Dare To Be Authentic!

Are you singing everyone’s song but your own? Are you marching to the beat of everyone’s drummer but your own? Are you performing to an ever-changing, ever-fickle audience? Do you even have your own tune? Do you even have your own drummer? Are you acting for approval which never comes? Does anyone really know the REAL you, or do they see a carefully-crafted persona, an Avatar? If you are, you are NOT alone.

Yes, I have been there too, for the first fifty-seven years of my life, and I was lost when I “struck-out” that last time. I had a name, but I didn’t know WHO I was. Those were treacherous-waters. When I started not caring about what anyone thought about me, the real ME started emerging, peaking out from the rubble of what had been my life. It was hard. It was scary, but I had to do it. I didn’t have any other choice. My old life was in ruins so I couldn’t go back. It was either become ME, or die…

Why did I have to wait until after my dad died to find out the he was “proud” of me? He couldn’t tell me that he was “proud” of me because I hadn’t met his expectations.

Do YOU even know who you are? Are you singing everyone’s song but your own? Are you marching to the beat of everyone’s drummer but your own? Are you performing to an ever-changing, ever-fickle audience? Do you even have your own tune? Do you even have your own drummer? Are you acting for approval which never comes? Does anyone really know the REAL you, or do they see a carefully-crafted persona, an Avatar? If you are, you are NOT alone.

If this is YOU, why not join me on a voyage of discovery? You might just come out a new person.

There is ONLY one YOU! There is ONLY one ME! Even if you have an identical-twin, YOU are different. We are NOT copies and we are NOT clones, so why is it so hard to be who we really are? Is our authentic-selves not “good-enough“?

The short-answer is “NO!”

When we are born, we are given our first “identity“. Our parents named us, and we were their “son” or “daughter“. They soon started teaching us their’s and society’s expectations, whether it was “put some clothes on” or “don’t make a fuss in church“. If we didn’t meet those expectations, we received their wrath. We are taught early-on to CONFORM!!! No “square-pegs for round-holes” allowed.

When we started going to school, they expected us to “make good grades“, however they defined “good grades“. We might have even been punished if our grades weren’t “good enough“. I didn’t always meet “expectations“, particularly in high school. When I was raising my own kids, “good grades” meant the best that they could do. My oldest daughter is very-bright, “gifted and talented“, so her “best” was “straight-A’s“, which was what she made. My other kids weren’t quite as talented, so their grades weren’t quite as “good“, but still the best they could do. They were talented in other ways. I tried to not be a “pushy-dad“.

Next comes the question of college, or… My dad was disappointed that I didn’t go straight to college right after high school, which was his expectation. I fulfilled my dream of being a professional musician by becoming an Army Bandsman. It was there that I realized that I didn’t have what it took to be a professional musician in the outside-world. It was also there where my roles and titles were more important than who I was. I was Sgt. McFarland, Section Leader and Barracks NCO. I was also Fire and Safety NCO, and periodically either Charge of Quarters or Duty-NCO, depending on which “hat” they had me wear. The only place I could be “Steve” was on the outside. Do you see a pattern developing?

As we go along in life, we collect more “titles” and more “roles“, and unfortunately these become our “identity“. “Who” we are becomes buried in “what” we are, and as long as we can “replace” a lost “title” or “role” when we lose one, we may feel like we are doing “Okay“. BUT, what happens when that last “title” or “role” gets stripped-away from us?

Along the way, I became a “husband“, and then a “father“, as well as an employee of “X-Corporation“. I then became a “team-leader” for a Search and Rescue team, as well as a “Captain” and “Assistant Director of Communications” in the Civil Air Patrol.

When we moved, and I changed jobs a few times, “titles” and “roles” came and went, but the core, “husband” and and “father” stayed the same. Then came the “crash of ’97“. Within a few weeks time, I lost my job AND my family. When my wife committed suicide, her family took my kids away from me. Yes, I CRASHED, and I was left without anything to “prop” me up. That was my first, but not my last, “identity-crisis“.

Towards the end of 1998, some “normalcy” was restored when I remarried. I was a “husband” again. That gave me a new “anchor“. I also got involved in the Coast Guard Auxiliary and a Volunteer Fire Department. Those brought new “titles” and new “roles“, and helped me survive the next “crash“, the “crash of ’07“. I lost my right eye AND my wife, who divorced me after I lost my eye. BUT, I still had a job and a “title“, and I was still part of a Fire Department.

By mid-2008, I had remarried – again, and I still had my job and the “title” that went with it. I left the Fire Department because we moved out of the area, but being a “husband” was my “anchor“. Then I lost my job…

Have you spotted the “little-problem” yet? What if I give you a clue? Every “crash“, and every new “normal“, was lower than the one before it. Each time I lost out, I lost more than I would ever regain.

The next “crash” came in 2010. I had lost my job, so the only income I was able to bring in was from the odd-jobs I was able to do and the pittance of unemployment I got each month. My wife had married me for my money, and when my money ran out, she did too. At least I still had a place to live.

The final “crash” came in early-2013. I had remarried, again, just a few weeks earlier. I had left the Fire Department for the last time and moved to an unfamiliar area. Less than six weeks after we got married, she abruptly moved out, while I was out of town for a doctor’s appointment. I had lost my last “prop“, but there was no turning-back. I had to stay in the area while I worked towards a reconciliation that hasn’t happened over three years later.

I could moan and bellyache about all I lost, including the last vestiges of my old “identity“, but I have already written about that extensively in other posts, so I would rather tell you about what I GAINED.

I am a child of the living God, the second-most exalted status in the universe. Only Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God ranks higher than me. I am free from arbitrary-expectations, so I can sing my own song, act in my own play, and dance to the beat of my own drummer. I have only one Judge and Law-Giver, Almighty God, and His law has been summed up in the two Great Commandments, which are: Love God above all else, and love my neighbor as myself. I am FREE, I am LOVED, I am a child of the Living God, and nobody nor anything can take that away from me. Goodbye old “identity“!

Will YOU Dare To Be Authentic? It is the best feeling in the world.

What is man?
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
(Psalm 8:4-5)

I pray that this is YOUR significance. It is mine, and nobody can take it away from me.

Final thoughts…
I have great worth apart from my performance, because Christ gave His life for me, and therefore imparted great value to me. I am deeply loved, fully pleasing, totally forgiven, accepted, and complete in Christ.

In Christ,
Steve

When Jesus Got Mad…

Jesus, mad? Yes, Jesus got mad and He had a very good reason to get mad. In His ongoing dispute with the Pharisees, this was another skirmish about what was “permissible” to do on the Sabbath. God had given some rules about the Sabbath, but the Pharisees didn’t think that He had gone far-enough in His prohibitions, so they “filled in the blanks“. I can relate, because I grew up in a very legalistic church and family environment. There was a short list of things that I was allowed to do, but a much-longer list of things I wasn’t allowed to do. Even after I was grown and had a family of my own, I struggled with this issue. I came to a conclusion I could live with, but I wish I had known then what I know now. By the way, this is not to imply that I am a Sabbatarian, rather I am a Christian Protestant who worships the Lord on the Lord’s Day, Sunday. I will tell you more about my struggle later on in this post after we look at a passage from Mark 3.

He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. 2 They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” 4 And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. (Mark 3:1-6)

There was only one Temple, which was in Jerusalem, but there were many synagogues, local worship-centers, which we might compare to our local churches. Was the man with the withered hand in that synagogue that day because he knew Jesus was in the area, or did he normally worship there and Jesus just “happened” to drop by? This passage follows several other miraculous healings, so Jesus had already gotten quite a reputation for taking care of people. He had also demonstrated His total-disregard for the Pharisee’s nit-picky rules.

The “they” in verse two is the ever-present Pharisees, who were getting more and more disgusted with this Jesus-character because He was always raining on their parade. They were NOT amused by His “antics“. Jesus made Himself and the man with the withered hand the center of attention when He called the man forward. He wanted all eyes on Him because He was going to teach them an important lesson. The question He asked, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?”, got straight to the core of what the Pharisees believed about the Sabbath. This question presented a no-win predicament, because if they had answered “Yes, it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath“, they would have been admitting that Jesus was Lord over the Sabbath, but if they had answered “No, it is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath.“, they would have shown that their interpretation was wrong and just how cold-hearted they were.

They were too stubborn and self-centered to say anything, and that is when Jesus got mad, hopping-mad. By healing the man, He demonstrated the validity of what He had said shortly before this scene. 27 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28)

Do you see the irony in this scene? The Pharisees were mad because Jesus had healed a man, so they went out and conspired how the could destroy Him. They were plotting MURDER, on the Sabbath, no less. It doesn’t get much more warped than that. No wonder Jesus called them “a brood of vipers” in other encounters.

Jesus, Who was God-incarnate, was the ultimate “Law-giver“, and He asserted His right to have the final-say in how the Law was interpreted. He knew both the letter of the Law and the spirit of how the Law was meant. The Pharisees had it WRONG.

Next, we will turn our attention to Mark 2:27, Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”. When God instituted a day of rest in Genesis 2:1-3, and then codified that day as the Sabbath in Exodus 20:8-11, it was to be a day of rest, a time of refreshing, a break from ordinary-labor, but it was, first and foremost, for our benefit. Let’s see what those two passages say:

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:1-3)

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

Did God need to “rest” after He created all that there is? Of course not, but He rested as an example to us that we also need regular breaks for our usual labors. The Sabbath commandment wasn’t meant to be burdensome to us, rather it was given to us so that we can refresh and recharge before resuming our labors.

Now, we will turn our attention to what the Sabbath means for us today. Priests in the Old Testament and Pastors today were/are exempt from some of the provisions of the Sabbath commandment, because their busiest day is the day of worship. Many pastors take a day off during the week as their “rest-day“. How about, doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters and EMT/Paramedics? Those functions are essential to our wellbeing. Nurses are the heart and soul of any hospital, and if you don’t believe it, spend some time in a hopital, as I did recently. I rarely saw a doctor for more than five minutes at a time, and only once or twice a day, but my nurses checked on me very regularly. My hospital-stay is chronicled in “Invincible“.

The Pharisees would demand that hospitals all but shut-down on the Sabbath, but I believe that Jesus would attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony when a new hospital opens its doors. The Pharisees would demand that the Emergency Room only care for critical-care patients, but I believe that Jesus would want ALL patients get the care that they need. I have a couple of friends who are nurses, and even though we miss them when they aren’t at church, I am thankful that they are giving their patients the care they need.

Where do I fit in?
I had been in and out of volunteer public-service for several years when I joined two search-and-rescue teams in 1981. My involvement got more intensive and time-consuming because both teams responded state-wide, not just locally. One of the problems was that people got injured or lost mostly on weekends, and some missions extended into or were started on Sunday. My question quickly became “Could I, in good conscience, be away from my family and my church for a mission on Sunday?“, and “Would I be breaking the Sabbath-commandment by being on a mission on Sunday?“. Closely-related was “Could I, in good conscience, be away on a practice-exercise on Sunday?“. My upbringing screamed “DON’T DO IT!“, but was the Bible THAT strict? Following Jesus’s example of doing “good” on Sunday put me in direct-conflict with how I was raised, but I believed then, as I do now, that doing “good” is not only “okay“, it is the right thing to do.

Final thoughts…
Jesus taught us that caring for the needs of people IS consistent with the spirit of the Sabbath, and yes, He got mad, VERY mad when the Pharisees wanted to get in the way of Him performing His mission. May WE care as much as Jesus did!

Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”

In Christ,
Steve

Bible Study – John’s Testimony

The Word Made Flesh
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” 16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. (John 1:14-17)

The core of the Apostle John’s Christology is that Jesus Christ is both the Eternal Word, who he affirms as being our Creator, and a man, displaying all the hallmarks of being human. No one was closer to Jesus than John. John had spent three years with Jesus. They may have been cousins, and Mary lived with John and his family after the crucifixion.

The most profound marvel of the Incarnation is that the sinless Son of God was able to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves, fully-atone for our sins. If we die for our sins, we die, never to be raised again. Jesus died the death we could never die and was raised again so that we might be raised again also.
And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)

Jesus, in His incarnation, was Emanuel, God with us, and unlike previous times when God dwelt among His people, Jesus, God, was approachable, touchable, with no strings attached. He wasn’t separated by a curtain, approachable only once a year, and only by the High Priest with a blood-sacrifice. God, in bodily-form, dwelt among His people for several years. God came near. The Holy One of Israel got His hands dirty so that we might be made clean and new.

“Only begotten” is one of the great mysteries in the Bible, because it would imply to us that the Word had a beginning, however He could not have been Eternal if He had a beginning. It is our language and word-usage which trips us up. If “unique” was substituted for “begotten“, it would give us a much clearer sense of what and who the Word was. Sometimes translation and our word-limitations make for less-than-clear understanding of the original thought.

Maybe I shouldn’t be, but I am frequently amazed by how many Christians have bought into lies, with pastors even preaching those lies from their pulpits. Just because colleges and seminaries teach it, and much of Christendom believes it, doesn’t make it true. The Protestant Reformation was started to confront and correct the rampant-heresy in the Roman Catholic Church. Lies enslave us, while truth sets us free. Jesus came to speak truth into our fallen world, to set us free.

Was John the Baptist demeaning himself by saying the Jesus Christ ranked higher than him? Absolutely not. He simply recognized that Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word, was God, and he wasn’t.

The author then contrasts Law and Grace by contrasting its authors. Moses was the great law-giver, but keeping the law never brought-about a righteous life. We have all experienced religious-legalism, and the Scribes, Pharisees and teachers of the law had raised religious-legalim to a fine art. The problem was that even if a person kept 99% of the law perfectly, they were still condemned by that 1% they didn’t get quite right. Another problem was that the law only exacted penalties for failure to keep it but it didn’t have any rewards for compliance. A person may have a perfect driving-record for twenty years, but when they finally get a speeding-ticket, their otherwise-perfect driving-record doesn’t diminish the penalties for that ticket. Even though my only speeding-ticket was over thirty years ago, that ticket, and that I paid it, is still on record somewhere in Illinois. I would never get inducted into the “Safe-driver Hall of Fame” because I don’t have a perfect driving-record.

That is where Grace comes in. God gives us what we don’t deserve, a right-relationship with Him, rather than what we DO deserve, eternal-punishment. Christ has the perfect record we could never attain, and through His perfect life, shed-blood and finished-work, God gives us what He earned for us. Grace goes far-beyond just keeping us out of Hell. Grace also gives us a place in God’s eternal kingdom, with all the rewards that go with that blessed state. I get inducted into the “Safe-driver Hall of Fame” based on His perfect record, not kept out based on my flawed-record.

Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, came to reveal who God is in an intimate way. He didn’t merely “represent” God, He WAS God.

The Testimony of John
19 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. 27 It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ 31 I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” 32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:14-34)

Why did the religious-authorities question John the Baptist? Didn’t he have the “right-stuff“? Didn’t he have the right “pedigree“? His father, Zacharias, was a priest, and his mother, Elizabeth, was a “daughter of Aaron“, so he certainly had the right “pedigree“, but our answer comes in the “who” that questioned him, the religious leaders. They didn’t believe that he had the “authority” to do what he was doing, specifically, baptizing people. John the Baptist had not graduated from the “Jerusalem Theological Seminary“, nor had he gone through the proper steps to become “ordained” by the “powers that be“. John’s “ordination” came from God, not from man. In a nut-shell, he was operating outside their “system“, and they didn’t like it.

John the Baptist did recognize that he was fulfilling the prophesy from Isaiah:
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3)

When John the Baptist said that he was not worthy to untie the thong of Jesus’ sandal, he wasn’t demeaning himself, rather he was recognizing the greatness of the very Son of God.

Where have we seen the promise of God’s provision of a lamb before?
6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!”

And he said, “Here I am, my son.”

Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. (Genesis 22:6-8)

Abraham believed that God would provide the lamb for the sacrifice and his faith was rewarded with that provision. God’s provision of that lamb that day was a powerful symbol and foreshadowing of the perfect Lamb of God. Animal sacrifices could only cover-over sin, but could not take it away. Only the perfect Lamb of God could actually take upon Himself our sin and truly take it away.

Even though Jesus and John the Baptist were related, John knew very little about Jesus or His upcoming ministry until God revealed it to him. The clincher was when John baptized Jesus and the Holy Spirit descend on Him in the form of a dove, combined with the Voice from heaven.

When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, all three members of the Godhead were revealed, Jesus, the Son of God, God the Father by His voice, and the Holy Spirit as represented by the dove. God had never revealed His fullness in this way before, which led John to say: I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:34)

What a marvelous testimony!

Wishing you God’s richest blessings in 2016!
Steve

Refining Our Sexuality

These days, lots of people are busy redefining their sexuality. Whether it is their sexual orientation, or whether they are transgender, they want to redefine their sexuality based on their belief system. They want to be something they were not created to be. What I want us to do is REFINE our sexuality, to be more like we were intended to be.

What does it mean to refine something? In classical usage, refine is to remove the impurities, and get back to the pure material. As we go through this brief discourse, I want us to be about refining our sexuality into the purity our Creator intended from the beginning. We need to put off the dross and drivel that our society has put on us.

“26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28

In the beginning, God created us, male and female, in His image. Our ideal sexual state must be our guiding light for refining our sexuality. It is also the basis of our true sexuality.

We were created sexual beings. Our sexuality is inextricably linked to who we are as human beings. Our sexuality (true gender) is imprinted on every cell in our bodies. Thus, I am not a male just because I have male sexual equipment, but every cell in my body bears the genetic imprint of my maleness. I am not a male BECAUSE I have male equipment…I have male equipment BECAUSE I am a male. Yes ladies, the same holds true for you. You are not a female BECAUSE you have female equipment…you have female equipment BECAUSE you are female. It is all in our DNA, and our DNA (our sexuality) was determined at the moment of our conception. We aren’t born to BE sexual beings, we are BORN sexual beings.

By way of example…there is a man in the UK who has NO external genitals. If he were to choose his gender based on his genitals, or lack thereof, he could choose whatever he wanted, including gender-neutral. But while his body may appear gender-neutral, every cell in his body screams MALE. He is a man, although he has nothing to show for it. He was born that way, and it was as a result of a genetic anomaly. He is still a sexual being, although he has no way to express his sexuality through sexual activity. BTW, he is also a nudist.

SO, let’s fire up the refining pot, and throw in all the false ideas we have built up about our sexuality. What will emerge, shining like the sun, is our sexuality, as God created it to be.

Let’s start with our overall bodies, because society feeds us false ideals on a very regular basis. Gentlemen, start your engines! Be realistic… Does your body look like the male models you see in the media? Are you a Chippendale? Do you have six-pack abs? Are you a “pretty-boy“? I’ll bet the answer is NO on all counts. Are you skinny, or are you fat? Are you short or are you tall? Do you have a lot of hair, little hair, or no hair at all? DOES THAT MAKE YOU ANY LESS OF A MAN? With that social sexuality dross, we are going to throw in the purifier of the truth, that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS “IDEAL“. You are no less of a man if your body doesn’t conform to society’s false “ideals“. We will get a bit more intimate shortly.

Ladies, start your engines! I believe Danica Patrick has done a marvelous job of retaining her feminity, even in the male-dominated world of NASCAR racing. Ladies, it’s your turn to throw your social sexuality baggage in the pot, because you are hammered daily with false “ideals” also. So ladies, are you a model, or even a super-model? Would you be considered for a photo-shoot with Playboy? How about for Sports Illustrated? Are you an actress? Do you have your own hair-stylist and makeup artist? Are you a sex-symbol? Do the people that take pictures of you routinely photoshop or airbrush-out your blemishes and imperfections? I’ll bet the answer is NO on all counts. Is your hair always perfectly done? Do you hate to leave the house without makeup? Are you skinny, or are you overweight, or maybe about average? Are you tall, or are you short? DOES THAT MAKE YOU ANY LESS OF A WOMAN? Ladies, throw your social sexuality ideals into the pot, and we are going to throw in the purifier of the truth, that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS “IDEAL“! Ladies, you are no less of a woman, NO LESS FEMALE, because your body doesn’t conform to society’s false “ideals“.

I used to have frequent contact with a very lovely little lady. Ruth is all of 4′ 10” tall, with a very petite frame. She is a Registered Nurse, a mother and a believer, and she is all woman. I also worked with another tiny lady…Betty, who is also under 5′ tall, and is half Japanese. Another little lady who I used to know, who is also a believer, is a Captain with a large county fire department. She is one tough lady, but underneath her toughness is a true woman. Pam may make 5 feet tall…

SO, now we have refined away the dross of those social “ideals” from our sexuality, and you have discovered that your sexuality is purer, and getting closer to the true ideal, which is God’s ideal. Without getting into details, the “sexperts” have done men a great disservice by publishing the results of their “research“. Men, your endowment is determined more by your genetics than any other factor, and if you are comparing yourself to porn-actors, that isn’t a fair comparison. Male porn-actors are generally more well-endowed than “normal“. Mass media has likewise done women a great disservice but putting before us some artificial “ideals” of what a woman “should” look like. Recently I saw two pictures of the same model, one “as-photographed“, and the other was the results of their air-brushing and photo-shopping. Those two pictures almost looked like they were taken of different women. Even the models themselves often have trouble recognizing their own pictures after they have been altered. Mattel has also done a huge disservice to generations of girls who have grown up believing that “Barbie” is the “ideal woman“. One woman has spent tens of thousands of dollars on surgeries to “remodel” herself to look like Barbie. Ladies…yours is determined by genetics also.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:13-16)

Our bodies were created by God, and He called His creation “very good“, so contrary to the British website and TV show, Embarrassing Bodies, we need have no embarrassment about our bodies and their parts. I have a female urologist, but I am NOT embarrassed to be seen by her during the annual “well-man checkup“. I am also NOT embarrassed to talk to her about things like my erectile-dysfunction, something she believes should be treated to enhance my overall sense of well-being. We talk every time I see her about how well the ED medication is working and whether we need to adjust the dose. That is “wholistic” care.

Guys: God only created one Adam

Ladies: God only created one Eve.

Folks: The rest of us are copies of God’s originals, and I have no idea how many generations have passed since Adam and Eve walked this earth. Each of us IS a special creation, and our job is to accept how God created us, and fulfill our role in His world. Yes, that includes our sexuality also, because we can not divorce ourselves from it. It is an integral part of who we are.

Variants…
As I previous mentioned, there is a man in England who was born with no visible genitals, but he is all male otherwise. There is also another variants that occurs occassionally, and that is someone who is born with both male and female genitals – a hermaphrodite. That anomoly is the result of one too many chromosomes getting transfered at conception. It is real, and has been medically-verified.

“Trans-sexuals” believe that their “brain-wiring” is different than their physical sex. They believe that they are “wired” female in a male body, or “wired” male in a female body. Some go as far as to have “gender-reassignment” surgery, however, changing the visible “plumbing” doesn’t change their biological gender. Most Christians will assert that their “original-plumbing” is all that matters, however I am more compassionate towards them. The Fall brought changes to everything, including our bodies. Prior to the Fall, there would never have been any possibility of birth-defects, and yet we need not look very far to come in contact with someone who is affected by physical or mental birth-defects, and some are affected by both. Hence the possibility of a person being “wrongly-plumbed” for their “brain-wiring” is not out of the question.

Same-sex-attraction (homosexuality) is a life-choice. Contrary to what many would like us to believe, they are not “born that way“, although some may have experienced some event, or series of events, early in life which might have influenced their choices. One young man told me that he has known that he is attracted to other males since he was seven or eight years old. Any sexual activity at that age is wrong, and may have been sexual abuse. I have known both men and women who have been in hetero-sexual marriages before they decided they are homo-sexuals. One lady I used to know had a very abusive marriage to an absolute jerk, which was attested to by a mutual friend who has known them for many years. She was constantly put down by a man who considered himself “superior” to her, although she is an extremely intelligent and talented woman. Had he treated her right, they might still have a happy marriage. She has chosen to be in relationships with a woman instead. One man confided in me that he had been married, and he and his wife had children together, but even though he was in a homosexual relationship, he knew it was wrong, but wasn’t sure how to get out of it. It isn’t always easy to just walk away. They are not “gay” or “lesbian“. They are men and women who have chosen to be in same-sex relationships.

I need not “advertise” that I am a “straight” man, because I have been married four times and I am the father of four children. Only those whose sexual-preference is same-sex feel the need to “advertise” their preference. I don’t have a problem with either how I came equipped or my God-given gender-role. I can’t imagine myself any other way. How about you?

Blessings!
Steve