Tag: Maturity in the Word Avoids Apostasy - Hebrews 5-7

Hebrews 5:11-13

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

Tag:  Maturity in the Word Avoids Apostasy

In the above passage the writer of Hebrews is about to give a warning to the readers of this book.  He is about to warn them about “apostasy” (the falling away from the faith).   The premise of this section of the book is that if we hold fast to God’s Word, it will produce fruit in our lives.  If we don’t hold fast to God’s word, we will not have fruit and risk “falling away from the faith” (giving up on Christ to find something else for our salvation).   

In these verses he uses the illustration of the teacher and the child-student.  He believers (we have no idea why he believes this) that the readers SHOULD, at this time, be mature in God’s Word.  He believes they should be, by this time, “teacher” status.  Again, we have no knowledge as to why he believes this.  We know so little about the background of this book.   However, the truth the writer states still stands.   When we are given truth we are responsible for that truth.  In this case, to grow and become mature.   

Yet, this group of believers has, for some reason, still remained in “infant” status.  They truth they have been given has not produced the maturity this writer thought they should have.   He is not chastening them for this. But, he is explaining that their growth in the “word of righteousness” is key to their growth.  It is important to see what he had just written to understand this.  Note a few verses just before this section:

Hebrews 5:8-9

Although he (Jesus) was a son, he learned “obedience” through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who “obey” him, (parentheses and quotation marks added for affect).  

In God’s Word, the word “obey” is a simile for “believe”.     When someone says they “believe” in Christ, it comes with an inherent “obey.”   Simply believing is not what the Scriptures talk about.  It is about believing to the state of obeying that the growth in Christ happens.   The “word of Righteousness” is about obeying what God says in His word.  When we do that we grow and become strong and produce fruit and have lives pleasing to Christ.   We don’t grow when we don’t consume God’s Word.   

This writer is warning the readers (and us) that the failure to believe and obey the “words of righteousness” will result in us staying in “infant” status and risk falling away in our faith.   We are to trust AND obey ... not just believe and hope.   

Tag: Prayer Should Rock the World - Acts 3-4

Acts 4:31

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Tag:  Prayer Should Rock the World

I am trying to think if I have ever prayed and had the world rock.  I can think of one time that this actually happened. Not physically, as in the above, but in the world I lived in regarding the community of believers I was with.   

When Peter prayed the world, literally, was rocked.  The moving of the Holy Spirit should change the world around us.   We are not to be passive believers.  We are moving with the POWER of the Holy Spirit in our lives, who is let loose through the act of prayer and the preaching of the “word of God.”   Prayer and the Word are a combination all believers should use as their capital currency.   

God has chosen to use praying men with God’s Word to change the world.   Prayer and Preaching has rocked the world for centuries.  Satan would love our churches to turn into social clubs that tickle the ears and titilates the feelings.   Instead, our churches should be a place of prayer, preaching of the word to prepare us for the confrontations to the world around us.   Prayer should rock the world.   

Tag: Mery is at the Heart of God’s Love - Jonah

Jonah 4:9-11

But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Tag: Mercy Is At the Heart of God’s Love

Like most Jewish people, Jonah did not believe that Gentiles (anyone who is not a Jew) was worthy of God’s love or grace.  The Jews thought they were “special” (chosen by God).   When he was sent to Nineveh to offer God’s grace, Jonah rejected that call and ran the other way.  Here is why he did so:

Jonah 4:2

And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Jonah did not want the grace of God to be shared with a Gentile nation.   Yet, as we see in the top verse, God did.  God wanted to share His grace.   To demonstrate this to Jonah, God created a plant to keep Jonah cool from the summer heat.  God then destroyed the plant (God can do what He wills).   Yet, Jonah was upset.  God uses the plant to show Jonah his hypocrisy and evilness.  He was concerned about a plant but not the people of Nineveh.   

God is concerned about the lost and we should carry the same desire.   Here is what Peter said, centuries later:

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Every believer should ask if we want out creature comforts over taking a risk to speak the gospel to an unsaved and evil world? 

Tag: Leaders Must Judge Justly!! - Proverbs 28

Proverbs 28:21

To show partiality is not good,

but for a piece of bread a man will do wrong.

TAG: Leaders Must Judge Justly!!

How you interpret this proverb may depend on what type of parallelism you believe the writer is using.  This tends to be a synthetic parallelism proverb.   In synthetic parallelism the second line of the proverb continues the thought of the first line.   In the above proverb we see that the thought is that if you show partiality, it is not good (simple words to tell us how foolish and wrong it is for rulers or anyone to show partiality over one person compared to the other).   If you believe this is synthetic parallelism, in the second line Solomon goes on to say, however, even the partiality can be enticed by something as simple as a piece of bread to commit this wrong.    If, however, you believe this is synonymous parallelism (where the second line says the same thing as the first line but in different words) then the meaning of the proverb is to emphasize corrupt and unethical behavior between people: In the fist line the unethical behavior is partial judgement.  In the second line the unethical behavior is selling your soul for something trivial and not lasting and eternal.  This proverb teaches us that people will, in the midst of trouble, conflict and struggles, do things to create an advantage for themselves.  We are not to be involved in unethical behavior to gain personal advantages.  Godly wisdom does not live in this manner.   The fear of the Lord in our lives does not produce this type of behavior, no matter how you interpret the proverbs.

Tag: Christ is Our Gate - Psalm 117-118

Psalms 118:19-20

Open to me the gates of righteousness,

that I may enter through them

and give thanks to the Lord.

This is the gate of the Lord;

the righteous shall enter through it.

Tag:  Christ is Our Gate

Jesus said:

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 10:7-11

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

In the above Psalm we see that the writer is saying to (supposedly) the gatekeeper, “open the gate of righteousness” so that he may enter.  This is more a figure of speech and not a gatekeeper on a building (although the reader would have the image of the temple in his/her head).   The real gatekeeper is Christ who is not just the gatekeeper, but the door as well.   Jesus says that all that come to Him will receive righteousness.   We are clothed in righteousness as we come to Christ in faith.   

The reason to enter the gate of righteousness? To give thanks.  We need to praise Him continually and give thanks for making the door and the way to righteousness.   This is a psalm of praise for the righteousness we have been given.  

Tag: With Godly Leadership we Have Godly Power - 2 Chronicles 11-16

2 Chronicles 13:10-12

But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him. We have priests ministering to the Lord who are sons of Aaron, and Levites for their service. They offer to the Lord every morning and every evening burnt offerings and incense of sweet spices, set out the showbread on the table of pure gold, and care for the golden lampstand that its lamps may burn every evening. For we keep the charge of the Lord our God, but you have forsaken him. Behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with their battle trumpets to sound the call to battle against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your fathers, for you cannot succeed.”

Tag: Godly Leadership Enables God’s Power

The above passage is taken directly from the middle of a narrative about King Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, past King of Judah.  Rehoboam had died and Abijah was reigning in his stead.   Jeroboam, King of Israel thought this would be a good time to come up against Judah, since the new King (Abijah) had little experience.   However, Abijah has given himself fully to God.  The above passage is his response to Jeroboam’s challenge to fight.  

Jeroboam had twice the men than Abijah.  Jeroboam was a seasoned commander; Abijah a new-be.   Jeroboam had the gods and idols he made; Abijah, as seen in the above passage, had faith in the Lord his God.   Jeroboam had armies in the front and the back:

2 Chronicles 13:13

Jeroboam had sent an ambush around to come upon them from behind. Thus his troops were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them.

Abijah had God on his side and called upon God:

2 Chronicles 13:14

And when Judah looked, behold, the battle was in front of and behind them. And they cried to the Lord, and the priests blew the trumpets.

The result?  

2 Chronicles 13:18

Thus the men of Israel were subdued at that time, and the men of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the Lord, the God of their fathers.

One believer, plus God, is the majority.  We need not fear the power of others, even if we are outnumbered on the front and the back.  God is on our side.  When we yield to Him, He is faithful to give us the victory.  He has NEVER allowed someone committed to him fail.  Note how this chapter closes:

2 Chronicles 13:20-21

Jeroboam did not recover his power in the days of Abijah. And the Lord struck him down, and he died. But Abijah grew mighty. And he took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

The part we need to understand is that Abijah told Jeroboam, we have God at our “head:”

2 Chronicles 13:12

Behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with their battle trumpets to sound the call to battle against you ...”

Abijah had set his leadership to follow God.  When we surround ourselves with Godly leaders we can be even more assured the victory.   

Tag: All Sin Must Be Eradicated Out of our Lives - Numbers 29-32

Numbers 31:13-19

Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the chiefs of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp. And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves. Encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever of you has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day.

Tag:  All Sin Must Be Eradicated Out of Our Lives

In the above story we have a picture of how to handle every little sin in our lives.  In the story of the Midianites, the prophet Balaam decided to go against God and gave the kings of Midian a way to avoid being slaughtered by Israel.  He told them to have their women get close to the males in Israel and marry among them.   This would prevent Israel from destroying them.  The strategy worked.   However, not only did Israel not destroy them, they began to worship their gods ... just as the prophet Balaam did, as well.   

Before Moses was to die, God commanded him to make this tragedy right.  So, Moses ordered 12,000 warriors to destroy Midian.  They were successful, except in the above situation.  They destroyed the men of Midian, but not these women.   Yet, it was the women Midian used to deceive and allure the men of Israel.   The above story may seem harsh, but the act of getting sin out of our lives is war.   We have to be willing to do the harsh aspects of fighting off, even the alluring edges of sin.   We all have temptations in our lives that cause us to fall away from God.   We have to be willing to kill off all sin if we want to be holy for God.