There’s a song that cries out “give me that old-time religion.” If you’ve never experienced an ‘old-time’ sermon, here’s one I just watched on YouTube by Pastor Charles Lawson. It’s about hell.
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and for a small fee/donation, our company/agency/ministry will help you find it. And for an additional very modest fee/donation, we can assist you in fulfilling it.
Huh!
I cry out to G-d Most High,
to G-d who fulfills his purpose for me.
—Psalm 57:2
There, that was simple wasn’t it? Takes all the exasperation away. Doesn’t cost us anything (Y’shuaJesus already paid the price).
So. with what are we left? Listen to this great gospel song, it says it all:
I just want to Praise You Lord
I lift my hands to say I love You
You are everything to me
And I exalt Your holy name, (2x)
I exalt Your name, O Lord.
Christian persecution is a real and terrible part of our lawless world. The chaos of the world is carried into our homes, too, as it causes family discord. But greater than the physical and emotional toll is what happens to our spiritual peace. For we have an enemy that would steal our peace, our spirit, leaving us without hope, in utter despair. Our Lord Y’shuaJesus is the remedy. He said:
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. —John 10:10
“Christ is a good Shepherd; many who were not thieves, yet were careless in their duty, and by their neglect the flock was much hurt. Bad principles are the root of bad practices. The Lord Jesus knows whom he has chosen, and is sure of them; they also know whom they have trusted, and are sure of Him. See here the grace of Christ; since none could demand his life of him, he laid it down of himself for our redemption. He offered himself to be the Savior; Lo, I come. And the necessity of our case calling for it, he offered himself for the Sacrifice. He was both the offerer and the offering, so that his laying down his life was his offering up himself. From hence it is plain, that he died in the place and stead of men; to obtain their being set free from the punishment of sin, to obtain the pardon of their sin; and that his death should obtain that pardon. Our Lord laid not his life down for his doctrine, but for his sheep.”—Matthew Henry Commentary.
I like the way the Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Commentary describes Abundant Life : “[It is] not merely to preserve but impart LIFE, and communicate it in rich and unfailing exuberance. What a claim! Yet it is only an echo of all His teaching; and He who uttered these and like words must be either a blasphemer, all worthy of the death He died, or “God with us”– there can be no middle course.”
When the chaos of darkness intrudes we face the loss of our exuberance. . .
I like Andrae Crouch’s song Take Me Back. The chorus is:
Take me back, take me back dear Lord
To the place where I first received You.
Take me back, take me back dear Lord where I
First believed.
King David offered this pray, that we can make our prayer:
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
—Psalm 51:7-12
King David, before he was crowned king, was pursued by King Saul. Taking refuge in the town of Zif, King David was betrayed by the local people, who reported his whereabouts to King Saul, then sent spies to follow David’s trail, assisting King Saul in his attempt to capture King David. It was regarding this time that King David wrote Psalm 54 (or a psalm that we now know as Psalm 54), which begins:
O God, save me by your name,
and vindicate me by your might.
O God, hear my prayer;
give ear to the words of my mouth.For strangers have risen against me;
ruthless men seek my life;
they do not set God before themselves.
SelahBehold, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
He will return the evil to my enemies;
in your faithfulness put an end to them.
—v.1-5
So here’s the thing. King David had found a place of security and relative peace in his flight from King Saul, who had already given up the pursuit. Then all of a sudden, King David is betrayed. It would be easy to despair. But King David looked to the L-rd, the G-d of Israel, asking to be vindicated by G-d’s Name. King David didn’t say that he was blameless or that he didn’t deserve what was happening. He simple placed himself in G-d’s hands. King David knew the L-rd as his L-rd. The G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, the G-d of Jacob, the G-d of David. Personalized.
Today, we can personally know the L-rd who is G-d, when we let go of our false sense of self, yielding to the Son of G-d, the Messiah, Lord Y’shua. Savior. We are vindicated by the G-d of Israel through Lord Y’shua. Those, like the betrayers of King David, who come against us “do not set G-d before themselves.” King David’s enemies, like our enemies of today, did not realize that their efforts were doomed from the start. Though it may appear that they might win, they lose. King David knew what we must know and understand, his enemies as our enemies have the evil turned back upon themselves.
If you have a sense that this is leading somewhere else, you are right. Check out who’s going to find herself in the angry hands of a Holy G-d: “Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice—not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed,” said Hilary Clinton at an address at the Women in the World Summit. Hilary Clinton is out to change the religious beliefs of Christians.
More to think about—an article in CharismaNews interprets Ms. Clinton’s comment, saying: “It used to be, you were considered compassionate, caring and humble to embrace the values of the Bible. Now you are the enemy … according to Secretary Clinton and President Obama. It is only going to get worse.”
The other day my wife brought in a “newsletter” from the homeowners’ association. It began with a paragraph on how it’s spring and time to start making the properties look nice. It went on to say that several new people had moved in since the last newsletter. The remainder of the “newsletter” talked about fines people can expect and legal action if things aren’t done like the board members–elected by the homeowners–want things done. I guess the idea of mentioning the new folks was to let them know just exactly what they have gotten themselves into when they moved into the neighborhood.
It’s just not a friendly newsletter. It didn’t welcome the new folks to the neighborhood. It didn’t tell me anything that was “newsy” at all. It just lambasted us all in advance. It concluded saying that the board would be coming around on a walk through to inspect. That’s only one of the reasons I don’t care for this property!
When I was a kid, I might not have been the perfect gentleman that I, of course, now am. I may have once or twice spoken rudely my folks. I can remember hearing, “Don’t use that tone of voice with me, mister!” It’s all about how we talk to people that can make me a friend or an instant enemy. It’s about tone of voice. The board member who wrote the “newsletter” doesn’t understand Biblical principles.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. . . [1 Timothy 5:1]
It’s about Respect, which is due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others. Matthew Henry comments “Respect must be paid to the dignity of years and place. The younger, if faulty, must be rebuked, not as desirous to find fault with them, but as willing to make the best of them. There is need of much meekness and care in reproving those who deserve reproof.” I disagree with Mr. Henry. I don’t see in Paul’s message that the young are to be rebuked, but despite that Mr. Henry cautions that it isn’t about finding fault, but helping make them better. Paul suggests we are to speak to others as if they were our fathers, brothers, sisters. Mr. Henry speaks to the need of much meekness and care in our speech.
Many years ago, a traffic police officer in Ontario, California, Officer Orr, had been on the job for nearly thirty years. In all that time, he had never written a traffic violation, yet when people saw him they sat up straight and checked their speed. Were these drivers afraid of Officer Orr’s rage should they be stopped? No. Quite the contrary, he spoke with each person gently, explaining why it was important for them to follow the traffic laws. He went into great, graphic, detail on the results of accidents in which he and others had encountered, and described the injuries. It took quite a while for Officer Orr to quietly explain the facts to these could-be accident victims. Quite a while. A quiet word does wonders.
A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.
The tongue of the wise commends knowledge,
but the mouths of fools pour out folly. (Proverbs 15.1,2)
The point of our righteous and pure speech is to show that we respect the person to whom we are speaking. The feeling I get from too many things I read, hear these days is that the person looks at me with distain. This disdain may be construed as judging. Paul wrote to the Romans (2.3-5): “But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. . .”
My mother often said, “Chickens come home to roost.” She meant that how I treat someone will come back to me someday. If I treat you with respect, then I will earn respect. If I treat you with disdain, I will earn disdain–not only from you, but one day from others, too.
We do well to acknowledge our sins, our errors, and confess them to our Lord in prayer. Our repentance puts us on the righteous path with our Lord.
There is a simplicity to being “saved.”
The author of Hebrews addresses a Believing Jewish audience; an audience that believes in Y’shuaJesus as Lord, Messiah. In the first five chapters he writes at length presenting the arguments of Y’shuaJesus as the awaited Messiah. In chapter six the author writes:
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. . . Hebrews 6:1
He wants to move on to other things, but first he recaps the basics of Messianic Judaism: 1) repentance from dead works; 2) faith in G-d; 3) the teaching of ritual washings; 4) laying on of hands; 5) resurrection of the dead; and 6) eternal judgement. (Heb 6:1-3) It is my belief that a Jew does not “convert” to Christianity. Rather, a Jew simply becomes “completed.” I learned of this from Pastor Jeff Sheldon, of southern Oregon.
So then, the non-Jew, the “Gentile,” who doesn’t have a relationship with G-d, finds salvation in Y’shuaJesus in another way if the Gospel’s presentation. In the Billy Graham Training Center Bible, the normal condition of mankind means that there is a need to be “delivered from sin and it consequences to find true peace and fulfillment. An understanding is required of G-d’s purpose, which is salvation, John 3:16 There is a problem here though, as there is a separation from G-d, Rom 3:24. G-d has a remedy, which is the Cross, 1 Tim 2:5,6. We must respond through trusting Messiah Y’shuaJesus, John 1:12. We finally accept G-d’s assurance through His Word, Rom 10:13.
Henry David Thoreau wrote that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” This then is the man or woman who is separated from G-d. There is a struggle within the unsaved that often means pushing the Gospel away, defiantly. It is rebellion.
It is critical, I think, that we understand the differing perspectives of a person with whom we come into contact. We must be able to respond the that person in a way that he or she becomes willing to shed defiance and rebellion. Thus, that person can be lead to submit to Y’shuaJesus.
These precarious times in which we live, these times of crisis, are also great times of opportunity. We may be called upon to assist people who recognized that the world seems to be unraveling and don’t know how to do anything about it.
We must be prayed up to respond. We must be alert, and sober.
Lord Bless, Keep, and Shine. . .
“Where do you come from?” is a great questions. A boy of five or so came home from school and asked his mom, “Where did I come from, Mom?” The mother, though prepared for this moment, dreaded it, but began the long tale of the “Birds and the Bees.” An hour later, her son was well versed on conception and birth, on how babies get to be, well, babies. His only response was something like, “Oh,” followed with, “Jack said he came from Erie, Pennsylvania.”
As we see here, there are a couple ways to look at the question, “Where do you come from?” The mom thought of a biological response. The boy thought of a geographical response. If I ask you, as a Christian, what you believe, you might answer that you believe in Jesus, that Jesus is the Son of G-d. Right you are. We look at Jesus as the Son of G-d, as our Savior, as our Lord. Jesus is also the Son of Man. The other side of the Spiritual is the contextual: Jesus as a young Jewish man, raised in a Jewish home, in a Jewish town, in a Jewish country under domination by the Roman Empire.
That’s why I use the term Y’shuaJesus. Our Christian roots are also the roots of Y’shuaJesus as the Son of G-d AND the Son of Man.
So, I want to introduce you to a website I found this morning that I think valuable in understanding our common roots in Judaism; our Hebrew Roots.
Please take a look at: Hebrew for Christians.
It’s more than the study of Hebrew as a Biblical language. As stated on the home page, Hebrew for Christians “provides information about common Hebrew blessings and Jewish prayers, the Hebrew Scriptures (Tanakh), the Jewish holidays, and weekly Torah portions from a Messianic point of view. The Hebrew Names of God, as well as an online glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish terms is also provided. Be sure to check out the online store for some excellent study materials!”
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 4:24-26
Growing up attending an Episcopal Church (Anglican Church), I remember bits and pieces of the various liturgies, among them both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed. Both creeds have been around since the 4th Century. And, no, I wasn’t there when they were first used, though my teenage daughter asked me once if I played with dinosaurs when I was little and didn’t mean toy ones, either. She said she was only kidding. But what exactly is a creed, and why is it important?
A creed is a confession, a symbol, or statement of faith. It is something that states or displays the shared beliefs of a particular group of people. Creeds are summaries, expressing only core elements that are essential to a group of people. Creeds are not comprehensive. The Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed are only two such statements of faith, summaries of core beliefs. Some churches use the four spiritual laws as a form of creed. These are often stated as: 1) God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life; 2) Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life; 3) Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know and experience God’s love and plan for your life; and 4) We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.
The Cross is a form of Creed, too; it is a symbol of both the death of Y’shuaJesus and the life that we are offered through His death and subsequent resurrection. The image at the right is a Celtic Cross, and is seen throughout Wales. In a cemetery in Wales, a large Celtic Cross stands at the head of my family’s plot, and looks much like that one. I’ve written previously about the giant aluminum crosses along many interstate highways in America. The cross also marks most of the grave markers at the cemetery in Normandy where buried are soldiers who died on the “D-Day” invasion to liberate Europe.
Professions of faith, of belief. Since the 4th Century the Nicene Creed has summed up the faith that Christians must have to be considered Christian. The Cross is a visible symbol of that belief. After a time, as I’ve mentioned before in other posts, it is good for us to go back to the place where we began in Y’shuaJesus. We need, on occasion, to take a look at the essentials, the core elements, and see if we can say AMEN! to each and every element. We must not, in our great spiritual holy walk, abandon the core believes, trampling them beneath non-essentials that distract us from the view of Golgotha, the view of Christ died, and the Empty Tomb, Christ Raised, and the sight of Y’shuaJesus ascending into the clouds. Messiah. Lord. Y’shuaJesus. He Died; He Lives. And He will come again. MARANATHA! Come, Lord! AMEN!
Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
Another important creed in traditional Christian churches is the Apostles’ Creed, first mentioned in a letter written in 390. During the Fourth Century, it was believed that each of the Lord’s Apostles contributed one article to the Creed.
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried:
He descended into hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The holy Catholick Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.
Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
The Nicene Creed, adopted in the First Ecumenical Council in 325, has changed little over all these years. The following is from the Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer (1979).
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
Jonah’s Song 