You don’t know?

A man and his wife are headed home. They’re walking down a stone-paved road descending westward toward their town. They’re talking about the same thing everyone else is taking about—the events of the weekend. A man approaches and walks next to them. The couple doesn’t recognize him. Their eyes were kept from recognizing him. The man asks what they are discussing. I love what Cleopas says. “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” And Yeshua plays along, asking “What things?” Cleopas explains the events of the day as he understands them. (Read Luke Chapter 24)

Yeshua seizes the opportunity to let Cleopas and his wife in on what really happened, and who exactly the is the Messiah. Yeshua, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, . . . interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (v27)

When Cleopas and his wife arrive at their home, they invite the stranger in to stay, and for dinner. “When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.” (v.30,31)

The next part of the story is cool, I think. I can only imagine their jaws dropping as they looked at each other, both saying at the same time: “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (v.32)

This is one of my favorite stories. There’s a lot here, too. Luke tells the story like a reporter would tell it. It’s very matter-of-fact like. Straight forward. The words contain and elicit emotion. Luke doesn’t need to analyze or explain anything.

There’s a few things that come to mind when I think about this first occurrence in which Yeshua, having risen from the dead, visits his followers. First of all, He didn’t visit Peter first. Or the sons of thunder. Some say those three men were in the “Inner Circle.” They did go up to the top of a mountain with Him one day and see Him Glorified. But instead, Yeshua chose to visited a guy and his wife—ordinary folk. I think it says a lot, especially after Yeshua spoke just a few days before about the way leadership and greatness in the Kingdom differs from the way the world sees its authority structure.

Then there’s teaching that Yeshua conveyed to Cleopas and his wife. Luke doesn’t report exactly what it was. We are left to seek that ourselves. There is no Gospel according to Cleopas and Mary for us to read. What did Yeshua tell them about Himself? What scriptures did Yeshua explain, open up? Good questions, right?

“Probably He showed them that their notions of the Messiah were not according to the Scriptures. “They” expected a temporal prince; they were perplexed because Jesus had not assumed the regal power, but had been put to death. He showed them that according to the prophecies he ought to suffer, and that his “death,” therefore, was no argument that he was not the Messiah.

“In all the scriptures – In all the “writings” of the Old Testament. They were called “scriptures” because they were “written,” the art of printing being then unknown.

“The things concerning himself – Concerning the Messiah. It does not appear that he “applied” them to himself, but left them, probably, to make the application. He showed what the Scriptures foretold, and “they” saw that these things applied to Jesus of Nazareth, and began to be satisfied that he was the Messiah. The most striking passages foretelling the character and sufferings of Christ are the following, which we may suppose it possible our Saviour dwelt upon to convince them that, though he was crucified, yet he was the Christ: Genesis 3:15; Deuteronomy 18:15; Genesis 49:10; Numbers 21:8-9; Isaiah 53:1-12; Daniel 9:25-27; Isaiah 9:6-7; Psalm 110:1-7; Psalm 16:1-11; 22; Malachi 4:2-6.” —Barnes’s Notes

Another thing to consider is that when they all arrived at Cleopas’s and Mary’s home, Yeshua “acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” ” (v.28,29)

“Our Lord must be invited and constrained. He will not impose Himself on an unwilling host; but how glad He is to enter where a welcome awaits! He turns ordinary meals into sacraments; common rooms into royal chambers: and the homeliest things into symbols of the eternal. He sat with them, then vanished; but He was no less truly with them when He ceased to be seen-and all to teach them that when He had passed permanently from their sight He would be nearer than ever.” —F.B.Meyer, Through the Bible Day by Day

L-RD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

What some Americans Believe

So here’s an interesting, and short, video asking a few people about there views on G-D, Salvation, and the Bible. It’s really like a trailer. Check it out here.

This video is longer, briefly explains the interview process, and then goes into some of the results . Check it out here.

Numbers-6-24-26 - 1 — Numbers-6-24-26 – 1

The Terror of G-d’s Voice

“Ever since man sinned, and heard God’s voice in the garden, unusual appearances of God have been terrible to man. They fell prostrate to the earth, till Jesus encouraged them; when looking round, they beheld only their Lord as they commonly saw him.” —Matthew Henry

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. —Matthew 17:5-8

“We must pass through varied experiences in our way to glory; and when we return to the world after an ordinance, it must be our care to take Christ with us, and then it may be our comfort that he is with us.”—Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry’s conclusion, the lesson he sees for us from Matthew 17, what is subtitled the Transfiguration of Christ, is that we will go through life experiencing many wondrous things, seeing many powerful transformations, but we are not going to remain in them, for they are shadows only of things to come. We return to the mundane, the ordinary, and must take care to bring the Lord back with us, to walk with Him Who walked like common men and women walked.

So, in our common life of Earth, as we walk the mundane path set before us, as we experience the terrors and the wonders, we must hear the Voice of our L-rd saying to us:

Rise, and have no fear.

Conversion of Samaritans

Returning to the New Covenant, I am reading the Book of John. Yesterday, I cam to the portion of chapter four concerning the conversion of Samaritans. I am struck especially by the final paragraph, provided as a summary of the events.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

John 4:39-42

First. Who are Samaritans? According to BibleStudy.org, “Generally, a Samaritan would be an inhabitant of either the city or region of ancient Samaria. They occupied the land formerly belonging to the Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. The city was purchased by Omri, the sixth king of Israel (885 – 874 B.C.) and named Samaria after the name of its owner, Shemer. Over a period of time the entire northern kingdom of Israel was also called Samaria (1Kings 13:32, Jeremiah 31:5).”

It is a Samaritan that Y’shuaJesus gives credit to for helping a mugged traveler in the story of the “Good Samaritan.” It is also the Samaritans that were opposed to, and wanted to sabatoge, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the temple in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, who returned to Jerusalem from the Captivity around 539 B.C.

So there’s certainly some history between the Samaritans and Israelis. Enemies, of sorts.

Second. The woman spoken of first met Y’shuaJesus while at the town well. She was amazed that a Jew would even speak to her, let alone ask for a drink, which meant drinking out of her pail. That would have been considered “unclean” to the Jews. In the dialogue that took place between Y’shuaJesus and the woman, the woman’s faults were revealed to her by Y’shuaJesus. Instead of running away, hiding, hating the bearer of this information, she saw something entirely satisfying. She could unburden herself the this man. And, no doubt, she didn’t feel the wrath of disapproval, but of a loving Spirit to which she could cleave, to which she could find some healing and rebirth.

Matthew Henry wrote that “One would have thought His telling the woman of her secret sins would have made them (the Samaritan town’s folk) afraid of coming to Him lest He should tell them also of their faults, but they will venture that rather than not be acquainted with One who they had reason to think was a prophet.”

“Many would have flocked to one that would tell them their fortune, but these flocked to One that would tell them their faults,” wrote Mr. Henry.

Third. The most import part of this story told by the author of the Book of John, it seems to me, is in this that the town’s folk told the woman: “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

We can talk until we are blue in the face, out of breath, crying out our testimony of Y’shuaJesus as Lord and Savior, but until the crowd of unbelievers is willing to hear the Master speak, there is no new faith. Conversely, if we hear a testimony about Y’shuaJesus, the person giving that word must have been with Y’shuaJesus, must have heard Him speak, must have been in His presence, or that word is empty.

Y’all have a wonderful week. Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Surprized at the Violence?

Things seemed to be going so well. The weather wasn’t perfect, but tolerable. People up in New York were starting to get clear of the destruction of their double whammy storms. The election is over. Whether we celebrate or mourn, at least we know now were we stand for the next four years. Here in Georgia it’s raining. And it’s about time, too. And on the XMRadio I’ve been listening to “Radio Hanukkah.”-eight days of music celebrating the Maccabees Victory and beginning again of worshiping G-d in The Temple. It celebrates the miracle of light, a light that stayed lite eight days when there was only enough oil for one.

Then a young man barely out of his teens shoots a bunch of kids and six adults. Defenseless kids. Defenseless adults. Law enforcement officers comb the man’s house, where he also murdered his mother, for clues to how and why. The murdered children and adults are mourned–by us all.

How long will we all remember, though? Certainly parents of slaughtered babies will not soon forget their anguish, their loss. But we move on, CNN moves on, the world moves on, live goes on. There may be superficial answers offered us to our questions of “Why?” We will be told that the boy played too many violent video games too often. We will be told the boy watched violent television. We will told the boy was brilliant, but somehow damaged goods.

Even after we move on “solutions” will be proposed. Advocates will cry out for our attention, trying to get our ears. The “solutions” will include taking away any implement that might be used to cause harm. Take away access to evil guns. Curb violence on television. Restrict video games.

This month Christians celebrate the birth of a Savior. Not just any savior. The Savior. This is the time we need more than ever to understand that controls upon our liberties lead only to tyranny and that solutions only lay in accepting the only true savior, the only true peace that there is–Y’shuaJesus.

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Fall Thoughts Continue

The temperature outside today reached into the low seventies. The chilly evenings we’ve had hit the bugs hard, and not one was around to bite me while I dug some holes. It’s fall so it’s time to plant some bushes. There’s an area in front of my house that grass has trouble growing. Over this area looms a large river birch. My wife and I cleared what grass remained and dumped in about three yards of top soil, building several mounds, and just raising the area to be even with the base of the birch tree. The bushes we plant out front are mostly inedible, unlike the variety in the garden that takes up most of the area behind the house.

As the day progressed, the wind picked up and more leaves fell from the trees. I hauled some rock and clay, removed from the holes I dug, around back and stood amazed at the contrast of a large Russian sage bush with red heads and bright green shoots against the brown leaves that collected all over it. And there are still many wild roses with bloom remaining. Thought the mint is thinned now, some is still available for harvest, as are a few cone flowers.

I thought with thanksgiving about the way our G-d provides such beauty amid the practicality of our natural surroundings. Thanks to the Spirit of G-d Who drew me to the Lord Y’shuaJesus, I can look at Creation with wonder and awe. Things didn’t just happen. I didn’t just happen. Like creation, I was created. I belong. I can hear the song from long ago flowing through my mind, “I am my Father’s and my Father is mine.” I am not an orphan. I am a son.

You are a son, a daughter, too.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 1:29-31

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Baby Jesus with a voice was like the sound of many waters

Spending some time now in the Book of Revelation has reminded me of a way of viewing our Lord Y’shuaJesus that has bothered me for some time. It’s a different view from the one in Revelation. It’s been around for a long time, too. Matthew Henry’s commentary on the Bible includes it: the meekness of Christ. Perhaps Mr. Henry refers to a different meekness than I imagine from the word. And too be fair, we see throughout the Gospels a great number of sides to Y’shuaJesus that show His gentle ways of dealing with us. It’s just that this view of Y’shuaJesus as meek gets played over and over until I wonder if we lose perspective.

Especially during the Christmas Season—I’ve too often heard the cooing of mom’s showing their kids a manger scene and saying, “Ah, look at Baby Jesus! He’s so cute. See Baby Jesus.” And during other times, not just during Christmas, I’ve heard moms say to their children, “Let’s pray to Baby Jesus now.” Or “Say ‘Thank you’ to Baby Jesus.” Okay, so being fair, it’s moms talking to kids. But when does that image of a baby change to Y’shuaJesus, King? Perhaps it really doesn’t. There’s the prevailing view that “Jesus is a friend. He walks with us and He talks with us.” Yes, He does. But He’s so much more than a friend. He’s worthy great awe and reverence and respect.

Look at the portraits hanging now in museums. Y’shuaJesus is portrayed as a gentle man, doing things that in His time upon Earth would have been very feminine. Sitting at a well, talking with a woman. Not even a Jewish women. And it’s true, a battered woman has seen only the cruelest sides of a man, has great have trouble with Y’shuaJesus unless He is portrayed in a kind and gentle manner. This was the rationale for the “Papa G-d” movement that sought to show the Father Heart of G-d to people that had been abused by human fathers.

But. But when do we begin to see another view of Y’shuaJesus? Just as the Jews during the time Y’shuaJesus walked on Earth were expecting a conquering Messiah got a suffering One instead, perhaps Christians today see only the gentle Messiah, and not the conquering One. Perhaps seeing only one side leads into thinking we are godlike. We bring Y’shuaJesus down to Earth as a mere child, and we elevate ourselves above Him. We are all gods.

John saw the Lord, and wrote the Book about it:

“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.”

Revelation 1:12-16

Y’shuaJesus WAS born in a cavern that was the barn for animals—a stable. Y’shuaJesus WAS a baby. But Y’shuaJesus grew and even surprised his folks at a very early age when He sat teaching adults in the Temple (in Jerusalem). Y’shuaJesus wasn’t a baby when He was strapped and nailed to a post, raised up before a crowd, humiliated and suffering, finally dying. Dying. Yet, like a baby, innocent. We are guilty. He is innocent. We are alive. He is . . .

ALIVE. Yes!

And we are given a glimpse of Him in this “call for endurance” in Revelation 14:12-14.

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.

When Y’shuaJesus comes back—He will return—He won’t look like the small, meek-looking child laying in a cradle with angels and humans looking condescendingly over Him. No. He will come with angels following. He will come with “His eyes . . . like a flame of fire. His feet . . . like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice . . . like the sound of many waters.” Thank G-d! Maranatha!

Okay. The things is that Y’shuaJesus is our friend. And Y’shuaJesus is also our Lord and King. He died for us, and rose for us, that we can be with Him forever. We owe Him everything. We will kneel before Him and we will confess with our mouths, He Is Lord!

Look at it this way, we can’t put a bumper sticker on our cars with “Jesus” on one side, and on the other side a sticker that says, “Gymnastics is Life.” Seriously. I saw it myself the other day. We can’t have it both ways. Y’shuaJesus is either our Life, or He isn’t. Echoing the call, Choose today who you will serve. We need in our thinking and our conversations and in our actions, to acknowledge that there is a time for meekness and a time for fierce adherence to the Word of G-d with deepest awe for our Savior, Y’shuaJesus.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Post-Holiday Blues

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him. . . (Matthew 28:16,17)

Today, the day after Resurrection Day 2012, school buses on their way to collect children, compete with cars driven by people headed off to work. I suppose, if things are similar in other homes as mine, the kitchen floor could use a good cleaning and there are lots of clothes to be washed as well as a few dishes missed yesterday. Dinner tonight is left overs from yesterday’s meal. So many things to occupy our thoughts each day, I suppose there is little time left for some sort of Holiday Blues to set in.

There was a different sort of activity set before the disciples on the day after the first Resurrection Day. Imagine the surprise, the delight, when Mary announces that the Lord is in fact alive. Not only that, He will meet them all in Galilee. Imagine the clamor as the disciples pack up and head out. It’s not a short way to go, either. No car to drive, no bus or train to take. Walk or ride are two options available. The only two. With somewhere around 80 to 100 miles to cover, the disciples would have been eager to begin their journey. How long did it take them? What did they think about during the journey?

Three days or four, dusty roads, threatened with bandits, plagued by thirst and hunger, anxious to I suppose and certainly tired—even exhausted. Finally they arrive at the mountain where they’d been appointed Apostles of the Lord Y’shuaJesus. “And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.”

Some doubted? What did Y’shuaJesus look like to them? The two disciples on the road to amaoz didn’t recognize Him until they broke bread with Him. Was that true of some at the reunion on the mountain in Galilee? Can we blame them for doubting? Where they doubting Him or themselves?

Will we know Y’shuaJesus, will we recognize Him when we see Him face to face? I pray so!

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .