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Tag: series

Times of Difficulty
Joel 1:

Has such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.

While disasters loom and chaos rules, talking heads debate over who said what about the rein of evil isolated in time or place.

I’m outraged!
```
(But it's not what you think.)
```
One death causes lingering debate, then a couple dozen again across the sea.

India – 2 million child deaths/year

Yet  what of a crisis in a hospital in India where 68 children died because of a financial dispute over who would pay for oxygen?

What of 250 dead, lost to floods in Nepal, India and Bangladesh?

Would a press so entertained over a single firing dare mention 28 deaths from a national election controversy in a poor country like Kenya?

These acts of violence by evil men of many races and differing religion are not news. Extreme political positions and taunting of opposing opinion are nothing new under the sun.

Hidden in the headlines of Shiite Islam vs. Sunni Islam in Iraq (along with Syria, another war no one has won) we see starving children, victims of war’s atrocities, malnourished and wounded, gleaning fields for a few bites to eat. Least of all world-wide entertaining news would never herald the passing of 100 souls from hunger each and every hour!

China commits ‘staggering’ 23 million abortions per year, according to US State Dept.

Could self-defining generations of sexually active ‘single’ women ever be chastised for their ‘right’ to end the lives of more than 25 million babies so far this year?!

[ctt title=”Could the two most populous countries in the world ever be held accountable for all the babies and young children who have died? ” tweet=”https://ctt.ec/j1nfg+” coverup=”j1nfg”]

When will the LORD finally say, enough is enough?

Genesis 6:

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

Exodus 12:29

At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

The Lord intervenes

You may not have read from scripture of the great power of the Lord, though you witness the magnificence of His Almighty hand every day. Recall (or read for the first time) how a prayer reached the hearing of the Lord and the Lord saved Israel.

2 Kings 19:

5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me…

15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said:

[ctt title=”“O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.” tweet=”“Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel! 2Kings19:” coverup=”iFGf9″]

16 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19 So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”

35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians.

And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh.

Judgment of the Lord

Not so remarkable that the Lord of all the heavens and earth, the Lord who makes the sun and moon and stars to move; not so awesome that 185,000 men or all the first born of Egypt should unexpectedly be struck down.

Have you heard of the Lord’s covenant to never destroy all mankind by flood? Do you believe that? You who cannot gaze upon the brilliance of the sun the Lord has placed in the heavens, uncover your ears to hear his warnings to repent!

His patience withholds fire and brimstone from the destruction of evil, yet their judgment will come. In the Person of Christ Jesus the Lord has come to man and He will return.

Cover your eyes and open your heart. Look only to Jesus and no false man, dead or in power, mortals who cannot save your eternal soul.

Joel 1:

15 Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

Joel 2:

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Return to the Lord

¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³    and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.

The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit

²⁸“And it shall come to pass afterward,
    that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
²⁹Even on the male and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

³⁰“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹

The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

^{32 [ctt title=”And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. ” tweet=”Christ Jesus is Lord! A new heavens and a new earth await the Lord’s return.” coverup=”W2wAz”]}

To be continued…
August 21, 2017
For you will always have the poor – 5

Help the poor later or honor Jesus now?

Sell everything you have and follow me. Leave your hometown and follow me. Give up you job and follow me. These things Jesus had asked of his followers and for three years they all followed on foot.

The culmination of events, so it seemed, came two days before when Jesus entered Jerusalem like an anointed King. Then nothing.

Today is Tuesday and the Lord foretells his death to the Apostles, that which they have feared. Another choice.

MATTHEW 26

2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

Bethany and Jerusalem

In two scenes related by Matthew we see Jesus and the Apostles and learn of what Matthew would know later about the leaders of the Temple.

6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”

Recall that the Apostle John has told us that the ‘why this waste?’ question came from Judas Iscariot, though it seems others joined in.

In Bethany, near Jerusalem, notice first the anointing honoring Jesus takes place. Then discontent and criticism from those present, opposition no different than in Jerusalem from those who seek to crucify the Lord. As always, Jesus cuts to the quick with the truth.

The poor are with you always.

10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

How would you have responded to Judas?

Would I have said something like,

‘Come on, Judas, focus on the significance of the worship of Jesus, the Lord your God, here; will you?’

Probably not! And we dare not accuse the other Apostles for joining in on ‘save it for the poor.’ Jesus was not so abrupt here as you or I might have been, but you get the point.

We examined one incident prior to Palm Sunday where John dissects the motives of Judas. We began with the gospel of Mark reporting a second incident just prior to the trial of Jesus. Matthew adds some additional detail to this report. We judge these scenes of unfamiliar experience based on our distant understanding of practically nothing about these oppressed men and women of a conquered Israel of the first century.

After-dinner betrayal

14 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?”

And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

The greatest story ever told does not end there. We know that.

The Gospel is Good News to us! Yet do we proclaim Jesus? Does our faith fade into our own hopes and not the calling of Christ?

[ctt title=”Casual \’christians\’ are no less vulnerable to Satan than Judas.” tweet=”Do you believe that? Is your witness of Jesus vulnerable? https://ctt.ec/tea44+” coverup=”tea44″]

Even knowing the ending, a glorious resurrection of Christ Jesus in the flesh, we offer similar excuse, don’t we?

‘I am saving up to help the poor.’

‘Someone else will have to help this mission.’

‘I may be the poor in my retirement.’

Worship or excuse?

How do I compare to when called on to witness Jesus?

A humble woman, lowly in station of life and offering a worship of her highest value, anoints the Lord Jesus. Are we too involved in something else to do the same? For you will always have the poor.

August 15, 2017
For you will always have the poor – 4

ἀλάβαστρον – alabastron

The alabaster receptacle of the anointing oil

To understand why Jesus would say, “the poor are with you always,” we must understand anointing as commonly understood in the culture of the day.

People traveled to and from homes with no running water mostly by foot and anointing is often associated with washing or cleansing. Jesus instructs us to give to the poor. He cautions not to neglect washing or anointing ourselves with oil when we fast for the Lord.

MATTHEW 6:17-18

But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

A common anointing

Anointing with oil along with washing up was part of hospitality, a godly attribute commanded of the Jews. Of course these various oils and ointments needed kept in some sort of container.

On special occasions a newly opened, expensive fresh oil was most appropriate. The ancients considered alabaster to be the best material in which to preserve their ointments. Breaking the box, probably means breaking the seal of the box. 1.

An earlier anointing

This scene takes place in the early days of Jesus’ preaching of the Good News in Galilee. Jesus cleansed lepers. Jesus healed a man who could not walk and a man who could not use his hand.

Crowds came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled with unclean spirits cured and all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

LUKE 7:

Jesus heals the servant of a Roman soldier by command from afar. Amazingly, Jesus raised the son of a widow to life from a coffin at his funeral! Healing – healing of every imaginable sort, cleansing of the body and soul by the hand of God!

36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

Jesus accepts our common anointing

There it is again, earlier in Jesus’ ministry, the alabaster flask of ointment. How does Jesus react here in the presence of his esteemed host?

44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

Consequently, Jesus admonishes his host for neglecting the very least of hospitality commonly extended to guests. He corrects Simon’s hesitation to honor a guest by instead praising the anointing by this woman. For she has done what Simon was obliged to do. And the Lord further emphasizes his authority by his peace of dismissal.

” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Anointed as a welcome guest, healer, one who revives the soul of one dead in the flesh. Jesus, anointed as a King given His due. And finally, anointed for his own burial, only to rise again to rule eternally.

To be continued…

August 12, 2017