Food for Thought

Before I actually get into typing up this blog post, I wanted to say "Thank you" to my dear brother, Cody Kelton.  He gave me permission to use a question he posted on Facebook in this post.  There are not enough kind words in the English language to express my feelings for him, so I want to simply say, "Thank you, Cody.  I love you."

And now, on to the post:

Cody wrote:  "It appears that God says [the Hebrews] can eat any animal they want, and then later He appears to change His mind and tells them they cannot, in fact, eat all of those animals... So what does this mean?"

 Cody wrote a much longer post than this, and I have removed these two sentences from the concluding section of a passage that was several paragraphs in length, so there is some material missing from the overall thought that went into this point.  In way of paraphrasing, the actual point was that at the flood you have eight people and a bunch of animals in an ark.  God tells Noah how many of each animal to save, the Bible making clear that this is a distinction between the clean and the unclean (God tells Noah save seven pairs of everything clean but only one pair of everything unclean).  After the flood God changes the food law, allowing men to eat animals as well as plants (prior to that God said man could eat every green thing) and thus sets us a system where all food is permitted.  But, then later, God restricts what the Hebrew people could eat.  So from this comes the above question.

I already wrote a brief response to Cody (so if you are one of his or my Facebook friends and have already read that post, you have my apologies, some of this will be repetitious), but I would like to write a more developed response because his question got me thinking about the whole issue of the food laws and how modern Christians should regard to those laws.  My views on the matter are not cutting edge or new, and I'm not going to tell people to empty all the bacon out of the fridge, but I think there are some theological and Christological implications in the food laws that are worth considering.  On the whole I think that the food laws point to the greatness of God's grace, they set up a system whereby men might understand their uncleanness before God, and they served as a very real divider between the people of God and those outside of his covenants.  If all of these points are understood, and if we can see that Scripture indicates these points are correct, then we are drawn to the redemption offered by Christ as he is the door by which we enter into the grace of God, the one who cleanses us from all unrighteousness, and the one who joins us as a people and reconciles us to God.

I think the following passages of Scripture are relevant to this study: Genesis 9:3-6, Leviticus 1:3, 10; 11 (focusing on verses 24, 27, 36, 39, 43, 44-47), Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6, Mark 7:19, Acts 10, Romans 7:7-10 (8-25 is good also, but 7-10 is the focus), Galatians 2:11-21; 3:19-26, 1 Timothy 1:8-11, and James 1:17.  There are probably other verses that we could include in this list, but the argument I want to follow touches on all of these verses, and so with these I hope I can lay out my point sufficiently.  Some of these verses I use only to illustrate the same point from multiple writers, so as to make that point (hopefully) clearer.  (We could, along with these verses bring in 1 Corinthians 8 and go even further in examining how the Christian should react to food in general.)

Where do we begin then?  Well, we can begin with what Cody stated he already knew at the intro to his letter: God does not change his mind.  We see this in Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6, and James 1:17.  Each of these verses is clear, God does not change his mind.  What he has stated is true, and will be true.  We could add to this other verses, such as Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."  The point being that while Scripture says that God is grieved over a thing, or that God relents, or we see an instance where God says one thing, but then says because of an act of faith he will not actually do what he has said, we are also told, in no uncertain terms, that God does not change his mind.  Thus, if all of Scripture is true, we are left with situations that require us to exercise some additional thought, so that we can see how it can be that God has remained consistent when he gives changing requirements or does not bring about a promised judgment.  So then, how can it be that God has not changed his mind in regards to the human diet, but we see at least 3 different dietary commands in the Bible?  And what does all of this have to do with Christ?

Here we need to begin with understanding the purpose of the law.  We see in Leviticus 11:44-47 that the purpose of the food laws is to mark the Israelites as holy.  Holiness means that which is separate, that which is set apart.  In terms of human holiness we understand this as meaning that we are set apart to and for God.  When we speak of God's holiness it is an expression of his uniqueness, his transcendence over all of creation.  He is more holy than anything else, better, above, separate in a good way.  Because God is holy, his people are also to be holy, and one of their marks of separation was to be their food.

Thus we read in Leviticus 11:24, 27, 36, 39, and 43 that to touch the carcass of an unclean animal would render the one who touched it unclean.  Not only were the Israelites forbidden to eat the unclean, they were forbidden to have contact with the unclean.  To be separate, to be holy, meant to have no contact with that which was considered unclean.  So the food law given to the Israelites showed them how they were to be uniquely holy before God by telling them what they could and could not eat.  No other nation could claim to have this law, to have this knowledge; holiness was given to those in covenant with God, not to those outside the covenant.

This unique covenant relationship was established not through Noah or Adam, but through Abraham.  Abraham was the first Hebrew, and he was originally an Aramean.  God did not establish a special covenant relationship with Noah and his sons, instead he gave them a general command as regards the food they ate: do not eat meat with the blood in it, everything else is fine. (Genesis 9:3-6)  But, when it came to Abraham, God established a special relationship, giving rules for that covenant so that Abraham and his children would be able to always say that they were called by God to a special relationship that no one else could have.  But, if God had given the dietary restrictions to Abraham, then Ishmael could have passed those laws down to his children (just as God did bless Ishmael because of Abraham, even if Ishmael was not the son of the promise).  If God had given the dietary restrictions to Noah, then what would have set Israel apart in their diet?  In setting up a covenant with Israel, God made clear that he wanted a holy people who would be set apart from any other people, and so he did not give dietary restrictions to others because then the point of the restriction would have been lost: those who did not belong to the covenant would have had the same dietary restrictions as those who did belong to the covenant thus weakening a unique covenant sign that would set God's people apart from others.

But, at the same time, the purpose of the dietary law was to enforce the clean/unclean standard that God had already applied to himself upon his people.  If this seems an odd statement, then consider that Noah was told to save seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals.  What would clean and unclean have meant to Noah?  Prior to his receiving the command that he could eat of the flesh of animals, it would have been unclean for Noah to eat any flesh at all, so the clean animals could not have indicated a dietary restriction for Noah.  However, considering what we see early on in Genesis, where Able is offering God a sacrifice from his flock, and reading that men began to call upon the name of the Lord, it is reasonable to assume that some form of ritualistic worship was common (or at least known) on earth during the time of Noah.  This assumption is further buttressed by the fact that Noah built an altar and made an offering to God of some of every clean animal when he and his family exited the ark.  Thus, for Noah, clean and unclean would have simply indicated those animals that were acceptable to use for offerings and sacrifices.  Now that same understanding, that there are some animals acceptable and some unacceptable, applies not only to sacrificial and religious events, but to the every day events of having dinner or burying a carcass from the fields.

Here we have our first, and I would argue incomplete, answer of why God gave Noah and Moses different food laws.  The food laws were part of the larger body of the Mosaic Law given to the Israelites.  This body of laws was given so that the Israelites would know what it meant  to be holy.  Only by following this law perfectly could anyone be holy.  Ergo, it did not make sense to give this law to all humans at the time of Noah because God was not establishing a special covenant relationship with all humans wherein he would show them how to be holy.  God, in his mercy, chose to reveal the requirements of holiness to the Israelites, in order to accomplish his purposes.

But, what purpose would God have in revealing the requirements of holiness to the Israelites?  In examination of this question I argue that we must now turn to the New Testament, where we find not only this answered, but also a more complete answer to the first question as to why God would give different food laws at different times.

The first section I want to look at is Acts 10, where we see Peter visiting a Gentile and we get a resolution to the differences brought about by the dietary laws as given above.  In Acts 10 Peter sees a vision from God in which he is told to take and eat from the unclean things set before him.  Peter gets this vision three times, and then end up visiting Cornelius and realizing that God is speaking about the Jews and Gentiles, calling the Gentiles clean.  Here we have some indication of the distinction that God set up by giving the dietary law in the first place.  The Gentiles were unclean not only because they were outside of the covenant of God and his people, but also because of what they ate (granted what they ate was directly related to the fact they had no relationship to God).  But, God, through Christ, was so merciful that not only could he draw back the covenant people to himself, he could go even further and draw those to himself who had no covenant relationship with him at all.  Cornelius was a God fearer, but he was not Jewish and does not seem to have taken any of the steps necessary to become a Jew, so he had no claim to a covenant relationship with God, but, through Christ, God set aside the limitations of the old covenant and its legal obligations and established a new covenant in which all men could come to God through faith.  The old laws of clean and unclean animals no longer served to divide people, but now showed the immeasurable power of God's grace.

The distinction between Jew and Gentile is made even clearer when we consider Paul's testimony in Galatians 2:11-14.  Here Paul recalls a time when he stood up to Peter because Peter was being a hypocrite.  Peter withdrew from Gentile believers because a group of men who came from James in Jerusalem.  Thus even in the early church the distinction between Jew and Gentile persisted, and it seems that this remained an issue of the clean versus the unclean.  Paul's complaint against Peter was that Peter was denying the gospel, living like a Gentile and telling the Gentiles that they had to live like Jews.  Thus unless they engaged in the steps necessary to become ritually clean, living like Jews, Gentiles were considered unclean by some Jewish Christians in Paul's time.  So the Law, as it became a part of Jewish culture, did exactly what it was supposed to in drawing a clear distinction between those who followed it and were considered clean, and those who did not and remained unclean.  Yet, as we complete the story by reading through to verse 21 we see that Christ set aside the law, because in and through Christ we have all died to the law, even if we did not know it originally, so that we can live in the righteousness of God.  So Christ set aside the distinction between Jew and Gentile, and part of the Gospel is that God has one people, all joined to him through Christ.

We can say then that God gave the Law to the Israelites in order to draw a distinction between them and those around them, but he also gave the Law in order to show the power of his mercy and grace in Christ.  The Israelites strained to reach perfection by punctiliously following a set of written rules and obligations, even going so far as to add to them to create barriers so they would not accidentally cross any forbidden lines.  But Gentiles were alienated from God, having no conception of God's holiness and no access to the law by which they might have been made aware of the righteousness of God.  Yet, in Christ, neither the Jew nor the Gentile can claim any advantage, for Christ made all equal, bringing the righteousness of God to those of us who could not attain it on our own, and were not aware of what righteousness really looked like in the first place.  The law makes the grace of God all the more amazing.

But there is more yet.  In order to understand God's purpose for the law, we must understand the law.  In order to understand the law, in general, we can turn to Galatians 3, Romans 7:7-25, or 1 Timothy 1:8-11.  What we see in Galatians 3:19-26 is that the law was given in order to imprison all things under sin, in order that we might believe in Christ.  Paul makes clear that the goal of the law was not to cause sin, but the law showed sin, and thereby gave sin power, but also pointed us to Christ.  This point is also demonstrated in Romans 7:7-10, in which we read that the law is not sin and is not evil, but that sin uses the law to condemn us and kill us, making our sins all the worse because now we sin not ignorantly, but knowing that what we do is wrong.  And, in case we missed it the first couple of times, Paul makes clear to Timothy that the law is laid down not for the righteous but for the unrighteous; the law is good because it applies to those who are law breakers, not the just.  So then, the law is there to reveal the sinfulness of humanity, so that in seeing our sinfulness we might be made fully aware of our need for a savior, and so we might come to place our faith in Christ for salvation.

What we see in understanding what Paul says about the Law is that the Law convicts us all.  And since we are all convicted under the Law, if we understood it rightly, we would understand what a need we have for a savior.  Consider what we read in Leviticus 1:3 and 10.  We see that God requires the burnt sacrifices brought to him to be without blemish.  God does not accept a sacrifice with blemish or defect.

When we think of this in relation to the food laws we see that anything that is unclean is automatically not fit for sacrifice.  God will not accept a perfect and unblemished pig as part of a burnt offering any more than he would accept a blind and lame goat.  And if God will not accept that which is unclean, then how can we ever be perfect offerings to him?  If the food law shows us how to distinguish between the clean and unclean animals, not only to know what we can eat but also to know what we can offer as part of our sacrifice, then we should know that anything that would be unclean as a matter of diet cannot be an acceptable offering to God.  And, if we read the law thoroughly and understand it rightly, we see that we are in need of perpetual cleansing.  If we are in need of perpetual cleaning, recognizing as Hebrews says that the blood of animals cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, then we know that we cannot procure righteousness on our own.  Thus understood the food laws served as a part of the greater Law in reminding those who attempted to be righteous that they could not achieve righteousness on their own, ultimately men would have to rely on some grace from God to perfect us because we could not perfect ourselves.  This then points us back to Christ, for God would have to provide a perfect sacrifice, an unblemished sacrifice, for the sins of humanity if we were to be made righteous and holy as God is, and as God calls us to be.

The Israelites should have understood through the food laws how uncleanness does not come from outside, but from inside.  Jesus in Mark 7:19 declares all food to be clean, saying that it is not what goes into the mouth that makes one unclean, but what comes out of the mouth.  The Jews were given the food laws so that they could understand how unclean they were internally, no so that they would hold that as unclean which is external.  If the food laws were given so as to set up a distinction between the Jews and Gentiles, shouldn't that have caused the Jews to reflect on how much more of a chasm existed between them and God?  Because we tend to focus on simply following rules we miss the fact that the Law of God exists also to challenge us to consider how his rules reveal our own unrighteousness.  Again, this makes the grace of God amazing, because we who are unclean internally can be called clean, not because of following laws, but because of faith.

The food laws served to distinguish God's people from those around them.  The food laws served to show the holiness of God so that his people would be reminded of what they were called to be.  But, understood through Christ, the food law shows the magnitude of God's mercy, that those who were unclean could be called clean through the blood of Christ.  Those who strived to be clean, knowing they were always unclean, always falling short of the Law, could find redemption in a perfect sacrifice.  God did not change his mind in changing what food should be eaten, but he wanted to reveal to us how wondrous his grace his, how holy he himself is, how unclean we are, and how we can draw near to him and be made righteous through his Son.

Why International Missions isn't Foreign

Recently I had the privilege of teaching a lesson on international missions at my church here in Carrollton, Georgia.  The lesson itself was on missions going on in Thailand.  In many of the international missions lessons in local churches congregations learn about the demographics of the country, they hear about a few specific missionaries, and then they are told how they can pray for those missionaries specifically.  While there is nothing wrong with this method, and in fact there is a lot of very useful information to be learned from this method of teaching, I decided to take the lesson in a different direction.  My goal in the lesson was not simply that the congregation would learn facts about Thailand, but that they would understand that Thailand is not that different from Carrollton, and that international missions is not just something "over there," but that it affects us here at home, and what we do here at home affects international missions.

This post is a follow up to that lesson.  The fact is international missions ought not be some foreign concept or idea.  International missions should flow directly from home missions, from local missions, and from every Christian's personal mission in the world.  International missions is the spread of Christianity to every tribe, people, tongue, and nation, fulfilling the command of Christ to go and make disciples of all nations.  (Matthew 28:18-20)  Therefore, the mindset of international missions should be part of every Christian, as we strive to be faithful to what our Lord has called us to do.

There are two specific reasons I want to address as to what International missions is not foreign: people, and Scripture.  If we understand the reality of who we are serving, and who we have a mission to reach, we will understand that these are not just people who live thousands of miles away, but they are brothers and sisters, and no matter how far away family may be, family is not foreign.  Likewise, if we understand Scripture, then we will understand how what we are to minister is never foreign, it is the wonderful Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that all men might be reconciled to God, redeemed from sin and free to live to the glory of God.  The message is not foreign, and the people are not foreign, even if the culture is totally alien to us.

It may seem like a bit of a contradiction to say that the people are not foreign if the culture is foreign, but people are not just their culture.  Specifically, in terms of international missions, every person is exactly the same.  What I mean is that what Paul says about humans, he says about all of us, he makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian.  Paul says, "As it is written:

'None is righteous, no, not one;
   no one understands;
   no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
   no one does good,
   not even one.'
'Their throat is an open grave;
   they use their tongues to deceive.'
'The venom of asps is under their lips.'
   'Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.'
'Their feet are swift to shed blood;
   in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.'
   'There is no fear of God before their eyes.'

Every human has sinned.  No one fears God naturally.  Not one of us is innocent, and all of us are condemned before God, according to what Paul says here.  Therefore, when we go to minister to humans in any place, any time, and any culture, we are ministering to sinners.  Just as you, if you are a Christian, were a sinner who received the Gospel from someone who ministered to you, so they are sinners in need of ministers who will bring the gospel to them.  There is nothing foreign in sin, we who walk in the light know the ways of sin, because we walked in sin ourselves.

But, not only are people the same, Scripture is the same.  Yes, translation is an art and a science.  And yes, there may be challenges in bringing Scripture to different cultures.  Due to linguistic barriers and the lack of a written language, it may be very hard to explain Scripture or make it widely accessible to certain peoples.  But, despite these challenges, Scripture itself does not change.

The reason Scripture does not change is because God does not change.  Scripture is the personal revelation of a personal God.  Unless God changes, his revelation will not change, and God has said of himself that he does not change. (Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Malachi 3:6, James 1:17)  Therefore, in every culture we minister the same Scripture, the same message, and the same God, that all men may know of the Lord who made them and desires that they should come and fellowship with him.  This Gospel does not change, because it is the same to everyone, no matter who they are or where they are.

There are a lot of things that can be foreign in international missions, from language and culture, to location and climate.  But, the things that really matter, the needs of people and means of addressing those needs, do not change.  Every person needs to be reconciled to the God who made them, who requires worship from them.  And the only means of reconciliation is faith in Jesus Christ.  Therefore, international missions may involve going to foreign places, eating foreign food, learning foreign languages, and living under foreign shelters, but there should be nothing closer to home than the ministering of the gospel to those who desperately need to know of the hope that is found only in Jesus Christ.

And be Thankful

"And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." - Colossians 3:14-16 (ESV)

From what we see in the above passage we note that there are three things Paul called the church to: put on love, let the peace of Christ reign, and be thankful.  Of course these are not three distinct events, they are, in fact, very closely tied together.  How can we love without the peace of Christ unifying us as a body?  How can we be thankful if we are not bound to God or to others through love?  In fact, the very idea of being one body is the reason we (Christians) ought to love one another.

Think about it like this: love unites.  Anger, hatred, fear, distaste, and discomfort all divide.  Those things which stand opposed to love do not bring the body of Christ together, they divide us.  We cannot be ruled by the peace of Christ because we are too worried about whether the man sitting across from us is dangerous, or we want to get away from the smelly bag lady who sat next to us in the pew.  More than that, we are not thankful to God for bringing this brother or sister into our lives, instead we sit in judgment of them, when God shed the blood of Christ to win them.

But, being thankless not only separates us from our relationship with God, it also separates us from those around us, and it separates them from us.  When we do not thank those who do good things for us, we insult them.  We insult them because we do not acknowledge the time, the care, or the resources they put into doing good for us.  We act as though we are deserving of that which we have received, as though somehow we earned some good gift that was given to us.

In my last post I noted that every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of Lights. (James 1:17)  But, James really begins that thought earlier, and the context around James 1:17 is important.  In James 1:16 he says, "Do not be deceived my beloved brothers."  My point being that James urges us to think about what he is saying more deeply than just saying, "okay."  James really intends for us to understand that every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from God.  When one of your co-workers did a favor for you, making sure you wouldn't be too overburdened, that was a gift from God.  When one of your friends called you up and asked if you wanted a coffee, just so they could spend time with you, that was from God.  Every good gift, every perfect gift, all of them, come from God.

It is so important to grasp this because it relates directly to what Paul says about being thankful.  If every good gift comes from God, then when you disregard a favor, or when you belittle the work of someone who sacrificed for you, then you are insulting the kindness of God.  Likewise, when you make light of someone trying to do good for you, even if it does not accomplish exactly what you wanted, it is not simply a slight to that person, it is an insult to God, because he is the one who gave you the gift.  Such an attitude shows that you have not put on love, you are not living in the peace of Christ, and you are not thankful to God.  Such an attitude shows that you have taken for granted the good things you have been given, as though you deserved them, when it is most pertinent to remember that those good things are a gift, and you have not earned any of them at all.

In addition to what being thankless says about your own life, it is also harmful to others.  When you disregard the good things people do for you, or try to do for you, it places them in a position of inferiority.  Instead of you showing appreciation for their kindness, now they have become mere tools, and if they perform well you give them no praise, for that was all that was expected of a good tool.  This is not love for your fellow man.  To be thankless is an insult to those who show love and respect for you.

But, there is one more point worth making: being thankless is a little demonstration of hell on earth.  What I mean by this is, if James is true, that every good gift is from God, then in hell there will be no good gifts.  There will be no friends, because there will be no kindness, because God will not motivate goodness or gentleness among those from whom he separates.  So, when we are thankless, we are demonstrating to those who would do good things for us a little taste of hell.  We are demonstrating the real sin that lives within every one of us when we do not thank people, or God, for the good things we receive, and, in hell, that sin will be given free reign, because there will be no common grace from God to keep it reigned in.

There is simply no excuse for Christians to forget to be thankful.  We, above all people, have received great and wonderful gifts that we do not deserve.  We who have trusted in the death of Christ and his resurrection as the payment for our sin, and the means of reconciliation with God, have been given a promise of eternal life with the Lord.  Every good gift we receive after that ought to refresh our spirits in memory of that which we have received and make us sing the praises of God, that not only did he redeem us from hell, but he also saw fit to give us more gifts on top of that.  Every generous hand, from every person, should invoke in us a deep and abiding thankfulness, for we know that our God is the one who has given this to us.  In short, we should have no problem fulfilling this command from the Holy Spirit, through Paul, "And be thankful."

Isaiah 6:1-8

Recently (a couple of weeks ago) my pastor asked me to read this section of Scripture and lead the congregation in prayer as part of our worship service.  Reading this passage, and the sermon of that day, both changed the way I have looked at sin since.  I wanted to address this passage of Scripture and share a few of the things that really impacted me.  A couple of the points come from the Hebrew in this passage, so I beg your leave to discuss those, and I ask that you trust what I'm going to say.  Alternatively, I hope that my reading of this passage might encourage you to do some research on the passage yourself, that you may be challenged and transformed by the Word of God.

First, the English of this passage:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him stood the seraphim.  Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one called to another and said:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.  And I said: "Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.  And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"  Then I said, "Here am I!  Send me."


The first thing that struck me was the declaration made by the Seraphim: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!"  (A better rendition might note that he is called the Lord of armies, but that's a secondary point.)  The reason this declaration struck me is because of the triple repeated, "Holy!"  In the original Hebrew and Greek there was no punctuation.  No exclamation marks, no periods, no commas, no way to separate or accentuate a word other than either its placement in the idea, or a play on its form, or a repetition of the word itself.  Thus, when we see a repeated word or term it is there for one specific reason: emphasis.

For the Seraphim to call God "holy" three times indicates a serious emphatic statement.  It would be like standing in the midst of a courtroom and suddenly the bailiff picks up a bull horn and screams as loud as he can that the judge is honorable and just.  If you miss the implication, it is because you choose to ignore that which has been screamed at you.

God is holy!  He is utterly, indescribably holy!  His holiness is to be shouted, it is declared by those beings which are in his presence day and night.  This is the first and most important descriptor of God.  His holiness defines his other attributes, because it puts them in proper perspective.

God's holiness is his transcendence above and beyond this world.  He is like nothing in this world, utterly distinct and incomparable.  It is for this reason that Scripture says of God, "Who is like the Lord?" (Psalm 40:5; Psalm 89:6; Isaiah 40:18, 25; 46:5)  And here, you have heavenly beings, flying above the throne of God, which is itself a high and loft throne, and they are declaring this holiness, over and over again, yelling it loudly to one another.  That's how important it is that we get that God is holy, the seraphim yell not to creation, but to one another, even though they dwell in the presence of God.

This point only began to really come home to me when I began to consider the rest of God's attributes in relation to this holiness.  Think about it this way: God demonstrates his power so that we can understand that his power is beyond what we can comprehend, it is holy.  God works great and wondrous miracles so that we can understand that if God is able to do things which amaze us, how much greater are his works which we can not fathom!  His holiness, his indescribable nature, is declared by comparison with that which we can understand.  Likewise of any of God's attributes, his anger, his patience, his justice, and particularly his love.  We cannot really comprehend any of these attributes of God, because his holiness puts them beyond our grasp.  We can witness a declaration of his love or justice, but that only gives us a glimpse into the reality that we cannot fully grasp, because God is beyond us.

But, here's what blows me away more than anything else, what made me really begin to consider the beauty of God's holiness: he does not do his great works for himself!  What I mean is that God is holy, by his very nature, and there is nothing that adds to or takes away from this holiness.  Thus, when God shows his glory through his great works, he does not add anything to himself, but simply shows us, mere humans, how wonderful he is, out of a great love for us.  Remember, God has seraphim declaring his holiness, he already knows his holiness, he does not need us to praise him, but he gives us the opportunity to praise him for our good, because he loves us.

God is the only being who deserves this praise, because his beauty is perfect.  So, for us to be able to praise God is a gift to us, because being able to praise God means that we are getting some glimpse of perfection, some participation in the amazing glory of the one who defines everything good and beautiful.  It's like getting an invite into the most amazing art gallery ever.  God is not changed or made more amazing by our worship, but we who witness his holiness are changed, because we experience that which is truly beautiful.  This is the situation Isaiah found himself in: ushered into the presence of glory, confronted with that which left him dumbfounded (literally) because of how wondrous it was.

God is holy, he is awesome, and he shows his holiness to us because of his love for us, but this is only the beginning of this passage.  Add to that the very beings who are declaring this: seraphim.  (In the Hebrew the "im" ending is simply a plural ending, hence some translations read "seraphs" as a valid plural form of the term, since the Hebrew "seraph" is the singular form.)  The word itself means "burning ones".  Thus, here are "burning ones," or beings whose own glory makes them appear to be on fire (or who really are made of fire), who are declaring how holy God is.  His glory is made manifest through comparison with their glory, because they are declaring his holiness, and not their own.

Then, Isaiah gives utterance to words that simply do not translate into the English with the same nuance which they have in Hebrew.  Isaiah looks to the Lord and says, "Woe is me! For I am [compelled to be silent, brought to silence, made silent, or undone, ruined, destroyed]."  (Everything within the brackets could be viable interpretations of this passage.)  Thus, when we read from Isaiah, "I am undone" what he is saying is, "I am brought to silence."  Here the idiom of silence represents the idea of death or total destruction.  This ties the statement in with the rest of what Isaiah says, "For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips."

The idea of unclean lips goes far and beyond simply the words of the people, it goes to their lives, their very being.  Thus, as Christ declared, "For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34)  For Isaiah, for his mouth to be silenced was a condemnation of his very life.  So, likewise, when Isaiah complains of the uncleanness of the lips of the people, he is condemning the way they live.  They are unclean in word and deed.  And he is one of those people, he is not innocent, he is not holy, he is not good.  I realized as I read those words what a condemnation that should be to me: though I might know how to say the right things, though I might appear to be a "good Christian" to the world, my heart ought to be condemned before God because of my sinfulness.  I am in the position of Isaiah, and I need to declare, "Woe is me!  I am compelled to be silent, I should be destroyed before my holy God!"

Yet Isaiah was not left there.  Here the Hebrew again plays on words and imagery: one of the burning ones takes a "glowing coal" and touches Isaiah's mouth with it.  One of those who is on fire takes a coal of fire and touches that which symbolizes Isaiah's wickedness, his lips, and declared Isaiah to be clean.  Imagine that scene for a minute, a flying being of fire holding a burning coal in his hand reaches out to you and touches your lips with a searing fire, and declares you to be clean.

Here the full imagery of the situation is brought out: Isaiah is not simply standing in the temple, he is standing in the middle of a sacrifice.  Remember, the temple was filled with smoke after God's holiness was declared.  Why would the temple be filled with smoke?  Because a sacrifice was taking place.  We know this because the smoke is not merely from the altar of incense, but there is a burning coal, which came from the altar, which means that a sacrifice was burning on the altar of God.

Here we tie into the imagery of Christ, because he is the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. (1 Peter 1:19-21)  He is the sacrifice that God accepted to quench his anger, which allows a guilty people to approach a holy God.  Isaiah was standing in the presence of the God who makes redemption for his saints, offering up a sacrifice to himself which we could not offer up.  And Isaiah was made a participant of that sacrifice.  A coal from the fire of God's sacrifice was taken and placed upon Isaiah's lips, so that he became a participant in this symbolic sacrifice that would one day be fulfilled in the death and suffering of the Messiah.

And look what happens to Isaiah because of his exposure to the sacrifice of Christ: the man who was brought to silence, who was compelled to recognize the sinfulness of his life before the holy God of the universe, suddenly has the courage to speak up and say to God, "Here I am, send me!"  Because Isaiah saw the holiness of God, he was brought low, he considered himself already dead.  But, because Christ died on his behalf and he was able to participate in that sacrifice, his words, the actions of his life, were made acceptable before God.  Isaiah was given a boldness to go from laying on his face to standing before the awesome God of all creation, all because of the sacrifice that God prepared for himself.

The more I studied this passage, just in preparation to read it at church, the more I was faced with the reality that I had lost sight of the holiness of God.  I had forgotten his glory, and I had forgotten that when I sin I am transgressing that holiness, that glory, that awesome and amazing attribute of God that cannot be fully understood here on earth, because it is the reflection of how utterly incomprehensible and beyond us God really is.  But, in addition to that, my sins made light of the sacrifice God prepared for himself.  Instead of allowing the coal from the altar of God to touch my lips, I would draw near to it, I would feign to touch it, and then I would go back again into the secret realms of my heart, and I would not let myself be singed by the purifying fire of God.

For this reason, for the last two weeks, I have been continually thinking to myself, "Would it glorify God for me to do that?  Would it glorify God for me to go there?  Would it glorify God for me to watch that, think that, or listen to that?"  The seraphim constantly declare God is holy, so how could I, who have enjoyed the benefits of the death of Christ, do anything less in my own life?  Do I really think God is that holy?  In being confronted with these questions I was forced to reconsider how I was living, so that I could be like Isaiah, transformed by my experience of seeing the holiness of God.

To be honest, for those who have read this far, I can only apologize.  There is something about being exposed to an experience that cannot quite be captured by simply writing about it.  Particularly when it is the Word of God that we are confronted with, there is an intrinsic and personal challenge that is hard to express to others.  I can only hope that you will be challenged by this section of Scripture as I was.  I can only hope that as you have read of my experience of going through this passage, you will be able to appreciate the imagery, the nuances, and the power of this passage more.  I hope you are challenged to think about the awesome holiness of God a little bit more, so that you can too can live a life changed by meeting the God of Isaiah, the God of the universe.

More Than Bread

While wondering through the desert Satan tempted Christ by appealing to his hunger.  Satan said to the Lord, "Turn these stones into bread and so you do not have to go hungry!"  It may not sound like much of a temptation, but the real point was to get Christ to rely upon himself, instead of trusting that the Father would provide for him what he needed.  Christ responded by quoting Scripture and standing against Satan saying, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."  We have to eat to live, but if all we take in is bread, then while we may continue to exist, we are far from having full lives.

This was part of the problem that the church in Corinth dealt with.  Instead of taking in the Word of God, they were more concerned with the bread and wine of the Lord's table.  Paul condemns the church noting that some come and feast, and others are left to starve.  Instead of sharing love and compassion for one another they became selfish gluttons.  To partake of the Lord's supper is to share in Christ, to eat and drink of his memory and in obedience to his words, it is not just to fill our stomachs, but to live on the Word of God.

Christ promised his presence always, and proclaimed of himself that he is the bread of life.  Obviously there is metaphor involved in that statement.  Christ is not literally made of bread.  Likewise, as much as I respect those Catholics who take seriously the traditions that have been handed down, as a protestant and one who adheres to solo scriptura, I find nothing in Scripture that makes me think that the bread literally becomes the body of Christ and the wine becomes his blood in some metaphysical way.  But, despite the fact that the bread is not literally Christ, when we partake of the bread and the wine, we are joined to Christ in his presence, as we partake of the feast that he is preparing for us in heaven.

To eat of the Lord's Table is to partake of a heavenly feast.  Consider this: Christ began and ended his ministry with food and wine.  When his mother asked him to help with the situation at the wedding feast, Christ turned the water into wine.  When Christ gave his last instructions, before his death, to his apostles, he did it over a feast including bread and wine.  And, when Christ brings all things to completion, we will once again sit down to a feast with him, at the wedding supper of the Lamb.  When we eat of the bread and drink of the wine of the Lord's Table, we are participating in feasting with Christ, joining with him in faith to the Father, believing that one day we will eat at the wedding supper of his Son.

This is why Paul was so severe with the church in Corinth, and why he says that when we eat of the Lord's Table and fail to recognize the body of Christ, we eat and drink judgment on ourselves.  When we partake of the Lord's Table, if we do not recognize that we are eating a fellowship meal, a celebration of Christ and the feast that will join all believers together, then we are not acting in faith, but faithlessly.  We turn the admonition of Christ on its head: instead of living on the Word of God, we begin to treat the feast of Christ as nothing more than bread and wine.  Any church that treats the Lord's Supper lightly, not realizing the significance of what it means to partake of the body of Christ is asking for the same judgment that Paul says was already being poured out on the church at Corinth: weakness, sickness, and premature death.

It ought to be born in mind that death, weakness, and sickness, do not necessarily have to be upon individuals.  Those who sit in the congregation, who are ignorant of the reality of the Lord's Supper, while certainly responsible for failing to take seriously the Word of God, are not as accountable as those who teach them.  Thus as James says, "Not many of you should desire to be teachers, knowing that we who teach will be judged more strictly."  In this way, because those who teach from the pulpit have failed to properly teach the Word of God, and because those who sit in the congregation have failed to hold them accountable to what has been taught, everyone brings judgment upon themselves for their faithless living before God.  So, particularly in congregational churches, no one has excuse, and no individual can claim innocence if they have not been faithfully warning their brothers and sisters of the coming wrath of God.

Because Churches do not take seriously the Word of God in what it teaches about why we should do the things we do, the churches get weak.  The churches grow sick.  Eventually, those churches who fail to be faithful to God, who no longer reflect a healthy image of his body, die.  And no amount of man made emotion and passion can change what God has already said will be the judgment of those who take the Lord's Supper lightly.  But it does not have to be this way.

Our God is a God who forgives, who restores, who wounds and heals.  If we will turn back to him and seek him, then he has promised us blessing in Christ.  We, who are in Christ, do not need to fear that God will hold our sins against us, for we are already forgiven, covered by the blood of Christ.  If we seek to partake of the blood of Christ at his table, then we must be sure that we are covered in the blood when we are away from the table.

God is faithful to himself, and he will exalt himself through judgment, and through mercy.  Thus, we have great reason to pray to God for revival, if we are willing to embrace the discipline of God in our lives.  We do not need to continue to eat and drink judgment to ourselves.  If we will learn from the Word of God, and understand what it means to be a part of the body of God, then we have great reason to hope in God.  Our God is full of grace, and he speaks to us if we will be listen to his admonitions.

Let us eat of the Lord's Table with joy and with sobriety.  Let us recognize that what we do here prepares us for a feast we will share there.  But, let us also remember that when we eat and drink of the elements of the table, Christ is present with us, partaking with us as we are his body.  We eat and drink not simply in his memory, but also in his presence.  There is great reason to rejoice for those of us who rightly recognize the body of Christ when we come to the Lord's Table, so let us rejoice!

Poison

In my post yesterday I mentioned that I have a poison ivy rash.  Today I want to go into more detail on that, and tell you about why I don't hate it quite as much as I did.  But, I ask you to bear with me some, as I want to go a little into the details of my particular situation.  You see, my exposure is not typical.  My exposure has been pretty bad actually.

I went a saw a doctor about my poison ivy rash.  Two weeks out from the first exposure the rash seems to be continuing to show up on other parts of my body.  Initially I had a minor rash on my right arm, and a few little spots on my left arm where it looked like I touched my arm with my fingers after they came into contact with the plant.  A minor rash, at best.

I was exposed on Saturday, August 24th.  By Wednesday of the next week, it looked like I described it above.  I showed it to some of the people from church as my wife and I went to bible study.  Most of them noted that it looked like a minor rash, they even teased me that the little rash I had wasn't sufficient to be called a poison ivy reaction.  If only they had been right.

On Sunday I showed them the rashes again.  By this point, on my right arm I had a think leathery scab just at my wrist and extending about an inch up my arm.  It was mildly annoying and I couldn't bend my wrist very well because of it.  My left arm had blossomed into a minor swelling all along my lower under arm.  Now I had validation: I had a certified poison ivy rash.

So, by this point I'm in a bit of discomfort.  I'm spraying calamine lotion (with pain and itch relievers) on the left arm.  On the right arm it wasn't itching too much, the scab was so thick it basically just hurt a little bit.  I'm still not worried though.  Instead I'm making a point of keeping ice bags on my arms as I can and just trying to avoid scratching it.  I'm hoping it will start to heal soon, and Sunday night brought some additional hope to my attention.

An aunt and uncle along with cousins from my wife's side came to visit us.  Spencer (my cousin) told me about how he used a product called Zanfel to treat his poison ivy.  He told me it could do what no other product claimed to be able to do: it could remove the Urushiol from my arms!  That's right, the Urushiol that had bound into my skin could be pulled out, I could stop the spread and get rid of the itching!  Excellent!

I got some.  $35 without tax for one ounce.  If it would do what it claimed though, it would be worth it.  I took it home and used it as per the directions.  The itching stopped.  I thought that was the end of it all, now I could heal.  God is only amused at the feeble attempts of mortals to control that which he created to serve his will.

The rash seemed to stop on my arms, but it wasn't healing very fast.  Oh, and the scab on my right arm was thicker.  It was starting to crack to the point of bleeding lightly.  I now could not move my wrist at all without pain, or close my fingers on my right hand because it would pull the skin at the top of my hand, adding a little more pain to the situation.  The swelling on the left arm began to lightly scab.  And a few new bumps had developed on my right hip and side.

Add to this the general disgust that I was oozing.  That's right, the serum that forms scabs was attempting to form little scabs on all the spaces where my skin had broken down a little bit.  Imagine holding a rubber ball with tiny little holes in it with a pressurized gel on the inside, so that the gel was continuously forming little bubbles and lightly flowing out of the rubber ball.  That's how my left arm looked.  Wherever I went I tried to take a napkin or a handkerchief with me to prevent oozing on anything I might rest my arm on.

My right arm was oozing also, but the breaks in the skin were thick enough that instead of forming little scabs that couldn't adhere to anything I had large scabs that caught the hair on my arm.  Ah, one more minor inconvenience, feeling the hairs on my arms getting pulled every time I moved my arm.  But, at least I wasn't leaving slug spots behind me wherever I rested my right arm.

I want to add one more final annoyance of my particular exposure to poison ivy: pressure.  Every time I held my arms down by my side for more than 30 seconds the blood flow in the area would get so intense it would feel like my arms were swelling up.  Add to this the irritation of feeling my blood flow.  That's right, the little vibrations that travel  through your arm from the pumping of your blood would aggravate the sensitive skin and cause minor pain or itching.  Constantly.  No, no, you don't understand, I mean all the time with out end constant itching and minor pins and needles pain in my left arm, and pressure in my right arm.

But, I finally went to the doctor.  Once I realized the rash is still spreading, still is spreading, I figured I have what is known as systemic poison ivy.  Basically the poison ivy didn't just adhere to my skin, it got into my blood stream.  Now it is traveling around, having a little carnival in my body (whoopee!) and popping up wherever it decides to make a picnic lunch.  It should stop now though.  I got a steroid shot and some topical steroid cream (Charlton smash!) that should help me heal.  And I'm on an antibiotic since I have beautiful open wounds on both arms now.

I told my wife though that it brought a comparison to my mind.  Everything I described about my poison ivy is a lot like the sinful situation of all of us.  At first, when we are young or do not know much of the glory of God and his holiness, we think we only have a minor exposure.  We figure, over time, we'll heal, we'll get better.  Finally, after the sin has spread sufficiently in our lives, we hear others talking about how they have fought sin in their own lives, and we do the same things.  We hope that by applying a cream to our sinfulness, we can stop the outbreak.

The problem is that the wounds just don't heal, the sin may not be spreading any more, but we are powerless to really heal it.  Unknown to us, sin is not just on the surface, it is in our blood, in our very souls.  Wherever sin decides to crop up, it will, and we are powerless to fight it.  We will always be powerless, and we need someone who can treat the sinfulness within us.

Christ is our great doctor.  He alone has the power to give us what we need to be free from the sinful condition of our bodies.  Just as I needed a steroid shot, we need an injection of Christ into our lives.  And just as I have a cream to apply to my sores to help control the outbreak and heal my skin, so also we have the Holy Spirit who continuously convicts us of sin and helps us to recover from the wounds that persist, even after we have been forgiven.  Moreover the power of Christ not only removes our sin, not only forgives us, it also makes us righteous, just as I needed treatment not just for the poison ivy, but also because of the potential of infection.

Not really a new metaphor, but hopefully, Christ as our great physician means a little more to you today, as it does to me.

For those of you who want photos, continue to the bottom of the post!  I have included "before" photos, and "after" photos.  The first three were taken around 9/5/10, the last group was taken on 9/11/10, when I finally went to the doctor.  You can decide for yourself whether you think going to the doctor was really necessary.

WARNING!  These pictures are potentially disturbing.  If you've ever seen a moderate/severe chemical burn these most closely resemble such.  Please, if you have a weak stomach, you probably don't want to look at this.  If you have young children you may wish to look at these first and then decide whether it is appropriate for them.  The first three look like just cuts or scabs, the last six are more graphic.  (They are only shots of my arms, but they are pretty bad.)












Here are the photos from 9/5/10:

Right wrist

Left arm (sorry for the blurry shot)

Both arms.

And here are the 9/11/10 photos:

Left arm, note the cracking around the elbow.  Couldn't bend it w/o pain.

Left fore arm, under, closer look at the elbow and the weepy serum scabs.

Left arm, close look at the worst blisters nearest the wrist.

Right fore arm, upper

Right fore arm, under.

Right wrist

Why I Hate the Fall

I get hot easily.  I don't mean angry, I mean I bodily get hot, very easily.  It could be 70 outside and I would be sweating, not copiously, but sweating none the less.  I know this isn't a particularly lovely image, but it is the truth.  Because I get hot easily, I prefer cooler temperatures.  (There are photos from our honeymoon with my wife wearing two shirts, a jacket with a hood over her head, another jacket on top of that, a scarf, a knit hat over her head, gloves on her hands, standing with her arms crossed while she shivered as we passed through Glacier Bay.  I, on the other hand, was wearing a t-shirt.  And I was comfortable.)

For someone who gets hot easily and who enjoys cold weather, you would think I would like the fall.  And you would be correct.  I like the fall, as the leaves change, the weather gets cooler, and the crisp mornings and evenings are wonderful for good long walks.

So, why did I title this, "Why I Hate the Fall"?  I used that title because I'm referring to fall of humanity.  After we sinned, when we were cast out of the Garden of Eden, we were also cursed.  But, it wasn't just humanity that was cursed, it was all of creation.  Hence, Paul tells us that all of creation groans, in labor pains, waiting for redemption.  This world isn't as it is supposed to be, its broken. (Romans 8:18-27)

The fact of the fallen state of the world was brought to my attention recently as I had a run in with what I believe has to be one of the most obvious reminders of the reality of the Fall that God created.  This particular reminder is persistent, I must admit.  It isn't a disease, but it lasts for as long as 4 weeks.  It also serves as a constant reminder, because as long as it lasts, you will constantly deal with pain and itching, enough so that even sleeping is affected.  I speak, of course, of poison ivy.

I have done a lot of research on poison ivy.  Allow me to regale you with the information I have come across:  The irritant that makes poison ivy so annoying is called urushiol, (You-ROO-she-ohl) it is an oil that is found on and in every part of the plant.  Because it is an oil is does not dry up, even if the plant is killed it can linger for as long as a year.  Oh, and the properties of an oil are just beginning.

As an oil urushiol suspends in water, so if you wash your hands the oil does not necessarily come off, instead you can transfer it to whatever you use to dry your hands, and then transfer it from that to other parts of your body.  (Washing clothes exposed is okay though, the oil suspends in the water and doesn't transfer to other items, it drains out with the water.)  It also vaporizes when burned, so if you burn some poison ivy the oil will vaporize with the smoke and cover whatever the smoke comes into contact with, including your lungs.  The oil can also last on any object it comes into contact with, again, for up to a year.  And, the method used for cleansing the urushiol can leave you even more susceptible if you come back into contact with it within the next few hours.  Oh, and to make things even more interesting, the normal method of washing your hands, using hot water and scrubbing for several seconds, can actually cause the oil to sink further into your skin as it opens your pours.

Here's where things get really fun: urushiol cannot be washed out of your skin once it has bound itself into your skin.  If you realize you have been exposed you basically have a max of six hours to try and wash the oil out.  Washing the oil out can be done with strong soap and hot water (but remember, done wrongly that could only make the resulting rash worse!) but it is most commonly recommended to use rubbing alcohol or something else that can dissolve the oil (oil and water don't mix, basic cooking and chemistry rules).  If, for whatever reason, you fail to get your skin cleaned in time (realistically you want to do it within 30 minutes) then the urushiol actually binds with the proteins in your skin.  That's right, once it is in you it cannot be removed, it cannot be treated with anti-venoms, and the best you can hope for is a treatment that will make you more comfortable.

And, if you think you're one of those who is immune, be aware: poison ivy gives you at least one free pass.  Because of the way poison ivy works you will not break out with a rash after your first exposure.  You may think you are totally immune to it.  Even on the second, third, etc. exposure, you may have no reaction.  75% of people (estimated) do react though, and just because you didn't react this time doesn't mean you won't react next time.  Something about the chemical properties of urushiol cause it to not aggravate people initially, our bodies have to get sensitized to it.  You also may not even realize you have urushiol on your hands as you spread it, because the rashes do not break out on your palms (the proteins the urushiol binds with are too think on your palms) but it will break out every where you touch with your palms.  (I have a spot on my left arm where I have four pretty definite finger marks from where I apparently put my right hand on my left arm.)

Misery loves company.  Hopefully in describing what poison ivy does I have you wincing just a little with me at how annoying it is.  If you aren't there yet let me inform you of one more thing: the most common areas for rashes are the face and the groin.  Yes, that's right, the two most sensitive areas on any body are the most common areas for the rash to break out, because those are the areas we tend to touch for personal hygiene reasons.  Now, if you will, commiserate with me and those many people who are dealing with rashes.  (Lest you think I have given you too much information I will be forthcoming: my rashes are just on my right wrist and hand and my left arm where I apparently touched myself, maybe to scratch.)

There is more I could tell you, about weeping wounds, potential for blood disease, infection, boils, blisters, pimples, etc.  But, isn't it enough to note that this particular weed is in 48 of the 50 United States?  Poison ivy is most common in the east, but it exists in all 48 of the continental United States.  Poison oak and sumac, which are just as annoying, and I've been told may be even worse, are a bit rarer.  People even imported poison ivy to Europe!  (Knowingly, I might add.)

So, poison ivy has become the newest reason I hate the fall.  Poison ivy serves as a perfect example, in my opinion, of why anyone who looks at the world should recognize that it isn't as it should be.  After all, most animals are unaffected by urushiol (it simply gets on their fir) so it isn't like the plant enjoys any great natural protection from animals, except humans.  The seeds of the plant, which also have urushiol, are even used as food by some animals.  Poison ivy is only a nuisance to humans, therefore it reminds me that this world is not really my home.

Why would anything in my home be designed particularly as a weapon to be used against me?  No, this is not the home for which I long.  That home, to be with Christ eternally, will not have poison ivy.  Or, if it does, the urushiol will no longer bind with my skin and cause me to break out in a blistering rash.  Of this I am convinced: God will not have poison ivy rashes in heaven.  It would break his promise that we would never again weep.  I'm looking forward to that.

Rejoice, dear Christian, as you think that the Fall which taints everything in this world will one day be reversed.  As creation cries out, as though in birth pangs, it will one day deliver.  God will bring forth a new heaven and a new earth.  If it were not for that promise, why should we bother to endure things like poison ivy, broken bones, or even the common cold?  But, the joy that awaits us is such that Paul says our current sufferings aren't even worth comparing to it.  Therefore, enduring what we do now for sake of the home we anticipate, all these things will be as nothing, but the time we have may serve to glorify God as are transformed to the image of his Son, and seek to gather more disciples, not to ourselves, but to him, who is all in all.  Praise our God, for his promises are great, even in the midst of discomfort and suffering.

A Promised Inheritance (part 3)

In the last two posts I began typing up a series of posts based off of the sermon I preached on the 12th.  This will be the last of those entries.  The first part basically examined Number 36:1-4, the second 5-9, this part will examine 10-12.  Verse 13 I did not preach on as it is a summation of the whole book, and basically a sermon in and of itself.

In Numbers 36:10-12 we see the results of the complaint of the sons of Manasseh, and Moses response to them.  The sons of Manasseh came to Moses to have their needs addressed as it concerned the inheritance of their brother, Zelophehad.  Moses then responded according to the word of the Lord, and told them what should be done in this case.  The issue developed due to the inheritance of Zelophehad which passed on to his daughters, as he had no sons.  The concern was that the inheritance that God had promised to the clan of Manasseh would be lost due to the marriage of their daughters to another tribe.  God responded by giving a command to the people of Israel that would ensure the inheritance of every tribe, eternally.

So, we have been challenged to be a people of faith, and a people of hope, what shall we do with this last section of Scripture?  What we see here is how a people of faith and love live.  Those who have faith in the promises, the victory, and the commands of God must live in accordance with those promises, victories, and commands.  And that is what the 5 daughters of Zelophehad do.  These are women of faith, just as those who brought the complaint were men of faith.

The obedience of these women is according to the faith they had in the word of God.  God had given these women permission to marry anyone they wanted, so long as they married in the clan of their father.  Remember, these women had not yet received the land they were anticipating as an inheritance.  Just as the men of the clan believed that God would grant this land, so also these women trusted that God would do what he had said.  These women were not just obedient due to social pressures, they were obedient because of their faith.

Faith requires obedience.  Another way of looking at this would be that obedience is a result of faith.  We see this idea discussed explicitly in James as he notes that Abraham was saved by his works and not just his faith.  James here seems to be contradicting Paul, but the reality is that Paul and James are in agreement.  James notes that Abraham acted in response to what he believed, this was the proof of his faith.  Without works, faith is dead, so if we claim to have faith, but have no works, what good is that faith to us?

Just as obedience is a result of faith, obedience also anticipates the result of faith, an inheritance given by God.  Consider that this passage does not tell us that the daughters of Zelophehad waited until after they received their inheritance to marry, but rather that they did as they were commanded, and married within their clan.  These women anticipated that they would receive the inheritance promised, their faith was active in the fact that they were not passively waiting, but actively anticipating the inheritance to come.  Our faith must also lead to an obedience that anticipates the inheritance that is to come.

But, it is also our obedience to the word of God that secures our inheritance.  Once again we are brought back to James and we see that he tells us that if we are not living lives in obedience to the word of God, then our faith is dead, and of no use to us.  If our faith is dead, if it is of no use to us, then it cannot save us and give us reason to expect the inheritance that has been prepared for us.  So, while we cannot earn our salvation by work, we secure it by our works, understanding that our faith is demonstrated in our works.  Hence why Paul says that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, as this is our spiritual worship.

We walk a fine line here.  It is a fine line because some might say that they are saved by their works, meaning what Paul means by salvation.  These people think that because they do good works, God will look on them with mercy and allow them into heaven.  That position is simply false, and is not condoned in Scripture at all.  Rather, what we see is that those who seek to earn their way to salvation are challenged with their imperfections, called hypocrites, and rejected.

However, those who come to God humbly, having faith in Jesus Christ, they are saved.  James notes this as he says to us that we must come to God in humility, that we must love God and not the world.  Our love of God requires us to have faith in Christ, and thereby we are saved.  But, this is also informative for us because we see that if we love the world we are enemies of God.  That means that James is reminding us of our inheritance.  He is reminding us that we who love God and draw near to him are securing our inheritance through works done as a confirmation of the faith that lives within us.

Obedience is necessary in order to be called the children of God.  We are not being obedient to the law though, but to the love of God, and for God, that has been placed within us.  Our obedience is not what causes faith, but is in response to the faith we have.  Obedience anticipates the inheritance we will have, in that we are always reminded that we are obedient expecting God to reward us who seek him.  Our obedience also secures our inheritance though, as we demonstrate our faith and are assured of our salvation by the things we do.

Where have you been disobedient in this last week, day, or even hour?  Have you known what is good and right to do, and not done it?  Have you resisted the law of love in any way?  Have you refused to trust in God, holding on to your own problems and trying to fix things yourself?  Consider these things and be challenged today to be more obedient to what you know you should be doing.

For the non-Christian, the act of obedience is simple: believe in Christ.  This is what God has commanded for all people.  Believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, and was raised again on the third day.  Believe in the gospel as it has been handed down faithfully to us.

For the Christian, obedience is equally simple: take up your cross daily and follow Christ.  Have this same mind in you as was in Christ, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)  To not be ashamed of Christ, and do not despise the discipline of the Lord.  Rejoice, anticipate your inheritance that is coming, be obedient and look forward, hopeful because you have faith in Christ, you who are a child of God, who Christ is not ashamed to call his own.

Beautiful Paradox

There are some moments that you just have to take when they come along.  Do you know what I mean?  Have you ever had a moment come along that just seems tailored for you, personally?  The moments I'm talking about are times like a friend asking if anyone happens to have a glue stick on them, and you just happen to carry glue sticks with you, for no reason other than, "someone might need one."  I'm reminded of one of those moments I had in Louisville.

We were discussing Scripture, and how sometimes we come across something that seems to be a contradiction, but upon further reflection isn't.  In order to explain the concept our pastor decided to remind the class (it was in Sunday school) that these are what we generally call "paradoxes."  If, for whatever reason, you are unfamiliar with the term it means what I just explained: something that appears to be a contradiction, but isn't necessarily.  Its a good term, particularly because there are several paradoxical statements in Scripture.  But I digress.

As he was attempting to get the class used to the term he asked, "Does anyone know what a paradox is?"  Now, this was one of those moments for which I live.  I love the odd words of the English language.  In fact I try to regularly increase my vocabulary, because there is such a rich diversity of terminology available to us who speak English.  Thus, of course I knew what a paradox was, even if very few members of the class were familiar with the term.

Because I knew the term, and because no one else was speaking and I could tell some people were a little embarrassed to admit they didn't know the term, I had to immediately speak up.  So I did.  As my pastor was getting ready to explain the concept I said, "I know what a paradox is.  A paradox is two doctors."  Did I mention I also love the Marx brothers and particularly enjoy the banter between Groucho and Chico?

While my wise crack didn't get much of a chuckle (I got a few smiles) the idea of paradox made more of an impact on those in the church.  And for good reason, paradoxes are important to the Christian faith.

Think about just a few of the paradoxes we must embrace to be Christians: success is often measured by persecution, only by dying to ourselves can we find life in Christ, only by ceasing to attempt to earn our position before God through our works can we find a hope of peace in the work he has done for us, even the symbol of our hope and the power of our faith is an instrument of torture and murder.  Our faith is one where it seems that logic would lead us to an exact opposite conclusion of how to attain righteousness.  What man would say that only by agreeing to die daily can a man actually have any hope of life?  Who would have concluded that the idea that God had forgiven all of our unrighteous deeds, past, present, and future, could lead to a moral revolution that would inspire men to serve and love others more than themselves?  Our God is greater than we can imagine still, because he does his great works through the most insignificant of people: us.

Though we look poor, God says we have great wealth in heaven.  Though we are broken, God says we are to be the healers of others.  Though we are people from many lands and languages, God says we are all one family.  Though we are often persecuted, God says we are to be the most peaceful people of all.  Though we are often condemned for our faith, we are the only ones who enjoy true freedom.

I know that the American church does not experience the same poverty of other churches.  We do not experience the same persecution, and we are not usually imprisoned for our faith.  We live in a land that has been different than others for over 200 years, and we can praise God for that.  But, we have also failed to be the integrated church we could have been, we have failed to be a people broken by our own iniquities and the iniquities of our nation far more often than we have embraced the brokenness to which God has called us.

Yet, our God is still a God of paradoxes.  That church which has been most unfaithful can still become the most faithful.  God's Word is described as powerful and living, and as our God still lives, he can still do miracles.  We are not a people without hope, no matter what our current circumstances may be.  For no matter what confronts us, our God is still the controller of the universe, and our circumstances come from his hand.  We can praise him in times of ease, and sing of his goodness in times of suffering.  Let us embrace the God of paradoxes, the only true God, who turns defeat into victory, and brings eternal life from the death of his son on the cross.

Christian Guilt

In Hebrews 9:13-14 we read, "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."  We, are no longer bound by guilt, by shame, or by trying to earn salvation before God.  That also means that we, who are in Christ, are no longer bound to try and redeem ourselves before men.  If God has forgiven us our sins, then what can a man say to bring shame upon us?  We, who stand washed in the blood of Christ, have a perfect forgiveness, no one can hold any sin against us, because all our wrongs have been paid for by the perfect Lamb of God.

Before I go on, I do want to say that this forgiveness does not mean that we are not responsible for the wrongs we have committed against others on earth.  A murderer who comes to faith may be forgiven by God, but to claim before the authorities, "I'm innocent of this murder because Christ has forgiven me" is just foolishness.  Yes, we may be able to stand before God and have bold assurance that he will not hold our sins against us, but if we refuse to seek the forgiveness of those we have wronged, or if we refuse to go before the authorities and pay for our crime, then we are still sinning in that we are not submitting to that authority which God has placed over us.  The forgiveness of Christ does not change our past, it makes us a new creation, so that we have an assurance of salvation before God, and a confidence of our forgiveness even when men may condemn us.  Worldly condemnation does not mean we must bow under the burden of guilt, but it means that we must take responsibility for what we have done.

This forgiveness should affect us deeply.  We should be able, and willing, to go to those who have been wronged, acknowledge that they have been wronged, and then tell them that we want to make right what we have done.  We may not have money, but we can help with time and with many other resources that are available to us.  What we have confessed before God though, we do not need to be embarrassed to confess before those who know they have been wronged, but in humility we can show that Christ really is living in us by how we live our lives.

I bring this up because I look around much of the deep South in America today and I realize that as of  yet there has not been racial reconciliation for wrongs that occurred 150 years ago.  I had family on both sides of the slavery issue, and I had family on both sides of the treatment of American Indians, so I understand that this is long standing and deeply painful issue.  But, we who are Christians can take the steps to begin reconciliation at least within our churches.  We do not need to be a divided people with black churches and white churches where "different worship cultures" keep us separated.

Racial differences seem to make a lie out of what Scripture says, that in Christ there is neither slave, nor free, male nor female, Greek nor Jew.  I recognize that Paul is not talking in absolutes in that section of Scripture, as we certainly see that men and women do not become androgynous when they become Christians.  But, Paul is saying that the forgiveness we have through Christ unifies us all under him, so that when I look to my brother or my sister, I should see an image of Christ, a part of his body, not a black man or a white man, not an Asian woman or a Hispanic woman.  As we continue to divide our churches based on racial and social lines, we continue to perpetuate the system that brought about such guilt, lasting until less than a generation ago.

Slavery may have been ended with the defeat of the South in 1865, (though it was not officially outlawed in all Northern states until a little later) but the Jim Crow laws that sprang up after the end of Slavery continued into the 1960s.  The racial divisions of the South were not done away with until after both of my parents were teenagers or young adults.  Even at that I can remember my grandmother using rather incorrect language in reference to people of different races, not because of any animosity she may have felt, but because that was simply the vocabulary with which she grew up.  The harm done by the American system of slavery has been long lasting, and it will not be quickly forgotten.  The fact that many people still make quite a living off of racial tensions should demonstrate to us that racial reconciliation still has some distance to go.  Just because slavery came to an end does not mean that equality was its immediate successor.

However, now we are 40-50 years past the time of Jim Crow.  I grew up going to integrated schools, and I have never known a time where I did not have a friend, or multiple friends, of different colors and racial backgrounds.  I have seen how Christ has unified us, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, Indian (here I refer to Asian Indians) and many other races besides.  The church does not have to be held by back guilt any more, thinking that because we have wronged those of another color that we cannot find reconciliation with them.  Moreover we have the opportunity to be a church that reaches out and says that what was done in the past was wrong, and we are looking to help every Christian come to full maturity in Christ, whatever the color of his skin may be.

I know I'm not the first to have this idea.  The fact is that many churches are already opening our doors, but we are doing it very slowly.  Integrated churches are still few and far between.  I can honestly say that I have only known a couple of churches of the Southern Baptist tradition that have had more than one or two non-white members out of a congregation of 100-200 or more.  This should stand to our shame.

We have been forgiven in Christ.  We do not need to be ashamed of the sins of our past.  But, we need to acknowledge the sins of our past and begin to make reconciliation, reaching out to those who have been wronged and trying to make things right.  We need to take responsibility for what has happened in the past, but we do not need to be enslaved by that history.  The blood Christ is sufficient to forgive us of all our sins, we do not need to let anyone use those sins to shame us, but we need to be faithful in serving the one who bought us.