The New Bereans

When a project in the engineering world goes bad, there is a decision that needs to be made in order to correct the failure.  That decision is whether or not to scrap the project and start all over, or to attempt to fix the problem on the project already in process.  For example, from my own line of work, if I design a cabinet and build it to the specification I made and come across information later that enlightens me to a flaw in my design, I am forced to choose to try to fix the flaw during the manufacturing process, or I have to start all over again.  The temptation to start over is often overwhelming.   When there seems to be no way to “stretch” the cabinet that is ruined, there, on occasion, is little to no recourse but to do exactly that…start over.  On occasion, a solution may be found, but it is often the lesser of two evils.  Rarely does a catastrophic mistake or a failure translate into a positive situation (though when they do it is much welcomed.)   A good engineer is always an individual who can anticipate eventualities in any given process.  They have a seemingly innate ability to “see” a project to completion in their minds.

As I contemplate this, I find myself in awe at a God who chose to redeem man, rather than to “start over” with a new creation (at least not until grace has had its fruition in this and the next epoch.)  At the first sign that His creation (man) “failed,” God did not punch a hole in the wall of his heavenly Temple in anger and go back to make a new blueprint.  Rather he promised those failures a hope.  He promised them redemption through the one who would “bruise” the serpents head.  Not only would he redeem man through crushing the serpents head, but he would redeem him through the very act of the serpent piercing His heel.  This means that the greatest offence ever committed against the Creator became the very agency by which all the flaws in creation become ultimately corrected.   From a novice engineering point of view, this concept is beyond staggering.  It is like saying the flaw in my messed up cabinet is going to become the very means by which we (as a business) inherit all the cabinet work in the world and never have to compete again for business, and even that is a pale shadow of grace.  Recovering from an engineering flaw in day to day life in the business world is messy and complicated work.  So also is redemption.   Praise God that he redeems messed up people, instead of writing them off and displaying them as failed exhibits of poor engineering.

“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!” -Romans 5:20

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

I have heard this passage quoted on probably dozens of occasions to shoo any number of spiritually felonious bug-bears out of the life of believers.  It has covered everything from tattoos to smoking, to coffee drinking, caffeine abuse, gluttony, and even alcohol consumption.  For some reason, this verse seems to pop up as a catch all for any sort of illicit body treatment amongst believers.  Unfortunately, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with our human bodies, nor what we do to them.  O, there is reason for that consideration I suppose, but that is not what this scripture is talking about.

In the context, Paul is addressing three modes of interaction that can occur upon the foundation of Christ.  There are the first two modes that most people seem to get pretty intuitively.  If you build upon the foundation of Christ, as you assist in erecting the “temple” so to speak, or if you build the body of Christ with his approved materials, there will be great reward for that person.  This lines up with Jesus parable of the talents.  The second mode of consideration is dealing with people who are “saved” who do not use God’s prescribed methods or tools in order to build upon Christ’s foundation.  They will still be saved, but they will have nothing to show for their lives.  The third consideration is the passage quoted.  What it means is that there is a third type of person, and that is the type of person who actually strives to destroy God’s work in the church.  They are the type who will be eternally destroyed because they defile God’s people with their damnable heresies.  This also lines up with the teaching of our Messiah when he said, “It would be better if a millstone was tied around their neck and they were cast to the bottom of the sea, than they should cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

This passage of scripture is supposed to be a comfort to true believers everywhere, and a severe warning to heretics, God is going to justly deal with the wolves in time.  Ultimately we don’t need to get so hung up about them that we forget God is going to bring about justice.  “How long O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Revelation 6:10.  This is the cry of every martyr.  Is it not a comfort that one day their destroyers will be destroyed?  The temple destructors will be punished.  Belshazzar was weighed, measured, and found wanting for fondling the temple goods in a prideful display of his pomp.  So also will those who seek to destroy anything that is built upon the true foundation of Christ, be destroyed of God.

Art: “A Multitude of Heavenly Host,” by Michael Dudash

“Call unto me and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty [hidden or unsearchable] things which thou knowest not.”  -Jeremiah 33:3

When I was fresh out of high school, I was in Santo Domingo, which is the Capital of the Dominican Republic.  We went to a small church somewhere in the heart of the city and listened to a sermon in Spanish, so naturally I was not able to actively engage in what was being said, especially since my Spanish is pretty much limited to adding an O at the end of English words.  However in this little church there was a lavishly painted wall with an engagingly large banner painted as a mural behind the preacher.  On the banner was a verse in Spanish (of course), and the scripture address, which I was able to recognize.  It was the above verse.

I looked it up and to my surprise; I had never heard anyone quote it before.  It seemed a rather novel concept to me at the time, so I did exactly what it said.  I spent the sermon just praying that God would show me great and unsearchable things.  I think I remember that my motive at the time was to gain a lot of bible knowledge so that I could impress other people with it.  It was a rather carnal and selfish prayer I think.  What is even more surprising is that God answered this prayer for me.  He has answered it hundreds, if not thousands of times over in my life.  The irony is not that he answered it, but rather…how he did it.

The one thing that is more unsearchable than all things is the human heart.₁ It is above all things, deceitfully wicked.  We obviously understand that when the Bible speaks about the heart, it is speaking meta-physically.  Some have argued, and I happen to agree (though it is not a hill I would die on) that the heart probably speaks of and indicates the culmination of what he is compiled of that cannot be seen or measured.  Or the seat of his emotions, his psyche, and his personality.

God has faithfully shown me the self-deception of my own heart.  He shows me, time and time again, through his word, and through the Spirit’s conviction, and through brothers…sisters, my wife…family members, even my dog.  He brings to light unsearchable things.  In order that I may repent from them, and allow my nature to be displaced with His own.  I believe that when these events occur, God is plucking logs out of my eyes and sometimes it takes a mighty collision.

_{1. Jeremiah 17:5-11}

_{2. Light From the Heart Nebula by Matt Russel}

“…He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature.” –II Peter 1:4

The flesh and the devil will miss no opportunity to prevent this from happening.  The former wars against the Spirit,₁ and the latter despises the siblings of resurrection for the bruising migraine our elder brother dealt him₂.  In tandem they do all within their power to resist the divine nature.  In his commentary on the term nature, Gr. phusis: φύσις, Spiros Zhodiates₃ rightly observes that this does not speak of some mystical spiritual essence as ‘some have interpreted,’ but rather it implies the compendium of God’s attributes.

The term “partakers,” is derived from the word, Gr. koinonos: κοινωνός, this word is completely tied to the idea of fellowship and communion.  In fact both of those terms are synonymous with the word koinonia in greek.  This knowledge ought to bring to mind the statement; “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.₄” Here we see that Jesus’ teaching on communion speaks of far more than just remembering, tied to the idea is the concept of fellowshipping, or partaking, it speaks of utter familial relationship.  As a matter of fact this saying scared people off.  When Jesus taught the message that his followers must partake of him just as he partook of the Father, many of his disciples followed him no more.₅ Two-thousand years later, not very much has changed.  So many want only from Christ that which appeals to human nature, rather than moving beyond his forgiveness to allow him to infiltrate and displace their nature with his.

“The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.₆” There is a vicious tenacity Jesus expects from his followers.  Not vicious in a sinful way, but violent in a righteous way.  Those who are content to idly masticate the elements of communion without this “violence” are storing up damnation against themselves.₇ There is probably no greater definition of “unworthiness” toward this communion of Christ than disinterest.  Such a disposition does not care one whit about Jesus’ desires, and treats the elements as if they were dropped out of a cheap dirty vending machine.  Just take two of these and sin again in the morning. (The devil’s orders of course!)

However, if you have run from “evil desire,₈” as if the clutches of it were the flaky, charcoal grasp of the devil himself, then hunker down and lock shields with the warrior church,₉ and make “every effort,₈” to add to your faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.  For if these “attributes” be in you and are increasing, then you will be fruitful in your knowledge of Jesus.  And you will be a partaker of the divine nature, through fellowship, because of proper communion with your elder brother.  It is no wonder Jesus will not recognize dead works of the flesh, and will say unto some…”Depart from me for I never knew you.”

1. _{Galatians 5:17}
2. _{Genesis 3:15}
3. _{Spiros Zhodiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary 1992 AMG International., Inc. Revised Edition, page 1459}
4. _{John 6:57 KJV}
5. _{John 6:66 KJV}
6. _{Matthew 11:12}
7. _{1 Corinthians 11:29}
8. _{Ephesians 6:10-18}
9. _{2 Peter 1:5}
10. _{Photo: “Creation Knows no Boundaries,” by merjyn102}

“For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” –Matthew 5:45b

While it is patently obvious this passage is in scripture to emphasize true Godly love, I want to meditate for a while about a fish named Elijah.  My daughter gave this Beta-Fish that name when we first hung him in a sconce on our wall.  It turns out that his name seems to fit his fiery personality.

Almost every night when I feed Elijah, he flares his gills out at me as if I were an enemy to intimidate, rather than a hand that feeds.  No matter how much care my wife or I give him, whether that be feeding him or cleaning his water, he responds with the same fear every time.  He has failed to recognize that we are his line to life, without our nurture and care he would cease to be.  Yet in spite of all his spite, I feed him anyway…

Every single human being is a recipient of the love of God in some fashion, while Christians alone are uniquely capable of appropriating and maximizing this love, many people are just like little Elijah.  With every blessing He pours down upon them, they return his love with a sneer, a cynical attitude, an excuse to deny his goodness.  They see him as an invasion, and a threat to their personal hegemony.

I guess the only way (supposing there was a way a fish could understand like a man) I could get Elijah to not see me as a threat, would to be born into his world…wash his fins as he slaughtered me for invading his aquatic domicile, and forgive him as he did it.  Still there would be the risk that he would feel vindicated for killing me in spite of all the food, cleansing, humility, kindness, servitude, and even the promise of resurrection I offered him.

“For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more, being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.” –Romans 5:10

No statement ever turned the apple cart over and spoiled the produce and fruit of life greater than these words, “Hath God said?” It is a marvel how little attention we pay to the first known words of the greatest deceiver ever to tread the same soil which sops up the spilled blood of the righteous.   There is no knife of lies sharper and able to penetrate through the conscience of a human being than one honed at the wheel of circular divine doubt.   A doubt that casts a pall upon the veracity of something God hath indeed said.

In light of this, I find a very interesting parallel as it pertains to a way I commonly have heard, and have been personally guilty of, where we fail to seek council from God on particular moral issues.  The conversation usually goes something like this…”doing X is probably a bad thing…” Opponent responds by saying, “I disagree, the Bible never says that X is wrong.”  The exhorted one remains stymied and doesn’t know where to go because Opponent is ‘technically’ right. What we need to realize however is that the nature of sin prevents God from being all inclusive in His written descriptors.  The Ten Commandments cover a vast array of themes and modes of sin, but how those idolatries are articulated are as unique and complex as the array of stars in the night sky.

When faced with a moral decision in life…it is silly and pointless to approach what many would call a “gray area” with a technicians attitude.  Rather, a Christian will be a follower of Christ and this was what Christ’s attitude at all times was, according to Hebrews 10:7, “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”  It was upon this foundation stone that the establishment of the New Covenant was erected (read the context) through Jesus Christ.  In so doing all of the Kingdom of Heaven is most blessed by the exhilarating power in even the merest splash of his blood.

Jesus’ life, as an example for us, was a positive demonstration of the power and might of submission to the will of God.  Rather than thinking the absence of technical exhortation against our personal self-destruction is carte blanche to live selfish lives…we ought to approach every day with a peace that simply asks, “What is thy will O Father?”

If, in contrast, we approach any moral decision with an attitude that says, “Hath God said,” we are eating fruit from the mouth of an adder blacker than the deepest singularity.  The black fangs of which will darken your hardened heart with the poison of sin, and you will be blind to the will of God…you will be hidden from His call in the cool of your day.

Recover Eden, seek the will of the Father.

“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” -Acts 20:28-30

Possessed of an other-worldly passion for the church, Paul addresses the elders of Ephesus, warning these brothers of two particular dangers.  The first one being probably the worst of the two evils…wolves (the first half of this warning the general assembly of believers throughout history has weathered fairly well, albeit not without collateral damage.)  Wolves that tear congregations to shreds.  They enter in and bring in all sorts of visceral ham-stringing intentions.   These are those who intend to destroy, these are those whom I believe God will destroy in kind (I Corinthians 3:17.)

The second type of man Paul warns against is more subtle, and probably far more difficult to recognize as they will tend to make a bit more sense (this is the kind of individual I feel we have not dealt with as well.)   They are the type who arise from amongst those whom the Holy Spirit had appointed to be shepherds.  I am not sure I understand what catalyst causes these shepherds to go A.W.O.L. but I think the resulting damage can almost be similar to the damage caused from a festal wolf.   The pain an “ariser” inflicts is more damaging because a trust of love is broken.  In our day and age, they do not even have to be ordained.  I suspect there are scads of people who ‘congregate,’ with other believers on a weekly basis but have not a bit of desire to forbear other believers in love; rather they come into our churches with nothing but a desire to promote themselves, or the way they see things.

I think much is known by the body about wolves, but less is known and recognized about those who would make, “followers after themselves.”  They are more subtle because they appear to say all the right things.  My mind, when it reads Paul’s warning here immediately jumps to other portions of the New Testament where Paul says to follow him after he follows Christ.  I wonder, art thou being a hypocrite Paul?  Hardly!  Those who would follow Paul would be following a man who is following the God-Man Jesus Christ.  Paul’s concern wanted men to become like Jesus Christ as a result of his ministry.   These perverse men are always frustrated people, who drag others down with themselves, always filled with bitterness and with wrath and doubting.  Jealousy is their cologne, and pride is their alarm clock.

The word “perverse,” in this context probably reflects more of the idea of twisting, or making crooked.  It is not that they are pedophiles  or sexually perverse.  It means more that they twist scripture to fit their own agendas, often to such a degree as to be hardly perceptible.

Scripture twisters and me-followers are less concerned with people becoming like Christ than they are concerned with people becoming like them.   I suspect that these are more like wolf-kin…shepherds with a form of Stockholm Syndrome.  Whether they know it or not they have been hostages of the devil, and are starting to appease him.  They have completely lost sight of Christ.

We must take heed, that we do not become prisoners ourselves.  Take notice of the tears of the Apostle, and let not those tears fall to the ground in vain…

Chris White from Nowhere To Run compiled this sermon from David Guzik on the First Word of the Gospel.  Guzik, as many preachers before him, have re-connected missing aspect of today’s gospel preaching.  If you leave repentance out of your evangelism, you are simply ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am not typically a fan of Christ being represented in art, however I think this is a video worth posting.

“Lay hands suddenly on no man…” – 1 Timothy 1:22a

Sorrowfully, I remember watching this verse being disobeyed more times than I wish to recall.  On occasion I have seen hands laid upon a new believer, and even upon more than a few ‘untested’ young men.  The results have been disastrous in almost every case, and though I have no intention of guiding you through the trauma ward of my memories, I do have a desire to understand at least a portion of the council of God on this topic, in order to confer to others a preventative against future disobedience.

Leviticus starts by giving us an understanding of what this means.  “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, if any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.  If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.  And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.” –Leviticus 1:2-4

If you notice here, the laying on of hands did not make the bullock a bullock.  The laying on of hands was rather a confirmation that the bullock was one indeed, and without blemish.  One way it could be worded, is that the Israelite whom did this was confirming that this was a worthy sacrifice. This bullock would then soon become a sacrifice ascending to God in flame at the hands of the priests.

In Acts chapter 13 the Holy Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they (the church at Antioch) had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”  The parallel between the two passages I have drawn attention to is pristine.  The Church at Antioch did not make Paul and Barnabas who they were, any more than the Israelite made the bullock a bullock.  The Church at Antioch responded to what God the Holy Spirit had determined them (Paul and Barnabas) to be, which was, “workers whereunto He had called them.”  The church does not make God’s giftings and callings without repentance, it only confirms them.  We see in Galatians 1:15-18 that Paul says, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace, and revealed his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.  Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter…”  The Church at Antioch had no authority whatsoever in the calling of God upon Paul’s life.  It could only affirm it.

Laying hands on a lay-about will not make them a bond slave.  The laying on of hands will not turn a man given to appetite into a temptation resisting compassionate man of Godly authority.  Laying hands on a man whom never leaves his house for fear of a lion roaming the streets will not give him the courage to charge the gates of Hell with the stalwart courage of William Booth.

Though it is true that a “gifting,” may and ought be imparted through the laying on of hands (1 Timothy 4:14) by the elders.   It will not change the quality or character of a person.  The laying on of hands will not drag Jesus out of heaven to procure his unrepentant calling upon a man.  Neither will it produce godly character, or godly maturity.  It can only recognize that which is, “unblemished.” Or in our case, “unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27)

I find it fascinating that Hebrews 6:1-2 says that the “laying on of hands,” is a “principle,” or beginning “Doctrine of Christ.” It is to be understood in Christian kindergarten, and yet this is so directly disobeyed, and un-apprehended.  As a result I think it speaks profoundly as to the state of our maturity.  If we cannot even grasp something as simple as this, I have deep concern for our direction and spiritual capacity as a body today.  We have to stop being so utilitarian as Christians.  We must stop offering to God un-worthy sacrifices.  The book of Leviticus said to only lay hands on the qualified and unblemished bull.