11 Oct 15
TOUCHING BASE 283
Series: Living in the Margins
Part 3 -
When the Who Makes a Difference in My How!
1 Peter 1:13-25
During our series, Living in the Margins, based on the book of 1 Peter, we are going to be turning our Touching Base into a prayer guide. This aligns with how we want people to be growing at Bethel. Being prayerfully engaged is one of the marks of a disciple, it characterized Jesus’ life and ministry and is essential as we learn to walk with Jesus. We encourage you to use this prayer tool in your Life Groups, and in your personal prayer time.
Perhaps you used last week’s TB as a prayer tool in your Life Group or in your personal prayer time. Well, this week’s TB might help you walk out some of what you prayed into last week. Peter moves into the next section with, “therefore”, in other words now that I have said what I have said, here are some of the “so what’s”! Here are some ways you can flesh this out. In other words the WHO, referring to God and all He has done (v.3-12) needs to make a big difference in HOW you and I live. FAITH HAS FEET, and Peter is about to get somewhat specific in what that can look like. Use Peter’s instruction to help shape your prayer time and discussion time this week.
Anticipate (v.13) - Therefore, preparing your minds for action….
To prepare is to plan in advance. We all prepare at the simplest level, i.e. packing my daily lunch, to the more complex level, planning for a strategic meeting. Note that the mind is to be prepared, not for just pie-in-the- sky, up-in-the-clouds thinking but boots on the ground - FOR ACTION. In other words we ANTICIPATE, we look ahead (with a keen mind) to the path we are setting out on. One way we can do that each and every day is through prayer. Note v.17 where Peter talks about calling on the Father.
Principle - It is what you do before the moment that helps prepare you for that moment!
Think of a situation coming up this week - How will you respond differently if you anticipate? What do you need to be aware of, how can you best “pack” for that meeting, altercation, project? How can you pray about that right now?
Differentiate-…. and being sober minded….
Sober means to not be drunk. Peter is using this idea figuratively, referring to intoxicating thoughts, inebriating thinking patterns. Faith that has feet not only anticipates, but differentiates and distinguishes between Drink’n Think’n and Godly Thinking! Note the references to Drink’n Think’n in v.1:14b, 18; 2:1,11; 4:1-5. Anticipate a situation coming up this week. How will you respond differently if you differentiate between Drink’n Think’n and Godly Thinking? How might this inform you on how to pray?
Concentrate - … set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Set means to stand in a specified place or position. Note where we are to stand? You cannot read this without noting context. Our footing needs to be on what God has done (see v.3 these people have been born again and received mercy), is doing (v.2 we are recipients of grace and mercy, v.3, living hope is something that God fills our hearts with today) and will do (v.4-9 and v.13 speak of what we look forward to). In other words we need to concentrate, set our hope fully on all that God has, is and will do! For our faith to have feet we need to stay focused, concentrate, be fully committed to keeping God’s truth in clear view. Note in the text that it is clearly the word of God that defines for us what God has, is and will do for us. (v.22-25) How can you pray for each other in this area of focus? How challenging is it to set your hope FULLY on all God has, is and will do?
Appreciate- v14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,…
Note the statement “passions of your former ignorance.”. I think we would agree that not all passions are equally tempting. Sometimes the passion might have the most power over us is our history with that passion. Unless we appreciate and understand where we are most vulnerable, we may be prone to fail.
Anything we have history with, a past with, may represent an issue we need to be extra cautious of. “Conform” literally means to give the same shape, to comply with. With this understanding would it be fair to say that previous passions have a mold, a shape that they often want to entice us to go back into, a certain mold when it comes to thinking, acting, relating? Agree? We need to appreciate our areas of vulnerability that are unique to us. Faith that has feet is not naive to how old “lovers” may try to seduce us.
Think of a situation coming up in the next few weeks. How will you respond differently if you appreciate your area of vulnerability? How can your prayers be shaped by this point that Peter is making?
Saturate (v.15-16) - …but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.
“In all your conduct” is a pretty all inclusive statement. Faith that has feet realizes that God’s truth impacts every area - total saturation in terms of practically living it out, even with those old “lovers” that may want a pass on being reigned in. Jesus certainly was the example of holiness, where holiness impacted all areas of His life and where holiness was a result of being empowered by the Spirit. Remember what Jesus said in Luke 4:18? “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,…”
Read Matthew 4:1-11 and see Jesus’ holiness in action. Satan’s temptation did not reveal an area in Jesus life that was unyielding. Note his use of the word of God. Take some time to thank Jesus for his example of living a holy life - 100% yielded to the Father!
Congregate (v.22) - Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,…
Often when we think of walking out our faith we think of one set of feet, the (un)holy trinity - me, myself and I . However in order to walk out our faith we need other feet, other sets of eyes and ears and voices in our lives. Peter is addressing a community, people walking out faith issues together in a pretty hostile world. If you are in a group setting, discuss how your community (congregate) helps you walk out your faith. Take some time to thank God for people in your group or outside your group who have been instrumental in helping you put feet to your faith.
Faith has feet. As we anticipate, differentiate, concentrate, appreciate, saturate and congregate, we can live out of the account (v.3-12) that God has asked us to draw from.
Mark Kotchapaw
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Friday, October 2, 2015
Touching Base - Part 282
4 Oct 15
TOUCHING BASE 282
Series: Living in the Margins
Part 2 -
Lucy’s Dilemma
1 Peter 1:3-12
During our series, Living in the Margins, based on the book of 1 Peter, we are going to be turning our Touching Base into a prayer guide. This aligns with how we want people to be growing at Bethel. Being prayerfully engaged is one of the marks of a disciple, it characterized Jesus’ life and ministry and is essential as we learn to walk with Jesus. We encourage you to use this prayer tool in your Life Groups, and in your personal prayer time.
What would you say to a person (on Sunday we called her Lucy) whose expectations have been crushed by the weight of reality? Do we say, “Pray and God will turn it all around?” “You deserve better so expect better.” “Suck it up Lucy and live with the bitter pill of your reality.” What does Peter say to a group of believers who might say “we did not sign up for this!” Peter’s audience are not living where they want to live, they are Jews scattered across the Roman Empire. Their RBC account might be floating belly up, but there is another account that Peter reminds them of, an account that speaks of their true wealth. This account reminds them of their true riches regardless of life circumstances. Let’s pray together into this all important issue for ourselves and those around us. As you pray think about this question, what account are you living out of?
Text: 1 Peter 1:3-12
V.3—12 Note that Peter starts right off with telling them WHO, not what, is praiseworthy. We live in a WHAT-focused world, but this is a WHO-focused account. He does not tell them things will turn around, although they might, but that is not his point. His point is to remind them of their wealth. As a group or alone, take some time to review v.3-12 and discuss key terms that describe this account that Peter is talking about. How would you describe it? How is the WHO described? What is our response to be? What did the prophets think of the WHO? Also think about how this account is so different than the account our culture lives out of, which is focused in on the WHAT! For example, where the original audience was concerned, their world did not extend to them a lot of mercy, their identities were beaten down and their hope was, for the most part, dead. That account amounted to pennies. Once you have discussed, pray back v3-12 with words of thanks and praise. Here are some definitions of some of the key words:
Mercy -- mercy refers to God’s unmerited favor toward sinners in their hopeless condition. One of the big differences in this account is that what is in it, is what God has put in it. The other account often represents what I have earned, worked for, think I deserve etc.
Born Again -- this can be a politicized phrase in our current day, but biblically it means a radical change of state, referencing a change of spiritual state reminding them of their new identity. Their first birth brought them into a world of chaos and injustice. Their second birth brought them into the Kingdom of God. Their first birth reminds them that the world has crushed them and circumstances have demoralized them, but their second birth reminds them of their new spiritual identity - something Peter will touch on later.
Living Hope -- note that this is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Contrast this with their dead hope. For many today, what represents a dead hope?
Inheritance that does get moldy (my words) -- note the cumulative emphasis Peter gives to this by using three key adjectives to describe this inheritance.
Guarded -- The word guarded is a military word. Another exciting aspect about this account and our future inheritance is that God is guarding us for it. As you could imagine, many of these persecuted Christians were kept from their earthly inheritance because of the “scattering” (1 Pet 1:1) or because it had been taken by the Romans. Some had even died for the faith, and therefore, could not receive the earthly inheritance of their fathers or grandfathers. However, the believer’s inheritance is different. God is guarding us for it.
LUCY'S DILEMMA!
On Sunday we talked about Lucy. Lucy represents people who have put all of their hope in the wrong account and experienced huge disappointment. Her expectations were for a full account but her reality is that it is loose change. Take some time to brainstorm on her dilemma. What does she feel, think, how does she act? How radically would her heart change if she was able to live out of the account that Peter is talking about? Got any Lucys in your life? Take some time as a group to pray for these folks. These may be believers or non believers who are living out of the wrong account.
Be blessed by God, not stuff! Live out of the right account.
Mark Kotchapaw
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Touching Base - Part 281
27 Sept 15
TOUCHING BASE 281
Series: Living in the Margins
Part 1 -
The Journey of Sea Glass
1 Peter 1:1-2
During our series, Living in the Margins, based on the book of 1 Peter, we are going to be turning our Touching Base into a prayer guide. This aligns with how we want people to be growing at Bethel. Being prayerfully engaged is one of the marks of a disciple, it characterized Jesus’ life and ministry and is essential as we learn to walk with Jesus. We encourage you to use this prayer tool in your Life Groups, and in your personal prayer time.
Peter writes to a group of believers (Jews and Gentiles) who have been scattered from their homeland (Israel) because of persecution. He writes as one who can identify with their hopelessness because he could tell his own story of being in a place that did not feel like home, a place where he would have thought God had forgotten about him. Remember Peter’s denial and how Peter wept? Exile - a place that is foreign, not our home - can take on many different faces. Peter wants to remind them that God Works in the Waves! Waves of turbulence, waves of unsettledness, waves that crash upon our lives and wash us up on to the shore. In your prayer time today use the language of Peter to shape how you pray.
“Elect” -
This is a word that means to be elected or chosen. There has been much theological reflection on election. However, let’s not allow the mystery of theology to rob us of the practical application of this timeless truth. Election means that God encountered us, we encountered him and He called us to Himself. Every believer like Peter (see John 1:42) has a story to tell about that encounter. Take some time to reflect on your encounter with Jesus when you first came to Christ. Use this as a time to thank God and praise Him for pursuing you and calling you to Himself.
“Exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” -
Here is the tension we all face: we sometimes move in our prayers from praise to pondering - “What, God, are you doing?” “Why, God am I walking through this?” “What purpose could there possibly be for me in this?” We experience the “waves” of life and wonder, is God really working? If we are elected, then why are we exiled?
Peter’s audience had been scattered, dispersed because of persecution. Exiled literally means to live as a foreigner in a place in which that we are not used to being. It is a place we can end up in because of disobedience or because, like Peter’s audience, culture is not Jesus-friendly. Take some time in prayer to reflect on where God has you these days. What is your “Pontus”, what is your “Bithynia”? Express that tension of elected-but-at-times-feeling in-exile-to-God.
“According to the foreknowledge of God the Father” -
Now in your prayer, acknowledge that while where you are might be a surprise to you, it is definitely no surprise to God. Foreknowledge means “to know beforehand”. It is a word that refers to the intimacy of God. It’s interesting that Peter refers to God as Father, and fitting when you consider the intimacy of this word foreknowledge. Only God has this capacity in the sense of how Paul is using it here. This, to me, is a fascinating aspect of God’s attributes. God sees how His perfect sovereignty and our choices result in where we find ourselves today. Why don’t you take a moment to praise Him for this attribute, but also to express your questions and ponderings on this aspect of God?
“…in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling of the blood” -
Note where Peter goes. It is exactly God’s foreknowledge that enables Peter to say what he does next. God Works in the Waves! Sanctification means that God shapes us, purifies us to reflect Jesus. This comes through obedience as we are in the “waves”, and this obedience and relationship with Jesus is made possible because of what God did in Jesus on the cross - “… and for sprinkling of the blood:…” Here are some questions to ponder as you go to prayer:
- Have you ever experienced exceptional spiritual growth because you walked through a very foreign experience, something you never saw coming but it grew you?
OR
- Have you ever experienced exceptional spiritual atrophy because you walked through a very foreign experience, something you never saw coming and it wrecked you?
Why not tell God very specifically how you want Him to work in the waves of your life these days? List for Him the areas you know He is showing you that still need some sanctifying, that still don’t look to much like Jesus.
“May Grace and Peace be multiplied to you.”
Grace refers to the good will of Jesus and peace means to be free from worry. Certainly, Peter’s audience could have been, and probably many were, gripped by worry and wondering about the good will and grace of God. If you are praying in a group why not take some time right now to speak words of blessing over each other? We all have exile chapters, seasons where the waves are unrelenting. Let’s do as Peter does here and bless our brothers and sisters in Christ with our words.
May Grace and Peace be multiplied to you!
Mark Kotchapaw
Friday, July 24, 2015
Touching Base, Part 280
26 July 15
TOUCHING BASE 280
Series: The Book, Part 13
Too Many Stop Signs
Acts 15:1-21
This is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
Our message Sunday July 26th was on Acts 15:1-21, with the Big Idea that we need to “Build Bridges, not Barriers.” Early in June this year, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its report after being asked to tell Canadians about the history of residential schools and their impact on Aboriginal people and how the process of reconciliation needs to take place.(1) This touching base references an online document titled, “What we have learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation.” I strongly encourage every Canadian to take a couple of hours and read it. The link can be found in the endnotes of this TB. The other things I write about come from things I have learned at Constance Lake, and from speaking with local writer and author Bob Wells.
The direct link between the Big Idea - Build Bridges, not Barriers - and the report is that massive barriers were built in Canada between the Aboriginal peoples of Canada and non-Aboriginal people of Canada. The report calls this barrier that was built, “cultural genocide”, and I quote from the report: “It was a cultural genocide. People were beaten for their language, people were beaten because ... they followed their own ways." (2)
Residential schooling started in the 1860’s under Prime Minister Sir John A MacDonald. This of course was in the day when getting a letter from Ottawa to Vancouver took 6 weeks. It did not take long before the Canadian Government asked the churches of Canada to run the schools for them. Aboriginal children were then sent to schools far away from home. Having the churches run these schools often meant what took place at these schools was done in a religious way. From visits to Constance Lake First Nation I have noticed that the community is deeply spiritual - I have only met one person who would consider themselves an atheist - the rest all believe in God, or are theists. Can we begin to picture, then, what it must have been like for children who were aware of spiritual things, and in some cases, Christ followers, to attend a school run by the church, where there would be cultural genocide? In many schools, this created deep spiritual abuse, creating huge barriers between Aboriginal children, their parents, and God.
Of course there would have been times when godly Christ-following believers did not spiritually abuse children. My mentor’s parents, who now live in the Kingston area, were asked to run a residential school in Red Lake, Ontario. They reported to me that the parents were grateful for the care they were able to provide as it allowed the parents to do trapping in the wintertime, which required them to travel. However, these positive testimonies are not the norm. The report recognizes that the “central element of the education provided at these schools would be directed towards the destruction of Aboriginal spirituality.(3) One residential school survivor, Mary Courchene, reports “Their only mandate was to Christianize and civilize; and it’s written in black and white. And every single day we were reminded.” (4)
The abuse, however, was more than spiritual. Students were also often punished for speaking their own native language.(5) The education had nothing to do with Aboriginal culture or teachings, but what has taught was that the only good people on earth were white Christians.(6) There was abuse with food, where not only students were forced to eat food of little nutritional value, they were also forced to eat their own vomit after throwing up the school’s food.(7) Nor will be ever know how many students died in residential schools: “The most serious gap in information arises from the incompleteness of the documentary record. Many records have simply been destroyed.” (8)
I could go on what the reports of abuse stated in the document I am referencing, but I think I also need to share with you information from the stories I have heard while visiting Constance Lake and the effects of residential schooling I see there.
When children are raised at schools hundreds of kilometres away from home, they rarely get to see their parents. One of the effects of not being raised by their parents is that children do not learn how to properly be parents themselves. Students who went to residential school had no choice but to do their best with their own children, with next-to-no training. These students are now Elders in Constance Lake, and many are in their eighties. From my limited perspective, they don’t seem angry, but have deep grief over what happened at the schools.
Their children, however, seem much angrier. They are angry that their parents did not have what they needed to provide for them and their siblings. In order to cope with this enormous emotional wound, many people who never went to residential school, but who are living through its effects, have turned to alcohol and drugs as a way of self-medicating the pain. The next generation, and the next generation after that, are the children and youth we serve in our youth and day programs in the community. These children know very little about their own culture, and other than the odd word; they are unable to speak Cree, their native language. The youth we work with do not always use drugs because they are angry but because they are very available and accessible and for many youth, drug use is normal within their families. This, of course, causes even more social problems.
Am I angry? Yes, I’m very angry, and I’m very sad that even though we live in Canada, a land that proclaims freedom, many of our Canadian Aboriginal people are still suffering from the damage caused by Non-Aboriginal (Canadian) people.
In the 1980’s the churches began to apologize for the harm caused at residential schools, including the destructive impact of missionary work.(9) Most of us will remember that in 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with the full support of Parliament, apologized on behalf of Canada.(10)
How do we continue to reconcile? From the report: “In 2015, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada wraps up its work, the country has a rare second chance to seize a lost opportunity for reconciliation”.(11) One of the greatest ways you can help Canada reconcile is to know and understand the issues. Read, listen, dig into this issue and draw your own conclusions. As believers we can pray through this issue. Those of us who have opportunities with Canadian Aboriginal people need to spend our energy listening, and creating respectful relationships.(12) Lastly, on October 19th consider voting in our federal election for the party that you believe is going to best serve the Aboriginal people of Canada.
Thank you for taking the time to read this TB. If you have any questions I would be happy to speak with you. Again, for further reading and information please see the link below. Let’s build bridges, not barriers.
Fred Grendel
fred@kingston.net
1 “What we have learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation” found online at http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Principles%20of%20Truth%20and%20Reconciliation.pdf, p.99
2 Ibid, p107
3 Ibid, p27
4 Ibid, p46
5 Ibid, p52
6 Ibid, p53
7 Ibid, p59
8 Ibid, p60
9 Ibid, p98
10 Ibid, p99
11 Ibid, p113
12 Ibid, p126
TOUCHING BASE 280
Series: The Book, Part 13
Too Many Stop Signs
Acts 15:1-21
This is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
Our message Sunday July 26th was on Acts 15:1-21, with the Big Idea that we need to “Build Bridges, not Barriers.” Early in June this year, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its report after being asked to tell Canadians about the history of residential schools and their impact on Aboriginal people and how the process of reconciliation needs to take place.(1) This touching base references an online document titled, “What we have learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation.” I strongly encourage every Canadian to take a couple of hours and read it. The link can be found in the endnotes of this TB. The other things I write about come from things I have learned at Constance Lake, and from speaking with local writer and author Bob Wells.
The direct link between the Big Idea - Build Bridges, not Barriers - and the report is that massive barriers were built in Canada between the Aboriginal peoples of Canada and non-Aboriginal people of Canada. The report calls this barrier that was built, “cultural genocide”, and I quote from the report: “It was a cultural genocide. People were beaten for their language, people were beaten because ... they followed their own ways." (2)
Residential schooling started in the 1860’s under Prime Minister Sir John A MacDonald. This of course was in the day when getting a letter from Ottawa to Vancouver took 6 weeks. It did not take long before the Canadian Government asked the churches of Canada to run the schools for them. Aboriginal children were then sent to schools far away from home. Having the churches run these schools often meant what took place at these schools was done in a religious way. From visits to Constance Lake First Nation I have noticed that the community is deeply spiritual - I have only met one person who would consider themselves an atheist - the rest all believe in God, or are theists. Can we begin to picture, then, what it must have been like for children who were aware of spiritual things, and in some cases, Christ followers, to attend a school run by the church, where there would be cultural genocide? In many schools, this created deep spiritual abuse, creating huge barriers between Aboriginal children, their parents, and God.
Of course there would have been times when godly Christ-following believers did not spiritually abuse children. My mentor’s parents, who now live in the Kingston area, were asked to run a residential school in Red Lake, Ontario. They reported to me that the parents were grateful for the care they were able to provide as it allowed the parents to do trapping in the wintertime, which required them to travel. However, these positive testimonies are not the norm. The report recognizes that the “central element of the education provided at these schools would be directed towards the destruction of Aboriginal spirituality.(3) One residential school survivor, Mary Courchene, reports “Their only mandate was to Christianize and civilize; and it’s written in black and white. And every single day we were reminded.” (4)
The abuse, however, was more than spiritual. Students were also often punished for speaking their own native language.(5) The education had nothing to do with Aboriginal culture or teachings, but what has taught was that the only good people on earth were white Christians.(6) There was abuse with food, where not only students were forced to eat food of little nutritional value, they were also forced to eat their own vomit after throwing up the school’s food.(7) Nor will be ever know how many students died in residential schools: “The most serious gap in information arises from the incompleteness of the documentary record. Many records have simply been destroyed.” (8)
I could go on what the reports of abuse stated in the document I am referencing, but I think I also need to share with you information from the stories I have heard while visiting Constance Lake and the effects of residential schooling I see there.
When children are raised at schools hundreds of kilometres away from home, they rarely get to see their parents. One of the effects of not being raised by their parents is that children do not learn how to properly be parents themselves. Students who went to residential school had no choice but to do their best with their own children, with next-to-no training. These students are now Elders in Constance Lake, and many are in their eighties. From my limited perspective, they don’t seem angry, but have deep grief over what happened at the schools.
Their children, however, seem much angrier. They are angry that their parents did not have what they needed to provide for them and their siblings. In order to cope with this enormous emotional wound, many people who never went to residential school, but who are living through its effects, have turned to alcohol and drugs as a way of self-medicating the pain. The next generation, and the next generation after that, are the children and youth we serve in our youth and day programs in the community. These children know very little about their own culture, and other than the odd word; they are unable to speak Cree, their native language. The youth we work with do not always use drugs because they are angry but because they are very available and accessible and for many youth, drug use is normal within their families. This, of course, causes even more social problems.
Am I angry? Yes, I’m very angry, and I’m very sad that even though we live in Canada, a land that proclaims freedom, many of our Canadian Aboriginal people are still suffering from the damage caused by Non-Aboriginal (Canadian) people.
In the 1980’s the churches began to apologize for the harm caused at residential schools, including the destructive impact of missionary work.(9) Most of us will remember that in 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with the full support of Parliament, apologized on behalf of Canada.(10)
How do we continue to reconcile? From the report: “In 2015, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada wraps up its work, the country has a rare second chance to seize a lost opportunity for reconciliation”.(11) One of the greatest ways you can help Canada reconcile is to know and understand the issues. Read, listen, dig into this issue and draw your own conclusions. As believers we can pray through this issue. Those of us who have opportunities with Canadian Aboriginal people need to spend our energy listening, and creating respectful relationships.(12) Lastly, on October 19th consider voting in our federal election for the party that you believe is going to best serve the Aboriginal people of Canada.
Thank you for taking the time to read this TB. If you have any questions I would be happy to speak with you. Again, for further reading and information please see the link below. Let’s build bridges, not barriers.
Fred Grendel
fred@kingston.net
1 “What we have learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation” found online at http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Principles%20of%20Truth%20and%20Reconciliation.pdf, p.99
2 Ibid, p107
3 Ibid, p27
4 Ibid, p46
5 Ibid, p52
6 Ibid, p53
7 Ibid, p59
8 Ibid, p60
9 Ibid, p98
10 Ibid, p99
11 Ibid, p113
12 Ibid, p126
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Touching Base - Part 279
21 June 15
Series: The Book
Part 8
Standing in the Breach
This is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
We continue our Spring and Summer series called The Book. Over the next several months we are going to be teaching out of all the sections of the Bible and seeing how it’s put together, seeing common threads that connect the books of the Bible to make up The Book.
I’m a psychiatrist, and sometimes in my clinic distressed patients will wonder why God is doing this to them, or say God doesn’t care. I might then ask how they imagine God and what He is up to. Invariably, the view of God is one-dimensional and quite nebulous – a receptacle to pour anger and bitterness and blame into, but nothing more. He is, then, a God who serves an immediate purpose but is otherwise not real or relevant.
The Big Idea in the sermon this Sunday is the opposite: God is real and relevant. And, perhaps paradoxically, we’re going to use some of the more unusual and obscure parts of the Bible – the prophets – to emphasize the relevance and reality of God.
The world of the Old Testament prophets is a different world from ours. Isaiah walked around Jerusalem naked and barefoot for 3 years to illustrate how the Assyrians would carry off the rebellious. Jeremiah strapped a wooden yoke on to represent Judah’s oppression by Babylon. Ezekiel burned and scattered his hair and lay 390 days on his left side and 40 days on his right to bear the guilt of the people.
Question: How do we make sense of this? Can this be relevant to the 21st century? Think of a time in history you have either lived through or know about that seems so foreign as to be seemingly irrelevant now.
Many of us might think of a prophet as someone who foretells the future. That isn’t much of the story here. Or we might think of an Old Testament prophet as someone who is given a message by God to give to the people at large – the prophet as intermediary between God and the people. Usually this message is one of warning and coming judgment because of the people’s behaviour. This view is accurate and certainly a major role of most prophets.
Question: Think of examples in the OT of prophets and their messages. The delivery system goes, God-prophet-people. (Think: Jonah)
The prophet has another major role, however; one that is often overlooked. It’s when the delivery system goes in reverse: people-prophet-God. The prophet delivers his message of warning to the people, but then turns to face his boss and, as an intermediary in the opposite direction, asks, prays, persuades, and urges God Himself to change His mind. The Jewish scholar and theologian, Yochanan Muffs, has written brilliantly about this in Love & Joy (1992).
Read Genesis 20:1-7 and 18:22-33.
Abraham was a prophet (Genesis 20:7) and prays in this way for Abimelech. He then boldly petitions God about destroying the city of Sodom, and gets God to say He’ll relent if there are 50, then 45, then 40…right down to 10 righteous people within its walls.
Read Exodus 32:7-14 and Numbers 12:1-13.
The prophet Moses’ whole life was seemingly one long series of prayers, petitions, cunning arguments, and pleadings for God’s wrath to be withheld. He’s quite good at it. Psalm 106:23 records, “Therefore he [God] said he would destroy them – had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him.” Samuel is another prophet who does this often.
Question: What do these concrete and gritty stories tell us about God? Is He a nebulous and amorphous being who is unknowable? Or is He only too real?
Question: How can a human seem to change the mind of God?
When we come to the “major” prophets, a slight change occurs. After a list of His people’s sins, God says to Jeremiah, “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me…” (Jeremiah7:16). Don’t attempt the usual petitions, God says. In fact, abandon that prophetic role, don’t try it. “Do not pray for the welfare of this people” (Jeremiah 14:11). Poor Jeremiah.
Even later, in Ezekiel, God says, “And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30).
When defending an ancient city, when the wall had given way to the enemy’s onslaught and a hole – a breach – appeared, someone would stand in it to defend those inside from the attackers. The wall for Israel was their faithfulness in keeping God’s law. If that gave way, God’s wrath could be expected to pour through. The prophet stood in the breach and protected the people with his petitions. He did not argue their innocence; he argued their guilt, but asked for God’s mercy. See Thomas Leclerc, Introduction to the Prophets (2007), p45.
Finally, after so much failure and sin, in Ezekiel 22, God cries out, rhetorically, “Who will stand in the breach?” An answer is hardly expected. But then a hand goes up at the back of the class and quietly these words come in response: “Lo, I come to do your will, O God.” (Psalm 40:7-8/Hebrews 10:7).
Read the parable of the vineyard and the tenants in Luke 20:9-16.
The “heir,” the beloved son of the vineyard’s owner is finally sent, and He stands in the breach once for all. In the parable he is killed. In history, He is, too. He stood in the breach to protect the sinners from God’s punishing wrath. The petitions and arguments of the prophets were over. Judgment had been delayed over and over because of the prophets, but justice never served. So then Jesus stood in the breach.
Does the God of the prophets sound real? Yochanan Muffs writes this of Moses’ petitions on behalf of the Israelites: “Other gods would not have been moved by such…a human argument. But a God who turns toward man and is interested in man’s destiny and in man’s reaction to His commandments leaves Himself open…” (12-13).
Does the God who stood (and died) in the breach sound relevant? A God who is interested in the destiny of human beings did indeed leave Himself open – to the possibility that His own Son would willingly stand in the breach.
Eric Prost
If interested in joining or starting a small group contact our Director of Worship and Discipleship Amanda Van Halteren amandavh@kingston.net
CARMEN’S CORNER
While we don’t know a huge amount about Ezekiel, here is one way the venerable International Standard Bible Encyclopedia sums him up… Ezekiel was one Busy Man(!):
- Mystic and Visionary (his book opens with his “visions of God”; see also ch. 8-10. 37:1-10, Ch. 40-48)
- Member of the Elijah School – could Elijah have been carried away by a fiery chariot similar to the one described by Ezekiel (Ch.1)?
- Sound in body and mind: this was no recluse, but a man preaching in his time and place, among the exiles (Ch.1)
- Herald of individualism: this prophet not only calls for repentance, but repentance for personal sins (Ch. 18)
- Deuteronomic reformer: he emphasized the need for worship at the Jerusalem temple (Ch. 20) and denounced leaders for allowing the people to go astray on hilltops with occult shrines (Ch. 34)
- Priest: he condemned the nation for despising the “holy things” (Ch.22) but also spoke of a renewed temple and sacrifices (Ch. 40-48)
- Internationalist: why condemn your own people when you can also let ‘er rip again Tyre and Egypt as well, and remind Israel that aliens will have rights they are not being given now (Ch. 28, 29, 47)
- Herald of National Renewal: he proclaimed God’s gracious plan to bring back his dispersed people (Ch. 11, 34, 36)
- Poet and Dramatist: his vivid message was created using many literary forms, dramatic devices, allegories and poetry (Ch. 4, 5, 15, 17…)
- Prophet of the Word: he was told to “eat” the very words of lamentation and woe which he would speak to the people, absorbing them into his very being (Ch.2)
Not too shabby for a young man initially carried away to Babylon at the age of 25, just one in a crowd of thousands!
RESOURCES
NEW Leclerc, Thomas L. Introduction to the Prophets: Their Stories, Sayings, and Scrolls. (New York, 2007)
NEW Muffs,Yochanan. Love and Joy: Law, Language, and Religion in Ancient Israel. (New York, 1992)
Arthur, Kay. Teach Me Your Ways: The Pentateuch (New Inductive Bible Study Series) Harvest House Publishers, 2002. ISBN: 978-0736908054. Begin at the beginning - Creation, marriage, sin, civilization. Then learn about God's continuing lovingkindness and faithfulness to His covenant people, even when they let Him down.
Geisler, Norman L., and Thomas A. Howe. When Critics Ask : A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992.
Grudem, Wayne et al. Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible: A Guide to Reading the Bible Well (p. 40). Crossway. Kindle Edition.)
Koukl, Greg. How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians today? Available at the Stand to Reason website at http://www.str.org/articles/how-does-the-old-testament-law-apply-to-christians-today#.VTpOJSFVikp
Longman III, Tremper. Making Sense of the Old Testament. Baker Books, 1998. Answers 3 questions: What are the keys to understanding the OT? Is the God of the OT also the God of the NT? How is the Christian to apply the OT to life?
Redford, Douglas. The Pentateuch. (Vol. 1, Standard Reference Library: Old Testament). Cincinnati, OH: Standard Publishing, 2008.
Schreiner, Thomas. 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law. Kregel Publications, 2010. (ISBN 978-0825438912) – all that Law… what still applies to us? What doesn’t? Why or why not?
Zacharias, Ravi and Vince Vitale. Why Suffering?: Finding Meaning and Comfort When Life Doesn't Make Sense. FaithWords, 2014.
Series: The Book
Part 8
Standing in the Breach
This is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
We continue our Spring and Summer series called The Book. Over the next several months we are going to be teaching out of all the sections of the Bible and seeing how it’s put together, seeing common threads that connect the books of the Bible to make up The Book.
I’m a psychiatrist, and sometimes in my clinic distressed patients will wonder why God is doing this to them, or say God doesn’t care. I might then ask how they imagine God and what He is up to. Invariably, the view of God is one-dimensional and quite nebulous – a receptacle to pour anger and bitterness and blame into, but nothing more. He is, then, a God who serves an immediate purpose but is otherwise not real or relevant.
The Big Idea in the sermon this Sunday is the opposite: God is real and relevant. And, perhaps paradoxically, we’re going to use some of the more unusual and obscure parts of the Bible – the prophets – to emphasize the relevance and reality of God.
The world of the Old Testament prophets is a different world from ours. Isaiah walked around Jerusalem naked and barefoot for 3 years to illustrate how the Assyrians would carry off the rebellious. Jeremiah strapped a wooden yoke on to represent Judah’s oppression by Babylon. Ezekiel burned and scattered his hair and lay 390 days on his left side and 40 days on his right to bear the guilt of the people.
Question: How do we make sense of this? Can this be relevant to the 21st century? Think of a time in history you have either lived through or know about that seems so foreign as to be seemingly irrelevant now.
Many of us might think of a prophet as someone who foretells the future. That isn’t much of the story here. Or we might think of an Old Testament prophet as someone who is given a message by God to give to the people at large – the prophet as intermediary between God and the people. Usually this message is one of warning and coming judgment because of the people’s behaviour. This view is accurate and certainly a major role of most prophets.
Question: Think of examples in the OT of prophets and their messages. The delivery system goes, God-prophet-people. (Think: Jonah)
The prophet has another major role, however; one that is often overlooked. It’s when the delivery system goes in reverse: people-prophet-God. The prophet delivers his message of warning to the people, but then turns to face his boss and, as an intermediary in the opposite direction, asks, prays, persuades, and urges God Himself to change His mind. The Jewish scholar and theologian, Yochanan Muffs, has written brilliantly about this in Love & Joy (1992).
Read Genesis 20:1-7 and 18:22-33.
Abraham was a prophet (Genesis 20:7) and prays in this way for Abimelech. He then boldly petitions God about destroying the city of Sodom, and gets God to say He’ll relent if there are 50, then 45, then 40…right down to 10 righteous people within its walls.
Read Exodus 32:7-14 and Numbers 12:1-13.
The prophet Moses’ whole life was seemingly one long series of prayers, petitions, cunning arguments, and pleadings for God’s wrath to be withheld. He’s quite good at it. Psalm 106:23 records, “Therefore he [God] said he would destroy them – had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him.” Samuel is another prophet who does this often.
Question: What do these concrete and gritty stories tell us about God? Is He a nebulous and amorphous being who is unknowable? Or is He only too real?
Question: How can a human seem to change the mind of God?
When we come to the “major” prophets, a slight change occurs. After a list of His people’s sins, God says to Jeremiah, “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me…” (Jeremiah7:16). Don’t attempt the usual petitions, God says. In fact, abandon that prophetic role, don’t try it. “Do not pray for the welfare of this people” (Jeremiah 14:11). Poor Jeremiah.
Even later, in Ezekiel, God says, “And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30).
When defending an ancient city, when the wall had given way to the enemy’s onslaught and a hole – a breach – appeared, someone would stand in it to defend those inside from the attackers. The wall for Israel was their faithfulness in keeping God’s law. If that gave way, God’s wrath could be expected to pour through. The prophet stood in the breach and protected the people with his petitions. He did not argue their innocence; he argued their guilt, but asked for God’s mercy. See Thomas Leclerc, Introduction to the Prophets (2007), p45.
Finally, after so much failure and sin, in Ezekiel 22, God cries out, rhetorically, “Who will stand in the breach?” An answer is hardly expected. But then a hand goes up at the back of the class and quietly these words come in response: “Lo, I come to do your will, O God.” (Psalm 40:7-8/Hebrews 10:7).
Read the parable of the vineyard and the tenants in Luke 20:9-16.
The “heir,” the beloved son of the vineyard’s owner is finally sent, and He stands in the breach once for all. In the parable he is killed. In history, He is, too. He stood in the breach to protect the sinners from God’s punishing wrath. The petitions and arguments of the prophets were over. Judgment had been delayed over and over because of the prophets, but justice never served. So then Jesus stood in the breach.
Does the God of the prophets sound real? Yochanan Muffs writes this of Moses’ petitions on behalf of the Israelites: “Other gods would not have been moved by such…a human argument. But a God who turns toward man and is interested in man’s destiny and in man’s reaction to His commandments leaves Himself open…” (12-13).
Does the God who stood (and died) in the breach sound relevant? A God who is interested in the destiny of human beings did indeed leave Himself open – to the possibility that His own Son would willingly stand in the breach.
Eric Prost
If interested in joining or starting a small group contact our Director of Worship and Discipleship Amanda Van Halteren amandavh@kingston.net
CARMEN’S CORNER
While we don’t know a huge amount about Ezekiel, here is one way the venerable International Standard Bible Encyclopedia sums him up… Ezekiel was one Busy Man(!):
- Mystic and Visionary (his book opens with his “visions of God”; see also ch. 8-10. 37:1-10, Ch. 40-48)
- Member of the Elijah School – could Elijah have been carried away by a fiery chariot similar to the one described by Ezekiel (Ch.1)?
- Sound in body and mind: this was no recluse, but a man preaching in his time and place, among the exiles (Ch.1)
- Herald of individualism: this prophet not only calls for repentance, but repentance for personal sins (Ch. 18)
- Deuteronomic reformer: he emphasized the need for worship at the Jerusalem temple (Ch. 20) and denounced leaders for allowing the people to go astray on hilltops with occult shrines (Ch. 34)
- Priest: he condemned the nation for despising the “holy things” (Ch.22) but also spoke of a renewed temple and sacrifices (Ch. 40-48)
- Internationalist: why condemn your own people when you can also let ‘er rip again Tyre and Egypt as well, and remind Israel that aliens will have rights they are not being given now (Ch. 28, 29, 47)
- Herald of National Renewal: he proclaimed God’s gracious plan to bring back his dispersed people (Ch. 11, 34, 36)
- Poet and Dramatist: his vivid message was created using many literary forms, dramatic devices, allegories and poetry (Ch. 4, 5, 15, 17…)
- Prophet of the Word: he was told to “eat” the very words of lamentation and woe which he would speak to the people, absorbing them into his very being (Ch.2)
Not too shabby for a young man initially carried away to Babylon at the age of 25, just one in a crowd of thousands!
RESOURCES
NEW Leclerc, Thomas L. Introduction to the Prophets: Their Stories, Sayings, and Scrolls. (New York, 2007)
NEW Muffs,Yochanan. Love and Joy: Law, Language, and Religion in Ancient Israel. (New York, 1992)
Arthur, Kay. Teach Me Your Ways: The Pentateuch (New Inductive Bible Study Series) Harvest House Publishers, 2002. ISBN: 978-0736908054. Begin at the beginning - Creation, marriage, sin, civilization. Then learn about God's continuing lovingkindness and faithfulness to His covenant people, even when they let Him down.
Geisler, Norman L., and Thomas A. Howe. When Critics Ask : A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992.
Grudem, Wayne et al. Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible: A Guide to Reading the Bible Well (p. 40). Crossway. Kindle Edition.)
Koukl, Greg. How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians today? Available at the Stand to Reason website at http://www.str.org/articles/how-does-the-old-testament-law-apply-to-christians-today#.VTpOJSFVikp
Longman III, Tremper. Making Sense of the Old Testament. Baker Books, 1998. Answers 3 questions: What are the keys to understanding the OT? Is the God of the OT also the God of the NT? How is the Christian to apply the OT to life?
Redford, Douglas. The Pentateuch. (Vol. 1, Standard Reference Library: Old Testament). Cincinnati, OH: Standard Publishing, 2008.
Schreiner, Thomas. 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law. Kregel Publications, 2010. (ISBN 978-0825438912) – all that Law… what still applies to us? What doesn’t? Why or why not?
Zacharias, Ravi and Vince Vitale. Why Suffering?: Finding Meaning and Comfort When Life Doesn't Make Sense. FaithWords, 2014.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Touching Base - Part 278
14 June 15
Series: The Book
Part 7
4 Guys and a Text!
This is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
We continue our Spring and Summer series called The Book. Over the next several months we are going to be teaching out of all the sections of the Bible and seeing how it’s put together, seeing common threads that connect the books of the Bible to make up The Book.
Today we move into the section of Scripture called the Prophets. There are “major” and “minor” prophets, making up 17 books in all. We are looking today and next week at the Major Prophets. You can see the book shelf below to see what material we have covered and where we are going.
NOTE:
In the Hebrew Bible these books are known as the Latter Prophets. The term ‘latter’ speaks primarily of their place in the Canon rather than their chronological position. These prophets are sometimes called the “writing prophets” because their authors wrote or recorded their utterances. There were other oral prophets like Nathan, Ahijah, Iddo, Jehu, Elijah, Elisha, Oded, Shemaiah, Azariah, Hanani, Jahaziel, and Huldah who left no records of their utterances. Mostly because of their size, the Latter Prophets are subdivided into the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, Daniel), and the twelve Minor Prophets. These prophets ministered during the History section of the Old Testament. Regarding the Major Prophets, Isaiah ministered from about 740-700 BC. Israel was taken into captivity by Assyria in 722BC. Jeremiah ministered from 627-585 BC. He witnessed the capturing of Judah by Babylon in 605 BC. Ezekiel lived in the superpower Babylon and ministered from 590s-570s BC. Finally Daniel lived in Babylon from 605–538 BC.
What do four Major Prophets have to do with us? Perhaps quite a bit. When you look at one of the Hebrew names for prophet, “nabi’ “ you see that it means to declare or announce. That is exactly what the four Major Prophets did. Prophets were to proclaim the Mosaic Law to the nation. Sometimes this involved judgment, warning, words of comfort and peace. Sometimes their words were predictive (they foretold the future).
The prophets declared God’s instructions in two basic ways: word and symbol. Usually the prophets presented God’s word orally (e.g., Jer. 7:1–8:3) or in written form (e.g., Jer. 36:1–32) to varying types and sizes of audiences. Jesus was the ultimate prophet (check out Hebrews 1:1-4).
So how do we relate to the prophets? What do we have in common? When you read the New Testament you quickly discover that we, as Christ followers, are to be proclaimers and presenters, announcing God’s truth. No, we are not prophets in the same way as in the Old Testament. God chose specific ways in those days to communicate. Hebrews 1 demonstrates that that was then and this is now! (See more on this in Carmen’s Corner.) However, we are to announce and speak out God’s word. Check out 1 Peter 3:14-17, 2 Timothy 3:14-17. Note Peter’s clear instruction in how we are to give an answer.
Big Idea: We are to proclaim the word.
What is it like for you to speak out God’s truth in the marketplace, in your family, in a close relationship? Some would say it is HARD! Highly Antagonistic Resistant Dialogue. Read the following references for the four Major Prophets and see if their context was HARD!
- Isaiah - Read Isaiah 6:1-6 - How is God described? If you read the context - the first 5 chapters - you will discover that the Israelites are Unholy, Unholy, Unholy. The exact opposite of the character of God and His message. Isaiah had his work cut out for him.
- Jeremiah - Read Jeremiah 38:1-6- Why is he in the mud?
- Ezekiel - Read Ezekiel 2:1-7, about his call to ministry. How are the people described? HARD?
- Daniel - Read Daniel 6, but note v.5. Note how antagonistic the people were to the law of God!
Discuss the various contexts where you have opportunity to speak out the Word of God. Can you relate at all to the four Major Prophets? If so, in what way? Do you find the Canadian context becoming “HARDer”?
Listen to how a pastor from Australia describes the changing spiritual landscape of his country. See any parallels?
“…the ministry remains interesting in a changing world. I have been reading and thinking lately that the climate for Australian Christians is changing quite a lot. The catch phrase is that it is no longer Athens but Babylon, and that we are now in a hostile culture that doesn't tolerate or interact with Christians, but detests them. We are now seen as misogynistic and homophobic and intolerant and therefore a social evil to be eradicated. The uncovering of massive child abuse by the Catholic Church in the royal commission doesn't help the perception either. This all makes for interesting days for the preacher, pastor and church leader. How do you navigate church when Christendom is most definitely dead? All of a sudden Daniel and 1 Peter and the language of Exile is all the more poignant.”
With the encouragement from Scripture to proclaim the word, yet with a HARD spiritual landscape, we can experience great tension.
What are you learning in that tension as you attempt to speak out God’s truth with gentleness and respect?
Here is one thing I am learning in speaking up in the public arena:
I wrestle at times with fear, and with pride - not wanting to be labeled as “misogynistic and homophobic and intolerant and therefore a social evil to be eradicated”. I need to get used to the new labels, the new pushback, the new categorization of being a Christ follower. On top of that, my pride sometimes makes me hesitant to speak up as readily as I should. I am not ashamed of Jesus, but sometimes ashamed of those who follow Jesus. Sometimes the labels that Christians get stuck with are well deserved. However, I realize that at other times, those labels are coming from people who truly despise the words of Jesus and all the message of Christianity represents.
That’s my journey. How about yours?
Mark
If interested in joining or starting a small group contact our Director of Worship and Discipleship Amanda Van Halteren amandavh@kingston.net
CARMEN’S CORNER
There is some controversy in the Church today about the whole notion of prophets and prophetic gifts. Some, called “Cessationists”, believe that certain spiritual gifts (such as prophecy and prophets in the Old Testament sense) have come to an end, for the following reasons:
As Mark mentioned above – “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…” (Hebrews 1:1)
We now have the complete Bible with all His teachings (as well as those of the apostles He Himself trained)
Jude (Jesus’s half-brother) also reminds his readers that the faith we believe “was once for all delivered to the saints”, i.e. in the case of doctrine, there is nothing new under the sun – we have it all.
So for those reasons (and more which space here doesn’t allow), they argue that there is no reason at all for God to have to speak through an Old Testament-type prophet anymore. 2 Timothy 3:16 confirms this, telling us about the sufficiency of Scripture for teaching, for reproof, and so forth.
Now, on the other hand are those who believe that those spiritual gifts still exist (“Continualists”) for the following reasons:
There are people in Scripture who clearly weren’t Jesus’ twelve apostles, but who demonstrated these various spiritual gifts (the Seventy in Luke 10, Philip the Evangelist’s four daughters in Acts 21:8-9, and many more)
In a few places (1 Cor. 13:8-12, Eph 4:11-13) Paul indicates that the gifts will not pass away until the “perfect” has come. He is ostensibly referring to the return of Christ and the fulfilment of everything.
So since the early church experienced the fullness of God’s spiritual gifts, and everything is not yet complete, they reason, we have no reason to think God’s gifts don’t continue today, and will until Christ returns.
So which is correct? You decide! :-) This, like some other biblical issues such as eschatology, is a secondary issue. Good Christians can debate it, but must not divide over it, okay?
Here’s one thing we can ALL agree on though: there are some today who suggest that prophecy can be “learned”, and that because you’re “learning” how to listen to God, it’s okay to make mistakes. This is a truly unbiblical position since Deuteronomy clearly tells us that the prophet, since he or she is speaking GOD’S words, will never make a mistake (because our omnipotent God who gives that word is incapable of making mistakes!) In fact, people were warned not to be afraid of those who prophesied falsely, and even to put them death at the time. I think what Moses was saying there is that this is Serious Business, and I guarantee that if it does still exist, God won’t make mistakes. Amen?!
RESOURCES
Arthur, Kay. Teach Me Your Ways: The Pentateuch (New Inductive Bible Study Series) Harvest House Publishers, 2002. ISBN: 978-0736908054. Begin at the beginning - Creation, marriage, sin, civilization. Then learn about God's continuing lovingkindness and faithfulness to His covenant people, even when they let Him down.
Geisler, Norman L., and Thomas A. Howe. When Critics Ask : A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992.
Grudem, Wayne et al. Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible: A Guide to Reading the Bible Well (p. 40). Crossway. Kindle Edition.)
Koukl, Greg. How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians today? Available at the Stand to Reason website at http://www.str.org/articles/how-does-the-old-testament-law-apply-to-christians-today#.VTpOJSFVikp
Longman III, Tremper. Making Sense of the Old Testament. Baker Books, 1998. Answers 3 questions: What are the keys to understanding the OT? Is the God of the OT also the God of the NT? How is the Christian to apply the OT to life?
Redford, Douglas. The Pentateuch. (Vol. 1, Standard Reference Library: Old Testament). Cincinnati, OH: Standard Publishing, 2008.
Schreiner, Thomas. 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law. Kregel Publications, 2010. (ISBN 978-0825438912) – all that Law… what still applies to us? What doesn’t? Why or why not?
Zacharias, Ravi and Vince Vitale. Why Suffering?: Finding Meaning and Comfort When Life Doesn't Make Sense. FaithWords, 2014.
Series: The Book
Part 7
4 Guys and a Text!
This is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
We continue our Spring and Summer series called The Book. Over the next several months we are going to be teaching out of all the sections of the Bible and seeing how it’s put together, seeing common threads that connect the books of the Bible to make up The Book.
Today we move into the section of Scripture called the Prophets. There are “major” and “minor” prophets, making up 17 books in all. We are looking today and next week at the Major Prophets. You can see the book shelf below to see what material we have covered and where we are going.
NOTE:
In the Hebrew Bible these books are known as the Latter Prophets. The term ‘latter’ speaks primarily of their place in the Canon rather than their chronological position. These prophets are sometimes called the “writing prophets” because their authors wrote or recorded their utterances. There were other oral prophets like Nathan, Ahijah, Iddo, Jehu, Elijah, Elisha, Oded, Shemaiah, Azariah, Hanani, Jahaziel, and Huldah who left no records of their utterances. Mostly because of their size, the Latter Prophets are subdivided into the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, Daniel), and the twelve Minor Prophets. These prophets ministered during the History section of the Old Testament. Regarding the Major Prophets, Isaiah ministered from about 740-700 BC. Israel was taken into captivity by Assyria in 722BC. Jeremiah ministered from 627-585 BC. He witnessed the capturing of Judah by Babylon in 605 BC. Ezekiel lived in the superpower Babylon and ministered from 590s-570s BC. Finally Daniel lived in Babylon from 605–538 BC.
What do four Major Prophets have to do with us? Perhaps quite a bit. When you look at one of the Hebrew names for prophet, “nabi’ “ you see that it means to declare or announce. That is exactly what the four Major Prophets did. Prophets were to proclaim the Mosaic Law to the nation. Sometimes this involved judgment, warning, words of comfort and peace. Sometimes their words were predictive (they foretold the future).
The prophets declared God’s instructions in two basic ways: word and symbol. Usually the prophets presented God’s word orally (e.g., Jer. 7:1–8:3) or in written form (e.g., Jer. 36:1–32) to varying types and sizes of audiences. Jesus was the ultimate prophet (check out Hebrews 1:1-4).
So how do we relate to the prophets? What do we have in common? When you read the New Testament you quickly discover that we, as Christ followers, are to be proclaimers and presenters, announcing God’s truth. No, we are not prophets in the same way as in the Old Testament. God chose specific ways in those days to communicate. Hebrews 1 demonstrates that that was then and this is now! (See more on this in Carmen’s Corner.) However, we are to announce and speak out God’s word. Check out 1 Peter 3:14-17, 2 Timothy 3:14-17. Note Peter’s clear instruction in how we are to give an answer.
Big Idea: We are to proclaim the word.
What is it like for you to speak out God’s truth in the marketplace, in your family, in a close relationship? Some would say it is HARD! Highly Antagonistic Resistant Dialogue. Read the following references for the four Major Prophets and see if their context was HARD!
- Isaiah - Read Isaiah 6:1-6 - How is God described? If you read the context - the first 5 chapters - you will discover that the Israelites are Unholy, Unholy, Unholy. The exact opposite of the character of God and His message. Isaiah had his work cut out for him.
- Jeremiah - Read Jeremiah 38:1-6- Why is he in the mud?
- Ezekiel - Read Ezekiel 2:1-7, about his call to ministry. How are the people described? HARD?
- Daniel - Read Daniel 6, but note v.5. Note how antagonistic the people were to the law of God!
Discuss the various contexts where you have opportunity to speak out the Word of God. Can you relate at all to the four Major Prophets? If so, in what way? Do you find the Canadian context becoming “HARDer”?
Listen to how a pastor from Australia describes the changing spiritual landscape of his country. See any parallels?
“…the ministry remains interesting in a changing world. I have been reading and thinking lately that the climate for Australian Christians is changing quite a lot. The catch phrase is that it is no longer Athens but Babylon, and that we are now in a hostile culture that doesn't tolerate or interact with Christians, but detests them. We are now seen as misogynistic and homophobic and intolerant and therefore a social evil to be eradicated. The uncovering of massive child abuse by the Catholic Church in the royal commission doesn't help the perception either. This all makes for interesting days for the preacher, pastor and church leader. How do you navigate church when Christendom is most definitely dead? All of a sudden Daniel and 1 Peter and the language of Exile is all the more poignant.”
With the encouragement from Scripture to proclaim the word, yet with a HARD spiritual landscape, we can experience great tension.
What are you learning in that tension as you attempt to speak out God’s truth with gentleness and respect?
Here is one thing I am learning in speaking up in the public arena:
I wrestle at times with fear, and with pride - not wanting to be labeled as “misogynistic and homophobic and intolerant and therefore a social evil to be eradicated”. I need to get used to the new labels, the new pushback, the new categorization of being a Christ follower. On top of that, my pride sometimes makes me hesitant to speak up as readily as I should. I am not ashamed of Jesus, but sometimes ashamed of those who follow Jesus. Sometimes the labels that Christians get stuck with are well deserved. However, I realize that at other times, those labels are coming from people who truly despise the words of Jesus and all the message of Christianity represents.
That’s my journey. How about yours?
Mark
If interested in joining or starting a small group contact our Director of Worship and Discipleship Amanda Van Halteren amandavh@kingston.net
CARMEN’S CORNER
There is some controversy in the Church today about the whole notion of prophets and prophetic gifts. Some, called “Cessationists”, believe that certain spiritual gifts (such as prophecy and prophets in the Old Testament sense) have come to an end, for the following reasons:
As Mark mentioned above – “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…” (Hebrews 1:1)
We now have the complete Bible with all His teachings (as well as those of the apostles He Himself trained)
Jude (Jesus’s half-brother) also reminds his readers that the faith we believe “was once for all delivered to the saints”, i.e. in the case of doctrine, there is nothing new under the sun – we have it all.
So for those reasons (and more which space here doesn’t allow), they argue that there is no reason at all for God to have to speak through an Old Testament-type prophet anymore. 2 Timothy 3:16 confirms this, telling us about the sufficiency of Scripture for teaching, for reproof, and so forth.
Now, on the other hand are those who believe that those spiritual gifts still exist (“Continualists”) for the following reasons:
There are people in Scripture who clearly weren’t Jesus’ twelve apostles, but who demonstrated these various spiritual gifts (the Seventy in Luke 10, Philip the Evangelist’s four daughters in Acts 21:8-9, and many more)
In a few places (1 Cor. 13:8-12, Eph 4:11-13) Paul indicates that the gifts will not pass away until the “perfect” has come. He is ostensibly referring to the return of Christ and the fulfilment of everything.
So since the early church experienced the fullness of God’s spiritual gifts, and everything is not yet complete, they reason, we have no reason to think God’s gifts don’t continue today, and will until Christ returns.
So which is correct? You decide! :-) This, like some other biblical issues such as eschatology, is a secondary issue. Good Christians can debate it, but must not divide over it, okay?
Here’s one thing we can ALL agree on though: there are some today who suggest that prophecy can be “learned”, and that because you’re “learning” how to listen to God, it’s okay to make mistakes. This is a truly unbiblical position since Deuteronomy clearly tells us that the prophet, since he or she is speaking GOD’S words, will never make a mistake (because our omnipotent God who gives that word is incapable of making mistakes!) In fact, people were warned not to be afraid of those who prophesied falsely, and even to put them death at the time. I think what Moses was saying there is that this is Serious Business, and I guarantee that if it does still exist, God won’t make mistakes. Amen?!
RESOURCES
Arthur, Kay. Teach Me Your Ways: The Pentateuch (New Inductive Bible Study Series) Harvest House Publishers, 2002. ISBN: 978-0736908054. Begin at the beginning - Creation, marriage, sin, civilization. Then learn about God's continuing lovingkindness and faithfulness to His covenant people, even when they let Him down.
Geisler, Norman L., and Thomas A. Howe. When Critics Ask : A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992.
Grudem, Wayne et al. Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible: A Guide to Reading the Bible Well (p. 40). Crossway. Kindle Edition.)
Koukl, Greg. How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians today? Available at the Stand to Reason website at http://www.str.org/articles/how-does-the-old-testament-law-apply-to-christians-today#.VTpOJSFVikp
Longman III, Tremper. Making Sense of the Old Testament. Baker Books, 1998. Answers 3 questions: What are the keys to understanding the OT? Is the God of the OT also the God of the NT? How is the Christian to apply the OT to life?
Redford, Douglas. The Pentateuch. (Vol. 1, Standard Reference Library: Old Testament). Cincinnati, OH: Standard Publishing, 2008.
Schreiner, Thomas. 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law. Kregel Publications, 2010. (ISBN 978-0825438912) – all that Law… what still applies to us? What doesn’t? Why or why not?
Zacharias, Ravi and Vince Vitale. Why Suffering?: Finding Meaning and Comfort When Life Doesn't Make Sense. FaithWords, 2014.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Touching Base - Part 277
Series: The Book - Part 6
“28:28”
(Job 28)
This is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
We continue our Spring and Summer series called The Book. Over the next several months we are going to be teaching out of all the sections of the Bible and seeing how it’s put together, seeing common threads that connect the books of the Bible to make up The Book.
Last week Amanda introduced us to the Wisdom/Poetical books. Please see her Touching Base as she explained the different genre and themes we find in this section of Scripture. One thing you will note is that in this section the heart, emotion, and experiences rise to the surface. Combine that with the rich imagery of this section and you have a very engaging, relevant section of Scripture that enriches our theology. The individual seeking God is equipped with some great tools to cultivate the innermost sanctuary of the human heart.
Our text this morning is Job 28. Job probably does not need much in way of introduction but just in case read Job 1:1-12.
Before we jump in, think about the following.
To be human means to know what it is like to desire, crave, and thirst.
What desires are often at the forefront of our culture?
What does our culture say about desire?
Our big idea this morning is, Awe God, Not Stuff! Awe means to revere, value, uphold. Now think of the opposite, Awe Stuff, Not God! What is more true in our culture and why?
Text: Job 28
V.1-11 Read this section and answer the following questions.
- Is this a picture of people awing God or awing stuff?
- What is the stuff of this chapter? ( read 12-19 for the complete list)
- What imagery is the writer (Job) developing?
- Describe the effort and energy being expended?
- What image resonates with you?
Job is using the material (i.e. gold, copper) to illustrate stuff. No doubt you can make a quick list of stuff our culture goes after. But think about the stuff that is not material yet people crave. Here is my list, add to it.
• love
• acceptance
• validation
• revenge
• approval
• recognition
• success
• control
• pleasing someone
Some of what I have listed and all of what Job lists is not bad in and of itself. However, there is a problem that Job wants to point out.
V12- Note that at the summit of collecting stuff, man is left without wisdom. What is wisdom?
In the OT it involves both knowledge and the ability to direct the mind toward a full understanding of human life and toward its moral fulfillment. Wisdom is thus a special capacity, and necessary for full human living.
Do you understand the problem? People can have stuff, attain stuff, be buried in stuff but be wisdom poor.
Note where the writer leads the reader to discover the answer.
V.12-22
What do we learn about wisdom?
V.23-28
Who knows where it is?
Who embodies wisdom?
How I summarize 28:28 is, Awe God, Not Stuff!
Fear is defined as genuine faith expressed in, and animated by, a reverential awe, this is the basic meaning of the biblical idea of the fear of God.
The fear of the Lord provides a pervasive orientation throughout the Psalms and Wisdom Books. It is one of the major themes of the Poetical Books. God Himself is the true treasure.
Note that Job has been stripped down to his socks! But, he realizes that he is the richest man in the world because He has God. He doesn’t have God as a means of getting stuff. He doesn’t fear God so that God will somehow grant him a bank account full of what He desires. God Himself, by Himself, is the Treasure. And like Job points out in v.23-27, His qualifications far surpass anything we can dig out of the earth!
Take some time to reflect:
Has stuff gotten in your way of seeking the true treasure?
How do you help your kids keep stuff from becoming the ultimate treasure?
How do you know in your heart when you have crossed the line? How do you know when stuff has become an improper priority in your life?
If you were stripped down to your socks, would you feel rich?
Take some time to thank God that He Himself is the Treasure! Choose to be a 28:28 follower!
Oh ya… one more thing- If God embodies wisdom, then guess what Jesus represents? Check out 1 Corinthians 1:18-31.
Mark
If interested in joining or starting a small group contact our Director of Worship and Discipleship Amanda Van Halteren amandavh@kingston.net
CARMEN’S CORNER
Did you know that Job is considered the oldest book in the Bible, for a few reasons? For one, there are no priests present yet, only Job himself making sacrifices on behalf of his sons. For another, we can look at the nature of the Hebrew language it was written in. Some call it “Paleo-Hebrew”, a type of Hebrew predating that which we see in the rest of the Old Testament. In fact, some have suggested that Job might have been the first book written ever.
One controversial issue surrounding this book in recent years is whether or not Job is the story of a man who actually lived, or simply an allegory meant to help us understand the sovereignty of God (a bit like Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress).
Personally, I think he lived, and the reason for it is because of another Bible text, Ezekiel 14.14. In it, God tells Ezekiel that the peoples’ sin is so bad, that even if Noah, Daniel and Job themselves were there, their combined righteousness would be unable to save Judah and Israel! Obviously, God wouldn’t use the non-existent righteousness of a fictional character to talk about how the people could be saved.
So here, then, is another important principle to remember: Scripture always interprets Scripture! In order to best apply Scripture to our lives, we must have knowledge of its whole sweep, not just the gospels or the parts we like. Amen?
RESOURCES
Arthur, Kay. Teach Me Your Ways: The Pentateuch (New Inductive Bible Study Series) Harvest House Publishers, 2002. ISBN: 978-0736908054. Begin at the beginning - Creation, marriage, sin, civilization. Then learn about God's continuing lovingkindness and faithfulness to His covenant people, even when they let Him down.
Geisler, Norman L., and Thomas A. Howe. When Critics Ask : A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992.
Grudem, Wayne et al. Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible: A Guide to Reading the Bible Well (p. 40). Crossway. Kindle Edition.)
Koukl, Greg. How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians today? Available at the Stand to Reason website at http://www.str.org/articles/how-does-the-old-testament-law-apply-to-christians-today#.VTpOJSFVikp
Longman III, Tremper. Making Sense of the Old Testament. Baker Books, 1998. Answers 3 questions: What are the keys to understanding the OT? Is the God of the OT also the God of the NT? How is the Christian to apply the OT to life?
Redford, Douglas. The Pentateuch. (Vol. 1, Standard Reference Library: Old Testament). Cincinnati, OH: Standard Publishing, 2008.
Schreiner, Thomas. 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law. Kregel Publications, 2010. (ISBN 978-0825438912) – all that Law… what still applies to us? What doesn’t? Why or why not?
Zacharias, Ravi and Vince Vitale. Why Suffering?: Finding Meaning and Comfort When Life Doesn't Make Sense. FaithWords, 2014.
“28:28”
(Job 28)
This is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
We continue our Spring and Summer series called The Book. Over the next several months we are going to be teaching out of all the sections of the Bible and seeing how it’s put together, seeing common threads that connect the books of the Bible to make up The Book.
Last week Amanda introduced us to the Wisdom/Poetical books. Please see her Touching Base as she explained the different genre and themes we find in this section of Scripture. One thing you will note is that in this section the heart, emotion, and experiences rise to the surface. Combine that with the rich imagery of this section and you have a very engaging, relevant section of Scripture that enriches our theology. The individual seeking God is equipped with some great tools to cultivate the innermost sanctuary of the human heart.
Our text this morning is Job 28. Job probably does not need much in way of introduction but just in case read Job 1:1-12.
Before we jump in, think about the following.
To be human means to know what it is like to desire, crave, and thirst.
What desires are often at the forefront of our culture?
What does our culture say about desire?
Our big idea this morning is, Awe God, Not Stuff! Awe means to revere, value, uphold. Now think of the opposite, Awe Stuff, Not God! What is more true in our culture and why?
Text: Job 28
V.1-11 Read this section and answer the following questions.
- Is this a picture of people awing God or awing stuff?
- What is the stuff of this chapter? ( read 12-19 for the complete list)
- What imagery is the writer (Job) developing?
- Describe the effort and energy being expended?
- What image resonates with you?
Job is using the material (i.e. gold, copper) to illustrate stuff. No doubt you can make a quick list of stuff our culture goes after. But think about the stuff that is not material yet people crave. Here is my list, add to it.
• love
• acceptance
• validation
• revenge
• approval
• recognition
• success
• control
• pleasing someone
Some of what I have listed and all of what Job lists is not bad in and of itself. However, there is a problem that Job wants to point out.
V12- Note that at the summit of collecting stuff, man is left without wisdom. What is wisdom?
In the OT it involves both knowledge and the ability to direct the mind toward a full understanding of human life and toward its moral fulfillment. Wisdom is thus a special capacity, and necessary for full human living.
Do you understand the problem? People can have stuff, attain stuff, be buried in stuff but be wisdom poor.
Note where the writer leads the reader to discover the answer.
V.12-22
What do we learn about wisdom?
V.23-28
Who knows where it is?
Who embodies wisdom?
How I summarize 28:28 is, Awe God, Not Stuff!
Fear is defined as genuine faith expressed in, and animated by, a reverential awe, this is the basic meaning of the biblical idea of the fear of God.
The fear of the Lord provides a pervasive orientation throughout the Psalms and Wisdom Books. It is one of the major themes of the Poetical Books. God Himself is the true treasure.
Note that Job has been stripped down to his socks! But, he realizes that he is the richest man in the world because He has God. He doesn’t have God as a means of getting stuff. He doesn’t fear God so that God will somehow grant him a bank account full of what He desires. God Himself, by Himself, is the Treasure. And like Job points out in v.23-27, His qualifications far surpass anything we can dig out of the earth!
Take some time to reflect:
Has stuff gotten in your way of seeking the true treasure?
How do you help your kids keep stuff from becoming the ultimate treasure?
How do you know in your heart when you have crossed the line? How do you know when stuff has become an improper priority in your life?
If you were stripped down to your socks, would you feel rich?
Take some time to thank God that He Himself is the Treasure! Choose to be a 28:28 follower!
Oh ya… one more thing- If God embodies wisdom, then guess what Jesus represents? Check out 1 Corinthians 1:18-31.
Mark
If interested in joining or starting a small group contact our Director of Worship and Discipleship Amanda Van Halteren amandavh@kingston.net
CARMEN’S CORNER
Did you know that Job is considered the oldest book in the Bible, for a few reasons? For one, there are no priests present yet, only Job himself making sacrifices on behalf of his sons. For another, we can look at the nature of the Hebrew language it was written in. Some call it “Paleo-Hebrew”, a type of Hebrew predating that which we see in the rest of the Old Testament. In fact, some have suggested that Job might have been the first book written ever.
One controversial issue surrounding this book in recent years is whether or not Job is the story of a man who actually lived, or simply an allegory meant to help us understand the sovereignty of God (a bit like Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress).
Personally, I think he lived, and the reason for it is because of another Bible text, Ezekiel 14.14. In it, God tells Ezekiel that the peoples’ sin is so bad, that even if Noah, Daniel and Job themselves were there, their combined righteousness would be unable to save Judah and Israel! Obviously, God wouldn’t use the non-existent righteousness of a fictional character to talk about how the people could be saved.
So here, then, is another important principle to remember: Scripture always interprets Scripture! In order to best apply Scripture to our lives, we must have knowledge of its whole sweep, not just the gospels or the parts we like. Amen?
RESOURCES
Arthur, Kay. Teach Me Your Ways: The Pentateuch (New Inductive Bible Study Series) Harvest House Publishers, 2002. ISBN: 978-0736908054. Begin at the beginning - Creation, marriage, sin, civilization. Then learn about God's continuing lovingkindness and faithfulness to His covenant people, even when they let Him down.
Geisler, Norman L., and Thomas A. Howe. When Critics Ask : A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992.
Grudem, Wayne et al. Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible: A Guide to Reading the Bible Well (p. 40). Crossway. Kindle Edition.)
Koukl, Greg. How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians today? Available at the Stand to Reason website at http://www.str.org/articles/how-does-the-old-testament-law-apply-to-christians-today#.VTpOJSFVikp
Longman III, Tremper. Making Sense of the Old Testament. Baker Books, 1998. Answers 3 questions: What are the keys to understanding the OT? Is the God of the OT also the God of the NT? How is the Christian to apply the OT to life?
Redford, Douglas. The Pentateuch. (Vol. 1, Standard Reference Library: Old Testament). Cincinnati, OH: Standard Publishing, 2008.
Schreiner, Thomas. 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law. Kregel Publications, 2010. (ISBN 978-0825438912) – all that Law… what still applies to us? What doesn’t? Why or why not?
Zacharias, Ravi and Vince Vitale. Why Suffering?: Finding Meaning and Comfort When Life Doesn't Make Sense. FaithWords, 2014.
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