NOVEMBER NOBLESSE 8-15

The month of November we segue from autumn to winter.  We never know what temperatures we will wake to each day but we do know that daily light is diminishing.  Alas, the ever controversial day-light time change.  I now awake an hour later as the sun peaks over the horizon.
Nice!

Sunlight may diminish each day but SON Light has a greater opportunity to brighten our hearts as we glean more nourishment for the soul.

I dig deep into Old Covenant scriptures and seek insight throughout God’s word to the last book of the New Covenant.  The Lord’s desire is for us to digest the whole story in our heart, His story, from the beginning into eternity.  And so, with a few words from the wise who have gone before us, let us continue to know God so that we can make God known to others through His Son, Jesus Christ.

“I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man.” Abraham Lincoln

“God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty.” Peter Marshall

"Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.”  Thomas Aquinas

“Education is useless without the Bible.”  Noah Webster

11-8  Ezra 7:27-28, 8:21-36; Psalm 69, 73; Revelation 15:1-8;

       Matthew 14:13-21

Revelation 15:3 “And they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the Lamb.  Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!  Just and true are your ways, O King of ages!”  :4 Lord, who will not fear and glory your name?  For you alone are holy.  All nations will come and worship before you, for your judgments have been revealed.”

      We often disregard the book of Revelation because it is difficult to understand John's vision.  John knows, in depth, the Old Covenant life he lived before he was transformed by Jesus Christ, our New Covenant.  During John's exile on the island of Patmos, he had ample time to be drawn into a deeply intimate relationship with God in Christ.  Through his writing in Revelation we begin to see what John sees, beyond our earthly parameters, into the heavenly realm.

This song of Moses from the book of Exodus intertwines with the song of the Lamb, the Son of God, as John sings about both the time of the exodus and the new exodus when we leave this earthly land.  Just as the Israelites once stood on the banks of the Red Sea and sang in celebration of their exodus, God’s liberating them from Egypt, so those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, will stand on the shore of the heavenly sea and sing this joy-filled song when we leave our temporary earthly home.  

       We have much to learn about our old covenant history as we examine our personal redemption through the blood of the Lamb and our future in the heavenly kingdom.  Salvation history began long before the exodus from Egypt but this was a major turning point for people, in community with one another, to be in community with One God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  

We are blessed to know what happened beyond the exodus when God sent His only begotten Son to be our final sacrifice and path to our redemption.  Only by faith in God through His son are we given a new place for our soul to thrive after we leave this earthly place. 

Think about it:  Can you imagine being all alone with plenty of time to think about your personal relationship with God?  Do you take time once in awhile to think about your own story of redemption?  Do you marvel at the Lord’s mighty work in your life since the moment you said, “Yes,” and, by faith, made the choice to be ‘all in’ for Christ Jesus?  

       Set aside at least half an hour to be alone in a place that feels like ‘a little bit of heaven.’  Ask the Lord to help you write a few lines of a song that expresses your journey in Christ from ‘birth’ into the kingdom of God and into eternal life.  This might take some imagination but, with the Lord’s help, you’ll be amazed at what you discover.   Example:  My Lord plucked me from the depth of sin

and guided me into His arms to win,

the Holy Spirit, called to fill my soul within.

         I now have His love and mercy and grace,

to guide me and direct me at my own pace.

        My daily dig into scripture is the essence,

of Jesus leading me into His presence.

       I give glory and honor and my all,

as I seek to follow my Lord’s earthly call.

       Yet I ponder what’s next in life after this,

as I prepare my soul to be closer to His.

       I love my life as it is right now.

Yet, I linger in wonder as I fulfill my vow, 

     to give my ALL to my Redeemer, my Lord,

and seek to be with Him eternally in total Accord.

I can guarantee this 'song to the Lord' is from a total amateur.  A true poet would cringe but the Lord sees this as my love song to my Redeemer.  Once I prayed for words it took me five minutes.  Try it.  EnJOY!

11-9 Ezra 9:1-15; Psalm 75,76,23,27; Revelation 17:1-14; 

         Matthew 14:22-36

Ezra 9:15 “O Lord, God of Israel, you are just, but we have escaped as a remnant, as is now the case.  Here

we are before you in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this.”

The concluding verses of Ezra are filled with remorse for what this remnant has done against God.  Ezra does not just lament but tares his clothes in grief and fasts.  During the evening sacrifice he comes before the Lord, thy God, with deep shame and prays for the people of Judah and Benjamin.  The prayer is poignant. 

      The Israelites had intermarried with women who brought their pagan practices into the household.  The first commandment to worship God of the covenant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had been obliterated even by the priests.  Ezra’s grief was very present to the people and they repented.  About one hundred women with their children were sent packing.  Ezra praised God’s grace in not destroying all of them.  Within three days all had gathered in Jerusalem to repent as they stood listening to Ezra in the pouring rain.  

The structures of Jerusalem, the wall and the temple, were being rebuilt.  Yet, Ezra agonized over the shattered remnant of God’s chosen people.  Their souls needed a complete makeover.   The decades of exile had taken a toll on God’s people yet God allowed a remnant to remain.

God’s grace enabled a very small remnant to cleanse themselves, begin again, and carry their covenant relationship with God to the next generation.

        The mention of God’s people standing in the pouring rain may have been a pointed reminder of a ‘baptism of repentance’ for God’s people.   God used the Israelites to continue His plan to draw all humankind into His presence.  Ezra knows this but also knows that only by wholehearted repentance for what they had done [all are guilty if even one is guilty in this tribal community of God] could they complete the ‘building’ process.

Think about it: So why send innocent women and children away?  Most likely they would be returned, with ample provision, to their original tribes.  Women may have been treated well but they had no ‘rights.’  We may gasp at this practice but we are no different today.  These women and children were not destroyed but sent away.  Today we

choose to destroy the life of a child not yet birthed because of ‘circumstances.’  

Once we ‘return to the fold’ of our Lord, once we repent and see Jesus face-to-face, we learn to know better and to live by our Lord’s precepts.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit within us, even if we are ‘exiled from Christian community’ because of circumstances, we must never exile ourselves from being in the presence of our Lord.  Prayer, fasting, worship, confession, digesting scripture and so much more enables us to forever remain focused on the One who saved us from eternal exile.   
        We never have to ‘rebuild’ our lives if we remain totally focused on the One who died for us, Jesus Christ.  Our Lord will never ‘send us away’ but is with us always to direct our path through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Today we have freedom of choice.  
We either choose a life totally focused on God’s plan for our lives or we choose exile when we embrace the secular lifestyle.

It’s our choice.

11-10 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

Job 19:23-37a; Psalm 17:1-9; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5;13-17; Luke 20: 27-38

Luke 20:34-36  Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.  Indeed they cannot die anymore because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.”

We may know this story well.  The husband of the woman with no children dies so what must she do?  She has no sons to support her.  She is an outcast if she does not marry again.  Yet, her husband’s name, the family name, must be kept alive, especially if land is involved.  Easy solution in those days.  Just marry her to her husband’s brother to keep it all in the family.  And when he dies, she goes to the next one etc.  [men had many wives in those days so one more might not be a burden]

This was the practice in order to protect, not the woman, but the property for generations.  Keep it in the family.  This is ‘eternal life,’ according to the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of the body.  They thought they had stumped Jesus but Jesus reminded them of what Moses, writer of Torah, said when he called upon their God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who kept their forefathers alive through death because of their covenant relationship with Him.  And, of course, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life . . . all who come to me shall not die but have eternal life.”  God gives life eternally.   The Sadducees must have been a sad lot because they could not ‘see.’

[my glib humor]

The Sadducees were a political party formed in the early 100s BC and opposed by the Pharisees.  They

often were cozy with the political power of the day, which made the Sadducees unpopular with the Jewish people.  The Sadducees did not believe in the immortality of the soul, resurrection or angels.  They also denied the Pharisees’ practice of ‘oral tradition as divinely obtained’ to supplement the Law. When the Jews were no longer a nation, Sadducees ceased to exist.  Reason: Jesus Christ.  Jesus was sent to us to end confusion, to end practice of the Law in the legalistic sense but adherence to the Law as a starting point to new life, resurrected life, eternal life by faith in God’s only begotten Son.

Resurrected life is the foundation of our belief in Christ.  We have full access to the treasure of heaven through Christ Jesus if we truly believe in resurrected life.  Yet, we Christians have a bit of Sadducee in all of us.  We cling to twisted understandings of life in Christ because we believe what someone else tells us instead of finding out for ourselves through the study of God’s words.

  Sometimes it is easier to live by ‘rules’ set by

leaders of our secular world  than to discover how Jesus actually tells us to live.  Christians too often try to form God into the image that is pleasing to our own political or emotional belief so that we do not have to feel the pain of separating from secular  expectations.    Abortion, sexual orientation and even absorption in ‘women’s rights’ and so much more flies in our face daily.  [BTW, Jesus was the first liberator of women.  Jew, gentile, male, female are all equal in God’s realm.]  We can easily be drawn into earthly, self-focused desires rather than taking time and effort to think beyond ourselves, beyond our own need for satisfaction, beyond self . . .  to resurrected life with God in Christ . . .  a realm far beyond personal neediness, far beyond ‘self’ focus. 

Think about it:  Ask yourself if you truly believe in resurrected life.  Has your salvation experience, so far, taken you into a realm that transcends the self-focused immersion of the secular world?  Ask yourself how you have ‘separated’ yourself from the “I want” neediness to knowing our need to ask the Lord’s help daily to walk in

His path.  

Being a Christian is not easy.  We must weigh God’s truth against the twisted propaganda of politics yet we must also live along side and love those in this secular world.  We are called to be ‘in’ the world but not ‘of’ the world.  No easy path around this.  We are the gospel message and may be another person’s path to resurrected life.  Do you need help separating from the world yet, at the same time being ‘in’ the world?  Join a Christian accountability group which meets weekly.  Talk about today’s issues and ask, “What would Jesus do?”.  Pray for one another as each prays for you.  Ask the Lord, as a group, to help you all remain focused on Jesus’ teachings and how we can apply them daily in order to embrace   ‘resurrected life’ in Christ.

PAUSE:  NOVEMBER 11, VETERANS DAY

It’s a special day to honor those who fought for our

freedom or continue to protect us so that we may live in this land of the free.  Until we visit another country that restricts dissent, restricts freedom of religion, restricts creativity or taxes our income to the point that we lose incentive to work, we have little idea of the freedom we do have in this United States of America.  Because of the many battles fought for our freedom and because we continue to be protected by brave men and women, we are able to live according to the precepts God has given to us.  We are able to be the Lord’s voice to others who have yet to know Christ Jesus and live according to His will.

11-11  Nehemiah 9:1-25; Psalm 80,77; Revelation 18:1-8; Matthew 15:1-20

Matthew 15:8-9  “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”    

      Jesus purposely quoted these words from Isaiah knowing the Pharisees would stop short from their continued harassment.  After the exile in Babylon, the Pharisees created hundreds of ‘man-made’ rules.   This oral tradition in addition to Mosaic Law was not written as ‘Mishnah’ until AD 200.   Yet, the Jews lived by them as if they were the Law of Moses.  Rules that showed outward piety masked the inner empty soul or the soul filled with

ungodly thoughts, words and deeds.  

           In order to fulfill their Temple vows,  Pharisees sometimes withheld financial support from their parents in order to give to the temple.   They rushed in to judge those that did not follow rules like lengthy, ceremonial, washing of hands.  This was not about washing off germs but about a ritual that was meaningless. 

      The Pharisees were violating the word of God by overemphasizing the importance of their own traditions at the expense of following the precepts of the Mosaic Law in their hearts.  Jesus showed the Pharisees that inner purity of heart is far more important than ritual purity of body.  The Pharisees were living by a twisted truth that emphasized right actions rather than a right heart.

Think about it:  Some people today might call this emphasis on human trivia ‘legalism.’   Are we looking at

another Christian with expectations of perfect actions?  Do we take time to know someone who does not seem to ‘fit in’ to our concept of what a Christian might be?  Actions do matter and words uttered in kindness and love are very important signs of our Christian walk.  Yet, we often look at others before examining ourselves.  

We might ask ourselves if we want to be seen at the right places doing the right things in church ministry.  Do we take time each day to pray about our own soul, that all of our actions and intentions of the day glorify God?  What is going on within us, deep in our soul, is seen by others through the expression on our face, by the words uttered throughout the day, and by our acts of love toward the unlovable.  We can either ‘look’ the part or ‘act’ the part or simply step back and BE what we are called to be with the help of our advocate, the Holy Spirit who resides within us and who can be called upon at any moment to lead and guide our every action and intent of the heart.

11-12  Nehemiah 9:26-38; Psalm 78; Revelation 18:9-20; Matthew 15:21-28

Revelation 18:10 “They will stand far off, in fear of her torment and say, ‘Alas! alas! you great city, you mighty city, Babylon! In one hour has your judgment come.’”

Babylon is either Jerusalem or Rome.  A logical argument for both is presented in the Ignatius Bible, pp.534-515.   One can read the book of Revelation straight through and imagine the celestial treasure coming from John’s soul.  As stated earlier, John knows old covenant scriptures well and these verses reflect those in Ezekiel 27.  Yet, John seems also to remember the blood of martyrs shed in Jerusalem during his lifetime and, perhaps, the great fire that destroyed the Jerusalem temple and much of the city. 

Jerusalem became a harlot to God, with clients of the harlot represented by the kings, merchants and

sailors.   They cry for the loss of their largesse, their earthen treasure: gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen etc.  Suddenly, by great fire, all is lost.  As with all prophetic words, John could have envisioned the demise of Jerusalem but these words easily apply to Rome and so many others cities where the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was defiled; where selfish desire for earthly treasure far outweighed the desire for God’s eternal treasure.   
     The lyrics of John’s song are melodic and draw us into the devious desires of our sinful nature. Yet, God is in charge and will step in at any moment to ‘smite’ or destroy earthly treasure instantly when His presence is undermined to such an extent as these great cities.  

Today, God’s home is in the heart and soul of those who profess Jesus as Lord.  Yet, we also can become the ‘harlot’ with our own selfish desires.  A few ‘I want, I need’ moments are given to us by God’s grace but when we become gluttons of worldly sin and turn away from God’s presence, we will not win.  

God loves us so much that He will allow the ramification of our sinful ways to bite us, to get our attention.  God’s objective is to turn us away from sinful treasures so that we may come face to face with our Lord.  Only by God’s grace, through our faith, can we be saved from the folly of self-focused kings and merchants and sailors, as spoken of in John’s rhythmic tale. 

Think about it: Do you have a memory of ‘folly and selfish desire’ before you met Jesus and developed a personal

relationship with Him?  
Could you picture your ‘before’ life as king or merchant or sailor as in John’s words in Revelation?  
      I have several stories,  all filled with grand adventure but without any hint of God’s presence in my soul before I was introduced to my Lord, my Savior, Jesus Christ.  My life was not all that bad but was filled with hollow, empty, bejeweled treasures, few of which fulfilled the soul.

11-13  Nehemiah 7:73b—8:3, 5-18; Psalm 119:97-120, 81,82; 

              Revelation 18:21-24; Matthew 15:29-39

Matthew 15:34  Jesus asked them [his disciples], “How many loaves have you?”  They said, “Seven and a few small fish.”

By now Jesus had gained a reputation for being more than a prophet.  He reached out to the poor and the lame, the sick and disenfranchised. People trusted Him and brought to Jesus those who needed healing.  It’s

interesting that Jesus did not mention taking a ‘time out’ or going to the mountain alone to regroup after three days of ministering to others.  

As the crowds grew larger, Jesus’ concern for them grew.  “We need to feed these people,” Jesus told his disciples.  Once again, they were clueless.  So Jesus asks what his disciples had to contribute.  Instead of a small boy offering five loaves and two fish feeding 5000 in an earlier episode, the twelve had among themselves seven loaves and a few fish which would feed 4000 men (women and children were not counted).

       
       In those days, because the Roman government taxed the Jewish people so heavily, they had almost nothing left of their wages to live on.  Often, many went days with very little food in order to pay their taxes.  Jesus spoke of hope in the midst of their desolate life but words mean nothing without action.  Of course, Jesus’ ‘action’ of feeding the crowds spoke just as loud as his words.  Jesus’ divinity became very evident to the disciples through these mass feedings.  Yet, they had a long way to go before they understood what this meant.

Again, Jesus took the loaves and fish, gave thanks and broke them, and handed them to the disciples to pass out to the crowd.  Giving ‘thanks’ is “eucharisteo” in Greek.  Eucheristeo is the foundation word for “Eucharist”, a term used in orthodox churches for Holy Communion.

  The miracle of the ‘Eucharist’ continues as some partake of bread and wine that transforms itself through the power of God’s divine presence just as the feeding of the 5000 and 4000 changed through the power of Jesus’ divine power-filled presence.

 It is said that after the feeding of the 5000, twelve baskets full of leftovers were gathered which signifies enough for the twelve tribes of Israel.  In this story seven baskets full were gathered for what would have been the seven gentile nations that God would call into Himself, sort of a precursor to evangelism.  “Feed them and they will come,” might be the motivation here.

Think about it: It never changes.  When your church has a seminar or study in the middle of the week, is there a greater crowd if you feed them first?   We are not starving but there is something that draws us to physical food before spiritual food.  Humanity will never change.  

Yet, do you ever think that the most filling meal you eat is when you receive the blessing of the Lord’s presence at holy communion?  Some churches only celebrate this ‘great feast’ once in awhile as a remembrance of Christ’s passion.  Orthodox churches celebrate the great feast weekly or daily enabling any

who come into the presence of the Lord to be filled with His presence.

If you or your denomination has a concern about the orthodox tradition, find someone who can explain why ‘Holy Eucharist’ is so important to those who see receiving the bread and wine as more than a remembrance.  When we do not understand another’s tradition, it is important to dig deep into that tradition to find out more instead of shunning what we do not understand.  You might be surprised by what you learn.

11-14  1 Maccabees 1:2-28; Psalm 23,27,85,86; Revelation 19:1-10; Matthew 16:1-12

      Perhaps you have never heard of Maccabees.  It’s part of the deuterocanonical books or “addition” to the old covenant books used by the orthodox traditions and is sometimes used by Jews as a source for Hanukkah .  Some think this period between the last writings of the old covenant and the first writings of the new covenant

were a ‘silent’ period.  Far from it.  Books like Maccabees give us information that is part of a very active history.   

For instance Maccabees stories occur after Alexander the Great restored order to much of Judea following the Babylonian exile.  Judea was part of the Persian empire for about 200 years until Alexander defeated the Persians in 323 BC.  Alexander was given the name, “Great” because he conquered such a vast amount of land, almost to western India.  Yet, as he aged and knew he could no longer rule,         Alexander divided the kingdom among his generals.   Unfortunately they had little integrity and wanted more than their share of the land so wars and skirmishes took place over many years to gain the land they wanted.

Two Greek dynasties vied to command Judah.  The Ptolomies in Egypt from 300-200 BC and then the Seleucid King, Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Syria from 200 BC to the death of the Jewish leader, Simon, in 134 BC.  Antiochus did much against the Jews and their religion including the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple, the construction of a citadel near the Temple, garrisoned by Greek soldier, and the suppression of the Jews.  

The Jewish rebellion taken up by the Jewish priest, Mettathias, and three of his five sons, Judas, Jonathan and Simon, is told in much of the rest of 1 Maccabees.  This story was meant to defend the legitimacy of the Hasmonean dynasty, which was controversial with the Jews at that time.

1 Maccabees opens with a brief account of the carrier of Alexander the Great then continues with forty years of events that unfold as is mentioned.  These notes were gleaned from the New Interpreters Study Bible page 1551.

Think about it:  I share a brief history from a summary of scholarly volumes. Why? Because curiosity is a great part of Bible Study.  Were you told the the ‘Apocrypha’ is not part of the Bible and, therefore, to not bother with it?  The more we dig into the history of our Jewish roots, the more we will understand why certain ‘traditions’ are noted today.  

One argument for not reading Maccabees is that there are too many other books that point us directly to the God’s divinity.  We have little time to study and so much to learn.  Point taken.  Yet, we do not shy away from reading a great mystery written by Agatha Christie.   Her works are profound,

intriguing, and just plain good reading.

Ask your pastor if there is a bible with the Apocrypha available for you to borrow for a week or so.  Flip through the pages to 1 Maccabees and discover some great historical events.  If you are brave enough, read another book in the Apocrypha.  Ask your pastor to help if you have questions.  It’s a good exercise in reading that which is not ‘standard’ but which is quite interesting.

11-15  1 Maccabees 1:41-63; Psalm 88,91,92; Revelation 19: 11-16; Matthew 16:13-20

1 Maccabees 1:41-43 “Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that all should give up their particular custom.  All the Gentiles accepted this command of the king.  Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.”

King Antiochus had all of Judah in the palm of his hand.  Israelites, once again, turned away from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and followed the crowd . . . except the Maccabees.  Those chosen people, devoted to One God, refused to sacrifice to false idols.  The Jews were forbidden to continue their sacrifices in the temple and were thwarted from following the Law of Moses.  Any who continued to sacrifice to their One God would die.  And so the Maccabees and those who followed them chose to fight to the death.

The story is vivid and harsh.  Not easy reading.  God’s everlasting love and mercy is not easy to find in this book.  Perhaps this is why it is not included in most Protestant bibles, although several protestant denominations read this book.

Think about it:  Life with God, whether in the old covenant or the new covenant, is not easy if we have to make hard choices.  Do we have our kids be part of the soccer team that has games on Sunday morning?  Do we watch ‘the game’ so late on a Saturday night that we are too tired to worship our Lord the next day?  Do we remain home with overnight guests who have declined our

invitation to church?  Or even more difficult, do we leave the “kids” with their little ones if they do not want to attend church during their visit with us?  
Do we vote according to how we wish to live or according to how God in Christian scriptures calls us to live?
These are not easy choices.

The Jews stood firm in their faith as they were rounded up during the Holocaust.   The Columbine school shooter asked who was a Christian.  If you were there would you have acknowledged Jesus as Lord in front of an AK47?  
         When someone is loudly taking the name of Jesus Christ in vane do you quietly tell that person that Jesus is your Lord?  We make daily choices.  Do you follow the secular world when it is convenient or do you press into your faith-commitment to God?  

It is difficult to “die to self and live for Christ.”  

Start a journal in which you write down each challenge you have as a Christian.  Write a sentence or two about one incident where you had to make a difficult choice to remain faithful to our Lord.   Then add a note of gratitude, how the Lord helped you through that challenge.  Make sure you add the date.  All too soon your journal will be filled with of your life in Christ.