Paul in 2 Timothy 2:8b-9 talks about his gospel. When I read the words, "my gospel", it struck me that Paul has written a gospel too. He tells in three parts what his gospel is. It is wrapped up in Timothy 2:9. Let me quote it for us, starting in 2:8- 9. "Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: Wherein I suffer trouble (1), as an evil doer, even unto bonds(2); but the word of God is not bound (3)."
It seems to me Paul is telling Timothy what his gospel is. "According to my gospel, namely, Christ suffered evil, was numbered with the sinners, died and bound in grave clothes, but the "word" of God is not bound. Christ arose. Paul saw the unbounded nature of the word in the earth being free from even prison chains and death.
Looking closer at the Greek we can see the connection Paul was making. Kokopatho according to Roberston means "suffer evil ". Many translate this "hardship". The first part of this word "koko" is translated first, evil. The second part has its root in Pascho. Yes this is the Greek word for Passover. We might relate to the English meaning of this word which is "pathos". This has a more obsolete meaning of suffering. We might think of Christ's time during his crucifixion as "the passion", "the suffering". He bore the evil of this world for us. Without sin, without guilt, without crime he became a criminal for us. He was crucified between two "malefactors" as Luke calls them. The Greek for this word is, well lookie here, it is what Paul uses about himself, malefactor, a criminal, a kokourgous. The only other place this is found is in Luke. Luke refers to the two criminals crucified with Christ. In like manner Paul sees himself both as "the chiefest of sinners" and suffering for Christ sake maybe even "filling up" of the sufferings of Christ (Col.1:24). But any event whether bond in chains or in death, the word of God has thrown off the grave clothes and is free. It is interesting to me that here Paul makes a link to the "word" as it is used in Acts and in John. It has taken on personifications. It is unbound and free. Also I believe a reference to the resurrection.
Now that is reading a lot into one verse. Maybe too much if that is possible.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Lonely run after Him.
Carl Sagan in all his learning never came to the point where he knew God. He knew about Him. He saw his works and wonders, but was never smart enough to connect the dots. That is a shame. He had a brilliant mind, maybe too brilliant.
When he worked with NASA in 1990 the voyager 1 was on its way out of our galaxy. It was reaching the end of our radio control of its movements. Soon it would be gone from our reach. As one of its last acts Carl had NASA turn its cameras back toward earth and take a picture. The result was the amazing "Pale Blue Dot". You have probably seen it. Sagan took a pen and wrote some thoughts about that picture that I would like to share with you.
Looking at this tiny blue dot in a "great cosmic arena", this blue earth surrounded by a seemingly infinity of stars, he said;
"Look ...at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, and every corrupt politician, every superstar and supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."
To Carl this was a lonely, speck of dust. To him we were by ourselves. He looked at the picture and felt lonely, small, insignificant.
I had just the opposite affect to the picture and to the prose. I looked at the dust and thought of the human condition and felt the wonder of God. The song How Great is Our God...Sing with me How Great is Our God and all will see how great, how great is our God, comes to my mind. That the creator of this vast, seemingly infinite universe knows me is miraculous! He knows my name! He talks with me. He leads me. He cares about me. He sent his son into this small world to redeem me. Little ole me. Less that a dot on that piece of dust. Wow! Talk about Horton hears a who! God hears me! John 3:16 means soooooo much more now. He came to Earth. He became one of us. Why? So that I could live with Him forever! The answer to Carl's loneliness is found in that photograph. Unfortunately he was too blind to see it. He came away thinking how poor and lonely he was, instead of seeing how important, rich and loved his was. The thing that escapes me, is how people can look at life and come up with Carl's conclusion. There is only one possibility. These people never met the Creator. Studied about him. Gazed at his handiwork through telescopes and microscopes, but never came to know him. He remained the "stranger of Galilee". As far as I know Carl died in his loneliness. That is a shame. I feel in a way kindred with Carl. I went through a period where I was very lonely, but I found God and His love.
In a This Week, Volume XI, John Stevens writes about the lonely times that people have and what to do about them. I think of the last few lines of Stevens' This Week when we are talking about Carl and others who feel lonely. He said;"Growth brings many lonely adjustments, but you must remember that the problem is not your environment. With God, the problem is what you are becoming. Everything that He does has one purpose: to bring you into sonship. On your part, all that you have to do is to seek the Lord with all your heart. Are you lonely? Then run after Him! Reach up to Him! You will find Him on the higher level which He has prepared for you." That is the answer, if we are lonely turn to God and His love. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do that, it just takes a lonely heart.
When he worked with NASA in 1990 the voyager 1 was on its way out of our galaxy. It was reaching the end of our radio control of its movements. Soon it would be gone from our reach. As one of its last acts Carl had NASA turn its cameras back toward earth and take a picture. The result was the amazing "Pale Blue Dot". You have probably seen it. Sagan took a pen and wrote some thoughts about that picture that I would like to share with you.Looking at this tiny blue dot in a "great cosmic arena", this blue earth surrounded by a seemingly infinity of stars, he said;
"Look ...at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, and every corrupt politician, every superstar and supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."
To Carl this was a lonely, speck of dust. To him we were by ourselves. He looked at the picture and felt lonely, small, insignificant.
I had just the opposite affect to the picture and to the prose. I looked at the dust and thought of the human condition and felt the wonder of God. The song How Great is Our God...Sing with me How Great is Our God and all will see how great, how great is our God, comes to my mind. That the creator of this vast, seemingly infinite universe knows me is miraculous! He knows my name! He talks with me. He leads me. He cares about me. He sent his son into this small world to redeem me. Little ole me. Less that a dot on that piece of dust. Wow! Talk about Horton hears a who! God hears me! John 3:16 means soooooo much more now. He came to Earth. He became one of us. Why? So that I could live with Him forever! The answer to Carl's loneliness is found in that photograph. Unfortunately he was too blind to see it. He came away thinking how poor and lonely he was, instead of seeing how important, rich and loved his was. The thing that escapes me, is how people can look at life and come up with Carl's conclusion. There is only one possibility. These people never met the Creator. Studied about him. Gazed at his handiwork through telescopes and microscopes, but never came to know him. He remained the "stranger of Galilee". As far as I know Carl died in his loneliness. That is a shame. I feel in a way kindred with Carl. I went through a period where I was very lonely, but I found God and His love.
In a This Week, Volume XI, John Stevens writes about the lonely times that people have and what to do about them. I think of the last few lines of Stevens' This Week when we are talking about Carl and others who feel lonely. He said;"Growth brings many lonely adjustments, but you must remember that the problem is not your environment. With God, the problem is what you are becoming. Everything that He does has one purpose: to bring you into sonship. On your part, all that you have to do is to seek the Lord with all your heart. Are you lonely? Then run after Him! Reach up to Him! You will find Him on the higher level which He has prepared for you." That is the answer, if we are lonely turn to God and His love. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do that, it just takes a lonely heart.
Friday, April 2, 2010
With Wings as Eagles
The story goes something like this. An eagle when he is older will find a rock and hide in the rock and go through a molting stage. Now during this molting stage the eagle will pull out its talons and wear down its beak. All its feathers will fall out and it will not eat until it gets its new wings and talons. I have even heard of other eagles dropping food to the bird. Then the preacher relates how we can go through times like these and he reads to us Isaiah 40:31. That is a great story, if it were true.
Eagles and some birds do go through a molting stage. For the eagle it can go through many such times. This part is true. (youtube ) But it never loses all its feathers at once and never, ever pulls out its talons. The talon and beak are made of the same thing our fingernails are made from. They continually grow. They don't need to be pulled out.
Why is this important? Because bad translations can lead to bad language from the pulpit. This in turn leads to misunderstandings from those we are trying to reach. Sometimes simply checking ones sources can help illuminate nonfactual and untruths from our gospel story. A wise man once said "If they are going to stumble (unsaved people) let it be over the Word." I wouldn't want someone who knew better wasting those pew hours thinking about clawless eagles instead of the point of the message. We don't need perfection but correctness might be nice.
For Isaiah 40:31 The confusion comes in on the word …wñlSoÅy. In Hebrew this means "to ascend, bring up". It is a verb and in Hebrew its form is called a hiphael (some hifael). In another form of the same verb it is called a qal. It can mean "sprout up" as grass. It is this application of the verb that we find problems. The qal people translate this 'sprout up with wings as eagle" meaning like eagles sprout new wings. Makes sense. Eagles do molt at some point as I have said. And there probably is little harm done except you have guys adding insult to injury with their mistranslations of what eagles actually do. If we read what the author wrote using the imperfect Hiphael then it will simply read, "to ascend as wings of eagles..." implication back to the first part of the verse and the last part of the verse all together meaning "strength". In other words reading the verse in context. Is. 40:31- They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength (renew is correct here) they will ascend like wings of eagles, they will run and not get weary (lose strength) they walk and not faint (lose strength). It seems clear to me that it is 'ascend'. But a wise rabbi said there are 70 interpretations for every verse of the Bible.
For more Research: http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/eaglerebirth.asp
John the Baptizer
The life and times of John the Baptist are chronicled in the Gospels. From his birth to his death, his life is played out in concert with Christ, to a point. He was born to a priest and raised in the atmosphere of religious Jerusalem. Being around the temple he might be considered today to be a PK (priest kid?). Rebellion against the system is often reflected in the life of one raised under this pressure. I know a little about that seeing I was a southern Baptist PK myself. It is hard not to "kick against the pricks", that old KJ is funny (actually this phrase is a variant). But anyway it seems John may have had a little rebel in him. Some think he might have joined the Qumran rebels on the shores of the dead sea. This group called for the purity to return to the temple and castigated the Pharisees of that day. John called "all of Jerusalem" to repentance. And instead of priestly garb which according to heredity he should be wearing he put on the coat of a camel and ate wild honey (as opposed to tamed) and locust (Matthew 3:4).
I am not sure Zacharias had this in mind when the angel told him that John was going to be like Elias (Elijah). But maybe he did. He quoted Malichi and Isaiah to Zac. Anyway, John's father had a hard time believing. Maybe the apple does not fall far from the tree. John had the same problem. How did he come to deny that he was Elijah? The angel clearly spoke. Christ said he was Elijah. His dad had trouble believing too. Maybe he was made dumb so he could not spread unbelief. Mom was right. "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". So did John inherit this family trait? We see him denying who he was almost right away. Did this have an affect on his fatih? Is this one reason he did not fully accept Jesus as the Messiah?
Why did he not believe this?
Was John too focused on the natural? Was he looking for a Messiah who would manifest his power and kingdom in the natural realm. Our description of John from the beginning had a lot to do with natural things, the clothes, the food, no wine, no women, probably no song. John spoke against the rulers of his day. He was acting like an OT prophet. He died at the hands of a ruler that he was criticizing. Christ went about things differently. Maybe it was too different for John.
I sometimes think what a great testimony John would have been if had become a disciple of Christ. Why didn't he? Maybe we are missing Christ in similar ways. That is maybe we are too focused on the natural or expecting Christ to appear in the way we want. What if he chooses how he is going to appear? Will we be ready to see him? In a This Week volume 12 entitled Hardness, John Stevens notes that "when Christ appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart … Mark 16:14b. You would think that after all they had been through, they would be in a humility and brokenness of spirit, yet Christ still had to reproach them at the depth-level of their heart, because their hearts were hard.
Every one of us should be searching our hearts, looking to God and saying, “Don’t let me be deceived, Lord. I want my heart to be tender toward You.” After all, what is the whole purpose of our serving God? It is to fulfill what He demands. And what does He demand? Deuteronomy 6:5 says, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. This is the whole key."
So I guess we should not be too hard on the Baptizer. Maybe we should look to our own hearts. Easter is just around the bend. The time we celebrate his resurrection. I know I what Him to find faith when He appears.
I am not sure Zacharias had this in mind when the angel told him that John was going to be like Elias (Elijah). But maybe he did. He quoted Malichi and Isaiah to Zac. Anyway, John's father had a hard time believing. Maybe the apple does not fall far from the tree. John had the same problem. How did he come to deny that he was Elijah? The angel clearly spoke. Christ said he was Elijah. His dad had trouble believing too. Maybe he was made dumb so he could not spread unbelief. Mom was right. "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". So did John inherit this family trait? We see him denying who he was almost right away. Did this have an affect on his fatih? Is this one reason he did not fully accept Jesus as the Messiah?
Why did he not believe this?
Was John too focused on the natural? Was he looking for a Messiah who would manifest his power and kingdom in the natural realm. Our description of John from the beginning had a lot to do with natural things, the clothes, the food, no wine, no women, probably no song. John spoke against the rulers of his day. He was acting like an OT prophet. He died at the hands of a ruler that he was criticizing. Christ went about things differently. Maybe it was too different for John.
I sometimes think what a great testimony John would have been if had become a disciple of Christ. Why didn't he? Maybe we are missing Christ in similar ways. That is maybe we are too focused on the natural or expecting Christ to appear in the way we want. What if he chooses how he is going to appear? Will we be ready to see him? In a This Week volume 12 entitled Hardness, John Stevens notes that "when Christ appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart … Mark 16:14b. You would think that after all they had been through, they would be in a humility and brokenness of spirit, yet Christ still had to reproach them at the depth-level of their heart, because their hearts were hard.
Every one of us should be searching our hearts, looking to God and saying, “Don’t let me be deceived, Lord. I want my heart to be tender toward You.” After all, what is the whole purpose of our serving God? It is to fulfill what He demands. And what does He demand? Deuteronomy 6:5 says, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. This is the whole key."
So I guess we should not be too hard on the Baptizer. Maybe we should look to our own hearts. Easter is just around the bend. The time we celebrate his resurrection. I know I what Him to find faith when He appears.
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