Tuesday's Lectionary Readings:Zechariah 11:1-17, 1 Corinthians 3:10-23, Luke 18:31-43
I'm still totally stumped on the Zechariah verses. I see what appears to be a prophesy referring to Judas's betrayal of Christ. But I have no idea what to make of the rest. It seems to be the ravings of a vindictive deity that doesn't sound anything like the Abba that Jesus preached about. Can anyone help with this? Any insight?
The passage in Luke seems to confirm the thoughts I had yesterday on the previous verses in chapter 18 (and I swear I didn't read ahead). It specifically says that the disciples were totally confused by Jesus's prophesies about His death. And right after that, Jesus heals a blind man. Because the man asked Him to. Am I the only one who sees a metaphor here?
The verses in I Corinthians have the most to say to me at the moment, although I'm not entirely sure exactly what they are saying. Paul speaks of building on the Foundation. Christ is the only true Foundation, and all believers have that in common. Once you have accepted the gift of salvation, whatever else you build up in your life can neither make you more or less saved. Knowing Christ and doing His will is joy and life to a believer; that would be the gold, silver, and precious jewels that Paul talks about. But if a believer does not spend her life drawing closer to the Lord, they will still be saved, albeit "as though through fire."
And then in the following paragraph Paul says that each person will have to make an accounting to God of what they did with their body, with their life. You can't lose your salvation, but you will have to have a personal, private audience with your Lord and Abba to explain the choices you made in your life.
So don't you think that's enough accountability for any life time? Why do some Christians feel compelled to protest outside of abortion clinics or rail from church pulpits about the evils of homosexuality? I don't see anywhere in the Scriptures that tells us we have the right to judge other people for the way they live their lives. And I am absolutely certain that those tactics are never going to bring anyone to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ or encourage a fellow believer as they struggle through difficult situations. This Scripture seems to be telling each individual believer that they are responsible for what they do and say; nothing leads me to believe that I am accountable to Christians who disagree with me about non-salvation issues.
Paul closes this chapter with a sober reminder - if you think you know anything at all, you're deceiving yourself. If you think you have attained wisdom, you've only just begun to achieve knowledge. God confounds us all.
I hear two things in this passage: 1. To those who think that they know the Scriptures, and would use them to condemn others, be prepared to be shocked at your foolishness when you get home 2. To those who would seek to change the way the Scriptures have been interpreted for hundreds of years, be careful that you do not become so immersed in your freedom as thinking, free-willed creatures that you forget that God is God, and there is no other. You, too, may be shocked on the last day to find that you have been misled.
Taken altogether, the message I feel the Spirit has given me is this: God alone knows exactly what He intends and how all of this will end. Our job as believers is to seek His face and His will in all things. And we are and will be accountable to Him and only Him for how our lives go. And no one will find, when they get home, that they have understood everything perfectly.
I would love to hear other thoughts on this. I by no means am certain I have this right. What do you all think?
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Jesus also says at the last judgement, people will approach him and say "Lord, Lord" and he will respond "Away from me, I never knew you".
ReplyDeleteI actually don't think there's anything wrong with peaceful protests by believers. I think sometimes emotion gets in the way of the message, for sure.. and there is lots of hateful exchanges that are not God-honoring. But, to me, peaceful protesting that avoids name-calling is not really the same as railing against anyone from the pulpit (which I am against all together). Abortion is technically murder. Thou shalt not murder is one of the 10 commandments. I think we drop the ball as believers sometimes when it comes to certain injustices. Am I agreeing with or condoning name-calling or killing abortion doctors? Please.
I also agree that we will all be in for some surprises when we get to heaven, if God deems it necessary to settle some of the dividing arguments believers engage in all the time. What I think is that God knows the MOTIVE of our hearts when we move about in this life. And we will be accountable for that as well. Paul wrote in Romans that the word of God is written on our hearts. We have the Holy Spirt who convicts us in our sin...I think most people know good and well what is sin (believers). SO, my point is that some points in scripture are up for "interpretation" or "discussion". Some are not. And to try and argue that only God knows what this law meant and what that law actually meant is moot. If it's in the Bible and you claim to take the Bible as God's WORD, you're bound by what it says even if it's painful.
Thanks for the input, April. I would agree with you that peaceful protests may actually serve a purpose. You're right - abortion is murder. But I think that those who stand outside the clinic with signs that say that aren't getting the desired result... unless the desired result is to make another human being feel like crap and wonder if God can ever forgive them for what they're doing. God can. Too often Christians don't. And behaving as though you're better than someone else because you're mistakes aren't as public and obvious is hypocritical at best. Unfortunately, the protests that make the news are always the ones where people are attacking 15 year old girls as they walk in the door, or screaming "God hates fags" at the top of their voices. No wonder conservative Christians have gotten such a bad rap. No wonder people don't trust us to love unconditionally.
ReplyDeleteI agree that all non-salvation issues are moot. Unfortunately, I think that only resolves the argument amongst believers. For those who are out there still seeking, still wondering if God can really love them, or if Christ's blood was really shed for them, non-salvation issues can be the issue. Why would a lesbian non-believer be interested in our message of redemption, when she has to wade through our message of condemnation first? Why would a young woman who decided to abort her child be interested in our message of healing for her wounded soul, when we feel compelled to remind her of how evil she is first?
In I Corinthians 2:2-3, Paul says, "I determined to know nothing among you except Christ, and Him crucified, and I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling." How much further could we advance the kingdom if we chose to focus on that statement of Paul's, rather than the ones that tend to make us look self-rightously pompous and hypocritical?
I definitely understand what you're saying.. fortunately, nothing I, on my own, do or say will draw someone to Christ. It's the work of the HS working through me, reaching the person being drawn to God by the HS.. Paul writes that in some of his letters.
ReplyDeleteI am convinced, however, that Christian infighting does 2 things: it sows discord among believers and it raises the hypocrisy flag to the non-believers listening in. Sometimes we do all the work for the Enemy, no??
However, we have to be careful to avoid creating God in our own images by adding/deleting from his Word.. BUT, it's good to know that God's word will accomplish its purpose and it will not return void.
I get that there are messages of condemnation out there but I hope that most churches are preaching Jesus' gospel of repentance, faith and salvation. The Church gets a lot of bad press in mainstream media. But that's not the Church I am part of...and I assume it's not the Church you're part of. I just think that it's not fair to label all Conservative Christians as hypocritical and judgmental because that's not always how it goes. Too much finger-pointing!!! We have to watch ourselves because unbelievers are watching us behaving badly.
Regarding Zechariah
ReplyDeleteThe Jews were sacrificing their babies (God's babies) to Baal. What would you do as punishment? God chose to let them go into captivity, many times, in order to humble them.
The Jews spent seventy years in Babylon under an evil "sheppard", Nebuchadnezzar. They went into captivity in their pride, and came out humble servants of the Lord. Who are we to say that the Father's punishment for His children is vengeful, harsh or cruel?
Imagine if you had a beautiful baby girl and your older son brutally sacrificed her to Satan. What is the proper punishment and correction for that to make an impact on your child? How angry would you be? Does that anger mean you don't love both your children? Of course not. The anger is more furious because you love them both.
God's correction worked and the Jews learned their lesson for a while. He really does know what He's doing as a loving father. And Jesus is no different than the Father.
I was made in God's image, having three parts, but being one person. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says I have a spirit, soul & body. I'm three parts, but one person. God has those same three parts:
1. Spirit body for the spiritual world (Holy Spirit)
2. Physical body for the physical world (Jesus)
3. Soul, which is our mind will and emotions (the Father)
Those are God's three parts. To say Jesus and the Father act differently would be illogical. Jesus said, "I and the Father are one" and "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." If we want to know God's heart toward man, we just look at Jesus' life. That's who God is.
And we have to know God's heart by placing ourselves in His position as a loving father. What we interpret as vengeance and cruelty is usually just a parent correcting His children. If His children do not properly represent Him, people will reject God because of us. That's why it was so important for God to correct His children properly and harshly. If He had not, many more people would've rejected God and been condemned.
We are all very blessed by His discipline of the Jews, whether we know it or not. Discipline lets us know He loves us enough to steer us back toward Him.
I wanted to add that God has been good enough to the world to save His wrath for the last day. Until then, He is trying to get as many people saved as possible. The New Testament says if person is not saved they are still under God's wrath. It's not that God doesn't love them. It's just saying that on the last day, God finally give us what we have chosen with our free-will, whether that is to go be with Him or go be apart from Him for eternity.
ReplyDeleteThe reason He calls this vengeance is because the people whom will be separated from His bride will be the people that rejected Him and were instruments of the enemy used to torture, kill and abuse His bride. This is His vengeance against those whom hurt His bride.
His vengeance is to keep His bride safe. What does a good husband do? He keeps His wife safe. How will God do that for us? He will separate all evil from us (His bride) and from the world and heaven. This is not an unloving, heartless act. He gave the world a life time per person to choose His ways or to choose the enemy. He was extremely patient with them. He has sought to capture every one of their hearts for His cause. He did all the hard work to die for our sins to make it easy to get to Him. We may find that some people we thought would not be in heaven will be in Heaven. I think He has ways to get the majority of mankind into Heaven which we have yet to conceive of, because that's how loving He is.
Therefore, when He makes the new Heaven and the new Earth, He is merely protecting His bride by separating the enemy from her so she can live in peace and prosperity. All of the figurative language in prophecy is not literal. It is describing a spiritual battle or reality in terms we can understand, usually. We see what sound like gory battle scenes and things that appear inhumane, but that is not actually what's going to happen. It's just representative of a separation of good and evil. That's all.
As a good Father, He has to separate the threat from His children. That's all the end is about. And He's been kind enough to save His wrath up from all of the abuses of all of His children throughout history for one single day. That is an extremely loving and patient God if you ask me.
If anything I said sounded personal or directed at you, Leslie, I apologize. It was not meant to. I use the wording I use to ask people to ask themselves questions or so they can put themselves into God's shoes. I am not actually implying anything about their beliefs or choices or character by using the word "you".