CRN.Info and Analysis

I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

The third commandment of the summary of Torah (the Ten Commandments):

You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

In the list of the Ten Commandments, this one, more than any other, seems a bit out of place - particularly in its most used context. However, when examined in the light of its full context in scripture and its originally understood context, I think there is a lesson for all of us to grasp.

Vows and Oaths and Empty Words

Probably the way this verse is most often interpreted is that we should not use God’s (or Jesus’) name as an expletive, or otherwise extraneous manner. This is very wise, and I am sure a part of what is covered by the command. However, if we stop there, we completely miss the heart of this command.

To ‘misuse’ God’s name, or to take in vain (i.e. to ‘make it nothing’) is to attach it to something that to which it does not belong. It is claiming that God has blessed or cursed something, someone or some activity based on your own purposes. Or, as Andy Stanley notes, “the original intent of this command was to prevent people from attaching God’s name to purposes that are not His.”

To take God’s name in vain - to make it nothing - basically is man’s way of pitting God against Himself. Continue Reading »

I couldn’t begin to count how many times it’s happened.  I’ve been discussing a certain issue with someone, and eventually to prove his point, the phrase “well this is what the Bible says” comes up - usually followed by a long, poorly edited, copied and pasted passage from BibleGateway.com.  In the person’s mind this passage is the end of the argument, the last hurrah, the final amen.  It is the trump card of debate, and the checkmate of discussion.  The howitzer of the Bible has been pointed squarely at me, and I am a casualty of theological disagreement.

I’ve often wondered where the practice of referring to the Bible as a weapon came from.  I remember in Children’s Church when we have “sword drills“.  The teacher would open her Bible, pick a verse at random, and the student who found the verse in the least amount of time won.  Not to boast or anything, but I remember winning more than my fair share of these battles.  Perhaps growing up in a pastor’s house where I was surrounded by Bibles had given me some sort of innate ability to thumb through the pages of Scripture quickly…

Continue Reading »

My Grandfather used to say “Have mercy” or “mercy” a lot when we would visit (four rowdy kids barging through the door all at once is probably reason enough). It was just another expression of mild woe similar to the Yiddish “oy vey” or a “sheesh” or a “oh my.” I never really thought much of it, other than it was pretty neat because nobody used it anymore. At least not in that way. I said it a lot as a kid. Sort of. When an older brother is smothering you and there’s nothing to do but give in, some sort of phrase calling for mercy was necessary.

Unfortunately, many Christians treat mercy the way my older brothers did. I’m right, you’re wrong, and I’ll beat you up until you give in. They look at mercy as something that is given when the other person submits to them. I suppose you could argue that that is ultimately how it works with God. When we submit ourselves to Him, He gives us mercy. His mercy is offered before we submit, but still contingent on a submission of our will to His.

At first I was going to compare our view of mercy with the use of the word for a generation as slang. But after thinking about it for awhile, maybe they had it right. Maybe our calls for mercy should permeate our daily lives. When we are tempted to roll our eyes and get disgusted, angered, or feel empty pity, we should call for mercy.

I believe that we should judge the sin of our brothers (so that we can restore them), but mercy is more important than judgment. (Note that mercy given is not equal to ignoring or allowing sin.) In fact, mercy is so much more important than judgment that James says to “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” (2:12-13 NIV)

What do you know, mercy wins.

So for everybody that writes for, comments on, or reads articles posted on this website: “Have mercy!”

Have mercy for each other when another says something condemnable (especially when you’ve probably done it too or wanted to do it.) Can we correct? Yes. But do it gently with a loving heart. If you are angry, perturbed, or whatever, just don’t type. A number of us have shown that we have trouble not sinning in our anger.

I’m sure this post could have been written better. I’m sure I should have said something more, I’m sure that at times I say things I shouldn’t. But please, have mercy.

The importance of standing close to the world as illustrated by Samuel Shoemaker.

I stand by the door.
I neither go to far in, nor stay to far out.
The door is the most important door in the world -
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There is no use my going way inside and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where the door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it.
So I stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door - the door to God.
The most important thing that any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands
And put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man’s own touch.

Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter.
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it - live because they have not found it.

Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him.
So I stand by the door.

Go in great saints; go all the way in -
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics.
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in.
Sometimes venture in a little farther,
But my place seems closer to the opening.
So I stand by the door.

There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia
And want to get out. ‘Let me out!’ they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled.
For the old life, they have seen too much:
One taste of God and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving - preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stand by the door.

I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door.
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply and stay in too long
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there too.

Where? Outside the door -
Thousands of them. Millions of them.
But - more important for me -
One of them, two of them, ten of them.
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.

‘I had rather be a door-keeper
So I stand by the door.

There have been a number of comments lately that show the uncompassionate, unloving, unkind, harsh, hard hearts of those writing them.  I suppose we all have our moments, but as new creations in Christ, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Not only that, but we are to love each other as Christ loved us.  Those recent comments, my current situation, and Rambo have all come together to open up my heart.

Being in the middle of a high impact natural disaster (I live in a small town on the Mississippi river that will flood most of the buildins on Main St. by next week), I’ve been thinking a lot about questions like the above.  After the second day of sandbagging, I finally had to quit early and so I got some time to finally watch Rambo (the new one) which we’ve had from Netflix for days.  I was surprised at how intensely the film dealt with similar issues and questions I have been thinking on. 

I was surprised to very quickly learn that this Rambo wasn’t really about John Rambo, is about the suffering of the people of Burma.  Stalone often likes to say something meaningful in his films, and for this one he found out about the awful situation (pre-natural disaster, so you can imagine how much worse it is now) of the Burmese under the rule of the military.  Of course, there’s lots of gory action, but I’d still recommend any adult to see it, partly because the gore is not out of place.  In fact, you’ll find some tame pictures on the sites listed below that provide the evidence for the brutatlity visualized for you in Rambo. 

The most convicting part of the film was the dedication to action of the Christians in the film.  One thing that gets me, both locally for our flood, and globally for situations like Burma, is how churches and christians can sit around and do nothing yet people who do not know the grace of God through Jesus Christ do everything from helping to fill sandbags to save a few homes to struggling for the lives of people half a world away.

If we don’t do what we are taught in scripture, does it have any value for our lives?  What does it take for us to love our neighbors?

Father, forgive us for walking on the other side of the street pretending not to see the need of our neighbor.  Create in us a heart of compassion.  Use us in your work to transform us into little Christs.

Watch the movie if you haven’t seen it yet.  In the mean time, check out these websites:

www.uscampaignforburma.org

www.freeburmarangers.org

My wife and I have been together for 13 years.  Last Friday we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.   Every year on our anniversary I can count on 3 things.

1) I’m gonna get a gift.

2) She’s gonna get a gift.

3) We’re gonna get into an argument.

Every year for the last 10 years we’ve had a minor blow out about something inconsequential and meaningless on our anniversary.  Nonetheless in the heat of the moment we both stake out our positions and commence firing shots at one another.   We speak in coded language.   We flash old battle scars.   Eventually our arguments disinegrate into an adult version of “I know you are but what am I?”  We begin to talk past each other.  Refusing to hear the other side.  Only concerned with voicing our own. 

In a conversation with my Pastor I shared with him about this scenario to which he responded “You fight because the expectations for that day are so high.  One missed step and it all comes crashing down.”   Sadly he’s right.  I have expectations on my wife and she has expectations on me.  If either one of us doesn’t live up to the others expectations we begin to defend our right to have those expectations.  Unfortunately this is counter productive to the unity of our marriage.

Over the last week I’ve witnessed a similar scenario play out in the comments on this blog.  In fact if you follow the blog rabbit hole you can see what I call the “ripple effect”.   Someone lobs a rock into the CRN.info pond and then the ripples spread all across the blogosphere lake.   Those that agree with whatever point was made applaud and cheer the beauty of the ripple from their respective vantage point.   Then another rock is lobbed and on it goes. Rocks get lobbed at ET, Old Truth, Camp on this, etc…   Spiraling further out of control and looking less like Jesus the further it goes.  An adult version of “I know you are but what am I?”

When I argue with my wife the one thing that I am most deeply convicted of every time is “Husbands love your wife like Jesus loved the church and gave his life for it.”   Most days I fail miserably but on the rare occasion I grasp the breadth of that command I watch my wife radiate, secure in what God had intended when he ordained marriage and called it good.

The church that Jesus loved and gave his life for is also commanded to live in unity.   For we are all of the same body.  All given certain gifts.  The hand can not say to the foot I don’t need you. 

Brothers and sisters the expectations are very high.  Because of that let us all walk in the bond of unity that God commanded for the church.  That it may radiate the beauty of Christ.  

I recently came across a wonderful tool called visuword.
Which is in their words a “online graphical dictionary”. They have this to say about it:

Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Having a little fun with it I decided to check out some words about the Christian faith. First I checked Jesus. Then I checked Christianity, theology and doctrine. It was interesting that Jesus was a very simple non-complex diagram but Christianity, theology, and doctrine were a convoluted mess. It was even more interesting that there were some negative connections made to Christianity, theology, and doctrine but none to Jesus. So all of this got me thinking about our faith (which also had some negative connotations).

Jesus in his earthly ministry used parables and stories to illustrate the nature, character, and make-up of the kingdom of God. There were no deep theological discourses explaining the complex concepts of truth. Rather he used simple and common, yet powerful, illustrations of Gods desire for all of humanity. For Jesus if you wanted to study God (theology) he simply said “follow me”. Jesus’ life was the only theology necessary to understand the kingdom of God.

There is no seminary degree required to understand “be a servant” or “feed my sheep” or “what you have done unto the least of these you’ve done unto me”. Nor do you need a PhD to grasp the concept of being “Born Again”. In fact Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3:

10″You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

If we are honest with ourselves it is often a fruitless (pun intended; Galatians 5) endeavor to engage in debate about theology. Sure we have lots of opinions about what is the best way to follow God but aren’t we all called to walk our own path? Are we not all called to walk the way of Christ? To die to ourselves?

If so then should we not spend more time focused on what he means to “follow me” then nailing down our eschatology or our doctrinally viewpoints. There is no Arminianism in “follow me” nor is there any Calvinism.

Friends the way of Christ is simple yet profound. I’ve yet to understand or fully grasp “If you want to live then die” but this is the way of Christ; the way of the cross. A path made clear for all that answer the call to “follow me”.

Grace and Peace

HT to marko

Happy Resurrection Day!

This is the final post in the current series of articles on Holy Week:

Part I: Lamb Selection Day
Part II: Passover Preparation
Part III: Passover Banquet
Part IV: Passover Sacrifice (also inserting Jesus’ use of remez while on the cross)
Part V: The Feast of Unleavened Bread

Today, in Part VI, we will briefly discuss the Feast of Firstfruits.

As we discussed in yesterday’s article, the feast of Firstfruits is the third celebration during Passover week, and it is celebrated the day after the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Meaning of Firstfruits

Many Christians do not realize that the Jewish calendar, as established by God, is set up around the agricultural calendar of Israel. There have been number of discoveries of ancient agricultural calendars from Israel, which link the religious and agricultural calendars together. One of the most prominent was the discovery of the “Gezer Calendar Stone” (right), which is housed in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum in Turkey.

When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the land the LORD swore to our forefathers to give us.” The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God. Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD, have given me.” Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before him. And you and the Levites and the aliens among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.(Deuteronomy 26:1-11)

So, the same way that we are to give to God the first part of our money, resources, time and everything else, these people brought the first part of their crop to God.
In the case of the Feast of Firstfruits, the celebration is of the first grain from the barley harvest - planted between the two rainy seasons of the year. Unlike modern farming, each family unit had its own plot of land on which they were to grow food for their family. From this farm, each family was supposed to collect the first grain of the harvest (which was typically fully ready in the weeks after this festival) and bring it to God to say “I am bringing you the very first part of my harvest, and I trust that you, God, will provide the rest for me and my family so that we will not starve.”

The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made to the LORD by fire, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. (Leviticus 23:9-14)

The New Meaning of Firstfruits

In the year of Jesus’ crucifixion, we know that Jesus was sacrificed on Passover at 3:00 p.m., the time in which a lamb was sacrificed for the sins of all of Israel, representing God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt. And thus, Jesus became the sacrifice who has saved all who will believe in him and make him Lord, delivering them from the spiritual Egypt, sin.

On Saturday, he was buried (or “planted”, as Ray VanderLaan likes to say), and the people in the Temple celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread, praying for God to bring forth life out of the ground.

And so on Sunday, Jesus became the firstfruits of those who would be resurrected, leaving us with the promise that we would be the harvest to follow. And we know we can trust God with this! As Paul wrote to us:

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. (I Corinthians 15:20-23)

Amen!

Grace and Peace,

Chris

Just as a refresher, here is where we have been thus far in this series:

Part I: Lamb Selection Day
Part II: Passover Preparation
Part III: Passover Banquet
Part IV: Passover Sacrifice

Recently, we’ve also discussed Jesus’ use of remez while on the cross

Today, in Part V, we will be examining the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Timing

“Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. (Exodus 12:17-18)

” ‘These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: The LORD’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the LORD’s Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For seven days present an offering made to the LORD by fire. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’ “(Leviticus 23:4-8)

On the Jewish Calendar, the Passover Festival is often a combination of 3 Festival celebrations, spread over a 7-9 day period (depending on which day Passover falls). These three festivals are: Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, while it lasted a week in total, was celebrated in sacred assembly on the first Sabbath after Passover - whether it was the day after or seven days after Passover. Firstfruits was then celebrated, per Leviticus 23:15, the day after the Feast of Unleavened bread (and then the Feast of Weeks - Shavuot or Pentecost - seven weeks later).

So, in the year Jesus was crucified, Passover was on Friday, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was on Saturday and Firstfruits was on Sunday - a sequence that only happened one out of every seven years.

Jesus’ Burial and Burial Customs

From the Gospel accounts, we know that Jesus was buried just before sunset on Friday.

Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. (John 19:31)

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. (Luke 23:50-56)

The women were preparing spices and perfumes for Jesus’ body, because it would be the Jewish custom for them, beginning the day after the Sabbath, to sit in the anteroom of Jesus’ tomb (see #6 on the diagram at the right of a First Century tomb which some believe to have belonged to Joseph of Aramathea). Here, in this anteroom, they would be greeted and comforted by other mourners for up to a week after the burial.However, with the placing of the guards by the tomb and the sealing on the stone may have created a problem, unless Pilate had granted permission to open the tomb (though, with great celebration, we never had to find this out!)

After the period of mourning, the tomb would have been sealed for a year, during which the flesh on the body would decay or dessicate and slough off. After a year, the bones of the deceased would then have been placed in an ossuary (a bone box) in the tomb, so that the tomb could be used by more family members. In the Hebrew Scriptures, this ’second burial’, interring the bones of the deceased in an ossuary, was referred to as ‘resting with their fathers’ or ‘buried with the fathers’. This is most likely what is being referred to by the potential disciple in Matthew 8:21 and Luke 9:59.

It is also an important detail that no bodies had yet been laid in this tomb, as anyone who went into this tomb would become unclean if anyone had been previously buried there. Thus, when Jesus was resurrected, he would have been ceremonially unclean (and unable to go into the Temple, among other things, without sinning). However, because there had been no other dead bodies there, when he was resurrected, the tomb would still have been ceremonially clean - a detail we Christians may not fully appreciate, but many Jews would.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

This feast commemorated the giving of manna, the bread from heaven, by God to the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert, and it was a thanks to God for providing rain and a harvest - for providing food from the earth.

The main prayer for the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the same one as is spoken during the breaking of the afikomen during the Passover meal:

Baruch attah Adonai, Eloheynu Melech Haoolom, hamotzee lechem min ha-oretz.

“Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.”

So, imagine for yourself, somewhere between 500,000 and 3 million people (if we accept Josephus’ figures) in the Temple on Saturday calling out this prayer to God - Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.

During this time, who is buried in the earth? Jesus. Who is the Bread of Life? Jesus! Where was he born? Bethlehem (which means “House of Bread”!)

And so, whether they knew it or not, these people blessing God for bringing bread out of the earth would have their prayers answered in the most spectacular way ever. If you believe this is a coincidence, you must believe in a different God than I do - because my God is not a God of coincidence!

Jesus said:

I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. (John 6:48-50)

Grace and peace,

Chris