Following Jesus

Ezekiel - "God Strengthens" the Son of Man

2010-02-22T13:08:00.001-05:00

The Lord calls Ezekiel "son of man" 93 times in the book. He seems to want to emphasize Ezekiel's humanity and weakness compared to God's strength. Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man frequently, perhaps to emphasize that as a Man He depended on His Father's power.

The name Ezekiel means "God strengthens," so there's a lesson there: We are weak, sinful humans, but ... God strengthens. If we realize our humanity, if we humble ourselves and depend upon God, He will supply us with the strength that we need, the courage, the power of His love so that we can make it through each day.

Jeremiah Mourns: Lamentations

2010-02-15T17:47:00.000-05:00

Lamentations is an acrostic--Jeremiah begins with aleph and continues throughout the Hebrew alphabet, weeping from A to Z. Jeremiah is a "type" of Christ--that means his crying over Jerusalem "points forward" to when Jesus cried over Jerusalem (see Matt 23:37 and Luke 13:34)

Even though it's a sad book, he still praises God: "Great is Your faithfulness" (3:23). No matter what sad situations we may find ourselves in, God is faithful--He's always there, He always cares, He always hears our prayer. And eventually, there will come a day when there won't be any more death, sorrow, crying, or pain! (See Rev. 21:4). We can cry now, and God understands our sorrow, but we don't have to cry like those who have no hope. We have this hope, that burns within our hearts--HOPE in the coming of the Lord!

Jeremiah - Why Do We Call Them the "Old" and "New" Testaments / Covenants

2010-02-05T14:13:00.004-05:00

Have you ever wondered where we got the terms "Old Testament" and "New Testament"? In Jeremiah 31:31-33, he quotes God: "I'm going to make a New Covenant with My people." A covenant is a contract or a testament.

So what is God saying? Covenant is an old word for contract: a contract has 3 parts: the parties, the terms, the signing. Or the Agree-ers, The Agreement, and the Formal Signing.

When we bought our first house, we signed a contract. The PARTIES were: Amigo Savings & Loan (they wanted to be our friends). The TERMS were: pay us $600-something per month for 30 years and you can have this house. And the SIGNING was the closing, we met with the builder, signed the papers, and the house was ours, well, not really.

In Jeremiah 31, The AGREE-ERS are God and us, His people. The AGREEMENT is God's Eternal Law (look at verse 33, God will write His law on our hearts). And the FORMAL SIGNING was at Mt. Sinai, where oxen were sacrificed, the promise was "sealed" and Israel pledged to obey His law.

In the NEW Covenant, the AGREE-ERS are the same--God and us. The AGREEMENT is the same. God's law is still how He wants us to live, the only way we're going to be happy. The FORMAL SIGNING was Jesus' death on the cross. Remember He said "this is My blood, which seals God's covenant" in Matthew 26:28 TEV.

The reason the New Covenant is called "new" is that it was ratified (the "formal signing") in 31 A.D., long after the Old Covenant was ratified at Sinai in 1445 B.C.

The New Covenant is really the Everlasting Covenant--it's the way men and women have been saved all along (read Gen. 17:7). The Old Covenant is an object lesson: God wanted to teach us our complete helplessness without Him, our need of a Savior. In the New Covenant, God wants to write His law on our hearts (Jer. 31:33) so we'll obey out of our love for Him.

Isaiah - Prophet of the Messiah

2009-11-16T17:51:00.000-05:00

I just came back from a weekend listening to Mark Finley--he said that he and his wife have been taking seriously Ellen White's admonition to take "a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones" (Desire of Ages, p. 83). He has found six chapters, or pairs of chapters, that relate the closing scenes of Christ's life: John 19, Luke 23, Mark 14 and 15, Matthew 26 and 27, Psalm 22, and... Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53 is a great chapter. It tells us that Jesus was not physically attractive: "He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him (v. 2). Jesus "has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;... He was wounded for our transgressions.... All we like sheep have gone astray;... And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah has many prophecies about the Messiah, but chapter 53 is a beautiful poem/prophecy about our Savior, our Messiah.

Joseph Wolff was born a Jew in Germany in 1795, but became a Christian through the influence of a Lutheran neighbor, who asked Wolff to read Isaiah 53. Wolff was a genius, able to speak in some 14 languages, and a tireless missionary with a burden to convert Jews to Christianity. He preached the 2300 day prophecy. You can read more about his miraculous brushes with death, his preaching, and his adventures here.

Solomon's Love Song

2009-11-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

I remember, long, long ago, in Junior Sabbath School class in East Lansing, Michigan, when one of my friends called my attention to Song of Solomon's very descriptive language in praise of his lover's beauty. I was quite surprised to read words like that in the Bible! No need for surprise: God created man and woman, He created marriage, and He created sexual love. What do you think Adam and Eve did that first Friday in Eden?

While some would "spiritualize away" these poems and say it just refers to Christ and the church, the SDA Bible Commentary states: "While the whole song is apparently a love story of Solomon and a country girl of northern Palestine whom King Solomon married only for love, the story itself serves as a beautiful illustration of the love of Christ for the church as a whole..." (Volume 3, p. 1110).

So, we can appreciate the Song on two levels--the beauty of married love, and the love that Jesus has for His followers.

Ecclesiastes and The Pursuit of Happiness

2009-10-26T15:59:00.004-05:00

Solomon wasn't around when the Declaration of Independence was written, but he spent most of his life pursuing happiness. "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

Finally, he figured it out: "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (12:13).

In 1968, a year filled with unsettling events, Ira Stanphill wrote some soothing words:

    Happiness is to know the Savior
    Living a life within His favor
    having a change in my behavior
    Happiness is the Lord

Proverbs - Common Sense For Those Born Without Any

2009-10-23T20:49:00.003-05:00

I may have underlined more verses in Proverbs than in any other book, there's just so much good counsel here. There's even counsel about counsel: Prov 11:14, 19:20, 20:18, and 24:16 all say pretty much the same thing--it's good to talk things over with others before making a decision--good advice!

Proverbs has a LOT to say about adultery: 2:16 & following, chapter 5, chapter 7, 9:13 & following. Did Solomon struggle with sexual temptation--even with all those wives? Or was he remembering his father's affair?

"It is honorable for a man to stop striving, since any fool can start a quarrel." - Prov. 20:3. Prov. 31 concludes the book with counsel from a king's mother to her son to stay away from intoxicating substances (31:4) and praise to a wise, virtuous woman.

Since it has 31 chapters, some people read a chapter a day, along with 5 Psalms. That way, they read both books through every month.

Psalms - A Serious Prayer Book

2009-10-13T13:55:00.003-05:00

Some people think of Psalms as a book of songs, of poems.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book Psalms - The Prayer Book of the Bible sees Psalms as a book that helps us learn to pray. He says, "...it is a dangerous error ... to think that the heart can pray by itself..... Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and speak with him.... The child learns to speak because his father speaks to him.... So we learn to speak to God because God has spoken to us and speaks to us."

Deep and profound thoughts. I am currently reading this book to learn how to pray, how to speak God's language.

There are a lot of great Psalms, Psalm 127:1-2 is one of my favorites. The success of any endeavor depends on whether God wants it done. It is useless to work long and hard unless we know that God is in, is leading, is present in the work that we are doing.

Job and the Problem of Pain

2009-09-29T11:17:00.005-05:00

Job is one of my favorite books. As a teen, I came up with the saying: "Only ignorant people are happy." I thought, if you understand how much suffering, pain, and hurt exist, you can't be happy.

Teens often make things more dramatic than they are. When I taught 7th grade, I heard kids talking about their problems and they thought they suffered more trauma in one lunch or recess period than some adults have dealt with in 70 years!

Job was calm. Whatever God allows, we accept it. 2:10.

He was even OK with death, if God allowed it: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” 13:15

He believed the gospel: “I know that my Redeemer lives… I shall see God” 19:25

Makes me think of a song:

I just keep trusting my Lord as I walk a long
I just keep trusting my Lord and He gives a song
Though the storm clouds darken the sky o'er the heav'nly trail
I just keep trusting my Lord, He will never fail

He's a faithful friend, such a faithful friend
I can count on Him to the very end
Though the storm clouds darken the sky o'er the heav'nly trail
I just keep trusting my Lord, He will never fail

Esther's decision

2009-05-15T10:11:00.002-05:00

Esther won her crown by winning a "beauty contest." In a book called Answers to Tough Questions From Every Book of the Bible, the author explains that entering the beauty contest meant becoming a wife of the king, so in that sense, Esther did nothing that was immoral.

When the Jews are threatened, Mordecai comes to Esther and challenges her, "The Jews will be saved (interesting, word "God" never appears in the story) even if you don't speak up, but you and "your father's house" will perish" see 4:13-14.

Esther responds by choosing to go before the king, saying the famous line "if I perish, I perish."

Was she willing to die for her people? No, she was willing to risk death for the chance of saving her people. She risked death just to talk to the king--there was no way of knowing if she would even be able to talk to the king and no way of knowing if the king would by sympathetic to her request.

Nehemiah's Challenges

2009-05-15T09:59:00.002-05:00

Nehemiah was a man on a mission--he was determined to build the wall around the city of Jerusalem. A wall is what makes a city a city! Although he faced many challenges, he succeeded and accomplished his mission.

They made fun of him (4:1-6). They threatened to attack him (4:7-9). They tried many tactics to hinder him from achieving his goal, but in the end, he was successful (6:15).

After the wall around the city was completed, they had a marathon reading of the Law (8:3), and the people re-committed their lives to God and renewed the covenant (9:38).

Ezra the skillful scribe

2009-05-12T10:26:00.002-05:00

Ezra 7:6 says he was a "ready," or "skillful" scribe "in the law of Moses." He made earnest efforts to "revive an interest in the study of the Scriptures" Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 609.

Ezra is the probable author of Ezra-Nehemiah, which was considered to be a single book in the Hebrew scriptures. He also probably wrote Chronicles (1 and 2 Chronicles were a single work in the Hebrew Bible).

God providentially worked through Artaxerxes to issue a decree allowing the Israelites to return. "Ezra had expected that a large number would return to Jerusalem, but the number who responded to the call was disappointingly small. Many who had acquired houses and lands had no desire to sacrifice these possessions. They loved ease and comfort and were well satisfied to remain" PP, p. 612. Less than 50,000, about 2%, of the exiles chose to come back home.

Ezra 9:1 tells us that the secular (not the religious) leaders of the people came to tell him about the problem of the people intermarrying with non-Jews. The religious leaders did not speak up about it because many of them had non Jewish wives. Ezra responds by tearing his robe, fasting, and praying. While he was praying (10:1) Shechaniah comes and proposes a solution--that they make a covenant to divorce these non-Jewish wives, and that is what they do.

It sounds harsh, but "Ezra had learned that Israel's apostasy was largely traceable to their mingling with heathen nations" (PP 620) and he did not want that apostasy repeated. So he leads the people to "put away" their pagan wives. The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary calculates the number of men who had pagan wives to be about 0.3% (vol. 3, p. 387). The number of men involved was small, but Ezra still took action in an attempt to keep his people faithful to God's plan.

Chronicles: "of matters omitted"

2009-04-27T14:17:00.003-05:00

One title used for these books (1 and 2 Chronicles) indicates that the books contained details left out of the books of Samuel and Kings, however the Hebrew title was "events of the days" and it seems to be kind of a court journal. The likely author was Ezra, and his perspective and purpose is that of a preacher, not just narrating events, but preaching.

My favorite passage of 1 Chronicles is 21:1-4, where Satan moves David to number Israel. If you compare that with 2 Samuel 24, where the Lord moves David, we must conclude that the Lord allowed Satan to tempt, but ultimately the choice was David's.

A great story in 2 Chronicles is when the choir went out to battle before the army, in chapter 20. There are three great lines in that story: verse 12 where King Jehoshaphat prays, 'We don't know what to do, "but our eyes are upon You."' Jahaziel is a prophet, although no one remembers his name. He has a great line in verse 15: "the battle is not yours, but God's." He goes on to say, "You will not need to fight in this battle.... Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you" (verse 17).

What are "the groves"? (1 Kings 14:15; 18:19; 2 Kings 17:10, and in 37 other verses!)

2009-04-17T15:07:00.003-05:00

The King James Version translates the Hebrew word Asherah as "grove" or "groves." The SDA Bible Dictionary explains that Asherah is a goddess of vegetation, or the "Lady of the Sea." She was the female counterpart to Baal, and images to her were set up and worshipped by the people of Israel and Judah. Asherah may also refer to the wooden poles and tree trunks dedicated to the goddess.

The drought that Elijah announced was a clear strike by the true God against the "goddess" of vegetation, as the lack of rain turned the vegetation brown.

1 Kings 11:1 "But..."

2009-04-07T09:40:00.002-05:00

David is a great king--when Jesus is introduced in Matthew 1:1, He's called "the son of David." He leads Israel in its most glorious epoch, the pinnacle of its glory. And Solomon gets off to a great start, the gift of wisdom, building the temple, visits from the Queen of Sheba. He's on a roll! It seems the whole world is impressed with Israel's wonderful kingdom.

Then comes the "But." In the first 13 verses of 1 Kings 11, it all comes crashing down.

God had warned: "they will turn away your heart after their gods." And, sure enough, "his wives turned his heart away after other gods."

Once more, we see the pride/humility thing--Solomon felt his need of God, his need of wisdom to govern and he submitted in humility to God. But after amassing wealth, wives, and power, he began to rely on himself instead of depending on God.

Judges, Ruth, Samuel

2009-04-02T12:38:00.003-05:00

There aren't that many heroes among the judges, and even the heroes usually have problems. Deborah is a positive character, but Barak is timid, Gideon worships an ephod (a priestly garment), Jepthah makes a foolish vow, and Samson doesn't learn his lesson about not trusting in women. There are seven cycles in Judges: the people are oppressed, they turn to God, they are delivered, and then they turn away from God again, over and over again--seven times. The Angel of the Lord in chapter 2, verses 1-5, is evidently Christ. The people repent, but six verses later "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." Kind of a depressing book!

Ruth is a sweet love story, featuring the redeemer/kinsman ("goel" in Hebrew). Boaz redeems Ruth just as Jesus redeems us.

Samuel is a faithful judge, but the people reject his sons. They want a king, just like all the other nations. Kind of reminds me of what I used to say to my parents, "Everybody else is doing it." Saul is proud, impatient, and doesn't trust God. He begins in humility, but after he's king he chooses not to submit to God. David, in contrast, continues to humbly submit to God--he even refuses to take Saul's life when he has a chance, because as wicked as Saul is, he is still "the Lord's anointed." David waits patiently until God's time for him to assume the throne.

Although David sins many times (lying, adultery, murder, numbering Israel), he always turns back to God and asks forgiveness. He's not "a man after God's own heart" (1 Sam 13:14) because he is always faithful, but because he always comes back to God. David is not Israel's greatest king, Jesus is. But David is a "type" of Christ: in many ways he gives us a glimpse, a foretaste, of what Jesus will be like.

Joshua

2009-03-27T20:22:00.002-05:00

The name Joshua is the Hebrew equivalent of "Jesus." In Hebrew it's Yehoshua, which became Yeshua in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke, and Iesous in Greek. Joshua was one of the faithful spies, and succeeded Moses as the leader of Israel.

Although most people would chose 24:15 as the key verse, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve," I like 1:8: "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

"It is the first and highest duty of every rational being to learn from the Scriptures what is truth, and then to walk in the light..." -- Great Controversy, p. 598.

The first three "battles" of Joshua are interesting studies--God led them in victory over Jericho by using very unorthodox methods. One man's greed caused a defeat in their second battle, at Ai. And in their third "battle," they thought that is OK to make peace with the Gibeonites, who appeared to live a long distance away from them. But they didn't consult God.

We actually see Christ in Joshua, as the "Commander of the army of the Lord" in 5:14. We know it's Jesus because He allows Joshua to worship Him, which angels do not allow (see Rev. 19:10, 22:9).

Deuteronomy

2009-03-09T10:18:00.003-05:00

Deuteronomy means "second law" -- Moses repeats the law in chapter 5. One commandment is a little different from what we read in Exodus 20, can you spot which one it is?

Deuteronomy's main point is the repetition of the law.

It's a review of what God has done for Israel, a review of the law, and a prediction of what will happen to Israel if they obey God and what will happen to them if they disobey God.

The picture of Christ in Deuteronomy is most clear in Deut. 18:15-18: God promises to raise up a "Prophet."

In John 1:21, the priests and Levites ask John the Baptist if he is "the Prophet" and he responds that he is not. They were impressed with John's ministry, but John pointed them to One "coming after me," One who outranked him (my translation of "is preferred before me).

Numbers' Main Point

2009-02-27T15:32:00.004-05:00

Numbers' Main Point is: "Unbelief"

Could be grumbling. Or wandering. But those were both a result of their unbelief.

Numbers' Pictures of Jesus:

1. The bronze serpent - Numbers 21. Everyone knows John 3:16, but John 3:14 says "just as Moses lifted up the serpent, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

2. The Rock that quenches our thirst - Numbers 20:8-11. The Rock was struck, Jesus was crucified ONCE. After that, all we have to do is ask.

3. The Star that will come out of Jacob - Numbers 24:17. Balaam's prophecy pointed to Jesus' first coming.

Leviticus' Main Point

2009-02-27T15:01:00.002-05:00

What's Leviticus' single main point? holiness

What's Leviticus' picture of Jesus? Be like Jesus, "Be ye holy for I am holy. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who makes you holy.

You don't get holy because of what the priests do, but because of what the Priest does.

You don't get holy because you make sacrifices, but because of what the Sacrifice did.

Oh No! Not Leviticus!

2009-02-03T13:59:00.003-05:00

Leviticus is where some read-the-Bible-through-in-a-year plans come to a screeching halt. It's tough reading in places. But there's some good stuff here. I found an interesting article online about a group of Christians who tried "living Leviticus" for 30 days.

Some discovered the Sabbath: "A small group of women were so affected by the way their Sabbath observance reordered their priorities and made space for their friendship that they dedicated themselves to its continuance. Others saw how deliberate attention to food and clothing could take on a spiritual dimension. Everyone was surprised on one level or another at how the practice of simply "doing what the Bible says" led to insights as to why some of the more obscure laws made it onto the books to begin with."

Read more at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/august/13.30.html?start=1

The Ten Commandments

2009-01-29T13:39:00.002-05:00

There's a lot of interest in the Ark of the Covenant (see link), but what's inside it is more important--it's where Moses put the ten commandments.

A March, 2007, USA Today article claimed 60% of Americans can't name the five of the ten commandments.

A Kelton Research study asked 1,000 Americans and found 14% could name all ten, but 25% could name the ingredients in a Big Mac.

Last year, I asked my 7th graders and found that 1 out of 26 could name nine of the ten, the rest couldn't even name that many.

How about you?

"All that the Lord has spoken we will do"

2009-01-25T22:05:00.002-05:00

Reading yesterday (Ex 19-21) and today (Ex 22-24), I see that the Israelites said this three times: Ex 19:8; 24:3, and 24:7.

I've heard several preachers preach that this was bad; this was a foolish thing for them to say; that this was the wrong thing for them to say; that they were depending on themselves and should have been depending on God; that they said this, but within 40 days were worshiping a golden calf.

I disagree.

God was making a covenant with them, He gave them commandments. Their response should not have been "we can never obey these." The logical response was, "you're God, we're your creatures, you tell us what to do, we will agree to do it." And that is what they said. And God didn't reprove them for saying that, He didn't say "you said the wrong thing." He just went ahead with the program, He spoke the law and wrote it on stone and gave it to Moses.

Yes, the people (and us today) needed to understand that we can only obey with God's power, grace, only after crucifying self and having Jesus live within us.

But at the Exodus, they were just learning about God. He gave them His law at the beginning of their nationhood. And they said, "Whatever you say, Lord."

I think that is a good response.

God's omniscience vs. free will

2009-01-22T11:58:00.002-05:00

God said, "I will harden Pharoah's heart" (Ex 7:3; 14:4). So, did Pharoah have a choice?

There are a number of what I call "mysteries" in the Bible, things we just can't understand. And this is one of them. The Bible is clear that God knows everything (see Is. 46:10) AND that men and women are free to choose to live God's way or reject God's way (see Deut. 30:19, Josh. 24:15).

If God knows what we're going to choose, are we really free to make our own choice? It stretches the mind to grasp how that works. If you've figured it out, please share!

In this passage, it seems that God knew Pharoah's heart, He knew what Pharoah would choose, and He announced it ahead of time. God could have said, "I know that Pharoah's heart is hard and I know what he'll do--he won't let the Israelites leave." What do you think?

"Who Am I?" Exodus 3:11

2009-01-18T09:30:00.003-05:00

A favorite Christian artist of mine is Casting Crowns. They do a song called "Who Am I?"

The chorus goes:
"I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours."

That phrase, "Who Am I?" is found only six times in the KJV: the first time is in Exodus 3:11, spoken by Moses. Four more times it is said by David, and once by Solomon.

Re-read those lyrics, we are nothing at all. Yet God hears us when we talk to Him. Praise His name!

Comments on Genesis 1-20

2009-01-08T10:59:00.003-05:00

Here are some things I've read many times, but jumped out at me this time through:

Gen 1:30 - God's original plan, for both humans and animals, was to eat vegetarian! Not that shouldn't be surprising, for He is against death, but I don't remember seeing this before. Scientists talk about how some animals are carnivores and some are herbivores, but this indicates God's original plan.

Gen 4:19 - Lamech was the first polygamist--why would he do that? He was also a murderer (verse 23).

Gen 4:26 - "men began to call on the name of the Lord" -- SDABC says "In this time a more formal worship was begun." Vol 1, p. 244.

Gen 6:2 - A common question is: Who were the sons of God that married daughters of men? The "sons of God" were His faithful followers, who were intermarrying with women who were not followers of God.

Gen 6-9 - The flood. My "Open Bible" says Genesis is all about four events (Creation, The Fall, The Flood, The Division of the Nations) and four men (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph). That's an interesting organization of the book.

Gen 12 - Who was the first Jew? Abraham, who is called by God in this chapter. Some Christians believe that all of God's interaction with the Jews is not relevant to our lives today. However, there is much we can learn from Abraham, the first Jew. God called him to be a father of a great nation, and he obeyed, leaving his family, his home,

Abraham's lies - He just doesn't seem to learn, lying about his relationship to Sarah two times! (See Gen 12:11-20 and chapter 20).

Did you know? Abraham and Sarah both laughed at the idea that they could conceive a child--Sarah in Gen 18:12, Abraham in Gen 17:17. What do you make of that?

Questions

2009-01-08T10:57:00.003-05:00

Please post any questions you have about what you're reading as comments to this post. I will do my best to answer them. The most helpful resource I have to answer Bible questions is the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. I have one at home, and there's another in the church office in Valdosta.

Read the Bible through in 2009

2009-01-08T10:51:00.002-05:00

I am challenging all my church members (and anyone else reading this) to read the Bible through, from Genesis to Revelation, in 2009. Adventists used to be known as "people of the book" and had a reputation that they knew, studied, and followed their Bibles. But I meet many Adventists who are not very familiar with God's Word.

So, my main New Year's Resolution will be to read my Bible through and encourage as many others as I can to read theirs through, too.

I will be including a link to a day-by-day reading guide soon. This will help us keep pace (we're doing this together!), and I'm encouraging members to discuss what they're reading. I will also be preaching on passages from the previous week's reading, so let's keep in step.

May God bless each of us as we read, study, and meditate on His Word. "The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple" Psalm 119:130.

Old Blogs Never Die

2009-01-06T11:17:00.002-05:00

Well, you can see that I haven't posted anything for a couple of years. But the blog is still here! We used this blog to discuss our Sabbath School lesson "back in the day."

But now we'll revive it to discuss our current project: Reading the Bible through in 2009. I plan to have a daily reading guide posted soon, and I will post my thoughts on what we're reading. I encourage you to post questions, comments, and thoughts on our daily reading of the Scriptures.

Why do I call it "EL = KJ"? Because one of the most important things I've learned about God, and Jesus, and life is that Eternal Life equals Knowing Jesus. The experience of Salvation goes hand in hand with the relationship with Jesus that we must have. Jesus said "I am the Way"--and His desire and plan is for us to come closer to Him in a loving relationship day by day. I base this on John 17:3, which is my blog's address: john 17 verse 3 or john17v3.blogspot.com/

I welcome your participation and fellowship in reading God's Word together and I pray that each of us may come to know Jesus better through "eating" His Word.

Questions for Sabbath, Sept. 30

2006-09-24T12:26:00.000-05:00

Romans 6:15-23

1. Is 6:15 asking the same question as 6:1?

2. Verse 17:“slaves to sin” – did YOU used to be a slave to sin? When telling your conversion story, would you have described yourself that way?

3. Verse 18: “free from sin” Can you think of another Bible passage with similar language?

4. Verse 19 “offer … parts of your body” – what’s Paul talking about?

5. Verse 23, the “classic” verse of this passage. Re-write it in your own words.

Comments on lesson of Sept. 23

2006-09-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

Last week's lesson was on Romans 6:1-14 and we spent some time on perfectionism (the belief that some group of Christians will achieve victory over sin before Jesus comes) vs. non-perfectionism (those that believe victory over sin will not happen before Jesus comes). The EGW quote referred to was: "When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own." - Christ's Object Lessons, p. 69.

I lean strongly toward the perfectionism camp, although I believe that those who achieve the victory won't even realize they're victors because Jesus is filling their thoughts and hearts. One of Satan's claims is that the law is unjust and cannot be obeyed (see Desire of Ages, p. 308).

Jesus proved Satan wrong by His perfect obedience and says "If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love." I don't see any asterisk there with a note: "by the way it's impossible for you to obey" nor do I see one by Phil. 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens" * with the exception of overcoming sin.

I am very far from that goal as you know very well if you know me, but I still believe the goal is possible. Really, the debate is unnecessary because a sincere Christian who believes perfection is not possible in this life is still surrending themselves to Jesus every day and growing closer to Him, just like the sincere Christian who believes in perfectionism.

The FOCUS must be on JESUS and not on self.

The God of the living or the dead?

2006-02-23T22:11:00.000-05:00

The SDA Bible Commentary comments on Matthew 22:32 (the parallel passage to Mark 12:18-27): "What honor is there in being the God of dead men? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead at the time God appeared to Moses before the burning bush. Why would God identify Himself as the God of the patriarchs, except in anticipation of the resurrection?" SDABC vol. 5, p. 483.

SDA abortion statement

2006-02-17T13:33:00.000-05:00

Many don't realize all the information SDA's have online. We DO have a statement on abortion (see the links column), as well as on many other topics. The church is changing--we didn't used to want to make statements on controversial topics, but now we do so quite regularly. Recently, world church president Jan Paulsen even commented on the Muslim cartoon issue. Too busy this week to write more.

Thanks for the comments (Click on "3 Comments" at the end of "One of my favorite stories"), now I feel like there's discussion and not just monoblog.

One of my favorite stories

2006-02-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

Matthew's version (21:33-46) of The Parable of the Tenants has long been one of my favorite stories. I think I first liked it because I think of myself as a rebel, and here Jesus appears to "set up" the religious leaders of the day. He must have been a fantastic story-teller, and here the chief priests and elders are SO into the story that they answer His question without thinking (verse 41) and so condemn themselves.

However, after thinking about it, He wasn't looking to make them look stupid as they blundered into His "trap." He "saw in every soul one to whom must be given the call to His kingdom" (Desire of Ages, p. 151). What He really wanted was for them to think about all God had done for the Jews, and how their time of probation was nearly over, and how their only hope was to realize they were rejecting the Messiah and to STOP and to accept Him.

The Parable of the Tenants connects to Isaiah chapter 5, where Isaiah asks, "What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?" (verse 4).

And of course, this applies to us Seventh-day Adventists today, too. What more could God have done for us? Given us a special message, a prophet, told us that we are in the very last days? What more could He have done? What are we doing?

Any comments? (I wonder sometimes if I'm the only one who reads this!)

High priest, rope, bells

2006-01-31T09:26:00.000-05:00

Last Sabbath, someone mentioned (I can't remember the context) that they tied a rope to the ankle of the high priest and put bells on the tassels of his robe. This was done in case the high priest was struck dead by God. They would know he was dead because they could no longer hear the bells, and they could use the rope to pull him out because no one was allowed to go into the Most Holy Place. I was kind of skeptical (how unusual!) but didn't say anything.

This morning I ran into Doug Tilstra from SAU's School of Religion and asked him about it. He said that although this information is not in the Bible, it is in Jewish writings and is probably true. He is going to check with Dr. Leatherman and get back to me.

The Blog Begins

2006-01-25T09:00:00.001-05:00

LAST SABBATH: We discussed Mark 11:12-14 and 11:20-25 "The Cursing of the Fig Tree." (Note: The Desire of Ages chapter 64 "A Doomed People" has some great commentary on how the fig tree represented the Jewish people who were "corrupted by the love of the world and the greed of gain.")

We noticed that Mark 11:26 is included in KJV but not in modern translations. This got me off on the following tangent:

After our discussion last Sabbath, I did some research. I checked out the SDA Biblical Research Institute web site (adventistbiblicalresearch.org) and found a couple of good articles. Both were excellent and I recommend that you take the time to read them yourself. I am writing a short summary here, though.

The first article, "Which Version Can We Trust?" (click on link to the right to go there) was very interesting. Here are some points that I got from the article (please read the article yourself!):

1. The differences between the Greek texts used for the translations of the various versions of the Bible are not very significant. These differences are minor and do not affect any doctrines or teachings of the Bible. We should never base our belief on a single verse or phrase but should rather look at all the teaching of the Bible on a particular subject.

2. The thousands of Greek manuscripts have been classified into four categories (types, or "families"), two of which are significant: the Alexandrian and the Byzantine.

The Alexandrian is “generally characterized by brevity and austerity” with “little evidence of grammatical and stylistic polishing." This text family includes the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus—two well-known old manuscripts.

The Byzantine has the largest number of manuscripts, but they are “the latest chronologically.” The scribes who worked on these manuscripts tried to smooth over differences in parallel passages, producing harmonizations.

3. The Textus Receptus ("Received Text") (published in the early 1600's) is very similar to the Byzantine text family and this is what the King James Version is based on.

4. Biblical scholars Westcott and Hort published a Greek text in 1881, after 28 years of research. Their goal was to determine the "most probable" reading of the original Greek. The English Revised Version of the Bible (1881-85) and the American Revised Version (1901) relied on a text similar to Westcott and Hort's. This is really where the controversy between the KJV and the "modern versions" began.

5. Modern language translators try to eliminate "verses, phrases, or words that were inserted into the biblical text under the influence of the Byzantine textual tradition. This practice has proved troublesome for many who have come to accept these additions as an integral part of the Word of God, even though they were introduced into the biblical text simply by well-meaning copyists. Their removal is considered blasphemy."

Finally, let me emphasize:

1. READ THE ARTICLES (the other article is "Modern Versions and the King James Version" (click on the link to the right). Don't quote me, read it for yourself--you're already online!

2. DIFFERENCES IN THE PASSAGES ARE MINIMAL. The articles emphasize:
"the teachings of Scripture have not suffered because of these omissions or expansions." "We need to remember, however, that such omissions (or additions) are never vital to Scripture..." Most of them "are trivial and devoid of any theological significance,..."