did jesus lie to us?

Remember Paul?  Remember when he traveled to Jerusalem to see Peter and co? How long had he been serving God without them even knowing Paul? 14 years!  14 years of mission without contact with a local church, a HQ, etc. One moment having Christians killed, the next WHAM serving God amongst a mob who no one else had time for.  A mob who knew nothing of how to be a traditional Jew.  Totally uncircumcised!

Next thing Peter toddles up to see Paul in his stomping ground.  Peter hangs out with the Galatian locals and lives as if he is one of them.  Uncircumcised.

Next a few Jewish fellas come to see him.  And as quick as a flash Peter, out of fear of being criticised, pretends he is a good Jew too.  He stops eating with the locals and starts acting in ways that won't offend his Jewish visitors.

To put it plainly, Paul is a bit more than pissed!  He goes up to Peter and basically calls him a hypocrite to his face in front of EVERYONE.  The locals and visiting Jews too.  No hiding.  Peter, the man known for his faith received a public dressing down.

Why?  Because as Paul noted: Peter by behaving like this had stopped following the gospel message.  Because of his faith he was able to discard his Jewish Levitical traditions and live in the freedom of Christ.  But now he was suddenly doing them again.  Worse, he was advocating the locals to do likewise - follow the Jewish Levitical traditions.  Even Barnabas, Paul's loyal companion had been convinced back.

So here is what Paul explained: Just because you feel guilty that you don't follow the Levitical way once you get right with God by having faith in Christ does not mean Jesus led you to sin!  Not at all!  What makes you a sinner is trying to rebuild this old Levitical way (or follow it when it is presented to you).  Doing this makes you claim that God is a liar.  It makes you a sinner because no matter how hard you try to keep it, it can only condemn you.  Isn't this why we stopped trying to meet its requirements in the first place and follow Jesus?

Seriously dude... Remember your old self has been crucified with Christ and so it is no longer you who lives but Christ in you.  So please live by trusting in the Son of God, who loved you enough to sacrificed his life for you.  Remember, God's grace is NOT meaningless because there would be zero need for Christ is by keeping the law we could be right with God.

***

So my question is where in my life do I still pursue these old Levitical ways?  Or in other words?  What am I doing that says "I don't need Christ" "Doing this or that will make God like me?"

Am I making tithes and offerings?  Am I advocating a special priesthood (pastor-hood, apostle-hood)?  Are we repeating the same rituals (maybe with an electric guitar) in how we meet and how we do things? etc etc like rearranging the proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic. How much of what I do is based on the church culture I was born into ... 

Protestants who in addition to mixing in ideas of human kingship retained much from the Catholic church who was birthed from the Holy Roman Church who took much of what they did directly from the Old Testament traditions of the Law.

And if I am not doing these things from a old covenant stance, and God has done away with them because they only existed because Jesus had not come yet... are they not empty shells?  What point is there for them at all?

And if I think that these ways are comfortable or familiar or traditional or make sense ... am I trying to fill these empty shells with the life of the new covenant, ie Jesus?  But didn't he say this wouldn't work?  Like trying to put new wine in an old wineskin, new cloth to mend an old coat...

***

Bugger

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god gifts the rebellious

Today I was discussing with a friend something read in Ephesians 4 earlier in the week. Basically, I can sometimes skip over the parts of scripture which refer to other parts of the Bible. For example occasionally in the New Testament, Paul or another writer, will refer to a scripture from the Old Testament.

My assumption has been that this does not need reading because the writer is simply repeating something he will explain elsewhere in the text.

How WRONG could I have been?

A lot!

The scripture in question is Ephesians 4:8 which in context reads:

However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say,
“When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.”
Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.  And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.

This Ephesians 4:8 is a quote from Psalms 68:18

When you ascended to the heights, you led a crowd of captives.  You received gifts from the people, even from those who rebelled against you.  Now the Lord God will live among us there.

In short God gives his gifts to people even if they have rebelled against him.  That is are unrepentant.  That is have not sought forgiveness for what they are doing or have done or will do against him.  This can be both people we call 'unsaved', people who do not have anything to do with Jesus.  Or it can be people who say they have faith in Jesus; are 'saved'.  The saved rebellious?  Yes, for they were once without faith.  And there will be things they do or say that continue to be actions against God.

So when the rest of Ephesians is read, and the types of gifts God gives out to people ... My mind and heart was floored as I realised that God gives all them to people we would otherwise dismiss as people nothing to do with the church, regardless of their culture, religious affinity or anything else.  God simply wants people to know him and he shows no favouritism in how this occurs.

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holy holy ... whichday?

If it is possible for some to consider some days more holy than others, while other people may consider every day as equally holy ... how will this apply to sundays?  To recognised church services?

In the former situation, there is not much more to say.  If one day is more important than another then certain things can only occur on that day.  They do not happen on others.  If it is argued that they can occur on other days, then the reason for the importance of the chosen separated day is the 'why it occurs on at day'.

However, if you are someone who considers every day as equally holy and arguing for a move away from focusing on Sundays then ... it is possible to take one of two approaches

1. Sunday  needs to becomes like every other day, or
2. every other day needs to become like Sunday
   

In effect, this is the same thing but with drastically different outcomes

1. The first dilutes Sunday because it was once considered 'more holy' and the others by virtue of this belief 'less so'.
2. The second makes the other days equally significant as Sunday because the once be 'lesser days' must now take on the sacredness of Sundays. 

And since prayer, worship, sacrament, faith, service, etc cannot be watered down, as each act no matter how infrequent is full, the second option seems more viable.
So what is implied by Jesus' comment that "the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath" in the context that every day may be considered as the Sabbath?
That is God introduced rest because men need rest.  Not.
There is a rule of rest so men must take it to justify its existence.

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empathy or prosperity gospel?

How do poor people see themselves?
When poor people are thought we tend to see them in terms of how they lack material things (e.g. food, money, clean water, housing).  However, when a person who is poor is asked how they see themselves most will admit that yes they do lack these things, but more important is their feelings of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, voicelessness, etc.

Solutions?
How poverty is defined will therefore affect how it is solved.  The mistakes most people make when trying to overcome poverty is that ...

• we treat the symptoms instead of the underlying illnesses, and
• we wrongly diagnose the underlying illnesses and therefore prescribe the wrong medicine.

The solution is to develop relationships with people because ...

• People are not always fully aware of what is affecting their life
• People are not always fully honest about their life
• Any effort to resolve poverty is multifaceted in design and execution because we are designed to relate with God, ourself, others, and creation

And therefore we need to ...

• Discover how God is already working among people, their organisations, institutions, and culture, while also
• Seeing people as part of the new world Christ is restoring and sustaining

So who are the poor?
Everyone!  We are all poor because when it comes to spiritual intimacy, poverty of being, poverty of community, and a poverty of stewardship, we all lack something.
As such, because not everyone will experience material poverty, it makes it possible to believe that I am better than others just because I have more material stuff. In addition, this belief often comes with a second thought: that because I achieved this wealth through my own efforts I have the right to decide what is best for low income people.  The consequences of this is:

• People who are not materially wealthy, healthy and powerful have not enough or no faith in God and/or are not obeying him
• People experiencing poverty are viewed as inferior
• People are reduced to objects that fill my needs to accomplish

In terms of the church, these are the philosophies of the prosperity gospel.  Where people who are materially wealthy etc are viewed as having been rewarded for their faith and obedience in God.  Therefore, the solution according to the prosperity gospel preached to materially poor people is that all their finances, their jobs, and how much they possess will increase if they only had more or real faith and obedience.  The poor may even be told that they are sick and unemployed because of their lack in faith and obedience.

Unfortunately this philosophy fails when we place it into the context that if it is true then it must apply to every people and culture.  So can the prosperity gospel work in war torn nations or nations that experience governmental corruption?  How would it sound to a woman who has just been raped or a father whose children died in a house fire?

No it cannot!

Jesus himself reminds us that "the poor will always be with us" and that to follow him is to expect suffering and persecution.  He also repeatedly urges us to understand that seeking after the riches of this world leads to death, and that God sees and treats us all equally no matter how much we have or do not have

Conclusions

• Understand we are all poor in the sense of broken relationships
• Be open to ongoing repentance: "Jesus can fix us both"
• Reject the prosperity gospel that claims “spiritual maturity leads to financial well-being”
• Realise material poverty can be due to external circumstances (e.g. racism, job availability) and not due to spiritual immaturity

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