Tag Archive for 'grace'

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Costly Grace for the Guest

Published on 5/6/2009 in Bible Study and Bookstore. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

I don’t usually write at night but I just read across something and want to ink some of this out before I go to bed…

khesed/grace/mercy throughout the Old Testament is, by definition, costly.

that’s the statement I read tonight

It also involves hospitality, honor, and covenant. It is something that, when it happens, allows, or maybe even INVITES, the recipient to abuse the favor shown.

For instance. Abram shows hospitality to the three men walking by, and they share with him some secret: they are going to destroy Sodom. Abram, who has now been their host to eat and rest but also their guest to some very important secret information, abuses his right to this information and asks them if they would spare the city if such and such number of people could be found righteous in it. The three men do not object, but engage in the haggling for the spare-price of Sodom.

Lot does it with these same men when they come to his home. He hosts them, and protects them with what would be a very costly price (he offers the townsmen his own virgin daughters for sex acts so that they will spare the visitors he is hosting). Part of his hosting them is khesed simply because of that moment right there. If it isn’t costly, it isn’t khesed.

I don’t have time tonight (in 9 minutes it will be tomorrow and I’ll regret staying up so late) but I’d be interested in other places in the scriptures where hosting a guest involves 2 things:
1. the guest boldly asking for more than the host originally offered
2. the host having to pay an extraordinarily high price (or at least trying to) for the sake of the guest.

Go!

John 4 and Jesus’ Conversation with Oholah

Published on 4/14/2009 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

In John 4, Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman that has had 5 husbands. People have always talked about what a sinful woman she was, and how controversial it would be for Jesus to talk to her.

Now I know why.

In Ezekiel 23, God talks about having two wives that left Him and cheated. One of those wives is Samaria; her name is Oholah. The stuff she does is pretty gross, inciting the ancient rabbis to only allow a man to read Ezekiel after he turned 30.

That woman at the well in John 4: she is Oholah.

In Ezekiel 23, Oholah lusted after the Assyrians(1) and the Egyptians(2). As time went on, Samaria would be ruled by Persia (3), then in 332 B.C. be filled with Macedonians(4), then in 63 B.C. it would become a Roman Province (5).

Jesus arrives on the scene with a nation that has long forgotten who her Husband is in all of her whoring. She’s had 5 identities, and is having trouble identifying herself with the man who is currently NOT her husband.

And still Jesus reaches out, tells her everything, and tells re-introduces her to her first love, The Father that seeks worshipers that worship in Spirit and in Truth. Awesome.

God Makes the Filthy Beautiful

Published on 3/20/2009 in Bible Study. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

In Ezekiel 16, God talks about finding Israel out in the field as he was passing by. She was lying in her blood-a newborn whose cord hadn’t even been cut. This was the ancient method of abortion, to have the baby and then dump it in a field. They didn’t even bother cutting the cord because if they were just going to let the ‘thing’ die, why bother taking any care of it at all. The child and the placenta were treated with the same care. How awful.

I have seen the scarring, dismembering effects of poor medical care. Numerous people in poverty all over the world are crippled, blind, deaf, or dead simply because a completely preventable illness was not treated properly. I know a guy in Africa that had a little girl in his neighborhood that was being left to die of malaria. She was still a part of the family, etc, but they were just going to let her die in her fever. He paid the 72¢ for the medicine and she was treated and has now lived on for years.

So here is Israel, dumped out from the beginning in a field and left to die, and God cares for her. Not only that, but she blossoms into beauty. This girl should have been disfigured and scarred at the least from her poor care, but God cared for her to such an extent as to help her grow up beautiful too.

Twice God cleans Israel from her uncleanliness. First it is the uncleanliness of birth, second the uncleanliness of maturity (menstruation). Israel needed purifying at the beginning as they got rid of their Egyptian ways and idol dependance, but they needed cleaning again once they became a mature nation (actually they needed it again and again and again) so that they could be the Mother of Blessing to the whole world. (don’t freak out-just keeping in the metaphor. I’m not into that God is our Mother garbage.)

Israel needed to mature and be united with God, but as she matured she grew into new forms of uncleanliness. God purified her from those and cleaned her up, now not just making her a beautiful child but a beautiful bride.

I’m going to stop there for today, because what Israel did after all of that is heartbreaking, and much more so when you realize what great things God has done.

Of course, it’s all a DIRECT parable into our lives. Who of us, when lost and without God, was anything more than a bloody child abandoned in a field? And who of us, after being picked up by God our Savior, has not been cleaned up and made beautiful? (even if, in the case of some of us, only in His sight :P )

This Good News is Reserved for the UNgodly

Published on 12/7/2008 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Romans 4:5 “And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,”

[screeching car break sound]

Did I just read “believes in Him who justifies the UNgodly???”

I’ll tell you what. The book of Romans is going to mess some people up. What would happen if people were told this and really shown and treated this way? Instead of being angry and awkward towards the evil or disgusting people we see every day, we might treat them as children of God! I heard somebody say one time that the only difference between the rich and the poor is that poor people can’t afford to hide their sin inside their house. Poor people wear their sin out in their front yard, whereas the rich keep it locked up in their 6 bedroom house or their 3 car garage. There is definitely something too that.

This really really is good news if the one that is ungodly is counted as right before God when he or she believes in Him who makes people right (note: not makes them right by putting them in a suit and fixing their hair, but makes them right in the eyes of God just the way they are)

The Ultimate, Fearless, Sovereign, Power Over Enemies, Grace of God shown in Jesus

Published on 10/4/2008 in Bible Study and Urbia. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

I talked with a guy yesterday morning for a while about Judas being hand-picked by Jesus. I am overwhelmed at the true meaning of sovereignty shown by Jesus. One of THE TWELVE is “a devil” and He doesn’t flee or try to take him out! He actually shows him a LOT of mercy.

“He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”
(Matt 10:1-4 NIV)

Jesus gave JUDAS authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness!

What if we followed Jesus as His disciples, ones that imitate Him, and followed Him down this path?! He chooses men to follow Him, knowing full well that one of them will betray Him with a betrayal that results in His death. I can just imagine if Peter knew about it in advance.
“No Lord, he must not come with us. You’ll die!” says Peter
“Simon, Simon,” Jesus replies, “don’t you know that it is written

Psa. 55:12 If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him.
Psa. 55:13 But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend,
Psa. 55:14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God.

And

Psa. 41:5 My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die and his name perish?”
Psa. 41:6 Whenever one comes to see me, he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander; then he goes out and spreads it abroad.
Psa. 41:7 All my enemies whisper together against me; they imagine the worst for me, saying,
Psa. 41:8 “A vile disease has beset him; he will never get up from the place where he lies.”
Psa. 41:9 Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

“”

So often it seems like we make decisions on the basis of our safety. Especially down here in our neighborhood. Too many times I think I make a decision on who to serve based on whether I can trust them or not, or whether they will be faithful and repay me for what I did for them, either in respect or kindness to my family or openness to Jesus.

But Jesus shows mercy completely free. He gave spiritual gifts to Judas so that the news of The Kingdom would go out, even though His messenger would betray Him to death! I think of giving a beggar some money out of fear of him coming back or guilt that he sees me in my house with all of my riches. Jesus would give to that beggar much more than my little $5 giftcard to McDonald’s, and know full well that the next day that beggar would be shouting for His execution.

The grace of God blows me away once again. I want that fearless, not-withholding grace power in my life!

When All Else Fails, Show Grace, and Grace Again

Published on 9/15/2008 in Bible Study. Closed Tags: , , .

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.
No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
I am the bread of life.
John 6:44-48

THE FATHER draws people to Jesus, and no one can go to Him unless the Father draws them.

““I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.”
(John 17:6-7 NIV)

The Father had people, He has prepared people, He watches and is with people, and He gave them to Jesus when Jesus showed up on the scene.

This doesn’t give me a hopeless or helpless attitude towards people that avoid God, but a bigger grace towards them. I know that even when God draws people, they can reject Him, but His followers should still show grace to them, in case they should change and accept Him.

Jesus Is [like] the Bread and Water of Life

Published on 9/12/2008 in Bible Study. Closed Tags: , , , .

I just read in the Catholic Encyclopedia that only wheat bread is allowed for communion. It specifically says NOT barley bread. Heh. How about that, with what we read that the feeding of the 5000 was most likely barley bread?!

On that same vein, it makes another comment about Jesus miraculously turning the wine into His blood before they drank it. If this were the case, they would have all drank blood at the ‘Last Supper’ which would have been the first time anything like that had ever happened in Judaism, but a common practice in paganism. When Jesus said, “I won’t drink the fruit of the vine again until the kingdom comes” then what was he talking about?

They made the same mistake w/ Eucharisto that Nicodemas made w/ being born again.

John 6:35 ¬? Then Jesus declared, ‚ÄúI am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

See the parable:

Whoever comes to Jesus will have their needs met IN HIM, and whoever believes in Him will never lack the most necessary thing to all life. You can go well over a month without food, but you can only go about 3 days without water. In Jesus even our most basic needs for REAL life are met (and a lot of our needs for the life we see are met too)

to sleepy to post

Published on 9/10/2008 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

I’m sitting here doing my thing where I fall asleep w/ the computer in my lap!

I need to follow up on yesterday’s post. Somebody bought my whole family lunch today. Then, in the evening we had a knock at the door, and it was one of our neighbor friends. Every few nights he rides his bike around our park at breakneck speeds for exercise. Whenever we see him and we have the chance, we run out in the front yard and chant “Go, Steve, Go!” over and over again and he laughs. Tonight he showed up with coupons for free ice cream! Hooray.

The coolest part? When he told the lady at Ritzy’s what he was doing, she gave him the coupons for free!

Please pray for God’s Kingdom to come in many ways whenever you read this. I have had several friends posts need for prayer and help today in various places (facebook and emails). It is enough that I prayed earlier, “God, there is so much intense serious stuff to pray for, can I just moan and groan and you’ll go through the list yourself?!”

Never Hungry or Thirsty

Published on 9/9/2008 in Bible Study. Closed Tags: , , .

Jesus said that whoever would come to him would not hunger and that whoever believes in Him will not thirst. It seems so crazy and wild to me that Jesus really does provide for us everything we need. Can that really be?

I’m a little distracted tonight. Someone gave me a Big Green Egg smoker. As in the big time deluxe smoke-a-20-pound-turkey-smoker. I‚Äôm going to keep it out back on my porch that my church built for me. Next to the gas grill that someone gave me. Hopefully pretty soon we‚Äôll have the gazebo up that some people gave us so we can sit under it in the back yard and cook some food. Maybe some of the several pounds of meat that some friends brought by as an out of nowhere present the other night, before they went to play on the brand new playground they just built in our park. You know, the park that helped us realize we didn‚Äôt need YMCA memberships because we could run/jog/play/climb in our park whenever we wanted.

So now I’d better go to bed. We have some friends in from out of town so we let them sleep on our bed, which was a gift, while the Sullies sleep downstairs in the living room, which a bunch of high-school kids painted. I get to sleep on the couch which someone gave to me. I hope I sleep well, because I get to meet the guys for donuts in the morning and I still have some money on my donut bank gift card that I got for my birthday.

I won’t ride my bike tomorrow though. I’m meeting my wife for lunch so I’ll have to take the Camry-which someone gave me.

Thanks Jesus.

The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Published on 8/30/2008 in Bible Study. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

John 6.3-5
 Jesus is sitting w/ His disciples, away from the crowds, but He can see that the crowds are coming. He looks out over them and doesn’t ask “Should we feed these people?” but instead, “Where do we get their bread?”

I love that. Jesus isn’t waiting for the people to come and beg. None of the people are actually expecting anything like this from Him. (later in chapter 6 they will, but so far they don’t)

The Father looks for ways to care for people. Jesus did not make 8,000 pounds of bread for the disciples and then say, “who can we give these leftovers too…I know! Those 5,000 people over there!” He made the bread and the fish for the people first.

When the manna came down from heaven, it was an answer to the people’s grumbling against God and they had to prepare it. This time it isn’t an answer to anything, it is motivated by Jesus and it’s already prepared for them.

I can’t help but see some parallels with this and the Law and Grace. Manna and The Law came from grumbling to help the people to see the Holiness of God. It required work to be received and could spoil. The Grace of God in Jesus came even though we weren’t seeking or expecting Him. All of the work was already done by Jesus on the cross, and the bread of life and salvation was brought to us, prepared and ready to take in. This grace was not something that would spoil or fade, but be in such abundance for us that there would be grace left over to share in other places at a later date.