Tag Archive for 'NT'

Seeking Our Own Glory

Published
by
Dan
on 11/1/2008
in Bible Study
. 1 Comment

John 7:18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

I remember when I learned that no one in a desperate situation can be trusted. That was also when I learned not to ask people “can you do such and such?” because the guy I was asking would think, “my child hasn’t eaten in 4 days and this guy is going to pay me to do this, so I can figure it out.” Desperation brings out some of the worst things in people. I remember seeing women at the Shoe Carnival push and shove other women, over 40 even-I’m not talking about rowdy teens! over a 6 pack of socks! (if that can be referred to as desperation. I guess they felt like they were, nonetheless.)

I think of that same thing as I read about Jesus talking about people seeking their own glory. Here I am on the weekend before a big election and the news is nothing but people seeking their own glory. And what crazy foolishness God lets people get into when they are focused on their own glory! What silly things we do when we try to get people to like us! And the more diverse the people, the crazier our antics!

The fact that Jesus was not seeking His own glory but the glory of God must have been so absolutely foreign to the Pharisees. To imagine them doing something that would make someone else look good, at their expense, seems impossible. Jesus taught the truth without any care of his reputation or standing with other people. He was free from the bondage of acceptance-shopping, so He could treat everyone equally, rich or poor, powerful or weak, intellectual or simple.

I know I’ve written about this before, but Jesus didn’t need other people to tell Him who He was. He knew who He was, and He knew what God thought of Him, and that was all that He needed. That’s how we know that God does not show favoritism, because Jesus showed us what a person is like that needs no approval, and does not judge people on their outward appearance, or what they are tricked into thinking of our outward appearance.

Prepare the Way then Get Out of the Way

Published
by
Dan
on 8/28/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments

Luke 3:3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 3:4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.
Luke 3:5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.
Luke 3:6 And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’”

Is. 40:3 A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
Is. 40:4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
Is. 40:5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Whenever a king would go out into his kingdom, his subjects would go ahead of him and fix the roads that he would travel on. I saw something similar happen in Central Asia. We had some friends that lived on this really nice asphalt paved street. It was different from every single street all around it, except for the main thoroughfare through town that it was perpendicular to. I found out that the President of said country once came down that road and gave a gift to something like the oldest surviving veteran from WWII or something. Anyway, the week before the president came, they asphalted the street.

John the Baptist is preparing the way for the Lord. Preparing the way…so what is his prep?

Repent, quit cheating, share your extra coat, be content with your pay, don’t steal extra for yourself, and the most haunting for the people at the time, really…That the sons of Abraham aren’t the ones born in certain families. The children of Abraham are created by God.

This is definitely preparing the way for Jesus and His message. The great part isn’t that John is getting them cleaned up so that they look good for Jesus, he is getting them ready to leave the vain acts of the Law and to come to know God again.

He is cracking the hard boiled egg so Jesus can come and peel it.

I think we have a lot of these guys nowadays that come through and shake everyone up so we can fall and settle in new ways. The hard part is that John got taken out and his teaching slipped away as Jesus became stronger.
Today the crazy guys come and shake everyone up so we can come down and settle in new ways, but then they stick around for a long time, trying to keep their message as current and cool and different as it was a few years ago, and things just become weird.
Some of you might know some of the people I’m thinking of. Very radical thinkers and full of great ideas that helped us reshape the kingdom, but now we’ve rethunk and we need someone else to come along and show us how to live the new stuff out.

Thoughts on John 1:35-39

Published
by
Dan
on 2/12/2008
in Bible Study
. 0 Comments
John 1:35  The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.
John 1:36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
John 1:37  When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
John 1:38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
John 1:39  “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”  So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.

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I was just thinking about this as I went to bed last night and this morning. It is so great that Jesus was free to invite these guys to his house and spend the day with him. He was available. He didn’t put them off or say, I need to finish this up… or I’m busy.

He also didn’t tell them “I live at 851 Riverside.” He said, “Come and see.” He walked with them and took them to where they were going, instead of just telling them. It sound a little passive, but I just read on google books that the Greek grammar implies that He is saying, “If you come with me, and I want you to, I’ll show you.”

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So what if it’s true? What if God WANTS to spend time with me? What if God WANTS me to come with Him to where he is going, and then sit around and waste a lot of time being together (for lack of a better phrase).

That makes me think of dating. How when you are new in the relationship, you have to do things- go to a movie, play putt putt, the typical, silly date activities. But then when you get closer, and I guess this is summed up perfect in marriage, you can be together and enjoy DOING NOTHING.

The availability of God and the desire to keep me around blows me away. Yesterday Cindy was talking about some friends of ours that invited us over for the super bowl and are now inviting us along with them to a 2/14 banquet. She said, “I can’t believe that they want to be around us. Of all their other friends, why do they like us?” That is so funny. Cindy can’t believe that someone would desire to be around our family. As she said that all I could think about was this passage. Jesus wanted to be with these guys- a lot.

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So I’ve scoured and looked all over because I’m about to make a blanket statement and I didn’t want to be off. If I’m off, tell me. John the Baptist says “the Lamb of God”

Which Lamb? There are lambs all over the OT, and it’s a common sacrifice. So I looked at all of the sacrifices, every one of the regular sacrifices is a lamb, or a ram, or a bull, etc etc. Ok, what about the daily sacrifice? Every time it’s mentioned there are two, one in the morning and one in the evening, so for a while I was wondering how Jesus was THE Lamb (even though there were two) and where does that fit?

Then I found it. <prepare for blanket statement> The only place where there is a lamb sacrificed, and it’s not with drink offerings, and it’s not with grain offerings, is at the PASSOVER. If you’re poor, get with another family and share a lamb. If you’re rich, get one big lamb. It has to be a lamb. Because someday, God’s Son is going to show up, and He’s going to show you all what a real Passover is all about.

It’s not about their Honor, but about their Focus

Published
by
Dan
on 1/24/2008
in Bible Study
. 1 Comment

“The world was not worthy of them.”
(Heb 11:38 NIV)

I looked this up, and got some stuff reversed. I thought it was saying that the world didn’t deserve to have these people on it. Like these people were so good that they shouldn’t be here.

It looks like it’s a little different with the Hebrew words. It almost looks like it could be, “the world did not receive praise from them” or “The world was not comparable to them or meriting reward from them”

So that makes me think about things in the world that I give praise to, that I honor and reward with my attention, passion, or time. I’m ashamed to say that the hour I wasted this morning on Youtube was fruitless, but got my early morning attention today.

I don’t think the answer is the stoic, unemotional lifestyle we see from old Jesus movies, but I also wonder if our joy will quadruple when we put it on things that ARE worthy of our praise, honor, and time. I wonder, if I wasn’t ripped off into thinking that a 320×240 pixel movie could be exciting, would I savor the exciting-albeit simpler-aspects of normal life?