Tag: religion

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Who is still plotting to kill Jesus?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus.” Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I know it sounds absurd! Weren’t the Pharisees the good guys? Didn’t the religious leaders work for God? How could things get so turned around to the point where they believed that Jesus (God in flesh) was the enemy of God?

For sure, the silence of heaven, when God did not speak for 400 hundred years, was difficult. The Jewish religious experts knew about this because the Talmud teaches, “After the last prophets Chaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi died, the Divine Spirit of prophetic revelation departed from the Jewish people.” And the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi, is the only prophetic book that ends not in deliverance but judgment; in fact, it ends with the word curse, Mal 4:5. One: God was not happy with the stubbornness of His people. Two: the promise to keep their end of the covenant would not be fulfilled.

In short, after 400 years, the Pharisees no longer remembered what God was like! And, the transition from protecting the ways of God to controlling people blinded them from seeing who God was. Jesus did not come in a cloud by day or fire by night. He came as an innocent, helpless baby, born in the most common circumstances of that day.

This is why some religious leaders are still plotting to kill today. They don’t recognize God working! They don’t understand what God is doing among us, so they desire to return to old, extracurricular practices and religious structures to protect what was once cherished, clear and simple. It was never Biblical, but it was an easy interpretation of the “law” or rules that suited the times of change.

The Pharisees were holding the line on certain Old Testament rules. This one was about rules regarding the sabbath. They wanted the people to stay within their designated boundaries and return to the “law” as they interpreted it. This new rabbi Jesus was a rebel! This lawbreaker would be treated like many traitors of God before him! This rabbi didn’t just break their rules, he encouraged others to join him. They must eliminate this rebellion against God! Matthew recorded this in 12:15, “But Jesus knew what they were planning. So he left that area, and many people followed him. He healed all the sick among them,”

Problem is, Jesus is God. What they called rebellion was in fact freedom. Who they saw as an enemy of God was in fact God’s son. What they called an insurrection would later be a resurrection!

Religion, religious practices and rules in addition to God’s principles are still used to control people and attempt to crush rebellion by using the Bible as the stick of correction. Jesus used this phrase so often, “you have heard it said,” referring to the strict, legal application of the Old Testament laws. But then Jesus, giving us the very character and heart of God, said, “but I say…”

We still have enemies of our soul within the community of faith and from without. God will do His work, bringing salvation and redemption to all humans. We should recognize His work, His character and stop plotting to kill the work of those who are being Jesus to our broken world. I know that no one would think they are outright plotting to kill Jesus today. But I do wonder about the motivations and movements of our spiritual and denominational leaders of the Church. Has God been silent and therefore they feel that they need to speak and act more vehemently against culture to protect God, His Church or His people? I don’t want to thwart God’s plans and ways of accomplishing His will by going backwards or religiously restricting us back to rules, rhythms and rituals that didn’t really work in the past. I want to hear God and move with Him.

Prayer

Dad,
I certainly do not want to be someone who knows you and kind of works for you (at least in the church community) yet becomes disconnected from you. I don’t want discouragement and frustration to fog or blur your purpose and plans for your Kingdom. I want to see your Spirit thrive and revive, heal and restore broken souls. I want to be a part of the revolution not try to constrain you working among us. Help us God, pour our your Holy Spirit once again.

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The law trap.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

“But some Pharisees saw them do it and protested, “Look, your disciples are breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath.” Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Any casual reader would come upon this story and think to themselves, what law? The religious leaders had made themselves into the religious police. Who protected and promoted God while He was silent? They did. Who protected the sacred texts and cultural ways of God when His people all but abandoned their faith? They did. They had earned the right to speak for God because they believed they were the only ones capable and righteous enough to do so! Thank you for your service Pharisees, but you missed one BIG truth. God didn’t need nor ask you to do that.

The job, the attitude, the title and authority… were all self appointed.

And because, they maintained the persona of “experts,” they spent much of their time being religious monitors for all of what was left of Israel. The average person must have loved and feared having them around. I say loved because they knew they were not as holy or righteous as they should be, so the Pharisees set the standard (unattainable as it was). Hated because they could never be as perfect or righteous as the religious leaders. They had to always be on guard against violating the religious laws and reaping the physical and cultural consequences of their behaviors. Imagine being under the thumb of TWO oppressive systems! One, the Roman oppression, filled with horrible treatment and atrocities, alone with massive taxation. Two, the religious oppression, also filled with glaring judgment and taxation.

The Pharisees delighted in catching and judging violations of “the law.” Granted “the law” had expanded far beyond the big 10 commandments and even beyond the cultural health codes that God had given to Israel to teach them and to help them survive the wild open plains of nomadic living. The religious legal code had swelled to over 613 codes and code violations that were supposed to “help” the righteous obey the original laws and codes God prescribed.

Matthew records one of many times the Pharisees “caught” rabbi Jesus or his followers “breaking” the law. Ah, but a Jesus wasn’t an ordinary rabbi. He wasn’t just trained to know the laws (and codes) of God. He was trained to actually KNOW God Himself. Who knows when Jesus knew who he really was. But, from a very young age (12), Jesus focused his life on one thing – he must be about his Father’s business! And he wasn’t taking about being a stonemason and carpenter.

Jesus was clearly capable of not only knowing God’s law, but perfectly comfortable talking about the intent of those laws and the inevitable “loopholes” that come with them. You see the Pharisees had forever found loopholes that served themselves and those loopholes were used to their advantage and the poor’s disadvantage. You don’t think this irritated God? Jesus had also found loopholes of mercy, which served the intent and principle of the law without violating it. Smart right? Yeah, righteously brilliant!

Jesus’ killer lines to address the Pharisees’ hearts are amazing. “Haven’t you read?” Oh snap, isn’t that the coolest. Oh, my friends, you must have missed the part where God allows for special circumstances 😳. Again, principles can accommodate special circumstances without violating the intent of a law. He quoted David’s and Moses’s behaviors that clearly violated the strict reading of the religious law they had been propagating. Jesus’ name dropping of high-level and beloved leaders was no accident! I love that Jesus even admitted, David “broke the law.” And Moses, “allowed” the priests to break the law as well. Touché Jesus.

But even still, Jesus wasn’t trying to one-up the Pharisees, shaming them (even though they deserved it) or to just win a religious argument (too often done today). His intent was to soften the hardened hearts of the religious leaders who might hear the truth and be set free. He told them exactly where the law leads and why it is so ineffective. Quoting Hosea 6:6, Jesus tells them, “I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.”

The law shows no mercy. The law has no capacity for mercy. In fact, the law is and was used to show the legal and moral reasoning of why judgment MUST be pronounced on all who break it! The system of justice shows no mercy because it is impervious to excuses, causes or reasons for violating it.

People say they want justice for all, but that can hardly be true. We don’t want true justice for all because that would mean true judgment and death for all. None are perfect – we know this instinctively! We just want weird forms of justice on our opinionated, loopholed, lopsided views! Jesus sets up the inescapable truth, mercy is the only way out and He is the only one to show it, live it and prove it by His death and resurrection. We can only get mercy through Christ.

Prayer

Dad,
I would not, do want, to be judge by the law! I am fine living and thriving under your mercy and grace! However, seeing my own sinfulness and inability to not just keep the Old Testament Law, but knowing that I am sadly still making sinful decisions keeps my judginess in check. Of course I glare at bad drivers and get angry at bad fathers or husbands, but I also know how much I have failed and how desperate I am for your grace. Thank your for the work of Jesus on the cross for my sin and His resurrection power in me today.

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God’s axe to grind.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Matthew let’s us know that John the Baptizer and the teachers of the law and ruling class of religious leaders over the Jews did NOT get along nor see eye to eye. So much for being on the same team, right? Why didn’t they like each other, where’s the love and unity here? John had a quick nickname for them – snake broods. Or offspring of snakes.

Interesting that later on Jesus told the religious leaders that they were in fact the kin of their father, the “father” of lies (John 8:44), tying our thoughts to the original garden scene where Satan is the deceiving snake who temps the couple into disbelieving God.

Shocker, these religious leaders were not on the God-squad at all. They were working and cheering for the wrong team. John says, “who warned you?” Had they been listening to John’s messages? Had they been baptized, showing repentance for their sins? Then John says something that Jesus picks up and repeats later in Luke 6:46. John, “prove it by the way you live!” John also drops the good-fruit bearing tree analogy, which Jesus also talks about later in Matthew 7:18, and 12:33.

Does John quote the religious leaders when they were saying, “we’re safe?” Safe from what? Judgment? Eternal fire (Gehenna) or hell? But they were NOT safe, were they? The axe God was grinding was from this very old imagery when God actually did chop down the tree representing Israel many times in the past, but always left the root of the symbolic tree in tact. God spared the “root of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:10).

Jesus is that root and any life, any fruit that would come from that “tree of life,” would live and continue to produce good fruit. However, any branch that did not come from this root, this Jesus’ tree would be SEVERED from its root and thrown into the fire. It’s story, it’s lineage, it’s legacy would not continue. John’s symbol of an axe, is God’s axe of judgment, of finality, the end of Satan’s seeds of lies growing sickly trees filled with rotten fruit. John saw all of this as the religious pretenders walked up as looky-loos wanting the crowds to see that they were on God’s team as well. But they weren’t.

Prayer

Dad,
The last thing I would ever want is to be a pretentious pretender, faking my life, my faith and my behaviors to impress everyone. I’m in this for the relationship with you. I’m in this for life, for eternity. My past and my “good deeds,” are not all that impressive when compared to your grace and glory. I do want to be a contender NOT a pretender. I was grafted into this tree of life, of faith because of Jesus. And I absolutely want to produce good fruit, not to prove my salvation, but proving my gratitude.

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What is it about the Seven churches in Revelation?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive: “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan.” Revelation‬ ‭2:8-9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​I don’t spend a lot of time in the book of Revelation. A book of endings. John, the revelator, is writing what he sees and it is filled with mystery, and God summarizing the finality of the story that began in Genesis and now has its apocalyptic conclusions here. John also gives us the letters to the churches, kind of an update on how they are doing and how the gospel either continues to thrive through the people or how it suffers because of sin, error or distractions. John says these letters are from Christ himself who brings praise, correction or judgment to the church’s behavior. There are seven churches listed. Each one, similar has an understanding from God about the struggles they face and most have a complaint or an admonition as well.

The church of Smyrna only has encouragement and a warning of severe suffering ahead. They were already suffering and poor, John notes, but more will be coming. Their enemies are strong and powerful, but God is with them. I find it interesting that these are individual churches in real cities at the time of John’s writing. These are not seven denominations because they all believe in the same thing. At this time there is no mention of differences in doctrine, polity or practics, they are all ONE church under Jesus. I think each church was too busy struggling for their life, or their sin to be splitting hairs over styles of worship (hymns, choruses, sitting or hands raised), sermons (exegetical, verse by verse, practical, or series), or even church management (elder led, pastor led, congregational, or committee). They were just living or not living the gospel and doing the best they could.

Did you know that some New Testament cities still have a “church” in them? Granted, most are just buildings and do not have a gospel witness through a group of people. Some of the buildings are now tourist attractions only. Some of the cities mentioned have no churches, building or otherwise in them. Take Ephesus for example, they have a lot of monuments and ancient ruins, but no thriving gospel witness in town at all.

The gospel itself is still going out to ALL the world and there are some places that it has not been able to go, thus no church presence has been formed. Much of the emphasis of missions continues to take the message of faith, of grace to these areas where the name of Jesus has not been heard. In the nineties, the church focused on the “10/40” window, highlighting the geographic equator lines where it has been difficult to share the message of Christ. The 10/40 window also refers to the “poorest of the poor” in our world. In the past ten years, there have been so many internal, political struggles within those areas, namely wars and genocides, that refugees have fled their own countries and migrated all over the world. These have been extraordinary opportunities for the them to hear the gospel message. Even in the darkest of political climates and radical religious oppression, God has been speaking to thousands through dreams. Through these powerful dreams, God has put a yearning, a curiosity in the hearts of men and women to find this Jesus that appears to them while they are sleeping. In these last days, we may have difficulty getting the gospel into a nation, but God is supernaturally bringing them out. Some of them may even be your neighbors! You might find yourself being a missionary on your own block!

PRAYER:

Dad,
I am so grateful you found me! I am so grateful for THE Church. I am so grateful for my local church as well. The body of Christ coming together to worship, pray and hear your Word. It is both encouraging and challenging these days because of another round of “falling way.” However, your Church will go on and your gospel will go out because you love us and have made a way for anyone who believes!

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How could religion can be so off mission?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” So the man came forward. Then Jesus said to his critics, “I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” He looked around at them one by one and then said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At this, the enemies of Jesus were wild with rage and began to discuss what to do with him.” Luke‬ ‭6:7-11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

How could things have gone so far off-mission? We have the teachers of religious law and we have Jesus, completely human and God. And, they don’t agree on the correct interpretation nor the intent of God’s law. So the gospel writers give us these little “show-downs.”

Over the hundreds of years the scribes appointed by Ezra were asked to fulfill an important role on behalf of God. God never asked Ezra to assign this to a specific class of men, but it started out so simple, what could be the harm? The scribes duties were as caretakers: protect the law, the temple and the priesthood. Don’t MAKE laws or create systems to care for the temple or elevate and secure the priests to positions of power and wealth. Just help Israel keep God’s stuff in good working order.

Then over many hundreds of years through captivity and wars, and two complete cultural collapses of Judaism, the scribes took on the role of the Israeli secret police per se. They were the watchdogs of everything sacred and meaningful to the Jewish people. It is both surprising and heroic that they were successful in their pursuits and that the law, the temple system and priesthood were still in tact and operational by the time Christ is born and Israel/Judaism is still alive!

The names changed from simple scribes to Pharisees and Sadducees, but their roles had only increased in power and authority. By the time Jesus was thirty, these guys ran EVERYTHING. These “religious leaders” were now wealthy, powerful and very politically involved (too involved). I’ve written this before, but I’m kind of surprised Jesus didn’t THANK them for doing such a fantastic job protecting God’s stuff for him! They actually did keep things going!

Ah, but I’m also surprised that Jesus never had a conversation like this, “Did you guys forget who you work for?” You look and behave nothing like any of the prescribed attendants that Moses wrote about. I’m shocked that Jesus didn’t just directly tell them, “you’re supposed to work for me!”

These stories of conflict over the law and its practical application are how we know the religious leaders were OFF MISSION. The law was FOR people. God’s law was created for people, not people created for the law! Jesus question struck at the heart of the conflict about the Sabbath, “is this a day to SAVE life or DESTROY it? This question would apply to ALL of God’s laws really. Was the law created to save or destroy humans? That one is tricky. Of course it was created to save humans. However, it was also created to give us a clear standard of perfection that would prove how selfish and self-centered we really are. No one was able to keep all of the big ten. And anyone that could not keep the entire big ten would be judged and sentenced for NOT keeping ALL of them!

But, back to the story. Jesus was furious that these self-elevated scribes had so twisted God’s intention – that HEALING on the holy day would be even considered WORK! How horribly wrong could they be? As religious leaders they should have been FIRED and smoked!

Luke writes about the audacity of their complete and utter misunderstanding of their mission. They were NOT protecting they were perpetrating! And they were angry, wild with rage AT God for allowing such a flagrant disregard for all the work they done to perfect themselves. How dare God question our laws! Well now you see now what the fight was all about and who wins. Humans will always create their own laws and their own pitiful paths to perfection. Sad huh? So don’t be like that. And, don’t try to hold others to some ridiculous alternative plan to salvation. It will never work and you’ll end up working against God not for him.

PRAYER:

Dad,
Wow! I do not want my pretentious, religiosity to ever create some false system of salvation for me or anyone else. I get why the Apostles were so frustrated and angry at the regular and ongoing attempts to create these alternative doctrines trying to circumvent the mission of Jesus being the only way to salvation. No additions, no subtractions!

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From fame to furious

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.” Luke‬ ‭4:22-24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This curious scene out of Luke is an interesting story about US – our human nature and how consistently enduring and predictable it can be. This little side-bit is full of information about who WE are. Jesus goes home, and goes to his local synagogue. Nazareth may have been small and considered the “armpit” of Jerusalem, but there were a good number of very devout religious men there – enough to qualify for a synagogue.

Jesus goes to the front of the gathering, confidently unrolls the scroll and finds his text – in Isaiah! I’m sure whispers and eye-raised glances bounced around the room at that point. That day was “Isaiah” day, reading from the longest and most complicated Old Testament prophet book in the history of Judaism. There are no coincidences! And, he thinks he’s going to comment and give a Jewish sermon on it? Yeah right.

Luke, in his punchy wit writes, “He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.” Then Jesus gives his homily…“The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” Whoa.

Questions fill the room, sucking centuries of religious pretense right out of the room! In those stunning moments they began to comment, “Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips.” Then seconds later, someone just had to connect the dots of who and where this young buck came from. So then they mumble into the now religious-free air, “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Then Jesus being the truth-teller, breaks their murmurs mid-thought and hijacks their conclusions saying, do you really want to know why I’ve done no miracles here? Of course it’s a lack of faith, but more than that, you guys won’t let ANYONE grow and mature as God intends and expects. You guys got STUCK and you want everyone around you to lower to your level back to AD 00 or BC 700!

Jesus masterfully does a commentary on two other very famous Old Testament spokespersons: Elijah and Elisha. “Ever wonder why these guys did miracles with foreigners and not Israel?” – Jesus hints. He tells them, there were a lot of needy widows in Israel and their were a lot of sick, skin diseased men in Israel. Why didn’t the prophets do any miracles among their own – the Jews?

Can you feel the tension building in this quiet little synagogue in the small, dusty city of Nazareth? Big pause here as they followed their stale, self-righteousness breadcrumbs to a finger-pointing conclusion.

I knew that Naaman wasn’t Jewish, but I had no idea the Sidon widow wasn’t either. Did you? OUCH!

Obviously, they got the point, the civil and religious leaders in old Israel sucked all the faith out the country, and right out of the people they were leading! One moment they were all having a nice pleasant day in the tabernacle, the next moment they’re foaming at the mouth with arrogant-anger, grabbing pitch forks and torches – “When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.” I think once Jesus was safely out of town, he stopped at the city border and dusted off his sandals, signifying he wouldn’t be returning home again.

PRAYER:

Dad,
Wow, I love it when Jesus interprets and does a great commentary on the Old Testament, pointing out things I never knew or ever saw! This really challenges my own beliefs and faith as well as in leading others. Am I sucking faith out of the air with others in my community? I want to believe and not put any restraints or restrictions on a move of your Spirit. In fact, I want to be for more faith, not less! Help me in my own lack of faith and help our leaders in their faith as well.