Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward

On my tenth birthday, my parents gave me The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales. I’ve always been a bookworm, you see. I can’t claim to have read every single tale in the book, but I did read a great deal. There is one that I vaguely recall, in which a king needed some great thing to be accomplished, the Roc’s Egg brought back to him or some such. He decreed that anyone who did this for him would be given his daughter’s hand in marriage. A peasant boy who had always dreamed of marrying the princess, undertook the quest. He braved mystic forests and foreboding mountains, fought ogres and elves, and returned, having been successful. He married the princess and became the hero of the kingdom.

Stories like this pervade most, if not all, cultures. Heracles went mad one night and killed his wife and children. Regaining his senses and overcome with grief, he undertook his famous 12 Labors to try to win redemption. Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table spent their lives looking for the Holy Grail. The Asian cultures also have their stories of quests and epic feats in the search of riches or immortality or redemption. Our culture is not without such stories: to save Middle Earth, Frodo goes on a long quest to return the One Ring to Mount Doom. Again and again, great treasures require monumental feats to acquire.

This teaches us good things. Get rich quick schemes rarely, if ever, work. If we want to accomplish something in this life, we have to put in the work, the effort, and the time to achieve it. However, this reinforced belief does leave us suspicious of any easy answer and that sometimes is a detriment.

The Bible contains a story about this. The first half of II Kings 5 will be our text. The first verse:

“Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.”

Who was Naaman? He was the general of the Syrian armies. He was very well thought of by the king. He was a “mighty man of valor”. This was an important man, a proud man, a celebrity and hero in his country. He was SOMEBODY. But he had leprosy. Leprosy in the ancient Middle East was probably not the flesh rotting disease known in Middle Ages Europe. It was a skin disease that made the skin white and scaly. Often, it caused odors. Basically, it made the sufferer look, and even smell, like a corpse. Under the Law of Moses, lepers were to be quarantined away from the general population, but even in countries that did not follow the Mosaic Law, lepers were generally shunned and became secluded. Naaman, a proud man in a public career, was looking at losing all he had because of this disease. Do you think he was desperate for a cure? I imagine that he had tried every potion offered by every quack in Syria. To no avail. Keep reading with me:

“Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel." And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.” (vs 2-5)

Can you feel the desperation here? This small child, prattling on like small children do, mentions the prophet in Israel and his God-given abilities. Seizing on this last hope, Naaman goes to the king for permission to enter Israel and, receiving it, takes a huge gift with him to entice the prophet into helping him. The size of this gift is instructive. Ten talents of silver is 30,000 shekels of silver, which tells you nothing until I explain that the average ANNUAL salary of a laborer at that time was 10 shekels of silver. The silver alone that Naaman brought was the equivalent of 3,000 years pay for a common man! Or, another way to look at it, the silver would have weighed 750 lbs in modern measure, and the gold 150 lbs. I haven’t checked the spot price today, but one fairly recent book estimates the value at $750 million in modern buying power. Plus, ten really nice suits of clothes. How badly did Naaman want to be clean? Look at what he was willing to pay!

After some confusion as to where to go, Naaman arrives at Elisha’s house in verse 9:

“So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean." But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.” (vs 9-12)

Naaman, great man of Syria, mighty man of valor and general of the armies, comes to Elisha’s modest house and . . . Elisha doesn’t even bother to come out to see him. He sends a servant. That had to have punctured Naaman’s ego a bit and then the instructions given are just ridiculous. ‘If it was as easy as washing, don’t you think I’d have done that?!’ He had expected an impressive display, chanting and arm waving and hocus pocus. Instead he is told to wash in the Jordan. ‘Our Syrian rivers are better for washing than that muddy stream.’ He goes away angry precisely because the answer was too easy. If there is any doubt on that, read on:

“And his servants came near, and spoke unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? how much rather then, when he says to you, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” (vs 13-14)

The servant points out that if a great feat had been prescribed, Naaman would have been all in for that. Remember what he was willing to pay; would there be anything he wouldn’t do? Imagine if Elisha had said ‘Bring me the heads of 100 lions’ or ‘Climb to the top of the tallest mountain’ and he’d be clean. You know that Naaman, mighty man of valor, would have been on his way with zest to complete such a quest. That wouldn’t have upset him at all. But washing was too easy. His servant finally convinced him that if he were willing to undertake the difficult thing, he ought to do the easy as well, and he washed and was cleaned.

Many people today make the same mistake Naaman almost did. We, too, have a problem. He had leprosy, we are disfigured by sin. Leprosy affects the body, sin rots the soul. If Naaman was willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars and go on exotic quests to be rid of leprosy, what should we be willing to do to be rid of sin? It can’t be something easy, right? That thought is why many modern denominations teach that forgiveness isn’t something that we can reach, but that it takes the direct working of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit must overcome you and lead you to forgiveness. How do we know that has happened? We begin babbling in “tongues” or fall into the aisles in religious fervor. Surely it takes big things like that to be rid of sin, right? Well, what does the Bible say?

Rom 10:9 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Rom 10:14 “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

Combining these verses, we must hear the word taught, believe in our hearts that Jesus was raised from the dead, and be willing to confess Him as Lord. What’s interesting is that we have an example of people just like that in Acts 2. They had heard the Gospel preached by Peter, including that Jesus had been raised from the dead – vs 32 “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.” – and that He was Lord – vs. 36 “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” They believed, being pricked in the heart (vs 37) and asked Peter what they should do. His answer? “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

Understanding all of this, then, means that we must hear the word preached and believe it. Believe in our hearts the gospel of the resurrection and be willing to confess Him as Lord. Then we repent of our sins and are baptized for the remission of those sins and we will be saved, have our sins removed, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is no mention of the Holy Spirit overwhelming us or of babbling in “tongues” or religious frenzies. It is much simpler than that. Too simple, in fact, for many people to believe in it. Like Naaman, they turn away.

But having achieved so great a salvation from so merciful and loving a God, how are we to worship Him? Surely so great a God demands extravagant, awe-inspiring worship. We need rock-and-roll bands combined with shouting, dancing, and rolling in the aisles, right? Or perhaps we need to build monumental temples to Him filled with statuary and decorated by beautiful artworks in which imposing priests in impressive robes conduct ancient rites in a dead language? Again, our great God deserves such impressive worship, right? Well, what does the Bible say?

Col. 3:16 We are to sing praises to Him and teaching to each other.
1 Tim. 4:13 We are to teach and preach God’s word.
Eph. 6:18, 1 Thess. 5:17 We are to pray.
1 Cor. 11:23-25, Acts 20:7, We are to partake in His supper on the first day of the week.
1 Cor. 16:1-2 On the first day of the week we are to take up a collection.

And that’s it. It is simple. Too simple for some to accept, but we don’t apologize for the simplicity of our worship to God because it is precisely what He asked us to do.

Paul warns us in 1 Cor. 1:21-23 that many will be turned away by the simplicity of the Gospel and the teaching of the New Testament. Like Naaman almost was, these will be turned off because it is just too easy. They can’t grasp that something so great can be achieved in such a simple manner. So they turn away.

Don’t be like them. For once, take the easy way out.

Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

The teacher said something about the baptism of John being for the remission of sins.  An older man spoke up to correct him with the usual line, "John's baptism was for repentance and Jesus' baptism was for the remission of sins; John's was not for the remission of sins."

The teacher replied, "Read Mark 1:4 please."

The man continued his explanations of John's baptism in the tone of correcting a slow student.

"Please read Mark 1:4 aloud for the class."

He continued his points, but the teacher interrupted, "Look, this class is going no further until you read Mark 1:4 aloud for us."

Muttering that he had already studied the issue thoroughly, the man turned and read, "John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." The man looked up and in a quiet voice said, "I never knew that was in there."

Now, the man was a serious Bible student and had read his Bible many times in his life, so he had to have read that verse many times.  But, he had heard John's baptism explained away so many times that he did not see what was clearly stated.  What he thought he knew blinded him to learning.  That incident made me begin questioning how many ways and times I had done the same sort of thing.

First, this is the reason my main study Bible has no notes or underlining or highlighting.  As useful as those can be, they put your mind in the groove of things you already know.  They can keep one from seeing anything new in the passage.  I have notebooks full of notes, but my Bible is read anew each time I pick it up.

Another useful tool is to read a numberless Bible.  At 71, I have been reading Bibles 65 years.  When I first read a text without the verse and chapter numbers, I was amazed at how easy and quick it was, and also how many new connections I made without those speed bump numbers.  I created and printed that first text on a computer.  Now such Bibles are available, some with chapter numbers in the margin and at least one where one must turn to the Table of Contents to find the beginning of a book.  They all are useful to open our eyes to things we "never knew were in there."

Another useful tool is to read the same paragraph in more than one translation, then move on to do the same with the next paragraph.  Be aware that modern translations have broken large paragraphs up into "sound-bite" pieces to suit the fashion of our times.  That often breaks one thought into 3 or 4 and the reader fails to see the point made by the inspired writer.  Use the paragraphing of the 1901 ASV whatever translations you may be reading.  Available online, it is rarely wrong in this.  Just like chapter breaks can obscure connections, so can wrong paragraph breaks.  For example, 1 Cor 9 is one paragraph, one thought. The ESV & NASB divide it into 6.  In a study, one will discover 6 thoughts and possibly miss the one over-riding thought that is the theme of the whole paragraph/chapter.

Read to discover what one paragraph's main thought has to do with the one before and the one after and where that chain ends.  Often, the interpretation of a particular phrase will depend on its place in an extended argument.  For example, 1 Cor 8 – 11:1a is one theme.  That effects a reader's understanding of the purpose and meaning of many of the links that make up that chain.
God bless you in finding jewels of truth you "never knew were in there."
 
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2Tim 2:15)
 
Keith Ward

Today's' post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

In Numbers 13:1-3, God tells Moses to send spies to look over the land He had promised them. Moses chose one man from each tribe. He selected Caleb from the tribe of Judah (v6). The spies were given their instructions in verses 17-20:

“Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, ‘Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.’ Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.”

And so Caleb and the other eleven spies spent 40 days looking over the land.  Upon their return, the spies acknowledged the richness of the land, but 10 of them fearfully warned the people (vs 28-29) “…the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” Before the people could be dismayed, Caleb broke in to offer encouragement: vs. 30 “But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.’” Caleb’s faith in God’s power hadn’t wavered as he viewed those fortified cities.

Num. 13:31-33 “Then the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.’ So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.’”

The first four verses of chapter 14 tell us that the people believ in the doubting spies, rather than in God.  Joshua joins Caleb in exhorting the people to follow God (vs. 6-9), but the people threaten to stone them.  God then shows His Glory and pronounces judgment upon the faithless people: none of them older than twenty would see the Promised Land, other than Caleb and Joshua. Instead, they’d wander in the wilderness for 40 years waiting to die. (14:28-35)
Think of what that meant to Caleb for a moment.  His faith in God had never wavered.  He had contended earnestly, trying to lead God’s people in faith to the Promised Land.  He would have to wait 40 more years to see that land again.  He had done nothing wrong, and yet he had to bear the punishment with the sinners around him.  When I try to picture myself in Caleb’s place, I think I’d be wailing “God! This isn’t fair!”  There is no evidence that Caleb reacted in this way.  He faithfully followed God through the wilderness for the next forty years.  And that is the first lesson we can learn from Caleb.  Sometimes bad things happen to good people for no other reason than there is sin in the world.  Why did Caleb have to wait another four DECADES to enter the Promised Land?  Because he was in the midst of a sinful people.  Like Caleb, bad things will happen to us sometimes.  Not because we’ve sinned.  Not because God is punishing us.  Simply because we are on a sinful planet surrounded by sinful people.  Like Caleb we need to quietly follow God in faith until He finally leads us to our Promised Land.

Caleb did eventually see the Promised Land again when Joshua led the next generation into Palestine.  Caleb faithfully followed the leader of God’s people and at 80+ years old he continued to fight God’s battles.  When the conquest was complete and the land was being divided among the various tribes, Caleb stood up and claimed the reward he had been promised for his faithfulness.

Joshua 14:6-14 “Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.' And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said." Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.”

Caleb was 85 years old.  He had been faithfully following God his whole life.  When his reward was delayed because he was surrounded by a sinful people, he waited patiently.  Now, at the end of his life, it was time for Caleb to claim his prize.  What did he ask for?  The hardest fight that remained, that’s what.  He wasn’t ready to take it easy, he wanted to prove the power of God, and prove his doubting neighbors wrong, by taking the strongest city yet remaining.  Caleb was still ready to fight for God.

Reading this leads me to ask myself how ready I am to fight God’s battles?  Am I reluctantly willing if forced into it, or am I eager to fight for God?  One reason I bring this question up has to do with some comments I’ve heard about James 1:2-4.  This passage famously says we should rejoice when faced with tribulations because such things lead to patience.  I’ve heard multiple people (including preachers) from several different congregations and across all age ranges say things like “Be careful about praying for patience, because you know God will send you tribulations to build your patience.”  Well, yes, probably.  That is how patience is developed.  “But it will be painful and hard!”  Yes, but is it really better to not have patience?

In 2 Pet 1:5-7, in the famous list of “Christian virtues,” patience stands right in the middle.  In verses 8 and 10 we are told that having these qualities will keep us from being ineffective and that if we have them we will never fall.  So, we can’t be complete Christians without patience.  Considering the rewards we are promised, isn’t it worth the effort and pain of growing patience?  How much are we willing to fight for God?

A similar concept comes with the growth of faith.  Someone asked me, based off Luke 17:5, if we could ask God for an increase of faith.  This person’s idea was that it is their own responsibility to grow their faith, that God wouldn’t reach down and touch them and infuse them with greater faith.  We discussed it and I said that the prayer for faith wouldn’t lead to a magical increase, but that God would put them in situations that would force them to grow their faith all the while supporting them in their efforts. The statement was made, “Well, it seems that if I ask for faith that God will just put me through the ringer.”  Ok, that may be true.  Even if it is, isn’t a greater faith worth it?  If we are saved by grace through faith, don’t we want our faith to be strong?  It may be hard, but am I willing to fight God’s fights like Caleb, or am I afraid, like the Israelites?

Again, Hebrews 12:8 says that if we are in the family of God we will be chastised so that we will grow.  While chastisement is never fun (vs 11) isn’t being a part of the family of God worth it?

The life of a Christian is not easy.  It is a life of fighting for self-control, of earnestly contending for the faith, of enduring tribulations and trials.  The promises of reward are great, but the fight is tough.  We have to decide if we, like Caleb, are willing to fight God’s fights, or if we are too fearful, and maybe lazy, and want to take the easy, wide path.
 
Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
"Or else" was something Mama rarely said twice. When we heard that tone and those words, we stopped arguing, stopped what we were doing, stopped dawdling and got to it. Now!

People who spend time in the prophets rarely have difficulty understanding the meaning or urgency of repentance. On the other hand, preachers can line up all the Greek words and definitions and illustrations of the way people used those words in New Testament times and still some will find room to quibble. Then, some go into long discussions about "walking in the light" and how one slip does not negate all the years of walking....But hear Ezekiel:

"And thou, son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither shall he that is righteous be able to live thereby in the day that he sins. When I say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he has committed, therein shall he die. Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; ... he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him: he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. (Ezek 33:12-16, ASV).

This seems hard to misunderstand. Just as Mama never wanted to execute the unspoken, "or else," neither did God. "Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto Jehovah your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and repents him of the evil. (Joel 2:13) Mama had to bring the "or else" down upon us a few times before we learned to properly react.  God does not want to punish, He wants to send mercy and lovingkindness, but we must react when He says, "Or else."

We do not like to think of the "little sins" we do as being "evil ways." We come up with all sorts of arguments and excuses and dawdle about making the changes that God prescribed. We think that maybe all the things we get right will make everything turn out all right. Meanwhile, Paul said, "Or else" to the Corinthians and they exhibited "earnest care" in the matter of their weaknesses and sins, they cleared themselves of the problems, they feared God and were indignant against their sins. Thus, they approved themselves to be pure (2 Cor 7:9-11).
 
To be a child of God in imitation of Jesus, we must STOP SINNING. It can be done. Satan excuses; God will help. "God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will make the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it." (1Cor 10:13 selected).
 
Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof: neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (Rom 6:11-13)
 
Keith Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

One of my favorite stories in Genesis is one of the least well known.  I learned the extent of this story from reading my brother’s book The Growth of the Seed: Notes on the Book of Genesis.  When most people turn to the end of Genesis, they think of the story of Joseph, but I think of the story of Judah.

When we first meet Judah, he isn’t exactly a nice man.  We all know that the 10 older sons of Jacob hated Joseph.  He was clearly their dad’s favorite and he didn’t shy away from telling the dreams which seemed to predict his preeminence over the family.  One day the older brothers caught Joseph alone and planned to kill him.  In Gen. 37:26-27 Judah offers another idea: sell Joseph into slavery.  His motive wasn’t saving the life of his younger brother; it was greed.  Some have tried to justify Judah in this, but think of all the news stories recently about human trafficking.  There was nothing merciful in Judah here.  He might well have been sending Joseph to an early grave as a slave, but at least it lined his pocket!  And so Joseph is sold.

In Genesis 38 Judah has left the family of God.  Surely Judah knew of the promises God had made to his great-grandfather.  He knew his family was the family of promise and that the blessing of God was passed down through his family, yet he chose to leave and go his own way.  His absence wasn’t short either.  He married, had three sons, raised them, and arranged a marriage for his oldest.  So, he was gone for nearly 20 years at that point.  Judah’s character shows again when we see how wicked his sons were.  His oldest was so wicked God struck him dead.  The next son, who took the widow of his brother to raise up an heir in the dead brother’s name, enjoyed the benefits of that arrangement without accepting any of the responsibility so God struck him dead too.  One might strongly question the idea of Judah as a righteous father.  Judah held back his youngest son from his daughter-in-law (Tamar) on the pretext that he was too young and Tamar went to live with her parents.  Time went by, however, and the youngest son grew to an age to handle the responsibility but still Tamar was left alone.  She began plotting to get what was truly hers by the laws of that time and place.

Meanwhile, Judah’s wife dies.  After he finishes his period of mourning, he goes to the sheep shearing, an event with a festival atmosphere.  On the way, Judah saw what he thought was a temple prostitute and decided to engage her services.  So he is not only committing fornication, but is also participating in the worship of an idol. He leaves his signet ring, staff and the cord worn on his neck with the prostitute as a guarantee that he’d send payment back to her.  Turns out the prostitute was actually his daughter-in-law Tamar who was just taking from him what he should have given to her.  [A quick aside: whatever we think of Tamar’s tactics, God seems to have been ok with it. Not only is she not condemned anywhere in this story – and in fact, Judah will later say she was more righteous than he – but Tamar is one of only three women listed among Jesus’ ancestors in Matthew 1. That seems to be a pretty ringing endorsement.]  When it is discovered that Tamar is pregnant, Judah plans to execute her for her loose ways until she shows the ring, cord, and staff and lets it be known that Judah is the father.  His reaction -- “And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She is more righteous than I; forasmuch as I gave her not to Shelah my son.  And he knew her again no more” Gen. 38:26 -- seems to be one of true remorse and repentance because the next time we meet Judah he is back with the family of God.

Not only is Judah back with his family, he has gained status as the family's spokesperson.  When the seven years of famine came and the ten sons of Jacob went to Egypt to buy grain (because God had raised Joseph to second in the land after he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and Joseph planned appropriately for the famine), they didn’t recognize Joseph and he treated them rather roughly.  He insisted that the next time they come they bring their youngest brother to “prove” that they aren’t spies. When they get home and tell Jacob of the demands of the Egyptian lord, he refuses to consider it. In 42:37-38 Reuben tries to convince Jacob saying that he will be responsible for Benjamin.   Jacob ignores Reuben.  Finally, when things get really bad, Judah offers to be responsible for Benjamin and Jacob relents (43:8-13).  Judah had obtained a respectability higher than his oldest brother.  When they get to Egypt, Joseph arranges things so he can accuse Benjamin of being a thief and keep his younger brother with him.  The other brothers, still not recognizing Joseph, believe a calamity has occurred. Judah gives a speech, part of which follows:

Gen 44:30-34 “Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad is not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life; it will come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die: and thy servants will bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then shall I bear the blame to my father forever. Now therefore, let thy servant, I pray thee, abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, if the lad be not with me? lest I see the evil that shall come on my father.”

When Judah sold Joseph into slavery he had no concern for the feelings of his father and stood by callously as Jacob wept over Joseph.  Now, he is so concerned for his father – and his brother – that he is willing to take the place of Benjamin.  He begs for the right to live as a slave so that his brother may go free. It is reminiscent of John 15:13.  While he wasn’t dying for Benjamin, he was giving up his life for him. This is a complete transformation from being a totally selfish man to being a man of love.  We see this complete transformation acknowledged by God when Jacob prophesies that the scepter will not depart from the house of Judah until Shiloh come (49:8-12).  The blessing that had passed from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob was now being passed to Judah.

That almost seems strange, doesn’t it?  Think of how wicked Judah had been in his early life.  He sold his brother to human traffickers and then lied to his dad saying Joseph was dead.  He left the family of God.  He raised two extraordinarily wicked sons.  He slept with a prostitute and likely worshiped an idol while he did so.  BUT he came back to the family of God.  He learned to love others and put them before himself.  He learned to be self-sacrificing.  It was for this repentance and faithful working in the family of God that he was blessed. Judah changed and God forgave.

It’s amazing how many of the great men of the Bible had huge failures.  Think about it: Abraham repeatedly lied (Gen. 12, 20).  Moses disobeyed and took the credit for a miracle (Num. 20:10-11).  David murdered and committed adultery (2 Sam. 11).  Peter denied the Lord (Matt. 26:69-75).  Paul persecuted the church (Acts 8:3, 22:4).  What all this means, what the story of Judah teaches, is that no matter how far you've fallen, you can still come back to the Lord.  No matter what you’ve done, God will forgive you and give you a place in His family.  If God will forgive Judah and allow the blessing of the coming Messiah to fall on him, then he will forgive us as well.  We can enjoy the blessings of the glorified Messiah.  All we have to do is repent and return to the family of God.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Pet. 3:9.

Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

God gave his name, “I AM THAT I AM” to Moses.  We commonly explain that as expressing the thought that he is the “self-existent one”. Certainly, that is true and ought to be made very clear, but I think his name also expresses that he is the one with purpose.  God always was and always will be when “always” ceases to have meaning.  Purpose goes beyond existence to the plan and the goal and the energy to complete them.

We have not always been.  But, because God breathed into Adam the breath of life to be in his image, we have the birthright of being an “i am”.  Whether we like it or not, this is true from the existence standpoint—we will always be.  That it is true from the purpose aspect is seen by the lives of those who have left God.  Without God, their life has no purpose, no meaning.  "Why?" becomes the only meaningful question and there is no answer.  Despair, seeking the latest thrill, anti-depressants, divorce, living for the weekend, drug abuse, all express that man no longer sees himself as an “i am” to God’s “I AM”.

So, are you living with purpose of a self-existent soul (but one that had a beginning) in awareness and fellowship with your source? Are you attuned to HIS plan that will grant meaning to an otherwise dreary life? Or, will your existence become a burden and curse for eternity?

You are God's offspring.  Do you wear his name?

I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people….And I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. (2Cor 6:16-18)

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. (1John 3:1)

Keith Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

Numbers 25 begins with a sad tale. The children of Israel allowed themselves to be drawn away by the “daughters of Moab” and bowed themselves to the Moabites’ gods. God became angry and sent a plague which killed 24,000 of his people. God told Moses to slay all those who had joined themselves to the Moabites’ gods.  Moses passes this on to the judges of the people and it is done.  Or so everyone thought.  In verse six we see that, while everyone is gathered by the door of the tabernacle grieving over what had happened, one man brazenly appeared with one of these women.  What happens next might be considered startling:

Num. 25:7-8 “And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.”

No doubt, some in Israel thought that Phinehas had acted precipitously.  Lest any accuse him of that, God pronounced His blessing upon Phinehas:

Num. 25:10-13 “And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.”

Phinehas turned away God’s wrath because he was jealous for God.  His anger on God's behalf at seeing his countryman turning after another god resulted in his killing that man.  He was so zealous to keep Israel pure for God that he wiped out the sin from Israel and was vindicated by God.

Would God say the same about me that He said about Phinehas?  No, I’m not advocating “honor killings” in the church, but just how jealous am I for the Lord?  Does it disgust and sadden me when I see people turning from the Lord, having been caught up in this life?  When an impenitent sinner is defiling spiritual Israel am I ready to “Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened”? (1 Cor. 5:7)  Or do I keep making excuses for the sinner?  

Speaking of purity, how far am I willing to go to maintain my own purity?  Paul talks about beating his body to keep it under control (1 Cor. 9:27), a figure of speech I’m sure, but one that illustrates Paul’s dedication to his purity.  Do I keep my carnal, fleshly urges under tight control or do I give in to every temptation?  How hard do I fight, how jealous am I for God?

God made a “covenant of peace” with Phinehas because Phinehas demonstrated a fierce jealousness, or zealousness, for the Lord.  When God sees my zeal for Him, would He offer me the same, or would He turn sadly away?

Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
With nearly 2000 years of the history of God as Father, it is difficult for us to imagine the impact the gospel had on the ancient world.  Gospel means “Good News.”  To us, it is so familiar that we cannot even see why they thought of it as astoundingly GOOD news.  I hope to create in us the same viewpoint those ancient pagans had which will help us see why the gospel of Jesus exploded across the empire.  And, maybe to open our eyes to another way to reach lost souls.

The pagan view of "god" was one reasoned by the philosophers such as Plato, Zeno, Aristotle, and others not so well known.  They felt that god must be far removed from this corrupt world and indifferent to it.  As a being of pure reason, how could god care what happened to men or even be aware of it.  In fact, the philosophers held matter, and especially emotion, to be so evil in relation to the purity of reason that god himself could not have created it.  The god was unemotional, implacable, and unmovable (hard not to think of Calvinisim/TULIP here which, in fact, stole this concept of God from the pagans via Augustine).  
 
An emanation thousands of descents removed from god was the actual creator and even then not a participant in creation.  Inasmuch as these lesser gods interacted with humans at all, they were capricious at best and vicious on a whim.  The major goal of the pagan sacrificial system was to get god to leave them alone.  A pagan’s life was spent hoping the gods never noticed him or at least did not care enough to lash out at him.

Into this world burst the gospel of a God who cares, a God who is good and sends good things, a God who loves and not only loves, but loved so much that he sent his Son.  Gods coming to be among men was not new in the mythologies, but they came to satisfy their own lusts and to toy with men.  God sent his son to rescue men and elevate them and give them hope.  When this gospel was ratified by signs from heaven and not just magical wonders, but signs that healed and helped mortals, men flocked to the truth.

Further, the gospel offered hope: hope now and hope to come.  What could an ordinary man be?  He would live and work and die and, outside his city, who would know or care?  The gospel offered meaning to life, a man could engage in cosmic warfare in the heavenlies.  A Christian was a warrior known by name to his Captain who strengthened him and rewarded him in life.  And in place of the dismal realms of the dead found in the mythologies, the gospel offered eternal life.  To be somebody--even kings and presidents are not remembered long--but God knows your name.  Men’s monumental achievements are forgotten in a generation and who cares anyway (except for the history test), but a man's righteousness and holiness is a victory written in the book of life before the Father’s throne.

That gospel is still good news to the nobodies, to the downtrodden and forgotten, to the everyday man who will never be the footnote to a footnote in history.  Is that not who heard Jesus gladly?
 
The gospel they preached always held forth that hope of eternal life and being special to God as their motivation for purity and faithfulness.  Are you preaching hope? Living hope? Do you even hear about hope?
 
Today, people are not concerned about sin, hence salvation from sin is a meaningless gospel to them.  If we preach to them the gospel of love, hope and meaning, the God of all hope will draw them  to seek to be holy as he is holy.
 
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is. And every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1John 3:1-3)
 
Keith Ward
 

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

In our culture, most history books are written to record events for posterity.  Often, great pains are taken to give a balanced, nonpartisan account of those events.  Sometimes history books are written with the aim of bolstering a political viewpoint, but largely academic histories are written with the intent to simply tell what happened.  This is not the way ancient historians wrote history.  From Herodotus to Plutarch and on to the end of the Roman Empire, histories and biographies were written to teach life lessons. A great man’s heroic qualities were held up to be emulated and his failures were studied to be avoided.  For some reason all this occurred to me as I was reading David McCullough’s book on the Wright brothers.  So I read the book to see what I could learn from it which could be applied to my life.

The Wright brothers were known for their work ethic and their patience.  The Wrights were industrious almost to a fault.  Before they took it upon themselves to invent aeronautics, they started a newspaper while still in their teens.  They started their bike shop, working 10-12 hour days, and then went home to work on renovating their house.  When they decided to learn how to fly, they continued to run their bike shop and worked on their flying machines in their spare time.  It took better than 10 years before they perfected their flight method.

Not only were the Wrights willing to work hard, but they were patient in the face of numerous setbacks. They first learned to control a glider in flight using a method of wing warping that closely mimicked what birds do to maintain balance in flight.  The theory was good, but implementation was an on-going process that involved several minor crashes.  They would get up, dust themselves off, repair the damage to their glider and make whatever revisions experience taught them were necessary.  

They discovered that the mathematical tables in text-books regarding the shapes wings needed to have to maintain lift were wrong.  They set about to re-do the experimental work necessary.   They built a small wind tunnel and spent many hours over a period of weeks making their determinations.  Once they had a successful powered flight, in 1903, they continued to work, finally showcasing their flyer before the world in 1909.  While others had made flights in the interim, the Wrights set and reset every record for length of flight, altitude achieved, and duration of flight while stunning all on-lookers with the complete control they had over their craft.  Their patient, steadfast work had borne fruit; they ushered in the age of mechanized flight.

I hope the application to the Christian life is obvious.  We are to patiently work for our Lord.  Not that our works can earn our salvation, no, but as servants of God, we are to be busily serving Him.  A few passages to make this point clear:

2 Tim. 2:15 “Give diligence to present yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth.”

The word translated “give diligence” in the ASV is defined by Strong’s this way: make effort, be earnest, give diligent, endeavor. The bing internet dictionary defines diligence as “constant and earnest effort”. So, becoming an unashamed workman who can properly handle the word is an on-going struggle.  I can’t cram it down in one all-nighter.  It takes the patient work of years, overcoming many obstacles along the way, chiefly my own ignorance and arrogance.

But wait, there’s more:

Heb. 4:11 “Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience.”

Having just discussed that there awaits for us a more perfect rest (Heaven) than the rest obtained by the Israelites, the Hebrew writer enjoins us to work that patient work to ensure we can enter into that rest. Then there’s

2 Pet. 1:10 “Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things, you shall never stumble”

Here Peter sums up his discussion of the “Christian virtues” by exhorting us to be diligent in our efforts to acquire those virtues ourselves. Why? So that we “never stumble”. Peter also tells us to be diligent to be found without spot or blemish in the day of the Lord:

2 Pet. 3:14 “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, give diligence that you may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight.”

So, from these few passages we can see that the Christian life involves diligent effort to learn to properly handle God’s word, diligent effort to obtain the virtues all Christians should share, diligent effort to be ready to meet the Lord, and diligent effort to enter into His rest.  It seems that the Wright brothers, with their patient and steady effort, make good role models for Christians, the difference being that our triumphant flight through the air won’t be in a bi-wing plane:

1 Thess. 4:17 “then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
As we consider this memorial feast, we should return and try to recapture the disciples’ thoughts as they heard it for the first time.  Why?  Decades later, three of the gospel writers recorded the scene for the church that then was, and the Holy Spirit preserved it for the church of all time exactly as it was instituted, not as it came to be under later ecclesiasticism.  When the Corinthians abused the feast, the apostle Paul pointed them back to “in the night in which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus….” Thus, we see that what they saw, what they understood on that night is essential to our understanding and proper observation of this memorial.  Too often, our understanding has been so colored by interpretations and happenings since “the night in which he was betrayed” that we miss essential points and bend passages to mean what we have come to understand instead of understanding what happened and the meaning God intended.
 
First, the disciples that night did not know about the cross and sacrificial death of Jesus.  Certainly, the supper is pregnant with that meaning by the time the disciples began to meet on the first day of the week.  It will blossom more fully in our spiritual minds if we first comprehend their understanding.  Otherwise, we may be missing significant nuances in the glare of the obvious. Yes, Jesus taught them about the coming cross over and over beginning at Peter’s confession (Mt 16:18).  After the supper he stated that he, “the shepherd,” would be smitten and they would be scattered.  Peter, understood that much and denied that he would ever leave the Lord.  Jesus also referred to the resurrection:  “after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee.”  Still, they did not understand the death, burial and resurrection.  
 
In our classes we often point out all the clues and remark how dense they were.  Be cautious:  Out of a nation that God carefully prepared for two thousand years, a large number chose to follow Jesus.  He then prayed all night and from those chose these 12.  They were the culmination of God’s plan, the best of the best in the best nation in the entire world.  Sometimes we seem to join the council in their contempt “that they were unlearned and ignorant men” in opposition to God’s choice of them (Ax 4:13).
 
So, then, if even they missed what later the Holy Spirit certified as the main point, what did they see, what did they understand that we may be missing in the glorious light of that greatest of all truths?
 
First, they undoubtedly were excited by his statement that the kingdom would come before the next Passover, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover …for … I shall not eat it until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (Lk 22:15-16).  They also heard him say that “this is my blood of the new covenant” (Mt 26:28).  They knew that every covenant, from God’s covenant with Abram to the covenant with Israel at Sinai, had been inaugurated with the blood of sacrifices (Gen 15:9-21; Ex 24:5-8).   They knew that Jeremiah promised a new covenant at the time of the Messiah (31:31-34).  They must have been bursting with excitement for he had just proclaimed, now is the time, I am the man.
 
Then, let us note some simple things from their observations on that night.  When he said, “This is my body,” they could see Jesus standing there and knew that the unleavened bread had not become his body.  They would immediately understand the metaphor being familiar with many such from God’s preparation in the Old Testament, e.g., God is a rock (Psa 18:31), “Judah is a lion’s whelp” (Gen 49:9).   When he “took a cup” and said, “This is my blood,” (Mt 26:27-28), they knew it had nothing to do with the container.   Jesus specified, “This (the antecedent of which is “cup”) is my blood.”   They understood and did as he said, “Drink ye all of it,” and it was still fruit of the vine.
 
So, then, what did they think he meant by his expressive figures? What teaching had they received that led to the understanding they had?
 
The first place we think to look for a clue to their knowledge is John 6:48-58.   We have often read this over the supper and tend to equate the bread in John 6 as the bread of the Lord’s Supper and the blood of John 6 as the fruit of the vine.  Jesus was teaching something else entirely.  Anything more than a careless reading of the passage and context shows that Jesus uses both the body and blood in reference to his having come down out of heaven as the bread of life.  In other words, his incarnation is the body and blood which he challenges them to partake of, in a spiritual sense, of course.  In the context of the Lord’s Supper, that would refer to the body, and to only the body.  John 6 is not a prequel to the Lord’s Supper at all.  It is a challenge to those alleged disciples to dispense with all other philosophies or sources of life.  He is it.  Eat him and him only as spiritual sustenance. Who he was and What he was and How he lived are the bread of life.  Certainly, they so understood it—they said it was a hard saying, they understood exactly and rejected it as too hard, too demanding.  The apostles also understood but they knew they had no choice, “To whom shall we go? …we have believed and know that thou art the holy one of God,” (the incarnate).
 
Often, speakers who bless the bread talk of his body as it hung on the cross.  No, his body on the cross is referred to by, “This is my blood.”  The blood refers to death as in Isa 53:12, “He poured out his soul unto death.”  “The life is in the blood” (Lev 17:11)  refers to the blood he sacrificed, the life he gave and the carcass hanging on the cross is not what he meant when he said, “This is my body.”   That phrase refers to the incarnation.  When we take of the bread, we are to be remembering that “The word became flesh [“This is my body”] and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). “This is my body” includes all that life from when he “emptied himself and took the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men and being found in the fashion as a man” to the night in which he was betrayed.  All that happened after the fatal kiss in beatings, mockings, scourgings, in thorns and nails, are included in “This is my blood”—“becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross” (Phil 2:6-9).  
 
This is the pre-eminent falsehood of the insertion in 1 Cor 11 that “This is my body which is broken for you.”  Not only do all scholars, and the overwhelming majority of manuscripts, agree that the word “broken” is an insertion and not written by Paul or the Holy Spirit, the meaning of “body” is the incarnation, not Jesus on the cross.  That, John specifically says, was not broken in the context of the giving of the life of the Pascal lamb, i.e. “This is my blood” (Jn 19:36).   If we who often think the disciples were dense understand what they understood “in the night in which he was betrayed, we would know that the incarnation was not broken, by its nature could not be broken.  From John 6, they knew that body = bread down out of heaven = his life, and when he stood before them, that is what they heard.  They knew that “This is my body” referred to his incarnation.
 
At least two of the disciples had heard John the Immerser proclaim, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world” (Jn1:29,35).  On this night, as they ate the Pascal lamb and Jesus spoke of “his blood which is poured out for many unto the remission of sins,” they certainly connected the memorial they were eating with something greater that was about to happen.  Their comprehension was vague, but they understood that in the future, remembrance of Jesus and salvation from sin would mark their Passover, not the remembrance of salvation from Egypt.
 
God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” (Ex 12:13).   As year by year the Israelites replicated the event, there was no death angel, no passing over, but a memorial to renew their gratitude for the salvation of God.  It seems that we wish magic from the Lord’s Supper.  We pray that “it is to us by faith” something more than just bread and grape juice.  We invest it with magical properties--we are “safe” for the week if we really, really think about it hard when we partake. NO!  As the Israelites' Passover was a memorial, so the Lord's Supper is a memorial to remind us of the love of God, the salvation of God, the sacrifice of the son of God.  That memory is then to build our gratitude to the level that we go out and live like the one we remembered.  Taking “in an unworthy manner” has nothing to do with how hard we think about Jesus on the cross for a few moments before and after we feast, and everything to do with how we live the week before and after.  “For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, let us keep the feast [week of unleavened bread that followed the Passover] …with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor 5:7-8).
 
Say, “This is my blood” and we think of Jesus’ blood pouring from “his head, his hands, his feet,” but they thought of death. Say, “This is my blood” in their context, the Passover, and they automatically would think of the slaughtered lamb and its blood smeared on their doorways in memorial of deliverance.  Add “of the New Covenant” and they add the death of the sacrifice that inaugurates a covenant.
 
To the Twelve who heard them, those four words did not mean the same as we think today.  But, they had a breadth of understanding that we seldom think on and they quickly added Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection after Pentecost.  Would not our memorial be richer and more accurate if we focused more fully on “the night in which he was betrayed?”
 
Keith Ward