When We Don't Know The Rest Of Our Story

 My wife (Cindi) and I have made it a regular part of our Sunday to watch the church service online from the W.O.L.C., or Word of Life Center from St Joseph Missouri, with Pastor Brian Zahnd. We have started doing that after I spent the first several months of this year listening to every sermon on the church's podcast since sometime in 2017. Then in the past few months, after I caught up to the present time, we made it a routine to watch the service instead of just listening to the podcast, (though I have listened a few times again after as well anyway).

I say all of that to say, that as we were listening to the service today, Dec. 19th, '21 it was the fourth of a four part series on Advent, and as part of his message Brian preached from the book of  Micah 5:2 "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

In his sermon, which you can watch Here, he talked about the meaning of the town Bethlehem as being house of bread, and the meaning of Ephratah, as meaning ash heap. The history of which included Rachel who died there giving birth to Benjamin, and also the same place where King David was born! The prophet Micah, some 700 years before Jesus, prophesied what we know as the birth place of the coming Messiah. He did not know when, he just knew where. Isaiah, a contemporary of Micah, writes in Isaiah 7:14  "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive. and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel"

So as to NOT write out Brian's sermon, I will get closer to my point. Let's go to the New Testament, and see where Jesus is announced to that prophesied young virgin, Mary. In verse 35 of Luke 1:26-38 it says:"And the angel answered ansd said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

So far, if you have been at all familiar with the "Christmas Story", (and I am confident you have),  you are following what I am saying  but a little further, and I hope to show you something you might never have thought of before.

Luke 2:4 says this: “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David"

Consider what is happening here, as though you have never heard the story before. Put yourself in Mary and Joseph's shoes for a second, as it is happening real time. They are espoused to be married, Mary gets a visit from an angel and is impregnated with the Son of God. Joseph finds out and we are told that he gets a visit from an angel who assures him of what has happened to Mary. Okay, so that is pretty amazing and hard to comprehend in it self! Who would have ever thought that was possible to happen to ordinary poor working class people?

Now, there is one other point that gets missed. These are Jewish people. The difference between Jewish people and us is that THEY know their Scriptures! Especially the boys, since they memorize entire books of the Torah! They know by memory the prophet's writings! They would know what it says in Micah!! Get it? Where is the Messiah supposed to be born? Bethlehem. Where are they living? Nazareth!! "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

They don't know the rest of the story at this point!! What do you mean you are pregnant with the Messiah, we live in Nazareth, and the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem. We don't live in Bethlehem, so how is that possible? What are we supposed to do, move there? For almost the whole pregnancy, they are in Nazareth. Is the prophet wrong? Are they wrong? Are you sure the messenger did not give you more instructions? How long do we wait?  Do we stay or do we go? You don't want to travel late into the pregnancy!  And then at the very last month, and for whatever time it takes to travel there, suddenly a decree comes that all the world should be taxed, and they have to travel to Bethlehem!! Imagine the concern of traveling... WITH THE SON OF GOD in your womb!!

We live our whole life real time; not knowing the rest of the story! When we read this birth story, we have heard the ending in advance and know how it turned out. They did not. Any time we read biographies, we can even read the last chapter of an entire life to see how it ends if we want. When we read the struggles and fears and disappointments as well as the joys and celebrations we can see in a short time, the years it took to accomplish in real time!

And thus is our life. Lived out in real time! Not knowing what's coming next. Always wondering what is just around the corner. I have heard a story told of a poor Asian family working a farm trying to scratch out a living. One day someone gifts them a horse, and they celebrate the goodness of God, so now they can farm much easier. Then their son gets thrown from the horse and breaks his leg, and they complain that the horse has brought this disaster upon them. Then soldier come to the house to drag every able bodied boy to fight in their war, and since the boy's leg is broken, he is left behind, and now the family celebrates God's goodness once again!

Have you lost your job? Have you had an accident? Is there an unexpected bill you can't afford to pay? Are you sick in the hospital?  Has God given you a promise that seems impossible? Look at all of the sudden changes that has taken place since the COVID pandemic! What will come of it all? We don't yet know because we are living it out in real time! But God knows, and years down the road, when the books are all written,  the results of the rest of the story will be known, but for now, as always we must keep on trusting in God as we live out our lives in real time, putting our faith and trust in the fact that indeed God knows the end from the beginning, and is in complete control, even  When We Don't Know The Rest Of Our Story

God's Covenant With Mankind

 In the last several posts, I have written about forgiveness, and covenants, suzerains and vassals. There was also the post about views on atonement. In this post I hope to put some of these things together to explain something that might help us understand more of how all of these things fit into the plan and purpose of God. A plan and purpose of LOVE.

In the early writings of this blog I talked about a point in time about 20 years into my Christian walk when I watched a video tape of Willie Hinn preaching a sermon called "Mistaken Identity" He preached in in 1987 and I did not watch it until about 1993, but when I did watch it, it transformed my understanding about the Sovereignty of God like nothing ever before. It was like a light went on inside, and everything changed! The grass was greener, the sky was bluer, and my cheeks were getting sore from the smile on my face! I don't want to discuss it in much further detail here, but only to say, one of the main points of the sermon was that God has always had a plan for creation, and even the so called fall in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve, was NOT a surprise to God, and in fact I believed then, and still now believe that it was in fact part of the plan and purpose from the God who is love. 

All I have ever heard preached until then was that God created Adam and Eve in the Garden, and He tested their love for Him by giving them instruction to be obedient, and if only they remained obedient, then all of mankind would live in Paradise forever. So then that always left a question in the minds of thinking men and women, (even unsaid so as to not appear to be questioning God perhaps), and that is simply; If God is all knowing, and he created mankind knowing in advance they were going to disobey, and the punishment would mean sending billions of people to an eternal fiery torment in hell, then what kind of tyrant would that make God? And if God did not know the outcome of what Adam would do, then what else does God not know? No wonder those that reject God (and even many Christians) are not sure if they can trust this God, since who knows if He is just going to get angry and punish mankind in His wrath? After all, aren't natural disasters part of God's judgement? (No, not in anyway!)

Oh how mislead and deceived we have been subjected to even by well meaning preachers, with such a distorted view of God. How delighted I was to learn that God is really Omnipotent and not impotent. That God is Sovereign and is Loving and Gracious and Merciful ALL the time! That God has a wonderful plan for creation, and EVERYTHING is included in that plan! Adam's "fall" was NOT a mistake, but indeed a part of the purpose of God from before the foundation of the world. In fact  Genesis 3:22 "Now man has become as one of us, knowing the difference between good and evil...." Wasn't that the point? Aren't we told in Gen. 1:26 "Let us make man in our image and likeness..." 

It was like reading the Bible with open eyes for the first time! What I had learned was that, God's intention was actually, NOT the first man Adam, but the second man Christ! Adam was just the prototype so to speak, and it was all to lead up to when Jesus died and rose again from the dead, He became the LAST ADAM, and the SECOND MAN! Jesus put to death the Adamic race on the cross and began a whole new creation. Thus fulfilling the covenant between God and Adam. (see Rom.5)

Having said that, I will explain what I mean by the term Adamic covenant and how that applies not only to him, but to all mankind as well. While we are not told specifically in Scripture that God was making a covenant with Adam, like is said in other cases such as with Abraham, I see all the makings of a covenant agreement with God and Adam who is the representative head of  all mankind. 

In Gen. 2:15-17 " And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of they garden thou may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eat thereof, thou shalt surely die." 

Those verses right there is the covenant agreement between the Suzerain God, and the Vassal Adam. The conditions were for Adam not to eat of the tree, or the consequence, (rather than punishment) is that Adam would surely die. 

So then the question has to be asked, Did God know that Adam was going to eat of the tree? Yes, is the answer, and in fact I noticed yesterday, God said, "In the day that you eat thereof" He did not say in case you eat, or if you eat, but rather as much as saying when you eat of that tree and disobey me you will die. God knew Adam was going to eat, and planned it and purposed it and brought it to its fact.

Now you might say to me, How horrid is that! God purposed Adam to fall and bring the world into sin, and punishment and eternal torment for billions of souls.... And I would tell you to just hold on a minute! Who ever said anything like that to you has told you a terrible and wicked lie, that slanders the Name and Nature of God! In fact, we are told in Rev. 13:8 that Jesus is the "Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world..." Before there ever was a problem, God took care of the problem. He did not start something, and not know if He could finish it, or if He would prevail with His plan and purpose! (see Luke14:28-32) How insane is it to think such a thing about God! We attach so many of man's faults to God and think that God thinks like man does, but rather God says to come up higher. His thoughts are not like ours, which does not mean to stay where you are in the lower thought realm, but rather come up higher and begin to think His thoughts!!

And so now, since we see that God knew what Adam was going to do, and that Adam was going to break the covenant. God then takes both sides of the covenant and obligates Himself to the consequence of death! This is why God took on human flesh in the form of Jesus to take Adam's place, as the consequence of the breaking of the covenant agreement. "As in Adam ALL die, so also in Christ shall ALL be made alive..." 1 Cor. 15:22  As one person said, what part of ALL don't you understand the A or the two L's?

And so there is much more to the working out of this process throughout the whole of the Old Testament, which is meant more for a book than a blog post. However suffice it to say, that when the scriptures tell us that "Sacrifice and offerings thou did not desire..." Psalm 40:6, and other similar verses, then it means,as I see it,  that it was not the reason or the ultimate goal God had in mind. Mankind was already sacrificing babies to other gods to appease these gods they worshiped because of their guilt for sin. God in fact was saying, that any sacrifices made to Him was never meant to appease Him, and was not the purpose He had in mind when He instituted the animal sacrifices. These sacrifices were a symbol as a reminder of there is going to be a death take place and the animals was NOT what God had pleasure in and would not relieve their guilt, because the animal sacrifices were only in place until God Himself in the person of His Son Jesus would finally fulfill Adam's portion of his side of the covenant! The book of Hebrews explains this very well.

I am not sure I made myself clear, so I will say it another way. The further man moved East of Eden, the further man separated themselves from the life of God in their own mind. (God was never separated from man! and in fact God got man to head back West with Abraham) The people of God began to follow other gods and make human sacrifices to appease these gods they followed. God instituted animal sacrifices and rituals and laws and procedures for man to follow, to replace their need for a sacrifice of appeasement, until the time would come when that system would end with the final sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

 God was not to be treated like other gods who would desire sacrifice, for the sake of the sacrifice to appease them! The animal sacrifices was NOT God's goal, and it was never meant to appease Him in any way. God was not having them sacrifice for His sake, but for their own sake since they needed to clear their conscience of sin.  In fact in Psalm 50:12 God says through the psalmist "If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and the fullness thereof"! The sacrifices were never meant to be just a ritual to be followed, as if God needed the meat, the sacrifices in the temple were a symbol of the covenant God had with mankind, and a reminder that God would ultimately replace that sacrifice of death with the sacrifice of His own death on the cross! 

"Let us make man in our image and likeness,,," and indeed man showed up in the image and likeness of God, in the person of Jesus the Christ, who then ended any and all other sacrifices by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross in order to complete the conditions of  God's Covenant With Mankind

 

The Blood Of The Covenant

In my younger years I remember hearing it said "Blood is thicker than water." I was told then; and many people still believe; that what the saying means is that blood relationships to family is more important than anyone else like friends or others outside of the family. That the family should stick together through thick and thin, that brothers, (and I have three brothers who we all fought each other) should stick up for each other against all outsiders that would attack any one for any reason. And while that may be a laudable goal, it is not what that saying is about, nor what it means.

The well known saying, blood is thicker than water is actually a shortened version of an old adage that has the opposite meaning. The real saying is" The Blood of the Covenant is Thicker Than the Water of the Womb." Taken in full, the meaning is turned around to mean that when two people have a blood covenant together, then family takes a back seat to the covenant!

. There are several places in the Old Testament that talk about covenants. In fact, the Old and New Testaments are sometimes called the Old and New Covenants. The ones I am wanting to focus on in this blog is the covenants God makes with man. I recently learned more about this subject when I heard a podcast dealing with covenants. The hosts talked about that the two parties in these covenants are called is Suzerain and Vassal, which is more of a feudal system during the middle ages, but it basically comes down to an agreement between two parties, which entails one side being the dominant party (the suzerain) and the lessor party being the vassal. 

 Many times there is a vast difference between the needs of the one party, (the vassal) and the provision of the other party. (the suzerain) and there is often a token or a sign of that agreement. That token, or sign is what proves the vassal has this agreement with the suzerain, and it is something they are careful not to lose. If they lose or break the agreement of the covenant, then the blessing promised is now no longer valid. The suzerain in that case would be free to withdraw their protection from the vassal, and it could go very badly for them after that.

Circumcision is an example of the sign of the covenant God has made with the Children of Israel. It is certainly a sign they could never lose, and one that is a constant reminder of that covenant they have with God. And yet Israel constantly would break the covenant, and would suffer consequences for their action, and yet the covenant remained.

The "Bow" in the sky; or what we call the rainbow, is a sign of the covenant that God made with man, and is a visible reminder of God's promise to never destroy the earth with a flood.

Many of the covenants God makes with man, God knows that man cannot keep their side of the covenant anyway, and so God promises to keep both sides of the covenant, since there is no one greater to swear by, God would swear by Himself, and man gets the benefit without the consequences when they break it, and God takes that consequence upon Himself. 

An example of this takes place with the covenant God made with Abraham which can be found in more detail Here . The idea is that God would then be responsible for keeping both sides of the covenant and Abraham would never lose out on the promises made even if he or hid descendants did not keep the agreement. This covenant is sealed in blood. 

All of this talk about covenants is leading to a greater point I will try to explain in the next post, which when recently some pieces fell together like a puzzle and I saw some amazing connections having to do with what I believe to be a covenant God made with Adam. To me, this clears up a lot of questions people have about the sovereignty of God and His plan for creation. We will see more clearly why the water of the womb, is of less importance than  The Blood Of The Covenant.

You Shall Surely Die

 I have just finished cutting the grass for perhaps the last time this year. I did that after coming back from the airport, having flown with Cindi to another airport for lunch. This is the first time in the air for about six weeks, which is much more time off in succession from flying than in the past ten years. The biggest reason has been bad weather, and of course the plane that I fly as a member of a flying club is in the process of getting a rebuilt engine. However, I do know another pilot who rents me his plane to fly, and so today was a cool, but sunny calm day to get back into the air. 

This morning, before leaving for the airport, I continued re-reading the first book I had read by Brian Zahnd called "Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God". I wanted to read it again, since I have learned an abundance of things since then about Brian and his ministry, (having listened to his podcast sermons posted since 2016 in about 3 or 4 months as well as having read 1/2 dozen of his books) and I have even become familiar with some of the names of other authors he mentions throughout his book. I thought that by reading this book again, I will pick up much more insight than I did the first time. And that will be part of the reason for this post.

One of the major sticking points for me back at the start of the new year, when all of this intense focus on spiritual things for me began; that I talked about in a few previous posts; which has to do with many of these authors view on the atonement. They were united in their insistence that God didn't take His wrath toward us by killing Jesus. In other words, they would argue against the theological viewpoint that God had to sacrifice Jesus on the cross to appease his wrath against man because of their sin. The idea that God is so angry against sinners, that He would wipe them from the earth, except Jesus would step into our place and say He would take man's place in order to calm down a wrathful angry God! The idea that when God would want to destroy man, Jesus would step up and show the Father his nail scarred hands and feet, and then Jesus could appease God's rage against mankind. God forbid indeed! It is also not a legal contract, as is often taught. Jesus acting as a lawyer on behalf of the sinner, in defense against the Father, who wants to condemn them to a fiery torment forever in hell. I have heard these atonement theories taught. It sets up a paradigm that God is wrathful and Jesus saves us from God's wrath.

However, I did not find these author's atonement explanations provided in their books satisfactory either. I spend many weeks frustrated with trying to understand what the reasons they provided for the death of Jesus on the cross. As I was "hearing" it, Jesus died on the cross because man required a sacrifice, and not God. The parable of the prodigal son was provided as a example for when the son came home, the father did not go find a servant to whip them, before he could forgive the son. Which is not the point as I see it. And I was not able to wrap my head around their theology on atonement. It is much more involved than is possible to explain here, and can be better understood by reading it from the author's own words. 

Cindi (my wife) will attest to the fact that I was very frustrated with trying to find the key to understand what their teaching is, that explained why Jesus died, and what part God purposed in this sacrifice. As it seemed to me, they dismissed the whole animal sacrificial system in the Old Testament as man's idea, and not God's. As if God was appeasing man's need for blood, and so God permitted the animal sacrifice, and that God didn't require it. And yet, the whole tabernacle in the wilderness was designed by God to institute animal sacrifices etc for the sins of the people to provide them with a constant reminder of their need for forgiveness and the seriousness of sin.

So what was I missing? I don't get it! Then one day it clicked! All of what they were arguing against, I did not believe anyway! I did not believe that God was taking His wrath against man for their sin and needed to torture His Son on the cross to accomplish His violent vengeance. While I do not doubt it is the mindset of some, it was not mine, and so much of their points did not apply to my atonement theology anyway. I leaned toward the legal atonement being taught, because of some mis-translations  of certain words in Scripture. But then again, I still think that we still do not agree on some points. And it has become even clearer to me what I believe about the death of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of sins; which I will explain in the next post; and it all comes back to when God told Adam, "in the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil You Shall Surely Die."

 

Free From The Prison of Unforgiveness

In case you think that this blog post will be a familiar retelling of this parable on forgiveness, then I would caution you to consider that you are probably mistaken, and if not, then you will be a rare person indeed who has learned this truth, and if so, you would not mind reading it shared again, since it is an astounding revelation of forgiveness that is not well known, but has the capacity to change your life in a momentous way. Read on to see if I am over stating this.

 I have always found it exciting to discover some new understanding in a scripture passage, that opens my eyes to seeing something that I never considered or knew before; usually a truth that unlocks a greater hidden meaning.  In Proverbs 25:2 it says: "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of a king to search out a matter." And while much could be said to expound that verse, I cite it only to draw attention to searching out a hidden meaning in a parable that Jesus told to the disciples on the subject of forgiveness. 

The parable is found in Matt 18:21-35 and is known as the parable of the unforgiving servant, or the wicked servant if you were to be more to the point. This comes on the heels of Jesus already telling Peter to forgive 70 times 7 as stated in the previous post.

It is important to point out that rabbi's taught in a different way than most teachers do today. Rabbis aren't interested in telling you the answer, but rather leading you to discover the answer for yourself. Rabbis point the way. It is up to the student to go look for themselves. We are told that Jesus only taught in parables. (Mark 4:34), and if you think about it, how many lessons have you learned from reading Aesop's fables?

Now, rather than rehash what is already known about this parable, I will focus rather on the concluding lesson in the last verses. Matt 18:34: " And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him." That seems pretty clear doesn't it? Or does it? Who exactly is the "he" and "him" mentioned in this parable? That depends on who you think the Master is in the parable as well, because it is very common to consider that the Master is God, and the unforgiving servant therefore must pay back the Master, all of the debt that he was originally forgiven! But doesn't that then make God's forgiveness dependent on your actions? Do you think that God will forgive and then take back His forgiveness? Seems to be what is said doesn't it, and that is always the way I was taught, but I must credit Marty Solomon, the host of the BEMA Podcast for this insight which I pass on you to, so read on and see if this other explanation does not clear up the message being told and still give honor to God.

There are three characters in this parable. The Master, the wicked servant, and the fellow servant. The key factor to consider is the truth that when a debt is forgiven, it does not go away, but rather is absorbed by the one who forgives! When the Master forgave the enormous debt of the wicked servant, the Master has to absorb that debt upon himself; the only difference is that that servant is released from having to pay what is owed, but that Master says in effect, I will pay the debt you owe me, so that you are released from any obligation to pay. 

It is as if you run up an enormous debt with a credit card of say, one million dollars, and cannot pay, and the credit card company says, you are forgiven your debt, that means that they have to come up with the money themselves to cover the debt; you no longer have to pay anything back. It is as if you never had any debt to pay. However, that debt does not disappear, it just becomes the obligation of the credit company to pay the expense as if it is their own debt.

So, now the wicked servant finds the fellow servant and demands payment. Consider what just happened here. If the wicked servant had learned his lesson from his having just been forgiven, he would have then absorbed the fellow servants debt, and not held it against him, the same way the Master absorbed his own debt! THAT is the lesson the Master is trying to teach in the parable. 

The wicked servant is not thrown into jail until he pays the Master all the previous debt he was forgiven for earlier, but rather until he (the wicked servant) pays all that he (the fellow servant) owes him (the wicked servant). In other words,  the wicked servant has to learn to absorb the debt that is owed himself from the fellow servant just as the Master absorbed his debt!  The wicked servant has put himself in a prison of his own making, by harboring unforgiveness,  and the Master has  given him the key to getting out! Learning to forgive what is owed to him just as he has been forgiven, is the key to being released; not learning that lesson is the (self) torture it talks about him suffering!

When you harbor un-forgiveness, then it is a prison of self torture! Hate, bitterness, anger, rage, fuming, all of these things are torture to your own well being and peace of mind. But if you learn to absorb the debt that others owe to you, like God has absorbed the debt of our sin, then you now have the key to get out of the prison of your own making, and living a life of peace and joy!

God's lesson on forgiveness is not 70 times 7, or any limited number, or even making it a habit to forgive,  it is learning the principle of living a life Free From The Prison of Unforgiveness

Learning Forgiveness

If you could sum up the message of the bible in just a few key words, one of those key words would have to include the word forgiveness. Not only the forgiveness that God bestows upon us, but also the forgiveness that we are to show others. And while there have been countless sermons that I have heard over the years on the subject of forgiveness, I have heard something recently that expounded on a parable Jesus told  that I have never heard before, which completely changes the way I understand forgiveness. And while I do not have any followers of my blog that I know about, I am even writing this for my own future self as a reminder of what I have learned. 

I first heard this explained while listening to the BEMA podcast I have mentioned in a previous post. I  will not be brief enough to write it all in one post, and have to continue it in another part two, but lets begin and see where it leads. 

Matthew 18:21 "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" 

There we have it. Peter bringing up the subject of forgiveness to Jesus. Perhaps Peter is referring to his actual brother Andrew, (brothers do have a tendency to get on each other's nerve). And so it is considered why Peter said seven times to forgive. 

One of the main things I have learned from listening to the podcast, is how well Jews knew their bible, what we call the Old Testament, and what they called the Tanakh which includes the Torah, the Nevi'im, and the Ketuvim. That is the Books of Moses, the prophets, and the writings. From the time a Jew is 5 yrs old, they begin to memorize the Torah, and I mean memorize it! There are stages to their schooling which leads some of the more advanced students to study under a rabbi. The less academic students would then go back to their family's trade. 

All of that to say that perhaps when Peter asked if he should forgive seven times, he might be referencing a Scripture in Amos where the Lord repeatedly says " for three transgressions, and not for four will I turn away punishment.." Perhaps Peter also knowing the significance of numbers in Scripture to say that to forgive seven times is being very generous showing a growing heart of love and compassion.... and like us all, we reach our breaking point!

Jesus then, ever being the rabbi, and teaching like rabbi's always teach; instead of giving Peter the answer, rather gives him a shovel and shows him where to dig. Lets go back to Matthew 18:20 "Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." And here is where it gets a little tricky if unlike the Jews we don't know our bibles! In Genesis 4:23-24: "Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” And so, what was Jesus actually trying to teach Peter, (and us) with this parable? Was Jesus just trying to tell Peter that he has to forgive seventy times seven, or 490 times, and then perhaps after that he can take revenge? Up until now that is what I have been taught, with the idea that after forgiving that many times, you would stop keeping count, and just get used to forgiving, which is all well and good, however there is more to the lesson rabbi Jesus is teaching, and it doesn't stop there, however we will stop this post here and continue in the next post as we keep learning more about Learning Forgiveness.

 

The Tyranny Of Mundane Petty Things

 As I have related in past writings, I learned to fly about 10 years ago, and it has been one of my weekend passions. I will try to fly just about some time on every weekend that the weather makes it flyable. I have taken some pretty long trips in the airplane. One trip to "First Flight" Kitty Hawk N.C. which was three hours, and then on to Wilmington NC and back the next day. I also flew someone to Augusta Maine as a favor on one clear December day near Christmas. As well as a couple of flights to Ohio near Dayton.

This year, during the third week in Sept. we planned a vacation week to go to the annual conference held in Berkeley Springs WV, and it was canceled because of Covid, for the 2nd year in a row. Then we booked a cruise up the east coast into Canada for that same week, and it was our 3rd canceled cruise, so then we planned our second flight to South Haven MI, to visit Cindi's dad and Mary. And that is what we did. We left on a Sunday morning, and the weather did not permit us to return until Friday, but with a 35kt tailwind knocking off an hour of flight time returning.

As providence would have it, the worst weather was on Thurs. our planned return day, and since we had to wait until Friday, it turned out that Wayne Jacobsen was flying into Grand Rapids Michigan from California on Thursday evening, which was an hour's drive from South Haven. Wayne, I have mentioned in the past has a podcast called The God Journey which I have followed since the beginning of the year, as well as catching up to past episodes, and also hosts a life changing series called My Friend Luis 

After contacting Wayne, and trying to see if he had time to meet us on Thurs, since we could not stay for any meetings he was having, we made arrangements to pick him up at the airport, and drove him to the restaurant where he was meeting some other people later, and we could have that time in between, which turned out to be over an hour's visit. There was not any specific topic to discuss, but just hoping for a time of fellowship with what until then was only a voice on the internet.

As a follow up to the previous post, about the BEMA podcast, we were contacted by the co host, Brent Billings who requested a Zoom call to discuss how we came to hear about the podcast, which was a great time. Turns out they are going to be conducting a tour in Israel at the same time as we are going to be going there next year on tour with Brian Zahnd, from the Word of Life Church in St. Johns Missouri. Perhaps we will get to meet in person? Can Divine Providence permit such a thing again? 

Speaking of the BEMA podcast, I have only a few more episodes to hear to finish off the book of Revelation and then end of their journey through the whole Bible. Of course that does not end the podcast, since the next few after that deal with church history... one of my favorite subjects. 

As always there is much more to be said than a brief post will allow, this does some catching up, except to fill in an update begun at the start to do with flying, which is that at this point the club airplane I fly is grounded for what might be the next couple of months or more to get an engine rebuild done. Airplane engines have a TBO or Time Between Overhauls listed as about 2.000 hours, and we have some 2500 hours on the plane, and so it is time to get that done.

Since I have been a pilot flying for as many weekends as I can, I am at least fortunate enough to have access to a Piper Cherokee from a pilot instructor friend, who checked me out in it before, so that I do not have to be grounded the same months as the club Piper Archer. Since those that know me well would agree if I was to tell you that I am addicted to flying! Which is in part best described by the whole quote of which the title of this post is the last part, and it goes as follows: "I fly because it releases my mind from The Tyranny Of Mundane  Petty Things.

Learning About Our Jewish Heritage

Having written three posts two months ago to catch up in general to the present time, I also realized that while I have even talked about listening to many podcasts during this same time period, I did not write yet about the latest podcast I have been intense on listening to  called The BEMA Podcast .

After some six months or so had past since the start of the New Year, I had already caught up to all of the available podcasts that I was listening to. While some of them were accessible on the web site, it also meant having to download them individually on my phone. I also had listened to a half dozen books on "Audible". I was really at a loss about what else to listen to, and rather frustrated in tone mentioned as much to my wife Cindi. 

My point was that I did not want to continue the long drive in the truck to Ohio and back for 8 hours plus.. riding in silence, but I also did not want to go back to listening to the news since I was still done with that whole political garbage, and indeed since it was once a big contention between us since we were on the opposite sides of the political spectrum, Cindi was anxious to help guide me into options for things to listen to. She even suggested somehow listening to books from the library. 

I was still at the place where I did not want to break the cycle of listening to spiritual teachings, even though I do have a couple of aviation podcasts that I will on occasion fill in some time gaps if I overload on sermons! (I mean how many sermons can you listen to in 8 hours and not go a little stir crazy?)

Anyway, there was a few days of frustration while I also downloaded some books on YouTube, by A.W. Tozer, and also C.S. Lewis. and some of the older ministries, such as Spurgeon. (who was a favorite preacher of mine in my earlier Calvinism days) as well as Martin Lloyd Jones. And while there is much that can be gleaned from their preaching and writings, and God has greatly used their "voices" as a stepping stone on the path to a greater understanding of the ultimate revelation of the limitless love and grace of God!! The fault with both Armenianism and Calvinism is simply that they both deny the end purpose of God is to Reconcile ALL CREATION unto Himself, and that NONE would be lost!! YES that is right!! They may disagree with how most of creation will remain lost forever, but they do agree on the fact they believe it is so, that God will only be able to save a few souls out of all of His creation... try as He might, He just could not bring His plan to a successful end.

And while this post has gotten way off topic, I will just say that they are both in common with being wrong on the most fundamental Truth of Scripture and that is that "God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to Himself, NOT imputing their trespasses against them....." Along with countless other Scriptures that support the fact that NOT ONE person born will be lost!

Now, back to a couple paragraphs earlier... at the same time as I was trying to figure out what I wanted to spend my hours listening to next, Cindi happened upon a podcast that had a discussion about the T.V. series called The Chosen it is a multi season crowd funded series based on the life of Jesus. It is now finished season two, and about seven seasons are planned. As it turns out she sent me a link to listen to their discussion with the director Dallas Jenkins, and after listening to that one episode I decided to go back to the beginning of the podcast episodes to start to listen to the very first one of the The BEMA podcast . And what a gold mine of great biblical teaching!!

They are going through the entire bible book by book (I am at post #96 now) and discussing the "Story of the Bible" so to speak from a Jewish perspective. What is so unique about this is that the bible was written by Hebrews with an Eastern mindset to a Hebrew audience, and we as Westerners try to understand this with a Western mindset, and miss so much of the deeper Truth of the Word of God! 

Without a better understanding of what we call the Old Testament and also the history of the events of the 400 years between the end of the Old Testament canon and the start of Jesus' birth, we lack so much understanding of the life and times of those that lived at that time 2,000 years ago, and why Jesus taught the things he did and how he interacted with all those He came in contact with, and most importantly.... How all of that affects our life today!! This is much more enhanced in our Christian walk as we would spend more time... Learning About Our Jewish Heritage

Still On The Journey... Part Three

Is God about to do a New Thing? Or is it just my being more sensitive to something God has always been doing? That has been a thematic question I have had since the new year started, which began this major spiritual life change. 

I have studied Church History, and have always been fascinated with times of Great Awakenings, and things like the Jesus Revolution of the late 60's and early 70's. I got saved in the mid 70's  and have been through times of spiritual growth and long times of wilderness periods. Now that I am into another era of spiritual growth, and renewal, then I also wonder if this is also a time of preparation for another Great Awakening move of God? Do you not think if there was ever a time we needed it in this Country, and world wide, it would be now?

In a message called Viruses and Victories, Dr. Lynn Hiles detailed his research of the many times through the past centuries when the world has gone through plagues and viruses, and how at the same time there was a great move of God and spiritual reformations! Is it more than possible that while the world is trying to recover from this Global pandemic, that God is about to introduce a Global Spiritual Reformation?!!

That has been the message I have been hearing from many ministries, and also has been the theme of my heart since the beginning of the year. "A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and establishes them." Prov. 16:9 Amp. And while I am convinced that if President Trump was re elected, then I would not have made such a major shift in what was consuming my time politically, that many things developed into a life changing event. From feeling a growing sense of hunger for a closer relationship with the Lord to the point of tears! To the major upset in the election. To ending any concern over political results that were more than I could bear. To finding ways to fill that time with spiritual interests. At the same time as hearing from other sources, and sensing in my own spirit that God might just be at the beginning of a Global Spiritual Renewal.

And so at this point, I am not even sure if I will continue posting updates after this, but I will continue this post to include this following story of a recent event in my life. To begin with, I have been close friends for about 17 years or more with a Pastor Galen Winebrenner, who is the pastor of a church in Uniontown PA. called United Christian Temple. We have kept in touch many times throughout the years, and I have even had the pleasure of taking him flying on a few occasions. As I have been keeping him informed of these changes in my life, he had asked me to come speak at his church, which I was reluctant to do so, and said as much. 

In previous posts, I am sure I mentioned about sensing a calling to the ministry many years ago, and having nothing come of it, and after so many many years, of having come to terms with it not something that would happen, and so making peace between me and God.

Preaching again was not something that I wanted to have stirred up again within me! And so after several discussions with Pastor Galen, and after a I made a mid-week flight to visit and take him flying again, I filled him in on the details of my heart over the years. I finally agreed that if God made it known to me what to preach, then on the next available flyable day, I would make the 1 1/2 hour flight instead of the 3 1/2 hour drive to preach. Oh boy!

Imagine having not spoken much more than a greetings in visiting church services for more than 20 years, and having made peace with not even wanting to anymore, and yet being filled with countless hours of teachings and readings and ministry and talking and listening to God, and now being asked to speak a message!! 

I would have been content to never having been asked, but since I was, I did spend weeks thinking about and preparing for a message should the conditions arise. Sure enough I hearkened back to when I was in my mid 20's (some 40 years ago) and first felt a calling to preach and was sort of mentored by a lay minister from the church I was going to at the time, who did services for jail ministries and nursing homes. He gave me an outline for a sermon from Mark 4:35 where there is a storm on the sea of Galilee and Jesus is asleep in the boat so that I had an outline for my first message to preach at the nursing home. I thought that it would be a starting point to begin again and have something to develop from which I would have a message to share this time.

And so, as it has happened that on D-DAY, June 6th 2021 the weather was flyable and we flew to KVVS Connellsville airport near Uniontown PA. and I delivered my heart in a message I called "A Sermon 40 Years In The Making"  to the people of United Christian Temple. Cindi did record the message, which I may at some point include a link for posterity. 

While I would be very critical of my own preaching, I also recognized that it was something I had not had any experience doing for decades, and so, while I would preach it much different if I had to do it over again, I am also satisfied with at this point of it being one and done having felt like I delivered what God put on my heart to say.  However, unless God makes it clear that a door has been opened for me to be pushed through to preach more often, then it has fulfilled all that it was meant to do, which satisfied my wondering what it would be like for me to preach again, and also Galen's interest in hearing me preach. 

And while my plans are to continue with  still reading and listening and praying and waiting on God, and doing what Paul Young describes as "Living in the Grace of each day" and trying not to be "Future tripping" where he says, there is no Grace for our imaginations of future events that haven't and likely won't happen. At the same time, I will intend to be sensitive to listening to God, and continuing to seek if perhaps if I can be included and a part of it if indeed the answer is yes to the question.... Is God about to do a New Thing? And all of that while living in the Grace of one day, while we are Still On The Journey

Still On The Journey... Part Two

So now we come to the major life changes in my pursuit of a renewal of my spiritual relationship with God and an effort to feed this hunger that was beginning to consume me, at the same time as I was ending my time wasting efforts on politics.

We were not directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020 lock down, in so far as our jobs remained in tact, and neither Cindi nor myself got sick from this virus. (Although I did get cellulitis around Memorial Day during that time, and thought it was COVID related until a rash developed which led us to seek medical help which diagnosed the cellulitis and several weeks of treatment)

Other than that it was doing our jobs everyday, and now the effort of me trying to find something to fill in my time while driving, rather than listening to FOX news. So I found several CD's of sermon messages that I had not listened to in years, and began to play them on the drive, but it does not take long to hear many CD'S during 40 plus hours of driving in a week. 

I then found the collection of the Bible on CD that Cindi bought me many years ago, and I began a regimen of listening to first the Psalms, then Proverbs, then from the beginning of In the beginning God created.... all through the whole bible, then Psalms and Proverbs again, and several New Testament books again, repeating chapters etc. mixing it with more CD messages etc. This went on for many weeks!

At the same time, I began to read much more when I was home instead of watching TV, except for some sitcoms, or other shows not related to any political news! It is like a healing in my spiritual mind was taking place! Some of the books that I read, I hadn't read in decades, and many of them seemed to speak to me in very personal ways. I had 3 books by Malcolm Smith I read in the 70's that I re read which brought me to tears. I also ordered some other books, and happened to order another book based on a suggestion of other titles on Amazon called "Sinners In The Hands Of A Loving God" by Brian Zahnd because it was a new way of looking at the old sermon by Jonathan Edwards, called "Sinners in the hands of an Angry God",  which I had read before while studying Church History.

And while the order of things are somewhat blurry in my memory, I did enjoy the book by Brian very much, and was reminded that I had heard an interview between him and Paul Young who is the author of "The Shack" (another book and movie I enjoyed very much) I have also listened to hours of Paul's story on different interviews and video messages. Wow.

Cindi was of a great help to me at this time, because she showed me how to  download podcasts, and how I was able to play them on the radio in the truck, (which was ALL new to me!) And one of those podcasts was by Brian Zahnd who is the pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph Missouri. I started from the beginning messages in 2017, and listened to sometimes 3 or 4 messages every day on my drive to Ohio and back. I am now caught up to the present sermons.  I also listened to other podcasts including Wayne Jacobsen, who also produced a series called "My friend Luis" which is the exciting real life spiritual adventures of a Mexican immigrant who began their friendship when Luis was first hired as a cleaning business for Wayne's home. Check it out at www.myfriendluis.com You will thank me later!

All along the way, I have taken more and more steps to seek to feed this hunger I had, for a more intimate fellowship with God! Along with many podcasts, I also listened to YouTube videos of sermons and teachings and messages, and then Cindi set me up with the app called Audible and I have listened to several books, as well as now having the bible on Audible, I no longer have to take the CD's with me. 

Indeed there has been a major change over the last 6 months as you can see, with many other things to say which could fill a book, but instead I will continue with a part three, to write about something else that happened for the first time in more than 20 years, which came about as part of telling the story of  the major life changes in my pursuit of a renewal of my spiritual relationship with God as I am Still On The Journey..

 

Still On The Journey... Part One

I am still on the journey! In spite of the fact that it is, the July 4th weekend of the year 2021! That means that it has been 7 years 8 months and 21 days, OR 402 weeks, OR 2,817 days since my last post! And I must say that a lot has transpired since then for me to write about, which I could not detail of course, but rather perhaps I could highlight a few key events that might be of some Spiritual interest?

Rather than pick it up from 2,817 days ago, I will skip forward to the beginning of this year 2021, and try to only mention before that time as it relates to recently. In general for months before this year I was often having spiritual hunger for a deeper relationship with God! It reminded me of spiritual wildernesses I have had in the past, and how when I came out from them, there was such profound joy, and I was indeed seeking to come out of this dark and dry period. 

It was almost like sitting in a place where it is sunny, perhaps reading, and as the sun sets it gets gradually darker, but you keep reading, and then straining to read, until it is dark enough that now you realize you need to turn the light on to see clearer, and when you do so, you wonder how you were able to read at all with how dark it had gotten.

Nobody thinks about eating when they are full. And no matter how good the food is, we all get to the point when we "can't eat another bite!" But eventually, our bodies use up the food we ate, and then have a unique way of sending signals that it is time to eat again and replenish our bodies. (this is not meant to expand into discussion of eating disorders). It is a metaphor for spiritual sustenance, and for some time my spiritual sustenance had dwindled to the point of where I was at the point of tears in my longing for a renewed closer relationship with God! 

I longed for that time back in around 1993 when I might call it "My Great Awakening" which led to many years of a Spiritual renewal! And now the sun had set, and it was getting "too dark to read" and I began looking for the light switch. Not just looking, but now getting desperate!!

The biggest change that ignited this major life change took place at the same time as the election of Biden for president. And I ONLY bring up politics because it is so crucial to understanding the nature of this difference. Since I have been a Conservative politically as long as I have taken any interest in politics, and I moved here from Canada in 2002 during Bush's first term, I have followed American politics closely ever since. And in short, I will admit that I liked the job that President Trump was doing for this Country, and was very much hoping and expecting him to be re-elected.

When that did not happen, and when it became clear that Biden would take the office of the presidency, I decided at that point I had reached the end of my political endurance. Almost overnight, I came to realize that no matter what I thought, it was not going to change any outcome! Like it or not, any opinion I had about what was happening was not going to have an effect on anything that took place in Washington, and all it was doing was to build up an unhealthy level of disappointment over the consequences of something I had no control over. I was now done with it all!

As a result, I decided to stop any attention to what was happening in politics. That meant stopping listening to political talk radio, (FOX news) as well as political TV shows (FOX) The problem being that I drive a tractor trailer set of double trailers every day for a total of 8 hours! And what to do with ALL that time?? I am too selective in my choice of music to leave it on any one station for very long, and 8 hours of silence is a long time! 

Thus, begins my venture into such a major change to fill in the time gap and how to feed my hunger for a closer relationship with God. 

With that background covered, I will write part two, that will explain the steps I took and how that began to re-ignite the Spiritual part of  how I Am Still On The Journey.