Be Stirred, Not Shaken

"We ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled..." ~ II Thes. 2:2 *** "But stir up the gift of God that is within you by the laying on of hands..." ~ II Tim. 1:6

Category: Old Testament Page 1 of 2

“He Bears Our Burdens”:  The Deeper Meaning of Psalm 68:19

By

On October 10, 2025

In Old Testament, Verse Studies

When you read the verse, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits”, what is your first thought?  If you’re anything like me, you might assume that it is about physical and spiritual blessings, with God piling new ones on us each day.

But…it turns out this verse (Psalms 68:19) doesn’t really mean that at all.  I typically consider the New King James Version bible (NKJV) my “default” translation, the most reliable and straightforward.  I’ll definitely consult other versions, but it’s my go-to.

However, there are occasionally times when the NKJV just doesn’t quite get it right.  This verse in Psalm 68 is definitely one of those cases, and if we only read the NKJV then we’ll miss out on something special about our relationship with God and His role in our daily lives.

What does Psalm 68:19 mean?

It’s always important when studying one specific verse to first get the context of what comes before it. Psalm 68 is a psalm of David, in which he proclaims the many ways that God cares for His children.

Early in the psalm David notes that He’s a father to the fatherless, defender of widows, and “places the lonely in families” (relationships).  It goes on to speak to how God gives us abundant rain and provides for the needy (resources), and scatters His enemies and defeats those who rise against Him (protection).

This all builds to verse 19, where he cries, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!” (Ps. 68:19).  But “with benefits” is not in the text at all, and this translation doesn’t really capture either the literal translation or the intended meaning well.    It’s a rare case of the NKJV translation falling short.

It’s not surprising that the translators went astray, because almost every time that word translated “loads us” (amas, H6006) is used in the Old Testament, it’s in the context of heavy loads, burdens, and even putting on a heavy yoke.  To me, it feels like they didn’t quite know what to do with it.

Overall, more contemporary translations seem to do a much better job of capturing the essence of this verse…

  • ESV “bears us up”
  • NIV “daily bears our burdens”
  • NLT “for each day He carries us in his arms”
  • CJB (verse 20) “every day He bears our burden”

So we see that rather than the positive abundance vibes that the New King James was giving off, the lens of most translations is instead around God’s care and support for us in our daily struggles.

Our load-bearing pillar

In the NIV translation, David exclaims, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.  Selah.  Our God is a God who saves”.  The “selah” that David adds tells us to pause and meditate on what we’ve just sung.

The bible translations that speak of God bearing our burdens or bearing us up seem to be the closest to what’s intended.  Adam Clarke’s commentary notes that some other good ways to think about this turn of phrase are, “our prop day by day”, “He supports us day by day” and he also agreed that “He bears our burdens” or “bears us up” work well too.

We’re meant to picture God underneath us, behind us, and around us, bearing our weight and making sure we don’t wobble, fall, or crumble.  In a different psalm, David commands:

“Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you.  He will not permit the godly to slip and fall” (Ps. 55:22, NLT)

You know that sigh of relief you give when you’ve been struggling to carry a heavy load, you’re weighed down and straining and can barely keep from dropping it—and then you finally get to set it down?  That’s how we can picture giving our burdens to our Father.  We roll it off our shoulders and onto His, able to breathe again now that we don’t have to carry it ourselves anymore.

Read More

Spiritual Nakedness, Clothed in Righteousness, & Eternal Priestly Garments (Leviticus Themes)

By

On February 8, 2025

In Christian Living, Old Testament, Topic Studies

What Are You Wearing?  The State of Our Spiritual Clothing

This is part of our “Leviticus for the Modern Reader” series, focusing on themes that God’s people today can take away from what is typically a dry and perplexing book.  You can read the previous ones on burnt offerings and spiritual leprosy here.

The book of Leviticus is challenging to a modern audience.  On the surface it’s the equivalent of an extraordinarily detailed technical manual for Israel’s priesthood, filled with exacting blueprints, animal sacrifice instructions, and purification rituals.

It’s tempting for God’s people today to file Leviticus under “dry historical record; glad it was preserved” and decide it doesn’t have anything to say to us right now.  While that would be understandable, we know that everything in the bible is there for a reason, and that all scripture is God-breathed and given to us for our education, inspiration, and growth (II Tim. 3:16).

But I believe that Leviticus matters to modern-day Christians in more immediate, tangible ways.  If we pull out of a verse-by-verse reading and look at it in totality, Leviticus is ultimately a book about holiness, sanctification, and sacrifice—being set apart for God’s purpose.  God used these instructions to show His newly-established nation how to worship, serve, and obey a holy God—“You shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2).  And He is showing us the same thing today.

In a previous post we examined what Christians today can learn from the burnt offerings, particularly how God wants us to view and worship Him.  In this study we’ll dive into what Leviticus says about clothing and how it connects to our spiritual state.

What does Leviticus cover in terms of clothing?

There are three primary themes in how Leviticus addresses this topic:

  • A person’s nakedness (symbolic of sexual sins)
  • What type of garments we wear, and vigilance in caring for them
  • Instructions for special priestly garments

Just like with the burnt offerings, we’ll see that there are clear spiritual parallels for us today as we look at each theme more closely.

You might also like:  “Come Out of Her My People”: Lessons from Rahab’s Faith

“And they knew they were naked…”

How comfortable are you with being naked?  Most people have an instinctive, visceral aversion to being naked in public, baked into our DNA since Adam and Eve.

After they had sinned and their eyes were opened, the first consequence we’re told of was that “they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings” (Gen. 3:7).  Previously, they both were naked and were not ashamed (Gen. 2:25).

The two words translated as “naked” in these verses are actually different.  In Genesis 2, they were “unclothed” and not ashamed, innocent and pure.  In Genesis 3, the word still means without clothes, but carries the additional idea of being exposed, guilty, and vulnerable.

This “knowing” doesn’t simply mean that they suddenly realized they had no clothes on.  Something changed for them in that moment—in their thinking, their actions, and how they perceived themselves and God.  And their first instinct was to hide from God and to try and solve this problem by themselves.

Whether in the story of Adam and Eve, the vague but unsettling story of Noah and Ham (Gen. 9:21), or the way God talks about rebellious Israel and Judah in the prophetic books (e.g. Is. 47:2, Ezek. 16:36, Lam. 1:8), the concept of nakedness is associated with shame and sin from the very first pages of the bible.

There are times in the bible where being naked is exactly what it means (literally having no clothes on, like in Acts 19:16), but many more times when it’s used to signify impurity, being apart from God’s protection, shame, and as a symbol of sexual sins (e.g. Ezek. 22:10).

(As an important aside, many people read verses like these and wonder, “Is there something wrong with being naked, does God hate nakedness and sex?”  Of course not!  God CREATED them…Adam and Eve were naked before their sin and “it was good”.  We shouldn’t take this type of symbolism or analogy out of context, but should also remember that He intended nakedness and sex to exist wonderfully and privately within the bounds of marriage and nowhere else…this is the context that an analogy of spiritual nakedness sets itself against.)

Okay, aside over…this brings us to Leviticus, which hones in on nakedness as a proxy for sexual misconduct.  In Leviticus 18, the Lord tells Moses to command the Israelites not to observe and mimic the local Canaanite people.  Instead He tells them, “You shall keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them; I am the Lord”—again, instructing us on what it looks like to worship a holy God (Lev. 18:5).

He then goes on to list, in excruciating detail, all sorts of messed up sexual sins that Israel was prohibited from.  From “uncovering the nakedness of” (a.k.a. being sexually involved with) various parents, siblings, step-family member, aunts, uncles, and more, to not committing adultery with your neighbor’s wife, to not having sex with a woman during her period, Moses pulls no punches.  Leviticus 20 continues on in the same vein.

And again, as a modern audience, most normal people read through these passages in Leviticus with a slightly nauseated, cringing expression, and think, “Ugh, who were these people?!” and then move on.  Because clearly this doesn’t have anything to do with us.  So what should we glean from Leviticus on nakedness?

First, there’s no question that our modern society is absolutely immersed in sexual sins.  They look a bit different than the pagan worship sexual rituals of the Canaanites that God was warning against, but from the pervasiveness of pornography, sex before marriage, unfaithfulness, explicit content in our entertainment, and more, we don’t have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to being judgy toward the Israelites and their neighbors.  It is imperative to our spiritual state that we honestly examine whether we are violating God’s laws and “uncovering” our own nakedness.

But beyond the specific sexual sins, the bible has a lot to say about being spiritually naked—the causes, and the solutions.  We’ll jump to the very end of the bible, where Jesus Christ in His letter to the church in Laodicea writes:

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—

I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see…As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:17-19)

The church at Laodicea thought that they were doing pretty good.  If you looked at them from the outside, it probably looked like they were doing all the “right” things…gathering together every sabbath, singing hymns, giving offerings, abstaining from major sins.

But like the fabled emperor who believes he’s wearing a luxurious suit and parading through town, Jesus instead tells Laodicea that they are covered by nothing, and they have nothing.  They were blind and naked, exposed and vulnerable…and they didn’t even know it.

Read More

What Does It Mean To “Guard Your Heart”? (A Meditation on Proverbs 4:23)

By

On August 24, 2024

In Christian Living, Old Testament, Verse Studies

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23, NKJV)

This verse has always felt like a bit of an enigma.

When I was a teenager growing up in church and going to church summer camps, this verse was referred to frequently in bible studies as an admonition to not rush into romantic relationships, and to be careful who we gave our heart to.

The primary message was to guard against getting emotionally entangled too soon.  And don’t get me wrong, that’s good advice for teenagers.  It’s a bit oversimplistic, however, and I later realized that my subconscious takeaway from this verse was one of putting a barrier up, being guarded and not overly vulnerable.

To be honest, I hadn’t given this particular verse a ton of thought as I passed into adulthood, but it caught my attention recently during my morning bible reading.

I’ve spent some time meditating on it, and I’ve come to the realization that it’s SO much more than that.  We often look at Proverbs through a more practical “life advice” lens.  While this verse can be applied very practically as well, it contains a deep, foundational spiritual truth that we ignore at our own peril.

What does it mean to “guard your heart”?

Part of why it can be tough to understand this concept is because the New King James translation (NKJV, my typical go-to) doesn’t do us any favors.

It’s helpful to see how some other translations have rendered Proverbs 4:23:

“Above all else, guard your heart; for it is the source of life’s consequences” (CJB)

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (NIV)

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (ESV)

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (NLT)

In the bible, when it talks about the “heart”, it’s not simply the physical organ that pumps our blood, or even our “feelings place”.

It’s much more than that…the heart means our mind, our will, the “inner man”.  It is the seat of who we TRULY are.

The heart drives our actions and influences our thinking and behavior.  It’s critical that we are aware of what we say and do, because over time, our thoughts and actions will shape and mold our hearts—often without us even realizing it.

So that’s what we are to guard, but how exactly do we do that?  It’s helpful to dig a bit into the word translated “guard” or “keep”.  That’s natsar (H5341), and it means to protect, maintain, or keep safe, as well as to preserve and to observe carefully.

Read More

Burnt Offerings to Living Sacrifices:  What Worshipping a Holy God Requires of Us (Leviticus Themes)

By

On February 3, 2024

In Christian Living, Old Testament, Topic Studies

This is part of our “Leviticus for the Modern Reader” series, focusing on themes that God’s people today can take away from what is typically a dry and perplexing book.  You can read the previous ones on spiritual nakedness/clothing and spiritual leprosy here.

Leviticus can be a tougher read, even for those who spend a lot of time in the bible.  Filled with exacting tabernacle building blueprints, pages of bloody sacrifice instructions, and a litany of purification rituals, it’s sometimes difficult for God’s people today to truly connect to this book.

The temple sacrificial system and Levitical priesthood were phased out when Jesus Christ gave His life for us as the eternal Passover Lamb and was resurrected to sit down at God’s right hand as our High Priest (Heb. 8-10).

So it can be tempting to ask why we should care about Leviticus today, except as a historical record.

It’s an understandable question, and there are LOTS of good answers.  The most obvious answer is that God had it included in the bible for a reason, and we know that all scripture is God-breathed and given to us for instruction (II Tim. 3:16).  But let’s go even further than that.

The book of Leviticus tells us about the creation of the Levitical priesthood in the tabernacle (and later temple), under a high priest.  This was a precursor and prophetic “shadow” of when God’s firstfruits become eternal kingly priests in His kingdom, with Jesus Christ as our High Priest (Rev. 20; Heb. 4:15).

However, if we pull back even further and look at it in totality, Leviticus is ultimately a book about holiness, sanctification, and sacrifice—being set apart for God’s use.  God was showing His newly-established nation how to worship, serve, and obey a holy God.  He tells them, “You shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2).

This study is focused on bringing one aspect of Leviticus to life—the burnt offerings—and putting it into a context that God’s ekklesia today can meditate on and use in our lives.  The burnt offering ritual (along with the other offerings listed in Leviticus) helps us understand God’s perspective on proper worship, showing us how God wants us to view and worship Him.

What was the burnt offering?

There are a total of five types of sacrifices outlined in Leviticus.  We might assume that they’re all dealing with sin, but in fact only two of the five were specifically for that purpose.

The other three were all “sweet savor” (or “sweet smelling aroma”) sacrifices that were completely voluntary.  They include the burnt offering, the grain or meal offering, and the peace offering (or fellowship offering).

Let’s start with the initial command for the burnt offering:

“Let [the person bringing the offering] offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will…then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.

He shall kill the bull before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar…And the priest shall burn all [parts of the animal] on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord” (Lev 1:3-9)

So we see that this sacrifice was offered freely, was completely burned up, was intended to be accepted by God on the person’s behalf, and that God viewed it as a sweet fragrance.  These elements are consistently called out when the burnt offering is mentioned throughout Leviticus and beyond.

So how does this connect to our lives today?

100% commitment:  wholly dedicated to God

Paul gives us one of the keys:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren…that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable [rational] service” (Rom. 12:1).

What does Paul mean by a “living sacrifice”?  It feels almost like an oxymoron, since the animal being sacrificed was killed.

But (figuratively) so are we.

When we answered God’s calling, committed ourselves to God, repented, and came out of the watery grave of baptism, we were “crucified with Christ”.  Paul tells us that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).  Our sins, our past life, and our carnal nature were put to death (Rom. 6).

“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin…do not let sin reign in your mortal body…and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present [offer, submit] yourselves to God as being alive from the dead” (Rom. 6:6-13)

The burnt offering was given freely, and completely consumed by the fire.  This is one of the few offerings where the priests didn’t get to eat some of it.  It was TOTALLY burned up, entirely dedicated to God.  Nothing was held back or kept in reserve.

It’s worth asking:  am I offering 100% of myself in complete surrender to my Creator?  What am I holding back?  Are there areas of my life where I don’t want to let God in?  Do I give God just enough of my time to “tick the boxes” on prayer and bible study, then go on with the rest of my life?

Read More

Why & How Does God Use the Number 40 in the Bible? 

By

On July 31, 2021

In Biblical Figures, Christian Living, New Testament, Old Testament, Topic Studies

The lens of periods of 40 in the bible & what God is accomplishing on our wilderness journey

We recently explored the theme of wilderness in the bible, and how—for God’s people—the wilderness symbolizes the spiritual challenges we face as we do our best to navigate life in this carnal world.

Specifically, we talked about how people often associate the idea of a spiritual wilderness only with harsh, debilitating times of trial—but instead we should view our entire journey through this life as a journey through the wilderness.  Sometimes it’s lush pasture, other times barren desert, but always a place where God is guiding us with a purpose.

In fact, the only way to reach the Promised Land lies through the wilderness.  It’s where God calls His people to begin their journey, out of this present carnal world (represented by Egypt) to a place of preparation for the world to come.  It’s also where He reveals more of Himself and His ways, and teaches us how to fully rely on Him to provide.

And while our focus is on reaching the Promised Land of God’s eternal kingdom, we must remember that the experiences we have on the way are critical to our spiritual growth, key to reaching the destination itself.  Even the Hebrew word for wilderness (midbar) implies momentum, driving forward, and a journey with a purpose.

God is accomplishing something in us as we journey through the wilderness, and we have to surrender to Him fully, and trust that He is leading us in the right direction.  And this brings us to one really interesting thematic connection to the wilderness that I couldn’t dig into in the other study, but did want to explore further—how God uses the number 40 in the bible.

This isn’t getting into mystical numerology or anything like that, but God does use certain numbers symbolically throughout His word, and we’d be wise to pause and consider what lessons we can glean.  This study may seem quite long, but each of the examples can be read on their own, a little at a time.

What is the significance of the number 40 in the bible?

The number “40” in the bible appears to be connected to many of the same themes as we saw with the idea of wilderness, and the more I dig into the nuances, I really see the wilderness and the number 40 as two sides of the same coin.  We often see wilderness experiences (literal or symbolic) timebound by periods of 40…days, years, etc.

These shared themes include periods of significant trial or testing, or sometimes punishment for rebelling against God.  Some examples focus on the teaching and preparation of God’s chosen leaders.  And in many examples the number 40 shows how God is redeeming His people from the world, bringing a time of restoration and renewal.

In other words, these are all facets of how God is bringing His people out of (spiritual) bondage, through the wilderness (of this physical life), and eventually into the (eternal) Promised Land.  They showcase examples of God’s intent and direction in His people’s lives.

The number 40 in the bible appears to symbolize completion and accomplishment of God’s purpose, but in more of a physical sense (whereas the number 7 is more about Godly perfection and completion).  It is sometimes 40 years, though often a period of 40 days and nights—a person’s or nation’s success in completing the 40 days/years requires humility, trust in God’s promises, and reliance on Him to sustain.

Read More

Leadership Qualities in the Bible: Examples That Business Leaders Can Learn From

By

On January 23, 2021

In Biblical Figures, Christian Living, Old Testament, Topic Studies

As anyone who is a manager or leader of people knows, leadership is HARD.  It can be incredibly rewarding, heartbreaking, frustrating, or tedious depending on the day.  It often has more in common with parenting than people would realize.

And there are a lot of bad bosses in the world…though no one ever wants to believe that they’re one of them.

For God’s people who are also leaders within their work environment, we have a significant responsibility to not only care for and grow our employees, but also be a reflection of God’s way while we do so.  The old adage comes to mind that “with great power comes great responsibility”.

The bible is packed with passages to help guide God’s people through the joys and trials of people leadership.  For instance, there’s so much in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes alone that we can learn from, not to mention all of the “red text” instructions from Jesus’s own mouth.

But as the wisest people know, studying the examples and actions of others can sometimes be just as instructive, or even more so—whether good or bad examples, they provide context and specific tangible details that can help a leader with practical application.

For as long as I can remember, if you’d asked me what biblical figure I really looked up to or who was my “hero”, I would have answered Daniel.  He stayed faithful while navigating the politics of Babylonian and Persian governments, and managed to be consistently promoted while acting as an example of God’s way to even the rulers of the realm.

So this study looks at specific examples of leaders in the bible, and specifically leadership qualities that they modeled.  My goal here isn’t to go really in-depth on each (because they could honestly each be their own study), but rather provide illustrations and inspiration for biblical examples of leadership—and then each of you can take it from here.  Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • Abraham: Stepping out in faith, navigating uncertainty
  • Daniel: Refusal to compromise regardless of consequences
  • Esther: Risking herself to “go to bat” for her people
  • Joseph: Perseverance, trust in God’s timing, and planning through adversity
  • Job: Perspective through loss
  • Moses: Motivation, intercession, and delegation to avoid burnout
  • David: Passion, patience, and penitence
  • Abigail: Showing tact and discretion to de-escalate a situation
  • Nehemiah: Pursuing a vision and inspiring others to follow

Read More

What Are Abominations Before the Lord?

By

On January 6, 2018

In Christian Living, New Testament, Old Testament, Topic Studies

Where this study stemmed from

In today’s world of political correctness and permissiveness, the very word “abomination” is something that most people recoil from and completely reject. The industry I work in is very liberal, and I’m often placed in a position of needing to explain and defend my faith as tactfully as possible. Most people can wrap their heads around the fact that I don’t keep Christmas, don’t eat unclean meats, and keep a seventh-day Sabbath. But where their understanding stops is when it comes to homosexuality, because they believe that it’s bigotry or hatred on my part not to accept homosexuality as a completely natural thing.

There is a shaky line I have to walk in explaining that it has nothing to do with hating those people specifically, but that I also don’t get to pick and choose which commandments are valid within the things God says are wrong. I’ve had many people tell me that it was only considered wrong in the Old Testament, but that the New Testament doesn’t mention anything about it and Jesus did away with all that Old Testament hardline nonsense.

But the thing is, we know that Jesus didn’t do away with the Old Testament—only added to it or fulfilled some aspects (such as the need for the Levitical priesthood and physical sacrifices). And so quite some time back, I decided that I needed to do an in-depth study on what God considers abominations, so that I could confidently discuss the topic when asked.

The use of “abomination” in the Bible

It makes sense to start by finding out what things or actions God call an abomination. Interestingly, people often think about this as being mainly a hardline law/Pentateuch thing, and certainly there were a number of occurrences there. But it came as a surprise to me that the highest concentration of the word “abomination” appears to be in the book of Proverbs, in verses concerned with the heart and mind.

The words “abomination” and “abominable” are used over 170 times in the KJV and probably a similar number in the NKJV, though they tend to be used a less frequently in certain modern translations. While there’s only one Greek word translated this way, there are around five different Hebrew words. Three are from the same root word (shequets, shaqats, shiqquts) and mean roughly the same thing—filth, figuratively or literally an idolatrous object, detestable thing. These words are used when speaking of unclean animals, for instance, or often refer to pagan or idolatrous things in a more general sense. Two other words (ba ash and piggul piggul) are only translated abomination once or twice, but more often words like stank, loathsome, and abhor are used when translating them.

The most prominent word translated “abomination” is to ebah to ebah, and signifies that which is disgusting morally, an abhorrence.  It is used not only in the passages we expect (such as those on sexual sins or pagan rituals) but also passages in Proverbs and similar that speak to behaviors God finds detestable.

Read More

What We Can Learn From Haggai About Zeal: Just Do It

By

On February 11, 2017

In Christian Living, Old Testament, Topic Studies, Verse Studies

“…Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord”

~Romans 12:11

The book of Haggai is the second-shortest in the Old Testament, and like many of the minor prophet books it’s often skimmed over or overlooked altogether.  I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t spend much time in these books, simply because I find the contents challenging to relate to.  But at the Feast last year I heard a message given from this book that really resonated with aspects of my life over the past several months.

Written during the Babylonian exile, Haggai’s story tells of a complacent and lethargic people.  Roughly 16 years prior, the Persian ruler Cyrus had granted them leave to return to Israel and rebuild the temple of God.  The people returned to the land filled with excitement and immediately set to building.  But they fairly quickly allowed discouragement and their personal concerns to delay and derail their efforts.

As a result, God had stopped blessing them and allowed significant trials to befall them.  Eventually, He gave Haggai this message for the people:

“Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, ‘Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled [luxurious] houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?’ Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways!  You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.’  Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways!’” (Hag. 1:3-7)

God points out that they had been working on improving their own lives, establishing and beautifying their own homes, but not accomplishing what He had sent them there to do.  Over time they had lost sight of their purpose, and because of their misplaced priorities God had ceased to bless them—all their daily work wasn’t actually accomplishing anything.  It was, as Solomon says, “vanity of vanities” (Eccl. 1:2).

Haggai shows us what happens when we neglect His house and put our own priorities first, and there are some really important warnings for us.  The Israelites were required to build a physical temple for God to dwell in, but the stakes are much higher for God’s people today.

Our commission:  to build His house

Much like He had centuries earlier in Egypt, God plucked the Israelites from subjugation in a foreign land and sent them back to their homeland with a specific directive—to build His house.  Our situation is the same today, except we are building a spiritual temple rather than a physical one.  He called each of us out of the bondage of this world, brought us into covenant with Him, and promised to provide His spirit as a helper.

Read More

The Lie of Independence and the Freedom of a Bondservant

By

On July 9, 2016

In Christian Living, New Testament, Old Testament, Topic Studies

“Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (II Cor. 3:17)

When you hear the word “liberty”, what does it mean to you?

A few days ago Americans celebrated Independence Day, and the fact that 240 years ago a group of irritated land owners and businessmen announced the birth of a new nation.  Most of us could quote that declaration on command:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Particularly with a circus of an election coming up this year, we’ll hear a lot of talk about freedom and independence and democracy in the upcoming months.  But I think if you asked ten different people on the street what freedom means, you’d get ten different answers.  Today, our society tells us that freedom means that each of us has the right to do whatever we want, regardless of the cost to ourselves or others, and that we have the right to be offended if someone disagrees with or opposes those actions.  Society tells us that the bible is an oppressive list of rules written by a harsh, egotistical God—good enough for Christians to cherry-pick homilies from but not a wholly God-breathed, life-governing document.

That’s because our country was really founded on independence, not freedom or liberty.  People use them interchangeably, but there’s a huge difference, and it’s a very important one for Christ’s followers to understand.

Read More

Seven Days You Shall Eat Unleavened Bread…Now What?

By

On April 30, 2016

In Christian Living, Holy Days, New Testament, Old Testament, Topic Studies

As the sun set last night on the Days of Unleavened Bread, each of us had probably heard several messages about various themes that these holy days are meant to help us remember.  For a lot of people, a heavy emphasis before and during was probably placed on the process and concept of deleavening, and over the past few years that major focus has given me pause.

When you take a step back and think about it, the way many of us have been taught to deleaven is all about how WE are getting rid of leavening—how we vacuum every nook and cranny of our house and car, scour the ingredients of every label to find a little-known chemical that’s technically leavening, and find deeper meaning each time a box of baking soda hides in plain sight or we find a pack of crackers in our purse.  The spiritual analog for this in the days leading up to the Passover for many people is making a checklist of everything they’ve done wrong in the last year to see where they’re falling short and how they can do better in the next year, and not to only look in the obvious places for sin.

None of that is wrong necessarily, but in doing so we’ve made these holy days a time that symbolizes how WE put sin out of our lives.  And that’s not something we have the ability to do by ourselves (nor is it something we can finish by a certain date).  It’s hypocritical.  We’ve accidentally hijacked the Days of Unleavened Bread and made it into a time all about us, not about Christ and what He’s made possible in our lives.

“Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread”

This hyper-focus on deleavening (and making it about us) has also caused focus to shift away somewhat from the much more emphasized command to put the unleavened bread of Christ into us.  In fact, the passage that lays out all the holy days in in Leviticus 23 doesn’t even say anything about putting out leavening.  However, ALL the commands say we must eat unleavened bread for the seven-day period.  Here’s the initial command in Exodus:

Read More

Page 1 of 2

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén