Tilling and Planting

Tag: God’s Nature

  • Firstfruits of Many

    Firstfruits of Many

    Intro

    I’m on a roll now with Jewish holidays. I’ve talked about Passover and the connection to the Crucifixion and I’ve talked about Pentecost/Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) and the connection to the outpouring of Holy Spirit and the harvest of souls that came immediately after. Now I wish to talk about the Feast of Firstfruits (Yom HaBikkurim) and the connection to the resurrection. Side note: I’m kind of bouncing around with the holidays in terms of when they occur on the calendar, but that’s okay. I’m kind of doing it as I feel.

    The Feast

    In the book of Leviticus, God institutes the Feast of Firstfruits as such.

    The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

    Leviticus 23:9-14 (NIV)

    So what was the point of this one? Similar to the Feast of Weeks, this feast celebrated a harvest and was a time of thanksgiving to God for His provision. The difference between this one and the Feast of Weeks is that the Feast of Weeks celebrated the wheat harvest while the Feast of Firstfruits celebrated the barley harvest. The priest would take a sheaf of barley and wave it before the Lord as an offering. Then all Israelites sacrificed a lamb as a burnt offering to God. No one was allowed to eat of the crop until the first portion had been brought to the priest. This acknowledged that the firstfruits belonged to God and He was the source of it all.

    The timing of this feast was right in line with Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (stay tuned for this one!). In fact the exact time of when it should be celebrated has been in dispute. Leviticus says the waving of the first sheaf must occur the day after the Sabbath. However, the Pharisees and Sadducees disagreed on whether that meant the regular weekly Sabbath (favored by the Sadducees) – which would put the sheaf waving on our Saturday evening/Sunday morning – or if it was the special Sabbath of the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread – which could change from year to year and was favored by the Pharisees. And this disagreement continues among scholars today.

    The Fulfilment

    I already mentioned that this feast connects to the resurrection of Jesus. So how does it do that? First, let me back up a bit, I feel like I haven’t explained something rather important very well. God in His wisdom and forethought instituted various festivals for the Israelites to observe – 7 in all. And God designed each one of them to point to Jesus and the New Covenant in some way. I already went through Passover (the Crucifixion) and the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost (outpouring of Holy Spirit) and now I’m onto the Feast of Firstfruits. Make sense? Cool, let’s move on.

    The first thing to note is that despite the disagreement on when the sheaf should be waved, it seems clear from the Bible that this day fell on a Sunday – after the regular Sabbath’s day of rest. This means that Jesus rose from the dead on the day that the priest waved the sheaf as an offering to the Lord. Already this is significant. The wave offering signified that what was waved belonged to the Lord but then He released it to be used by others. Jesus presented Himself as an offering to God and the atonement that Jesus achieved was released by God to be received by us.

    Furthermore, Paul uses the word “firstfruits” to refer to Jesus and His resurrection.

    But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

    1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (NIV)

    Paul refers to Jesus’ resurrection as the firstfruits. Basically saying, “Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, so shall you be.” Similarly in Romans 8:23, Paul writes that the indwelling of the Spirit is a firstfruit of the redemption of all creation (specifically our bodies).

    When God instituted the Feast of Firstfruits, He looked ahead to the day His Son would fulfill it by becoming the firstfruits of the New Covenant and redemption of all creation.

    Wrapping Up

    Praise God for the resurrection! Am I right? As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, without the resurrection our faith is useless (see 1 Corinthians 15:13-17). Don’t gloss over the power of Jesus’ resurrection. We tend to put a lot of emphasis on the Cross and the weight of the sin He carried. But the resurrection demonstrated that God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. I love it.

    I also love the amount of care God put into the holidays He gave the Israelites in the Old Testament. Every one of them a picture of Jesus and the New Covenant. Most people missed it when Jesus walked the earth and most people don’t recognize it today. That’s why I’m taking the time to go through them all. The connections amaze me. Some more than others. So stay tuned for the next one: The Feast of Unleavened Bread!

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Unanswered Questions

    Unanswered Questions

    Intro

    Have you ever asked God questions when life doesn’t make any sense? Or when things go off the rails? I know I have. Often the question is “Why God?” And how many of those questions has God answered? For me personally, it feels like many questions go unanswered. When it comes to questioning God, some say it’s not right while others say God is big enough to handle our questions. So before I dig into why God might leave questions unanswered, I want to address the question of should we question Him.

    Can I Question God?

    In a word, yes! You most certainly can. However, there is this small matter called intent that I need to address.

    Look throughout the Scriptures and you’ll find people who asked God questions all the time – and you’ll see a whole lot of them God left unanswered. For most people, God remained gentle and kind toward them in their questioning. In many of those cases (Abraham, Job, Moses, others), He reaffirmed who He was to them without directly answering their questions. And that was enough for them.

    However, there’s also those whom God rebuked (Israelites in the wilderness, Pharisees, Zechariah – New Testament). So what’s the difference? Why did God rebuke some and respond with love and compassion to others? It comes down to their heart. As God told Samuel, He “looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

    The Heart Question

    Those that God rebuked questioned God (or Jesus) as if they knew better. They actively resisted receiving Him with thanksgiving (Israelites), praise (all of them), and recognition even though they should have known better (Pharisees). And others questioned Him with doubt and bitterness (Zechariah). They had no faith in God and this became the genesis of their questions. Consequently their questions went largely unanswered. Instead the people got rebuked for their questioning. Honestly, getting the answers would not have changed their hearts. Thought at least in Zechariah’s case, the rebuke resulted in a heart change. Praise God that even those whom God Almighty rebukes can get a second chance.

    For those He didn’t rebuke, their questions came from places of honest doubt, confusion, and humility. They genuinely sought God and whether He answered their questions directly or not, they all chose to trust Him. And that’s the key. When we have questions, we need to be prepared to trust God no matter the answer – or lack thereof.

    Reasons

    Before I go on, I do want to address different types of reasons that could be the answer when we say “why”.

    The first type is because of a choice we make. Sometimes I think some Christians assume that they can make careless choices and not suffer the consequences. And then ask God “why” when they do. But God never once promises that we will not suffer the consequences of our choices. In fact, just the opposite. The Bible speaks about people dealing with the consequences of their choices all the time. Paul warns about it quite a bit in his letters. Going 20 over the speed limit? God is not obligated to blind all the police to your dangerous speeding. In fact, God might urge a cop to pull you over so you learn your lesson before you hurt someone or yourself.

    Secondly, if it wasn’t by your choice, maybe it was the choice of someone else. We live in a fallen world where people have free will. Why did that person die in a car crash? Because the other person made a choice to drive drunk. People resist God all the time and make choices that unfortunately hurt His followers.

    The third type would be the ones that are truly not from any choice anyone made. Such as cancer or other diseases and sickness. Why do these happen to godly people? The short version goes back to we live in a fallen world where that just happens to people. We can’t control it. Now to move on to answering the “Why do these things happen to godly people” question.

    Why do These Things Happen?

    Of the three types of reasons that I went over, the second two are the ones that are most relevant here I think. I don’t want to spend any more time on the first one since that one can be summed up as “I made a bad choice and suffered the consequences.” And hopefully I learned a lesson to never do something like that again.

    I didn’t do it

    The second two are a bit more complicated since I (or you) didn’t make any choices and something bad still happened to us. In those cases the question oftentimes comes from why didn’t God protect His children from either the choices of others or the fallen nature of the world. I think one answer can be found in how God’s sovereignty actually works – and is the topic that is often on trial for these things, along with God’s love, goodness, and justice. I address a lot of these in my posts on God’s Goodness and God’s Sovereignty.

    To summarize this position, God is good all the time and only does good things. He never uses evil to “get around to something good”. God chooses to limit Himself in a way by operating primarily through finite beings (us, angels). He wants us to exercise our free will and make the choices that will advance His Kingdom.

    Another possible answer to why some of these things happen can be found in the Bible in Romans and James.

    Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

    Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)

    Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

    James 1:2-4 (NIV)

    I wish to reiterate that God will not bring the trials and sufferings upon us (though He will ask us to get outside our comfort zone at times, however that is very different from the trials and sufferings described here). However, when these things happen, God promises to be with us and to fashion in us a more Christ-like character and to work things out for the good. Jesus promised that we will have troubles in this world (John 16:33). After all, the world hated Him first (John 15:18-19).

    War

    And on top of that, Satan hates us Christians so much that he’s going to do what he can to derail us and make us ineffective and turn away from God. We are in a real war with a real enemy. So we can expect all kinds of attacks. Physical, financial, mental, etc.

    I Still Didn’t Answer the Question

    You might be thinking, Cory, you still didn’t answer the question of why God leaves some questions unanswered. And you’re right. Because truthfully, I don’t know why God doesn’t answer all our questions. I can only try to throw out ideas that might help you better understand why things happen. Unfortunately the Bible doesn’t give a clear answer in this area of God’s decision to not answer questions. All I can say is two things: He is God and He does what He will and second, He calls us to trust in Him when we don’t understand. And I believe that sometimes it’s because we don’t have the answers that we have to learn to trust God more and ultimately be drawn closer to Him. That’s the best answer I have.

    Wrapping Up

    I hope I introduced some insight into why bad things happen to good people. Whether by our own choices, the choices of others, this fallen natural world, or straight up attacks from the enemy, the bad things fall into one of these categories. I recognize I cannot give a concrete reason for God leaving questions unanswered, but He never promised to answer all our questions. He only promised to be with us and that we can trust Him always. And that’s something we need to ask God to help us become okay with. That’s one question He’ll gladly answer.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Degrees of Sin

    Degrees of Sin

    Intro

    I’ve been talking a lot about sin, what it is, how serious it is, and how God chooses to forget it when we receive His salvation and forgiveness. Today I wish to address another question about sin: are all sins equal, or are there different degrees – or levels – to sin? Is it truly worse to murder someone than it is to steal food? The laws of America says “yes”. But what does God say? What does He think? Because ultimately what God thinks is more important than what man thinks. Many churches preach that all sins are equal, and yet no one really lives that way. We shrug our shoulders at a little gossip and look judgmentally down on unmarried people sleeping together. So we have a dissonance going on here. And that’s why I want to address it; I think it’s important that we understand this topic.

    It’s all About Perspective

    I was recently posed with the idea that the Bible supports the notion that not all sins are equal. And in fact there are some sins that are worse than others. My gut reaction was to deny this. After all, I had heard much of my life that God sees all sin as the same. But after thinking about it and talking about it, I realized that there are two ways of looking at this. And which way you think about it determines whether you answer the question “Are all sins equal?” with a “yes” or a “no”.

    When thinking about this concept of differing degrees of sin, there are two main attributes of God that you can stack sin up against in order to answer this question. God’s Holiness and God’s Justice. And when I look at the Bible and think about these two different attributes of God, I come up with two different conclusions. I can confidently say “yes and no” when asked this question. Let me explain.

    God’s Holiness

    I don’t think there’s any argument that God is a holy God. And I mentioned in a previous post that sin cannot enter His presence because of His holiness. And this is why I can confidently say that all sin is equal in the sight of God. Because a single lie disqualifies you from God’s presence for all of eternity just as fast as murdering someone. When you stack sin up against a Holy God, they are all equal. They all sentence you to eternity in the Lake of Fire, separated from God’s Holy presence. Is this supported by Scripture? Let’s take a look.

    For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

    Romans 3:23 (NIV)

    This statement by Paul is universal. Paul doesn’t make any distinction here of any “degrees” of sin. No one person is worse than another when compared to the glory and holiness of God Almighty.

    Perhaps even clearer is James 2:10.

    For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (NIV)

    Here James makes it clear that it doesn’t matter which law you break. Or which sin you commit. You might as well have broken every law and committed every sin. It’s all the same when stacked up against a Holy and Righteous God. A note about the context for James is that believers were showing favoritism based on wealth, status, and power. And James called them out as lawbreakers by doing so. Ouch. Ever been guilty of this? I know I have.

    So now that I’ve established that yes, all sins are indeed equal when stacked up against God’s Holiness and our eternal status, let’s switch gears and see how the Bible indicates that there are degrees of sin.

    God’s Justice

    You can’t go far in Leviticus without realizing that God – in His justice – requires different forms of payment – or consequences – for different sins. Murder carried the death penalty (Leviticus 24:17), while theft required restoration of what was stolen, plus a fifth of its value (Leviticus 6:1-5). I could go on, but I’m not going to. I think you get the idea.

    The severity of the consequence largely depended on the severity of the damage done to the lives of others. I’m going to emphasize that it depends on the lives of others. God wants all to live in harmony and when that harmony is damaged because of sin, there must be some consequence to deal with it. For minor sins – ones that cause short term discomfort or easily fixed problems – restoration in some form is required. For ones that cause irreversible damage – such as murder – a far more severe consequence is required.

    And these degrees of sin extends beyond the Old Testament. The church in Corinth dealt with pride and division, but the only person Paul required them to kick out of the fellowship was the man sleeping with his stepmother (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). In other places we read that for those who are in a place of authority (Pastors, Elders, Deacons, etc.) are held to a higher standard and thus the consequences for their sins – especially ones that harm others – should be more severe – including being removed from their position and even put out of the fellowship. And this makes sense, you want morally upright people in positions of authority. You want people you claim to represent the name of Jesus publicly to be able to honor Him by their actions. And that’s what God wants as well.

    Intentional vs Unintentional

    The degrees of sin goes beyond the type and the level of authority you might have. It even goes into whether you knew what you were doing or not. The Old Testament provides milder consequences and forms of restitution for those who did something unintentionally and then repented the moment the realized it, doing what they could to make amends.

    In the New Testament, Jesus was incredibly hard on the religious leaders. Why? Because in their positions of leadership they were already held to a higher standard and with their knowledge of the Scriptures, they really should have acknowledged their own shortcomings more readily than the common people. But instead they claimed to be effectively perfect and didn’t need God’s forgiveness. Because of this, Jesus called them out again and again. Notice that they fall in both the camp of being in positions of authority and are committing the intentional sin of lying to themselves and others. Doused in pride and judgmental attitudes, I might add.

    And it gets worse when we get to the plot to kill Jesus. They know Jesus is an innocent man. Nicodemus told Jesus that they knew He was sent by God. And yet they decided to kill Him anyway. So now the religious leaders are guilty of murder (they even told Pilate that Jesus’ blood be upon them and their children). And to top it off, because of their knowledge of Scripture, at least some of them recognized that Jesus was fulfilling some of the prophecies for the Messiah. Jesus called them out for this very thing – knowing the Scriptures and yet being willfully ignorant and denying the truth. So that’s why Jesus could tell Pilate “the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin” (John 19:11).

    The Unforgivable Sin

    I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the unforgivable sin in a post about differing degrees of sin. People have long debated what this mysterious sin is. Many have been worried that they’ve committed it and have disqualified themselves from Heaven. First of all, let me assure you that if you are worried about having committed it, I can guarantee you haven’t. But what is it?

    In Matthew 12 and Mark 3, Jesus declares that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit to be unpardonable. So what does it mean to blaspheme Holy Spirit? Blasphemy is defiant irreverence of something – or someone – Holy. Notice the word “defiant”. Blasphemy is active, not passive, and willful, not ignorant. Therefore you cannot accidentally commit blasphemy of Holy Spirit. The context in which Jesus said this was when the religious leaders claimed Jesus was demon-possessed and that’s why He could perform miracles. Remember my comments about the religious leaders having greater knowledge? Yeah, they watched Jesus perform miracles and knew He fulfilled Scripture right before their eyes. And yet, they still claimed that Jesus was possessed.

    In the immediate context, blasphemy of Holy Spirit looks to be having evidence of Holy Spirit working and yet willfully denying it and attributing it to something else. This also plays out today in continued unbelief in Jesus despite Holy Spirit calling out to someone and God giving them opportunity to repent and come to Him in faith. People who choose to deny God in spite of all the evidence around them and in spite of Holy Spirit working in their lives are the ones guilty of the unforgivable sin. Though you’ll never truly know if someone commits it until they die without having repented. Because up until their last breath, there’s a chance.

    Hardness of Heart

    Really what Jesus called out in the religious leaders was their hardness of heart. This wasn’t the first nor would be the last time He does this. And other New Testament writers give similar warnings about a hardness of heart and lack of repentance and forgiveness. A hard heart is the only thing that can keep God’s love away over and over again when Holy Spirit comes calling.

    Wrapping Up

    In this post I desired to make clear where our sin stands eternally before God and yet show that there are consequences – of varying degrees – to our sins. This is important to understand especially for anyone in leadership positions. And even for us who happily proclaim to be Christians and follow God. The more we declare our faith to the unbeliever, the more we need to be cognizant of our actions and speech. If we commit a sin in the sight of all these unbelievers who are well aware of our faith, that hurts our message. The weight of responsibility is greater the more vocal we are. And there’s little I need to say for those who are in high leadership positions – especially when they are megachurch pastors. I think we’ve all heard of a few scandals over the years.

    So be aware of your level of responsibility. God holds us believers to higher standards than the unbeliever. And our willful sin is serious indeed. God has already forgiven it and won’t punish it, but there are consequences to sin. And they are often worse for believers than for the unbeliever.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Forgetful God?

    Forgetful God?

    Intro

    Is God capable of forgetting anything? The Bible says that God knows the beginning to end. He knows the number of hairs on my head. And He knows everything about everything. But the Bible also says that there is one area where God is forgetful. If this sounds ridiculous or impossible to you, then you’ve come to the right place. (Also if you haven’t heard this before and don’t know where I’m going, then you too have come to the right place.)

    Can God Actually Forget Anything?

    In all technicality, no, God can’t forget things in the same way we might forget to buy something or forget the name of that neighbor from 30 years ago. But it is still Biblically and dictionary accurate to say God is forgetful. No seriously. Like many words in the English language, to forget means more than just an accidental “Oops. I didn’t mean to forget about your birthday”. Think about a time when you’ve said something like, “Oh forget about it”. More often than not, in these situations you aren’t asking the person to accidentally forget that it happened, but rather intentionally overlook something. And this is the dictionary definition that we can apply to God’s forgetfulness. Intentionally overlooking something. The question now becomes, what does the Bible say God intentionally chooses to forget or overlook?

    Forgive and Forget

    Here’s a big clue: have you ever said or heard the phrase “forgive and forget”? If so, then you’ve got a handle on what it is that God is forgetful about. And that thing is sin. God chooses to forget the sins that He has forgiven. To be sure, those who do not turn to God and receive His forgiveness will still have their sins counted against them when they are cast into Hell and then the Lake of Fire at the final judgment. However, for those who turn to God and receive His forgiveness, God chooses to forget their sins.

    Here’s just a couple of verses to back this up.

    I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

    Isaiah 43:25 (NIV)

    For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

    Jeremiah 31:34b (NIV)

    But wait, these are both from the Old Testament and the context is forgiving the Israelites and bring them back from captivity. Absolutely. But Malachi 3:6 says “I the Lord do not change” and Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”. So I see no problem in using these Old Testament verses to extract a piece of the nature of God – that is, how He forgives – to apply to us today. Besides take a look at Hebrews 8:12.

    For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

    Gee that looks familiar. The author actually quotes a big chunk of Jeremiah 31 here in Hebrews 8 when arguing the necessity of the new covenant and how the Old Testament actually refers to it. So that passage in Jeremiah applies to us as Christians today! God is forgetful of all of your sins and mine and everyone who comes to faith in Jesus. That’s incredible news! But in the words of all the informercial narrators, “But wait, there’s more!”

    Sea of Forgetfulness

    Ever here the concept of God’s sea of forgetfulness? And that’s where all of our sins go? And that He puts up a “No Fishing” sign? Is that actually Biblical? Well, yes and no. The idea of the sea of forgetfulness comes from Micah but it doesn’t actually use this phrase.

    You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

    Micah 7:19 (NIV)

    From this came Jewish traditions of throwing bread into the sea to represent God removing their sin. And from that the idea of a “sea of forgetfulness” comes down. But frankly, I kind of like the picture in Micah a little bit better. The picture is that our sins are thrown into the deepest parts of the sea from which we can’t retrieve them. They are gone forever. We cannot resurrect them and God chooses to leave them there. I really want to emphasize God’s choice in this. He is a holy God and cannot be touched by sin and sin cannot enter His presence. But because God is love and He loves us so much, He makes a conscious choice to cover over our sins and pretend like they don’t exist – when we accept His offer of forgiveness.

    This is mind blowing. That He would love us that much. And it gets better, I’ve got one more verse for you that I’m sure you’re familiar with.

    East is From the West

    As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

    Psalm 103:12 (NIV)

    Many of you might be singing Casting Crowns right now, and I don’t blame you. It’s a good song. But I want to turn to the source here in Psalm 103. The Psalmist says that God removes our transgressions (also known as sins, see my last post) as far as the east is from the west. That’s an infinite distance. How is that infinite? Look at a globe and place your finger on it and start moving it west. At what point does it start moving east? Never. You can move that finger around and around in a circle going west and never reach a point where suddenly you are going east. And if you start going east, you get the same thing. Unlike north and south which meet at the poles, east and west don’t have such a restriction and thus there is infinite distance between them.

    This is incredible news for us because that means that God has cast our sins an infinite distance away so we literally can’t reach them anymore.

    Rabbit Trail

    My pastor says that rabbit trails are okay if you announce them in advance, so I’m announcing a rabbit trail here.

    This verse in Psalm 103 has far less impact if the earth were flat. Because in that model, there is a finite distance between east and west. You go so far east and hit the end. Turn around go west until you hit the other end. Take a measurement. Now you know just how far God will actually cast your sins. And that doesn’t jive very well with everything else the Bible has been saying (that I’ve quoted here – or not) about how God actively chooses to be forgetful about your sins. My pastor says that this verse alone is a very strong argument against the idea that the Bible teaches a flat earth model.

    “But the seas have a finite depth!” Yes they do. But they are also of the type of environment where anything you cast down there will more than likely be lost forever. Seriously, the bottoms of oceans, seas, and even lakes are nigh impossible to retrieve things from. The larger the body of water, the harder it is.

    Compared to the oceans, Lake Superior is pretty small in its depths and they are just now rediscovering shipwrecks from 200 years ago. People have searched for specific shipwrecks for decades in various lakes, rivers, etc. before finding it even though they knew roughly where it went down. The bottoms of the seas and oceans are the most unexplored places. Only God knows what’s all truly down there. And that’s the point. He knows all that we’ve done and He chooses to forget.

    But I still Sin

    But wait, if God has cast all our sins away so we can’t reach them anymore, then why do I still struggle with sin? Because the sin has become a habit. We all know what habits are and how hard it is to change them or break them. And the power of that sin has been broken and forgiven by Jesus and the Cross, but the daily (or weekly, or whatever) habit of performing the act is oftentimes still something we will have to work through with the power of Holy Spirit to strengthen us.

    It’s not easy and it’s not fun, but by the grace of God and our own perseverance, we will overcome. Hang in there.

    Wrapping Up

    Praise the Lord that He chooses to be a forgetful God when it comes to our sins! I hope this encourages you in those times when the enemy tells you that your sins are too great, too much for God to forgive. Or that He could never truly forget what you did 2 years ago and will remind you of that and punish you for it someday. Just remember these verses that I’ve shared today from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Hebrews, and Psalms. And also remember that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1).

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Seek and Find

    Seek and Find

    Intro

    In these next couple of sections, Jesus invites us to ask His Father for good gifts. He lets us know that if we seek after His Father and if we walk His path, we will find Him and eternal life. These are the core elements to get out of these verses. But there is a lot more to be pulled from this text. As well as some confusion and misconceptions to clear up. So let’s get started.

    Don’t Stop Asking

    “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

    “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

    Matthew 7:7-12 (NIV)

    Ask and you shall receive is a phrase that I think we have all heard over the years. The problem is when we start asking for the wrong things and then we get upset when God (or our parents) don’t deliver. “But you said to ask and we shall receive,” we whine. Yes, Jesus did say that. And yes, parents have said that. But to understand what “ask and it will be given to you” means, we need to read the rest of the passage. And it goes on to say “seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” and then affirms that everyone who does these things will be satisfied.

    Not Just Anything

    And then the next paragraphs starts. Jesus asks His listeners if they would give bad things to their children when they ask for good things. And Jesus asked rhetorically. Obviously none of them would. And that – Jesus says – is the type of Father that God is. He gives good gifts to His children when they ask for them. The key here is “good” gifts. And the definition of good here is God’s definition. In His infinite wisdom and knowledge, knowing past, present, and future, He knows what we need and what will benefit us the most. I covered in an earlier post Matthew 6:25-34 where Jesus clearly states that God knows what we need, and He will provide them to us. In that passage, Jesus says to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added.

    Elsewhere, Jesus states that if we ask in His name, He will do it (John 14:14). Now to ask of anything in Jesus’ name is to invoke His authority, but it is also to pray in His will. I mentioned that God knows what we need and will give us the good things we ask for. If what we ask for will lead to destruction or is just plain wrong, He will refuse to give it to us – just like a loving parent will refuse to give their kids ice cream for every single meal.

    God Honors Our Prayers

    What’s awesome about this passage, is that when we understand what God will honor, and if we truly seek His will in all things, we will find Him and we will find what we are looking for – because a prayer that honors God and His will is one that God will honor. And while I’m not going to go into depth here, God wired us to have certain desires and if those desires are honoring to God, He will grant them as well – perhaps not as quickly as we want, but they will come. Case in point, I got married several years later than what I had desired and prayed for. But God needed to prepare both me and my wife. It wasn’t that it was a bad thing to get married, but my timing of that marriage wasn’t right.

    God needed to get my heart to a place of being okay being single and needed to work out a couple of other issues in my life to prepare me for my wife. And He needed to do similar things for her. So if what you ask for is good, and you’re confident it is within God’s will, keep asking! Keep knocking on the door of Heaven! But above all, seek God and a greater relationship with Him and you will find Him. And He will – in His perfect timing – bring about what you are seeking.

    The Golden Rule

    The last verse in this section contains what we commonly call “The Golden Rule”. There are a couple of variations you may have heard depending upon which translation of the Bible it came from. The two most common I hear are “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” and “Treat others the way you want to be treated”. In either case, the meaning remains the same.

    If you want others to be kind and gentle with you, then you should be kind and gentle towards others. If you want others to show you grace and mercy, then you should show grace and mercy. And if you want others to forgive you, then you should forgive others. The list goes on and on. And there’s no reason for me to continue. Insert your own thing that you want others (broadly) to demonstrate towards you and become that kind of a person.

    Pick the Right Gate

    “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

    Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)

    Jesus wraps up what we call chapter 7 with a bit of a cautionary warning. He informs us that the way to life is through a narrow gate and down a narrow path. It’s not easy. Much easier is the path that leads to destruction – wide gate, broad road, piece of cake. But here’s an interesting interpretation I found of this passage that is different than what I think most people assume. I for sure assumed that Jesus is referring to the path to Heaven. But in light of the rest of the Sermon on the mount, Jesus is more likely referring to heart posture vs outward piety.

    We can refrain from murdering someone and thus obey the law, but we could still harbor hatred toward that person – which Jesus said earlier equaled murder. That hatred leads us down the broad path that leads to destruction. And the same goes for all of the other things Jesus refers to in this sermon. Effectively, these two verses sum up everything Jesus said already by saying that all the outward actions with no heart change is the wide gate and broad path leading to destruction. And having the proper heart attitude leads to life.

    Jesus doesn’t want us to just seek after pious actions, He wants us to seek heart change – which leads to those actions. And if we seek that heart change with the help of Holy Spirit, we will find it.

    Wrapping Up

    I hope you now have greater confidence to ask God for things that you know are good and align with His will and desires. If you aren’t sure, ask Him! Seek council from the Word, from Holy Spirit, and from men and women in the faith who are maybe a little wiser. If you earnestly seek to understand what God seeks to give you, you will find it. He doesn’t want to hide His desires for your life from you, but if you don’t seek Him, how will you ever know what those are?

    And heed Jesus’ warning about taking the easy road. The one that leads to destruction. Even those of us who are on the road to Heaven can take detours that destroy various areas of our lives. Relationships, reputation, etc. So beware and seek guidance from Holy Spirit.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!