HIGHLIGHTING THE TEMPORAL VS. THE ETERNAL - LESSONS FROM ECCLISIASTES

King Solomon spent a lifetime pursuing temporal fulfillment.  He amassed wealth, collected beautiful women, and built monuments to himself.  At the end of his life, King Solomon looked at all he dedicated his life to and realized it was vain and worthless.  King Solomon was no fool, in fact, he is heralded as the wisest man who ever lived, yet at some point, he strayed from his commitment to God and dedicated his life to worthless, temporal pursuits.  Solomon started well, asking God to give him the wisdom to rule over Israel, holding a nationwide worship service and seeking to dispense righteous justice to the people.  One wonders how this could have gone wrong.

The mistake Solomon made first was disobeying God's command to not mingle with surrounding cultures.  Solomon quickly sought to form alliances with the surrounding kingdoms through marriage, beginning with marrying the daughter of the Pharaoh in Egypt.  Undoubtedly, this was a wise move politically and financially, but turned out to be spiritually destructive.  By marrying into different cultures, Solomon allowed his culturally diverse wives to bring their evil practices into Israel to the point that he mixed the profane with the holy and allowed foreign gods in the Temple of YHWH.  Solomon's heart became divided and he sought fulfillment in fleshly pursuits.  Many of the pursuits of Solomon would not be considered sin, in and of themselves, but in the context in which he sought after them, these pursuits became as the sin of idolatry.  Solomon put the his personal interests and passions before his dedication to God and the pursuit of holiness.

The lesson I come away with when reading the book of Ecclesiastes is that when we forsake the eternal for the temporal, we will always come away unfulfilled and hollow.  God has given us an eternal awareness and it is up to us to choose to sow in the field of eternal things rather than the field of the temporal.  When we pursue wealth for the sake of wealth or fame for the sake of fame or amass great possession for the sake of ownership, we miss the eternal perspective of Godly stewardship.  Wealth, fame, and material possession is not evil if these things are sought after and used to promote the Gospel of Christ.

The American Church is poisoned by the notion of the American Dream because we feel we are entitled to a certain lifestyle or standard of living.  We are called to pursue holiness, not stuff.  Solomon spent a lifetime getting and acquiring. Solomon admitted that he denied himself no pleasure, whatever he desired, he went for it, and in the end, he looked back on all he experienced, on all he acquired and lamented that it was all a vain chasing after the wind.  Solomon looked over a life spent enjoying worldly success, success only dreamed of by most human beings, and he despised it all.  It is not until we get the the final paragraphs of his writings that we see his point in writing - pursuing God and holiness is the only worthwhile pursuit, the only pursuit that will bring fulfillment, the only pursuit that has eternal value.

As I reflect on Solomon's writing, I recognize how much I am affected by the idea of the American Dream, the desire to live comfortably and acquire stuff.  Sadly, I realize that much of my effort is but a vain chasing after the wind that has no eternal value.  I have been challenged by Solomon's writings to have a more eternal perspective and to put the resources and gifts that God has given me to good use.  I have been challenged to pursue and promote holiness in my home and to focus on being a better ambassador for Christ outside the home.

We have been blessed with the Holy Scriptures, yet we so often neglect them.  Take a look at Ecclesiastes, pay close attention to the last chapter, especially, and see if God does not call you to have a different perspective on your life.  If you are feeling unfulfilled, if you are feel that life is meaningless, take Solomon's advice and pursue things of eternal value and let God worry about the temporal.  I promise you it will transform your life if you put these things into practice. May God bless and keep you as you seek to do His will in your life!

WILL THE UNITED STATES ABANDON ISRAEL? IS PROPHECY HAPPENING BEFORE OUR VERY EYES?

Bible prophecy is very clear, in the last days, Israel will stand alone.  Just a few years ago, it was unfathomable that the United States would abandon Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, yet the rhetoric coming from the current administration seems to suggest just such a scenario.   Weeks ago, President Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if Israel did not accept the peace deal offered by the U. S., Israel could find itself standing alone in the international community.  Friday, peace talks broke down between Israel and the Palestinians.  Secretary of State John Kerry announced, on Friday, that the peace talks have failed.  What does this mean for the relationship between Israel and the United States?  Will the president make good on his threat to abandon Israel in it's struggle for it's very existence?

Other questions must be asked, questions that at the moment have no solid answers.  Syria is a known threat to Israel, and the rebels fighting in Syria are not friendly toward Israel either, what will that scenario hold in store for Israel if the U. S. turns its back?  Can a flare up between these two neighboring countries lead to the total annihilation of Damascus, the capitol of Syria?  I believe it can.  In the past, when Israel has come under attack, the U. S. has called for restraint on the part of Israel, concerning retaliation.  If the U. S. steps back from Israel, will Israel feel the need for a strong response if attacked?   We know that Israel destroys Damascus at some future point, as the prophets Amos and Jeremiah both foretold it.

Iran continually maintains a threatening posture towards Israel, could a retaliatory strike on Damascus entice Iran and it's allies(namely Russia) to make a move against Israel leading to the Gog and Magog war prophesied in the Bible?  Could this failed attack on Israel lead to the fated treaty that will be signed between Israel and it's enemies, a peace treaty brokered by the man the Bible refers to as the Anti-Christ?  If so, the signing of this treaty will signal the final 7 years of life as we know it, on earth.

Many questions remain unanswered, many pieces need to fall into place, but the are some things that we do know for sure.  We know that at some point in the future, Israel will stand alone in the world. We know that at some point in the future, Israel will retaliate against an attack from Syria and destroy Damascus utterly and completely.  We know that at some point in the future Israel will be attacked by a coalition of nations led by Iran and Russia, an attack that Israel will survive due to supernatural intervention from God.  We know that at some point in the future, the Anti-Christ will broker a peace deal between Israel and it's enemies in the Middle East, marking the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel known as the Seven Year Tribulation.  We know that at some point in the future, Jesus Christ will return, rescue Israel, set up a kingdom in Jerusalem and reign for a thousand years.  We know all these things because the Bible tells us they will happen.

I believe, for a number of reasons, we are living in the days leading up to these events and we will see many of these events take place soon.  If you have not read my blog post A NEW POPE, A METEOR AND A REALLY GOOD BOOK... I encourage you to take a look.  If you are a regular reader of my blogs you will see that I am fairly convinced that Pope Francis is set to fulfill the role of the False Prophet foretold of in the book of Revelation.  In the aforementioned blog, you will find a link to a Youtube video featuring Rabbi Gary Cahn as he discusses his book the HARBINGER.(I strongly urge you to get this book and read it).  Also of interest is the upcoming Blood Moons, this year and next year.  A number of Bible Prophecy experts believe these Blood Moon occurrences, two this year and two next year, all four coinciding with major Jewish Feasts, are a signal of the immanent return of Christ for the Church.(here is a link to an interesting site regarding the Blood Moons and prophecy:
 http://www.bloodmoonprophecy.com/?gclid=CKbXmuvMyb0CFWEV7AodURMAHw  )
Much of the turmoil in the Middle East seems to be positioning prophetic events towards fulfillment.

What does all this mean for the believer in Christ?  The Bible tells us that no man knows the hour of Christ's return, but we are told to watch for signs of the times and that we should be able to discern the season of Christ's return.  It may well be that Christ could tarry another 100 years or more, though I highly doubt it. As always, we should sense the urgency of the Great Commission.  We ought to be living out our faith, pursuing holiness, learning our Bibles and preparing for our call Home.  We must remember that neither our entertainment, nor our leisure, nor the acceptance of our peers  is worth one lost soul.  It is time for the Church to wake up, clean it's own house and start loving people into the kingdom.

SMALLVILLE THEOLOGY - BLAME GOD

                                                     


        Having grown up reading Marvel and DC comics, I have a natural affinity to comic book heroes, especially Batman and Superman.  Up until recently, I either ignored or was oblivious to the blatant similarities between Superman and Jesus Christ.  Much has been written on this topic and I will not take the time to rehash it all here, except to point out one major device used in the Man of Steel film.  At least twice, Superman is referred to as the son of El, once by his mother and once by General Zod, the film's villain.  "Big deal!" you may say, well El is the Hebrew, shortened version, of the name Elohim, the very name used for God in the first verse of the Bible.  Genesis 1:1 reads "In the beginning, God (Elohim) created the heavens and the Earth."  Here are just a few references from scripture where El is used in referencing God:

1. EL SHADDAI - God all sufficient

2. EL ELYON - God most high

3. EL YESHUATI - God of my salvation (notice the Hebrew name of Jesus, Yeshua)

       These are just a few of the references to God in scripture where El is translated God.  Clearly the filmmakers knew what they were doing as the Messianic references were numerous. Also referenced throughout this film was the television show Smallville.  The first episode of Smallville purposely portrays Clark Kent as divine in at least 2 scenes.  The first, Clark Kent is in a cemetery where he steps in front of a statue of an angel seen here:



The second is even more blatant as it depicts Clark Kent as being crucified:



         

This is all fine, except,(as I finally get to my point) in as much as Smallville portrays Superman as a savior of mankind, it also goes on to make the point that the only salvation man needs is from the mess Superman has created in the first place.  Upon his arrival to earth, in Smallville, Superman's space pod arrives amidst a meteor storm that kills numerous people.  This results in many adventures in which Clark Kent must use his super powers to undo the negative affects of his arrival.  It seems that every villain he fights is made a villain due to exposure to Kryptonite, brought here along with his own craft.  The inference is that if Superman had not come to earth, there would have been nothing to save mankind from in the first place. This is classic "Blame God" theology.

     So often, we hear people ask, "why does God make bad things happen to good people", or "if God is so loving, (or good) why is there so much evil in the world."  The real question people are asking, what is really in the heart of those questions is, "If God is all powerful, the world would not be in this mess..." or even more personally, "If God is so loving and powerful, I would not be experiencing this pain in my life."  We want to blame God, and then ask Him to fix it.

     Before we blame God, we have to look at the origin of sin and suffering.  In the first chapters of Genesis, we see that God created a perfect world and called it "good."  It was not until man decided he would like to be "as God" and rebeled against God that the world began it's descent into chaos. Once we begin to entertain thoughts of blaming God for problems, global and/or personal, we diminish His character.

     We live in a society where personal responsibility has been all but vanquished.  We are led to believe that there are no, nor should there be, consequences for bad behavior, especially since we cannot necessarily judge anyone's behavior as bad anyway.  We are told that people should be free to choose to live however they please and that a Biblical view of sin and the consequences of sin is antiquated at best and downright mean and hateful.  Society wants us to believe that the only thing holding up progress is the narrow minded few who take a literal view of the Bible.

      While society wants to blame God for all the ills of the world, those of us who have been born again understand that God is the solution.  The evil intent of the hearts of men is the problem, we, as humans, are naturally selfish and greedy.  God offers us regeneration through Jesus Christ, the true Son of El.

SPIRITUAL VALUE STARTS WITH JESUS

After listening to an excellent sermon in church this week,   http://overflowcollective.org/media.php?pageID=5   God gave me some great insight into His word.  The passage we studied was John 5 about the crippled man who was at the pool of Bethesda waiting to be healed.  The scripture states in the ESV  version that the man was an invalid.  I started thinking about the word invalid and it's different meanings and I thought of an alternate pronunciation that changes the meaning: invalid, accent on val meaning without value.  In the context of the scripture, this man had spent "a long time" attempting to do something that was physically impossible for him to do.  "A long time", trying the same thing and failing, over and over again.  This man had no plan, he never attempted anything different, he never enlisted any help, he simply laid down and waited for something to happen.  The scenario is that at this particular pool, disabled people would gather and wait for an angel to stir up the water and the first one into the pool got healed.  Now remember, this man spent "a long time" lying crippled, waiting for someone to pick him up and put him on the pool.  When Jesus came up to him, the man did not call out to Jesus or ask for help, Jesus initiated contact.

     Obviously, this man wanted his life to change but he did absolutely nothing constructive to help his case.  It can be argued that waiting for the waters to stir and going in the pool was a tradition, this man was simply following a tradition, with no hope of actually accomplishing his goal, expecting something to happen.  Where the  application for me comes in is I see this man as representing spiritually disabled people who follow the religious traditions of men or just lay around feeling sorry for themselves rather than actually meeting Christ.  The ESV version of the Bible calls this man an invalid and that means to me that his life was invalid (accent on the val).  This man offered nothing to society, he simply lay by the pool, uselessly, never utilizing the gifts or talents that God gave him. When we follow blind tradition or sit around waiting for something to happen without seeking after God, we are invalid, in other words, we have no spiritual value.

It is only when we recognize Christ and His desire to change us and guide us through His Spirit and His Word that we can see our lives garner spiritual value.  This also ties into something we discussed on Thursday night during Bible study.  Looking at Matthew 3 we saw the incident where Jesus comes to John the Baptist for baptism.  John hesitated in baptizing Christ as he recognized that Christ was greater  than he.  That is the beginning of spiritual growth, recognizing who God is and allowing Him to have an impact in our lives.  Our view of who God is cannot be shaped by our worldview, our worldview must  be dictated by who God is as He has revealed Himself to us in His word.

Horror author Stephen King, in an interview with NPR recently stated a belief in "a higher power" and he indicated that the design of the universe caused him to understand that there is a supreme being involved in that design.  If you have ever read a Stephen King novel, there is very little in it that would bring glory to God.  Stephen King acknowledges God but based on his writing, does not  allow his worldview to be influenced by God as revealed in scripture.  King, who claims faith in God claims Christianity, and raised Methodist, does not espouse evangelical concepts.  Instead, we see King using Biblical themes minus the redemptive work of Christ.   Much of Kings work celebrates good conquering evil by the power of good people.  While this is a nice thought, it does not match up to Biblical truth.  Man has no power over evil as demonstrated by our need for the cross.  So in a sense, the writing of Stephen King demonstrates an example of a world view shaping a belief in God and His dealings with man.  The sad part is, that the christian community is so starved for anything that entertains us and has even a modicum of faith value that we see the writings of Stephen King lauded in christian circles.  At one time, King was my favorite author but many years ago, I became convicted by his overt worldly and often sexual content,  I gave up reading any of his books once and for all.

The bottom line is that in order to have any spiritual value, we must allow our lives to be shaped by the truth of God the creator of heaven and earth, the redeemer of man and the lover of our souls.  A true encounter with God, a God influenced worldview, and the desire for and the allowing of Christ to come into our lives to change it and shape it is required if we want our lives to have any spiritual value.

A New View of The Book of Psalms

I have been taking a course on the Book of Psalms and have been given an entirely new outlook on this portion of scripture. My Bible reading program consists of reading through the Bible in order, alternating between the OT and the NT books.  Naturally, I have more favorite parts of scripture and less favorite portions, but I read everything so as to continue in the full counsel of God.  Each time I come to the book of Psalms, I tend to pay a little less attention than I would in say a book like Hebrews.

I am ashamed to admit that I have missed so much and I am excited to say that now I cannot get enough of the Psalms.  One of the points my professor brought out is that Jesus spent a great deal of time praying during His earthly ministry, the Psalms are what He prayed.  As I re-read this amazing book, I realize that my professor is right!  In fact, that insight is only the beginning of the things I am seeing in a new way.  What I never realized before was how prophetic the Psalms are. I always knew that they were prophetic pointing to the first coming of Israel's Messiah(who can deny that Psalm 22 is a perfect description of the crucifixion?) but now, I am seeing incredible prophecies pointing to the tribulation period, the ant-christ, the second coming of Christ, the battle of Armageddon and the 1000 year reign of Jesus in Jerusalem where He will redeem Israel unto Himself.

I have been studying the Bible almost my entire adult life and I feel as excited as I did when I first began understanding His word and discovering it's truths.  I encourage you to check out the Psalms and think about what is being said and what they may pertain to.  For instance, Psalms 10 - 14 seem to describe conditions on earth prior to the flood and what was going on in the heart of Noah.  Psalm 18 seems to describe Israel during the coming earthly reign of Messiah, especially check out vv. 43-50.

One of my favorite Psalms of all, 22, gives a graphic description of the death of Christ in vv. 1-18.  What I never noticed before, is that the rest of the Psalm seems to deal with the resurrection - vv. 19-24, the church - vv. 25-26,and the 1000 year reign of Christ - vv. 27-28.  Psalm 32 seems to deal with the church and   the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

I encourage you to check out the passages above and see if you agree.  I have only put a fraction of the exciting new insights I have gained from a part of scripture I have read and re-read numerous times.  I now view the Psalms in totally new light, I see it as a song book of praise for the nation of Israel, I see it as a sneak peek into the prayer life of our Lord, I see it as a book of comfort and encouragement for the tribulation saints(who I believe will be mostly Jewish) and a book of praise for the inhabitants of earth during the earthly reign of the King of Kings.

Check it out and feel free to share your insights.

Check back for a new blog coming soon dealing with an explanation to Psalm 19:1 - The heavens declare the glory of Elohim and the sky proclaims His handiwork.   

Please feel free to comment and share your insights on any of my blogs, just click the word comments below.

Thanks for reading and God bless!

The Fear Of The LORD From Mount Sinai To Today

One of my favorite events in the Bible is when God first gave the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel, before Moses received them on tablets.  We are all familiar with the account of Moses coming down the mountain with the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, but, what most people do not know is that God actually spoke the Commandments to the people of Israel from a atop mount Sinai.  The account is found in Exodus 19 and 20.  In chapter 19 God tells Moses to let the people know He will be speaking to them, and to prepare. Then we see the scene described as such: Exodus 19:16  On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 
Exo 19:17  Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 
Exo 19:18  Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. Above you can see the real Mount Sinai and you can also plainly see the top is blackened as if it were burned. Chapter 20 reveals to us the reaction of the people as they are exposed to this magnificent display of God's power: Exodus 20:18  Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 
Exo 20:19  and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die." 
Exo 20:20  Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin."
      The Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  So impressive was God's power and majesty and so terrified were the people that they basically told Moses, "Never let God speak to us ever again, you talk to God and tell us His message."  Today, our society seems to have no regard for God, never mind respect or fear.  As society moves farther and farther from acknowledging God and His holiness, it is up to us as individuals to seek out His holiness in our personal lives and model it to others.   We are called to reveal God's message of redemption through the cross, just as Moses became the spokesman for God for the children of Israel.  God revealed His requirement for justice in the Garden of Eden, He revealed His holiness on mount Sinai and His grace on Mount Calvary.  We have to live out His holiness and grace while keeping His justice in mind.
   Unless we who are called by His name are willing to live by His standards, we have no hope of making a difference in the world around us.  I want to encourage all of us who are His to examine our hearts and ask God to reveal to us how we can be an agents of revival.  Let's seek God's will and plan for our lives.  Just as God spoke to the people from Mt. Sinai, He speaks to us today through His holy Word and guides us by His Holy Spirit.  Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples.  Let's build each other up and see what God can do through us!