Posted on by consideringthebibletogether

Philippian Bits – 3:6

For this series in Philippians, I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.

3:6   as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Paul continues with his listing of reasons he had confidence in the flesh prior to meeting Christ. As we saw in our previous post, many of his reasons for boasting in the flesh were conditions he was born into, such as of the bloodline of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Eventually he begins to write of his own efforts in the competition game of getting right with God, for it had become something he trusted in, something he could compare with others and feel he was on the right side of the curve. Of course, after having met Jesus, this desire to find worth in comparing himself with others was jettisoned into the dustbin.

2 Corinthians 10:12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

The only One we can rightly compare ourselves with is the One who is incomparable. We are simply (redeemed) sinners, those who are unworthy of His grace, mercy and love.

The last two descriptors of Paul’s efforts to find worth in the eyes of God, through his own efforts are as follows

Zeal

His claim to fame in the zeal department included murder. Wait – What?? He was a persecutor of those who worshipped God in the Spirit, and his desire to chase down, persecute and haul to prison was a mark of zeal that few if any had in Jerusalem.

Imagine, the mental gymnastics Paul must have had to go through to chase fellow Israelites down, in foreign lands and haul them back to Jerusalem.

His zeal was unaccounted for. The church was growing exponentially and the more he persecuted, the stronger it seemed to be getting. Frustration level for this poor man must have been off the chart! Without this zeal, this desire to “keep the faith pure” by rooting out this heresy, Paul would have simply been a general fanatic for the Pharisaical branch of Judaism.

Righteous

Paul has mentioned the law in the previous verse, speaking of his chosen branch of dedication in relation to the law. He wasn’t a Sadducee, or heaven forbid an Essene, like John the Baptist. In this reference to the law, Paul speak of not his association, but of his righteousness under the law, and that he was blameless in this law.

Come on Paul, how can you say that?

No one is sinless, and your obedience to the law in which you trust speaks over and over again of the sinfulness of even the best of the faithful. But my friend, let us not read into this verse something that is not there. He states he was blameless, not sinless. There is a difference, and we have discussed this topic in earlier posts. An example post for my reader to consider may be Psalms for Psome – Ps 41.04.

In Paul’s listing of attributes that he was either granted or that he “worked” at, he surely had the right stuff to go up against any of the flesh mutilators that were troubling the Philippians. He had authority to have influence based on his person, his lineage and efforts that lifted him above others! Yet in comparing himself with the Christ, he simply bent the knee.

My friend, if you find yourself comparing yourself with anyone other than the Christ, take a lesson from Paul. It is a fools errand to chase self worth, to be in competition with those we ought to simply love and serve.

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion

Follow Considering the Bible on WordPress.com

Posted on by consideringthebibletogether · 1 Comment

Psalms for Psome – Ps 56.02

My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.

This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.

I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.

Psalm 56:5-7

5 All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life.
7 For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!

Let’s remember where we find David in this psalm. He has been on the run from the king of Israel, lied to a man of God to get food, and then pretended he was crazy in front of his nations enemy. Not a good time for David! As I mentioned, for I can identify with him, that I believe he is in flight mode, running away from his problems, much like Jonah, (and myself).

The reason for being in flight? Is it because he has forgotten God and His promises? I think not, for it is a refrain within this psalm that He trusts God. 

The reason He is in flight mode is because of his enemies constant and continual intent to destroy him, not just physically, but to destroy his cause, his purpose. He has the promise of God on his life and the enemies don’t like it one little bit. Both God and his enemies claim to be faithful to their plans for David, and David is in the middle, sometimes listening to the wrong side a bit too much. He speaks of their thoughts being against him, and of their stirring up strife, twisting his words, causing confusion. 

He is, at this point in his life a man on the run, with his thoughts colliding with each other in his mind, thoughts of the enemies plans and how to avoid falling into a trap. Thoughts of how God will rescue him. Thoughts of why God hasn’t rescued him yet! Thoughts of when the enemies may catch him.

David gets to the point! Will the enemies of God escape justice?

Isn’t this a question that is shouting out for an answer even today? So many enemies rising up against God and His anointed, twisting and tearing at the social fabric of our nations. Not only are God’s enemies seeking the degradation of the social order, but note that the religious and spiritual desires of modern man continues to plummet to new lows. 

Will those nameless enemies, those who are seeking our destruction, escape justice? How long O Lord before your wrath falls upon them?

My prayer is that they do escape justice, that they do escape the wrath of God, for the Messiah has paid for those who have evil thoughts, for those who stir up strife and for those who lurk about, seeking to hurt, steal and kill others. He has paid for my evil thoughts, intents and actions!

He is a forgiving God, full of grace and mercy. To follow Him may result in our seeking to help our very own enemies escape justice!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.

Follow Considering the Bible on WordPress.com

Posted on by consideringthebibletogether

Names of God – APPLE TREE – 37

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

37
 
APPLE TREE
 
Song of Songs 2:3 [She] As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
Years ago I heard of a preacher who, in the midst of a blistering heatwave, and without the modern convenience of air conditioning, delivered his sermon by simply approaching the pulpit, pulling out a ripe orange, and taking his time, began to peel it. 

The congregation was melting in the heat, but this didn’t seem to bother the preacher, for when he had finished peeling the orange, and breaking it apart, he simply took the first segment and slowly consumed it. 

Now I don’t know about you, but a cold juicy orange – well there is nothing better! As the preacher finished his first segment, and looked out to his congregation, he simply told them that the fruit was thirst quenching, cooling and delicious.

After a second segment of enjoying the cool juicy orange, he opened the Bible, turned to a passage and read out loud.

O taste and see that the Lord is good.

To taste the goodness of the Lord is an individual experience, one that cannot be communicated exactly, but in the tasting, in the experience of sensing the Lord, others can see that it is a desirable, enjoyable and delightful experience.

As it is with our verse above. The Song of Songs is a love poem speaking of the love between a king and a field girl, or between the Lord and His humble ones. To sit in His shadow, and to actually taste the Lord is a privilege for those who love Him and seek Him. 

To some He is one tree among many trees, one teacher among many, one religious leader amongst so many others, and that is to the loss of those who consider him such. To sit in His shadow, (and not in the shadow of others) is to find the blessing He seeks to provide us, to supply to us, to bless us with and to delight us in.

He is the One who provides the fruit of the Spirit, in that when we are in His shadow, under His influence, we will experience the sweetness of the fruit.

He is our Apple Tree.

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

Posted on by consideringthebibletogether

Paradoxical Passages – Matthew 10:39

Matthew 10:39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

What does it mean to loose or find your life? How come those who find it loose it, and those that loose it find it?

It just didn’t make sense for me, and, as a paradox is wont to do, it took me outside of my usual way of thinking.

I understand the focus of this quote of Jesus is that He is the purpose of life, and yet the paradox remains. I sometimes try to hard to understand this paradox, and even as I write, my mind is somewhat whirling in the way to approach this verse. 

To lose your life? Is it ultimately speaking of physical death? No – that can’t be, for to physically die would not produce life, at least not in the disciples understanding such as it was. 

To lose your life? To be restricted from your personal desires, wants and aspirations? To give up on dreams and hopes, to abandon my wishes and goals? We often hear of the modern preacher speaking of how God loves us and wants to fulfill all our personal desires, so that can’t be what Jesus meant. 

But wait a minute – let us consider the first phrase that Jesus starts the paradox with. He who finds his life will lose it. If the life Jesus speaks of equates to the personal desires, hopes and aspirations of a soul, then to exercise those selfsame desires would result in loss of life. And yet this again is what the modern preacher preaches.

Someone has it all wrong. I would suggest the modern preacher, suggesting we can have it all! That God wants us to have it all!

After this paradox has been whirling about in my head, I am starting to think that the message Jesus provided isn’t too hard to understand, but that I don’t want to understand it. Let’s be honest about this – I simply don’t want to drop my dreams to pursue His will, I don’t want to give up on my hopes in order to live a life of sacrifice, of dying to myself. 

Of course, to die to one’s dreams and aspirations is not something that Jesus calls us to in the future. I often think of this action as something required in the future, that I will perform some type of large singular sacrifice for Him, all the while not even considering His will during the day to day grind.

The day to day grind, when the constant calls for your attention wear on you, dragging you down and pulling you to a selfish decision, a decision that serves self as opposed to serving others.

Isn’t that a large part of this call of Jesus on our lives? To serve others, and by serving others, serve Jesus?

May I suggest a 2 minute re-read of a post (Dying to Self) I published back in February 2020, just as the Covid crisis was bearing down on us. To lose your life is a moment by moment decision we are called to, in order to serve others by laying down our wishes for other’s needs. 

To choose other’s, because we worship Him, is the intent of this paradox. And it is a difficult “paradox” because of the application for our lives, not the message itself.

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion

Come join us at Considering the Bible

Posted on by consideringthebibletogether · 1 Comment

Life of David – 3.04

David Anointed King

As many who have followed me for a bit, I have fallen into the Psalms, and I can’t get up! (As if I would want to.) The Psalms are a majestic collection of poetry, of heart felt human experiences that constantly challenge me in my own frail attempt to follow the true King. As many of the Psalms are written by David, my study on the Psalms has spurred me on to looking at the life of David, is the main contributor to this book, and to follow the victories and tragedies of the shepherd King of Israel.

Many times in the narrative, we will see the Lord Jesus, imperfectly, yet a reflection of His spirit in a man with weaknesses.

An Outcast becomes King

1 Samuel 16:11-13

11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.”
12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”
13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

It turns out that Jesse had a younger son, a son that may not have been considered full family.

It turns out that David’s mother is not identifiable in the Bible, but a Jewish legend speaks of his mother, calling her Nitzevet. A quick search on this name will provide my reader with the Jewish story. Nevertheless, David’s relationship within this family was complicated.

In Psalm 86:16, David speaks of his mother as a godly woman, a maidservant of God. He speaks of his alienation from his brothers in Psalm 69:8. It seems Jesse did not consider David to be worthy of the visit of the prophet, and his absence may be simply due to Jesse’s estimation of David as being little more a laborer instead of a son. This may be too harsh to attribute to Jesse’s character, but David’s exclusion from this sacrifice may reveal a complicated family situation.

Nevertheless, when David was summoned, and upon his arrival, everything breaks loose! The Lord commanded Samuel to rise and anoint him. This is the king! No more rejection, no more guessing, no more disappointment, no more secrecy.

…Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward

All his brothers witnessed the anointing of their little brother! Talk about interpersonal conflicts within a family!

David, like Saul before him, experienced the Spirit of the Lord rush upon him. Notice one difference when comparing the two men, for with David, the added phrase “from that day forward” spoke of a resiliency in David’s kingdom, in his service to God and his faithfulness to his calling.

David was the new king, but to all appearances, Saul would wield power for years to come.

God has anointed and enthroned David’s son as King. Yet to all appearances, there is another king ruling. Where are you in relation to the true King, as opposed to a king that is simply depending on lies and deception, trying to maintain power through appearances?

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

Posted on by consideringthebibletogether · 1 Comment

Jesus in the Old Testament – Abel 4

Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.

I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.

SEEING JESUS IN
 
ABEL
 
Witness of Blood
 
Genesis 4:10-11 10 And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
 
Hebrews 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Immediately after planning and carrying out the murder of his brother Abel, Cain is questioned by none other that the Creator.

The Lord speaks of Abel’s blood crying out to Him. At first, that seems to be a strange way of addressing the first murder in history. Why didn’t the Lord simply say – “I saw you kill your brother” Short and sweet, no argument, just a telling of the truth.

Let’s consider the question the Lord has. First off, let’s consider that the Lord gave the first murderer in history a chance to explain the situation. The Lord asked – “What have you done?” This alone is worthy of thinking of, and of the type of character the Lord has. But I digress

The content of the question refers to the witness of the blood of Abel, and that the Lord was hearing this witness of Abel’s blood.

Hopefully we can all agree that the blood of Christ also is a witness of His death, of His body being tortured, of His suffering and death on the cross. For a short period of time, Jesus blood also cried out from the ground, but upon hearing of the blood of His Son, the Father raised Him up out of the grave, never to experience death again. His blood speaks of a better message, not of blood crying out to God from the ground, but of the Lord’s blood crying out to those who need to hear the message of forgiveness, of grace and mercy being extended to those who so desperately need to hear it.

Abel’s blood crying out to God resulted in judgement on Cain, of being rejected, cursed from the ground. Although later in the law, God would reveal that justice in this instance resulted in death of the perpetrator. Instead of justice and the death sentence carried out swiftly and decisively, Cain experienced rejection, being condemned to a life of running and wandering on the earth.

Abel’s blood spoke of rejection for Cain, Jesus blood speaks of acceptance for us. Have you heard the witness of His blood?

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

Come join us at Considering the Bible

Posted on by consideringthebibletogether

Names of God – APOSTLE – 36

My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.

The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.

The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.

May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.

36
 
APOSTLE
 
Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
When I first read Hebrews, many many years ago, I was somewhat shocked to hear of Jesus as an apostle. Men were apostles, He is the the Lord.

But as I read the Word and tried to grasp the message, I found that He loves to identify with His people. He loved to be called the Son of Man, and there are many other names we will come across that at first blush may seem to degrade the crucified One. 

That is until I began to understand the humility of the Son of God, the exercise of “coming down” to our level, to be with us in our experience on this rock. He willingly stepped down to be with us, and not only to be with us, but to suffer under us.

For Him to be considered the apostle of our confession, whether you may consider it demeaning or profound, is a statement speaking of His mission of being sent to us. Sent from God the Father. Sent to those who reject Him. Sent through a process that would bind Him to a body for eternity.

He was sent to us, not only carrying a message of redemption, love, forgiveness and righteousness, as His apostles did for Him, but He was not just the message sent to lost sinners, but the subject of the message, the topic of the message, the focus of the message. 

Sent to us, leaving behind His glories, and taking up a life of poverty.

As we all may know, an apostle is a “Sent One”, and as such Jesus is the epitomy of One sent, for He “travelled” the farthest, abandoned the greatest position, stepped down the deepest and delivered Himself, and not simply a message of good news for all men.

May His name be praised as our Apostle!

I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion. If you know someone this blog may bless (or challenge), send them a link, so they may join us in our discussion.

Come join us at Considering the Bible