The Demoralizing Effect of Social Welfare

May 18, 2013 by Teena Myers in Testimonies and tagged ants, Bacab Tourist resort, barrier reef, Belize, bicycle, bitterness, brown sugar, butterflies, Catholic, coke, crusie ship, Jehovah Witness, jungle, mud bath, Social Welfare, Teena Myers, transport boats, welfare | Permalink

Transport boats taking cruisers to Belize.

I looked over the balcony, to watch people boarding transport boats to Belize. A large barrier reef prevented the cruise ship from docking at the pier. My husband and I donned our exercise clothes and sprayed each other with bug repellent in preparation for a bicycle ridge through the jungle.

Getting to the Bacab tourist resort was a journey. We boarded the transport boat for a high speed ride to the pier. At the pier, we caught a bus for a 40 minute drive to the resort. During the ride, a tourist guide told us about the country and answered questions. I learned that Belize was predominately Catholic, but the Jehovah Witness has surpassed them in adherents. I saw a Protestant church, but apparently their numbers are too small to include in the conversation.

More memorable than the prowess of the Jehovah Witness was the reaction on the bus when we learned about the welfare system in Belize. “Belize has no welfare. If you don’t work you don’t eat. If you don’t have a job, you make a job,” said the tour guide. Then she smiled and asked if we wanted her to run for President of the United States. The bus erupted in cheers and applause.

I had witnessed the bitterness communist ideas of equality, the kind being forced on America today, create while checking out at the grocery store before we left on vacation. A well-dressed woman with cell phone paid with food stamps. As the cashier scanned my items she mumbled, “I should quit work and go on welfare. She dresses better than I do.” But I was surprised by the strong reaction on a bus in a foreign country. I doubt anyone is against helping the poor if they are truly poor and unable to work. Unfortunately, there are people who take advantage of the system. People who work resent having their hard earned money taken to support those who refuse to work because welfare is easier.

My husband bicycling through the jungle.

The bike ride through the jungle was harder than anticipated. I read in one of the shore excursion reviews the bicycle path was worn and easy to travel. To the contrary, the path was filled with rocks and tree roots. To make matters worse, it had rained the day before we arrived making the path slick with mud. The woman in front of me wiped out on a tree root and was greeted with a mud bath. I smiled as I rode by, “You’d pay a lot of money for that mud bath in the ships spa.” She laughed in agreement.

We returned to the ranch for a lunch of beans, chicken, and I think fried banana. I bought a coke when the waitress assured me it was made locally with brown sugar. The coke was exceptionally sweet. We retreated to the pool for a short snooze in a hammock, and then went to the butterfly house.

The ants arrived the day before we did and decimated all the butterflies except the brown and not so beautiful Owl butterflies. The curator, adorned in a Saints shirt, held the wings open to show us the owl face on the wings, and talked about his plans for the house. He was a student of entomology at a college in New Orleans.

Later that evening, we decided to try a different restaurant on the cruise ship for dinner. The waitress seated us next to a young couple from Oklahoma. We chatted while waiting for our entrees to arrive. He had a good job at a factory, but his wife’s college bill was straining their finances. She aspired to be a teacher, but the pay was low and there were no jobs to be found compounding the financial difficulties. After a moment of silence, he husband said, “We never should have gotten married.” I held my breath for a marriage spat, but she nodded in agreement. They were bitter that their unmarried friends, who made less money, were getting free rides through college. They did not qualify for assistance because he had a decent paying job.

The social welfare programs in America may help some people, but they are also creating a disgruntled middle class that resent the unfair advantages given to others. Instead of teaching people to earn what they need, it encourages them to reduce their income so they can have the same advantages others are receiving.

I leave you with God’s method of helping the poor.

Leviticus 19:15

15 “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. NIV

Leviticus 23:22

22 “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. NIV

Leviticus 25:35-38

35 “‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you. 36 Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. 37 You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit. NIV

Deuteronomy 15:7-8

7 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. 8 Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. NIV

Deuteronomy 24:14-15

Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. 15 Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. NIV

A God Send

May 11, 2013 by Teena Myers in Testimonies and tagged Charisma, church, crisis, cruise, heal, healer, healing, ministers, Teena Myers, vacation | Permalink

Before I left for vacation, I had an unfortunate exchange with a minister. He had a need to find something wrong with me that he could heal. His first attempt resulted in an acknowledgement that he was wrong about me, but he could not leave his quest to “heal me” alone. During this time, I encountered four people from four different churches, who unloaded their frustration with the condescending way they are addressed by ministers and the marginal way they are treated. Cleary, I was not alone.

This minister continued to pick at my life until I had enough. He was not the first minister I’ve encountered who thought God had appointed him to heal me. Those ministers shipwrecked their ministry. Rather than cut him off without explanation, as is the practice among many in ministry, I like to lay everything on the table to guarantee I understood his or her true intentions.

I sent an email explaining how I felt about his quest that also addressed the frustrations of the other Christians. I pointed out that this is not an isolated problem between me and him, but a problem in Christianity. His condescending response left me one option. Remove him from my circle of close friends.

Many years ago, a friend told me the painful truth about my personality. I prayed for the truth. God confirmed the truth by surfacing a multitude of memories that proved my friend was right. Therefore, it’s not my habit to dismiss the assessment of others about me simply because it’s negative. Once again, I asked God for the truth. This time memories failed to surface. Instead, I received a complimentary copy of Charisma Magazine, which I tossed in my suitcase for reading material while lying on the deck of the cruise ship.

Our son brought us to the cruise terminal. We unloaded our luggage and almost didn’t make it on the ship. My husband did not note the difference between “and” and “or”. He marked that he had a fever and a runny nose. The agent quickly dismissed herself with the promise she would be back shortly. I glanced down at the paper. “You don’t have a fever.”

“I have a runny nose.”

“From allergies, there is a difference between “fever and” and “fever or”. By this time, the agent had returned with her supervisor, whom we convinced my husband had misread the question. “No fever, just allergies.” She waved us through.

We ate, explored the ship and found a place in the atrium behind four ladies from Wyoming to watch the Super Bowl on the big screen. An elderly couple from Tennessee sat next to us and bemoaned the $200 they paid to park their car – one of the perks of sailing on Super Bowl Sunday from the host city. A young man from Florida asked if the seats next to us were empty. They were. An inebriated woman from the Wyoming party offered him free beer if he promised to explain the football game. He was reluctant to accept the expensive gift, $8 per beer. “Don’t worry I got lots of money,” slurred the woman. Cruising is so much fun.

Half way through the game my husband and I left for the ships theater, and the “Welcome Aboard” show. We sat behind a couple who had been married 73 years. They won several gifts for being the oldest cruisers. When the master of ceremonies asked the couple how they stayed married that long, he said, “Find a good one.” His wife said, “Have fun.” After the show, the mini burgers, chips, hotdogs and chicken wings we ate during the Super Bowl game negated a reason for dinner. We retired to our room to watch the last 10 minutes of the Super Bowl, and I picked up my magazine to read.

The February 2013 issue of Charisma was a God send that addressed my recent prayer. The title of The Strang Report, written by the magazine’s founder, caught my attention: The Real Church Crisis: As more believers grow disillusioned with church in America, our leaders must wake up to the real issues.

In the article, Mr. Strang addresses the “leadership situation” within the Charismatic community. His first point: “Anointing is more important than academics.” The minister I removed from my close circle of friends was obsessed with academics. Strang addressed sloppy theology and the marginalization of successful people with strong personalities. He concluded church leaders need accountability and true relationship, which produces a spirit of humility and servant hood rather than an “I’m the bishop, serve me” mentality.

I am not the only one who sees a problem in the church. There are many ministers in the church who are unapproachable and uncorrectable. They think they have all the answers and God has appointed them to heal the rest of us. They are the ones creating the “Real Church Crisis”.

“I don’t believe that you are not offended or hurt. You ran for sympathy to people who agree with you, but you will be back,” was the last thing the minister I severed relationship with said to me.

I hope he doesn’t wait too long. I won’t be back.

A Nice Place to Retire

May 5, 2013 by Teena Myers in Testimonies and tagged Accidental Pharisees, Bay Islands, Caribbean Band, Chico's Restaurant, Christianity, gospel, Honduras, Larry Osborne, missionary, retire, Roatan, Santa, Teena Myers, wisdom | Permalink

Island of Roatan

Exhausted from a long day in the sun, bicycling through the jungle and too much to eat for dinner, I retired to my cabin to read. The title of this book had arrested my attention – Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and The Other Dangers by Larry Osborne. All my Christian life, I’ve watched ministers destroy their ministries, sometimes themselves as they pursued their calling. Instead of producing respect for the body of Christ, they cloaked us with shame.

Accidental Pharisees are good people who get lost in the sense of privilege that comes from the adulation of immature Christians. Their pride and exclusivity stunts the growth of the church and inhibits the gifts of others. Instead of hurling accusations and condemnation at his peers, Osborne dealt with the sensitive subject with such wisdom I found myself wishing, I could move to California and attend his church.

My husband and I fell asleep discussing the possibility of relocating and the unbreakable chain binding me to New Orleans – my children and friends. The fact that a minister of that caliber found roots in the most liberal California gave me hope the spiritual climate of my city could change too. If not California might be a nice place to retire.

When we awoke the cruise ship was sailing along the coast of Roatan, the largest of Honduras’ Bay Islands. As we sailed along the coast, Rod and I had the same thought: Wouldn’t it be nice to be a missionary on an island. We had not purchased a shore excursion, so we sat on the balcony listening to the native music welcoming the cruisers pouring from the ship for a day of exploration as we discussed how to spend the day.

Caribbean Band welcoming tourist.

We decided on shopping and sampling the local cuisine. We walked past the dancers and Caribbean Band entering the tourist to the small two story outdoor mall anchored by Chico’s Restaurant. A man standing behind 4 foot fence called us over. Independent Tours was etched on his shirt. A photo ID hung from his neck. “They won’t let us in,” he said, “but if you exit the gate at the end of the Mall I will give you a tour of the island $25 each, and you don’t have to pay me until I bring you back.”

Warning thoughts flashed. Why are you fenced out? You could bring us to the other side of the island and take all of our money without bringing us back. Using the ships shore excursions is more expensive but it makes the cruise line responsible for your experience and they won’t leave until you return. I looked at my trusting husband, leaning toward accepting the offer, and shook my head no.

We wandered through all of the first floor ships and then meandered upstairs where I found Santa’s home away from home. Santa’s Caribbean Workshop hooked my curiosity and pulled me into the T-shirt shop with a smattering of Christmas decorations. The t-shirts were priced more reasonably than the last shop. As I searched for adult small, it dawned on me that I was listening to Christian music. I elbowed my husband, “Listen to that.” Happy to prosper fellow Christians we purchased several items.

Our journey to the end of the Mall ended at Chico’s Restaurant. The friendly waiter deposited a basket of chips and cup of guacamole to satisfy the rumbling of our stomachs until the entree arrived. We surveyed the large platter of meat, mountain of rice and bowl of beans and said in unison, “We should have bought one and split it.” I picked up my camera to capture the feast for future generations and got more than I bargained for when the waiter jumped into the picture.

Friendly waiter at Chico’s restaurant.

Sufficiently stuffed we descended the stairs for one last stop before returning to the ship. We entered a small trailer, the home of Guajiros Art – Fashion. As we studied the paintings, it suddenly dawned on me that I was listening to Christian music again. “This the second shop we’ve been in playing Christian music,” I said to the owner.

“I’m a Christian, and we need to stand up for what we believe,” she replied.

Our conversation revealed that the island 47 miles long and 8 miles wide was already inundated with Christianity – every denomination from Catholic to Pentecostal had saturated the island with the gospel. Apparently, my husband and I were not the only ones who thought it would be nice to be a missionary on an island. I doubt Roatan needs another minister, but it might be a nice place to retire if California doesn’t work out.

Treasured Forever

May 4, 2013 by Teena Myers in Passage to Purpose and tagged Amy Signs, authors, Bent Pages Bookstore, book signing, famous, Jambalaya Writers Conference, marketing, Rebecca Gernon, Teena Myers, Tim O'Brien, veteran, Vietnam | Permalink

I open an email from Bent Pages Bookstore, a sponsor of the Jambalaya Writers Conference and read, “Can you bring books. The distributor canceled our order.” At first the message did not register. I read it again. Unbelievable! At last, a bookstore is willing to purchase books for me to sign and the distributor cancels the order.

“Yes, I can bring books,” I replied, then called the marketing representative assigned to my book by the publisher. He was also mystified. “The distributor has four of your books on their shelf.” Terry has come to my aide more than one time. He resolved the problem by calling the bookstore and selling them the books they needed.

I arrived at the Jambalaya Writers Conference to find ten copies of Finding Faith in the City Care Forgot on a chair behind my table. If I had brought books, I would have made more money. Bookstore sales yield a small royalty, in my case, a little over a $1 per book. So, why didn’t I bring books to sell? I didn’t write a book to get rich. Having your book in a retail store makes it easier for the consumer to find. I set the books on the table, laid out some post cards and debated on what to do until the booksigning began.

I have attended a number of writing conferences. The workshops yield the same basic information. No longer in need of an agent or publisher, I had grown weary of attending them. But I had four hours to kill. I choose several workshops on marketing hoping to learn something new I could do to market Finding Faith in the City Care Forgot. I exited the second session on marketing and saw Jane Trufant Harvey author of the Ask Him series of books and host of the video series Jump Start with Jane on thedailymass.com. “What have you learned?” She asked. “Everything I already know and am doing,” I replied.

Tim O’Brien addressing the Jambalaya Writers Conference

The exception was the session with the keynote speaker, Tim O’Brien. The colorful Vietnam veteran strode to the podium. A hybrid of comfort and business, he wore a baseball cap, black tennis shoes resting on an orange sole with bright yellow laces and a business suit. I will never forget the theme of his presentation: What your character does will be remembered. His appearance may have repelled some, but the greatest wisdom tends to be hidden in unusual packages. I would not have read a story about the Vietnam War. After hearing O’Brien speak, The Things They Carried is on my reading list.

I left O’Brien’s session and took my place at the author’s book signing. The room quickly filled with people seeking to make purchases. The hour flew by as I chatted with people about Finding Faith in the City Care Forgot. Most of the crowd had departed to attend the next workshop when two Asian young men approached my table. One of the men, Paul, clutched the Program of Presenters handed out by the conference. He wasn’t interested in purchasing a book. Paul smiled broadly and spoke in broken English, “I want autographs of famous authors.” O’Brien who was signing books directly across from me had already left, so I pointed to Rebecca Gernon sitting to my right. Rebecca’s Amy Signs had been picked up nationally by Barnes and Nobles as well as many university libraries and she was a presenter at the conference.

Paul obtained Rebecca’s signature and then returned to my table. “I want autographs of famous authors.” Paul smiled. I returned his smile and wondered why he was standing in front of my table. Then I had an epiphany. Paul thought all of the authors at the conference were famous. I do not fall into the famous category, but didn’t know how to communicate that to Paul without being rude. After a second request for my famous autograph, I signed one of my postcards and handed it to Paul. His face lit up, and he exclaimed, “I will treasure this forever.” I left the Jambalaya’s Writers Conference contemplating if I should pray for fame to make that postcard worthy of being treasured.

CH 15 Circumcising the Heart

April 27, 2013 by Teena Myers in God Pleasing Faith and tagged cares, Circumcision, deceitfulness of riches, fallow ground, God, heart, Holy Spirit, inheritance, Jesus, kingdom, New Orleans, seal, sower, Teena Myers, thorns | Permalink

Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. Romans 4:9-10, NKJ

Circumcision is required of God’s people when God’s kingdom comes to Planet Earth. The act of circumcision on human flesh helps us understand spiritual concepts. When we understand what the Spirit is doing, we can glory in God’s Spirit and boast about what he has done instead of glorying in what we have done: cutting off a piece of flesh or eating a strict diet to make us acceptable and holy. Glorying in what God has done to make us acceptable and holy teaches us to be humble.

Abraham was 99 years old when he received the sign of circumcision, but only 85 years old when he received the blessedness of the covenant God made Jesus, one of Abraham’s future sons.

And he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. Romans 4:11, NKJ

Abraham possessed faith before he was circumcised. His faith gave him favor with God, not the sign of circumcision that would come many years later and be a token to remind God, “This one is mine.”

As you’ll recall, Abraham went to Canaan expecting God to make him a great nation that would be a blessing to all families of the earth. When he arrived in Canaan, he learned that the blessings would come through a son who it was impossible for barren Sarah to bear. Twenty-five years later, she did bear a son named Isaac, but he did not possess the Promised Land. Nor did his son Jacob possess the Promised Land. Jacob’s twelve sons did not possess the Promised Land, either. Isaac, a son, but not “the son” of promise, was one son among many; until finally a son was born to a daughter of Abraham named Mary. And even Jesus, to whom the promises were made, has not possessed the Promised Land.

God was very specific about the boundaries of the land promised to Abraham’s seed. When in Jesus’ lifetime on earth did he ever own all the land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates River? Jesus lived in the land as a stranger and a foreigner, just as Abraham did. Jesus himself is waiting for the inheritance, just as we have all waited, from Abraham to this day. Those who came before Jesus died in faith; Jesus died in faith, we are still dying in faith. If we possessed the inheritance today, we would no longer need faith that what we hope for will be given to us. And what we hope for won’t be given to us unless God sees “the sign of circumcision.”

Paul not only called circumcision a sign he also called it a seal. (Keep this important fact in mind, because we will come back to it later, and it will help us understand the meaning of circumcision of the heart.) God gave Abraham the sign of circumcision for the same reason he put a rainbow in the sky, so God will see the sign and remember his covenant.

For you are not real Jews just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the Jewish initiation ceremony of circumcision. No, a real Jew is anyone whose heart is right with God. For God is not looking for those who cut their bodies in actual body circumcision, but he is looking for those with changed hearts and minds. Whoever has that kind of change in his life will get his praise from God, even if not from you. (Romans 2:28-29, The Living Bible)

Stephen is the first person in the New Testament to speak of circumcising the heart. Heart circumcision is among the last words he spoke in his defense before the Sanhedrin condemned him to death by stoning. He said:

You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. (Acts 7:51-53, NKJ)

Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. (Acts 7:57-58, NKJ)

The Pharisee Saul, who would soon become the Apostle Paul, consented to Stephen’s death, but he could not excise Stephen’s words from his mind – “Uncircumcised in heart”. Paul realized Stephen was right after he converted to Christianity. Obeying laws cannot justify us if we resist the desire of God’s Spirit. Paul picked up Stephen’s words and carried them throughout the then-known world. Along the way, he took his own Christian Jewish brothers to the highest authority of his day because they were reluctant to set aside things they knew didn’t work.

Before Stephen and Paul, Moses told Israel to “circumcise your heart.” The circumcision Stephen spoke of was not a new doctrine, nor was it a new idea. But what does it mean to have our hearts circumcised? Is it something we do? Is it something God does? If there’s ever anything we want to be sure about, it’s this.

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, [Sound familiar? Jesus said this is the greatest most important commandment in all the law] and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. [Abraham is our father too! If we are in Christ, we are Abraham's descendants and heirs according to the promise.] Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. [Why must we circumcise the foreskin of our heart?] For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe” (Deuteronomy 10:12-17, NKJ).

The Interlinear Bible reads “so you circumcise foreskin of heart of you and neck of you not you make stiff longer.” Remember this: If we would circumcise our heart, we would not be stiff-necked anymore.

Didn’t God command Abraham to circumcise his children when they were eight days old, making it only something a father can do?

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6, NKJ)

After telling us to circumcise our hearts in Chapter 10, Moses tells us God must circumcise our heart. Can’t Moses make up his mind? Do I circumcise my heart or does God circumcise my heart?

Before I get any deeper into this issue, let me give you a heads-up: If you have the gift of speaking with “other tongues,” what I’m about to say will be easier for you to understand. When you speak with tongues, is God speaking, OR are you speaking?

According to Acts Chapter 2, both are speaking.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4, NKJ)

If I speak with other tongues, the Holy Spirit gives me the utterance — but it’s my voice doing the uttering. I can’t do it without him – and he can’t do it without me! It’s similar with the circumcision of your heart: Both man and God have a part. Let’s look at our part first.

OUR PART

For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts …” (Jeremiah 4:3-4, NKJ)

The Lord warns us not to sow among thorns. How can I do that unless I know what the thorns are? Jesus identified the thorns in the parable of the sower.

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. (Matthew 13:7, NKJ).

Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. (Matthew 13:22, NKJ)

God told us not to “sow among thorns”. Jesus said the thorns chocked the seed that was sown and then defined the thorns as “deceitfulness of riches”. Mark’s version adds “desire for other things” to the list. Luke says, “cares, riches and pleasures of life.”

These “thorns” will choke the word you have received, making you unfruitful. Notice: It doesn’t say the word becomes unfruitful. It says YOU, the soil the word is planted in, will become unfruitful.

So, you say, what does that have to do with circumcising my heart so I’m not stiff-necked anymore — and sowing to the flesh or the Spirit? Everything relevant, when you consider the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness and what made them stiff-necked! Let’s look at their complaints against God and see if we can determine the real issue behind their unhappiness. Look for a common factor in the following nine complaints.

…Let the Lord look on you and judge because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us. (Exodus 5:21, NKJ)

…Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. (Exodus 14:11, NKJ)

What shall we drink? (Exodus 15:24, NKJ)

Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. (Exodus 16:3, NKJ)

…Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? (Exodus 17:3, NKJ)

… Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes! (Numbers 11:4-5, NKJ)

If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? Let us select a leader and return to Egypt. (Numbers 14:2-4, NKJ)

Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink. (Numbers 20:4-5, NKJ)

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread. (Numbers 21:5, NKJ)

“Eat, drink, ‘cause I’m gonna die! Cares of life, if I don’t starve to death or die of thirst, somebody will kill me!” Can you hear them worrying about their lives? That’s what made them stiff-necked. That’s why they resisted God’s direction. That’s why they sowed to the desires of the flesh instead of sowing to the desires of the Spirit.

Let’s now compare for a few moments the attitudes of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus. Both deserved death; one of them understood that; the other did not. One thief hanging on a cross near death worried about his life. He said to Jesus, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.” He wanted God to save him from the very justice he deserved. The other said to his fellow thief, “We are here justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.” He was not worried about his life. He did not ask Jesus to save him from justice. He was willing to die for the sins he’d committed, if only Jesus would remember him when God establishes Jesus eternal kingdom on earth. This thief had cut the foreskin from his heart and cast it away. Therefore, Jesus assured him that he would be with God until the time comes for him to be “remembered!”

How do we circumcise our heart, so we won’t be stiff-necked like the first thief and the unfaithful Israelites in the wilderness? Quit worrying about your life. Jesus went up into a mountain and said,

…[D]o not worry saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? … do not worry about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:31, NKJ).

This is our part in the circumcising of the heart. This is what we do to cut the foreskin from our hearts, lest we become stiff-necked like faithless Israel. Peter said it this way: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7, NKJ).

But if circumcision is both something I do and something God does, what is God’s part in the circumcising of the heart?

GOD’S PART

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6, NKJ)

If God hasn’t circumcised your heart you can “not worry and be happy” all you want and still hear God say, “I never knew you”. So having your heart circumcised involves much more than maintaining a carefree attitude.

But how do I know God has circumcised my heart to love him? Are mere words enough? In a movie I once watched with my children, a young boy boarded the wrong plane and ended up in New York instead of in Florida with his family. He had his father’s bag with all the family’s money and credit cards, so he decided to have his own vacation without them, and he tricked the hotel employees into thinking his father was staying in the room with him. But before long the hotel employees became suspicious and tried to question him. Realizing he was caught, the boy ran into the bedroom, where he had made a tape from a gangster movie he’d watched the night before. When the hotel employees approached the door, they heard a gun shooting and a voice saying, “All right you dirty rat get on your knees and say you love me!” The hotel employees, frightened by the gunfire, kneeled and said in unison, “We love you!” — only to find out later that they’d been deceived. The boy’s father wasn’t standing behind the door with a gun in his hand, demanding to hear an insincere “We love you.”

Many people have been driven away from Christianity by “sons” who’ve deceived others by presenting a false image of a “God” standing in heaven with death in one hand and hell in the other, demanding to hear an insincere “I love you” when God has done everything he can to win a sincere “I love you” from our lips. If your love isn’t sincere, he can’t let you into his kingdom. You’ll mess it up for those who really do love him.

Most people would love God if they were being fed a true knowledge of God, because he is very loveable. But how can you love him if you don’t know him? Don’t fall on your knees and cry out to God, “I love you!” because you’re afraid to die. Don’t reject him because the image of God his people have built is distasteful to you. God’s people are growing in knowledge of their God, and we don’t always get it right. Ask God to tell you who he really is, and he will give you his Spirit so you can know him.

I told you previously that Paul called circumcision not only a “sign” but a “seal,” and that we would come back to that because it is very important. Now let’s do so.

And He [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised. (Romans 4:11, NKJ)

The seal is a sign to God that we have faith that entitles us entrance into his kingdom. This sign or seal supersedes anything we can do outwardly, because we can cut all the skin we want to off our bodies and that will mean nothing to God. He looks on our heart for the seal he placed on your heart. “Sealing” you is God’s part in the circumcision of your heart.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, [a reference to the resurrection] to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13, NKJ)

After you hear the word of God, and place your faith in him, God will seal you or “circumcise you” by giving you his Holy Spirit. The presence of his Spirit in your life will guarantee that you receive an inheritance when the resurrection takes place. Contrary to some teaching, we don’t receive our inheritance when we get saved; we only receive the Holy Spirit as a down payment guaranteeing God will give us the rest. After I receive his Spirit, I must now do my part by ceasing to worry about my life.

Jesus said his yoke is easy and his burdens are light. Don’t worry! Cast all your care on God who cares for you and be happy!

Just What I Needed

April 20, 2013 by Teena Myers in Passage to Purpose and tagged Assemblies of God Campgrounds, books, confirmation, Finding Faith in the City Care Forgot, fulfillment, Glory of God, Ipad, Kindle, marketing, New Orleans, Prayer and Purpose Conference, REstlessness of the Call, Shekinah Ministries, Sonya McLean, Teena Myers, Women Unlimited | Permalink

Mary Cummings

I had reservations about bringing Finding Faith in the City Care Forgot to the Prayer and Purpose Conference at the Assemblies of God Campgrounds. The book sold well at the annual convention last November. If the same ladies attended the Prayer and Purpose Conference, it wasn’t likely I would sell many books. Also, my husband was working that weekend. I didn’t want to drive to Alexandria alone. I was thinking of passing on attending the conference when I ran into Sonya McLean, Women’s Unlimited Director, conference organizer and my pastor’s wife, at McDonalds. The subject of bringing my book arose and it was settled that I would attend.

My assumptions about selling the book quickly proved true. Zero sales the first day of the conference. As I walked into the church Saturday morning, a woman walking out stuck a check into my hand. My first sale of the two day event and I wasn’t even at my table. Sonya allowed me to read an excerpt and talk about the book later that day and a few more books sold.

I wasn’t disappointed by the dismal sales. I consider one book sold a success as I am always amazed that anyone would pay money for something I wrote. But I had planned to give the profits to Women’s Unlimited, which supports orphans and missionaries. I had hoped to give more.

While the conference attendees were dispersed into various workshops, I browsed the product tables that lined the walls. A book caught my eye – The Restlessness of the Call: Remaining Faithful Through the Process of Being Appointed, Anointed and Prepared by Mary Cummings. My husband bought me a Kindle several years ago, and I recently purchased an IPad. I seldom buy a printed book and returned The Restlessness of the Call to its place on the table. Then I made a mental note to look for a digital copy when I returned home.

The lady who had Mary engaged in conversation departed. Writing and publishing a book is easier than marketing and selling one. NOLA.com has millions of visitors annually, so I am always willing to help a fellow author gain exposure for their work. I offered to feature Mary’s work on NOLA.com’s Faith, Beliefs and Spirituality blog.

Mary is the founder of Shekinah Ministries. She is a speaker known for leading people into the presence of God and is a former president of the Shreveport Women’s Business Counsel. She is amazed at the way the presence of God changes us making the Glory of God her favorite subject. She also has a heart for missions and holds a BS Degree in Missions from Southwest Assemblies of God University.

As we chatted, Mary offered to do a book swap. I gave her Finding Faith in the City Care Forgot, and she gave me The Restlessness of the Call. I currently have two books on my Ipad that I am reading and a list of books waiting to be read. If Mary had not suggested a book swap, I might have forgotten about the book that caught my eye.

While I was putting things away after my trip, I opened Mary’s book to get a feel for its message. I read the words of a gifted teacher and reached for a highlighter. Point after point resonated in my own life and the challenges that I face as I wait for the fulfillment of things revealed to me when I was a teenager. Mary’s book explained what has happened in the past and gave me hope for the future.

Thank You Mary Cummings, your book was just what I needed.

CH 14 The Question

April 13, 2013 by Teena Myers in God Pleasing Faith and tagged Abraham, and, barren, branch, Canaan, consequences, covenant, destruction, Elizabeth, Faith, forgive, Gabriel, heal, iniquity, Is anything too hard for the Lord, Jeremiah, Jesus, King David, King Zedekiah, laugh, Mary, New Orleans, nothing too hard, prophet, righteousness, Sarah, sin, Teena Myers, terror, The Question, unbelief, wrath, Zachariah | Permalink

And the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Genesis 18:14, NIV

On God’s sixth visitation to Abraham, he asked a question that was not fully understood for centuries. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

God had introduced the idea of Abraham’s barren wife having a son shortly after Abraham arrived in Canaan. If God promises something, it’s common for him to repeat that promise more than once. God had already told Abraham less than a year earlier that he’d have a son by Sarah. Abraham laughed, not from joy, but in unbelief. This time Sarah laughed in her heart, just as Abraham did earlier — and with the same thoughts about the possibility of having a baby – it’s impossible.

Even though God didn’t confront Abraham about his unbelief a year earlier, he did call Abraham into account for Sarah’s unbelief. God didn’t address Sarah about her lack of faith until Sarah called him a liar. Then God looked her square in the eye and said, “You did laugh,” and that was the end of that; God had the last word and the subject changed.

Now let’s examine two verses for a revelation of God’s heart:

“And the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son” (Genesis 18:13-14, NKJ).

Abraham and Sarah both wrestled with the same problem: Is it too hard for God to produce life in a barren place? God answered Sarah’s laughter with a question: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Many years later, another prophet wrestled with the same doubts. Instead of a barren wife, Jeremiah had a barren city. He was a prophet to the nations just as Abraham was, and God asked him the same question he asked Abraham.

Jeremiah’s message was anything but a happy one for Israel. They were in the middle of an intense war. King Zedekiah, who ruled Israel at the time, thought the last thing he needed was Jeremiah running around telling the people, “Give up! Fighting is useless! The city will fall. Zedekiah will be taken captive to Babylon.” It’s not surprising that in the eyes of many Jeremiah was a traitor who’d sold out to the enemy. So Zedekiah had Jeremiah arrested and thrown in prison. While Jeremiah was in prison, the Lord told him that his uncle’s son would ask him to buy his field in Anathoth. When the young man arrived to sell the field, Jeremiah already knew that the Lord wanted him to buy the field for some reason, so he did.

The legal transaction was completed; the deed deposited in a safe place. Then, after everyone departed, Jeremiah had second thoughts. “Why did I buy this land? Don’t my actions contradict my warning that Babylon will take over, and nothing we own will be ours anymore? Surely, this was a bad investment.” Since buying the field was God’s idea, Jeremiah took issue with God.

“Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17, NKJ).

Jeremiah refused to show a lack of faith as Abraham and Sarah did. He had already pondered God’s question, “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?”, and come to the conclusion that there’s nothing too hard for the Lord. But Jeremiah kept praying, and he soon revealed that he didn’t know God as well as he thought he did.

“You show loving kindness to thousands and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them – the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts. You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings” (32:18-19).

Jeremiah had high praise for God, but he saw God’s greatness rather narrowly — because to Jeremiah God sees every iniquity and nobody escapes God’s wrath.

“You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day and in Israel and among other men; and You have made Yourself a name, as it is this day. You have brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders and with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror” (32:20-21).

The Hebrew word for “terror” used in this passage is defined by Vine’s Expository Dictionary as the reaction of men to God’s mighty works of destruction. Jeremiah’s image of God is that of a destroyer who strikes terror in the hearts of men.

“You have given them this land, of which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. And they came in and took possession of it, but they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them. Look the siege mounds! They have come to the city to take it and the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it because of the sword and famine and pestilence. What You have spoken has happened; there You see it!” (32:22-24)

Jeremiah recalled how God delivered them from Egypt, and then reasoned that just as Egypt was destroyed for failing to obey, Israel would also be destroyed with calamity, war, famine and pestilence. To Jeremiah, God displays his greatness by destroying nations. “There is nothing too hard for you to do!” Crowed Jeremiah. But interestingly, after all this high praise for God’s ability to destroy, Jeremiah still had the nerve to question God’s intelligence:

“And yet you say to buy the field — paying good money for it before these witnesses even though the city will belong to our enemies” (32:25, The Living Bible).

In summary, and in my own words, Jeremiah said to God, “You are all muscle and no brain. This was a stupid transaction.”

God had a lot to say in answer to Jeremiah’s misguided prayer:

“Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?” (32:26).

The same question God had asked Abraham hundreds of years ago he now asked Jeremiah. But wait – hadn’t Jeremiah already answered this question? At the very beginning of his prayer, hadn’t Jeremiah declared, “There is nothing too hard for God”? So why did God ask this question again, as though Jeremiah had never answered it?

Sure, Jeremiah, there’s nothing too hard for God — but you’ve missed his heart. You may be a Prophet to the nations, but you don’t really know him yet; you just think you do. Do you think God glories in the death and destruction he can produce? Do you think he delights in his ability to make a land barren? Does God want us to understand that it’s not too hard for him to destroy — or does God want us to understand that it’s not too hard for him to produce life in a barren place?

After asking Jeremiah the same question that he asked Abraham, God acknowledge that the city would be made barren. Jeremiah was right — God would make the sinful city pay for its sins. God has never promised we would escape the consequences of our sins. He only promised that we can survive them.

The Chaldeans were his “servants” to burn down houses on whose rooftops God’s people had offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to foreign gods. Yes, they’d made God angry when they’d offered their love to others for the whole world to see. God’s people hadn’t even had the decency to commit spiritual adultery in secret; they’d done it on the rooftop without shame. Nor was this the act of a few men in places of power; everyone was guilty of lusting for strange gods, loving lies they had been taught more than the truth proclaimed by God’s prophets (Jeremiah 32:32-33, NKJ). The nation had strayed so far from God they were all guilty. Guilty of what you say? They were guilty of refusing to worship the God who loved them that they might embrace barbaric gods who demanded the sacrifice of innocent babies.

Why did Israel desire to worship gods that demanded them to murder their own children by burning them alive in sacrificial worship? Why did Israel forsake the worship of a God who would never even think of asking such a thing of them? Why would they — unless they were thoroughly corrupt and beyond hope? God’s actions in destroying his people were completely and thoroughly justified. The real “crime” would have been for God never to intervene by putting an end to the atrocities the Israelites were committing against one another and the innocent.

In summary, God told Jeremiah, “When I destroy, it’s justifiable, but Jeremiah, you’ve missed the point. In your mind, it’s not too hard for me to destroy and make barren. But in my mind, it’s not too hard to produce life in a barren place.” God goes on to say “I will” 12 times to Jeremiah. “I will” meaning these things are not too hard for God to do.

I have replaced the 12 “I will’s” with “Is it too hard for God”.

Is it too hard for God to gather his erring children from all the countries where He has driven them in his anger?
Is it too hard for God to bring us home again?
Is it too hard for God to cause us to dwell safely free from persecution and abuse?
Is it too hard for God to make us his people and to be our God?
Is it too hard for God to give us one heart and one way that we may fear him forever for our good and for the good of our children after us?
Is it too hard for God to make an everlasting covenant with us?
Is it too hard for God to never turn away from doing good to us and for us?
Is it too hard for God to put his fear in our hearts so we will not depart from him?
Is it too hard for God to rejoice over us to do us good?
Is it too hard for God to plant us in a land he loves with all His heart and with all His soul?
Is it too hard for God to bring on us all the good that he has promised us?
Is it too hard for God to cause the captives to return? Is it too hard for God to release those (like Israel and like us) who’ve been held captive by their own sin?

Anyone can kill, destroy and make barren. How many of us can heal and give life and prosperity? No, Jeremiah, it’s not a question of whether it’s too hard for God to punish us for our sins. That’s not hard for God to do. We’ve given him more than ample justification to raise his hand to destroy us. I’ll tell you what’s hard. Saving us is “hard.” Scripture says we are “scarcely” saved.

God had a lot on his mind when he answered Jeremiah’s question: “Why am I buying land in this barren place?” He concluded his reply with a rebuke: “And fields will be bought in this land of which you say, it is desolate, without man or beast… (Jeremiah 32:43, NKJ).

God never intended the destruction of Jerusalem to be forever. He is establishing and will establish Jerusalem in righteousness. Israel needed (and still needs) to know that all of us are sinners, unworthy of God and his blessings. In his mercy and love, God let Israel fail, in order that every mouth might be silent when he opened the door for the Gentiles to have equal rights in his kingdom. It would not have been righteous to leave the Gentiles out since God created all of us. How can the Jews complain about God including the Gentiles when they know (or surely should know) from experience that they’re no better than we are? God instructed Jeremiah to buy land in a barren place because God never intended for sin to make us barren forever.

I don’t know whether or not Jeremiah’s question and his attitude toward God’s greatness and what it’s “not too hard for God to do” hurt God, upset God, frustrated God, made God angry or just downright bothered him. Before Jeremiah was released from prison, God spoke to him a second time about the same matter. It was almost as though God responded one time, and then decided he hadn’t yet said quite enough. And sure enough he did have much more to say about what it’s “not too hard” for him to do.

“Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Thus says the Lord who made it, the Lord who formed it to establish it (the Lord is His name) Call to Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:1-3, NKJ)

“Jeremiah” the Lord was saying, “there are things you don’t know about me. Here’s one: If you call to me, I will answer you and show you what I consider great and mighty things.” God again acknowledged that he will slay those who’ve sinned against him. But death isn’t God’s whole agenda. Therefore in Chapter 33, God tells Jeremiah five more times, “I will.” Here are five more things it’s not “too hard” for God to do. Again, I have changed the “I wills” to “It’s not too hard for God”.

It’s not too hard for God to bring health and healing.
It’s not too hard for God to heal and reveal the abundance of peace and truth.”
It’s not too hard for God to cause the captives to return and rebuild the places destroyed by their sin.
It’s not too hard for God to cleanse iniquity by which we have sinned against God.
It’s not too hard for God to pardon all our iniquities by which we have sinned and by which we have transgressed against God.

It doesn’t take faith to believe God will destroy us for sin — it takes faith to believe God will forgive our sins against him.

And after he has healed us, given us revelation, released us from captivity, cleansed and pardoned us, Jerusalem shall be to God a name of joy, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth. Then all the nations shall hear about all the good that he has done for his people. Then all nations will fear and tremble before God’s people, not because he is a God mighty to destroy but a God who disciplines and then restores.

If you believe the New Testament, there will be a New Jerusalem that does not belong to the Jews alone. They had their opportunity to make it theirs by keeping the law and failed. The New Jerusalem belongs to one Jew named Jesus, and to anyone, Jew or Gentile, who will allow God to circumcise his or her heart that they may do things God’s way.

To drive his point home, after listing five things it’s not too hard for God to do, God gently rebuked Jeremiah, saying,

“Again there shall be heard in this place of which you say It is desolate, without man and without beast – in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say; Praise the Lord of Hosts, For the Lord is good, For his mercy endures forever – and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first says the Lord” (Jeremiah 33:10-11, NKJ)

Where Jeremiah saw desolation, God saw his wedding day. Notice that God doesn’t talk about “bridegrooms” or “brides”…plural. He talks about one bridegroom and one bride. God himself is the bridegroom, and his bride is the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem, we won’t bring animals to sacrifice. We will praise God for the one sacrifice who enabled everyone to be included in his kingdom of true justice and equality.

But God had more to say. In the place Jeremiah thought desolate, without man and without beast, shepherds would again count their flocks because God will perform every good thing He has promised. A branch of righteousness will make it all possible:

“In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David a Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called; THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 33:15-16, NKJ)

The ten nations of the Northern Kingdom of Israel never returned from captivity. The Southern Kingdom returned long enough for Jesus to be born, rejected, and resurrected thus making it righteous for him to give all men the same opportunity to receive the good things God will give to Israel. But a long period of time will separate the fulfillment of verses 15 and 16 while the Gentiles come in.

We now know that verse 15 has been fulfilled. Jesus is the “branch of righteousness” who grew up to execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. Verse 16 has not yet been fulfilled because “Judah” has not yet been saved, nor does Jerusalem yet dwell safely. When Jesus was born, she was a territory of Rome, and destroyed within 70 years after Jesus’ death, just as he predicted.

God told Jeremiah he would no more break the covenant he made with David than he would break his covenant with the day and night to never cease. God promised King David that David would never lack a man of his lineage to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. If you don’t understand what was on God’s mind, it may appear from history that God broke his covenant with David. When Israel ceased to be a nation, they ceased to have a king ruling from David’s house. In fact, the king of Jesus’ day was a hated Gentile appointed by Rome. And in our day Israel has an elected Prime Minister, not a king.

Does this mean God failed to keep his word? No, God always keeps his word; but he doesn’t necessarily keep it either when or how it pleases us. He keeps his word whenever and however he chooses. It’s his sovereign right to do what he has promised whenever and however he wishes. When God made a covenant with David, he had on his mind the only man with whom he could make an everlasting covenant it not fail.

After telling Jeremiah how strong his commitment is to establish his promise to King David, he repeated the promise he made to Abraham.

“As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me” (Jeremiah 33:22, NKJ).

Jesus is the one seed who died to produce many seeds that he might make both Jews and Gentiles kings and priests to God. We are a family of priests just like the Levites, and we will “be without number like the sand of the sea,” just as God promised Abraham.

Then God addressed, for the third time, Jeremiah’s notion that God’s greatness lies merely in his ability to make a place barren:

“Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord has chosen, He has also cast them off? Thus they have despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them” (Jeremiah 33:23-24, NKJ)

Do people really believe that God can destroy, but it is too hard for God to save? To that false idea God replied,

“This is what the Lord says; If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them” (Jeremiah 33:25, NIV).

As sure as the sun comes up every day and the moon comes out every night, God will choose one man descended from David to rule over all the seed of Abraham. The New Testament identifies the seed of Abraham as anyone who is in Christ (Galatians 3:29, NIV).

God had quite a lot to say to Jeremiah about what it’s “not too hard for God to do.” And he didn’t stop talking until he got to Jesus.

Many years later Gabriel appeared to Mary and picked up these themes right where God left off! Read his words carefully:

“Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:30-33, NKJ).

Gabriel announced God would give Jesus the throne of his father David — that’s the last thing God said to Jeremiah. Notice Mary’s reaction to Gabriel’s announcement:

“Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (1:34)

Mary didn’t laugh at the impossibility of her bearing this child, as her grandpa Abraham and grandma Sarah had. She merely asked a fair and honest question: “How?”

“And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (1:35).

“Jesus will not have an earthly father,” Gabriel said, just as Adam didn’t have an earthly father. If God can breathe life into a lump of dirt, why can’t he breathe life into an egg from a woman’s ovaries? If God didn’t need a man or woman to give us life in the beginning, what makes us think he needs us now?

Abraham dealt with the issue of barrenness. Jeremiah dealt with the issue of barrenness. Then Mary dealt with the issue of barrenness, too. How could her womb be fruitful when she wasn’t married? But since Mary, unlike her predecessors, didn’t deny God’s ability to do whatever he said he would do, God didn’t give Mary “the question” (“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”) to ponder. Instead, God encouraged Mary’s faith by letting her know about her cousin, Elizabeth:

“Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible” (1:36).

Notice that Zachariah and Elizabeth are similar to Abraham and Sarah. Despite the barrenness of their old age, Abraham and Sarah produced a nation that would declare to the world, “This is God’s law.” Zachariah and Elizabeth in the barrenness of their old age produced a son who would declare to the world, “This is God’s grace” — FOR WITH GOD NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE. When Jesus was born, the question, “Is anything too hard for God?” ceased to be a question and became a fact, “With God nothing will be impossible.”

CH 13 The Same Day

April 6, 2013 by Teena Myers in God Pleasing Faith and tagged Abraham, circumcsion, dream, Faith, God Pleasing Faith, impossible, Isaac, Ishmael, kings, knife, laughing at God, priest, Sarah, Sarai, stagger, Teena Myers, vision | Permalink

“Then God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her” (Genesis 17:15-16, NKJ).

God appeared to Abram when he was 99 years old and plainly outlined the way things would be. He referred first to himself, saying, “As for Me”, and promised to bear the burden of keeping everything legal between us and God for those who believe and obey him. Then God addressed Abram: “As for you.” God laid upon Abram one requirement: circumcision. Lastly, God said, “as for Sarai” this is how it will be.

God changed Sarai’s name, which means “to dominate, to rule or control, to exert the supreme or guiding influence,” to Sarah. Sarah means “a mistress, female noble, princess or queen.” Understand what Sarah represents, and you’ll find it easier to understand the significance of God changing her name. Sarai represented the Old Jerusalem dominated by a covenant of law that made her barren because none of her children could keep the law. Sarah is symbolic of the New Jerusalem, which is the gracious queen of God himself. When dominated by love, the harsh, unmerciful law becomes a noble gracious and kind lady.

God had told Abraham, “I will bless Sarah and give you a son by her.” The immediate result of that promise was the couple’s son, Isaac. But God was also looking further down the road to the sacrifice of Jesus who made God’s dream possible. Sarai, the old Jerusalem, dominated by law made her people servants. Sarah, the New Jerusalem, dominated by love will make her people kings, for she will be a mother of nations and “kings of peoples shall be from her.”

God dreams big. He had nations of kings and priests on his mind. Abraham had yet to see any further than the end of his nose. All Abraham wanted was one son to leave his stuff to. I can identify with Abraham more easily than God. Being a king wasn’t on Abraham’s mind any more than being a queen was on mine when the Lord revealed himself to me. In 40 years of being a Christian, I have not met anyone who accepted Christ so they could become a king.

“Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” (Genesis 17:17-22, NKJ)

God had his mind on a vast spiritual family. Abraham had his mind on a carnal family. When God mentioned Sarah bearing a son, all Abraham could think is, “Hey, God! Sarah and I are too old to have a baby. We tried for years. Now it’s too late. I’m near 100, and she’s 90 — how are we going to have a son? Sure, God – ha, ha, ha!”

If you think God appearing to you will impart great faith, think again. God appeared to Abraham and told him what he planned to do, and Abraham fell on his face laughing at God and then proposed his solution.

“…Oh that Ishmael might live before You!” (Genesis 17:18, NKJ)

Everything God told Abraham was dependent on Sarah giving birth to a son. So Abraham blurted out, “God, why wait for the impossible! I solved the problem 13 years ago. What about Ishmael?” Then God said:

“No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish MY covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him” (Genesis 17:19, NKJ).

God had no intentions of establishing his covenant with a son raised by a slave. He will establish his covenant with a son raised by a free woman. Paul explained in Galatians Chapter 4 that Hagar is symbolic of the covenant made at Sinai – the one that gave birth to the Jerusalem God ultimately rejected. God doesn’t want a house full of servants; he wants a house full of children. Still, God is good to all, and he didn’t ignore Abraham’s request.

“And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, who Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year. Then he finished talking with him and God went up from Abraham” (Genesis 17:20-22, NKJ).

God gave Ishmael the same thing he gave Isaac — 12 princes who became the foundations of great nations. God chose Isaac before he was born and had done anything good or bad to influence his decision. On his own merits, Isaac was no more worthy of the covenant then is Ishmael or anyone else.

God teaches us the gospel not only with his words, but also with his actions. As Isaac’s birth was “impossible,” so was Jesus’. God will establish his new covenant with a son whose birth is not humanly possible. That son is Jesus, the only man God foreknew would be born on earth and never sin. God knew what Jesus would do because God knew what he was going to do. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” In this way, God’s way, both Isaac and Ishmael can be saved — if they will walk in the steps of father Abraham’s faith.

But stop and ponder this: When God finished talking to Abraham he departed without Abraham ever acknowledging that he believed God or would obey God’s instruction to circumcise all the males in his house.

It sometimes appears that Paul had a different copy of Genesis than we do. Speaking of God’s promise that Abraham would be the heir of the world, Paul writes that Abraham believed God when he said that he would make Abraham a father of many nations by doing the impossible. In Abraham’s mind, the “impossible” was Sarah bearing a son. In God’s mind, the impossible was the city if Jerusalem producing a son. How can someone who never knew a man bear a son? God’s wife is a city, and his son is Jesus (Revelation 21:2, 9-10). Paul goes on to say about Abraham,

“…and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (Romans 4:19, NKJ).

Well, that’s not what I read in Genesis. I read about a man who fell down laughing at God. And that’s probably why he fell down — so God wouldn’t see the smirk of unbelief on his face. He was laughing in his heart. He considered his own body, now close to 100 years old, dead, and Sarah’s womb just as dead. How were they going to make a baby? So what gave Paul the audacity to write such a statement about Abraham and even more boldly go on to say,

“He (Abraham) staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:20, NKJ)

When did Abraham stagger not? If Abraham wasn’t staggering at the promise of God through unbelief, why did he bring up Ishmael? Abraham most assuredly did stagger at the promise of God through unbelief! So when did the things Paul wrote about happen? I’ll tell you when! THE SAME DAY! Paul is writing about what Abraham did, not what Abraham said! Consider Jesus teachings and it will become clear.

Jesus was talking to some Chief Priest and Elders, in our day that would be the Pastor and board of deacons. He said to them,

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go, work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not, but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go sir, but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said to him, the first. Jesus said to them, Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him and when you saw it you did not afterward relent and believe him” (Matthew 21:28-32, NKJ).

Jesus said elsewhere,

“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29, NKJ).

In Jesus’ parable which of the two sons did the will of the father? The first one who said, “No”, changed his mind before the day ended and went to work in the fields. The other son knew the right thing to “say”, but he never actually worked. It doesn’t matter what you say about believing God; it does matter — much — what you do.

All right then, what did Abraham do when God finished talking to him and departed?

“Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; and all the men of his house born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him” (Genesis 17:23-26, NKJ)

Ancient Circumcision Knife

That very same day, twice the Bible says Abraham obeyed God that very same day. Like the son who said, “I go not to work in your field” but changed his mind, Abraham stopped laughing in disbelief and chose to believe what God promised! That very same day, Abraham went to work by circumcising himself and all the males in his house.

“Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts… (Hebrews 3:15, emphasis added).

Abraham could have hardened his heart, just as Israel later hardened their hearts in the wilderness. But he didn’t: “Being not weak in faith,” he refused to consider the age of his body or the barrenness of Sarah womb. After laughing at God, he humbled himself. “God is not a liar,” Abraham reasoned. “He is greater and smarter than I am.” So, “Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised God was able also to perform.”

How did Paul know that Abraham had faith? Abraham’s actions, he went to the kitchen for a sharp knife and made all the men in the house line up. Then he obeyed God’s instructions. Abraham didn’t have to do the impossible; God only asked Abraham to do the possible – remove a small piece of flesh.

That very same day, Abraham “spoke” with a “voice” God could trust — his actions — when he circumcised everyone in his house.

Don’t let the sun set before you make up your mind to do it God’s way. Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. Today is the day of salvation. Don’t say, “Oh, some other time.” Make up your mind while it is still “today” — before Jesus brings a new day and you’re not included. You don’t have to do the impossible; just do the possible: Circumcise your heart by casting all your care upon him and God will do the impossible for you!

CH 12 Peter’s Got the Key

March 30, 2013 by Teena Myers in God Pleasing Faith and tagged Apostle Paul, Apostle Peter, baptism, Caesarea, Caesarea Philippi, Circumcision, covenant, debate, everlasting covenant, Faith, gentiles, God, Holy Spirit, infant circumcision, justice, keys to the kingdom, Salvation, Son of God, Son of Man, tanner, tanning, Teena Myers, tongues, unclean | Permalink

And God said to Abraham: As for you you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant. (Genesis 17:9-14, NKJ, emphasis added)

A covenant is a special, two-way agreement. But a covenant made by God with any mere flesh son of Adam will never stand, because a mere man will always break his part of the agreement, and thus obligate God to bring a curse upon him. Therefore, God the Father made a covenant with God the Son — one descendant (seed) of Abraham. In other words, God made a covenant with himself. In essence God told Abraham, “If you want to partake of the blessings of the covenant I have made with myself, there is one requirement: Circumcision!” That requirement has not been done away with. While the natural act of circumcision performed on the flesh to inherit the promises of God has been done away with, the SPIRITUAL act of circumcision has not.

Spiritual things are much more powerful than natural carnal things because God is Spirit (John 4:24). Carnal things like circumcision foreshadowed better things to come. There is a pattern in the bible of God doing first in the natural, in the flesh, what he intends to do ultimately in the spirit, which helps us understand his plan. God instructed Abraham to cut the flesh off the only part of his body that could impart life. Yet a man can only give temporary life. My earthly father and mother gave me a body that will probably live less than 100 years. True, eternal life comes not from the body of flesh, but from the spirit.

A FATHER’S JOB

When God said, “As for you…” to Abraham, we hear the first mention of circumcision in the Bible. However, the Hebrews were not the only people to practice circumcision. Scholars tell us that it was common among the Egyptian and even among some Canaanite cultures. But there was one major difference in its practice by the Hebrews: Only the Hebrews circumcised babies; everyone else performed the rite at the beginning of puberty, around 12 years of age, as a sort of initiation ceremony into manhood.

In Israel’s early history, a father circumcised his son eight days after his birth. Later on in Jewish history, the job was taken over by specialist. But God never made provision, in his covenant with himself in which Abraham took part, or in the law of Moses, for the job to be done by a specialist. God’s original intent was for the father to circumcise all those born in his house or bought with his money. To follow to the letter God’s instructions to circumcise at eight days old, it would obviously be impossible to circumcise yourself.

PURPOSE OF CIRCUMCISION

“…[I]t shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you” (Genesis 17:11, NKJ).

God told Abraham that circumcision would be a sign or a token. The Hebrew word used in this verse means a “mark.” Vine’s Expository Dictionary says, “…this word represents something by which a person or group is characteristically marked.” As I’m sure you’ve noticed, people of African descent characteristically have dark skin and curly hair. People of Asian descent characteristically have slanted eyes and straight black hair. Their characteristics mark who they are. So, God gave Abraham a sign that would be characteristic of all his descendants, but think about this: Who would see this sign?

The only people who would really know for sure that you had rights to the covenant God made with himself would be those most intimate with you — your parents, your wife, and your God. The only way your parents could be sure you were included in the covenant would be to circumcise you at birth. Anyone could say, “I am circumcised and so I have rights to the covenant blessings,” but their word would have to be enough unless they proved it by dropping their pants. The law of Moses clearly states that it is shameful for anyone but those most intimate with you to see your nakedness. So, what man with any sense of decency would expose his genitals to prove he has covenant rights?

Therefore, we can conclude that the sign of the covenant with God is a very private and personal matter — as private and personal as are the activities of husband and wife in the bedroom. Only God knows for sure if your spiritual rights to the covenant blessings are valid because God sees your nakedness. If God doesn’t see the sign of his covenant in you, you don’t have a right to the covenant’s blessings. But God is a Spirit, and he’s not looking at what’s in your pants, he’s looking for the sign he requires in your heart.

AN EVERLASTING COVENANT

“He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant” (Genesis. 17: 13-14, NKJ, emphasis added).

The word “everlasting” used in this verse means “lasting or enduring through all time, eternal.” For all eternity anyone not circumcised will be “cut off” from God’s people because he has broken God’s covenant. A major debate about this verse raged in the early church for many years. The debate centered mainly around two things, circumcision and food.

Circumcision became an issue because some believed Christians had to be circumcised in the flesh to gain a right to the covenant blessings. Food was an issue because, according to the law of Moses, refraining from eating certain kinds of food determined if you were holy or not. A small piece of skin and food caused Jewish Christians in the early church to resist allowing Gentiles into the church and created a debate that raged for years because the sign of the covenant is everlasting, and only the holy will see God.

THE GREAT DEBATE

“When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…” (Matthew 16:13-19, NKJ)

As we discuss this great debate, remember the word Caesarea because it will prove a key to understanding how Jesus gives US “keys.”

Jesus asked his disciple’s an interesting question because his question contained the answer. When he said to his disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am,” Jesus identified himself as “the Son of Man” then Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do men say I am.”

Men in general believed Jesus to be a prophet. But Jesus wasn’t satisfied with this answer so it make it personal, asking, “Who do you say I am?” The obvious answer would have been the one Jesus just gave them: “the Son of Man”. Peter contradicted Jesus when he said “you are the Son of the living God”.

Did Jesus get upset with Peter’s response and say, “Wrong, Peter! Don’t you listen to anything I say? I just said I’m the Son of Man; my answer was in my question.” To the contrary, Jesus said with a hint of pleasure, “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Then Jesus revealed that in God’s kingdom, to him that has will more be given and promised Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Now let’s fast forward to the day of Pentecost. Only people who were circumcised Jews and daughters of Israel received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. But after God later saved a Jewish man named Saul, destined to become Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, he immediately began to deal with Peter, to whom he’d promised to give the keys of the kingdom.

The story of God’s dealings with Peter is recorded in Acts Chapter 10. Cornelius, an Italian officer stationed in Caesarea, was also a praying, God-fearing man who gave generously to the poor. You’ll recall that I told you above to remember Caesarea. The Caesarea mentioned here wasn’t the same one where Peter made his famous declaration, but we’ll soon see that the fact that Cornelius was in a place called Caesarea is significant.

Uncircumcised Cornelius didn’t know about Jesus, but he did fear God. One day while worshiping God, an angel appeared to Cornelius and said:

“…Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea” (Acts 10:4-6, NKJ).

Ancient method of tanning leather.

That Peter was lodging with a “tanner” is evidence that Peter believed the law of Moses had lost some of its significance after Jesus’ resurrection. A tanner was a worker in leather who killed animals and prepared their skins to be used in making shields, helmets, shoes, etc.. And the law of Moses considered being a tanner an undesirable job for a “good Jew”:

“By these you shall become unclean; whoever touches the carcass of any of them shall be unclean until evening; whoever carries part of the carcass of any of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; The carcass of any animal which divides the foot but is not cloven-hoofed or does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches it shall be unclean. And whatever goes on its paws among all kinds of animals that go on all fours those are unclean to you. Whoever touches any such carcass shall be unclean until evening. Whoever carries any such carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. It is unclean to you” (Lev. 11:24-28, NKJ emphasis added).

“And if any animal which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening. He who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. He also who carries it carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening” (Lev. 11:39-40, NKJ emphasis added).

In those brief seven verses, the law of Moses connects the concept of “unclean” to living and dead animals 12 times. So what was Peter, a good Jew, doing in the midst of all this uncleanness? If Simon the tanner was now such an intimate of Peter that Peter was living in Simon’s house I don’t think it would be unreasonable to conclude that Simon the tanner had been baptized in the Holy Spirit in a similar manner to that which had taken place on the day of Pentecost. Simon and Peter were Spirit filled Jews doing unclean things according to the law given to Moses.

Clearly, Peter was beginning to understand how grace complements law. Peter had already learned that anyone circumcised, even someone engaging in such an “unclean” occupation as tanning, could have God’s blessings whether or not he or she kept every law of Moses or not. But are animals of more worth to God than men? Did Jesus die to make unclean animals clean? Peter was moving from faith to faith, one step at a time. Jesus had made a promise to Peter in Caesarea Philippi, and in Caesarea that promise would be kept.

Here’s one “key to the kingdom” Peter was given: you do not have to keep every law that was given to Moses in order to be saved. That doesn’t seem to be an issue in our day, but it was a serious issue in the days of the apostles. Yes, Peter must have thought as he walked among unclean animals, Jesus’ sacrificial death has certainly made it easier for every “circumcised Jew” — even a tanner – to be included in the kingdom of God. It hadn’t yet entered the minds of even good Jewish Christians like Peter that everyone, Jew or Gentile, could be regarded as acceptable and even holy unto God.

Now let’s look more closely at Peter’s part of Acts Chapter 10. He was on the housetop praying and meditating, maybe remembering how Jesus preached to half-breed Samaritans and how Philip went down to Samaria and saw them all baptized in the Holy Spirit. But, after all, the Samaritans did have some Jewish blood. Suddenly, a sheet full of unclean animals descended in a vision and God told him to eat one of them. Peter refused. He had never tarnished his holiness by eating an unclean animal. God told him not to call unclean what God had cleansed.

The arrival Cornelius’s messengers in the midst of Peter’s vision lead Peter to another key. By the time Peter arrived at Cornelius’ house he had discerned the “good, acceptable and perfect will of God”:

“ … In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ He is Lord of all…” (Acts 10:4-36,NKJ).

Peter learned that people do not need the blood of Abraham in their veins for Jesus to be their Lord — Jesus is Lord of all, Jew or Gentile. And not only is he Lord of all, he shows no partiality for anyone from any nation that fears him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. As Jesus promised, he gave Peter a key that would open the door of the kingdom to all men. If Peter has any doubts about the truth he’d just spoken, God settled them before Peter finished his sermon:

“While Peter was still speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God” (Acts 10:44-46, NKJ).

The circumcised Jews are astonished — stricken with sudden or unusual great wonder or surprise! Pray tell, what’s happened that’s so caught them by surprise? I’ll tell you, to the Jewish mind, saying you are circumcised is the same as saying, “I have a right to the blessing of God’s covenant.” To say someone is uncircumcised is the same as saying, “You don’t have any rights to God’s blessings.” In the Apostles’ day, the term “uncircumcised” was a racial slur, similar to the using of the word “nigger” in our day. To call a man “uncircumcised” was to call that man inferior.

The Jews took great pride in their circumcision, for they regarded it as the mark of their spiritual superiority, the sign that God loved them more than others, because they were marked for blessings others would not get. God had come to them, delivered them with mighty miracles from Egypt’s power, made them guardians of his laws. God loved them so much; he brought them to himself “on eagle’s wings.” “Look at all God has done for us,” Jews could say. “We are the circumcision, marked for special treatment.”

Yes! These circumcised Jews at Cornelius’ house were astonished, surprised and afraid. God’s actions struck at the very root of human pride and selfishness. They’d just witnessed God pour his Holy Spirit into what they regarded as unholy vessels that had no right to God or his blessings. These were Gentiles, contaminated by the unholy food they’d eaten, unacceptable because they had not removed a small piece of skin from their body. They had no right to God’s blessings!

The Jews were shaken because they weren’t “in control.” Of course, they never really “had control” of God, because God does whatever he pleases. But until now God had always seemed to be exclusively theirs. What was God doing here, giving his love to these filthy Gentiles who were not marked for special treatment?

After the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house, Peter came up to Jerusalem to learn news travels fast and his Christian brethren were not very happy:

“…those of the circumcision contended with him saying You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!” (Acts 11:2,NKJ)

Let me paraphrase what they were really saying to Peter: “And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were marked as God’s people contended with him, saying, ‘You went into the house of a man who has no right to the blessings of the covenant and did an unholy thing. Peter, how dare you sit at the lunch counter with a nigger! How dare you eat with him and make yourself unclean!’”

Hold it! This is the church? Yes, but it’s an infant church still in diapers, still sucking on a bottle filled with law. To the Jews all this was very serious business because the law had been broken and they were angry that their icon who had traveled with Jesus the Son of God had sinned.

Peter patiently explained everything that had happened, beginning with his vision at Simon the tanner’s house. He concluded:

“ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life” (Acts 11:15-18).

A sign that no one could see, circumcision, had marked these Jews to be God’s people and made them arrogant. But God punched a hole in their pride, by including the Gentiles, with a sign everyone could see and hear. When he did, these “good Christians” became silent, and they stopped glorying in what they could do and began to glory in what God can do! The Apostle Paul later wrote:

“For Jews request a sign [circumcision], and the Greeks seek after wisdom; But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness…that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – That as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23, 29-31).

The Jewish Christians were learning humility. They learned that God is not limited to the things a man can do, like cutting skin off of bodies and eating the right foods. These things will not give you rights in God’s kingdom; only Jesus can give you rights. So let us glory in what he has done, not the things we have done!

Unfortunately, Peter’s experience at the house of Cornelius wasn’t enough to settle the issue about whether circumcision was a requirement to receive God’s blessings. The debate continued to rage for another ten years, and finally came to an impasse at a Gentile church in Antioch of Syria.

The Antioch church was Paul’s home church. He had just completed his first missionary journey. The Spirit had confirmed his message time and again with signs and wonders. Multitudes had been saved, healed and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Paul just so happened to be in the congregation the day some Jewish Christians came from Judea and taught that to be saved the Gentile Christians had to be circumcised after the manner of Moses (or the law). Hearing this, Paul got into a major doctrinal argument with these Christian brethren.

The heart of the argument was an important one to all involved in the dispute: What confirms that I have a right to the blessings of God’s covenant with Abraham? What makes me acceptable to God? Must I cut a piece of skin off my body to have a right to the blessings? Must I eat certain foods and observe certain “days” to be holy? Look at what transpired:

“Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question” (Acts 15:2, NKJ).

Much disputing went on before Peter at last stood up and again related how, a long while ago (about ten years before this) he was present when God, who knows the heart, acknowledged the Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he had the Jews, therefore making no distinction between the Jew and the Gentiles. Then Peter asked the assembly a question they couldn’t dispute over:

“Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they” (Acts 15:10-11, NKJ).

Peter simply pointed out, “Why should we require the Gentiles to obey laws that our fathers nor we obeyed? Circumcision didn’t give us the strength to obey the law. Eating ‘holy’ foods didn’t give us strength to obey the law. Why should we put a yoke on Gentile believers’ necks that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?”

Then, after Peter had given his word of wisdom, they listened to Barnabas and Paul declare how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. Even though Paul and Barnabas spoke so clearly, they didn’t have the “key” to settling the issue. James (Jesus’ half-brother and the author of the Book of James) spoke next:

“Men and brethren, listen to me; Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree” (Acts 15:13-15, NKJ emphasis added).

Did you catch that? James didn’t refer to anything Paul and Barnabas had said. James said, “Simon (or Peter) preached to the Gentiles, and the word of God agrees with his experience. Peter had the “key” that opened the door of the kingdom to all men, because Jesus had promised to give Peter the keys to the kingdom.

CH 11 As For Me

March 23, 2013 by Teena Myers in God Pleasing Faith and tagged Abraham, Abram, As For Me, book, covenant, Faith, God Pleasing, Jesus, kings, multitude, nations, Teena Myers | Permalink

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you… (Genesis 17:1-4, NIV)

After God rebuffed Abram and Sarai’s effort to produce a child of God that would fulfill God’s plan, God set things in proper order, addressing first himself (“as for me”), then Abram (“as for you”) and finally Sarah (“as for Sarai”). Let’s move forward in the Genesis account by starting with God’s “AS FOR ME.”

Abram did not know God as “Lord”, the one who gives laws we must obey. Abraham knew him as “God Almighty”, the one who will multiply us into a vast multitude. God emphasixed the things that applies to this vast multitude when he said to Abram, “AS FOR ME, this is my covenant with you”.

“…My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:4-8, NKJV)

This is what God, not Abram, would do and it’s only the beginning of God’s dream, the first step to establishing what Abram came to Canaan to find, “a city with foundations laid by God.” Keep in mind that there is more to what God has promised us than the land he promised to Abram, hence forward known as Abraham, and his seed.

Three times God referred to three things when he said, “As for me…” He spoke about the covenant between him and Abraham three times, he referenced many nations three times, and three times he spoke about “multiplying.”

COVENANT

Now let’s look at how God in this passage addressed the covenant between him and Abraham:

Vs. 2: “I will make my covenant.”

Vs. 4: “My covenant is with you.”

Vs. 7: “I will establish my covenant.”

To say, “I will make and I will establish” is equivalent to saying “I will make the covenant stand.” The responsibility for the covenant standing rests upon God, not man. God already established covenant with Abram when Abram was 85 years old and he said, “To your seed/descendants I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18). The covenant between God and Abram was to give, not Abram but his seed, the land between the river of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

Abram could have rejected God’s offer at any time in his life and returned to Ur. If Abram had chosen to abandon God his actions would not have stopped God from fulfilling God’s end of the covenant, because God had not promised to give the land to Abram, he promised to give the land to Abram’s seed. Therefore if Abram had changed his mind, the covenant could still be fulfilled even though Abram opted to exclude himself. (In that event, it’s possible we would now be calling Isaac the father of our faith instead of Abraham.)

When men act foolishly, their foolishness doesn’t make God a fool, it makes the man or woman who acts foolish a fool. God knows how unstable and changeable we are. He is too smart to make a covenant with any man or woman that depends for its success on what that man or woman does. Instead, God made a covenant with himself, God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. That guaranteed that anyone who truly wanted “in” would not be left “out” because some other man failed.

So it doesn’t matter what man does; God’s covenant will stand because its standing is not dependent on our good deeds or voided by our bad behavior. Paul made it clear in Galatians that to Abraham and his Seed, one seed, the promises were made. Again, not to seeds (plural), but to one seed, who is Jesus. The promises were made to two men, Abraham and Jesus, and in that regard we might better say “to Jesus and Abraham,” because Abraham was not included in the promises until he “learned his worth” in Egypt and became a man of peace.

If the promises were made to two men, where does that leave the rest of us? How do we partake of the things God has promised humanity? The same way Abraham partakes of the promises — only one way: “…if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). If you belong to Christ, then you are counted in with Abraham’s “one seed.” In Christ we are one body. In Christ we are one Spirit. In Christ we have one hope and one faith to obtain what we hope for. If we are Christ’s, we will inherit everything that God promised to Jesus.

God revealed through the prophet Isaiah that he would

“…divide him [Jesus] a portion with the great [the Hebrew word for great meaning ‘abundant in quantity’]. And he [Jesus] shall divide the spoil with the strong [the Hebrew word for strong meaning ‘numerous’]. Why? Because he [Jesus] poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12, NKJ).

So it doesn’t matter what we do, God’s covenant will stand, because God foreknew that Jesus would do what we are not able to do — keep a covenant of law. Jesus alone earned the blessings and the right to divide the blessings, by living a sinless life.

FATHER OF NATIONS

God said to Abram, “I have made you a Father of many nations.” Three times God referred to the “nations.”

Vs. 4: “You shall be a father of many nations.”

Vs. 5: “I have made you a father of many nations.”

Vs. 6: “I will make nations of you.”

My uncle did a family tree of my mother’s side of our family that traced us back to England. From Scripture we know that Noah’s descendants Shem and Ham stayed mostly in the East, and his descendants through Japheth settled just about every place else. So if records went that far back, I might be able to trace myself back to Japheth. But Abraham came through Noah’s son, Shem. After the flood Noah awoke from a drunken stupor to cursed Canaan and blessed Shem and Japheth, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shem… and may God enlarge Japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem” (Genesis 9:26, 27). In other words, if you love God, he wants to include you in, not exclude you from, his tent. “May the sons of Japheth be many and dwell in the tents of Shem from which Abraham came.” But, as I’ve pointed out earlier in this chapter, the only way to be included is to have the same faith the father of our faith had.

You see, there is a measure of faith God gives to everyone as a gift. God has spoken his desire that everyone live, in a “voice louder than words.” Creation makes a clear and unquestionable “sound” that says God exists. And indeed, most people will not deny there’s a God somewhere; rather, they deny that he’s good and they question his integrity.

The measure of faith that has come to all men from creation’s “sound” will not save you. Men know God exists, yet they refuse to seek him; or more commonly, they worship everything but him. Therefore, the faith that could have blessed them now condemns them. Which leads us to ask them: “If you know God exists, why don’t you worship him instead of the things his hands have made? If you know he exists, why don’t you seek him?” The Apostle Paul tells us:

“There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:11-12, NKJ).

Why has every man gone his own way and done what is right in his own eyes? As the Apostle James tells us, “Even devils believe God exists, and they tremble.” Simply believing God exists will not save you anymore then it will save trembling devils. God taught Abraham the only kind of faith that will save you. If we don’t have the same kind of faith Abraham had, we, too, stand in jeopardy of being left out of the promises.

MULTIPLY

Three times in the passage we’re reviewing, God refers to a “multitude”:

Vs. 2: “…multiply you exceedingly.”

Vs. 5: God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Abram means “High Father.” Abraham means “father of a multitude.”

Vs. 6: “I will make you exceedingly fruitful.”

As God Almighty, he is well able to multiply us into a vast multitude. From this vast multitude God will choose kings.

…I will make nations of you and kings shall come from you…and I will be their God (Genesis 17:7-8, NKJ).

In other words, this is what we can expect from God. God’s covenant with Abraham will not fail, because he made the promises to a man named Jesus who he knew would not fail to keep every point of law. God will keep his covenant to give Jesus the land, that a vast multitude of people from many nations may become one nation of true equality and become kings who rule according to God’s desires.

God made covenant to give Abraham’s “seed” the land for a specific reason, a reason far greater than health and wealth in this life. God has given and is giving “whosoever will,” from any time and from any nation, the opportunity to be a citizen in a nation of kings who work by God’s side in a kingdom that will never end. Timothy calls Jesus “…the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords…” (1 Timothy 6:15). One day a new song will be sung in heaven to the Lamb. It will go like this:

You are worthy to take the scroll And to open its seals. For You were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God. And we shall reign on the earth (Revelation 5:9-10, NKJ).

Teena L Myers

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