Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd.  Ps 23: 1a

That’s all I got today.  I hope my gentle readers will forgive me.  I’m tired.  I’m a little banged up and confused about what’s next.  I need Him to look after me today.  If you want to read more today, see previous post

Sheep Hear

“How long will you keep us in suspense?  If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these bear witness of Me.  But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep.  My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  John 10:24b-27

I taught a men’s Bible study this morning (badly I fear) talking about how first century Jews would likely have understood all the shepherd/sheep references Jesus was always using.  Based on Old Testament writings, they would have heard  and connected not just the picture of a common  sheep-herder, but also the images of leader, king, Messiah, even God Himself.  When those claims came from Jesus mouth it had to rock their world and force them to make a call one way or another about whether they believed He was all of those things.

The passage above is downright intimidating.  Jesus is telling smart people not to play dumb and not to play games.  They understood exactly what He was saying; some just didn’t like it.   The chilling thing is that Jesus said they didn’t recognize His voice and follow Him because they were not His.  The scene continues with some of  the Jews picking up rocks and throwing them at Jesus. 

If I hear His voice it’s because He calls me.   My response shows if I’m really His.   If I don’t follow then I’ve cast my vote and announced I don’t belong to Him, so I might as well grab myself a rock, too.

Friday Smile

My lovely bride brought home an interesting box from the grocery store.  It was “Ezekial 4:9 Sprouted Whole Grain Cerial.”  That’s the name printed on the box.  And underneath was this…..”As described in the Holy Scriptures ‘Take also unto thee wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet and spelt and put them in one vessel and make bread of it.’”   The side panel notes “This Biblical Cereal is Truly the Staff of Life.”  Whodathunkit?

Most Likely

“Be careful, ” Jesus said to them.  “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducess.”  Matthew 16:6

If you don’t know what a Pharisee is, you get a pass on this post.  See you next time.  For the rest of you, I should let you know that I have reached the uncomfortable conclusion that if I were a Palestinian Jew when Jesus was around, I would most likely have been a Pharisee.   The Essenes were monastic separatists who lived in the desert.  Nope, not me.  Zealots were revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the government.  Nah.  Sadducees were connected elitists in love with tradition and power.  Not so much.  Sinners just had given up on God and and decided to live however they chose, regardless of the consequences.  Not quite there.   Tax-collectors were greedy, shady characters who would sell their grandmother down the road for a nickel.  Not willing to concede that.  But Pharisees…..these fellows read their Bible.  They tried to live a very moral life.   They thought God had special warm feelings for their nation.   They tithed and supported the temple and the poor.  They revered God and tried to help Him keep people from making a mess of their lives and their society.  They were respected in the community.   They weren’t perfect…quite….but still, compared to everybody else?  Yep, most likely I would have aspired to be a Pharisee.

This is unfortunate because there are 88, count’em 88 references,  to Pharisees in the  Gospels, and NONE of them are complimentary passages.  In fact, these guys were right in Jesus’ cross-hairs when He felt the rare need to condemn.  It’s pretty easy as a 21st century evangelical to make cardboard archtypes of the Pharisees as just religious hypocrits, but that’s that’s unfair.  Pharisees didn’t intend to end up on the wrong side of God.  Pride and self-righteousness snuck into their religion and ruined everything.  They could see, and hear, and smell and touch the Son of God…..and they missed Him!

I think the reason there are so many references to Pharisee is because that’s where morality and religion will lead any of us apart from love, and humility, and recognition of how desparately we need God personally.  Pharisee is where I end up if I’m not very, very, very, very careful.  I don’t know about you, but the fact you’re reading my blog says something about what’s most likely for you…….

Magnified

Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually,  ”Let God be magnified.”  Psalm 70:4 (NASB)

You get NAS this morning because this is the version of this verse that I memorized.  I went to a church while I was in college called Clemson Christian Fellowship that sang songs taken directly from the Bible set to guitar chords (praise and worship when praise and worship wasn’t cool, if you will).  But I really appreciate the fact so many of these songs helped me memorize scripture. 

This verse encourages me to rejoice and be glad in God and His salvation.  We’re all wired for worship and when my life and emotions get me down, the way out  of a funk, for me, is very often just simply some time recognizing and praising God.  And I’m told to “magnify” God.  To me this means “make really big in your eyes.”   I’m to make a big deal out of God, not just because He deserves it, but because it is good for me.  In fact,  it is probably what I’m made for.   There is a line from the new Hillsong United CD that puts it well.  “Everything comes alive in my life as I lift You higher.”

Perfume

Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair.   John 12:3 (NIV)

This in one of those rather rare stories that is actually told in all four gospels.  (Matt 26, Mark 14, Luke 7, and John 12)  Mary gets grief  from onlookers for being extravegant and wasting this expensive stuff by anointing Jesus’ feet,  but He praises her and says she did it to prepare Him for His burial.   I think her intention was different.

I just finished a book called “Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus,” that I thought gave me some extra insight into this scene.  When you look up “anoint” on biblegateway.com you get 138 references and “perfume” gets you 34 more.  Though spices were evidently used to prepare bodies for the grave, overwhelmingly the references of perfumed anointing oil in the Old Testament  were to: 1) set aside something (like an altar) or a person (like a priest) as fit for God’s use, and 2) crown a king or recognize a prophet with authority from God.   I think anointing His feet was Mary’s way of saying Jesus was all of that and more to her.  

It’s likely that the smell stayed with the anointed thing or person quite a while and when a person smelled perfume in that culture, it was uncommon.  It instantly brought to mind ideas of priests, prophets and kings.  So when Jesus entered Jerusalem the next day, did the people welcoming Him get a whiff of royalty?  Did the disciples struggle to recify the smell of the man that washed their feet?  Did the scent persist as He was beaten?  Was it still lingering at the foot of the cross?

Speak

Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  Ephesians 4:15 (NLT)

The other morning at a little gathering I’m part of I told a guy, “I probably shouldn’t say this to you, but I’m going to anyway…”  At this point, he and the other fellow in attendance just started laughing.  Profusely.  At me. 

They evidently know me too well.  They know that I often say things that maybe shouldn’t.  They know me well enough to feel the freedom to laugh at me openly.  And I hope they  know me well enough to believe that I try to speak what is true, and that my motivation is love….at least in my better moments.

To speak at all is risky.  To tell people the truth is even riskier.  To speak up with the truth in love is not easy to do, and often it is even harder for people to hear, if they will even listen in the first place.

So I guess the laugh at my expense is OK.  Love you guys.

See God?

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”  And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  But,” He said, “you cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live.”  Exodus 33:18-20

Our pastor is teaching a series this summer on Exodus, which has been exceptional by the way.  When I read or am taught from this part of the Old Testament I’m left with a sense of awe at God’s might and power and I’m struck by how He didn’t speak directly to the “rank and file” Hebrew.  The Bible says God “called Moses by name” and only spoke and revealed Himself intimately through this specially set-apart man.  God was holy and you couldn’t see Him or even speak His name.  And let’s just say God didn’t cut much slack to people that dissed Him in any way. 

Modern Christians tend to somehow think if we had been Jews in Jesus time that we would have recognized Him and followed, but we should keep the backdrop of Exodus in mind.   The transition from Old Testament to New Testament is no small step.  When Jesus showed up and started speaking, the things He said about God and how people could relate to Him were shocking.  Like this:

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”  Matthew 5:8

Well which is it?  Seriously.  In Exodus, part of God’s Holy Scripture, the Torah, God tells Moses “You can’t see me or you will die.”  Jesus rolls in and says,  “Hey, the pure in heart will see God.” 

Better theologians than me should correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Jesus ushered in a whole new deal….a fulfillment of the Old Testament that we probably wouldn’t have expected.  And not just different, so much better and fuller and more incredible!  Through Jesus Christ, God has chosen to show us mercy and compassion and can actually GIVE us pure hearts….. and then He can show us Himself and His Glory!

Paul:Timothy

If they were friends on Facebook in 2009 I think this is the kind of thing Paul would write on Timothy’s wall……..

Refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights. God’s servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the Devil’s trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.  2 Timothy 2:23-26  (The Message)