Randy Green's Blog, page 343

Gigantic Exaggerations – Part 2

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” Then Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth.” [1 Samuel 17:32-33]

We paused our last lesson by noting that we Christians often are spiritually immature in our understanding of the Bible. Allow me to give one more example of spiritually obtuse thinking vis-à-vis the Bible. In our Bible verses quoted at the commencement of this study, the Philistine “giant” Goliath daily challenged the Israelites to send out their champion warrior to fight him. Whoever won the fight would be accredited with winning the war for his people, and the other people would be the slaves of the victor.

Well, Goliath was a bit on the large size—oh, think head and shoulders above Shaquille O’Neal. All the Israelites cowered before his blustering. Israel needed a Michael Jordan to step forward, but instead they got timorous mice who hid in their holes.

One day while Goliath was fuming his morning rant, David ben Jesse brought some food from home to his three oldest brothers who were on the battlefield with the other Israelite soldiers. When he heard the blasphemy against the God of Israel spewing from Goliath’s lips, he looked around at the Israelite troops and was astonished. Not a soul would stand up and honor the name of God by defeating this giant moron, Goliath.

So David told King Saul, “Not to worry, O King. I’ll whup him for ya’.”

King Saul pointed out to David that Goliath had been trained from his “youth” to be a mighty soldier, an expert in the art of war. On the other hand David was simply a “youth”, so he wasn’t equipped to confront such a gigantic warrior. Then Saul added, “Thanks but no thanks, son. Take yourself home and leave the fighting to us men.” Like there were any “men” to be seen on the side of Israel that day!

Let’s cut to the chase. Saul’s word to describe David, i.e., a youth or a young man, has given rise to thinking in a vacuum. It is commonly assumed that David killed Goliath when he was only ten or twelve years old, maybe even younger! After all, he was a youth. The word and its connotation is imagined in terms of today’s imagery. But that is to take the word out of context. As Rule #1 for Bible study states, A text without a context is a pretext. So let’s consider the word within the context of those days, rather than in the context of today.

The Hebrew word is na‘ar. It means “a young man” or “a youth”. The wording is used of teenagers today. Sometimes we refer to our teenagers as “young adults”, which in today’s immature society is wishful thinking. Sorry, teenagers who read this. Don’t know you personally, but I do know our society.

Wow! Time sure flies when you’re having fun. We must be having fun because we’re already out of time for today. See you tomorrow, same time, same channel.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: 1 Samuel 17, age of accountability, David, Goliath, youth

When Perfect Is Not A Good Thing – Part 2

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God [John 3:16-18].

Let me explain the difference between the aorist tense and the perfect tense of Greek verbs. I believe you will agree with me that sometimes being perfect is not a good thing. You needn’t remember the names of the verb tenses, dear friends, only the difference between them. The Holy Spirit purposely chose the verb tenses to teach us a lot of deep spiritual truth.

The aorist tense means that something happened in the past one time only, and that is the extent of the action. The perfect tense means that something occurred in the past one time only, but the emphasis is on its continuing effect. Whatever occurred continues to remain true up to the present day. “Once upon a time something happened” = aorist tense. “Once upon a time something happened, and now look at the mess we’re in!” = perfect tense.

Here is a for instance to help understand what I just stated. Aorist Tense: “He killed a man two years ago.” Perfect Tense: “He has contracted AIDS and now is incurable.” See! In the first example the person isn’t continuously killing a man. Nor does the sentence refer to anything going on today. Once upon a time two years ago this person killed a man. Period. That’s all the past tense verb states.

In the second example the person isn’t continuously contracting AIDS. Nor does the sentence simply note that at one point in the past he contracted AIDS. The verb being perfect tense, the emphasis is upon the man’s AIDS having the continuing effect of rendering him incurable to the present day. I hope this helps you to understand the distinction because vital spiritual understanding grows in this field. Let’s harvest it now, shall we?

In John 3:18 anyone who believes the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not judged. The verb is present tense. We explained five paragraphs prior what this means. In contrast, though, anyone who does not believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been judge already. The verb is perfect tense. This means that sometime in the past the person was already judged guilty, and the effect of this judgment is that he continues to remain guilty. The emphasis is upon his present condition, which was caused sometime in the past.

A weighty Biblical mystery is revealed by this usage of verb tenses. God created each species to produce after its own kind. It matters not whether it be vegetable, animal, or human. Apple seeds do not grow pears, nor thistles produce corn. Monkeys do not evolve into humans either! Apple seeds grow apple trees which produce more apples. Monkeys give birth to monkeys. Humans give birth to humans. It matters not how many surreal ages of evolution we add to the mix of our hypothesis, no one has ever seen anything in real life which shows one species changing into another.

The Bible has a penchant for employing visible physical realities to teach us invisible spiritual truths. The fact that each species ALWAYS reproduces after its own kind is one example of this. How so? Just this, that sinners cannot produce saints. Sinners produce sinners. When Father Adam sinned, he became a sinner. Whereas every human being has a genealogy which traces back to Father Adam, every human being is a sinner. Why? Because Father Adam was a sinner, and sinners can only reproduce sinners.

This is the reason why any person who does not believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been judged already, and I might add that he has been found wanting and condemned already. Don’t miss the implications of this. The perfect tense verb usage in John 3:18 proclaims the doctrine of the total depravity of man. We are born sinners. We are born with a sin nature. We are born with a predilection to disobey the Word of God, to reject Him and do our own thing.

the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)
all have sinned (Romans 3:23)
ergo, all must die

We have already been judged and condemned, you see, because we are sinners. UNTIL we believe the Gospel and accept Jesus Christ as the payment for our sins, we remain in that condition (perfect tense). Anytime a person does accept Jesus’ death as the payment for his sins, he is not judged because he is no longer a sinner. The penalty for his sins has already been paid by the Lord Jesus on the cross, and IT IS FINISHED!

Hallelujah! Such a profound and wonderful mystery to be revealed by the simple usage of verb tenses. Each person is born dead in his sins and separated from God. Each person remains this way until he hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ and accepts Jesus as His Savior. Fine revelation, that.

So this is your chance. If you have yet to believe the Gospel, what are you waiting for? Behold, now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: born again, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, John 3:16, Justification, Salvation, Son of God

From Moabite to Israelite – Part 2

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!! Romans: Volume 9 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.” [Ruth 1:16-17]

Here’s the thing about the words God and the Lord. When the Lord is identified as God (as in Genesis 1), it refers to the One Who created everything, He Who is high and mighty and towers above the earth and over all creation. The word God points to the impersonal aspect of the Divine One. When God is identified by His name YHWH (aka the Lord), this is personal. Compare it to the identifiers the President and Barak Obama. On the one hand, the President is an impersonal reference, while Barak Obama is quite personal.

Now reread Ruth 1:16-17. The context is that Naomi the Israelite went with her husband and two sons to live in Moab for a spell because there was a famine in Israel. While in Moab her husband died and her two sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Then her two sons died as well. When the famine in Israel was finally over, Naomi decided to return to Israel. Her two daughters-in-law started to go with her, but Naomi discouraged them.

Orpah turned around and went back to Moab, but Ruth pronounced some of the most deeply emotional words of fidelity ever to be recorded, the words of Ruth 1:16-17. She began by saying she was willingly leaving behind her people and embracing Naomi’s people. This meant that thenceforth she saw herself as an Israelite, not as a Moabite.

She then added that she also was willingly renouncing her gods and embracing Naomi’s God. That perforce had to be the case, in order to become an Israelite proselyte. Don’t overlook which word was used to identify the Divine One. Ruth said she was embracing GOD. Because Ruth was a Moabite, she had no personal relationship with the Lord. Her relationship was that between Creator (aka God) and creature (aka created being). It was impersonal.

After renouncing her Moabite identity and the concomitant gods of Moab, Ruth forthwith became a true Israelite. That is why her very next words did not refer to God but to the Lord. She said, “If I ever leave you, Naomi, may the Lord, may YHWH, cook my goose!”

See! One moment Ruth was a Moabite cocoon, the next an Israelite butterfly. These sorts of details in Scripture reveal remarkable spiritual truth, dear friends. Don’t miss out on them. Hie off to my Amazon link below and purchase your very own copies of my books. I bring out innumerable suchlike details in my books. You will only be the better for it. Thank you.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: 1 John 4, agape, God, John 3, love, Ruth 1, the Lord

From Moabite to Israelite – Part 1

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.” [Ruth 1:16-17]

Do you recall the first person you fell for? Remember how puppy love felt? I do! I walked on the moon without touching the ground. Butterflies hovered around my head and in my stomach. I didn’t know what day it was or even if it was day. Goosebumps covered my skin and goose eggs made up my common sense quotient. Ah, amore.

As we all know, puppy love doesn’t last. The temporary blindness which accompanies it, along with the temporary insanity, dissipates sooner or later—usually sooner—and we realize our lovely “beauty” is really an unsightly “beast”…sort of like Mrs. Shrek. Yes, puppy love is more a Hollywood thing than it is reality.

And then there is the real thing, the real McCoy, true love, the kind which we can read about in 1 Corinthians 13 but rarely witness in real life. Let’s identify real love, God’s love, shall we?

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life [John 3:16].

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins [1 John 4:10].

See! True love, God’s love, doesn’t TAKE. It GIVES. Real love looks out for the one loved, rather than figures how it can profit from the one loved. Does this not explain why the divorce rate is sky high in today’s antichrist society? Everyone looks out for his/her own interests. All of us have a penchant for putting Numero Uno first. In the Bible this is recognized as “hate”, in contrast to “love”…and the Bible is quite correct.

It is hard for us to grasp what we read in Ruth 1, as quoted at the start of this study. We have the words of true love there. In fact Ruth’s true love came from Israel’s King YHWH and metamorphosed her from a Moabite to an Israelite. The proof is right there in the two verses I quoted. Ruth’s metamorphosis takes place in those verses.

“How so?” you are no doubt wondering. It has to do with the usage of the words God and the Lord. We’ve posted studies on this issue already, and my Heavenly Citizens series delves into the matter exhaustively on many occasions. Let’s have a brief review.

The word God isn’t a name or even a title. It is hard to define because it applies only to the one true God. This makes it unique. Suffice it to say that the word human depicts a species. In the same way the word God does likewise, except the species consists of only one, making Him not a species. The word God denotes deity. On the other hand, the words the Lord—in reality only one Hebrew word, viz., YHWH or Yahweh or Jehovah—is the actual NAME of God.

Oh, but this is a right fine location to pitch our tents for the night. We will return to this issue in our next study. See you then.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: 1 John 4, agape, God, John 3, love, Ruth 1, the Lord

Hereditary Heaven – Part 2

NEWS FLASH!!! Matthew: Volume 7 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel [Joshua 24:31].

We paused in our last study with this dear woman who didn’t much care to hear any teaching about the blood of Jesus. I, on the other hand, cannot get away from the blood of Jesus. And I politely told her so. Oh, but that got her dander up! She blurted out a revealing retort in an angry growl, “I don’t have to be born again. I was a good person all my life!”

I disagreed, “Oh, but Jesus said in John 3 that we MUST be born again, or else we cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

She retaliated, “That’s just for the wicked people, like the skid row bums and other suchlike low-lifes.”

I explained that Jesus spoke those words to Nicodemus, one of the most godly persons of his day, a sincere seeker of God and His righteousness.

To bring this story to a timely conclusion, allow me to state that this dear woman huffed and puffed and attempted to blow my door down. She vowed I’d not be the pastor of HER church, and bid me a not so fond adieu.

Here is the point to the story, dear friends. There is no such critter to be found in the Bible as Hereditary Heaven. Every person born of Father Adam is born a sinner because Father Adam was a sinner. Like begets like. Sinners cannot give birth to saints. Only a sinless person can give birth to another sinless person. That is precisely why every person MUST be born again, if he or she will be a part of the family of God.

In the time of Joshua bin Nun, the Israelites followed the Word of God—of course with some failings on occasion. So long as Joshua and the elders of his day were alive, the Israelites continued to follow the Word of God and serve King YHWH. That is what was recorded in Joshua 24:31, which we quoted to start this study.

If we are at Joshua 24 in our Bibles and turn the page to the Book of Judges, beginning with chapter 2 we learn just what transpired the moment Joshua and the elders of his day were no longer alive on earth. Their progeny began to imitate the heathen folks who lived with the Israelites in Canaan. You see, they were not born as the people of God. Each Israelite had to personally, individually, make his/her own choice to obey the Word of God and serve King YHWH only.

There is no such thing as Hereditary Heaven, my dear friends. Are you depending on your natural pedigree to be right with God? Do you look in the mirror and see a good old boy or girl? Is it your position that the Lord should be glad to have you? Do you live in Hereditary Heaven? Ah, oh. I am sorry to tell you, but there is no such critter. You must be born again.

So why not be so now? Let’s go to the Lord and spend some quiet time alone with Him. He has all we need for life, both on earth and in eternity.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: born again, Church, heredity, Joshua 24, new life, religion, Salvation

Hereditary Heaven – Part 1

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!! Romans: Volume 9 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel [Joshua 24:31].

I recall a church I pastored over twenty years ago. On my first visit to become acquainted with the good folks of the church, and they in return to become acquainted with me, I enjoyed a meal with an elderly couple. This couple had been a part of that congregation for so long, they for all intents and purposes owned it! Or so it seemed in their eyes.

Actually the husband was a rather reserved fellow, sitting back and allowing his wife to bask in all the glory to be had. He was content to be left alone and to leave everyone else alone. ‘Twould’ve been a grand accomplishment for her to have done the same. Alas, but it wasn’t to be so, not by a long shot.

Anyway, as we sat at the dinner table enjoying the food, this dear woman flapped her jaws more in the pursuit of self-flattery and egocentrism than she did for the purpose of eating. I preferred to use mine to eat, and so I chewed and took it all in…regrettably. She gave me the lowdown on the entire congregation, one-by-one, and threw in the last several pastors to boot. Ah, but there was one redeeming quality in that church…her!

Well, before she was through, she gave me an example of how one of those pastors was impossible to stomach. According to her, he had the unadorned chutzpah to talk about the blood of Jesus on Christmas! Do you believe it? On Christmas! She wanted him run out of town on a rail, but not before spending a week in the pillory and then dressed in tar and feathers.

She was setting me up, you see. Before she agreed to vote for me as the next pastor, she wanted to know whether I would do her bidding or insist on feeding the good church folk with the pure, unadulterated Bible. So her next step was to look me straight in the eye—much as the Queen of Hearts did to those who soon lost their heads—and queried, “You wouldn’t do that, would you? You wouldn’t talk about the blood of Jesus too much, even on Christmas?” And then she leaned back in her chair and took a nibble of food, while she waited to hear me timorously say, “No, I won’t do that.”

I took my time and permitted her to gloat over her perceived victory of painting the candidate into a corner and committing him to do her bidding. When I finished chewing my food and swallowing, I then allowed the suspense to build up further by taking a long drink of tea. At last I looked at her with a smile and calmly responded to her bait, “No, ma’am, I wouldn’t talk too much about the blood of Jesus…because you can never talk too much about the blood of Jesus!” And then I added, “The blood of Jesus is the axis around which all of Scripture revolves. We must die to self and be born again in Jesus.”

We will take a respite at this time and continue the story in our next study. You won’t want to miss it. The ending feeds us with a lot of spiritual nutriment which is good for the soul.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: born again, Church, heredity, Joshua 24, new life, religion, Salvation

Jacob’s Ladder and a Carpenter

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Jesus answered and said to (Nathanael), “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” [John 1:50-51]

Jacob was the son of Isaac. He had an older twin brother named Esau—older, that is, by a matter of jinutes, and that’s quicker than a minute. Esau was a jovial sort of gregarious guy, like a modern-day jock whom everybody likes. Trouble was, Esau couldn’t care less about the things of God. He despised God’s covenant, demonstrating himself to be a godless man.

Esau was the natural firstborn, which entitled him to the birthright (i.e., headship of the family after Isaac died) and the blessing (i.e., the double portion, or twice the amount of family wealth the other son(s) received as their inheritance. Here’s the thing: the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, which was handed down to Isaac by the Lord’s sovereign choice. Then the Lord decided to continue the Abrahamic Covenant through Jacob and his lineage, rather than through Esau.

So the Lord considered Jacob to hold the position of firstborn. This family, you see, was not the normal everyday run-of-the-mill family. In the natural world the son born first was entitled to the rights of the firstborn. In the world of covenant the Lord doesn’t follow the natural order. He changes things around to show that no one belongs to Him by natural birth. We must be born again.

Anyway, Esau decided to kill Jacob because he didn’t like Jacob receiving the rights of the firstborn. So Isaac dispatched Jacob far away to Uncle Laban’s house to stay awhile. On the first night of his trip to Uncle Laban’s, Jacob stopped at Bethel to sleep along the road. Here’s what happened when he went to sleep:

He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it [Genesis 28:12].

There we have the description of Jacob’s Ladder. Let’s fast forward now to circa 27 A.D. and pick up the story about Jacob’s Ladder in the hands of a Carpenter from Nazareth. Oh, by the way, the Carpenter’s name was Jesus. We began this study with a quote from Carpenter Jesus about Jacob’s Ladder. But there was one significant difference between the Genesis account and Jesus’ telling of the story. Did you catch it?

Jacob’s Ladder was an actual ladder which connected heaven and earth. On Jacob’s Ladder the angels went back and forth between heaven and earth. But that’s not what Jesus told us, is it? No, it’s not. According to Jesus the angels did not go back and forth between heaven and earth on a ladder. They did so on the Son of Man. Carpenter Jesus is the Son of Man. He is Jacob’s Ladder.

The eternal Son of God took upon human flesh, sinless to be sure but nonetheless real humanity. He did so approximately 7 B.C. as the God-man Jesus Christ. The purpose for Him doing so was to reunite sinful man with a thrice holy God. God created man without sin and in fellowship with Him, but man sinned and lost his relationship with the Lord. In order to bring man back to God, the penalty for man’s sins first had to be paid, and then man needed to have a new nature which wanted to be in relationship with the Lord, a nature which no longer wanted to sin.

The eternal Son of God became man in order to pay the penalty for man’s sins by dying on the cross. He rose again out of death on the third day in order to provide man with a new resurrection nature, God’s own nature within man. This provision is available to any person who will take the Word of God at face value and ask Him for it (Biblical faith).

Yes, the God-man Jesus Christ, Carpenter Jesus, is the antitype of Jacob’s Ladder (the type). He reunites God and man in Himself. Isn’t that glorious? The Lord be praised! Let’s go to Him now and receive the blessings of His presence, shall we? We’ll have a grand old time.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: Genesis 28, God-man, Gospel, incarnation, Jacob’s Ladder, John 1

Hot and Cold – Part 2

NEWS FLASH!!! Matthew: Volume 7 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Moses…saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So…he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand…(The Lord said), “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me… I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”  [Exodus 2:11-12; 3:9-11]

Moses figured he was now a Midianite. He was born a Hebrew and became an Egyptian and tried to rejoin the Hebrews, and now he was a Midianite. Talk about a cockamamie life! Boy, was Moses’ life whacky.

“Not so fast, Moses my man,” said the Lord. “You may graze sheep in Midian and Sinai, but you cannot go far enough away to escape Me!” So there was Moses and there was a burning bush and there was the Lord in the bush. He told Moses that He chose Moses to be His mouthpiece to Pharaoh.

So get yourself on back to Egypt, Moses, and I’ll tell you what to do and say. I’m ready to deliver My people Israel from slavery and fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant by giving them the Promised Land as their national habitation.

Forty years prior Moses was champing at the bit to deliver the Hebrews from Pharaoh’s enslavement. Now he couldn’t squirm hard enough or stammer long enough to express his utter lack of desire to go back to Egypt. You see, he was young, brash, and impulsive forty years prior. He was like a teenager—you know, knows it all and doesn’t need to learn. Fast forward four decades: Moses finally understood that HE wasn’t able to deliver the Israelites.

Still, Moses hadn’t yet learned of the necessity for depending on the Lord for direction and strength. Moses heard the Lord’s words, but he understood them as requiring that he carry them out in his own power and by his own reasoning. It actually took the Lord to twist Moses’ arm several times, and even  give in to Moses’ need to cling to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings, before Moses was ready to obey the Word of God. Moses was still that spiritually immature.

In fact it wasn’t until the fourth plague that Moses finally began trusting the Lord enough to confront Pharaoh without clinging to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings. This is an extremely important principle we are to glean from the life of Moses, as well as from the other men and women of God in the Bible. Just as we have to grow by steps in the sphere of nature, so too must we grow step by step in the spiritual sphere.

We mustn’t hie off halfcocked to serve the Lord. First we must sit at His feet with Bible opened and allow Him to teach us. We send our kids through twelve grades of school and even on to college and beyond. We ourselves need to go to school at the feet of the Lord Jesus for a lifetime because we never fully know Him or His Word. Notwithstanding this, after seriously attending school with Headmaster Jesus for a few years, we should be spiritually mature enough to grow in discipleship. We should become ardent servants of our Lord. But it takes baby steps at first and then bigger steps as we go along.

Let’s examine our lives, our hearts, and our minds. How long have we been born again? How many times have we read the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible? How often do we spend time alone with Jesus, and for more than a few minutes at that? Are we really desirous of knowing our Lord and Savior? Or are we putting it off until we get to heaven?

Tough questions, these. Let’s tackle them once and for all, shall we? Lord Jesus, have your way in each of our lives, we pray. Amen.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: discipleship, discipline, Exodus 2, Exodus 3, Moses, servanthood, spiritual maturity

Hot and Cold – Part 1

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!! Romans: Volume 9 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Moses…saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So…he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand…(The Lord said), “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me… I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” [Exodus 2:11-12; 3:9-11]

The lives of the men and women of God are recorded in the Bible to teach us. Sometimes we learn from them positively, other times negatively. Sometimes we learn by their example what to do, other times by their example what not to do!

We took a brief glimpse at the life of Jacob/Israel in our last study. We learned from his life both what to do and what not to do. Even more, we saw that it’s not how we begin the race but how we finish it. We learned that we must forget what lies behind and press forward to what lies ahead, ever onward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

The life of Moses is another fascinating case study of how to go from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. God is our heavenly Father. It is His job to rear His kids into spiritual adults. And He does! Sometimes He succeeds simply through His Word, other times not so much. If we listen and learn from His Word, and then obey what we learn, we needn’t visit the wood shed with Him.

As we saw with Jacob’s life, so too with Moses’ life. The several verses from Exodus 2-3 with which we began this study illustrate this. Moses made his choice to be a part of the people of God, rather than be an adopted Egyptian. He was raised in Pharaoh’s palace as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. But Moses learned of his Hebrew ethnicity and of his being God’s deliverer to the Hebrew slaves. Moses rejected the palace for the high calling of God.

Trouble was, Moses didn’t know God enough to understand Him. Moses hadn’t an inkling of what God wanted or how he was to go about it. Moses simply rushed into the fray headstrong and slapdash. He would deliver the Hebrew people from their slavery. The first item on the agenda was to kill an Egyptian taskmaster because he used his whip on a Hebrew slave.

Having done that, Moses figured the Hebrew people would embrace him in their arms as God’s gift to them. Turns out Moses was wrong. The Hebrew slaves saw Moses as a Hebrew wannabe, a spoiled little rich kid from Pharaoh’s palace. They wanted nothing to do with him. Moses put himself between Scylla and Charybdis. On one side were the Hebrews who rejected him, on the other Pharaoh who wanted to kill Moses for killing the Egyptian slave master. What to do?

It didn’t occur to Moses to consult God before he took it upon himself to kill the Egyptian. And now, after he stepped in it, he again didn’t think to consult God about what to do. You see, it takes a certain measure of spiritual maturity to even know of our necessity to consult God for His will in all matters.

So Moses made his own decision once again. He hied off from Egypt to parts unknown on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula, where he lived for the next forty years. He was in Midian, where he married a Midianite woman and had two sons by her. The names he gave his sons are revealing. They show that Moses figured he’d never be back in Egypt again, and that he would never see his people again. He was now a Midianite! Thenceforth Midian was home.

Let’s pause here and allow the food to feed our spirits. We’ll continue this topic in our next study.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: discipleship, discipline, Exodus 2, Exodus 3, Moses, servanthood, spiritual maturity

Tit for Tat

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And (Isaac) said (to Esau), “Your brother (Jacob) came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing”… And (Jacob) said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?” [Genesis 27:35; 29:25]

When I was a child I behaved like a child. My childishness was not unique, not even close. When no one bothered to correct me, I went right on committing dumb acts! If I got by with it long enough, the acts became even dumber and my response increasingly witless. And if others joined in and egged me on—well, let’s not even go there.

You see, it’s in human nature to do wrong because all of us are born with a sin nature, and that’s the nature of sin. So here we are, very young or not so much so, and we come to know the Lord. We are born again, and now the Lord has another son to rear.

Like any good father, our heavenly Father desires the best for His kids. But there we stand, spiritually childish as all get out, committing one dumb act after another. So what’s a good heavenly Father going to do about it. He’s going to give us incentive to stop the childish behaviors, that’s what. To do this He disciplines us. This can consist of all sorts of good stuff, like, for instance, taking us to the woodshed to become acquainted with Mr. Hickory Stick.

But in His discipline of His kids, the Lord isn’t limited to just the wood shed. Often He directs our lives so that we receive tit for tat. We have a superb example of this in the Bible verses with which we began our study. Jacob was the Lord’s chosen son. In fact Jacob was chosen while Esau his twin brother was not, even while they were still in the womb. The Lord told Mommy Rebekah as much while she was carrying the twins.

The story of Jacob’s life as recorded in the Book of Genesis is meant to illustrate the parental aspect of the Lord, as He takes His finagling son through life’s process. Along the way Father God directs the affairs of Jacob’s life so that he keeps bumping his head into a brick wall. Sooner or later—in Jacob’s case it was later, much much later—this was meant to knock some sense into the childish urchin, so that he would stop committing dumb acts and seek the Lord’s will for his life.

And that is just what happened with Jacob…in the end. Jacob connived to steal his older twin brother Esau’s birthright. Then he machinated against Father Isaac to steal Esau’s blessing. The Lord had already told Mommy Rebekah that Jacob would be the child to receive the rights of the firstborn, even though Esau was the natural firstborn. But Jacob had to help the Lord out by seizing them in his own strength according to his own reasoning. In fine, Jacob walked in the flesh and considered that to be serving the Lord.

Needless to say, but Brother Esau looked none too kindly on Jacob’s maneuverings. He plotted to kill Jacob, so Jacob had to be sent away from the family home in Beersheba to stay with Uncle Laban in Paddan-aram. If you look at a Bible map you will see that this was a trip from the far south of Canaan all the way past Damascus to northern Mesopotamia—a not so minor distance on foot back in the day.

Anyway, to teach Jacob discipline, the Lord used Uncle Laban to give Jacob a taste of his own medicine. Laban repeatedly manipulated and schemed to cheat Jacob, in order to further Laban’s income. The Bible verses with which we began our study are a case in point. Jacob liked Laban’s daughter, so he agreed to work for Laban seven years in order to marry her. After the seven years were up, Jacob had his wedding. When he went to the bedroom for his conjugal rights, it was dark. Laban substituted his older daughter Leah in place of Rachel. Jacob was none the wiser…until the morning light revealed the truth!

Well, you get the point. Jacob deceived Father Isaac to get his way. The Lord’s discipline was to use Laban to deceive Jacob to get his way. Tit for tat. After several of these tit-for-tat rebuttals, Jacob did finally mature spiritually and begin to walk in the Spirit in serving the Lord. This occurred at Peniel, where Jacob was renamed Israel by the Lord.

So how goes it with you? Are you responding as a good son to the Lord’s discipline and maturing spiritually? I hope that all of us are, or there will continue to be tit for tats on the horizon. And they’re no fun!

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

Filed under: Church Age Tagged: discipline, Genesis 27, Genesis 29, Jacob, schemer, spiritual maturity, supplanter