Word for the Week Feb. 15,’12

  In the old testament, there are numerous times the prophets spoke of a coming day of the Lord. It was often in reference to a judgment coming upon a specific nation. And apparently, many such words refer to a day of the judgment coming upon Jerusalem, which then occurred in 70 AD. That judgment, or division of the sons of darkness from the sons of light, brought a significant degree of peace and rest to Christians in that day. It was the destruction of their persecutors or the ones that in their pride held on to that which Jesus had ‘put away’ at the cross.

   In John 12:47, we read the words of Jesus: ‘I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects me, and does not receive my words, has that which judges him- the word (Logos) that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.’ We have been talking about the eternal day that we as believers have been born into. Obviously since the Day is eternal, it is the last day.

    What Jesus said there reminded me so much of what the author of Hebrews 4 wrote about being diligent to enter into rest. He wrote that there would be ‘another day’ for believers; a day of rest like God had entered into. He said to enter in ‘for the word (logos) of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit’ (Heb. 4:12). Yes, this is judgment, but it is unto freedom and rest and for those who do ‘receive His words’.

    Even though we are ‘children of light’, each of us lives in some degree of darkness. Rest came to Israel in the time of David after they were delivered from their enemies. Things like stress and anxiety are for many Christians clearly enemies. The cure is seeing Jesus (the Word) and being cut loose from a soulish perspective. As Jesus said, the cross ‘is the judgment’, it divides Light from darkness, Day from night. We are in the new Day, we have Light in order for us to see clearly- the veil has been taken away- if we just turn from the veil that is still in our hearts. As it is written, ‘there is yet a rest for the people of God’.    Larry

Word for the Week 02-08-’12

We are still studying the old testament in order to discover more of the testimony of Jesus. One of the seldom proclaimed signs occurs as the children of Israel come out of Egypt through the blood covered door. If you read Exodus 12, you find God has instructed them that when they come out they leave the Egyptian calendar behind. They enter into a new era, a new day. Going back to the beginning, darkness covered ‘the face of the deep’. Then God said ‘let there be light’; to which He said of the light ‘it is good’. Then He divided the light from the darkness. He called the light –day, and the darkness – night. So before there were days, God saw a Day. Then we can compare that to Isaiah 9 where there is the prophecy: ‘unto us a child is born’ and we also read ‘the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.’ So when Jesus comes and takes up the cross, in His death and resurrection there is a great division (or judgment) between the light and the darkness. After Jesus took all the Adamic race to death on the cross, He was raised out from among the dead. He had separated death from Life, darkness from Light. To God Day is what follows the division; thus Jesus stepped out of the grave into a new era, a new Day. In Him there is no darkness, in Him who is Light there is now eternal Day. And we who are born from above are in Him; we are children of Light, of the never ending Day. When Israel killed the Passover lamb, in God’s view they died with it. They had to, it was their only way out of bondage, So when they left Egypt, they not only left the old calendar behind they left all their past, all of it- it died there. I’m sure you remember that when they got to the Red Sea and were being chased by the army of Egypt, they were told ‘stand still and see the salvation of God’. If they had eyes to see they could have realized then that God completely cut them off from Egypt. But as you know from reading on, they repeatedly returned in their minds to thoughts of where they had been. By the revealing of the Spirit, we have the opportunity to ‘stand still and see the salvation of God’. We are in Christ, in the eternal now. Guilt and shame are only part of a past life, the Adam life. In our death with Christ the ‘reproach of Egypt is rolled away’. (Joshua 5:9) It is not necessary for us to stumble in the dark or even just see dimly as only by the light of the moon. We have life now in the Day, or in the light, by which we can see and really come to experience in truth where we really are. Of course, the Lord saw this as it is, that is why He said ‘those who have faith in me will never die. The new birth is clearly into the eternal Day. If our joy and peace is surpressed by thoughts from the past, then the main thing we need is not a stimulant, but a clearer perspective. And if anxiety about the future weighs on our spirit- then, well, we will look into more of that next week. Larry

Word for the Week Feb. 1, ’12

As we continue in the record of Moses in Deuteronomy 8, he goes on to remind the children of Israel of the works of God and their obstinacy in the face of His faithfulness. But he does admit that God allowed them to suffer hunger and thirst that He might prove to them that man is not to live by bread alone, but by all that proceeds from God. And we know that all that proceeds from God is in a Person, the Son. They were given commandments, and statutes for the purpose of testing, that it might be known what was in their hearts. Of course, we know from what we read in chapter 5 that God already knew that when the people committed themselves to do all that He commanded them to do that they did not have the ‘heart to do it.’ These people of God needed to confront the corruption in their hearts in order to make a turn away from self (confidence) and toward dependence on the Lord. These were the people who entered into the first covenant, the covenant of the law. The law was not given to them with the expectation that they would be able to abide by it. Only One would be able to live according to that covenant. The people could not live by the law; as Paul wrote later, it was given ‘that transgression might increase’. It was only an object lesson pointing to the nature of the Messiah to which they could never attain. In that covenant, all human nature was proven only worthy of death. I think we could say that while Israel came out of Egypt by the death of the Lamb, God intended for all that had been taken to the death at that door to be buried ‘out of their sight’ in the wilderness. In other words they were to learn in the wilderness that all of their former way of thinking must find its burial there in that desert. God repeatedly admonished them not to think they were chosen because they were good or had any righteousness in them. He told them they must remember when they do come into blessing, not think for a moment it was their accomplishment. The Lord does bring His own people into blessings but not in any way for them or us to take pride in ourselves. By His love and mighty hand He brought us out, and by His Fatherly correction He moves us forward toward His purpose. The first and foremost lesson to be gained from wilderness experience I think is that God is good. No one could ever make a claim to meriting any of the benefits secured through the death of the Lamb. When you look at the shadow picture of Israel delivered from the bandage of Egypt and the subsequent provision and care in the desert, it must be said ‘God is good’. He put up with Israel forty years being self centered in the midst of His goodness and it was nearly that long for me also. Now I see that He was patiently exposing in me the need for self-burial. But in the continuing goodness of the Lord, He brought Israel and me to the Jordan, that we might cross over into the reality of resurrected life. Larry

Word for the Week Jan. 25,’12

I think we all know how the children of Israel came out of the bondage of Egypt. They came out by way of the bloody door; in the view of the Father they were identified in the death of the Passover lamb. And we understand now that the progression of things that occurred coming out of Egpyt and into the promised land were filled with testimonies of Jesus. What we read in Deuteronomy 7 is more of that Testimony. It shows us more about the increase of the Lord in His land and the destruction of the ungodly inhabitants dwelling there. It communicates to us a spiritual view of Jesus increase in our souls and the putting away of what has been dwelling there that was judged in Jesus cross. It is about inheritance, God gets His inheritance in a place of habitation in His people and we receive our inheritance as a dwelling place in Him. The Israelites had to possess the land. God had taken them a longer way rather than directly to the Land because He said ‘lest they fear war and turn back to Egypt’ (Ex. 13:17). Eventually they had to face war because enemies of God occupied the land. They likely would not have resisted going in if God had said ‘just wait outside while I go in and burn them all up’. So what we see here, whether it is about them or about us, possession requires faith. God gave them a finished work, securing the land for them and assuring them of victory over their enemies. He portrayed His promise of victory in the battle of Jericho, when the walls of protection for the inhabitants of the land were ‘knocked down flat’. In faith the children of Israel still had to destroy the unprotected inhabitants, but it \was God who gave them success. We are called to be conformed to the death of the cross. Entering into those kinds of battles within are not always our first choice activities. Often, the enemies of God in our souls seem to be nice and we do not want to give them up. But like the graven images among the Canaanites, if you keep them (even if they are made of gold) after a while they turn your heart away. And I certainly know from my own experience, that we need help locating what is in us that is contrary to Jesus. We see in the shadow picture that God promised the Israelites He would send the ‘hornet’ to expose the enemies that were hidden. I’m not sure I know the definition of a hornet, but I surely think the Holy Spirit can do that job if we let Him. In the past, I had often asked the question; why is life better in the land than in the wilderness? Well, the opportunity for rest is in the land, not in the wilderness. Where Jesus increases and His enemies decrease there a moving into rest. The wilderness can surely be beneficial to us if we recognize there the goodness and faithfulness of God. But across the Jordan is different, there we can enjoy the fruit of the land. Larry

Word for the Week Jan. 17, ’12

As we all know, Jesus came to do the will of God; to put away the first (the man of sin) and establish the Second (the Son of God, Christ).  Because of sin, all flesh had to be put away for no men could ever see God and live. We see this in type at the Mount of Horeb in the wilderness when all were commanded to not touch the mountain upon which God came down and met with Moses – the type of the mediator.

    We are told by the Hebrews author that the children of Israel there that day refused the Lord because of the fire. It was not the words of God they rejected, in fact, they committed themselves to obey, but they rejected Him who spoke. The fire of God was a fearful sight; even Moses was caused to tremble. They were justifiably fearful, for our God is a consuming fire that destroys the flesh. All through the Old Testament we find shadows that demonstrate that God will not tolerate mixture, but will only accept the Second with no input from the first.

    Jesus cross brought death to the man of sin. And it is only through that death that men can approach God. As you may remember, some of the Israelite elders went up and ‘ate and drank’ on the mountain, but only after they were sprinkled with blood, representing their death in ‘another’. But it was this same group that were participants in the making of a ‘graven image’ or golden calf within a couple months after that ‘supernatural’ experience.  The seventy dining on the mountain only accepted death in type; in their human nature they resisted the consuming fire that could bring an end to their rejection of the Lord of life.

     With the children of Israel, there was a connection between their fear of the consuming fire (losing their lives) and their idolatry. They saw no form or similitude of God; therefore they imagined what He might be like and made idols. Later we know their idolatry caused them to be expelled from the land of promise.

     In Hebrews 12 there are serious warnings to Christians about not doing as Israel did at the mount. It reads “for if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke from the earth, how much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven.” Turning away from Him is the opposite of 2 Cor. 3:16-18- turning to the Lord (to behold Him face to face) that the veil over our hearts may be taken away. Without the veil being removed, we are like the Israelites who see no form of God but exercise imaginations from which come all manner of ideas about God and His ways.

     Whether it is for Israelites or Christians, I think the serious admonition is to accept the consuming fire, which is like being conformed to the death of the cross. I do not know any other way for this to occur other than turning to Jesus to behold Him. When we do see Him who is THE similitude of God, the otherness of Christ stands out in contrast to what we are. Then we can begin to recognize what He died to put away. If we like the children of Israel fear and resist that death, then the only recourse is to ‘return to our tents’  (Deut. 5:30)                        Larry

Word for the Week Jan. 11, ’12

What if you and I had been there when Moses led the children ofIsrael out ofEgypt? Wouldn’t that have been an amazing sight? What if we were among that great throng of people who were gathered at the mountain? We would have seen the shaking and the thunder and lightning, and heard the audible voice of God giving all of the 10 commandments. Moses recounted the response of the people to that great day, and it is certainly true that if we had been there, our response would be the same as theirs.

    First, Moses told all those there that God did not show anything that was similar to Him- not any form or any likeness. So they must not come up with any graven images from their own ideas concerning what He is or is like. He even warned them that they would do that and then be expelled from the land of promise. Now I know that the truth is we would have done just what they did. We may be convinced we would not make graven images, but we do come up with ideas about what we think God is like, what He likes, and what He is going to do.

    When the elders and leaders talked with Moses that time at the mountain, they said three important things by way of response. 1) We found out that a man can hear the voice of God and keep his life, but 2) if we remain before that fire we will die and 3) we must have a mediator to go for us to find out what God wants. They also insisted that whatever God said they would do. The Lord told Moses everything they said was right except the last, they just did not have the kind of heart necessary to obey.

    We still need to be aware that those three statements the people made then are true for each of us now. We can hear from God and keep our life, but if ‘we continue (or remain) is his Word’ we will lose our life. And we must have a mediator that can show us what God is like. We need Jesus the Mediator, because words cannot communicate the reality of our God.

    I have been thinking how important it is for us in our time to remember that we are of the same human race as the people of Moses time. They were the people of God and the Spirit of God was leading them. We may take pride in being ‘spiritual’, but we have a similar need to not trust our natural minds. Only the Son knows the Father, so we can only know the Father by seeing Jesus. I used to think I could get to know God by what He says or does. But I must see the Mediator, the One who is the only way of knowing Him.                                      Larry

Christmas Letter Sent to my Grandkids Dec. ’11

To My Wonderful Grandkids,

 

   We all observe during the Christmas season that just about everyone gets into it. You even frequently hear the carols of the gospel in the majority of stores. However, not much of what people think about Jesus coming to earth has much truth to it. It is thought to be about a cute baby born in a stable that came to do nice things and make the world a better place. In actuality, He came to bring death to the whole human race.

    God prepared a body for Jesus, a physical body that would grow up in which He might experience death. He gathered ‘all men’ into Himself, gave Himself over to death on the cross and as Paul wrote ‘when One died, all died’. When Adam sinned, all humans were sentenced to death, or eternal separation from God, and if Jesus had not come to take that death, there would be no hope for mankind.

   But as we now know, Jesus did come, did die, and was raised by the Father ‘out from among the dead’. The opportunity after that was for men to choose to be born from above, and being received into the risen Christ, experience life. I did, and hopefully all of you reading this have. Now, I want to try to describe what I think follows that important decision.

     I trust you realize that I am trying to condense a life long experience into a few words. As it has been said, the example of God bringing the children ofIsraelout of the bondage ofEgypt, pictures much of what the journey of a Christian is like. We were saved by the sacrificed Lamb, passed through water (baptism) and the cloud (Spirit) and shown the greatness of God. God will do many things to prove to each one His love, provision, guidance and goodness. He certainly does not manifest Himself in the same way to everybody, but He is serious about showing He is there to those who want to follow His Son.

    For many that are like me, there is a long season of God helping us, providing for us, teaching us true things, and showing us the supernatural. He gives His people gifts of the Holy Spirit, that there might be freeing ministries among us and practical help for our walk through this life. He demonstrates to listening ears that He is willing to speak. Of course, that season corresponds to the wilderness wanderings of the Children of Israel when He did amazing miracles for them all along the way, in spite of their murmurings and resistance to the way He wanted them to go.

    And I also in all that season when I was enjoying all that God could do was resisting Him in the way He wanted me to go.  ForIsrael, when they crossed theJordan Riverthey went to a land and a situation that was very different. The pillar of fire that had led them for 4o years was no longer there, the manna from heaven that fed them stopped, now their one chief command was to destroy the enemies in the land God had given them. Don’t let anyone convince you that over theJordan Riveris heaven, as I found out, the land full of enemies was in my soul, not in the next life.

    My main reason for writing this is to encourage you to not follow the religious crowd and be satisfied to live out you life in the wilderness. When God shows the Old Testament picture of wanting to fill the Promised Land with His Son, He is illustrating to us that this is about filling our souls with Jesus and accepting the expulsion of all those enemies of His that are present in us when He comes. The only way that can really happen is by ‘seeing ‘ Jesus where He is (in me) and being confronted with the staggering contrast between what He is and what I am. Now, I understand that I was never more resistant to God than when I read words like these and thought I knew what that was about.

    I always used to think that I knew (like understood) the Lord. As with most Christians now, I thought I could know God from what He does. After all, I saw and experienced supernatural gifts, received revelation about scriptures and felt ‘strong anointing’ when I was to teach. But I tell you, there is an ability in the soul to know God and it is not like any of the above. Everything we have here on earth was made from what is ‘unseen’ (to the natural eye) and when we begin to see Jesus, we are catching glimpses of the unseen which is actually the real. Everything that reaches our senses and our natural minds can be described in words; the ‘unseen’ is beyond words.

     I’m not expecting you all to understand much of what I am writing about. The point is, I am telling you for sure everything was made by Jesus and for Him. Yes, you may find out something about your purpose here in the world and that is OK, but the main thing is you must not miss the purpose of God. This is God’s thing, zealously look for what He is after. You will never be right until you see the One who is right. You may dedicate yourself to doing good things, but I’m telling you, you won’t know what good is until you see the Lord. Always keep somewhere in your mind two things 1) there is much more I must be brought to by the Lord to see, and 2) I am not capable of finding Truth myself.

    Grandpa Larry

Word for the Week Dec. 23,’11

     Most of  us have realized that the old testament is a testimony of Jesus- the One who in that time was yet to come. It was a compilation of hundreds of pictures that displayed something about the coming Messiah and the new covenant ahead. One of the important sections that communicates the way from the wilderness into the purpose of God is found in Joshua 3. The whole assembly is at the Jordan River ready to cross over and the Lord sends the following commands: when you see the ark, leave from your place and go after it, yet keep a space of 2000 cubits  (1000 yards) between you and the ark, do not go near it, that you may know the way you must go, for you have not been this way before.

     Remember, this is not showing us about being ‘saved’, that happened back with the exodus from Egypt; this is in regard to entering into the land of Promise, the land Jesus desired to be filled with Himself. It is indeed the land of the putting out the ‘first’, and the possessing and increase of the Second (the Christ). Now the first thing for us is coming to where we can see ‘the ark’ or what the new covenant is. Then we leave the place where  we have been and we are going to a place we have never been before. Unfortunately, many do not want to leave the wilderness because God is manifesting His presence, and works, and provision there. It took me a long time to realize that was not what the journey was about.

      And it is not easy explaining the 1000 yard distance. While Jesus has entered into union with us, our lives are not joined – our life is ended – His came to replace it. We are not His kind, we still have futile, corrupt, ‘Egyptian’ minds- nothing like His. We must come to realize that He is totally ‘other’ than we are. It is only from that humble posture toward the ‘otherness’ of Christ that we are able to enter the reality of His land where we have never been before.

     One example of not taking a place of distance from His kind is found from reading Deuteronomy 4:15 which says:” ¹⁵ You saw no form (or I showed you nothing similar to Me) of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, ¹⁶ so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, ¹⁷ or like any animal on earth”  So what do we as Christians do? We often give mankind a place ‘in His image’, or like His kind and as a result we end up interpreting God from ourselves. We worship the God of our imagination that is similar to a man or a woman (or me).  Without ‘set-apartness’ no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).

     The new way which we have never been before is into the Kingdom that is not seen by ‘ocular’ observation.  It is into the unseen realm which we are called to ‘see’ (into another kind of seeing). I’m convinced that if we think we can see, we are still blind. But if we are not too close to the ark, we can be brought into His seeing. If we think we know, we are probably still where we cannot understand the way.  Lord, bring us into humble dependence.      Larry

Word for the Week Dec. 6,’11

Another Old Testament story that makes visible to us more of the reality of our covenant with Jesus, is the Joshua 7 episode with Achan. It is worth reading the account again to be better able to focus on what it is really all about. Achan took of the accursed things, gold silver and some nice clothing which God had said was off limits in Jericho. Now if it is as I used to think,-old testament stories that could show us more about how to live our lives as well as learn more about the character of God- then we could deduct the following from what happened: 1) God is somewhat whimsical, changing His mind frequently about what He is going to be satisfied with, 2) He appears to be most emphatic about the smallest details in regard to hearing and doing exactly what He says, 3) He may let you find out how wrong you are by producing severe consequences, 4) He doesn’t seem to mind allowing many to suffer for one man’s sin even though they may be innocent, 5) apparently true humble confession doesn’t make any difference to God when you are really wrong, 6) sometimes humbling yourself with prostration and prayer moves God, but sometimes He doesn’t want it. Of course I’m not serious about any of those deductions, but if you read the account and you are looking for life lessons or God character, you would have to admit what I just said is there. Truth is, the Father is continuing to present more pictures relating to His Son and the New Covenant. What we can see when we are looking for Jesus, is how set God is on presenting the old covenant as a shadow of the new covenant, without flaw or mixture. Achan messed up the picture of Jesus here by being drawn into personal gain outside the boundary of the covenant. He went over the line into curse territory. One of the clear types here is that the many of Israel are gathered into one. God sees what Achan did as sin in the whole; God sees what Jesus did in His death and resurrection as in the whole also. In the first covenant, results were in the natural, in the second they are spiritual. When Jesus died He took to a permanent end the sin nature of Adam, Achan and us. Those of us reborn in Christ, experience resurrected life with Him. In that truth, we never have to anticipate consequences such as Achan did. In Christ, the spiritual blessings are always there. It is only when we are not ‘seeing’ where we are that we miss such blessings. The Father is always beholding the Son; He always sees us there in Him. What a great salvation! Choosing personal gain in the natural realm rather than spiritual reality, is treading into Satan’s deception arena. We are not of the old covenant; the Jesus covenant is better with real spiritual blessings. Those blessings are realized when we turn to Him and behold Him. Usually, that turn is as simple as forsaking self (self interest, self interpretation etc) and looking in dependence toward the Lord Jesus. Larry

Word for the Week Dec. 1, ’11

As we continue to look for scriptures that reveal Jesus in the Old Testament, one of the most interesting is concerning Balaam. While the descriptions of Balaam in the New Testament show him as a guy that caused stumbling in Israel, who ran greedily after reward, he gives forth some amazing prophecies about Jesus. Actually, God puts His words in the man’s mouth. So we find that the words confirm God’s perspective of Israel being his (corporate) Son. Balaam repeatedly refers to Israel in the singular pronoun – ‘I see him. ‘ He says ‘ I see no iniquity in Jacob nor mischief in Israel’. Clearly that is God’s view of Jesus. Balaam even describes Israel as living separate and not reckoned among the nations. There is another significant picture of the Lord that shows up in the story that has been intriguing to me. When Balaam is first approached about going with the King of Moab to curse Israel, he goes to inquire of the Lord about it. God said ‘do not go with them, you shall not curse the people for ‘it’ is blessed.’ Later, the princes of Moab return to Balaam with a greater reward and plead again with Balaam to come and curse Israel. So the man goes to the Lord again and inquires (apparently hoping for a better word) and this time the Lord says ‘rise up and go with them’. Now, simply put, the Lord meant what He said the first time as shown by the fact that the Angel of the Lord intercepted him (and would have killed him) had not his donkey moved him out of the way. The angel explained to Balaam ‘behold, I have come out as an enemy because your way is contrary to me’. Balaam was actually more stubborn than his donkey. The big question is ‘why did God tell him the second time to go with the men after He had said ‘do not go with them’? Maybe there is something in that incident about the way that Jesus is. In Ezekiel 14 we read ‘every man of the house of Israel that takes his idols into his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and goes to the prophet: I the Lord will answer him according to the multitude of his idols’ and in v. 8 – ‘I will set my face against that man’. That is what I see happening with Balaam. The first time God gives His answer. The second time he is answered according to the ‘idols in his heart.’ The Lord responds to where our hearts are. He seems to allow us to move toward the emptiness of all natural desires. Maybe that is why ‘prosperity’ teaching has appeared to many to have God backing it –He does respond to them according to the idols in their hearts. And it is also possible that ‘end times’ hopes have become so predominant in the church because in the hearts of many is the desire to see the Lord come in judgment to exalt ‘us’ and destroy ‘evildoers’. Such imaginations could well be idolatrous. Balaam was fortunate to have the words of God put in his mouth that proclaimed the Son of God. Unfortunately, he wanted something more. In reality nothing more was as good as that. Larry