Whose Life is it Anyway?

Martha said to Him, “I know that he [Lazarus] will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live…” John 11:24-25

You’ve got to admit that after carefully reading the words of Jesus, one cannot honestly walk away saying, “He was just a great teacher.” His fellow Jews knew this and were always asking Him if He were the Christ (Messiah). And He said, “I told you, but you didn’t believe Me.”

Historical witness tells us when answering that question to Israel’s religious leaders in the positive, their response was to shout “Blasphemy!” Then they manipulated the Roman authorities into executing Him.

But, there’s that well-worn saying, “You can’t keep a good man down.” And with authority from God His Father, He had the say when He could lay His life down, and when He could pick it up again (John 2:19, 10:18,). It was His to do with when and how He pleased (Luke 23:46). At the tomb of his beloved friend, Lazarus, after He made the astonishing declaration that He was the Resurrection and the Life, He asked Lazarus’ grieving sister the question we all must answer, “Do you believe this?”

Jesus did not come out of that grave alone.  No, the Bible teaches He was the firstborn from the dead with all supremacy (Colossians 1:18). When He exited that tomb bodily, being very God of very God, future millions, perhaps billions, who would believe on Him, followed behind.

 To crush Christianity at the start, all the religious leaders of Israel had to do was simply produce the body.  They could not, because it was not there.  There’s never been an adequate explanation how His followers could have stolen His dead body while the Roman guard detail slept.  For a soldier of Rome, being found asleep at their post carried the gravest consequences (Matthew 28:13-14).

It's called Easter, but I prefer “Resurrection Day.”  The tomb is empty.  Listen to His words; “I am the resurrection and the Life.  Do you believe me?”  If you have not already answered that, you will have to, either now or at a future time.  The Firstborn from the dead who is the resurrection and the life.  Do you believe Him? Your answer has eternal consequences for He is risen.  Yes, He is risen, indeed.

Ken

The New FAX of Life

Jesus replied, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.”  Matthew 22:37-38

A holy man high in a mountain cave had a paper jam in his FAX of life.  After a technician climbed the mountain and cleared the jam, he turned to the hermit and asked, “So tell me, Sir, what is the meaning of life?”  The holy man only smiled and said, “I’ll FAX you.”

As much as we might make light of the question, the reality of it haunts us.  The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has estimated close to 800,000 persons successfully commit suicide yearly (W.H.O, 2 Sept, 2019).  With these kinds of stats, the meaning of life, with its deep source of pain, cannot be flippantly ignored.

Jesus Christ put the meaning of life into perspective when He quoted today’s verse from the Hebrew Scriptures (Deuteronomy 6:5). We were created for eternal fellowship with God (Genesis 3:8-9), to love Him with our complete being. This was the original meaning of life and the only thing that can still offer its real meaning. 

Adam and Eve were the only human beings, outside of Jesus Christ, ever to walk in Perfect Meaning while in their flesh.  The rest of us have had to fight the FAX machine.  God wants us to know there is more to life than annihilation at our last breath. He demonstrated this graphically when He offered His Son for us all and raised Him from the dead (1^st Corinthians 6:14, Ephesians 1:20).

Finding resolution to our conflict, and a sound relationship with Christ, is as easy as believing.  When we do, His Holy Spirit will guide us into His Truth (John 16:13). He is the only One who can clear the jam in our FAX of Life. What flows from His throne is pure, unadulterated love and meaning.  

When we love Him back with our greatest love and affection it will bring to us a fellowship and meaning we can find nowhere else. When we know the true meaning of life, life can’t help but finally have true meaning, finally clearing that jam from our own FAX of Life.

Ken

Cherubim Plural

After he [the LORD] drove the man out, he placed on the eastside of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:24

I’ve touched briefly on our original parents, Adam and Eve, concerning their fall from a perfect and holy life, to one of sin and the suffering it brought.

God said after the fall, man should “…not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden to stop mankind from ever eating of that fruit. Cherubim are often depicted, wrongly so, as chubby little toddlers with wings, but are far different. They are powerful and complex beings. Some attend the Throne of God. The prophet Ezekiel describes them in detail (Ezekiel Chapters 1 & 10).

But why deny Adam and Eve eternal life? And why put cherubim there?  Wouldn’t any angel have been enough?  After all, one angel went through the camp of the Assyrians besieging Jerusalem, and in one night killed 185,000 soldiers (2^nd Kings 19:35). 

Satan was one of the highest created beings of God. Scripture teaches he was the anointed guardian cherub that perhaps even led heaven in music praising God (Ezekiel 28:13,14). He was created with free choice and was perfect until, being lifted up with his own beauty and pride, wanted to be God! (Isaiah 14:13,14).

That he tempted Adam and Eve into sin wasn’t enough. He not only wanted to cause man and woman to fall out of relationship with God, but to make them irredeemable, completely ruining the Creator's plan.

Over my lifetime I’ve read today’s verse many times and have never given much thought as to why God placed cherubim to guard the way to the tree of life. 

God knew if Adam and Eve were able to eat of the tree, they would become eternal flesh and blood beings, trapped in their sin forever, unable ever to be redeemed. 

As Satan was of the highest order of God’s angelic beings, He was, and is, a very cunning and powerful adversary. His hatred of God was so vicious that it was a very real possibility he might have attempted to go into the Garden and bring fruit from the tree of life back to Adam and Eve, making sure they would forever be trapped in their sin with no possibility of redemption. It would have taken angels of the same order and magnitude to ensure it didn’t happen.  Notice God sent ‘cherubim’ (plural).  There being more than one, it seems, would have given the supremacy to stop the enemy of mankind, should he try it.

Driving our first parents out of the Garden would at first glance would seem cruel, but allowing them to live forever in sin, without any chance of redemption, would have been crueler.

When God allows us to be pushed into uncomfortable situations it is always for our greatest good. God placed the Cherubim at the entrance of the garden to protect the man and woman that was ultimately worse than death.

The Psalmist writes that God will send His angels to protect us and guard us in all our ways (Psalm 91:11-12).  He will do that indeed, with whatever it takes.  Even if it means sending Cherubim Plural into our battle, to guard us from every direction, with flaming swords that light the darkness.

Ken

Carpel Tunnel Release

I have had Carpel Tunnel Release surgery on my dominant hand and cannot at this time type much due to post-op pain.  I hope to be back next week.  Please keep me in your prayers.  Thank you.  

Blessings,

Ken

The Lion Has Been Crossed

Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah.  And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. Then then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. Judges 14:5-6

A good friend of mine who has spent much time with the Masai Tribe in Kenya, said, in the past when young males turned 14, to show their courage and manhood they, as a group, would kill a lion.  They were armed only with clubs called Arungu.  One youth would bait the lion, then kneel as it charged.  The rest of the young men would close in with their clubs and kill the beast.  The boy who baited the lion was considered the bravest warrior. Understandably so.

One of the best definitions of courage I’ve found says, “Courage isn’t the absence of fear.  It simply implies that there ought to be a concept that is even bigger than terror inside us.”

Luke tells us in his Gospel that when Jesus faced His time on the cross He was in great distress (Luke 22:44).  The physical agony of crucifixion was certainly part of it, but the sinless only Begotten Son, taking our sins on Himself, would, because of it, for the first time in eternity, be separated from His Heavenly Father (John 17:5, Matthew 27:46). This would be His greatest agony of all.

Christ was obedient to suffer and die that death. It had been decided before the foundation of the world (Philippians 2:8, Revelation 13:8). Fear at the cross and death was followed for a couple of days by the celebration of hell.  But the power of the Devil, that roaring lion, seeking to devour, was destroyed on that third sunrise.  Courage won out in that new dawn, as the color drained from the his face, when he saw the King step into the morning light.

 Ken

Rock Solid

 

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the LORD has helped us.” 1^st Samuel 7:12

If you’ve ever sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing penned by Robert Robinson in 1758, our modern understanding might have a difficult time with the second verse, Here I raise my Ebenezer.

What, you may be wondering, is an Ebenezer?  After a time of sinning against the LORD Israel put away their idols to serve Him only.  Their perennial enemy, the Philistines, had defeated the Jews several times in battle, and had become a force to be reckoned with.  But now the prophet Samuel, led the Israelites out to fight.

Israel came to the battle rattled.  They had been on the losing end of the Philistine spear before and were understandably frightened. But when Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, they stood their ground and the LORD heard him and allowed Israel to defeat their enemy.

After the victory Samuel took a stone and called it Ebenezer, which means Stone of Help.  It was, in essence, a trophy of victory that could only have come by the hand and help of the God of Israel.

Sometimes when we reach a valley of decision, before the battle is joined, it seems we’re praying through stone and not to the Rock of our Salvation. With an outlandish chunk of ice in our stomachs, chilled by continual worry or fear, it is difficult to trust that the LORD is already fighting for us.  We might ask, “Doesn’t He know how hard and frightening standing at this battlefront is?”  Yes, He knows exactly where we stand.  It’s not for His understanding that He knows where we stand, but that we understand that He stands with us. 

He is our Stone of Help, a Rock that cannot be moved, yet hears our every cry. When the smoke clears, if we do not become discouraged in our communion with Him and prayers, we will find our victory secure (Galatians 6:9).  It will become one of many Ebenezer’s we will raise throughout our lifetimes.  Trophies of Help and Remembrance.  As we raise them, we will find every one of them to be rock solid. As solid as our Rock, Christ Jesus (1^st Corinthians 10:4).

Ken

The Second Time Around

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 1^st Corinthians 15:45

Ever wonder what might have happened if Adam and Eve had resisted Satan’s temptation in the Garden of Eden?  I used to think if they had, wouldn’t one of their children have eventually been tempted by Satan into sinning?  It was a conundrum until I recalled Jesus Himself said the Lake of Fire was created for Satan and his angels (Matthew 25:41). It is my view, and speculation only, that Satan and his evil host would have at that time been put into the fire that was prepared for them, allowing the human race to live on in a state of eternal perfection (Genesis 2:17), in a perfect world (Genesis 1:25).

Sin and death did not enter the human race when Eve ate the forbidden fruit.  It happened when Adam, whom God made the federal head of humanity, did (Genesis 1:26, 3:6-7).  There is no sin in being tempted.  Jesus was tempted in every respect, as we are, and there was no sin found in Him (Hebrews 4:15). Sin comes with commission.

But what if Jesus in His temptation, like the first Adam, had failed?  The universal disaster in that is too horrific to contemplate.  But He did not fail.  Some will say, “Yes, but His temptation wasn’t that hard. Plus, He couldn’t have sinned because He was God.”  It wouldn’t have been a temptation if it had been easy, would it?  A temptation always hits us hardest where we are the most vulnerable. 

Satan was offering Jesus the easy way out of God's full plan of human redemption.  The way where He wouldn't have to suffer but could have everything earth could give, the way around the cross, for it was delivered to Satan to give these things to whomever he chose (Luke 4:6).  When Jesus had fully resisted him and said, “Be gone, Satan,” He became the Second Adam who in His success brought us out of death unto life.

It took a human of free will to be the first to fail.  It took God in the flesh, the Word (John 1:1), to make it right the second time.  People ask, “If God knew Adam would sin why did He make Him then?”  I will ask, “First, answer me why would a perfect and all-powerful God, knowing that, be willing to suffer and die to redeem him back to Himself?”  That is Grace far too amazing to sensibly ponder. Love we cannot fully fathom.

We wouldn’t know that about Him without the First Adam’s slipup. God didn’t set him up for failure.  Love cannot be fully expressed without free will and God created that within him.  Adam was allowed to choose and he chose poorly. The Second Adam revealed Himself to us, choosing rightly. In doing so He took our punishment for sin on the cross and brought us from death unto life eternal, demonstrating that life truly can be better the second time around.

Ken