Category: Sovereignty

A lesson from the park

4/26/2014

My son became really frustrated with me this evening. It didn’t last for very long, but I could sense that he was upset. He is three years old so this kind of thing happens every day, but this time made me think a little more than other times. You have experienced the same scenerio when you were a child. A bully on the playground triggered the incident.

Today, I decided to take my son to our favorite park. It is fun to watch him let loose and play in an unstructured situation. This time was a little different. At one point in time, he wanted to climb to the highest level of the playground and slide down his favorite curly slide. Normally, I would help him get up there and watch him slide down…this time I didn’t let him go up there. This made him upset because he really wanted to play. I told him he needs to go on another slide for now. You can imagine that conversation did not go well. I pulled him aside and gave him an explanation about why I was preventing him from climbing to the top….There was a bully only feet away from us. He understood and calmed down.

As we were playing in other areas of this park, I had observed this child (maybe 5 or 6) kicking and pushing other kids down the various pieces of equipment. In fact, there was one time when my son was going down one of the slides and he was briefly pushed by the same child. This rubbed me the wrong way…and it also upset some other children.

I wanted to keep him from getting hurt and learning terrible behavior, so I simply waited until the child left and let him continue to play as he wanted. When this bully exited the park I allowed him to explore the full extent of the play equipment.

We experience similar situations daily. God tells us no, or wait, or do something else, and we start to throw a tantrum because we want what we desire and we want it now. God, in His awesome sovereignty, may have set up boundaries in our lives temporarily to steer us away from danger or to guard our hearts. But, sometimes we want to keep barreling through and collect regrets like they are rare coins. As we learn to trust God more we learn to thank Him for unanswered prayers as much as ones fulfilled.

Trust God today. Trust Him in the waiting and in the activity.

This post was written by Rev DeCrastos. You can find the original post here: http://other-words.net/2014/04/23/a-lesson-from-the-park/

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Sovereignty

12/20/2013

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I was reading the prophet Jeremiah a few weeks ago when I ran across a passage that referred to God as "the Lord Almighty." To be honest, it didn't resonate. There's something too religious about the phrase; it sounds churchy, sanctimonious. The Lawd Almiiiighty. It sounds like something your grandmother would say when you came into her kitchen covered in mud. I found myself curious about what the actual phrase means in Hebrew. Might we have lost something in the translation? So I turned to the front of the version I was using for an explanation. Here is what the editors said:

Because for most readers today the phrases "the Lord of hosts" and "God of hosts" have little meaning, this version renders them "the Lord Almighty" and "God Almighty." These renderings convey the sense of the Hebrew, namely, "he who is sovereign over all the 'hosts' (powers) in heaven and on earth, especially over the 'hosts' (armies) of Israel."

No, they don't. They don't even come close. The Hebrew means "the God of angel armies," "the God of the armies who fight for his people." The God who is at war. Does "Lord Almighty" convey "the God who is at war"? Not to me, it doesn't. Not to anyone I've asked. It sounds like "the God who is up there but still in charge." Powerful, in control. The God of angel armies sounds like the one who would roll up his sleeves, take up sword and shield to break down gates of bronze, and cut through bars of iron to rescue me.

This post was written by John Eldredge. This post is an excerpt from his book, Waking the Dead.

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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"That's gotta be a coinkydink"

7/15/2013

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It’s difficult to describe just how far Mbeya, Tanzania actually is from Indianapolis, Indiana. There really is no good way to get there"

8 hours to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
10 more hours south to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
14 more hours on the very underdeveloped highway system in Tanzania.

In June, I traveled to Mbeya at the invitation of my friend Rev. Dr. Barnabas Mtokambali, to speak at a very special dedication of a church planting school that is situated a couple hours away in an even more remote, out-of-the-way town (if that’s even possible) called Makambako. Tanzania has a culture that values honor, so while I was there I was assigned a “driver” to get me to the various meetings, meals, and church services.

His name was Pastor George James.

Pastor George is a quiet man with a very sweet spirit. He first gave his heart to Christ in 1988. Eight years later he felt called by God to become a pastor, so he went to Bible College and completed his education. After leading a local church for a few years, he became the principal of the Bible College in Mbeya. You don’t have to spend a long time with Pastor George to see that he has the heart of a teacher and a mentor. He lives on campus with his wife and two children, and has coached, educated, and trained hundreds of men and women for ministry over the last 10 years.

I spent three days climbing in and out of Pastor George’s late-1990’s Toyota Cressida, and he claims it was sitting there the whole time. Somehow I never saw it until our last ride together back to the airport. There, on the armrest between the driver and passenger seats, sat a burgundy leather Bible. But more than just the color or the binding, something very unique caught my attention.

There was a name clearly stamped in gold leaf on the lower right corner.

No, that can’t be right.

I was still a little jet-lagged. Worn down emotionally, physically and spiritually from three days of preaching. Were my eyes playing tricks on me?

YES! That’s what it says: KAREN COOPER

Karen is the mother of my life-long friend and brother-in-law, Erik Cooper. She’s been a spiritual mom to so many over the course of her life. Could it actually be possible that this Bible once belonged to her? I was already starting to get that sense something special was happening when I asked Pastor George how this had found its way into his possession.

“A few years ago, a friend of mine was travelling to Dar Es Salaam, so I gave him some money and asked him to try and find an NIV Bible. Many of the classes I teach are in English, and up to that point my only English Bible was a King James. He found this tabbed, thin-line NIV at a used bookstore in the city for 1,500 schillings (about one US dollar) and I’ve been using it ever since.”

For nearly a decade, Pastor George says that Bible has been his constant companion at every Bible college class he taught, every chapel service he has preached, and every Sunday morning service he has attended or led.

So how does a Bible with my life-long friend and brother-in-law’s mother’s name on it end up in Pastor George’s hands in Mbeya, Tanzania?

Needle in a haystack?

Happenstance?

Providence!

Karen remembers donating several Bibles to a “Bible Drive” at our local church in Indianapolis nearly 25 years ago. Initially, she wasn’t going to give away the ones that had her name on them or held any kind of “keepsake” value. But she distinctly remembers her father-in-law, Rev. Ed Cooper, saying, “Karen, Bibles weren’t meant to be kept on a shelf gathering dust. They were meant to be used.”

So right about the time Pastor George was leaving a life of East African tribal religion, animism, and witchcraft for new life in Jesus Christ, Karen Cooper gave away a few of her Bibles. And somehow, it seems, one of those Bibles ended up in a used bookstore in Dar Es Salaam, East Africa.

Until a few weeks ago, she had mostly forgotten and certainly didn’t know where any of those Bibles ended up. Perhaps now she does.

“So will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.”

On a dusty road in Mbeya a few weeks ago, I got a little glimpse of heaven. Can you imagine what it will be like when the curtains that separate us from eternity’s perspective are rolled back and we will see all of the investments we have made in the Kingdom of God?

This post is taken from Erik Cooper's blog (son of Karen Cooper): http://beyondtherisk.com/2013/07/10/an-inspiring-story-25-years-in-the-making/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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The God who is Sovereign

6/20/2013

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The following is a conversation that recently took place in my daughter’s middle school group. And I think it does a good job highlighting three mistakes that we often make when we talk about the sovereignty of God and how it relates to sin and suffering in the world.

Youth pastor: God is sovereign. That means he controls everything that happens.

Middle-schooler: So God was in control when my dog died? Why would God kill my dog?

Youth pastor: That’s a tough one. But sometimes God lets us go through hard times so that we’re prepared for even more difficult things in the future. I remember how hard it was when my dog died. But going through that helped me deal with an even more difficult time later when my grandma died. Does that make sense?

Middle-schooler: (Long pause.) So God killed my dog to prepare me for when he’s going to kill my grandma?

Youth pastor: (Silence.)

Ah, youth ministry. There’s nothing like a question from a 12-year old to make you realize that what you just said doesn’t make as much sense as you thought it did when you said it.

Like I said, if you look closely at this quick exchange, I think you’ll see three mistakes that people commonly make when talking about the sovereignty of God and how it relates to the bad things that happen in the world.

1. Answering the Wrong Question
This one actually relates more to how we handle difficult questions in general. It surprises me how often I hear someone ask a really good, thoughtful question, only to receive an answer to a completely different question. Notice in the dialog that the student wanted to know about why God killed their dog. That’s a question about God’s direct, personal agency in something apparently bad. But the answer had to do with why God permitted the dog to die. That’s a related, but distinctly different, issue.

And this isn’t a small problem. Many people won’t realize that your answer didn’t actually match the question. Instead, they’ll assume it did. And that can set them up for some serious misunderstanding.

That’s what happened in this dialog. The student asked about God killing the dog. The youth pastor skipped that question and went directly to God’s permissive will. But the student (understandably) thought the youth pastor was answering the question he actually asked. So he concluded that the youth pastor was agreeing that God did in fact kill the dog, and was just trying to explain why God would do such a thing. That clearly wasn’t the youth pastor’s intent, but by answering the wrong question, he set the student up for that misunderstanding.

All this to say: listen to questions carefully. Answering the wrong question can cause problems.

2. Confusing Authority and Agency
When talking about the sovereignty of God and how it relates to sin and evil, it’s important to distinguish two concepts: authority and agency. When we say that God is “sovereign,” we’re affirming that God has authority over everything that happens in the universe. He’s the king. And as such, he has sovereign power over everything that happens. If he wants to make a river flow backwards, he can do that. It’s his river. As king, he has the requisite power and authority.

But that’s different than saying that he directly causes everything that happens, which is a question of agency. A king may have sovereign authority over the merchant in the market, but when that merchant sells a bag of rice, we don’t say that the king personally performed that action.

So agency and authority are distinct concepts. And we can combine them in different ways when understanding how God relates to sin and evil. Pretty much all Christians agree that God has authority over everything that happens, even the bad stuff. (Yes, even Arminians affirm that God is sovereign in this sense.) But they disagree on precisely how to understand God’s agency. Some will say that God directly causes everything that happen. Others want to talk about different kinds of causation (i.e. divine and creaturely causation are both at work in every event, but God’s agency is somehow less direct and he is thus not responsible for sin and evil). And I could go on. The point is to recognize that different approaches to divine agency still affirm divine authority. They just unpack it the relationship differently.

In our story, the youth pastor failed to recognize the distinction and answered a question about agency with an answer about authority. Don’t do that.

3. Trying to Make Evil Sound Good
There’s a fine line between helping people see that God is amazing enough to use even the worst situations for his good purposes and making it sound like those horrible situations are actually good things. Yes, God can use a bad situation for good ends. He does it all the time. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and God rescued people from famine. The Babylonians crushed Judah, and God demonstrated his awesome holiness. Jesus was executed on a cross, and God redeemed a sinful world. Our God is amazing, and he is always at work in the midst of even the most horrific situations.

That doesn’t mean those horrific situations are actually good. It just means that God is good. And creative. And powerful. And redemptive.

We don’t praise God for evil, we praise God in the midst of evil. Those are critically different responses. And we must avoid the former lest, in our hurry to comfort, we minimize evil and suggest that God is somehow culpable in the very sin he works so actively against.

Discussing the sovereignty of God with someone struggling through a difficult situation is always a challenge. You have to be careful not to minimize their pain and make it sound like they should somehow be able to just “move on” simply because you’ve reminded them that God is in control. The sovereignty of God doesn’t make the pain go away, it just puts the pain in context. That is a good thing to do, but it must be done carefully.

This post was written by Marc Cortez. You can find the original post with comments at: http://marccortez.com/2013/06/13/sovereignty-of-god-3-mistakes/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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Jesus was all boy

6/3/2013

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His parents had been looking for him for three days. This special boy, child of promise—only twelve, after all. Where was he? He had always been obedient, always responsible. What could have happened? Mary and Joseph were worried sick.

Yet there he was all the time, safely in the temple, “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:41-52).

What was going on in Jesus mind? What was he thinking, especially during the night hours when, like the boy Samuel in the tabernacle, he was alone with God and his thoughts? (Where did Jesus spend those couple of nights? The text is silent. Perhaps he hid away somewhere in the temple precincts during the hours the temple was closed.)

We don’t know what was going on in Jesus’ mind and spirit. But perhaps there are some clues.

It would be plain silly to think Jesus already fully knew precisely who he was and exactly the future that lay before him. The very next verses in Luke say that Jesus, returning with Mary and Joseph to Nazareth, “increased in wisdom and in years [or stature], and in divine and human favor” (Lk. 2:52). Already he was “filled with wisdom” (Lk. 2:40), yes, but certainly only as a human child.

Jesus (like Mary) must have pondered many things in his heart as he grew in his sense of his own identity and calling. Being fully human, and at this point fully a child, he could not possibly have known his full vocation as Messiah, the one on whom all Israel’s hopes rested.

So here he is in the temple, sitting with the elders, asking questions and giving amazing responses.

What is going on here? Can it be precisely here, in these temple discussions, that Jesus is working out who he really is and what he is called to do?

Speculation, and yet it makes sense. We perhaps get a clue much later, in the gospel of John, when Jesus speaks with Pilate. Pilate says, “So you’re a king?” Jesus replies, “You say I’m a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” (John 18:37-38). By the time his public ministry began Jesus understood very well the reason he was born and why the Father had sent him, as he emphasizes constantly in the gospel of John.

Surely Not Me!

So here perhaps is what is going on with Boy Jesus in the temple:

He asks them about the Law and the Prophets.

They explain, and at some point they speak of the Messiah.

“Tell me more about the Messiah,” Jesus says.

The scribes and elders explain the prophecies. The Messiah who is promised; who he is; what he will do. Son of David; promised King; suffering servant; bringer of a new covenant.

Descendant of David! Born in Bethlehem! Perhaps Jesus begins thinking about all Mary had told him, all she’s stored up in her heart of hearts. The private, quiet conversations between mother and child that the gospels leave unrecorded.

Then come the quiet night hours. Jesus thinks and prays and ponders and thinks some more.

Messiah? Descendant of David, born in Bethlehem? Could it be . . . ?

No! Surely not me.

But by now Jesus knows the Isaiah scroll. He knows the Pentateuch. He knows the Messiah will come, child of promise, the one to fulfill the promises; the one fulfilling the law, to be like a lamb led to the slaughter. A unique person who in his one person combines all the themes of prophet, priest, and king. The promised Lion of the tribe of Judah who will have first to be the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Son of man who will receive an everlasting kingdom.

Could he really be one greater than the temple, “one greater than the Sabbath”? Wow!

Here’s what I think happened. By the time Mary and Joseph find him, Jesus has figured it out. “It is I.” Yes. “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth”—the truth of God; the full meaning of the law; true love and obedience; the true, unique, and only possible way to the coming of the kingdom, the Jubilee, God’s will fully being done on earth as in heaven.

Did Jesus struggle with this, possibly a preparation for the 40 days in the desert? Pride. Presumption. Arrogance. Absurdity. I am only a twelve-year-old boy in Roman-occupied Judea!

Yet in the night hours perhaps the Father spoke to him, like God to boy Samuel. (We think of the link between Hannah and Mary.) And perhaps here was a foretaste of Gethsemane. Can it be? Am I called to this? Whatever: Father, not what I want, but what you call me to.

Surely Jesus’ attitude was precisely that of his dear mother Mary (unlike that of Uncle Zechariah): “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38). Your word: that is, all those Old Testament prophetic words of the coming Messiah.

So Jesus returns to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph. The matter settled; the steep road ahead becoming clear. Later through his years of public ministry Jesus takes many deliberate steps “in order that the Scriptures may be fulfilled.”

And finally that marvelous post-resurrection burning-heart scene on the road to Emmaus. “Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, [the risen Jesus Messiah] interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures” (Lk. 24:27).

Perhaps it all traces back to boy Jesus in the temple, beginning to be about his Father’s business.

The Father’s Business

The story of the boy Jesus is not given to tell us how brilliant or how special or self-consciously divine Jesus was. Rather it is given to show how normal, fully human, all-boy he was as he grew and perhaps struggled to understand “his Father’s business.” “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tempted [or tested] as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

May God help each of us to understand and fully commit to the Father’s Kingdom business, as did our Apostle and Forerunner and Great High Priest.

This post was written by Dr Howard Snyder. You can find the original post with comments here: http://howardsnyder.seedbed.com/2013/05/23/my-fathers-business-boy-jesus-in-the-temple/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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To pray or not to pray? - That is the question...

2/5/2013

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God has given us instructions in His Word that prayer is something that every Christian needs to be doing. Prayer is, simply put, the way we come to know God personally. Earnest, honest prayer that is filled with praise, confession, thankfulness, and requests is what God desires. Prayer also needs to be filled with times of solitude, to be free from distractions, so one can hear from God.

1) Is there ever a time we should not pray? We had a couple of American friends visit us while we were living in Germany and we were out to eat, enjoying the local flammkuchen at a little eatery. My friend ordered water because he didn't want to spend the money on soda and as the waitress opened the bottle and was about to pour, she told him that the bottle was going to be 6 Euro. My friend, who didn't understand European customs, didn't remember that we had told him that water is not free in European restaurants. He became upset and the waitress withdrew his order of water. Instead she offered soda which was only 2 Euro. He agreed to that. However, you could tell that the waitress was visibly upset. We apologized to her as best we could. When she brought the flammkuchen to the table, we were about to pray aloud when I said, "I don't think we should pray. I'm afraid that it would give this waitress a bad impression of Christians." Now don't get me wrong I think it IS appropriate to pray in public but God reminds us that prayer can become sin. In this instance we all agreed that praying publicly wasn't God-honoring in this situation.

2) Is there ever a time we should not pray? I had a friend one time who had a severe debt and asked God to pay the debt for him. He told everyone the exact amount and prayed fervently (personally, I don't think it's wise to publicly state an exact amount of money). Within a week, God miraculously provided that money and more. The person again broadcast the exact amount that God provided. The reactions were predictable. "Wow!" "Prayer works." "God is so good." "Praise the Lord!" and so forth...

I wonder what his friends who have been praying that God would work a miracle in their lives thought when God did not seemingly answer their prayers. Maybe they were encouraged. Maybe it lifted their faith. Maybe it caused them to pray more.

or

Maybe it discouraged them. Maybe they were like, "Why does he always get the breaks? Why did God answer his prayers and not mine?" Maybe they told themselves, "I guess I have to pray harder."

I wonder what the reaction would have been if God had not provided the amount or the amount with extra to spare. "Is God still good?" "Does prayer still work?"

3) Finally, I believe that God can heal people. God may choose to heal miraculously or he may heal slowly or he may heal at the hands of doctors. Healing is a biblical concept.

My friend had fallen on an icy patch and went to see his physician who told him it would be 6-8 weeks before he would be pain free. He was having severe pain and muscle spasms. He believed he was going to lose his job because he could hardly move. As he told me, just two days later, you can tell his pain was real. He was almost in tears as he was describing what he was going thru. When he was talking, I heard clearly in my mind, "You need to pray for him." So when he finished I grabbed a couple more guys and we prayed for him on the spot. I walked away thinking, "OK I did what God told me to do. I was obedient. But nothing's gonna happen."

The next morning, I felt prompted to pray for him again and I did during my devotions. Later that day, I texted him. Here's the convo:

Me: How did it go today?
Him: Pain free and awesome, thanks for asking :-)
Me: You're kidding! No pain? The MD said 6-8 weeks.
Him: No pain, no spasms, no discomfort, no kidding!
Me: Wow! So work was good?
Him: It was great!

I was floored. I told Karyn about his healing and I said, "this is scary. God answered our prayers for his healing." Karyn said, "why is that scary?" I said, "because I obeyed and God healed. What else does that mean God wants to do?"

Later that week, I talked to my friend in person. He said when he woke up the next day (the day after we prayed together) he got ready for work and had forgotten all about his pain until I texted him. He said that it was then that he realized that God had healed him.

When I heard of his healing, I had mixed emotions:

- I had doubt. "Did God really do that?"
- I had some fear. "What else will happen if I pray? Will God do it again?"

but also

- I became more encouraged to pray right away with people in need.

- I had my faith lifted.

There may be people who heard of my friend's healing who may have also asked themselves, "Why won't God heal me? I have asked God numerous times and nothing has changed." Maybe his healing caused them to feel discouraged.

Yet...

Who knows the mind of God?
Who can understand the ways He works?
Who can bring an accusation before God?

These are all definitively unanswerable in my mind.

Still, I will pray.
I continue to attempt to understand, trust and believe.
I try to rejoice with those who have their prayers answered.
I mourn with those who don't seemingly have their prayers answered.

Yet, even in my imperfection and weakness, I point to God. What we see can't be all there is...

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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Why Christians don't react with violence

9/28/2012

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While He was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, suddenly arrived. A large mob, with swords and clubs, was with him from the chief priests and elders of the people. His betrayer had given them a sign: “The One I kiss, He’s the One; arrest Him!” So he went right up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. “Friend,” Jesus asked him, “why have you come?” Then they came up, took hold of Jesus, and arrested Him. At that moment one of those with Jesus reached out his hand and drew his sword. He struck the high priest’s slave and cut off his ear. Then Jesus told him, “Put your sword back in its place because all who take up a sword will perish by a sword. Or do you think that I cannot call on My Father, and He will provide Me at once with more than 12 legions of angels? How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”

Watch TV and you’ll hear the Name of God the Father and God the Son mocked, used in vain, used to curse, and many other ways that deny the holiness, beauty, majesty, power, glory, and wonder of who He is. Watch movies and listen to music and you’ll find the same things. In fact, go out into the marketplace and you’ll hear these same abuses of the beautiful Name of our Savior. And yet, short of boycotting some products or writing letters/emails or phoning TV stations or sending petitions, you’ll not really see any other visible demonstration of outrage from Christians.

And yet, throughout the world we see angry people causing all manner of evil due to the denigration of the name of their prophet. What’s the difference? Why don’t Christians burn down things when Jesus is mocked? Just a few thoughts…

1. There is coming a day when Jesus will make all things right and all who were mockers of His Name will bow at His Name and confess He is Lord. There is a sense in which I don’t have to defend the honor of Jesus’ Name…He’s quite capable of defending Himself, thank you. And on that day when every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father, the mockers will be put to shame for eternity. I might be angry for a day. The wrath of God will be poured out for eternity.

2. When the Name of Jesus is mocked, every Christian should remember that s/he once mocked Jesus, too. We were all by nature children of wrath fully deserving the full wrath of God. And yet our God showed us mercy and grace through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. While fully responsible for actions, we were acting in ignorance according to our natures. But when God said, “Let there be light” in our hearts, we saw for the first time the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We then saw our sin for what it was and the beauty of Christ for who He is and we repented and trusted in the finished work of Jesus to save us. So, instead of burning things up when others mock Jesus, we show patience knowing the Savior was patient with us.

3. Which leads us to the work we should do now. Instead of burning things up, we warn and plead with those who mock the Savior to repent of their sin and turn to Christ. If we truly love Christ, we will love making much of Him to sinners knowing He came to save sinners. Because we have been forgiven much, we will want others to know of the beauty of His grace poured out on sinners. We will warn these mockers of the fire of hell which will never die out. The work we do isn’t to defend the honor of His Name but to herald His Name as we seek reconciliation between God and man through the preaching of the gospel.

4. All of this reminds us that Jesus is the living, resurrected Lord. Jesus continues to be at work even today, right now. The Holy Spirit works through us as we make much of Jesus who is risen from the dead. We have a story to tell. Jesus is coming again and will make all things right. We don’t have to defend the honor of a dead man…He’s alive!

I pray that those who feel the need to defend the name and honor of a dead man will see the glory of the true and living Lord who has made a way of escape from the wrath of God through His death and resurrection. Let us pray that their blinded eyes will be opened to the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life who is the only way to the true Father of all.

This post is from Mike Lee. The original post can be found here: http://mikelee1963.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/why-we-dont-burn-down-things-when-jesus-is-mocked/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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The "chrio" anointing of God

6/2/2012

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"...I shall be anointed with fresh oil" The word used for "anoint" in the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament comes from the Greek word chrio. This word originally denoted the smearing or rubbing of oil or perfume upon an individual. For example, if a patient came to see a physician because of sore muscles, the physician would pour oil upon his own hands; then he would begin to deeply rub that oil into the sore muscles of that patient. That penetrating application of oil would be denoted by the Greek work chrio. So technically speaking, the word "anoint" has to do with the rubbing or smearing of oil upon someone else.

When you read the word "anoint" in the Bible, think not only of the oil, but of the hands of the Anointer. Oil was very expensive in Bible times; therefore, rather than tip the bottle of oil downward and freely pour it upon the recipient, a person would first pour the oil onto his hands and then apply it to the other person.

Let's consider this concept in the context of God anointing our lives. God Himself -- the Great Anointer -- filled His hands with the essence of His Spirit and then laid His mighty hands upon our lives, pressing the Spirit's power and anointing ever deeper into us. So when we speak of a person who is anointed, we are actually acknowledging the the hand of God is on that person.

If you would like a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit upon your life, you come before the Great Anointer! He alone can give you what you need. Open your heart to God, and allow Him to lay His hands upon your life in a new way.

This post is taken from SPARKLING GEMS FROM THE GREEK (p. 363).

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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Sunday Meditation

5/13/2012

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How long, O Lord, must I call for help but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Habakkuk 1:2-3,13

Where were you God? Where were you when I needed you? Didn't you see the violence? The abuse? The injustice? Didn't you care? There are times in life when we are full of questions about God. The pain of past trauma can be intensified when we begin to struggle with these hard questions about God.

It is important to acknowledge that these questions about God are not academic questions. No theoretical explanation of the problem of pain will soothe our raging, confused hearts. These are urgent, personal questions about God and about God's involvement in our lives. We want to know that God sees and cares and intervenes in our lives. We need God. We need God's love. We need God's help.

It is an important source of encouragement to know that we are not the first to ask these hard questions. There is clear biblical precedent for asking difficult questions about God. People of faith have always struggled with questions like these. We can take comfort and courage from knowing that the prophets also asked urgent questions similar to our own.

God, I am afraid.
I don't understand.
Violence and abuse happen and you do not stop it.
You seem absent.
You seem uncaring.
I need to know that you see and care.
I am calling to you for help, God.
Please hear me.
Please respond.
Amen.

Copyright Dale and Juanita Ryan
National Association for Christian Recovery

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