Leviticus: What the Heck Did I Just Read?

     When my son was around 3 years old one of his favorite movies was Lady and the Tramp 2. In this movie, the son of the the title dogs was a rambunctious little guy and he would get into all sorts of trouble. At one point in the film the puppy exclaimed, "Are there are is rules, rules, rules" and then he ran away from home. Funnily enough my son parroted the line at me when he got in trouble one day, needless to say I didn't let him watch the movie as much after that.

The Situation in Leviticus

    
      Imagine yourself among a massive expanse of people, so massive that the ruler of the foreign land you just left feared your people's number so much that he had all of the youngest offspring killed. Now your nation is traveling the desert towards a land that was promised to you by God. The logistics of this whole exodus are mind-numbingly incomprehensible to you and people are getting sick, people are getting tired, people are getting lawless. To top it off, you've got this ever present, omniscient, all powerful being with you, he says that you're one of his creations, but that you've fallen and it has created a chasm between you and him, how do you relate to this God?

     In essence, the book of Leviticus is meant to cover the scenarios just mentioned. The answers, viewed in our present day minds, are odd. Ceremonial, civic, and moral laws were introduced so that the Israelites could become holy in the presence of their holy God. Certain ceremonies were required before they could have the priest sacrifice their animal or grain offerings, similarly the priest also had to perform ceremonies to become "clean," or be holy in order to preform the sacrifices. While such rituals could make one ceremonially clean, the purpose of doing them was for one to examine their heart and have an authentic, repentant, or thankful attitude. Eventually, that concept was lost over time to where the ceremony was placed above what was in one's heart, thus the need for Jesus to come and address it.

     

 "Clean" and "Unclean"

   
      Today we wouldn't go to a priest if we had a possibly contagious skin condition, but back then the field of medicine was virtually non-existent and people (these people at least) didn't really know what to do. In order for the Israel to keep healthy, God gave the priests instructions on how to handle these situations, which was then passed onto the common Israelite. Sometimes if the illness was serious enough people were kept isolated from the rest of the group, considered "unclean," after a distinct period of time and a cleansing ritual they could rejoin the fold. While to some that might label a stigma on people, it was done for the benefit of the whole group so that sickness didn't spread. To me that shows us that God definitely cared about the Israelites health and wanted as many of them as possible to survive. I wonder what it would have been like without all of those guidelines...? Mild language warning.

The Practice of Sacrificial Offerings

      If you paid attention in history class than you might know that a lot of ancient near eastern culture, as well as others, practiced ritual sacrifice either to appease or give thanks to their god(s). The Israelites were another culture to do so. Here's one thing people might not realize though, God never required it in the first place. Even though we see the first sacrificial offering by Cain and Abel in Genesis, God never specifically inaugurated it. For proof of what God actually requires of us over sacrifice look up these verses in your Bible, or Google; Isaiah 1:11-14, 66:1-3, Psalm 40:6, Micah 6:7-8, Matthew 9:13, Hebrews 8:13, and Hosea 6:6. With that being said, humans still practiced it anyway, so God met us where we were and used it to His glorification. Because the fight against sin was so important to Him, God used these animal and food sacrifices as a way to remove sin and reconcile His people back to Him. The animals and grain had to be without defect and blemish so symbolize God's perfect nature and foreshadow Christ's sinless life.

  

Importance of Getting it Right

       
     Take a look at what a priest had to do to preform an offering, "You are to slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting," now imagine another 10 verses of more procedure being added on top of that. Like I said, the Israelites were called to be different from the societies around them so that they could be a positive influence in the world. This meant that even their sacrificial rituals had to be different, so different in fact that failure to fully comply with the rules of the ritual, or introducing something that didn't belong, could mean the death of the priest. For example, Aaron's (the brother of Moses) sons met with that kind of end, "Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD" (Lev 10:1-2). Seems a little harsh, but that's how important the fight against sin is/was to God.

The Tabernacle

Learning: Then vs Now

    
       In the Old Testament we see God performing physical acts such as when he lead the Israelites out of Egypt, flooding the Earth, talking to people in an audible voice. There is a theory gaining momentum that the people of this age learned on a instant gratification scale, maybe it was just the psychological stage humans were at at that time. Of course with instant gratification, on the other end comes instant punishment. In a way this makes sense because it was a way for God to show that he wasn't playing games when it comes to sin and salvation. When you have a world that is largely superstitious, theatrical acts are going to get their attention and perhaps get people to hold themselves accountable. With this, the foundation of God's continuing faithfulness was set up during this period of learning in spite of our unfaithfulness.

 

The Controversy in Leviticus: Homosexuality

      
     Now we get into the alarming part of this Old Testament book that irks so many atheists, humanists and other religions in the word today, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination' (Lev 18:22) " 'if a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them,' " (Lev 20:13). Abomination is a harsh word, other translations say "detestable," but what is harsher is the stated punishment for practicing homosexuality and this command comes from God. 

     Where is the God of John I spoke of in my last entry? Isn't God suppose to be love? How can Christians worship a god that commands this sort of thing? This doesn't seem very loving, it's like the Bible is contradicting itself... I'll answer as best as I can. Being born attracted to the same gender wasn't actually considered the sin, giving in and actively pursuing same sex relationships was. God was very aware of the homosexual activity going on in the pagan cultures surrounding Israel and saw what it was doing to their societies. Maybe there was something happening on a level we don't understand today, maybe things involving homosexuality were far more different then, I don't know, I don't want to build a straw-man. Leviticus constantly stresses that Israel needs to be different, needs to have morals, it wasn't like today where clear morals have been established. I don't know what would have warranted death, but there must have been very serious things going on with it if God deemed it necessary for that kind of punishment. Another theory suggests that if homosexuality was allowed than it could have possibly interfered with the family line of Christ, it's possible, but all we really have to go on is just theories when we try to make sense out of this. I'd also like to point out that adultery in and of itself was punishable by death too because of how destructive it is/was to one's family.
    
     For a lot of people they just deal with it. God commanded it, it's in the Bible, it's good enough for them, whereas others like me, are searching for a deeper understanding. I may not find it in my life, but that doesn't mean I'll stop looking, and ultimately the situation is not enough for me to reject God, or think that the God of the Old Testament isn't the same as the God of the New Testament because I know there's more to it than just what's on the page.

  

Controversy: Slavery

    
     When I think of what the word slavery, I akin it to images of America's pre-Civil War era. Men and women violently captured in their homeland, auctioned off and made to work the fields and live in deplorable conditions, having the constant fear of getting whipped, or raped. In Leviticus 25:44, God  permits the Israelites to have slaves, but don't think the slaves were to be treated like savage animals like African Americans were, or many other slaves throughout history. Again we see that the Israelites were to be unique, not like the rest of the nations. The slaves were to be treated with dignity, "... but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly," (Lev 25:46) and slaves often got to participate in the festivals and did not work on the Sabbath. Also, noted in Deuteronomy, a person could only be a slave for 6 years and then the master would have to "liberally furnish" them. This isn't God condoning slavery, but recognizing it's existence and laying down guidelines of how to treat people like humans. 

     Slavery is a wall to built up between people and it was one that eventually had to come down, especially in the Judea-Christian world. The apostle Paul eloquently addresses the subject of slavery to his friend Philemon when Onesimus, Philemon's slave, ran away to Paul, suggesting that Onesimus was more than just a slave, but greater, a co-laborer in Christ. Instead of breaking down slavery politically, which Christians could not do at the time, Paul appealed to changing the relationship between slave and master to transform it into something else entirely where the practice would not be needed anymore, instead the two roles were now both slaves or servants together in Christ (Gal 3:28). In my opinion, the laws in Leviticus concerning the treatment of slaves is the same approach Paul used. God appealed to a person's heart hoping to transform the relationship.

 

Today's Covenant and the Call to Holy Living

     
      Today we are not living under the ceremonial or civil laws set up by a theocratic government, instead the law is written on our hearts. We do not have to kill people with an alternative lifestyle. Women do not have to separate from other people when they are experiencing their period (though I kind of like that idea :-P). More importantly we do not have to have priests make sacrifices for us because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice that ransomed us from sin, he dissolved the Mosaic covenant that was relevant during Leviticus (Heb 8:13). That does not mean that we are exempt from the moral laws of Leviticus though, like loving your neighbor as yourself and not committing adultery and helping the poor, etc. We are still called to be holy in our conduct in this life because our God is holy, (1 Pet 1:15). 

     What is Holiness?

    Think of holiness as perfection, which is kind of a daunting thought, is it not? C.S. Lewis tells us in his book "Mere Christianity" that we should not be discourage by this thought since God knows our own efforts alone couldn't possibly make us perfect, but we should know that every time we fall, God will pick us back up again. That's why God gave us helpers like Jesus and the Holy spirit. Lewis also states though that when we become believers that perfection is God's the ultimate goal for us and no power in the universe can stop God bringing you to perfection except for yourself. In my personal opinion, holiness should be like a light, drawing people towards it and towards you, not away as we see it happen so often.

 

 Closing Thoughts  

     Morality is important, separating yourself from some of the stuff in this world isn't a bad thing, there's a lot of garbage in the world, even non spiritual people can admit to that fact. With that being said, I get worried about Christians who cling so tightly onto this particular book of the Bible because their world seems to become nothing but legalism and that can counteract what the cross has done. There are things you can learn from Leviticus, like how serious God is about keeping us from sin and reconciling us back to him, but a large majority fit a certain time and a certain place.

    

Resources

"Jewish Concepts: Slavery." Slavery in Judaism. Jewish Virtual Library, Web. 04 Sept. 2014.

Lewis, C. S., and Patricia Klein. A Year with C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco, 2003. Print.

House, Zondervan Publishing. Life Application Study Bible: New International Version. S.l.: Zondervan, 2012. Print.

 

John's God

God is Love

     The book of John, the most theological of all four gospels. Out of this book we get the most famous Bible verse of all time. You see it painted on the faces or giant stomachs of football fans, you see it tattooed on the bodies of reformed tough guys, or you hear it quoted by misleading politicians clamoring for the Christian vote, it's John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." It is this love that is the theme of John and it is poured out in every chapter. It is this love that gives the Christus Victor view of the atonement major ground to stand on. That the death and resurrection of Jesus was not a business transaction between two parties, but a selfless, covenantial fulfilling of God's promise to redeem us. This love, that was in the beginning with God and was God, became flesh, yet still fully God, wrapped in humility to reconcile us back to the Father. Other than the resurrection, with questions that I've asked before in other blog posts, is that not the largest miracle God has ever preformed? Does that not show the depths of His love?

Simple Words

      Let me start with a rant. I can't tell you how many times I've read online comments that people who practice Christianity are reading an old, out-dated, rule-book given them by a magic sky-faerie. While it is sometimes an amusing comment, it's also frustrating because people like that have a very superficial view on Biblical scripture. Pastor Bruxey Cavey put it like in his "End of Religion" sermon series, "you can't just jump into the middle of a book, start reading and expect to get the whole picture." He continues, and I'm paraphrasing here, "throughout the whole bible, God consistently meets us where we are to teach us truths." It's surface issues like the former, where people just open the Bible and point out something they think is ridiculous, but miss a deeper message. 

    

     My point is, if you judge something solely at face value you're going to miss out on a potential life changing experience. In this case, the same could said for judging the simple words in this gospel.  John didn't use sophisticated words while writing his gospel, he used words like "Word", light, flesh, love and so on. The original Greek he wrote is also considered by scholars to be "baby Greek," but so what? In our westernized culture we have a tendency to think that only large sophisticated words will be able to properly display complexity. Yet through the choice words, teachings, and events we are carried along on a wave of spiritual activity, thereby dumping the argument on its head.
      One other word that is a centralized theme in John is "belief," or "believe." In fact the word is so important to John that he uses the word it 98 times throughout this particular book, the whole purpose of this gospel could be argued that it hinges on chapter 20 verse 31, pictured above. The last thing I'll point out is the use of the Logos doctrine, it has both Hebrew and Greek connections. As we see throughout the gospels each one has a specific audience it's trying to reach, this particular gospel is for new Christians, and people searching. At the time the world was very Hellenistic, meaning inspired by Greek culture and philosophy. There were also Jewish Christians, or people that converted from mainstream Judaism who accepted Jesus as their savior. The Greeks determined that their was a divine reason for order and purpose in creation and they called it the Logos principle. For the Jewish culture, the "Word" illustrated the self expression of God. For both of these cultures "Logos" is the beginning of all things and John appealed to these philosophies to grab the attention of the reader during his day.

The Divinity of Christ

     In my high school photography class most of our homework assignments were just to take pictures of anything we wanted. I remember one of my classmates took a photo of a stain-glass window at the catholic church he attended with his family. We started talking about God and I must have said something to upset him because he snapped at me, "Jesus never claimed to be God in the Bible!" This is another argument I often hear and I don't blame the kid for saying it because the language of scripture is different from our common day English. Nevertheless, Jesus did claim he is the Messiah, especially while talking to the Samaritan woman in John 4:26. Also, look at this verse Jesus spoke while at the temple, " Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am!" (John 8:58 NLT). When the religious leaders heard him say that, they freaked out and grabbed the nearest rock to throw at him. That's not a statement a person could make in his day and get away with it. The phrase "I AM" was/is considered to the Jewish culture a holy name of God, and Jesus applied it to himself, which unmistakeably declared his divinity. Specifically, so that we may believe in Christ, John used seven more examples of Jesus stating his divinity and they are commonly known as the "I am's." Example, "Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12). If that weren't enough John used seven signs (miracles) to prove the Jesus is the Messiah, such as the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Raising Lazarus from death is significant because death is the single greatest threat to human existence and this miracle shows that Jesus was not limited by deaths hold on us.

The Compassion of Jesus and God in the temporal realm

  Just because Christ was not limited by death, as we see in this book with the whole Lazarus thing and in the other gospels with the resurrection, it doesn't meant he is indifferent to our suffering. Have you ever had a family member or perhaps a close friend in intense emotional pain due to a loss of someone important to them? They are pretty much inconsolable and no matter what you do, what words you say, you just can't seem to take away their pain. Then perhaps, they're so emotional, so distressed, that you yourself begin to cry because their pain moves you. Such was the case the Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, no matter what words Jesus said to the sisters, their grief and the grief of those around them moved him to tears. He cares enough to weep along with us in our suffering. The difference between Jesus and us is his divinity, he is God. Jesus was able to enter the tomb of a dead man and bring him back to the living, turning grief into joy. It might not be something as miraculous as that these days, but if we let God in we do have the ability to be restored.

     For the last 50 years or so there's a big hullabaloo going on in the world of theology about God and whether or not He exists in time and space. One argument suggests that if He did exist in time and space than he would be constrained by the effects of time, thereby limiting his power. I ask, why would the creator of time be a slave to His own creation? If He was afraid of time than we wouldn't even have a belief in God because He wouldn't interact with beings that operated within a linear time-stream. He most likely isn't afraid, or limited and throughout the Bible we see that he cares about our time here on earth and moves within the temporal realm because of His compassion for us. One more way we are shown this is when Jesus prays for future believers in the Garden of Gethsemane, "20 My prayer is not for them[disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:20-21). 

Far From the End

     There are lots of things I could still cover and there is a  possible conclusion I could come to for this book, but I choose not to. In truth John's words don't really end here because they stretch into eternity with the book of Revelation where God completes his promise. For those of you who have followed me on this journey of covering this gospesl I want to thank you. If you're are a believer, please remember Jesus' command, "Feed my lambs" (John 21:15). If you are searching, I hope my writings have at least made you think.

References

"Does God Dwell Within or Outside of Time?" A Question Is Asked. UK Apologetics, Web. 15 Aug. 2014.

Flora, Wayne. "The Gospel of John." New Testament Survey. Online, Cleveland. 15 Aug. 2014. Reading.

Life Application New Living Translation, Study Bible, Tyndale House Pub, 2012. Print.

Tenney, Merrill C., Walter M. Dunnett, and Merrill C. Tenney. New Testament Survey, Revised. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub., 1985. Print.

The Gospel of Luke

The Gospel of Luke

Jesus, the Perfect Human

     As I mentioned in my previous entries, each gospel has a unique perspective on the mission of Christ. Luke's target audience were the Greeks and his portrayal of Jesus was to show that he was the perfect human, someone we should all aspire to be like. The reason for this was because the Greeks of Luke's day spent a lot of time debating on what the perfect human should be like, so through out the text Luke gives examples of why Jesus is this ultimate person.

Luke the Physician

Luke was a doctor and a historian and this is reflected in his style of writing. He was very concerned with not only depicting accurately the ministry of Jesus, but also Jesus' past. He tells of how an angel came to John the Baptist's mother(John is Jesus' cousin) and told her that her child would prepare the way for the Messiah and tells what happened between that event and his birth. He next covers the events of what lead up to Jesus' birth, but instead of focusing on the nativity story he talks about Jesus as a child. This is the only account were Jesus' youth is covered. Really, this is normal for a good doctor, right? Most doctors who have a patient are concerned with their patients family history, even it is to trace an illness. Here we see Luke having a concern for the family of Jesus and his past because he thought it was relevant for the case of Christ. 

Luke the Feminist?

The society back in Luke's day was different from today's westernized world. It was a patriarchal system and women basically had no rights, they had to shut up and do what they were told. They also couldn't worship in the same parts of the temple that men could and then you have verses in 1st Timothy like this "I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet" (1 Tim 2:12), ouch. The Church has had a huge history with taking this verse out of context and has not helped women feel very welcomed into the Kingdom. Luke however clearly illustrates that women have played a monumental part in furthering God's kingdom when he tells of Elizabeth's(John's mom) faith and Mary's faith and obedience to the message of God(Luke 1:41-55). Really though, if you look at the whole picture God has included woman at crucial points through out the Bible. For example, one would only need to look at Ruth and Naomi, Esther, Hannah the mother of the prophet Samuel and of course Mary. Not to mention, women disciples of Jesus helped financially fund his ministry as we learn in Luke 8. Before that we have the old woman Anna who gave a prophecy when she met Jesus' parents in the temple (Luke 2:36-38). This  passage not only showed her devout relationship with God, but proved God is also willing to use women in his work. Even though Jesus' main disciples were 12 men, it is my belief that Luke thinks that women are equals in the Kingdom of God. It seems that like the men of this time, the ones during Jesus' ministry were kind of a disappointment, but then a man appeared who women could count of fully, who treated them the way they are supposed to be treated. Truly, when all other men fail/failed, this man doesn't. Jesus restored the women he came into contact with, he lifted them up, treated them like the creations of God that they were. I am willing to say that he will do that now.

Conclusion

So then, what shall we say? Is Jesus the perfect human? Other than his divinity, if we take into consideration the way he treated people, I would answer yes. What we really have here though is a picture of God's character saying that anyone can come to God regardless of Gender, nationality, occupation or social status. I wish I could do this book a little more justice, but my goal is to get people to read it, to spark a curiosity, hopefully that is the case.

    
    

Jesus In Action: Gospel of Mark

     So, I read through and studied the Gospel of Mark for the first time and I'd like to clarify something. In my entry about Matthew in regards as to the themes of what each book covered I was a little mistaken on the theme of Mark of Jesus being a teacher. While that's not far off It conveys more of a sense of Jesus in action through miracles to display His divinity. Mark has a faster pace than the rest of the gospels and is the shortest of the four. His target audience were Roman Christians and they, who unlike Matthews audience, used a more common language. Another thing I learned is that Mark was not one of the 12 original disciples, but rather a possible friend of Jesus(Mark 14:51), he also joined the apostle Paul on his first missionary trip.

     The Gospel of Mark is pretty great and one of the reasons, as I mentioned above, is because of the target audience. Not to downplay their education level, the text is written how a popular novel would read, but Mark fulfilled his mission and didn't need to be super eloquent. One example of the style of writing is actually quite humorous and takes place during the Transfiguration of Christ in Mark 9:3 "His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.", the last half of the sentence crack me up and I expected to next read "For real?" then "Yup", but that wasn't the case. Another reason Mark was a great read is because it continued emphasize the confrontations that Jesus had with the pharisees regarding their "Holier than thou" attitude. Again I think to myself, if there are four books in the New Testament making a point to record Jesus taking this topic head on than it must be pretty relevant, even to us today. To me it's like this, judgement is like closing the door and when we judge non-believers we are effectively closing the door on them and shutting out the love of Christ. While yes, non-believers can harden their hearts towards God, our judgement is helping that matter. The main point of this gospel however seems to be that Christians should be active in ministry like Jesus was when He founded it. How can we serve the Kindgom if we are stagnant?

     Moving along, I should have brought this up when I covered Matthew, about something I wasn't aware of, which again was mentioned in Mark. Just before Jesus was crucified He was offered wine that was laced with a drug to reduce the pain of suffering(Mark 15:23). He didn't take it. As a Christian I can appreciate what that means. If you're not a Christian, but you are on the fence about becoming one, or open to the idea of accepting Christ, just think about the idea of what it meant for him to refuse it. Consider that He was so willing to die for you that He didn't do it half way, that He was willing to suffer the full amount of weight that history's sin and future sin would do to him. This is not to make you feel any guilt, but to demonstrate the bottomless love that Christ/God has for you. He's all in! 

Faith Like A Goonie

    What is faith? What is this concept that the media mostly gets wrong, or Christians sometimes get wrong or at least confused by? Heck, even some pastors get it wrong. Is there a clear definition for it in the Christian life?
     Recently, I woke up in the morning and the first thing that popped into my head was The Goonies. It wasn't a slow process, but rather a thought that sprung me awake like lightning bolt to my consciousness, THE GOONIES. It occurred to me that Christians could probably learn a thing or seven from the classic 80's flick especially about faith. So, I will be relating this film to our walk in faith as well as making some arguments about what faith really is and means. Once again, like in my recent posts, I ask you to keep and open mind and open heart to what is going to be said in this entry.

The Goonies? Da fudge is dat?
     Hopefully everyone has seen or at least heard of the Goonies, but in case you've been living under a rock for the past thirty years I'll give you the rundown of the movie. Taking place in Astoria, Oregon it tells the story of a group of teenagers who are struggling with the fact they have to move due to a bunch of developers who bought out their parent's mortgages and also bought the surrounding land to build a golf course. Mikey Walsh, the protagonist, is super bummed that he wont be able to keep hanging with his group of friends he grew up with, nick-named the Goonies. So anyways, a bunch of them get together at Mikey's and mope about how their fates are certain unless miraculously their parents come up with the money to stop the deal. Mikey's dad just happens to be a curator at the town's museum and one of the friends, Mouth, suggests that maybe their is something in the attic they can sell to come up with the money since Mr Walsh stashes stuff up there all the time. They find a treasure map and Mikey convinces most of the others to take up the search for One Eyed Willie's treasure.


That Desperate Hour
     Much like Mikey and his friends we all face times of desperation where you are looking for a way out of your difficult situation. You pray and you pray and you pray, then you wait and wait some more. Finally an answer appears, but is it the answer you need? How are you sure it will get you out of your predicament? Who knows? You take the leap anyways! People on tv walk around saying "I've got faith! Hallelujah, I got faith!", but the thing of it is is that faith isn't a possession, there's no bogo offer on it. I would argue that it's an action, Hebrews 11:1 reads "Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.(DBY)", some people might get on me for  using the Darby translation, but I think it represents my point pretty well.  For another example look at Mark 5:25-34 when Jesus heals the bleeding woman, she saw Jesus and took her chance, all she needed to do was touch his robe. When Jesus realized some power went out of him he turned to her and reaffirmed her action, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." In my mind this clearly demonstrates that one aspect of faith is about seizing the opportunity, she had heard that Jesus healed people, it was enough for her and she was rewarded. Of course it was easier when Jesus was on the Earth, there was almost an instant gratification to this healing. We, like Mikey, might have to risk a little more for our answers in faith. All he had to go off of was a treasure map and a doubloon which supposedly led to a treasure, but that seemed enough for him even if he wasn't certain the map would lead to anything.

That's what I said! I said booby traps!

     When we exercise our faith that doesn't mean that everything is going to go swimmingly, or that everyday birds are going to sing a Disney tune and everyday is going to be sunny from here on out. Having that kind of attitude would probably lead to a mental meltdown. Jesus himself said that in this life we will have trouble(John 16:33), so while we cannot be certain about the outcome of our risks that we take through faith, we can be certain that God's grace is sufficient enough for us to get through our trials(2 Cor 12:9). We also have this jerk of an enemy, the adversary, who seems ever at our heels much like the Fratellis were to the Goonies, who sets booby traps for the faithful to throw us of the rails. His attacks combined with misconceptions about faith that we might have could serve to damage our walk with God especially when we are already going through something difficult. For example, let's say a person's family member get's severely ill and it interferes with the finances, they get behind on the bills. That person might say, if I just believe enough, have enough faith, things will get better. Then that person gets laid off and has little to no income. How are the medical bills going to get paid? Regular bills going to get paid? How are we going to eat? "I thought if I had enough faith God would carry me through this!" 

     While some of these events are influenced in the spiritual realm, we must consider the realm of free choice where events are effected by other's choices everyday. As Job's friends learned after they accused him, it wast't his lack of faith that caused his problems. Job was being tested, and through his testing, through the booby traps the devil placed in his life, Job persevered because he ultimately trusted God. With that being said I believe another aspect of faith is perseverance through trust(James 1:12). I'm not sure if Mikey believed in a god, but I know that he did place his trust in the rest of the Goonies to get himself out of some jams. Therefore we must be careful to not set booby traps for ourselves and we can avoid this by examining what faith really is, like author and theologian Greg Boyd asks in his book "Benefit of the Doubt", is a faith not examined worth having?

    

 An Unexpected Treasure

     Mikey and his friends took the risk on something they didn't know was a sure thing. They persevered through the booby traps and defeated the Fratellis, however they had to give up the pirate treasure in order to save their own lives. In our walk with faith there are times we are going to have to give things up, maybe it's a friendship, maybe it's a job, or maybe it's a prized material possession. Whatever the case it's important that you line up your faith with what God's will is and I know that sometimes it is the hardest thing a Christian can do, but ultimately it is for our benefit(1 John 2:17). Even though they lost the treasure, the Goonies were still over joyed at seeing their parents, and at the end of the film you could see that they had learned a lot through their experiences. It seemed that they came to terms with the fact the situation was out of their hands and when those country club jerks came around for the contract they decided to sign it, but then something unexpected happened. Mikey's house keeper Rosalita was searching through his jacket and found a marble sack full of precious stones! When we finally submit to God and confess we can't do it on our own anymore, we are opening ourselves to the possibilities of what God can do in our lives, we are putting His will above ours.  This is the last aspect of faith I'll be making an argument for, that faith is also submission to God. He will exalt those that are humble to him(Luke 18:14) and you will find comfort in His grace which abounds. If this is the case then God may reveal a treasure that we never thought to imagine.

Hey You Guys!

     In this assessment of what I believe faith really is I did my best to make sure I brought as much information from the Bible as I possibly could. I admit that some of what I have argued has been influenced impart by some theological readings I've completed over the past few years. Having said that I made sure that those authors were using a biblical source. In the end some may not agree with my points, but whatevs, I'm always willing to hear arguments that inspire growth in faith. 

   

Matthew And The King

http://mbsdailydrawing.blogspot.com/

      As some of you may know I decided about a year ago that I  wanted to go to school so I could become a pastor. One of the requirements is to have read the Bible completely at least once. Admittedly I have not done that, so over the past year I have skipped around to different books in the Bible and read them. For my 31st birthday my wife got me a life applications study Bible and with it I decided to study the New Testament books in order. I have since devoured the book of Matthew and would like to share a taste of what I have learned. I'd like to ask you to please keep an open mind and an open heart to what I have to say, thank you.

Common Misconceptions

     When some people think of the four Gospels they are confused on why there needs to be 4 different books about the same events. In reality they portray Jesus using different themes such as Matthew trying to prove that Jesus is King/Messiah to the Jews of the time. Next we have Mark who's theme is about Jesus as a teacher, then Luke's theme is Jesus as the perfect human being. Lastly, John's theme is that Christ is our only path to eternal life. Another common misconception which is wide-spread due to popular mainstream media is when the "Wise-men" visited Jesus. If you look at pretty much any movie or nativity play the wise men show up right after Jesus' birth, but in fact Matthew states that the Magi as they are called do not show up until 1-2 years after the birth of Jesus. Matthew 2:11 validates this as it says the Magi showed up to the house not the manger. It is also the reason why Herod orders the deaths of male babies up to 2 years of age. It's easy to be dismissive of this this, I mean does it really matter? Yes, in a way it does because it illustrates that most people got there information from other media rather than the original source. People aren't getting their knowledge of Jesus from the Bible, but through TV and that's dangerous because if we have been deceived so easily about something so small, what else have we been deceived about?

Political Climate During the Book of Matthew

     At this time period Israel was under Roman rule and the Jews of the time could not stand it. They were supposed to be God's chosen people and they waited for a Messiah to come and lead them to a military, or political victory by destroying the Roman government. There were two main factions of Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees, who followed the laws of the Old Testament and segregated themselves from most non-Jews. Then you had the Sadducees who only believe in the books of Moses and used their beliefs to further their political positions. These two sides often butted heads, but when Jesus showed up on the scene and started teaching they teamed up to get rid of Him. Also during this time in Israel they were sub-ruled by King Herod. He was not appointed by God, but was appointed the by Roman government to keep things orderly. The citizens didn't really like him that much, but he did help to build the temple in Jerusalem so they put up with him. Herod died and then one of his sons took over.

Drawing political similarities to then and now

     As I said above, the Jewish leaders were expecting their Messiah to crush the Romans and lead them to a political and military victory so that Israel could once again be an independent nation. This got me thinking. We still expect our Messiah to do the same thing today, maybe not in a military sense anymore, but definitely in a political sense. How many times do we see politicians or pundits proclaiming they're on God's side, have the values God would want them to have, all to get the attention of Christian voters so they can get elected into office? Too many times. The problem with this is that God's kingdom is above all kingdoms or any Earthly political office. If you really want to get down to it we see in the Book of Revelation it says that the enemy is the one that gives authority to the Earth's governments(Rev 13:4). Am I saying that everyone in congress or any government is evil? Not at all, but what I am saying is that if you think God/Jesus is going to lead us to some political victory over heathens, unbelievers in an Earthly political sense, than you may be miss-characterizing God's Kingdom. The pharisees and Sadducees did not understand this because they had hardened their hearts towards Jesus and they were so legalistically following the laws and traditions that the traditions became more important than where the traditions were supposed to point to. Look at the walls we build between us with actions like this, when in actuality Jesus came to breakdown spiritual walls. I'm not saying to not use the values of your faith to vote for people who share the same, just don't use them as a violent weapon against others who don't have the same ones. As Christians it is our duty to seek out lost sheep (Mat 18:12-14), not to cast them out if they don't agree with our political beliefs. Remember the greatest commandments; (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV) "37 Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I ask, how can we do this if we pit Christ against one another politically?


How did Matthew Prove Jesus was/is the Messiah

     An important thing to remember while reading the book of Matthew is that he was talking to the Jews of his time, to convince them that Jesus was/is the one they were looking for. For this, he lists the Genealogy of Jesus showing he was the descendant of Abraham and David. Next he called upon Scripture of the Old Testament's prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah. The first example of such use is Matthew 2:6-7, which concerns the birthplace of the Messiah. Then of course there is all of the miracles he performed. Miracles are great yes, but it was really the teachings of Christ that showed them and now us how to usher the kingdom of God into this world, what kind of kingdom it would be and what we needed to be like to get into this kingdom. He did most of this by teaching through parables starting with Matthew chapter 13. I'll provide the whole parable to give an example and Jesus' reasoning behind it:

3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;
    though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
    they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.

16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Again Matthew displays that Jesus also uses prophecy to reveal he is the King with verses 14 and 15. It also shows how the Bible confirms itself through the Old and New Testament.

Conflict with the Religious leaders
     
    Time and time again the religious leader would try to snare Jesus in a verbal trap, but he was already aware of their intent and often made them look like fools with his answers. A good example of this is Matthew 18:15-22 which has the famous verse "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". I already mentioned that the religious leaders wanted a superhero for a messiah, but another reason why they despised Jesus so much is that he was constantly calling them out on their hypocrisy. They would live so strictly by the law that they forgot the intent of the law, or they would appear so pious on the outside, to receive the admiration of the public, and yet had an immoral lifestyle behind closed doors. The example that's fresh in my mind is Matthew 27:4 upon where Judas realized what a huge mistake he made and went to the temple to tell the priest that he had sinned and wanted to return the money they gave him. They replied "What is that to us? That is your responsibility."   Which was wrong because before the death of Christ it was the priest's job to be an intercessor for the people of Israel to God. Essentially the priests turn their backs on their role. Another great example is found in the Gospel of Luke 18:9-14.
      It is important as believers to confront our hypocrisy. We all have been guilty of it at times, we are human after all, right? We want to live life as Christ like as possible, but being human we are bound to stumble, much like Peter did a few times. Appearing to be pious on the outside while having a poor relationship with God on the inside is a stumbling block and sooner or later some one may call you out on it. That is why it is important to have a humble heart before God and others, it is not a weakness to admit your mistakes, and more importantly, practice what you preach dawg.

The Miracle That Was Right Under Their Nose

It has long been an opinion of mine that humility is one of Christians' most powerful assets. Just imagine how powerful it is in the hands of God, but do most people put God and humility hand and hand? Maybe, maybe not, I haven't asked to many people to be honest and if we look at the definition of the word humility it's not so flattering:
 hu·mil·i·ty

(h)yo͞oˈmilitē/

noun

1. 1.

   a modest or low view of one's own importance; humbleness.

   synonyms:

   modesty, humbleness, meekness, diffidence, unassertiveness; lack of pride, lack of vanity;  servility, submissiveness "he accepted the award with sincere humility"

Not so impressive right? Look at humanity as a whole, we're pretty meek even though we like to act tough with our big weapons, SUVs and what not. Yet, it only takes a natural disaster to wipe us off the map. So then, take the creator of nature and the universe and put Him next to us and surely we are the meekest. The miracle that the religious leaders missed, the sign they were looking for, was that God, creator of the Heavens and the Earth, came down to our level as a weak and humble man, "...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matt 20:28) Just think about that for a minute, even if you're not a believer, just play along and say that there is a God who created the cosmos and everything in it including you, think of a being that powerful. Then think of Him saying I love you so much, I'm going to take on all of your issues, your negative actions, your suffering, your guilt, I'm going to take all of that on to myself and sacrifice my Son, (which essentially Himself) for you so that I can be with you eternally. Is not a being that powerful coming down to our level, OUR LEVEL, a miracle? If that is not the miracle that we all need than I don't know what is. And then of course we have the triumphant Resurrection.

Like I said at the beginning of the entry, this is only a taste of what I learned. If I told you everything it would probably take a year or seven . I hope this encourages you at least a little to pick up your Bible and study it. You may find things in there you never knew about. For example, one thing I didn't know was that after Jesus died, the tombs of holy people who died were opened up, they were resurrected and walked around Jerusalem for a bit. God Bless.

P.S. I say a lot in here about the religious leaders of the time who were Jewish, it is true that they conspired to kill Christ, but we must remember that Christ was destined to be sacrificed, so to be harboring any grudge against a person of Jewish faith today is foolishness.