Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
January 25, 2008
ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for answers. I have seen these people stare hopelessly at Mary icons, Jesus icons, and a host of dead saints who will do nothing for them. I have talked with people who pray to the pope and say that they love him. I talked with one lady who said that she knew that Jesus was the Savior, but she loved the pope. Thousands bow before Santa Muerte (holy death angel) in hopes that she will do whatever they ask her. I have seen people bring money, burning cigarettes, beer, whiskey, chocolate, plants, and flowers to Santa Muerte in hopes of her answers. I have seen these people bowing on their knees on the concrete in the middle of public places to worship their idol. Millions of people come into the Basilica in Mexico City and pay their money, confess their sins, and stare hopelessly at relics in hope that their sins will be pardoned. In America countless thousands are chained to baseball games, football games, material possessions, and whatever else their heart of idols can produce to worship.
My heart has broken in these last weeks because the God of heaven is not honored as he ought to be honored. People worship the things that are created rather than worshiping the Creator. God has been gracious to all mankind and yet mankind has hardened their hearts against a loving God. God brings the rain on the just and unjust. God brings the beautiful sunrises and sunsets upon the just and unjust. God gives good gifts unto all and above all things he has given his Son that those who would believe in him would be saved. However, man has taken the good things of God and perverted them unto idols and turned their attention away from God. I get a feel for Jesus as he overlooked Jerusalem or Paul as he beseeched for God to save Israel. When you accept the reality of the truth of the glory of God is breaks your heart that people would turn away from the great and awesome God of heaven to serve lesser things. Moses was outraged by the golden calf, the prophets passionately preached against idolatry, Jesus was angered that the temple was changed in an idolatrous business, and Paul preached to the idolaters of Mars Hill by telling them of the unknown God.
I arrived back at home wondering how I should respond to all the idolatry that I have beheld in these last three weeks. I wondered how our church here in the states should respond to all of the idolatry in the world. What are the options? First, I suppose we could sit around and hope that people chose to get their life together and stop being idolaters. However, I do not know how that could ever happen apart from them hearing the truth. Second, I suppose we could spend a lifetime studying cultural issues and customs in hope that we could somehow learn to relate to the people of other countries. However, the bible is quite clear that all men are the same. Men are dead in sin, shaped in iniquity, and by nature are the enemies of God. Thirdly, we could pay other people or other agencies to go and do a work for us while we remain comfortably in the states. However, there is no way to insure that there will be doctrinal accuracy or integrity. If we only pay other people to take the gospel we will miss out on all of the benefits of being obedient to the mission of God. Lastly, we could seek where God would have us to do a lasting work and then invest our lives there for the glory of God. The gospel has the power to raise the dead in any culture and we must be willing to take the gospel wherever God would have us take it. It is for sure that our church cannot go to every country and reach every people group, so we must determine where God would have us work and seek to be obedient wherever that is.
It seems that some doors are opening in the Spanish speaking countries below us and perhaps God is beginning to reveal where we are to work. There are some options for work to be partnered with in Peru and there could be a couple of options in Mexico. The need is greater than I can express upon this paper for a biblical gospel to be proclaimed in Peru and Mexico. Oh, that God would glorify his great name in Peru and Mexico by using a small little church in a town that does not exist to proclaim his great gospel amongst a people who desperately need the truth.
I give thanks to the LORD for allowing me the privilege of going to these countries and broadening my horizons. The things that I have seen will be forever engraved upon my heart. I will long remember the pastors that I spent time with in Peru and I will never forget Adolfo who translated for me in Mexico. I will relish the time that I spent with Paul Washer and the others. When I think of church I will forever remember being on top of that mountain in Sullana at that church which had no electricity and no roof. I am convinced that heaven was looking down on that little church on top of that mountain and very few people on earth even know that it exist. Oh, God I pray that the things of this world will continue to grow dim and that God’s people will be caught up in his glorious presence.
Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."
Not sure where the double posts are coming from. Will try and be more careful! LOL.
Thank you so very much for your encouragements, dear brother in Christ!
Without the resurrection how does Peter gain acceptance after denying Jesus three times. Without the resurrection why would the Apostles who fled come back to preach THE GOSPEL knowing that crucifixion was a possibility for them. It is more likely that without the resurrection the Apostles would have stayed home and gone back to their old lives.
Human action tells the truth.
>>Some of us may have thought it, but you said it.<<<
Figured that’s what you were thinking, and thought I’d help you out.
You don’t have to thank me....
More importantly, have a blessed Lent.
RD
“It is more likely that without the resurrection the Apostles would have stayed home and gone back to their old lives.”
Even with the resurrection they went home to the old occupation.
John 21:1-3, “After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.”
But even so, their lives were never the same after the resurrection. Spiritually they were changed.
Great point!!! Let's read one of them:
"And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon." [Rev 9:11]
That word "abaddon" comes directly out of the Biblical Hebrew, and from the Biblical Hebrew word "abaddown" meaning "destruction" and is found in Biblical Hebrew passages such as Esther 9:5, Job 26:6, 31:12, Psalm 88:11, Proverbs 15:11, 27:20.
Therefore, when John is using the word "Hebraisti" [Hebrew], as the inscription on the cross, he must mean Hebrew from the same source -- as if there is any other.
Jews were always looking for a sign/miracles. Even when He performed them, they didn’t believe He was their Messiah (the Messiah was supposed to perform miracles). They attributed some of it to the devil. Jesus couldn’t win with them no matter what (LOL)!
Oh, thank you Q. It is a Catholic (Ash) Wednesday. This year, our Calendars do not coincide. Since all EOs celebrate Easter according to the Old Calendar (makes you wonder why did some bother changing to the New one for all other events?!), our Great and Holy Lent (fast) will start in the latter part of March and end at the close of April.
Easter cannot precede Passover, as it happens with New Calendar churches. Also our Lent starts and ends on a Sunday (the Lord's Day), never on Wednesday. Ours also lasts a little longer (usually 42 days). But I appreciate the thought.
And what if that word is the same in Aramaic (Chaldee)?
Goodness . . . What a mess of convolutions!
Ah well, good wishes for brothers are not wasted.
Blessings in February, too.
“But even so, their lives were never the same after the resurrection. Spiritually they were changed.”
Don’t you think it was the Pentecost event that caused the change in their thinking and lives? It seems to me that even at the time of Jesus’ ascension they were still thinking in terms of an earthly kingdom and their places in it?
Then the word would be the same in the Hebrew [Hebraisti], the Aramaic [Syriac], and the Chaldean [Chaldaios] like some words are and some words aren't.
Mind-reading? 8~)
Exactly what I was thinking about.
Once they were back fishing, why do a 180 unless something happened?
I’m sure you’re right but the resurrection HAD to have impacted them. Once anyone is filled with the HS, their lives change.
“Once anyone is filled with the HS, their lives change.”
That was the Pentecost event and when the Holy Spirit came and filled them with his presence he brought all that Jesus said and did to their remembrance, just as Jesus said he would and does for us today. My problem is as I get older, I conveniently forget.
Actually Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on the Apostles shortly after the Resurrection. The two stories don't mash.
Well, the Greeks say Hebraisti is Chaldee and the Jews say they spoke Aramaic. I believe tboth becuase it is about their langue. The Latins obviously translated it incorrectly, and through the Latins the error spread throughout the west.
In Greek, Ioudaisti is (OT) Hebrew. Ioudiasti is not used in the NT. It is perhaps unfortunate that they called Chaldee Hebraisti because they should have known there would be obtuse literalist translators who will create confusion and heresy in the west.
Absolutely. It was perfectly consistent with Judaic expectation of an earthly, human Messiah, a favorite of God (God's adopted, not littera, Son—a title reserved for angles and kings, who were anointed, which is what meshiyah/messiah means).
In fact, the first three Gospels never say that Jesus is God (they call Him Lord, but that's not reserved only for God), and they never pray to the Resurrected Christ or to the Holy Spirit. The verses you posted on the rich man and a beggar show that Luke (post resurrection) still did not have a concept of heaven, but only of Shoel.
In Judaism such terminology as the Kingdom of God, World to Come, Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah, Spirit (of God), etc. have completely different menings from those created by Christians.
This is like reading Robert Frost who says "my horse must think it queer to stop without a farmhouse near..." and not realize that the meaning of the word "queer" had undergone a radical change between 1920's and 1970's.
The Kingdom of God to the Jews means Israel, on earth. The Son of God is a title of God's favorites (angels and kings); the word messiah means the anointed one, a kingly human mortal whose identity must meet seven qualifying characteristics, of which Jesus meets only one! So, no wonder they didn't want to accept Him as messiah. The word Son of Man (ben adam) means simply the son of Adam, a descendent of Adam, a human being, of Adam's seed, etc. In Christianity the Son of man has this mysterious aura surrounding only Jesus.
Christian theology, like the bible, did not just fall from the sky, neatly tallied and organized into chapters and lessons. It had to undergo its own evolution which took most of the remining first century and then a few centuries to come. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to relaize thet Paul didn't always teach what the Christians teach today. He calls Jesus an "image of God" and is someone who was "raised by God" but he never calls Him God, nor does he pray to the Resurrected Jesus.
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