Dispensations

I'm studying Ephesians right now and have come to verse 10.  In this verse we see the word dispensation.  What is a dispensation?  It is the Greek word is oikonomia.  It means the management of household affairs, or administration.  It's simply the rule of the house, the way things operate for this time.  It is used 4 times as dispensation (I Cor. 9:17, Eph. 1:10, 3:2, & Col. 1:25) and 3 times as stewardship (Luke 16:2-4).  Some translations will use the word stewardship rather than dispensation.  I use the NKJV, which is based on the Textus Receptus.  In Eph. 3:9 there appears a word for fellowship--koinonia.  But some translations are based on the Alexandrian text, which uses the word oikonomia in that verse instead  Just something to be aware of.  The NKJV reads, "fellowship of the mystery", the ESV reads, "plan of the mystery", and NASB reads, "dispensation of the mystery."

 

Heb. 1:1 – God works in different ways in different times. This does not mean that God tried one thing and it didn’t work so He tried something else. The reason for each of these periods is to lead man to the cross, until the final period where Christ will reign forever.

 

These dispensations help us understand the overall plan of scripture. They help us have a big picture perspective.  Understanding these dispensations particularly helps us understand how we are no longer under the law.

 

So, what are the different dispensations?  There are seven, here is a list.  I interpret them slightly differently than some.  You may ask, "who cares?"  Does this information really do us any good in our day-to-day life?  For one, I will use them to explain the Sheep and the Goats post.  And I see a very practical aspect applied to our parenting.  I will post about that soon.

 

1. Innocence (Gen. 1:28) – from creation to the fall. How long did it last? We don’t really know, but we do know it ended when they sinned. They were no longer innocent at that point.

 

2. Conscience/Moral Responsibility (Gen. 3:7) – from the fall onward. You now know good and evil, I will leave you to your conscience to choose between those. But man tends toward evil, so we get up to Gen. 6:5 and God says that ALL the purposes of man were evil continually.

 

3. Government (Gen. 8:15) – from the flood onward. After the flood there were consequences for evil. Man was still accountable to his conscience to choose between good and evil, but God added an incentive. He says that anyone that takes a human life will have his taken away. We see the value God is placing on human life here. If you can’t govern yourself, someone else will have to. See also Rom. 13.

 

4. Promise (Gen. 12:1) – from the call of Abram onward. This promise was not based on anything Abraham had done; it was unconditional. All Abraham had to do was believe. This promise is still available to us by faith, as well. So this dispensation, too, has not gone away. Gen. 12 & Gal. 3, 4. God is now teaching humans to trust in Him.

 

5. Law (Ex. 19:1) – from Mt. Sinai until Jesus (or specifically John the Baptist—Luke 16:16). Promise does not end and the Law did not bring justification. It brought a picture of the Savior. It brought many, many types and shadows to point us to the cross. You can study everything in the law, from the Sabbath, to the Feasts, to the elements of the Tabernacle, to the Dietary Laws, to the specific instructions to the priests on how to administer offerings, to the laws for declaring leprosy cleansed, and you will see Christ through and through. Beyond all the symbolism, the law was meant to frustrate man and show him he could never make it on his own, even with conscience and human government.

 

6. Church (Acts 2:1) – from Pentecost until the rapture. This is sometimes called the Age of Grace (I do not agree with this title) or the Dispensation of Faith (again, I don’t think this is entirely accurate), or the Dispensation of the Spirit. This is the mystery Paul is talking about, the secret that was hidden, not revealed in the OT, that Gentiles and Jews would be part of the same Body, and that the Spirit would indwell us. These were mind-blowing truths. This is one of the reasons Paul prayed for revelation for the people he was writing to. We need to pray this pray, too, that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes to these profound truths.

 

· Do we still have moral responsibility (#2)? Yes, but now we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, to give us the power to choose right and wrong, and our human spirits have been recreated in the image of Christ—it wants to follow after Him.


· Do we still have human government (#3)? Yes, we do, but if we walk according to the Spirit, we don’t have to be afraid of the government. If they put us to death for righteousness sake, the Bible says we’re supposed to be happy.


· What about the law? Does it still stand? I Tim. 1:8-10 says that the law is not for the righteous—we have been made the righteousness of Christ—but for the lawless, the ungodly, the sinners. The law still stands to point people to Christ, to show them their need. The law still stands as a standard in our world, that if people would follow it, our world would be a better place to live in. The law does not justify us, but it sets the standard and grace gives us the power to live it.

 

7. Kingdom (Rev. 20:4) – from Armageddon onward. The visible rule of the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. We can see II Sam. 7:12-16, Is. 9:6-7, Luke 1:31-33, Rev. 3:21, and Matt. 25:31. He came once to die, the second to reign.

  

Now, the thread that is common throughout all these dispensations is grace. That is why I do not call the Church Age the Age of Grace. Every single age has been the age of grace. It was God’s grace that blocked Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life. He did not want them to live forever in their fallen state. It was grace that God had on Cain when He marked him and sent him away. It was grace that saved Noah and his family. Grace called Abram out of Ur. Grace redeemed Israel from their bondage to the Egyptians. Grace came and dwelt among us. Grace will rule on a literal throne forever and ever. The other side of this coin is faith. You can read about people of faith throughout all the past in Hebrews 11. Just like them, we are saved by grace, through faith, in whatever age we live.

The Pendulum

I see the pendulum swinging, always to one side or the other, rarely does it rest in the middle. The pendulum I speak of swings between grace and faith. It seems people want one or the other, but rarely a mix. They want to lean to one side or the other, but not balance between.

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

I see a mixture of grace and faith here. I see balance. It does not just say we are saved by grace, it says by grace, through faith. And grace is not just for salvation. This is how we get through each and every day--by God's grace, through our faith. This is how we do anything we do--by God's grace and through our faith.

It is when the pendulum stops in the middle, it is at rest. This is the place of rest mentioned in Hebrews 3 and 4, and the yoke mentioned by Christ in Matthew 11:29-30.

I see many that latch on to the faith aspect, they want to do something, but then they discount the grace side. They do things in their own strength and don't give God the glory. Or they give God the glory, but turn around and tell others how to rise above and don't include the key detail of God's grace.

It seems grace isn't welcome in a lot of churches. Pastors would rather tell their flock about faith, what they can do, but without grace this is just willpower. The word grace has become taboo because, to a lot of pastors it is equated with sinful living. If people know all about God's grace, they will just do whatever they want! But we can't pick and choose topics from the Bible, like it's a salad bar. We must teach the whole counsel of God. Teaching faith without grace is humanism that has crept into the church.

Grace is what Paul is talking about in Galatians 5:16. When you rely on God's grace, and take the step of faith He is asking of you, you will be empowered by His spirit, to rise about the lusts of the flesh.

Remember Rahab in the city of Jericho (Joshua 2). The two spies came to scope out the city. She told them she believed they knew the one true God and asked them to spare her family. She has faith here. The spies tell her they will spare her if she will hang a scarlet cord out of her window. She does--that is the act of proving her faith (James 2:17). Her family is spared (saved) by grace, through her faith.

Remember Moses with the Israelites at the Red Sea (Exodus 14). They were cornered with no way out. The Egyptian army was behind them, they had mountains on each side and in front of them was the Red Sea. God already told Moses He would save the Israelites. Moses had faith in God's promise. God tells him to lift up his rod. Moses obeys--this is the act of proving his faith. God parted the Red Sea and the Israelites traveled through to safety. God saved them by His grace, through their faith.

Remember Joshua preparing to conquer the city of Jericho (Joshua 6). God promised the Israelites the land over 400 years earlier. Joshua believes this, as he told Moses 40 years earlier, when he was one of the 12 spies. And God confirmed this word to Joshua just before this battle. God tells Joshua to have the army and the priests march around the city of Jericho. How very strange? They were to march around the city once each day for six days. Then on the seventh day, they were to march around seven times and then blow their trumpets. All of this was what proved their faith. God brought the walls crumbling down. God gave them the victory by grace, through their faith.

One thing I see in all three of these stories is how miniscule the part we have to play. We do have to act, we do have to obey, we do have to step out in the natural, but it's always something so much smaller than what God is going to do. That way, there is no question who did the saving, who gets the glory. And our step is not of our doing. It's not something we make up. This is not where you set rules for yourself. You will end up breaking your own made up rules. For example, "God I really need you to help me out. I promise to read my Bible an hour a day." We are not bargaining with God, or manipulating Him. We are asking for His help. He will ask you to take a small step, to test your faith. You take that step, and then His grace kicks in and empowers you to overcome.

The pitfalls I see of using my faith, without acknowledging God's grace--it's all me, this leads to pride, I'm not as likely to give God glory and trust in Him, I trust in myself. I do achieve a pseudo-abundant life, but it's a false success, built on a sandy foundation. There are not many storms, because I have chosen to build my house in the prime location, far from the beach. After all, life is all about my choices, right? But one day the storm will come, something big that is out of my control. Then my house will come crashing down because I have been in the habit of fixing things myself, not turning to God. Hopefully at that moment I will repent and see my need for God. If not, I may blame God, when it wasn't His fault.

The pitfalls I see of solely relying on God's grace, yet never exercising faith--I don't have to do anything, Jesus did it all (and that is true, but we have to prove our faith), I don't have to commit to church, I don't have to study my Bible, I don't have to ask you for forgiveness, because God forgives me. I don't have to teach my children, God's grace will keep them in church. I stay bound up in my strongholds, I never see true freedom. I never achieve the abundant life, because I never build any foundation. The wind and the waves tear my house down in every storm. Hopefully, during one of these storms, I will think to ask God what I need to be doing, to show Him I do have faith.

I hope you see that you will walk in victory, you will be building on the rock (see Matthew 7:24-27) only when you walk in the balance of grace and faith. It is shifting sand on either side of the middle. This is a moment-by-moment, day-by-day decision. We will all be tempted at one time, or another, to shift to either side. If you do, simply repent, and get back on track.

Christmas Prophecy 21

The Messiah would have no bones broken.

Prophecy -

Psalm 34:20

He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.

Fulfillment -

John 19:33

But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

It may be an odd detail to say that none of the Messiah's bones would be broken, until we look at the law for choosing a Passover lamb. We see in Exodus 12:5 that the people were to select a lamb without blemish, meaning perfect, no spot or oddity (Jesus fulfilled this by being sinless), and in verse 46 that no bone could be broken. John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world (see John 1:29).

Jesus is our Passover Lamb. He was even crucified on Passover!

Jewish law dictated that the bodies of the executed criminals be removed from sight before sunset (Deuteronomy 21:23). The Jews asked Pilate to break the legs of the three men being crucified (one of whom was Christ), so that they would die quicker and they could have them down before sunset. The crucifixion victim would push up on his feet to ease the constriction of the chest and draw breath. If the legs were broken they would suffocate to death. When the soldier came to Jesus, though, He was already dead. We see in John 19:30 that He gave up His spirit. It was Jesus' choice to give Himself as a sacrifice, He willingly did it. The Jewish leaders were only able to arrest Him when He chose, and He even died when He chose. It was all according to plan, every detail.

Did you know Jesus could have chosen not to go to the cross? His story is not a tragedy, it is not a story of martyrdom either. He did not die to stand up for something He believed in. He was not fighting against the establishment. He was giving Himself. Philippians 2:5-11 tells us that Jesus was obedient, this tells me He had a choice. In the Garden of Gethsemane, before the crucifixion, He was very distraught, and prayed to the Father and asked if there could be any other way. But there wasn't. So He willingly obeyed. He died for YOU.

But, GET THIS! Jesus is fully man AND fully God...

SO...

God really died for you.

God died in YOUR place!

God took YOUR sins on Himself.

Isn't that GOOD NEWS?!?

This is a continuation of our Christmas Prophecy series. To read part one and two, click here:
Christmas Prophecy 1
Christmas Prophecy 2
Christmas Prophecy 3
Christmas Prophecy 4

Christmas Prophecy 5

Christmas Prophecy 6

Christmas Prophecy 7

Christmas Prophecy 8

Christmas Prophecy 9

Christmas Prophecy 10

Christmas Prophecy 11

Christmas Prophecy 12

Christmas Prophecy 13

Christmas Prophecy 14

Christmas Prophecy 15

Christmas Prophecy 16

Christmas Prophecy 17

Christmas Prophecy 18

Christmas Prophecy 19

Christmas Prophecy 20

Christmas Prophecy 12

The Messiah would be sold for 30 pieces of silver.

Prophecy -

Zechariah 11:12

Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

Thirty pieces of silver was the price of a slave (see Exodus 21:32). Is it coincidence that Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver? Did He become a slave so that we could be free? Is it coincidence that it was a close friend that betrayed Him for the 30 pieces of silver (see the last post)? Not only was Jesus betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver, those silver pieces were thrown down (not placed) in the temple, and used to buy the potter's field (the Jewish leaders couldn't use it for anything else, it was blood money). We see these details also in Zechariah.

Zechariah 11:13

And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter.

Fulfillment -

Matthew 26:14-16

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.

After Judas betrayed Him (you can see yesterday's post), he came back to the chief priests with a different attitude.

Matthew 27:3-9

Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”

And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”

Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.

But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.

Do you think that perhaps Judas deliberately sought to fulfill these prophecies? Do you think that Judas' motives were that of making sure the world believed that Jesus was the true Messiah? Is that why he betrayed him for the 30 pieces? That doesn't make a lot of sense. These details were out of Jesus' control, so if someone were deliberately contriving to fulfill them, it would be either Judas or the chief priests. We are told in John 13 that Judas had control of the money box (the money for all the expenses of Jesus and the disciples during His ministry time), but in John 12 we see that he used to steal from that money box. That doesn't sound like someone that wants the world to know Jesus is the true Messiah. And of course the chief priests didn't want the world to know Jesus was the Messiah, they wanted to kill Him. And after this Judas went and hanged himself. If the motive was to fulfill prophecy, on purpose, so that the world would label Jesus as the Messiah, it makes no sense to kill oneself. No, it is not coincidence that Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver (not 29), was betrayed by a friend (He had many enemies that could have done it), the money was silver (not gold), it was thrown down in the temple (not placed), and was used to buy the potter's field. This is the hand of God in human history. He has a plan and He does fulfill it.

This is a continuation of our Christmas Prophecy series. Here is a list of the previous entries:
Christmas Prophecy 1
Christmas Prophecy 2
Christmas Prophecy 3
Christmas Prophecy 4

Christmas Prophecy 5

Christmas Prophecy 6

Christmas Prophecy 7

Christmas Prophecy 8

Christmas Prophecy 9

Christmas Prophecy 10

Christmas Prophecy 11

Delivered

I love all the pictures we have in the Old Testament. When I was growing up, it seemed, that the entire Old Testament was just stories for kids. I don't recall sermons preached from the Old Testament. The thinking was that we are New Testament believers that have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), we aren't under the law (Romans 6:14), so what use is the Old Testament to us? (Now my memory could be skewed, but that is what my perception was.) This is, however, entirely false. The Old Testament is chocked full of wonderful stories with so many layers of depth--many, if not all, explaining truths in the New Testament. So, as I said, I LOVE those illustrations that are in the Old Testament.

I was explaining a concept to my son today, so I used an Old Testament illustration. (On a side note, if you have kids, one of the best things you can do for yourself, is teach them the Bible. Light bulbs will go off in your head. It is a wonderful thing, how it works.)

If you recall, in the story of the Exodus, the Israelites were in slavery to the Pharoah. Moses was sent by God to deliver them. God did numerous signs and wonders in the process. After the 10th plague, God led them out of Egypt and out of their slavery to Pharoah.

We can analyze the significance of the details.

Slavery in Egypt = slavery to sin--this is a picture of us before we come to a saving knowledge of Christ

Coming out of Egypt = getting saved

Now there are pictures of two types of Christians after the Exodus.

1) A Wilderness Wanderer - this is someone that is saved, but they don't walk in victory, don't have peace and joy, they go around the mountains in their life over and over and over.

2) A Promised Land Dweller - this is also a Christian, but they walk in victory. They don't go around the mountains in their life, they fight their battles with God on their side. They enjoy peace and joy.

Something significant stuck out to me this morning, that I had never thought about before. At what point did the Israelites "get saved"? I noticed two important events.

1) The Passover--The Israelites were commanded to spread the blood of a lamb on their doorposts in order to be "passed over" by the death angel. So they were saved from death by the blood. We are saved from death (the penalty of sin) by the blood of Christ. This is a once, for all, atonement. See Hebrews 7:26-27, 9:11-12, & 10:9-10.

2) The Crossing of the Red Sea--The Israelites left the same night of the Passover. They traveled until they were trapped by mountains and sea. Pharoah came after them to get them back. God did a miracle by parting the waters of the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to cross over on dry land. The Pharoah and his army chased after them, but God let the waters cover them, drowning them, assuring the safety of the Israelites. So this is the point when the Israelites were truly free from their slavery. It happened through water. We are delivered from our slavery to sin by the water of the Word. See Ephesians 5:24 We must wash in this water as often as we can.

Something else to note, that I find very interesting, is that once the Israelites were out of Egypt, God never sent them back (that would be a picture of losing salvation). There were lots of people that disobeyed and there were consequences, but no record of anyone going back to Egypt, either voluntarily, or by command of God. Neither do we "lose" our salvation when we sin. We can lose our inheritance, like the Israelites. The majority of them didn't get to go into the Promised Land (their inheritance). They didn't have faith, they didn't obey. In fact, Moses was one of them that forfeited the inheritance, he did not get to enter the Promised Land.

I am fighting to keep this a short blog. There are so many things in this I want to develop, but I will leave it at this. I encourage you to read the story in Exodus, in light of these things I have brought out. There are even more analogies I could draw. Can you find them? You may also do a word study on reward and/or inheritance. Do you want to be a Wilderness Wanderer or a Promised Land Dweller? Read the story of Joshua and Caleb, in Numbers 13 and 14, to see what it takes to be a Promised Land Dweller.

License to Sin

This is a continuation of my post of The Consequences of Sin, which was part five in a series.

In the last post, I made a list of what I believe to be the consequences of sin. Those include 1) repercussions from this world, 2) opening up the door to the devil in your life, 3) strengthening your sinful nature (your flesh), and 4) tarnishing your soul. This last one is what I will explain more fully today. What I do not believe are the consequences of sin are 1) that God stops loving us, 2) God punishes us, 3) God is unable to bless or protect us, and 4) we lose our salvation.

This is where it would seem that I am giving you license to sin, since there is no fear of losing salvation or God's love. But, that is simply not the case. I also ended my last post with Romans 6:23a, "For the wages of sin is death." Does that verse contradict what I have presented?

I think the problem most of us have, is that we do not look at ourselves as a three-part person. We are spirit beings, we have souls, and we live in a body. This information is vital in understanding how salvation works, and how sin affects us. (I Thessalonians 5:23, Hebrews 4:12)

When you are saved (when you admit your sin and need for a Savior, accept Jesus as your Lord, believing that He died on a cross to pay for your sin, and rose from the grave three days later--see Romans 10:9-10), it is your spirit that gets recreated, in the likeness of Christ. It is made new, made perfect (II Corinthians 5:17). It is also sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13, 4:30). Your spirit now has been made righteous because of Jesus. God sees you as a spirit and sees you as righteous, in your spirit. He loved you before you were saved, and He will always love you, nothing can separate you from His love (Romans 5:8, Jeremiah 31:3, Romans 8:38-39). Knowing of this awesome love casts out all fear of torment and punishment (I John 4:18). Experiencing this love also enables us to love others (I John 4:11).

When we are saved, we do not, however, get a new soul. Our soul is not made clean and new and perfect, but we can begin a process that makes it so (Philippians 1:6). This takes effort on our part, but as with everything in God's system, our part is so small, God's part is big (Philippians 2:12-13). Remember the post I did about Lazarus? If you haven't read it, you can click here. This is what the story of Lazarus illustrates for us. At salvation we are made alive, in our spirit, but we are still bound up with the graveclothes (sinful desires in our soul). We can be free of those if we want, but it takes a cleansing of the soul. We can also look at the story of the Israelites in slavery, in Egypt (Exodus). They were set free from slavery, but then wandered in the desert for 40 years. Being in Egypt is being dead in your sins. Crossing the Red Sea is salvation, but you can choose whether to wander in the dry desert or cross over into the Promised Land. The Promised Land is not heaven, as some suggest, but it is the victorious, abundant, Christian life. It cannot be heaven, because there are battles to be fought. We will have battles in the Christian walk, but God is on our side, so who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) But notice that God never sent any of them back to Egypt, because of their behavior and a lot of them had horrible behavior.

The Bible says in Philippians 1:6 that God begins a good work in us and will not complete it until the day Jesus returns. This good work is cleansing our soul. None of us has a perfect soul, none will until Jesus returns.

One of the evidences that you are saved is that you should want to become clean. You should not be content to live in your sins. (I John 3:3) It may seem impossible to break free, but if you are saved, you will feel a guilt over that sin and want a way to stop. You see there is a war between your spirit that wants to obey God and your soul that still wants to obey the sinful desires (I Peter 2:11, Romans 7:22-23). Remember the illustration I shared from Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris a couple weeks ago. You can read it here. We must realize that once we are saved we are no longer chained to our flesh (our sinful desires), we have a choice not to obey. But the more we feed our flesh the stronger it gets. Likewise the more we starve the flesh, the weaker it becomes.

So, you see, one of the consequences of sin is that it tarnishes our soul. Our soul doesn't become clean overnight, at salvation. Cleansing it is a process and it takes a lifetime. How clean it gets does depend, in part, on us. Remember Moses at the Red Sea. God told him to raise his staff up. Moses obeyed and God parted the water, so that the Israelites could cross on dry land. Our part is always small in comparison to the work that God does. God will change us from the inside out. He starts with our spirit and does a miraculous work, recreating it instantly, and then perfects our soul, over the course of our lifetime. We then get a perfect, new body when Jesus returns, completing our salvation. (I Corinthians 15:50-58)

So how do we cleanse our soul?

Wash it in the water of God's Word. Ephesians 5:24 tells us that God's Word is like water that washes us. John 17:17 tells us that God's Word is truth and it will sanctify (cleanse, make holy) us (that has to be our soul, since our spirit is recreated perfect at the new birth). The Word will transform your mind (soul) (Romans 12:2), so that you won't want to sin anymore.

The best place to start is to study how much God loves you. When you get a full revelation of His love for you, your fears will be cast out (I John 4:18). You will be able to love others and will feel so grateful, you will want to do anything God asks of you. (I John 3:16, 4:7-12, 18, 5:3)

Now, what about Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death..."?

There are two ways I interpret this verse.

1) The wages of sin, under the Old Testament law, is death. But Jesus paid that penalty for us. We no longer have to pay that penalty.

2) There are different types of death. Living in sin, after salvation, won't cause spiritual death (which is eternal separation from God), but will bring death to the soul and body. Our soul is the area where our emotions, feelings, and will are. The dirtier the soul, the more depression, anxiety, fearfulness, worry, lack of peace and joy you will have. This will manifest in your body through sickness, pain, and fatigue. Plus, like I mentioned before, the more you feed that desire to sin, the stronger that desire will be. You are supposed to count your flesh as dead. Why would you feed a dead man?

So, by no means am I preaching liberty to sin (just like Paul in Romans 6:1-3). You have a choice. You can live an abundant, joy-filled, peaceful life, here on earth, or you can life a horrible, depressed, hell-on-earth life. God loves you just the same. He wants you to choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). He sent His Son to die for all your sins--past, present, and future. They have been paid for. He sent His Holy Spirit to empower you to overcome your temptations and sin. You cannot do it in your own willpower. Put your trust in your Heavenly Father, He will show you the way of escape. (I Corinthians 10:13)

I want you to truly be free of sin, but I want you to know the truth. I will not use fear to motivate you, fear of punishment, fear of wrath, fear of losing God's love, fear of losing salvation. God does not use fear. (II Timothy 1:7) He gave us His truth, in order to set us free. (John 17:17, 8:32)You may say it doesn't matter, but our motives for our actions matter very much. That is a post for a later date. Until then...study to show yourself approved, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. (II Timothy 2:15) Check out the things I have presented here and decide for yourself.

What Are The Consequences of Sin?

I am continuing my series on the relevancy of The 10 Commandments. You can read part one here, part two here, part three here, and part four here.

In summary, keeping The 10 Commandments will make your life here on earth easier, but you cannot earn your salvation by keeping them. You earn no points with God, and He doesn't stop loving you when you break them. None of us is able to keep them perfectly and so they were never given to show us how to be saved. They were actually given to show us how miserably we will fail and are in dire need of a Savior. Christianity is about freedom. God came to set the captives free. We have been slaves to sin, we had no choice. But God sent His Son to redeem us (buy us back) and His Spirit to empower us to conquer sin.

Some may think I'm condoning sinning since I preach grace. I say you have the choice to battle sin in your life and rise above it (and it is God that gives you this ability). I say you have the choice to be free from it. But many don't and God still loves them the same. I truly think that those people are ignorant of the power that God came to give them, to break the bondage of sin. If you are one that justifies all your actions by saying, "it's okay, God has to forgive me", I question whether you are really saved at all. If you have any concern about pleasing God, then you probably are saved.

No, I don't preach liberty in the sense that you think. We have liberty in Christ to live free, joyful, peaceful lives, but the paradox is that this liberty is stronger the more we submit to His will and not our own. After all, we were bought with a huge price, our lives are no longer our own. (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

So what are the consequences of sin?

1. Repercussions from this world.

2. It opens the door to the devil.

3. Our flesh grows stronger.

4. Our soul is tarnished.

Think about the world we live in. If you steal, you suffer consequences in our society. You risk being injured or killed by your victim. You risk being arrested and convicted by our justice system. Let's talk about adultery. The natural consequences of this world we live in are such that your marriage will most likely fall apart, you may lose your children, you will definitely ruin your witness with your children, your chances in another marriage are greatly diminished, and you may catch a disease.

Secondly, sin opens the door to the devil. If he knows you bow to temptation easily, he will ruthlessly tempt you all the more. He also likes to throw scriptures in your face (used wrongly, of course) to beat you down and condemn you. He will tell you you're not worthy, unloved by God, and make you even question your salvation and entrance into heaven.

Now for the third category, we have the flesh. That is the part of ourselves that wants to do wrong. Before we're saved, we are slaves to it, but God sets us free, if we believe on Jesus. Unfortunately this part of us doesn't go away. It hangs around and tempts us. If we continuously give in, it grows stronger and stronger and becomes harder to resist. (I give more detail in my last post, click here to read.)

I will explain point four in detail next time. It will take a bit of space.

What are not consequences of our sin?

1. God stops loving us. (See Romans 8:38-39)

2. God punishes us.

3. God is unable to bless us or protect us. (Now it may seem that way, because you have opened the door to the devil, but God is able to do whatever He sees fit. Read all the Old Testament stories where people were in direct disobedience to God, yet He showed them grace, especially Ahab in I Kings 20. Ahab was a wicked king, but we see God calling to him, helping him win a battle, even in the midst of his sin.)

4. You can lose your salvation. And this is the controversial one. Some believe that there is a point where you can sin and lose your salvation. I don't believe that. Some believe that if you are one that has reached a high level of maturity, in Christ, and genuinely know what you're doing, you can reject your salvation. I'm still not sure about this one. But I do know that in general, people mess up, some mess up really, really badly. They still believe in the work that Christ did on the cross, they are not in danger of losing their salvation.

Tune in next time where I explain Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death. Does this contradict what I have presented here?

I also encourage you to read through Romans and Galatians in light of what I have presented here. Don't take my word for it. Search the scripture for yourself.

Freedom

This is continued from my post on The 10 Commandments.

You see, a lot of people have the wrong idea about Christianity and about God. They think Christianity is about a list of rules, of do's and don'ts. They imagine God up in heaven, just waiting to strike anyone that gets out of line.

And so when I ask if The 10 Commandments are relevant I expected to get one of two answers. One group will say they are not relevant because they don't want the guilt of not living up to them. The other group will say, yes they are relevant because they are God's Word and He can only love those that keep His law.

But that is not the truth.

Christianity is about freedom.

One of the reasons God sent His Son into this world was to set you free.

He wants to set you free from addictions--to alcohol, to drugs, to pornography, to food, to approval. He wants to set you free from anger and depression. He wants to set you free from anything that is mastering you, that holds you down--fears, worries, anxieties, lies, and much more. He wants to set you free from guilt and condemnation. He wants to set you free from being used and abused. He wants to set you free from hell--the literal hell and hell on earth.

Most people have this perception that Christianity is about keeping a set of rules because that is what all the other world religions are about. And unfortunately many Christian pastors perpetuate this myth, as well. If you are in a church that tells you that God can't love you unless you are doing everything to a tee, then you need to find a new church.

This is called legalism and religion and I hate both. Jesus hates both, as well.

Read these passages where Jesus confronts religion and religious people. (The Pharisees were the some of the most religious people of Jesus' day.)

Matthew 9:10-12

¹⁰ Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
¹² When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Matthew 12:1-8

¹ At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. ² And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
³ But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: ⁴ how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? ⁵ Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? ⁶ Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. ⁷ But if you had known what this means,‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Matthew 23:25-28

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

It is religion that says you must clean yourself up in order to be accepted. God says He loves you, while you are a sinner, and you've done nothing to deserve it.

If you are a Christian and you're reading this, you may be thinking that I am promoting sinful living. You may be thinking that I'm preaching a brand of Christianity that lets people just do as they please, because God will continually forgive, over and over. Stay tuned for the next installment.

The 10 Commandments

I posed a question on Facebook the other day about whether The 10 Commandments are relevant to us today.

Some said yes, some weren't sure.

I also asked everyone what they thought were the consequences for breaking any of the commandments.

Well, my answer on relevancy is two-fold. On the one hand, your life on this earth will be smooth and happy if you keep to these commandments. But on the other hand, keeping them earns you no points with God.

What?!?

Does that mean we can just go out and steal, cheat, and lie, all we want?

Stay tuned for the next installment.

(If you want to read the list of commandments, they are found in Exodus 20:1-17.)

Egyptian Plagues

I have been taught that each one of the plagues of Egypt were an attack against specific Egyptian gods.  I have not done the research to find out the specifics, but I did run across this link today that lists them.  I'm not sure of it's accuracy, but it is neat and gives you a starting point to research if you want.

Enjoy!

What Do I Obey?

This could also be titled, "What is God's Will For Me?"  But since this is a study I did with my nine-year-old son, I used kid-friendly terms.

Since we finished up our study of God's grace (see here), we had to see what God's Word instructed us to DO.  Because God's grace works together with our faith and we read in James that faith without works is dead.  Works being obedience.  So what do we obey?

::The Ten Commandments  -  Exodus 20:1-17

::Parents  -  Ephesians 6:1

::Be humble  -  James 4:6 & Isaiah 14:12-21  (story to illustrate the effects of pride)

::Be givers and tithers  -  Malachi 3:10-11, Luke 6:38, & II Corinthians 9:7

::Be a hard worker  -  II Thessalonians 3:6-13, Proverbs 10:4-5, & Proverbs 12:24

::Love our neighbors as ourselves  -  Luke 10:25-37, John 13:34-35, & Romans 13:9-10

::Be a servant  -  Phillipians 2:3-8, John 13:1-10, Mark 8:1-10, & Mark 9:33-34

::Preach the gospel  -  Mark 16:15-20 &  II Timothy 3:14-4:5

::And most importantly of all--Love God with all your heart!  -  Deuteronomy 6:5

I covered these over the course of two weeks with my son.  Obviously, this is a list geared toward a child.  You can search the scriptures and find many, many more specifics of God's will for your life.  Specifics about your role as a wife, husband, a single person, parent, employee, boss, how to handle your finances, what God's plan is for you and what His purpose is for all of us as humans, and yes--even what and how to eat!

What is God's will for your life?  Search in His Word and find out!

Prophecy

Update below 12/24/08

As an advent activity last year I decided to cover prophecy scriptures about Jesus, and their fulfillments, with my kids.  You can read about that here.  It didn't seem to have the impact that I was looking for so I wasn't going to do it again this Christmas, but have changed my mind.  I will tell you why.

A little while back (can't remember what we were reading), my son had a lightbulb go off in his head during Bible reading.  He said, "you mean the Bible not only tells us things that happened, but things that are going to happen, too?!?"  I thought I had explained that last Christmas with the prophecy scriptures.  Oh well, now that he understands this he thinks it's really cool.

I also got to thinking about the method I used last year.  I printed out the scriptures on red and green paper and cut them out with fancy scrapbook scissors and each day that we read them, I let the kids tape them on the fridge in a long string.  We alternated the red and green papers.  Well, since I was the one that did all the work, I was the one that learned!  None of the information stuck in my son's head.

So this year I am reading to him, but having him do a little notebooking.  I had him title his page, "Prophecy" and he is making a list.  We have one through nine so far (we do these on week days).  I have him write the basic synopsis of the prophecy (I usually help him think of it) and the scripture reference and then I ask him if it has been fulfilled or not.  This gets him to thinking of the fulfillment and usually he'll tell me what the story is for the fulfillment, sometimes I'll read the fulfillment, as well.

Now since I decided to do this again this year, I just pulled up my references from last year and figured I would go down the list.  But what most often happens when I open up the Bible, is I get led other places (I'm also more knowledgeable than I was last year).  So our list this year will vary a bit from last year (I got most of the references last year from a book, can't remember the title).  I will list them as we do them, in case we veer off our course again.

Here is what we have so far - 

virgin birth - Isaiah 7:14

despised and rejected - Isaiah 53:2-3

stone of stumbling - Isaiah 8:14-15

born in Bethlehem - Micah 5:2 (At this point I decided to try to keep them in chronological order)

out of Egypt - Hosea 11:1 (This one was neat because I could show my son that many verses have more than one meaning.  This one refers back to Israel's exodus from Egypt, but also forward to Christ.)

betrayed - Psalm 41:9 (Again, this one refers to Ahithophel betraying David, but also Judas betraying Jesus.)

suffering - Psalm 22

beaten and killed - Isaiah 53:4-9

no bone to be broken - Psalm 34:20 & John 19:31-36

as a lamb without spot - Exodus 12:5, John 1:29-41, I Peter 1:19 and we talked about Matthew 4

rises from the dead - Psalm 16:10 & John 20:1-18

bring salvation to the whole world - Isaiah 49:6

returning one day - Acts 1:11  (This is where I'm glad I didn't list all the verses at the beginning because this verse didn't come to me until I opened up my Bible to read--I was going to read from I Thessalonians.)

fights enemies - Isaiah 63:1-6

reign on the throne of David forever - Luke 1:32-33

Well, this is our completed list.  I am much happier this year with the retention and interest level of my son.  This makes me want to do a similar study of the verses that give detail about the family of the Messiah, starting in Genesis 3:15 (some call this the scarlet thread).  I think that for now we will get back to our character study of God.

Character

I'm going to reach back a bit and fill in some gaps.  With my 3rd grade son this year I decided to study various character aspects of God.

What you think of God will have a big impact upon your life.  What does God's Word have to say about His character?

I sat down and listed all the character qualities I could think of and then researched each one.  We spent a few weeks on each one.

I had my son take certain notes so that it would help the information stick in his mind.  If kids are doing something with the information they are learning it will help them retain it better.  Now he has that notebook to refer back to, also, and refresh his memory.

For each character quality I had him copy the definition out of the dictionary (one day) and then copy down a theme verse (separate day).  Then each day I would read him a Bible story that illustrated that quality, he then kept a list of the stories on his notebook page.

Our first character aspect was faithful.  The theme verse was Hebrews 10:23 "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful."  I found various stories of God making a promise to someone and keeping that promise.  The ones we read were -  Noah (promised to preserve from the flood), Abraham (promised a son), Peter & John, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego; Paul (God promised him he would go to Rome, we read all the stories of how God kept him from harm so he could get to Rome, including a shipwreck).

Then I thought we would cover some of the promises in God's Word that He is faithful to perform (Jer. 1:12 & Is. 55:11).  I looked up various verses about - protection, provision, strength, healing, joy, wisdom, and peace.

I know there are many more that I didn't find.  Each day we covered a separate promise and I had my son list all the scripture references in his notebook so that he could use it as a reference whenever he needed.

Next we learned that God is our Healer.  Our theme verse was Ex. 15:26 "I am the Lord who heals you."  We went through all four gospels (and the beginning of Acts) and picked out every single story on healing that we found.  I had my son write down each reference each day so that he could have it as a reference.

Next was God our Deliverer.  Theme verses were Psalm 91:14-15 "Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.  He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him."  We read stories of deliverance - Gideon, Jacob & Esau, Moses in the basket, the Israelites from Egypt, Deborah the Judge, Rahab in Jericho, Israel from Balaam's curse, Samson, David from Goliath, David from Saul, Shadrach, Meshach & Abed-Nego, and Daniel in the lion's den.

Next was God our Provider.  Theme verse Philippians 4:19 "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."  Story of creation (order of importance, man was created last so that everything he needed was already here), Elijah and the ravens, Elijah and the widow, manna, water from the rock, Book of Ruth, feeding the thousands (loaves and fishes), consider the sparrows and the lillies/do not worry passage, tax money from a fish, David provided with the showbread to eat, Goliath's sword for a weapon, and a hiding place for his family, when on the run from Saul; and Joseph and his family during famine.

This brings us up to date (we did character qualities from July through October).  We have taken a bit of a detour (because I was lazy and didn't research a new character quality) and read through some Psalms and Proverbs (month of November) and are now on a prophecy kick.  See later posts for details.