Bibledoorajar: What Were We Thinking?

     After the Israelites made their escape there were second thoughts on the part of the Egyptians. What in the world were they thinking! Now they had lost access to their longtime slaves.  Emboldened by God to give chase, Pharoah made ready to get the slaves back. Neither the Israelites nor the Egyptians knew what lay before them. The Israelites had taken care to follow all directions. Their feet were shod with shoes and their staffs were in their hand. They had also remembered Joseph's request that he had made in faith---that his bones would also go with them to the Promised Land. Now God had ensured that the leadership remember this request after over 400 years! Let the pilgrimage begin. The pilgrims, leaning on their staffs, set out to go through country they had never seen before. But none of it was to be their permanent dwelling. They were to keep walking toward the Promised Land.
     Christians are often reminded that this world is not our home. It is the rod and staff of God that comfort us as we pilgrimage toward our permanent dwelling. The Word is a great comfort to us on the way. We encourage each other to keep walking. What we may walk through looks (and is) hopeless but by faith we keep moving on. Along the way God places in our paths things and events that buoy our hope to keep walking.
     We learn in Deuteronomy that the whole time the Israelites were walking their shoes and clothing never wore out. This was God's assurance that they could keep walking. There in their houses they had applied the blood to their doorposts with hyssop and waited til morning to start their journey. We, too, have applied the blood of Christ symbolically to our lives and have started our journey. Like our Israelite brothers our walk began with our purchase by the l(L)amb. The apostle Paul challenges us not to quit but to finish just as Moses encouraged the Israelites. There is supernatural help to do so because, after all, "there is power, power, precious power in the blood of the Lamb."

Bibledoorajar: What Does It All Mean?

     As the children of Israel grabbed their unleavened bread, herded their flocks and gathered their families to move out, they were told to continue having the Feast of Passover. And when the Feast provoked questions  among their children as to its' meaning they were asked to always explain the meaning to them. Thus, going out from the completion of the Feast, Israelites had an assurance about their righteous God who intervened in their need and saved and redeemed them for His own. That was the path that they and their children were to walk in. It would be assuring and a confidence builder in their God who loved them and provided for them in their need. It was something they would know and on which their hope would anchor.

     Yesterday in worship the preacher alluded to the confidence and lack of fear we should have as we go forth having shared the fellowship of the Lord's Supper. He alluded to Phillipians 2:1 ff. in which the Apostle Paul challenged Christians to quantify in their own minds the confidence they had placed in the Son of God. That quantification wiould lead to a given mindset that wiould govern their lives in their families and communities. A righteous God had provided for their need. He had and He would. Share the thought as oft as you meet around the table, Paul said. Examine yourself. Is your quantification of what you have in Christ leading you to a similar mindset as His? Are you telling your children of the importance of that mental exercise? Do you continue to value the Feast Divine?
Reread Phillipians 2: 1ff. this week and praise God for His every provision in Christ.  As you serve and minister this week, remind yourself by what power and in what Name you do so. Is it the same One you confessed you were united with? If so, what does that do with your human fear?

Bibledoorajar: The Boast of God's Provision

     The Israelites had taken a lamb, the lamb, their lamb and slaughtered it and placed its' blood upon their doorposts on the outside of their homes. Their confidence now rested on this aspect of their acceptance of God's freedom process. Their boast to each other was that God would prevent the destroyer from doing any damage to their firstborn through the blood on the doorposts.  But they were also supposed to carry out a provision on the inside of their houses too. They were to roast their lamb's flesh with fire and eat the flesh with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Thus, not only would they be saved but they would have the strength that food gives to begin the journey that lay before them.

We have small unbaptized children in our family who closely observe the believers partaking of the communion. They do not completely understand what God has appropriated for us in the feast nor do they yet have a great appreciation for the fellowship and community that we enjoy as we partake. We try to teach them that the focus is on Jesus. That He is the Lamb of God and the Bread of Life. Each week we get sustained; He gets honored. I so do not want them to miss the significance of the death that brings life. It is, after all, not the hero view of the young. The hero never dies! To them the play hero that they may hold in their hands even during the communion service holds greater power to ward off those who would want to harm them. And yet we continue to teach that that dead Lamb would live again and would become the basis for the greatest boast of all for believers.

      "Our confidence, even our boast, is in the perfection of another, in him 'who makes men holy,' making us chidren in the family of God and infinitely precious to Him."

                                                                                                Hebrews 2:11

My prayer for our children in 2016 is that this great boast will not just be a dry doctrine, but that they will embrace the whole truth of God's great love for us and that that great love led Him to come to us in our great need. They need that powerful food!

Bibledoorajar: Seismic Changes

     With the Passover came changes in perception of the chosen lambs. First God told the households to single out a lamb. Then the word of God said the lamb was to be without blemish. Then the lamb was referred to as your lamb, a male of the first year.  These changes are earthshaking in purport or the progressive meaning conveyed. A fully virile male lamb was to die for the household. There was to be salvation and peace through no other lamb and the truth of it being God's but also theirs had to be embraced. The truth of it. The truth of it was that God was going to look upon the shed blood of "their" singled out lamb and spare the household. They needed faith to lay hold of such a great truth.

     Many years later, John the Baptist said to the Jews, "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world".  Jesus was singled out.  The truth that He was the One who pleased God to carry out the act of salvation had to be believed and received in faith. Jesus was described by Peter as "a lamb without blemish or spot". Jews hearing these words would immediately hearken back to the Passover which they had been celebrating for years and to the prophecies of the Old Testament about the coming Redeemer. But the truth had to be believed and their faith had to lay hold of such a great truth.

     As a sign, the world which had been marking time in various ways such as "in the reign of or in the time of such and such Pharoah, etc., whould now mark time BC and AD. The truth of the Lamb of Jesus being able to become our Lamb would be forever established in how civilizations marked time. A man named Lew Wallace did not believe it and set about to research and write a book denying it. While in the midst of writing the first chapters, the Holy Spirit overcame him and broke through his disillusionment. He fell to his knees at the foot of the cross and embraced the unblemished Lamb. He later wrote Ben Hur: A tale of Christ, a film that is still being viewed and that is still impacting the lives of people everywhere. Seismic changes wrought by God. Praise Him.

Bibledoorajar: Angel Types

God told Moses to have the people place the blood of His lambs on their doorposts and when He passed through He would not allow death to strike their firstborn. Later the Word says He said He would prevent the destroying from being able to come into their homes. I personally am not sure if this"destroying" was an angel or not, even though I have heard that all my life. Whatever its' force, God was going to keep it from killing the firstborn of all the Israelis. The Bible does not say that some of the Jews did not anoint their doorposts. That is a very good thing. It reflects that even though they surely did not understand everything that was happening, they believed God's words and acted on it.

At this season of the year, we think of another type of angelic visitor. When Gabriel appeared to the scared young virgin, Mary,  he assured her with "Greetings". He was not a part of any destructive process. He was there to bring reassurance to her. To her credit, she believed and her future actions reflected her belief. He was there to let her know that she was about to spread a light in the world that would retreat our most extraordinary Christmas light displays into nothingness. If we believe and act, He will block the destroying and greet us calling us His friends. Wow!

Thank God for all the other worldly beings that do His bidding. I am reminded that we should be alert in our comings and goings for at any time we could be entertaining an angel unaware. I wonder what his or her duty(ies) would be? How customized to your needs does your God get? Well, anyway. best to believe and to be nicer to all we encounter during this Season and New Year. Right?

Bibledoorajar: Trusting in God's Lamb

It would be wrong to conclude that things were so much better for the Israelites even though their freedom process had begun. Actually, many of them still worshipped the gods of Egypt. And, when Pharoah learned that Moses did indeed plan to lead them out of his land, he increased their work burdens. They were a miserable lot, many of them, complaining about their misery. God, of course, heard all their miserableness. The Word does not say they cried out to Him for help, but nevertheless, He heard. And He remembered an important thing. He remembered the covenant He had made with Abraham. His covenant would be honored no matter the poor response of the sinners in Egypt, both Israelites and Egyptians. Justice and mercy would be served in and at the same time. Thus, we are introduced again to the unblemished lamb (first to Abraham) that was to be selected unto God. The lamb was unto God first and then to the people who put their trust forward and obeyed God's command of process. The unblemished lamb was to be killed and its' blood placed on the doorposts of every Israelite household. This unblemished lamb would provide a difference between those people and the Egyptians and thus God would extend mercy and justice at the same time. Thank God He had a plan for the lamb because the sinful Israelites had certainly done nothing to demonstrate moral superiority over the Egyptians!

Today, some men and women cannot understand how God can be merciful and carry out justice of a severe nature at the same time. They do not grasp the role of the Lamb that God said was chosen first unto Him and then to those who believe. They refuse to believe that God has established a difference. But He has. He did it before the foundation of the world when He established that His own Son would be the Lamb unto God given for all who believe.  God chose the Lamb and He chose us (See Ephesians 1: 4). We owe everything we have if we are believers to God who regarded our sinful state.

We are in that season of the year, when we acknowledge the first earthly step that Lamb made for us. He left His heavenly estate and was born a human being of a virgin unto God. And He grew up in the wisdom and stature of the Lord unto us. He is the perfect Teacher and example. He is the Lamb provided for us. When you look on that nativity scene this year, think---provided by my God first for Himself and then for me. From God's point of view--a perfect process for total freedom.

Bibledoorajar: Aspects of Deliverance

Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

                                                                   Martin Luther King

When Martin Luther King made that statement it was a significant part of a dream of deliverance that he had for his people. Many aspects of freedom had occurred for his people but they were determined to advance toward the goal of total freedom. Such was the case with the Israelites. External bondage would end for them because how can anyone or any people be truly free if enslaved in bondage? However, they were still in the country of Egypt and it was still ruled by the sovereign control of the Pharoah. His sovereignty and control would have to be left behind to be truly liberated. Throughout the plagues God had been reorienting his people to His sovereignty and freedom in Him. They are not long away from joining Him at Mt. Sinai. They were instructed to go to their Egyptian neighbors and other Egyptian citizens and ask to borrow items of value. These borrowed items would be freely given by the power of God and would become the basis of necessary items to furnish their place of worship. Israelites were now not only assuming responsibility for themselves, but taking action on behalf of their community. Surely these efforts helped make the Jews feel freer and more human as they took action for themselves and others. Moses was given special abilities by the Spirit of God to act on behalf of His authority to lead the people through all the steps of deliverance.

When Jesus matured and began to preach He declared that He had been given similar authority. He declared that the Spirit of God was on Him to set the captives free and allow the blind to see their newly found freedom in His Sovereignty. The sovereignty of the ruler of this world could indeed be left behind. We can "borrow" from the world to gain necessary items to furnish our places of worship. We can feel freer as we move in community with each other. Praise God for the special abilities of Christ the King. He is able. Thank God for sending Him during this special Christmas season.