consider

This week we begin worship with:

Hebrews 10:24-25

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

This verse asks us to focus, not on ourselves, but on others. And that focus is not one way but reciprocal. 

The word “consider” (katanoeō) requires us to swing our eyes off ourselves, off our devices, off the distractions of the world, and onto people, and specifically believers. We are to do this to “one another” (allēlōn).  This word is a beautiful word, which takes two individuals and makes them mutually responsible for each other. 

Tonight, a group of us volunteer at Camp-of-the-Woods to run the TeePee, which is a gathering spot for guests after concerts and services. We scoop icecream, so that all the staff can have an opportunity to worship together. Collectively it is a highlight of our week.  Leading up to it we greet each other with “You going to be there Sunday?” or “See you tonight?”.  We gather, we pray, and we love on each other and the guests.

Where is your focus?  Who are you encouraging?

keep

 This week we begin worship with:

John 15:9-11

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

God first loved us.  That truth is under all of scripture.  God loved us before He made us.

Ephesians 1:4b-5

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, . . .

That love is un-ending.

Deuteronomy 7:9

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, . . .

Even if we slip up, it does not change.

2 Timothy 2:13

if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself. 

It has been observed that John never used the word "faith", he always used the active word "believe".  To remain in that place of joy, our task is to actively "keep" His commandments.  Inaction separates us from the joy God intends.

Let

 This week we begin worship with:

Ephesians 4:31-32

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

This comes at the end of Paul’s instruction to live the new life we have been given. 

Ephesians 4:22-24

. . . to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

We are to put off the old and, yes we are to put on the new, but let us never forget that in order for that to be even possible there must be something new!  And it is God “in the spirit” who has done that renewal.  And being renewed in that way the new self takes on the very “likeness of God”.

Guys know this experience.  It is like putting on a well tailored suit. It simply fits. The old pattern doesn’t. The new pattern does.  

In fact, it fits so well, that our text for the week is passive. We don’t put away “all bitterness . . .”, we “let” it be put away.  Enjoy the fit. The new self looks good on you. 

shine

 This week we begin worship with:

1 John 3:2-3

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

We are already a child of God and we have been taught to call Him, "Heavenly Father" (Matthew 6:9-13).  But we have not received our new body, for we have not yet suffered death like Jesus, and we have not yet heard our name calling us anew from the grave.  When that does occurs we will then be "like him" in body:

Philippians 3:20-21

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

What makes us "like him"?  The word "because" in this week's verse explains that this happens because we will "see him as he is".  His absolute purity is transformative and will be glorified by it.

Isaiah 60:1,19

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 

The sun shall be no more

    your light by day,

nor for brightness shall the moon

    give you light;

but the Lord will be your everlasting light,

    and your God will be your glory.

But between now and then we have been given a task ("purifies himself").  Our actions today should already start to reflect that future glory:

2 Corinthians 3:15-18a

Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 

Each morning my mother would come to my room and wake me with a cheerful "Arise and shine".  Thanks, Mom. 

infinite

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 147:5-6

Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.

The LORD lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.

I prefer the King James "infinite" (KJV).  His power and understanding is not simply beyond our ability to measure, it has no end.

Then what is incredible is what God does with that infinite capacity, He shares it with those dependent on Him.

For it is that dependence is the entrance requirement for the Kingdom of God:

Matthew 5:3

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

relents

This week we begin worship with:

Joel 2:12-13

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,

    “return to me with all your heart,

with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

    and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Return to the Lord your God,

    for he is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;

    and he relents over disaster.

Last week we came to understand that God cannot change (James 1:17). Yet this week we are told that God “relents” (nāḥam). The word is passive and has been translated “repenteth Him of evil” (KJV). God is not changing we are. 

So, the course of our destiny changes as we turn from our wickedness and into the arms our gracious Lord!

will

 This week we begin worship with:

Numbers 23:19

God is not man, that he should lie,

    or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

    Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

When quizzed one might stumble to start a sentence with "God can't . . .".  But this verse calls out two things that are so deep in God's character that we do go past "won't" to "can't".

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

God is not simply truthful, God is truth, out of which a lie cannot come.

1 John 1:5
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

James 1:17 
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

God is not simply unchanging, God is light, light so pervasive, He cannot produce a shadow.  No part of creation, no part of us, escapes His celestial light and that cannot change.

answered

 This week we begin worship with:

Matthew 4:3-4

And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command

these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man

shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of

God.’”

When Satan demanded proof for His divinity, Jesus instead responded with His humanity.  Instead of using His divinity to end a 40-day fast, Jesus refused.

When Satan demanded proof of the Father's power and asked Jesus to test the Father's ability to save Him from a fall, Jesus refused to put the Father to the test.

When Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship.  Jesus refused to alter His relationship with the Father.

These are not vague statements.  They are rigid, prepared, fixed, immovable, non-negotiable.

May we be as prepared and determined and direct in response to our next temptation.

within

This week we begin worship with:

Jeremiah 31:33

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,

declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their

hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

To understand this verse we must read:

2 Corinthians 3:3

And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

God by indwelling of the Holy Spirit moves the law from external to internal and from “don’t” to “do”.

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

When Jesus explained the Law, He used the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).  May His concluding words ring in our ears “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37b).

renewal

 This week we begin worship with:

Romans 12:2-3

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

 

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Yes, our transformation is because of our renewal.  But recall please the conclusion of the first eleven chapters (Romans 11:36).  Our renewal is God’s doing, not ours, and it is already done. To underscore this, the Greek word for “renewal” (anakainōsei) is a noun and not a verb.  It is a completed thing and not something still necessary to do. 

So, we are not being asked to renew our own mind.  We are simply being asked to use it.  

Pirates bite gold coins.  We hold $100 bills up to the light.  We delete emails that ask for our social security number.   We are not locating God’s will as if it is elusive and secretive.  We are being asked to reject choices that are simply not part of His revealed will.  

We use our renewed mind to discern (dokimazō) what is and what is not the will of God. Translators have used the words “test” and “prove”.  But dokimazō is not experimental.  It is analytical and observational with its root words having to do with the eyes.  There is no need to taste poison.

Spirit

This week we begin worship with:

John 7:37-38

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If

anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the

Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

By the time of the Second Temple, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) (Leviticus 23:33–43; Numbers 29) had grown to include the Water Drawing Ceremony or Simchat Beit HaShoavah.  

Each morning of the seven-day feast, a priest would go to the Pool of Siloam, draw a golden pitcher of water, return through the Water Gate, to the temple and pour water and wine over the altar (Mishnah Sukkah 4:9–10).  

This was a time of great rejoicing and the acknowledgement of God’s provision through rain with music, dance, torches, and celebration that lasted through the nights of the festivals. 

Prayers for the next year’s rain would begin with the Amidah prayer on Shemini Atzeret (the day after Sukkot).  For it would we inconvenient for it to rain while dwelling in booths!

Recall please the Woman at the Well (John 4:1-42) who had to draw the water from such a great depth, to whom Jesus offered Living Water.

John 4:10

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

This echoes the effort of the priest drawing the water from the distant Pool of Siloam, which was a 20-minute procession with about a 400-foot elevation change.

Jesus, in this way, continues to press the Gospel.  Faith, rather than misguided effort, would unleash God’s blessing of Spirit-filled and eternal life -- "the gift of God" (John 4:10).

Fortunately for us, John explains who is the "Living Water".

John 7:39

Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

For those that have a moment, please read Galatians 5:16-26:

It has three sections: 

• The works of the flesh: things we should never do as part of the temple of God.
• The fruit of the Spirit: things that flow out of us over the thresholds of that temple (Ezekiel 47:1-12)
• The footprints of the Spirt: cautions that keep the mortar tight be-tween each brick that makes up the temple.