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.

 

 

true

 This week we begin worship with:

Hebrews 10:19-22

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Recall please that the consequence for the high priest of improper preparation or performance in the Holy of Holies was death (Leviticus 16:2,13; Exodus 28:35).  It is with that terrifying background that the author of Hebrews tells us that we should have confidence when we approach!

Our confidence is not in what we are or have done, but instead in what our Lord Jesus Christ is and has done. He is the “great high priest over the house of God”.

But note, we are approaching with a “true” (alēthinos) heart, not a “pure” (katharos) heart.  We can approach confidently with our “evil conscience” because He has successfully and perfectly cleansed it (past tense!).

Recently I told the Grandchildren in jest to be careful and only brush the teeth they want to keep.  This verse tells us to be careful and only confess to God what we want forgiven. Let’s be true with Him. 

heart

This week we begin worship with:

1 Samuel 16:7

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

The depth of God’s gaze is illustrated by David’s charge to Solomon:

1 Chronicles 28:9

“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

The heart is deeper than simply a “willing mind”.  With God it is not “the thought that counts”!

Paul experienced this:

Romans 7:22-25

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

But in Christ we are made new and He takes control. 

2 Corinthians 5:14,17
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; . . . Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

 

 

mercy

 This week we begin worship with:

Proverbs 28:13-14

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and

forsakes them will obtain mercy. Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always,

but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

What did Adam and Eve do when they sinned?  They hid.

Genesis 3:8

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 

Hiding it attempts to say to others that the sin is not there.  But when we say that to God, He knows we are wrong.  God really did not have to say:

Genesis 3:9

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

God already knows we need help.  At the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus knew that for 38 years (v. 5) a man had tried to heal himself (v. 7),  But that day Jesus asked:

John 5:6

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

Today, we need to look up from our mat, see Christ's mercy-filled face (rāḥam), and respond, for our verse today tells us that God is always asking 'Do you want to be healed?'.