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Jesus the Counterfeiter

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Imagine you were walking through the mall this past weekend, and you noticed one of those mall kiosks with the following sign:

Bob’s Certified Driver’s Licenses

Too young to drive? No Problem. State License revoked? Get back on the road!

My Licenses Get YOU back on the road TODAY

You go up to the guy manning the Kiosk and ask who Bob is.

He says, “I’m Bob.”

“So…. are these Fake IDs?” you ask.

“No,” he replies. “They are real IDs. They are real Driver’s Licenses, but instead of being issued by the state, they are issued by me.”

“But wait,” you say. “You cannot just hand out driver’s licenses to anyone. People have to learn how to drive! What if you are giving licenses to people who had theirs taken away for drunk driving? This is dangerous! You are selling unauthorized licenses, and people are going to get killed!”

As you talk further, you find out he is a bit disgruntled with the way the state controls the Driver’s Licenses, and wants to create a new way for more people to drive. At one point, you think this is just some sort of get-rich-quick scam of his, and you ask how much he is charging for these “licenses” but he says they are free. He doesn’t charge a dime. You ask if the State Police recognize his licenses, and he says, “No yet. But eventually we will create our own Police Force that will. Until then, you might get a few tickets for driving without a license.”

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Through the Winter

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The following comes from Tom Davis of Children’s Hope Chest. Since I love CS Lewis and Narnia, and I have a passion for helping orphans around the world, I thought I would pass it on to you.

Children's Hope Chest

“Aslan is on the move.”

That is one of my favorite lines from C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Those five simple words inspire the inhabitants of Narnia. They know the true King has returned to break the power of the White Witch and end winter in Narnia.

Aslan is on the move to end another winter…the cold winter of the soul experienced by orphans in Russia.

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Church is the Lord of Man

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Lord of the Church

In the days of Jesus, the Mosaic Law ruled nearly aspect of people’s lives. One of the central elements of the Mosaic Law was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was considered to be one of the defining characteristics of the covenant relationship between God and Israel.

The Sabbath was so central, it was thought that if all Jews could perfectly keep the Sabbath just one time, the Messiah would immediately arrive.

Lord of the Sabbath

So it was quite shocking to most Jews when Jesus taught His followers to violate some of the Sabbath traditions (but not the Law itself), and even said that “Sabbath was made for man; not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27), and that “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5).

In my Commentary on Luke 6:1-5, I suggest that while the term “Son of Man” does refer primarily to Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus also used the phrase in reference to all humanity which was being renewed in Him. The title “Son of Man” refers to Jesus as the model human; the way humanity was supposed to be.

So whenever you read the term, “Son of Man” you can substitute in the following phrase, “I, and all humanity with me.”

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Straight to the Pastor’s Pocket

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Temple sacrificesPart of the purpose of the sacrificial system in the Hebrew Scriptures was to provide for the priests when they had no other means of providing for themselves. As I have indicated previously, many of them had “jobs” in their home towns, which provided food and clothing for themselves and their families, but when they went to serve in the Temple for two weeks a year, part of the meat of the sacrifices went to feed the priests.

In other words, the sacrificial system was partially intended to meet the physical needs of others who would have gone hungry otherwise.

Yet historians and archaeologists tell us that in the days of Jesus, the Temple Priesthood had come to own acres and acres of wheat fields. And since the wheat from these fields was consecrated and holy to the Lord, the priests hoarded it all for themselves and for the other temple workers. The average person was not holy enough to eat it. Furthermore, due to a complex system of money-changing, sacrificial inspection policies, and heavy taxation by the Temple (called a Tithe), some of the priests in the days of Jesus had become quite wealthy. Furthermore, they had leveraged the religious laws to make themselves even more rich by requiring ever-increasing tithes and offerings from the people.

Isn’t it sad that the laws which were originally intended to help the priests who had very little, eventually were used to help the priests amass wealth for themselves from people who already had very little to begin with.

The situation had reversed, but the laws had not, and so the Priests continued to use the laws to their own advantage, at the expense of other people. When the poor and hungry came and brought their tithes and offerings, while the rich religious rulers took it all, and gave nothing but a blessing and a prayer in return.

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You are Not Alone

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I don’t know if it is just because of the economic and social problems of our country, or where I work, or because I deal with it myself, but I am encountering more and more people who struggle with depression.

In a recent book I read (Engaging the Powers), the author suggested that such a response is natural in light of the ever-increasing tide of natural catastrophes and human tragedies that are paraded before our eyes on Television and the Newspapers on a daily basis. The human soul can only bear so much pain, and those who are more sensitive to the suffering in the world, will experience increasing struggles with bouts of fear, anxiety, anger, and depression.

I don’t know if this is correct or not, but one thing I do know: If you are suffering from depression, you are not alone.

I say this not to depress you further, but to let you know that there are others out there who feel the same way, and who struggle with the same things, and one way to cope with your own depression is to connect with others who also struggle with it, to learn from them, help them, and be encouraged by them.

There is a new book coming out in October called Not Alone, edited by Alise Wright, which will help in this way.

Not Alone by Alise Wright

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Spread the Wealth to Provide Food for the Hungry

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I’m not poor. In fact, Sam, who writes at GraceGround, recently directed me to a Photo Essay called “Where Children Sleep,” which showed me how unbelievably rich I really am.

A huge question in my life right now is how I can “share the wealth” with those who have less than I.

Feed the World

I know this is a huge political issue right now as many on the political left are saying that it is the responsibility of the rich to “spread the wealth around and give their fair share” while those on the right are saying, “Stay out of my pocket so I can create jobs.”

This is not a political blog, and I do not have a solution. But one thing I do think is that it should never be the government’s responsibility to provide for the poor and hungry. This is the church’s responsibility. And somewhere along the way, the government decided to get involved, and the church was only too happy to let them, because this freed up more money for big buildings, and better salaries.

Ok. I’m getting cynical again. Let me back up and start over…

I’m not poor. I think one of the things God calls us to do as followers of Jesus is help provide for those who are poor and hungry. And the world is full of people who need our help.

But the question is “How”?

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God does not want your bread

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Feast of Firstfruits

In my Commentary on Luke 6:1-5, I wrote the following about the grain offering that was brought into the Temple at that time of year:

Two things are unique about this offering.

First, it is the only offering that is presented to the Lord with leaven. Leaven, or yeast, is always a symbol for sin in Scripture, and so no other offering ever contained leaven.

Second, this was the only offering that was prepared and shaped by the hands of men. Every other time, when grain or an animal was brought into the temple as an offering, it was offered just as it was. Yes, the grain might be roasted over a fire, and the animal would be slaughtered before it too was roasted, burned, or boiled, but no other actions of forming, shaping, or molding the offerings were to be performed. Only the two loaves on the Feast of Weeks were formed in such a way.

What I did not address is the purpose, symbolism, and application of this unique offering. Let me attempt to do so here.

The Purpose of this Offering

There are multiple purposes for the various sacrifices and offerings that were given to God in the Temple. This offering was to thank God for the first portion of the harvest, and show trust in Him for the remainder. In agrarian societies, bad weather or invaders could quickly ruin your harvest, and so many would quickly store and save the first portion of the harvest, and then later, as the harvest became more bountiful, give of the bounty to whatever deity they worshiped.

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Should Philosophy Guide our Theology?

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C. Marvin Pate From Plato to JesusDid you know that much of our modern theology is founded upon philosophical ideas from Aristotle and Plato? Lots of people assume that our beliefs come primarily from the Bible, but when you actually start to study the history of how Christian doctrine was developed, you discover clear statements from numerous members of the early church who developed these beliefs, that they were trying to synthesize Greek Philosophy and Biblical Teaching.

They took the Bible in one hand, and the ideas of Aristotle and Plato in the other, and put the two together to develop our Christian beliefs.

There were some Early Church Fathers who did not think this was wise and argued against such a combining of Biblical teaching and Greek Philosophy. Once such person was Tertullian, who made the famous statement:

What is there in common between Athens and Jerusalem? What between the Academy and the Church? What between heretics and Christians? …Away with all projects for a “Stoic,” a “Platonic,” or a “dialectic” Christianity! After Christ Jesus we desire no subtle theories…

Martin Luther shared the same feelings toward philosophy, calling it “the Devil’s whore.”

I have often agreed with these sentiments. I have often wanted to get back to the Bible, to just what the Scriptures teach, to strip theology from the pagan philosophical influences that have crept in over the years.

But recently, I have come to realize that this is simply not possible. Any attempt to strip theology of the pagan influences of the past, we will only replace it with cultural and philosophical influences of today — which might possibly be worse.

And aside from being impossible, stripping philosophy out of theology might also be undesirable. I have recently been challenged in one of the books I read to think of philosophy as a form of divine revelation.

The book was From Plato to Jesus by C. Marvin Pate.

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Toppling the Domination System

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Walter Wink Powers TrilogyI am always looking for books that challenge the way I read Scripture and follow Jesus. “The Powers” Trilogy by Walter Wink has certainly done both.

I previously read and reviewed the first two books in the Trilogy:

The third book in the series is Engaging the Powers. Of the three books, it may be the most practical, though the other two lay the biblical and theological groundwork for the ideas in this book. Unless you read the first two, the ideas of this book may sound outlandish, unsupported, and even extreme.

For example, in previous studies, Wink showed from cultural background studies of key texts in Scripture that certain Greek words might be translated in ways that better reflect the spiritual worldview of the authors, rather than our modern scientific worldview. Take the following words for example:

Greek Word
kosmos
basileia
aion
zoe aionion
hamartolos
sarx
Scientific
world
kingdom
the age
eternal life
sinner
flesh, sin nature
Spiritual
domination system
new reality (of God)
the age of domination
the new age of life
one who misses the point of life
dominated existence

Reading the Gospels and the letters of Paul and Peter with these sorts of translations in mind provide a much different picture to their message than what is traditionally taught.

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The New Breed of Church Planters

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I agree with Swanny that “church planters” may not be the best term for “church planters” but since “church planters” call themselves “church planters,” and so far, I don’t know another name to call them (apostles? blech. missionaries? meh.), I will go with “church planters.”

New Breed of Church Planter

Whatever they are, there does seem to be a new form of them appearing around the world right now. Sure, many are still doing it the “old” way, where they raise $300,000 and purchase state-of-the-art sound equipment, do lots of radio and TV advertisements, and try to make a big splash in the community. But the new breed of church planters focus on completely different things.

They want to plant churches for unchurched people, and especially for those who will not ever go to a traditional church. They want to spend time with people who don’t want to sing Christian songs, share prayer requests, and listen to someone teach the Bible for 45 minutes. This new breed of church planters love hanging out with people who use use foul language and have bad habits. They are not afraid of questions from people who aren’t sure there is a God. They don’t run away from people who sin a lot, and sin blatantly.

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