FULLY REDEEMED

Mom and I have lately been listening on the "boob tube" to an old bible teacher, Les Feldick, out of Oklahoma.  Admittedly some points he brings out I disagree with, but, more often than not, his utter simplicity evokes complex thought and discussion between us.  Much like the gospel really.  "The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple."  Ps. 19:7.  

Today's discussion prompted such examinations.  Les pointed to his diagram on the chalkboard (yes, a chalkboard - I told you he was old....82 to be exact and still preaching the word of God!)  He had drawn the familiar three concentric circles:  body, soul, spirit and through them presented the very simple gospel.  I stress simple because we Christians know that its simplicity confounds the wise, yet in truth, the gospel is more complex than any subject we might ever study: the very reason why the 10 commandments become the 200 gazillion do's and dont's of explaining them.  

Likewise complex is the spirit and the soul.  All of us know how very difficult it is to explain the difference between the two.  What are they?  Our emotions?  Our thoughts?  How do you explain a "spirit"?  We can see neither.  God tells us how intertwined the soul and spirit are, how dependent upon each other.  Hebrews 4:12 says "the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."  The Mayo Clinic states that previously it was thought that bone marrow stem cells could only give rise to blood cells, but now they are thinking that bone marrow stem cells may be able to create at least muscle cells.  How intertwined the marrow is to the joint.  Yet God's word is so sharp it can divide the soul from the spirit as easily as it can the joint from the marrow.  

In this, I see a picture of one prompting the next.  The spirit moves me to think or feel something (soul), which moves me to do something (body).  I see it as the spirit directs, the soul processes, the body acts.  Proverbs 3:27 says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so he is,"  (an important variation to René Descartes, "I think, therefore I AM.")  But I would finish it with, "as a man is, so he does."  

I'll make brief here Les Feldicks' points as relates to the gospel as I understand them.  

Every aspect of our being was involved in the curse.  

The spirit.  Now we are confused.  We know both good and evil and both direct our thought processes.  The soul.  What we think and feel are now affected by what we give place to.  

The body.  What we act out is now directed by the former two. 

Romans 3:23  For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (spirit, soul, body)

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets

Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe:  for there is no difference

Ephesians 4:22 Ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Romans 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.  

Romans 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.

John 12:24 Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Romans 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness

If you do a careful reading of the verses above, you'll see that redemption comes full circle.  The spirit that gave Eve direction, caused her to contemplate, and resulted in her wrongful action is totally reversed in the work of Christ where he redeems our Spirit, renews our mind and resurrects our flesh.  Right now we consider ourselves dead to the flesh, but death in total is the last enemy to be conquered.  Since we as Christians have already died so to speak, we can in confidence, say "oh death, where is your sting!"  for we know to live is Christ, but to die is gain.  That's why we can say we are FULLY REDEEMED!  

In light of all this (and I hope that you've followed my convoluted thinking!), it caused me to consider how powerful all the symbols of the Bible are:  marriage, a symbol of Christ and the Church; truth, a shield and buckler; good Shepherd, Jesus; the Ark of the Covenant, Jesus' death, burial and resurrection; communion, Christ's death; baptism, our entrance into the gospel covenant, and on and on.  

I reread the scripture about the kernel of wheat falling to the ground and unless it dies....  and it bothered me.  I know that it is speaking of the spiritual, yet I couldn't help but think that it also was symbolic of hope, and I suddenly thought perhaps cremation is not acceptable to me as a Christian.  I know, I know.  My kids all say, "yes, but doesn't it say, 'dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.'?"  It does.  Yet, as Les Feldick said [paraphrased], "you can leave a seed on a shelf or keep it in a bag, but unless you bury it in the soil, it will not bring forth fruit!"  As I mulled over this, I thought, "yes! and that burial represents my hope that my body shall be resurrected in Christ at some future time." To not bury it, is to state to those mourning my departure that I don't have that hope.  

It's easy in this death-denying world to "outsource" our deaths, but, honestly, being with my father at his death was one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever witnessed.  Without considering it the least bit morbid, I easily could have wrapped his body in linen and anointed him with oil and precious herbs for burial just as easily as it would be as a mother to clean and anoint my newly born child for life.  His burial was so important...and respectful...for the children to see: a visible connection to the cycle of birth and death.  Something so few children see today, even in a garden or lack thereof!  Clearly it makes one examine their own life and mortality.  Contrary to somber, my father's death was a celebration - a time to talk of the hope of resurrection, the hope of being reunited, the hope of Christ's victory over death and our being FULLY REDEEMED.

What do you think?

1 Thessalonians 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Look to Me and Live!

Why are there so many hypocritical Christians? (oh, and I'm not one of them! ha!)

How can anyone believe in a God that condemns? 

How can some just believe in a God that loves?

How can I have faith in a faithless world?

I don't know pat answers to these questions, but I do know a God who speaks through His word over and over again.  Same stories, different "I get it!" moments.  Different not because He is, but because I am ever changing, ever coming to a knowledge of the truth.  

One such moment happened today as I grappled with those questions thrown at me.  I didn't have answers, but I did get a clearer picture of one biblical event with apparent answers to every question - the one where Moses is told to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.  (Numbers 21:8)  

First off, the Israelites were the hypocritical followers.  They said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul hates this light bread;" or, "now that I'm following you, I can't have anything that satisfies my old appetite!"  Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people and many died.  It was commented that, "yeah, see, that's the God I'm talkin' about:  the one that punishes all the time!" and I thought, "yeah, and that's just the problem with punishment, it infers that I can do the time, pay the crime, but in reality, I can't!  Death is at my doorstep - not punishment.  There is nothing, no nothing, I can do to save my life -  once bitten, I die; it's not punishment, folks, it's death.  

But God had a remedy:  make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole - look at it, and LIVE!  

Didn't Christ in John 3:14 compare His death to this very act??? 
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

 I thought, "isn't it strange that He didn't say, 'as Moses lifted up the staff with the serpent on it, I must be lifted up?'"  No!  He compared himself to the serpent!  Because the first step of the cross is to look upon our sin! Which by the way is drawing us to look....  We can't run away; we can't hide.  We must face it!  We must understand that SIN IS DEATH.  I can't paint a pretty picture that, "oh, God is love...."  No, He demands we look upon our sin and.....LIVE!  The opposite of what we'd think:  if I hadn't faced my sin, I'd DIE!  

Now I can philosophize this and become your psychotherapist and say, "you must face your weaknesses," much like the first step of AA is "My name is >>>> and I am an alcoholic," but that is not enough.  And that is why so many people are stuck on feeling condemned, run away from God because they feel condemned, or never have victory over their sin...all they've recognized is sin,  not the Savior who became sin for us.  Thus, when we first come to that place of seeing sin for what it is, many shrink and feel condemned like so many do, and die. ... or we can recognize that he took my sin upon Himself - becoming sin for me. 

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor. 5:21 That is where belief comes in.  Faith.  He has become sin.  He has freed me from death.  He is a God who loves.  I am not condemned. 

"Look to me and live!"

Faith in a faithless world. Life amongst the dead. Will you be deathly satisfied with the sin.....or safely delivered with the Savior?

Pulling My Spiritual Weeds

Ambitious as I was this morning, the weather quickly hampered my intents to weed my garden, plot out the fall vegetables, and coerce my son into mowing the lawn.  The steady onslaught of rain redirected us to some much needed prayer and play time.  The Lord said, "pull some of your spiritual weeds, daughter, the others can wait."

I am so blessed to share these days with my mother, a beacon of light to me during so many of the storms of my life - not as the steady light of a flashlight shining to make clear and definite my path, pointed in the direction I should like to go, but as the light of a lighthouse that fades into and out of view, so focused and concentrated that its light guides me through the most perilous storms to safe harbor.  But in my heart I know she is not that light, Jesus is.  Rather, she is the lens so perfectly designed, composed of multiple panes (pains) of glass fashioned from her own fiery fabrication, meant to strengthen His light and be illumination to other wayward children.

After a particularly wonderful prayer time, mom opened the Bible, as she often does giving the Lord His own voice, to Isaiah 26.  We've been discussing of late (and I'd love to have you all add to this discussion) whether the kingdom of God began physically and spiritually with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 or just spiritually, with the physical yet to manifest after the time of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24) be fulfilled.  Both make sense to me.  I think that we think in time linearly - beginning here, ever marching forward to the end, when I think it is more like a graph with all points culminating at zero - absolute zero as my sister Leanne puts it, with Christ being that point - the beginning and the end.  Well, I can't even grasp that; my mind gets too bogged down.  But I would like to hear your views. 

I Wonder Where the Flowers Is....

My sisters will probably remember the following poem as well as I, having repeatedly scrawled it on binder covers or dividers, scribbling the margin with detailed flowers in various stages of bloom:

Spring is sprung
The grass is ris
I wonder where the flowers is

I'm thinking maybe its prominence on binder covers was designed to aggravate our English teachers.  Well, summer is now thick and I find my flowers wilting in the heat - magnificent blooms now drooping their weary heads, saying, "how long, O Lord [till cooler weather]?"

Like those flowers, my weary head droops at times and I ask the same darn question, "how long, O Lord [till I see you face to face]?"  I get weary of the daily struggles, the routine, the trials that come to strengthen me, and, yes, the absence of my babies, now very grown, and their babies.  Life can be heartbreaking when you make yourself vulnerable to love.

My savior knows my sorrow, as He must have asked, "how long, O man, until you realize I come to save, not condemn."  To the unbeliever, it appears the opposite, seeing instead a religion of laws to be adhered to.  Actually, the law was given to show us who we are apart from God, period.  Believers AND unbelievers don't live in a perfect little world and lawlessness is evidenced, or confirmed within us, with or without the law.  Our reaction to life's trials and love's hurts manifests that our hearts are continually wicked, ultimately serving to advance our own desires, protect our own self-interests.  Mothers Against Drunk Drivers will affirm that actions necessitate laws to bring about restraint, but whether the law is there or not, the action kills!  If you think I'm wrong, just give yourself a few more years.... Just when you think you have perfected love apart from God, you have opportunity to hate.  The law was given to demonstrate that fact!  The world counsels us:  Face Reality!  Thus too the law teaches us:  Face Reality -  I can't love perfectly, I can't always esteem another higher than myself, I can't NOT covet, I can't be God.  I love what my sister always says, "given the strength, a baby would kill for his bottle!" What looks so perfectly innocent and cherubic, would cold-cock me to satisfy his appetite!  That is my nature apart from God, with or without the law that manifests it.

The law declares us guilty.  Confirms our separation from our God. That's all. 

I feel very sorry for you if you remain as such because there is an alternative.  True religion and I'm not talking about the jeans brand.  God himself took on my sentence and gave me a new nature. 

In a nutshell: 
Romans 7:5
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
1 Corinthians 15:56
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
Romans 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Galatians 3:24
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Galatians 3:25
But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

No Ordinary Day

Some days you just wake up thankful to see those you love wake up.  Today my heart aches for the parents and families of two local girls injured (one fatally) in a car accident on their next to last day of school and I think how precious life is; how we need to always remember to say, "I love you."  And how precious our time is together.  In the eternal sense, God tells us to always be prepared.  "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2).   Whether one moment or 80 years is our lifespan, we are in Christ eternal. 

One morning I lingered sipping my coffee at the kitchen table, rolling my thoughts around in my head as I let caffeine stimulate my body to wake up.  Feeling somewhat lonely, wondering if my thoughts were the musings of a simpleton and not inspirations from God, I looked up over my cup to this:

Like a wink of approval, I felt one of those hugs from God, the push that motivated me to move.   This little mutilated candle holder is so like us: broken in the trenches of life, headless, handless, but still standing; a reminder to renew our minds daily and bear fruit fitting to the body of Christ.  Belonging to my daughter, we just couldn't trash this poor little broken man.  Instead he plays a prominent part in our lives; his head changes often, from flowers to fruit, and here a nut (this most peculiarly like me!).  The surprising changes always delight us when our days may seem ordinary. 

And the surprising changes that may come to our days - like kissing someone you love goodbye for perhaps the last time - reminds us to never consider the day ordinary. 

What Must I Do To Be Saved?

Nothing blows my mind more than extremely complicated issues being broken down into simple truths.  As when a teacher enables his student to understand the complexities of his subject;  a tax advisor decodes volumes of tax code into your return; a scientist breaks down our complicated being into a genetic code; or a mediator negotiates amicable compromises.  None of these, however, compare to the disciple Paul summarizing salvation into one simple gospel.
1 Corinthians 15 presents these simple steps to salvation:

vs. 3:  Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures
vs. 4:  He was buried
vs. 4:  He rose again the third day according to the scriptures
vs. 5:  He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve [witness]
vs. 6:  He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once [in case a jury doesn't convince you]
vs. 7:  He was seen of James; then the twelve apostles
vs. 8:  Last of all, seen of me [Paul]
vs. 11 therefore, so we preach and so ye believed.

This is the what and wherefore.  This is it; this is what we believe.  Because He lives, we live.  Because we believe, we preach.  This is the good news in a nutshell.

John 3:16 tells us why and how, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  We try so hard to say, "No, you must repent, you must be baptized, you must go to church on Saturday, you must go to confession every Saturday, you must, you must, you must."  But there is only one absolute must:  In John 11:25-26, Jesus says,  "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"

All the other complicated issues unfold once you believe.  All the works that HE PREPARED for you become clear.  All the rituals that you thought were musts become inward compelling worship.

Satan holds a veil over the unbelievers' eyes, but as my wise mother said this morning:  the Cross rent the veil in two so that you might be witness to the glory of God.  Believe and see.

Can You Handle the Harsh Truth?

Have you ever, like me, thought the God of the Old Testament unduly harsh?  Truthfully, there have been times where I just could not equate the harsh God of the Old Testament with the loving God of the New.  Like my children have to me, I cry to God, "Why must you be so mean?"  In truth, every parent knows how hard it is to train a young child when your discipline looks to them like nothing but a denial of pleasure or a harsh prison term.  "This will hurt you."  "This will cause you sorrow."  "That boy (girl) is bad company."  I can't tell you the times I've said, "When you have your own children, you will understand." I can hear God saying to me, "You are confusing me with sin - My ways are to give you life and keep you from the harshness of sin."

My study in  Beth Moore's "Stepping Up, the Psalms of Ascent" illuminated one such harsh moment in God's dealing with David; in fact, it brought me to absolute tears, realizing the obscure, yet sharp picture of salvation that for 27 years totally eluded me.  I hope I can adequately explain it here.

This is the last week of my study - Day One of Week Six, but the groundwork was laid in the previous lesson in the story of the travels of the Ark of the Covenant.

Constructed by the Israelites according to the command of God, the Ark was the centerpiece of the "portable" temple carried through their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness en route to the promised land of Canaan.  (Just that is a picture of our sojourn).  According to Joshua 18:1, the Ark rested in Shiloh (interpreted peace), Bethel (interpreted worship) - Judges 20:26-27, then Shiloh again, before the Philistines captured the Ark.  The Philistines suffered so with the Ark in their midst, they returned it willingly to the Israelites.

The Philistines brought the Ark to Kiriath-Jearim, where it dwelt for King Saul's entire reign, although, similar to our dusty Bibles on the shelf, Saul never inquired of God there!  David went on to become King of Israel and summoned the Ark to be brought from Kiriath-Jearim to Jerusalem (I Chron. 13:3).  In fact, like that dusty Bible on the shelf, they had to "find" the Ark...Psalm 132:6 states, "we heard of the Ark in Ephratah; we found it in the fields of Jaar," the shortened form of Kiriath-Jearim.

It is obvious that the word of God wasn't deeply known, for the Israelites proceeded to bring the Ark to Jerusalem on an oxcart - not in accordance with God's direction.  When the Ark toppled, Uzzah reached out to steady it, and ZAP!  The Lord killed him instantly.  How harsh!  Uzzah certainly believed he was doing the right thing! 

When David saw God's harshness, he feared God (I Chron. 13:12), and feared bringing the Ark home, instead sending it to the home of Obed-Edom who for three months was incredibly blessed by God's presence.  This blessing caused David to desire to know the Lord's word and, according to I Chron. 15, he then inquired and properly executed God's method of carrying the Ark back to the City of David.

So where is this picture of salvation that so floored me in this reading?
 
The Ark was God's own designated dwelling place among his people.  It was His way and our directed way to approach Him.  Uzzah symbolizes that whatsoever is not of faith is sin (faith in God's way).  Sin always results in death.  Foolishly we also think many roads can lead to God or we can approach God by our own methods - we want to do it our own way, which sometimes seems so much easier!  But our own good works won't bring us to God.  The Philistines were not killed when they carried the Ark by oxcart.  Why not?  They were outside the promises.  The Ark didn't apply to them.  Just as we were aliens to the promises of God, and much like I Corinthians 1:18, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 

When David first found the Ark in Ephrathah, and with all good intentions used his own means to obtain it,  God said, "No, David, there is only ONE way to approach me."  David Jeremiah, that sweet preacher from San Diego, recently said and I'm paraphrasing, "in other religions your works must be perfect, or the giving of your life earns you favor, or the sacrifice of your son to God is a high honor, but in Christianity, God did the impossible - He reached out and said, 'No, I will give my son for you.'"  The bloody sacrifice of God's own Son is the only redeeming method of obtaining grace.  David must have been reminded of Proverbs 14:12:  "There is a way that seems right to man, but the end thereof is death."

Harsh enough?  Many disciples thought so too when they responded to Jesus's command, "unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you" with, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"  John 6.


And so we run from God in fear, not realizing that this fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. David ran - he sent the Ark to the house of Obed-Edom.  This reminded me too that this event was akin to the door being opened to the Gentile as well as the Jew,  as Obed-Edom was an uncircumcised Philistine Gittite, the same tribe as Goliath!  In other words, David said, "Take back the Ark, I can't handle it!"  But he observed over three months that instead of death, he saw blessings on the house of Obed-Edom.  What is this hard thing, Lord?  How must I be saved?  David had his priests search the scriptures to determine what sin they committed and by what proper means they were to carry the Ark.  Remember, the Ark of the Covenant was God's chosen means of dwelling among his people.  

The Ark contained the law given to Moses, along with Aaron's rod (life out of death), and a pot of manna (the means - bread of life).  The top of the Ark was known as the mercy seat and at both ends a cherubim knelt with its wings spread in an arch fashion over the seat.  As Christians we know that Christ came to satisfy the law and conquer death, to give us new life through the acceptable sacrifice of his body, and act as the mercy seat - the only mediator between God and man.  John 20:12 says, "and [Mary] saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot." Sound familiar?  If you entered Jesus's tomb, well-versed in the Old Testament, might you not immediately have recognized the tomb was fashioned like the mercy seat?  That the contents of the Ark might have been the obvious references Jesus made to himself being the Bread of Life come down from heaven and that no man comes to the father but by me?  Might his resurrection make you realize his victory over sin and death?  or how about this little fact that took me a trifle 27 years to see?  That David sought the Ark from Ephratah.

Micah 5:2  "Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; One will come from you to be ruler over Israel for Me.  His origin is from antiquity, from eternity."

Luke 2:15, 10-11 "...Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem....and the angel said, "Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David [Bethlehem Ephrathah], a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."

The Ark of the Covenant David found in Ephrathah is none other than the Lord Jesus the wise men found in Eprhathah [Bethlehem].  We carry the Ark today, by the manner of approach prescribed by God, within our hearts - His chosen dwelling place.  That Ark is the Lord Jesus Christ.   I am in awe of Him.   

I love this ponderous photo of my grandson.

Feasting on the Sweetness of the Lord

So maybe I'm not a goalie after all.  I intended to publish at least the daily reading everyday for anyone (if there IS anyone else reading this) to follow, but I don't even seem to be able to do that.  Problem is, spring has sprung, and the gardening chores have consumed what would be my writing time.....I'm trying to seriously stay reading though.  I've also been trying to keep up the Beth Moore study Psalms of Ascent, just finishing the 3rd chapter.  I was amazed upon re-reading my last post how the theme (shadow) has carried through in this study also.  I closed last post with a cry to the Lord to help me to see him, and tonight I echo what mom & I said earlier in the day that so many people just flippantly read the Bible without seeing!  Once you recognize Jesus in the New Testament as God, you see him everywhere in the Old Testament as Jesus. 

I'm actually drawing from the end of Chapter 2 in Psalms of Ascent,  here we're seeing Jesus in the feasts.  I know my kids are always asking why God in the Old Testament was so....bloody, harsh.  In order for us to KNOW the effect of sin (death, eternal separation from God), we must see and feel the effect of sin.  In order for sin to be done away with, the punishment of sin must be upheld.  The bloody sacrifice shows us that sin is death, sin is to be dealt with, and the results of sin not dealt with are destruction.  Lev. 17:11 says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul."  The flesh is not eternal.  The soul is eternal.  How can we picture an eternity separated from God without the representation of the terrible destruction of life?  Sin is the ugly taskmaster.  The sacrifice demonstrated its effect and foreshadowed God who would provide himself the lamb (Gen. 22:8) because, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin (Heb. 10:4).  He in his mercy, became that sacrifice once for all, taking our place - the scapegoat, upon whom the full effect and wrath of God fell - then turned around and told us we were free in him!  Reminds me of Braveheart, "FREEDOM!"  or in Jesus' words, "It is FINISHED!"

So parallel Christ's death and resurrection with the Feasts of Leviticus.

The first Pilgrim's Feast was "Unleavened Bread" that began at the end of the Passover and lasted for seven days.  Leviticus 12:17-28 describes this feast.  In addition to the unleavened bread was Passover where the Israelites were to take a lamb (one per family) and dip hyssop into its blood and paint it on the door lintel and side posts - then the angel of death would "pass over" their house.   Unleavened bread was eaten at Passover.  Leaving just a smidgen of leaven in bread eventually ferments the whole lump - like leaving just a little sin eventually corrupts the whole person.  But the amazing picture here is that Jesus is the Passover Lamb - spotless, without corruption - no sin in him.  What I never saw before was the connection of Jesus telling his disciples at Passover, "Take, eat, this is my body" to his body NOT seeing decay.  Read Acts 2:29-33.  Thus while Passover represents Christ's death, taking place literally on Passover, representing the end of sin ("It is Finished") and the beginning of freedom (Israelites flight from Egypt), Unleavened Bread represents his body (bruised, pierced as prophecied in Is. 53) and his burial - "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Ps. 16:10

To me this is another layer of that onion skin.  Peel away.  

March 26 Reading: Luke 22:1-38

Luke 1 "Thy Word is a Lamp Unto My Feet!"

I'm almost ashamed to post realizing that I haven't posted in two months.  It's not that we haven't been inspired, my sweet mom and I, it was just that time of the year where obligations ate up my time....  Speaking of eating, one gobbler has been my creation of another blog entitled "Gene-Erecipes"   http://gene-erecipes.blogspot.com/  following my desire to cook through our family cookbook in one year.  It was through this blog that I realized I am a goalie and, like a goalie, I must guard against all those attacks that keep me from winning the race.  The initial goal of Onion Skin Garden was to share the bounty of the bible studies my mother and I have, but it seems like the more "organized" we get about studying, the less the flow becomes.

So we want to make this more interactive.  Mom & I decided to forget about Beth Moore and the various published studies we've tried to do together (sorry, Beth!) and just read the Bible together in a year in the same way that I'm cookin up physical food - we asked the Lord to stew his spiritual food in us.  After all, one of my mother's favorite "WOW" (words of wisdom) to us growing up was "what's happening in the physical is happening in the spiritual."

The interactive part is that I do hope that all you inspired readers of this blog will contribute.  This will be an open forum for your insights into that particular scripture.  I know that most of you have your own daily readings or devotions that you do, so we are just going to focus on one part of our reading (we do both an Old & New Testament reading to get through in a year).  If you want to join us, we'd love it - in any case, please follow.

I can't tell you the number of times I've read Luke.  Every Christmas at least some of it.  But today I peeled off another layer of blessing as I reread this 1st chapter.  By some strange direction (could it be the Holy Spirit?) the Old Testament reading was Numbers 8 which dealt with the Levites being set apart for the priesthood and what a picture of Christ this was - the firstfruit of all creation, the firstborn...the high priest, the sacrifice.  This following a discussion yesterday with my daughter about philosophy and how Descartes in his Methods proved the existence of God - at least in the mind.  I can't begin to explain his reasoning but I gathered that because we see the shadow of something that something must exist.  The Old Testament is a shadow.  The shadow of the New - which is incidentally why everyone who reads the book of Revelation is blessed - the source of the shadow is revealed.  The firstfruit of all creation, the firstborn, the high priest, the temple, the sacrifice, the law....all shadows of the heavenly, shadows of God's plan, shadows of Christ himself....allow me to rephrase Descartes, "He thinks, therefore I am."

So in reading the Old Testament we need remember that we are just seeing a shadow in the physical of what has happened in the spirit.  Hebrews 10:1 says, "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and NOT the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."  But these shadows were cast for us to RECOGNIZE the shadow's source when it came, continuing in vs. 11, "and every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered ONE sacrifice for sins forever, sat down...for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."  So mom's WOW speaks truth but may be better said, "what's happening in the physical has been cast from the spiritual."

Luke 1 begins with the conception of John the Baptist.  His father Zechariah who, according to vs. 8 was "executing the priest's office" (the shadow) is visited by the angel Gabriel to be informed that his post-menopausal wife will bear a child who, "shall go before him [the source of the shadow, Christ] in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."  Well how can we EVER be prepared for the Lord?  The shadow didn't save.  But the source, Christ himself, does.

Then Gabriel visited Mary with the news that she would be "overshadowed" with the power of the Highest to conceive the very Son of God.  Amazing Grace.  She reacted just like Zechariah, "how can this be?"  Doesn't this sound like us?  I know I ask it all the time as I peel that layer of pungent onion skin away and say with tears, "how can this be?  I don't understand, Lord!  Help me with my unbelief.  Let me SEE you."  Like Zechariah I am dumbfounded.  Until I realize the truth of Luke 1:37, "for with God nothing shall be impossible," and by the overshadowing of the power from on high, I can say, "be it done unto me according to the word." Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me.

November

For years mom kept journals; her mother kept journals; and it struck me tonight that God kept a journal. And not just one or through one method. He wrote...His story in the stars, His commandments on tablets of stone, His poetry in the Psalms, His love for us on parchments, and when that wasn't enough, wrote it all in our hearts. No wonder the book of Romans says we are without excuse if we know Him not.

So, it's legitimate that we journal because we journey - we declare the way so that it won't be forgotten, our descendants might follow and hearts can return home.

And that is why I am going to enter some of my mother's "musings" to parallel her growth with mine (and perhaps yours). Thank you, mom.

Entry #1 - "November" I know - it's not November right now and I should probably save this for the fall - but she entered this at 52 and I am now just two years past that - her descrip caught my attention because I can so relate....."I am in the hot, flaming, colorful autumn of my life - 52 years old."

November (credit Linda Pastan)

It is an old drama,
This disappearance of the leaves,
this seeming death of the landscape.
In a later scene,
or earlier,
the trees like gnarled magicians
produce handkerchiefs
of leaves
out of empty branches.

And we watch.

We are like children
at this spectacle of leaves.
As if one day we too
will open the wooden doors
of our coffins
and come out smiling,
and bowing
all over again.

Living Stones?

Isaiah 28:16 - So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed."

Can it really be five mos. since our last post? I guess one might argue either there's been no word, hence no growth, or no time to write about much growth? Well life does not happen in a vacuum....but I sure act like one - sucking up the dust and dirt of living, along with its lost treasures.

Many years ago, my family embarked on an unforgettable, life-changing, motorhome journey across the United States - a journey that mimicked Pilgrim's Progress as we came face to face with ourselves individually and collectively. The physical journey ended when we sold that wonderful motorhome (I often wonder if the new owner had any idea what incredible transformations took place inside there!), but the spiritual continues to this day. I empathize with Haiti during this heartwrenching aftermath of its shaking because our journey was a shaking - rending our shoddy man-made foundations, testing our resources, restructuring our society (ie: family), and re-evaluating our true needs. You might be thinking that does not compare to the physical suffering of that nation, but I assure you, a shaking spiritually is felt in both realms. The domino goes both ways and, now, I pray, that Haiti's physical shaking will result in a spiritual reawakening.

Mom and I were talking this morning - she reminding me that we are "living stones" being built up in to a new and glorious temple, whose foundation is Christ, the Son of the Living God, and we won't be finished until the capstone (Christ again) is in place. I thought of that shaking years ago where our foundations were destroyed - proven faulty - and a new foundation was laid with this truth that Peter expressed in Matthew 16:16 when Jesus asked him, "but whom say ye that I am?": "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Up until then we thought the truth was that Peter was that rock upon which the church was built, but it was revealed to us - just as to Peter by the Father (16:17) - the truth is built upon that rock of ages, that nugget of insight that Christ IS the Messiah, the sacrificial son foreshadowed over and over and over again in the Old Testament - the foundation of eternity, the beginning and the end, the cornerstone and the capstone. Believe me, that nugget of truth changed our lives, and I believe is the foundational question of the ages, evoked when Christ was lifted up upon that cross - "Who do you say that I am?" Peter in fact actually tells me, "you ALSO, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:5

Ironically, just a little over a week ago, I placed several rocks collected from various points on our journey on my father's grave. A reminder.