CommentsNEW
Commentaries (any words in reg. print are from the Bible)...
What was, is & is to come
We've seen several instances of Jesus performing "works" on the Sabbath, several not on the Sabbath (e.g., see Capernaum B.2. vs. B.4.). This was Jesus appealing to both the hard-core Jews & the crowd-- a climate similar to today's Christian & non-Christian society. But looking ahead:
- we have Colo 2:16-17 (what was), do not let anyone judge you with regard to a religious festival or a Sabbath day-- these were a shadow of things to come;
- we have Hebr 4:1 (what is), the promise of entering His rest still stands-- having been freed from the shadow, we yet gather together corporately to rejoice in the promise, to experience the Holy Spirit in our midst (not just in our hearts 24-7);
- we have Hebr 4:9 (what is to come), There remains, then the actual entering of a Sabbath-rest-- & v. 9 says, make every effort to enter that rest (all shall enter Heaven-- strange that their works shall follow them means that the degree of working-for-him now determines the depth-of-rest then).
What Jesus did for me!
- Having been placed in a foster home when I was 3 mos. old;
- having essentially started from ground zero in 3rd grade when my teacher determined I needed glasses (so that I was no longer just stuck in the back of the room & assumed to be mentally retarded);
- having climbed from ground zero rather quickly (considering that ground-zero was in 3rd grade), so that I was pretty much on top of things academically & athletically into college;
- having been reduced to... well, sub-zero in college when I was mugged & in a coma, followed by PT & OT to learn how to feed myself, walk, talk, clothe myself, etc., etc.;
- having had to deal with double vision & short-term memory issues these 40 yrs. since-- all that, & I'm far above being a basket case.
All that made me maybe below 98% of all Americans. But then I don't need any more fingers & toes to count the days I've been disease-sick my entire life; & I've been able get & hold full-time jobs; etc., etc.-- that puts me above maybe 98% (for 1, I've come to realize I'm extremely thick-skinned about criticism & remaining persevering)...
But this is hardly about me-- true, none of those "bad" things resulted from sin I did. Point is, God intervened when I was in college, to keep me from becoming how I would have become (the upward spiral-- already I had the attitude of being cock-of-the-walk). Not that I never sinned; not that I haven't seized the privilege of confessing sin once I became a Christian. Sure I learned obedience by the things which I suffered AND by repeated confessed/forgiven sin-- but Jesus learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Period! He knew no sin.
"It's amazing!" Sure I bore the weight of sins off-n-on now for 60 years-- but Jesus bore the sins of the entire world, all in the slightly more than 1 yr. of his ministry (see page Ministry Itin'ry from the list in the left column).
Just 1 more thing; there you will see the idea that 1 of the feasts he went to in Jerusalem was the optional Feast of Lights (Dec. 25th):
In Isa 42:6 God declared via the prophet (addressing Jesus), I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness; I will take hold of Your hand. I will keep You & will make You to be a covenant for the people & a light for the Gentiles,
And in Isa 49:6, It is too small a thing for You to be MY Servant to restore the tribes of Jacob & bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You a light for the Gentiles, that You may bring MY Salvation to the ends of the earth.
Revival; Adoption
This commentary appears to be about 2 subjects, but really I'll deal with the 1st subject quickly-- by saying that I decided to delete the commentary I had written earlier about revival, in which I appeared to be pre-criticizing my church when I said that if there is no membership growth from the revival just about to start in my church, there was in fact no revival!
I went to another church's revival, and in the 1st 10 seconds the record was set straight-- the emphasis on the word re-vival is not on "vival" (fellowship), but on "re" (more). I.e., revival = more fellowship. I doubt any of them knew me, let alone what I had written-- likely that was just to preclude discouragement in their own church. But I don't want to be guilty of discouraging my church!
But about adoption: I've been maintaining (in large part because of agreement from others) that we are not yet adopted (but due more to my old understanding of Romans 8:23, that we're waiting for adoption-- physical redemption). Actually, I've already covered this (see PSALM 74 Roma). The short of it is that I decided it's much more logical to consider ourselves spiritually adopted than to consider us foster. The tradition (at least in most states) is that 1 remains foster (with his original name) until the natural parents sign over their rights-as-parents, at which time the name is changed to the adoptive parents' name. Compounding this was those places in Reve in which it is said that overcomers will get a new name.
But then I got to thinking: could it possibly be that God must get "permission" from Satan to redeem us physically-- when he had no such need in order to redeem us spiritually. And then I discovered that not only would overcomers get a white stone & a new name, but Jesus himself will get a new name-- see PSALM 102 Reve<1>&<2>. You might also want to check out PSALM 24 Beatitudes7.
Hope
It is curious that I opened up the paper today, & there were 2 huge messages about hope: 1, about the the damage done locally, by a recent tornado to a community here in AR (Mena); 2, about the ongoing struggles nationally, due to the economy (jobs, homes, etc.). In light of a commentary I wrote recently (see Apology to Roman Catholics below), it's even more curious that both of them were inspired by Catholics (the opening-of-doors by the Catholic Church in Mena, & an Easter message by the Pope).
But even more curious than that is, I just commented about 1stPet 3:21 (see PSALM 138 Prior to Jesus' Mission John..., per Luke) this way (1st quoting Luke 3:3): He [John the Baptist] went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins [just hoping for a connectection w/ God (hoping for hope)]. There was no possible response-of-oath to God (the oath did not exist); whereas today, due to Jesus' shed blood, per 1stPet 3:21 we can make a pledge (answer/response) of a good conscience to GOD in response to his invitation. See Heb 7 (esp'ly v. 28). We have hope! We can produce fruit!