Today’s reading is Ephesians 3:1-4:32.

This reading provides hope and encouragement for all of us, I think. I love Ephesians 4:16: “From whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

It is certainly true that God provides special roles and gifts to help the body grow. There are apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers (potentially the teacher and shepherd refer to the same role). Yet, the body is not held together simply by those fulfilling these special roles. The body is held together and grows by that which every joint supplies. Every one of us is useful and helpful in Christ’s body. We don’t have to preach the sermon or shepherd the congregation to be a necessary part of what is going on. We are all essential to growth.

How great is that? I can be of help and use in God’s kingdom simply because I am God’s child. So can you. Today, why don’t we spend some time figuring out what we can do to help the body grow. We can all be of use.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Luke 13:1-14:35.

Luke 14:21-23 really got my attention today: “Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘God out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.’”

This comforted me because it reminded me that there is room for me at Christ’s table. It further comforted me because to get an invitation I learned that I don’t have to be wealthy, healthy, popular, praiseworthy, or anything else. Jesus wants me at His table no matter who I am or what I’ve done. 

Today, I’m going to see what I can do to get closer to Him and feast with Him.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Revelation 13:1-14:20.

Perhaps because of my Granddad’s recent death, I’m struck by Revelation 14:13. “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’”

For God’s child, meeting death is not frightening as it seems to most. Death is not a mystery. It is a door into eternity with the God we’ve been glorifying in our lives. It is the opportunity to be able to fully accomplish what we’ve been desperately striving to do in this life. We will be taken to paradise and then on to heaven at the judgment. In those arenas, we will gather around the throne of God and glorify Him with our incorruptible bodies, our new voices, and our perfect unity. 

I also can’t help but notice it says then we’ll rest from our labors. That means it is not time to rest from my labor today. Today, while I still have breath, I need to labor for the Lord. A rest is coming. It will be a glorious rest. But to prepare for that rest I need to labor now.

Let’s get to work for the Lord today.

***Question: What do you do to labor for the Lord each day?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Today’s reading is Revelation 13:1-14:20.

Back in Revelation 12 we saw the dragon, the serpent of old, that is Satan. Now in Revelation 13 we see his two beasts. There is the sea beast with crowns, reminiscent of the beasts of Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7. Those beasts represented kingdoms, governments. This beast does as well. In the context of Revelation, we see the Roman government, depicted by the final amazing and indescribable beast in Daniel 7:7.

Further, we see the land beast with horns like a lamb and the voice of a dragon. Do you see the mixture of Jesus and Satan here? This beast performs signs and causes people to worship the sea beast. Just as in Rome, the eventual standard worship was emperor worship. This beast represents false religion.

Now we see the evil and unholy trinity–Satan, persecuting government, and false religion. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying government is inherently evil, all authority is given by God.) See how they mirror the true and holy trinity. Satan trying to take the role of the Father as the sovereign ruler. The government, or the emperor, taking the place of God’s representative on earth, the king. Trying to fill the role of the Son. And then false religion, giving signs and wonders, pointing back to the emperor. This beast is trying to fill the role of the Holy Spirit.

That is the picture. We don’t need to look for some time in the future that fills all the details of the picture, we need to see the big picture and the contrast. Here is Satan, land beast, and sea beast contrasted with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Who will win?

That gets us into Revelation 14. God’s side wins. The true Lamb has sealed His followers. Those who don’t have His seal will take the mark of the beast. Then the lamb will reap his harvest. This is the harvest of His faithful followers who are removed from judgment. They are the fruit of the Spirit if you will. Then the angel of the Lord puts in his sickle. This is the judgment of those marked by the beast. They are harvested and then trampled in the winepress of the Lord’s wrath.

God’s side wins. Remember, we are supposed to be keeping the message of this book (Revelation 1:3). What message do we keep from these chapters? Be on God’s side. Satan may tempt us. Government may persecute us. False religion may attract us. They may seem to be winning, but they will not. They will lose and be judged. We can either be gathered in with the wheat as the Son of Man harvests His followers. Or we will be gathered in with the grapes and trampled in the winepress of God’s wrath. I know which I prefer.

Here is the deal. The unholy trinity may seem all-powerful while the persecution wages. In the end, however, they are powerless. At the right time, God will call His children home and judge those who do not follow Him.

Please, don’t relegate Revelation as a prophetic book that tells of some distantly future something or other. Recognize the message for right now. No matter who opposes and no matter how much it looks like they are winning, they will lose. Stay on God’s side.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is John 17:1-18:40.

I am always amazed that so many who claim to be Christians and let the Bible govern their beliefs have completely missed John 18:36. 

They have delved into Revelation; they have turned over every letter of Old Testament Apocalyptic prophecy; they have extrapolated Matthew 24. They have come up with all kinds of confusing arguments in order to claim Jesus came to establish an earthly kingdom but was foiled so we are waiting for it to come in a coming age. 

Books have been written. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have become rich off of it. Jack van Impe continues his news broadcasts about it. Hal Lindsey still sells old books on it. And people spend money buying it up left and right. It has surpassed the discussion of scriptural topics and become a money making industry all on its own.

This is sad, because for all the complicated arguments from the numerous difficult, figurative, and complex passages, they overlook a very simple passage like John 18:36.

My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.

There it is. A very clear, very pointed statement. Jesus never intended to establish a kingdom of this world. He did not intend to bring Rome into military subjection to His new nation. Had that been the case, then the rejection of the Jews wouldn’t have mattered. Those who followed Him would have fought and kept Jesus from being delivered. 

That being the case, His death was not a rejection of the earthly kingdom. Therefore, we are not in some surprising gap while God gets plan B in order. We are not waiting for a Tribulation, a Rapture, or a new Kingdom. Jesus told His disciples that the kingdom would be established while some of them were still alive (Mark 9:1). Jesus did not fail. His heavenly kingdom was established and even as the New Testament was being written people were being added to it (Colossians 1:13). And as John began his writing of Revelation he admitted to already partaking in it along with his audience (Revelation 1:9).

Let’s quit making money off a very popular but very wrong idea. Instead, let’s just stick with the Bible message.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Matthew 23:1-24:51.

Left Behind and other books have had such success, many people can’t read Matthew 24:36-41 without seeing the Rapture. When I say “Rapture,” I am not using it as a synonym for Christ’s second coming. I am not referring simply to the time when the saved go to be with Jesus. I believe Jesus is coming again. I believe the saved will be taken to be with Him forever. When I say “Rapture,” I’m referring to the premillennial doctrine that claims a day is coming when all the saved will be taken off the earth and the lost will be “left behind” on earth to endure a period of tribulation. As far as I can see, there is actually no biblical support for the idea that when Jesus returns and takes the saved to be with Him forever that He’ll leave anyone behind on earth to endure tribulation or receive another chance to be saved. Matthew 24:36-41 is no exception.

First, note to what this judgment is compared in Matthew 24:38-39. The judgment described in this chapter is compared to the days of Noah. Did you happen to notice who was taken in that judgment? Not the saved. The saved were left behind. The worldly and unrighteous were the ones that were taken. This is a picture of judgment on the lost, not a picture of removing the saved.

Second, trying to think like a first century reader who was well aware of what national and city sieges were like, we get a completely different picture. The taken and left behind don’t refer to the wicked taken and the righteous left behind or vice versa. It actually presents a great picture of a raiding horde as it approaches a city. When they drive their force through the field, hacking and chopping at all in their path, one will be killed, another will be missed. As they pillage the mills, one woman may be grabbed and hauled off for the soldiers pleasure while another is simply left behind. That is exactly the way a raiding Roman horde would have acted. Jesus is saying, if you stay in Jerusalem, you may get lucky. But then again, maybe not. One will be killed or captured and another won’t. It will be the luck of the draw.

Third, look at the greater context. Back in Matthew 24:15-21 a picture completely different from the Rapture is given. When all these events occur, Jesus tells His followers to flee immediately. If they are on the housetop, they shouldn’t even go back into the house to pack. They should rather run from housetop to housetop out of the city. If they are in the field, they should not go back to get their cloak. They should just run. Those who are in Judea should flee to the mountains. Jesus said it will be a bad day for pregnant and nursing mothers in that day. Why? Because it will be hard for them to flee quickly. Then He says pray that it won’t be in the winter or on the Sabbath. Why? Once again, it will be hard to flee at those times. Please be honest with this passage, Jesus is not giving instructions to folks who won’t believe Him and get left behind. He is giving instructions to His followers about what to do when this day comes.

Think about the picture here? Does this sound like an instantaneous moment in which the saved are just taken? No, it sounds like something occurring for which the saved need to pay attention because they will be able to flee and avoid it. But if they want to escape, they have to act quickly. They have to get on the ball. Let me ask, if the Rapture scenario is what is being presented, why would it matter if it happened on a Saturday or in the winter? Why would it matter if the person was pregnant or nursing? None of this would matter because the Rapture scenario does not present a need to flee. It will just happen and the saints will be gone, whether it is winter, Sabbath, or any day, whether the person is pregnant, nursing, old, young. 

The picture here is not Rapture. It is national judgment on Judea. In AD 70, the Romans attacked Jerusalem with finality, destroying it and the temple. As they approached and raided the city many were killed, some few by luck of the draw survived. However, the Christians who remembered the message of Jesus, saw the Roman “eagles” coming (cf. Matthew 24:28), they got out of dodge. They fled, just like Jesus had said. They were saved from the tribulation during the time of this destruction. They were saved from God’s wrath then.

I’m sorry, I don’t care how you cut it, you just can’t get Rapture from Matthew 24.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Romans 13:1-14:23.

Although I’m not sure I fully understand exactly how to apply Romans 14 in all situations, I do understand its context. I understand when Paul says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17), he is explaining that we should not stake our souls on what we eat. Rather, we should be willing to give up certain foods if it makes our brother stumble. 

However, I can’t help but see an overarching principle here that is increasingly being missed by today’s up and coming churches. Whether it is home churches or emergent churches or whatever kind of churches, I see some of them (the more vocal, though not all in any category) that seem to be missing this principle. This happens with their handling of the Lord’s Supper. It starts with the innocent position that many Christians take claiming the Lord’s Supper is the center of what we do as Christians. In Acts 20:7, the church at Troas assembled on the first day of the week in order to partake in the Supper. We have taken that and claimed it is the reason we get together every Sunday. I say, yes and no. Certainly, if we will be like our New Testament counterparts, when we gather on the first day of the week, we’ll partake and on the first day of the week, we’ll gather to partake. However, that doesn’t mean the central purpose of the church’s assembling is to take the Lord’s Supper. The church assembles to edify and build up its members. The church assembles to praise, honor, and glorify God together. One of the things we do in our assemblies is the Lord’s Supper. It is extremely important. Yet, we assemble to sing, pray, teach and be taught. These are not secondary to the Supper. They are just as important because they are all part of Christian assembling.

The next step some take is claiming the Lord’s Supper is more than the memorial meal Jesus established after partaking in the Passover. Now we are told it is an actual meal to satisfy our hunger (that is said despite Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians 11:22, 34 that if we are hungry we should eat at home). It is a fellowship meal. Or they co-opt the unexplained verse about love feasts, add in some historical information from post New Testament churches and call it the Agape. We hear stories about how these early Christians gathered for what was the most important part of their Christianity–they gathered to eat together. Then in the middle of that, they remembered the death of Jesus.

I guess I just keep coming back to Romans 14:17. Again, I know this verse is not written about the Lord’s Supper, “fellowship meals” or love feasts. Yet, Romans 14:17 is not merely about the Romans 14 context. Rather, Paul brings in a general principle and discusses how it applies to his Romans 14 discussion. I can’t get past his general principle. If the kingdom is not eating and drinking, how can the most important aspect of my Christianity be eating and drinking? If the kingdom is not eating and drinking, how can the most important part of serving God be having some kind of “fellowship meal” with my brethren? Further, if that is the most important part of Christianity, as some seem to be suggesting, why isn’t there more about it in the New Testament?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for Christians eating together (cf. Acts 2:46). However, I just can’t help but think this idea stems more from our modern ideas of get togethers and the necessary nature of food to them than it does from the Bible. For instance, I can hardly see this concept coming out of churches in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. I’m not surprised it is coming out of American churches. But in either case, Romans 14:17 says it isn’t coming out of the Bible.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

I’m back. Sorry for the break. I had a great little vacation with the family in Crossville, TN last week, but our apartment did not have internet access. I hope you kept up with your reading even if you weren’t able to discuss it here. Let’s get back into the swing of things here.

Matthew 13 has a collection of kingdom parables. Of course, there is the parable of the sower. But then there are five parables, which all set forth similes about the kingdom.

1. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
2. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.
3. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.
4. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of a fine pearl.
5. The kingdom of heaven is like a fishing net which gathers every kind of fish.

The first and last parables seem to make the same point. Not everyone who is “in the kingdom” is of the kingdom. Satan, sadly, influences some who have entered the kingdom and on the day of judgment, they will be sifted out and cast into the torment of fire. This encourages us to make sure we are not submitting to the influence of the Satan and simply thinking “going to church” means all that other stuff we do doesn’t matter.

The second parable of the mustard seed is pretty easily understood. The kingdom of heaven began extremely small, but it would grow to be huge. That is exactly what happened. Prior to pentecost, the seed for the kingdom was only 120. But on Pentecost, it immediately grew to about 3000 (still not a very large number in comparison to the world population). In time, however it grew and grew and grew. Multitudes and multitudes entered. This all happened despite constant warring against Christ’s kingdom.

It is the other two parables that give me a bit of trouble. I know that may sound odd because they seem so easy to grasp. On the surface, most just view them as repetitions of the same point. The kingdom is worth so much we should sell everything. But these connected parables always give me some trouble. The parable of the hidden treasure I get. The man, seeing the field and finding the hidden treasure sold everything he had because that was the purchase price of the land. However, upon gaining the land, he actually had something more valuable than all his earlier possessions. That is the kingdom of heaven. We should be willing to give up everything because when we gain Christ’s kingdom, we gain it all.

Perhaps the parable to the pearl of great price is making the same point and I’m just thinking too hard. But this parable always causes me a problem because once the guy gets the pearl, the only way it will be of any real benefit to him is to sell it again. Otherwise he has a very costly trinket and that is it. Some suggest this is because he knew he could turn around and sell it again for even more than he paid. I guess that might be right, but then that leaves us buying the kingdom and selling it to get the value. Maybe I’m over analyzing, but, I just don’t think this is the point.

A brother once pointed out to me a major difference in these two parables. In the parable of the treasure, the kingdom is compared to the treasure. However, in the parable of the pearl, the kingdom is not compared to the pearl but to the merchant. When that very simple point was made, the parable suddenly was turned on its head. The parable of the treasure is about how I should value the kingdom. The parable of the pearl, however, is making the opposite point.

The kingdom is a merchant in search of valuable pearls. The picture is about Christ and his looking for the lost sheep. We are the pearl. Christ, in His kingdom, valued us so much He gave up everything to purchase us. He gave up the glories of heaven, the fellowship with the Father and then even gave up His life so I might be in His kingdom. WOW! How powerful is that.

If Jesus and His kingdom valued me that much, how much more should I value Jesus and His kingdom? It truly is a treasure. I guess it’s time for me to start selling things.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Despite what our Premillennial friends like Tim LaHaye, Jack Van Impe and Hal Lindsey tell us, the kingdom of Christ is now. We aren’t waiting for it to be established at the end of time. It was established on Pentecost in Acts 2. Interestingly enough, Premillennialists tell us at Christ’s return the kingdom will be established. However, Paul tells us something different. 

In I Corinthians 15:23-24, Paul explains that at the resurrection of Christ’s people the end takes place. That is when Jesus hands His kingdom back to the Father. Premillennialists tell us that when the resurrection occurs it is not the end, but the beginning of the kingdom. They tell us there will be 7 years of tribulation and then 1000 years of Christ’s kingdom.

Somehow, LaHaye, Impe, Lindsey and others press 1007 years between vs. 23 and vs. 24. I’m not sure where they get it, other than just that is the way they have to do it to make sure their doctrine is still taught. So much for taking every verse literally unless absurd. What I have found that mantra means is “Take every verse literally unless doing so demonstrates Premillennialism is wrong.”

The kingdom is here and now, if you wait until the end to get into it, there is no second chance (Kirk Cameron movies notwithstanding). There is no adventure awaiting us if we ignore Jesus until He returns. After that, there is only the certainty of judgment. Get into Christ’s kingdom now. When He returns, we will be resurrected and handed over to God, the rest will be judged (cf. II Thessalonians 1:8-10).

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Paul was about to be flogged. However, at the seeming last possible moments, he uttered the magic words. “Um, guys, are  you sure you want to do this? I’m a Roman citizen.”

This piqued the tribune’s curiosity. “How much did you pay to get in?”

Okay, so I’m taking a little poetic license here. What I really want to hone in on is the fact that the tribune paid his way into the Roman kingdom. That makes me think of Matthew 5:3–”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” 

Suddenly, that statement means a good bit more to me. And I see it as an even greater shock. The people to whom Jesus spoke lived in a kingdom that took money to enter. They could all become Romans and throw off the yoke of their slave status if they just paid money to get in like the tribune.

That, however, is not how the kingdom of God works. God’s kingdom doesn’t go to those who can pay enough money. God’s kingdom goes to those who are humble enough to admit their poverty in spirit and quit trying to pay their way in. Only those who recognize how little they have to offer and simply come to Jesus asking for mercy knowing that is their only way in get Jesus’ kingdom.

Paul was able to say he was born into the Roman kingdom. But the only way into Christ’s kingdom is to be reborn by humbly submitting to Jesus (John 3:3, 5; Mark 16:16).

Keep the faith today and keep reading.

ELC