Morning. Coffee. Communion. Musings.

In Mark 2 there is the account of the paralytic being brought to Jesus by being lowered down on a bed through the roof. Unexpectedly, Jesus, seeing the faith of the man, forgives his sins rather than immediately healing him of his paralysis. Personally, I can understand the questions of the Scribes when they ask, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (2:7). To claim to do what only God himself had the right, prerogative, and ability to do was to blaspheme – unless it was true. (Incidentally, one of the ways we see Jesus’ divinity is not by simply looking at his verbal claims to be God. If we only focus there, we miss much! Over and over again in the Gospels, Jesus is acting out certain qualities and attributes that only apply to Yahweh himself!)

How will Jesus prove to them (and us) that indeed this man's sins can be forgiven at his word?

“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—he said to the paralytic— I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this!’ (Mark 2:9-12)

It seems strange, but in this account, the ‘easier’ thing for Jesus to say to the paralytic was ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ It’s easier to say because it’s harder to back up. What proof could Jesus offer to a skeptical audience that the man’s sins had in fact been forgiven? If Jesus could do the harder thing – in this case healing the man physically – then there could be little doubt that the ‘easier’ thing also happened. (Physical healing is ‘harder’ in this case because it would have immediately exposed Jesus as a fraud had he told the man to walk, and then the man failed to do so. Then the claim to forgive would also be falsified.)

Jesus did heal the paralytic (who “immediately” got better, Mark tells us), which reminds us that Jesus is indeed God with the authority both to heal and to forgive. Lord, may I not be a skeptic of the overwhelming power of Jesus!

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Morning. Coffee. Communion. Musings.

Every year when I read through the latter chapters of Exodus, I always have to remind myself what the point is of recording all of the (seemingly) minute details of the construction of the tabernacle and associated items to be used for worship.

All of the elements of worship in the Old Testament were to be considered holy or devoted and consecrated to the Lord. This is at least one reason why all this detail is provided for us. It’s a reminder that our perfectly holy God is to be worshiped through holy means. To allow for anything else would signify that God is not supremely interested in upholding his own holiness. Indeed, he is the one who always defines how we, his creatures, will worship him. Contrary to many of our modern notions of worship, there are certain ways that we must relate to God in worship – ways he gets to define, not us.

So over and over again in Exodus, Moses is commanded exactly how to prepare the elements of worship by which the people will approach God, and the designs are followed exactly.

"According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work" (Ex 39:42).

"This Moses did; according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did" (Ex 40:16).

God’s right to define our means of worship does not change when we move from Old Testament to New Testament - from old covenant to new covenant. But what does change is the nature of the means of that worship. No longer is worship centered on a holy tabernacle or temple with holy instruments. Worship is now centered on the person of Jesus Christ, the “Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). The only worship acceptable to God comes through Jesus Christ. When we remove Jesus from the picture, true worship of the true God does not happen.

Lord, help me to always place Christ at the center of my thoughts and affections, so that I may offer acceptable and pleasing worship to you!

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Morning. Coffee. Communion. Musings.

The phrase “the fear of the Lord,” which is used often in the Old Testament especially in the Psalms and Wisdom literature, encompasses a wide range of responses toward God. At once it can mean a trust in God, obedience toward God, hope in God, and a healthy and sober reverence of God in his majesty and glory and holiness. According to the book of Proverbs, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Prov 9:10; cf. 1:7). For the nation of Israel, the “fear of the Lord” was the essence of what it meant to be in covenant relationship to God!

But I’ve always been fascinated by how Psalms uses the “fear of the Lord” as the means by which God’s people are rescued from all other fears. For example, take a look at Psalm 34:4, 7, and 9.

"I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears...The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them...Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!"

How does one fight fear with fear? I remember being extremely helped by Ed Welch in his book Running Scared on this subject. Welch gives this example. Let’s say you have a tremendous fear of the water. Nothing will ever get you in to step into a pool, a lake, or the ocean – not even in the shallow end. This is a real fear that many people experience. BUT the very minute that your child is drowning in that same pool, you immediately forget your fear of the water in order to save him. Your fear of the water is displaced by a greater fear – the fear of losing your child. Fear can be displaced by a greater fear!

As followers of Christ, when we have a proper fear of the Lord (i.e., seeing the depth of our sinfulness in light of God’s holiness, recognizing that our eternal destiny lies in God’s hands, and realizing that nothing in life matters more than our standing before Him) all other fears, while still real, are pushed to the periphery and cannot play a controlling, idolatrous role in our lives. God, instill in me a deeper fear of you!

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Morning. Coffee. Communion. Musings.

I am struck this morning by how similar the mocking of the crowd present at Jesus’ crucifixion is to my own scoffing at the cross of Christ. Note the two verbal mockings recorded for us in Matthew 27.

"You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." (Matt 27:40)

"He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" (Matt 27:42-43)

At the moment, at least 5 things come to mind from these statements regarding my own response to Jesus’ death, and how I mock Jesus in my own way.

(1) I mock Jesus when I turn the truth of who he is, what he came to do, and what he has promised into fodder for my own petty complaining about my life and its comforts.

(2) I mock Jesus when I come with an agenda of my own that does not proceed from what he achieved for me on the cross.

(3) I mock Jesus when I demand that he perform for me and do so whenever I want.

(4) I mock Jesus when I view the cross as anything other than the power of God to save.

(5) I mock Jesus when I forget that he was, in fact, NOT ultimately forsaken by the Father, but was raised to new life (27:45-54).

Instead, today, may I be like the centurion, who was so powerfully moved by Jesus’ atoning work, that I am filled with awe at the Son of God!

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"However, if the images [in the book of Revelation] are not timeless symbols, but relate to the 'real' world, we need also to avoid the opposite mistake of taking them too literally as deive of the 'real' world and predicted events in the 'real' world. They are not just a system of codes waiting to be translated into matter-of-fact references to people and events. Once we begin to appreciate their sources and their rich symbolic associations, we realize that they cannot be read either as literal deions or as encoded literal deions, but must be read for their theological meaning and their power to evoke response."

- Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation


This is precisely where the "Left Behind" theology misses the boat on the book of Revelation.

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