WELCOME TO CONFUSION

WELCOME TO CONFUSION

Many people complain to me that they have surrendered their life to Jesus but nothing dramatic has happened. That is the norm, I have found in my life, that most of the time you just ran by faith and led a very normal life. It is only when we look back and see what God has done, it begins to dawn on us that God was working all the time. In fact, when we think something great is being done, it is usually not God working (though it can be) because God’s version of great is often different from mine.

When Abraham entered the Promised land what he found was famine (Genesis 12:10). Moses on his journey to the Promised land, just went from one crisis to another, and spoke of his frustration to God. Jeremiah was so disillusioned with his call that he said God had cheated him and he wished he had died (Jer 20:7, 14f).

O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded;
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
I am in derision daily;
Everyone mocks me.

Cursed be the day in which I was born!
Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!
Let the man be cursed
Who brought news to my father, saying,
“A male child has been born to you!”
Making him very glad.

But all of them created history in their life.

When we come to God we surrender control of our life to God, so that God’s purpose for our life is fulfilled. Psalm 139:13-16 and Eph 2:10

For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

says that God has a predefined purpose for us, but we do not know what this purpose is till after the event. So our life tends to become a roller coaster, where we only know the present and the immediate future of our life. We may have a long range plan for our organization but we cannot have a long range plan for our life.

The life we lead and the work we do, are not by our power but by the power of God, as it says in Eph 1:17-20,

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

If it is God’s power, which is too great for me to comprehend, how do I plan and do my daily work? Often you just cannot, and all that you can do is to be faithful to what you are doing, and continue. You are on the roller coaster, and you are being faithful to what has been revealed to you. At times it may seem that God has abandoned you. At times, you feel confident that you are in the centre of God’s will. But by faith we KNOW that God is present with us and we continue in faithfulness.

We see these acts of faith in the widow of Zarephath, who in faith did what God has ordered – show hospitality to strangers, and was blessed by the power of God. Joseph, who as a slave and then a prisoner was faithful and was recognized by Potiphar and the jail warden for his work. Jeremiah was faithful, and the long list in Hebrews 11 records the faithfulness of people, who never saw more than the present and the immediate future, but trusted Yahweh for their life. Set goals of faith and work towards it, and expect God to do powerful things beyond what you can imagine, even if you are feeling abandoned by God. He never leaves you.

James says that God will give us the wisdom to understand His will and purpose. For this, we need to turn away from worldly thinking and its certainties and seek the wisdom of God (Romans 12:2).

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Once you turn away from the worldly perspective of things, you have lost your moorings in this world and you are now on a different plane. No longer do worldly plans work the way they used to, rather you see the power of God doing things in a way only God understands. As we seek God’s perspective, we get to see what God is doing, but often we feel overwhelmed. If this be the case what should I do?

Prepare yourself for the place God has put you in, studying and learning how to interpret the Bible. Read extensively on the context God has put you in, so that you have the information to process what God is doing.

More importantly, let the fruit of the Spirit manifest in your life, and be a blessing to people wherever you are. As you bless people intentionally, and seek the welfare of others, you will understand the heart of God.

1 Thess 1:5 says that the gospel comes in power, and this power is seen in a transformed life.

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

Let that transformation be a reality in your life. Experience victory over sins and addictions as God sets you free. Do not aim to be a star, just aim to be faithful. Wanting to be a star is of the world. The desire to be faithful is of the kingdom of God.

As you focus on being faithful, your life will become more and more of a roller-coaster and you will wonder where God is taking you. See Paul’s description of His roller coaster ride in 2 Cor 11:22-29

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

You will find your life becoming unbalanced and yourself stretched like an elastic band. You may wonder if you are overdoing it. But that is the Christian life surrendered to God. You are overdoing it, when you are trying to do things for God, or create history for God. When you are just being faithful to the responsibilities He has given you, it is not.

Does this mean that you neglect your ‘worldly’ responsibilities to do what God wants you to do? NO. There is no such thing as worldly responsibilities, all are from God. So, you cannot neglect any. Since you will be doing all that God has made you responsible for, you begin to get stretched. Am I allowed to rest? Yes. Take the Sabbath break. Take the festival breaks which were a week long. But see that you are faithful. You are not trying to prove anything, you are just trying to be faithful to what God has called you.

You may or not may not get feedback on your faithfulness. Most of the time you do not. But occasionally God encourages us with feedback that shows His power working through us.

Rev. David Corfe was my pastor in a fairly dead church, where we faithfully went to the Bible study of three or four people. Many years later I met him in UK and he shared that the period he spent in that church was the driest in his life, and he never understood why God sent him there. I told him, he was sent for me, as I made my commitment to Jesus in a sermon he had preached in the church. You may be wondering what are you doing in the place you are. God is working, you cannot see it.

One thing I have found, after several years, 10, 20 or 30 years, as you look back on your roller coaster ride, you can see how God had done great things through you, with you and sometimes in spite of you. So, don’t get discouraged at the seeming confusion around you, at the spontaneity of events as God works things,

Let us just make three commitments:-

1.      To surrender our lives to Jesus as Paul describes in Romans 6:1-6

2.      To commit ourselves to the Great Commandment to love people (especially our family and church) in Matthew 22:37-40

3.      To commit ourselves to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20

The Meaning of Baptism

THE  MEANING  OF BAPTISM

There are so many controversies on the rite of baptism, that it divides not only churches but believers. The basic divide has been between those who accept child baptism and those who do not. Child baptism arose from a belief that baptism is essential for salvation, and so children were baptized, in case they died before adulthood.

But since we need to make a personal decision for Christ, they divided the rite into two, where the church baptized the child on the commitment of the parents, and the child made his or her personal commitment at confirmation. To me that is acceptable and I have no problem with it.

The Baptists do not believe that baptism is necessary for salvation and so chose to baptize as adults. My question is, if baptism is not necessary for salvation then why argue against confirmation replacing baptism for the individual who was baptized as a child.

There is a third group who believe in adult baptism and also baptism as essential for salvation. They then struggle with the issue of children dying before baptism and come up with a theology that to me makes little sense. So let us not go there.

There are some who see baptism as an expression of our repentance from sin. But that was the baptism for John the Baptist (Matthew 3:11) which is not the baptism we take as per Acts 19:4-5.

John 3:5-8 reads as follows:-

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

John 3:5-6 if understood in a Hebrew frame if reference says that water baptism is of the flesh and what is required is baptism of the Holy Spirit, and this is an important concept to hold on to. John 3:8 says that we cannot force the Spirit to come on a person by any rite we do, and the Spirit will go to the person who has genuine faith (Gal 3:1-3). True to this, in Acts of the Apostles we find the Spirit coming on people before baptism, during baptism and after baptism. What is important is that the person needs to rest his faith on the presence of the Spirit in His life rather than having taken baptism!

So, what is baptism? According to the Baptists, it is not a sacrament, or a rite in which you get any spiritual benefit, but it is a public profession of your faith, made before the church. This seems to have little biblical support, or at least I could not find any.

In Acts 22:16

And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

Paul says that Ananias told him to wash his sins away in baptism. This essentially means that through baptism we obtain the benefits of Jesus’ work in the past present and future. This is also said in Col 2:12-14

buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses  having wiped out the ^[a]handwriting of requirements that was against us, 

which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

where Paul says we are buried with Christ in baptism as a result of which the requirements of the Law on us is removed and so we are freed from our sins.

In Titus 3:5

not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Paul seems to refer to baptism as the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Here not only are we set free from our sins but also empowered by the Holy Spirit to live the life God wants us to lead.  The same thought is brought out by Peter in 1 Peter 3:21,

There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

where Peter gives more importance to the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. So Peter says, not the washing of sins but the renewing of the power of God (which raised Jesus from the dead).

From these passages, we see that there is a sacramental element to baptism, where the sacrifice of Jesus is applied to us and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is argued that we take baptism because we are saved and so what does this sacramental element really do for us? Let us look at this question at the end. Before that let us look at what is the statement being made by the person taking baptism?

Every work we do is meant to be an expression of our faith. In Romans 14:23 Paul says that work which is not from faith is a sin!! In Acts 16:31-33 the jailer’s baptism was an expression of his faith.

According to Paul in Romans 6:1-6,

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be ^[a]done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

what we express is our dying to the world with Jesus in baptism and being born again in the kingdom of God for the life Jesus gives us. So, baptism becomes a commitment to turn away from the world and to live for Jesus. God does not have to wait for you to make this commitment, as He knows your heart and we see in Acts 10:47-48, that sometimes God blesses us with His blessing even before we formally make the commitment. That does not absolve us from the need to make that commitment to God.

In Romans 8:9-14

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies ^[a]through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

 Paul says that only those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. It is only when we have handed over the control of our life to the Spirit does salvation begin to work out in our lives. Baptism is the rite by which we hand over the controls of our life formally to the Spirit of God. You may have done this earlier, but now you formally make the commitment.

It is because of this commitment, which is made after you are saved, that the Spirit of God begins to manifest in your life in a powerful manner. As John 3 says, you cannot strait-jacket God, but it is important for me to do my part of making this commitment. In case I have taken baptism and not made this commitment, do I need to take baptism again? Not really. I need to get on my knees and make the commitment to surrender control of my life to the Holy Spirit.

Have you made that commitment?

Aldersgate and Romans 8 - The second experience of God

Aldersgate Sunday is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to May 24^th. This year it was celebrated a week earlier than it should have been in our church in Hyderabad, on May 19th. It commemorates the experience which John Wesley had at a Moravian meeting on May 24^th 1738. In his words as found in his diary, he felt ‘strangely warmed". He describes the experience as:

“I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. “

 John Wesley was an Anglican priest at that time, and had studied in the seminary at Oxford. There he was an active member of the Holiness club in 1729. He sailed to USA for two years of ministry in 1736. On the outward journey the ship was caught in a storm and he was terrified. But he found the Mennonites who were from Germany and migrating to the USA were calm and not disturbed by the storm. This astonished him. On his return after two years of frustration in the USA, he found that his evangelical, holiness preaching was not appreciated by the Anglican church, and feeling down he went to this Moravian meeting at Aldersgate where he had an encounter with God.

How do we understand this experience? Some call it a second experience. Some would call it an anointing of the fullness of the Spirit. Is there a biblical basis for this kind of a second experience? In Acts the usual picture is that you believed and were baptised and received the Spirit of God. Except for those who only received the baptism of John there does not appear to be an example of a second experience. But if we look closer to the New Testament, you find that the church was mixed with people at different spiritual levels and paul, Peter and others are exhorting them in their epistles to reach for a higher experience of God.

In John 1:40-42 we read of Peter’s first encounter with Jesus, which did not seem to have much of an impact on him. But later in Luke 5:8-11, in Peter’s second recorded encounter with Jesus, we see a dramatic impact on Peter and it says, He forsook all and followed Jesus.

So, what is this second experience? Is it a salvation experience, or is it a deeper experience of Jesus?

In Galatians 3:2-3 Paul says that we receive the Spirit by faith. When we believe in Jesus we receive the Spirit of God. In this second experience, we surrender our life to the control of the Spirit of God, and we are no longer running our lives but the Spirit of God is. It is like a scooter where we were on the driver’s seat. When we surrender our life to the Spirit He is now in the driving seat and we are just going along with Him.

In a swimming pool, if we see the edge of the pool (which equals safety for most of us poor swimmers) as the security of the world, and the deep as where we are dependent on God, it is moving away from the security of the world to the control of the Spirit. The more we leave the world the more the Spirit is able to rule us.

Then we can say with Paul, Gal 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

We can understand what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:15, “and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

This leads to three major changes in our life.

First is an assurance of salvation.

Romans 8:1, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

We are no longer trying to earn our salvation or earn merit before God.

Romans 3:20, Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

This does not mean that we keep sinning, but the motivations for a holy life changes. Now we are following the Spirit and fulfilling God’s purposes for our lives, and so we do not sin, but are set apart for God. The focus of our life changes from not sinning to doing the works of God.

Romans 8:4-5, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

We no longer carry guilt in our lives. God has forgiven us, and so we are able to forgive ourselves, and not carry the guilt to the grave. Many struggle with this, but when we surrender our life to the Spirit we experience a deliverance from this.

Romans 8:16, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

We have a confident relationship with God. Nothing can separate us from God.

Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Second is a change in our prayer life.

Romans 8:26, Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession ^[a]for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Earlier, we prayed for all the material things we need to have security in this world, money, promotions, increments, jobs, fame, success etc. Now we longer pray for these things, since they are no longer a priority in my life. My priority is the kingdom of God and that is what we pray about.

Romans 8:8-10, So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Jesus said, we need to love God and to love mankind. When our priority becomes the kingdom of God, we become involved in the lives of people. This becomes the centre of our prayer lives. We intercede for others, just as Jesus intercedes for us.

Romans 8:27, Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Third is the presence of the power of God in your life.

Romans 8:11, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies ^[a]through His Spirit who dwells in you.

We begin to live in the realm of the impossible. We bless others through our lives and help them in ways we did not think possible. It is like Moses who thought he cannot rescue the Israelites, but did. God will do the impossible through you and you will create history wherever you go.

Are you willing to let go of your life into the hands of the Spirit of God?

Romans 8:14, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Women the power of God to men

Lalitha: (reading an article) Only the Sikh faith has no gender differentiation between men and women where all are equal.

Me: True, but so also in Christianity.

Lalitha: No. In the Bible if a woman made a vow and the husband or father disallowed it, it would not stand. They are not equal, but under the authority of the man.

Me: That is the culture of the time, and not the Bible teaching in gender.

Lalitha: That way you can prove anything.

Is there cultural accommodation in the Bible? When Jesus said “It is because of the hardness of your heart that Moses gave this command” does it mean that the Jews interpretation was wrong because of the hardness of their heart, or this command was given because of the hardness of their heart? I prefer to see it as a wrong interpretation by the Jews, but many see it as a cultural accommodation in the Mosaic Laws to culture. On the other hand, the laws on slavery and concubines are clearly an accommodation to culture, since these are not what God wanted at any stage.

So what is the teaching on gender in the Bible? Firstly, they are clearly different and so roles are different. However, the first role indicated in the Bible for women was to be a helpmeet. The word used here is ‘ezer’ which means help or succour, or one who helps or succours. This word is used 21 times in the Bible – Genesis 2:18, 2:20, Exodus 18:4, Deuteronomy 33:2, 33:26, 33:29, Ps 20:2, 33:20, 70:5, 89:19, 115:9, 115:10, 115:11, 121:1, 121:2, 124:8, 146:5 Isaiah 30:5, Ezekiel 12:14, Daniel 11:34 and Hosea 13:9.

In the 19 instances outside Genesis 2, 16 refer to God helping Israel. In 2 instances it is of a more powerful nation sending its armies to help Israel. In one it speaks of no one to help Israel. From this it can be concluded that the primary meaning of ‘ezer’ is of a more powerful person helping a weaker person. Just like Jesus said in Matthew 19:4-6 the text in Genesis 2 shows the original intention of God that there should be no divorce, I would say that this was meant to be the original position of woman in relationship to man. However, due to culture, Jesus says in Matthew 19:8, that Moses permitted divorce. Hardness of heart led to the fallen culture. This same fallen culture has led to the inferior position of women in the world, and their suppression, instead of women being God’s power for man.

In the New Testament, while we see many signs of liberation for women, (in they being among Jesus’ disciples) there is no attempt to over turn the state of affairs. The approach taken through the Bible is to curtail the  negative effects of a fallen culture, rather than try to force a divine view on people who cannot understand. Hence we find that slavery, concubinage are referred to without condemnation, when laws are made to curtail abuse of victims.

To Paul our testimony to those who do not know God was more important than setting right these injustices for the present. He felt that if we did try and set these right, it would affect the testimony of the church. This has been Paul’s theme in 1 Corinthians, not to do anything, even if it is right in the sight of God, if it will turn people away from God.

In the New Testament, with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit where we should be able to understand the divine will, these cultural aberrations need to be set right within the church, to the extent where it does not spoil its testimony. Unfortunately for the church, these aberrations are being forced on the church as the will of God, and the Biblical teaching, so that education is proving the liberator rather than Jesus. The world seems to be moving ahead of the church.

Leviticus 4

Leviticus 4

The sin offering

This offering was to be made when we did something wrong unintentionally (vs 2). For intentional sins there was no offering, except for some minor offenses. These unintentional sins could be making a statement without knowing that it was incorrect, or taking something which belongs to someone else by mistake etc. Or it could be an offence against a ceremonial law unintentionally, like forgetting that it was the Sabbath. Once we are aware of the error we were to offer this as a sin offering recognizing that we have erred.

If the offender is the priest that sin comes on all Israel (vs 3). In the case of a priest a bull was to be offered as the sin offering.

The laying of the hand on the head in this case probably is a transference of one’s sin but more likely his self along with his sin.

Whereas in the burnt offering or peace offering the blood was either sprinkled on the altar (1:5, 3:2) in this case the blood was sprinkled in the Holy Place before the veil of the sanctuary (vs 5f). He will put some of the blood on the altar of incense in the Holy Place. The rest of the blood would be poured on the altar outside.

Only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies and so the priest sprinkles the blood just outside that.

All the fat was offered to the Lord on the altar (vs 8-10). The rest of the bull was burnt outside the camp (vs 11-12) and was not given to the priest. Nothing is preserved. This separation of the fat and the rest of the animal probably signifies the two natures of man Paul speaks of in Romans 7:13-25 especially vs 25. That which desires to serve God with good is burnt on the altar. The evil is burnt outside the camp as a getting rid of the sinful nature.

Jesus’ death outside the city of Jerusalem was a fulfilment of this aspect of the sin offering. Jesus became sin taking our sinful nature and being crucified outside the city a sign that we are set free from our sinful nature.

In case of the nation sinning, the elders lay hands as representatives of the people (vs 15). If one of the rulers have sinned unintentionally in the duties of his office he is to offer a male goat and not a bull (vs 22f). But if the sin is done by an ordinary person the offering was a female goat (vs 28) or sheep (vs 32).

The sin offering of the ruler and the common man is not burnt outside the camp, but taken by the priest - Chapter 6:26. By the priest taking the sin offering he takes the sin as the representative of the people, and this is the priestly role that Jesus performs.

This is important in understanding Jesus’ offering on Calvary as for the kingdom of God rather than me individually. My salvation is as a member of the kingdom of God. Because of the distortion of the understanding of the kingdom in some churches this aspect is not popular now among Protestants.

Also the blood is not taken to the Holy place, but only the horns of the sacrificial altar was anointed with the blood and the rest poured out at the base of the altar.

So there is a distinction between the offering for the priest and for the nation and the rest of the offerings for individuals.