The Better Part, Week #55

 

Two weeks of FB posts...

The Better Part, Day #255:

 

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 

 

Did you catch this? The lukewarm church is the only one in which Christ is on the OUTSIDE, knocking. Small wonder a lukewarm church will put up meme after meme about their church and against the Bible, but nary a word about the Savior...

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #256:

 

A friend on MeWe recently posted a meme: "Religious Freedom: What you believe is not the problem. What you think I should believe is the problem."

 

All well and good until the day of judgment and you think, "But nobody told me!" is an acceptable excuse. Christians don't tell you our faith because we want brownie points, we are trying to save you from Hell.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day # 257:

 

My pastor said something that made me see a whole passage of the Gospel a new way. In fact, to get the whole lesson out, I'll have to do this over 3 days- and I won't get to what he said until the end. You see, the lesson is, "What are the problems with following traditions over the Bible?" And I think you'll see that it doesn't matter if the tradition comes from a Pharisee, a "Church Father", a false prophet, or a cult leader.

 

The first part comes from Mark 12:35-37, where Jesus asks about the passage in Psalms 101:

 

Mar 12:35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?

Mar 12:36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, "'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.'

Mar 12:37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?" And the great throng heard him gladly. 

 

The Scribes- the traditionalists- who couldn't quite conceive of the Messiah being God, had always just left the passage in Psalms at, "the Messiah will be the Son of David"- in other words, a direct descendant of David. Let me point this out to you- if Matthew and Luke could trace Jesus back to David, you can BET the Pharisees had, too. And this passage explained that the Messiah would be greater than David- more than a man.

 

But they just chose to ignore it. In the same way the Sadducees cut out everything after the Books of Moses, The scribes picked and chose, and this is the first power that tradition gives you- the power to "plead ignorance."

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #258:

 

The second part of, "What holding to traditions of man gets you", involves those experts of men's traditions, the Scribes....

 

Mar 12:38 And in his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces

Mar 12:39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts,

Mar 12:40 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation." 

 

Now, verse 40 there will play a big part in tomorrow's finale. But for a moment, focus on verse 38. Pastor Denny mentioned that he never wears Pastoral robes- he won't even answer to the honorific 'reverend'- because he wants to give no occasion to pride. I'll take this a step further- where do scribes get off wearing ANYTHING fancy, when even the High Priest only wore his "Sunday best" once a year?

And that's the second thing favoring tradition over the Bible gets you- greater opportunities at self glorification. Not to mention that greater condemnation which goes with it.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #259:

 

 

The third part of our story is what's commonly known as the "Widow's Mite". An old widow put to shame the scribes dumping big amounts of their excess into the treasury when she put less than a penny- all she had in the world- into the collection.

 

 

My pastor noted how often this is used to drum up 'sacrificial giving', but said, "That's not the point of the passage!" Truth of the matter is, by the Law of Moses in Leviticus- which they claimed they lived by- widows, orphans, and foreigners who accepted the faith were EXEMPT from giving to the Temple. However, the religious elite had managed to manhandle scripture to such a point that they had made her OBLIGATED to pay- thus Jesus's comment yesterday about 'devouring widow's homes'.

And that is the third power that following man's tradition gives you- the ability to ignore, rephrase, or otherwise mutilate the clear directives of God's Law.

 

 

 

The Better Part, day #260:

 

 

Rev 4:6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal...

 

 

So the next thing I didn't know before came from Jack Hibbs today, about this sea of glass- it's solid; why is it solid? Because it is the heavenly model for the bronze 'sea' that was where the priests had to wash their feet before approaching the tent of meeting. When Jesus was washing Peter's feet. He said, "Once you are washed, you don't have to wash again, but only your feet"- and this is symbolic of once you are saved, you don't have to get 're-saved' after every sin, just ask forgiveness.

 

 

And once in heaven, their is no more sin, and no need to ask forgiveness- the sea can be solid, since no one has to wash in it anymore!

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #261:

 

 

I have never had (with one slight exception) a dream that was anything but my subconscious re-translating what was on my mind. Well, another exception is when I have left a crack for Satan to bug me about past guilt. How delightful after such a night to hear Charles Stanley saying, "When God forgave your sins on the Cross, He forgot all of them. If you choose to rub them in your nose later, it's your choice, not God's will..."