Passover Remembrance

As I’m going through some devotionals this afternoon, I have one I saved from October 20. It’s called A Day to Remember and comes from my favorite - Beside the Still Waters. It talks about a church that burned so they were moving services to the pastor’s home. They will never forget the day the church burned, but what ties to things I’ve been discussing is how, “in the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelites to keep the Passover as a day to remember their deliverance from bondage in Egypt.”

This is contrasted with the Passover celebration in the New Testament where we are also told to remember something. Our table at church even says In Remembrance of Me. We hold Communion at church several times a year, and it’s always a time to reflect and, dare I say, rededicate!

The writer includes something I’ve never thought of though. We know that the blood is the wine and the body is the bread. We know that Jesus is our Once and Everlasting Passover Lamb. What I had not thought of is this. “The reference is both to Christ’s physical body and to the church as His spiritual body. Many grains are crushed and many grapes are pressed to make these emblems, and this illustrates how we need to blend together as a brotherhood.”

That is beautiful! No, it’s not ‘thus sayeth the Lord,’ and there is no scripture reference to back it up, but the thought behind it - the UNITY behind it - speaks to what I’ve been talking about as it applies to us today; to us in the sense of unity with other denominations.

Walking in the Spirit

While I’m discussing some things that jumped out at me, October 22 is about gossip. Now listen closely, so I don’t have to repeat this… Paul writes -

Galatians 5:16 NIRV - So I say, live by the Holy Spirit’s power. Then you will not do what your desires controlled by sin want you to do.

Galatians 5:16 KJV - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

The lust of the flesh. This sounds so dirty, doesn’t it. You know there are more than one type of lust though, right? You can lust for money; for power; etc. Lust is not just for sex or intimacy. Actually one could argue that TRUE intimacy contains no lust whatsoever, but that’s a topic for another day.

Right now, just know that lust means a strong desire for something. And lust is STRONG - like an overwhelming urge to do or have something. Think of a strong craving for chocolate. Is it lust? Or just desire? Can you easily say no? Can an alcoholic easily say no? That should put it in perspective.

Here’s verses 19 through 21 in both the NIrV and King James…

Galatians 5:19-21 NIRV - The result of sin’s control in our lives is clear. It includes sexual sins, impure acts and wild living. It includes worshiping statues of gods and worshiping evil powers. It also includes hatred and fighting, jealousy and fits of anger. Sinful desire is interested only in getting ahead. It stirs up trouble. It separates people into their own little groups. It wants what others have. It gets drunk and takes part in wild parties. It does many things of that kind. I warn you now as I did before. People who live like this will not receive God’s kingdom.

Galatians 5:19-21 KJV - Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

So as you can see, a lust for power results in more than just adultery or fornication. Lust for ‘fun’ leads to drunkenness and partying. Make sure whatever you desire is in harmony or concert with what God desires for you! When we walk in the spirit, we will do things that are in line with what the Spirit leads us to do!

Gossip

The point in this daily devotion is that gossip is talking; communicating. This is something we all enjoy doing. My blog and podcast are communicating, and I believe that is a gift and calling of God. Talking, writing, singing, etc. are not in and of themselves evil, but they can be used for evil. The writer uses two verses to help illustrate this.

Matthew 12:34 NIRV - You nest of poisonous snakes! How can you who are evil say anything good? Your mouths say everything that is in your hearts.

Does what comes from YOUR mouth and MY mouth reveal what is in our hearts? Yes! You might have control over your tongue around certain people, or you might install a filter so you don’t ‘cuss on Sunday’ or ‘tell a dirty joke in the church,’ but if those things come from your mouth you better believe they started in your heart!

So the writer points out that, “gossip is not merely a mouth problem but rather a heart problem. It starts with what we meditate on.”

Philippians 4:8 NIRV - Finally, my brothers and sisters, always think about what is true. Think about what is noble, right and pure. Think about what is lovely and worthy of respect. If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, think about those kinds of things.

Remember what we say in the computer world: garbage in - garbage out. If you input things that are incorrect, it doesn’t matter how smart you are or how you manipulate the data, it’s going to be incorrect at the end.

If we dwell on the negative, we are going to produce the negative. If we dwell on the things we do not have we won’t appreciate what we do have. If we think negative things about people we will say negative things about people.

The writer ends with, “profitable conversation should be a daily habit.”

False Teachings

Last night the pastor was teaching on Matthew 24. He got a little bogged down in verses 4-8 talking about false prophets and false teachers. This really was driven home today when I was listening to a podcast and I heard someone say that God spoke to him audibly.

Now this is nothing new; I have felt the tug on the heart or God telling me to do something too. I don’t claim to hear it audibly, but it might as well be audible. “Go to that person. Turn around. I said go to him. Don’t just drive off like you didn’t hear me.”

No, none of that was audible, but I still felt the words, if that makes sense. Well, this person was talking about the rapture of the church and preparing people. He was in church on a Sunday morning. He admitted he was not a committed Christian (his words were “I wasn’t really religious”) and was only there to please his mom. But God said three words out loud to him.

Now what was the first thing he did? He went to prayer? Went to the scripture? No - he asked for a sign. He asked God to send a sign that if it was really Him and not another spirit or ‘lower case gee’ god that was talking to him. He asked that if it was really from God that the pastor would call him that week.

Sure enough - middle of the week - middles of the day - his phone rings and it’s the pastor calling him out of the blue. He said the pastor didn’t know him so it was not something normal. So it must have been God, right? Sorry - I’m not buying it…

Now I’m not saying that God will only ‘speak out’ to someone that is a dedicated Christian and not just at church because their mom wanted them there. Jesus called to some of the disciples before they were believers. And we all ‘got the call’ to salvation while we were still antagonists. My point is that I don’t think God will answer the question for a sign with - well - a sign.

Rapture Timing

There was another lady on the show who said God told her that she would be in her 40’s when the rapture occurs. She is now like 42. The pastor last night keyed in on this specific verse…

Matthew 24:36 NIRV - “But no one knows about that day or hour. Not even the angels in heaven know. The Son does not know. Only the Father knows.

Now before I go any further, I want to say that I don’t believe the Bible teaches that the rapture is ‘imminent.’ I believe that it teaches we will be taken before God’s wrath is poured out, but that the entire seven year period is not God’s wrath. Actually, the verses just before this say what I’m talking about… Now I recommend you read the entire passage of Matthew 24 so that you can read it for yourself. I will point out specific verses though.

Before you read this - or listen to this next part - please know that I’m not t...