CBR 7.14.2010

Church History in One Sentence (Maybe More Than Just One Sentence (Definitely Not Less)): Mr. Keble preached the Assize Sermon in the University Pulpit. It was published under the title of 'National Apostasy"; and so began the Tractarian Movement in Oxford, 1833. 

Leviticus 21

The LORD like a good father protects his Children from poisonous things.    Need for Christ is shown in v. 19. 

Impressions: 

 It may have been sufficient if the lord merely did this but much more was done. 

I Chronicles 12

Lord to Vassels if then statement and covenant relationship shown here.  

v. 8  Our calling is not one of boredom, but one of adventure and true hearted obedience.   Shama Israel, "For your God (actually) helps you!"  He is not like the other Gods who stay far away and laugh heartily at our weak ways.  "For Your GOD HELPS YOU"  God helps us find Joy in Israel.

Impressions:  

Next year in Israel is always the end we (Jews)  finish our passover cedar.  Chronicles was written for those living away from Israel in  exile.  It gave hope that one day we may bring an army strong enough to conquer the world's evil ways.  We ask that next year the LORD deposits us on the banks of Israel.  

Ezekiel 16

We are whores and sell out to shinny things inside the world.  

Colossians 2 

We are knit together through the love of Christ, we should abound in Good News, in Thanksgiving,  Shadows lurked before Christ, Christ has now come,  and only Christ stops the indulgence of the world.

Prayer: "LORD enable us to come to You, and seek to abide in you, and have your words abide in us all the time. Endow us with your spirit to stand against the apostasy that threatens to send good men to hell"  Provide us with the material to be a man of valor who represents God Well.  Keep me from the evil ways of the world that may look good and shinny but are just wretched things that take me away from the LORD''s path.  Make me quick to recognize the things that sanctify and the things that do not.

Why Heaven is a Bad Place for Earthy Men?

Tractarian Movement:
Check out the Newman Reader:   John Newman was a contemporary of John Koble, and desired to reform the liberal ways the church was voyaging to.  

Nay, I will venture to say more than this;—it is fearful, but it is right to say it;—that if we wished to imagine a punishment for an unholy, reprobate soul, we perhaps could not fancy a greater than to summon it to heaven. Heaven would be hell to an irreligious man. We know how unhappy we are apt to feel at present, when alone in the midst of strangers, or of men of different tastes and habits from ourselves. How miserable, for example, would it be to have to live in a foreign land, among a people whose faces we never saw before, and whose language we could not learn. And this is but a faint illustration of the loneliness of a man of earthly dispositions and tastes, thrust into the society of saints and angels. How forlorn would he wander through the courts of heaven! He would find no one like himself; he would see in every direction the marks {8} of God's holiness, and these would make him shudder. He would feel himself always in His presence. He could no longer turn his thoughts another way, as he does now, when conscience reproaches him. He would know that the Eternal Eye was ever upon him; and that Eye of holiness, which is joy and life to holy creatures, would seem to him an Eye of wrath and punishment. God cannot change His nature. Holy He must ever be. But while He is holy, no unholy soul can be happy in heaven. Fire does not inflame iron, but it inflames straw. It would cease to be fire if it did not. And so heaven itself would be fire to those, who would fain escape across the great gulf from the torments of hell. The finger of Lazarus would but increase their thirst. The very "heaven that is over their head" will be "brass" to them.

Church History: Great Awakening in Oxford England Began 1833.

National Apostasy by John Keble
Preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, on July 14, 183
Reading John Keble's National Apostasy sermon some key remarks are made that can be applied to us and our churches today.  (Mind you this was said in 1833).  It amazes me how little of our world has changed since 1833, one hundred and seventy seven years ago. There is always a tendency for our churches to fall into comfortable living and forget what we are called to be, sons and daughters in arms for the Gospel.    

• Are we disobedient sons who yearn, "To be freer and like the rest of the world."?  
• Do we wish to divorce ourselves from our favored position of children of God?  Due to too many responsibilities.
• Is our desire to be lead actors in our own dramas more important than stepping aside and putting the spot light on Christ? 
• Are the modern times calling for modern responses?      
• Are modern threats outside of the hands of God?
• How tolerant should we be of other men's religions under the guise of charity and good will?  Cheering on the "supposed decay of what they call an exclusive system."
• Do we leave God in the temple on Sunday and not connect god to the rest of our lives?  
• How do we separate social duty from the word of God?  Do we leave sacred cows apart from God?  God does want our whole hearts devoted to him, our all and all...  
• "How may a man best reconcile his allegiance to God and his Church with his duty to his county?  What happens when ones country becomes instep with apostates?  Who really protects us?  
• Whom are we letting our Children be taught by?     

 What is the response: REMONSTRANCE.  When the time comes we shall stand up against the rise of apostates who stand with the lambs.  

HEAT = SALVATION

Denis Lehane wrote in A Drink Before the War:  "In some theological equation of my own making Heat=Salvation." page 93

CBR 7.13.2010

Church History in One Sentence (Maybe More Than Just One Sentence (Probably not Less)):  Thomas Kelley born today in 1769.  He was Ireland's Hymnal Writer.  

1. Praise the Savior, ye who know Him!
   Who can tell how much we owe Him?
   Gladly let us render to Him
     All we are and have.
2. Jesus is the name that charms us;
   He for conflicts fits and arms us;
   Nothing moves and nothing harms us
     When we trust in Him.
3. Trust in Him, ye saints, forever;
   He is faithful, changing never;
   Neither force nor guile can sever
     Those He loves from Him.
4. Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us cleaving
   To Thyself and still believing,
   Till the hour of Thy receiving
     The victorious Bride.
5. Then we shall be where we would be;
   Then we shall be what we should be;
   Things which are not now, nor could be,
     Then shall be our own.

Scripture Memory
John 1:12-13 
¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.


Leviticus 21
The priests, the high priests especially  are called to be holy, separate from the people, upholding the holiness that is the temple of God.  Thank God Christ came so that all types of people can partake in the blessing of the LORD.   Before only those who had no blemish could partake.     Christ was perfect so the Liberator, could make total intercessions on our behalf.   The high priest represented the holiness of God, so the Liberating King had to be without visible flaw.  Jesus flies in the face of tradition: "He may not exhibit the usual tokens of grief, and may not defile himself with any dead body, the exceptions made for the ordinary priest being definitely withdrawn."   


Interesting Note:  Eunuchs were barred from the Congregation.   But Jesus speaks in Matthew 19: ¹⁰The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."
 ¹¹Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. ¹²For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage^[c]because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."
Acts 8:26-2926 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south [1] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”  (The Ethiopian Church was started by a Eunuch, some one way outside the moral boundaries of the Congregation in the OT).  

1.  Also how did a Eunuch receive a Torah portion when he could not be part of a church?
2. What is the story about the Torah section, how did it come into the hands of an Ethiopian Eunuch?
3. It is important that the priest, pastor, and others involved in God's church present the solution for sin, the adoption of God's children into the fabric of Christ.

1 Chronicles 11
This is a pivotal chapter, often used in Emergent Pastor's Sermons.  Here we find David becoming Sovreign Lord over his people.  The people are subjugating themselves to be his vassal.  Because David was chosen by God to be the Lord of his people his kingdom spread.  "David's success's are due not him but to God's favor and presence in his life."  (Notes from ESV Study Bible)  David at this point is still humble and is good to his men.   Description of the "A-Team"  David's men of Valor.  Uriah is listed in the men of valor.   "David reckoned his success, not as from the mighty men that were with him, but from the might God, whose presence is all in all." Matthew Henry 362
God will give as a good father gives, he will also discipline like a good father disciplines.  


Ezekiel 15
And the word of God... it has power alone to save us to call us back to him.  David's success was only due to his good will with God, other wise 8"And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the LORD God."(ESV)     Like a Good father God is there to reward his children, and to punish them when they need redirection.


Colossians Introduction:
Setting: Small Community Small Church
Key Characters:   Epaphras founded the churches of Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicia,  He described to Paul the condition of his church in Colossae, which moved Paul to write a letter to this congregation.  
Paul : writer of the letter to the Church of Colossae.  
There is a lot here and I need time to digest it all, so here are some questions to guide my understanding:
Do we really know who we belong to?   Do we know how to keep our eyes on beautiful things in him?  Do we get that to mix anything with Christ is to pollute the Gospel?  How do we stay faithful in the tumult that the devil has us envision every day, especially on the television set and in our media saturation?    Interesting that the VOICE New Testament uses Everyone to describe who the mystery is for, while the ESV states the Saints.   But both are in agreement with the mission statement: "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ."  The Christian is to stand mature in an immature world.   


We are adopted sons of Christ Hallelujah  


Prayer: "LORD enable us to come to You, and seek to abide in you, and have your words abide in us all the time."  

7/11/2010	Psalm 82	Psalm 83	Psalm 84	Psalm 84
7/12/2010	Leviticus 20	1 Chronicles 10	Ezekiel 14	Philippians 4
7/13/2010	Leviticus 21	1 Chronicles 11	Ezekiel 15	Colossians 1
7/14/2010	Leviticus 22	1 Chronicles 12	Ezekiel 16	Colossians 2
7/15/2010	Leviticus 23	1 Chronicles 13	Ezekiel 17	Colossians 3
7/16/2010	Proverbs 28	1 Chronicles 14	Ezekiel 18	Colossians 4
7/17/2010	Psalm 85	Psalm 86	Psalm 87	Psalm 87

7.12.2010 Community Bible Reading

Church History in One Sentence (Maybe More Than Just One Sentence): 
David Brainerd in 1739, was called by the holy spirit to be a missionary to Native Americans in the United States.  He would be the influence and hero of the missionary field for men like William Carey and Henry Martyn. His biography was written by Jonathan Edwards. 
He was a man who lived a lot of his life inward... at least thats what I get from listening to the second chapter.  But I liked how he talks about his relationship with God, I need to apply my walk with God to my scripture.   He also speaks plainly about praying daily, "Spent much of the day in prayer."   


Scripture Memory
John 1:12-13 
¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.


Leviticus 20:  The LORD speaks to me today!  He gives me guidance through the holy spirit.   Like a good father he teaches us the right and wrong way to conduct ourselves in a worship based community.   Are children valuable here?  Or were they saying if you give even the smallest amount to other Gods, than you are to be cut off from the people?  A note on Nakedness, what is to be seen and what is not to be seen, it affects the heart to see certain things and other things are holy under God.  The LORD alone sanctifies us:   Scarlet Letter a Crimson A.   


 We are to be witness's to the world, this can be done in two ways:  One telling others that God loves them but then being disconnected from the way of Christ, or B.  Walk with God, smile on others, left others up, show the love that God has for us, onto others; prayers for others, show that God loves his Children in such a way that there is an abundance of strong love.  I choose B.  Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone.


1 Chronicles 10:
When our LORD dies, we die.   Saul fell on his sword and then the rest of his household fall on their swords.   We are to be drawn into the LORD, if our LORD is pronounced dead, then are we dead?  The reason given for Saul's death was that he did not turn to the LORD for guidance he turned to a medium.   Let us be careful to be sons of God and follow our father's advice.   In God we serve all in humility.   Our lord is glorified when we are weak, because his glory is shown by carrying us through.  


Ezekiel 14
Saul turned to the IDOL of "Worldly Wisdom", thus he was cut off from God.  
"the punishment of the prophet (true or false)* and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike."   The LORD makes a proclamation here.   He states in summary that he alone will make the land profitable or desolate.  He will deliver some out of the land while destroying the rest. He will send the four acts of judgement:  sword, famine,  wild beast, and pestilence to cut off from it man and beast! He is proclaiming that he will not allow moral pollution to go wild like weeds.  We are here to glorify God alone.  


*one definition of prophet that I liked was: 
((dispenser of material sense before the conscious facts of Spiritual Truth) One who goes forward with an opinion with out first going to the Bible to seek clarity))


Philippians 4
Be real in your walk with God.   Focus on behavior that is matching to the role we are, "Sons of Our LORD through Adoption" .   This does not mean that we act the brat, rather we act like noble men who are ready to serve like our LORD served us.   We out of love show the embracing power that is JESUS CHRIST.  
We should also keep our minds on good thoughts and not corrupt them with things that are rotten, this makes me ponder if some of the books in my collection are corrupting influences?  If they are corrupting should I get rid of them?  Also it is difficult for me not to want the applause of men, this is one of my idols that I need to rid myself of today?!
Prayer:  

Today  I ask that God show me the idols of my heart, and that I repent of these IDOLS.  Today I seek you first and foremost LORD in establishing harmony in our household.  

7/10/2010	Psalm 82	Psalm 83	Psalm 84	Psalm 84
7/11/2010	Psalm 82	Psalm 83	Psalm 84	Psalm 84
7/12/2010	Leviticus 20	1 Chronicles 10	Ezekiel 14	Philippians 4
7/13/2010	Leviticus 21	1 Chronicles 11	Ezekiel 15	Colossians 1
7/14/2010	Leviticus 22	1 Chronicles 12	Ezekiel 16	Colossians 2
7/15/2010	Leviticus 23	1 Chronicles 13	Ezekiel 17	Colossians 3
7/16/2010	Proverbs 28	1 Chronicles 14	Ezekiel 18	Colossians 4

CBR 7.10.2010

Cartoon found at the Naked Pastor!!!!! 

Psalm 82
Don't judge the earth but keep your eyes on the prize.   We are to be missionaries to the world.  How was this used to subjugate the weaker in our conquest to bring Christ to the Heathens?

Proverbs 27:
I'm only human; I'm just a man
Help me believe in what I could be and all that I am
Show me the stairway
I have to climb
Lord for my sake
Teach me to take
One day at a time

One day at a time, sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength to do everything that I have to do
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time.

Could you remember
When you walked among men
Jesus, you know when you're looking below
It's worse now than then
Pushin' and shovin' crowd in your mind
Lord for my sake
Teach me to take
One day at a time


I Chronicles 9:
So I talked to my Pastor about struggling with I Chronicles and he told me to get for the church, Pratt's book on I & 2 Chronicles.  I am excited for the day I get it.  There are not many people with these names any more.   My wife does not want to name our kids Bocheru. "Dude were not calling our kid Boche,  I would rather have them named Carlton then that."    It would be neat to see kids being named after the people mentioned in the historical record of Chronicles.  


 Gate keepers at the thresholds, protecting the house of God was a family affair.  Important jobs were bakers, singers, guards born into the guild of their family.     A lot of kin were born that were not mentioned here because they died early on.   The role of the child was not big until he was 13, by then they knew the child would probably survive his youth.   




Ezekiel 13
He warns us of who we must listen to! If it is too easy, or too alluring it may not be the gospel.  But in community rooted to the bible one can decipher the truth through the direction and sway of the spirit of God.


Philippians 3
Paul had everything going for him, but now he finds his life in a prison cell.  But somehow his faith is renewed when he is in jail.   His life was set, he was a Benjaminite, the might men of valor, from the twelve tribes of Israel.   They were the men to set off and defend the nation of Israel.   From action to inaction he sets in jail and prays to God that the people will understand that to be in Christ is to gain it all, to be outside of Christ is to lose it all.  


Scripture Memory
John 1:10-11 
¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

7/7/2010	Leviticus 18	1 Chronicles 7	Ezekiel 11	Philippians 1
7/8/2010	Leviticus 19	1 Chronicles 8	Ezekiel 12	Philippians 2
7/9/2010	Proverbs 27	1 Chronicles 9	Ezekiel 13	Philippians 3
7/10/2010	Psalm 82	Psalm 83	Psalm 84	Psalm 84
7/11/2010	Psalm 82	Psalm 83	Psalm 84	Psalm 84
7/12/2010	Leviticus 20	1 Chronicles 10	Ezekiel 14	Philippians 4
7/13/2010	Leviticus 21	1 Chronicles 11	Ezekiel 15	Colossians 1