Gadol Elohai Shiru ki gadol Elohai Kol echad yirei Ki gadol Elohai Shem me'al kol shem Otcha raui le'halel Libi yashir ki gadol Elohai How great is our God, sing with me How great is our God, and all will see How great, how great is our God
Bought my first car in Ireland in 2007, Nissan Primera. I loved driving that car and it was very dependable and reliable, too me touring around Ireland. But all good things come to an end, and by 2013 after 5 yrs of service, I was spending more on maintenance replacing parts just to keep it going. Using things often makes them sentimental to you especially if you have history together and probably the reason I was not giving it up. But alas then engine gave up and winter was coming so I just have to let it go to the scrappers. And move on..with a new car but not before I took a selfie for remembrance before the scrapper hauler towed it away. The Pharisees and the disciples of Christ have one thing in common, they were obedient. To obey and be dedicated is a good thing actually, and they were proud of it. The Pharisees to their tradition and heritage, and John the Baptist's disciple obedient and imitative of their prophet John who at that time was in Herod's prison. But to be obedient to something that is long due to be replaced or had outlive its importance is an ingredient to failure and delusion. And so we have the conversation: Mat 9:14 Then the disciples of John came to Jesus, inquiring, Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, [that is, abstain from food and drink as a religious exercise], but Your disciples do not fast?
Mat 9:15 And Jesus replied to them, Can the wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Mat 9:16 And no one puts a piece of cloth that has not been shrunk on an old garment, for such a patch tears away from the garment and a worse rent (tear) is made.
Mat 9:17 Neither is new wine put in old wineskins; for if it is, the skins burst and are torn in pieces, and the wine is spilled and the skins are ruined. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. - Jesus did not say fasting was wrong, even Jesus fasted and prayed. What Jesus did imply is that they were irrelevant at that time. Fasting was for a season of need, not the season for celebration. The disciples of Christ are bounded to Christ, not the Jewish laws nor the authority of John. By describing his disciples as wedding guests and He the bridegroom, Jesus was actually saying that he was above the Jewish laws and its system, or the authority of John and cannot be forced to conform to be like anyone of them. He was present, and being an authority in Himself, should his disciples mourn ? If the disciples of John would only be truly listening to John's own preaching and shouting - "that someone is coming after me I am not even worthy to untie his sandals" Mar 1:7, they would not be dumb enough to succomed to a behavior of blind obedience when the very person their Master was preaching about was the person they are talking to. - Incompatibility. You cannot use new cloth to patch old garments, or old wineskins to store new wine. Christ (and his gospel) is incompatible with the old system and cannot be forced to conform. It just wouldn't work! Times do change, methodologies become different, progress happens, people grow, die or retire, new technologies come, etc.. we just have to accept to move. Living in the past, or conforming to past systems (depending on circumstances) will most often not work anymore and may not be compatible with what God has newly prepared for us to face in the present. I remember a friend of mine who was a diligent roman catholic. Then he came to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior. But for sometime he tried o blend in the old and the new. He would still go to masses, pray the rosary, kneel before statues, etc... and read his bible. As he continued to grow and learn more from God's word, there was an internal struggle within him which was brought about by his dedication to his rituals and the scripture saying differently especially in the area of idolatry, kneeling before stone and repetitious prayers which is a negative in scripture. This has led to a stage of depression and guilt..difficult for him. He just cant let go and thought the gospel was simply a patch or amendment to his current religious practice. Same thing with the issue surrounding the letter to the Galatians. Jews who became Christians continued back to doing the same Jewish traditions and led to the forcing Gentile who became Christians to be like them, like Jews. It was like the gospel they heard was purely cosmetic, gives them a different dress, but that the law of Moses and the Jewish rituals are still the real thing. Even Peter was persuaded and got embarrassingly scolded by Paul (Gal 2:14) basically for being a conformist. Peter forgot the old system does not work anymore! It is not compatible with the gospel of grace and freedom. We are no longer under law but under grace, not slaves but free, not bastards but adopted sons& daughters-children of God, not in darkness but in light, etc.. The message of incompatibility rings throughout the new testament: For what partnership have right living and right standing with God with iniquity and lawlessness? 2Co 6:14
For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light. Eph_5:8
If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 1Jn 1:6 We have to move with Christ and we have to discern whether we are bogged down with tradition, failures, norms, expectations, sentimentality (failed expectations, or perhaps the loss of a loved one) and peer pressure that we are stuck with what we have or what we are now rather than moving with the Spirit. When it is time for change, to move forward, to move on, we must embrace the call of Christ and follow his lead. The cross before me, the past behind me. New skins for new wine.
Why did Jesus come to earth? - A question the pastor challenged the congregation this morning. Eventually he answered "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Come to think of it and thinking like a child for a moment (who would ask the Why’s indefinitely) I pondered and ask myself- why? Why come to 'seek and save' the lost? Why did, in Genesis, God instead annihilated Adam & Eve and just create a new Adam and Eve, version 2 - so there will no longer a seeking and saving? My mind taught about the covenant, the promise God made, or the Spirit of God he breathe in the clay and made soil into a living being ? It must be important. Eventually my thoughts ended up in the real intent of it all: " Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." Isa_43:7 We are made for God's glory, to give the glory to God, from creation, to salvation, to glorification. I would think that even the fall, the fulfillment of God’s promises, the coming of Christ “to seek and save that which was lost”, the entire salvation history, the exaltation of Christ even; all ends up with the purpose to glorify God. 2Co4:15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. Php2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And sadly those who ended up in the side of justice and not grace all faults in not giving glory to God. Rev16:9...They did not repent and give him glory. Or the damning passage in Romans against idolaters and immorality who degraded God’s glory by making the uncreated creator of everything down into a created thing or idea. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Rom1:21-23) If there was such a thing an unpardonable sin, this is it. Why did Jesus come to earth? To save us, the lost, so that in turn we could fulfill our purpose of being from the very beginning (which was lost) -> to give God the glory in everything that He has done.
[ And he said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Physician, heal yourself.' What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well." ] Background: Jesus went back to Nazareth (his hometown) and began to preach in the local synagogue. Now this is a place unlike any other, the audience are not strangers, they were co-barangays. He is well-known by the audience, and they have known Jesus assuredly as he was grew up among them. Most likely his family (brothers and sisters) were among the listening audience as well. He was given the opportunity to read the words of scripture in the synagogue (a sort of bible study lead), and he quoted Isaiah's prophecy- a line of scripture that describes exclusively about the expected Messiah. No problem about that, .. a warm promise, words in scripture , everyone happy and feeling religious. It was the normal routine of everyone who are given the opportunity to stand in front of their 'çhurch' and do the reading ritual. Luk 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." BUT the bombshell that left everyone surprised if not shocked was NOT the supposedly expected exposition/teaching of what was read sa kanilang bible study. Instead what they heard was a claim and proclamation: Luke 4:21 And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." . in other words, itong pangako ay natupad na at ako yan sya ang tinutukoy dyan ! you would expect the people to easily accept this claim, of course not! from praise and admiration in leading the service and the reading of scriptrue, it eventually end up to a somewhat discrimination of sorts. 'Hindi baga ito ang anak ni Jose?'(v22) or in other words making it more dramatic, 'di ba anak lang ito ni jose na kapitbaryo natin, bat kung magsalita ito ngayon ay parang bigtime na'? they actually were looking down at Christ since they know him fully well and did not expect such claims for himself. Given this background then, we have the parable/snippet which in a way Jesus preempting what they were thinking: Luk 4:23 And he said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Physician, heal yourself.' What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well." It is a challenge or to question the claim or authority of jests by way of a quote. a physician's reputation is proven by not only healing others but also of able to heal himself. and so in a way they challenge christ to do the same thing (probably miracles he had done in Capernaum from that they have heard) to do the same in Nazareth to prove his claims. "What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well." They want proofs or evidence. But Christ responded: Luk 4:24-28 And he said, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. Why were the audience so angry? Most likely because Christ revealed what was in their thoughts, exposed their own prejudice for one of their own. The fact that Jesus read what was in their mind did not pause them to think that he is actually what he claims he is. The widow in Zaephath and Naaman the Syrian were all gentiles, and Jesus telling that passage is understandably clear to the Jewish audience - that a prophet is not always welcomed in his hometown, and because of their hardened heart and pride, the blessings which are suppose to be given to them ironically are given to those NOT of his own kin but to strangers. We behave similarly to the people in Jesus's hometown. ''Familiarity breeds contempt"- People do notrespectsomeonetheyknowwellenough to knowhis or herfaults. We are all victims to this, and often prejudice against people well enough we should be encouraging and believing instead of looking down for the main reason that 'he grew up with us- kilala ko yan!', in a way saying ''Physician heal thyself''. But Christ was different, he had no faults, he had no sins. And the only excuse the people dare to challenge him, ironically, was the same approach the devil tempted him when he was in the mountain - kung totoo ka nga eh magpasiklab/magpakita ka ng powers mo para maniwala kami na ikaw nga yang sinsabi mong messiah o diyos. If this was Apollo Quiboloy claming he is the new 'Son of God' which 'returned' last Sept 13, 2003 - eh hindi nga po kapanipaniwala at totoong scam. This guy is surrounded by money and luxury not humility. We should do well to look at the person's sincerity and humility before making conclusions about persons, otherwise we will lose the blessing meant for us and this will be given to others instead due to our pride.
