Author: Allan

Allan
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Blemishes

Leviticus chapter 22.17-25 discusses the animals that can be sacrificed, particularly the unallowable ‘blemishes’ that disqualify any offered beast. Not blind, disabled, mutilated, having a discharge or itch or scab; no scars, wounds, or bruised, crushed, or torn testicles. Physically perfect animals were required because God is holy.

The sacrifices were required to temporarily atone for man’s sin. Because of his inability to satisfy God’s commandments, man is sinful and morally imperfect, especially because God is holy. But the animal sacrifices could only go so far, since the perceived physical perfection of the animals did not cover the moral imperfections of man.

Jesus, on the other hand, had definite physical blemishes. He was not much to look at, according to Isaiah 53.2. And when crucified, he had been whipped, beaten, spit on. He was a mess physically. But morally, he was perfect. No sins. He even asked his father, in a very un-human-nature way, to forgive his persecutors because they didn’t know what they were doing.

Remember, God is holy. His holy justice demanded, and He provided, a morally perfect sacrifice to once and for all take care of man’s inability to satisfy the law. He sent his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3.16).  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6.23).

Prayer List as Trellis

In the late summer our Tuesday morning prayer group usually uses the schedule of upcoming ministry startups as our launching list for topics. It’s a simple list to put together – contact the people responsible for the various ministries and ask them for meeting, retreat, conference, training, or other dates coming up in the next couple of months.

As we prayed this year, it occurred that this is a good The Trellis and the Vine example. A central theme of that book, by Collin Marshal and Tony Payne, is having enough (but not too much) administrative programming (trellis) to support fruitful ministry workers (vine). The header on our prayer list made it clear that our purpose is to be witnesses, so it included the Great Commission from Matthew 28 and the following introduction: “Here is a chronological list of events, trainings, retreats, conferences, and classes coming in the next couple of months as ministries begin. Let’s lift them up, remembering our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ.”

The fruitful prayers included thanksgiving for God’s work in setting up the several (fruitful) ministries; equipping the leaders for each ministry; and the worldwide impact as hundreds of people have been brought in, built up, and sent out over the life of the church. Prayers were offered for strong starts for each of the programs this fall, for new visitors to the church to be welcomed warmly, and for God’s provision that some of those new visitors would join in the vine work and bring with them complementary gifts to those already present in the congregation, particularly for outreach and evangelism work.

Think Texas Roadhouse

A man walks into a nearly empty bar and orders a drink. He’s sitting alone at the end of the bar, sipping away, and he hears a voice.

“Nice shirt.”

He looks around and sees no one nearby. He forgets about it and continues drinking.

“Nice tie,” the voice says again.

He looks around a second time. The bartender and all other customers are at the other side of the room. Confused, the man calls the bartender over and asks about the mysterious voice that admired his clothing.

“Oh, that’s the peanuts,” the bartender said.

“The peanuts?” asked the man.

“Yeah, they’re complimentary.”

Loosely Leviticus 23.27

“Father Joshua, could you answer a question I have about the Day of Atonement we celebrated yesterday? “

“Sure, Yom. What’s up?”

“Well I get the two goats thing. One is sacrificed here and then all the sins of the people are placed on the poor scapegoat and somebody takes it out and sets it loose in the wilderness. But the part I don’t get is what WE are to do AFTER the scapegoat is led away. Priest Aaron told everyone to go back to their tents and afflict themselves until sundown. My family just sits around and I can’t play. But my friend Kipper told me when he was walking back to his tent, he saw several people getting drunk on too much wine. What is this ‘affliction’ thing?”

“When Aaron used the word ‘afflict,’ it has a meaning like ‘humble yourself.’ So I think Aaron is calling people to fast, pray, and seek the LORD. It is sort of like a very important Sabbath Day – no work, but consciously repenting of all those sins that got laid on the goat.

“My observation is that most people don’t understand the fasting and praying part. Some people are like the ones Kipper saw; they see it as a day off from work and don’t really care about what God says to do. But there are people at the other extreme who figure that ‘afflict’ implies punishing themselves, so they get palm branches and swat their back for most of the day.

“As with most God things, the hard path to follow is to give Him all the glory, with worship, reverence and thanksgiving for His work. You know there are lots of commandments to keep; you are old enough to know we can’t keep them all the time and it is a sin every time we disobey. So it is God’s grace to us to provide that scapegoat every year to remove all those sins far away. Remembering the purpose for the goats gives a big reason for being thankful and appreciative. Does all that make sense?”

“It does. Thanks. Maybe I didn’t really understand God’s part in the two goats. But I have to admit I don’t know why I can’t play games on a Sabbath or Atonement day….”

“Sounds like a discussion for another day.”

Pearls Before Swine Groaners

The following are taken from the comic strip Pearls Before Swine, by Stephan Paris.

 

Hey, do you want to go to that new burger place with me?

I can’t. They give out too many French fries with their burgers and I’ll get fat.

Just don’t eat them all.

When one has French fries in front of him, one cannot stop eating until every French fry has been consumed. – Newton’s fourth law

Not a Newtonian Law

A mouth in motion tends to stay in motion.

 

What does it mean when people say something is ‘meta’?

It’s when a creative work refers to itself.

What for?

Let me try to explain with a metaphor. Do you know how a metaphor works?

No. What’s a meta metaphor for?

Well, say you met a four…

STOP!

 

Neighbor Bob and his wife have gotten a goose. They say it’s helped with their relationship

How so?

When Bob is nice to the goose, his wife feels closer to him, and as a result, she’s more open and frank with him.

So what’s good for the goose is good for the candor.

Equipping

In Ephesians 4.11-16 Paul describes the process for building and maintaining good churches, starting with the very first believers in the first century.  God took the initial steps, giving

  • Apostles
  • Prophets
  • Evangelists
  • Shepherds
  • Teachers

These gifted people are to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, with the end goals of:

  • Unity of faith
  • Knowledge of the Son of God
  • Mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
  • No longer be children
  • No longer tossed to and from by every wind of doctrine, human cunning, or craftiness in deceitful schemes
  • Able to speak the truth in love
  • Grow up in every way him who is the head, into Christ
  • Each part of the body working properly
  • Body builds itself up in love

These two lists are continuations of other lists that show what a church should look like and how our oneness is in what we believe.

God’s Mighty WInd

Last week we played Ultimate Frisbee in a fierce wind that was pushed ahead of a giant storm. The storm was coming south and had poured enough rain and lightning strikes in the Traverse City to knock the power out at our friends’ parents’ house. Some of the crowd were worried about the possibility of nasty precipitation and kept a wary eye on the clouds. Fortunately the rain held off until our stopping time = dark.

Wind does strange things to Frisbees in flight. Up, down, all around; short throws blow overhead or crash to the ground; longer throws end up in the street or the neighboring fields. Several times a teammate well behind the intended target would catch the errant disk.

We made a concession right at the beginning of the match – we played East-West rather than the traditional longer North-South because the wind from the North would cause trouble equally to both teams.

The wackiest play I recall was a five foot throw from Richie to me. I was standing in the end zone with no defenders around and a simple toss would score a goal. The wind caught the thing just as Richie let it go and smashed it right to the ground at my feet. I sort of tried to dive for it but mostly just doubled over and fell down in laughter; it was too crazy to believe. Fortunately all the young guys were quick to help me up off the ground; no injuries this time!