Jeremiah 31:31-34

Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, "Know the LORD," for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.  Jeremiah 31:31-34

The ultimate fulfillment of this process will culminate when we are completely composed of spirit, and God's law will be our first nature, not just second nature. But, while we are in an embryonic stage, the process has already begun in us, incrementally, as God gradually displaces our carnality and sin, replacing it with His Holy Spirit, leading to righteous behavior and godliness. Actually, no human being is completely converted, but many people are in various stages of conversion.

Conversion, then, is a life-long process in which we move from a reactive approach to lawkeeping—motivated by rewards and punishments—to a proactive approach—motivated by a deeply placed inner desire to yield and comply to the law's principles, knowing intrinsically from experience that they work for the good and harmony of all. (Proactive is a term author-speaker Steven Covey uses to distinguish internal motivation to do or accomplish something as opposed to external motivation.)

As the process of conversion begins, God must use carrots and sticks to keep us moving in the right direction. The blessings and curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 served as carrots and sticks to encourage righteous and godly behavior in our Israelite forebears. God uses carrots and sticks in the early part of our calling—for instance, the carrot of the Place of Safety and the stick of the Tribulation—and literally drives us into a frantic study of prophecy. Carrots and sticks have motivated our educational system in the forms of gold stars, grades, praise, trophies, extra homework, and detention.

Recently, Dr. Alfie Kohn, in his book, Punished By Rewards, questions the long-term effects of external motivators, such as grades, financial incentives, gold stars, or tokens, to sustain learning behavior. He supplies some surprising evidence that carrots and sticks—reflecting the philosophy, "Do this and you'll get that"— actually become detrimental in the long run, diverting the focus away from the learning outcome onto the reward or punishment. Dr. Kohn, Dr. Jerome Bruner, and a host of other educators suggest that internal motivators, such as satisfying curiosity, imitating role models, and attaining competency, work better to motivate over the long term than do G.P.A.'s, scholarships and grants, and other external incentives.

To illustrate this, one of the supreme tragedies in the music world occurred when the government of Finland supplied composer Jean Sibelius a guaranteed pension and a large mansion in the woods near Jarvenpaa. After this huge reward, an external motivation, not one musical idea—not one note!—emanated from his pen. Likewise, our spiritual growth and maturity will become stunted if our motivation for righteous behavior is externally determined rather than internally determined.

To an individual truly endowed with God's Spirit, the laws cranked out yearly in Washington, DC, our state capitals, and our local city halls should strike us as juvenile and elementary—or as one minister would call it—knee-pants stuff. Consider the carrots and sticks used by lawmakers to control litter: up to $1,000 fine for littering, or a sign reading, "This segment of highway adopted by Yourtown Jaycees."

These examples ignore the heart and core of the problem. Until the law gets from stone-tablet pages of the Scripture, or the statute books of a local, state, or federal assembly, into our hearts and minds—unless the motivation for doing what is right comes from the inside out—we are no more converted than a donkey. On second thought, a donkey at least behaves as it is programmed to act.

Matthew 13:4-9

And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!  Matthew 13:4-9

Jesus describes quite a number of variables here, and we could add such things as weather, insects, viruses, molds, parasites, soil quality, and seed quality.

What happens when we plant an apple seed? In due time, the seed grows into a mature tree, which produces far more than just one apple. In all likelihood, it will produce many bushels of apples for many years. The apples fall to the ground or are carried away from their point of origin—sometimes very far away in the stomach of a bird or a horse. New seeds are then deposited on the ground, and the "spreading" cycle begins anew to be repeated almost endlessly. Of course, there are some impediments to this process, but where the factors are right, both apple trees and their fruit can increase greatly.

Suppose someone plants a choice morsel of gossip into another's ear. If that sin falls on fertile "ground" (a person with all the "right" proclivities for carrying it to others without regard to consequences), who knows how much destruction can be caused! If that person tells ten others, and these in turn tell ten more, in three cycles one thousand people are involved in this sin! It is entirely possible that not even one person in that thousand would see himself as a cog in the process of spreading potential destruction!

Paul confirms this in II Timothy 2:16-17. "But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer." The New English Bible translates that last sentence as, "The infection of their teaching will spread like a gangrene." Conduct like this will bear bad fruit because human nature provides very few impediments to sin. Human nature can produce nothing else, as Paul writes in Romans 8:6, "For to be carnally minded is death." To add to the tragedy, human nature almost always drags others into its curse along the way to death.

Isaiah 1:11-17

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? Says the LORD. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.

Remember to whom God was speaking—His people, those with whom He had made the Old Covenant. He was not rejecting their sacrifices or the keeping of the holy days. He was angry that they went through the rituals without the humility to submit to His great moral law in their daily lives.

We have the tendency to think of worship as something we do at a designated time and in a certain place, usually once a week. However, religion and worship in the biblical sense involve all of life. Christianity is a way of life (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4). Worship is the reflection of God living in the person no matter what he may be doing. It is his response to God, his interaction with Him. Thus, the Bible covers every aspect of life within its pages. A person truly interacting with God is worshipping God whether at church, work, play, or home. He will strive to glorify God in every situation.

Obviously, the people of Isaiah 1 were not at one with God, though they religiously observed the commanded activities. For a person to be at one with Him, what he does in every area of life must agree with what he professes by his attendance at a worship service.

How can those who treat their fellows with contempt, then take their greed, anger, revenge, and hatred into church fellowship, say they are displaying God's Spirit? These characteristics are divisive! How can they say they worship God?

Misunderstood Truth

Jesus Christ was the most misunderstood man of His time, and not much has changed since. Part of that was intentional. Matthew 13:15 spells out why He spoke in parables: He intentionally wanted to blur the understanding of those listening. However, even when He was not speaking in parables, those standing by still failed to get it right. Most of those who did understand did not believe what He said. His own brothers and sisters paid Him no mind.

It is plausible that Christ was such an effective speaker that many were drawn to listen without understanding. John 7:45-46 suggests just this: "Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought him?" The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man." When He spoke, Jesus got the attention of His audience. John records several instances of people not recognizing the spiritual content of His comments:

• John 2:19-21: Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
• John 3:3-4: Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
• John 4:14-15: ". . . whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."
• John 4:31-33: In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?"
• John 6:51-52: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"
• John 8:21-22: Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come." So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, ‘Where I go you cannot come'?"
• John 8:32-33: And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free'?"

These misunderstanding people come from all walks of life: from those the Jews disdained most (Samaritan woman) to the most learned of Jewish society, the scribes and Pharisees. Even Christ's own disciples failed to grasp the meaning of some things He said. Of course, none of them had received the Holy Spirit, which gives understanding of spiritual truths.

However, even after repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Spirit, it is a constant battle to remain focused. The apostle Paul constantly exhorted the brethren in the various churches that he had started. They strayed from the Way in every possible direction, from the Corinthian church taking  pride in their tolerance of sexual sin to the Hebrews who just drifted away.

What of us who have the Holy Spirit today? Do we not have spiritual understanding? Certainly, we do. Some might wonder, with the Holy Spirit guiding us, can we be led astray?

For the answer, all we need to do is to look around. Some of the spin-offs from our former association have departed from the truth in one or several points. Most of them still keep the Sabbath, most still tithe. However, if a person believes something other than what God, reveals in His Word, he can find a group that will accommodate his error. So, misunderstandings of truth exist among the spin-off churches.

In John 5:38-40, Jesus tells us that even though people study the Scriptures diligently, some simply refuse to believe:

And you have not His word (His thought) living in your hearts, because you do not believe and adhere to and trust in and rely on Him Whom He has sent. [That is why you do not keep His message living in you, because you do not believe in the Messenger Whom He has sent.] You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me! And still you are not willing [but refuse] to come to Me, so that you might have life. (The Amplified Bible [AMP])

And in Hebrews 5:12-14 (AMP), the author observes that some stagnate in their growth:

For even though by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very first principles of God's Word. You have come to need milk, not solid food. For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action), for he is a mere infant [not able to talk yet]! But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law.

John advises, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (I John 4:1). The exercise of spiritual muscle and acumen can be left in the dust of spiritual malaise. It makes one wonder, if a saint were in need of an effectual, fervent prayer from a righteous man, where would he find it?

Some are fortunate to follow a ministry dedicated to serving God in Spirit and truth (John 4:24), leading and guiding the brethren into good spiritual health. However, the load is not to be carried by the ministry alone. Members must be diligent to do their own studies of God's Word as well as listen to the inspired messages given by ministers.

As Paul notes in Romans 15:4, "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." The Bible is replete with admonitions of staying the course, not deviating from sound doctrine. We need to be strong in studying, fasting, and praying for each other, as we are all subject to the increasing dangers of this Satanic realm. Stay alert!

Make no mistake, there will be no misunderstandings at the Judgment Seat.

Matthew 7:16-18

You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Matthew 7:16-18

Combining the principle that whatever is sown will also be reaped (Galatians 6:7-8) with the tendency towards increase means that no matter what a person sows—unless somebody or something intervenes and interrupts the cycle—more will be produced than was sown.

Living according to Christian standards, or morals and ethics, can be faked for a while. Consider these verses: "Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit." Christian standards, and morals, and ethics can be faked for a while. But, no matter how guarded a person is, the fruits produced will betray him. That principle that Jesus gave was also given in the Old Testament by Moses, in Numbers 32:23, where Moses said you can "be sure your sin will find you out."

Bitterness, divisiveness, envy, jealousy, lethargy will eventually show. How much of the fruit will be produced cannot be accurately predicted because there are too many variables involved. But because of the principle of increase over what was originally sown—whether good or evil—there is every likelihood that more is going to be produced than was sown.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5

If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,  and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, "Let us go after other gods"—which you have not known—"and let us serve them," you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.  You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.  But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.  Deuteronomy 13:1-5

This passage begins with the assumption that the prophet does foretell the future accurately or perform some other, humanly impossible work. Nevertheless, if that prophet's central message is to follow after a different god or to take a spiritual path that the true God has not said to take, that person is a false prophet. God states unequivocally that misrepresenting Him incurs the death penalty, and Revelation 19:20 says that this is exactly what happens to the False Prophet: He is thrown into the Lake of Fire.

The message of the false prophet is contrasted in Deuteronomy 13:3-4 with loving the true God with all of our heart and soul (life), walking after Him, fearing Him, keeping His commandments, obeying His voice, serving Him, and holding fast to Him. These elements indicate what God wants His people to be focused on, helping to define whether a man claiming to speak for God is truly doing so or not.

Verse 4 mentions obeying God's voice and keeping His commandments. This is a regular theme with God's true prophets: They always have God's law undergirding their messages. When the Old Testament prophets were sent to warn or inform Israel and Judah, they always pointed out the grievous ways in which the people had transgressed God's law.

False prophets, on the other hand, will not hold the moral line that God requires. Lamentations 2:14 says that the false prophets "have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captives, but have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions." False prophets will not connect the dots between the sinfulness of a nation and national calamity. They instead focus on something other than God's standard of righteousness.

This same principle appears in Isaiah 8:19-20. Both houses of Israel were guilty of seeking out mediums and wizards for spiritual guidance, and God's response is very telling:

And when they say to you, "Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter," should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

God gives us a standard by which to measure the words of a prophet: the law and testimony - His Word. If the prophet's message contradicts what is already established as God's Word, it is evidence that he lacks spiritual understanding. If his words do not line up with God's law and testimony, he is not speaking the truth.

In summary, the hallmark of a true prophet is his upholding of the law of God, while false prophets dodge moral teaching and instead preach a message that appeals to the masses. God's truth - and His law in particular - is abhorrent to the natural mind (Romans 8:7), and thus it is quite common for God's prophets to be killed, while the false prophets enjoy widespread popularity and support.

The current trend of outcome-based churches serves as a good example. Their leaders preach a widely popular message, and thousands of people follow them. Yet, Jesus says in Luke 6:26, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets." Popularity is not a good measurement of God's pleasure with a leader!

Jesus Christ, the most perfect Spokesman for God who has ever lived, only had about 120 true followers when His ministry ended (Acts 1:15). This was not due to failure on His part, but because His Father's message could be wholeheartedly believed only by those whose minds God had already prepared to accept it.

"Purpose-Driven" church leaders will not preach the unadulterated Word of God because they know it is divisive. It would also thwart their goals of a large following and a large income. Thus, their messages do not involve repentance, sound doctrine, or God's law, except where it may serve to further whatever purpose is driving them. Their messages do not remind people of their moral responsibilities to God and brother, and thus if they claim to speak for God or say that God sent them, we can know from biblical patterns that they are, in fact, false prophets. Their large churches, as amazing as they might seem, are not accurate indicators of God's involvement or blessing.

Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden"?"  Genesis 3:1

In this first message to mankind, Satan sows seeds of doubt as to whether God can be trusted. Satan's very first words were, "Has God indeed said. . . ?" Spoken or not, this sentiment that God is untrustworthy, and that His Word is suspect, has been a regular feature in mankind's relationship with God ever since.

The Gnostics were no exception—in fact, they are a prime example. In its most basic sense, Gnosticism is knowing, but its knowledge, while sometimes including the Word of God, does not have it as its foundation. Instead, more than what was contained in Scripture, Gnostics valued what they experienced, what elders told them, or what they learned from "angels," astrology, or chemistry (alchemy). Thus, we see elements of Gnosticism in Galatians: a mixture of "lucky days," to which they ascribed spiritual significance (part of their worship prior to conversion) and a belief, brought in by Judaizers or perhaps even an "angel" (Galatians 1:8), that justification could come by works of the law.

Judaism, though it has its roots in the Old Testament, sees God's Word through the lens of Hellenism (Greek thought) and the traditions of Jewish scholars and teachers through the centuries. The Galatian Christians gave God's Word lip service, but did not depend on it as the source of their beliefs and practices. If they had, they would not have returned to pagan "days, months, seasons, and years," nor believed that justification could ever result from good works—a concept that is read into the Old Testament, but not actually found there.

Similarly, the Colossian Christians were affected by an ascetic form of Gnosticism that included "ordinances" (KJV) or "regulations" (NKJV) that are not found in God's Word but were the commandments and doctrines of men (Colossians 2:20-23), as well as demons, the "basic principles of the world" (Colossians 2:8).

This same distrust of God's Word is readily seen in today's Catholicism and Protestantism. The Catholic Church holds that Scripture is only one of three sources from which its dogma is derived—the other two being divine revelation and the writings and traditions of previous Catholic saints. The Bible, while generally utilized as the source of doctrine, can be easily overridden by the words of a Pope or other theologian, living or dead. Once again, human words and traditions are considered more trustworthy than God's.

In some respects, Protestantism has a higher regard for Scripture. However, it, too, accepts the traditions of men in such beliefs as the Trinity, the immortality of the soul, going to heaven, observing Christmas and Easter, and venerating the first day of the week (which the Catholic Church rightly points out makes sense only if one accepts Rome's authority, for there is no scriptural authority for keeping any day holy but the Sabbaths).

Modern Gnostics who believe in "progressive revelation" have also succumbed to this first of Satan's ploys. While God does reveal things to us, the critical point is that what is revealed—if it truly comes from Him—will never contradict what He has already revealed in His Word. "God is not a man, that He should lie" (Numbers 23:19). Yet progressive revelation advocates believe that their revelations are more authoritative than the Bible, rather than complementing and harmonizing with it, making them ripe for satanic influence under the guise of God revealing something new to them. They may sincerely believe that God speaks to them, yet they simultaneously mistrust what He has already said in inspired Scripture. They tend to shy away from Bible study, concluding that they do not need it since God speaks directly to them, and if there is anything important, God will let them know.

Romans 10:17 tells us that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." But Satan knows this too and believes that, if he can undermine the trustworthiness of God and the validity of His Word, he can destroy the faith necessary for salvation. Currently, the Bible's legitimacy is undergoing an intense assault. Due to popular Gnostic writings like the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Thomas, as well as The Da Vinci Code book and movie, many people are questioning why we have the Bible that we do and wondering if something in the ancient apocryphal writings, if it were known, would change Christianity as we know it. Rather than quibbling about this or that point of doctrine, Satan seems to be gunning for the whole package by asserting that the Word of God is subject to the whims of men and thus cannot be trusted. At every turn, faith founded in God's Word is being undermined.

Spirit of Peace

We live in a world that is always changing. One day things are chaotic, the next day things seem peaceful. Sometimes people are cordial, saying nice things, and the next day, they are angry and hostile.

Animosity and contentions arise seemingly out of nowhere. The spirit in the world inspires chaos and hatred toward everyone. But to the Christian, it seems even to be more intense.

How are we as Christians supposed to act or react to these things? As people being called from this world's ways, we are to be different. Some scriptures will help to remind us of the direction we are to be traveling, one that will end with entrance into the Kingdom of God.

Speaking to the Romans, the apostle Paul admonishes them to live in peace with everyone: "If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men" (Romans 12:18). God's standards are high and should become part of our character. We are to be ethical, humble, gentle, and loving with our family, friends, associates, and strangers—and even around those who despise God's laws. This is a tremendously difficult standard for most of us to attain.

Sometimes law-abiding people become discouraged when they see how those in high places, like the President, on down to the average Joe on the street can treat God's law with impunity and seemingly get away with it. They wonder why they should expend the effort to be ethical and good people while a neighbor, boss, or public official does evil and behaves corruptly, appearing to profit from it.

Even some Christians wonder if they should not adopt a kind of situation ethics: one set of standards for church brethren and another for the world. This, of course, is a double-standard. Paul reprimands Peter for such a double-standard concerning how he acted when Jews were present as opposed only Gentiles (Galatians 2:11-21).

English writer and philosopher William Hazlett wrote, "Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves." Contention of any kind boomerangs onto the self, causing all sorts of internal dysfunction. It also produces the curse of disunity. When Adam and Eve sinned, both unity and peace were shattered, and God sentenced them to death and expulsion from His presence. Regardless of the justification, it is impossible for sin to produce either godly peace or unity.

In Ephesians 4:1-3, the apostle Paul gives us a good reason for making peace and thus encouraging unity: the value of our calling:

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to have a walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

If we consider our calling and present relationship with God of small value, our conduct, especially toward our brethren, will show it and produce contention and disunity. It also shows how little we respect God, as the apostle John writes in I John 4:20, "If someone says, ‘I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?"

Unfortunately, we have difficulty avoiding absorbing some of the characteristics of society. We can become frantic, stressful, anxious, and highly irritated people. In this state, we are likely to strike out at people—often our family and friends—out of a short or bad temper, offending and hurting them in our pique. And so contentions develop.

We often desire speedy resolutions to the irritations and problems between us, which is understandable, since we want to return to good relations and put the problems behind us quickly. However, we must understand that swift solutions are not always possible. Some issues or contentions are deeply buried within both sides of the conflict.

Because of this, Paul admonishes us to "[bear] with one another in love." He is essentially saying to Christians to "put up with it" or endure it, doing nothing to bring the other party down in the eyes of others and vainly elevate the self. We will sometimes be required to bear with our brethren for long stretches of time as they overcome their faults. This is an aspect of peacemaking through living by godly character with patience.

In this vein, an anonymous author wrote:

Peace comes from living in the moment and looking for the good in others. Peacefulness comes from facing our fears and letting them go—trusting that things will turn out all right. Peacefulness is also a way of approaching conflict with others so no one is made wrong. Everyone wins because we then work to find a peaceful solution.

We are to cultivate peace in our lives, conducting ourselves humbly by choice. Humility is pride's opposite. If pride only produces contention (Proverbs 13:10), it follows that humility will work to soothe, calm, heal, and unify. We need to work on expressing meekness and gentleness toward everyone, displaying the opposite of the self-assertion, the competitive determination to press one's will at all costs, that our culture promotes so strongly. This way of behaving may "win" an argument over others, but it would be better to remember God's counsel in Proverbs 15:1, "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."

If all Christians would imitate the example of Christ and follow His instructions, there would be more peace and fewer contentions among us. He earnestly sought their—and our—unity and peace in His parting prayer:

. . . that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:21-23)

A change in attitude, a refocusing, must occur among us. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "It isn't enough to talk about peace, one must believe it. And it isn't enough to believe in it, one must work for it." The spirit of peace needs to be cultivated and worked on vigorously. As David writes in  Paslm 34:14, "Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it."

Revelaiton 18:9-11

The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning,  standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city!  For in one hour your judgment has come.  And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore.  Revelation 18:9-11

Revelation 18:9-11 adds to the description of a nation, not a church, as it describes a huge, worldwide merchandising and manufacturing entity that men weep over when destroyed. Religious entities do not manufacture and merchandise. This is vital to understand because Revelation 18 must coordinate with the identity of the Woman in Revelation 17. Thus, Revelation 18, describing what nations involve themselves in, provides another major reason why the Woman cannot be a church.

The Woman of Revelation 17-18 may be religious, but she is far more interested in what produces power and influence in this world. Remember, Israel rejected God, becoming a nation of this world (I Samuel 8). In Revelation 18, the emphasis is on her financial aspects, as the merchants, manufacturers, and shippers of products bewail her destruction, seeing their wealth going up in smoke. No church is manufacturing and merchandising as chapter 18 describes.

The Woman's wealth is a major foundation of her power, enabling her to influence so readily; her economic power adds strength to its other worldly powers. Follow the money, verses 9-11 urge. They clearly portray globalization and all the outsourcing it implies. The Woman is depicted as a huge, worldwide merchandising powerhouse that has promoted the spread of industry all over the world so she might consume what others have manufactured through their craft.

Galatians 5:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Galatians 5:22

Since love is a fruit, a product, of God's Holy Spirit, could its companion, joy, be produced in us differently? Like love, joy is not the product of the natural mind but the product of the supernatural Holy Spirit of God. If it is not a product of the natural mind, then pursuing it apart from the guidance of the Holy Spirit will produce only very limited and pale imitations of what God experiences by nature and greatly desires to be in us.

David writes, "You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11). It is interesting to compare our joy with God's continual joy and simultaneously think of what destroys joy for us. As long as we are human, joy diminishes and eventually ends. We realize this even as we experience it. I have owned several new automobiles. Each time I took a new one home, I received it with joy as if I had a new toy. But in each case I eventually acquired the same attitude toward the new car as I formerly had toward the old one. The joy was gone, and the car was again nothing more than a tool to convey me from one place to another.

No matter how secure the sources of our joy seem, we know joy does not last long. We may die; a mate or a friend who brings us joy may die; good health ceases; comforts vanish; social tragedies and natural disasters destroy loved things, properties depreciate and wear out; and our senses become dull so that we cannot see, hear, taste, feel, or smell as we once did (II Samuel 19:31-35).

The God who created everything is aware of all the human tragedies that have unfolded before His eyes over the past 6,000 years, and He still finds cause to be joyful. Our great God does not find joy in the tragedies themselves. His Word records times when He expressed regret, sorrow, or anger over the conduct of mankind, and yet He still experiences a vibrant, lasting joy. This seems to imply that His joy generally comes from different sources than mankind's. It is this joy we need to seek.

I Corinthians 2:12

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.  I Corinthians 2:12

As the apostle Paul begins his first letter to the Corinthians, knowing that he is writing to a congregation divided among various factions, he patiently explains to them what makes them different from those in the world yet at the same time unites the members of the church. He, of course, refers to God's Holy Spirit, given to all Christians at conversion by the laying on of hands. The apostle John calls it "the anointing which you have received from Him" (I John 2:27), implying that Christians have been ordained, and thus set apart or sanctified, to a task or office that others have not been given.

This sets up a dichotomy. On the one side are Christians who have freely received God's Spirit, and on the other are all other human beings who, Paul says, have received "the spirit of the world" (see also Ephesians 2:2). Thus, there is a clash of spirits, a collision of motivating forces, at work between the Christian and the world. The apostle writes in Galatians 5 that the two spirits are diametrically opposed, one producing "the works of the flesh," while the other bears "the fruit of the Spirit" (verses 16-25). In fact, he declares in Romans 8:7, "The carnal mind is enmity against God"; the worldly person, imbibing of the spirit of this world, lives in hostility to God and cannot do what God commands.

The Spirit from God, though, removes the human hostility and allows the Christian to know—that is, realize, understand, and use—the gracious gifts of God. These gifts are predominantly spiritual blessings rather than physical ones. Jesus advises His disciples not to worry about food, drink, and clothing because God knows that physical human beings need such things to live (Matthew 6:25-32). Instead, He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (verse 33). The Christian's mind is to be focused on God's goal and godly things that will propel him along the way there, and he can do this only by the many gifts bestowed through God's Spirit.

Paul's focus in this passage seems to be on knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Earlier, he had mentioned that God has chosen to spread the gospel message through preaching, which the worldly Greeks considered "foolishness" (I Corinthians 1:23). Yet, this only exposes the fact that the Greeks did not have the ability to understand spiritual matters, and God would ultimately confound them in their "wisdom" through weak and foolish people preaching a "foolish" message of a crucified Savior. The difference is that those weak and foolish people possess a Spirit that comes directly from the Creator God that allows them to know the truth in all its divine splendor.

Thus, in terms of the apostle's overall goal in persuading the Corinthians that they should "be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (I Corinthians 1:10), he emphasizes that they have this one commonality, God's Holy Spirit, that makes all the difference to them as individuals and as a congregation. So, as he goes on to say, there is no reason for them to be so judgmental one against the other, for they all "have the mind of Christ" (I Corinthians 2:16). Having one mind and being all in one Body of Christ, as he later discusses (I Corinthians 12:12-27), dividing themselves into cliques is both counterproductive and contrary to God's purpose.

From Glory to Glory

The apostle Paul writes in Colossians 3:1-2, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, and not on the things on the earth." He urges us to keep focused on our God and His purpose for us.

For our wedding anniversary, my wife and I went to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. From the street outside, there is a quite impressive view of the city's iconic skyline. From the vantage point at the museum campus, the skyline appears to be bordered on one side by the 100-story John Hancock Building and on the other by 110-story Willis Tower. It is a classic picture that has made for numerous memorable photographs and souvenirs.

Chicago's skyline is indeed a sight to behold, but after viewing it, we entered the Planetarium. We were there for only a few hours, but we learned some exciting information about what the Bible terms "the heavens." The displays at the museum attempt to explain the universe to the extent that we know, and as impressive as they are, we undoubtedly know about only a fraction of what is out there. The visit inspired us to look up some additional information about the mystery that is the universe.

The earth is God's gift to mankind, and He has made us beneficiaries and stewards of its untold wealth. For example, as of 2011, mankind has mined approximately 165,000 metric tons of gold in all of human history. That works out to more than 360 million pounds of gold with a value of more than $8 trillion, or about $1,200 for every one of the seven billion men, women, and children alive on the earth. (I'd like mine in $20s, please.)

But there is more! We live in the perfect spot in our solar system, with seven other planets circling a medium-sized star, a very small part of a much larger stellar system known as the Milky Way Galaxy, which spans about 120,000 light years. Astronomers estimate that about 400 billion stars of differing sizes and brightness hang within the Milky Way! And there are many, many other galaxies, some with more than a trillion stars—even giant elliptical galaxies that have one hundred trillion stars! Besides these, scientists have also discovered tiny "dwarf galaxies" with only a fraction of the stars in our galaxy.

Last year, USA Today reported that "in all, about 8.8 billion stars in our galaxy have planets that are nearly the size of Earth and also have a surface temperature conducive to the development of life." Scientists estimate that around 40 billion planets contain similar resources and potential life-sustaining environments just within the Milky Way—and that does not even include the wealth of material assets that may be available on them!

Ethan Siegel is a theoretical astrophysicist in Portland, Oregon, specializing in cosmology, the study of the universe and its origins. He states that, by looking at data from the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists extrapolate that the known universe contains at least 176 billion galaxies and possibly as many as a trillion galaxies! Even the lower figure is a 75% increase in the number of galaxies they estimated just a few years ago, and he wonders, "How many more?"

Scientists multiply the numbers of stars in the Milky Way by the number of galaxies in the universe, coming up with 10²⁴ stars, which is one septillion. For the sake of round numbers, if we multiply the amount of stars by the number of planets in our solar system, we come up with 8 septillion planets in the universe! I cannot help but think of the reverence for God that we hear in that old hymn, "How Great Thou Art."

What makes this even more incredible is that Jesus Christ has been made heir of all things, and Romans 8:17 says that we are joint-heirs with Him! In I Corinthians 2:9, Paul muses, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love Him." He wants to share this amazing universe with us!

French poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, "True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new." He hit the nail on the head. Both God and Christ work constantly. The Weymouth version of John 5:17 translates Jesus as saying, "My Father works unceasingly, and so do I." Scripture suggests that, in the Kingdom, we, too, will be working unceasingly with God as His full-fledged children to develop the universe to bring it to the condition that it was meant to be before Satan's rebellion. Can we imagine the incredible projects that God has in store for us to do? What in this life can even begin to compare?

We have an incomparable destiny ahead of us, if we endure (Matthew 24:13). But there is more than just things in store for us. Above all, we are promised eternal life, the life of God. In John 17:3, Jesus says that eternal life is to know both the Father and the Son intimately.  I John 3:2 shows us that, although we do not know all the details of what we will be like after our change, "we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

Much greater than all of this magnificent Creation is the One who created it all, our God. He and His Family will be glorious!  Moses was in the presence of God for forty days, and his face literally radiated with God's glory. How much greater will be our eternal glory?

Revelation 1:13-16 gives a description of the glorified Christ:

. . . One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girded around the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice like the sound of many waters. . . . His countenance was like the sun shining in full strength.

Recall that the apostle John writes that "we shall be like Him." It is hard to imagine that we could also have such glory and power, but that is what the Bible says. Paul affirms this statement in II Corinthians 3:18, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image . . . from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" (New American Standard Bible).

Ultimately, we will share in all that God is and all that He has. And remember, eternal life is not only quality of life, but it is also quantity of days! As the first fruits of His Family, we will be working with God forever! We can rely on His promise in Revelation 21:7, "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son."

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.  Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Despite our humble, modest circumstances, are we living abundant lives? Despite our lack of toys, a mansion on the lake, or a Rolls-Royce on our driveway, are our lives better than we ever expected? Or do we feel that life has passed us by, serving us the dregs instead of the wine? If so, could it be that we need a change of perspective?

J. Paul Getty, at the time perhaps the richest man in the world, said, "I hate and regret the failure of my marriages. I would gladly give all my millions for just one lasting marital success." He possessed the money to live whatever lifestyle gave him the most satisfaction, but at the end of his life, he came to realize that a good, enduring marriage meant more to him than riches. He died feeling like a failure at what life is really all about.

King Solomon lived a similar life of wealth, power, and privilege. The book of Ecclesiastes chronicles his lifelong experimentation with various lifestyles, projects, possessions, hobbies, and creature comforts. What does he ultimately conclude about how humanity should live?

Solomon's conclusion is totally compatible with Jesus' statement in John 10:10. Jesus did not come promising us wealth, prestige, and authority on earth (although He does promise us these things in the world to come), but He came with good news from His Father about how to attain eternal life (John 6:40). Like Solomon's, His message is very clear, ". . . if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17).

The big "secret" is that the abundant life is contained in the keeping of God's commandments, in tandem with the grace supplied through Jesus Christ. John writes, "And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:16-17, ESV). Jesus came to give man the means by which he could properly keep God's commandments; His grace puts commandment-keeping in its proper place. Once a person is living this way—what Paul calls "walk[ing] in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16-25)—his life is naturally going to be abundant because he is no longer under the penalties and curses that breaking the law exacts (see verse 18). His life will be pleasing to God, and He will bless him, now and in the life to come (Psalm 19:11; Proverbs 11:18; Matthew 6:33; Revelation 11:18; 22:12).

Are our lives abundant? Are we reaping the rewards of following God's way of life? Have we begun to enjoy the benefits of keeping God's commandments?

Every Sabbath, we enjoy the benefits of keeping it holy (Exodus 20:8-11), including physical rest, time with our families, fellowship with our brethren, and communion with and instruction from God. It may not be "exciting," but it is living as He wants us to live.

The same is true of keeping the other commandments. If we have happy families and marriages, we are reaping the benefits of keeping the fifth and seventh commandments (verses 12, 14). If people find us trustworthy and honest, we are being rewarded for keeping the eighth and ninth commandments (verses 15-16). If we are content in our circumstances, our peace of mind derives from practicing the tenth commandment (verse 17).

Moreover, if we see spiritual growth taking place, and if we are producing good fruit in our lives, we are experiencing the results of a strengthening relationship with God, encapsulated in the first four commandments (verses 2-11; Matthew 22:37-38). Such a relationship with our Creator is the key to abundant living, for there is no greater, more satisfying accomplishment than that among men.

When we reach this point, we will have learned the godly perspective, and we will know that the life of God we live is definitely abundant living—no matter what our circumstance (Philippians 4:11).

I Samuel 13:6-14

When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits. And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.  Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.  So Saul said, "Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me." And he offered the burnt offering.  Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.  And Samuel said, "What have you done?" Saul said, "When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash,  then I said, "The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD." Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering."  And Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.  But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you." I Samuel 13:6-14

I Samuel 13:1-15 recounts the story of an act of presumption by another well-known figure, containing another valuable lesson for us. Saul arranged with the prophet Samuel to perform sacrifices in an appeal to God to intervene before Israel went into battle with the invading Philistines. Saul's sin was in presumptuously stepping in to perform Samuel's responsibilities when the prophet arrived later than the appointed time. Saul gave Samuel three justifications for his presumption: 1) The people were growing distressed and deserting him; 2) Samuel's late arrival; and 3) the growing threat of the Philistine army (verse 11).

On the surface, it appeared Saul and the Israelites were indeed in a difficult situation, yet Saul's reasons did not justify presuming to disobey what was commanded. He should have waited for Samuel to arrive and perform his responsibility. Saul, a Benjamite, could request a sacrifice be made and provide the animal for it, but he was not authorized by God to perform the sacrificial ceremony. Samuel was merely later than both he and Saul thought he would be.

Saul excused himself further by saying he "felt compelled." The King James Version records that Saul said, "I forced myself." This suggests that he was not ignorant of what he was doing but convinced himself it was more important to make the sacrifice than to obey God's instruction. He was immediately stripped of the opportunity of having his dynasty continue forever (verses 12-13), as God later promised David.

Many circumstances arise in a Christian's life when following God's commands runs counter to prevailing opinion and to our own fears about the threatening conditions we imagine are building around us if we obey God. Strong thoughts are then likely to mount, urging us to turn aside from what He says - "just this once" - to relieve the swelling pressures.

As our own children do not always understand what we tell them to do, we cannot always see why God tells us to do this or that. But can we trust God that His reasons are good? For instance, He tells us to set aside three tithes and to travel to far places to keep His feasts. He commands us to love our enemies and do good to them. He asks us to become like little children and to sacrifice ourselves in service when we would rather give orders. He tells us to submit ourselves to one another in love and to be subject to corrupt and unjust governments. Keeping these instructions is sometimes far easier said than done. Can we see God in the picture even in difficult circumstances and trust Him? In this case, Saul did not.

John 3:7

Do not marvel that I said to you, "You must be born again." John 3:7

John 3:7 addresses a false teaching in which Nicodemus was no doubt well-schooled: "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'" The fullness of the word must as used by Christ here is often misunderstood. People think of being born again as a moral duty that they are required to meet, but that was not Jesus' intention. He does not mean that a person must see to it that he becomes born again. No, Jesus says it in terms of being "something that has to happen to you." He intends us to understand that the Father, by an act of His will, must implant His Spirit in an individual's heart for this birth to take place (Romans 9:6-16).

No one can bring about his own human birth; it is the gift of a person's parents. In the same manner, spiritual birth and life are gifts from our Father in heaven. He is sovereign over His creation, and He is engineering the salvation of His Family Kingdom from the birth of each child to his glorification. Did Rebecca's son, Jacob, in any way initiate his calling and receipt of salvation? Yet, though God had chosen him for that while he was still in her womb, Jacob was not actually called and converted until many years after he was born and had produced a life of sinful acts apart from God. Paul explains God's sovereign choice in Romans 9:11-13:

. . . (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."

Undoubtedly, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, had been circumcised and therefore had become a party to the Old Covenant in that customary manner. All of his associates—indeed, everyone in the entire Jewish culture—believed essentially the same things regarding salvation. In John 3, however, Jesus is teaching something a great deal different from what Nicodemus had believed all of his adult life. This passage makes it clear that he was having difficulty grasping it. He is being taught that salvation is a gift of God, and God solely and personally initiates it in a circumstance in which the person is essentially passive. God, by means of His Spirit, is entirely sovereign in this matter of producing the spiritual regeneration of which Jesus speaks.

Would Jesus Approve of Same-Sex Marriage?

In an interview on Tuesday, July 7, 2015, former President Jimmy Carter waded into the current American cultural and political debate on homosexuality. For a devout Baptist and a self-proclaimed "born-again Christian," the 90-year old Carter made an astounding statement when HuffPost Live host Mark Lamont Hill asked him whether Christ would embrace same-sex marriage:

I believe Jesus would. I don't have any verse in Scripture. I believe that Jesus would approve of gay marriage, but I'm not—that's just my own personal belief. I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don't see that gay marriage damages anyone else.

The telling sentence in the former President's answer is "I don't have any verse in Scripture." It is true that the gospel accounts contain no "thus saith the Lord," definitive condemnation of homosexuality, so Carter's admission that he has no scriptural proof of Jesus' views on the subject is accurate—but only in a technical sense.

Carter must fall back on his "own personal belief" about what Jesus would make of this situation. Clearly, his liberal political views inform his theology, and he "believes" (read: feels) that Jesus would approve of same-sex marriage. Note that he also claims Jesus would approve of any love affair as long as it was "honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else." He must be reading a different Bible—or not reading the one he has.

The absence of any outright scriptural condemnation of homosexuality from the lips of Jesus has been a mainstay of so-called Christian, pro-gay rhetoric for many years. Arguing from His purported silence on the issue—a rhetorical no-no—defenders of same-sex marriage try to co-opt Jesus as some sort of proto-liberal, a free-love advocate modeled on "Jesus Christ Superstar" rather than sinless Messiah of the Bible. The argument has been convincing to some due to the ridiculously high level of biblical illiteracy among the general public and even among professing Christians whose doctrinal acumen plunges no deeper than the lyrics of the Beatles anthem, "All You Need Is Love."

It ought to be obvious that the same Man who says He did not come "to destroy the Law or the Prophets" (Matthew 5:17)—which Law stipulates homosexuality as an abomination (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13)—would teach that same-sex relations are sinful and subject to God's judgment. Yet, a "grace only," dispensational mainstream Christianity has discounted the fact that God is consistent in His character, and thus His law giving, so Old Testament pronouncements contain little authority in such matters. Those who think this way require a plain statement from Jesus Himself, and a lack of one is as good as approval.

And just to sideline another apparent argument, statements by the apostle Paul, though canonized as Scripture, have no validity to such people. He writes in I Corinthians 6:9-10:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (See also his unambiguous denunciation of homosexuality in Romans 1:24-32.)

The apostle wholly agrees with the Old Testament law regarding homosexuality, assuring us that God will not accept into His Kingdom those who practice it. Further, in I Timothy 1:8-11, he declares that, "according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God," sodomites are "lawless," "insubordinate," "ungodly," "sinners," "unholy," and "profane." Yet, despite citing the gospel of God, his testimony carries no weight, as he is seen as adding his own Pharisaical prejudices to what Jesus originally delivered.

Only Jesus' own words will do.

So what does He say on this subject? He says nothing explicitly about homosexuality in the gospels, but He does make a significant ruling about marriage. What He says about marriage completely precludes same-sex "marriage." He does this in Matthew 19:3-6:

The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,' and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."

Using this answer as a template, we actually do know what Jesus thinks about same-sex marriage: He is against it. How can we conclude this?

First, notice that both the Pharisees and Jesus share an understanding of marriage as comprising a man and his wife. A binding relationship of any kind other than a man and a woman is not a marriage; it does not fit the formal qualifications of the term.

Second, Christ bases His answer on what was written "at the beginning," that is, in God's original intent in creating mankind: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27). He is, in effect, saying that Christian teaching on marriage, a relationship between a man and a woman, reflects the Bible's original revelation about being in God's image, which Christians are to be conforming to now. Concessions (like Moses'' laws regarding divorce) made in the meantime due to Israel's carnality undermined God's original intent.

Third, Jesus further cites Genesis 2:24, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." With both of His scriptural quotations, He implies that God made humanity in two genders for specific reasons, the most obvious of which is to marry and have children (mentioned in Genesis 1:28, "Be fruitful and multiply"). Male-male and female-female unions not only nullify God's purpose of complementary genders producing offspring, but they also cannot even consummate a marriage (becoming one flesh) with the sexual organs specific to each gender functioning as God created them.

In the face of God's intent for men and women, Jesus ignores "love," "honesty," or "sincerity," or whether a relationship is "damaging to anyone else." God wants men to marry women, and no amount of emotion or attraction between two people of the same sex is enough to dislodge God's purpose for creating mankind in two genders. Jesus, being God in the flesh, establishes the boundaries of marriage for His followers, and He does not permit same-sex marriage.

Luke 2:8-14

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.  Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:  " Glory to God in the highest,  and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" Luke 2:8-14

Jesus' birth occurred in September or perhaps early October. This could not have taken place in December because shepherds would not have been out in the fields at night then. In Palestine, the rainy season transpires between the end of October and early April, with the most inclement weather occurring between December and February. In fact, around Jerusalem, much of the region's 24 inches of annual rain falls during this winter period. Shepherds did not want to keep the sheep in the rain and cold anymore than they wanted to be there themselves.

Most translations tone verse 9 down a bit from its intended sudden majesty. It should read, "And BOOM! an angel of the Lord stood before them." The angel's appearance was instantaneous and shocking! One second they were peacefully minding their sheep, eyelids half-shut, and the next, right in their midst, perhaps hovering just over their heads, stood an angel in all the brilliance of angelic glory!

Luke writes that "they were greatly afraid." What understatement! Today, we might say they were terrified out of their skulls! Occasionally, we hear of a person's supposed abduction by aliens suddenly in the night. Television and movies have visualized this for us—but what if an angel actually did appear abruptly before our eyes, radiating light like a huge spotlight and looking directly at us? Most people would be on their faces in an instant, probably holding their heads, wondering if a thunderbolt was about to strike!

The angel says to them, "Do not be afraid" (verse 10), trying to shush their fears a bit, although it is hard to say what success he had. At least he was able to communicate to them what he needed to say. Evidently, they were calm enough to listen to his announcement, despite their terror.

What he says is quite interesting: "I bring you good tidings of great joy." The Greek word for "I bring good tidings" is evangelízomai, literally, "I evangelize you," and his good news is a matter "of great joy." In a way, this is the beginning of the preaching of the gospel, as this is the sense of the Greek term. He is informing the shepherds that God had sent him as an evangelist to let them know that the way of salvation was beginning to open to all people. This was great news indeed for the common folk, as these shepherds were, who have rarely been considered among the worthies of society.

That God sent the first announcement of His Son's birth to shepherds among their sheep has an appealing, symbolic connotation. Recall that these shepherds were in the field watching over sheep at night when the angel, a messenger from God, illuminated them with the good news of salvation. Shepherds are biblical symbols of spiritual leaders or ministers, and sheep are well known to represent God's elect. Jesus' parables often employ the image of a field to signify the world, and the darkness of night stands for the condition of being cut off from God. This scene is a beautiful foreshadowing of the pattern God uses to evangelize through the gospel message.

Another intriguing fact, hidden in the English translation, appears in the last phrase of verse 10: "to all people." In the Greek text, a definite article appears before "people," so it should read, "all the people." When the Bible reads "the people," it usually refers to the people of Israel. The birth of the Savior was to be great joy for all people, of course, but especially for Israel. If we understand this spiritually, His coming has its greatest effect on the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16), the church. Certainly, the church, to which God has revealed His way most fully, has both the fullest appreciation as well as the deepest understanding of Christ's coming in the flesh.

Romans 15:4

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.  Romans 15:4

Within its scope, this verse includes God's work with Israel and with other nations and peoples over the entire Old Testament. This should teach us that the scope of God's salvation activities is far vaster than it appears on the surface.

II Peter 3:9 confirms this: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." In I Timothy 2:3-4, the apostle Paul echoes Peter's statement: "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

God is preparing us for what is to come. He has caused these examples and principles to be recorded and preserved so that we would be equipped with the guidance to conduct our life in the right way. The scope of what God is working out in our lives is awesome! If we are to discern Passover and its costs rightly, this has to be considered deeply. When properly understood, every bit of what God is doing is out of love. We will not be able to observe Passover properly unless we can see its importance in its broadest sense.

What a moment in time it was on that Passover in AD 31! God must have been filled with excitement about what was taking place. It was an awesome step toward what He is working out with us.

We must consider Romans 15:4 in light of the historical witness that God is making in our lives. Meditate on this: How many people have lived and died in the vast sweep of the history of each nation to prove a very important point—that there is no way but God's way that will produce the environment that man greatly desires but has never achieved? We need to consider this before taking the next Passover because it is important to our thinking that we look at things from God's point of view.

It is not necessary to recount everything, but from Abraham on, how many Israelites have lived and died without ever being offered spiritual salvation? The numbers become staggering as we expand our meditation further back in time. How many people were obliterated from existence at Sodom and Gomorrah? How many people lost their lives in the Flood?

How many people died in Egypt over and above the firstborn? That land was so devastated that it took generations to recover—and may never have truly regained its former glory! In the days of Ezekiel, God prophesied that Egypt would "be the lowliest of kingdoms" until the Millennium (Ezekiel 29:15), when He will raise it up to be one of three major nations with Israel and Assyria (Isaiah 19:23-25). Egypt must have been an awesome nation, a wonderful people, with plenty of ability, as their remaining architectural monuments testify. Yet, God decimated them to provide an object lesson for us! He can do that—He is God, and it is His purpose being worked out. He perhaps did not have to do it, but He did it to help us to understand and appreciate Passover more fully. God thinks so big that it is beyond our comprehension.

God's Old Testament record of His dealings with them continued to be written right on through Malachi. Even among the Israelites, few seemed to have been called to conversion. From the days of Abraham to Jesus, how many lived and died just as the wilderness generation did so that this record could exist for our edification? What a costly operation!

When we take the Passover, we need to weigh these things so that they make a deeper impression on our minds than they did before. Even so, the cost of the Father and Son's love, as shown by Passover, does not end here. It goes on.