I’ve gotten a “taste of Chicago” this working weekend without even going to the food festival. After a whole week of getting up super-early, the earliest being last Tuesday when I took our frail 78-year-old resident to O’Hare for her wheelchair-valet flight to San Diego, I got up early yesterday and today.
Saturday was the annual Hunger Walk at Soldier Field, put on by the Greater Chicago Food Depository where we are grateful to make donation pick-ups twice a month.
This morning was a long-anticipated resident outing to Ukrainian Village (one of our residents grew up in the neighborhood and was even married in the same church we visited), kicked off by an early Ukrainian mass done in the Ukrainian tongue. At one point into this two-hour theatric extravaganza, a resident seated next to me who is an Italian Roman Catholic, whispered, “This should make our church services seem like a breath of fresh air.”
I was in a kind of agony like I haven’t felt since I lived in Manhattan and got stuck sitting through the first-half of the Broadway show “Hair” (I couldn’t take any more by intermission) all because a friend of mine wanted me to see her in action(and introduce me to her co-workers) as the concession stand manager and got me in free.
So, having said all that, I was sure bummed out when I got on the interet this evening and clicked on Shorewood’s service to have it freeze up just after Jordan started.
I came back to the site at least a dozen times to find the problem was not corrected. After giving it a rest for 15 minutes, I was successful in getting back on. Whew!!! Definitely this was a day to be reminded how incredibly fortunate I am to be able to attend Shorewood in person! Counting my blessings tonight!!!!
*****
In light of all the press coverage this weekend of New York’s gay marriage ruling and the annual "Gay Pride Parade" today, here is a good outtake from an excellent study Jordan gave at the recent Soldier’s Conference:
“In the book that’s been made into a movie, ‘God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible,’ author Adam Nicolson describes King James with statements such as, ‘He had a hideous face. He was vulgar, ugly, nervous, foul-mouthed, worldly, sensuous and self-serving.’
“Now that’s a guy who is ‘pro’ King James! I want you to understand James wasn’t any of those things. Fifty years after he died, a Roman Catholic antagonist came out and said James was really a homosexual. There’s not one scrap of evidence of that contemporaneous to King James’ life at all. In fact, all of the evidence is to the contrary.
“He is on record in writing denouncing sodomy. He’s on record in writing, books he wrote, teaching against, and warning against homosexual activity. And yet people from afar, again opponents, people who are not his supporters but his enemies, and given the time he lived, when we’re talking enemies . . .
“You think there’s a political division today. This is the biggest corporate crock you ever heard! Everybody’s talking about the politics is divided today like it never has been. Have you ever studied American history? Two hundred years ago, have you ever looked at the records in newspapers of how various politicians called each other names, talked about each other, the cartoons they were making. If you did that same stuff today somebody would put you in jail for a hate crime.
“That’s all just a smokescreen and you get all caught up in it. What you need to do is just calm down and realize if it doesn’t make sense there’s a buck in it somewhere. Somebody over here is milking the cow and somebody over here is milking the cow and you know who the cow is? Mooooo.
“Who’s got all the money? The banks. When they lost the money, who got the money? The banks. People say, ‘Well, it was going to trickle down.’ Huh?! So what happens? The Big Guys get the money. You got one corporation fighting against another corporation (meaning big money people) and you’re making a difference?!
“You know how you can make a difference? Take the Book, preach it and then you make a difference. Other than that you’re just whistling Dixie, spitting in the wind with it blowing in your face. It ain’t gonna work.”
(Editor's note: I have sent this article to my friend who manages lisaleland.com and hoping he will post--will do the same with articles going forward. We've had a few "bumps" in our understanding of what the site is to be about so I am testing the waters again)
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Ahead of schedule
John 12: 4-8 reads, “Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
[5] Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
[6] This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.
[7] Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.
[8] For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.”
Jordan explains, “Mary was offering the sacrifice of devotion. She realizes He’s going to die. That’s a fascinating thing because the apostles hadn’t got that yet. After He’s resurrected they don’t even remember. She’s actually ahead of the very men He’s training to be the leaders in the ministry.
“Now, she didn’t understand all the meaning of His death, you understand that. He’s been telling them since Matthew 16:21 and Luke 18: 31-34 that He was going to go to Jerusalem and die and be raised again. And they didn’t get it.
“Mary, seeing what’s going on, she’s got it and she’s got that heart to say, ‘I
value you.’ You’ve heard people say, ‘Give people their roses before they die, not at the funeral.’ That’s kind of what she’s doing here.
“Look at Verse 4. Judas has no heart for Christ. He’s just a spiritual blockhead. She gave up 300 pence worth; Judas is going to go sell him for 30 pieces.
"She takes a box and breaks it; she’s got the bag. She’s worshipping; he’s a thief. She’s pointing people to Christ; he’s drawing away from Christ, pointing them to the poor: ‘Don’t think about Christ; the poor are more important than He is.’ And he’s infecting the other apostles. That’s why Christ tells Judas, ‘Let her alone,’ and then he rebukes the bunch of them because the whole bunch of them had bought in to the influence of Judas.
“You remember that verse back in Psalm 23: ‘Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest my head.’ That’s literally what’s going on here. And you see the devotion of a Mary, and a Martha, and a Lazarus, and a Simon, but you also see even among the apostles the inroads of the hatred, the questioning, the murmuring.
“Notice that statement, ‘Not that he cared for the poor.’ The criteria that he states about ‘Let’s give it to the poor; look at all we could do for the poor with this.’ It’s, ‘Why waste this sacrifice on Jesus when it could it have been used for the felt needs of the poor?!’ That’s really the criteria of a covetous soul. That verse in Mark when he calls it ‘This waste’; you understand love is never a waste. Sacrifice, generosity, is never a waste.
“Verse 7 is a real clear rebuke and what He’s saying there is, ‘The opportunity to ministry to me isn’t going to be here that long. It’s fixing to be over with. In a week I’ll be gone. The poor are going to be here.’
“That’s a great statement. What Jesus is saying is, ‘What you need to do, guys, is keep the first commandment first: ‘Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and your neighbor like unto it as yourself.’
“Judas is saying, ‘We should take that and give it to our neighbor.’ Mary’s saying, ‘He’s God; He’s more important than any neighbor we will ever have. We want to keep Him first.’ And that’s in essence what Christ is saying there. That day of opportunity to honor Him isn’t going to be there forever.
“Mary anoints Him before He dies. Mark 16:1 is after His burial. So Mary is ahead of the game. When He says there in Verse 8, ‘The poor you always have with you, but me ye have not always.’ This is just sort of as an aside.
“Two things in that verse strike me. When He says, ‘But me ye have not always,’ that is a death stake into the heart of the pagan doctrine of transubstantiation. That’s the Roman Catholic idea of the Mass that when they consecrate the wafer, the host, and the wine, that the literal real presence of Christ is there; that that bread ceases to be bread and becomes the real, literal body of Jesus Christ.
“And they’re idea is because the Mass is being performed somewhere on the planet at every moment of the day, there is the perpetual presence of Christ through the Mass with us and that He is always here: ‘Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world.’ They say that means the Mass.
“Well, that verse in John says just the opposite. ‘You’re not always gonna have me with you.’ You say, ‘Well what does Matthew 28:20 mean?’ It’s talking about in the future in the Kingdom when He comes back and sets up His kingdom—THEN He’s always going to be there! This is the first coming and between the first coming and the Second Coming, He isn’t always going to be there.”
[5] Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
[6] This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.
[7] Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.
[8] For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.”
Jordan explains, “Mary was offering the sacrifice of devotion. She realizes He’s going to die. That’s a fascinating thing because the apostles hadn’t got that yet. After He’s resurrected they don’t even remember. She’s actually ahead of the very men He’s training to be the leaders in the ministry.
“Now, she didn’t understand all the meaning of His death, you understand that. He’s been telling them since Matthew 16:21 and Luke 18: 31-34 that He was going to go to Jerusalem and die and be raised again. And they didn’t get it.
“Mary, seeing what’s going on, she’s got it and she’s got that heart to say, ‘I
value you.’ You’ve heard people say, ‘Give people their roses before they die, not at the funeral.’ That’s kind of what she’s doing here.
“Look at Verse 4. Judas has no heart for Christ. He’s just a spiritual blockhead. She gave up 300 pence worth; Judas is going to go sell him for 30 pieces.
"She takes a box and breaks it; she’s got the bag. She’s worshipping; he’s a thief. She’s pointing people to Christ; he’s drawing away from Christ, pointing them to the poor: ‘Don’t think about Christ; the poor are more important than He is.’ And he’s infecting the other apostles. That’s why Christ tells Judas, ‘Let her alone,’ and then he rebukes the bunch of them because the whole bunch of them had bought in to the influence of Judas.
“You remember that verse back in Psalm 23: ‘Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest my head.’ That’s literally what’s going on here. And you see the devotion of a Mary, and a Martha, and a Lazarus, and a Simon, but you also see even among the apostles the inroads of the hatred, the questioning, the murmuring.
“Notice that statement, ‘Not that he cared for the poor.’ The criteria that he states about ‘Let’s give it to the poor; look at all we could do for the poor with this.’ It’s, ‘Why waste this sacrifice on Jesus when it could it have been used for the felt needs of the poor?!’ That’s really the criteria of a covetous soul. That verse in Mark when he calls it ‘This waste’; you understand love is never a waste. Sacrifice, generosity, is never a waste.
“Verse 7 is a real clear rebuke and what He’s saying there is, ‘The opportunity to ministry to me isn’t going to be here that long. It’s fixing to be over with. In a week I’ll be gone. The poor are going to be here.’
“That’s a great statement. What Jesus is saying is, ‘What you need to do, guys, is keep the first commandment first: ‘Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and your neighbor like unto it as yourself.’
“Judas is saying, ‘We should take that and give it to our neighbor.’ Mary’s saying, ‘He’s God; He’s more important than any neighbor we will ever have. We want to keep Him first.’ And that’s in essence what Christ is saying there. That day of opportunity to honor Him isn’t going to be there forever.
“Mary anoints Him before He dies. Mark 16:1 is after His burial. So Mary is ahead of the game. When He says there in Verse 8, ‘The poor you always have with you, but me ye have not always.’ This is just sort of as an aside.
“Two things in that verse strike me. When He says, ‘But me ye have not always,’ that is a death stake into the heart of the pagan doctrine of transubstantiation. That’s the Roman Catholic idea of the Mass that when they consecrate the wafer, the host, and the wine, that the literal real presence of Christ is there; that that bread ceases to be bread and becomes the real, literal body of Jesus Christ.
“And they’re idea is because the Mass is being performed somewhere on the planet at every moment of the day, there is the perpetual presence of Christ through the Mass with us and that He is always here: ‘Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world.’ They say that means the Mass.
“Well, that verse in John says just the opposite. ‘You’re not always gonna have me with you.’ You say, ‘Well what does Matthew 28:20 mean?’ It’s talking about in the future in the Kingdom when He comes back and sets up His kingdom—THEN He’s always going to be there! This is the first coming and between the first coming and the Second Coming, He isn’t always going to be there.”
Friday, June 24, 2011
Bad times a' comin'
In Genesis 15, when God gave Abraham the perimeters of the land (designed for Israel), it was from the river Nile all the way over to the Euphrates.
“That’s Kuwait! That’s Iraq! That’s Saudi Arabia, Jordan!" explains Jordan. “Do you realize Jordan was created by the British in the early 1900s as a land for the Arabs? You see, the Arabs have a land; it’s called Jordan.
"The British drew Saudi Arabia in the sand. They drew Kuwait. All those Arab interests over there, they were created by Europeans as political entities. They’ve nothing to do with history and they didn’t exist 200 hundred years ago. They didn’t exist 100 years ago, most of them.
“God said, ‘That land belongs to me and I’ve deeded it to the nation Israel.’ Now, when you take that land and you realize it belongs to Israel, you get an explanation for the irrational hatred of the nation Israel through history.
“Many books have been written to try and explain why for 2,000 years a nation that
had no homeland or national people have been persecuted like the nation Israel has for the past 2,000 years. They don’t have a homeland, so it’s not about getting territory from them. They didn’t have any territory until 1947.
"It’s not about trying to gain political clout; they didn’t have any. They had no political entity. It isn’t even about trying to take wealth from them because as a nation they had no wealth.
*****
“You say, ‘Well, what’s the explanation for this irrational passion to exterminate? This insane obsession to exterminate this people?!’ Well, the only real explanation is not a political battle; it’s really a spiritual battle.
“If you fail to 'rightly divide' God’s Word, you’re going to wind up in the Christian camp that says God is through with Israel. I have an article written by R.C. Sproul where he says all the promises God made to Abraham about possessing the Promised Land were fulfilled under Joshua in the Book of Joshua.
“Now this guy’s a brilliant man, educated. You listen to him, he just wows you with all the stuff he knows. I read that and I say, ‘This guy’s nuttier than a fruitcake!’
"God told Abraham, ‘I’m going to give you that land forever.’ You know how long forever is? Well, if it happened in the life of Joshua, it was 110 years because that’s how long Joshua lived.
“So now you know forever is 110 years. People argue, ‘Well, He didn’t really mean that! Forever is just a metaphor.’ Does that make any sense to you? See, that’s how you become an unbeliever. You profess to be a Believer but you don’t believe the book you get your profession out of.
“If forever doesn’t mean forever, when God says, ‘I give you the gift of eternal life,’ how long is that? I mean, if God couldn’t figure out what forever was for Abraham, maybe He couldn’t figure out what it is for you either!
"Okay, you can’t trust one place, how come all of a sudden you can trust another place?! You don’t know you can. Maximum confusion.
“Besides that, you go back in the Book of Moses; Moses predicted that when Israel goes into the land they’re going to rebel. God’s going to judge them, put them out of the land and regather them. None of that happened in the Book of Joshua.
“Joel 3:4 says, ‘Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompence me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;’
*****
“The name Palestine was given to the Promised Land in 135 A.D. by the Romans. They were so mad at the Jews they’d gone in in 70 A.D. and destroyed the Temple, gone back in 115 A.D., tried to put down the rebellion, and in 135 A.D. they finally went in there and they were so angry at the Jews for rebelling again and making them send 50,000 Roman troops down there for no reason.
"The attitude was, 'Just take care of you bunch of pipsqueaks,' that they wiped them out. They renamed the territory (up to then it had been called Israel and Judah) after the Philistines, not the Arabs. And the Jews living in the land from then onward were called Palestinians.
“The first people ever called Palestinians in history were Jews. You see, they’ve politically co-opted the name. But that thing in Psalm 83 said they were craftily counseling: ‘Come sit at the peace table with us. Give us land for peace.’
“Macintyre used to say about the Communists that they believe ‘in a piece of this and a piece of that 'til they’ve got it all,' and that’s the Arab view. That’s Islam’s view: ‘Give us a piece of that and this 'til we got everything.’
“Joel 3:2 says, ‘ I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.’
“He’s saying, ‘We’re going to get the United Nations together, bring them against Israel and plead with them there (gonna punish them) about my people and my heritage Israel who they have scattered among the nations and parted my land.’ I want you to see that verse.
*****
“There are two reasons for God’s judgment on the nations. One is they scattered His people. They persecuted His people, but two, they parted my land.
“Leviticus 25:23 specifically says the land is not to be sold. You’re not to partition; you’re not to divide it out. To partition and divide the land is in direct defiance of the God of the Bible.
"Every road map for peace being offered Israel is to swap land for peace. It’s the Europeans that came in and partitioned the land. And any plan where you’re going to swap land for peace; whether you’re suggesting it or doing it, you’re doing it in defiance of the God of the Bible and it will not work.
“The United Resolution 181 that you hear so much about did exactly that. It’s the official positions of the nations. All that stage setting tells you how these passages one day can be brought to fulfillment.
*****
"Jeremiah 16:14 says, 'Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.'
“One day God’s going to bring Israel back. God Himself is going to bring Israel back, restore them in their land, set them up in their kingdom and it’s going to be such a tremendous event that they’re going to forget all about it, and the reason that’s not answered, humanly speaking, outside of what God says, is the rebellion of man against God’s Word.
“Now, you’re not going to solve all of that over there in Middle East today. All of that stuff is going to move toward where it is. I don’t know if what’s going on there today is what it is but there’s some bad times coming.
“These passages are stage-setting events to show you how . . . one hundred years ago nobody could understand some of those verses because there was no—the political things that have happened in the last 50-80 years weren’t there. You just had to, by faith, understand them.
“I read all that and I say to you, ‘God knows what He’s doing. That’s why He has peace with all this.”
“That’s Kuwait! That’s Iraq! That’s Saudi Arabia, Jordan!" explains Jordan. “Do you realize Jordan was created by the British in the early 1900s as a land for the Arabs? You see, the Arabs have a land; it’s called Jordan.
"The British drew Saudi Arabia in the sand. They drew Kuwait. All those Arab interests over there, they were created by Europeans as political entities. They’ve nothing to do with history and they didn’t exist 200 hundred years ago. They didn’t exist 100 years ago, most of them.
“God said, ‘That land belongs to me and I’ve deeded it to the nation Israel.’ Now, when you take that land and you realize it belongs to Israel, you get an explanation for the irrational hatred of the nation Israel through history.
“Many books have been written to try and explain why for 2,000 years a nation that
had no homeland or national people have been persecuted like the nation Israel has for the past 2,000 years. They don’t have a homeland, so it’s not about getting territory from them. They didn’t have any territory until 1947.
"It’s not about trying to gain political clout; they didn’t have any. They had no political entity. It isn’t even about trying to take wealth from them because as a nation they had no wealth.
*****
“You say, ‘Well, what’s the explanation for this irrational passion to exterminate? This insane obsession to exterminate this people?!’ Well, the only real explanation is not a political battle; it’s really a spiritual battle.
“If you fail to 'rightly divide' God’s Word, you’re going to wind up in the Christian camp that says God is through with Israel. I have an article written by R.C. Sproul where he says all the promises God made to Abraham about possessing the Promised Land were fulfilled under Joshua in the Book of Joshua.
“Now this guy’s a brilliant man, educated. You listen to him, he just wows you with all the stuff he knows. I read that and I say, ‘This guy’s nuttier than a fruitcake!’
"God told Abraham, ‘I’m going to give you that land forever.’ You know how long forever is? Well, if it happened in the life of Joshua, it was 110 years because that’s how long Joshua lived.
“So now you know forever is 110 years. People argue, ‘Well, He didn’t really mean that! Forever is just a metaphor.’ Does that make any sense to you? See, that’s how you become an unbeliever. You profess to be a Believer but you don’t believe the book you get your profession out of.
“If forever doesn’t mean forever, when God says, ‘I give you the gift of eternal life,’ how long is that? I mean, if God couldn’t figure out what forever was for Abraham, maybe He couldn’t figure out what it is for you either!
"Okay, you can’t trust one place, how come all of a sudden you can trust another place?! You don’t know you can. Maximum confusion.
“Besides that, you go back in the Book of Moses; Moses predicted that when Israel goes into the land they’re going to rebel. God’s going to judge them, put them out of the land and regather them. None of that happened in the Book of Joshua.
“Joel 3:4 says, ‘Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompence me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;’
*****
“The name Palestine was given to the Promised Land in 135 A.D. by the Romans. They were so mad at the Jews they’d gone in in 70 A.D. and destroyed the Temple, gone back in 115 A.D., tried to put down the rebellion, and in 135 A.D. they finally went in there and they were so angry at the Jews for rebelling again and making them send 50,000 Roman troops down there for no reason.
"The attitude was, 'Just take care of you bunch of pipsqueaks,' that they wiped them out. They renamed the territory (up to then it had been called Israel and Judah) after the Philistines, not the Arabs. And the Jews living in the land from then onward were called Palestinians.
“The first people ever called Palestinians in history were Jews. You see, they’ve politically co-opted the name. But that thing in Psalm 83 said they were craftily counseling: ‘Come sit at the peace table with us. Give us land for peace.’
“Macintyre used to say about the Communists that they believe ‘in a piece of this and a piece of that 'til they’ve got it all,' and that’s the Arab view. That’s Islam’s view: ‘Give us a piece of that and this 'til we got everything.’
“Joel 3:2 says, ‘ I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.’
“He’s saying, ‘We’re going to get the United Nations together, bring them against Israel and plead with them there (gonna punish them) about my people and my heritage Israel who they have scattered among the nations and parted my land.’ I want you to see that verse.
*****
“There are two reasons for God’s judgment on the nations. One is they scattered His people. They persecuted His people, but two, they parted my land.
“Leviticus 25:23 specifically says the land is not to be sold. You’re not to partition; you’re not to divide it out. To partition and divide the land is in direct defiance of the God of the Bible.
"Every road map for peace being offered Israel is to swap land for peace. It’s the Europeans that came in and partitioned the land. And any plan where you’re going to swap land for peace; whether you’re suggesting it or doing it, you’re doing it in defiance of the God of the Bible and it will not work.
“The United Resolution 181 that you hear so much about did exactly that. It’s the official positions of the nations. All that stage setting tells you how these passages one day can be brought to fulfillment.
*****
"Jeremiah 16:14 says, 'Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.'
“One day God’s going to bring Israel back. God Himself is going to bring Israel back, restore them in their land, set them up in their kingdom and it’s going to be such a tremendous event that they’re going to forget all about it, and the reason that’s not answered, humanly speaking, outside of what God says, is the rebellion of man against God’s Word.
“Now, you’re not going to solve all of that over there in Middle East today. All of that stuff is going to move toward where it is. I don’t know if what’s going on there today is what it is but there’s some bad times coming.
“These passages are stage-setting events to show you how . . . one hundred years ago nobody could understand some of those verses because there was no—the political things that have happened in the last 50-80 years weren’t there. You just had to, by faith, understand them.
“I read all that and I say to you, ‘God knows what He’s doing. That’s why He has peace with all this.”
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Message in a bottle
In John 12, Mary worships Jesus Christ with the anointing of His feet but you read in Matthew that she started with His HEAD as the King.
Jordan explains, "She’s demonstrating ‘worthy is the lamb’ kind of a thing. What’s going on in the Believers in the last hours of His life is their affection and love for Him at the same time you see that the hatred of His enemies has actually penetrated into the very circle of His apostles."
*****
John 12: 3-5 testifies, "Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
[4] Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
[5] Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"
Jordan says, "Verse 5 tells you it was 300 pence. That’s about a year’s pay! You figure Mary has this box of ointment and this thing is a treasure to her. It’s something she’s gotten together, how I don’t know--an inheritance, earned it, gathered it, but this is not something that was just laying around the house. This was something that was valuable to her and it was worth a year’s pay. Now you think about do you just blow a year’s pay?!
"Spikenard is a spice used to embalm. In Mark 16 you’ll see the women came with it to anoint Christ’s body after His burial. Here Mary’s doing it before.
"She’s right there at His feet. That’s what you do when you prostrate at someone’s feet; you’re there to worship and she wiped His feet with her hair.
"Paul makes a fascinating comment about a woman’s hair in I Corinthians 11:15: ‘But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.’
"Obviously for her to wipe His head with her hair, she had long hair. She takes that which she glories in and lays that at the Lord’s feet. She takes this costly treasure; she’s making a sacrifice. She’s demonstrating how valuable Christ is.
"It’s a demonstration of devotion and affection and attachment and value. She treasures Him above her own glory. She treasures Him above all of the earthly things that you would treasure and she makes Him the most of everything.
"Those little details of devotion are noted in the Scripture. That’s an important thing to me. That thing back in Malachi 6 where He has that 'book of remembrance.' Psalms says He has the bottle for the tears of His saints.
"There’s no sacrifice you make, no devotion to Him, no just living for Him and nothing else that He doesn’t take notice of. Others may not; but the Lord does and He notes those things and He takes them into consideration."
Jordan explains, "She’s demonstrating ‘worthy is the lamb’ kind of a thing. What’s going on in the Believers in the last hours of His life is their affection and love for Him at the same time you see that the hatred of His enemies has actually penetrated into the very circle of His apostles."
*****
John 12: 3-5 testifies, "Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
[4] Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
[5] Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"
Jordan says, "Verse 5 tells you it was 300 pence. That’s about a year’s pay! You figure Mary has this box of ointment and this thing is a treasure to her. It’s something she’s gotten together, how I don’t know--an inheritance, earned it, gathered it, but this is not something that was just laying around the house. This was something that was valuable to her and it was worth a year’s pay. Now you think about do you just blow a year’s pay?!
"Spikenard is a spice used to embalm. In Mark 16 you’ll see the women came with it to anoint Christ’s body after His burial. Here Mary’s doing it before.
"She’s right there at His feet. That’s what you do when you prostrate at someone’s feet; you’re there to worship and she wiped His feet with her hair.
"Paul makes a fascinating comment about a woman’s hair in I Corinthians 11:15: ‘But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.’
"Obviously for her to wipe His head with her hair, she had long hair. She takes that which she glories in and lays that at the Lord’s feet. She takes this costly treasure; she’s making a sacrifice. She’s demonstrating how valuable Christ is.
"It’s a demonstration of devotion and affection and attachment and value. She treasures Him above her own glory. She treasures Him above all of the earthly things that you would treasure and she makes Him the most of everything.
"Those little details of devotion are noted in the Scripture. That’s an important thing to me. That thing back in Malachi 6 where He has that 'book of remembrance.' Psalms says He has the bottle for the tears of His saints.
"There’s no sacrifice you make, no devotion to Him, no just living for Him and nothing else that He doesn’t take notice of. Others may not; but the Lord does and He notes those things and He takes them into consideration."
Thursday, June 16, 2011
War in Winter
Psalm 83 makes it clear there’s going to be a confederate together against the existence of Israel.
"You go back to Psalm 83 and look at those nations—there’s not two of those nations that ever worked together; they hated each other," says Jordan. “You get a wrong idea some time and you think all these guys in the Middle East are friends with each other.
"You listen, the Iranians and the Iraqis hate each other. Iranians are Persians; Iraqis are Arabs. They don’t like each other. Historically they fight. The Lebanese and the Egyptians are not bosom buddies. The Turks hate them all. You put them in a room together, lock the door and they’ll be killing each other before the day’s out.
“Iran, historically, has been called Persia until the turn of the last century. Iran is a playoff on the word Arian. It’s designed to be an Arian nation.
“People talk about racial prejudice and pride. America is a place where there’s less of that than any other place on the planet. Most of what you hear is political talk because we’re like a mixed stew. We’re not really a melting pot; we’re more of a pot roast stew. You got carrots, potatoes, onions, bell peppers, pork rind, fatback, beef, okra. It’s all mixed together.
“You go to the nations of the earth and they’re not homogenized like that. They’re very distinct and there’s a tremendous national pride in the nationalities because they’re much less the mixture that we are in our country.
"These nations in the Middle East; they don’t love each other. How is it then that you can get them to work together against Israel? What confederates them together? It’s Islam. The thing that holds them together in their hatred of Israel is their religion. They all share the same religion, part of which—a fundamental tenant of which--is that the nation Israel has to be exterminated. It’s a fundamental principle.
“Zechariah 12 saw all of that. Listen, Islam didn’t exist until 700 years after the time of Christ. It wasn’t in this passage. This passage is looking into the last days, future from where we are. The preeminent military might in the Middle East is Israel. They are a cup of trembling to all of their neighbors.
“Every time their neighbors have tried to defeat them on the battlefield, even in the Yom Kippur War where they attacked them unexpectedly with military intelligence that came from the U.S., they were defeated in just a few days.
“When they attacked them, having hundreds and hundreds of tanks and the Israelis with just single-digit tanks, Israel still defeated them. They have a prowess and military might and expertise and skill that causes their opponents to fear. That hasn’t been the way it’s been for thousands of years but it is today and it will be.
“You see stage-setting events today that tell you how this passage could be fulfilled tomorrow. Zechariah 12:3 says: ‘And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in
pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.’
“How in the world can you get all the nations of the earth to gather against Israel? You got to have an organization that contains all of the nations of the earth. What would you call that? We’ve got one—the United Nations. Isn’t that fascinating?
“Zephaniah 3:8 says, ‘Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.’
“You know, it’s easier to wipe them out if you got them all in one place. He says, ‘I’m going to gather them all together.’ He’ll use the wrath of men to accomplish His purposes. So they get this United Nations together and Jerusalem is a burdensome stone; it’s an albatross hanging around their neck.
“Since the foundation of the United Nations in 1947, there have been over 1,000 U.N. resolutions that have been passed. A good one-third of them have pertained to the nation Israel, which was also established in that time period--between 1967 with the Six-Day War and 1989.
"According to the almanac, 865 resolutions were passed by the Security Counsel in the General Assembly of the U.N.; 526 of them were about Israel. The Jerusalem problem; It’s a burdensome stone.
“By the way, one day the world is going to have its eye on Jerusalem and they’re going to know that the next world war is about to break out right there.
“Revelation 2, talking about a city in Turkey, identifies it in that future day as the place where Satan’s seat is. Revelation 13 says Satan’s seat is the seat (the power base) of the Antichrist.
"When you look at that part of the world over there, folks, listen, that’s where the future destruction is going to take place. And you talk about a war! We’re in the wintertime of world events right now. Every winter season has had, in the cycles of American and British history, a war.
“War’s during the wintertime are always BIG. Decisively concluded and projecting out a new arrangement of things in the future. The last winter war in American history was WWII. World War II is not like WWI. World War I was a war that didn’t decide anything. In fact, it set up the stage where there had to be a World War II. But at the end of WWII, there was no question who won or what the future was going to be and who was going to run it.
“The previous winter war in American history was the Civil War, sometime called the ‘war between the states’; sometime called the ‘war of northern aggression,’ depending on your perspective based on the Mason-Dixon Line.
"But there’s also no question that that war was decisively won and changed the whole course of America because, up to that point, it was the United STATES. After that it was the UNITED States and the establishment of federalism and the Union, where the federal government’s power and absolute control over the state governments was settled on the battlefield.
“The winter war previous to that was the American Revolution. You get the point?
We’re in a winter; every winter’s had a war. We haven’t had a war yet. You’ve got Afghanistan and Iraq. There are always 10 or 15 wars going on at any time but none of these wars are going to be the war of the winter. They matriculated over into the winter.
“If you want to watch for where a war would come from you’re reading a passage (in Zechariah) that talks about what the stage is going to look like when the Last Days War comes from. Now I’m not predicting a war (I guess I am); I’m not predicting it’s going to take place in Jerusalem, but you know one good place it could take place is Turkey; that part of the world.
“My point to you is forget about Europe and all this prophecy stuff about Europe. Those stages have been set today as they’ve not been set in 2,000 years.
*****
“Two hundred and fifty years ago, the King of Sweden was not sure he believed the Bible was the Word of God. So he reached out to Count von Zinzendorf. He was the Moravian movement. And he called him and said, ‘I want you to present the evidence that the Bible’s the Word of God and I’ve laid aside 10 hours for you to come and convince me of the reliability and trustworthiness of the Bible.’ Von Zinzendorf sent him a note back that said, ‘I don’t need 10 hours; I only need 10 minutes. Because I only need time to say two words: the Jews.’ The Jews. We could say one word today: Israel.
“If you look in Jeremiah 33:25 and down at that next verse, the Lord’s telling Jerry there, ‘Don’t worry about these people that say I’m going to get rid of Israel; I’m going to destroy them.’
“In your Bible, the God of the Bible, the God who created the heaven and the earth identifies Himself 203 times as the God of Israel. Repeatedly He calls himself ‘the God of Jacob.’ Almost 3,000 times the name Israel occurs in the Scripture. Israel is a major theme in the Bible. You could never understand the Bible without understanding the nation Israel: God’s plan, purpose and reason. Why He would identify Himself as the God of Israel.
“To try to do away with Israel is really not a political issue; it’s a spiritual issue. It’s, ‘Is the God of the Bible true? Is the Bible really the Word of the Creator of heaven and earth?’
*****
“I remember J.C. O’Hair years ago, I listened to a radio program he’d made where he said, ‘You can’t understand the Bible without understanding the nation Israel—there are five chapters in the Bible that recount Israel’s history.’ I thought, ‘Wow, that’s interesting. There’s actually more than that!’
“In Acts 7, you have a whole recounting. Acts 13. Psalm 78. Psalm 105. Psalm 106. Romans 11. Whole chapters in Scripture given to the history and accounting of God’s purpose in that one nation. There’s not another nation on the face of the earth that God did that with.
“There’s one nation in the earth He said, ‘I choose them and they are mine.’ He said, ‘Here, to get rid of Israel you got to get rid of the universe; the ordinances I made with heaven and the ordinances I made with the earth.’
“In Jeremiah 31, right after He gives them the new covenant in verses 31-34, He says in verse 35: ‘Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:’
“To get rid of Israel you got to get rid of the universe, because God’s purpose in creating the heavens and the earth finds its embodiment in the creation of this nation in the earth.
“Malachi 3:6 says, ‘For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.’ If you could get rid of the nation Israel you could get rid of the God who created all things! They’ll be burned but they will not be consumed. The symbol of the nation Israel is not the Star of David. Amos 5 makes clear the Star of David is really the star of a false pagan God called Molech. The real symbol of the nation Israel is they’re burned but they’re not consumed.
“Moses saw it in Exodus 3 when he turned aside to see the burning bush. It was Moses, in Exodus 5, when he went before Pharaoh, who says, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel.’
"The first time when God identifies Himself to a gentile king, He said, ‘I’m the God of that nation right there.’ And by the way, when He calls himself 'the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,' that’s because He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them the land.
“Go back in Genesis 13 and read where He says, ‘I’ll give you the land,’ and He talks about Hebron. You know where Hebron is? You hear politicians talk about the West Bank? God said, ‘I’m going to give that to you, Abraham, to walk in it.’ ”
"You go back to Psalm 83 and look at those nations—there’s not two of those nations that ever worked together; they hated each other," says Jordan. “You get a wrong idea some time and you think all these guys in the Middle East are friends with each other.
"You listen, the Iranians and the Iraqis hate each other. Iranians are Persians; Iraqis are Arabs. They don’t like each other. Historically they fight. The Lebanese and the Egyptians are not bosom buddies. The Turks hate them all. You put them in a room together, lock the door and they’ll be killing each other before the day’s out.
“Iran, historically, has been called Persia until the turn of the last century. Iran is a playoff on the word Arian. It’s designed to be an Arian nation.
“People talk about racial prejudice and pride. America is a place where there’s less of that than any other place on the planet. Most of what you hear is political talk because we’re like a mixed stew. We’re not really a melting pot; we’re more of a pot roast stew. You got carrots, potatoes, onions, bell peppers, pork rind, fatback, beef, okra. It’s all mixed together.
“You go to the nations of the earth and they’re not homogenized like that. They’re very distinct and there’s a tremendous national pride in the nationalities because they’re much less the mixture that we are in our country.
"These nations in the Middle East; they don’t love each other. How is it then that you can get them to work together against Israel? What confederates them together? It’s Islam. The thing that holds them together in their hatred of Israel is their religion. They all share the same religion, part of which—a fundamental tenant of which--is that the nation Israel has to be exterminated. It’s a fundamental principle.
“Zechariah 12 saw all of that. Listen, Islam didn’t exist until 700 years after the time of Christ. It wasn’t in this passage. This passage is looking into the last days, future from where we are. The preeminent military might in the Middle East is Israel. They are a cup of trembling to all of their neighbors.
“Every time their neighbors have tried to defeat them on the battlefield, even in the Yom Kippur War where they attacked them unexpectedly with military intelligence that came from the U.S., they were defeated in just a few days.
“When they attacked them, having hundreds and hundreds of tanks and the Israelis with just single-digit tanks, Israel still defeated them. They have a prowess and military might and expertise and skill that causes their opponents to fear. That hasn’t been the way it’s been for thousands of years but it is today and it will be.
“You see stage-setting events today that tell you how this passage could be fulfilled tomorrow. Zechariah 12:3 says: ‘And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in
pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.’
“How in the world can you get all the nations of the earth to gather against Israel? You got to have an organization that contains all of the nations of the earth. What would you call that? We’ve got one—the United Nations. Isn’t that fascinating?
“Zephaniah 3:8 says, ‘Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.’
“You know, it’s easier to wipe them out if you got them all in one place. He says, ‘I’m going to gather them all together.’ He’ll use the wrath of men to accomplish His purposes. So they get this United Nations together and Jerusalem is a burdensome stone; it’s an albatross hanging around their neck.
“Since the foundation of the United Nations in 1947, there have been over 1,000 U.N. resolutions that have been passed. A good one-third of them have pertained to the nation Israel, which was also established in that time period--between 1967 with the Six-Day War and 1989.
"According to the almanac, 865 resolutions were passed by the Security Counsel in the General Assembly of the U.N.; 526 of them were about Israel. The Jerusalem problem; It’s a burdensome stone.
“By the way, one day the world is going to have its eye on Jerusalem and they’re going to know that the next world war is about to break out right there.
“Revelation 2, talking about a city in Turkey, identifies it in that future day as the place where Satan’s seat is. Revelation 13 says Satan’s seat is the seat (the power base) of the Antichrist.
"When you look at that part of the world over there, folks, listen, that’s where the future destruction is going to take place. And you talk about a war! We’re in the wintertime of world events right now. Every winter season has had, in the cycles of American and British history, a war.
“War’s during the wintertime are always BIG. Decisively concluded and projecting out a new arrangement of things in the future. The last winter war in American history was WWII. World War II is not like WWI. World War I was a war that didn’t decide anything. In fact, it set up the stage where there had to be a World War II. But at the end of WWII, there was no question who won or what the future was going to be and who was going to run it.
“The previous winter war in American history was the Civil War, sometime called the ‘war between the states’; sometime called the ‘war of northern aggression,’ depending on your perspective based on the Mason-Dixon Line.
"But there’s also no question that that war was decisively won and changed the whole course of America because, up to that point, it was the United STATES. After that it was the UNITED States and the establishment of federalism and the Union, where the federal government’s power and absolute control over the state governments was settled on the battlefield.
“The winter war previous to that was the American Revolution. You get the point?
We’re in a winter; every winter’s had a war. We haven’t had a war yet. You’ve got Afghanistan and Iraq. There are always 10 or 15 wars going on at any time but none of these wars are going to be the war of the winter. They matriculated over into the winter.
“If you want to watch for where a war would come from you’re reading a passage (in Zechariah) that talks about what the stage is going to look like when the Last Days War comes from. Now I’m not predicting a war (I guess I am); I’m not predicting it’s going to take place in Jerusalem, but you know one good place it could take place is Turkey; that part of the world.
“My point to you is forget about Europe and all this prophecy stuff about Europe. Those stages have been set today as they’ve not been set in 2,000 years.
*****
“Two hundred and fifty years ago, the King of Sweden was not sure he believed the Bible was the Word of God. So he reached out to Count von Zinzendorf. He was the Moravian movement. And he called him and said, ‘I want you to present the evidence that the Bible’s the Word of God and I’ve laid aside 10 hours for you to come and convince me of the reliability and trustworthiness of the Bible.’ Von Zinzendorf sent him a note back that said, ‘I don’t need 10 hours; I only need 10 minutes. Because I only need time to say two words: the Jews.’ The Jews. We could say one word today: Israel.
“If you look in Jeremiah 33:25 and down at that next verse, the Lord’s telling Jerry there, ‘Don’t worry about these people that say I’m going to get rid of Israel; I’m going to destroy them.’
“In your Bible, the God of the Bible, the God who created the heaven and the earth identifies Himself 203 times as the God of Israel. Repeatedly He calls himself ‘the God of Jacob.’ Almost 3,000 times the name Israel occurs in the Scripture. Israel is a major theme in the Bible. You could never understand the Bible without understanding the nation Israel: God’s plan, purpose and reason. Why He would identify Himself as the God of Israel.
“To try to do away with Israel is really not a political issue; it’s a spiritual issue. It’s, ‘Is the God of the Bible true? Is the Bible really the Word of the Creator of heaven and earth?’
*****
“I remember J.C. O’Hair years ago, I listened to a radio program he’d made where he said, ‘You can’t understand the Bible without understanding the nation Israel—there are five chapters in the Bible that recount Israel’s history.’ I thought, ‘Wow, that’s interesting. There’s actually more than that!’
“In Acts 7, you have a whole recounting. Acts 13. Psalm 78. Psalm 105. Psalm 106. Romans 11. Whole chapters in Scripture given to the history and accounting of God’s purpose in that one nation. There’s not another nation on the face of the earth that God did that with.
“There’s one nation in the earth He said, ‘I choose them and they are mine.’ He said, ‘Here, to get rid of Israel you got to get rid of the universe; the ordinances I made with heaven and the ordinances I made with the earth.’
“In Jeremiah 31, right after He gives them the new covenant in verses 31-34, He says in verse 35: ‘Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:’
“To get rid of Israel you got to get rid of the universe, because God’s purpose in creating the heavens and the earth finds its embodiment in the creation of this nation in the earth.
“Malachi 3:6 says, ‘For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.’ If you could get rid of the nation Israel you could get rid of the God who created all things! They’ll be burned but they will not be consumed. The symbol of the nation Israel is not the Star of David. Amos 5 makes clear the Star of David is really the star of a false pagan God called Molech. The real symbol of the nation Israel is they’re burned but they’re not consumed.
“Moses saw it in Exodus 3 when he turned aside to see the burning bush. It was Moses, in Exodus 5, when he went before Pharaoh, who says, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel.’
"The first time when God identifies Himself to a gentile king, He said, ‘I’m the God of that nation right there.’ And by the way, when He calls himself 'the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,' that’s because He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them the land.
“Go back in Genesis 13 and read where He says, ‘I’ll give you the land,’ and He talks about Hebron. You know where Hebron is? You hear politicians talk about the West Bank? God said, ‘I’m going to give that to you, Abraham, to walk in it.’ ”
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Saint and Elliot, etc.
Since my sister’s death two months ago, I’ve found myself reflecting back a lot on my early childhood and how it is that me, my sister and my brother got to be where we are (she being at the right hand of the Father!).
Some things are just innate, I’ve realized, and are the inevitable results of a child’s conditioning. My dad could not have done a more monumental thing in our lives when he suddenly dropped the beautifully ornate Lutheran Church in downtown Akron, where he was a distinguished member of the choir, to go to “redneck” Dallas Billington’s Akron Baptist Temple. I was only three years old at the time.
My mom, to this day, somehow thinks my dad goofed up. I don’t think she will ever realize the absolutely incredible thing he did by subsequently, willingly and anxiously, selling our beautiful family home in Old Fairlawn, to become an independent missionary for HCJB in San Jose, Costa Rica and then in the Amazon jungles of Ecuador starting in 1969, paying our whole family’s way for our whole gig there (1969-73)!
He was a missionary doctor who helped save a lot of lives, not just by his expertise, even as a surgeon (something he did in the Korean War for the U.S. Air Force in Fairbanks, Alaska), but by the generous shipping of barrels and barrels of prescription medicine he personally brought down from Akron as a physician who had earned his own pharmaceutical license!
About 11 years ago, shortly after 9/11 and my dad’s shocking death one month later, my sister called me one Sunday to tell me she had just run into a very tall man at church who turned out to be a fellow missionary for HCJB and knew about my father’s work in Shell, Ecuador (home of Nate Saint and Jim and Elizabeth Elliot)! He was just-retired from his long-standing career in Quito, Ecuador and had recently moved to Mansfield, Ohio with his wife to be near their daughter and her family!
When I called this man, he gave me the phone number of Dr. Wally Swanson, who he informed me was now retired and living in California with his family. Wally was my dad’s sole partner at the little hospital in Shell, and the two of them handled hundreds of native tribal people who were regularly flown in from the jungles by HCJB pilots for medical attention.
Wally, who preceded my dad in the field by a decade, was actually mentioned in the mainstream-release movie “End of the Spear,” which gives the amazing account of Saint and Elliot, etc.
(Write more tomorrow—I’m just getting started on finishing this kind of personal stuff to be included in my book.)
Some things are just innate, I’ve realized, and are the inevitable results of a child’s conditioning. My dad could not have done a more monumental thing in our lives when he suddenly dropped the beautifully ornate Lutheran Church in downtown Akron, where he was a distinguished member of the choir, to go to “redneck” Dallas Billington’s Akron Baptist Temple. I was only three years old at the time.
My mom, to this day, somehow thinks my dad goofed up. I don’t think she will ever realize the absolutely incredible thing he did by subsequently, willingly and anxiously, selling our beautiful family home in Old Fairlawn, to become an independent missionary for HCJB in San Jose, Costa Rica and then in the Amazon jungles of Ecuador starting in 1969, paying our whole family’s way for our whole gig there (1969-73)!
He was a missionary doctor who helped save a lot of lives, not just by his expertise, even as a surgeon (something he did in the Korean War for the U.S. Air Force in Fairbanks, Alaska), but by the generous shipping of barrels and barrels of prescription medicine he personally brought down from Akron as a physician who had earned his own pharmaceutical license!
About 11 years ago, shortly after 9/11 and my dad’s shocking death one month later, my sister called me one Sunday to tell me she had just run into a very tall man at church who turned out to be a fellow missionary for HCJB and knew about my father’s work in Shell, Ecuador (home of Nate Saint and Jim and Elizabeth Elliot)! He was just-retired from his long-standing career in Quito, Ecuador and had recently moved to Mansfield, Ohio with his wife to be near their daughter and her family!
When I called this man, he gave me the phone number of Dr. Wally Swanson, who he informed me was now retired and living in California with his family. Wally was my dad’s sole partner at the little hospital in Shell, and the two of them handled hundreds of native tribal people who were regularly flown in from the jungles by HCJB pilots for medical attention.
Wally, who preceded my dad in the field by a decade, was actually mentioned in the mainstream-release movie “End of the Spear,” which gives the amazing account of Saint and Elliot, etc.
(Write more tomorrow—I’m just getting started on finishing this kind of personal stuff to be included in my book.)
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Residency check
A friend of mine who owns the northside wedding store "I Do I Do" invited me as her guest last night to a PR event held on the 66th floor of the old Sears Tower. Dining on lamb chops, potato-crusted tenderloin and mango-shrimp spring rolls, to name a few of the delights, I was glued to the panoramic view of the city on what could not have been a more gorgeous summer night.
Here we were standing amongst the tallest skyscrapers in one of the most famous cities on the planet, looking up the coast of a beautiful blue Lake Michigan--with a perfect gaze down at the greenish-brown Chicago River thrown in too. I thought about Jordan's classic "tag line" for the annual Soldier's Meeting: "Reach the world by reaching Chicago."
As someone who, in the late '90s, enjoyed the pleasure of working in a high-rise on Wacker Drive, across the street from the Lyric Opera House, I was filled anew with the grateful acknowledgment that this is MY city and I can be a big fish in a big pond! There's no reason to be intimidated.
Wow, it was definitely one of those "Could have had a V-8" moments and it couldn't have come at a better time! The last time I really hung out with my sister alone was here in Chicago. She drove by herself all the way from Mansfield, Ohio and surprised me at work. I could not have been more shocked by her unexpected visit.
I took her to dinner at Laschett's Inn (a great old German eatery on Irving Park Road) and then on a driving tour that included Leland Avenue. While she was in town we had smoked salmon and rainbow trout with dill sauce at the town's only authentic Norwegian restaurant, Tre Konor. She was so happy being in Chicago. It was a real thrill for her. The least I can do is be thrilled too and stop, once and for all, with the self-pity. There's too much work to be done, as Jordan likes to say.
Here we were standing amongst the tallest skyscrapers in one of the most famous cities on the planet, looking up the coast of a beautiful blue Lake Michigan--with a perfect gaze down at the greenish-brown Chicago River thrown in too. I thought about Jordan's classic "tag line" for the annual Soldier's Meeting: "Reach the world by reaching Chicago."
As someone who, in the late '90s, enjoyed the pleasure of working in a high-rise on Wacker Drive, across the street from the Lyric Opera House, I was filled anew with the grateful acknowledgment that this is MY city and I can be a big fish in a big pond! There's no reason to be intimidated.
Wow, it was definitely one of those "Could have had a V-8" moments and it couldn't have come at a better time! The last time I really hung out with my sister alone was here in Chicago. She drove by herself all the way from Mansfield, Ohio and surprised me at work. I could not have been more shocked by her unexpected visit.
I took her to dinner at Laschett's Inn (a great old German eatery on Irving Park Road) and then on a driving tour that included Leland Avenue. While she was in town we had smoked salmon and rainbow trout with dill sauce at the town's only authentic Norwegian restaurant, Tre Konor. She was so happy being in Chicago. It was a real thrill for her. The least I can do is be thrilled too and stop, once and for all, with the self-pity. There's too much work to be done, as Jordan likes to say.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Weeping, acquainted with grief
The shortest verse in the Bible is, “Jesus wept.” In Luke 19, Christ wept over Jerusalem. Hebrews 5:7 says He wept in Gethsemane the night before He died.\
Every time you see Christ weep it’s in connection with the effect and consequences of sin. And in John 11, as Lazarus has been claimed by death and Christ has come to vanquish death, He weeps.
Jordan says, “When you read verse 33 there where ‘he groaned in the spirit and was troubled,’ the plain fact is He wept for the same reason that we weep. Death is an enemy. ‘It’s a horror of great darkness’; it’s not a friend.”
“ ‘Then said the Jews how we loved him.’ The fullness of His grief and His sympathy. 'A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.’ Some of them said, verse 37 kind of shocks you back into reality, ‘Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?’
“There are always going to be some people in the crowd just absolutely determined not to believe anything good about Him. They’re going to find fault if there’s any way to find it and, if not, they’re going to make up something.
“The healing of that blind man on that Sabbath day stuck in the craw of some of these guys and it’s still an issue in John 11. They’re still perplexed by it. It’s still in the air.
“In verse 37, even at the graveside, is lurking that spirit of unbelief and antagonism. This time Christ’s not groaning because Lazarus is dead; He’s groaning over and in response to the unbelief; the capacity to not believe.
“There’s a great verse in Hebrews 12:3: ‘For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.’
“He felt the antagonism. My point to you is that when Christ went through these things, it wasn’t just stoic passivism. You know, some time we just harden ourselves against resistance and just gut it out. He wasn’t doing that; this stuff struck at His heart and He FELT it! He endured the contradiction of sinners against Him.
*****
“Anything that would demonstrate who God is, what’s going to demonstrate it any more (‘I am the resurrection the life’) than standing in the presence of death and seeing death flee away?
“As He goes to perform the miracle He’s really the dependent one giving the Father the honor. ‘And in know that thou hearest me always.’ He’s got complete, total confidence in His Father because He’s fixing to stand there and call Lazarus forth
and it’s either going to work or it isn’t going to work.
“As the one who comes do the Father’s will, He’s risking it all on that. And when He thus had spoken He cried with a loud voice,’ so everybody could hear Him. Nobody misses Him. Everybody hears what He’s going to say. ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ Don’t you know every eye turned to the mouth of that grave!
“He told them back in chapter 5 the day was going to come when all they that are in the grave are going to hear His voice. The preacher story is that’s why He said only Lazarus—if He had said, ‘Come forth!’ they would have all come out! But He only wanted Lazarus.”
Every time you see Christ weep it’s in connection with the effect and consequences of sin. And in John 11, as Lazarus has been claimed by death and Christ has come to vanquish death, He weeps.
Jordan says, “When you read verse 33 there where ‘he groaned in the spirit and was troubled,’ the plain fact is He wept for the same reason that we weep. Death is an enemy. ‘It’s a horror of great darkness’; it’s not a friend.”
“ ‘Then said the Jews how we loved him.’ The fullness of His grief and His sympathy. 'A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.’ Some of them said, verse 37 kind of shocks you back into reality, ‘Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?’
“There are always going to be some people in the crowd just absolutely determined not to believe anything good about Him. They’re going to find fault if there’s any way to find it and, if not, they’re going to make up something.
“The healing of that blind man on that Sabbath day stuck in the craw of some of these guys and it’s still an issue in John 11. They’re still perplexed by it. It’s still in the air.
“In verse 37, even at the graveside, is lurking that spirit of unbelief and antagonism. This time Christ’s not groaning because Lazarus is dead; He’s groaning over and in response to the unbelief; the capacity to not believe.
“There’s a great verse in Hebrews 12:3: ‘For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.’
“He felt the antagonism. My point to you is that when Christ went through these things, it wasn’t just stoic passivism. You know, some time we just harden ourselves against resistance and just gut it out. He wasn’t doing that; this stuff struck at His heart and He FELT it! He endured the contradiction of sinners against Him.
*****
“Anything that would demonstrate who God is, what’s going to demonstrate it any more (‘I am the resurrection the life’) than standing in the presence of death and seeing death flee away?
“As He goes to perform the miracle He’s really the dependent one giving the Father the honor. ‘And in know that thou hearest me always.’ He’s got complete, total confidence in His Father because He’s fixing to stand there and call Lazarus forth
and it’s either going to work or it isn’t going to work.
“As the one who comes do the Father’s will, He’s risking it all on that. And when He thus had spoken He cried with a loud voice,’ so everybody could hear Him. Nobody misses Him. Everybody hears what He’s going to say. ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ Don’t you know every eye turned to the mouth of that grave!
“He told them back in chapter 5 the day was going to come when all they that are in the grave are going to hear His voice. The preacher story is that’s why He said only Lazarus—if He had said, ‘Come forth!’ they would have all come out! But He only wanted Lazarus.”
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Mary Magdalene
“Jesus Christ already knows where Lazarus is buried. Verse 24. When you read through this thing He’s constantly demonstrating Himself to be the God-man. He knows where the grave is. He’s waiting for Mary out that way.
“When Mary leaves out everybody goes with her—the big crowd. You’re gonna have an audience at the grave and that’s important to notice. The raising of Lazarus was not going to be done just before the two sisters. It’s going to be done before this whole host of people. It’s going to be a big audience there.
“You notice Mary sees Christ and ‘she fell down at his feet.’ It’s touching that every time you see Mary and Jesus that’s where she’s at. That’s the common place for Mary to be.
“In Luke 10:38 is the first time you see Mary and Martha in their house there. So when you first meet Mary, she’s at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, listening to His word. There He is as the prophet and she acknowledges Him as the Prophet: ‘Here’s God’s spokesman and I’m going to sit at His feet and listen to His Word.’
“You read John 11:33 and you see the emotional feelings; the agony. The groaning in the spirit is the emotion. It’s fascinating in Romans 8 he talks about ‘that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.’
“Here’s the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of a groaning creation, identifying with
the travail that sin has brought upon creation. John 11:35 says, ‘Jesus wept.’ Everybody knows that verse.
“The weeping there is He groaned in the spirit. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He felt the burden of sickness and death. The verse says, ‘He bore their sickness.’ He entered into the agony of the moment, the groaning, the emotional trauma. That’s part of what His humanity was about.
“Verse 11:33 says He was ‘troubled.’ The troubling is the mental distress. The Lord Jesus Christ is fully, completely, totally man. This is the chapter where He’s going to demonstrate Himself to be unquestionably the true God; the life giver. In the whole context you’re constantly reminded He’s also truly man.
“What that does for the Believer is let you know--in Romans 8 Paul says that He for us ‘maketh intercession.’ You see, when you talk to God the Father, you talk to Him THROUGH God the Son and God the Son understands all about your situation; not in theory, but in personal experiential reality and can, as the God-man, make intercession for you. That’s what’s going on here and what you’re seeing in John 11: 33-35 is the perfection of the incarnation, the incarnate Son of God.
*****
In the typology of the Tabernacle are all the little intricacies given in the Book of Exodus. They all point toward doctrine. The veil in the Tabernacle was a picture of the veil in His flesh and it had three colors: blue, purple and scarlet. That’s always the order. The blue and the red were never next to each other. They were always separated by the purple.
“But when you think about it that makes sense. Because blue (the heavens; deity), scarlet (the sacrifice; the humanity). But what do you get when you mix blue with red? Purple. When you touch those together that’s where the purple comes from. The purple is the mixing of the heavenly and the human. The deity and the humanity.
“If you ever make purple you can never again make red or blue because they’re mixed and you can’t successfully unmix them.”
“When Mary leaves out everybody goes with her—the big crowd. You’re gonna have an audience at the grave and that’s important to notice. The raising of Lazarus was not going to be done just before the two sisters. It’s going to be done before this whole host of people. It’s going to be a big audience there.
“You notice Mary sees Christ and ‘she fell down at his feet.’ It’s touching that every time you see Mary and Jesus that’s where she’s at. That’s the common place for Mary to be.
“In Luke 10:38 is the first time you see Mary and Martha in their house there. So when you first meet Mary, she’s at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, listening to His word. There He is as the prophet and she acknowledges Him as the Prophet: ‘Here’s God’s spokesman and I’m going to sit at His feet and listen to His Word.’
“You read John 11:33 and you see the emotional feelings; the agony. The groaning in the spirit is the emotion. It’s fascinating in Romans 8 he talks about ‘that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.’
“Here’s the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of a groaning creation, identifying with
the travail that sin has brought upon creation. John 11:35 says, ‘Jesus wept.’ Everybody knows that verse.
“The weeping there is He groaned in the spirit. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He felt the burden of sickness and death. The verse says, ‘He bore their sickness.’ He entered into the agony of the moment, the groaning, the emotional trauma. That’s part of what His humanity was about.
“Verse 11:33 says He was ‘troubled.’ The troubling is the mental distress. The Lord Jesus Christ is fully, completely, totally man. This is the chapter where He’s going to demonstrate Himself to be unquestionably the true God; the life giver. In the whole context you’re constantly reminded He’s also truly man.
“What that does for the Believer is let you know--in Romans 8 Paul says that He for us ‘maketh intercession.’ You see, when you talk to God the Father, you talk to Him THROUGH God the Son and God the Son understands all about your situation; not in theory, but in personal experiential reality and can, as the God-man, make intercession for you. That’s what’s going on here and what you’re seeing in John 11: 33-35 is the perfection of the incarnation, the incarnate Son of God.
*****
In the typology of the Tabernacle are all the little intricacies given in the Book of Exodus. They all point toward doctrine. The veil in the Tabernacle was a picture of the veil in His flesh and it had three colors: blue, purple and scarlet. That’s always the order. The blue and the red were never next to each other. They were always separated by the purple.
“But when you think about it that makes sense. Because blue (the heavens; deity), scarlet (the sacrifice; the humanity). But what do you get when you mix blue with red? Purple. When you touch those together that’s where the purple comes from. The purple is the mixing of the heavenly and the human. The deity and the humanity.
“If you ever make purple you can never again make red or blue because they’re mixed and you can’t successfully unmix them.”
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Unmixable intercession
Jordan says, “Jesus Christ already knows where Lazarus is buried in John 11:24. When you read through this thing He’s constantly demonstrating Himself to be the God-man. He knows where the grave is. He’s waiting for Mary out that way.
“When Mary leaves out, everybody goes with her—the big crowd. You’re gonna have an audience at the grave and that’s important to notice. The raising of Lazarus was not going to be done just before the two sisters. It’s going to be done before this whole host of people. It’s going to be a big audience there.
“You notice Mary sees Christ and ‘she fell down at his feet.’ It’s touching that every time you see Mary and Jesus that’s where she’s at. That’s the common place for Mary to be.
“In Luke 10:38 is the first time you see Mary and Martha in their house there. So when you first meet Mary, she’s at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, listening to His word. There He is as the prophet and she acknowledges Him as the Prophet: ‘Here’s God’s spokesman and I’m going to sit at His feet and listen to His Word.’
“You read John 11:33 and you see the emotional feelings; the agony. The groaning in the spirit is the emotion. It’s fascinating in Romans 8 He talks about ‘that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.’
“Here’s the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of a groaning creation, identifying with the travail that sin has brought upon creation. John 11:35 says, ‘Jesus wept.’ Everybody knows that verse.
“The weeping there is He groaned in the spirit. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He felt the burden of sickness and death. The verse says, ‘He bore their sickness.’ He entered into the agony of the moment, the groaning, the emotional trauma. That’s part of what His humanity was about.
“Verse 11:33 says He was ‘troubled.’ The troubling is the mental distress. The Lord Jesus Christ is fully, completely, totally man. This is the chapter where He’s going to demonstrate Himself to be unquestionably the true God; the life giver. In the whole context you’re constantly reminded He’s also truly man.
“What that does for the Believer is let you know--in Romans 8 Paul says that He for us ‘maketh intercession.’ You see, when you talk to God the Father, you talk to Him THROUGH God the Son and God the Son understands all about your situation; not in theory, but in personal experiential reality and can, as the God-man, make intercession for you. That’s what’s going on here and what you’re seeing in John 11: 33-35 is the perfection of the incarnation, the incarnate Son of God.
*****
"In the typology of the Tabernacle are all the little intricacies given in the Book of Exodus. They all point toward doctrine. The veil in the Tabernacle was a picture of the veil in His flesh and it had three colors: blue, purple and scarlet. That’s always the order. The blue and the red were never next to each other. They were always separated by the purple.
“But when you think about it that makes sense. Because blue (the heavens; deity), scarlet (the sacrifice; the humanity). But what do you get when you mix blue with red? Purple. When you touch those together that’s where the purple comes from. The purple is the mixing of the heavenly and the human. The deity and the humanity.
“If you ever make purple you can never again make red or blue because they’re mixed and you can’t successfully unmix them.”
“When Mary leaves out, everybody goes with her—the big crowd. You’re gonna have an audience at the grave and that’s important to notice. The raising of Lazarus was not going to be done just before the two sisters. It’s going to be done before this whole host of people. It’s going to be a big audience there.
“You notice Mary sees Christ and ‘she fell down at his feet.’ It’s touching that every time you see Mary and Jesus that’s where she’s at. That’s the common place for Mary to be.
“In Luke 10:38 is the first time you see Mary and Martha in their house there. So when you first meet Mary, she’s at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, listening to His word. There He is as the prophet and she acknowledges Him as the Prophet: ‘Here’s God’s spokesman and I’m going to sit at His feet and listen to His Word.’
“You read John 11:33 and you see the emotional feelings; the agony. The groaning in the spirit is the emotion. It’s fascinating in Romans 8 He talks about ‘that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.’
“Here’s the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of a groaning creation, identifying with the travail that sin has brought upon creation. John 11:35 says, ‘Jesus wept.’ Everybody knows that verse.
“The weeping there is He groaned in the spirit. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He felt the burden of sickness and death. The verse says, ‘He bore their sickness.’ He entered into the agony of the moment, the groaning, the emotional trauma. That’s part of what His humanity was about.
“Verse 11:33 says He was ‘troubled.’ The troubling is the mental distress. The Lord Jesus Christ is fully, completely, totally man. This is the chapter where He’s going to demonstrate Himself to be unquestionably the true God; the life giver. In the whole context you’re constantly reminded He’s also truly man.
“What that does for the Believer is let you know--in Romans 8 Paul says that He for us ‘maketh intercession.’ You see, when you talk to God the Father, you talk to Him THROUGH God the Son and God the Son understands all about your situation; not in theory, but in personal experiential reality and can, as the God-man, make intercession for you. That’s what’s going on here and what you’re seeing in John 11: 33-35 is the perfection of the incarnation, the incarnate Son of God.
*****
"In the typology of the Tabernacle are all the little intricacies given in the Book of Exodus. They all point toward doctrine. The veil in the Tabernacle was a picture of the veil in His flesh and it had three colors: blue, purple and scarlet. That’s always the order. The blue and the red were never next to each other. They were always separated by the purple.
“But when you think about it that makes sense. Because blue (the heavens; deity), scarlet (the sacrifice; the humanity). But what do you get when you mix blue with red? Purple. When you touch those together that’s where the purple comes from. The purple is the mixing of the heavenly and the human. The deity and the humanity.
“If you ever make purple you can never again make red or blue because they’re mixed and you can’t successfully unmix them.”
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