"Over the years, the definition of humility has undergone a gradual but nonetheless profound change," explains a college professor of the New Testament. "Especially in the intellectual community. In the modern day, humility has basically become synonymous with another word: uncertainty. To be uncertain is to be humble. To be certain is to be arrogant. Thus, the cardinal sin in the intellectual world is to claim to know anything for sure."
He then emphasizes, [30] But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
[31] That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Jordan says, "Knowledge 'puffs up' if you don't let it edify you; it doesn't have to puff you up. One of the things you learn as you go through the Christian life is that you grow, and as you grow you gain confidence, and then you come to the place where you say, 'Uh oh, it's not me.' You have to have that 'Not I' moment.
"Paul writes in Galatians 2:20, [20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
"You have to keep having those 'Not I' moments so that you'll back up and say, 'Well, it's Christ.' If you're walking, you make progress: 'Not I, aghhh, it's got to be Christ. Okay, now I can take another step,' and then you go another step. That's how you grow; you learn more and more that it's not you. The moment you think you've arrived that's the 'Not I' moment.
"Paul says, 'Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.' And old Southern preacher used to say, 'The closer you get to the light, the better you see the dirt.' Well, the closer you get to the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the more you see how inadequate you are in yourself and you see how wonderful that means He is for you.
"This lesson is the heart, the soul of the Christian life. It's not just that I'm going to die and go to heaven because my sins are forgiven. I have a fellowship with the Creator of heaven and earth through His Son. I have access unto the Father. The whole of the godhead I fellowship with.
"That's why you're transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's an internal thinking process. You replace the old human viewpoint with divine viewpoint and that Holy Spirit takes that doctrine, that divine viewpoint, and energizes.
"As Paul says in Romans 12, [2] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
[3] For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
"It's the Word of God that works effectually in you that believe. It energizes your inner man and produces the activity. You do all that that you may prove; test and try something to demonstrate its value. When you prove something, you test it and you test it to see whether it works or not.
"You know how when you give a demonstration of something for someone, you say, 'Well, I hope it works this time.' God's Word ALWAYS works. That's why Paul says, 'I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.' He never questioned the fact that the gospel works. It will prove itself every time to somebody who trusts it."
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This Wednesday night at sundown marks the beginning of this year's Tisha B'AV. According to Wikipedia, Tisha B'AV is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Second Temple by the Roman Empire in Jerusalem.
"Tisha B'Av is regarded as the saddest day in the Jewish calendar and it is thus believed to be a day which is destined for tragedy. Tisha B'Av falls in July or August in the Gregorian calendar.
"As the day has become associated with remembrance of other major calamities which have befallen the Jewish people, some kinnot also recall events such as the murder of the Ten Martyrs by the Romans, massacres in numerous medieval Jewish communities during the Crusades, and the Holocaust.
According to Chabad.org, "World War II and the Holocaust, historians conclude, was actually the long drawn-out conclusion of World War I that began in 1914. And yes, amazingly enough, Germany declared war on Russia, effectively catapulting the First World War into motion, on the 9th of Av, Tisha b'Av.
"What do you make of all this? Jews see this as another confirmation of the deeply held conviction that history isn't haphazard; events – even terrible ones – are part of a Divine plan and have spiritual meaning. The message of time is that everything has a rational purpose, even though we don't understand it."
In the year 1666, the kabbalistic false messiah Shabbetai Tzvi was arrested in Constantinople. "After a period of imprisonment — during which he held court as messiah, he replaced the fast of the 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av) with a festival celebrating his birthday and began to sign his letters, 'I am the Lord your God Shabbetai Tzvi' — he was denounced for fomenting sedition and brought before the sultan," explains the website My Jewish Learning. "Now in a depressive state, he denied ever having made messianic claims. Offered the choice of apostasy or death, he chose to convert to Islam. Shabbetai Tzvi became Aziz Mehmed Effendi, and, with a royal pension, lived until 1676, outwardly a Muslim but secretly participating in Jewish ritual. His letters reveal that at the time of his death, he still believed in his messianic mission.
"While Shabbetai Zevi’s conversion created a crisis of faith for most of his followers, the movement lived on, sustained by esoteric kabbalistic explanations for the apostasy and by its adherents’ psychological need to prevent their deep-seated religious world view from falling apart. The movement survived into the early 18th century, when the Shabbateans divided into two camps: moderates who combined their secret messianic faith with adherence to Jewish law and radicals who set about covertly spreading the heretical doctrine that the 'nullification of the was its true fulfillment.' This radical wing of the Shabbatean movement achieved a short-lived revival under Jacob Frank, a Polish Jew who, in 1756, was heralded as the reincarnation of Shabbetai Zevi."
where have you been?
ReplyDeleteis this who i am thinking it is? the "comic guy," as my mom knows you as? wow! we gotta talk!
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