"Intimacy" a Pentecostal Model

INTIMACY A PENTECOSTAL MODEL

“But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”
2 Peter 1:9

“…perhaps the greatest obstacle to a proper understanding of the church is the tendency to absolutize one historical form or one particular image or model of the church. The gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ is always greater than our theologies, including our theologies of the church.  When the church keeps its eyes on Christ and remains open to the Holy Spirit, it is in touch with the one necessary power of continuous reform and renewal of ecclesial life.”

(Daniel L. Migliore)

This statement by Milgliore grabbed me the deepest of all in chapter 11 of his book. 

-I’M GOING BACK TO CALVARY-

With what little I have learned of theologies the doctrines of men and all that is concerning them

The greatest thing I’ve ever learned is Jesus died for me and by His blood I know I am free

I am going back to Calvary – I don’t want to be too far from the tree where Jesus bled and He died for me – I’m going back to Calvary –

The most common ground in Christianity is on the cross where Jesus died for you and me

Our enmities started on a tree in the garden and it will end on a tree at Calvary

I am going back to Calvary – I don’t want to be too far from the tree where Jesus bled and He died for me – I’m going back to Calvary –

Song Written by Joseph Robinson

            As I see it, nothing can take the place of intimacy with God. This is where ecclesiology has its foundation, it is from here that it begins and it is from here that all its efforts come back to. Jesus said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…” (Matthew 16:18). It is upon the foundational ground that Peter knew who Jesus was and even more so that Jesus knew who Peter was; this becomes the foundation that all things are built upon concerning ecclesiology (2 Timothy 2;19; 1 Corinthians 8:3).

            “He went in and knew her.”  This is a biblical term for intimacy between a man and a woman.  It simply means, in knowing each other, they intimately own each other (1 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 5:31). When we as the church marry what we a doing and become more intimate with our mission than we do God, then what we are doing becomes more important than God.

            This was the case with those Jesus spoke of: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23) [Emphases added].

            I was at a funeral in the country the other day. A ninety year old man walked up to me at the grave site.  I did not know him; he gave no greetings, just spoke this to me: “I have come to know that if I am friendly and open to God, He is willing to be friendly and open to me.”

            Sometimes we get too busy trying to complete an agenda that we miss relationships that can become greater than our mission; what these relationships can offer is lost in our self-interest and self-centeredness.  This is the case with iniquity driven ministries, although they may be full of good intentions; unless our ministries and ways of doing things are not flowing out of intimacy with God, it is our goodness leading us rather than God.

            This is no deep theology or some knew thought concerning ecclesiology; nonetheless, it is simple truth and when lived out, it is called “being led by the Spirit.”  Now that is Pentecostal in nature. As Dr. Gause said, “Pentecostal is Christianity and Christianity is Pentecostal.”

            This was the model of the New Testament Church as I see it.  They were simply led by the Spirit to go places and to do certain things in the places where they found themselves. This was the case with Philip in Samaria (Acts 8:5-25), and this was the case with Paul concerning Macedonia (Acts 16:9-10). As far as that goes, that was the case with the “acts of the apostles” in the whole book of Acts.

            As I read Milgliore’s “Critique of Current Models of the Church” it was as though I was reading something similar to Jesus talking to the seven churches of Asia.  He would point out the positives then he would point out the negatives, then he came to the conclusion I recorded above as what grabbed me the deepest.

            We become blind and cannot see afar off (prophetically) when we lose the gratefulness and the value of intimacy found in the shed blood of Jesus. I was broken down and tore up from the floor up when Jesus reach down with His great mercy and put His love all over me and inside me. If I in my living should walk away from that point of reference, I have moved away from the source that drives me as a believer; my eyes are taken off of the sweetness of His grace and cannot see the opportunities standing right in front of me.

            As I stood out in the middle of the land of Ur serving my country with the 82^nd Airborne Division during the Desert Storm Gulf War, there was this old sheep herdsmen out in the middle of no-where walked up to me.  The way he was clothed, he looked like somebody walking out of the Bible.

            His face was deeply wrinkled from the years of desert life.  As he looked into my eyes, I saw wisdom of a kind I have never witnessed before; I knew that old man knew more than I ever thought I could know. About that time, with curiosity, he reaches out his hand and takes one of the buttons on my shirt and looked at it with amazement. Evidently, he had never seen a button. He could not speak my language and I could not speak his.  However, as we stood there and encountered each other, somehow, we understood each other. 

            Why am I saying this? What does this have to do with ecclesiology?  I did a little sign language for prayer, and the old man closed his eyes and bowed his head and let me pray for him.  When done praying, he smiled at me and walked away into the desert with his sheep.

            We are the church wherever we are.  I shared a prayer and the old man received it; we were from different cultures and whatever else was different did not matter, we gave friendship and relationship to each other.

            This was what Abraham and Melchisedec gave each other, and from that premise a relationship was fostered into something that God was a part of.  When the Bible is living inside of us; when God is living inside of us, we do not need a script telling us what to do.  The life of God is in us and is capable out of intimacy to accomplish anything that needs to be accomplished (Mark 16:20).

            One may ask, if that is all you need to be the church anywhere, then why are you in seminary? I am massaging that intimacy I have with God.  The Spirit and the Word are the agents that inspire us and lead us into being the Body of Christ on this planet.

            One of the things I have noticed in the study of soteriology was that everything in salvation was dynamic in nature. If I understand correctly what Milgliore is saying in his statement above concerning ecclesiology, the life and mission of the church is also dynamic in nature. 

            This does not surprise me; the reason being, if the life of God in us is dynamic in nature, then I am thinking we as the church will be dynamic in nature as well, and as we evolve and come closer to the end (eschatology) we will always need to shape ourselves according to what the Spirit is leading us to do and be.

            This is even so with our revelation concerning doctrine.  For example, in the beatitude discourse Jesus gave, He went into saying over and over, “You have heard it said, but I say unto you.” Here Jesus was teaching us that our understanding and revelation should not become static, but also must be dynamic in nature.

            Therefore, my reflection concerning ecclesiology is that if we keep our intimacy open and friendly to God, then God will keep Himself open and friendly to us.  John the beloved said in his writings that we were to remember the things from our beginning (1 John 1:1-40). I conclude that there is something in what God does in us at the beginning that we need to take with us through to the end.

            I believe “that something” has to do with intimacy; we need to cultivate it and keep it fresh. The life of the church depends upon it regardless of what portion of theology we may be working through.  We, being the church need to hear from God.  I am a proponent of educating ourselves, this is why I am in this seminary; however, there is no knowledge, no brain large enough to take the place of intimacy with God.

            This takes that deep gratefulness, respect, and honor for the gift of salvation that God has given us. If we fail to keep it fresh, our models for the church will become molded and as rotten as the manna did in the wilderness.  Give us “this day” our “daily” bread.

WORD OF WISDOM

The Gift of the Word of Wisdom

Manifested in Jesus

JOHN 6:1-13

        As we look out at our community and further to the global needs of our times.  We may find it as massive as Philip in his as he looked at the five thousand needing to be fed.  We too as Philip, may count the cost from a carnal perspective without knowing that Jesus desires that we see things from a spiritual perspective as He did in this text. 

The Father had already revealed to Jesus by the gift of the word of wisdom how this meal would be provided.  “And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do” (Vs 6).  The revelatory gift was the gift of the word of wisdom because only the Father new ahead of time where the meal would be. 

Consequently, this made it prophetic in nature.  The Father knew the little boy would be there with his five loaves and two fishes.  As small and insignificant as it may have appeared; and against all natural logic, God had a supernatural plan to multiply a child’s meal to feed a multitude. 

God is looking for an Andrew that is willing to stretch their vision beyond natural logic to capture a glimpse of the supernatural.  For example, even though Philips statement in verse nine referring to the five barley loaves and two fishes said; “...but what are they among so many?”  Andrew's find stands as a recognition that the small lunch was a supernatural opportunity. 

How many times have we passed up the supernatural opportunities afforded to us because we are unwilling to believe that by some chance the stretch of imagining the abilities of God can supersede the inabilities of natural logic? 

We serve a supernatural God that is willing to turn our small things into big things.  Peter would have never known how it felt to walk on water if he had not allowed his imagination to catch just a glimpse that the possibilities of God would be in his favor beyond natural logic.

  When Jesus said “Come” Peter made his leap.   As he began to experience his supernatural, his natural began to notice the waves against him.  Likewise, Philips natural saw the many against the small.  However, Jesus said, “Make the men sit down”.  In the middle of Philips supernatural recognition and natural observation Jesus began to multiply the prophetic knowledge given to him by his Father as he broke the bread and the fishes. 

Likewise, Jesus in his prophetic knowledge when he ascended into heaven gave five ministry gifts to the church.  These five ministry gifts while walking in agreement with the two, the Spirit and the Word may be small and insignificant to natural logic when compared to the fragmented Body of Christ and a lost and dying world.  On the other hand, at the head of all this great need is a resurrected Lord who has time and time again defied natural logic to perform the supernatural.

 Jesus prophetically knew these five gifts and the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth would be sufficient to heal the fragmentation of his body and to take the gospel to a lost and dying world.  Once again, Jesus is in search of our Andrew's today that are willing to Praise God beyond the limitations and are willing in faith to stand between the recognition of the supernatural and observation of the natural so that by some stretch of the imagination God would do things that is worthy of himself. 

Paul has written “...What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.  These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within?  So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.  Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.  And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.  Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.  Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.  For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?  But we have the mind of Christ” (1Corinthians 2:9-16 OAB). 

Every since I have learned that we serve a transcendent God, I seek to open myself for His overflowing.  It is my prayer that we do not miss the big things God is waiting to create out of the small things.  Therefore, we will not despise the day of small things (Zechariah 4:10), for therein the wisdom of God reveals to us the big things.

Have a blessed day,

Pastor Bo       

          

Silent Fire

Silent Fire

There is a Silent Fire burning beneath all this rubble

A combustible heat burning hotter and hotter

It is gonna break out and Burn!

It’s gonna Burn! It’s gonna Burn!

Everything is going to change

Rubble from top to bottom is piled high

A rubble of iniquity twisted and wicked from earth to sky

Elongated piety perching with smirking smiles drapes this pile

Disguising good with evil and evil with good 

Exterior pomp of surety will soon answer the Fire burning beneath this pile

Underneath it all a generation chosen to walk with God is the Silent Fire

There is no need for noise as their small embers burn beneath the pile

Political noise draped and poised will have control over the rubble for only a while

Culture changers - carriers of God’s presence seek not to destroy

Just to burn till all understand the peace of God has no need to rile to reconcile

No picket lines, no angry frowns of lobby clowns will stand against this pile

Such ignorance only fuel their piety filled smirking smiles

The time has come to burn - a baptism of fire that causes one to learn

Not a peace the rubble tends to lend a peace that burns in the heart that will not bend

No tribulation not even a trial can quench the purpose in this fire    

With every step with every mile the Silent Fire burns beneath the pile

PRAYER

PRAYER

Psalm 116:1-2 (KJV)
¹ I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
² Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

The Psalmist is saying that He loves the Lord as a response to the interaction God has shown to His prayers.  Once we have prayed and God interacts with our request; we will be spoiled to say with the Psalmist, “therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.”

Prayer enables and equips us to do the work of God.  Prayer enables us to face things that are perplexing and regretful to face.  Prayer brings us into God’s world and God’s world into ours.

After years of hearing the Word of God we can with our intellect believe that God exist; with prayer to God we are taking the extra step of expressing that belief.  After all, it is not normal to speak to anything or anyone that we do not believe is there.

A child of God that does not pray is missing what the Father of heaven has desired the most from His children.  Prayer brings us into fellowship with our heavenly Father.  Prayer to our heavenly Father is the most basic activity that establishes sensitivity, affection, and the loving awareness that our heavenly Father is as real as an embrace with another human being.

Our heavenly Father is invisible to us; therefore, prayer is the vital connection connecting us to Father God.  Although we cannot see Him, in prayer He is real and present.

Many times in life we as the children of Israel have lived out our lives unaware of His presence, doing whatever we have chosen to do without any regards to His heart or pleasure.  As a result, we find ourselves captive to the things we have wasted our passions on.

This was the case as they found themselves taken from their homeland to be strangers and foreigners beholden to the Persians in Babylonian captivity, and even though their carnal passions had driven them there; Father God extended His love by saying this to them:

Jeremiah 29:11-14 (KJV)
¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
¹² Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
¹³ And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
¹⁴ And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

Prayer is what God has chosen to bring us into His favor.  As we call upon Him in prayer, Father God will begin to move both heaven and earth to set us free from the entanglements we have gotten ourselves into with our misplaced passions.

Hebrews 11:6 declares this: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Faith is important, however, faith is not all inclusive to what moves the heart of God towards us.  We can believe that He is, but we also must diligently seek him; prayer is the tool God has given us to seek Him.  “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:12-13).

Abraham in the scripture is known as the father of faith.  Even Abraham knew that thinking things by faith was not enough to bring our thoughts into being as evidenced in Romans 4:17.  “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”

Once again, taking the faith we have in God and expressing that faith in prayer creates an interaction that demands a response.  In the beginning, God said, let there be light and light came into being.  In the Hebrew tongue, when God said let there be light, it was both a command and an invitation, or command as an invitation.

In other words, God was inviting the light to come into being as an interaction to His request.  Likewise, when we pray to God, it too is an invitation; we are inviting God to enter into our world as an interaction to our request.

This is why Abraham’s faith worked for Him.  He called out those things that were not as though they were with an expectation of interaction.  God expected the light to respond and we too must believe that God will respond.

¹ I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
² Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

LOVE A SURE SIGN OF LIFE

LOVE A SURE SIGN OF LIFE

1John 3:11-16

11  For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

12  Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

13  Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

16  Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

          This is the seventh time the beginning is mentioned in this letter written by John.  As we have said before, how we start with God determines the depth we are willing to go with God.  Consequently, no matter where we wind up with God; our beginning will always follow us to whatever extent we may go (Luke 14:28-30).

          In our society today people enter into marriage with the idea that if it does not work; we can start over again with someone else.  We must understand, anytime we enter a relationship with the idea that it may not work already sets the pace for failure. This is one of the reasons why divorce is so prevalent among us.

          This mentality has also crept into the church of our day; many come to God with a non-commitment in the beginning.  In other words, I am here as long as things go my way or as long as I can act independently with my own choices. 

         The fact is, love demands ownership.  To love and to be loved is to expect demands and to have the heart to court those demands.  We cannot enter into relationships with the idea that we are independent of responsibility to the relationship and expect that the relationship will last.

          Love is not independently its own entity working as a tool to control others; on the contrary, love extends itself with the hope of being received as it is given that it might cultivate relationship in the freedom of interactions. This is expressed in the creation as God said, “Let there be Light.”  In the Hebrew language, this word “let” is both a command and an invitation (the very first spoken word recorded in scripture). 

God being love extended Himself by allowing the light to be light as a response to His request in the command. The command was His desire to see light be.  Therefore, when light came into being love was happening; light was responding to God’s invitation.  Therefore, the creation becomes relational in the act of love. 

You see, love can effect the emotions but cannot be determined by emotion; love is a choice and is responsible to those choices.  Love is reciprocal; it is both giving and receiving.  Therefore, love takes commitment to work as it is designed to work.

          In the beginning of time God made the choice to love us.  He was and is committed to that choice.  God is love – it is in His being to love because He is love.  When He chose to love us He manifested His commitment to that choice by preordaining His journey to the cross before the world was formed, before He actually created us as recorded in Ephesians 1:3-6        “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” 
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life" (Romans 5:8-10).

          Before we had fallen to sin He had already predestined us in Christ to be redeemed by His blood that was to be shed on the cross (2Peter 3:9).  This is love in its purest form; God chose to love knowing we would fail Him. 

          Now, that is commitment.  God committed Himself to love us before He created us.  This is why Salvation is an invitation of love.  God made His move in love towards us before we came into being; what makes that love reciprocal is when we choose to love Him back by letting Him own us and by letting Him set the demands of love in our response to Him.

          This thought is validated by 1Corinthians 6:19-20 “…know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

          You see, we love God because He first loved us as recorded in 1John 4:19 “We love him, because he first loved us.”   God being love has already made His move.  He sent us His son Jesus to redeem us from our sins so that we can be committed to Him in love.

          We have got to get this in our spirit and in our understanding; to love God is to become responsible to His ownership, to be responsible to the demands that His love calls for.  This is not God controlling us; this is us choosing to love God, choosing to respond to His love.

          Bringing this understanding into our text will enlarge our understanding of the text.  The message we hear from the beginning is that we love one another.  The same way that God has loved us in the beginning is the way we should love others.

          What His love has done for us is what our love should do for others.  We must also choose to love others with the same preordained commitment, and that is, we choose to love them knowing that they will fail us.  We must already have it in our mind that we will lay our lives down for their advantage in the relationship we have chosen to enter with them as evidenced in verse 16 of our text, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

          This is why it is not about what others deserve in our relationship with them; it is about our actions, it is about our actions in the relationship.  God did not give us what we deserved when He decided to love us, when He decided to enter into relationship with us He acted out His love towards us by laying His life down for us as evidenced in John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Love gave us the power to love God back and love will give others the power to love us back.  When we stop giving people what they are giving us; when we decide that it is not as much about what they deserve as it is about “our actions” is when we take the initiative to love.  Love sets the boundaries for freedom; love opens the flood gates of empowerment.

Are we getting the picture?  Love is not some flimsy loose emotion of lust in sexual encounters; love is denying oneself at the expense of hope, the hope that one will choose to love us back.  Love is not the demand that others bow down and become slaves (John 15:15).  Love is a sacrifice on our part that can only be reprieved when it is love coming back at us in respect for the sacrifice we have made. 
"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24). The greatest way to solve the aloneness issues we may have is in the willingness to die to our self preservation's; being willing to be over our disappointments before they even begin. Is this not the love God gave us in His death?

The highest expression of love is a self-sacrifice that spares not life itself.  This is why God sent Abraham on his journey to sacrifice Isaac; not that God wanted Abraham to kill His son but that Abraham would have a revelation of the sacrifice love serves.  God wanted Abraham and us to know the sacrifice He gave to love us; the invitation of love He has offered to us. 

2Timothy1:7-10 declares this to us: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,  But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:”

 

            John 17:20-26

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24  Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25  O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26  And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
 

John 3:35

35    The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.

John 5:20

For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

RISE AND BUILD

RISE AND BUILD

Ezra 1:1-3

“Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

2  Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

3  Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.”

     Jerusalem, the temple, the walls, and the gates were in ruin; seventy years of captivity had passed leaving the people in another world, and even another time.  Jerusalem was now in the past and could only be in their memories; these memories in some had faded into the lives they had made for themselves.  Others had kept the memories fresh, and with that freshness may have even created heartfelt thoughts that were above and beyond factual accounts of the past.  Too often we can exalt past events above actual realty, and without even realizing it; nothing in the present or the future can ever be good enough.  God never intended for the old and the new to be at odds or in competition with each other; evolutionarily, God has chosen the two to complete each other.     

     The homeland, the family, the God they once worshiped there is what made them a holy people.  Could it be that they once again might dance in the fire of His presence? Could it be that they once again might have His favor after they squandered the safety of His oversight and loving strength? Rather they chose to live out their own conceptions of peace and safety in the wealth they had made for themselves while they allowed many of their own to be in poverty, even to the extent that those in poverty resorted to cannibalism (Leviticus 26:29 ; 2 Kings 6:28-29).   

     Cyrus the king of Persia had given them the open door to return and the means to get there; the Gentile king seem to have a greater vision for their future than those who had lost their desire to return.  The iniquities that brought them there blinded the many that stayed as Babylon commerce and culture had become their paradigm of existence and success; regardless of what it had been like in Jerusalem before, to start all over again in a place of ruin was more than some could handle.

     Cyrus became the message to them that God can work outside the church to accomplish His will as much as He can in the church; that in the societies we exist in, God is at work for us when we have no heart left to work ourselves.

     Moreover, if we are not careful we can become so familiar and at ease with life as it is that we could never see what a better life could be.  It is so true: “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick…” (Proverbs 13:12).  To lose hope is one sure way to lose vision or the ability to see how things can be in the loss of how things once were.    

     Ezra was a priest by birth and a direct descendant of Hilkiah, the high priest as evidenced in Ezra 7:1; Hilkiah is who found a copy of the Law during the reign of Josiah as evidenced in 2Chronicles 34:14.  Though two generations had passed the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews throughout the Persian Empire; Ezra as his great grandfather, wanted his people to discover the written Word once again. 

     With both the city and the Temple destroyed Ezra was unable to do the work of a priest, his primary destiny; nonetheless, the burning in his spirit for his people to discover the Word in their hearts drove him to do the work of a scribe, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel. This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to the priest Ezra, the scribe, a scholar of the text of the commandments of the LORD and his statutes for Israel:” (Ezra 7:10-11 NRSV).

     “Some biblical historians seem to think that Ezra may have been the writer of the historical books of 1 and 2 Chronicles and Psalm 119 (the longest chapter in the Bible).  Furthermore, Ezra was responsible for organizing the synagogue worship.  He was the founder of the order of scribes.  He helped settle the canon of Scripture and arranged the Psalms, which all lends to the fact that the theme of the book of Ezra is The Word of the Lord.  There are ten direct references to God’s Word in this one little book, and the key to this book is found in Ezra 9:4 and 10:3: “trembled at the words of the God of Israel.” [1]

     “At the end of 2 Chronicles, we see that the southern kingdom of Judah went into captivity for seventy years.  We do not hear a word from them after they were captured until Ezra picks up their history.  The book of Ezra sets at the beginning of the three historical books that are called the “post-captivity” books: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.  The three prophetical “post-captivity” books are Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.  (What we mean by Post-captivity is that these books were written as they came out of the Babylonian captivity).

     In the Book of Ezra there are two major divisions.  There is the return of the captives from Babylon led by Zerubbabel in the first six chapters, of which, about fifty thousand returned.  Then there is the return led by Ezra in chapters 7-10, and about two thousand people followed Ezra.”[2]

     No doubt Hilkiah greatly influenced Ezra to be the revivalist and reformer that he was in his day and time.  His passion for the Word created the revival in the hearts of those who made the decision to return; surely, the Word gave them the heart to rise and build, to leave the Persian Empire and its benefits to once again embrace their purpose as a family, to once again embrace the Father of all, the Lord God Jehovah.  As Cyrus put it in his writing “… (He is the God,) which is in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:3).

     Ezra begins his book putting an emphasis upon the Word of God; specifically, the prophetic Word of both Jeremiah and Isaiah pre-captivity prophets.  One of the most profound examples of prophetic Words being fulfilled is that of Cyrus the king of Persia.  Almost two hundred years before Cyrus became the king of Persia; Isaiah prophesied of him in Isaiah 44:28 saying: “That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”  Isaiah 45:1-3 continues this prophetic Word:  “Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”

     “…The prophet Daniel served as a prime minister in the court of Cyrus.  It was during the reign of Cyrus that Daniel gave some of his greatest prophecies, including the seventy weeks prophecy concerning Israel.”[3]  You see, as Daniel may have revealed to Cyrus the prophecy made by Isaiah concerning him tendered his heart towards the heart of God concerning Israel.

     This is the importance of prophetic Word that is spoken.  As the apostle Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:18: “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;” Cyrus was able to take the prophetic Word spoken concerning him before he was born and see himself in the heart of God; see himself and his destiny, and with that vision do the work that God had put him on this planet to do.

     “The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:11); “The secret of Christianity is not asking Jesus into our heart; it is Jesus asking us into His heart” (Jamie Zumwalt).[4]  When it comes to missions God always has a mission, and people are always apart of that mission He has in His heart.  When we speak of missions in our world from a Christian perspective we must understand that God’s mission can work outside of the church as much as it can inside of the church.

     Daniel as a missionary to Persia could see that in Cyrus.  Cyrus was a king outside of Israel; nonetheless, God worked His mission through Cyrus politically and relationally.  This is the goal that we as missionaries in our world must see. 

     “Cyrus recognized his kingship that covered his known world at the time and said “The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth…”  He realized that God had given him his position.  I wonder today how many of the rulers of this world, in this so-called civilized age, recognize that they are ministers of God fulfilling His heart to all generations.

     We must also notice the expression, “The Lord God of heaven” This is a designation of God which is peculiar to Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel.  You see, after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem God could no longer be identified with the temple as the One who dwelt between the cherubim’s.  The glory had departed; “Ichabod” was written over the escutcheon of Israel.  Ezekiel had the vision of the departure of the Shekinah glory.  For this reason in the post-captivity books He is “The Lord of Heaven.”

     When the Shekinah glory was removed from the earth, God gave His people into the hands of the Gentiles and sent them into Babylonian captivity.  He dissolved the theocracy of Israel and became the God of heaven.  He is still that to His ancient people, and He will remain that until He returns to Jerusalem to establish His throne again as the Lord of the whole earth.  Jerusalem will then be the city of the great King, Jesus Christ.”[5]

     In the first wave to Jerusalem they began to rise and build; they got as far as rebuilding the foundation to the Temple.  Interesting enough, they were so excited about just getting the foundation rebuilt that they worshiped God with worship and praise in singing as evidenced in Ezra 3:10-13, “And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off”.

     Notice, in conclusion of their worship and praise in singing, they shouted with a great shout as a praise to God because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.  The shout was so loud that the noise was heard afar off; even more specifically, in this shout there were two groups of people or voices of people shouting.  There was the ancient, (those who had seen the Temple before it was destroyed, they remembered it as it was before) and there was the younger generation (those who were born and raised in the Persian Empire that never seen the Temple).  The shout of the ancient was mixed with tears of sorrow because to them it could never be as it was; the shout of the younger generation was mixed with tears of joy, they were overjoyed that they could be apart of a fresh and new relationship with God as they have never known.  The scripture indicated that this shout was so loud between the two; the difference between the two could not be distinguished.

     As Zerubbabel the king and Jeshua the high priest, the chiefs of the fathers of Israel stood between the old and the new, (what was and that which was to come) they navigated through the emotions of the two and built the foundation with the finished product as their vision.   

     Anytime we stand between the old and the new, not only do we have to deal with the emotions of what was; we too have to face the fears of what the new will bring us.  Beside these two emotions, they also encountered some jealousy and envy from the people north of them.  They offered to help (thinking their involvement could give them an advantage in their reconstruction, their intentions was evil against Israel). 

     These people were the Assyrians that Israel had formed allies with before Jerusalem was besieged, and they were responsible in betraying Israel by taking the Northern tribes captive: “But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us” (Ezra 4:3).

     Only those who have lived out their faith along side us through both the bitter and the sweet deserve to understand the vision that comes from God to build.  Too often we have those among us that are not with us in our vision; they need to sit down and hush and watch us build as God directs.  Sometimes people are not as friendly as they appear; if they are not willing to take the same trip we took to get the vision in our hearts, they will eventually work against us to fulfill the vision that God has given.

     Working through the emotions of the old and the new can be resolved and become as one in worship to our God; our tears can flow together in passion to fulfill the vision till those looking on cannot tell the difference between the two. 

     The new is as much of the old as the old is of the new.  They may not be the same in the paradigm shift, but in destination, they are one in and of the same.  This is why the Old Testament is not complete without the New Testament, and the New Testament cannot begin without the Old. They both validate each other and rhetorically become the same piece of work.  The Heilsgeschichte (“holy history” being worked out as God’s plan in the midst of human history as a whole[6]) plan of God historically takes the old to and end to begin the new, and in that process working the same plan of salvation in the two.  Therefore, taking a new direction when God is involved does not mean we quit the old; it means, we complete the old and accomplish what could not be accomplished in the old in and of itself, this is why Jesus said “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). 

RISE AND BUILD

When everything has fallen and all has come to ruin, things can never be as they were.  As you look around nothing is the same; set your heart on things to come Rise and Build

Rise and Build

Rise and Build

Set your heart on things to come Rise and Build

As you stand between the Old and the New

Set your heart on things to come Rise and Build[7]

     Ezra had a heart for the Word of the Lord in building the house of the Lord, Nehemiah had a heart for restoration in ministry, and Esther had a heart for intercession or interception; it takes these three to usher in the New that is to come. Being built up in the Word of the Lord restores us for ministry and intercession “…for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).  When we allow the Word to position us for restoration; then naturally, our presence in the face of what seems to be destruction becomes an interception of what (s)atan intended for evil.  Now this is truly the Heilsgeschichte plan of God lived out in the life of the believer.

     Once again, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick…” (Proverbs 13:12).  This only happens if we allow it; we as Ezra, can create a desire in the face of deference by returning to the Word of the Lord, that we, the old and the new together in one accord may worship the Lord of the Word “…but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).  If we can manage this, our ministries will be restored and we will become intercessors and intercept what (s)atan desires to destroy.  Though it may be true that things can never be as they were; nonetheless, with a burning desire, we must set our heart on things to come rise and build.      

                

---

[1] J. Vernon McGee, “Thru The Bible Commentary Series / History Of Israel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther” (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc. 1991).  Introduction.

[2] Ibid.

[3] J. Vernon McGee, “Thru The Bible Commentary Series / History Of Israel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther” (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc. 1991). Chapters 1 and 2

[4] John Willis Zumwalt, “Passion for the Heart of God” (Choctaw, Oklahoma: HGM Publishing, 2000).  Introduction xv.

[5] J. Vernon McGee, “Thru The Bible Commentary Series / History Of Israel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther” (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc. 1991). 13-14.

[6] Donald K. McKim, “Westminister Dictionary of Theological Terms” (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminister John Knox Press, 1996).  126.

[7] Song written by bo Robinson