Tag Archives: Lamb

Heart, Mind and Soul

19 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in Discovery, Observations, Rants, Spirituality

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In Jesus’ way, loving one’s neighbour includes the care and support of those who hate me, see me as less than, or simply don’t have the same worldview/faith/opinions. Click here if you need to become familiar with this teaching.
Apparently, 45’s latest action is to protect medical workers (presumably those who are of The Way) who want to REFUSE the care and support of those who hate them, see them as less than, or simply don’t have the same worldview/faith/opinions.
Truly, we are watching a nation that is posing as the lamb but has the heart, mind, and soul of the Dragon.

The Momentous Lamb

23 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Some people make a big fuss about when Jesus was born. The thing is, we are 99% sure that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25. The evidence suggests he was born in September-October probably at the Feast of Tabernacles; the time when the Jewish people would remember when God made his dwelling with them in the wilderness. Ultimately, the Bible tells us the year but it is silent about the exact day and I suspect it’s because we’re not supposed to make an idol out of a day.
I would like to suggest that more important than when he was born is WHERE he was born.  Do you know where he was born? In Bethlehem. Why there? What’s the big deal?

Do you recall the story about God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son? It was a lesson for Abraham about who God really is. Abraham was faithful, he trusted God, and he prepared the sacrifice but at the last moment he was stopped. Then a miracle happened. Close by in a bush was a male sheep – a sacrificial lamb was provided in the place of Abraham’s son! Now that’s where that story usually ends in the Bible but I’m told that in the Quran, it states that there would be another sacrifice beyond Abraham’s son, beyond the lamb provided on that mountain, and it would be a momentous sacrifice; a more excellent, better, sacrifice.
Where would that sacrifice come from? What or who would that sacrifice be? As the story unfolds through time we get more insight about this sacrifice. The prophet Isaiah revealed this momentous sacrifice to be a suffering servant. He wrote:

“He will be led like a lamb to the slaughter.  And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he won’t open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he will be led away. No one will care that he dies without descendants, that his life will be cut short in midstream. But he will be struck down for our brokenness, suffering, and pain so he can heal all of us.”

And that brings me back to Bethlehem. Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Why were events arranged to get his parents to that town at that time? Why not just stay home where it was warm and safe?

Because Bethlehem was where the sacrificial lambs came from.

And who were the first to hear the Good News? Who were the first to witness this new baby born in a manger? Shepherds – those that cared for the lambs. And when the time came for Jesus to begin his mission, the prophet John the Baptist saw him and told everyone – “Behold! Look! Understand! There is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world.”  The momentous lamb had arrived!

A Demonstration

28 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality, Uncategorized

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In my last post, I shared some thoughts about God’s sanctuary. If you’re not familiar with the sanctuary, it shows up in the book of Exodus, after God rescued the Israelites from Egypt. He instructed the Israelites to build a sanctuary and use it for religious services. While it is layered in meaning and symbolism, it’s primary purpose is described in Exodus 25:8, “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”  

It’s all about God taking centre stage in our lives and in the places in our heart. 

In the sanctuary, the main services that took place were sacrifices. There were sacrifices when a person became convicted of sin and there were the annual cleansing sacrifices as part of the day of reconciliation. These services were not an end in themselves; the entire structure, its furniture, and the services pointed towards the Rescuer. 

“Through the teachings of the sacrificial service, Christ was to be uplifted before all nations, and all who would look to Him should live. Christ was the foundation of the Jewish economy. The whole system of types and symbols was a compacted prophecy of the gospel, a presentation in which were bound up the promises of redemption.” – {White, Acts of the Apostles, pg 14.1}

Paul said the same thing in Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is a life changing revelation. Dig into it:

Us/We – all humanity.

Sinners – carnal, rebellious, disconnected, angry, broken, incapable of saving ourselves.

Love – unconditional acceptance, action based – it’s real and impacts our lives.

Christ died for us – clearly the cross but we must remember that he is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The deepest message of the sanctuary reveals God’s sacrificial love so that he could draw us to himself.  He was showing that he not only had a way to reconcile our angry and distant hearts he was the only one willing to do what it takes to make it happen. 

Do you truly believe the message that God loves and delights in you? Do you accept his acceptance of you? What are you doing now that comes from not believing this message? If you really believed it – all the time – what difference would it make in your life?

The Three – Given Up

03 Tuesday Jun 2014

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The Bible letter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is God’s last message to a dying planet. In Revelation 14:6-12, three angels shout a warning to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Revelation 14:10 tells us that there will come a time when “those who dwell on the earth” will completely align themselves with the Beast (a symbol of a Christian looking politcal-religious institutional power on earth) and thus become beast-like; they manifest it’s character or in other words, receive it’s mark.

What can God do with with someone who stands violently, satanically, opposed to the kingdom of light, love, and life?  I mean the Bible makes it clear that for the sake of all creation, this sin war must come to an end. There has to be an end to starving children, rape, greed that poisons everything it touches, and the parasitic-like consumption that fuels humanity.  Eden will be restored and the heartbeat of the universe will be tuned once again to other-centered love. If they were still alive, “those that dwell on the earth” will hate it and continue to war against it. This cannot be. What’s God to do?

He pours out his wrath on them.  What does that mean?

I’ve already mentioned that all of us read those words through a lens of who we think God to be. Consider how in the beginning when God said to Adam and Eve, if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall die. Did he mean: If you break my rules I will have to punish you with execution? Many think so however, many also see him saying something else: Eating from that tree will break our relationship so horribly that death and destruction will rule the world.  In the first scenario, God offers salvation, in a sense, to save us from his just punishment.  In the second, God desires to save us, not from himself but from the horror of sin and death.  The scenario that you lean towards will be a filter through which you understand God’s poured out wrath.

To me, an interesting picture is revealed when we look closely at Romans 1 and see that the wrath of God is placed within the context of God giving people up because they want to be given up on. Despite everything he has done to win them back to light, love, and life, they have chosen to opt out. God gives them up – to their heart’s desire; to the full, unfiltered consequences of sin.

In the end, could it be that God’s wrath is the most loving thing he can offer those who are determined to die?

The Three – Wrath of God

20 Tuesday May 2014

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In the last letter of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God sends a last message of warning to a dying planet – Revelation 14:6-12. This message is given by three angels to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a serious message – the consequences are life and death – but it’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

In Revelation 14:10, we can read that there are those who shall “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation.” In my last post, I noted that all of us understand what “wrath of God” means through our worldview and our worldview is tainted by an enemy that wants us to distrust, even hate, God. What’s the solution?

In that post, shared something one of my favourite authors had to say on the subject and here’s the rest of her observation:

“Jesus came to teach men of the Father, to correctly represent him before the fallen children of earth. Angels could not fully portray the character of God, but Christ, who was a living impersonation of God, could not fail to accomplish the work. The only way in which he could set and keep men right was to make himself visible and familiar to their eyes.” (White, God Made Manifest in Christ)

We are invited to swap out our lenses for a different pair of worldview glasses: To see everything through the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

What does that mean on a practical level? It means coming to rest or trust that everything God does, including whatever his wrath is, comes from the bottomless well of his love, grace, and compassion. At the end of the day, we have to come to the point where we can say, “I don’t always understand who you are but God but I will trust you because I know that you always do the most loving thing that can be done.”

Can you do that?