Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

Depending on the translation that one reads, David, in his desperation, with Saul wanting him dead either says, "But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death," or "But truly, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death."  It turns out that the first translation is right: he says "soul", not "yourself live", and indeed, as Christians we know that the death of our soul should be more important than the death of our body.  But yes, God nonetheless created us to be afraid of death.  There happens to be a very good and very spiritually important reason for this fear ...

Perhaps the most colorful prophetic vision in the Old Testament is Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dead bones rising up and forming a great army.  I happened to have recently talked to a homeless man who lived in a tunnel.  In many ways, he was like the people of Old Testament times, depending on prophets to lead them to God, depending on God to rescue them in this life.  We, as Christians, do not live in a tunnel.  We have great peripheral vision.  We have an individual relationship with God and can see far beyond this life.  We know that spiritually, not physically, and with God's forgiveness, we can rise over and over, like dry bones.

Over and over in the New Testament, we are told to serve others, to let our light shine.  But the reason isn't simply so that we can help other people, which is, of course a blessed thing in itself.  We have been ordained to bring others to faith, to guide other people into the Kingdom of God. When we are told by Jesus: In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heave, we are being instructed to motivate others to give glory to God.
 

In Ephesians, Paul tells us to celebrate our faith by singing hymns and other Christian songs.  The New Testament does contain fragments of what appear to be early Christian hymns.  We celebrate the worship and evangelical impact of music on the Christian church.  In particular, hymns like Amazing Grace have hugely influenced converts over the last couple of centuries.

When the People of God were wandering in the desert, in what the Bible calls "the wilderness", God was directing an entire people toward its earthly home.  But as Christians, we have a personal relationship with God.  We don't have a covenant, like the Old Covenant, between God and all believers; rather, each of us has a personal covenant with God - we are individually led to our spiritual and our eternal home by God.  That is the heart of the New Covenant and the heart of our faith.
 

In the Book of James, the author - possibly written by the kid brother of Jesus - tells us that "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above".  A woman who had lost all her fingers and toes, except for one thumb, gave me a coloring that now hangs on the wall of my home office.  It is without doubt a perfect gift, and one that came from above.

Only twice in the Bible does an animal talk - the voice of Satan coming from the serpent in the Garden of Eden and the  voice of God coming from the talking donkey in Numbers.  The great Gentile Prophet Balaam proves less godly than his donkey when Balaam proves blind to the angel in his path but the donkey sees the angel.  The angel is there to stop Balaam from doing a great evil.  Later, Balaam reverses course and speaks of his faith in God.  But even later, he waffles again, turning away from his faith.  That is how we live, our faith gaining and waning throughout our lives - and we must always be prepared to spot the angel standing in our path, warning us.

In 1st John, we learn much of the basics of orthodox Christianity: to accept Jesus as God as well as a human, to love God, to love people, and to understand that Jesus is our "lawyer" before God.  We also learn that we have been given a life in the Kingdom of God, as well as an eternal life.

Scholars count 613 laws or rules embedded in the Torah or Pentateuch - commandments by which the Chosen People lived.  These rules were tedious in many ways, but they also kept God in their lives every day - because their daily lives were controlled by God.  We do not live that way: we are far freer.  We have the great, simple Ten Commandments handed down to Moses by God on the mountain, and then from Moses to God's People.  But, as it turns out, Jesus came along and did the Torah and Moses - and even God - one better...

In Paul's letter to the believers in Philippi, he offers thanks for multiple generous gifts offered by these people, both to help his missionary efforts, and apparently to help the poor believers in Jerusalem.  But Paul expresses his deepest thanks not for money, not for his support, but for their faith in God.  That is what makes them his bothers and sisters: their shared belief.  He tells them that the Lord is near - that because of their faith, God is always with them.

There are many examples in the Bible of very simple prayers that were immediately answered in direct, positive ways.  The prophet Elisha asked God to prove to the King of Aram that God's protection was more powerful than the Syrian army.  God responded by surrounding Elisha with a mountainside full of chariots of fire.  But sometimes prayers are not answered so dramatically, and sometimes they are not answered the way we want them answered.  Jesus himself prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane to be relieved of his pending crucifixion.  God did not do this.  We see that often God answers in a way other than what we might prefer...

Today, most Christians who attend a church regularly are older.  In past generations, it was left up to younger people to pass the word on to the next generation.  Now, older believers are desperately needed: we must make sure that the faith remains alive.  As we are told in Psalm 92, the aged "still bear fruit" and "they are ever full of sap and green".  Indeed, we must be tall, strong, and with deep roots, "like a cedar in Lebanon".

A very common question that is asked of modern Christians is how we can possibly believe that a kind, respectful, gracious, loving Hindu or Buddhist would end up in Hell.  While we often focus on how to get to Heaven, and just who happens to go to Heaven, the truth is that the Bible focuses far more on how to live the way Jesus taught us, how to walk in the Kingdom of God now and for eternity.  We look at the Gospel of John for inspiration.

In Paul's first letter to the believers in Corinth (Chapter 14), he tells them that "one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them."  But he's not asking the believers there to become prophets.  He's telling us to reach for the highest standard when we witness to others, when we support people spiritually: we should strive to come as close as we can to doing what the prophets did - and that is to connect with people in a deep, meaningful way, so that they come to know God, not just know about God.

1st Peter 3:18 tells us that Jesus "never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God."  (NLT).  From the time of Anselm of Canterbury, circa 1100 A.D., who offered his "satisfaction theory of atonement", we have seen Jesus as having died physically so that we could live spiritually.  But what does this mean to us today, as modern believers?  Perhaps for us, it is Jesus' example that is so meaningful: he was willing to suffer, to give in the ultimate fashion, as a sign of his love for humanity.  What are we willing to do for each other?  For our faith?