To “save ourselves from this crooked and perverse generation."

What it means to “save ourselves from this crooked and perverse generation."

In an epistle of Joy and encouragement in the midst of adverse circumstances, Paul encouraged the church in Philippi[i]. As we too are in trying times, we can take encouragement from Paul in His words in Philippians 2:12-16[ii] , to save ourselves “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.”

Let’s examine the themes of this scripture and be encouraged:
“ 12Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. “

Verse 12 follows the theme that Jesus laid out when he said to go forth and “make disciples.” After conversion the process of discipleship is a long, but highly rewarding adventure (see my article on discipleship[iii]). Two things happen when you “work out your own salvation” through a thorough process of discipleship:
1) You develop a close relationship with your Creator and begin to understand His sheer awesomeness. You look around the universe that is estimated to be 165 billion light years[iv] across, and tremble in awe. You plumb the depths of the error correcting, information encoded, DNA structure and its expression in our chromosomes and thence our amazing bodies and minds[v] and you bow in wonder at this Creator.
2) You develop a close relationship to His Word and begin to understand His sheer awesomeness. You see that it is 66 books, penned by 40 people[vi], yet is a message from outside our spacetime. You note Biblical Cryptography, literal micro-codes and macrocodes weaved like a platinum braid through the vista of the scriptures and you tremble at a God who can intervene through higher dimensions.

13For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

A good friend of mine recently expressed sadness to me as he surmised that the greatest works these days are being done by means of legalism. Great works need to be done, but as Christians, we should be so close to God that we do no works. Rather great works , deeds, and acts are done through us; the Holy Spirit working in us the pleasure of God. Such works are freeing and beautiful and are done when we let go.
14Do all things without murmuring and disputing,

We often get in the way. A major church near where I live recently lost their lead pastor. He abruptly quit because of the way the board was hindering his efforts. Doing so threw the whole region into chaos. I grieved because many people went to Hell over this, turned off by Christianity, by religion and by the murmurs, and disputes that erupted as the result of a handful of people.

As we draw near to God, the desires of the flesh become less urgent. We can rely on the strength of God to avoid being “of Apollos” or “of Paul.” We can avoid the murmurs and disputes that destroy. Rather we can lift each other up.
15that ye may be blameless and unoffending, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world,

So if we draw near to God, descipling ourselves to Yeshua HaMashiach, becoming his “Talmudim,” we will fear and tremble in great joy, before His works and in His presence. Being there will help us avoid disputes and murmurs. In the midst of a generation that venerates the massacre of the pre born, the murder of infants, and the killing of the elderly and infirm; in a generation that promotes homosexual, pedophilic, and bestial, “lifestyles,” yet eschews anything Christian; in a generation that denies the existence of God, yet promotes paganism, Islam, and the religion of Evolution, in this generation of deepening darkness, we can stand out as lights – and stand out we do. Increasingly as the world veers toward Sodom, true Jesus Followers will become obvious, true believers will shine.

16holding forth the Word of Life, that I may rejoice in the Day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

What rejoicing there will be, as those who have held fast to His Word, come before Him and hear, “well done good and faithful servant[vii]” This, the ultimate expression of what it means to save ourselves from this crooked and perverse generation.
Praise Him!

[i] http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=814
[ii] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%202:12-16&version=48
[iii] http://keloki-christian.blogspot.com/2006/10/what-it-means-to-be-disciple.html
[iv] http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040524.html
[v] http://www.kurzweilai.net/mindx/frame.html?main=/mindx/show_thread.php?rootID%3D68799
[vi] http://www.khouse.org/6640_cat/
[vii] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=49&chapter=19&verse=17&version=48&context=verse

What it means to be a disciple

What it means to be a disciple

On a personal level, discipleship is something that I have always craved. I wanted an expert in a field for which I had passion, to guide me with a slow and steady hand as I grew in the field. As a youth, I longed for this structure and accountability. Instead, I had to make my way, on my own, and be completely responsible for my often meandering education. To be sure, I always relied on God, I always prayed to Him for guidance, and sought Him in everything.

Raised between the “rock” of Jehovah’s Witnesses (brought to the family by my father), and the “hard place” of the “Worldwide Church of God” (brought to the family by my mother), my only salvation was a direct call from God. He would have to be my leader, the Holy Spirit, my teacher; for there were no human true Christian disciplers in my life.

My lack of discipleship could have easily proved problematic; for as the decades flew by, I soon became the one who needed to disciple others. I lead youth groups, gave sermons, counseled and even married a couple. All of this time, the template I used was that which I gleaned from studying discipleship cursorily, my studies of the Bible, and the ideal in my mind of the discipleship I had always desired. I would try to give it to others.

The closest cultural inferences to discipleship that have inspired me over the years are both historical and fictional.

Historically, the system of apprenticeship developed in the Middle Ages, that came to be used by craft guilds and town governments intrigued me. A young person would apprentice himself to a master craftsman and learn his trade[i]. I had the rare and God-gifted opportunity to participate in the modern analog of this - the internship. For a semester, I worked for next to nothing for a defense contractor[ii] while in high school. I would have gladly paid to do this. Experts with masters degrees and PhDs. In physics and engineering would guide, encourage me, and set me on tasks working with high technology. It was such a powerful experience that it set my career direction to this day.

Fictionally, the most personally idealistic portrayal of discipleship has been the idea of a Padawan in the Star Wars Jedi mythos. A Padawan would apprentice himself to a Jedi master for intensive, years-long, one-on-one training. The Padawan would adopt a dress style and effectual manner that would identify him or her (or “it”) as a Padawan. A coming-of-age event called “The Trials” moved the Padawan out from apprenticeship, to Knighthood[iii].

I believe that the Star Wars Padawan storyline borrows heavily from the Jewish tradition of discipleship. At 6 to 10 years of age, a student would start “Bet Sefer.” In the time of Josephus, there were 480 synagogues “each with a Bet Sefer for teaching the written law[iv].”A student would study the Torah. On the first day, a Torah teacher would give each student a drop of honey, have them taste it and tell them, “May the word of God be like honey on your lips.” The rabbi would create an indelible image in their minds of the sweetness of God’s word[v].

After bar mitzvah, the best students would move to Bet Midrash, and the best of the best would move on to Bet Talmud. This had the longest duration of ages 15-30., but you had to be called to do this. Hence we have rabbi Yeshua telling his disciples, “follow me.” They would have counted it an awesome privilege to finish their education in this rare opportunity to be invited to Bet Talmud[vi].

So to be a disciple is to be invited to Bet Talmud, to leave behind all that we are doing and make the study of the Word of God primary. It is to be called by Jesus Himself to become His people.
Today I am so glad to be able to participate in a directed, in-depth study of the Torah, The Tanach, and the New Testament, to memorize the scripture, to even write a copy of my own someday like the kings of old.

I hope my children will have the privilege of having a talmudi guide them through their early stages of discipleship.

[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprenticeship
[ii] http://sec.edgar-online.com/1995/06/20/00/0000950112-95-001706/Section5.asp
[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi#Jedi_ranks
[iv] http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu/gutenberg/etext06/8jsph10.txt
[v] http://www.nwc.org/nwcmedia/Sermons/sermoninfo.asp?uid=263
[vi] http://www.khouse.org/articles/2005/616/

How our Nation is Post-Christian

How our Nation is Post-Christian
The days of our country’s life are cast in yellowing hues, and the leafs of the basic beliefs of the once great United States of America are turning yellow and red and being trampled underfoot. This country, still beautiful in its autumn splendor, should make no mistake; winter is coming.

It wasn’t too long ago that our country was built by openly professing Christians who proclaimed, ““The Law given from Sinai [The Ten Commandments] was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code[i],” and, “ The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man[ii].” James Madison, in prophetic form said, “ We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart[iii].”

Yet today there is a large movement to cast Christians as historical revisionists[iv] even though the quotes and Christianity of the founding fathers is well known and well documented.

Bible-based education has been banned, and the pseudo-religious ethos that pervades America consists of cultural sayings like, “God helps those who help themselves”, “Man is basically Good,” “The Bible is full of errors,” or “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.[v]”

It is all bad news. The prevailing worldview defining the theology, philosophy, ethics, biology, psychology, sociology, law, politics, economics, and history, is owned by preschool, primary, secondary, college, and post-graduate educational institutions, as well as the main stream press. From cradle to grave an American is likely to get bombarded with anti-Christian messages.

Our country now embraces a court sanctioned culture of death. Murder of the unborn is celebrated, murder of infants is encouraged, murder of the elderly is sectioned. Our country also encourages deviant lifestyles such as homosexuality and pedophilia. Organizations like NAMBLA are working hard to make it easy for homosexual men to prey on young boys. Fights to legalize any kind of “marriage” still rage in the USA.

As I write this, we are in the midst of a sea change as ideologically anti-Christian and anti-American Leftist groups are poised to sweep American elections. It is interesting that such an election should be held the week after Halloween, which has now become the 6th largest spending holyday with nearly 6 Billion dollars to be spent this year. It is the second biggest decorating holiday[vi]. It is a sign of our burgeoning pagan ideology.

As the United States of America cavorts head-long into demise brought on by thumbing its nose at God, a phenomenon may occur that we see in such cultures. As God examines such peoples, He often, “gives them over,” letting the culture absolutely run amok in their sin. That will make small-groups and well trained “talmudim” of extreme importance, as we may need to hunker down in the winter, still working hard to make disciples, while we wait for the Son.

[i] .” John Quincy Adams. Letters to his son. p. 61, http://www.eadshome.com/QuotesoftheFounders.htm
[ii] Thomas Jefferson, http://www.eadshome.com/QuotesoftheFounders.htm
[iii] http://www.eadshome.com/QuotesoftheFounders.htm
[iv] http://www.atheists.org/courthouse/charlotte.html
[v] Reasonable Doubts, R. Scott Richards 1996; The Word For Today, pg. 6
[vi] http://collectibles.about.com/b/a/257747.htm