bugging me

Not been writing these days, just basically for the lack of inspiration of any sort...I guess something just has to give before I can give. Well... just lying in bed plagued with thoughts concerning recent events unable to ignore a particular series of questions that have and keep troubling my mind and have constantly done so in ages past... I guess I’m just built that way*chuckle*

I am constantly plagued with the need to question everything I come across and resolve and derive some sort of logical explanation for things others just skim over or just don’t notice. Yet ironically the question that boggles my mind is the inability of those in the faith to question anything at all? No hunger for knowledge, none at all? We’re all apathetic in the faith no desire for a greater understanding in the things of God, we’re happy to walk around in our day to day lives knowing that we have read through most parts of the  of the Bible and yet a greater percent of what we have read we do not understand. We have no questions for the somewhat seemingly controversial sections of the written code of our faith for fear that such questions will shipwreck us, not realising the potential  that the answers to such questions hold in drawing us nearer to our creator also, yet the thought of being found heretic or blasphemous scares us ignorant. Actually, we don’t realise that all who in the past and biblical ages, who held a greater depth of the knowledge of the TRUTH, were found blasphemous. Our saviour himself, being the TRUTH was found blasphemous by the scholars of the day. Halt!!!! WARNING!!!! This is not reason to feed our ego’s hunger for delusions of grandeur especially when we have been found in the wrong or as one propagating a false doctrine or deceptive ‘revelation’ and label ourselves as being ‘persecuted’ but an attempt to throw light on our lack of a ‘Berean’ mindset. We are so scared to search the scriptures out for ourselves that we leave it to the ‘Uber –christians’ who are as much liable to error as we are.

Heb 5:12 MKJV  For indeed because of the time, you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again what are the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have become in need of milk, and not of solid food.

The author of Hebrews wrote this concerning the constant need of his audience for someone to teach them time and again the elementary truths concerning Christ and the oracles (prophecies or just plain Word) of God. For that reason he took his time to expatiate on several themes concerning the various prophecies about the Christ, he had no problem doing this but his problem was the fact that after all the time they had spent in Christ they still needed teachers when they ought to be teachers. You see it is acceptable to see a baby crawling but when you see a grown adult man on all fours....there are questions left to be answered.

It is true that the secret things belong to God and therefore we can’t expect all our questions to be answered (Deu 29:29)but those written in the word are revealed and belong to us and God expects us to question, seek answers and meditate thereon, after all it is the glory of kings(Proverbs 25:2).

I guess it’s the effect of hectic lives, trying to make ends meet, meeting deadlines, survival has become of primary concern and we’ve relegated God to the backdrop. We’re so bent on making it in this world we can afford to live in ignorance of the truths or much more Truth of God’s word, ignoring the wise words of Paul , “Godly exercise holds value in this world and more.” And the more popular, “Seek first.....”  I don’t need to finish it we all know it.

And for those of us crying foul that we need someone to explain what we read, I believe John has a lot to say to that:

1Jn 2:20 ISV You have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things.

1Jn 2:27 ISV The anointing you received from him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. Instead, because his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not a lie, abide in him, as he taught you to do.

Funny, when Abraham sent his servant to look for a wife for his son Isaac and found Rebecca; a woman who had never laid eyes on her groom to be, I’m sure she had questions concerning Isaac on their way to meet him yet funny enough the bride of Christ has no questions to ask the Holy Spirit concerning Him on their way back to her very own wedding reception. This apathetic outlook on obtaining knowledge and understanding concerning the very oracles of God is largely due to the ignorance of its consequence. We don’t realise that the apostasy spoken of in the New Testament is largely due to ignorance and oh!! If you don’t know what I am talking of then you better check yourself....jk.

In the law of Moses the people of Israel were encouraged to eat of the animals that ‘dividedth the hoof and cheweth the curd.’ How does this apply in the New Testament, we find that in the epistle of Paul when he talks about dietary requirements of the law he forbade nothing except the eating of food offered to idols saying that they were offered to demons and the partaking thereof meant the partaking in the fellowship of demons just as the Lord’s supper meant to be as a symbol of the partaking of the fellowship and suffering of Christ just so this dietary law stated was intended to mean the partaking of a nature. A nature that rightly divides the word of truth; ‘dividedth the hoof’, and ‘cheweth the curd’- meditation, for after the ruminant feeds on the word of God and partly digests it, it then regurgitates the curd in its quiet place and time after the initial ingestion. God intended for us to take in his word and bring them up for meditation in our quiet moments by ourselves.

Psa 1:1-6 MKJV  Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of the scornful.  (2)  But his delight is only in the Law of Jehovah; and in His Law he meditates day and night.  (3)  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivulets of water that brings forth its fruit in its seasons, and its leaf shall not wither, and all which he does shall be blessed.  (4)  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away.  (5)  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.  (6)  For Jehovah knows the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Many of us have read the verse above and have never related it to the great falling away (and if you checked, you’re probs right it’s synonymous to apostasy). You might be asking yourself how does this relate to the apostasy of the end times, rather it provides a cure in verse 2 to prevent falling away from the truth, you see in verse 4 the prophet or rather psalmist talk about being blown away like chaff, a description much reminiscent of that used by Paul in:

 Eph 4:14 MKJV  so that we no longer may be infants, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, in the dishonesty of men, in cunning craftiness, to the wiles of deceit.

Here he speaks of the purpose of the ministerial gifts in facilitating our growth in unity and in the knowledge of God. We find that in verse 5 of the first psalm he talks about the congregation of the righteous (hint: Judgement day) for he says they are like chaff that the wind blows along, they are blown along by every wind of doctrine.

 Interesting enough when Old Testament Hebrews wanted to separate the wheat from its chaff they rubbed them on a board (named Tribulum latin origin for word tribulation) and tossed it into the air for the wind to separate the chaff. It seems as part of the wheat separating process God allows for the propagation of deceptions of all sorts in the times of tribulation or end times to separate the wheat from the chaff so we find Paul saying that in the last days knowledge shall abound and men will chase after deceptions to tickle their ears, we find the first statement of Jesus’ warnings to the apostles concerning the end times being ‘be careful that you are not deceived’. Ignorance therefore leaves our feet ungrounded and our foundations weak and exposed to storms and winds. So we find Peter saying as part of our first steps in the faith:

2Pe 1:5-6 MKJV  But also in this very thing, bringing in all diligence, filling out your faith with virtue, and with virtue, knowledge;  (6)  and with knowledge self-control, and with self-control, patience, and with patience, godliness,

And later on he goes on to say:

2Pe 1:8-10 MKJV  For if these things are in you and abound, they make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (9)  For he in whom these things are not present is blind and cannot see afar off and has forgotten that he was purged from his sins in the past.  (10)  Therefore, brothers, rather be diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall.

Three things to note (obviously the phrases underlined in the verses above), the first being: after you’ve done the steps outlined in verses 5-7, namely obtaining knowledge after you’ve become virtuous you will not be unfruitful, remind you of something?? If not let me explain, in the first psalm the psalmist likens the one who meditates on the word to a tree planted by the rivers of water which is fruitful in its season, meaning he bears fruit or as Peter puts it bearing fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, meaning he becomes productive in the cause of God, he bears fruit of the work done in him, the fruit of the Spirit, the salvation of souls and a contribution to the progress of the kingdom, the end result is his ability to stand in the judgment and the congregation of the righteous and not falling, the second thing of note.

Now you’re probably wondering why is ‘calling and election sure’ underlined. Well because it that phrase easily ignored is of great importance because it was first used by our Master, “For many are called but few are chosen.” (Greek used for ‘chosen’ also means ‘elected’: ‘eklektos’ from which we get ‘ekklesias’ meaning the church)

The importance of the word will be explained probably later as God’s purpose in election is revealed and explained but not for this current space and time. So we find Peter says we have gone through a procedure of calling and election and we must do all we can to maintain its certainty and that is by adding knowledge to virtue.

The lesson for today: our ignorance threatens our position and our grounding in Christ.

“Wisdom cries outside; she utters her voice in the streets.”