"The Old And the New" by John Rice

I heard a statement recently that really caught my attention. It went something like this:

“In the Old Testament if a Believer touched a leper, he was pronounced ‘unclean’ and had to be removed from the congregation. In the New Testament if a Believer touched a leper, the leper was healed.”

I have treasured the Old Testament all my Christian life and argued for its inclusion in the teachings of our modern day church, even defending it against those who would say it isn’t relevant to us Christians anymore. Some think of the Old Testament as just an old history book, which presents an angry, vengeful God who is Himself transformed in the New Testament by the coming of Jesus. I would still argue that this is a false conclusion and that while the Old Testament does record the history of ancient Israel, with all its struggles and battles, it also paints a picture of the true character of God and man.

God is characterized through his interactions with people as a patient, compassionate, wise, forgiving and loving God. In fact, the Lord describes Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7 in this way: And God passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished.” David also describes the amazingly gracious character of God in his psalms, as does Isaiah and other prophets.

Even though the Old Testament is as much “God’s Word” as the New, what Jesus does when He comes to earth, born of a woman and very much human, yet equally divine, is truly world-changing. The New Testament speaks of a new covenant with God, which allows us to live in a radically different way from the way our brothers and sisters of the Old Covenant lived.

So back to the statement I heard recently, mentioned above, we see an example of this huge difference. In the book of Leviticus, chapter 14, we read what the Israelites were to do if anyone had an infectious disease. That person was to “wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’. As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.” Now to be sure, this was an ingenious way to keep infectious diseases from spreading through the whole population in a time when there was little medical knowledge for a nomadic desert people. In fact, the requirement to shave and wash wasvery advanced hygiene in those days.

Nonetheless, contrast this to what Jesus did and instructed His disciples to do. He constantly laid hands on sick people and restored their health, their sight, their wholeness. Paul and the other apostles went around healing the sick, lame, diseased and possessed. The power which Jesus ministered in and with which He empowered His disciples, was the same power that raised Him from the dead after three days in a tomb. It was the power of God’s Holy Spirit, which Jesus sent to His people on earth during Pentecost 50 days after He had been resurrected.

God is the same God in the Old and New Testaments, but when Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit to live inside all of His followers who invited Him there, everything changed. I can’t even begin to understand what power lives inside me. I struggle with the faith for that sometimes. But I do know that God keeps His Word and that Jesus said we would do even greater works than He Himself did because of the Holy Spirit. I choose to believe Him and seek to open up to Him in every way He wants me too. Help me, Lord! Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven….and help me play my part!

Exodus 34:5-7

And God passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished.”

John 14:12

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

"Covenant Marriage" by John Rice

Calvin and Julie Tadema spoke this last Sunday at church on marriage. They put forth the idea that our “marriage” to God holds the key to a good and healthy relationship with our spouse. How very thought-provoking that is, and challenging, since God is perfect in every way, while we are not.

But the emphasis in the Tadema’s teaching wasn’t on the perfection of our relationships, but rather on the nature of it. To show this, they contrasted “contract” with “covenant.” They asserted that many of our earthly marriages are entered into like a contract, which has the purpose of guaranteeing maximum benefits and minimum liabilities for ourselves. In such a contract, if I feel one day that the liabilities are too large and the benefits too small, I have reason to nullify the contract. The other person is not fulfilling their end of the bargain, so I am justified in getting out of the bond. And vice versa.

God doesn’t sign contracts with us. He gave His only Son to be born of a woman, live a righteous life, but then be killed by unrighteous people so that we, by believing in Him and His resurrection, might be able to live with Him in His kingdom forever, forgiven and redeemed. He gave His all, 100%. He didn’t state any conditions or requirements other than humbling ourselves, turning to Him and accepting His free gift. This is not the stuff of contract. This is covenant. He promised to never leave us and never to give up on us. His offer of love and acceptance is forever.

How different our earthly marriages would be if we lived by covenant. What if our guiding principle was not: “I’m going to give 50% and will expect 50% in return,”  but instead was: “I’m going all in and giving 100%. I’m not going to keep track of how much she gives me so that I can keep score and see who’s doing more. I will love her as best I can and I want her to love me as best she can. We won’t do this perfectly and sometimes one of us will give more than the other. God help us love like you do!” The first principle is based on law and the second on love.

We humans often treat our relationship with God as a contract as well. We seek maximum benefits and minimum liability and get discouraged or even despairing if we don’t get from God what we expect and feel we deserve. At that point our relationship can go cold or we can give up. But God’s promise of unconditional love has no end; it only appears different at times from what we want it to look like. This is where trust and patience comes in, just like it would in a covenantal earthly marriage.

I think this is what Jesus meant when He crystallized all the commandments into “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” This is covenant!

I look forward to more teaching of the Tademas as they meet with us later in the month. And I look forward to happier, healthier, stronger covenantal marriages at CitySalt!

John 15:12   My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

"Tattooed" by John Rice

Have you ever been, or are you currently,  in a period of life when you wonder whether the Lord sees what is going on? Whether He cares? Whether He has forgotten you? Things aren’t going well and the Lord seems far away. Maybe you feel like you are to blame for the distance between you and God, or maybe you don’t, but either way, you are not where you want to be and you wonder if you’ve fallen off of God’s “radar.”

I’ve certainly been in this position more times than I’d like to admit. And one thing I’ve learned from these experiences is that though there are many questions in life that are difficult to answer, I believe the one about whether God has forgotten you is not one of those. It is not difficult to answer. Why? Because the Bible is so clear on the subject!

When God’s people are poised to go into the Promised Land and know they will have to face many hardships to win the land, God reminds their leader, Joshua, that He will never leave them nor forsake His people. In the book of Jeremiah, when the Israelites are living in captivity in enemy territory, God declared that He was close to them and not to give up hope as they waited on deliverance by God. God even likened Himself to a nursing mother when He asked, in the book of Isaiah, “Could a mother forget the child nursing at her breast? Well, she might, but I will never forget you.”AndJesus declared that no one would be able to snatch His people from His hand (John 10:28)

One of my favorite examples of God’s faithfulness to us shows up in Isaiah 49:16: God says that He has engraved us on His hand. Now that’s an interesting thing to say! Think about it… engraved means etched which means essentially tattooed. God has tattooed us on His hand! And God’s hand is always mentioned in Scripture with reference to His strength, power, protection, provision or guidance. God is continually aware of our lives and the situations confronting us, whether they’re our fault or not (that’s not the point.) His love and power extends beyond our goodness, thanks to Jesus’ work on the Cross for us. And if this were not enough, we read in the book of Romans that both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are constantly making intercession for us before the Father. Geewhizz, can it get better than that?

Take heart if you feel God is miles away from you and doesn’t care about you and your current situation. God’s Word makes it clear that He is never far from you, no matter what your feelings are telling you, and He will never leave you nor forsake you. You are in good hands… big, beautiful tattooed hands!

Joshua 1:5  I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Jeremiah 29:10-14  This is what the Lord says, “When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you and will bring you back from captivity.”

Isaiah 49:14-15   But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”

John 10:28 No one will be able to snatch them (My people) out of My hands.

Isaiah 49:16 “ See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me.”

"Sugar and Salt" by John Rice

One of the most challenging teachings I've ever listened to took place in an even more challenging setting. A group of us were huddled together on a cold and rainy day in one of the barracks of the former concentration camp, Auschwitz, in Poland. The teacher, a Messianic Jew who was directing this tour for us through Poland and Israel, was asking us if we thought the Holocaust could have been prevented. A big question, for sure, and the answer we agreed upon was that it could only have been prevented if enough people had stood up to the Nazis all along the way.

The teacher began to describe how the Church, for the most part, had stood silently by or even participated with the Nazis as innocent people were rounded up and taken away from their towns and neighborhoods. Certainly there were protesters, some very heroic individuals who risked their lives, or lost them, because of their opposition to the regime. But how could the Church turn such a blind eye to what was happening? There are lots of possible answers, fear being the most obvious.

Our teacher began to explain the difference between sugar and salt. A surprising and confusing tangent it seemed! She said that although sugar tastes so good and is used to celebrate all kinds of special occasions, in reality it is a substance with less-than-positive after effects. Sugar is one of the main culprits in causing obesity, diabetes and heart disease. It is also credited with tooth decay. If placed in a wound, it draws bacteria to it and accelerates infection.
There are very few real benefits to sugar other than that it tastes good.

Salt, on the other hand, will sting if put in a wound. It hurts, but at the same time it has healing properties. Salt is used with food to bring out the flavor, as well as to preserve the food so that it lasts longer. The only negative effect salt has is if it is eaten in too great a quantity. But then, that can be said of just about anything.

Our group, huddled together in Auschwitz, got the point being made. The modern Church, in Europe as well as America, has bought into the lie that we are to be sugar in the world; we settle for being nice and cooperative and hope that those around us will notice and appreciate us and maybe join us. But Jesus never called us to be sugar, He called us to be salt. Salt and light. Of course we are to be kind and loving and patient as Jesus and Paul tell us. But we also want to affect the world by being who God calls us to be. In being salt, we might have to stand against corruption or evil. In being light, we might have to expose darkness. These things don't necessarily make us popular and they may even carry some risk. But these are the things that flavor the world with Jesus' presence and power. Being salt brings out the flavor of the goodness of God. Being salt heals the wounds of people around us. Being salt may even be responsible for saving lives.

"Our Air Supply" by John Rice

Although the Wisdom series ended officially two Sundays ago, Dusty's sermon this last week seemed to me to add another piece, an extremely important piece to the study of wisdom. If the fear of The Lord is the beginning of wisdom, as Psalm 111:10 says, who better to look to than the Holy Spirit to help us in our quest?

Recently in a class on the science of the brain, I heard a teaching on the "Wise Brain". Developed by a secular psychologist, the thought here is that combining our logical brain and our emotional brain will give us a wise brain. Although I understand the theory that the emotional brain alone or the thinking brain alone is incapable of making consistently wise choices, it seems to me that a REALLY wise brain must be submitted to the Lord if our thoughts and actions are to be of eternal significance.

So here's where the pneumatic tool illustration fits so well. What does a pneumatic tool have to do with any of this, you may ask? In case you weren't in church Sunday,  Dusty gave the analogy of our souls needing to be infused with the Holy Spirit, kind of like a pneumatic power tool needing to be attached by a hose to an air supply if it's to be of any use at all. Our souls, our minds, need the infusion of the Holy Spirit if we're truly to live wisely and in accordance with God's will.

Randi Nelson put it so well in her teaching on "Walking in Wisdom" when she said, "Wisdom is not so much about a HOW as it is about a WHO." To whom are we looking? To whom are we listening? To whom are we submitted? Who are we following? If the answer to these questions is God, then we are attached to the ultimate power source, the ultimate source of wisdom, and we can be assured that we will be used for Kingdom purposes and that the wisdom He brings just might spill out of us and season the community around us in substantial and even miraculous ways.

John 14:26
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 16:13
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.

“The Discipline of Humility” - John Rice

One of the greatest gifts we can give one another is to withhold judgment of them. Our human nature seems to call for constant comparison between ourselves and other people, and in doing so, we often tend to look at someone who is different from us in a negative or at least suspicious light. I think some of us confuse the spiritual gift of discernment with a “gift of suspicion!”

So how do we overcome this tendency to compare and judge? In a word, it’s humility…. humility to recognize that we do not set the standards; God does, and that God’s grace and mercy are always greater than ours. If we can move out from a place of humility, we will be able to listen better to other people and to be curious about what makes them behave the way they do or say the things they say or struggle with the things they struggle with. This is a humility that says something like, “I may know a lot of things, but I don’t know everything there is to know about everything and everyone in the universe. Therefore I will ask questions and not assume I understand everything perfectly. I will try to see things from someone else’s perspective. I will give them room to let God move them, deal with them, heal them, correct them. I will respect their journey and concentrate on my own journey, over which I do have some bit of control.”

Of course, if a friend, spouse, child or colleague is asking for counsel or advice, we give them our best shot, based on what we know. If at all possible though, the better route is just to ask them a lot of clarifying questions about their concern and to pray with them, letting them resolve the issue themselves. This is the heart of spiritual direction, which honors each person’s ability to hear God for themselves.

-John Rice

Encouraging words:

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with humility comes wisdom.”

— Proverbs 11:2

“Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.”

— Proverbs 22:4

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!”

— Philippians 2:3-8

"The First Day" - John Rice

In the book of Genesis, God, through Moses, tells us only the very bare details of the creation story. On the first day He spoke and brought forth light, on the second, the skies; on the third, the land and seas and plants with their seeds; on the fourth, the sun, moon and stars; on the fifth, fish, marine life and birds; on the sixth, land animals and finally, man and woman. On the seventh day God rested from all His work.

What must it have been like for Adam and Eve to come conscious to this amazing world that they were ushered into? They had absolutely no background information to relate anything to. They would probably have experienced the universe as a newborn baby does, full of wonder, full of questions. There was at that point no brokenness, no fracturing of the universe as would happen after sin entered the picture. How beautiful and life-giving it would have all been!

So what do you think their first full day on the planet would have been like? We can only imagine that since we have no record of their thoughts and feelings. But one thing we do know…. God took the day off to spend it with them! He set aside the seventh day, after He had finished all His work, as a day of rest, a day to give Himself entirely and without distraction to His children. He would have been showing them around, answering their questions, taking pleasure in their amazement and appreciation of the magnificence of all they saw, smelled, heard, felt and tasted around them for the first time. Imagine your first whiff of a gardenia blossom or wet fir tree, your first taste of food, your first look at a mountain or rainbow, your first touch of another human being. Adam and Eve not only would have shared those experiences with each other, but also with God their Father who was right there next to them. What a great day that must have been.

In designing the Sabbath, God invites us every single week back into that kind of time with Him and with our loved ones. He knows the dignity of work, that we need to work and to be productive. That’s part of being made in His image. He designed us to move out into the world and to be salt and light to those around us. But He never wants that without our first delighting in His presence and drawing strength from His eternal love and the pleasure He takes in us. May we prioritize this time with Him as much as He has done so with us!

-John Rice

Encouraging Words:

“Then Jesus said to them,
“The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.””

— Mark 2:27

““Keep the Sabbath day holy.
Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath
and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.
Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,
and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.
Then the Lord will be your delight.
I will give you great honor
and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob.
I, the Lord, have spoken!””

— Isaiah 58:13-14

What Part of The Body Are You?

During our “Ears That Hear” class this week I took chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians to read and meditate on. It is here Paul gives us an amazing illustration of what the Church was designed to look like. With Jesus as the head, each one of us fulfills a vital role as some part of the body, each part critical for the welfare of the whole Body. One part may play a bigger, more visible role than another, but no part is more significant in God’s eyes than another. We all have a place. We all have a function. We all have significance.

So what can hinder a church from looking and acting the way God originally designed it to look? One thing is when we feel our part is not as important as others’. This way of thinking discourages us and may even snuff out our contribution. Another problem is thinking that our part is more important than others. The pride in this case prevents us from honoring the contributions of others and sets up an elitism that is contrary to God’s ways. And perhaps the biggest hindrance of all is the thought that we just go to church to get something we want, kind of like going to a theater performance so we can be entertained or uplifted. Certainly church is a place where we can and should be encouraged, inspired, taught, reassured and prayed for. But in God’s design each person in the Church contributes to the health of the Body in whatever way He calls us to. Maybe we’re called to pray for others, maybe to be a warm welcomer to those that come, maybe to worship with a group, maybe to bring food, maybe to teach, maybe to help with children, maybe to share the prophetic gifts you’ve been given, maybe to engage in outreach in the city, maybe even to just be a faithful presence as part of the family.

There are too many ways to contribute to the Church than I could ever mention. This, by the way, is not meant to be a recruiting letter for volunteers at SouthHills Church! It’s intended to open our eyes to God’s design for us as part of His Body. There is something extremely life-giving and growth-promoting in sharing our gifts with others, in letting God use us for the sake of others. Living this way, we get glimpses of that miraculous unity that Jesus talks so much about. And we can better hope to fulfill that promise that they will know we are Christians by our love.

1 Cor 12

Jn 17: 21-23
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Jn 13: 34-35
34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

No, No, No and Yes, Yes, Yes

Recently Pastor Dusty spoke about the striking contrast between the three times Peter denied knowing Jesus and the three times the Lord offered Peter a chance to reaffirm his love for Him. The two charcoal fires of the New Testament….

In my devotions this week I came across another set of three “no’s” in the New Testament, this time in John 1:19-27. These “no’s” are very different from Peter’s; in fact, these “no’s” are crucial to our health and well-being because they help clarify our identity. Let me explain.

The priests and religious leaders came to John the Baptist to ask him who he was. Was he the promised Messiah? Was he Elijah, who was supposed to return before the Messiah came? Was he the Prophet spoken of in Deuteronomy? There is every reason to believe that the religious leaders of those days were suspicious and jealous of John, just as they would later be of Jesus, since he attracted great crowds to hear his preaching and he was causing quite a stir in Israel. John may have started a fire that the religious leaders wanted to stamp out quickly. John’s sermons were not flattering to the Pharisees and priests of the time. He might incite rebellion.

But John, a man used to speaking many words to the crowds who came to hear him, answered three times with a simple “no” to the Pharisees’ questions. When they finally pressed him to give them more of an answer, he proceeded not to talk about himself, but to proclaim the greatness of the coming Messiah Jesus.

The reason I think this is so profound for us is that John, who truly was a great man, was humble enough to know his true identity: who he was and who he wasn’t. How tempted we might be under pressure to toot our own horns and defend ourselves with a list of our accolades. John did none of that. He essentially said that his true identity only made sense in the shadow of the Almighty. Anything else was most likely a false self, a distorted ego representation of himself which never brings glory to the Father.

One of the greatest temptations we face from the Enemy of our souls is the puffing up of our pride. We often fall to this temptation to cover our shame and sense of worthlessness and insignificance. How freeing it is to respond to the Enemy with a “no, no, no!!!” and to look to Jesus with a “yes, yes, yes”, celebrating our smallness in the shadow of His greatness.