2018-12-14
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The Holy Spirit continues to command me to supply and discuss support Scriptures and information for the book of Colossians; today we support COL 2: 16-3: 25. Last week, the Lord made His will known concerning human-crafted philosophy and rules/regulations. COL 2: 17, “All such things are only a shadow of things in the future; the reality is Christ.” This very profound statement lets us know that once we have come to faith in Him and have become willingly involved in the Covenant of Grace, that Christ really is our Reality, meaning the key Power, Direction, and Motivator of our lives. (Those capitals are intentional, as a way of me expressing the respect I have for our awesome Lord). We must understand the differences between a God-driven life and a human-centered one.
Rather than living by legalistic, human-crafted rules, “the whole body of Christ is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God wants it to grow” [COL 2: 19]. This distinction is supported in the following. JN 15: 5, “I am the Vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without Me.” RO 12: 4-6, “We have many parts in one body, and all these parts have different functions. In the same way, though we are many, we are one body in union with Christ, and we are all joined to each other as different parts of one body. So, we are to use our different gifts in accordance with the grace God has given us…” EPH 2: 20-22, “You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the Cornerstone being Christ Jesus Himself. He is the One Who holds the whole building together and makes it grow into a sacred temple, dedicated to the Lord. In union with Him you too are being built together with all the others into a place3 where God lives through His Spirit.” EPH 3: 17-19, “…And I pray that Christ will make His home in your hearts through faith, I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you together with all God’s people may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love. Yes, may you come to know His love-although it can never be fully known-and so be completely- filled with the very nature of God.”
COL 2: 20, 23, “You have died with Christ and are set free from the ruling spirits of the universe. Why, then, do you live as though you belonged to the world...Of course such rules appear to be based on wisdom in their forced worship of angels, false humility, and severe treatment of the body; but they have no real value in controlling physical passions.” It’s obvious that some religions differ from Christianity in their cultural and spiritual practices. For example, Judaism is quite legalistic in the inclusion of the Oral Torah [Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrash] and its interplay with the Written Torah [the 39 books of the OT, or in some contexts, the first five books of Moses-GN, EX, LV, NU, and DT]. Practices like keeping a Kosher regime, repetition of the same prayers for specific services, and rejection of Christ’s deity are also adhered to with insistence. Another example is the Catholic inclusion of the Apocrypha along with changes to the OT and NT making the Vulgate their Scriptures, elevation of Mary to a co-redemptress, celibacy of priests, and the hierarchy of saints and governing the church. What has recently been made public concerning sexual predation of young children by priests and the cover-up of these activities exemplify the truth of COL 2: 23. The same can be said of Protestant churches which practice insistence on a second baptism and exclusion of all Bible versions but the King James Version as holy.
Some Jewish background that applies:
God’s command concerning the time of the celebration of Passover is found in EX 12: 1-2. This is the beginning of the Hebrew calendar, which is based on the cycles of the moon and only has 360 days per year. NU 10: 10 states that the 15th day of the Jewish month, Nissan (Aviv) is the time of the Passover and is the first month of the Jewish year. It also explained why some months have only 29 days- to assure that Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is always on the Sabbath. The Jewish New Year [Rosh Hashanah] is celebrated in late Elul, the 6th month or the beginning of Tishri, the 7th month. It is followed by 10 Days of Awe (contemplation of one’s relationship with God) ending with Yom Kippur (the holiest day of the Jewish year and the Day of Atonement. These later holidays come in September on our calendar. This timing is why the Jewish year of 5779 began around the end of September 2018 (Tishri on the Jewish calendar). The rules concerning “new moon festivals” mentioned in COL 2: 16 are based on this calendar, and it, in turn, is based on the various foods and when they are harvested in Israel. The main spring holidays are Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits. The main fall holidays are the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Days of Awe, and Yom Kippur -the holiest day of the Jewish year, and Sukkot -the Festival of Shelters, celebrated in the 8th Jewish month, Cheshvan). The Ch in Cheshvan is given the hard pronunciation in Hebrew.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your throne to acknowledge Who You are in our lives, that You are in the center of them. You reside in our homes and direct the activities and customs of our churches. We are Your body, and You are our one and only Lord. Long ago, You told my Jewish forefathers how You wanted us to live and place You at the center of our lives. This separated us from all other belief systems by our acceptance, in DT 6: 4-5, that You are our only God. The laws You gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai, the Ten Commandments, were designed to help us live rightly with You. MICAH 6: 8, “The Lord has told you what is good. What He requires of you is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.” The laws allowed us to know what pleases You, but Jesus Christ was needed to redeem us from our sins. It is by His Atonement that we are saved, justified, and eternally forgiven. We thank and praise You for sending Him to us, and then, directing Him to send the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. Your mystery has been revealed, and we are grateful. We live with joy and peace, because the Holy Spirit is our Counselor, Who teaches us what You want from us and helps us stay the course of righteousness. We proclaim our love and faith in Christ’s holy/mighty name. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I hope to present more about Jewish culture and practices, to set a firm foundation out of which Christianity arises. Anti-Semitism is a fact of life, and it is borne out of fear of the unknown-in this case, misunderstandings between Jews and Gentiles. If each group knows and understands the beliefs and culture of the other, perhaps mean-spirited acts of anti-Semitism can be eased. There is always hope that education comes to the rescue out of unrighteous thoughts and behavior. The Rock mentioned in PS 40: 1-2 is Christ, and He is very much present in the OT, although His name isn’t given there. Read that passage and know that He deserves our thanks and praise!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2018. All Rights Reserved.
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