this month has been ALL ABOUT RELIGIOUS READING and so there is a rather overwhelming ton of sheer "faithpasting" in the daily entry log.
to avoid such cluttering, and to keep the visible train of thought apparent between topics and scripture study progression, we have decided to post them all into one bulk entry for the month-- or at least, as many as we can fit in here.
HOWEVER, uniquely, this month ALSO includes extensive PERSONAL COMMENTARY on most pastes. that makes this entry less of a databank and more of a sincere record of our faith journey over the past 30 days.
may God continue to guide us and bless us all together in His love.
(these entries MIGHT actually be moved into their own entries after all, ONCE we write proper commentary on them and so can stand alone. As of right now, this is just a proper bank for keeping them all together.)------‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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0904
"The “Ecce Homo” of these Christians was unmarked by horror and outrage. [But] An adequate picture of the human Christ will not exclude those deep lines of suffering which came through His voluntary Self-abasement."
BIBLE STUDY GAME CHANGER!!!!!!
"17. Therefore ] Better, On this account , or, For this cause (12:18, 27). See on 7:22 and 8:47, and comp. 5:16, 18, 6:65. The Father’s love for the incarnate Son is intensified by the self-sacrifice of the Son. // ...that I might take it again ] literally, in order that I may take it again . This clause is closely connected with the preceding one: ‘that’ depends upon ‘because.’ ⭐⭐Only because Christ was to take His human life again was His death such as the Father could have approved. Had the Son returned to heaven at the Crucifixion leaving His humanity on the Cross, the salvation of mankind would not have been won, the sentence of death would not have been reversed, we should be ‘yet in our sins’ (1 Corinthians 15:17 ). Moreover, in that case He would have ceased to be the Good Shepherd: He would have become like the hireling, casting aside his duty before it was completed. The office of the True Shepherd is not finished until all mankind become His flock; and this work continues from the Resurrection to the Day of Judgment."⭐⭐ THIS IS WHY I READ LIKE 15 COMMENTARIES!!!!
And
"He and His sheep have most intimate knowledge of one another; therefore these Jews asking who He is prove that they are not His sheep." Like sheep asking a man, "are you my shepherd or not?" But how would they NOT know?
They haven't been paying any attention to him, or to their care; they take it for granted; they are deaf or blind; they reject a shepherd's basic authority & reality???
But a sheep doesn't need to ask! They RECOGNISE-- not only the shepherd BUT ALSO THEIR FELLOW SHEEP???
By this question they prove they AREN'T EVEN SHEEP???
"the gift of eternal life is regarded as already possessed by the faithful. It is not a promise , the fulfilment of which depends upon man’s conduct, but a gift , the retention of which depends upon ourselves... Christ’s sheep cannot be taken from Him against their will; but their will is free, and they may choose to leave the flock." ------‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Salvation by GRACE & DEATH = shepherd die as a sheep for the sheep = WHY? Because sacrifice was "life for life" : human nature corrupted by original sin could NOT go back to God; tainted? Had no inherent goodness to change itself. Needed CHRIST infusing HIS nature INTO OURS. His death in our place through UNITY with Him = brings US to life again???
DON'T FORGET "through the blood of the everlasting covenant" !!!
"the Good Shepherd who died for us, and by whose stripes we are healed, has now become the Great Shepherd who lives for us... Thus it is that Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who gave us life, through His blood; is now risen indeed, and is reaching down to give us strength to live for Him, in a life well pleasing in His sight."
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0908
Mimic & Julie both moved by today's new devotional =
(Chosen at random; just so happened to reference today's gospel reading)
"[Jesus's] genealogy is full of blemishes and reveals that the most unlikely characters are part of Jesusʼ story... [several are] Gentile women, considered unclean and racial outsiders, [and] most of them have scandalous pasts... How are they in the family? How are they part of the story of Jesus? Although itʼs shocking and counterintuitive, itʼs what makes Christmas good news! Once considered outsiders they are now included in the family of God.
"Jesus is the great reconciler and allows our story to be woven into to his. Christmas announces that we all can have a new story, regardless of who we are or what we have done. Maybe youʼve always felt like you were on the outside. God wants you to be included. Jesus alone makes this a reality. His story can be your story!" This hits US hard for our history (sx/ed) =
"Jesus wept... Behold how He loved him! Loved him, what does that mean? 'I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' (Matthew 9:13) But some of them said, 'Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not die?' But He, who would do nought to hinder his dying, had something greater in view in raising him from the dead."------‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0909
Just got THIS shocker of a commentary=
"In the voice of indignation appears the hope of resurrection; in truth Jesus foresaw that He because of the raising up of Lazarus would be crucified by the envious Pharisees; yet not allowing this to stand in the way, He determined to raise him up; which act of heroic fortitude He allowed to be manifested in this groan. So soldiers groan when battle is near, and excite and sharpen their anger for the difficult and perilous combat that is imminent; for their anger is the whetstone of valour and bravery. Hence also we, when temptation, whether of the devil, the flesh, and the world, threatens, should sharpen our anger against them, that we may overcome the temptation; for by anger is concupiscence overcome, though the difficulty of the task be great." TAKE THAT, ALL YOU PETULANTLY PACIFISTIC THRISKEFONI!!!!
THIS ALSO EXPLAINS DISTURBINGLY PERFECTLY WHY THEIR EFFECTIVELY FORCING LAURIE TO "NOT BE ANGRY" IS LITERALLY KILLING HER!!!!!
THIS IS SUPER INTERESTING AND HELPS EXPLAIN WHY YESTERDAY DISTURBED US=
"Christ, as he was truly man, had the affections and passions of human nature; yet so that he was master, even of the first motions, which could not raise in him any disturbance or disorderly inclinations. He permitted, therefore, and, as it is said, raised in himself these affections of compassion and grief at this time. "
"He permitted freely and willingly to Himself the strong feeling both of indignation, as already mentioned, and of commiseration and tears, because of the common lamentation of Martha, Mary, and the rest; for it would have been inhuman not to grieve and sympathise with them. For them therefore Jesus was troubled.
Note these passions of indignation, sorrow, commiseration, and weeping, were in such a manner in Christ as not to overbear His reason and will, or to arise unbidden as they are aroused with us; but rather to follow His reason, and to be ruled and excited by it. On which account right reason always used to direct and regulate them. Therefore [S. John] says, He troubled Himself (turbavit Seipsum); not, He was troubled. Wherefore these passions were in Christ not so much passions, as feelings in place of passions, freely taken... For Christ was able as He chose to excite them, to soften, to moderate, to rule, to direct... the misery therefore of Lazarus and of all men excited the pity of Christ, the pity excited indignation against such troubles, the indignation increased the pity, and at the same time with it aroused zeal, and a purpose of taking away those troubles, even with the casting away of His own life by the death upon the Cross, by which so great a benefit was alone to be purchased, according to what Isaiah says (63:4-5), “The day of vengeance is in my heart . . . and my fury it upheld me.”"
"Christ became all things to all men; poor to the poor, rich to the rich, weeping with the weeping, hungering with the hungry, thirsting with the thirsty, full with the abounding; He is in prison with the poor man, with Mary He weeps, with the Apostles He eats, with the Samaritan woman he thirsts." EMOTIONS ARE THEREFORE NOT EVIL OR "UNGODLY"!!!!!!!!!
THEY, TOO, CAN SERVE HOLY PURPOSES, IF THEY ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF CHRIST IN US!!
It is only when they run wild, and are so DISORDERED, that they are harmful. They, too, are affected by the Fall, and THEREFORE ALSO "REDEEMED" BY JESUS. This incident is PROOF.
Geez there is SO MUCH IMPORTANT STUFF here.
Concerning TEARS=
"[Jesus wept, also, so] that adding tears to His speech, He might make it stronger and more efficacious; for tears are a sign of vehement grief and affliction, and also of desire and longing: wherefore God is accustomed to hear and answer prayers seasoned, and as it were armed, with tears. So Christ on the [eve of the] Cross offering up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, was heard in that He feared. [E. & Heb. V. 7, pro suâ reverentiâ, Vulg.] So Tobit (xii. 12) heard from S. Raphael, “When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bring the dead, . . . I brought thy prayer before the Lord.” So Jacob, wrestling with the angel, obtained a blessing (Gen. xxxii. 29). Wherefore? because he wept and besought him (Hosea xii. 4). “The tears of penitents,” says S. Bernard, “are the wine of angels.” For it is the anguish of the mind in prayer which influences, and as it were compels God to pity, according as it is said, “a contrite and humble heart God shall not despise” (Ps. 51:17); just as the tears of an infant influence the mother, and obtain from her what it asks; for God shows toward us the heart of a mother." THAT LAST LINE HURTS.
"He was weeping when He saw the pain and the sorrow of humanity, when He saw the pain that His friends Mary and Martha were experiencing as a result of death. And He wept for their grief. Jesus is moved by our infirmities; we have such a great High Priest, who is touched by our weaknesses. He sees us in our frailties. He sees us in our griefs. And He's touched by our feelings of grief and sorrow, by our weaknesses. He's just a loving and compassionate Lord, and One who is moved by our own sorrow and grief. And so, He wept for them." HE IS NOT INDIFFERENT, COLD, OR CONDEMNING OF EMOTION.
"Then said the Jews, Oh, look how he loved him! ( John 11:36 )They misunderstood completely His weeping too... Jesus wept not for Lazarus. You don't weep for the dead if they are in the Lord." HE WAS NOT WEEPING FOR LAZARUS, OR FOR HIMSELF!!!!! He was weeping for the pain of THOSE WHO FELT LOSS!!!! It was a SELFLESS, COMPASSIONATE WEEPING, JUST AS MUCH AS IT WAS AN INDIGNANT, RIGHTEOUS WEEPING AT THE POWER OF SIN UNTO DEATH!!!!
"The Son of God sympathises (compatitur), and He weeps; man suffers (patitur), and shall we laugh? ...Christ wept—let man weep for himself: wherefore did Christ weep, unless to teach man to weep? Wherefore did He groan and trouble Himself, except that the faith of man, rightly displeased with himself, should in a manner groan in accusation of his evil works, so that the habit of sinning should yield to the violence of repenting.” The ENTIRE Lazarus account echoes our miraculous "resurrection" from the tomb-life of the hackers & hijackers
⭐⭐WILLIAM BARCLAY DOES IT AGAIN
"To any, Greek reading this--and we must remember that it was written for Greeks--this would be a staggering and incredible picture. John had written his whole gospel on the theme that in Jesus we see the mind of God. To the Greek the primary characteristic of God was what he called apatheia, which means total inability to feel any emotion whatsoever.
How did the Greeks come to attribute such a characteristic to God? They argued like this. If we can feel sorrow or joy, gladness or grief, it means that someone can have an effect upon us. Now, if a person has an effect upon us, it means that for the moment that person has power over us. No one can have any power over God; and this must mean that God is essentially incapable of feeling any emotion whatsoever. The Greeks believed in an isolated, passionless and compassionless God.
What a different picture Jesus gave! He showed us a God whose heart is wrung with anguish for the anguish of his people. The greatest thing Jesus did was to bring us the news of a God who cares...we are shown the picture of Jesus wrung with anguish as he shared the anguish of the human heart. To the Greek reader that little sentence: "Jesus wept," would be the most astonishing thing in an astonishing story. That the Son of God could weep would be almost beyond belief." ELLICOTT=
"He is conscious of the power which He is about to exercise, and that the first result will be the glory of God (John 11:4); but He is conscious also of the suffering hearts near Him, and the sympathy with human sorrow is no less part of His nature than the union with divine strength.
Very different views have been put forth as to the cause of this intensity of emotion in our Lord. The cause supplied by the text is that He saw Mary lying at His feet weeping; and the Jews also weeping which came with her. Real sorrow, which calls forth all His sympathy, is accompanied by the mockery of sorrow, which can shed tears for the brother, whom they afterwards seek to kill (John 12:10)! These Jews are those who had sought to stone their Teacher, and had resolved to cut off from all religious and social intercourse every one who acknowledged Him as the Messiah! With hearts full of hatred they can profess to be comforters, and can mingle their tears with hers. The severest words that fell from the lips of Christ were those which denounced the hypocrisy of priests, Pharisees, and scribes. It is this hypocrisy which now stirs in His spirit an anger so intense that it causes nerve and muscle and limb to tremble beneath its force."CLARKE WINS THE JACKPOT THOUGH =
"Verse 33. He groaned in the spirit, c.] Here the blessed Jesus shows himself to be truly man and a man, too, who, notwithstanding his amazing dignity and excellence, did not feel it beneath him to sympathize with the distressed, and weep with those who wept. After this example of our Lord, shall we say that it is weakness, folly, and sin to weep for the loss of relatives? He who says so, and can act in a similar case to the above according to his own doctrine, is a reproach to the name of man. Such apathy never came from God: it is generally a bad scion, implanted in a nature miserably depraved, deriving its nourishment from a perverted spirit or a hardened heart; though in some cases it is the effect of an erroneous, ascetic mode of discipline.
It is abolishing one of the finest traits in our Lord's human character to say that he wept and mourned here because of sin and its consequences. No: Jesus had humanity in its perfection, and humanity unadulterated is generous and sympathetic. A particular friend of Jesus was dead; and, as his friend, the affectionate soul of Christ was troubled, and he mingled his sacred tears with those of the afflicted relatives. Behold the man, in his deep, heart-felt trouble, and in his flowing tears! But when he says, Lazarus, come forth! behold the GOD! and the God too of infinite clemency, love, and power. Can such a Jesus refuse to comfort the distressed, or save the lost? Can he restrain his mercies from the penitent soul, or refuse to hear the yearnings of his own bowels? Can such a character be inattentive to the welfare of his creatures? Here is God manifested in the flesh! living in human nature, feeling for the distressed, and suffering for the lost! Reader! ask thy soul, ask thy heart, ask the bowels of thy compassions, if thou hast any, could this Jesus unconditionally reprobate from eternity any soul of man? Thou answerest, NO! God repeats, NO! Universal nature re-echoes, NO! and the tears and blood of Jesus eternally say, NO!"
HE HAD THE SAME REACTION AS US???????
"Verse 35. Jesus wept. — The least verse in the Bible, yet inferior to none. Some of the ruthless ancients, improperly styled fathers of the Church, thought that weeping was a degradation of the character of Christ; and therefore, according to the testimony of Epiphanius, Anchorat. c. 13, razed out of the Gospel of St. Luke the place (Luke 19:41) where Christ is said to have wept over Jerusalem."
A little more from Matthew Henry =
"First, Of his displeasure at the inordinate grief of those about him, as Mark 5:39: "Why make ye this ado and weep? What a hurry is here! does this become those that believe in a God, a heaven, and another world?" Or, Secondly, Of his feeling sense of the calamitous state of human lie, and the power of death, to which fallen man is subject. Having now to make a vigorous attack upon death and the grave, he thus stirred up himself to the encounter, put on the garments of vengeance, and his fury it upheld him; and that he might the more resolutely undertake the redress of our grievances, and the cure of our griefs, he was pleased to make himself sensible of the weight of them, and under the burden of them he now groaned in spirit. Or, Thirdly, It was an expression of his kind sympathy with his friends that were in sorrow. Here was the sounding of the bowels, the mercies which the afflicted church so earnestly solicits, Isaiah 63:15. Christ not only seemed concerned, but he groaned in the spirit; he was inwardly and sincerely affected with the case. David's pretended friends counterfeited sympathy, to disguise their enmity (Psalms 41:6); but we must learn of Christ to have our love and sympathy without dissimulation. Christ's was a deep and hearty sigh."
He was troubled. He troubled himself; so the phrase is, very significantly. He had all the passions and affections of the human nature, for in all things he must be like to his brethren; but he had a perfect command of them, so that they were never up, but when and as they were called; he was never troubled, but when he troubled himself, as he saw cause. He often composed himself to trouble, but was never discomposed or disordered by it. He was voluntary both in his passion and in his compassion. He had power to lay down his grief, and power to take it again."
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⭐CHRIST, BY THE CROSS, EFFECTIVELY RECREATES MAN.
THE OLD HUMAN NATURE DOOMED TO DEATH DOES DIE IN HIM, WHO THEN REPLACES IT WITH HIS HOLY NATURE???
"Christ should die for the people, i.e., for the salvation of the people; and by His death, as if by the payment of a price, should redeem them from sin, from the devil, from death, and from hell, those, I say, who would otherwise perish eternally... he does not say rather than but for (in behalf of) the people; which properly signifies for the salvation of the people."
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0911
"When we face difficulties – what is God’s timing for getting us through them? We want the timing to be quick and painless. God wants us to grow, mature and develop character that looks like His heart. So His path for us often looks very different than the path we would choose. "
"...they were very right in applying to Christ in this time of need, who is the physician, both of the bodies and souls of men; and are greatly to be commended both for their modesty and piety, in not prescribing to Christ what should be done in this case: and it may be further observed, that such who are the peculiar objects of Christ's love, are attended in this life with bodily sickness, disorders, and diseases, which are sent unto them, not in a way of vindictive wrath, but in love, and as fatherly chastisements; which, as they are designed, so they are overruled for their good; and are to be considered, not as instances of wrath, but as tokens of love." WE NEED TO REMEMBER THIS.
Those sufferings UNITE US TO THE BODY OF CHRIST; OF COURSE THEY'RE FOR LOVE!!!
"If Jesus was the cause of civil disorder, Rome would descend in all her power, and, beyond a doubt the Sadducees would be dismissed from their positions of authority. It never even occurred to them to ask whether Jesus was right or wrong. Their only question was: "What effect will this have on our ease and comfort and authority?" They judged things, not in the light of principle but in the light of their own career. And it is still possible for a man to set his own career before the will of God."
"...who denied the resurrection of the dead, and was unconcerned about a future state; and [therefore] having no restraint upon him, [spoke] in a bold, haughty, and blustering manner..." THEY DIDNT BELIEVE IN AN AFTERLIFE, SO THEY WERE ENTIRELY WORLDLY-MINDED!!!!!
OH DUDE WAIT UP--- THEY WERE SPECIFICALLY THREATENED BECAUSE JESUS JUST PROVED THAT THERE IS LIFE BEYOND DEATH!!!!! HE HAD LITERALLY JUST DEALT A DEATHWOUND TO THEIR DOCTRINE. And, utterly insanely, instead of joyfully embracing this liberating hope, they REJECTED IT because it would require an upheaval of their physical life. THEY LITERALLY CHOSE DEATH OVER LIFE.
"They knew about this mortal contest of wills between Jesus and the authorities; and people are always interested in the man who gallantly faces fearful odds. They wondered if He would appear at the feast; and concluded that He could not possibly come: This Galilean carpenter could not take on the whole might of Jewish ecclesiastical and political officialdom. But they had underrated Jesus. When the time arrived for Him to come, nothing on earth would stop Him coming... Whatever else we may say of Jesus, we must bow in admiration before his death-defying courage. For these last days of his life he was the bravest outlaw of all time." Now THAT is a "western" spin i can get behind!!! WORK WITH THIS. IT'S ABOUT CHRIST!!!
"[In defending his Christian faith,] it was not that Luther was not afraid, for often he made his greatest statements when both voice and knees were shaking; but he had a courage which conquered fear. The Christian does not fear the consequences of doing the right thing; he fears rather the consequences of not doing it." Feeling this more strongly as time goes on. It's still a crippling fear though, in either direction. We need to fix that properly; it betrays a lack of trust in God, and His Mercy.
Grant's commentary resonating with our own continuing struggles with doubt & religious confusion =
"He answers... "Your brother will rise again" (v.23). But she can think of this as nothing but the orthodox doctrine of a future general resurrection. How little comfort even true doctrine has in it apart from the person of Christ! Marvelous indeed is His reply, "I Am the resurrection and the life." In Him, personally, is the answer to her every need, as of all creation; "I Am" implies His deity, and certainly resurrection and life are resident only in God. He does not merely say that He 'can' raise the dead and give life; [for] this whole subject is, rather, dependent on His Person... The full truth of this could only be manifested in His own (then future) resurrection, but identification with Him by faith was the certain means of one [who in] Him would never die (v.26). That is, the life He gives is not at all subject to death: it continues vital and real, even if natural death takes place. The words He speaks are spirit and they are life, not material and fleshly." That last line lit a lightbulb? Natural life is SUPPOSED to die; it is material only, subject to decay & change.
But TRUE LIFE ORIGINATES IN GOD, and therefore is SUPPOSED to be eternal, SUPPOSED to be anchored in spirit!!! Our faith is key because we have FREE WILL and WORDS HAVE POWER. "Believe in your heart AND confess with your
mouth that Christ is Lord and us RISEN FROM THE DEAD, and
SO you will be saved"!! Basically.
We can all speak "material" words. They do nothing. But Christ is TRUTH and His Word IS LIFE. When we as sheep hear & follow it then we inevitably live!! HIS WORD MADE THE UNIVERSE.
"He asks her, "Do you believe this?" Though doubtless she did not fully understand His meaning, yet her answer is good. She believed Him, for she was persuaded that He was Christ, the Son of God (v.27). What He said, she knew was right, however feeble her understanding may have been." THAT IS EXACTLY THE SPOT WE'RE IN.
ALSO relevant to today =
"When the Lord commands that the stone be taken away, Martha, allowing her practical mind to take precedence over faith, objects to the removal of the stone (v.39). The Lord firmly reproves her unbelief. Natural thought must not intrude itself when the Lord of glory is working."
"The [religious leaders] then are easily persuaded that it is right to put Christ to death, for they have the plausible excuse of trying to save their nation... Being the willing tools of Satan, they were blinded to the fact that God is in control of all these things."
"And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there,.... At Bethany, before he died, or when he died; because he might have been prevailed upon through the solicitations of his dear friends, Mary and Martha, and through tender affection to Lazarus, to have prevented his death, by rebuking the distemper, and restoring him to health, or to have raised him immediately as soon as he was dead; and in either case the miracle would not have been so illustrious, nor have been such a means of confirming the faith of his disciples, as now it would be: to the intent ye may believe; more strongly, that he was the Son of God, and true Messiah." THAT IS THE ULTIMATE END OF ALL HIS MIRACLES IN OUR LIFE!!!!!
"Then said the Jews, behold, how he loved him!] Lazarus; for they supposed that these tears were shed purely on his account; and by all circumstances they could not but judge, that they proceeded from an hearty and sincere affection to him; and it was amazing to them, that his love to him should be so strong, when he was no relation, only, as they imagined, a common friend.
Christ's love to all his people, even when they are dead in trespasses and sins, is wonderful, and passes knowledge. And it is amazing indeed, if it be considered who the lover is, the eternal Son of God, who is God over all, blessed for ever, the Creator of all things, the King of kings, and Lord of lords: and also, who they are that are loved by him, not only creatures, but sinful ones, exceeding mean and abject; the base things of this world, bankrupts, beggars, yea, comparable to the beasts that perish; who had nothing external, nor internal, to recommend them to him, and engage his affections; yea, everything to give him an aversion to them, and render them odious in his sight, being enemies in their minds by wicked works, and children of wrath, as others: and likewise, if it be considered what he has done for these, in which his love appears to them; as before time, in espousing their persons, becoming their surety, engaging in covenant with his Father for them, agreeing to all he proposed, taking the care of their persons, and of all blessings and promises, grace and glory for them; and in time here on earth, by assuming their nature, fulfilling the law for them, dying in their room and stead, paying their debts, procuring all blessings for them, peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal redemption; and now in heaven, by preparing a place for them, being their intercessor and advocate there, supplying their wants, frequently visiting them, and indulging them with communion with himself, preserving them safe to his kingdom and glory, into which he will introduce them, presenting them to his Father with exceeding joy; all which are marvellous acts of love and grace: to which may be added, the consideration of the nature of his love, that it should be from everlasting, before these persons were born; that it should be a love of complacency and delight in them; that it should be free, and unmerited, without any reason, or motive on their part; that it should be distinguishing, that they, and not others, should be the objects of it; and that it should continue unchangeably the same, notwithstanding their manifold transgressions, and provocations; wherefore it may be justly said, behold, how he loved them!"
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0912
Bible study
UNDERSTANDING
"Jesus the true Messiah must die; this was determined in the counsel of God, agreed to by Christ in the covenant of grace, foretold by the prophets from the beginning of the world, typified by sacrifices and other things, under the former dispensation, predicted by Christ himself, and accordingly came to pass; and upon the above accounts was necessary, as well as for the salvation of his people, who otherwise must have perished; and yet was free and voluntary in him, and a strong expression, and a demonstrative proof of his love to them: and not only this prophecy declared, that Jesus should die, but that he should die for that nation, for the nation of the Jews; not for every individual in it, for all of them were not saved by him; some received him not; they rejected him as the Messiah, Saviour, and Redeemer, and died in their sins; but for all the elect of God among them, the sheep of the house of Israel, to whom he was sent, and whom he came to seek and save; and whom he blessed, by turning them away from their iniquities, and by taking away their iniquities from them: and moreover, this prophecy suggests, that Jesus was to die, not merely as a martyr, to confirm with his blood the doctrine he preached, nor only as an example of courage, meekness, patience, and love, but for, or in the room and stead of his people, as their surety; giving his life a ransom and himself a sacrifice to the justice of God, for them; there by fulfilling the law and satisfying it, and appeasing the wrath of God on their account." I often hear atheists and antireloigoius folks mocking this, "God appeading God" etc. But of COURSR he did! What if he devil had been the one to appease? It never would happen.
God set the bail and paid it Himself to show us that NOTHING CAN STOP HIS LOVE.
Our debt of sin and disobedience ultimately served to show the absolute depth Nd power of His mercy. He never wanted us to be lost or damnrd! That wasn't the intention or the point!
The wrath of God is against SIN, not humaniind.
Jesus died "In our place & space"
"Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.—The words are given in the touching simplicity of the message just as they were sent by the sorrowing sisters. They feel that the sad news needs no addition, and that there is no necessity for a prayer for help. Weakness, conscious of strength which loves, needs but to utter itself." Thinking about how we STILL hysterically beg God "not to kill us" when the slightest trouble happens. What a weak faith we still have, Lord have mercy on us
"We have before us here a man looking at events from a mind full of the darkest apprehension. He is without hope that a return to Judæa can have any but one issue for his Master. The night is so clearly seen that the brightness of day is obscured. But with all this there is the full love of a devoted disciple, who will follow his Master even unto death."
Thinking about this in light of the Eucharist =
"The words express a half-formed hope, which she dare not utter, perhaps dare not even think, that her brother may be restored to life again... Her brother had been the friend of Jesus; they had all trusted in His power and His love. Words had come to them from Him telling that this sickness should not issue in death, but that it should further God’s glory and glorify the Son. And now He is Himself present. His words cannot fail, and He Himself cannot be there without a purpose. She dare not say more; but she rests in this, that there is unity of power and will between Him and the Father. Whatsoever He asks, God will give."
"(25) I am the resurrection, and the life.—She has spoken of the resurrection as a truth which she believes, and as an event in the far-off future, so remote from the present life indeed, as to be powerless to comfort her now. The two first words of His answer, expressed in the fulness of emphasis, teach her that the resurrection is to be thought of as His person, and that it is to be thought of as actually present. “I,”—his words mean—“and none beside Me, am the Resurrection. I am the Resurrection—a present life, and not simply a life in the remoteness of the last day.” In the same sense in which He has declared Himself to be the Water of Life and the Bread of Life, supplying in Himself every need of spiritual thirst and spiritual hunger, He declares Himself to be the Resurrection, revealing in His own person all that men had ever thought and hoped of a future life, being Himself the power which shall raise them at the last day, and could therefore raise them now. This is because He is also “the Life,” and therefore every one in communion with Him shall live... She thinks and speaks of Lazarus as dead. He asserts that in the true thought of the spiritual life the fact of physical death does not interrupt that life... The fact of what we call physical death is not denied, but in the fulness of the thought of life it is regarded as the passage to a new and higher life [through Christ]." This is hitting hard=
"John’s Gospel is “The Word was made flesh,” and He is for us the Resurrection and the Life, because He has been manifested to us, not as an abstraction which the intellect only could receive, but as a person, living a human life, and knowing its sorrows, whom the heart can grasp and love. A “God in tears” has provoked the smile of the stoic and the scorn of the unbeliever; but Christianity is not a gospel of self-sufficiency, and its message is not merely to the human intellect. It is salvation for the whole man and for every man; and the sorrowing heart of humanity has never seen more clearly the divinity of the Son of Man than when it has seen His glory shining through His human tears... the sympathy with human sorrow is no less part of His nature than the union with divine strength." ------‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0913
REMEMBER THIS.
"God has determined to work in the behalf of men only in proportion to their faith in him: it was necessary, therefore, that these persons should be well instructed concerning his nature, that they might find no obstacles to their faith. These sisters had considered him only as a prophet hitherto; and it was necessary that they should now be farther instructed, that, as God was to exert himself, they might believe that God was there."
"Verse 40. If thou wouldest believe, &c.] So it appears that it is faith alone that interests the miraculous and saving power of God in behalf of men." Pasting this from today as it's fascinating =
"And the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.—The dread of the Roman power must have been constantly present to the Jews of that generation... Pontius Pilate had suppressed outbreaks by violence in the Temple itself. There had been tumults in connection with the Corban money and with Barabbas. The Temple mountain was the site of the Roman fortress Antonia, and this dread power may at any moment destroy the national life, which only existed on sufferance.
The attempts to prove that “our place” can mean “the Temple” must now be given up; and if we attach a local meaning to the word we must understand it of Jerusalem. It may, however, be questioned whether the word has any local signification here. Like our words “standing,” and “place,” and “position,” it certainly may have a moral sense, and New Testament examples of this usage are frequent... It is suggested that this sense is more in harmony with the feeling of the Pharisees. They possessed no local power; and the city could not be taken away from them more entirely than it already was. Their existence as rulers depended upon the Mosaic law and upon the services of the Temple. Round these centres they had gathered human tradition and ordinance, to which they clung because they only could interpret them, and they only could use the vast powers which were thus exercised over men. The Law had become practically an intricate system of tradition, and the Temple-service had become practically an intricate system of ritual. With this the Roman empire, following its usual policy, had not interfered, and the Jewish hierarchy had become the centre and the rulers of the national life." THAT WAS WHY JESUS CALLED THEM SUCH HYPOCRITES!!!
THE WORSHIP WAS JUST RITUAL BEHAVIOR, AUTOMATED & MECHANICAL, EMPTY & SHOWY, FOR THE SIMPLE SAKE OF GIVING THE PHARISEES SOMETHING TO CONTROL, RULE, DEFINE, COMPLICATE, AND ENFORCE.
THEY WERE LITERALLY MAKING THEMSELVES GOD.
THERE WAS NO ACTUAL HEART OR SOUL IN THE RITUALS & TRADITIONS IN AND OF THEMSELVES.
THEIR RELIGION WAS NOW JUST AN INTRICATE DANCE ROUTINE– ONE THAT ROME WOULDN'T TOUCH SOLELY BECAUSE IT WAD RELIGIOUS!!! BUT THEREFORE IT WAS A SOURCE OF POWER & CONTROL & AUTHORITY, HOWEVER PLASTICINE, THAT ROME COULDN'T TAKE (SO THEY HOPED)!!!
"But in direct opposition to both of them had been the work and teaching of Christ. He had sought to establish, for law and service, the simplicity of their first spiritual principles. His spiritual teaching was a cutting to the very root of their whole being. If all the people believed on Him their raison d’être would be gone, and the Romans would no longer suffer an imperium in imperio, which they now allowed because it swayed the masses of the people. They would take both their position, and with it the rank which they still claimed as a nation. = The emphatic position of the word “our” should be noted, and also that “place and nation” are linked together as one complex thought attached to it." It's amazing how they don't even CONSIDER changing their "
raison d’être" TO Christ. They want THEIR power THAT BADLY, No matter how unstable & unsure it apparently was even to them.
This also feels relevant to modern times =
"Verse 48. All men will believe on him — If we permit him to work but a few more miracles like these two last (the cure of the blind man, and the resurrection of Lazarus) he will be universally acknowledged for the Messiah; the people will proclaim him king; and the Romans, who can suffer no government here but their own, will be so irritated that they will send their armies against us, and destroy our temple, and utterly dissolve our civil and ecclesiastical existence. Thus, under the pretense of the public good, these men of blood hide their hatred against Christ, and resolve to put him to death. To get the people on their side, they must give the alarm of destruction to the nation: if this man be permitted to live, we shall be all destroyed! Their former weapons will not now avail. On the subject of keeping the Sabbath, they had been already confounded; and his last miracles were so incontestable that they could no longer cry out, He is a deceiver.
Both our place and nation. — Literally, this place, τον τοπον: but that the temple only is understood is dear from Acts 6:13-14; Acts 2:0 Macc. 1:14; 2:18; 3:18; 5:16, 17; 10:7; where it is uniformly called the place, or the holy place, because they considered it the most glorious and excellent place in the world. When men act in opposition to God's counsel, the very evils which they expect thereby to avoid will come upon them. They said, If we do not put Jesus to death, the Romans will destroy both our temple and nation. Now, it was because they put him to death that the Romans burnt and razed their temple to the ground, and put a final period to their political existence.'
I CAN TRAGICALLY BUT HUMBLY ATTEST TO THAT FACT.
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Love this perspective, strive to live it wholeheartedly =
"Let us also go, that we may die with him. — That is, "Seeing we cannot dissuade our Lord from going, and his death is likely to be the inevitable consequence, let us give him the fullest proof we can of our love, by going and suffering death with him." Some think Thomas spoke these words peevishly, and that they should be translated thus, Must we also go, and expose ourselves to destruction with him? which is as much as to say: "If he will obstinately go and risk his life in so imminent a danger, let us act with more prudence and caution." But I think the first sense is to be preferred. When a matter is spoken which concerns the moral character of a person, and which may be understood in a good and a bad sense, that sense which is most favourable to the person should certainly be adopted. This is taking things by the best handle, and both justice and mercy require it. The conduct of most men widely differs from this: of such an old proverb says, "They feed like the flies - pass over all a man's whole parts, to light upon his sores."" ------‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS IS OUR HISTORY =
"Could not this man, which opened the eyes, c.] Through the maliciousness of their hearts, these Jews considered the tears of Jesus as a proof of his weakness. We may suppose them to have spoken thus: "If he loved him so well, why did he not heal him? And if he could have healed him, why did he not do it, seeing he testifies so much sorrow at his death? Let none hereafter vaunt the miracle of the blind man's cure if he had been capable of doing that, he would not have permitted his friend to die." Thus will men reason, or rather madden, concerning the works and providence of God; till, by his farther miracles of mercy or judgment, he converts or confounds them."
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0914
"The afflictions of the saints are designed for the glory of God, that he may have opportunity of showing them favour; for the sweetest mercies, and the most effecting, are those which are occasioned by trouble. Let this reconcile us to the darkest dispensations of Providence, they are all for the glory of God, this sickness, this loss, or this disappointment, is so; and, if God be glorified, we ought to be satisfied... As, before, the man was born blind that Christ might have the honour of curing him, so Lazarus must be sick and die, that Christ may be glorified as the Lord of life. Let this comfort those whom Christ loves under all their grievances that the design of them all is that the Son of God may be glorified thereby, his wisdom, power, and goodness, glorified in supporting and relieving them." (see 2 Corinthians 12:9; 2 Corinthians 12:10.) EVEN IF ONLY SPIRITUALLY, WHICH IS A GREATER GIFT & MIRACLE.
"Here was Martha's house, a house where the fear of God was, and on which his blessing rested, yet made a house of mourning. Grace will keep sorrow from the heart, not from the house."
"Christ will arise in favour of his people when the time to favour them, yea, the set time, is come; and the worst time is commonly the set time-- when our hope is lost, and we are cut off for our parts; then they shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened the graves (Ezekiel 37:11-13). In the depths of affliction, let this therefore keep us out of the depths of despair: that man's extremity is God's opportunity."
"When Christ tells his people at any time how bad the case is, He lets them know in the same breath how easily, how quickly, He can mend it... [and yet,] promised salvations, though they always come surely, yet often come slowly."
⭐"When Christ defers his visits for a time they are thereby made the more acceptable, much the more welcome; so it was here. His departures endear his returns, and his absence teaches us how to value his presence." THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE COULDN'T GO TO MASS IN AUGUST.
We were powerfully moved to appreciate & adore the Eucharist more. It also moved us to a deeper moral courage in eventually running to daily Mass!
"[Whatever] Christ undertakes to do, we may be sure, is something great and uncommon, and a work worthy of Himself." Thinking about ALL of this =
"As a trial of the courage of the disciples, whether they would venture to follow him thither, where they had so lately been frightened by an attempt upon their Master's life, which they looked upon as an attempt upon theirs too. To go to Judea, which was so lately made too hot for them, was a saying that proved them. BUT Christ did not say, "Go you into Judea, and I will stay and take shelter here;" no, Let us go. Note, Christ never brings His people into any peril [unless] He accompanies them in it, and is with them even when they walk through the valley of the shadow of death."
"Christ's disciples are apt to make a greater matter of sufferings than their Master does, and to remember injuries longer. He had put up with the affront, it was over and gone, and forgotten, but His disciples could not forget it... Christ's ways in passing by offences are above our ways. "Wilt thou expose thyself among a people that are so desperately enraged against thee? Goest thou thither again, where thou hast been so ill used?"... Yet, while the disciples show a concern for his safety, they discover at the same time, First, A distrust of his power; as if he could not secure both himself and them now in Judea as well as he had done formerly... Secondly, A secret fear of suffering themselves; for they count upon this if he suffer. When our own private interests happen to run in the same channel with those of the public, we are apt to think ourselves zealous for the Lord of hosts, when really we are only zealous for our own wealth, credit, ease, and safety, and seek our own things, under colour of seeking the things of Christ; we have therefore need to distinguish upon our principles."
"[Their erroneous response] intimates... A greater concern for themselves; for hereby they insinuate that it was now needless for Christ to go to him, and expose himself and them. "If he sleep, he will be quickly well, and we may stay where we are." Thus we are willing to hope that the good work which we are called to do will do itself, or will be done by some other hand, if there be peril in the doing of it." I feel hard convicted by all of that. Reflect soberly on it.
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THIS HIT SO HARD =
"Let us also go that we may die with him; with him, that is, [in one interpretation,] with Lazarus, who was now dead; so some take it. Lazarus was a dear and loving friend both to Christ and his disciples, and perhaps Thomas had a particular intimacy with him. Now if he be dead, saith he, let us even go and die with him. For, First, "If we survive, we know not how to live without him." Probably Lazarus had done them many good offices, sheltered them, and provided for them, and been to them instead of eyes; and now that he was gone they had no man like-minded, and "Therefore," saith he, "we had as good die with him." Thus we are sometimes ready to think our lives bound up in the lives of some that were dear to us: but God will teach us to live, and to live comfortably, upon himself, when those are gone without whom we thought we could not live."
"Martha, in her complaint, looked back, reflecting with regret that Christ was not there, for then, thinks she, my brother had been now alive. We are apt, in such cases, to add to our own trouble, by fancying what might have been. "If such a method had been taken, such a physician employed, my friend had not died;" which is more than we know: but what good does this do? When God's will is done, our business is to submit to him. Christ directs Martha, and us in her, to look forward, and to think what shall be, for that is a certainty, and yields sure comfort: Thy brother shall rise again. [For] as the soul at death is not lost, but gone before, so the body is not lost, but laid up... [on the last day,] there shall be a particular resurrection of each one: "I know that I shall rise again, and this and the other relation that was dear to me." As bone shall return to his bone in that day, so friend to his friend." WE DID NOT HAVE THIS FAITH OR AWARENESS WHEN GRANDMA DIED. EVEN WORSE, WHAT LITTLE WE KNEW OF HEAVEN, WE ASSUMED WE WOULD BE EXCLUDED???? WE LEGIT THOUGHT WE'D NEVER SEE HER AGAIN. "See our weakness and folly, that we suffer present sensible things to make a deeper impression upon us, both of grief and joy, than those things which are the objects of faith... thus, by our discontent under present crosses, we greatly undervalue our future hopes, and put a slight upon them, as if not worth regarding." "Object permanence of a baby" with this. Tunnel vision. Trauma brain. Cannot properly grasp the IDEA of a future, let alone a hopeful one.
Knee-jerk terror at this bit=
"When godly relations and friends are taken from us, whatever occasion we have to be afflicted concerning ourselves, who are left behind and miss them, we have reason to be comforted concerning those who are gone before us to a happiness where they have no need of us." That makes heaven seem aloof & uncaring. It's a misinterpretation though.
I think, long ago, we typed about this sentiment-- how we ultimately wished for our loved ones NOT to "need us" to be happy, because then we would be NO OBSTACLE to their joy.
Another tough one to properly grasp=
"Lazarus is gone, and our comfort in him is gone; but the Master is come, who is better than the dearest friend, and has that in him which will abundantly make up all our losses. He is come who is our teacher, who will teach us how to get good by our sorrow (Psalms 94:12), who will teach, and so comfort." The human instinct is to read this & falsely see her faith as cold & uncaring,
Yet ..
"When Christ our Master comes, he calls for us. He comes in his word and ordinances, calls us to them, calls us by them, calls us to himself. He calls for thee in particular, for thee by name (Psalms 27:8); and, if he call thee, he will cure thee, he will comfort thee." Moved by this thought =
"Martha was earnestly expecting Christ's arrival, and enquiring for it. Either she had sent out messengers, to bring her tidings of his first approach, or she had often asked, Saw you him whom my soul loveth? so that the first who discovered him ran to her with the welcome news. However it was, she heard of his coming before he arrived. She had waited long, and often asked, Is he come? and could hear no tidings of him; but long-looked-for came at last." That's SOLID FAITH in His compassion. She didn't even consider "well maybe He won't come, maybe this isn't important." No. She KNEW He loved her & her siblings. She BELIEVED in His promise of Life. Her heart was anchored in His fidelity.
BUT???
"She believed Christ's power, that, though her brother's sickness was very grievous, yet he could have cured it, and so have prevented his death. She believed his pity, that if he had but seen Lazarus in his extreme illness, and his dear relations all in tears about him, he would have had compassion, and have prevented so sad a breach, for his compassions fail not. But, Here are sad instances of unbelief. Her faith was TRUE, BUT WEAK as a bruised reed, for she limits the power of Christ, in saying, If thou hadst been here; whereas she ought to have known that Christ could cure at a distance, and that his gracious operations were not limited to his bodily presence." RELEVANT TO SOCIALS BARRING US FROM RELIGIOUS TRUTH=
" The least intimation of Christ's gracious approaches is enough to a lively faith, which stands ready to take the hint, and answer the first call. When Christ was come, [1.] She did not consult the decorum of her mourning, but, forgetting ceremony, and the common usage in such cases, she ran through the town, to meet Christ. Let no nice punctilios of decency and honour deprive us at any time of opportunities of conversing with Christ. [2.] She did not consult her neighbours, the Jews that were with her, comforting her; she left them all, to come to him, and did not only not ask their advice, but not so much as ask their leave, or beg their pardon for her rudeness." ------‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0915
⭐"Nature itself teaches us to weep over our dear relations, when they are removed by death; Providence thereby calls to weeping and mourning... Religion teaches us likewise to weep with them that weep... considering that we ourselves also are in the body. Those that truly love their friends will share with them in their joys and griefs; for what is friendship but a communication of affections?" SO ALL THE ALLEGEDLY "RELIGIOUS" SCORN & MOCKERY & CONDEMNATION OF TEARS, IS TOTALLY FALSE!!!!
"[Christ] never groaned so much for His own pains and sufferings as for the sins and follies of men." We should weep for SIN, NOT SUFFERING. The Cross is life & glory. Sin is death & disgrace.
I needed to hear this, especially concerning the circumstances of grandma's death =
"Here it is slyly insinuated, First, That the death of Lazarus being (as it seemed by his tears) a great grief to him, if he could have prevented it he would, and therefore because he did not they incline to think that he could not; as, when he was dying, they concluded that he could not, because he did not, save himself, and come down from the cross; not considering that divine power is always directed in its operations by divine wisdom, not merely according to his will, but according to the counsel of his will, wherein it becomes us to acquiesce. If Christ's friends, whom he loves, die,--if his church, whom he loves, be persecuted and afflicted,--we must not impute it to any [suspected] defect either in his power or love, but [rightfully] conclude that it is because he sees it for the best." "Others think [Martha warned of the death stench] out of a concern for Christ, lest the smell of the dead body should be offensive to him. That which is very noisome is compared to an open sepulchre. If there were any thing noisome she would not have her Master near it; but he was none of those tender and delicate ones that cannot bear as ill smell; if he had, he would not have visited the world of mankind, which sin had made a perfect dunghill." That's weirdly reassuring, for an odious sinner like myself. Christ won't avoid me just because I'm a filthy wretch. I need Him to come close & not cringe in disgust. This gives me solid hope. Even if my soul is in spiritual graverot, Christ CAN STILL SAVE ME... and He won't plug His nose to do it, either.
"Christ does not give a direct answer to what Martha had said, nor any particular promise of what he would do, but orders her to keep hold of the general assurances he had already given: Only believe. We are apt to forget what Christ has spoken, and need him to put us in mind of it by his Spirit: "Said I not unto thee so and so? And dost thou think that he will ever unsay it?" I JUST REALIZED... HE DOESN'T ALTER HIS LANGUAGE OR SPEECH BETWEEN PERSONS. HIS WORDS ARE TRUE TO ALL AT ALL TIMES, IN THEIR PROPER CONTEXTS.
When He blesses, or declares woe, it is in such a way that ALL HUMANITY IS THE SUBJECT OF BOTH, depending on their state of heart. NO ONE IS AN EXCEPTION. SO STOP THINKING "THAT COULDN'T POSSIBLY APPLY TO ME!!" FOR GOOD OR BAD. He can't "unsay" a single word, therefore you must accept it ALL. Those "general assurances" are so for a purpose!!
God is both universal & individual. He is personal & global. HE'S TALKING TO YOU!!!!!!!
"...that which is especially charged upon us hereby is to lift up our hearts to God in the heavens; what is prayer, but the ascent of the soul to God, and the directing of its affections and motions heavenward?" ...in that case, I really am not praying properly. Not for the most part. It's so fearful, so compulsive, like "if I don't say all these prayers mom & dad will be angry & punish me & hurt me." THAT ISN'T PRAYER!!!
I still think this has deeper roots in the "torture rosaries" than I realize. Thank GOD the rosary itself ISN'T A TRIGGER ANYMORE!!!
"Those who infer from the commands of the word to turn and live that man has a power of his own to convert and regenerate himself might as well infer from this call to Lazarus that he had a power to raise himself to life." THE COMMAND IS JUST THAT-- A COMMAND!!! Christ's Words ARE SPIRIT AND LIFE. When He tells us TO turn and live, those very Words-- if we open our heart to receive & heed-- CONTAIN THE POWER BY GRACE REQUIRED TO OBEY. "My Word shall not return to Me void"!!
So don't worry about your own inability and weakness. If God tells you to do something, if He COMMANDS you to do something, Then He is ALSO giving you the grace and the power TO do it, BY THE VERY COMMAND!!! If He wants it done, He ENABLES THE DOING. We just need to COOPERATE WITH GRACE.
"They do not take it at all into their consideration whether they shall not receive him and own him as the Messiah, though they profess to expect him, and Jesus gave pregnant proofs of his being so; but they take it for granted that he is an enemy, and as such is to be run down: "What do we? Have we no care to support our church? Is it nothing to us that a doctrine so destructive to our interest spreads thus? Shall we tamely yield up the ground we have got in the affections of the people? Shall we see our authority brought into contempt, and the craft by which we get our living ruined, and not bestir ourselves?" This ALSO applies to our situation, with discerning God's Will in opposition to lies we have believed and even built on. BE CAREFUL.
Church teaching is NOT the enemy, even if we lose catastrophically by it. "If it can be killed by the truth, then let it die"!!! What we will GAIN in its place is TRUTH & LIFE & LIGHT.
"The success of the gospel is the dread of its adversaries; if souls be saved, they are undone." THAT IS ACTUALLY TERRIFYINGLY TRUE. Every single worldly power RELIES on the control of unsaved souls TO exercise ANY power-- because once a soul is anchored in Christ, THEY ARE DEAD TO THE WORLD & THEREFORE FREE.
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0916
"Caiaphas craftily insinuates that the greatest and best man, though major singulis--greater than any one individual, is minor universis--less than the collected mass, and ought to think his life well spent, nay well lost, to save his country from ruin. But what is this to the murdering of one that was evidently a great blessing under pretence of preventing an imaginary mischief to the country... Was it expedient for them to bring upon themselves and upon their nation the guilt of blood, a prophet's blood, for the securing of their civil interests from a danger which they had no just reason to be afraid of? Was it expedient for them to drive God and their glory from them, rather than venture the Romans' displeasure, who could do them no harm if they had God on their side? Note, Carnal policy, which steers only by secular considerations, while it thinks to save all by sin, ruins all at last." The sly hypocrisy and mangling of truth visible in this scheme is DESPICABLE. The devil is truly the instigator of all falsehood.
That phrase "saving all by sin" is such a horrific false idea that it makes me nauseous. And yet WE ATTEMPTED IT. our past is full of it.
"What before they wished done, but wanted [an excuse] for, now they are furnished with a plausible pretence to justify themselves in, which will serve, if not to take off the guilt (that is the least of their care), yet to take off the odium, and so satisfy, if not the personal, yet the political conscience... Many will go on very securely in doing an evil thing as long as they have but something to say in excuse for it." THAT DETAIL OF GUILT VS ODIUM & OPPOSING CONSCIENCES PLAYS INTO PERSONAL SIN & RECONCILIATION!!!
Are you sorry for offending God, or for making yourself look bad? Are you sorry for being a bad example of a Christian, or of your political party? If ADMITTING & REPENTING of sin would make you look like a fool, or win you enemies, would you still do so enthusiastically? Do you look for ways of explaining away, softening the blow of, or giving "reasonable motives" for your sins, especially when deep down you KNOW you're sinning BECAUSE you need to take such measures to soothe your nagging conscience? Etc.
"Those who came early out of the country, that they might purify themselves, were very desirous to meet with Christ, and perhaps came up the sooner with that expectation...that they might hear his doctrine and see his miracles." = GET TO CHURCH EARLY FOR HIS SAKE!!! He STILL speaks to us AND WORKS MIRACLES IN & BY THE EUCHARIST at EVERY SINGLE MASS.
"...instead of keeping the feast with unleavened bread, they were themselves soured with the leaven of the worst malice!" = SINCERELY EXAMINE YOUR CONSCIENCE & MAKE A PERFECT ACT OF CONTRITION AND/OR ACTUAL CONFESSION BEFORE RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST. Sometimes I'm convicted of a hidden sin RIGHT before reception, with unbearable guilt. What do I do? Should I skip Communion out of shame? What I've been doing is wholeheartedly offer that awareness of sin up to God, In that very moment, With all the sorrow and contrition I can muster, and promise with resolve to confess it ASAP. I hope that it okay. I need to ask a priest. The Eucharist is MEDICINE, not a reward!!!!!
"...as if he would omit his attendance on the feast of the Lord for fear of exposing himself. If others, through irreligion, be absent, they are not animadverted upon; but if Christ be absent, for his own preservation (for God will have mercy, and not sacrifice), it is turned to his reproach, as it was to David's that his seat was empty at the feast, though Saul wanted him only that he might have an opportunity of nailing him to the wall with his javelin, 1 Samuel 20:25-27, c. It is sad to see holy ordinances prostituted to such unholy purposes." THIS IS WHAT WE WERE DOING WHEN WE WERE TOO CHICKEN TO RUN TO MASS AT FIRST.
"For her words seem to imply, Though I know he shall rise again at the last day, yet that affords us but little support now, in the distressing bereavement that we have experienced: as if the blessing of a resurrection to eternal life were not of much greater importance, and much more replete with comfort to a truly pious person, than any recovery from sickness, or restoration to temporal health or life, in this present world of trial and trouble. Alas! that we should be so weak and foolish, as to suffer present, sensible things, to make a deeper impression upon us, both of grief and joy, than those spiritual and eternal things which are the great objects of faith and hope! I know that he shall rise again at the last day And is not that sufficient? She seems not to think it is. Thus, by our discontent under our present trials, we greatly undervalue our future expectations, and put a slight upon them, as if they were not worth regarding... The crosses and comforts of this present time would not make half that impression upon us which they do, if we did but believe the things of eternity as we ought." I may have pasted this already but it's so important.
(Benson's commentary lifts directly from Henry's btw)
Likewise=
"Reader, when we hear the word of Christ concerning the great things of the other world, we should seriously ask ourselves, Do we believe this? This truth in particular; this, which is attended with so many difficulties; this, which is suited to my case? Doth my belief of it realize it to me, and give my soul an assurance of it? so that I can say, not only this I believe, but thus I believe." Reflecting HARD on the implications of this truth =
"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, &c. That is, he loved them with a peculiar affection, on account of their unfeigned piety toward God, their friendship and affection toward one another, and their faith in him as the Messiah, and had often visited them, and lodged at their house. And, in consequence of his peculiar love to them, he was determined to conduct himself toward them, in their present trying circumstances, in such a manner as he knew would be most for their final advantage, though it might, for a while, be an occasion of greater affliction to them." JESUS CANNOT SIN. JESUS CANNOT CAUSE SIN. EVERYTHING HE DOES, OR ALLOWS, OF HIS OWN WILL, IS FOR GOOD & THE GLORY OF GOD.
THEREFORE!!! The fact that Martha & Mary would SUFFER AFFLICTION from both His delay & their brother's death WAS NOT AN EVIL???? That's HUGE.
Their pain at his death? Not evil, that's compassion.
Their anxiety at his sickness? Not evil, that's familial concern.
True, it might betray a "weakness of faith," but to expect otherwise is pride. To NOT suffer WITH the suffering is COLD HEARTED APATHY, and THAT is evil!!
So, since suffering CAN serve God, then SUFFERING IS NOT INHERENTLY EVIL. It is mortal, sure, and human, but NOT WRONG. God CAN and DOES cause us affliction FOR TRUE GOOD. So running away from such suffering, denying it exists, or trying to redefine it IS OPPOSING GOD'S MYSTERIOUS WILL?
Now mind you, EVIL CAN ALSO USE SUFFERING. But I can tell you this, it FEELS TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!!!!!
Suffering is a RESULT of sin, at the beginning. I cannot deny that. But therefore it is paradoxically ALSO WRAPPED UP IN REDEMPTION--- EXPLICITLY IN THE CROSS.
When Jesus said He would redeem everything, HE MEANT EVERYTHING.
Goodness does not
cause suffering. But goodness can TRANSMUTE suffering INTO GOOD, which is a great miracle in and of itself.
(Continue this. I can feel i don't have the whole or proper picture. Pray for discerning grace & wisdom to speak truly for His glory.)
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DAILY DEVOTIONALS TO TYPE ABOUT =
"Jesus shared that last meal with his betrayer. He gave Judas every opportunity to repent. In fact, Jesus called out his sin without sugar-coating anything. But Judas remained hard hearted and unrepentant. He sidestepped conviction with the words, “Surely, you don’t mean me Rabbi?” Judas refused to acknowledge his sin. He refused to allow conviction to penetrate through the layers of
prideful self-preservation. Maybe we don’t willfully betray God, but we persist in some sinful patterns?
Do we allow conviction of sin to break us? What’s God convicting me about? In which areas of my life am I
making excuses and not
allowing his voice of conviction to change me?"
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0917
DAILY DEVOTIONALS =
SO UPSET by this in today's devotional=
"...Communion is also called Eucharist, meaning “thanksgiving”. We accept the gift of His grace. All we do in exchange is express our gratitude. We don’t need to clean up our act. We don’t need to jump through hoops. We don’t need to work for our salvation. The Last Supper is a great reminder that all we have to do is receive that free gift of salvation with a humble and grateful heart." The last sentence is true, but as for the rest of it-- IS THAT SERIOUSLY HOW NONCATHOLICS THINK????? Geez that is worded DANGEROUSLY POORLY.
(REWRITE IT)
BUT ALSO CONSIDER =
"Do I ever feel like I have to work for my salvation? What gets in the way of simply accepting Jesus’ free gift? Do I look at the sacrament of communion as a chore and a ritual or do I see it as a powerful reminder of the grace of God?" UNFORTUNATELY... this whole bit of Matthew 6 SOUNDS LIKE AN ANOREXIC CHEATSHEET.
"When you stop eating for God, just be normal and look the same as you always look. Wash your face and comb your hair. Then nobody will know that you have stopped eating..."
"So when you give up eating, comb your hair and wash your face. Then people will not know that you are giving up eating. But your Father, whom you cannot see, will see you. Your Father sees what is done in secret, and he will reward you. (Matthew 6:17-18 PEV & ICB) The Christian eating disorder THINKS
JUST LIKE THIS IN AN EVIL WAY. THAT'S HOW TRICKY THE DEVIL IS.
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BIBLE STUDY =
"Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Shall I not live out my stint? The Turks shun not the company of those that have the plague; but, pointing upon their foreheads, say, It was written there at their birth when they should die. A priest, indeed, might enter without danger into a leprous house, because he had a calling from God so to do... But he that keeps not within God’s precincts may not look for his protection." I immediately think of today's reading. Romans 14:8, one of my favorites. "If we live, we honor the Lord, and if we die, we honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord."
It's not foolhardiness. It's making GOD the goal of both our life & death, putting both into His hands & striving after NEITHER-- only after ETERNITY IN HIM that MUST be served & sought BY BOTH before!!
Also-- Saint Damien of Molokai, pray for us!
"Gather together in one ] In one spiritual body, though in place never so distant one from another, Ephesians 4:4 ...No such oneness, entireness, anywhere else. Other societies may cleave together... but not incorporate." I was actually just thinking about this during holy communion today, In light of my terrible fear of invasion/violation & being "Taken over by" other people.
Christ said, I'm united to HIM, and THROUGH Him, to all His people! Its NOT CARNAL. I'm not "being fused" with millions of humans. We're ALL becoming ONE IN JESUS. Again, its like BEING MULTIPLE. There is a different, deeper, truer, more beautiful union than any horrid fleshly fear of it.
"We must also purify ourselves before the sacrament from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, 1 Corinthians 11:27-31" Those verses HAUNT ME. I still fear, constantly, that I am guilty somehow of that fatally inexpiable sin of irreverence.
I REALLY need to talk to a priest about all this.
"This [zealous cruelty of Christ's murderers] is check to our indolence in the best things. What a shame is it, that they should outwork the children of light in a thorough despatch of their deeds of darkness, and be at more pains to go to hell than we will be to go to heaven." Remember, indolence means "indifference to pain," or even more bluntly, "without grieving." It is a lack of ache, a dearth of feeling, a spiritual insensibility. It is a callous where your heart should be. It is one who seeks ease, comfort, pleasure, & softness to the point of rot.
"Mary seems to have been the only person upon the face of the earth with the least knowledge of the approaching death of Jesus. She, who loved to sit at His feet, learned more than Peter and John and James of the Apostles." Consider the depth of that. Her sitting there was an act of total humble trust & listening openness & pure affection. It was childlike, all sparkling wonder & rapt attention, yet wrapped up in silent littleness.
Remember, too, Mary's life prior to conversion. That makes this response of hers to Jesus all the more powerful & inspiring & humbling.
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0918
DAILY DEVOTIONALS =
"With the heart man believes unto righteousness. Put to the test, we refuse to be governed wholly by our reason, and we refuse every day. A man who never thought or acted, save upon the full consent of his reason, would be a sorry creature, and his life a dismal spectacle. There is a logic of the heart which is stronger than the logic of the reason... Faith is a venture, the venture of the soul, in opposition to the [exclusivity of] reason." Intrigued by this too. Have to take it carefully-- ironically, AGAINST "reason," which WILL use logic paranoia to pick out every possible flaw. Reason by itself IS a pitifully fragile thing; it does not grasp just how small & ignorant it truly is.
Faith, however, has a shockingly boundless power.
"Christ wept tears of indignation for the grievous wrong that had been done to man... Death entered into the world by sin. Jesus felt the deep wrongousness of the usurper's rule. The anarchy that had invaded human life stirred His soul to its lowest depths: the wrong under which man bled, and earth became a charnel-house, wrought Him to a Divine fury, the more deep because so calm; and the scalding tears that fell from Him measured the intensity of the internal protest He had lodged and the resolve He had taken that He would yet abolish death, and set His brethren free. Christ's is no impotent pity, it is a pledge of deliverance." ...that means so much to me as a believer.
It also is exactly the divine echo that Laurie MUST keep in her heart.
"A strong man's tears are always sacred. They are symbolical of much, and the fountains from which they spring are hardly to be unearthed without profanity."
"The Scriptures speak much on the subject of tears, and often emphasise the sacredness of weeping. It would be worth while to go through the Bible and notice all those who are brought in weeping; and one thing that you would learn very distinctly by such a study would be this: that weeping belongs to true manliness not less than to true womanliness."
"Though He was the Son of God He never wrapped Himself up in a garment of stoical indifference; and still He is the same, yesterday, and today, and for ever."
"He does not expect us to put on the garment of stoicism which He never wore Himself, when our Lazarus is dead and is carried out to the cold and lonely grave. There are many things that will never be seen by eyes that have not been salved with tears."THANK YOU!!! Man I needed to hear ALL of that TWENTY-SIX YEARS AGO
I'm Changing this so it's not borderline heresy because the truth beneath still stands for mankind =
"Sometimes, our pain in prayer is due to the collision of our will with the Divine will-- Or, shall we rather say, our tears are the sign of the reconciliation of our will to that of God our Father. If there had been nothing but collision-- hard, unbending collision-- we would not have wept; we would instead have hardened ourself against our Father's will. But in our love of God, and our honest albeit feeble desire to do His will, our tears are truly the indication of reconciliation: they are the sign and the sacrament of peace, by the very virtue of their pain." Let me tell you, we have SO MANY prayers like this, virtually every day now. This is a deep consolation & encouragement.
"There is [only] one kind of tears that Jesus never wept. These are the tears of penitence."
CONSIDER THE EARTHSHATTERING DEPTHS OF THIS.
Jesus wept tears of sorrow, tears of grief, tears of righteous anger, tears of joy, tears of wonder, tears of love.
...
"It was the deeper anguish into which mourners are plunged by looking upon death as extinction, and by supposing that death separates from God and from life, instead of giving closer access to God and more abundant life-- it was this which caused Jesus to groan. He could not bear this evidence that even the best of God’s children do not believe in God as greater than death, and in death as ruled by God.
This gives us the key to Christ’s belief in immortality, and to all sound belief in immortality. It was Christ’s sense of God, His uninterrupted consciousness of God, His distinct knowledge that God the loving Father is the existence in whom all live-- it was this which made it impossible for Christ to think of death as extinction or separation from God. For one who consciously lived in God to be separated from God was impossible. For one who was bound to God by love, to drop out of that love into nothingness or desolation was inconceivable. His constant and absolute sense of God gave Him an unquestioning sense of immortality. We cannot conceive of Christ having any shadow of doubt of a life beyond death; and if we ask why it was so, we further see it was because it was impossible for Him to doubt of the existence of God-- the ever-living, ever-loving God... Believing in the fatherly and undying love of the Eternal God, He knows that death cannot harm, still less destroy, the children of God."
"And this is the order or conviction in us all. It is vain to try and build up a faith in immortality by natural arguments, or even by what Scripture records... The faith of immortality depends on a sense of it begotten, not on an argument for it concluded. And this sense of immortality is begotten when a man is truly born again, and instinctively feels himself an heir of things beyond this world into which his natural birth has ushered him; when he begins to live in God; when the things of God are the things among which and for which he lives; when his spirit is in daily and free communication with God; when he partakes of the Divine nature, finding his joy in self-sacrifice and love, in those purposes and dispositions which can be exercised in any world where men are, and with which death seems to have no conceivable relation. But, on the other hand, for a man to live for the world, to steep his soul in carnal pleasures and blind himself by highly esteeming what belongs only to earth-- for such a man to expect to have any intelligent sense or perception of immortality is out of the question... no argument, [either for or against,] should make us indifferent to the question whether at death we are to be extinguished or to live on in happier, fuller life." ...That is one of the most gravely convicting truths I've ever heard.
And it's the KEY to WHY we felt "eternity in our very blood" during the Jay days, but it STOPPED WITH CNC. We're still, admittedly & disturbingly, trying to get that back. Well, this tells us WHY we're struggling, and what we MUST do.
We do not think enough about the afterlife, of what's below and above... you get the picture.
We NEED to read these bits thoroughly & repeatedly, to let them sink in deep, and by grace to understand & integrate them fully in the process.
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0919
DAILY DEVOTIONALS = Christine Caine VOTD! I like her a lot. Matthew 5:5. Hit hard in light of immediate spiritual crisis. Basically, Stop trying so hard to be "good enough, holy enough, righteous enough, clean enough, smart enough," etc. For God to love & accept you. By yourself, you've got NOTHING to offer God. But HE gives us JESUS, Who is EVERYTHING. And we live from within HIM. Remember what we read yesterday about heaven & eternal life: it's based on RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS. And if THAT is the core of the Kingdom of Heaven, then to be "poor in spirit" in light of that truth means to be empty of everything BUT Him. We have no "other wealth." We have no "savings set aside" on earth. We are not "rich" in pride and its lies. We RECOGNIZE we are lacking, and THANK GOD, because that's ALL ROOM FOR GOD TO FILL. "The rich He sends away empty," remember-- but even then, that's so that they, too, can turn around and BE FILLED with true wealth & goodness & holiness & LOVE instead of the gold-spraypaint lies of the devil & the world. I'll paste the actual devotional reflection below so we can type on it further; we have a history of war against avarice & self-righteousness so we NEED to make sure that CHRIST'S TRUTH in this beatitude is powerfully integrated into our soul and active life. Beautiful kids devotional questions & answers = "What question do you want to explore using God's Word as a guide? Does God love me even when I make mistakes? - Romans 5:8 = [So it is proof of God's own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.] Who does God say I am? - Ephesians 2:10 = [We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.] What is my purpose? - 1 Peter 2:9 = [But you are a chosen race, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a people to be a personal possession to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.] THIS ONE SENT ME REELING = "To know where we are, and to know where we are going, we need to know where we began. Too often, we forget our true origin; we forget that the story of humanity did not begin with the fall. Our story started with the image of God.
Beauty. Wonder. Life. THIS is what God has placed at the core of our being. Nothing can change our identity as children of God, declared so emphatically at the cross.
Sin is a stain upon the fabric; it is not the fabric itself. We were made for good and, despite the fall, we retain that shining potential. [That is why] the fullness of life that Christ offers us isn’t about running away from our humanity, it’s about running back into it – it’s about reconnecting with who we were created to be." Just... I needed this. I FORGOT this. THAT'S THE HEART OF THE INCARNATION. IT'S ABOUT REDEEMING OUR ORIGINAL, SACRED HUMANITY-- NOT REJECTING IT!!!! TYPE ABOUT EVERY LINE OF THIS.
"Jesus wept - It has been remarked that this is the shortest verse in the Bible; but it is exceedingly important and tender. It shows the Lord Jesus as a friend, a tender friend, and evinces his character as a man. And from this we learn:
1. That the most tender personal friendship is not inconsistent with the most pure religion. Piety binds stronger the ties of friendship, makes more tender the emotions of love, and seals and sanctifies the affections of friends.
2. It is right, it is natural, it is indispensable for the Christian to sympathize with others in their afflictions. Romans 12:15; “rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.”
3. Sorrow at the death of friends is not improper. It is right to weep. It is the expression of nature, and religion does not forbid or condemn it. All that religion does in the case is to temper and chasten our grief; to teach us to mourn with submission to God; to weep without complaining, and to seek to banish tears, not by hardening the heart or forgetting the friend, but by bringing the soul, made tender by grief, to receive the sweet influences of religion, and to find calmness and peace in the God of all consolation.
4. We have here an instance of the tenderness of the character of Jesus. The same Savior wept over Jerusalem, and felt deeply for poor, dying sinners. To the same tender and compassionate Saviour Christians may now come (Hebrews 4:15); and to him the penitent sinner may also come, knowing that he will not cast him away." I cannot overemphasize these bits about Godly sorrow. We've suffocated that emotion in ourself for far too long. This entire paragraph brings us to shame. Lord please make our heart tender again, and please, don't let us cringe in disgust at such words anymore. You know what's wrong. We don't. Please show us the wound, so we can offer it to You, and please heal us quickly.
"Others, who saw [the miracle], and did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, went and told it to the Pharisees. But they did not deny that Jesus had raised up Lazarus. They could not deny it. The very ground of their alarm - the very reason why they went - was that he had actually done it. Nor did the Pharisees dare to call the fact in question. If they could have done it, they would... We see here the different effect which the word and works of God will have on different individuals. Some are converted and others are hardened; yet the evidence of this miracle was as clear to the one as the other. But they would not be convinced... If they admitted that he performed miracles, it was clear what they ought to do. They should have received him as the Messiah. It may be asked, If they really believed that he worked miracles, why did they not believe on him? To this it may be replied that they did not doubt that impostors might work miracles. To this opinion they were led, probably, by the wonders which the magicians performed in Egypt... As they regarded the tendency of the doctrines of Jesus to draw off the people from the worship of God, and from keeping his law, they did not suppose themselves bound to follow him, even if he did work miracles." THE PROBLEM IS THAT THEY WEREN'T CONSIDERING THE FRUITS OF THE MIRACLES, THE PURE & COMPASSIONATE NATURE OF THEM, AND THE UTTERLY HUMBLE & PIOUS CHARACTER OF CHRIST WHO WORKED THEM. Prudent hesitation to believe any wonder-worker aside, they were STILL obstinate in their pride, refusing to admit that Jesus was ILLUMINATING the Law, and drawing people into a more honest, understanding, practical observance of it. The Pharisees still clung to their power & authority, bottom line, and it blinded them. Even if they did claim this "impostor" suspicion, they STILL weren't willing to ADMIT HIS LEGITIMACY if He indeed proved TO be genuinely God-sent. They were entering the entire judgment process WITH A PREJUDICE. They didn't WANT to admit His verity. It was too earthshaking a Truth for them to integrate in their current confused spiritual state, as tangled up in politics as they were. ------‐--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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