Bible Study "A-Ha" Moment - Obedience

Obedience

At Bible Study last week, we had a collective "A-Ha" moment.  It also tied into what Pastor talked about in his message last Sunday.   And the topic - 

 

Last Sunday, Pastor was digging into Romans 12:13. "Contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality."  Short and sweet, yet there's so much in this little verse.  We are called to do these things by God - contributing to others and being hospitable to one another.   God calls us to obedience to His Word, whether he explains it to us or not.  Just do it!

 Our A-Ha moment at Bible study happened when we were studying Acts 25. 

Background:

Here's what's happened right before Acts 25.  First Paul had been brought before the Sanhendrin (Jewish ruling council) at Jersusalem. (Acts 23).   They could not agree on the charges against Paul, so he was sent to Caesarea and to go before the Roman Procurator (Governor) Felix.  Felix also could not make a ruling, so he kept Paul imprisoned there (although he had some freedoms) for 2 years.   Festus suceeded Felix and now Paul was brought before Festus.  During Paul's appeal before Festus, Paul asked to be brought before Caesar.  He did not want to go back to Jerusalem, for several reasons.  The main one being that God had told Paul that he must go to Rome. 

Acts 23:11:

¹¹ But on the following night, the Lord stood near him and said, “Be courageous! For as you have testified to the truth about Me in Jerusalem, so you must testify in Rome also.”

Paul had many options when he stood before Festus, but Paul was obedient to the Lord's instruction and asked to go before Caesar in Rome.  Paul didn't ask why - he just obeyed.   

The Connection:

In the backstory of Acts 25, the Jewish "mob" wanted Paul to be sent back to Jerusalem so they could attack him on the road and kill him.  It seems from the context that Paul probably did not know about this plot.  It would have been an easier, more logical choice from Paul's point of view to go to Jerusalem.  Yet Paul made his case to go to Rome, because that's what the Lord told him to do.  Being obedient to the Lord, saved Paul's life.

Application for Today:

Just do it!   If the Lord tells you to do something, just do it.  Don't wait until you understand the "why" of it.

And how do we know if the Lord tells us to do something?   

See my blog post of May 2 regarding a renewed mind

Romans 12 - A Renewed Mind

A Renewed Mind

Our Pastor's been leading us through the book of Romans and the key thought is having a renewed mind.

Key Verse:

Romans 12:2: "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Another parallel verse is Ephesians 4:23-24 ^"and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."

How do we get this renewed mind?  3 ways:

1)  Pray (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

2)  Read Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

3)  Be in the body of Christ with fellow believers (1 Corinthians 12)

We cannot approach our new life in Christ with our former mind set.  Therefore:  Renew your mind daily.   And did you catch the second part of the verse?  With this renewed mind, we can start to understand what the will of God is for us in our own lives.

God says in John 14:15: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments".  And Trusting, Loving, Obeying - all these good things go hand in hand.  

Recap:

So by daily reading the Word of God, praying and being with fellow believers,  we can start to understand God's will for our lives and live as God intended us to with a renewed mind.

 

 

 

Why does God allow disease in a believer's life?

Why did God allow my husband to get Multiple Sclerosis (MS)?  

It's a question that I think of from time to time.   My husband has had MS now for 19 years.  I've never been mad at God for allowing his MS, because I know that in all things in my life, they're for my good .  

Romans 8:28-29: ²⁸ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters."

10 years ago or so, I was sitting in church during communion and sort of complaining to God about how much harder life is with Rick and his MS and how he wasn't the man I married any more.  I immediately heard in my head, very clearly, "No he isn't the same man you married because now he knows Me."  My husband was not a believer when we were married.  He came to saving faith in Christ our Lord about 7 years after we were married.

Even so, sometimes the ugly head of jealousy rears up and I find myself wanting what other couples have - to go out to dinner; walking hand in hand without assistance; going shopping; going on trips to anywhere; - things that most people take for granted.  Even help with mundane household things like getting the mail or taking out the trash.

Just this week, I was pondering this again.  And it suddenly became very clear to me.  My husband's MS isn't about me - it's about him and his relationship with Christ.  So why did God allow him to get MS?   What I've observed is that my husband has become more humble, more dependant on God, and his faith has increased.  He can testify to others about the goodness of God in our lives because through Christ, he is strong.

 2 Cor 12:9-10: and He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. ¹⁰ Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

 

 

 

A sacrifice of praise

My class just finished up with an indepth Precept upon Precept (PUP) study of the book of Hebrews.  For those of you who do the PUP series of books, remember in our homework (of any study) that we are asked to ready the observation worksheets over and over throughout a study?    By the time a study has ended, we will have read the text a hundred or more times.   And even so, when we slow down and start doing the observations, we see things we missed?  And even more so, we start answering the questions in our homework and still see more things we missed?

This happened to me, again, while studying Hebrews.  Consider this verse:

Hebrews 13:15:  " Through Him then, let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips praising His name.^"

It wasn't until I was watching Kay's video that I truly started to understand this verse.  The times I read through it, I realize now it was superficially.  I thought it just meant to give God praise.  But there's so much more to it.

First off -  what's does sacrifice mean?  According to the online 1828 Webster's dictionary, the first meaning for sacrifice is "To offer to God in homage or worship".  Another meaning is "To devote with loss."  A sacrifice costs you something.

So what can a sacrifice of praise mean then?  In Hebrews chapter 12, the author was talking about difficult times. There are times in every person's life that is hard.  A bad medical situation, financial hardship, family issues...  It's easy to praise God when life is good, but how hard is to praise God when life is hard?  It costs you something.  And when life is really hard?  that praise costs you a great deal.  

This is what the author of Hebrews was referring to as a "sacrifice of praise".  And we know that those sacrifices of praise are pleasing to God.  (Hebrews 13:16)

My recap of Hebrews

I'm in a weekly Precepts Bible Study and since last September, we've been studying Hebrews.  It's a book I've never studied in depth before, so I've been so enjoying this.

My personal theme for Hebrews is "Jesus is Better".  He's better than the angels, He's better than Moses, He's better than Abraham, He's better than any earthly high priest.  He's the mediator of the New Covenant, which is better than the Old Covenant.  

And Jesus, God Himself, the Son of God, sinless,  - gave Himself willingly to be our sacrificial lamb.    Jesus' sacrifice was once and for all.  Through His death and His resurrection, He conquered death.  If anyone accepts Him as our Savior, we will live eternally with Him.

Hebrews chapter 11, often called the Hall of Faith, gives us many, many examples of great heroes of faith, whom we should emulate. In fact, the author recaps this in Hebrews 13:7:  "Remember those who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you; and considering the result of their way of life, imitate their faith".

Hebrews chapter 12 is all about God's discipline.  We should look to the heroes of faith in Chapter 11 and how they overcame and were steadfast in their faith, even when there was suffering and hard times in their lives.  God allows difficulties, as a father disciplines a child.  These hard times mature us in our faith.

Let me explain how that's working in my life:

*When I was 39, I had breast cancer.  At the time, my children were ages 12, 6 and 4.  It was hard, chemo was awful.  But that experience changed me.  My faith grew during that time. An analogy would be of a tree - I was 25 years in the Lord, a 25 year old tree,  and my roots started to grow even deeper.  

*About 10 years later, we had to deal with a very difficult issue with one of our children, which lasted about 3 years.  Thinking back to the analogy of the tree - when your roots are deeper, you can withstand stronger and stronger storms.  Because I went through cancer, it made me stronger.  We not only got through this very difficult time in our lives, but our roots keep growing deeper and deeper.

* Fast forward another 8 years to 2023.  Another difficult chapter in our life was upon us.  I called 911 for my husband and it turns out he had a double subdural hematoma.  2 surgeries and almost a month in the hospital and skilled nursing facility.   Again, it was a hard, difficult, agonizing......  And in the midst of it, I heard the Lord through my lovely child's mouth say "We're not doing a good job of keeping Dad safe".  And it's like God said "GO!".  You've been praying for years about where to live and how to live safely, now go and buy the house I have for you.  So I did.  My roots were much deeper.  They allowed me to stay deep in the Lord during this time.  I was able to hear Him clearly and follow His direction, even while emotionally distraught.

Chapter 13 is the closing and final chapter of the book of Hebrews.  The author gives these Jewish Christians final words of wisdom, warnings, and lots of encouragement about how to live the life that Christ promised them and us.

God kept his Covenant with Noah

For the past few months, instead of participating in an organized Precept study at church, I've been doing a study with my husband, daughter and son-in-law.  We Facetime every Friday night and do our discussion.  This has been such an unexpected wonderful blessing during this coronavirus season.

We decided to start at the beginning with Genesis.  It's been more than 20 years since I studied this book in depth and thought it was time.

We are currently studying Genesis Part 2 and are on Lesson 4.   My daughter made an interesting observation about Genesis 7:16:   Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.

My daughter observed that God commanded him.  But the Lord closed the door.  Why the difference in names? In the Old Testament, the authors have revealed that God is called by many names, each with its own significance.  Let's look at the Hebrew words for these two names - God and Lord.

God =אֱלֹהִים    'elohiym = Strongs # H430.  This means The true and supreme God.  If we look back at Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  This reference to God is also Elohiym.  We can say that Elohiym is the name for The Creator God.  In Genesis 7:16, it's the Creator God Elohiym who commands male and female of all flesh to enter the ark. 

Lord = יְהֹוָה Yehovah =  Strongs #3068.  This means (the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jeho-vah, Jewish national name of God:—Jehovah, the Lord. The personal name of God to the Hebrew people.  

This was the "A-HA" moment for me. A-HA -  The Lord closed the door.  The Lord, who made a Covenant with Noah to enter the ark.  We saw that in:  Genesis 6:18: "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you."

Here, God, Yehovah, shows Himself to be The One who kept His covenant promise to Noah to enter the ark and be saved.   (Abraham, father of the Hebrew people, was later descended from Noah's son Shem).

Lesson 6 is all about the Covenant with Noah, so I'm looking forward to studying this more.

Death and Hades

As we've been studying Revelation this year so far, there's several mentions of death and hades.  I'm interested to see what else I can find out about this.  One of the inductive study methods is to list. 

1)  So let's start out by listing mentions of death and hades together in the Bible.

Revelation 1:18:

and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Revelation 6:8:

I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Revelation 20:13:

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

Revelation 20:14

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

The reason I'm intrigued about this is that I know I had seen death and Hades usually mentioned together.  What caught my attention was Rev 6:8 because it said Death was on the ashen horse and Hades was following him - as if they were two separate things.


2)  Word Study 

My next inductive study method is to go back to the Greek and see what we learn.  Let's go to Rev 6:8 and do a word study.  I use www.blueletterbible.org for this.

Death is Strongs number G2288. In Greek, the word is thanatos.   One of the definitions is  the death of the body.  And that separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul and the body by which the life on earth ended.  I think we all know what death means and do not need to explore that concept any further.

Hades is Strongs number G86.  The Greek word is Hades (the same).  And it's a noun - a proper locative noun - meaning a place.  One of the definitions is a later use of this word: the grave, death, hell.   i.e. "Hades" or the place (state) of departed souls:—grave, hell.   Another word that means the same is in the Old Testament in Hebrew is Sheol or Strongs number H7585.

At this point in my study of death and Hades, I would summarize it by stating that through physical death, people enter Hades.   Which is why Hades was following death in Rev 6:8.

3)  Cross Referencing:

Another inductive study method is to cross reference with other scriptures.  Scripture always confirms scripture.  So if we don't understand something, there may be another Scripture that explains it more fully.

 To explain this further, let's look at Luke 16:23: In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.  This is the story of the rich man being tormented in Hades on the hot side and he sees Lazarus also in Hades, but on the cool side.  So from these observations, we can say that Hades is the place where departed souls go after their physical death.  From other study that I've done,  In the Old Testament, all souls went to Hades.  There was a "cool side" and a "hot side" (as evidenced from this scripture above).  Those on the "cool side" were those who believed and had faith and looked forward to the coming of Messiah.   When Jesus was resurrected, He "cleaned out" the "cool side" of Hades and those souls were taken to heaven with Him.   Those on the "hot side" stayed there in torment.  Hades keeps enlarging itself to this day, to hold all those who had physically died without believing. (Isaiah 5:14).

Looking at the above verses again, refer to Rev 20:13.  It says that death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and they (those in death and Hades) were judged.   This says to me that Hades is "cleaned out" of the souls of those who had died in their physical body.  They will be brought before the Great White Throne of Judgment to be judged.  Remember, as a Christ follower, you will not be judged.  You have been made righteous, once you have believed that Jesus Christ died for and paid the penalty for your sins.  You have been washed clean.

Let's look at the final scripture above - Revelation 20:14 -  we see that death and Hades are thrown in the lake of fire, which is the second death.  I believe this means that after this event, there will be no more death, no more hades.  Everything will be made new.  We can see this if we continue reading in Revelation 21, specifially Rv 21:4a:  and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death.

We can finish up this study of death and hades by looking at Revelation 1:18.  We see that Jesus alone holds the keys to death and hades.  Everything in Revelation is God's plan and Jesus is in control.  When we accept Jesus' offer of eternal life, we overcome the power of Hades and death, just like Jesus did.  (1 Cor 15:55).