offering – Time in the Chapel

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Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur
by Maurycy Gottlieb, 1878
Note the solemnity of the moment.
Image in the Public Domain

Yom Kippur 2019

There are many things that separate man from the beasts: intelligence, communication skills, sophisticated social order; the list goes on but the one I want to point out here is not so flattering. The animal kingdom is much better at facing reality than humans are. When an animal sees something good to eat, it eats. When an animal finds a safe place to rest, it rests. When an animal senses danger, it does something about it. It either fights or flees. This is where humans fail. Too often when we sense danger, we ignore it. You want proof? How about cigarette smoking, alcoholism and obesity. But there is a far greater danger that countless millions ignore every day:

(Heb 10:30) For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
(Heb 10:31) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

“Oh, but we don’t like to concentrate on that in our ministry. We’d rather talk about the love of God.” How very human of you. You see danger, you ignore it.

The cynic will accuse God of being dark and vengeful and repressive because He says things like, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9) or “all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” (Romans 3:23) . We wonder why God is being so mean. Why doesn’t He just ignore it like we do? Suppose you’ve been driving all night through the Mojave desert. It’s dark. You’ve been on the road for hours and you decide to pull over just to get a little sleep. A few hours later, you are rudely awakened by a sheriff’s deputy banging on your window and shouting at you. You think, “Now, can’t he see that I’m tired and need some rest?” Next thing you know you hear a freight train speeding toward you. In the darkness and due to your unfamiliarity with your surroundings you parked your car on active train tracks. In a flash, that cop goes from obnoxious blowhard to live saver.

God is pointing out your desperate, sinful condition because it is placing you in danger. The Bible makes it clear: We are helpless, hopeless sinners. As much as God loves us all…and He does love us all, He will not ignore sin. Now, this is not the place to discuss “why”. In fact, if you accept that He will not ignore sin than the “why” question doesn’t matter because once you come to the conclusion that God is holy and you’re not you will be driven to the REAL question, “What can I do about it?” Well, your mood isn’t going to improve because the answer to the question, “What can I do about my sin separating me from God” is…nothing. But, ironically…and with God there is SOOO much irony…ironically, though God is ALWAYS the offended party, He is also the only one who can make things right and the ENTIRE Bible is a record of His remedy. By the way, the only way you can make sense of the Bible, the only way the Bible will bring you joy is if you look at it as a picture of “The Atonement”. The Bible isn’t a history book, although there is history in it. The Bible isn’t a morality guide, although there is morality in it. The Bible is not a world peace plan, although there is peace in it. God’s Book is a prescription for removing sin and reuniting His people and the Seven Feasts of Israel are all of that in miniature.

Today we talk about one of the most well-known of all the Seven Feasts: Yom Kippur; in the English, The Day of Atonement. God gave this Feast to His children to demonstrate all of what we’ve said thus far: He will not tolerate sin; it must be paid for; and we will NEED a substitute…a PERFECT substitute as payment. In the Old Testament, God established an elaborate system of offerings designed to do two things: Atone for sin and to tell a story. Join us for this podcast as we find out what that story really is. Spoiler alert: It’s Jesus!

But before you begin, make sure that you are prepared in your mind, heart and spirit. Take a few moments and go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to allow you to see wondrous things out of His Law (Psalm 119:18). Plead with God…pleading means it’s important to you…show God that what He requires is important to you so PLEAD with Him to send His Spirit to fill you with His Truth.

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Johannes Sadeler I (Netherlandish, Brussels 1550–1600 Venice (?)) The sacrifice of Abel (plate 1 from The Story of Cain and Abel), 1576 Netherlandish, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, — Johannes Sadeler I (Netherlandish, Brussels 1550–1600 Venice (?)) The sacrifice of Abel (plate 1 from The Story of Cain and Abel), 1576 Netherlandish, Engraving; Sheet: 8 1/8 × 11 3/16 in. (20.7 × 28.4 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953 (53.601.17(62)) http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/700567

Approaching God on My Own Terms (with Communion)

What Cain and Abel Can Teach Us

You know, atheism is not the biggest threat to the survival of the church. Actually it’s not even close. In fact, atheism is so innocuous in its effect on the cause of Christ that it’s not even mentioned anywhere in Scripture. Among all the thousands of characters in the Bible there is not ONE atheist. Not even Satan is an atheist. The biggest threat to the church is what theologians call apostasy. Nothing got the ancient Israelites in more trouble than apostasy. Nothing riled Jesus up more than apostasy. In case you don’t know, apostasy means the rejection or renunciation of a religious (and sometimes political) belief.

(Mat 15:6) …Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Human attitude toward “religion” is a very funny thing and, frankly, always has been. We are forever changing our view of what is sacred. Of course, there is no doubt that Satan is behind all that changing but, nonetheless, we’re not without blame. A brief history of human religion could be mapped thusly: In the beginning everyone believed in the One True God. Adam and his family, at first, knew of no other worship worthy Being than God Himself. Satan stepped in and convinced them that their kind should share in some of that worship worthiness. Before long some people started putting other people in the place of God. After the expulsion from the Garden nature turned hostile toward us. Some people turned to the One True God for help. They probably didn’t like how and the speed at which He answered their pleas for protection so they turned to those people that other people were now worshiping. Some were satisfied and added to the ranks of people who worshiped other people. Some were not and decided that the best way to quell the hostility of nature was to try and please it. What’s more pleasing than having someone bow down to you? So, some people started worshiping nature and animals. Then mankind started finding shiny metal in the ground and thought, “Hmmm, that’s pretty enough to worship”, so they started making their people gods and animal gods out of gold and silver and since those ended up prettier and less smelly than the real things they started worshiping the shiny people and animal gods. Eventually Jesus comes along and personifies what the world should be worshiping. He does and says some wonderful worship-generating things and many people decide He’s the one to whom all worship should flow. That works out for a little while and, in fact, the number of people agreeing on Jesus as their God actually grows rapidly and significantly but then, slowly, the old pattern returns. This time, however, for the most part, Jesus is the one that is still considered worship-worthy but humans become unsatisfied with HOW to worship the worship-worthy. That’s the mess we’re in now. Yes, you’re right. It’s not a new mess but its damage is nonetheless real. When people decide that they don’t like the current god and that they would prefer a god they can deal with or use or hide from they tend to change the Truth to fit their fancy. There is no more glaring example of this deviation from Truth than at the Table of the Lord.

In this ministry we’ve joined forces, at least in spirit, with other like-minded ministries around the world who are attempting to return the dignity to this simple and lovely ceremony. The church has decided down through the centuries that simple and lovely is not enough. They have come to the conclusion that ornate and spectacular is more to God’s liking. They have decided that God would be more pleased with pomp and circumstance than solemnity and reverence. Let me be clear, I am not impugning anyone’s motive (at least, not here). I believe, in the beginning, most are driven by an enthusiasm for the Glorification of God. However, purity of motivation is no excuse for presuming to have the authority to change the way God wants things done. He clearly wrote down in His Word how we are to celebrate this sweet memorial and any modification of “thus sayeth the Lord” is not acceptable (and actually comes with consequences).

Please join us for this episode as we take some time to discuss how mankind tends to try and change God into something they can approve of. Here we attempt to highlight the danger of the human propensity to redefine The Divine to fit our own agenda. The ultimate purpose of this discussion is to point out how much the Communion has drifted from that simple little celebration that Jesus instituted in the Upper Room.

In this episode, as you may have guessed, we also celebrate a Communion. If you’ve never done that with us before I would encourage you to pay as close attention as you can to the first 20 minutes or so of the program. It is in that segment where we cover some of the more important aspects of “Going to the Table of the Lord”. (If this is not the first time you’ve celebrated with us on a podcast then chances are you’ve heard that first part already since we include it with every Communion podcast. If you prefer to skip ahead to the message just go to the 22 minute, 27 second (22:27) point of the podcast. That’s where the new content begins.

As always, I want to encourage you to go to God in prayer before you begin this podcast. I believe it’s always a good idea to begin any study of God’s Word by acknowledging that without Him your search for Truth will ultimately be unsuccessful. I urge you to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and ask Him to bless your effort to get to know Him better. Prayer is as vital a research tool as any other.