http://christianisraelalliance.com/index.php?autocom=blog Community Blog List Syndication Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:08:12 -0400 tom@tombrimmer.com (Christian Israel Alliance) IP.Blog 60 1 Timothy 4:7 But refuse profane and old-womanish tales, and exercise yourself to godliness.

I saw an inspirational story posted on a Christian forum that talked about a soldier hiding from the enemy in World War II. This soldier took refuge in a cave. He prayed to God and was hidden by a spider web.

This seems like a nice story, but it turns out to be a story from another religion, from their religious texts. That troubled me. To see a mythological event from a false religion find its way into the culture of English speaking Christians. Can a Christian find morality within a false religion? I don’t think one can. All other religions, if they have morals, are a pale shadow of Christ's way, and those other religions lead to eternal death. Why bother getting moral stories from false religions when we have the perfect and true religion of following Jesus?

As the bible tells us, 1 Timothy 1:4 nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies (which provide doubts rather than the nurture of God in faith). We should instead keep our eye on the Lord. To do as it says in Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, my brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think on these things. Do those things which you have also learned and received and heard and seen in me. And the God of peace shall be with you.
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Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be always with grace, having been seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Nowadays using salt is considered bad for our blood pressure, but in ancient times, salt was valued, traded. A seasoning of worth. Salt is a preservative, something to prevent food from spoiling in a time when refrigeration was not available. In ancient times, salt was a symbol of covenant. Treaties ratified with salt were unable to be broken. In Leviticus, we see that the Levites were to season each sacrifice with salt. Indeed, the term for it was salt of the covenant of God. A covenant not to be broken. Mark 9:49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Everyone of us believers is in covenant with God through the blood of Christ.

So then what does it mean to have your speech seasoned with salt? We are under a covenant of salt with the Lord. All of our actions and words should reflect Him. He is glorified by what we do. Sometimes we are the only “bible” someone sees. Our words need to be spoken with the love of Christ. Our words should be given to us by the Holy Spirit when we witness. Our words are to be tempered, seasoned if you will, by our Lord. When we answer each one regarding the Blessed Hope we have in Christ, it should be His words we speak, words given to us by the Holy Spirit, spoken gently in love. Seasoned with salt.]]> Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:22:00 -0400

For I do not do the good that I desire; but the evil which I do not will, that I do. Romans 7:19

Today a little 2 year old girl fell into a pool and nearly drowned. This child was under water they say for nearly 5 minutes. Although she was revived she will have permanent brain damage.

Today, a young Christian struggled with the lure of a false dead religion, one she was steeped in for years. She wanted to give into the rituals of this false path and derive security from what she knew and could expect.

Like the girl who nearly drowned, this young believer needs to resist the natural urges. The child couldn’t resist the urge to breathe in and in so doing, breathed in water instead of air. The young Christian finds it hard to resist the natural tendency to follow the ways of the flesh, to derive comfort in false things because they are known to her. Its not natural to resist the lure of the world and to follow the Lord. Yet we can resist, for we are new creatures in Christ. The old man is put away. 2 Corinthians 5:17 So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. We can do this, through Him, through the Holy Spirit changing us. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
]]> Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:11:00 -0400 Luke 10:37 And he said, The one doing the deed of mercy to him. And Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.

Do we go and do likewise?

Last week, temperatures in Arizona hit the usual midsummer intense heat, around 110 degrees F (that’s around 45 degrees C). We were out driving to a bookstore and passed by a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk with his shopping cart of belongings. It was hot, the sidewalk sunny. There were no open businesses where he was. No trees. Not even a grassy spot. Just hard concrete and compact dirt. It occurred to me to get him a bottle of water from a convenience store about a quarter mile away but my husband didn’t want to. He was afraid of us getting hurt. I have to admit I was too.

Later on I wondered if we should have stopped. After all, wouldn’t the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) have stopped for this man? How many would have stopped for this man?
]]> Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:44:12 -0400 There were so many things that upset the lives of the Jewish people in the first century that it is no wonder that there were people ready to rebel. Jewish people who wanted to remain Jewish—and not be Hellenized—had some very important issues they had to deal with. After the end of the section of the Bible known to Christians as the Old Testament, Israel was invaded and conquered by Alexander the Great. Alexander had a few things he wanted to impose on the world. He wasn’t just out to see how far he could go with his army. He wanted the whole world to have common values. He wanted to make the world a “global village.” The values he imposed were the essential core values of the Hellenistic culture. He brought the religions of ancient Greece and the cultural lifestyles that went with that thinking.

There are two essential characteristics of Hellenistic thinking that some of the Jewish people were not willing to accept. To be specific, the Greek theaters taught the ideals of hedonism and esthetics. Hedonism is the search for and worship of pleasure. Esthetics is the search for and worship of beauty. The ideals were incorporated in the culture and language with a particular emphasis on the dramatic plays of the Greek theater.

Jewish people have always believed that there is only one source of life and fulfillment, and that is God. A religious Jewish person searches for and worships God alone. Part of the problem to many of the Jewish people was the insistence of the Greeks on the existence of many gods, who were all to be considered in the pursuit of life and happiness.

Alexander died not too long after his conquest in the Middle East. His expanded empire was divided between his four generals. Selucid was the general who gained control of the part that included Israel. For the duration of the Selucid Empire, no ruler of the empire died a natural death. Each one was murdered during his reign. It was during the transition between two of these despots that Judah Maccabee, along with his family, began a revolt. They were successful, and they were able to reestablish Jewish rule in Israel. Instead of a king, they appointed the High Priest as their ruler. They actually expected that God would raise either a new prophet or send the messiah to take over the reins of power. In modern times, the nation that was born after the closing of the Old Testament is called the Hasmonean Kingdom.

The Hasmoneans had some notable successes, failures, compromises, and some terrible enemies. In desperation, one of them appealed to Rome to form a mutual defense treaty. Rome agreed, and that was the beginning of Roman influence in Israel. Eventually Rome gained enough power to completely control the governing of Israel and actually appointed a new king named Herod.

Rome had a few issues that were important to them. They agreed that the world should share basic elements of a single culture, and they decided that Greek culture would form the basis of their version of a global village. Greek culture was lovely and orderly after all. Most of Israel accepted the new situation with a bitter regret. Some did not accept it at all. Some embraced the Hellenistic culture as a means of escaping the traditions of the Jewish law.

Another thing the Romans were interested in was the collection of taxes. Herod was not well loved by the Jewish people. He really wanted the nation to love him, however, so he built many impressive things that the people would notice. In that way, he reasoned, the people would see how magnificent he was, and they would accept him. He used forced labor to build his projects, and he collected taxes to pay for them. The Jewish people hated both the use of forced labor and the burden of Herod’s taxes. They also hated the taxes of Rome. To make things worse, the corrupt leadership of the Temple was also collecting exorbitant taxes. Rebellion was sure to follow.

The Zealots were religious Jews; they were devout. They hated the Hellenistic practices of the Romans. They hated the taxes of the Romans, the Herodians, and the Temple tax collectors. They were skilled in fighting and were a formidable force.
The Zealots seem to have either invented or adapted certain styles of fighting that were unusually effective. They used tactics that are known today as guerilla warfare.

One tactic was to dig a pit and place supplies in the pit, then conceal it for later use. They would then set an ambush for a passing patrol of soldiers. If the situation was favorable, they would come out of concealment and attack, causing as much damage as possible, and then they would flee. If the attack worked as planned, they would run to one of their concealed pits and dive for cover. The Romans would usually search for them, but their concealment was effective, and they usually were not found. The hit-and-run tactics of the Zealots were very effective. It is a fact that the only native population in the world that defeated a Roman legion was the Zealots.

When Jesus was walking the shores of the Galilee, the Zealots had two major strongholds in the area. One was on the western shore of the Galilee at Migdal. The other was at Gamla to the northeast of the Galilee. There were three kinds of cities in the area: cities that were religiously Jewish and supportive of the Zealots, cities that were Hellenistic and supportive of the Roman/Herodian rule, and those that were mixed. There is no record that Jesus ever entered one of the cities that was Hellenistic. Perhaps that is because of the laws of ritual purity. Jesus seemed never to allow Himself to become contaminated by the ritual impurity represented by the Hellenistic cities.

Huge crowds of people followed Jesus as he walked and talked. It is inconceivable that such a huge crowd would not attract the attention of the Zealots. Probably many of Jesus’s followers would have counted themselves as members of the rebellion. The Zealots were looking for a Messiah anyway, after all. Many of them probably dreamed of the coming of Messiah, and perhaps many of them believed that Jesus was the one they had been looking for.

The Zealots were famous for the curve bladed knives they carried. They would carry a concealed knife in the sleeve of their robes for use in battle if necessary. The knives were called sicari, and the Zealots were also known as the Sicari. This is also the name given for the thieves who attacked travelers in the wilderness. The Zealots raised money by asking for donations from travelers. Perhaps they were also thought of as thieves, and that is why the nickname was given both to them and to highway robbers. Could it be that one of the thieves who was crucified with Jesus was actually a Zealot? Perhaps he had been a follower in the Galilee, and that is why he was ready to make a declaration on behalf of Jesus while they were both being executed.

Jesus must have known that many of his followers were looking for a military deliverer. He seems to have taken special care that no one would mistake Him for a leader of rebellion. When asked leading questions that were intended to give Him an opportunity to declare a rebellion, He gave answers that would not anger the Roman rulers. Still, many of the Zealots were probably among those who followed Him. The picture of Jesus as a skinny, weak, and timid character, like a Byzantine monk, must surely be wrong. No Zealot would tolerate that sort of leadership. Jesus would never have lasted in the Galilee if that were the case.

The Zealots did not revolt during the time of Jesus, even though they were active in resisting the taxes and the Roman oppression. It was still a few more years before they were ready to revolt openly. They nearly succeeded, and they caused the Romans to fear that the empire might be destroyed. In a unique move, the Romans sent an additional legion to the province to enforce Roman rule. Most provinces didn’t require even one legion, but the Galilee became the home of two while the rebellion was crushed. Even while the Romans were slowly wiping out all resistance, they feared the Zealots. It was not until the last of the Zealots were eradicated at Masada that the Romans felt they had won the dominion of Israel.
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Genesis 2: 8-9 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The tree of life also was in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

I noticed today that fall is in the air. My miniature roses are starting to recover from the intense desert heat of the summer and bloom again. They are beautiful and delicate. So many tiny blossoms on each potted plant on my patio. My little rose garden.

I read Genesis 2 recently and noticed something I hadnt seen before. Maybe its because this part of the bible is so familiar to me so I didnt pay careful attention to it. The LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight. He created something pleasant to our eyes. It wasnt enough that it filled our dietary need. He caused it to be pleasant to our senses. Our Lord is so loving to us, that He desired to create plants that would please our eyes. My roses are a gift from Him. Something He created to give me pleasure, to bring a smile to my face. Indeed every good and perfect gift is from Him.]]> Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:26:17 -0400 Psalms 1:1 Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of the scornful.

With this poetic line, the psalmist shows a progression towards sin. At first, the man might casually walk with the ungodly, then he might willingly stand with the sinners, finally to sit comfortably with those who mock God. Each step becoming more rooted in the ways of sin. Each step identifying more with the sinners than with the Lord.

Think about the image of a boiling frog. If you bring a pot to boil and throw a frog into it, he will jump out fast. But if you put him in mild water and slowly bring it to a boil, he wont notice. The frog is desensitized to the changes in the temperature of the water. It is the same with sin. If you begin to hang around the lost in their sins, accepting their sins, well it doesn’t seem so bad. Progressively the sins you don’t notice become more serious until you are in danger.

How can you resist becoming desensitized to sin? The psalmist supplies the answer. Psalms 1:2 But his delight is only in the Law of Jehovah; and in His Law he meditates day and night. Get grounded in the word. Be strong in your faith and hold fast to the precepts of the Lord. See sin as sin. Then you will be the “tree planted by the rivulets of water that brings forth its fruit in its seasons, and its leaf shall not wither, and all which he does shall be blessed” in verse 3.

(This is an older blog entry I have from another blog site of mine.)]]> Fri, 07 Sep 2007 06:08:34 -0400
There is a difference that I see. For too many today, feeling that spiritual drought often causes them to turn away from Him. To claim He isnt real. Or worse, to claim He doesnt deserve their adoration because they dont hear from Him.

Mother Teresa clung to Him even in her emptiness. She said "I want to love Jesus as he has never been loved before." She also said "I accept not in my feelings - but with my will, the Will of God - I accept His will." Even in her darkness when He seemed so far away, she placed Him first in her life. His wants, His will, before her own. That is a lesson we could all benefit from.]]> Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:21:41 -0400
The website for the newspaper allows people to post comments about the stories. There were about a dozen comments. Most of them were heartless. Comments like "These people are using this tragic event as an excuse to continue doing nothing. I feel no pity." Another wrote "I feel nothing for these lazy sponges that complain they can't get their lives in order. They were losers before the storm, they are losers after the storm and unfortunately, in life some people are incapable of being better then losers." And still another "Is there anyway we can deport these Katrina parasites?"

Perhaps Im not much better. I havent contributed to them. I havent lifted a finger to help them out. I remember seeing them after the storm, at the local sports arena where they were housed for a couple of weeks. The poor we will always have with us He said. We are to help those in need. To love our neighbor as ourselves. In what way have I done that?

Hmm. This blog entry didnt turn out at all like I thought it would. Seems I need to do some careful examination of my heart.]]> Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:19:44 -0400