When a new movie is promoted as being based on Biblical history, many of us are happy because it signals the possibility of increased Bible awareness for the general public, which is one step in the right direction. However, I’ve seen enough of Hollywood’s output to caution against expecting their depictions to mirror what is actually expressed in the Bible, so I do accept a fair amount of artistic license in their ‘reading between the lines’ and filling in the ‘blanks’ of a Biblical account. Unfortunately, the artistic license often goes beyond what is acceptable, filling in the blanks with unnecessarily sinister characters and scenarios that inject unwholesomeness, soiling the Godly messages of the original script.

On the recommendation of several friends, Mike and I recently saw the new Affirm Films movie Paul, Apostle of Christ. I found it quite a praise-worthy addition to Affirm Films’ productions. There was no immorality or offensive spook, it had a fair sprinkling of Biblical quotes, and the acting and production were good. However, the introduction of imaginary ‘ghosts’ haunting Paul’s memories was misleading. None of Paul’s writings indicate that he was “haunted by the shadows of his past misdeeds” – to quote the official synopsis. Where Hebrews 12:1ff says, “We have such a great cloud of (departed faithful) witnesses surrounding us,” it does not suggest their presence is either perceptible or accusatory. Rather, it cites the historical knowledge of their faith (described in the previous chapter of Hebrews) as an encouragement to “get rid of every weight and entangling sin … focusing on Yeshua (‘Jesus’) the initiator and perfecter of faith (who) for the joy set before Him, endured the cross.”

Wherever Paul speaks about his former role of violently persecuting those of The Way, he gives a purely historical account of being misguided by Pharisaic fanaticism, and of God’s grace in converting and forgiving him. If Paul felt ‘haunted’ by ghostly memories of individuals he had persecuted, he left us no indication of that. On the contrary, he wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “Such (sinners) were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” This completely agrees with the statement of his fellow apostle in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

That being said, the greater disappointment for me was that the many glorious events of Paul’s life received little or no attention. Instead, the focus was on his last days, interpreted in the movie as being dark and sorrowful. Determined to glean benefit from even this disappointment, I returned to the book of Acts to list for this article those highlights of Paul’s life that I would have expected to see in a biopic entitled Paul, Apostle of Christ. Here are some exciting scenes and interesting aspects I think should have been included or highlighted to a greater extent … or which could perhaps be woven into an action-packed mini-series.

First of all, Luke is the narrator – that Gentile or Hellenic physician who became Paul’s companion, and who first begins at Acts 13:9 to refer to the Jewish convert Sha’ul (Saul) by his Roman name, Paul. Just before that, in Acts 13:2 Luke records the Holy Spirit saying to the apostles in Antioch, “Set aside for Me Bar-Nabba and Sha’ul (rendered Barnabas and Saul in Greek-derived translations) for the work to which I have called them.” Up to that point, God Himself is recorded as using Sha’ul’s given Hebrew name. However, having been born of Jewish parentage in Tarsus, a city in the Roman province of Cilicia, this Jew was also a Roman by birth (Acts 21:39, 22:27-29) and had both the Hebrew name Sha’ul and the Roman (Gentile) name Paul. I believe one scene of the movie should have focused on Luke’s very important switch to using Sha’ul’s Gentile name. It was in fact a great strategy of rebranding, by which this radically zealous, formerly legalistic Pharisee became Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Sha’ul’s conversion (Acts 9:3-8, 22:6-11) was a huge special effects opportunity – a flashing, blinding light from the sky that was not lightning but ‘flashed around him’; a voice from the sky that all his companions also heard; the experience of, and reactions to, a man suddenly struck blind. Then came his desperate 3-day fast without even drinking water, during which he had a vision. That coincided with a Divine visitation to the devout, prophetic disciple Ananias, who obediently followed the Spirit’s road-map directions to find and minister to Sha’ul – with healing, baptism and initial commissioning (Acts 9:9-18, 22:12-16).

Then the rounds of preaching and persecution that would mark Sha’ul’s ministry of the Gospel began with the unsaved Jews of Damascus plotting to kill him. In the movie, much is made of the persecution against believers in the last period of Sha’ul’s life, but do we see the apostle himself being lowered in a basket over the Damascus city wall at night? Do we see him, some time later, being stoned in Lystra until he appeared dead, his body being dragged and left outside of the city, and then being encircled by the disciples, who prayed him back to consciousness and watched him get up and deliberately return to the hostile city?

By then, not only was his make-over as Paul complete, but the seafaring adventures that became a feature of his apostolic life had begun. His very first journey after the commissioning at Antioch involved sailing to Cyprus, and the missionary journeys of the rest of his life were eventful by both land and sea. When Paul later ‘boasted’ of his sufferings for the sake of the Gospel, he included being ‘shipwrecked’, not just for dramatic effect, but in vivid recollection of his experiences.

Before commenting on the events of Paul’s famous shipwreck, I should mention that it was in Salamis, a port city of Cyprus that Paul began his ministry of supernatural acts. With righteous indignation, Paul reacted to a sorcerer’s anti-Christ activism by decreeing temporary blindness on him with the words, “You son of the devil, full of every sort of deceit and fraud, and enemy of all that is good! Will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord? Watch now, for the Lord has laid his hand of punishment upon you, and you will be struck blind. You will not see the sunlight for some time.” The record continues, “Instantly mist and darkness came over the man’s eyes, and he began groping around, begging for someone to take his hand and lead him.”

Lest this sad tale should overshadow the redemptive outcomes of Paul’s supernatural ministry, the very next verse says, “When the governor saw what had happened, he became a believer, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.” During his ministry Paul performed many miracles, summed up by Luke’s words at Acts 19:11-12: “God was doing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.” In addition, we do have a few accounts of individual miracles, at Acts 14:10 (healing a crippled man), Acts 20:10-12 (raising Eutychus from the dead), acts 16:18 (delivering a slave girl from a spirit of divination), and miracles on the island of Malta.

That reference brings me back to Paul’s famous shipwreck. Acts 27 relates his tedious journey to Rome as a prisoner aboard a ship with other prisoners under guard. After stopping at various ports and being switched to a different ship in Alexandria, they met predictably bad weather against which Paul had tried in vain to warn the centurion in charge. Finally, after much battering by a storm and having been without food for days, Paul tried to relieve everyone’s anxiety as related at Acts 27:22-26. “Men, you should have listened to me and not sailed from Crete, to avoid this disaster and loss. Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you—but only of the ship. For this very night, there came to me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve. He said, ‘Do not fear, Paul. You must stand before Caesar; and indeed, God has granted you (the lives of) all who are sailing with you.’ So take heart, men, for I trust God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we must run aground on some island.”

Such action-packed scenes could have been wrung out of the 44 verses of Acts 27! Finally, after 14 days of fasting in despair, and further encouragement from Paul (“Take some food for … not one of you will lose a hair from his head”) the 276 souls aboard were all brought safely to the ‘some island’ of Paul’s prophecy. Their ship totally destroyed, the centurion had persuaded his soldiers to let the prisoners escape to the island of Malta however they could – by swimming or on floating pieces of the ship.

Then God, according to His own story-line, proceeded to showcase Paul’s miraculous anointing to the kind but superstitious natives of the island. Chapter 28 relates how they were first shown Paul’s immunity to the venom of a poisonous snake, because of which they assumed he was a god. By then Paul had become expert at refuting such claims and redirecting adoration to the true God. So this incident only set the stage for his witnessing to the Maltese people on the power of The Almighty. In short order, Paul – the prisoner under Roman guard – was asked by Malta’s most prominent leader to minister to his father, who was suffering from fever and dysentery. After the healing of the old man, “the rest of the sick on the island started coming (to Paul) and getting healed.” (Acts 28:9)

Oh, and since scriptwriters love inter-personal conflict so much, they could definitely have made memorable scenes from Paul’s head-butting with other apostles, described in Acts 15:36ff and Galatians 2:11-14.

To be fair, it’s probably unreasonable to expect a biopic to do justice to Paul, Apostle of Christ in 108 minutes. As I mused above, it may definitely require a mini-series to tell the story of this man whom God tasked with being the ‘Apostle to the Gentiles’ and writing so much of the New Testament.  Still, I personally thank Affirm Films for assigning me to review Acts 9-28 and brush up on my own memories of the exciting life of Paul.

Yeshua had just finished praying at a certain place, when His admiring disciples asked, “Master, teach us how to pray” (Luke 11:1). He responded by giving them what came to be called ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. In Matthew’s  account (Matt. 6:9-13) Yeshua had already been teaching them principles on which to base their prayer life – that effective prayer is based on a lifestyle of God-honouring practices (verses 1-8). Then He continued after laying out the model, to add forgiveness to the prerequisites for effective prayer (verses 14-15).  In addition, Yeshua prefaced his model with the instruction, “Pray IN THIS WAY” (capitalization emphasis being mine, here and below).

For all the centuries since then, thinking believers have used The Lord’s Prayer not just as a recitation learnt by rote, but as basic guidance on how we should pray. Even today, in our 21st century circumstances, this divine guidance is still relevant and effective.

As Yeshua modeled and as previously taught (for example in Psalm 100) we should approach God as our omnipotent, loving progenitor (LORD, Father, Creator – “He who has made us” – Ps. 100:1-3). Jewish prayers also hail Him as “King of the Universe”. We should enter His presence with praise – blessing or hallowing His Name (Ps. 100:4, Matt. 6:9).

Then, before we launch into making personal requests of God, we should pray for the establishment of His kingdom and the accomplishment of His will, on earth. In so doing, we are PRAYING FOR THE PLANET, as the welfare of all its people is dependent on God’s good will being accomplished and His kingdom order – already operating in heaven – being brought to bear on the earth. This part of our prayer life is perhaps more essential today than at any previous time in history. Also, this prayer should remind us of OUR ROLE – that the Body of Yeshua must collaborate with God in bringing His kingdom rule to earth, through faithful obedience to His written words and by following the lead of His Spirit. This part of our prayer involves praying for the peace of Jerusalem and the benefit of that peace on others (Psalm 122:6-9). It also involves praying for governments, leaders and the benefit of those under their authority (1 Timothy 2:2) as well as praying for the cities in which we live (Jeremiah 29:7).

Having prayed for these broad concerns (which to our Creator and creation-loving Father are very personal) we may then lift up our own personal requests. Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying – and neither was Yeshua or the psalmist saying – that whenever we want to talk to God, we must go through these steps before mentioning our specific, sometimes urgent requests. However, we all start our day at some point. We wake up from sleep and prepare to enter the next period of activity. That is when we should consciously enter God’s presence, consciously bringing ourselves before Him, re-affirming our relationship with Him, offering Him our thanksgiving, praise and honour, and praying for His will to be done all over the earth as it is in Heaven. Yeshua made His model prayer applicable to “this day” (Matt. 6:11) so re-entering God’s presence is a daily privilege. Having consciously entered, we can remain there all day, “practising the presence of God” as Brother Lawrence put it centuries ago. This is not hard to do as we go through our routines, because God is everywhere. He is omnipresent and His ear is open to our impromptu whispers, cries or ‘small talk’ that we direct toward Him during the day.

With regard to our personal requests, which basic ones did Yeshua recommend that we regard as top priority? Verses 11 to 13 of Matthew 6 answer this question. First, as long as we live on earth we need daily ‘bread’ (sustenance for body, soul and spirit), and God is our Provider. Although He knows what we need before we ask, He also knows it is best for us to be kept mindful of His role as Provider. So that we won’t be tempted to rely on other sources or our own ‘arm of flesh’ – which have no power to provide without God’s provision – Yeshua taught us to petition the Father, “Give us THIS DAY our daily bread.”

Secondly, He reminds us to ask forgiveness for our sins (our trespasses / ‘debts’ / wrong-doing / offenses). The Complete Jewish Bible says it most clearly: “Forgive us for what we have done wrong.” In keeping with Yeshua’s other teaching, this would include sins committed in thought (Matt 5:28) as well as in word (Matt. 5:22) or other actions. And what is sin, really? Sin is transgression of  God’s instructions (1 John 3:4)  either because we don’t know them (we are ‘lawless’) or because we have disobeyed them.  In the same breath as teaching us to ask God’s forgiveness of our offenses, Yeshua reinforced the prerequisite, “as we also HAVE FORGIVEN those who have offended us.”

Thirdly, He taught us to prioritize the two-pronged request, “Lead us not into temptation (testing), but deliver us from the evil one.” These are the areas of prayer where 21st century life demands we broaden our application to cover the range of temptations and evils that constitute prevalent threats. We are living in the most perilous times ever, in recorded history, with temptations (harassing tests) that jump out at innocent people dutifully going about their daily business – as long as that business involves Internet, radio or television usage, or simply walking past stores in a mall. The devil has become an even more vicious hunter than he was when Peter described him as a “roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He is employing more pervasive ways and means now, setting more traps “with great rage, knowing that his time is short” (Revelation 12:12). So in praying “Deliver us from evil” today, we must pray for protection against such evils as terrorism, cyber-crime, identity theft, misappropriation and evil use of our personal information, abuse of our children by ungodly educators and public school systems, luring of our children toward sexual perversion and drug usage, profiteering pollution of the food available for us to buy, wicked profiteering manipulation of pharmaceutical supplies, and the list goes on…

BUT GOD… God is still our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble – even the troubles of these perilous days. We have not yet gotten to the prophesied time when faithful believers will not be able to do any business, but the current challenges are preparing us for that time. Then our prayers for daily bread will be answered by provision of ‘manna’ that doesn’t require purchase.  Until then and even then, let us continue to submit our prayers to God with the confident doxology, “For Yours is the kingdom, and the POWER and the glory, FOREVER. Amen!”

It seems that preachers sometimes feel obliged to put new ‘spins’ on the age-old stories of the Bible. Unfortunately, only divine revelation (confirmed as such by the written Word) and good research can make the Biblical accounts come any more alive or seem any more novel than they do for the average reader. So this week when I heard a radio preacher building a message around the claim that the guards posted outside the tomb were the first ones to see the risen Lord, I thought: “Hold on a minute… I don’t think so… I have to go back and double check that.” So I did.

Matthew 27 ends with the guards being posted at the tomb by the Sanhedrin with Pilate’s permission (27:62-66). Matthew 28 begins with some women coming to the tomb. Mark 16 and Luke 23-24 supplement that part of the account. The women were Miriam of Magdala (‘Mary Magdalene’), Miriam the mother of Jacob (James), Salome (says Mark) and Joanna (suggests Luke 24:10). They were not just visiting a grave; they had come with ‘prepared spices’ (and fragrant oils – Luke 23:56, NKJV) to anoint Yeshua’s body for actual burial, since they could not have done it on the Preparation Day for the High Sabbath (John 19:31) when His body was laid in the tomb, or on the weekly Shabbat – Luke 23:54-56.

Suddenly (Matt. 28:2) the women feel the earth quake as an angel descends from heaven, rolls back the huge, heavy stone that was sealing the tomb, and sits on it. His appearance (how fast he appeared, not how he looked) was ‘like lightning’. (He didn’t look like lightning, because his clothes were as white as snow – no lightning resemblance there.) However, it was an event so sudden and frightening that the women might well have turned and fled; but then comes verse 4: “And THOSE KEEPING WATCH were shaken for fear of him and became like dead men.” The supposedly stalwart guards were the ones who fainted!

So the angel addressed the women – stunned but still there and still conscious. “Do not be afraid, for I know you are looking for Yeshua who was crucified. He is not here, for HE IS RISEN, just as he said…”

What the radio preacher had done was to fill in the gap between Matthew 27 and 28, with the story that since the guards were the only ones outside the tomb in the night, they must have seen Yeshua when He left the tomb. However, if they fainted at the sight of an angel, how would they have stayed awake and stayed put, at the sight of a ‘dead man’ walking through a solid stone slab?  Then, if their consciousness and courage had survived that, why would they not have immediately run off to report to the Sanhedrin what had happened?  As we read, it was only after recovering from the incident with the women and the angel that the frightened guards went to give their report (Matthew 28:11).

Yes, I felt I had to search the scriptures again to see if I had missed the facts this radio preacher was referencing. Having searched, I blushed because I had actually forgotten about Mark 16:9 that clearly states in Mark’s succinct matter-of-fact style, “After He had risen EARLY ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK (which for the Jews meant soon after sunset on Saturday) HE APPEARED FIRST TO MIRIAM OF MAGDALA.”  That’s it – there was really no need for me to check out any other claim.

Alas, the guards definitely could not claim the distinction of having seen the risen Messsiah first. They were either sleeping on the job when He left the tomb, or they were drunk as one script writer depicted them, or Yeshua just prevented them from seeing Him – which we know He was well able to do!

I’m writing this on Wednesday, February 14, 2018. Today is particularly significant to many, for some observe it as Ash Wednesday, others as Valentine’s Day, some as both, and I know at least one couple who will celebrate it also as their wedding anniversary. All these observances have something to do with love.

Love has been ‘in the air’ ever since God created air. Love has been shared with mankind ever since God created Adam and Eve, placing them in time with His celestial markers of days, weeks, months, and years. The Bible tells us that God’s love, the source of all love, is an every-day thing. Even from ‘Lamentations’, the Biblical book that perhaps expresses the greatest sorrow, comes this well known verse:

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

God’s steadfast love for mankind has been described by the Greek word ‘agape’. One Bible scholar, Kenneth Wuest, calls agape the “noblest word for love in the Greek language” and says agape “is not kindled by the merit or worth of its object, but it originates in its own God-given nature … It delights in giving. This love keeps on loving even when the loved one is unresponsive, unkind, unlovable, and unworthy. It is unconditional love. Agapē desires only the good of the one loved. It is a consuming passion for the well-being of others.”

Agape is the love described in 1 Corinthians 13, which all Bible believers should aspire to demonstrate in their relationships, as evidence that the love of God has indeed been ‘poured into our hearts’ (Romans 5:5).  In the 1 Corinthians 13 ‘love passage’, verses 4-8 give God’s own description of agape:

“Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not brag, it is not puffed up, it does not behave inappropriately, it does not seek its own way, it is not provoked, it keeps no account of wrong, it does not rejoice over injustice but rejoices in the truth; it bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things. Love never fails.”

However, the love that many around the world annually celebrate on February 14 is not agape. It is described by the Greek word ‘eros’, defined by psychiatrist and author Neel Burton in the following terms (my emphasis added by capitalization): “Eros is sexual or passionate love … most akin to our modern construct of romantic love. In GREEK MYTH, it is a form of madness brought about by one of Cupid’s arrows. The arrow breaches us and we ‘fall’ in love, as did Paris with Helen, leading to the Trojan War and the downfall of Troy and much of the assembled Greek army. In modern times, eros has been amalgamated with the broader life force, something akin to Schopenhauer’s will, a fundamentally blind process of striving for survival and reproduction. Eros has also been contrasted with Logos, or Reason, and Cupid painted as a blindfolded child.”

Some will celebrate other kinds of love on Valentine’s day as well – the love based on family relationships (Greek ‘storge’), the love based on friendship (Greek ‘phileo’), or the ‘love’ defined by Burton under ‘ludus’ (which the Bible would call lust) and under ‘pragma’, which would base parentally or personally arranged marriages on practical rather than romantic considerations.

Yet, the greatest love that can be celebrated today is the love of God and love for God, which is somewhat associated with the Ash Wednesday aspect of this year’s February 14. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. It is a day traditionally associated with repentance (hence the ‘ashes’ symbolism in its history). Repentance is the first step in ‘returning’ or drawing closer to God from a distanced position, seeking a restored or enhanced love relationship with Him, and preparing ourselves to demonstrate our love for Him through His favourite love language, which is obedience from those who claim to love Him.

As the beginning of the 40-day Lenten period, Ash Wednesday also commemorates Yeshua’s 40-day 40-night fast and resistance of temptation in the wilderness. This completed the preparation for His world-changing ministry to mankind, motivated by God’s love for His creation. This 40-day 40 night fast was Yeshua’s first widely acknowledged act of sacrificial love for the people He was sent to save. Had He not submitted Himself to this fasting (this humbling of His human soul, this affliction of His mortal body through abstention from food) for 40 days and 40 nights, and to addressing every temptation that Satan thought appropriate to hurl at Someone of His stature, Yeshua would not have been able to accomplish God’s loving objective in sending Him to us. By submitting to the fast (and prophetically to all else that He would be called on to suffer for our sake) He countersigned God’s love letter to mankind.

We must respond to God’s love letter; so above all our celebrations, let us requite His matchless love with our own devotion and acceptance of His. Let God love on you today. His John 3:16 message is so much better than a ‘sweet nothing’ – “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.“

On weekdays Mike leaves home just before 6 a.m. to start work at 7:00. So our alarm goes off at 4:50 to give us time to pray together for a while before getting out of bed for me to fix breakfast and for him to get dressed. Part of Mike’s morning routine is to post a scripture on our family Whats-app page, which is usually the first post there of the day; but I don’t usually read it until some time later, after doing my early morning chores.

This morning as I fixed breakfast downstairs, the Lord brought a memory and an associated scripture to mind, and I began to meditate on it with a view to writing a piece later, from that meditation. The scripture was 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has taken hold of you except what is common to mankind. But God is faithful—He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle. But with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so you will be able to endure it.” (TLV)

Before sharing the memory that brought this scripture to mind in my kitchen this morning, I’ll tell you what prompted me to share it without further delay. I had dealt with some early morning laundry (in the low-cost, off-peak electricity usage times) and had just settled in the living room to get caught up on the news, when my phone tinkled. It was Deb calling with a cheery message on her way to work, but before I put down the phone I checked our Whats-app page, where Mike’s 5:15 a.m. post was waiting. It was the very same scripture that the Ruach (the Holy Spirit) had earlier mentioned and amplified for me in the kitchen … 1 Corinthians 10:13!  I knew it was time to get busy writing this encouragement to share with you.

The memory the Spirit had brought up earlier was from my university days. I was really a ‘babe in Christ’ then, but had been raised in a religious home on basically Christian principles. One Sunday morning, the message in church had somehow left me with the idea that I could never be tempted in a certain way. The very next day, that Monday, after class, in the company of another Christian and engaged in a cultural activity that was surely God’s answer to my prayer, the very same temptation to which I thought I was immune ‘took hold’ of me!

I was totally shocked … and ashamed of the thoughts that dared to linger in my mind … thoughts of doing what I knew was sinful. Thank God that temptation is just temptation – a test. We do have the ability to respond rightly and to ‘pass the test’.  In a short time I did respond rightly to that temptation and I did pass that test, but the disturbing experience confronted me with the fact that, as 1 Corinthians 10:13a teaches, NO ONE IS IMMUNE TO TEMPTATION. Thankfully, ‘part b’ of the verse teaches us that those in right relationship with God – in the position to benefit from His faithfulness – are assured of His protection even in the arena of temptation.

In this arena He protects us in two ways. First, in His omniscience of what temptations are coming toward us (which He would have allowed for good reasons) God establishes boundaries that limit the tempter in how pressing a test he is permitted to devise. The scripture says, God “will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle.” He knows our frame, our stage of maturation, our strengths, abilities and debilities. He knows, even better than we do, what temptations we can handle.

Secondly, the scripture promises that “with the temptation (God) will also provide a way of escape, so you will be able to endure it.”  If we believe this, and if we truly love God (from whom sin will separate us) then we will be looking for and gladly utilizing the ‘way of escape’ He has provided in each instance of temptation. ‘Escape’ does not necessarily imply running away.

One may escape by wielding ‘the sword of the Spirit’ (which is the word of God – Ephesians 6:17) thus frustrating the tempter into retreat, as Yeshua did in the Matthew 4 and Luke 4 accounts. We are taught how to be ‘strong in the Lord and in the power of His might’ (Ephesians 6:10), how to resist thoughts that war against our knowledge of God, taking thoughts captive and making them obedient to Messiah / Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

However, quite often the ‘escape’ route does involve running … away from the source of the temptation and toward the safety of righteousness!  My way of escape from the temptation in question did involve getting out of that afternoon activity, that environment associated with the temptation.

In 2 Timothy 2:22 we are warned, “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (NKJV)  On the same topic, 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee from sexual immorality! Every other sin that a man (a person) commits is outside the body—but the one committing sexual immorality sins against his (or her) own body.”

Finally, going back to the chapter with which I started this meditation (1 Corinthians 10) we read at verse 14: “Therefore, my dearly loved ones, flee from idolatry.” If we keep the first commandment (of the Ten) uppermost in our hearts and minds – loving God above everything and everyone else (including ourselves), then we will succeed in escaping not only idolatry, but all other temptations – whether my fighting good fights of faith or by obediently fleeing when we need to flee.

Temptations and our exercise of resisting them through Messiah who strengthens us, will only make us stronger in the faith, equipping us with more experience, knowledge and wisdom from which to minister. What the devil intended for evil will only succeed in bringing good to those whose lives are on track with God. He has declared this in many scriptures; but that’s anther message for another day.  God bless you as you submit yourself to Him today, resist whatever temptations arise, and experience the thrilling outcome promised in James 4:7. “Submit (yourself) to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

We are at the beginning of a new year by the Gregorian calendar, which is used most widely in the world. The year 2018 lies before us, to human eyes an almost blank page despite the predictions and prophecies that some have claimed to stamp on it.  I am not a prophet, but I am a believer in God, seeking to be a doer rather than just a hearer and reader of His words in the Bible. Mark 11:22-25 records some of these instructive words.

• And Yeshua answered, saying to them, “Have faith in God!  Amen, I tell you, if someone says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but trusts that what he says is happening, so shall it be for him. For this reason I say to you, whatever you pray and ask, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your transgressions.” (TLV)

Yeshua prefaced his mountain-moving promise with the prerequisite, “Have faith in God!” Then, in the same breath as giving the promise, He forewarned us against a faith-buster: doubt. (Forewarned is fore-armed.) Finally He sealed the promise with the reminder of another prerequisite, forgiveness toward others who have wronged you. Essentially the same powerful promise is repeated with other prerequisites at Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6 (mustard seed faith), John 15:7 (‘abiding’ in Yeshua), John 14:13, 15:16 and 16:23 (asking in Yeshua’s Name), 1 John 5:14 and Colossians 3:17 (asking only what God’s will approves and doing everything – even our declarations of faith – in Yeshua’s Name).

Another instructive word that I want to act on today is found at Job 22:28, but for context I will quote verses 23-30 (TLV with NKJV and KJV inserts at verse 28). The passage begins with the all-important “If”, presenting what follows as conditional.

• If you return to Shaddai, you will be restored; if you remove iniquity far from your tent and throw your gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir to the rocks in the wadis, then Shaddai will be your gold and your precious silver.  Surely then Shaddai will be your delight and you will lift up your face to God. You will pray to Him and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. 28. What you decide will be done (NKJV- “you will also declare [KJV-‘decree’] a thing, and it will be established for you”) and light will shine on your ways. When people are brought low, and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then He will save the downcast. He will deliver even one who is not innocent, who will be delivered by the cleanness of your hands.

Due to the disagreement between translations, I refrain from quoting Isaiah 45:11, the King James Version of which some believers cite as God’s invitation for us to ‘command’ Him to do things for us. Instead, I am putting my trust in His words cited above and following those guidelines to confidently make the following declarations of faith for 2018.  The contents of these declarations are definitely according to His will. Secondly, I have met the prerequisites above by the grace of God and the enabling of His Spirit. Thirdly, I am legitimately acting in the Name of Yeshua.

On the basis of all that, I declare in Yeshua’s Name that in 2018 we in the Body of Messiah will experience the following. We will experience a refocusing of our attention on God, on His word and on worshiping Him in the beauty of holiness. We will see pastors and preachers returning to scripture-based teaching. We will see luke-warmness being kicked out into the cold. We will see worship leaders deliberately redirecting the limelight to Him who is the only One worthy of adoration and the only One to Whom adulation is due. We will see the awe of God coming back into evidence – the Body once more adorning itself with holiness, and the world awakening to a fear of the LORD. We will see Godly boldness increase in the public arena, and Godly leaders will lead in this. We will see more of the LORD’s hand openly protecting and rescuing His people – so openly that the worldly media will not succeed in quashing that news. We will see the Holy Spirit welcomed back into the life of congregations where He has been held at arm’s length, and we will see Him stir up the gifts and bring forth the fruit with which He desires to bless us and make us a blessing. We will once more begin to see in our midst the signs, wonders and life-changing miracles that set Almighty God apart from every other ‘power’! We will see more backslidden believers returning to the LORD’s congregations and more carnal believers seeking Holy Ghost consecration. I declare in Yeshua’s Name that even outside the Body of Messiah, 2018 will be a year when the glory and power of the God of the Bible becomes evident to more and more of the world’s population!

Father, You know I have already forgiven everyone who has sinned against me personally. Now I am standing as an intercessor on behalf of Your Body. In that place I am pleading the blood of Yeshua for the forgiveness of the sins committed within the Body that are related to the declarations of change which I have made above. Father, You also know that as a beneficiary of John 20:22-23 I have forgiven everyone whose actions have damaged congregations in my experience. So in the Name of Yeshua HaMashiach (‘Jesus’ the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ) I say, let all these changes become evident in 2018, for Your honour and glory. Amen.

The Brit Chadashah reading for last Shabbat was Matthew 10:21-38, dealing with human (horizontal) relationships, our vertical one-on-one relationship with Yeshua, and the relationship between the horizontal and the vertical.  Yeshua was speaking in this passage, warning His disciples that some of their relationships will lead to persecution and martyrdom, reminding them of their Teacher-disciple, Master-servant relationship with Him and His relationship with anti-Messiah agents (vs. 24-25), exhorting them to fear and obey God rather than man. Then He drew on the commonly known value of sparrows and the rarely known number of hairs on our heads to convince them of God’s omniscient love and omnipotent care for those who would publicly acknowledge Yeshua as the Messiah (vs. 29-32).  All this was part of His instruction to ‘The Twelve’ before sending them out to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom (vs. 7) to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’.

Yeshua sums up this portion of instruction at verses 34-38 with generalizations applicable beyond the ministry of The Twelve, to the lives of all believers. Let me share with you my meditations on these verses.

Verse 34: “Do not think that I came to bring shalom on the earth; I did not come to bring shalom, but a sword.” What a shocking statement this is, to people who prefer to acknowledge only the goodness, and not the severity of God (Romans 11:22). These are people who regard God as a Santa Claus in the sky who will forever decree “Peace, peace” to everyone in every circumstance. They don’t acknowledge the truth of such verses as Romans 1:18 which says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

And what sword could Yeshua be saying that He came to bring?  We know from the context of Matthew 10:34-36 that it’s a ‘sword’ which will bring division between believers and non-believers, even across lines of family relationships, potentially pitting “a man against his father, a daughter against her mother” and so on, to the extent that one’s literal enemies may include members of one’s own household.

Two other sayings of Yeshua sprang to mind while I meditated on this. The first was from the incident recorded in Luke 8:19-21, when Yeshua (ministering to a crowd) was told that His mother and brothers had come seeking His attention (apparently before they had become disciples) and Yeshua responded, “My mother and My brothers are these who are hearing the word of God and doing it.”

The second is from the incident recorded in Luke 11:27-28 where a woman raised her voice in the crowd to shout at Yeshua, “Blessed is the womb that carried You and the breasts that nursed You!” To this Yeshua responded, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

From Yeshua’s words on both of these occasions, we can get a clue about the ‘sword’ which would divide between those claiming relationship with Him and those whom He would claim. This dividing factor was their response to the word of God.  Indeed, Ephesians 6:17 says that the ‘sword of the Spirit’ is the word of God, and the Messianic passage Isaiah 49:2 says “He (YHVH) made My (Yeshua’s) mouth like a sharp sword.”  This ‘sword’ would not only separate individuals based on their response to God’s word, but it would even divide between “soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and … judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

The sharply pointed words of verse 37 prod us to look into ourselves and judge our own loyalties. “He who loves father and mother more than me isn’t worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.”

When I read this last Shabbat, I remembered and factored in Paul’s prophecy about whom many would love in the end times. “People will be lovers of themselves…” he prophesied, and now we see the fulfillment all around us.

I wondered why Yeshua hadn’t mentioned self-love in Matthew 10:37, but then I looked carefully at verse 38. “And whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me isn’t worthy of me.” Is it not love of self that He was getting at? I think so. The love of one’s own comfort, will and preferences will prevent cross-carrying every time.

So Father, in Yeshua’s Name I pray, please help us to obey the first and greatest commandment, to love You with ALL of our hearts, soul and strength, and to keep the ‘second commandment’ in its second place – to love our ‘neighbor’ as we love ourselves. Amen.

You may know the saying, “Do as I say, but not as I do.” Hardly anyone gives that instruction to another person. It’s more often the satirical comment of a third party observing the activities of the one giving the instruction. Yeshua commented in this way on the leadership of the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:3): “So whatever they (the ones in authority) tell you (those under their authority), do and observe. But don’t do what they do; for what they say, they do not do.”

Long before we came to associate this practice with hypocrisy, Yeshua deemed it so, lavishing that label on the various behaviours He observed springing from the same mindset.  In Matthew 23:28 he also associated hypocrisy with lawlessness. That is noteworthy, because the scribes and Pharisees were all about ‘law’. They were both the teachers of the law and what you could call religious ‘law enforcement’. Yet, they behaved as if they themselves were above the law, or lawless.

Such behaviour by those in authority wreaks havoc in the lives of those under their authority. Yeshua said, “You make him twice as much a son of Gehenna (hell) as yourself.” In other words, the ones being trained under such authority become even more lawless than their teachers, in this “Do as I say but not as I do” model of instruction.  I see a similar attitude permeating our society, by which we (even some Christian parents) are actually training our children to be more lawless, or less law-abiding, than the parent generation.

A very simple example that we see every day has to do with road usage and observance of traffic laws. Picture this scenario. Little C (child who is learning to read simple words, count, recognize and understand numbers) sits high in a booster seat, keenly watching the scenery flash by as his parent drives along a road. Here and there, a sign with a single word and a single number catches C’s eye. C recognizes the number, figures out the phonics of the word, and asks for the first time, “What does ‘max-i-mum’ mean?”

Glibly the parent explains, “It means the most, or the highest.” With or without further explanation, C rightly concludes that the sign means “80 is the highest speed allowed” on that part of the road, and that it’s a rule. C soon makes the connection between the number on the road signs and the numbers on the speedometer display that he can see over his parent’s shoulder. Then comes a shocking discovery … his dad and/or his mom are very often breaking the rule!

This of course begs the question: “But Dad / Mom, how come you are driving at 90?”  Dad replies, “It’s OK. Don’t worry. The police allow us to go up to 90.”  Now poor C is confused. If maximum means what Dad and Mom said it means, and if the road sign is a rule, then how can the police allow people to break the rule and go up to 90?”

Eventually, C – who is of average intelligence – concludes that people don’t really need to obey these rules of the road. As he grows, C makes the further discovery that sometimes adults don’t even obey the rules that they tell him to obey. What is C’s take-away from all this?

Here it is, in some well-known terms. “They don’t really mean what they say; and besides, rules are made to be broken.  I can push the boundaries … I can push the envelope.” Later will come the clincher: “Now that I’m old enough I don’t even have to listen to what you say. I’m free now to just do as you used to do, and in fact to do more!”