March 28, 2010

Exodus 39
Occasionally I come across people who name the name of Christ who have little regard for the arts when expressed in the church. More frequently I meet people who name the name of Christ who heavily criticize churches for heavy spending on beautiful buildings. Sometimes even I have been critical when I thought such spending was excessive. Yet this chapter and the previous chapters seem to indicate that the Lord really appreciates artistic work. It is part of his glory to create beautiful things. But when is too much too much? Here are some thoughts. The Israelites numbered about 2 million people. The tabernacle and its priests were about the only corporate thing of material essence that they had. People need corporate beauty. The instruction for the making of these things came from the Lord and were to reflect what He is like. HOLINESS TO THE LORD was to be written on the crown of the High Priest. The beauty was to reflect the holiness of God. Other laws were given to the Israelites that were to indicate that the people should take care of the poor and needy, the widows and orphans. It seems to me that it is part of the glory of God for us to create works of beauty in arts, crafts an buildings as long as it does not deter us from reflecting the holiness of God or from meeting the needs of people. After all, He is an artistic God. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

Luke 4:31-44
Randy Matthews was a composer and singer of Christian rock in the early and mid 70's. He took a lot of heat in the 70's because of his rhythm and his appearance. He kind of disappeared from my sight at the end of the 70's. I've occasionally wondered what happened to him. I went on line and found out that he is still putting out CD's. I guess they don't get distributed in my circles. I liked Randy's lyrics and his music style in the 70's. I haven't heard any of his new stuff. One of his songs had a line that went something to the effect of, "It took a carpenter to tear down my walls. It took a stronger hand than mine." Of course, he was singing about Jesus. He was singing about how Jesus liberates us from the sin that so easily besets and enslaves us.
I wonder how many of us realize how active the enemy of our souls is today? The enemy still desires to enslave us. There is a tendency among Christians in the U.S. to attribute a lot of the accounts of demon activity in Jesus' day to mental illness or even physical illness. Certainly much, if not most, mental illness and physical illness is not a direct result of demon activity. But it seems to me that attributing what Scripture calls demonic activity to simple mental or physical illness, implies that the writers of Scripture under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit were ignorant of the truth; therefore, they ascribed what they could not understand to a generic title that everyone thought they understood. This would imply then that even Jesus did not understand the nature of people's illness. With a word He silenced the demons, made them come out of the people and healed people. While Jesus as a man only knew what the Father showed Him, Jesus as God's Son knew all things. While as a man, He depended totally upon the Holy Spirit to lead and empower Him, the Spirit did indeed reveal and empower Him. The Spirit of God knows the difference between mental illness and demonic activity.
He silenced them when they were crying out that He was the Messiah. Why? Why didn't He want people to know that He was Messiah? Answers to that question will be conjecture because the Scripture does not give a straight forward answer. But let us just say that even the disciples were not permitted to tell the vision on the Mount of Transfiguration until He was risen from the dead. But another conjecture that I have is that demons have a habit of twisting truth and telling half-truths. If demons were proclaiming that Jesus were the Messiah, they would have probably somehow perverted it. After all, even the Mormons believe Jesus is the Messiah. They will tell people that they believe almost the same thing about Jesus that we do. But close investigation as to what they believe, demonstrates that they violently twist who Jesus is.
Demons can gain the ability to plant thoughts in our minds. When we yield to those thoughts, we become enslaved to those thoughts. Eventually we act upon those thoughts. Eventually people become deeply ensnared and captivated by twisted thinking. We build our own mental prisons by yielding our thinking process to the enemy (John 8:34). We build walls that keep us imprisoned. It takes a carpenter to tear down our walls. It takes a stronger hand than ours. Jesus is that strong hand. With a word Jesus set people free. He is the One who has power and authority and will break even the chains and walls built because of our own sloppy thinking. Sometimes He does that miraculously, completely and instantly. But most of the time He requires that we work with him after He has broken bonds by our renewing our minds. Sometimes it takes a counselor to help us realize where we have wrong thinking and to change it. Sometimes it takes a counselor to help us identify where we have yielded to the enemy so that we may renounce it and gain freedom from the enemy. Sometimes it takes a friend who will listen so that we can be heard and given input. In every case it is only Jesus who sets us free. He is the mighty One to deliver! That is part of His glory! He is constantly looking for people who will let Him set them free. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John